An’ it’s all over folks!  Hopefully you all took advantage of the double xp weekend.  I tried to as much as I could an’ I”m pretty happy with where I got.  I’ve been spending a lot of time on my Sorc but I don’t dare call it my main.  I have no main at this point in time!  This’ never happened to me before, lol, I’ve always picked my class an’ stuck with it.  With Aion, though, they’ve gone an’ made nearly every class appealing to me.  Sons of bitches, they made a good game, lol!

Had my first group experience as an official CC character.  After a long an’ successful run through the Krall missions in Verteron I can confidently state that CC is a piece of cake but only when certain conditions are met…  Marks! Absolutely necessary, you need the Zzz atop the mobs head to make sure the nubs don’t tag what you’re sheeping.  …  That’s about the only real variable aside from your gear.  Having competent players makes everything go smoothly (usually).  Unfortunately, I didn’t have that tonight, lmao, but they weren’t terrible.  Was a first for more than half the members of the party (being in the outpost, surrounded by elites), an’ there were a handful of times when I had to keep 3-4 under control.  Man, at 21 it’s pretty brutal…  All I’ve got is roots, sleep an’ Curse of Roots (Stigma) an’ unfortunately the 30 second CD on that stigma skill isn’t very forgiving.

Anywho, going to call it a night.

… Failed!  Day one and night two resulted in utter failure!  Granted I got a bit done with Faina (dinged 38 an’ got into a good KHQ group), I failed to take advantage of double xp today.  Ah well, I’ll make up for it tomorrow.  I must admit, though, I am enjoying Sorcerer quite a bit.  Ironically it was the one class I had no intention of

Actually, the one class I had no intention of ever playing was, and still is, Spiritmaster.  I hate having pets in-game an’ I hate having to rely on them even more.  Summoner, beastmaster, spiritmasters, hunters, I’ve never cared for these classes.  Sorcerer was the second class I had the least amount of interest for.  Now that I think about it, my Sorcerer is my first Mage avatar, lol.  But I am enjoying the nuking an’ having different casting animations abolishes the boring monotony of spellcasting (something that really irked me while playing a Mage in WoW).  An’ the cloth items having the most revealing cleavage had absolutely nothing to do with my creating a mage…

In all seriousness, with current RL hardships I have to dedicate more of my time out of the game.  An’ being offline for those couple weeks was an eyeopener, revealing just how much time my ass is rooted gaming.  Yet, at the same time I like Wanted and the game too much to quit cold turkey.  An’ unfortunately Wanted lost a few good players today, one of ‘em being an established Cleric.  Though I’m sure the other 14 or so Clerics can make up for this loss I’ll continue leveling Faina for a couple of reasons.  One being I enjoy healing an’ am partial to the character (will be even more so when I get that friggin’ Plastic Surgeon ticket).  Secondly…  Meh, don’t really need any other reason than that.

The Sorcerer I created last night is already prepping to break into the 20’s.  I’m not going to share who my character is ’cause frankly it’s nice being able to game, once in awhile, completely solo.  No obligations, connections, just the game.  An’ if I wasn’t trying to break old habits I’d log in right now an’ get 20 but… I must resist!

Our little gaming group is mapping out our games for 2010, and it looks like we’re finally going to play Sorcerer!  Yes I know, I’m a decade behind the times, but Sorcerer may just be the best thing to happen to RPGs in the past decade, so I think it’s justified.  Ron Edwards’ Sorcerer texts were greatly inspirational to me while i was planning and playing our “Faeries In Echo Park” game, and now I’m really looking forward to playing Sorcerer for real.  I’ll be GMing the first game.

In fact, I can hardly wait.

And when we can’t game, what do we do?  Obsessively over-prepare to game!

Here’s a train of thought that I’m sure will prove useful in the near future:
 

Complexity In Bad Guys

I never want to do this kind of plot again:

• Beginning: main bad-guy is identified
• Middle: protagonist, pursuing main bad-guy, wades through progressively bigger minions
• End: protagonist defeats main bad-guy

An interesting and complex plotline, even your basic summer action movie, has some of the following:

Competitor Turns Ally

Early in the story, protagonist has an altercation with this guy. He’s a dick, and they have some philosophical differences which might even play out as open conflict.

But he’s just a dick, he’s not evil. Later on in the story, once the real evil-doers are out in the open, this competitor becomes a valuable ally in the Big Fight against the Capo di Tutti Cape.

Kindered Spirit Turns Antagonist

Early in the story, the protagonist and this guy seem to see eye to eye on things, especially with regard to the (apparent) bad-guy.

But as the story goes on, it becomes clear that the protagonist and this guy are after the same thing for different reasons. Usually, one of them believes that the ends justify the means while the other takes a more principled approach; or, one sees in black and white while the other has a more nuanced understanding.

By the end, the protagonist and this guy are declared antagonists of each other. The apparent bad-guy from the beginning of the story may turn out to be some cowardly opportunist or misguided fool, whereas the “kindered spirit” is now the evil-doer who must be stopped.

Fatally Flawed Friend

As above, but the kindered spirit is turned against us through a specific moral weakness or fatal flaw. Evidence of sexual perversion may allow the friend to be blackmailed, or drug addiction may drive him to desperate lengths to fund his habit. At the climax, his choice between feeding his need or doing what’s right is central to the success or survival of the protagonist.

Petty Criminal Finds Conscience

The protagonist is first in conflict with this guy, but easily defeats or escapes or subverts him (without putting him out of action). But the evil-doing ratchets up a notch, and it’s not the petty criminal who’s responsible. Turns out, the petty criminal was enabled by, or working for, a truly evil dude. As the conflict between protagonist and evil dude heats up, the petty criminal helps first one side, then the other. He hates the position he’s in and sympathizes with the protagonist, but he fears the evil dude, who still has some terrifying hold on him.

In the end, will the petty criminal find his conscience and help the protagonist at a critical moment, or will he go down with the evil dude in the final fight?

The Neutral Party

This someone or organization is somehow related to the situation at hand. But for some reason (fear, principles, habit, compromised), will help neither the protagonist nor antagonist.

As the story goes on, the neutral party may be impacted more and more by the bad-guy’s doings, allowing the protagonist to eventually convince them to help. Or, the neutral party may turn out to possess a vital key to the whole thing (object or info), and “inaction” starts to look more and more like helping the bad-guy. The protagonist might win them over by some well-timed rhetoric, or might have to consider robbing/attacking this non-evil party.

Hapless Crook and the Can of Worms

This guy crosses the protagonists early, usually by robbing them or someone else of the McGuffin. But he wasn’t involved in the greater plot (until now), he’s just a petty crook who has stumbled into it. Now everybody’s after him.

After a brush with the real evil-doer, he might willingly surrender to the protagonist in exchange for protection. He might even be convertible into a useful ally or helper.

This guy is usually an entertaining character!

The Puppetmaster Behind The Puppetmaster Behind the…

This is the classic minion > bigger minion > bad-guy progression, but done right. The protagonist (and the reader or players) can’t know that the situation is bigger than it seems, until the bad-guys at the current scale have been defeated. But there should be signs. For example, Sally is set upon by apparently unrelated toughs and thieves. She gradually figures out that she is really battling her crooked lawyer and Mrs. Holland (and their minions). She doesn’t find out that Ah Ling is pulling the strings (and neither does the reader) until during/after the climax scene of the book.

Each realization is first foreshadowed, long before being revealed, through the minions and lesser bad-guys: names used, questions asked, incongruous reactions, liaisons overheard, items dropped or found on person, etc.

 

There. That’s one afternoon’s brainstorming, but certainly not an exhaustive list. Can you add any more?
-J

This is one of the most penetrative passages I’ve come across in Don Juan’s wisdom… It accounts the stopping of our internal dialogue, and how frightening such a thing can be…

—————————————————

In May of 1971, I paid don Juan the last visit of my apprenticeship. I went to see him on that occasion in the same spirit I had gone to see him during the ten years of our association; that is to say, I was once again seeking the amenity of his company. His friend don Genaro, a Mazatec Indian sorcerer, was with him. I had seen both of them during my previous visit six months earlier. I was considering whether or not to ask them if they had been together all that time, when don Genaro explained that he liked the northern desert so much that he had returned just in time to see me. Both of them laughed as if they knew a secret.

