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Dear friends,
I've noticed the controversy over magical healing here. Speaking as Harshlaw's creator,
there's a clear answer as to what role magical healing plays in Drakoria. When the
Dragonlands were created, a lot of thought went into this topic, and I have longstanding
definite answers here.
This isn't me giving new rules; you're free to RP as you see fit, and more power to ya.
This is just me expressing what magic in Harshlaw was meant to be like, and the way that
it's portrayed in any canon fiction.
1. In Both Drakoria and Kasuria, Magic is Common
That means that the typical furre, when they're hurt, may cry out for the healer-mage or
the shaman-herbalist before they ask for a mundane medic. Magic works better than mundane
healing. With magic, bones don't set crooked and cuts don't leave scars.
If you're a non-magical healer, you're second fiddle, at best. Furres don't come to you
unless they have to, and you might even be regarded as a quack, because what you do isn't
viewed as much better than just cleaning the injury and letting the body take its own
course. Kasurian "Chirurgery" or "Physicking" involves leeches, smelly mundane potions,
small branding irons for cauterization, needles strung with fine ostrix-sinew filaments to
sew things up. (The commoner's view is that wounds go septic because the Dark Primes can
then send small evil spirits into your breached hide- and some guy thinks pouring rum into
the wound, and sewing the cut up will be enough? That's just crazy-talk.)
2. Disease is Rare
Most Drakorian deaths are due to violence. If they make it through a fight, and a magical
healer gets to them, they will most likely live.
If a furre reaches old age in Drakoria, they usually view it as extra opportunity to find
glory through death in combat. They don't hang back hoping to eke out a few more years.
They're likely to view themselves as a burden to the tribe-- they can't work, they can't
bear and raise children anymore. What else are they for, if not to save the rest of the
tribe in heroic sacrifice?
Disease in Drakoria is very rare. Because it seldom happens, plagues are very terrifying
to furres there. To be successful, a disease usually needs a big population concentration.
Superstitious Drakorians (Furre but not usually Wyrmmes) view putting numerous people all
in one place as very dangerous. It's just inviting the powers of evil to smite you all at
once! Drakorians know plenty of true stories in which mighty cities arose long ago, and
were brought down by diseases, for the hubris of making tall permanent structures.
According to Drakorians, it's good hygiene to abandon where you are living and make a new
house every three or four years. A castle-- a big PERMANENT structure full of a zillion
furres all sweating and spitting in the same place-- are you MAD?! To the free-living
nomadic Drakorian furres, Harshlaw is a terrifying prospect.
To the slave-born furres, used to the confinement in the underground pens of the Wyrmme
strongholds, though, and very frightened of the above-ground dwellings where slavers
mounted on Dracosaurs might net them up or sennibals* might shoot them with bows at any
time... Harshlaw is paradise.
[I]*A sennibal is a sentient who'll eat another sentient. If a Wyrmme has roast Furre (a
delicacy!), they are a sennibal. The wilds of Drakoria abound with sennibals: the
Eetroxes, the Leotaurs, the Wolventaurs, etc. In the big picture sennibalism is prevalent
because cannibalism is usually kept in check by risk of disease if you eat your own kind.
The typical Drakorian furre has a superstitious horror of cannibalism well-founded in a
medical reality.[/I]
[URL=/Fur/bestiary/] Dragonlands Bestiary [/URL]
3. In Drakorian Magic, Plants Hold Inherent Powers
According to canon, Jujinka placed the healing effects into the plants. Herbalism is an
integral part of healing magic. Herbs are used in other spells, too, for example, Sheesah
Paka uses them in a spell to choke an attacking Raukor. Authentic Drakorian magic is very
"tribal" or "stone age" in feel.
Compared to Kasurians, Drakorians are very superstitious. In modern parlance, well, they
do alot of stuff that's unnecessary because they don't dare to diverge. They have contempt
for experimentation and research into how a spell works because their spells, as they've
been taught, work just fine. If it ain't broke, why fix it?
When a shaman-herbalist teaches their craft to their successor, it's full of injunctions to
think certain thoughts, feel certain emotions. (Exactly like in real Hyooman history)
there's a widespread belief that the effectiveness of a spell is linked to the
psychological self-discipline of the caster.
