Re: Magical senses Vs Illusions

From: Stephane FRANCOIS <s.francois2_at_wanadoo.fr>
Date: Fri, 07 Jun 2002 18:58:13 +0200

>>>> I just want to remind you that Illusions are REAL. An Illusion is
>>>> a Temporary reality, not a false or unreal thing. They are not
>>>> mind tricks, they are not hypnosis or hallucination. They are
>>>> temporary reality.

> Which begs the question : what would one call a Gloranthan magician
> who used mind tricks/hypnosis/hallucination/Light powers/Smoke
> and Mirrors/whatever to create false and unreal things that disappeared
> with a wave of the hand, a gust of wind, etc ?
>
> (apart from "Trickster", that is)

"Imagist" maybe ?

>> In that sense, Simon, "it is possible to 'spoof' a magical sense with a
>> sufficiently sophisticated illusion."

>
> Hurrrmmmm :
>
> OK
>
> An Illusionist gives me a bowl of soup, and I start eating it. Yummy !
>
> Suddenly, some smart-alec in dark sunglasses appears, and tells me :
> "There is no spoon"
>
> "Do I have soup on my t-shirt ?" is obviously (or not-so-obviously) a
> game question more than a Gloranthan one, but the pertinence of the
> question does seem to indicate that the weaker, at least, of Gloranthan
> Illusions are more like their D&D counterparts than you're suggesting.

The tricky point is that there is a spoon ! But this magical creation can be more or less "complete". I'll take three exemples :

  1. the illusory spoon is only visual : you can't touch it, and it's the illusionist that make it move, not you...
  2. the temporary reality is extended to the tactile realm. If the magic is powerful enough you can grab it and it won't leak. Even if you know it's a magical construct that won't last, you can use it as the more permanent tool. You may even have a "touch-only" spoon, with no visual presence at all !
  3. as 2) but the mage was lazzy or low on juice. It will probalby look like a glass spoon and feel weird to the touch, and may be be "porous", leaking soup through it's not-so-solid presence.

No matter how hard you disbelieve the illusion it stays there. Consider a visual-only illusory gloranthan wall. Even if you walk through (and realize it's not a "real" wall), the image is still here, and you can't see what's behind it, where the D&D wall willl vanish (but only for you).

--__--__--

Powered by hypermail