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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Galloglaich" data-source="post: 4670994" data-attributes="member: 77019">Good thread.  I think if you look at some of the science was around at this time, not just in Europe but in places like Persia and the Arab countries, it can get pretty durned interesting. Things like sulfuric and hydrochoric acid, pure alcohol etc. not to mention say, gunpowder, have a lot more potential implications / applications in game than are usually given. Even more apropo for DnD, there is a fascinating link between lot of the historical scientists and sorcery. Many of the great thinkers of history were deeply interested in Magic. The famous Persian alchemist Al Gebir, for example, who invented / discovered the Albemic, Sulphuric Acid, Hydrochoric Acid (both of which were extremely important foundations for modern Chemistry) and hte distilation of Alcohol, and Crystalization among other things, also wrote about how to summon a Scorpion to kill your enemies. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geber#Chemistry" target="_blank">Geber - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</a>  This notion of Takwin has all to do with the creation of artificial Life ala the infamous Homonculus (something which was prominent in OEDnD but seems to have fallen by the wayside) and spells like Clone. This was an obsession of real life wizards from history. Another famous example was the famous Golem allegedly created by the maharal of Prague in the 16th Century in a quasi-scientific / magical manner. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem#The_classic_narrative" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem#The_classic_narrative</a> The tradition of linking Science and magic went on through the era Niel Stephenson writes about, Sir Isaac Newton was a practicing Wizard for example who engaged in Magical warfare with his rivals. I also highly reccomend this site  <a href="http://www.esotericarchives.com/esoteric.htm" target="_blank">Twilit Grotto -- Esoteric Archives</a> Which contains the works of such fascinating figures such as Giodorno Bruno, the author of such enigmaticly named tomes as the Shadow of Ideas considered a major figure in Renaissance philosophy, who was burned at the stake for witchcraft. Finally I'd also highly reccomend studying some of the late Classical era Scientific Wizards such as Archemedes and Heron  <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archemedes" target="_blank">Archimedes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero_of_Alexandria" target="_blank">Hero of Alexandria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</a> They were true technological wizards, who made technologies (like the alleged 'solar laser' which supposedly burned up Roman ships) which could make for great dramatic concepts in DnD whether it was real or not. But it's really the smaller details of all the stuff they created and what they did with it that you could really run with in a DnD game. Their equivalents in the Renaissance were of course guys like Leonardo DaVinci G.</blockquote>

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