“I came back just for you, ” don Genaro said.
“That’s true,” don Juan echoed.
I reminded don Genaro that the last time I had been there, his attempts to help me to “stop the world” had been disastrous for me. That was my friendly way of letting him know that I was afraid of him. He laughed uncontrollably, shaking his body and kicking his legs like a child. Don Juan avoided looking at me and also laughed. “You’re not going to try to help me anymore, are you, don Genaro?” I asked.

My question threw both of them into spasms of laughter. Don Genaro rolled on the ground, laughing, then lay on his stomach and began to swim on the floor. When I saw him doing that I knew I was lost. At that moment my body somehow became aware that I had arrived at the end. I did not know what that end was. My personal tendency to dramatization and my previous experience with don Genaro made me believe that it might be the end of my life. During my last visit to them, don Genaro had attempted to push me to the brink of “stopping the world.” His efforts had been so bizarre and direct that don Juan himself had had to tell me to leave. Don Genaro’s demonstrations of “power” were so extraordinary and so baffling that they forced me to a total re-evaluation of myself. I went home, reviewed the notes that I had taken in the very beginning of my apprenticeship, and a whole new feeling mysteriously set in on me, although I had not been fully aware of it until I saw don Genaro swimming on the floor.

The act of swimming on the floor, which was congruous with other strange and bewildering acts he had performed in front of my very eyes, started as he was lying face down. He was first laughing so hard that his body shook as in a convulsion, then he began kicking, and finally the movement of his legs became coordinated with a paddling movement of his arms, and don Genaro started to slide on the ground as if he were lying on a board fitted with ball bearings. He changed directions various times and covered the entire area of the front of don Juan’s house, manoeuvring around me and don Juan.

Don Genaro had clowned in front of me before, and every time he had done it don Juan had asserted that I had been on the brink of “seeing.” My failure to “see” was a result of my insistence on trying to explain every one of don Genaro’s actions from a rational point of view. This time I was on guard and when he began to swim I did not attempt to explain or understand the event. I simply watched him. Yet I could not avoid the sensation of being dumbfounded. He was actually sliding on his stomach and chest. My eyes began to cross as I watched him. I felt a surge of apprehension. I was convinced that if I did not explain what was happening I would “see,” and that thought filled me with an extraordinary anxiety. My nervous anticipation was so great that in some way I was back at the same point, locked once more in some rational endeavour.

Don Juan must have been watching me. He suddenly tapped me; I automatically turned to face him, and for an instant I took my eyes away from don Genaro. When I looked at him again he was standing by me with his head slightly tilted and his chin almost resting on my right shoulder. I had a delayed startled reaction. I looked at him for a second and then I jumped back. His expression of feigned surprise was so comical that I laughed hysterically. I could not help being aware, however, that my laughter was unusual. My body shook with nervous spasms originating from the middle part of my stomach. Don Genaro put his hand on my stomach and the convulsion- like ripples ceased.

“This little Carlos is always so exaggerated!” he exclaimed as if he were a fastidious man. Then he added, imitating don Juan’s voice and mannerisms, “Don’t you know that a warrior never laughs that way?”
His caricature of don Juan was so perfect that I laughed even harder. Then both of them left together and were gone for over two hours, until about midday. When they returned they sat in the area in front of don Juan’s house. They did not say a word. They seemed to be sleepy, tired, almost absent-minded. They stayed motionless for a long time, yet they seemed to be so comfortable and relaxed. Don Juan’s mouth was slightly opened, as if he were really asleep, but his hands were clasped over his lap and his thumbs moved rhythmically. I fretted and changed sitting positions for a while, then I began to feel a soothing placidity. I must have fallen asleep. Don Juan’s chuckle woke me up. I opened my eyes. Both of them were staring at me.

“If you don’t talk, you fall asleep,” don Juan said, laughing.
“I’m afraid I do,” I said.
Don Genaro lay on his back and began to kick his legs in the air. I thought for a moment that he was going to start his disturbing clowning again, but he went back right away to his cross-legged sitting position.

“There is something you ought to be aware of by now,” don Juan said. “I call it the cubic centimeter of chance. All of us, whether or not we are warriors, have a cubic centimeter of chance that pops out in front of our eyes from time to time. The difference between an average man and a warrior is that the warrior is aware of this, and one of his tasks is to be alert, deliberately waiting, so that when his cubic centimeter pops out he has the necessary speed, the prowess to pick it up.

“Chance, good luck, personal power, or whatever you may call it, is a peculiar state of affairs. It is like a very small stick that comes out in front of us and invites us to pluck it. Usually we are too busy, or too preoccupied, or just too stupid and lazy to realize that that is our cubic centimeter of luck. A warrior, on the other hand, is always alert and tight and has the spring, the gumption necessary to grab it.”

“Is your life very tight?” don Genaro asked me abruptly.
“I think it is,” I said with conviction.

“Do you think that you can pluck your cubic centimeter of luck?” don Juan asked me with a tone of incredulity.
“I believe I do that all the time,” I said.

“I think you are only alert about things you know,” don Juan said.
“Maybe I’m kidding myself, but I do believe that nowadays I am more aware than at any other time in my life,” I said and really meant it.
Don Genaro nodded his head in approval. “Yes,” he said softly, as if talking to himself. “Little Carlos is really tight, and absolutely alert.”

I felt that they were humoring me. I thought that perhaps my assertion about my alleged condition of tightness may have annoyed them.

“I didn’t mean to brag,” I said.
Don Genaro arched his eyebrows and enlarged his nostrils.
He glanced at my notebook and pretended to be writing.
“I think Carlos is tighter than ever,” don Juan said to don Genaro.
“Maybe he’s too tight,” don Genaro snapped.
“He may very well be,” don Juan conceded.
I did not know what to interject at that point so I remained quiet.
“Do you remember the time when I jammed your car?” don Juan asked casually.

His question was abrupt and unrelated to what we had been talking about. He was referring to a time when I could not start the engine of my car until he said I could. I remarked that no one could forget such an event. “That was nothing,” don Juan asserted in a factual tone. “Nothing at all. True, Genaro?”
“True,” don Genaro said indifferently.
“What do you mean?” I said in a tone of protest. “What you did that day was something truly beyond my comprehension.”
“That’s not saying much,” don Genaro retorted.
They both laughed loudly and then don Juan patted me on the back.
“Genaro can do something much better than jamming your car,” he went on. “True, Genaro?”

“True,” don Genaro replied, puckering up his lips like a child.
“What can he do?” I asked, trying to sound unruffled.
“Genaro can take your whole car away!” don Juan exclaimed in a booming voice; and then he added in the same tone, “True, Genaro?”
“True!” don Genaro retorted in the loudest human tone I had ever heard.

I jumped involuntarily. My body was convulsed by three or four nervous spasms.
“What do you mean; he can take my whole car away?” I asked.
“What did I mean, Genaro?” don Juan asked.
“You meant that I can get into his car, turn the motor on, and drive away,” don Genaro replied with unconvincing seriousness.
“Take the car away, Genaro,” don Juan urged him in a joking tone.
“It’s done!” don Genaro said, frowning and looking at me askew. I noticed that as he frowned his eyebrows rippled, making the look in his eyes mischievous and penetrating.
“All right!” don Juan said calmly. “Let’s go down there and examine the car.”

“Yes!” don Genaro echoed. “Let’s go down there and examine the car.”
They stood up, very slowly. For an instant I did not know what to do, but don Juan signalled me to stand up. We began walking up the small hill in front of don Juan’s house. Both of them flanked me, don Juan to my right and don Genaro to my left. They were perhaps six or seven feet ahead of me, always within my full field of vision.

“Let’s examine the car,” don Genaro said again.
Don Juan moved his hands as if he were spinning an invisible thread; don Genaro did likewise and repeated, “Let’s examine the car.”
They walked with a sort of bounce. Their steps were longer than usual, and their hands moved as though they were whipping or batting some invisible objects in front of them. I had never seen don Juan clowning like that and felt almost embarrassed to look at him. We reached the top and I looked down to the area at the foot of the hill, some fifty yards away, where I had parked my car. My stomach contracted with a jolt. The car was not there! I ran down the hill. My car was not anywhere in sight. I experienced a moment of great confusion. I was disoriented. My car had been parked there since I had arrived early in the morning. Perhaps half an hour before, I had come down to get a new pad of writing paper. At that time I had thought of leaving the windows open because of the excessive heat, but the number of mosquitoes and other flying insects that abounded in the area had made me change my mind, and I had left the car locked as usual.

