The Dawn of Magic: Another Way to Look at Magic's Effect on Society

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Canis, but a lazy intelligentsia is really a product of the late 20th Century Western malaise. As recently as the 1960's, intelligentsia - in the form of university and college staff and students - were involved in radical political action as a matter of course. The Weathermen, SNCC, SDS are all examples in the US. Not to mention Bolsheviks, a radical intelligentsia who massively influenced the course of international politics for three or four generations.

By and large, when confronted with something to which they have strong objection, intelligentsia is more likely, not less, to act radically. Give them the spells to do it with and you can bet your English Lit professor is the new hereditary "President" of the Magical States of America.

I spent a good chunk of last night trying to come up with a response to this that wouldn't flip out a moderator or two. I think I've got a version that won't irritate much.

I'm not labeling the intelligentsia as a whole "lazy." My point is that Academia (the subset of Intelligensia with which I am associated), by-and-large does not "take action." Those that think they are taking action are usually just making meaningless noise. There's a difference between political action and narcissistic posturing. For one thing, if the '60's and '70's had truly been about philosophic and political action, the baby boomers would have taken the "lessons" from their "political" professors home with them. They would not have morphed into the money-grubbing, age-fearing, uber-selfish bad parents that they by-and-large became. As a generation, they embraced the mindset that they had spent their college years protesting, and then took it to an excess far beyond the problems they had rallied against.

Some academic "politicos" have very good intentions, but they don't understand human nature. This is true of most of the "great thinkers" throughout history. Only someone who had been completely isolated from the ugly aspects of human nature could possibly believe that True Communism or True Democracy can work for a community greater than perhaps 200 people (and they had all better know each other, and have a better than average education). The framers of the U.S. Constitution knew this. That is why the U.S. is set up as a republic, not a democracy. The only true democracies I'm familiar with are some small towns in New England. I have yet to see an example of true communism (although from what I hear, there are some communes around here that come close).

At any rate, academics are generally idealists. They will encourage their female students to burn their bras (Although the motivations for this particular activity are mixed). They will hold sit-ins and other such laughable "political" activities. They will concoct complicated numbers schemes to determine their vote in an election when they are certain their preferred candidate doesn't have a prayer. They will passively attempt to open the minds of their students. But they would NOT enforce their will on others, given the opportunity. Many would rather have the ideals of others forced on them than defend themselves from attack. They simply would not take action of a significant form.

Those that did would be ostracized for "becoming the enemy" and railed aganst for the "misuse" of their power by a bunch of people who are sitting on that power just like they sit on their intellectual laurels now.

This would be little different when much of the intelligensia were monks or scribes in the employ of the church or state. These people were, like academia today, sheltered from 1) True hardship and 2) The brutal realities of what human beings are capable of and apt to do.

People who have the time to study mathematics "to learn the language of God" are not people who are in touch with reality.

 

[s/LaSH]

The question is, How easy is it to get magic? It's a force that naturally creates massive elitism. If everyone can cast it at low cost, it'll proliferate and we'll probably get the same social structure with different ways of doing things. If it's hideously expensive, it will remain the plaything of rich people who won't use it. If it's hideously hard, a very few people will master it - an outcast radical, a dangerous psychopath, a devoted hermit. They all have strong motivation, and the means to implement their beliefs with force. Like superheroes, kinda. They're all people with the drive to both develop and use these powers.

So you could concievably have a sort of 'superhero' culture spring up, where everyone tries to go about their lives as normal, but every so often some psycho tries to blow up the royal palace and someone else shows up to stop them, flying above the rooftops. And frankly, a lot of spellcasters already dress like superheroes. Especially female casters.

Cough.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Academics

While I overall agree with Canis's perception that newly formed are not likely to lead revolutions, something Shadowrun also concluded, I do think academics are not entirely a force for Ivory Towering.

Kissenger and Wilson were academics.

Do not underestimate the power of academics for social change through the medieval church. The days of peace were products of the monks at Cluny, and the Cistercians radically changed the agriculture of England and France.

Medieval Academics were often very involved in international policy, but that was brief period in the whole history of academia. And a period when academic issues mattered to international policy.

Exceptions perhaps, but....

