Re: [Adonthell-general] Sects and Factions

[Benjamin Walther-Franks]

At Wednesday 21.08.2002 18:39, you wrote:

I'm not going to contradict Kai here, as his thoughts surely make sense and 
would be one way of doing it. I'll just utter some of my ideas, see what 
you guys think...

> One of the main classifications of factions that I've come across is the
> religious sect. I've outlined the major objects of worship for each race,
> but I realized that before I can give names to these priestly orders, I
> should probably give names to their gods. As yet, I have only titles for
> the Mighty. Eventually, I'm going to have to name them all one way or
> another, but for now my question is as follows: We've established that the
> Dwarvish folk aren't terribly religious, so are they at all religious? Do
> I need to think about priestly orders for the Dwarvish folk? I've already
> kept their list of deities to a bare minimum.


Maybe the Dwarves could have gods. After all, there is some power flowing 
through their veins, with wich they cast their mystical runes onto objects 
of great power. Powerful runes could then be named after them ("Rune of 
Ghrudzak", etc.). Furthermore each god could stand for one virtue the 
dwarves hold dear ("Grudzak The Honourful", "Muzduk The Trusting", "Kalur 
The Strong"...). But as Kai rightly says, maybe the whole 'god'-issue is 
too abstract and these should be replaced by ancient forefathers, the 
founding fathers which in dwarf society have reached a sort of demi-god 
status. Just like the founding fathers you describe in your writing.

So every dwarf would devote himself to one of these founding fathers, 
probably each clan to one (?) Some might be more, some less convinced and 
influenced by their founding fathers teaching/virtues, the former taking on 
a role that priests have in other societies/races, the latter just 
accepting him and living by his name.

As the dwarfs also have negative habits, there would be deities for these 
aswell, ("Shakluz, The Father of Greed"), and some misguided dwarves 
following these aswell, although the major dwarf population would be 
ashamed of them and would try to make them non-existent by not mentioning 
them and repressing them. Don't some nice plot ideas pop up there...?

My ideas have kind of developed as i write, and I like the idea of those 
half-goddish founding fathers quite well...


> I'm making more progress on the non-ecclesiastical groups - Rangers,
> Alchemists, Half-Elvish shamanic traditions, etc. I have little more than
> names for most of them, but that can change. In this area, the main
> problem I've come across is the Elvish schools of magic. Any suggestions
> would be appreciated, since I'm not sure how many to make, what they
> should do, or even what to call them.

What comes to my mind straight away is to have four schools of magic after 
the four elements, as simple as that. Since other races wouldn't be 
organizing their mystical/special abilities in any way, I think it is only 
fair of the elves to have organised their ancient art into these schools. 
(except maybe the dwarves, but in a different way - see above ;) half-elves 
would be much to unorganised and natural for that, and the humans special 
talents are too young to have big history of alchemy or mechanics guilds)

Even if they are no great team-workers, a magic-practising elf would choose 
the school he feels most attracted to, and with that have something in 
common with anone else that followed this way - after all each element 
brings certain intersts/devotions with it, as the spells are different 
aswell. Of course he wouldn't just be limited to the spells of that 
particular school, and there are enough elves not being devouted to any 
school in particular, or even an individual going his own way, as Kai 
suggests (Again nice ideas for plots...somebody write this down! ;)

Elves of the school of earth would probably be as practical as an elf can 
get, and fire sorcerers would be more destructive and chaotic than the 
average elf, etc. Kai once had a pretty good summary of what each element 
stands for, I'll try to summarize what I can remember here (could you add 
to this Kai):

earth - construction, healing
fire - destruction, chaos, damage
water - illusion, changing
air - control

I think there are several reasons to have this principal for the elven 
schools of magic:
-we already have this division for spells, why not reuse it
-it's simple, easy to remember, fitting and everybody can identify with the 
idea (what with the four elements and such)
-it gives the whole thing a certain edge and clarity, as in "Oh, he's from 
the school of fire, I know what I can expect from him!" This can then be 
used to find interesting diversions from this principle, the lone sage that 
couldn't identify with any of the schools teachings and founded is own wee 
order, or the corrupted sorcerer that sought control over all of the four 
elements...

Blabla. Enough of my talk, and they're only ideas, many ideas that kinda 
come pouring out as I write...

BEN