Malkioni & Sorcery

[jajagappa]

Jeff has shared more on sorcery and magic among the Malkioni on FB:

"So lets talk about sorcery. First thing is obvious - it is very different from other magic systems. With spirit magic, you have a spirit that you know how to concentrate on (with your foci!) and it does whatever effect it can do. Makes your blade sharp, makes you strong, heals people. whatever.

With Rune magic, you wield a fraction of the power of the god. You are your god's conduit to act in the mundane world. For that brief moment, you are the manifestation of your god in the mundane world. The limitations of this is you MUST maintain that connection to the god, which limits your actions and forces you to give time and resources (both material and spiritual) to that god!

Sorcery isn't any of that. Sorcery is something that must be learned, and is arduous to learn. You must learn to construct vast memory palaces, and create mental connections with points in the God Time. A lot of that is just rote learning and takes years.

Then you learn spells. These are careful paths through these "memory palaces" and mental connections that enable you to create an effect in the mundane world. The limitations of this is obvious - you are slow, learning spells is difficult, only a tiny percentage of people have the time to learn how to do this (and must be supported by the rest of society). But the advantages? You don't need gods or spirits. You can cast any spell you are capable of learning (or creating)."

 

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"So if only a tiny minority of specialists can learn sorcery, how do most Malkioni do magic?

Easy. Most people - talars, soldiers, and workers - use a combination of spirit magic and Rune magic. They also get some magic by upholding their caste duties and restrictions.

For example, the talars have the ability to give commands to Malkioni from other castes. They can also worship their ancestors and gain magic from them. And they have limited access to spirit magic. The horali can learn spirit magic from their regiments or war societies, and can belong to some cults of war gods. And the dronari can join whatever cults approved by their talars."

 

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"But of course, if you are Malkioni, your options are limited by the talars (and not directly the zzaburi). If your talar says you shall not worship Orlanth, that's going to put a damper on things. This is a bigger limitation for horali than for dronari (mainly because as long as the dronari feed everyone and do the work, it is rare to ask them questions)."

 

And the picture Jeff shared:

[metcalph]

I had seen the material by Jeff before but this is the bit that intrigued me:

Quote

For example, the talars have the ability to give commands to Malkioni from other castes. They can also worship their ancestors and gain magic from them. And they have limited access to spirit magic.

This suggests to me that the caste magic is limited by the amount of spirit magic, or Free INT in other words.

[Richard S.]

18 minutes ago, metcalph said:

I had seen the material by Jeff before but this is the bit that intrigued me:

This suggests to me that the caste magic is limited by the amount of spirit magic, or Free INT in other words.

I think it's more supposed to mean that the types of spirit magic they can learn are limited, since shamans aren't as readily available and their ancestral cults don't have a wide selection.

[metcalph]

Just now, Richard S. said:

I think it's more supposed to mean that the types of spirit magic they can learn are limited, since shamans aren't as readily available and their ancestral cults don't have a wide selection.

I doubt your interpretation both as to the lack of shamans and the limitations in their ancestral cults.  If Seshnela was the size of civilized Prax, say, then I could accept the limitations of available magic, but it's one of the centres of civilization and so can be as exotic as necessary.

[Jeff]

2 hours ago, metcalph said:

I doubt your interpretation both as to the lack of shamans and the limitations in their ancestral cults.  If Seshnela was the size of civilized Prax, say, then I could accept the limitations of available magic, but it's one of the centres of civilization and so can be as exotic as necessary.

It is worth keeping in mind that there are about as many people in Seshnela as there are in the Holy Country. Very unlikely that Seshnela is a mono-culture.

[Alex]

On 1/6/2022 at 9:53 PM, jajagappa said:

"[...] This is a bigger limitation for horali than for dronari (mainly because as long as the dronari feed everyone and do the work, it is rare to ask them questions)."

Enjoying this image as something of a companion-piece to the producers of Star Wars recounting their practical and mental struggles with the '70s British film-technician unions...

[Darius West]

On 1/7/2022 at 8:53 AM, jajagappa said:

Most people - talars, soldiers, and workers - use a combination of spirit magic and Rune magic. They also get some magic by upholding their caste duties and restrictions.

Hmm...   While this explains why most Malkioni have all lost their Brithini caste immortality, this information raises rather more questions that it answers I fear.  Are we being told that the Talars worship St. Worlath, the Horali worship St. Humkt, and the Dronari worship St. Barnt and St. Nalda?  Where does this mentioned Spirit and Rune magic come from?  The Invisible God certainly doesn't provide it, so who does?

[metcalph]

1 minute ago, Darius West said:

Are we being told that the Talars worship St. Worlath, the Horali worship St. Humkt, and the Dronari worship St. Barnt and St. Nalda?  Where does this mentioned Spirit and Rune magic come from?  The Invisible God certainly doesn't provide it, so who does?

The Malkioni have no Saints and don't admit any distinction between their gods and the others. 

The Talars justification for Ancestor Worship could be explained by if worship of the Creator/Invisible God/Malkion is right, so too must be worship of ancestors between yourself and the Creator. Through this reasoning, they avoid the Great Error. 

The worship of other gods (Humakt, Telmor etc) is acceptable so long as it has been permitted by the Talars. I don't think the Rokari wizards have anything to do here otherwise it makes the Seshnegi clones of the Carmanians which I want to avoid.