I’m moving back to my apartment!
The movers should be showing up soon, then they get to pack my stuff up (including Beast), and when I’m back home I’ll be crashing for a bit then going to my bank to see about things. And I’ll wish the best to Liz Danforth, who’s ailing a bit.
Here in our series we get around to the Mage and Priest.
Essentially a Mage is a dweomercræfter with Full Practice.
In turn for this he gets the following:
In this case a Priest is a Persona with Full Practice. He has filled the following criteria.
In return for this he gets the following benefits.
In the historical Persia a mage was a priest. More specifically a priest in the Zoroastrian faith. The type of mage known as a wizard began as an advisor known as a vizier. In any case a wizard is most often a wise man who provides advice for the powerful.
On Ærth about 1% of the population can use Castings, about 0.01% are Full Practitioners. Which comes out to be 5 million Casters on Ærth, and 50 thousand Full Practitioners.
And that does it for this posting. In the next we’ll be taking a look at the Dual Practitioner.
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I’m supposed to be going to sleep now, but then I get a thought. A thought that’s going to be keeping me up until I do something about it. Like write it down, and since I’m writing it down I might as well share it with you.
The thought?
Well, back a few years ago we had an outbreak of Hep A locally. People among the homeless were getting sick and it was spreading. So there was a hue and cry and things got done. But, it was pretty much just among the homeless, which included me at the time. Among the housed there was no problem, so the housed started demanding that something be done about the homeless. For the most part getting them to vacate for other lands where people we didn’t know would have to deal with them.
Today? No such luck. Covid is affecting everyone regardless, so we can’t really isolate a population or exile them for that matter. It’s something we have to deal with, and that is going to cost money. You can’t be chintzy with a pandemic. Those who insist on hoarding wealth will just have to suffer. Hoarding period for that matter, but let’s first deal with those who think they must have a ton of gild to go swimming in ala Scrooge McDuck. (And at least he plays with it.)
To really deal with this disease we’re going to need to spend money on it, it’s necessary and there is no getting around it. And I could go on but now I’m starting to feel woozy. I have to get this posted and shared and grab some sleep. Tomorrow I’m getting a bowl of chili with crackers plus a cup of water or two. Think about what I’ve said and we may get back to it later.
I got to thinking about the overall subject and I’ve come to the conclusion that one post isn’t going to handle it, so you got a series within this series, starting with:
A Full Practitioner is some one who has what is know as “Full Practice” in magick, sacred and/or profane. He is simply a person who understands magick better than another, and so is able to call upon the phenomenon better than most. In the term of mechanics the Full Practitioner can make use of castings one Grade above the usual based on his STEEP in the K/S in question, and he gets a multiplier of x10 to the amount of Heka gained through the appropriate K/S. So a Mystic Full practitioner with a STEEP of 56 in Mysticism would get ten times the amount of Heka gained through Mysticism and be able to cast Grade 7 Castings as if they were Grade 6.
That is a good question, and I don’t really know. All anybody knows is that the Full Practitioner has a sort of Quirk which allows him an especial insight into magick. That is, he has a special understanding. Sort of an enhanced Metaphysical Category where magick is concerned. But to actually become a Full Practitioner the Persona must learn how to use his Quirk or talent effectively, and for the most part it means getting the education and training in either dweomercræfting or priestcræfting he needs. At the very least tutoring from a more knowledgeable soul than he. Though some say that an education in the Areas of magick and/or religion will do the trick. As a matter of fact, I’m going to say that having Magick or Religion as a K/S area along with the K/S area the Persona will be using as the Area he has “Full Practice” in is what your Persona needs. So that having Religion and Combat, Hand to Hand, Fatal means the Persona in question is a Full Practitioner is any Combat, Hand to Hand, Fatal Castings that are available.
That is up to the guide. And that comes down to which K/S Areas exactly can have Castings. C, HtH, F could have a casting such as Tremulous Strike available, a dweomer which amplifies the impact of a blow. But only if the guide says it can. Castings are not part of the K/S, then being a Full Practitioner in the Area is just not possible.
So I’m going to say that the requirements for being a Full practitioner in Mythus are:
Should he qualify in all three areas then the Persona is a Full Practitioner and so enjoys the benefits of being a Full practitioner.
That the above is all in your hands, you don’t have to adopt this, or adopt this as a whole. You’re free to take what you wish and discard what you don’t.
And note that the above will have an impact on your setting, for it makes magick a truly powerful thing. For Mythus, as I see it, is a high fantasy RPG, and that means that magick is going to have a strong presence in it. It also means that Full Practitioners are going to be found in all sorts of places. That teamster for instance, with his teamster magick and his preternaturally aware oxen. If this is the sort of thing that bothers you, then don’t allow it. If it gives you ideas, then play with it.
That popped up back in the early 16th century, apparently an import from the New World, though it would appear that is has similarities with the old Yaws. However it occurred it was considered a dire danger and very often manifested as a particularly nasty disease. In fact, syphilis was considered a sign of the coming apocalypse and was said to foretell the extinction of Humanity. Remind you of Covid 19?
I expect that Trump will run rampant for a few years, then mellow out as we become more and more resistant to it. But until then expect us to have a snit fit. In fact, by the 23rd century our descendants will consider our reaction to it rather over done, and they won’t really understand or appreciate just why we blew a fuse.