I looked all around again. I refused to believe that my car was gone. I walked to the edge of the cleared area. Don Juan and don Genaro joined me and stood by me, doing exactly what I was doing, peering into the distance to see if the car was somewhere in sight. I had a moment of euphoria that gave way to a disconcerting sense of annoyance. They seemed to have noticed it and began to walk around me, moving their hands as if they were rolling dough in them.
“What do you think happened to the car, Genaro?” don Juan asked in a meek tone.

“I drove it away,” don Genaro said and made the most astounding motion of shifting gears and steering. He bent his legs as though he were sitting, and remained in that position for a few moments, obviously sustained only by the muscles of his legs; then he shifted his weight to his right leg and stretched his left foot to mimic the action on the clutch. He made the sound of a motor with his lips; and finally, to top everything, he pretended to have hit a bump in the road and bobbed up and down, giving me the complete sensation of an inept driver that bounces without letting go of the steering wheel.

Don Genaro’s pantomime was stupendous. Don Juan laughed until he was out of breath. I wanted to join them in their mirth but I was unable to relax. I felt threatened and ill at ease. An anxiety that had no precedence in my life possessed me. I felt I was burning up inside and began kicking small rocks on the ground and ended up hurling them with an unconscious and unpredictable fury. It was as if the wrath was actually outside of myself and had suddenly enveloped me. Then the feeling of annoyance left me, as mysteriously as it had hit me. I took a deep breath and felt better. I did not dare to look at don Juan. My display of anger embarrassed me, but at the same time I wanted to laugh. Don Juan came to my side and patted me on the back. Don Genaro put his arm on my shoulder.

“It’s all right!” don Genaro said. “Indulge yourself. Punch yourself in the nose and bleed. Then you can get a rock and knock your teeth out. It’ll feel good! And if that doesn’t help, you can mash your balls with the same rock on that big boulder over there.”
Don Juan giggled.
I told them that I was ashamed of myself for having behaved so poorly. I did not know what had gotten into me. Don Juan said that he was sure I knew exactly what was going on, that I was pretending not to know, and that it was the act of pretending that made me angry.

Don Genaro was unusually comforting; he patted my back repeatedly.
“It happens to all of us,” don Juan said.
“What do you mean by that, don Juan?” don Genaro asked, imitating my voice, mocking my habit of asking don Juan questions.
Don Juan said some absurd things like “When the world is upside down we are right side up, but when the world is right side up we are upside down. Now when the world and we are right side up, we think we are upside down. . . .” He went on and on, talking gibberish while don Genaro mimicked my taking notes. He wrote on an invisible pad, enlarging his nostrils as he moved his hand, keeping his eyes wide open and fixed on don Juan. Don Genaro had caught on to my efforts to write without looking at my pad in order to avoid altering the natural flow of conversation. His portrayal was genuinely hilarious.

I suddenly felt very at ease, happy. Their laughter was soothing. For a moment I let go and had a belly laugh. But then my mind entered into a new state of apprehension, confusion, and annoyance. I thought that whatever was taking place there was impossible; in fact, it was inconceivable according to the logical order by which I am accustomed to judge the world at hand. Yet, as the perceiver, I perceived that my car was not there.

The thought occurred to me, as it always had happened when don Juan had confronted me with inexplicable phenomena, that I was being tricked by ordinary means. My mind had always, under stress, involuntarily and consistently repeated the same construct. I began to consider how many confederates don Juan and don Genaro would have needed in order to lift my car and remove it from where I had parked it. I was absolutely sure that I had compulsively locked the doors; the handbrake was on; it was in gear; and the steering wheel was locked. In order to move it they would have had to lift it up bodily. That task would have required a labor force that I was convinced neither of them could have brought together. Another possibility was that someone in agreement with them had broken into my car, wired it, and driven it away. To do that would have required a specialized knowledge that was beyond their means. The only other possible explanation was that perhaps they were mesmerizing me. Their movements were so novel to me and so suspicious that I entered into a spin of rationalizations. I thought that if they were hypnotizing me I was then in a state of altered consciousness.

In my experience with don Juan I had noticed that in such states one is incapable of keeping a consistent mental record of the passage of time. There had never been an enduring order, in matters of passage of time, in all the states of nonordinary reality I had experienced, and my conclusion was that if I kept myself alert a moment would come when I would lose my order of sequential time. As if, for example, I were looking at a mountain at a given moment, and then in my next moment of awareness I found myself looking at a valley in the opposite direction, but without remembering having turned around. I felt that if something of that nature would happen to me I could then explain what was taking place with my car as, perhaps, a case of hypnosis. I decided that the only thing I could do was to watch every detail with excruciating thoroughness.

“Where’s my car?” I asked, addressing both of them.
“Where’s the car, Genaro?” don Juan asked with a look of utmost seriousness.

Don Genaro began turning over small rocks and looking underneath them. He worked feverishly over the whole flat area where I had parked my car. He actually turned over every rock. At times he would pretend to get angry and he would hurl the rock into the bushes. Don Juan seemed to enjoy the scene beyond words. He giggled and chuckled and was almost oblivious to my presence.

Don Genaro had just finished hurling a rock in a display of sham frustration when he came upon a good-sized boulder, the only large and heavy rock in the parking area. He attempted to turn it over but it was too heavy and too deeply imbedded in the ground. He struggled and puffed until he was perspiring. Then he sat on the rock and called don Juan to help him. Don Juan turned to me with a beaming smile and said, “Come on, let’s give Genaro a hand.”

“What’s he doing?” I asked.
“He’s looking for your car,” don Juan said in a casual and factual tone.
“For heaven’s sake! How can he find it under the rocks?” I protested.
“For heaven’s sake, why not?” don Genaro retorted and both of them roared with laughter.
We could not budge the rock. Don Juan suggested that we go to the house and look for a thick piece of wood to use as a lever. On our way to the house I told them that their acts were absurd and that whatever they were doing to me was unnecessary.

Don Genaro peered at me. “Genaro is a very thorough man,” don Juan said with a serious expression. “He’s as thorough and meticulous as you are. You yourself said that you never leave a stone unturned. He’s doing the same.” Don Genaro patted me on the shoulder and said that don Juan was absolutely right and that, in fact, he wanted to be like me. He looked at me with an insane glint and opened his nostrils.

Don Juan clapped his hands and threw his hat to the ground. After a long search around the house for a thick piece of wood, don Genaro found a long and fairly thick tree trunk, a part of a house beam. He put it across his shoulders and we started back to the place where my car had been.

As we were going up the small hill and were about to reach a bend in the trail from where I would see the flat parking area, I had a sudden insight. It occurred to me that I was going to find my car before they did, but when I looked down, there was no car at the foot of the hill. Don Juan and don Genaro must have understood what I had had in mind and ran after me, laughing uproariously.

Once we got to the bottom of the hill they immediately went to work. I watched them for a few moments. Their acts were incomprehensible. They were not pretending that they were working; they were actually immersed in the task of turning over a boulder to see if my car was underneath. That was too much for me and I joined them. They puffed and yelled and don Genaro howled like a coyote. They were soaked in perspiration. I noticed how terribly strong their bodies were, especially don Juan’s. Next to them I was a flabby young man. Very soon I was also perspiring copiously. Finally we succeeded in turning over the boulder and don Genaro examined the dirt underneath the rock with the most maddening patience and thoroughness.
“No. It isn’t here,” he announced.

That statement brought both of them down to the ground with laughter. I laughed nervously. Don Juan seemed to have true spasms of pain and covered his face and lay down as his body shook with laughter. “In which direction do we go now?” don Genaro asked after a long rest. Don Juan pointed with a nod of his head.
“Where are we going?” I asked.

“To look for your car!” don Juan said and did not crack a smile.
They again flanked me as we walked into the brush. We had only covered a few yards when don Genaro signalled us to stop. He tiptoed to a round bush a few steps away, looked in the inside branches for a few moments, and said that the car was not there.

We kept on walking for a while and then don Genaro made a gesture with his hand to be quiet. He arched his back as he stood on his toes and extended his arms over his head. His fingers were contracted like a claw. From where I stood, don Genaro’s body had the shape of a letter S. He maintained that position for an instant and then virtually plunged headfirst on a long twig with dry leaves. He carefully lifted it up and examined it and again remarked that the car was not there.

