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In lugnet.castle, Shiri Dori writes:
> In lugnet.castle, Franklin W. Cain writes:
> > I can't think of an alternative for the earth-mage,
>
> How's about geomancer?
maybe druid?
:)
Dan
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In lugnet.castle, Dan Boger writes:
> In lugnet.castle, Shiri Dori writes:
> > In lugnet.castle, Franklin W. Cain writes:
> > > I can't think of an alternative for the earth-mage,
> >
> > How's about geomancer?
>
> maybe druid?
Well, a druid was *originally* (before D&D got ahold of it) a Celtic
priest/wise man. The whole "treehugging nature guy" stuff was invented by
Gygax. (Read some of the Irish tales to get a better idea of what druids
really did - I highly recommend the ones about Finn mac Cool and his
Fianna.) So I think "geomancer" would be slightly more correct.
On the other hand, "-mancy" comes from the Greek "mantis" or prophet*, and
technically all of the forms of whatevermancy are forms of divination -
pyromancy would be predicting the future by gazing into flames, for
example. So "geomancer", "pyromancer", and all those other terms aren't
really technically correct either.
(I'm not really sure why the former inaccuracy bothers me more than the
latter.)
J
* - which, interestingly enough, is also related to "mania" or madness.
Tells you something about what the Greeks thought of prophets...
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In lugnet.castle, Jeff Johnston writes:
> On the other hand, "-mancy" comes from the Greek "mantis" or prophet*, • <snip>
> * - which, interestingly enough, is also related to "mania" or madness.
> Tells you something about what the Greeks thought of prophets...
LOL... I love the Greek mythologies but the one thing I don't get is:
The citizens all believed in the prophets, so why the heck did they think they
could change what the prophets said would happen?! (e.g. Titan and Zues,
Oedipus and his Father, and zillions of others :-)
-Shiri
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In lugnet.castle, Shiri Dori writes:
> In lugnet.castle, Jeff Johnston writes:
> > On the other hand, "-mancy" comes from the Greek "mantis" or prophet*, • <snip>
> > * - which, interestingly enough, is also related to "mania" or madness.
> > Tells you something about what the Greeks thought of prophets...
>
> LOL... I love the Greek mythologies but the one thing I don't get is:
> The citizens all believed in the prophets, so why the heck did they think they
> could change what the prophets said would happen?! (e.g. Titan and Zues,
> Oedipus and his Father, and zillions of others :-)
Hubris? 8)
The belief that by knowing the future they will be able to change it?
Actually, it's kind of interesting to think that, for example, the whole
Oedipus thing happened *because* his father knew of the prophecy and
reacted the way he did. If he hadn't gotten rid of Oedipus in the way he
did then the whole mess never would have happened...so maybe the real
message is "Don't Ask!"
J
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In lugnet.castle, Jeff Johnston writes:
> In lugnet.castle, Shiri Dori writes:
> > In lugnet.castle, Jeff Johnston writes:
> > > On the other hand, "-mancy" comes from the Greek "mantis" or prophet*, • <snip>
> > > * - which, interestingly enough, is also related to "mania" or madness.
> > > Tells you something about what the Greeks thought of prophets...
> >
> > LOL... I love the Greek mythologies but the one thing I don't get is:
> > The citizens all believed in the prophets, so why the heck did they think
> > they
> > could change what the prophets said would happen?! (e.g. Titan and Zues,
> > Oedipus and his Father, and zillions of others :-)
>
> Hubris? 8)
>
> The belief that by knowing the future they will be able to change it?
Well, one way or another, they were guillible and stupid <grin, duck, run from
lightning bolts>...
> Actually, it's kind of interesting to think that, for example, the whole
> Oedipus thing happened *because* his father knew of the prophecy and
> reacted the way he did. If he hadn't gotten rid of Oedipus in the way he
> did then the whole mess never would have happened...so maybe the real
> message is "Don't Ask!"
Or maybe the message is "it's gonna happen one way or another, so don't try
and interfere with Fate". Not that I believe in that.
-Shiri
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In lugnet.castle, Shiri Dori writes:
> In lugnet.castle, Jeff Johnston writes:
> > Actually, it's kind of interesting to think that, for example, the whole
> > Oedipus thing happened *because* his father knew of the prophecy and
> > reacted the way he did. If he hadn't gotten rid of Oedipus in the way he
> > did then the whole mess never would have happened...so maybe the real
> > message is "Don't Ask!"
>
> Or maybe the message is "it's gonna happen one way or another, so don't try
> and interfere with Fate". Not that I believe in that.
Its an eternal question: "By knowing the future, will I be able to change it,
or in knowing the future, will I cause it to happen?" Its interesting to
realise that the only way to know which one is true is to wait for it the
future to arrive. :)
Jeff
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