| From: | Stephane Lafrance <Stephane.Lafrance@***.ULAVAL.CA> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: ideas... |
| Date: | Sun, 2 Oct 1994 16:27:30 EDT |
Stephan
----------------------[Reply - Original Message]----------------------
Sent by:King of Pain <mcgowan@*****.bucknell.edu>
On Sun, 2 Oct 1994, Robert A. Hayden wrote:
>
> It depends. Does a totem exist? Or is a totem nothimg more than a
> psychological icon that the shamen grabs on to as a focus for his
> powers? If a totem really exists, I summose that a totem could be hurt,
> but probably by only something as powerful as another totem.
Well here's my interpretaion of what a totem is. It has to be a
combination of collective ideal of a physical object in conjunction with
the actual existence of the physical object itself. I would restrict it
to just living beings, however you have sun totems and moon totems for
druids, o the definition has to be expanded. Now why both ideal and
physical existence?? You need physical existence otherwise for every
ideal that went around a totem would pop up, and as the ideal changed,
the powers of the totem would change. As i understand it the powers of
the totem a pretty solid(ie DON'T CHANGE). Also, without physical
existence, there would be a toetem for EVERYTHING that became
idealized(aka Elvis Totems, JFK totems, that cool ferrari totem).
Now as for the "ideal" condition for existence. I suppose that has to
revolve around the question of how totems came into existence. Were they
free spirits?? or spirits of animals?? or were they just created by the
ideals of hundreds of thousands of men and women when the mana levels
began to slowly increase, which then shifted their base of power to a
physical entity(thus becoming a "totem"). Guess which one i favor:)
Anyway, under these conditions it WOULD be possible to destroy a toem by
1)Destroying its physical link to the world(ie all the owls for an owl
shaman, sharks for a shark shaman, the moon for a moon shaman, etc.) and
then 2)then demolish or change(because changing the ideals of a totem
would destroy that totem and give rise to new, totally different one) the
ideals that give that totem existence. Dead totem. Also through that
reasoning it would be possible to "corrupt" the totem by changing the
ideals resposible for existence towards darker, more evil ones:). Of
course, this is all true IF my reasoning is correct(and i admit, there
are ALOT of stretches in here) but its an interesting plot device to use
if your mage gets too powerful or if you want to mess with em a
bit(imagine what would happen to a shaman that no longer had a totem
anymore...)
anyway, food for thought
RDM
