In a message dated 11/30/03 11:58:43 PM Mountain Standard Time, vesanto@cc.hut.fi writes: >So, actually, I don't see any big problem with this setup. After all, >even if something is not essential, does not mean it could not be >important. Until a few decades ago, diamonds did not have any practical >value - still they were perhaps even more valuable than today. I would >argue that for some gods of the Dreaming, the followers on Celandra >are like their 'hoard of diamonds': nothing they would actually need, >but something they value, and which they can show off to their peers. Let me explain my perspective and then you can correct it. Let's look at three cases from 19th century colonialism: Congo, India, and China. In the case of Congo we have a state with nothing particularly valuable about it. As a result no one cared what happened there, there was little competition, and very little was known. Belgium used it as a status symbol. The result was one of the most horrific states in history. India was more valuable, there was more competition, and thus more care and information about what happened there. In India atrocities happened, but were kept in check. Finally we have China whose resources and value was immense, competition was high, and who managed to retain nearly complete independence. Any attempt to take advantage in China was immediately met by a countering response. Thus I hope you can see that the general rule is that the less utility something has the more likely it will come to be abused. Why doesn't this apply to Celandra? >>Personally I like the idea that there is something about human souls >>that is useful to Dreaming entities. Possibly the Authority of a mortal >>soul can be used to increase an entity's authority in the Dreaming? Of >>course, there's no real need to define _what's_ useful, as long as we >>consider that there's _something_ useful there. > >Well, that's a possibility. But I really would like to know the what, >why and how, there. Just to see how they would effect the societies. Well, let's say that a worshiper generates something, call it worship energy, that a deity can use to acquire something that useful to him, call that flux. Let's say that a deity can acquire flux based on the square root of worship energy available to him. Flux can also be used to do things. For example, the lowest rank of espiri in Exquisite might require five flux to do what they do. >E.g. how then would they actually gather that Authority? At the time of >death? Can you imagine a flock of gods gathering around a big battle >like a flock of carrion birds? Hmmm... actually that sounds kind of >nice; but I don't think it fits Celandra. > >Any other ideas or opinions? Please feel free to contribute. I was rather imagining that worshipers would channel their authority to a deity as part of their worship. Individually this authority isn't worth much, but if a deity can muster the authority of several hundred it adds up. >>So what is the nature of the Ladies? Do they have divine aspects? What >>are their servants and personalities like? > >Divine aspects sounds a bit too much like 'God of knowledge and >thunder'. From my viewpoint, the Ladies are like any other entity >of the Dreaming with their own ambitions and goals. Of course, to >the Ka'Shari they have to project some kind of idealized front. >But I'll leave that to Bob to decide. Any specifics about the things they are good at and the things they are poor at? Jefferson http://www.picotech.net/~jeff_wilson63/rpg/ ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send mail to celandra-off@phoenyx.net.
