fel wrote:Everything, even the Firestaff, has an intrinsic purpose, and the Firestaff has abilities that I've hinted at but never really discussed...part of my evil plot. ;)
The Firestaff won't allow itself to be destroyed quite that easily. This might be a bit of a spoiler, but Tarrin doesn't have the Firestaff with him right now, even though it was in the elsewhere when he went through the gate to Pyrosia. It can quite easily remove itself from the elsewhere and go somewhere else.
Chapter 16 of "Weavespiner", the 5th book in "Firestaff Series":
``"It turns out that this metal is quite a bit more indestructible than we believed," she smiled. "Both your amulet and your sword survived. Don't ask me how, because even we don't understand exactly how, but they did. The Firestaff is still inside the amulet. Ahiriya thinks the Firestaff protected itself from destruction, and I'm rather inclined to agree. We've tried to destroy it before, but it just won't die. I think the Firestaff took steps to defend itself from your suicide attack, and it must have caught up the sword with it when it moved to protect the amulet. The conjunction was still taking place, and though it had already used its power on you, it did still have access to some pretty powerful energy. The Firestaff does seem to have a kind of sentience about it, and it must have realized what was about to happen, and took steps. So, we seem to have an opening for a Guardian of the Firestaff, my kitten. Think you're up to the job? You only have to do real work about once every five thousand years or so. The pay's lousy, but at least you have good hours." ''
I AM DEATH, NOT TAXES. *I* TURN UP ONLY ONCE.
(Terry Pratchet, "Feet of Clay")
shadowhawk wrote:If Tarrin his his own Avatar, and recently he granted Priest magic to himself (during the fight with One God), i.e. he is his own Priest, does that mean that also he, beside Miranda, can open the gate to Sennadar? Hmmm ???
Tarrin didn't know he could grant himself Priest magic when he left Sennadar, and Niami didn't know if he'd learn it soon enough. Miranda went to make damned sure that they'd get home. If you want to consider it, there has to be other portals to other worlds there, and maybe even one that goes straight to the astral. But Miranda was sent to make sure they didn't have to spend forever looking for such a portal or for Tarrin to grant himself the ability. True to the point, it's an OLD spell and probably had to be taught to her by <insert goddess name here since I can't remember it> and she could only cast it since the weave was restored. Most Priests wouldn't give a flying f*** about a spell that 1. they didn't have the power to cast and 2. if they cast it on sennadar it would be signing their death warrent because it would be opening a portal to another world from Sennadar.
Ignorance is bliss, knowledge is power. Are the powerful very unhappy?
lochar wrote:2. if they cast it on Sennadar it would be signing their death warrent because it would be opening a portal to another world from Sennadar.
If I rememer correctly Gods are not on closing all portals from Sennadar (as the portal to Pyrosia shows), as opposed to making sure that any portal to Sennadar is closed (except of this one which is essential to Sennadar being) --- because of dange of Demons incursion. Demons could not come to Sennadar via out portal, could they? Of course that means that casting this spell on Sennadar warrans one-way trip... and thats why no Priest on Sennadar learnt that spell. It would be of littel use (one way trip) on Sennadar, and it takes Avatar of Lesser (mobile) God to cast it outside Sennadar.
I wonder if the portal/gate to Pyrosia was made by Sorcery, Wizardry or Priest magic or by divine power (i.e by God or Goddes); I dont think that portal can be made by Druids, but Triana's dimensional travel puts me in doubt about this statement... I think it is written, somewhere
I AM DEATH, NOT TAXES. *I* TURN UP ONLY ONCE.
(Terry Pratchet, "Feet of Clay")
Arn't the portals, by nature, two way? The spell that Phandebrass has can create portals, but Niami told Tarrin that even though he had the spells on Sennadar, he wasn't allowed to use them. Unless wizard portals and priest portals are extremely different. The only difference that I can see is that wizard portals can open to anywhere that they have something that links to that world. The priest portals don't, but only open to a certain place. Also, the portals like the one to Pyrosia used to be two way, but were closed off for incoming people.
Also, Triana's spell leaves her in the same dimension I think, but pushes her slightly out of the time/space continum(sp?). That way she can move herself faster through a smaller amount of time. When she created that spell, it was probably a version of the druid's ability to speed themselves up that she was trying for, to be able to do that without burning her energy so fast.
Last edited by Lochar on Fri Jan 30, 2004 4:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
Ignorance is bliss, knowledge is power. Are the powerful very unhappy?
lochar wrote:Also, Triana's spell leaves her in the same dimension I think, but pushes her slightly out of the time/space continum(sp?). That way she can move herself faster through a smaller amount of time. When she created that spell, it was probably a version of the druid's ability to speed themselves up that she was trying for, to be able to do that without burning her energy so fast.
