Re: Uses of Magic

In article <u3egy9l2hqv8$.1t12m1pp9g95l$.dlg@xxxxxxxxxx>,
Ric Locke <warlocke@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I think it has to be more complicated than that. Think of polarized
light--left and right circular as one basis, vertical and horizontal
polarized as another.

That's certainly a "more complicated" basis, since "circular
polarization" is qualitatively different -- a dynamic effect rather than
a static one. Linearly polarized light is the same the full length of
its world line. Circularly polarized light varies according to the
position in spacetime.

So does linearly polarized. It's staying in the same plane, but both
electric and magnetic field strength are varying with time and position.

"Weaving", then, comes between earth and air; the things being woven are
not fundamentally changed. "Fusing" comes between fire and air, and
"Tempering" between fire and water.

Interesting way of thinking about it. I already have each nature being a
combination of two elements, so suspect the relation of the craftsman's
star to the elemental star will be more complicated, but I don't really
know.

There remains the star-point between
water and earth, for which I suggest "separating", "splitting", or
perhaps "cutting" -- making a heretofore contiguous object disjunct --
or possibly "joining", taking the other direction as positive.

Might work.

A weak
Cutter would be able to, e.g., sever a rope or a small tree branch; a
very strong and sophisticated one (perhaps stronger than is possible
under your system) would be able to invoke the Eskimo Approach to
Sculpture -- "take away everything that doesn't look like a walrus".

A Weaver and a Cutter, having earth in common, would be able to work
together -- the Cutter separates things, perhaps raw materials, into
bits or strands the Weaver can then assemble. Negative Cutting joins
things together, with the difficulty increasing with the dissimilarity
of the things to be joined. Fusers and Cutters would equally be able to,
e.g., repair a broken object, but their approaches would be
fundamentally different, and there might be advantages to using one or
the other technique depending on the object. A Healer (from an entirely
different star) and a Cutter might work together to re-attach a severed
limb; a Fuser would be useless for that. I think I'd prefer the Fuser if
I needed a broken wagon-tire fixed, though.

A question occurs: what happens at 0,0 where the earth-air and
fire-water axes cross? Stasis might be the most powerful magic of all!

Thanks for the thoughts.

--
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/ http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/
Author of _Harald_, a fantasy without magic.
Published by Baen, in bookstores now
.

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