From: Alex Ferguson (abf@cs.ucc.ie)
Date: Mon 24 Jan 2000 - 05:05:00 EET
David Cake:
> For some reason, major traditions keep getting special
> dispensation (the Lunars and the Orlanthi, anyway), leaving the 'pure magic
> more powerful' rule being observed more in the breach than the actuality.
I don't necessarily disagree with you, but I think these are very
different cases. The Lunars are mixed only in that their society
includes a truly boggling array of _different_ magics, embodied
in separate cultures/persons. The Orlanthi practice a single variety
of magic, but one which is only 'mixed' in the sense that a God
Learner and his magical Venn Diagrams and Cartesian Charts asserts
that it is, in terms of his analysis. If you ask Greg which is the
superior understanding, he'll tell you the Orlanthi one on Tuesdays,
the God Learner one, alternate Saturdays, and say something else
such as 'both are true, on some different level' with an enigmatic
smile, and a benevolent nod of sympathy with your resultant
bewilderment. Well, or something like that; other Greg Learners
must feel free to provide more accurate prognoses.
> Gregs been listening to those damn Return To Rightness crusaders again.
Well, as a self-confessed Riddler, Arkati, Trickster, and sometime
> I think the mixed mystic traditions are generally pretty fine.
I'm not sure of the precise distinction you have in mind between
dupe of Wakboth, he may be moving up in the world, then!
> Orthodox mysticism abjures all magic use, but the mixed traditions are
> (probably without exception) manifest mystics, seeking some unification
> with the world, including the magical world.
'mixed' and 'manifest' here. Greg seems to regard the main 'tantric'
manifest mystic practices of the East as explictly 'mixture' of
mysticism and high/esoteric animism, or perhaps just as being the
point they have in common. Whether Kralorelan mysticism is
'manifest', 'mix', or both, is an issue which I shall attempt to
duck with a nimble "It's definitely Draconic".
> The Kralorelan
> martial artists schools have some connections to the original animist
> magics of Kralorela, which is one of the reasons why so many Kralorelan
> martial arts styles are animal based.
Citizen, please report to the Instant Tortu-- eh, that is, the
Re-education Camp, at once. Just because the mountains are currently
infested with hsunchen doesn't make their magic 'original' to Kralorela:
but that's a GL-level bunfight I'm persuading myself to let go for
now... What's more material perhaps is how much the resemble
hsunchen magic, and I don't think that's very much. (Centipede
Style m.a.'s don't go around growing numerous extra legs, for example,
or anything so Unrefined... (Tempting though the BBC's warming-
over of the old millipede footballer shaggy-dog tale might be at this
point.))
> It is regarded as a spiritual error by Orthodox
> purists, but by the manifest martial artist it is regarded as a magical
> continuation of their program to master their body, and through it the
> world, freeing their mystic spirit from worldly concerns.
I suspect the usual Kralori program, martial or otherwise, is something
of the reverse: utilise the world to liberate the self. Though in
one crucial sense one _is_ trying to liberate the world, via a boddhisattva-
like self-sacrifice.
Cheers,
Alex.
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