Was Subject: Re: Not a witch?
On Thu, Jan 12, 2006 at 07:20:00AM -0800, Scott Schultz wrote:
> As for the status of Psychics, I get the impression that there are probably
> several branches of "fringe" schools of magic . . .
Note that fringes are sometimes new knowledge which simply hasn't come
into the general public yet. A skilled worker developing things which
appear to contradict existing principles or which look at things in a
radically different way would seem to be off in a fringe until either
the knowledge became widespread or the results proved that, no matter how
odd it looks, there's something there.
As an example, consider the Necromancer. A few of the cognoscenti
seem to know what she does; none seem to have actually replicated it.
I get the impression that Loraan was researching in the same area,
which would certianly make him on the fringe of most Dragaerans.
The Necromancer is noted as being "undead", a word which most Dragaerans
seems to use interchangably with "vampire." But it is not unreasonable
to suppose that her own skills could return her, or even make her
'undead' without the normal process of dying. Perhaps this process is
required to work in her area of expertise, and Sethra has been studying
with her. This might well explain Sethras condition without requiring
her to have actually been killed, and the things she said to Vlad about
dying and returning were simplifications (you know, lies) to avoid trying
to explain the nearly inexplicable. Nah, unlikely.
The common man (ie, Vlad, etc) knows that the undead are vampires who
are returned by the Gods for their own purposes. Thus everyone who is
undead (a vampire) must have been returned by the Gods.
If Loraan was working in the same area, it might well explain how he
came back as a 'vampire' without requiring the Gods to send him back.
(Note for the nit-picky: no, there's no textev that the Gods were or
weren't involved in returning him as a vampire. It just seems odd that
they'd do it.)
Another thing unexplained by the text is why vampires are treated as
fearsome creatures. We've never seen any instance of a vampire acting
other than he did in normal life. Sethra seems to have been so unchanged
that nobody noticed for years. And Loraan was an asshole on both before
and after. We've seen Sethra eat; we've never seen her nor any other
vampire drink blood. So why the fear?
--
"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
-- Albert Einstein