Re: (TFT) Wizard Politics and gate geopolitics

[Thorn <edt@dopey.ne.mediaone.net>]

Pasha and or Rick Smith wrote:
> 
>         Wizards are smart, would they not perceive what
> is going on and organize into one guild?
> 
>         Tho that could happen, I don't think it is inevitable.
> I've found few wizards take Charisma, New Followers and
> Diplomacy (while most mundane politicos take all of them).
> This suggests to me that wizards will have less social oil to
> help them get along.  Throw in the lust for power and I
> suspect that the political fighting for control of any large
> wizard's guild would be long and vicious.

I think lessons from the history of their world (whatever world that is)
are not lost on would-be wizard-kings.  Wizards are, by nature of their
weaknesses, more vulnerable than warriors, more dependant on society. 
We can all imagine guerilla warriors, but guerilla magi are harder to
explain.  Wizards _need_ to be able to pop down to the corner for a pint
of ink.  Plunging the local area into chaos has to be done carefully;
even if the Magus is sturdy, apprentices are not, and the specialists
that seem to be needed for the greatest works are downright fragile. 
And plunging the world entire into chaos brings on Dark Ages, not great
mage-kingdoms.

My Old World/New World campaign postulated great Mage-Kingdoms, building
toward war for decades, until it came.  The wizards of the New World,
centuries later, all were bound by their Guilds to the ancient Compact
of the Magi, a "Never Again" pact that proscribed certain magicks. 
Those Guilds that hadn't signed the Compact became outlaw; those mages
that were Unguilded had only in the last couple generations been able to
say so publicly.  Mages live quite well, serving society, why try to
rule it?  Why wake the mob?
=====
Post to the entire list by writing to tft@brainiac.com.
Unsubscribe by mailing to majordomo@brainiac.com with the message body
"unsubscribe tft"