The weakness of superstition is that, if an effect fails to happen, they assume it's
because they weren't doing what they know to do, enough. If you throw a virgin in the
volcano and then there's plentiful fish in the springtime, and one year the fish don't
arrive, the superstitious tribe's only conclusion is that they must have a) thrown in the
wrong virgin, b) not thrown enough virgins, c) somehow thrown the virgin in the wrong way,
or d) chosen the wrong volcano. [i]According to their spiritual leaders, it will be
considered evil, blasphemy, to wonder if maybe virgins and fish migrations aren't really
related.[/i]
Since Drakorian superstition includes the need for "the right emotions", they are most
likely to assume that their virgin wasn't thrown in with enough feeling. Their most likely
response is to throw MORE virgins into volcanos. It's all they know how to do.
If "The Enlightenment" ever happens to the Dragonlands, and they were to experiment, they
would be able to discover that feelings and emotions are utterly irrelevant to the plant
effects. You and I, being modern people, can know that OOC. IC, though, Drakorians are
locked into arbitrary superstitious assumption, a.k.a. 'faith'.
[URL=//pakas] Example: The Pakas [/URL]
4. In Kasurian Magic, Symbols and Incantations Hold Power
By contrast, the magic of Kasuria is more mechanistic and refined, and doesn't have an
accent on any form of belief or emotion. It's based on esoteric symbollist theories.
Here, again, it's something about the shapes of scrawls and scratches-- it's "rote"
learning. This effect was placed there by The Dragon, a primal cosmic creature that
created the world.
Writing itself is held in superstitious awe-- it's "magical" enough to be able to look at
markings on a piece of parchment and recite words of furres far distant and long dead.
Many furres of the Olde World know how to read, but most Kasurians and Drakorians can't.
(Wyrmmes usually make their Wyrmme scribes do it for them; their writing system takes years
to learn.)
What separates the mage from the non-mage is a good memory and power, as if they were
"batteries". Kasurian magic is as tiring as biking in the top one hundred racers in the
Tour de France, BECAUSE the power comes directly out of the furre. [I]Magical energy of
this kind cannot be STORED. Focuses like crystals are lenses, not batteries.[/I] (Compare
this to Lanacele/Leirune, where energy can conceivably be moved around like a "charge",
saved up in an artifact, etc.)
That power is hereditary, and, to put it in modern genetic terms, a recessive trait. How
did it begin? Ultimately, all magic is traceable to the Primes or Dark Primes, and,
whether they know this or not, all mages are descendants of half-Prime half-mortal furres.
This principle is so important that mages secretly practice eugenics. In addition to
mages, there are non-mage children who can, in cooperation with a mage, produce
extra-powerful effects. These siblings to sorcerors and sorceresses are called Consorts.
Mage families track the bloodlines even more zealously than the nobility.
You can diagram out how non-mage parents, children of many generations of non-mages, could
possibly give birth to a mage child. That is so rare that when that happens, the mother is
usually bluntly accused of infidelity. A "Magesports" may consequently be treated as the
unclean product of an affair.
In a mage family, a child born out of wedlock may suffer the double stigma of illegitimacy
and being of non-mage blood (not unlike ye olde Harry Potter wizarding "purebloods").
Mages who father or bear children in secret are suspected of planning treason-- because
those children may still turn out to be spellcasters, and could be used as a secret power
later. So heads of mage families are very zealous in destroying half-breeds-- but not
openly; in secret. If mages aren't careful with their seed, assassins will find a thriving
business opportunity here.
And, that's one very good reason a Kasurian Mage or Consort might flee to Harshlaw.
[URL=/ruvir/ruvir.mages.htm] This is my outline for adapting
Kasurian magic to a simple paper/pencil/dice tabletop game. [/URL] If you want to say
there are other kinds of magic in your version of the Dragonlands, GREAT!!!! If you're
uneasy about doing non-canon stuff and would take satisfaction in having a game that was
"authentic", you might want to follow this document instaed.
5. Psionics Also Exists
Complicating the study of magic for Kasurians is the fact that there are powers that are
not exactly magic, but "psionics." Psionics and magic are different in that, while magic
always always always happens with a visible clue (you see somebody wave their hand, or hear
them incanting, etc.), psionics "just happens".
They can read minds; they can attempt to implant suggestions the receiver would not
consider harmful. They can inflict terrible pain, and condition the recipient to
obedience, a practice known as "mind-scourging". Brain-washing is a common Wyrmme pastime-
not only is it useful to psychically torment Furres and low-status Wyrmmes, but they enjoy
it.
