Another podcast

[Reiko]

True people can ignore it but it becomes rather pointless since it makes a poor plot device. Since the thing involves all of Althanas then it pretty much becomes untouchable since if someone messed with it would affect all magic. I know its split up and all. But still it's like what’s the point if no one can do anything with it? Then lets say someone used it as a plot device and did something with it, like control it and brought all the magic to his self. Would he get more power than an equal level mage or would he weaken a certain form of magic. Since the Tap is all magic then someone messing with it would disrupt Althanas. The Tap can be a source of magic but if it's not the source of magic then people can mess with it a bit. I really don't see why I can't have a magic that's independent from the Tap.

[Empyrean]

I don't mind the idea of the Tap, but I do have one question. Would it be limited to Althanas alone, or would it be available to people outside of Althanas?

My character isn't from Althanas, but has been using her brand of magic since before she ever came to Althanas, so I'd want the Tap not to be limited to people in or from Althanas. She has no idea exactly what the source of her magic is - she just sees it as coming directly from the gemstones. So, I like the idea of the Tap being the source, but it sounds as though it is limited to Althanas.

Anyway, great podcast, guys. Definitely have some call-ins next time.

[INDK]

Now, I don't see why the tap cant' be one of many sources of magic. I don't think having the tap is a bad thing, and it should be encouraged for the same reason many other things are encouraged- they help creativity.

I also feel everyone else should have an impression of how their magic works, simply becuase unless you know how something works, you don't know how something can be countered.

[Pathfinder]

You all are great, but you can't pronounce a blasted thing

[Cyrus the virus]

It's cute that you have an Althanas-crush, Matt.

He kind of looks like Snake, too.

I don't see how the existence of the Tap would make anyone have to participate in it. As Letho said, your character can live his entire life not knowing a thing about the Tap. You can write your entire 'career' on Althanas and never once mention the Tap. We just want it to exist as an explanation as to why magic exists. Kind of like everything else that exists on Althanas' plane of existence.

Don't you think that having magic exist on Althanas but not having even a slight explanation for it is kinda... Stupid? Considering we're all pretty smart here, coming up with a vague explanation for magic isn't hard. I feel like you're all fighting against the Tap for no reason whatsoever, since it doesn't have to affect a single character who doesn't want to be effected.

Reiko, I see nothing wrong with the idea that the Tap can be sought after or something. It's a poor plot device, yes, but that's because it's not supposed to be a plot device. It's supposed to be an explanation of something that doesn't make sense without some explaining.

Sure, people can quest for the Tap and think he can increase his powers as a mage. But that can happen with any relic or item that anybody makes up ever, and moreover, the argument that someone could quest for the Tap goes hand in hand with the argument that someone can quest to destroy Alerar. All of Corone was turned into a frozen wasteland in my quest, does that mean everyone needs to acknowledge it?

I think the 'weak plot device' and 'I want independant magic' arguments are incredibly weak, given what we've already discussed and/or established in this thread about the Tap's actual influence on magic.

[Reiko]

If people want to explain magic than they can and will. I don't want the tap to be a forced explanation for people. The beauty of magic is it doesn't need an explanation. We have magic and no one needs to know why but they can give a reason and it can be the Tap but it doesn’t have to be and it doesn’t have to do anything with the tap, and I mean anything. The Tap can be a part of the infinite sources of magic, from gods to items that don’t need the tap to overpowering physics with you mind with some ritual to help focus. There’s no need to make it the one true source of magic that would cheapen other players explanations that that they make. Forcing the Tap on people, and I really hate the play blind idea just goes against one reason I like Althanas more than other RP sites: The freedom to truly create something and share it with people, I want hex magic to have a source completely different from fox magic and the like.

[Letho]

Reiko, I think you're missing the point. Every character has a right to explain their magic the way they want to, regardless of the Tap. ICly, the people that don't want to or have their own explanations, don't even have to acknowledge the Tap. Those that want to, can find the Tap behind the curtain. It's as simple as that. You as a magic user can claim whatever you want as the source of your magic. You can even find something behind that source that isn't the Tap. But behind that something is the Tap that you don't have to acknolwedge in your writing. It harms no one to have the Tap, and yet it can inspire some creativity for those who accept it.

[Sighter Tnailog]

There is a strong debate for vocalized magic, you may say that generalized nonverbal magic is key. I however would point out Tolkien created magic done on verbal cue. There is equal debate for either, also don't even go into shamanistic magic at all, just try and stick with hermatic magicks? You're whole arguement when talking magic starts to fall apart.

Tolkien did not create "verbal magic." Gandalf was not trying to "cast a spell" on the door to make it open. He was trying to figure out what the password might be, by going through all the arcane lore in his mind. "Edro," for instance, one of the words he used trying to open the door, simply means "open." Most of the "magic" Gandalf does in the Lord of the Rings is the result of knowledge. He makes fireworks because, get this, he knows how to make them. He tries to divine which way to go in Moria, not with spells, but with common sense and the lore he's mastered over time. When Gandalf uses magic in LotR, he is relying on a wellspring of power within himself, and he is actually reluctant to do so except in the most dire of circumstances. That is, I think, a better way to look at magic -- something that is so powerful and subtle that we use it little. I think that's what differentiates a true mage from some no-account hedge sorceror.

I really just posted, though, to say that the thing with the Eternal Tap is that the Tap is divided into hundreds of thousands of divergent strands -- it is no longer "universal." If we were to operate with it being "full and complete," then maybe the problems Dirks brings up would be more material. But, with a Tap that's been divided against itself into a multitude of strands and pieces, we can operate on the general principle that ALL magic -- both magic that's driven internally and magic that's driven externally -- is from the Tap. I think philosophizing over the Tap is kinda silly, when it is so divided right now that it has no universal center.

EDIT: For clarity: everyone uses the Tap, even people from outside Althanas. But not everyone uses it in the same way. Not everyone calls it the Tap, even. The Tap is, more than anything else, the intellectual name referred to it in ancient texts from the War of the Tap. The Tap serves, more than anything else, as an OOC/IC explanation of where magic ultimately comes from. It sets ABSOLUTELY NO LIMITS on the magic of character either in the past, present, or future.

[Liliana Ambria]

My point was not that he created vocalized magic, but that he used it. Thanks for Misunderstanding...

[Sighter Tnailog]

My point was not that he created vocalized magic, but that he used it. Thanks for Misunderstanding...

Sure, he "used" it, but it's just sorta weird to call what it is "magic." There seems to be something different between saying a password to a door and casting a spell.