| From: | shadowrn@*********.com (Gak The Great) |
|---|---|
| Subject: | [OT] Good Blood Spirits |
| Date: | Mon Mar 25 12:20:01 2002 |
<snip>
>
> I disagree that life is the source of all magic, there is a
> strong causal link
> between life and magic, which is not central to the argument,
> but an important
> issue nonetheless.
>
> Within a legal and moral framework, Blood magic is defined as
> having a visceral
> and murderous nature, where murder requires malice of
> forethought, and usually has
> "lawful" connotations. (Killing in self defence is not
> usually necessarily murder,
> rather as manslaughter, or perhaps even criminally negligent
> homicide.)
>
> Since death is naturally occuring, it is probably possible to
> include death in
> magic without having the guilty (mens rea) intent, and
> therefore without making
> "sacrificial" magic Blood Magic. So, a GM can probably
> include ritualistic,
> sacrificial magic, into the hermetic tradition without the
> inherent "evil" intent
> of Blood Magic Sacrificial Magic, although I believe that
> this model would fit
> better into Shamanic magic.
>
> Blood Magic should be considered Corrupt in line with the
> spirit of the rules.
One of the strenths of Shadowrun is that it des not force the charakter
into a "good" or "evil" personality. The system itself is totally
neutral, or at least should be. That is much closer to RL than, say,
D&D, or, I guess, any other "Hero-RPG" (the charakter is a hero). One of
the worst things they've done to SR is depict the horrors as THE evil,
one hundred percent and pure, without stressing that this is the opinion
(granted, I can understand this opinion) of those who are endangered by
them. One can always find a viewpoint by which what Somebody/thing is
doing is good, no matter how far this POV is from our moral (why the
heck should another intelligent species believe that human life is
sacred? Humans should, yes, but others?) and this also applies to blood
magic (finally! I'm getting to my point! :). Blood Magic (or rather: the
rituals used in blood magic) is no more corrupting than power. It is
power in it's purest form: you need power over somebody (to kill them)
and you then get the power to do incredible stuff, compared to your
powers without it. In fact, it is so powerful that as good as all humans
who practise this kind of magic become insane in some way by normal
(dangerous word) human standards, in this case at least murderous. If a
human is strong willed enough, she can withstand this temptaion much
longer, maybe even stay virtually untouched for a long time, like a
whole life (Elves will have to be VERY strong willed).
>
> So back to the idea of Good vs. Bad Blood Magic: Self
> Sacrifice doesn't equal
> murder so it's not Blood Magic. Call it something else, but
> I don't think it fits
> into the Blood Magic paradigm.
You are missing an important point in Bryans question: He asked if it is
possible to create a spirit with the rituals blood mages use but with
sacrificing oneself instead of others, therewith creating a good blood
spirit (i.e. one that protects/helps a human/humans instead of trying to
destroy them). It might not be blood magic the way the book defines it,
but because (in Bryans question) some blood mage was doing it, and these
rituals go under the chapter of blood magic in MitS, so the spirit
should be close enough to a blood spirit to qualify, even if you do call
it something else. Also, we are talking about something the book doesn't
cover, you can't say it is BTB then. I can see how you reached your
conclusion, but I'll still say that mine is as BTB as yours. (read:
there is no single right answer)
>
> As per the questions Bryan originally asked about Free Blood
> Spirits, if you
> haven't found your answer already, MiTS explains everything
> about this quite
> clearly in the Free Spirits and Blood Spirits sections.
I also think that you misinterpreted Bryans questions. He didn't ask
what powers a free blood spirit would have, but what powers this special
blood (or whatever) spirit would have. To answer these:
(from bottom to top) maybe like the summoner, but more imposing.
yes, I would still give it the fear power.
Not really sure, but since it's a blood spirit (or close) maybe only
partial from willing beings.
Disclaimer: as I do not have MitS at hand right now, all of the above is
my opinion built on my memories from the abovementioned chapter. I might
be wrong (I can understand how such a possibility would elude you, now
that you know me for half a year, but still :P)
Questions? Comments? Opinions? Anything else? (I should put his into my
.sig)
inSANE inSANE inSANE inSANE inSANE
-- GAK THE GREAT
I don't suffer from Insanity,
I enjoy every moment of it!
