| From: | Phil Levis <pal@**.BROWN.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | A dissertation on the Flesh Chukker (LONG) |
| Date: | Mon, 11 May 1998 21:18:47 -0400 |
> plant/body and shares the same active aura. But as soon as the
> tomato/flesh is separated from the plant/body, it is no longer a part of
> that holistic aura. It will retain echoes and reflections of that aura,
> but it now dying and lacks the driving element (soul, consciousness,
> whatever) that creates that active aura.
>
> So if I pluck a tomato off the main plant, the aura remains with the main
> plant. The tomato itself lacks an active aura, but does have an astral
> presence, just as nearly everything mundane does. But astral presence does
> not equal astrally active aura.
>
> And so throwing a chunk of flesh has the same effect as throwing a tomato.
> It passes right through the astral being and goes *splat!* against the wall.
>
> Erik J.
>
Admittedly, I haven't been following this thread too closely. However, the
conclusions that are being made to justify why this veritable weapon of
destruction wouldn't work are, in my eyes, quite hacked and erroneous.
First of all, chunks of flesh torn from someone certainly do have some
sort of astral connection to that person; otherwise, said flesh wouldn't
help with ritual magic, which it does. In the example of the tomato,
there is no argument that I can think of which could say that the severed
tomato does not have its own, seperate, astral presence, which is
'equal' than the plant it was taken from; indeed, one could theoretically
take some of the seeds within and grow many such plants. However, I would
concur that by seperating the part from the whole, the astral presence, as
well as the physical, of the whole is altered.
I doubt that people could argue that a living organism thrown at an
astral presence would not affect it. Let's say some troll picks up the
whole planter and chucks the proverbial tomato plant at some astral
presence nearby. I see no reason why a still-living chunk of flesh would
perform any differently, 'astral signature', 'astral presence', 'aura', or
no.
Sure, you can tear chunks of flesh from a person. Sure, you can accelerate
these chunks to pretty high velocities. The question is, will they hurt
something in astral space? I'd argue no.
It has been suggested that an astral form can be 'destroyed' by crushing
it between two astrally active objects. (Corporate Security Handbook)
However, this is because the astral form has no place to escape to. If the
astral form can escape, it is merely 'pushed' away from the physical
object. The example given is of an astrally active net being dropped where
a mage is astrally projecting; they'll either pass through the floor, or
if the floor is astrally active (let's say it's completely covered with a
magical mold), something really painful happens, and the mage dies. Or so
some wage mage says... FASA has never stated in rules what happens.
I'd argue that a piece of flesh, accelerated to high velocity, would not
harm an astral entity. Instead, it would move it out of its way, in an
extremely violent fashion; if it were a (meta)human projecting, they would
be severly disoriented.
Let's say that an object with an astral presence accelerated to a high
velocity can harm an astral entity, for a moment. What would this mean?
First off, one could manufacture bullets which have a small cavity
containing an astrally active bacterium in nutrient fluid. As long as one
keeps them refridgerated, and the bacteria can survive the shock of the
bullet being fired (I see no reason why not), you've got an astrally
active bullet.
This seems horrendously stupid to me, and quite at odds with the
metaphysics of magic as presented in Shadowrun. This issue with
projectiles harming astral entities is why guns aren't
very useful against spirits.
It's important to note, however, that the astral entity is *affected* by
the projectiles, just not *harmed*. But this is, of course, merely my take
on the matter.
Phil
