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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sepulchrave II" data-source="post: 441694" data-attributes="member: 4303">Answers to Some QuestionsTrying to keep to my promise to answer questions, here <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f644.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":rolleyes:" title="Roll eyes    :rolleyes:"  data-smilie="11"data-shortname=":rolleyes:" />  In the past I've tried using various miniatures rules, but I found them too cumbersome. Presently, I must admit its largely a 'wing-it' kind of system - I react to the strategies of the PCs wrt troop deployment, but I'm no military theorist so ultimately I can only use common sense. The individual actions of players (notably Eadric - to date) are very hard to translate onto the larger scheme of things: I have a selection of 'encounters' which are possible within the larger framework of the battle, and try to extrapolate from there. Moving the story forwards is obviously the driving force, and during mass combat it becomes more of a collaborative effort.I'm really lucky, in that my players can shift perspectives very easily - between the 'DM vs Player' paradigm and the 'We need to collaborate on what happens next' paradigm. I'm not afraid of granting them the responsibility, but they understand that I can override it and veto their decisions at any time. That is exactly what I do: I have a map of Wyre which is around 3' x 4', with lots of different colour pins with labels attatched. Marc (Eadric's player) and I sit and look at the map and brood. No, really, we do. Sad, isn't it? My wife thinks we're crazy. I don't want to give too much away - suffice to say that that drama has yet to be concluded. BTW, welcome, Guardian Andy. Glad you like the story. Usually we meet together - bear in mind that the backstory has been pretty important recently, and that the actual time devoted to players' actions in the last few posts has been quite small. If, say, Ortwin is in the spotlight, the other players usually just sit back and wait - a lot of the chopping and changing between scenes is because my notes run in the order that the players are active.For a very long periods of single-player focus, there is always the Playstation for the others. This is complex, because this requires the kind of cosmological absolutism that I've been trying to avoid in the game.According to Eadric, and Orthodoxy, there are various entities dwelling in the 'Unnamed Regions' between the Abyss and Hell. They are also considered to be 'Fallen,' in the same manner as demons and devils. Presumably, they didn't make it all the way to the Abyss, when the refugees rejected the Adversary's 'alternative society.'On a connected note, one poster mentioned the idea of 'Paradigm' and wrote about the importance in the game of Mage: The Ascension. I've never played Mage, but I think I understand the similarity. I'll present five different cosmologies below - as held by the PCs, and one NPC (in this case Shomei). They are markedly different, but not necessarily mutually exclusive. They just represent different perspectives.Eadric’s Perspective in brief:1. The Highest Reality is the Heaven of Oronthon.2. The World of Men is the testing ground which has the potential to purify the Human soul for entrance into Heaven.3. The Hells are the Abode of Devils, the Abyss of Demons, who were expelled from Heaven for rebelling. ‘Unnamed Regions’ stretch between them, where other fell entities lurk.4. There are an infinity of Limbos in which other intelligences dwell – some good, some bad. Ultimately, however, they are all irrelevant. Phantoms to beguile the unfaithful, the resting places of Pagans and the unbaptized. Nwm’s PerspectiveThe Hahio, the ‘Interwoven Green’ is everything that matters. It is Here and Now. It is the world around you. You and it are the same. Everything else is a promise of something which is not Here and Now, – why dwell on that? Look at that tree. Look at the sky. It is enough!Other realities? Maybe, but who cares? They are not Here and NowUedii is a convenient term, a device through which we relate to the Green. Is she real? Look at that tree – if you need to ask, Then You are Not Looking!Mostin’s PerspectiveAll Reality is a function of the consciousness which perceives it. Consciousness  directs, shapes and informs the appearance of physicality. Consciousness may be directed by Will.Will is cultivated through the practice of Magick.There are billions of realities, all equally valid, all subject to Magickal Will. Consciousness has no limit. It is always moving, becoming something other than it is. Will directs becoming, beyond good or evil, being or nonbeing, ignorance or gnosis.I am an unlimited, transcendent, effulgent star. The Gods quake before me. So are you. The difference between us? – I realize it!Shomei’s PerspectiveIn large part, Shomei would agree with Mostin. Note that her particular slant is oriented towards the Oronthon-Adversary duality, however.Shomei’s Becoming, to use Mostin’s terminology, is based in antinomianism – i.e. a rejection of Oronthon’s ‘Law,’ and the adoption of the Adversarial ‘Law’ – to challenge, overcome, to strive against impossible odds, to be forced to fight again and again and again. To fight against Oronthon, and against one’s own ‘moral’ nature: for Shomei, mores are a societal impediment to becoming, or to self-transcendence, and must be destroyed. This requires enormous self-discipline.Only when morality is obliterated, can the true nature of the individual be realized. Free of all conditioning, it soars. Not moral, not immoral, not even amoral. More like ‘Trans-moral’ or ‘Meta-moral.’Such an individual acts from instinct, and is always correct in his or her actions.Note that, in her youth, Shomei was baptized into the Orthodox church. Her rejection of that experience may be responsible in large part for her philosophy.Ortwin’s Perspective(Shrugs). Gods? Magic? I suppose they can be useful. But isn’t it really just a lot more trouble than it’s worth?Now, her – that woman there – well…</blockquote>

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