I do think those meaningless political activities would gain a little more gravity if they were fireballing all the bras on campus at the same time.

Also, the vast majority of academics today are in the employ of some church or state. Academia isn't homogenous, but it doesn't change much.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Academics

I will concede the point. It's entirely possible that my current experiences with Academia and other academics have resulted in some groundless bitterness, which is coloring my perceptions here.

You guys have made some good points. I maintain that most academics really aren't functioning in the real world, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're incapable of interacting with it outside the classroom in a meaningful way.

 

[seasong]

One way to handle the rise of magic:

Alchemy
In the year of the flowering, seven alchemists made astounding breakthroughs in the essential science. Choose a country and an alchemist (who will doubtless have a permanent place in court) who produced the first of each of the following:

alchemist's fire (DC 20)
smokestick (DC 20)
tindertwig (DC 20)
antitoxin (DC 25)
sunrod (DC 25)
tanglefoot bag (DC 25)
thunderstone (DC 25)

Thus, the Frankish knights could become known for their use of sunstones, while the Jews could make a veritable mint for their control over the antitoxin and/or tindertwig supply.

Divine Spell Casters
It is shewn that for 1,000 years after the death of Jesus Christ, God hid His light from the world, that it might share in His sorrow, and the world wept in darkness, as the corrupt priests made mockery of His words and made an idol of the King's coinage an idol which they worshipped at.

In the year of the flowering, however, God took back His concealing hand, and let His light shine through to the world again, in remembrance of the Resurrection and in forgiveness of the sins of man. The priests of flock and field, who stood among the people and thus suffered for their virtue beneath corrupt superiors, rose up as one and knew the Word of God, and from their mouths it did spill gloriously and miracles did abound.

With the Word of God spilling from their lips as spoken sacraments, they rose up against their superiors and the common people with them, and bore God's wrath to the doors of the Church, and replaced all therein.

Today the Church stands as it always has, but corruption has been replaced with purity; pride with humility; sinful greed with forgiving grace.

In game terms, the priests with no rank, who dealt with the common peasant from day to day, became 1st level priests (and rapidly went up from there according to ability and experience). There were probably some faithful among the higher ranks, but generally speaking, the ones who made illicit deals with nobles to garner softer living for themselves gained no miracles and thus no way to prove the word of the peasant priests wrong.

Which is not to say that the peasant priests were the only ones to gain any power at all. Plenty of ranked priests, faced with the potential wrath of God, turned coat and prayed to devils for deliverance... and gained foul miracles of their own.

And, of course, your campaign may allow for older pantheons to have power! This won't change much in the above description because of the lack of faithful to gain power, but in the borderlands where pagans still dwell, wars may take on a different flavor...

Arcane Spell Casters: Wizards
Among the faithful, there are always those rebellious-minded scholars who, burdened with a curiousity beyond their wisdom, seek to study those weighty tomes censored or oppressed by the Church. These darkly-inclined souls read the words of Egyptian mage-priests and the revelations given to foolish monks by fallen angels. They even, perhaps, try to recite some of those ancient passages.

And in the year of the flowering, a number of them succeeded. The effects were small, and not felt for nearly a decade as they slowly increased their communications with one another. Such as they have always had links to one another to trade books in secret, but now those links became like steel chains, bound by harsh oaths and political need. Gradually, they increased their understanding and personal power, until they were able to begin influencing public opinion to accept them. Thus did the wizardly Cabal form and become unassailable in their might, ten years after the year of the flowering.

In game terms, wizards started at 1st level and built themselves up before going public.

Assumption: The flowering of the Church does not mean that God is "enlightened" about non-divine spell casters. If anything, God is probably pretty ruthless about stamping them out, particularly if the GM decides that arcane magic taps Lovecraftian "other dimensions" for its abilities.

Arcane Spell Casters: Sorcerors
I'm not sure how to handle this... maybe treat it as a sort of psychic awakening, like second sight. Sorcerors would probably be pretty underground, as both the Cabal and the Church would want their heads on platters.

Others
Rangers could be pretty easily meshed in. I personally wouldn't use Druids except as a possible "heathen" variant on the Cleric. Paladins would likely rise from the templar knights and other religious Orders, and would probably be part of the "God's Wrath" aspect of the divine flowering.