As we walked into the deep chaparral he looked behind bushes and climbed small paloverde trees to look into their foliage, only to conclude that the car was not there either.

Meanwhile I kept a most meticulous mental record of everything I touched or saw. My sequential and orderly view of the world around me was as continuous as it had always been. I touched rocks, bushes, trees. I shifted my view from the foreground to the background by looking out of one eye and then out of the other. By all calculations I was walking in the chaparral as I had done scores of times during my ordinary life.

Next don Genaro lay down on his stomach and asked us to do likewise. He rested his chin on his clasped hands. Don Juan did the same. Both of them stared at a series of small protuberances on the ground that looked like minute hills. Suddenly don Genaro made a sweeping movement with his right hand and clasped something. He hurriedly stood up and so did don Juan. Don Genaro held his clasped hand in front of us and signalled us to come closer and look. Then he slowly began to open his hand. When it was half open a big black object flew away. The motion was so sudden and the flying object was so big that I jumped back and nearly lost my balance. Don Juan propped me up.

“That wasn’t the car,” don Genaro complained. “It was a goddamn fly. Sorry!” Both of them scrutinized me. They were standing in front of me and were not looking directly at me but out of the corners of their eyes. It was a prolonged look.

“It was a fly, wasn’t it?” don Genaro asked me.
“I think so,” I said.
“Don’t think,” don Juan ordered me imperiously. “What did you see?”
“I saw something as big as a crow flying out of his hand,” I said.
My statement was congruous with what I had perceived and was not intended as a joke, but they took it as perhaps the most hilarious statement that anyone had made that day. Both of them jumped up and down and laughed until they choked. “I think Carlos has had enough,” don Juan said. His voice sounded hoarse from laughing. Don Genaro said that he was about to find my car, that the feeling was getting hotter and hotter. Don Juan said we were in a rugged area and that to find the car there was not a desirable thing. Don Genaro took off his hat and rearranged the strap with a piece of string from his pouch, then he attached his woollen belt to a yellow tassel affixed to the brim of the hat.

“I’m making a kite out of my hat,” he said to me.
I watched him and I knew that he was joking. I had always considered myself to be an expert on kites. When I was a child I used to make the most complex kites and I knew that the brim of the straw hat was too brittle to resist the wind. The hat’s crown, on the other hand, was too deep and the wind would circulate inside it, making it impossible to lift the hat off the ground.
“You don’t think it’ll fly, do you?” don Juan asked me.
“I know it won’t,” I said.

Don Genaro was unconcerned and finished attaching a long string to his kite-hat. It was a windy day and don Genaro ran downhill as don Juan held his hat, then don Genaro pulled the string and the damn thing actually flew.

“Look, look at the kite!” don Genaro yelled. It bobbed a couple of times but it remained in the air.
“Don’t take your eyes off of the kite,” don Juan said firmly. For a moment I felt dizzy. Looking at the kite, I had had a complete recollection of another time; it was as if I were flying a kite myself, as I used to, when it was windy in the hills of my home town. For a brief moment the recollection engulfed me and I lost my awareness of the passage of time.

I heard don Genaro yelling something and I saw the hat bobbing up and down and then falling to the ground, where my car was. It all took place with such speed that I did not have a clear picture of what had happened. I became dizzy and absent-minded. My mind held on to a very confusing image. I either saw don Genaro’s hat turning into my car, or I saw the hat falling over on top of the car. I wanted to believe the latter, that don Genaro had used his hat to point at my car. Not that it really mattered, one thing was as awesome as the other, but just the same my mind hooked on that arbitrary detail in order to keep my original mental balance.
“Don’t fight it,” I heard don Juan saying. I felt that something inside me was about to surface. Thoughts and images came in uncontrollable waves as if I were falling asleep. I stared at the car dumbfounded. It was sitting on a rocky flat area about a hundred feet away. It actually looked as if someone had just placed it there. I ran towards it and began to examine it.

“Goddammit!” don Juan exclaimed. “Don’t stare at the car. Stop the world!”

Then as in a dream I heard him yelling, “Genaro’s hat! Genaro’s hat!”
I looked at them. They were staring at me directly. Their eyes were piercing. I felt a pain in my stomach. I had an instantaneous headache and got ill. Don Juan and don Genaro looked at me curiously. I sat by the car for a while and then, quite automatically, I unlocked the door and let don Genaro get in the back seat. Don Juan followed him and sat next to him. I thought that was strange because he usually sat in the front seat. I drove my car to don Juan’s house in a sort of haze. I was not myself at all. My stomach was very upset, and the feeling of nausea demolished all my sobriety. I drove mechanically.

I heard don Juan and don Genaro in the back seat laughing and giggling like children. I heard don Juan asking me, “Are we getting closer?”
It was at that point that I took deliberate notice of the road. We were actually very close to his house.
“We’re about to get there,” I muttered.
They howled with laughter. They clapped their hands and slapped their thighs. When we arrived at the house I automatically jumped out of the car and opened the door for them. Don Genaro stepped out first and congratulated me for what he said was the nicest and smoothest ride he had ever taken in his life. Don Juan said the same. I did not pay much attention to them. I locked my car and barely made it to the house. I heard don Juan and don Genaro roaring with laughter before I fell asleep.

The next day as soon as I woke up I began asking don Juan questions. He was cutting firewood in the back of his house, but don Genaro was nowhere in sight. He said that there was nothing to talk about. I pointed out that I had succeeded in remaining aloof and had observed don Genaro’s “swimming on the floor” without wanting or demanding any explanation whatsoever, but my restraint had not helped me to understand what was taking place. Then, after the disappearance of the car, I became automatically locked in seeking a logical explanation, but that did not help me either. I told don Juan that my insistence on finding explanations was not something that I had arbitrarily devised myself, just to be difficult, but was something so deeply ingrained in me that it overruled every other consideration. “It’s like a disease,” I said.

“There are no diseases,” don Juan replied calmly. “There is only indulging. And you indulge yourself in trying to explain everything. Explanations are no longer necessary in your case.”

I insisted that I could function only under conditions of order and understanding. I reminded him that I had drastically changed my personality during the time of our association, and that the condition that had made that change possible was that I had been capable of explaining to myself the reasons for that change. Don Juan laughed softly. He did not speak for a long time.

“You are very clever,” he finally said. “You go back to where you have always been. This time you are finished though. You have no place to go back to. I will not explain anything to you anymore. Whatever Genaro did to you yesterday he did it to your body, so let your body decide what’s what.”

Don Juan’s tone was friendly but unusually detached and that made me feel an overwhelming loneliness. I expressed my feelings of sadness. He smiled. His fingers gently clasped the top of my hand. “We both are beings who are going to die,” he said softly. “There is no more time for what we used to do. Now you must employ all the not-doing I have taught you and stop the world.”

—————and the explanation of what happened—————–

We were quiet for a long time. Don Juan had his hands clasped over his stomach. His thumbs moved almost imperceptibly. “Genaro will also have to go with us to that valley,” he said all of a sudden. “He is the one who has helped you to stop the world.”

Don Juan looked at me with piercing eyes. “I will tell you one more thing,” he said and laughed. “It really does matter now. Genaro never moved your car from the world of ordinary men the other day. He simply forced you to look at the world like sorcerers do, and your car was not in that world. Genaro wanted to soften your certainty. His clowning told your body about the absurdity of trying to understand everything. And when he flew his kite you almost saw. You found your car and you were in both worlds. The reason we nearly split our guts laughing was because you really thought you were driving us back from where you thought you had found your car.”
“But how did he force me to see the world as sorcerers do?”

“I was with him. We both know that world. Once one knows that world all one needs to bring it about is to use that extra ring of power I have told you sorcerers have. Genaro can do that as easily as snapping his fingers. He kept you busy turning over rocks in order to distract your thoughts and allow your body to see.”

I told him that the events of the last three days had done some irreparable damage to my idea of the world. I said that during the ten years I had been associated with him I had never been so moved, not even during the times I had ingested psychotropic plants.
“Power plants are only an aid,” don Juan said. “The real thing is when the body realizes that it can see. Only then is one capable of knowing that the world we look at every day is only a description. My intent has been to show you that.”
-    From Carlos Castaneda’s Journey to Ixtlan.

