What value are Magic Items. -Re

[Edward Quigley]

>>>
Jonathon wrote most sagely:
The elves love their lives. It may be a long life, but every moment that
passes is precious. Every word said and every deed done is something
that lives forever. Loosing a day would mean loosing a chance to spend
time with ones' family. Loosing the chance to finish a tale or a song.
Loosing the chance to watch a chipmunk play or an eagle soar on the
wind. Loosing the opportunity to "suck all the marrrow out of life."
Volunatarily giving up several YEARS of a lifetime, no matter how long,
would mean giving up all of the experiences I have mentioned and more
hundreds of times over. What elf, let alone human, would willingly
sacrifice that much for any reason, let alone for the creation of
something that will some day be destroyed?



What then could the motivation be for any elf to waste 50 years to craft a
ring of magic and beauty? Or to take up the sword and magic in the rare
role of bladesinger? If the loss of those moments of anticipation and
training is outweighed by the fleeting joy of the use of the item or talent.
I think that is why an elf regent must seem particularly somber, all those
who he builds up a good rapport with will eventually be dust, and the
futility of dealing with mayflies will cause a sidhe to hold back
committment to most human causes. "Those humans and their silly iron
throne..."

Also Thanks for the Sidheath name, I dont have my maps in front of me
but isnt that next to markazor?

[Jonathan Picklesimer]

On Wed, 19 Feb 1997, Edward Quigley wrote:

> >>>
> Jonathon wrote most sagely:

Thanx for the compliment!

>
> What then could the motivation be for any elf to waste 50 years to craft a
> ring of magic and beauty? Or to take up the sword and magic in the rare
> role of bladesinger? If the loss of those moments of anticipation and
> training is outweighed by the fleeting joy of the use of the item or talent.

The 50 years of work on a piece of art or studying to be a bladesinger is
LIVED. The artist is most alive when he is creating. As you point out,
the bladesinger studies and trains for a rare few moments of the utter
joy of the bladesong. All of these moments are truly savored, not
wasted. In casting a spell which removes several years of a life, the
caster no longer has that time alloted to him to enjoy the art of
living. An artist creating, or a warrior training, is to that person,
living.

Also, just because an elf has a lot to loose by giving up several years
of his life to cast a spell does not mean that there are not those who
decide to do this. It would be, however, a tough decision for anyone.

> I think that is why an elf regent must seem particularly somber, all those
> who he builds up a good rapport with will eventually be dust, and the
> futility of dealing with mayflies will cause a sidhe to hold back
> committment to most human causes. "Those humans and their silly iron
> throne..."

Check out the book _Great_Heart_. While it will not be considered one of
the classics of all time, it does give a fleeting glance into the life of
the regent of the Sielwode. His behavior is incredibly similar to the
last paragraph.

jsp

[Mick]

Edward Quigley wrote:
>=20
> >>>
> Jonathon wrote most sagely:
> The elves love their lives. It may be a long life, but every moment th=
at
> passes is precious. Every word said and every deed done is something
> that lives forever. Loosing a day would mean loosing a chance to spend
> time with ones' family. Loosing the chance to finish a tale or a song.
> Loosing the chance to watch a chipmunk play or an eagle soar on the
> wind. Loosing the opportunity to "suck all the marrrow out of life."
> Volunatarily giving up several YEARS of a lifetime, no matter how long,
> would mean giving up all of the experiences I have mentioned and more
> hundreds of times over. What elf, let alone human, would willingly
> sacrifice that much for any reason, let alone for the creation of
> something that will some day be destroyed?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the reason elves can only achive a
certain number of levels in a clas is because they aren't concerned with
the "live life to it's fullest" philosophy. They have a lot of time on
their hand and would easily give some of it up for the creation of a
magical item if they felt it was a constructive thing to do.

- --=20
"All questions are obvious; to those who know the answers,
Answers are never known; to those who don't understand the
question."

=B0Mick
http://www.earthlink.net/~flammie/
http://www.earthlink.net/~flammie/adnd.html
flammie@earthlink.net

[Jonathan Picklesimer]

On Thu, 20 Feb 1997, Mick wrote:

> Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the reason elves can only achive a
> certain number of levels in a clas is because they aren't concerned with
> the "live life to it's fullest" philosophy. They have a lot of time on
> their hand and would easily give some of it up for the creation of a
> magical item if they felt it was a constructive thing to do.

Once again, an elf may indeed choose to create a powerful magic item and
surrender several years of his life, but that is not a decision that is
made lightly. An elf would indeed have to decide that it is the
constructive thing to do. The reason why elves are limited in level is
because they are trying to live life to the fullest. Not everyone has
the dedication to invest 1500 years to one activity to the exclusion of
other activity. The level limit, IMHO, is meant to reflect the elves
desire to pursue more things in life than just being a warrior, or mage,
or theif. Suppose that a 16 level elven wizard wanted to take a few
thousand years off to pursue painting. Cool. The level limit reflects
these diversions.

Can anyone tell that I am a big elf fan? :)

jsp

[Undertaker]

At 05:36 PM 2/20/97 -0600, Jonathan Picklesimer(pick@chief.csm.astate.edu)wrote:
>
>On Thu, 20 Feb 1997, Mick wrote:
>
>> Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the reason elves can only achive a
>> certain number of levels in a clas is because they aren't concerned with
>> the "live life to it's fullest" philosophy. They have a lot of time on
>> their hand and would easily give some of it up for the creation of a
>> magical item if they felt it was a constructive thing to do.
>
>Once again, an elf may indeed choose to create a powerful magic item and
>surrender several years of his life, but that is not a decision that is
>made lightly. An elf would indeed have to decide that it is the
>constructive thing to do. The reason why elves are limited in level is
>because they are trying to live life to the fullest. Not everyone has
>the dedication to invest 1500 years to one activity to the exclusion of
>other activity. The level limit, IMHO, is meant to reflect the elves
>desire to pursue more things in life than just being a warrior, or mage,
>or theif. Suppose that a 16 level elven wizard wanted to take a few
>thousand years off to pursue painting. Cool. The level limit reflects
>these diversions.
>

I like your reasoning with the Racial level limits. In the BR rulebook it
also says, "More then anything else, Elves are unpredictable, doing what
pleases them from one moment to the next." This could also be a reason for
fewer Elven items, maybe many items are started that are never finished. But
I should point out that the Rulebook also says, "Cerilian Elves are
creatures of farie dust and starlight, gifted with immortality and powers of
mind and body beyond those of humankind." This seems to imply they have all
the time in the world, so why don't they ever get back around to finishing
those items. It also puts a strain on Racial level limits, don't you think.
Now if you assume the Mage needs to cast Permanancy on an item to make it,
then your problems are solved, since Permancy drains a point of Con. from
the caster you can see why there are fewer Elven items. In order to make one
a Mage must truley give part of his life, and an Elf would loathe giving up
any of its "eternal" life. As for the level limits I use the rule that
allows non-Human characters to exceed them by earning double what they need
to reach a level. This can slow down multi-classed characters to a crawl.

Undertaker, richt@metrolink.net
RL Homepage: http://www.metrolink.net/~veleda/sepulcher.html