| From: | Erik Jameson <erikj@****.COM> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: A dissertation on the Flesh Chukker (LONG) |
| Date: | Tue, 12 May 1998 12:37:51 -0400 |
physadept but I couldn't recall that he had astral perception. No big from
my perspective.
At 09:18 PM 5/11/98 -0400, you wrote:
>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.
*sigh*
You're missing the point though. *Everything* has an aura of *some* sort,
from you to the food on your plate to the computer on your desk. The
question is what *kind* of aura and is it astrally active or not?
A wall has an aura of some sort, enough of one that it has an astral
presence. You cannot see through a brick wall in the astral, but the
aura's presence is weak enough to allow a astrally present being to project
through that wall.
For the record, I know many people define an aura as something more akin to
the aura or a living person. I'm using a somewhat different definition
that describes an astral presence as an aura, and the aura of a living
being as an astrally active aura. Really a matter of semantics more than
anything else, I don't believe it affects my argument.
A living creature possesed of a soul or consiousness or whatever you wish
to call it also has an aura. This aura, because there is some sort of
holistic life force, is also astrally active. Which means it is strong
enough to act as a barrier to the astrally projecting being; this ranges
from people to ivy covering a building.
The chunk of flesh, or tomato, has been removed from the holistic aura; it
is simply no longer equal to the aura of the original plant. It will
retain little more than an echo or reflection of the original aura that it
was a part of. The aura is the sum of all parts remember; your arm doesn't
have a different aura than your leg, it's all one big picture.
This echo or resonance of the original aura that the torn out flesh or
plucked tomato is sufficient for things like ritual magic or astral
forensics. But the original aura is not needed for ritual magic; as my
less-wordy colleague MC23 pointed out, a picture or symbolic voudoun doll
is sufficient for ritual magic. And the flesh/tomato only retains an echo
of that aura, sufficient and superior to the photo for ritual purposes.
It's superiority isn't necessarily because it is biologically viable, it's
because it is "closer" spiritually to the person being targeted. It's a
<former> part of the target, while the photo is merely a symbolic
representation of the target. In the middle you have things like favored
objects, that are close, spiritually, to the target.
Beyond this, the flesh/tomato's aura is no longer active, which is the
biggest reason this concept fails, even if the aura of the plant and the
tomato are otherwise identical. It is no longer a part of the holistic
aura of the plant or person. It may be biologically viable, but it is no
longer alive except on the cellular level. This chunk of flesh cannot *do*
anything. A plant can grow, but a plucked tomato can only rot or be eaten.
It is, on a large scale, as dead as the computers you are using to read
this message. On a cellular level, it is alive. But it is not "alive" in
the same sense that you or I or the plant in your window is alive, on a
macrobiologic sense, on a holistic sense.
So hurling a tomato, freshly plucked off the plant, *does* retain an aura,
it *does* retain an echo of the holistic aura that was of the plant;
perhaps the aura is essentially identical to that of the plant. But it is
no longer an *astrally active* aura. And it takes an astrally active aura
to possibly interfere with an astral being.
So quite simply, it cannot work given SR's rules and cosmology of magic.
I will admit, the thought is interesting. But terribly flawed and the
result of a player attempting to gain an unbalancing advantage by twisting
the system.
>I doubt that people could argue that a living organism thrown at an
>astral presence would not affect it.
True. Effective? Doubtful. Remember, astral beings are supposed to be
extremely fast even if the game rules don't always reflect that (with MBW3
and the like).
>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.
I think this was discussed back when the Corporate Security Handbook first
came out. And I seem to recall the list came to the conclusion, from
various angles, that this wouldn't work. The explanations ran from
disrupting game balance and FASA intent to the fact that the bullets outer
casing would insulate the inner biological matter, preventing the biomass
from affecting the astral entity.
Both of which I agree with.
>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.
True. Although the matter of why mundane weapons can't harm spirits easily
is really another matter entirely, and is really an entirely different
discussion for another place and time.
Erik J.
"Oh, the silent helicopters and the men in black fatigues? They're just my
car pool to work."
