From: Colin Watson (watson@csd.abdn.ac.uk)
Date: Mon 15 Aug 1994 - 18:50:54 EEST
Yes, this a good start. The Temple is an obvious centre to base communal magic around.
I think the rules for Temple magic could be expanded upon. "1 pt of rune magic per 100 people and it regenerates daily" sounds like a bit of a kludge to me. How about this:
Each temple has a "communal spirit" associated with it (Orlanthi might call this a "wyter" [KOS p257]). The Power of this wyter is derived from the number of worshippers: 1POW per worshipper (as sacrificed upon initiation?). The wyter has powers like a priest (it can sack POW for Divine spells) but has no Will to exercise these powers. Its Will comes from the community of worshippers.
An individual worshipper has very little control over the power of the wyter (even if he's a priest). But when many worshippers band together, greater powers can be accessed. I imagine the wyter's spells are much bigger than those available to individuals - large areas of effect and truly awesome results. POW costs for wyter spells would be in the range of 10s or 100s of points (beyond the scope of individual magic. IMO Resurrect should fall into this range BTW). To "cast" a wyter's spells many worshippers must cooperate together in a ritual (maybe 1 worshipper per point of spell?). The whole temple must worship for the wyter to regain/maintain its powers (typically all its magic will be recovered each HHD).
I don't want to delve into specific mechanics too much, but hopefully you get the picture. It should give stay-at-home priests something to work with.
Typical wyter spells would create large-scale effects which benefit or protect the whole community (eg. Bless Crops, only bigger). They might also know a few points of "normal" divine magic for day-to-day use, temple defence etc.
There should be some tradeoff between having a wyter with lotsa POW and one with lotsa spells. The benefit of lotsa spells is obvious; I guess a low POW should affect the benefits of worship in some detrimental way... I can't think of a good mechanic at the moment.
[I suggest that magic for mass combats might be derived from wyters also. Personal magic seems rather ineffective in a full scale battle.]
Depending on your point of view the Temple Wyter can be seen as an interface between a God and his worshippers; or as an actual part of the god; or maybe the god is the wyters' wyter (many temples making up a cult).
Just a thought.
___
CW.
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