 

[Xeriar]

Re: Academics

I will concede the point. It's entirely possible that my current experiences with Academia and other academics have resulted in some groundless bitterness, which is coloring my perceptions here.

You guys have made some good points. I maintain that most academics really aren't functioning in the real world, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're incapable of interacting with it outside the classroom in a meaningful way.

As much as you may scoff at it, some of these acedemics are still greatly influential. The Free Software Foundation's GPL license, and Berkely's BSD license are both extremely important.

Without either, you would not be seeing this message - the Internet was built on BSD code, and compiled with gcc. A little bit of an exaggeration, perhaps, but these were two key pieces to all of this.

The protests against Dmitri Skylarov's imprisonment didn't get too much coverage, but the media did end up covering, and lambasting, the situation. The message got out, regardless.

---

The situation we have in the United States today isn't one of laziness so much as our comfort level hasn't been breached yet. There is so much accumulated wealth here, that corruption can go a lot farther before people start taking notice (and have) - simply because the economy is large enough.

Replace the cozy chairs with cold ground, the roof with tree branches, the stocked fridge with an empty stomache, and you can garauntee that some justice is in order when these people have the power to enact it.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Wow, Seasong. Nice work!

I'll have to see if I can brainstorm up an explanation for sorceror's that fits this concept (and doesn't sound more like a psion than a sorceror ). I take it that you're attributing the return of magic to God removing "his concealing hand" and therefore I'll use that as the ultimate source of these, as well.

Forgive me if I don't match your prose for the flavor bits...

Seeing as the "blood of dragons" bit is missing from this world, what if we went with blood of the angels (fallen or otherwise). There was a thread recently that dealt with the race of "giants" in the Old Testament (Nephilim). This race is variously depicted as being descended from either Angels or Fallen Angels who took human women to wife (or were taken as wife by human men, I suppose, but I think the text referred to them as exclusively male, not that it matters here). I see no reason that this angelic blood could not carry with it certain powers, which were repressed along with the rest of the divinely-derived powers and only began to show itself in mortals at the time of the Flowering, like all the rest.

Diluted over the centuries and unfed by God's Light, the blood of the Nephilim lingered still in the hearts of some few men. Basking in the return of the Light, their blood awakened, bringing with it the power of their forebears, though greatly reduced in scope. The distant children of the Fallen, be they king or peasant, merchant or soldier, Christian or heathen, felt the stirring in their blood at the Flowering. Over some years, they learned to focus their will, and bring ever greater manifestations of the power of Azael back into the world of men.

As for Psions, I'm thinking that yogis and monks of the East, in their meditations and search for the divine spark of enlightenment, found themselves able to tap the power of the divine spark within themselves.

Psionic flavor text coming soon...

Edited to insert names. Psionic flavor below...

 

[seasong]

Wow, Seasong. Nice work!

Thank yew . I shall now proceed to deflate your opinion of me with additional commentary .

I take it that you're attributing the return of magic to God removing "his concealing hand" and therefore I'll use that as the ultimate source of these, as well.

Well, it could be God's concealing hand, or that could simply be the explanation God cooked up for the priests when the magic returned and he was suddenly able to do stuff again. Depends on whether you want to run a Christians Are Right campaign or not.

Seeing as the "blood of dragons" bit is missing from this world, what if we went with blood of the angels (fallen or otherwise).

... much excellent stuff snipped ...

Ooooooo! That's beautiful!

As for Psions, I'm thinking that yogis and monks of the East, in their meditations and search for the divine spark of enlightenment, found themselves able to tap the power of the divine spark within themselves.

That sounds good! Some of those meditations were also found within the Church itself, and it is likely that the purgation of the Church's sin left many monastic Orders untouched. It could make for an interesting flavor bit to have psions with a vow of silence and burgeoning powers of clairsentience somewhere in an English monastery.

 

[Buttercup]

Bravo, Seasong! Your idea is going straight into my EN World Folder 'o Goodness.

 

[seasong]

Found it! The fall of angels story that works well to explain sorcerors. Those with the blood of Azael, in particular, would have the potential to be mighty sorcerors with great charisma.

Azael was also credited with teaching mankind witchcraft, so it fits right in .