Re: (TFT) Butterfly Wings

["Charles Gadda" <cgadda@earthlink.net>]

Interesting tangent about Saruman, Middle Earth, and weather control.

In the original books, Saruman had nothing to do with the storm encountered
on Caradhras. Indeed, Gimli attributed it to the ill will of the mountain
itself, and not to either Saruman or Sauron. However, Boromir voiced the
suspicion that Sauron had contrived the snowstorm somehow, mentioning a
belief that Sauron could control the weather in the Mountains of Shadow on
the borders of Mordor.

Even more interesting is a belief among the Snow People (the Lossoth) who
lived in the bitter frozen wastes in the uttermost north of Eriador (and had
done so since the First Age), that the Witch King (the chief Ringwraith)
could control the weather in that region. "For in the summer his power
wanes; but now his breath is deadly, and his cold arm is long." And Arvedui
the Last King of Arnor paid with his life for not heeding their warning.

I.C.E., in the MERP module for Angmar, did an interesting twist on this
offhand remark of Tolkien's by combining it with a legend from the beginning
of the Silmarillion, about the Great Lamps, which were one of Morgoth's
first vandalism projects. In this little sub-adventure, the Witch King uses
a fragment of one of these lamps, destroyed eons before, as a power source
to alter the weather patterns in the region. Thus, the Witch King really
does control the weather, but does so through an artefact (a mere
*fragment*, I might add) of unimaginable power.

Upshot: in MERP, at least, it took a powerful (undead) sorceror with a few
millenia of experience, using a powerful artefact (on par, I would believe,
with a nuclear powerplant, given that it was once part of a magic lamp that
lit all of Middle Earth like the sun...) to alter weather patterns.

----- Original Message -----
From: David Michael Grouchy II <david_michael_grouchy_ii@hotmail.com>
To: <tft@brainiac.com>
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2003 4:28 PM
Subject: Re: (TFT) Butterfly Wings


> >From: Mark Tapley <mtapley@swri.edu>
> >
> >IQ 18: Call/Avert Weather Event:
> >
> >IQ 20: Shift Weather Pattern:
>
> Mark,
>    These do read a little bit better.  I would like to redirect a little
if
> I may.  I too have been thinking about the control weather spells, though
I
> didn't comment on them the first time.
>    Sauroman may or may not have been controling the weather in The
> Fellowship.  What if he was controling a really big air elemental.  Should
> that in itself give a wizard the ability to alter the weather?
>
>    David Michael Grouchy II
>
>
>
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