As part of another project I'm working on I've ended up defining rohain magic in Celandra, and I thought I'd share it with the group. A couple of caveats: First, rohain abilities are extremely idiosyncratic. Each ability exists in nearly infinite variations. Second, not all the abilities are known. The right circumstances haven't arrived make some of the abilities (particularly the higher ranking ones) available. 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. 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. Spiritguard: protects from and allows a rohain to sense those magics which affect the rohain's mind or body without being directly damaging. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Farspeech: allows rohain to communicate over long distances. Most can only communicate with other rohain, but some can "speak" with anyone. 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. Dreamshare: give a rohain the ability to "take over" a person's mind while in Spiritform. 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. PARAGON ABILITIES: Paragons do not gain any new abilties, but their existing abilities are much expanded. ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send mail to celandra-off@phoenyx.net.
Jefferson wrote: > As part of another project I'm working on I've ended up defining rohain magic > in Celandra, and I thought I'd share it with the group. A couple of caveats: > First, rohain abilities are extremely idiosyncratic. Each ability exists in > nearly infinite variations. Second, not all the abilities are known. The > right circumstances haven't arrived make some of the abilities (particularly > the higher ranking ones) available. > > 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. > 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? > Spiritguard: protects from and allows a rohain to sense those magics which > affect the rohain's mind or body without being directly damaging. > 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. > 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. 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. > 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. > 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. 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. > PARAGON ABILITIES: > > Paragons do not gain any new abilties, but their existing abilities are much > expanded. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, send mail to celandra-off@phoenyx.net. > Andrew ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send mail to celandra-off@phoenyx.net.
Sorry I have been so quiet. I was performing in a folk dance concert put on by my university last week and now I have time again. :) Andrew Janssen wrote: >Jefferson wrote: > > >>As part of another project I'm working on I've ended up defining rohain magic >>in Celandra, and I thought I'd share it with the group. A couple of caveats: >> First, rohain abilities are extremely idiosyncratic. Each ability exists in >>nearly infinite variations. Second, not all the abilities are known. The >>right circumstances haven't arrived make some of the abilities (particularly >>the higher ranking ones) available. >> >>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. > > > >>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? > > > Also how does it react to spells? I am talking about spell wards and such. > > >>Spiritguard: protects from and allows a rohain to sense those magics which >>affect the rohain's mind or body without being directly damaging. >> >> > > > >>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. >> >> >> I like but how long do these last. Are we talking for a very long time or for short periods of time. I imagin that it varies by the levels. >>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. > > > The Oracle of Talishara does have access to seeing time. No one is sure from which this comes, and it is not done on demand. (And people wonder why I wanted Talishara. :) It also requires a certian amont of training to even understand. I agree with Andrew about if it for immediate danger then it is okay. >>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. > > > I agree with Andrew. >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. > > > A long time ago Keaton and my self talked about telportation. It requires either a person having been to the location or a large amount of knowledge about the location, or a beacon to go to. While some one can try a blind teleport they have a large chance of arriving within several miles of the location, and even a much smaller possibility of having gone the wrong way. While arriving some distance away from your original traget may not seem that big of a deal at first it starts raising issues when you are trying to get to a port city and find yourself two miles out to sea with out a paddle, or buried in a montian and so on. Again going back to the conversation with Keaton as for how much energy used. Telepoting one self was desided to be fairly standered, not easy, but a standered activity. It is when you start trying to move groups that energy really quickly adds up. Even moving a small number (like 2) quikly begins to drain your energy. (You can see the results of this coversation in Speaker and Kings.) > > >>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. > > > The Sorcerer of Mir have a same room telepathy. Meaning if they are in the same room they can uses telepathy, but it is only a sending of thoughts to one another. They don't have long distance communications. They usally uses magical servants. I might actually get around to really describing one, one of these days, or maybe just leave it a mystery. :) I agree that the eerith would have issues with a massive telpathical communication ability outside of their own. > > >>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. > > > Sending your spirit into the dreaming by itself would be defently be possible but I agree that a gate would be required to travel physically into the Dreaming. >>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. > >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. > > > Miracradsa would be their really quickly and extremely upset. > > >>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. > > > The Fae did bring objects out of the Dreaming and made them permant. Now true that Fae are from the Dreaming. >>PARAGON ABILITIES: >> >>Paragons do not gain any new abilties, but their existing abilities are much >>expanded. >> >>---------------------------------------------------------------- >>To unsubscribe, send mail to celandra-off@phoenyx.net. >> >> >> > >Andrew >---------------------------------------------------------------- >To unsubscribe, send mail to celandra-off@phoenyx.net. > > > Hope I can help. I really do like how you and Andrew keep cumming with detailed Ideas for your societies. Jason Heaps ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send mail to celandra-off@phoenyx.net.
Jason Heaps wrote: > Andrew Janssen wrote: >>Jefferson wrote: >>>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. > > Also how does it react to spells? I am talking about spell wards and such. A Spiritform is affected by Wards and similar spells designed to affect eerith and other spirits. How much a rohain is affected depends on the relative strengths of the rohain and the spell. >>>Spiritguard: protects from and allows a rohain to sense those magics which >>>affect the rohain's mind or body without being directly damaging. >>> >>>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. > > I like but how long do these last. Are we talking for a very long time > or for short periods of time. I imagin that it varies by the levels. Both are available whenever a rohain wants, for however long he wants. However, both require training to use, and can be overpowered by sufficiently strong effects. (The GURPS rules are rather elegant. For d20: Spiritguard would give a +1 per (rohain level) bonus to appropriate For and Will saves. Spiritshield gives +1 per (rohain level) Damage Reduction when a save is made.) >>>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. > > I agree with Andrew. Are you saying that magic can't be used to store information? (See my previous post as well.) ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send mail to celandra-off@phoenyx.net.
