relve@Otdk.Helsinki.FI wrote:
> BTW, the BoP also allows guilds and source holdings to be transferred
> without the investiture spell. (I personnaly do not like and use this
> rule.)

Greetings,
I was quite happy to see the rule eliminating the need for a priestly
investiture to transfer guilds and sources. IMO, law-holding regents need a
divine tie to the land both to tap its power and also to gain the confidence of
the people. Commoners EXPECT a landed regent to have a bit of the old god's
essence, and they simply won't give their allegiance if it's not there. This
divine essence has been dispersed into the land itself and grants the regent
some mystical powers that require a bloodline to tap. The same is true for
priest's and their temple holdings. A priesly investiture transfers the
mystical ties to the land and the church, and it also legitimizes the transfer
in the eyes of the people. This view doesn't work so well for elves, who don't
believe in gods and don't have priests, but my views on this are a bit
blasphemous (I'm a dandelion-lover, after all) and I already sense this will be
a long post.

Guilds and sources, IMO, are different animals. In the case of guilds, who
cares if Guilder A or Guilder B has a scion's bloodline? Unless it somehow
impacts the quality of their goods or the prices they charge, it won't have much
of an impact on commerce. People are going to buy things where they can find
them and where the best deal is to be had. The god's and their priests have
more lofty things on their mind than who gets to sell cookware or a pair of
shoes. MAJOR BR BLASPHEMY HERE: I don't really feel guilders should need
bloodlines to control their trading empires at all. I can rationalize why you
need them for law, temple, and source holdings, but everybody's money spends the
same, whether you live in the garbage dump or you're the son of Haelyn. All the
game mechanics seem to break down if you try to come up with a way to work this,
however, so I've never tried to implement this into my campaign.

In the case of sources, it is not the essence of the destroyed gods that powers
magic. The power of mebhaighl stems from the land itself and was there long
before the old god's demise. Their essence is necessary to give those not
particularly in tune with the land (humans) the ability to wield True Magic, but
it is not necessary for the children of the elements (elves and dragons). A bit
of divine essence IS required for non-magical races to tap massive amounts of
mebhaighl (ie control sources and cast Realm Magic), but this entire process is
beyond the ability of priests to grasp. They are simply not able to comprehend
the tremendous connection to nature and the elements that is involved. I view
the power of nature as much more vast than the individual deities that priests
look upon as omnipotent. Thus, only those able to comprehend the "nature" of
mebhaighl can determine who gets to tap its awesome power. Dragons, the most
inherently magical of Cerilia's creatures, don't require any essence of the gods
at all to tap sources.

Regards
Craig