From: Nick Brooke (100270.337@CompuServe.COM)
Date: Sat 11 Sep 1993 - 15:04:56 EEST
> In order to prove this I plan a great journey of circumnavigation
> around the world. Once I find an agreeable captain, the boat shall
> set sail from Nochet and travel east, only to appear at some indeter-
> minate time in the west. Many sailors fear that they would sail off
> the edge of the world, despite my assurances. But when the ship
> undoubtedly appears again on the western horizon, its mast will be
> seen first, not because light "bends" as Clement Longhair would have
> it, but because the world is round, not flat!
You are *mad*. Stark, staring mad. What will have happened, if your ill- conceived expedition does indeed return as you expect, is this:
As your captain (hopefully accompanied by your good self) sails beyond the Eastern Empire of Vithela, he will be caught up in the great encircling current of Sramak's River and *swept* around the far North of the world (where the River flows beyond Valind's Ice Palace) to reenter it along the Banthe Current. Thus he will have sailed off the Eastern edge of the world, around it widdershins to the North, and reentered from the Western edge. If his crew have successfully fended off the offended Altinae, Hollri, and other denizens of the Northern Edge of the Outer World, that is.
Alternatively, you could set your course along the Sky River, sailing up through Heaven itself to descend by the far side of the Sky Dome. Though in view of your heresies against True Light, I fear your course would be rudely interrupted by Star Captains incensed at your blasphemous rantings.
Light clearly "bends", tending towards its heavenly home. Rays of Light are akin to arrows or javelins. And the path of an arrow or javelin plainly curves downwards -- down and not up because the arrow is of a gross material substance and not of celestial light. An arrow enhanced by Speedart tends more nearly to the horizontal -- that is, adopting a flat path (I make this clarification because you, Columbus, would presumably assume the horizontal path to be curved!) -- as it is charged with more Light energies.
Even Dormal only sailed as far as Luathela. Your hypothetical captain would undertake a voyage many times as lengthy, and for what reward? Your own Academic renown? Your madness has taken you beyond the bounds of reason. I weep for a fellow sage sunk so low, and cannot help wonder what Sin against Knowledge brought the Brain Flayers to your cranium. Yet all the same, I wish you luck in finding a captain mad enough to take you and your fervid scribblings beyond the Eastern Edge of the World, never to return. With any luck, you could be departed before the Matriarch's Guard unman you for heresies against Our Broad-Bosomed Mother of the Four Corners.
I am rather taken by G. Fried's "interesting spirits" which affect the personality of their "binders", and by David Dunham's proposals for simple Personality Trait rules to reflect this. Both seem to be Good Things, tending towards a more animist view of Spirit Magic. Both also harmonize with my opinion that the Spirit Magic casting chance should be based on a relevant Personality Trait, rather than POW. If I ever write good rules for these, I'll be sure to let you know.
>> Tosti Runefriend ("He's got a big fetish"), the well-known Viz >> character.
> Well-known? (I did add all the Dragon Pass people to my Big List of
> Personalities, but I don't know anything about most of 'em.)
Probably nobody does unless they make it up for themselves. I asked Greg about the Dragon Pass counters a few years ago, and learned that little was known about any of them. But that capering loon Tosti has always endeared himself to me -- the most useless man in the Sartar Magical Union (I don't count jumpin' Flash Jak and his nomad Pol-joni friends).
Almost as sad a case as Aristos the Philosopher ("I used to be famous, you know..."), the entirely-forgotten Independent Master of Magic.
One of these years I'll write up my Brown Eagle Warlocks scenario - just as soon as I work out what's in it...
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