| From: | Nexx <nexx@********.NET> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Dragons and the Matrix |
| Date: | Sat, 5 Sep 1998 22:42:24 -0500 |
a gander at Awakenings. Remember the story about the Burnt-out mage, how
for the first couple weeks after losing his magic, he felt like his head
was wrapped in cotton? According to his doctors, it was the lack of
information he usually got from astral space that was making him feel like
that. It went away after a while.
Enter the Matrix, which has absolutely no input from astral space
possible. For a mage (or, one suspects, an adept who has astral
perception), this would be disorienting, like it is for me without my
glasses when I have a cold. All of my senses are still there, but they
are all muffled, not picking up what they usually do. Since the mage
isn't picking up even the barest traces of astral sight and smell and
sound, this would disorient mages much like I am in the morning (note that
this theory assumes that anyone capable of astral perception is always
doing it to some degree, but its more like peripheral vision... not really
seen, but adding to the totality of your senses, anyway). For a dual
being like a dragon (or a ghoul, or shapeshifter), this would be almost
the equivalent of sensory deprivation, since their senses are almost
continually in astral space (after all, dual beings suffer no penalty to
pure physical actions while astrally perceiving [SR3, pg 260]), and even
when they're not, they're going to be receiving a lot of information
through their "peripheral vision".
Some people can handle sensory deprivation, especially if they know its
coming and know they can stop it at any time. Some people, however, can't
handle it to any degree, no matter the amount of preparation that they go
through. And if they can't turn it off (say, got in combat with some
Black IC), it drives them mad. I've heard (don't know personally, and
can't give sources, 'cause I don't remember) that some become
non-functional from the experience.
I think, perhaps, that this might be why dragons cannot handle the Matrix,
save by piggybacking or tortoises. Does anyone have any comments?
***************
Rev. Mark Hall, Bard to the Lady Mari
aka Pope Nexx Many-Scars
*
"You fail, Death-Lord! You destroy the instrument, but not its music.
With all your power you have gained only a broken shell."
In that moment, when the harp had been silenced, arose the songs of
birds, the chiming of brooks, the humming of wind through grass and
leaves; and all these voices took up the strands of melody, more beautiful
than before.
-Lloyd Alexander, "The Smith, The Weaver, and the Harper"
