[Dragaera] Loraan vs. Blackwand: Flawed Victory

[Erik Holmes]

>   My favorite theory remains that, well ... Loraan was a wizard.
> 
>   See, the description of a wizard (as put forth in Issola by Morrolan
> who, being a wizard, should know) seems to be that the chap takes all he
> knows of sorcery, necromancy, and a few other things ending in -y, binds
> them together with his (or her) soul, and sticks 'em in a staff, which
> becomes their badge of office.  ('I'm a wizard.  We have staffs, you
> know.')  A Morganti weapon devours souls, except it can't devour a soul
> that isn't bound into a body, which generally seems to be presumed to be a
> LIVING body.  ('Athyra' seems to prove that point wrong, note.)
> 
>   Therefore: since Loraan's soul wasn't in his body when Blackwand took a
> chunk out of him, Blackwand couldn't destroy his soul.  Walking out of the
> Paths of the Dead probably required his soul, naturally; I imagine that
> when a wizard is killed, his staff is sent over Deathsgate Falls with him,
> thus providing him with his soul back.  Which is, in part, why I theorize
> that that's why wizards become wizards in part -- to be able to protect
> their souls from being destroyed by Morganti weapons.

This is just another thing that makes me wonder if Steven Brust has ever
played GURPS. The above action of sticking a soul into an item to help
protect someone from death is nearly the same as a spell in GURPS (I
understand it's also quite common in fantasy literature but still).

I'm currently running a GURPS game set in Dragaera and it's been easy as
hell to convert over. The standard GURPS magic system works for Sorcery, the
gurps Spirit magic system is a nice match for witchcraft. It has rules for
psionics that work well for guys like Daymar. Even the difference between
Dragaerian sword fighting and eastern style fencing is built in. 

I've heard on the list before that Vlad started out as an RPG character. I
had thought that it was D&D but does anyone out there know for sure?

"I didn't spend all those years playing D&D and not learn a little something
about courage." 
	-Some Dork, The X-Files 
	
Erik Holmes
Shoby187 at yahoo.com
AIM: ErikHolmes & Erickh0510 
ICQ: 2593395 
MSN: Shoby187 at hotmail.com 
Y!: Shoby187 at yahoo.com


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