wrote:
> it's said that the Brithini of Arolanit (tops on the "atheist
sorcerer"
> charts in anyone's book) have actually Tapped the color and
vibrancy of
> their land to fuel their magic. (Hmm, wonder if that would tie
into the
> whole "weakening landscape beings" bit these days, if you look at
it as
> drawing power from the surrounding environmental essences.)
>
I think you hit something there. The sorcerous ability to draw on
landscape essence to augment their magic probably IS related to
tapping. It is just that most people accept it as
benign..... "There's plenty of rocks out there, what's the harm?" I
would guess, however, that most orders and schools actually have
rules about this, to make sure that the essences near them don't get
depleted too soon, so that they are there for emergencies (or the
work of senior members).
This suggests why tapping is so hard to get rid of, it may actually
be very easy to figure out how to tap people based on how you drain
essences. Also, it is a progression that a certain portion of people
may naturally make, from a landscape essence to minor magical beings
to humans and their ilk.
This gives rise to a couple of classic plots.
- The member of the good order who has turned 'to the dark side.' He
or she starts off 'illegally' draining the local landscape essences.
This gets noticed, and extra precautions and protections are put in
place. Desperate for the power, he or she figures out how to tap,
but starts small, restrained by shreds of morality. These
depradations are also eventually noticed, and more seriously
investigated, but by the time the investigators catch up with the
villain, he/she/it is pumped up on megalomania and tapped magic.
- The classic environmentalist fable (I seem to recall someone
looking for this for a variation of Princess Monike?). A long
established school has slowly depleted the essences around their
base. Once they were plentiful, but despite rules to conserve them,
they've slowly been bled off over the years. The great hall that
used to be in an idyllic setting is not in a bleak, barren, and
forbidding landscape. The nature of the order has slowly changed
along with the environment, benign protectors gradually becoming
ruthless dominators. Finally they decide to take over a new areas,
rich in essences. The locals (mundane and not), seeing what is their
future, choose to fight back. The greater the resistance, the more
the order becomes desperate, and resorts to darker and darker means,
and how long before they begin to tap those who would deny them their
rightful rule?
--Bryan