Ley Line Question

[Thomas_Percy]

From BRCS 3,5:
"A mage can only forge ley lines from a province in which he holds a source (the initial province), but the mage does not have to have a source in the terminal province to which the ley line connects. Ley lines can be forged over any overland distance. A ley line cannot extend over more than 150 miles of water."

It's a different solution than original BRCS.

1. Why a mage does not have to have a source in the terminal province to which the ley line connects?
Doubt: Can Rhoubhe connect his Rhoubhe province with City of Anuire and raze it by Raze realm spell (I assume he choose a time, when Dosiere & Co. have no RP)?

2. Why Ley lines can be forged over any overland distance?
Can I connect a Taeghas and Vosgaard with single Ley Line?
Doubt: There will be a mess of crossing ley lines on the map.

3. Why a ley line cannot extend over more than 150 miles of water?
Why I can connect unlimited (as I understood) overland distances and i can't connect unlimited water distances?
Doubt: Why there are no sea Sources? Sea is wildest and untouched by civilization area than many other terrains?

Thanks for help.

[Benjamin]

The answers as I would state (not official).


1. You can forge a ley line to where you don't have a source, but it vanishes in 3 action rounds. You can force magic to flow where there is no end connection, but it weakens and fades in time. And yes, Rhuobhe could do that, if he has enough RP. BoM has an example where someone makes a ley line into Ghoere, subverts a Roesone invasion army to attack Spiderfell instead.

2. Ley lines are extension of stable magic. Magic flows nice and smooth across/through land. The distance of the ley line is not important when making it, only when casting a spell through it. Each province distance adds RP cost to the spell, so a ley line from Taeghas to Vosgaard would cost around +70 RP to cast.

3. In 2E BR, water was a chaotic mass of magic. The stability needed for a ley line couldn't be maintained because of this. It doesn't make a lot of sense unless you consider that the sea, though full of magic (coastal provinces have more source potential), is a mass of chaos. It's hard to coalesce chaos into a ley line. Eventually you just can't do it, and that magic number is 150 miles.
No sea sources for just this reason - the chaos can't be harnessed. Yes, there is huge magical potential there, but it's so random that you can't put it to use. It's like holding onto water in 1 hand - you can only keep a very little bit, not the whole bucket full when poured in.

[irdeggman]

From BRCS 3,5:
"A mage can only forge ley lines from a province in which he holds a source (the initial province), but the mage does not have to have a source in the terminal province to which the ley line connects. Ley lines can be forged over any overland distance. A ley line cannot extend over more than 150 miles of water."

It's a different solution than original BRCS.

1. Why a mage does not have to have a source in the terminal province to which the ley line connects?
Doubt: Can Rhoubhe connect his Rhoubhe province with City of Anuire and raze it by Raze realm spell (I assume he choose a time, when Dosiere & Co. have no RP)?

Actually in 2nd ed it didn't specifically state that the wizard had to connect 2 sources with his ley line.

While the example in the BRRB talked about connecting a Level (7) and Level (1) source it didn't state that a ley line had to connect sources and in the BoM, which goes into much more detail about sources it goes on. . .


BoM pg 25+ talks about ley lines.


It talks about the source’s province and the destination province. It does not say the ley lines connect sources.





BoM pg 27

“Once a ley line has been forge the wizard can cast spells in the terminal province as if he had a source there.”

2. Why Ley lines can be forged over any overland distance?
Can I connect a Taeghas and Vosgaard with single Ley Line?
Doubt: There will be a mess of crossing ley lines on the map.

Pretty much. If you pay the price and make the check you can accomplish the task.

Remember that ley lines are "magical" and not the same as roads.

3. Why a ley line cannot extend over more than 150 miles of water?
Why I can connect unlimited (as I understood) overland distances and i can't connect unlimited water distances?
Doubt: Why there are no sea Sources? Sea is wildest and untouched by civilization area than many other terrains?

As others have pointed out this is consistent with the 2nd ed material.

IMO TSR didn't have sufficient time to explore the seas very much so most of that is left poorly developed.

There is the problem with walking the distance to connect the endpoints of a ley line though and the real drastic limitations with traveling over the seas - some of which are pretty rough and others are inhabited by powerful monsters and awnshegh.

Gary spoke pretty well about the inherent problems with sea sources and tapping the manifestations therein.

[Thomas_Percy]

Thanks again for explanations.