On Sun, 31 Aug 2003, Heather Fleming wrote:
> On Sat, 30 Aug 2003 14:13:05 -0500, someone wrote:
>
> > I'm curious. I may be wrong, as a matter of fact it is quite possible
> > that I am, but I think I will ask my question anyway. So, here it is:
> > if sorcery was limited before the Interregnum( limited, that is, as
> > compared to after the ascension of Zerika the Fourth) in such a way as
> > to require citizens to travel by foot or horse or wagon or what have
> > you, and it was common for Dragonlords of the e'Drien line to have
> > floating castles, how would one get from the ground to said castle and
> > back again? Once again, I may be wrong but I was under the impression
> > that teleportation was a relatively new skill, even for the likes of
> > Sethra Lavode.
>
> >Rope ladders.
>
> I find your eloquent, though brief, explanation more plausible than you
> might have thought. All other transportation thus far, before the
> return of the orb, and as well before the Interregnum, with certain
> extreme circumstances aside, was manual, that is to say without the use
> of sorcery.
Re transport, the expense of procuring the services of a sorcerer would
have ruined any pre-Interregnum shipping firm ("Put a lightness spell on
this box of dried kethna." "Ok, that'll be one Orb". Later: "Remove the
lightness spell on this box of dried kethna." "Ok, that'll be one Orb".)
Re "floating" - I agree that I wouldn't want to levitate a mile up - but
who says the castles were that high? It seems more likely to me that they
were perhaps a hundred meters up - enough to make a nice crunch when
falling but not so high that the average noble guest or the assisted
(by magic, ropes, or both) Teckla staff would get wind-buffeted or dizzy
or frozen on the way up. The parties certainly would have been exclusive
and the zing of levitating a hundred meters would help break the ice...