Re: Re: Big spirit dudes

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_...>
Date: Sun, 02 Jul 2000 01:19:14 +1200


Julian Lord:

> > But the spirits that the Shaman integrates are losing _their_
> > identity irreversibly. If they are well-loved spirits of the
> > shamans own tradition (like Ancestors), then this is going to
> > be seen as a Bad Thing.

>I don't think that that is a universal truth,

It is a universal truth for those cultures that practice integration as described in the Hero Wars rules. If they use some other magic with a similar effect but without the consequences, that's fine and dandy.

In such a case, I prefer to see a statement of why the culture's magic differs. I doubt it is a case of "Our integration is the same as the HW-rules save that the individuality of the spirit is not extinguished". I could accept something like "after death, our ancestors split off from our core self" but that to me would imply that all other integrated spirits also split off as it is extremely unlikely that a culture has two integration techniques.

>Come to think of it, Ancestral shamanism is poorly represented by
>the GL World-View. It should probably be a Borderline magic,
>half-way between shamanism & theism ...

Just because you worship something doesn't make it theistic.

>Thing is, despite the fact (I would say) that various methods of
>Integration are possible, I think that a good rule of thumb for
>HW is to remember that they all involve some form of difficulty
>(and most likely psychic trauma) that can be well represented by
>your 'hitting him over the head' suggestion.

In other words, Spirits can be integrated only through the Spirit Combat option? I thought I was the person trying to impose the One True Shamanism? I do accept a contest in trying to persuade the spirit but this could be something as unstressful as singing the right song.

>In fact, I would say that more peaceful, politically correct,
>hippy-type shamans who integrate Spirits with a Peace & Love
>attitude actually have to hit *themselves* in the head, so to
>speak (using rigourously similar game mechanics) : that is,
>spiritually combat their own petty non-Integrated selves (their
>Id Monsters ?) to allow greater one-ness with the macrocosm ...

Why don't they smoke dope instead? Saves on the headache resulting from doing spirit combat against self...

--Peter Metcalfe

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