On Sun, 31 Aug 2003 14:35:28 -0500, you 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...
>
>Is it just me having skimmed too quickly through the thread?
>
>I would think that if you can levitate a castle you can levitate a rowboat
>or a barge or a platform or something?
>
>Maybe even some gaudy carpet...
>
To be honest, my rope ladder comment was purely a joke. Levitation
obviously wasn't that big a deal pre-Interregnum. And the castles
likely weren't a mile up, since they were, IIRC, quite visible in
their gaudiness.
--
lazarus
"Folly it may seem," said Haldir. "Indeed, in nothing is the power
of the Dark Lord more clearly shown than in the estrangement that
divides all those who still oppose him." -- J.R.R. Tolkien