Re: Shamanic Circles and Other Animism Questions (Was: Spirit Travel)

From: Roderick and Ellen Robertson <rjremr_at_...>
Date: Tue, 30 May 2000 12:29:27 -0700


I've just gotten off the phone with greg on this -

> >> That's my main problem. Is the Circle a help, or just a necessary
> >> minimum requirement?
> >
> >It's not even a minimum requirement - if you are a good enough shaman you
> >can open a path to the spirit world without a circle, but you are at the
> >mercy of whatever happens to be around on the other side. The circle is a
> >Protective magic that keeps those within it safe. (See "Peeking Past the
> >Shamanic Circle", HW pg 204 and "The Spirit World" NB pg 25).

I was wrong - it is a necessity, not *just* a protective circle. However, it doesn't augment anything - it just allows you to get past the barrier. You have to get a victory on "Draw Shamanic Circle" to get the pattern right, then use "Spirit World Travel" to actually use it to pass through the barrier. If you fail when drawing the Circle, you don't go anywhere (on a Complete failure, you may go to the wrong place instead, or think that it is all right but it is flawed and can let spirits through the protection, or even create a rip in the space-time contiuum - nasty narrators can dream up all sorts of fumbles for something like this!).

> 1. Canonically, is a successful use of Draw Summoning Circle intended to
> help (augmenting, adding APs, etc.) the shaman's attempt to breach the
> barrier between the Inner World and the Spirit Plane? If so, what is the
> preferred mode of help?

It does not enhance any rolls, it allows them to be made in the first place.To use a real-world metaphor, to surf the internet you need a computer (and a phone line and modem, and some sort of software). The Shamanic circle is like these components - it allows you to get to the Other Side/Internet. Spirit World Travel is like knowing how to type in a URL instead of just "punching buttons".

> 2. The circle so created is stated to be a protective barrier.
Canonically,
> does this mean that the circle is impervious to unwanted spirits or is it
> intended to be a barrier, either with a number of AP or in a simple
> contest, that resists the entry of unwanted spirits?

Your basic Shaminic Circle is a 10w3 barrier against spirits trying to get in. Generally this means that it is impervious.

> 3. What I haven't seen said in the discussion of the Praxian animistic
> traditions is that the shaman can create the summoning circle around a
> number of fellow tribesmen and that they (the other tribesmen) can use
> their spirit combat on spirits that have been drawn into the Summoning
> Circle by the shaman as part of the act of drawing the circle and
breaching
> the barrier. Canonically, is this a correct interpretation?

The Shamanic Circle is *not* a Summoning Circle, it is a transport device to get to the Spirit Plane. Once there, the tribesmen exit the circle to encounter spirits. Normally this happens in "safe" parts of the Spirit world - Eiritha's Herd or Waha's Camp, etc. Here the spirits are generally friendly (or at least not antagonistic). Now, if a tribesman tries to go somewhere else, it is very easy to get "lost" (this assumes he does *not* have the Spirit World Travel abiltiy) and end up in some very bad places. Think of these tribal fetish-filling trips as a School Bus trip with a Chaperone/Driver (the shaman). he tries to keep an eye on his charges and make sure that they don't get lost, but... A very nasty trick to pull would be to kill the shaman while he is leading a fetish-filling expedition. The tribesmen would basically be stuck on the Spirit World.

Summoning Circles are part of the Sorcery style of Magic.

> 4. Canonically, can a shaman refill his fetishes by interacting with
> spirits who happen to be available in the Inner World? Example: Can a
> Kolating bind a wind into a fetish by extracting it from a breeze that is
> blowing past him?

> This would make the refilling of fetishes with Tradition Spirits at no
cost
> between scenarios much more plausible because it eliminates the dubious
> ability of the shaman to cross to the Spirit Plane at any time and any
> location as long as it is between gaming sessions.
>
> 5. Canonically, what is the usual ability used to bind Tradition Spirits
> into fetishes? Is it Spirit Combat, Tradition Knowledge, or something
else?
> I have been using Tradition Knowledge with the relationships given in the
> tradition keyword used to augment. The examples seem to only use Spirit
Combat.

Spirit Combat

The skills break down something like this:

Tradition Knowledge: Which spirits are safe, how do we approach them, what do they like
Spirit Combat: getting a spirit to do what you want SpiritWorld Travel: Getting to, from and around the spirit world Spirit Sight: Seing spirits on the Physical plane. These might be embodied or integrated spirits (like a fetish, a nymph or a disease spirit in a victim), or disembodied (note that all disembodied spirits are bad news). Shamanic Escape: leaving the Spirit World in a hurry (or anytime when outside of the Shamanic Circle).

> 6. Is Spirit Combat considered to be an inherently hostile ability to use
> against a spirit? This ties in with the last question; if it's inherently
> hostile then it probably shouldn't be used to interact with otherwise
> friendly Tradition Spirits.

It's the way to get spirits to do what you want. Usually this is a willpower thing. It isn't necessarily a "bad" thing from the spirit's point of view (it is to some spirits, though!)

> 7. In RQ, the shaman's spirit left his body, which was then guarded by his
> materialized Fetch. This no longer seems to be the case because the shaman
> bodily enters the Spirit Plane. Is this an official change from RQ, or are
> there currently known circumstances where the shaman's spirit will leave
> his body?

Official change from RQ.

RR

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