Re: Undine Water Bottles

From: Loren Miller <loren_at_wharton.upenn.edu>
Date: Fri, 6 Jun 1997 18:55:02 +0000

Stephen Martin replies to Shon Vaughan on:
> HOW TO MAKE UNDINE WATER BOTTLES
> This is not a universal belief: MOB once started work on an article
> basically giving appropriate attributes to objects holding elementals --
> fire elementals in a ring would make it hot, etc. Non-elemental entities
> could cause similar effects.,

With this I heartily agree. The effects of magic have to display something of the effects of the magical laws, such as similarity, contagion, etc; otherwise they become dry, boring science.

> How could you store two cubic meters of water in anything smaller than
> would normally hold that much? And if the binding object _will_ hold two
> cubic meters of waters (which is about 18 cubic feet of water, a lot!),
> it will be sort of inconvenient to use. And what happens if you pour the
> water out -- since it is part of the Binding Enchantment, I would expect
> that _that exact water_ would have to go back in to restore the
> enchantment. And that is basically impossible.

But I disagree with this. Obviously when you bind a spirit (of whatever sort) into something, it doesn't get physically jammed into the item. Otherwise, how could you ever bind a salamander into a sword (metal doesn't burn), or a big, fat demon into a 2" thick door? Spirits are Different, and the capitalization is intentional. They are *Really* Different. When you use the binding magic on a spirit such as an elemental, the elemental gets frozen into place in the otherworld, and some kind of mechanism that can yank them and their physical manifestation into mundane reality is given power over them. After all, you don't need the binding magic to imprison a visible spirit in an impenetrable box. All you need is to make sure the spirit stays visible, and if you make the box of adamant or any of the other six spiritual substances (take your pick) then not even an incorporeal being can pass through the walls.

On the other hand, I dislike the idea of keeping drinking water in a bound undine and dipping your ladle into it whenever you feel thirsty. Maybe the answer is that you have to have a place to put the undine when it manifests, and how might you have a watertight 250 gallon container in the middle of the desert? Oh, and watch out for the leak, the undine is leaking away into the sand, happily kamikaziing to get away from its cruel master.

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Loren Miller <loren_at_wharton.upenn.edu> A priest, a rabbi, a Penn student, and an elephant walk into a bar. The bartender says, "what is this, some kinda joke?"

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