X-Topic-No: 2 Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 18:06:05 +0200 (MET DST) From: Anders Sandberg To: mage-l@wizards.com Subject: Libraries Message-ID: I have been thinking about libraries. In Mage they are all treated as equal, without any differences between the traditions. Clearly this ought to be made more complex :-) The Order of Hermes have the classic type of libraries: old leatherbound tomes containing arcane secrets, veiled in metaphor, code and sheer nonsense. Celestial Chorus are somewhat similar, with their religious libraries. Imagine holy books from many religions, commentaries on them, books filled with hymns and learned speculation about the nature of God. Dreamspeakers do not use books, they use places or objects as sources of knowledge and insight. An old mask, worn by centuries of shamans contains great wisdom, if you can hear it. In a cave the mage may hear the whispers of the spirits. Old stories hold ancient wisdom, if the mage learns to listen to them in the right way. The Akashic Brotherhood prefers to meditate on ancient texts, containing riddles, profound truths or just beautiful poetry. The important thing is not really the text, but the meditation that results and hopefully leads to enlightenment. The Virtual Adepts use pkzipped packages of data, containing .txt files, sourcecode, sample programs and images. The important thing is not to read the information, but to make the sourcecode to work and experiment with it. The Sons of Ether have shelves filled with "scientific" books. Here you will find all miscredited theories of the ages, from Orgone and N-rays to books by Kerevan and "The Collected Works of Robert E. Mcelwaine". Probably also a lot of plans for weird machines by forgotten inventors, a few sketeches by Leonardo and a lot of Science Fiction (for inspiration). The Cult of Ecstasy, Euthanatos and Verbena seems to prefer to learn from experience, not from stored information. I can imagine how a cultist perform a series of carefully planned orgies to explore his relation to the world, an euthanatos spends some time talking to dying (or dead) people and a Verbena runs skyclad out into the wilderness. Some Euthanatos have piles of discarded papers, letters found in garbage cans or suicide notes they study to understand death and entropy better. What happens if somebody tries to read the library, but is of the wrong tradition? I think this is hard, since the teachings of each tradition are closely linked to their philosophy. So I think the student must suceed at understanding the information first. The difficulty will depend on how advanced the library is and if it is accessibly written. Order of Hermes: intelligence + occult. Akashic Brotherhood: intelligence + meditation Dreamspeakers: intelligence + culture Virtual Adepts: intelligence + computer Sons of Ether: intelligence + science/technology (depending on SoE) Celestial Chorus: intelligence + theology (use Enigmas?) (If "libraries" of the following traditions exist:) Verbena: intelligence + survival Euthanatos: intelligence + intuition Cult of Ecstacy: intelligence + awareness Any comments? (And yes, I know I have forgotten the Hollow Ones. I just don't understand them...) - ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! nv91-asa@hemul.nada.kth.se GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y