The Sorcery Plane

From: trentfs_at_ix.netcom.com
Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2000 21:08:01 -0400


On Wed, 19 Jul 2000 09:56:31 +0300, Mikko Rintasaari wrote:

> Am I alone in being irritated by the "revelation" of the sorcery plane?

There are at least two of us. I haven't fully digested this "new" sorcery yet, but my impression so far is largely negative.

> In the old paradigm the sorcerers were the only people to really rely on
> their own Will to shape the universe. No help from spirits or channeled
> energy from gods. Now we get told that the sorcerers too are just
> channeling energy from the sorcery plane. *blah*

It's also noteworthy that under RQ sorcery was the most versatile form of magic -- through manipulations and multispells, sorcerors could be a lot more innovative with their spells than other types of magicians. This is reversed in HW, to the point that every type of magic can be used Improvisationally EXCEPT Sorcery!

> As far as I can tell this was done because the Hero Wars needs an endless
> source of power, since there's no mechanism for fatigue. Because the
> sorcerer isn't getting tired it's obviously not him powering the spells.

I, personally, think it was done in an attempt to shoehorn sorcery into the 'Blank Tradition Format,' to make them more directly parallel to shamans and priests, which I think was a lame idea. In the old days, sorcerors were Individuals who excelled in their magic due to personal Skill and Power, instead of relying on communal worship of higher powers to receive Gifts. Under the new system, sorcerors have become essentially oddball Priests -- wearing different color robes, praying with different word, worshipping gods with different names, going on Heroquests to a different neighborhood, but not really Different in any fundamental sense.

It also seems that this is part of Hero Wars' deliberate agenda to emphasize the Group over the Individual -- redefining formerly individualist sorcerors to stick them with "temples" and "congregations" that they're dependant upon (and answerable to) just like everbody else.

> I don't like it. I'm going to fit the sorcery plane into my game somehow,
> but not for all of the sorcery. Sorcery spells aren't going to be just
> something channeled from a node. They are cast by the skill and the Will
> of the casting sorcerer/wizard, not just channeled in by brandishing a
> talisman.

Since I intentd to largely retain RQ mechanics, I'm going to ignore it entirely. However, I'm concerned how this will affect forthcoming Gloranthan material. It alters to a greater or lesser extent the whole complexion of the West, including mythology, history, social structure, and philosophy.

Consider, for instance, that under the religicized HW sorcery system even supposedly Atheistic sorcerors "receive" their spells through a form of "worship" not much different from what Theist wizards do (except that they conduct their services in a school instead of a church) -- they're still communally reenacting handed-down rituals in order to access an Otherworldly higher power (anthropomorphized or not). I don't have the sources in front of me right now to make an eloquent, fact-based case, so I'll suffice to say that, at least to me, this runs contrary to the once-standard notion of worldly, pragmatic sorcerors honing their individual Skill through practice and experimentation (a notion which, I'll admit, I quite liked).

Trent


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