What we’re seeing here is an example of what happens when you’re cheap. We’ve worked our ass off to save money, and in the doing let things get to the point where we’re just not ready for emergencies. Back when I was younger we called it false economy and we abhorred it. But then certain parties started acting as if it were sliced bread and boasted about our ersatz thrift.
For your information people, life costs money. Always has, always will. You can’t stint where life is concerned, and any attempt to do so is gonna bite you on the ass. And catching up when you run short is always going to cost more than spending to stay ahead. Having soup stock ahead of a coming famine will always mean not having to watch as people starve.
But will the greedy accept this? Why should they? They’ve got theirs and damn your granny. Their paranoia will always be more important than you…
And sorry, but I’m not feeling well right now. Not eating right at the moment, and I’m likely vitamin D deficient. I need to get out and get some sunshine. I know more needs to be said, but let me end this with this; Dave Brin is right.
I just realized that what we’re going through is basically life. It’s what happens to us anyway. You get old, you die. Some die later, some die earlier, but you die. Some have preexisting conditions and then another condition comes along and kills them. Others die from the condition itself, whatever it is. But to sum up, you die.
Trump Flu has just reminded us. Reminded us that we’re not immortal. The young can’t accept that, for they are young. The old, which includes me (dang it), know it though we’ve been prevaricating about it. Only know we’ve been rudely reminded. Up till now we’ve been able to, well, fib about it. But with TF on the scene we can’t any more. That’s how I see things now, we’ve been reminded that life will have it’s way with us, and death comes at the end. The bell rings, the cry goes out, and the tumbrel rumbles down the street.
Hubris has met Nemesis, and Nemesis is laying the smack down.
In this post I’m going to be talking about a certain class of Practitioner, the Augmented Practitioner.
An augmented practitioner is one who has either a Pact or an Oath with another Power. In the case of a Pact the Persona in question makes an arrangement with a malignant power for usually two things; one being access to the castings available in a K/S Area, and a bonus to the Heka gained from the K/S.
Where an Oath is concerned it often also includes an agreement with a power, but often as much a benign agency as a malign one.
Where a Pact is concerned the agreement is with a malign power, Demonic or Divine, to commits acts of evil and malignancy. In return for which the Persona either gains access to the castings associated with a K/S, and/or a multiplier to the Heka gained from the K/S in question.
In the case of Areas such as Sorcery and Witchcræft a pact is needed to use the associated Castings. A Pact is not necessary to use Necromantic Castings. However, in all three cases a Pact is necessary to gain a multiplier to the Heka gained from the K/S. By and large any such agreement means the Persona will do fell and foul deeds in return for the benefits, though very often the fiend a Persona makes a Pact with will allow his minion to be subtle and sly.
In the case of an Oath the Persona does make an agreement with a power, but more often to uphold some sort of agreement with him. Most often this is much like a Vow in that the Oath is to a greater power, though not to the degree that a Vow calls for. Under an Oath the Persona in question agrees to perform certain duties, and to follow certain strictures, but for the most part this only allows him a multiplier to his available Heka according to the K/S Area in question. In addition, in the case of a Priestcræfting K/S the Persona making the Oath does need to take one of the 5 Ethoi, or 6 if the setting has such.
In the case of a particular K/S is concerned the Oath is most often made with an agency such as a Demon or God associated with the K/S. So should a setting have a God of Mysticism, then a Persona make take an Oath with that God.
Now keep in mind that the Augmented Practitioner uses the guidelines for Partial Practitioners where Heka Aperture is concerned.
Now that we’ve dealt with all that we end with this final note, that the next post in this series will deal the the Full Practitioner, and that can get into some detail.
Just thought I’d add some posting on Mythus for those of you following them. In this case I’ll be typing up a few thoughts on Castings and Casters on Ærth, starting with the Partial Practitioner.
For simplicity’s sake a Partial Practitioner is a Persona with the talent for casting magick at the most basic level. In the original mechanics this applied to those K/S Areas with associated Castings. Such as Alchemy and Heka Forging for instance. This pretty much restricted Castings to those who had the K/S Area in question, and who otherwise qualified through being an Heroic Persona, or because of the whim of the guide in question. Thou it seems to me that some guide lines as to those Other Personae who can Cast. Say…
A Persona with a Mental, Physical, or Spiritual Trait of 36 or better (thus allowing him at least one Casting Area) who makes either a check against MMPow, PMPow, or SMPow at DR Hard, or whom the guide decides can use Castings from one or more K/S Areas.
Of course, in the former case the Persona will be restricted to those Areas he has, and from which Castings are available. But keep in mind that in this scheme of things most any K/S Area will provide Castings, assuming of course that those Castings have been created. For creation you’ll need to read the rules on Casting Creation in Mythus Magick. So even the Hunting K/S can provide Castings so long as those Castings have been created. And most of those will have to do with stealth, accuracy in missile fire, and the preparation of meat after a kill.
For the Partial Practitioner the Persona will be able to use an additional amount of Heka equal to his STEEP in the K/S Area in question, plus up to 10% of his STEEP in the K/S Areas he can draw Heka from. But note that this only applies to those areas he can draw Heka from, so if he can only draw Heka from a total of 4 K/S Areas because of his Traits, then he’ll only be able to draw 10% of the STEEP he has in those 4 areas even should he know more (my emphasis).
There is more to come on Augmented and Full Practitioners, but I thought I’d get this out before I spaced things.