In a message dated 7/18/04 3:45:02 PM Mountain Daylight Time, juha.vesanto@iki.fi writes: >Still, it would need to be clarified somewhat just how Exquaestio magic >differs from the Mirrish magics. An interesting discussion. Well, first of all, espiri Glimmering is pure authority. Unlike most styles of authority, however, it's extremely flexible. Certainly not as much so as Mirrish Sorcery (at the moment anyway), but no one can say what its potentials are. (See also the Exquaestio magic page at http://www.picotech.net/~jeff_wilson63/rpg/Exq_Magic.html). I'm not going to speak of rohain Genius because it is so little developed, but feel free to ask questions if you wish. Unfortunately, very little has actually been written about how Mirrish Sorcery works. From _Speakers and Kings_: _These magi must tell the work exactly what to do and how to do it. For this they must be stronger than the clay of the work and they must be knowledgeable of this work. That makes the work difficult; it elevates the worker in the eyes of those about him. That is the pretension of Will and, ultimately, its weakness. For an ob . . . a magus to, let us say, mend a broken bone, he must know all things about the bones and the body. He must know what the structure should be, he must know how the blood should flow; he must know, in effect, everything. He must be informed enough to perform the work in mundanity. The mage who would set a bone must be a mendicant using he art to work faster or better but not -- not, not, not -- to do something new or that he does not fully know. Every mage must be a specialist and is limited by both knowledge and imagination. [. . .] The Song is the form of convincing the work to use its Authority upon itself. It is the seduction of the will of the work. Where a mage must instruct and force his clay, the obeah must convince the work to agree with him, to believe in the primacy of what the obeah believes. Even, even, even if the obeah knows that, as he works, this belief is not true. This passing not-truth must be hidden from the work until the work has made it truth._ Glimmering follows neither of these patterns. When an espiri begins a rite, the first result is an inundation of information. When setting a bone an espiri will become aware of many things: the amount of pain the subject has, the rush of repair agents to the break, the proportion of living bone cells to nonliving cells, the fact that bone marrow makes blood, and _millions_ of other things. The espiri must then sort this information for what is meaningful and applicable. Once sorted, the espiri "displays" the result to the target (the above bone), showing it the path to the espiri's purpose in performing the rite. If the target (bone) "agrees" with the espiri's purpose, then if follows the path (and the break is mended). Let's compare Sorcery, Obeah, and Glimmering in the metaphor of a man leading an Ox. With Sorcery, the man knows the ox, knows what it will respond to, and uses that knowledge to direct it. With Obeah, the man bribes the Ox to move in the direction he wants. With Glimmering, the man draws the attention of the Ox to a particular destination, and the Ox travels that way if the destination is desired. This is why the espiri are having such a hard time with infections and contagions. The germs involved don't "want" to travel along paths that will lead to their demise. Jefferson (Exquaestio) http://www.picotech.net/~jeff_wilson63/rpg/Exq_Main.html ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send mail to celandra-off@phoenyx.net.