Warm fuzzies coming your way from Sorcerer. The song is perhaps a tad repetitive, but the 80s synth chord response is such melted buttery goodness you can’t help but get hooked. You can almost picture Crocket and Tubbs driving a shiny sports car into the Miami sunset. That or a summertime dog diving in slow motion for a ball.

Sorcerer – Algorhythm

So here’s my idea for a Big Bad Evil Guy (BBEG) in my first campaign that I’ll be DMing. Basically, a High Elven Sorcerer Lich 26. His familiar is a monkey, who also is his phylactery, and has been “Polymorph any Object”-ed into a human, permanently. The party starts out with the party awakening in the Lich’s castle, where hundred of adventurers have been gathered to fight in a tournament. The winners go free. If they entertain the Lich, even better. The Lich has, at his disposal, a small collection of evil clerics, along with a smattering of the highest-level of each class in this world to enforce and spice up the tourney. The PC’s will start at level 1 and work their way up to ten before they leave the arena. Then, they will swear to destroy the Lich, join a campaign against evil, level up, and finally battle the Lich. I have the beginning and end sort of planned out, and have more than enough seeds to fill in the middle. I’m just editing for flavor, and soon I’ll start the campaign (hopefully). Some points:

-I’ll be using Sagotsky’s idea in the tourney to limit the spell components/reagents, but will have to change the spells so that all x-hundred of them only use up about 20-25 reagents, which I will expect the party to keep up with. I’ll try to help by giving them as many chances to buy them as possible, and make them cost-efficient, but otherwise, I’ll try to limit their game-changing spells.

-The familiar will join the party at the beginning, when they all awaken, and continue to stay with them until the final battle, when she’ll have to choose between them and the Lich. She ends up sacrificing herself (because she’s the phylactery) after throwing some Meteor Swarms/Wishes at the Lich (she’s a level 25 sorcerer). So yeah.

-One of the homebrews is the Lich’s spell to make his phylactery (a teddy bear style monkey) into a real animal (I don’t know if this is already a spell… if so, awesome!) and then that into his familiar at level 25.

-A houserule is that all phylacteries, if sentient, gain the spellcasting abilities of the lich at the time of the creation (but they don’t know it [usable only in self-defense?] until after they use it a few times and harness it)

Thoughts/opinions/great edits I should make?

In D&G’s A Thousand Plateaus’ chapter Becoming-Intense, Becoming-Animal… the writers pick up the theme of the sourcerer as a model of cultural propogation. Likening the act of the sourcerer as memory-master (creation of/from the past) through contagion, a category in relation to that of filiation. Bodies, groups work become through these segments of genetic affiliation, through familial lineage and through contagion, through the penetration from a nominal culture grounded within the larger cultural group. For instance, the werewolf is part of the larger Kingdom Animalia, yet the thing itself is the product of Homo Sapien Sapien infected by a viral strain which represents characteristics of Canis Lupus. Datamoshing works through contagion.

Sorcerer – Neon Leon (2009)

annar helmingurinn af windsurf með sólóplötu. Gefið út á Tirk (Idjut Boys, Fujiya&Miyagi, Syclops etc.)

mjög svipað windsurf, nema aðeins meira frúttí

Where do I start? Kepler is a halfling sorcerer I created for a friend’s Eberron campaign. Here’s the short description:

Kepler, halfling wild magic sorcerer, banned from birthday parties for setting cakes (and hair) on fire. Accidentally.

It was for a Twitter contest, and I got a runner up position for “Best PC”. w00t! (I’m @orcasquall).

My friend said to come up with a background for my character and a reason for journeying to the Eldeen Reaches (where the first part of the adventure starts). So here goes:

Kepler, the halfling sorcerer was born with wild magic in his blood.

Maybe it’s because on the day of his birth, a dragon was seen circling around his tribe/village.
Or also on that day, the 12 moons formed a perfect line, resulting in a super eclipse of the sun.
Or also on that day, a rain ritual was cast because no rain had fallen for weeks, the dry weather following his tribe/village wherever they went.
Or also on that day, a plane (or 2 or 3) came close to Eberron (coterminous?), wrecking all sorts of natural laws.
Or maybe it’s all of the above or none of the above.

Regardless, it’s caused Kepler much pain. For he’s not invited to birthday parties, since something always seemed to catch fire or freeze or move or break when he’s around. As he grew older, he was able to control the magic somewhat but few wanted to be around him (save his parents).

Finally, he decided to investigate this wild magic of his, and left his family in search of magical anomalies. He’s interested in strong sources/occurences of magic or the absence of magic, or anything out of the ordinary.

He heard this piece of news about a village that’s having a dry spell (pun not intended), and a rain ritual to be cast. It’s not the exact conditions under which he was born, but it’s worth investigating. And so he travelled to this village…

That’s all for now. I didn’t know starting a new blog was this hard…

mandehan the great sorcerer.. xD

canım frp çekti.. yolda yazdım bir şeyler..

“Ilık bir akşam üstü, güneş; uzaktaki tepelerin üzerindeki ağaçları koyu kızıllığın yansımalarını saçacakları, sıcaklığını hissedecekleri son bir kaç dakikanın kaldığını belirtircesine yerini büyük hızla karanlığa bırakmaktaydı.. Onu şehire götüren yoldan ayrıldığını geç fark etmişti ve herhangi bir ayrım olup olmadığını bulmak için aceleyle ilerlediğini, etrafına bakındığını fark ettikten biraz sonra gelen sesle irkildi..

-Dur!!

Bir kadın.. Batıda yolunu kesmiş duruyordu.. Elini güneşe siper ederek sesin sahibini görmeye çalıştı.. Kılıcı elinde tehditkar biçimde yaklaşan dişiye;

-”Şehre ulaşmaya çalışıyordum sanırım yardımcı olamazsın?” dedi.

-Sanırım!

Yanıtını beklemeden kollarını yana salmış ve sağ elinin yüzük ve orta parmaklarını birleştirdiği halde konsantre olmaya başlamıştı bile..

-Kuvvetli biri sayılmazsın yabancı.. Köle pazarında değerinin olacağını sanmıyorum.. Bakalım ceplerinde neler var.. Ani bir hareketinde kılıcımı hissedersin.. Şimdi ellerini kaldır..

Yapmak istediğinin ne olduğuna hemen hemen karar vermiş olan Mandehan yavaşça ellerini kaldırdı.. Kız ceplerini karıştırmak üzereyken sözler de aklında tamamlanmıştı..

-Par salian nu amen!

Ve kıza dokundu.. Kız son haliyle donmuş olarak kaldı.. Sersemlik halinden kurtulması uzun sürmezdi.. O yüzden kaçmalıydı.. Ama tam yeltendiği sırada arkasından gelen darbeyle yere yığıldı.. Sırt üstü dönerken başka biri ona sesleniyordu.

-Yavaş ol büyü kullanıcısı.. Üzerine doğrultulmuş oklarıyla hazır bekleyen iki adamım var.. Yavaşça ayağa kalk ve ellerinin bağlanmasına izin ver..

Ayağa kalktı.. Söylenenleri yaparken de sesin sahibini inceledi.. Ormandaki kadın grubundan söz edildiğini duymuştu iki gün önce kaldığı handa.. Geçen insanları soyduklarını, güçlü kuvvetlileri de köle pazarında sattıklarını hatırlar gibiydi..

Fakat bilmediği ne kadar çekici olduklarıydı.. Kahverengi saçlı, yüzüyle orantılı küçük bir burun, hafif kısık gözleriyle ifadesiz kendini süzen bir kadın.. Elini serbest bıraktığı kılıcının kabzasında tutmuş onu izliyordu.. Deri kıyafeti vücudunu sarmış tüm hatlarını ortaya çıkartmıştı.. Böyle bir varlıktan etkilenmeyen yaratık olamayacağını düşündü Mandehan..

-Bir büyü kullanıcısı.. İyi para edebilir.. Ama onu önce köye götürün! Karanlık çöktü.. Gözlerini bağlayın! diye diğerlerine emir verdi..

Karşı koymadan emrin yerine getirilmesine izin vermesinin tek nedeni vardı.. O yüze olabildiğince çok bakmak isteği.. Başına çuval geçirilmeden önce kadının gözleriyle birleşti onunkiler.. Ama ifadesiz bu bakışta bir değerinin olmadığını fark edince içinde bir burukluk hissetti.. Esir alınmış olmasıyla bir sorunu yoktu istediği her an gidebileceğini biliyordu nasılsa.. Şu an istediği kadının kendiydi.. Böyle bir güzelliğin kim olduğunu öğrenmeye değer..” diye düşünüyordu..

ve uykum geldi.. bir yere gider mi bilmiyorum bu hikaye.. belki yazarım dursun burada..

