Andrew Janssen wrote: > Jefferson wrote: > >>SQUIRE ABILITIES: >> >>Spiritblade: a weapon formed of "energy" which is effective against intangible >>and magical creatures. Stronger spiritblade may affect normal creatures as >>well. Most Spiritblades are invisible. > > Interesting, but I'm not sure how useful it would be, since we don't > actually know how often Dreaming entities come to Celandra. Also, how > would it affect the races that have emigrated to Celandra permanently? > My gut is that the Eerith would be more strongly affected than the > Vraa'al, being far less material in nature. The ability is there mainly to affect entities which cannot be affected by physical weapons. This would include Eerith, elementals, undead, and so forth. Since it's main purpose is to attack things that are otherwise invulnerable, it doesn't have to work all that often to be very valuable. >>Spiritform: allows a rohain's conciousness to leave his body and "walk" around >>in spiritual form, returning to his body immediately whenever he wishes. A >>spiritform may walk through walls and hear what people are saying. A powerful >>rohain may transform his entire body. > > Does the rohain have to enter an altered state of consciousness to do this? To generate the spiritform, yes, but some rohain can to this instantly. To maintain the spiritform, no. A rohain has no contact with his physical body using a projected Spiritform. >>Spiritguard: protects from and allows a rohain to sense those magics which >>affect the rohain's mind or body without being directly damaging. Should have added, "including divination and locating magics." >>Spiritshield: forms a defense which protects a rohain from damage. Weaker >>shields are only effective against insubstantial and magical attacks. >>Stronger shields can affect anything. As with Spiritblade, most spiritshields >>are invisible. >> >>Spiritsense: allows a rohain to see spirits and other intangible entities. > > These three seem to be very practical abilities. > >>KNIGHT ABILITIES: >> >>Dreamsense: allows a rohain to sense magic. With greater powers a rohain can >>tell more about the magic. >> >>Foresense: gives a rohain a momentary warning when he is in danger. With more >>power a rohain can tell more about what is going to occur. > > Dreamsense is okay, but Foresense is potentially questionable. One of > the cardinal rules of Celandra is that magic affecting Time is > impossible for any being other than the Creator. If Foresense is just a > matter of sensing that the man behind your back in the alley has pulled > a knife, or that there's a large pool of acid under the innocent-looking > stretch of floor in front of you, that ought, I think, be okay, because > it's only looking at the present. If, however, Foresense works by > showing a glimpse of the future, it won't work in Celandra's universe. Forsense works by seeing the potentials of the present. A rohain who predicts, "Your roof will collapse in the next heavy rain," isn't looking into the future, he's percieving (unconciously) the current dry rot in the roof beams. >>Innersense: allows a rohain to "see" inside objects or past barriers and in >>total Darkness. Some rohain can "look" in any direction without needing their >>eyes or to move their head. > > Another practical ability. > >>Mindsense: gives a rohain a vauge idea of what living creatures and spirits >>are feeling. >> >>Pastsense: allows a rohain to see how an object or area was used in the past. >> Can see a person's past when combined with Mindsense. > > > Mindsense by itself should be okay, since there are already established > groups in Celandra with similar powers. However, Pastsense, like > Foresense, may be problematic because of the prohibition of > Time-affecting magics. Now, I don't think the exact rules on this have > even been explicitly laid out, but the impression I've always had is > that looking into the Past is just as impermissable as looking into the > future. The only way to find out what happened in the past in a > location is to find someone who was there, and ask them. This may > require necromancy, if you want to know what happened 2000 years ago. Are you saying that magic can't be used to store information? > Also, the interaction of Mindsense and Pastsense to reveal a person's > past may also be problematic in other ways, but this is addressed in the > discussion of Farspeech. > >>PALADIN ABILITIES: >> >>Farleap: is a personal teleporation ability. >> >>Farsend: is a teleportation ability which transports small objects and magical >>effects over distances. >> >>Farsense: allows a rohain to sense distance location without traveling there. > > I see no reason why these shouldn't be possible, but telportation of > anything bigger than a breadbox, and especially of anything living, > should require the expenditure of a considerable amount of energy. > >>Farspeech: allows rohain to communicate over long distances. Most can only >>communicate with other rohain, but some can "speak" with anyone. > > This power could be very problematic. After doing some re-reading of > old posts, long-distance projective telepathy seems to only be > acceptable in Celandra if mediated by a divine power. If Farspeech works > like an old-fashioned telephone exchange, where Rohain A tells Feroze(or > a servitor) that he wants to talk to Rohain B, and the Being then > completes the connection for Rohain A and breaks it when the > conversation ends, that would be fine. There would definitely be no > problem if the communication was through, say, mirrors or flames, rather > than a mind-to-mind link. > > However, if Farspeech works as a direct mind-to-mind link unmediated by > divine Authority, if it is pure telepathy, then there would be big > problems. If the Eerith found out about it, they would almost certainly > do everything in their power to prevent rohains with Farspeech from > using the power. And it's a safe bet that most of the other Dreaming > beings, certainly all the Cedonian gods and their servants, would > support the Eerith in their actions. Farspeech isn't pure telepathy. In the most extreme cases it's verbal telepathy only. In the most basic case it's disembodied voices that only be percieved through Spiritsense. I didn't think this would cause problems, but there are things I can do to tone down the power if neccesary. >>Fartouch: gives a rohain the ability to sense dimensional effects like gates >>and teleports, the presence of gods, and aspects of the "physical" relations >>between the area and the Dreaming. >> >>CHAMPION ABILITIES: >> >>Dreamshadows: generates illusions. >> >>Dreamwalk: allows a rohain to travel between the Dreaming and Celandra. > > Does the rohain enter the Dreaming in body or in spirit? Cedonian > clerics can enter the Dreaming in spirit while sleeping, but AFAIK, the > only way for a Celandran to physically enter the Dreaming is to go > through a Gate, because the material substance of the body strongly > resists being pulled out of Celandra. It's a lot easier to go from the > Dreaming to Celandra than it is to go from Celandra to the Dreaming. Dreamwalk allows the rohain to enter the Dreaming in body. This says nothing about what he finds when he gets there. Without a great deal of cultural effort this might be the equivalent of falling off a pier strapped to a 50 lb. rock. >>Dreamshare: give a rohain the ability to "take over" a person's mind while in >>Spiritform. > > Eep! This power suffers from the same potential problems as Farspeech, > in spades. To take over a person's mind would require that the rohain > establish Authority over the other's mind. This would require, at a > minimum, the person's consent, and the consent of that person's god or > gods, and possibly the agreement of Coron, who, while not responsible > for all souls, nevertheless takes an extremely dim view of any act which > interferes with anyone's soul, before or after death. Yes. I overlooked that. It should read, "gives a rohain the ability to "take over" a creature's _body_ while in Spiritform. The target's mind remains with the body and may resist the controlling rohain. The rohain can communicate with the target's mind with Farspeech." > Attempting to use the Dreamshare power on an unconsenting person would > bring the wrath of Coron and the Eerith, and the wrath of any other > interested Beings, down upon the rohain who attempted such an act. > >>Dreamhealth: allows a rohain to recover much more quickly from injuries. >> >>Dreamgift: allows a rohain to "bring forth" small objects from the dreaming. >>The items of weaker Dreamgifts are strictly temporary, but stronger Dreamgifts >>create items that are longer lasting, even permanent. > > Possibly possible, but never addressed before, AFAIK. Up to Juuso, really. ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send mail to celandra-off@phoenyx.net.
