Post:Scarification - 8/30/2008 - 11:53:40

Re: Scarification · on 8/30/2008 11:53:40 AM	142
>>-Life mana and life force are two separate and unrelated things. Yup. >>-The word Transference, which was previously nothing but a specific magically-assisted application of Empathy to transfer injury from another being to the user, is now instead used to more generally describe the art of manipulating life force? Presumably this means that life force cannot be manipulated without some sort of transfer taking place between the one doing the manipulating and the one whose life force is being manipulated. We can quibble about the termonology, which was written from the Scarification point of view, but you have the idea in the last sentence. Directly manipulating someone's life force requires a link of some variety. >>-There is no such thing as "unlife energy", even though an Empath who focuses on a vela'tohr plant can detect such a thing. Or is that a phrase that describes the "mockery of life", or "misused vital energy", which characterizes an undead being in a manner similar to how life force characterizes a living one? Again, you have the right idea. If it was really a power that was foreign to life, Empaths would be unable to detect it, anymore than they can scope out different types of mana or someone's favors. To use an edgy and topical example, think of Democrats and Republicans as the powers of life and death. In global politics, they're merely two flavors of the same thing -- if you vote with the parties, you're never getting anything but a western liberalist who strongly believes in capitalism. Americans assign inordinate difference between the two, somewhat because they care about the nuances and mostly because they don't know any better. >>-How, if at all, will the previously-mentioned teaching interchangeability of Empathy and Scarification be handled... It'll parody Empathy's requirement, as long as there continues to be one. If Empathy still requires the Link ability to teach at that point, Scarification will require Necromancers use Scarification to demonstrate...which is a considerably more unpleasent prospect for the student. >>-Where does all this put the Empathic ability to destroy/unmake/etc undead beings? Wherever its always been. Its not my position to, nor do I desire to, set Empath development goals. >>would this signify that, just as empaths perceive life, somehow necromancers can "perceive death", in other words, tell by some type of power perception when something has just died? Currently I have no plans for that. The argument is that Necromancers aren't just doing Bizarro World Empathy, they are as blind to life force as a random Moon Mage or Thief are and perform their manipulations through experimentation and ritual. The Scarification link allows Necromancers to meddle with a force that, teleologically speaking, they aren't meant to. -Armifer
This message was originally posted in The Necromancers (27) \ Abilities - Necromancers (7), by DR-ARMIFER on the play.net forums.