From: | Luke Kendall <luke@********.CANON.OZ.AU> |
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Subject: | Science, magic (Was: Re: Great Dragons) |
Date: | Wed, 29 Jun 1994 09:38:28 +1000 |
> Science, Ras, is a very humanish idea. In fact it grew into a serious
> idea inside of recorded history. From the greeks to the renaisance, then
> developed to it's current state in the 1800s and 1900s. Science really
> is a very new system.
Historically that's true. But I believe that the essence of science, which
is to form a hypothesis and then to actually go and _test_ it, is not innately
human. It's just an extraordinarily useful way of learning how lots of things
work. It's one technique that dragons would use, when they felt like it.
Ras> [...] I look at dragon magic as magic based on hermetic theory
Ras> (not necessarally the hermetic tradition the Ares wage-mage is used to),
Ras> with perhaps a good dose of keeping magic-use closely related to nature.
Ivy> Well, Ras, this is another one that won't hold up.
I'm pretty sure that in Shadowrun, Shamanism and Hermeticism are terms that
are used quite specifically: to mean spirit/personal/unruly and
force/impersonal/rule-based, respectively. The history of the terms is
interesting, but not central.
I like the idea that dragons are a blend of the two - a deeper understanding
of the nature of magic, that incorporates both mechanistic rules and deep
emotional understanding.
luke