,etnikbarzo..

Konnichiwa,

as second set of poses for Halloween we have the spellcast set. Unisex
- for men and women – it contains 6 poses for witches and sorcerers to
cast spells, shoot fireballs, and issue curses. The set includes two
attachments for left and right hand which give a fireball effect.

All Posemaster poses have pose priority 4. This means your animation
overrider (AO) does not need to get switched off. In some poses the
hand position is not locked, so that you can adjust hand movement or
hold accessories.

Posemaster takes great care to make a natural posing look so that your
avatar is not distorted and your clothing looks natural too. Special
care is taken to smooth clothing/skin flow in the chest and stomach
area.

Poses are modify so you can rename them and copy so you can put them in objects and posestands.

Individual poses are at L$ 40 – the full set (including the fireball attachments) is at L$ 200 for all six poses.  Poses and set are available at the PosemasterStore (SLURL) as well as on the web at Apez.biz, Meta Life, Metaverse Exchange, slapt.me, Xstreet SL.

Jeg faldt over et gammelt interview med mig, hvor jeg fortæller om baggrunden for mit scenarie Far verden, far vel, der var med i Fusion-antologien Som landet ligger. Det var tilbage i 2002 – altså tre år før, jeg for alvor begyndte at spille rollespil igen, da jeg stødte på bl.a. Sorcerer. Det er lidt sjovt at læse mine holdninger til rollespil. Fx troede jeg ikke, rollespil for alvor ville udvikle sig. Og det synes jeg måske ikke er helt sandt nu, selvom man måske nok kan sige, at indie-scenen kun er en meget lille bølge i et meget stort hav, og at de store systemer stadig dominerer – og stadig genbruger stort set samme tankegods. Om det er entydigt godt eller skidt ved jeg ikke. Til gengæld synes jeg ikke, jeg længere kan skrive under på dette udsagn: ”Jeg spiller meget lidt rollespil”.

Læs interviewet her. Du kan også finde fine interviews med Per Fischer, Lars Andresen, Ask Agger og Sanne Harder.

I was attacked as soon as I logged in on my first toon when I started playing Aion.  After two hours of patching the game I stepped out into this new world of sounds and colours, and in-between trying to adjust some settings, and working out how to use this new interface I was inundated with streams of channel text messages in game trying to sell gold, and leveling services.

There are multiple chat channels you can be in Aion, including a trade, and a class channel. Everyone of these channels were so full of these ads advertising their services and their links that normal chat is impossible.

The people I play Wow with had set up a guild on Aion, and so on invite I was advised to turn off all the channels, and make myself invisible so no one could search for me. It was a disappointment not to be able to see what possible uses that these channels could have while playing, and could only safely read our Legion chat .

As the weekend progressed, and I played some more, the gold sellers started whispering me personally offering their services. Characters made named as a random assortment of letters as typical Gsfsfs Whispers you: blah blah blah.. A letter appeared in my mail also advertising the same services.  The weekend continued with the prices of gold for real life value also decreased as gold sellers competed against each other, and no matter what action I had taken some were always able to find me. I blocked, and blocked and blocked, but they created new characters and I keep getting contacted by gold sellers. sporadically NCsoft would spam system messages in my Chat bars, or warning messages in the middle of my screen as Aion tried to warn me against using said services, and that my account details would be compromised with these phishing attacks, telling us do not click the links.

While a rather standard action – these warnings by the Game masters I am surprised that they were not more prepared for these attacks. Perhaps I have been spoiled by the systems put in place that years of experience have given Blizzard and Warcraft, I would have thought that Aion being around since May 2006, would have had better systems in place then an ignore button to deal with the sheer number of sellers that have popped up, or perhaps they have only popped up with the introduction of the game to the western world. China got the game in April, Australia got Aion on September 22nd, as did the US. Did south Koreans the main players of the game from 2006 not have gold sellers: and thus the developers had no idea of the issues that gold sellers can create.  Issues so bad that  players cannot use the chat channels due to the overwhelming spam.

Ncsoft have been escalating their responses to the Gold sellers and last nights patch seems to have cut their numbers down by introducing additional measures ” These activities are something we’re actively combating right now”  says their Notice issued on the 6th October in their  latest news here “Addressing Gold Spam”

“We currently have Game Masters monitoring all our servers. They track chat channels closely and have been banning thousands of spammers every day”

I am curious as to why it took them so long?  Has it been the introduction of the game to the western world that has prompted this onslaught?  As potential customers of Gold sellers are we more willing to buy the gold and leveling services then the Koreans? Are we more likely to  look for the easiest way to play,  and have more disposable income to spend on such things?  Are the UK servers experiencing the same  overun?

  In June China ’s Ministry of Commerce issued an official rule banning virtual currency for real money so the purchasing by a Chinese citizen would be against the law,  as surely these problems would have popped up before it was released in Australia,  China got the game  in April, and has been running  for just over 2 weeks in Australia and Ncsoft seem to be wanting to fix the issue.  So was there an issue before it got to us?

The loop hole when it comes to the Chinese Virtual currency law seems to be that there is nothing stopping them from selling virtual currency  to  the rest of the world.  It’s common knowledge in gaming, that these gold sellers are also known as ‘chinese gold farmers’ is it because of their law’s that this was not an issue for the Chinese release? Or just that the introduction to other regions, and a surge in popularity  has now made it a worthy target for the Gold selling industry?

Too young to know to stay away
his interest peeked with this find
a dusty book of spells and prayers
the teenage boy began to read

upon gathering some ingredients
and practicing the unfamiliar words
the young man was elated
to see the incantation come to life

having now proved his mastery
in simple powers of the art
he flipped to pages of greater potency
and began his studies of the tome

his friends began to to wonder
and his kin barely saw him
the changeling to his former self
he became contorted with intoxicating wealth

in the quiet recesses of the forest
he practiced vocalizing foreign sounds
summoning beasts both natural and not
conjuring experiences far past his age

when the dark beings would speak to him
molding his immature and fickle brain
he thought they were empowering
instead of morphing their apprentice

then one day he was discovered
as the sorcerer in learning
a stranger stumbled upon this magic
becoming witness to this craft

accepting knowledge from the ravens
making dryads of old trees
he only knew to hide his secret
spouting evil enchantment
to dispatch another’s innocent soul

now the darkness had more than influence
it had enacted a forceful evil
enslaving the young apprentice
having exchanged leverage for his greed

then others came looking
for the first who had gone missing
and they too became one with legend
swallowed up by the darkened forest

the battle of the young man’s conscience
began to show in spite of his new power
choosing to recluse himself
into the recesses of the wood

there his mind became his enemy
and the power impotent to further harm the world
he disappeared into a cave they say
where he makes himself pay eternally for his sins

no longer do people wander alone in those woods
nor do they look for the boy or his victims
it’s a chapter closed for good
from the book of evil incantations

via iheartchaos

This is easily the greatest jean jacket in history and that sorcerer is pretty bad ass too.

