> I think that claiming that caste is terribly important for
> magic, and then going on to claim that the various magicians we know
> who have a very different set of caste rules are all people who have
> cleverly managed to redefine caste, annoyingly circular reasoning.
I do not believe anybody has redefined caste. Some societies have a more
tolerant attitude of what constitutes acceptable caste than others.
There is ample scope for determining where the appropriate borders are
but they do not have any scope in determining the basic nature of the
castes themselves.
> - and given that zzaburi have [overthrown the lords] at least
> once (Valkaro) it is clearly possible, which just gets us back to the
> starting point.
I think Valkaro tapped into a native strain of sorcery (Martalak) which
was not caste dependent.
> In addition, I think the whole idea of a bonus for correct
> application undermines the whole idea of sorcery being very specific
> and exact.
Sorcery is still specific and exact under my proposal. The only
difference is when magic is used against outsiders. When used within
Rokari/Hrestoli/etc society, everybody's magic has the same effect and
so it (largely) cancels out.
>> What I'm suggesting is that the his arrow blessing magics are more
>> effective than
>> his own magic missile/arrow spell because the first spell follows caste
>> whereas the second doesn't.
>
> And I'm suggesting that if the arrow blessing magics are
> equally effective, in the majority of Malkioni societies the wizards
> will still be far less effective at shooting people with the blessed
> arrows,
Except that I was comparing the wizard's blessed arrows to the magic
arrows he shoot by himself (without the use of a bow) - a spell
described in HQ1 rules.
--Peter Metcalfe
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