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A Government By Psions?
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 5184146" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>I don't really feel like getting into a detailed discussion of theories of magic, but I don't see your distinct and fundamental difference. In particular, 'spell' as you are using it in that context (ei, 'not a sacred prayer but a mental technology') is a concept owed to the same spiritualism movement that gives us the term 'psychic'. And you are describing fundmentally the same act - imposing your will on reality through some sort of actualized thought - using different words that contain the meaning of the other when you start digging.</p><p></p><p>In any event, I still stand by my claim that no special term needs to be invented. The provenance of the term 'psi' to describe 'extrasensory perception' (itself a term of recent provenance designed to give a veneer of scientific legitimacy to very old magical practices) is barely 50 years old, and the term psionics (from which we get 'psion') was coined by a sci-fi author. Just stop for a second and look where this goes. What do you call a government by warlocks? What do you call a government by binders? What do you call a government by wu-jen? What do you call a government by warmages? What do you call a government by witches? What do you call a government by Magewrights? What do you call a goverment by Beguilers? And so on.</p><p></p><p>D&D pretty much invented the term Magocracy to describe something that made perfect sense in game terms but which didn't exist in the real world. It's a prefectly good and servicable term, so you might as well use it whenever it applies. A psychecracy would in my opinion be the correct term if you really must not use magocracy. The 'psi' in 'psionic' is just a shortened form of 'psychic'. 'Psiocracy' is roughly equivalent to calling a government by mages a mocracy.</p><p></p><p>However, let me suggest going an entirely different way. Call the government a Cryptarchy - ruled by secrets.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 5184146, member: 4937"] I don't really feel like getting into a detailed discussion of theories of magic, but I don't see your distinct and fundamental difference. In particular, 'spell' as you are using it in that context (ei, 'not a sacred prayer but a mental technology') is a concept owed to the same spiritualism movement that gives us the term 'psychic'. And you are describing fundmentally the same act - imposing your will on reality through some sort of actualized thought - using different words that contain the meaning of the other when you start digging. In any event, I still stand by my claim that no special term needs to be invented. The provenance of the term 'psi' to describe 'extrasensory perception' (itself a term of recent provenance designed to give a veneer of scientific legitimacy to very old magical practices) is barely 50 years old, and the term psionics (from which we get 'psion') was coined by a sci-fi author. Just stop for a second and look where this goes. What do you call a government by warlocks? What do you call a government by binders? What do you call a government by wu-jen? What do you call a government by warmages? What do you call a government by witches? What do you call a government by Magewrights? What do you call a goverment by Beguilers? And so on. D&D pretty much invented the term Magocracy to describe something that made perfect sense in game terms but which didn't exist in the real world. It's a prefectly good and servicable term, so you might as well use it whenever it applies. A psychecracy would in my opinion be the correct term if you really must not use magocracy. The 'psi' in 'psionic' is just a shortened form of 'psychic'. 'Psiocracy' is roughly equivalent to calling a government by mages a mocracy. However, let me suggest going an entirely different way. Call the government a Cryptarchy - ruled by secrets. [/QUOTE]
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