This information is taken directly from: http://www.aiononlinetower.pl/mage-sorcerer

Sorcerer Skills

Image	Name	Sorcerer	Learn	Required Equipment
	Advanced Cloth Armor Proficiency I Allows you to Advanced Cloth Armor Proficiency.	9	Auto Learn
	Advanced Spellbook Training I Allows you to use spellbooks skillfully.	9	Auto Learn
	Advanced Orb Training I Allows you to use orbs skillfully.	9	Auto Learn
	Celestial Word I Inflicts 864 magical fire damage on a target within a 25m radius. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	10	Skill Book
	Pandaemonium Focus I Inflicts 864 magical fire damage on a target within a 25m radius. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	10	Skill Book
	Boost Magical Attack I Boosts Magic boost. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	10	Skill Book
	Sleep I Forces a target within a 25m radius to fall asleep for 20Sec and increases All attribute defense. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	10	Skill Book
	Flame Bolt II Inflicts 236 magical fire damage on a target within a 25m radius of you. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	10	Skill Book
	Flight: Boost Magical Attack Boosts the power of the magical attack skill by 5% while flying. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	10	Skill Book
	Herb Treatment I Uses 1 Lesser Odella Powder to recover your HP by 262. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	10	Skill Book
	Mana Treatment I Uses 2 Lesser Odella Powder to recover 103 MP instantly and then recover 29 MP every 3Sec for 10Sec. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	10	Skill Book
	Blaze II Inflicts 227 magical fire damage on a target within a 25m radius. The target’s Magic Resist decreases by 35 for 30Sec. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	13	Skill Book
	Blind Leap I Moves back instantly by 15m while removing the immobilization and movement speed reduction conditions. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	13	Skill Book
	Flame Harpoon I Inflicts 402 magical fire damage on a target within a 25m radius. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	13	Skill Book
	Robe of Earth I Increases your MP recovery rate by 21, Fire type defense by 20, and Water type defense by 20 for 30Min. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	13	Skill Book
	Ice Chain II Inflicts 243 magical water damage on a target within a 25m radius of you, and reduces its movement speed for 12Sec. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	16	Skill Book
	Flame Cage I Inflicts 79 magical fire damage on a target within a 25m radius of you, and deals further 69 damage every 3Sec for 15Sec. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	16	Skill Book
	Winter Binding I Inflicts 26 water damage on the enemies within a 15m radius of you, and immobilizes them for 10Sec. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	16	Skill Book
	Boost Maximum MP I Boosts max MP. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	16	Skill Book
	Stone Skin II Forms a protective shield for 5Min that can absorborbs 439 damage each time and remains effective until it absorbs a total of 439 damage.) The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses. damage with the probability of 100% whenever you receive Attack. If you are attacked by a PC, you suffer less extra damage. (The protective shield abs	19	Skill Book
	Delayed Blast I Inflicts 291 magical fire damage on a target within a 25m radius of you, after a delay of 4Sec. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	19	Skill Book
	Frozen Shock II Inflicts 223 magical water damage on a target within a 25m radius of you and puts it in the Knocked Back state. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	19	Skill Book
	Curse: Tree I Transforms the target into a tree for 20Sec. The transformed target cannot move or act, and its All attribute defense increases. Once the target is attacked, the effect disappears immediately. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	20	Stigma
	Lumiel’s Wisdom I For 15Sec, you can use a skill with only 50% of MP that is needed to use the skill. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	20	Stigma
	Energy Absorption II Recovers your MP by 326. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	22	Skill Book
	Pandaemonium Focus II Inflicts 1283 magical fire damage on a target within a 25m radius. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	22	Skill Book
	Illusion Gate I Summons the Magical Gate through which the group members including the caster can return to Pandaemonium.	22	Skill Book
	Flame Bolt III Inflicts 340 magical fire damage on a target within a 25m radius of you. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	22	Skill Book
	Robe of Flame I For 30Min, your Magic boost increases by 40. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	22	Skill Book
	Herb Treatment II Uses 1 Regular Odella Powder to recover your HP by 366. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	22	Skill Book
	Mana Treatment II Uses 2 Regular Odella Powder to recover 185 MP instantly and then recover 37 MP every 3Sec for 10Sec. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	22	Skill Book
	Blaze III Inflicts 331 magical fire damage on a target within a 25m radius. The target’s Magic Resist decreases by 40 for 30Sec. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	25	Skill Book
	Flight: Blessing of Sorcerer God While flying, increases Knowledge by 10, Will by 10, and Flight Speed by 33%. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	25	Skill Book
	Advanced Spellbook Training II Allows you to use spellbooks skillfully.	25	Skill Book
	Boon of Peace I Decreases the Enmity of your enemies within a 5 m radius.	25	Skill Book
	Flame Harpoon II Inflicts 585 magical fire damage on a target within a 25m radius. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	25	Skill Book
	Summon Cold Air I Inflicts 473 magical water damage on a target within a 3m radius of you. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	25	Skill Book
	Robe of Earth II Increases your MP recovery rate by 33, Fire type defense by 25, and Water type defense by 25 for 30Min. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	25	Skill Book
	Advanced Orb Training II Allows you to use orbs skillfully.	25	Skill Book
	Snare Chain III Inflicts 332 magical water damage on a target within a 25m radius of you, and reduces its movement speed for 12Sec. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	28	Skill Book
	Flame Cage II Inflicts 113 magical fire damage on a target within a 25m radius of you, and deals further 99 damage every 3Sec for 15Sec. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	28	Skill Book
	Winter Binding II Inflicts 36 water damage on the enemies within a 15m radius of you, and immobilizes them for 12Sec. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	28	Skill Book
	Mid-air Binding I Inflicts 305 magical damage on a ground target within a 20m radius of you, and puts it in the Mid-air Binding state. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	28	Skill Book
	Zikel’s Wisdom I Increases your Magic boost by 300 for 15Sec. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	28	Stigma
	Curse of Weakness I Each time the target within a 25m radius uses magical skills, the magical damage corresponding to 5% of the target’s MAX HP is inflicted on the target for 8Sec. Magical damage does not exceed 500. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	28	Stigma
	Boon of Clairvoyance I For 10Sec, you can see a target in its basic hide mode. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	28	Skill Book
	Stone Skin III Forms a protective shield for 5Min that can absorborbs 711 damage each time and remains effective until it absorbs a total of 711 damage.) The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses. damage with the probability of 100% whenever you receive Attack. If you are attacked by a PC, you suffer less extra damage. (The protective shield abs	31	Skill Book
	Delayed Blast II Inflicts 450 magical fire damage on a target within a 25m radius of you, after a delay of 4Sec. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	31	Skill Book
	Shoot Fire I Inflicts 413 magical fire damage on a target immobilized in mid-air and within a 25m radius of you. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	31	Skill Book
	Sleep Cloud I Forces a target within a 25m radius of you and enemies within a 5m radius of the target to fall The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses. asleep for 10Sec~20Sec.	31	Skill Book
	Robe of Cold I For 30Min, each time an enemy within a 30m radius attacks you, you reflect the damage of 20 to the enemy and slow down its movement speed for 4Sec. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	31	Skill Book
	Flame of Hell I Inflicts 1752 magical fire damage on a target within a 25m radius. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	31	Skill Book
	Frozen Shock III Inflicts 345 magical water damage on a target within a 25m radius of you and puts it in the Knocked Back state. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	31	Skill Book
	Energy Absorption III Recovers your MP by 469. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	34	Skill Book
	Pandaemonium Focus III Inflicts 1979 magical fire damage on a target within a 25m radius. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	34	Skill Book
	Gain Mana I Instantly recovers your MP by 155 and then recovers 155 MP every 2Sec for 10Sec. While the skill is in effect, you fall asleep. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	34	Skill Book
	Fire Explosion I Inflicts 623 magical fire damage on a target within a 25m radius of you and on up to 6 enemies within a 5m radius of the target. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	34	Stigma
	Robe of Flame II For 30Min, your Magic boost increases by 80. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	34	Skill Book
	Flame Bolt IV Inflicts 504 magical fire damage on a target within a 25m radius of you. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	34	Skill Book
	Flame Fusion I Inflicts 361 magical fire damage on the target within a 25m radius, and decreases Fire type defense by 40 for 10Sec. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	34	Skill Book
	Herb Treatment III Uses 1 Greater Odella Powder to recover your HP by 485. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	34	Skill Book
	Mana Treatment III Uses 2 Greater Odella Powders to recover 274 MP instantly and then recover 45 MP every 3Sec for 10Sec. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	34	Skill Book
	Blaze IV Inflicts 461 magical fire damage on a target within a 25m radius. The target’s Magic Resist decreases by 45 for 30Sec. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	37	Skill Book
	Magic Fist I Strikes down a target immobilized in mid-air that is within a 20m radius of you to inflict 1185 damage. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	37	Skill Book
	Ice Sheet II Inflicts magical water damage on up to 6 enemies within a radius of the selected spot and reduces their movement speeds for 15Sec. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	37	Stigma
	Vaizel’s Wisdom I Shortens your skill casting time by 25% for 15Sec. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	37	Stigma
	Flame Harpoon III Inflicts 815 magical fire damage on a target within a 25m radius. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	37	Skill Book
	Summon Cold Air II Inflicts 658 magical water damage on a target within a 3m radius of you. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	37	Skill Book
	Soul Absorption I Inflicts 658 magical water damage on a target within a 25m radius of you, and absorbs the MP corresponding to 50% of the inflicted damage. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	37	Skill Book
	Robe of Earth III Increases your MP recovery rate by 45, Fire type defense by 30, and Water type defense by 30 for 30Min. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	37	Skill Book
	Ice Chain IV Inflicts 431 magical water damage on a target within a 25m radius of you, and reduces its movement speed for 12Sec. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	40	Skill Book
	Burn III Inflicts 155 magical fire damage on a target within a 25m radius of you, and deals further 135 damage every 3Sec for 15Sec. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	40	Skill Book
	Winter Binding III Inflicts 50 water damage on the enemies within a 15m radius of you, and immobilizes them for 14Sec. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	40	Skill Book
	Soul Freeze I Inflicts 706 magical damage on a target within a 25m radius of you as well as silencing it for 8Sec. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	40	Skill Book
	Mid-air Binding II Inflicts 416 magical damage on a ground target within a 20m radius of you, and puts it in the Mid-air Binding state. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	40	Skill Book
	Advanced Spellbook Training III Allows you to use spellbooks skillfully.	40	Skill Book
	Curse of Weakness II Each time the target within a 25m radius uses magical skills, the magical damage corresponding to 7% of the target’s MAX HP is inflicted on the target for 8Sec. Magical damage does not exceed 700. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	40	Stigma
	Flame Waltz I Inflicts 564 magical fire damage on enemies around 5m from a selected spot within a 25m radius of you, and also stuns them for 3Sec at a certain rate. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	40	Skill Book
	Darkness Explosion I Inflicts 2133 magical fire damage on a target within a 25m radius. Deals additional 790 physical damage if the target is an Elyos or a Balaur. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	40	Skill Book
	Advanced Orb Training III Allows you to use orbs skillfully.	40	Skill Book
	Stone Skin IV Forms a protective shield for 5Min that can absorborbs 928 damage each time and remains effective until it absorbs a total of 928 damage.) The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses. damage with the probability of 100% whenever you receive Attack. If you are attacked by a PC, you suffer less extra damage. (The protective shield abs	41	Skill Book
	Cold Wave IV Inflicts 434 magical water damage on a target within a 25m radius of you and puts it in the Knocked Back state. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	41	Skill Book
	Boost Magical Attack II Boosts Magic boost. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	41	Skill Book
	Delayed Blast III Inflicts 578 magical fire damage on a target within a 25m radius of you, after a delay of 4Sec. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	42	Skill Book
	Flame of Hell II Inflicts 2279 magical fire damage on a target within a 25m radius. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	42	Skill Book
	Severe Cold I Inflicts 738 magical water damage on a target within a 25m radius and decreases its movement speed for 12Sec. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	42	Skill Book
	Shoot Fire II Inflicts 547 magical fire damage on a target immobilized in mid-air and within a 25m radius of you. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	43	Skill Book
	Robe of Cold II For 30Min, each time an enemy within a 30m radius attacks you, you reflect the damage of 40 to the enemy and slow down its movement speed for 4Sec. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	43	Skill Book
	Flame Bolt V Inflicts 618 magical fire damage on a target within a 25m radius of you. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	44	Skill Book
	Energy Absorption IV Recovers your MP by 589. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	44	Skill Book
	Boon of Quickness I Reduces the casting time of all your magic skills by 50% for 15Sec. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	44	Stigma
	Boost Maximum MP II Boosts max MP. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	45	Skill Book
	Robe of Flame III For 30Min, your Magic boost increases by 100. The effect of the skill will be different from these base values, depending on the character’s level, equipped items, and other bonuses.	45	Skill Book

