Re: Healers in Swenstown

From: Andrew Solovay <asolovay_at_...>
Date: Sat, 29 Apr 2006 04:18:35 -0000

• In HeroQuest-rules_at_yahoogroups.com, "Roderick and Ellen Robertson" <rjremr_at_...> wrote:
  >
  Mike Holmes:
  > > I find complete instant healing only occurs in other (non-
  > > Glorantha) fantasy source literature when somebody does
  > > something like a heroquest. Never once happens in Middle Earth,
  > > for instance.
  >
  > [...]And Middle Earth has *much* less magic than Glorantha, by many
  > degrees of magnitude. Even if you play ICE Middle Earth.
  

Aye. Off the top of my head, I believe we find "instant-healing" caliber magic of one sort or another in Narnia (Lucy's cordial), Harry Potter, Octavia Butler's "Patternist" novels, and Turtledove's "Videssos" books. It's not something you find in every fantasy series, but it's not unheard of.

Tolkien's Middle-earth is unusual in how <i>little</i> magic it has, by fantasy-story standards. In Middle-earth, magic is a bit more common than in our world, but still uncommon enough that it's extraordinary and memorable when it occurs--whereas in most fantasy series, magic is taken for granted, though some people are better at it than others.