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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Khayman" data-source="post: 1677700" data-attributes="member: 17051">Some social notes... if you want to maintain the appearance of versimilitude, then magic shouldn't be available to the parish priest, maybe not even to his bishop.  [yes, this has implications for character generation]Spellcasting might become concentrated in the hands of organizations, either secular or holy, though the extreme social prejudice against magic would likely relegate it to a shadowy role. Picture an elite corps of Vatican magic-busters along the lines of the purported 'papal assassins' of the Order of the Swan (mid 15th century) or the truth-supressing Revelare Nuncius (from Kim Eastland's article in The Unspeakable Oath). But hey, no one says that destroying magic is the only way to win wars...On the side of the Christians, knightly and monastic orders might actually command powerful forces, in turn engendering suspicion and contempt from the Church and Nobility. Their rites of secrecy become understandable as a means to protect themselves, just as their layers of ritual are designed to exclude outsiders. On the Muslim side, the Ismailis are a logical choice to become entangled with spellcasters --- teleporting an assassin into a king's bedchamber might seriously affect a war --- though their infamy and prowess are likely due to the imagination of Crusaders. Some esoteric mystical sects with Sufi leanings might develop the knowledge independently, with consequences depending on with whom they are in contact.Things depend on how widespread spellcasting is. For example, at this point in time Jewish mysticism has a long tradition, as does Gnosticism and Hermeticism and a handful of other -isms. This is in addition to the Catholic, Shia, and Sunni 'mainstreams'. So who has access to magic? Depending on who they are, the magic they control would most likely vary --- Divination among post-Persian mystics, Conjuration among diabolists, Evocation among some demented students of the Zoroastrians, and so forth.</blockquote>

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