I think I got Fel to explain this to me or its in the books (hope I'm not saying what I thought/made up about it), what Triana does is move to a plane 'Bob' linked to the prime material (sennadar, in the same universe hence she still has a link to the sennadar universes druidic force) which has different physics and perhaps different mapping of points from 'Bob' to sennadar, she doesn't move faster as far as I know but she travels a shorter distance to a point that maps to where she wants to be in sennadar and then shifts back.
Hope I stated that right, Fel feel free to correct me
Oh Shadowhawk about druids not being able to create portals...this doesn't really answer that but it does give some information: A druid of great enough strength (I'm talking unlimited here) can do anything they want in the universe they're in except harm the gods. They can create planets, use sorcery, wizard magic (and perhaps even pull divine force out of the weave and use it) etc, why they'd want to I don't know but still....anyway, they could I surmise create the sennadar side part of a portal but I'm not sure if they can reach beyond the bound of where their power comes from (sennadar in this case) and link it to another universe.
lochar wrote:Aren't the portals, by nature, two way? The spell that Phandebrass has can create portals, but Niami told Tarrin that even though he had the spells on Sennadar, he wasn't allowed to use them. Unless wizard portals and priest portals are extremely different. The only difference that I can see is that wizard portals can open to anywhere that they have something that links to that world. The priest portals don't, but only open to a certain place. Also, the portals like the one to Pyrosia used to be two way, but were closed off for incoming people.
Yes, certainly the only open portal to Sennadar (which Spyder, and ocassionally Tarrin, guards) is two way portal. Because there are no other portals opening to Sennadar, there either is something which prevents locking the portal to Sennadar, or there is some force which makes impossible for any portal to lead to Sennadar (i.e. it becomes one-way from Sennadar only). I wonder whether the portal to Pyrosia was created as one way, or as two-way...
I AM DEATH, NOT TAXES. *I* TURN UP ONLY ONCE.
(Terry Pratchet, "Feet of Clay")
Gates weren't made by the gods--or at least most of them weren't. They were created during the formation of the universe, so think of them as caves, naturally occurring phenomenon. These gates can be one way or two way, and the one way gates can be one way in, or one way out. Natural gates can't be altered, but they can be blocked, or sealed. This takes some extreme power, because it requires the very fabric of reality to be manipulated. Only Ayise can seal a gate, and only with the support of the other nine Elder gods.
Some gates are made. Only the Elder gods can make these gates, and just like sealing them, it takes all ten in a combined effort to do so. But unlike natural gates, artificial gates are temporary by nature, lasting only a few thousand years (to a god, this is a very short period of time). Artificial gates can be made two way, one way in, or one way out.
The reason that the gate at Haven wasn't sealed is because the God of Gods, Mr. BIG himself, decreed that every universe MUST have one active gate that opens into the Astral. The reasoning for this basicly boils down to the concept that all universes are merely parts of a greater whole, so all the parts have to remain accessible to the whole. A universe that was totally sealed up would be like the whole losing a part of itself. It's a god thing. If you don't understand it, don't worry. Neither do I. That's just one of the rules, and you just do what you're told.
The gate spells that Phandebrass has DO work, up to a point. If he ever used one to gate to another universe, he'd gate out of Sennadar and then he couldn't get back in. The Elder gods have already altered the universe to actively block ANY gate that opens IN, because that's how Demons used to get into Sennadar. That caused the Wizard's gate spells to stop working if they were used to gate from one part of Sennadar to another. Even though the gate's entrance point is somewhere in the same universe, the work done by the Elder gods doesn't discriminate. A gate opening in is a gate opening in, and it just won't work.
If you can't gate in, then how do Demons and Elementals get summoned you ask? Simple. Demons are getting summoned the same way as Elementals do...only their animating spirits are getting into Sennadar, and they're doing it using the Weave's connection to the magical energy source that powers Wizard magic. That's why Demons form a new body when they get summoned to Sennadar, because they leave their real ones behind. Elementals get summoned virtually the same way, but in that case the Weave is breaching the dimensional fabric into the elemental planes just enough to allow the animating force of an elemental to get to Sennadar, using the Weave itself as the bridge. But, since Elementals are really nothing more than Elemental energy made solid, it allows the Elemental to truly enter Sennadar, animating the shell created by a Sorcerer which houses it for as long as it remains and abandoning the physical body it left behind in the elemental plane. In effect, an Elemental possesses a new body. When the Elemental goes back to its home plane, it simply forms a new body using its Elemental powers and goes about its business. This is unlike a Demon, who only gets in by projecting its spirit, then uses its own power to create a body for itself when it arrives.
Neither of these are actual gates, because they're only allowing energy to pass through, not solid objects. That's the discerning factor of it all, you see. ;)
Just another guy from the shallow end of the gene pool.