Psionic healing is empathic, and consists of transfering the wounds from one person to the
psionic healer. A high-level Wyrmme practitioner can simultaneously transfer the injury to
a restrained slave. (Another reason not to love the Imperial Drakorians.) It is a slow
process, requiring touch (so Wyrmmes can't just point at someone and give them a nasty
wound from across the field).
There is also a rare psionic talent that transfers physical features from one creature to
another. It can be used to disguise someone by trading someone else's face, hair, fur,
scales, claws, etc. Given a year or two, a furre can be made to look like a Wyrmme and
vice-versa! These disguises wear out after six years, as a body puts itself back the way
it was. If the disguise was too extreme (and giving a furre the wings of a Wyrmme is in
this 'too extreme' category), however, the disguise wearing off will kill them.
Psionic ability can only occur in a descendant of Wyrmme blood. Yes, Wyrmmes and Furres on
rare occasion produce offspring. Most are sterile. A very rare few are fertile. Psionics
is the norm for Wyrmmes and rare in Furres.
Wyrmmes find half-furre offspring very abhorrent. (It's not unlike, what if a scientist
crossed a Hyooman and an armadillo? That just ain't right!) Underlying their hatred is
FEAR. Wyrmmes obviously don't want their slaves running around with psychic talents. The
most likely escapee is a half-Wyrmme furre.
Tribal Drakorian furres also hate and fear psionic furres. They know that it means they
are tainted with the hated Wyrmme blood. In Harshlaw, a psionic character might be
tolerated, but out in the wilds, a furre with psionics will KEEP IT SECRET.
Focusing psionic powers can be done with the aid of music. The Wyrmmes know songs that act
as a magnifying glass lens. The songs are ancient, from long before the time of the
Furres.
6. Furre Slaves Are Not Allowed Magic
Furres in the Drakorians' slave pens are destroyed if they seem to magic. The Wyrmmes
know it is hereditary. Even stories about mages are highly forbidden. Slaves grow usually
grow up never having seen Kasurian-style (symbol-based) magic, and most don't even know it
exists.
Wyrmmes have generally heard about shamanic magic, and wouldn't let a furre keep their
little bag of weeds. Kasurian mages probably fare better here. Most Wyrmmes don't know
about scrawling magical diagrams with blood and a piece of haystraw, or drawing with
charcoal on one's own skin. Should a Kasurian mage somehow find their way far enough west
to be taken prisoner by the Wyrmmes, they would probably escape.
Wyrmmes who patrol the northeast tell tales of "super-furres" who came out of the tundra
where Wyrmmes cannot survive. As cold already means pain and fatal paralysis for Wyrmmes,
these tales are generally dismissed as horror tales, embodiments of a fear of the bleak
frigid desert that surrounds Harshlaw.
7. Ban Healing Magic?
It doesn't make sense to me to ban healer magic. For one thing, there's far too much
precedent set; if you banned it, you'd create something that wasn't much like Furcadia or
the Harshlaw many had come to know.
[B]Most furres RP by an unspoken "rule of reverse engineering". We assent to the existence
of a power if it doesn't, absolutely/of necessity, imply a game world different than the
one we know.[/B] Can somebody instantly mind-control everyone else? No, because if they
could, it means they'd be running the world within a week. Can a vampire turn infinite
others into vampires? No, because if they could, it means they'd be running the world
within a week.
Applying "the rule of reverse engineering" to healing magic... It isn't always
automatically twinky. It makes more sense to ask all players to have healing magic come at
an immediate cost.
Healing magic is controlled by a few things. It does tire the healer out, especially if
it's the Kasurian chant/wave-your-paws/wave-a-taro-card/read-a-scroll variety. If it's
native Drakorian, it isn't as tiring, but it uses up precious herbs--
Remember that Harshlaw is a very cold place-- green growing things are RARE. They are
either shipped in or gathered up during the two weeks of mad flowering that passes for
Spring+Summer+Fall up here. Perhaps they could be grown through the use of magic that lets
someone coax a White Sage into growing in a dank cave next to a lamp, but that would
require other herbs or a mage's precious personal energy, too.
An additional price of magic in Drakoria is that, if they find out, the conditioned furre
agents of the Wyrmme Empire are going to try to kill you.
Oh, didn't I mention them? Oops, forget I said anything. Shhhhh! There are no
conditioned agents of the Wyrmme Empire. Everything is just fine and cozy. You can go on
about your life, don't worry.