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Magic or Sorcery is real. Magicians or sorcerers whether knowingly or unknowingly give servitude to the devils, and it is these devils that help them accomplish what they seek from mischief and corruption. Allah, from His perfect wisdom and might, has given the devils abilities to do strange things that cause harm to those afflicted by magic.

Allah mentions in the Qur’an, “ However it was the devils that disbelieved, teaching mankind magic”" ( Soorah al-Baqarah 2:102)

He the Most High also stated. ” The magician will never be successful, whatever amount of skill he may attain.”(Soorah Taa Haa 20:69)

A magician or one that is pleased with what is being achieved is considered an unbeliever who has exited the fold of Islam.

Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, states in Soorah al-Baqarah (2:102), that He sent two angels to TEST mankind with magic. However they did not teach anyone until they had clearly warned them saying: ” We are a temptation, so disbelieve not (by learning this magic from us).”

So some people learned magic by which, they cause separation between a man and his wife. And Allah concludes this verse by stating that those who practice magic ” have no share in the Hereafter, after indeed how evil was that for which they sold their own selves, if they but knew.”

Magic is of two types: Real and imaginary.

Real magic  refers to knots that the magician blows upon, or

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incantation and spells that he recites, seeking the aid of the devils by way of that or by hanging of charms and amulets, with mysterious words or cryptic characters containing the names of devils from amongst the jinn. This affects the soul, the body, the heart of the person the magic is directed towards, which may cause illness, loss of mental faculties and death.

Imaginary Magic

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Imaginary Magic is the  one that creates illusions in the mind of the onlooker, so believes something to be real, but it is not, such as making the rock turning into an animal, killing someone and bringing him back to life, cutting someone’s head and then reconnecting it, walking through fire, eating fire, pushing a knife through the body without causing harm, or swallowing a sword-all of these are illusions of the eye or mind, not having any reality in them. This is like the illusionary magic of the magicians of Pharaoh when they threw down their sticks and ropes. Allah said: ” By their magic, appeared to him as though they moved fast.”( Soorah Taa Haa 20:66) and He also said: ” So when they threw, they bewitched the eyes of the people, and struck terror into them.” ( Soorah al-A’raaf 7:116). Once the illusion ends , things return back to normal.

The teaching of magic and learning magic constitutes  unbelief in Allah, and is from the types of apostasy from Islam. There are many narrations that mention the great sin of partaking in magic. The messenger of Allah said: ” keep away from the seven destructive sins.” He was asked: “What are they?”" He replied: ” Associating partners with Allah, magic, killing a person whom Allah has forbidden to be killed, consumption of  usury, consuming the property of an orphan, turning away from battle and to falsely accuse chaste believing woman of lewdness>.”

Related article: Astrology

www.fatwaislam.com

© Diane Beaty

Wood to metal wizardry.

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Marisha continues her story:

"It turned out that Berithy is kind of a self-taught expert of the magic of parallel dimensions."

"She asked me to come over to her place so that she could help me finding you."

"So of course I followed her to her house, which wasn't far away."

"On our way we happened to meet her dad, who turned out to not be a very sympathetic person."

"He instantly started yelling at Berithy for being outside without his permission! What a jerk - doesn't he realize that Berithy is already a teen?"

"Anyway, after their scuffle we climbed up the stairs to the second floor and entered Berithy's room, which was... interesting indeed!"

"Berithy asked me to grab her hands, which was pretty weird... But she said that because you and I are so close, holding my hands would help her sense in which dimension you are. I don't know what it really was about - maybe she was forming a telepathic connection to you through me, or something?"

"Then she turned to her gems..."

"...and succeeded to locate you!"

"She said that she can create a portal to the place where you are, and that's exactly what she did..."

"The rest you know - I appeared to that strange dimension where you were, to get you back home."

"But Berithy also told me some extremely important facts about mawakas!"

"First of all, they're not any kind of human beings - they're infernal creatures who come from places between the different dimensions. Those places are called Void Spots or Dark Walls."

"They have no feelings of empathy or love. Their only purpose is to mix things up and chase people away from their home dimensions."

"Plainly, there's nothing good in them."

"They're trying to steal your life, and their favourite hobby is telling you lies, like that you would be stealing their lifes instead, or something as daft! You should never listen to what they say."

When Marisha finally finishes her story, I don't really know what to think. Sure, Berithy's theory about the mawakas would explain a lot, and she obviously knows a lot about dimensions and stuff...

...but still something... just a tiny something... makes me suspicious about Berithy. Maybe it's that I still don't really get it WHY mawakas would pop up from nowhere and haunt us?

And why don't they haunt everyone all the time? Why only certain (apparently very few) people?

Why didn't I see a glimpse of a mawaka before that one day, that feels like eternities ago, even if it actually was this spring?

And maybe most of all - why was it so important for Berithy to convince Marisha to never EVER listen to what they say?!

When I step in I meet my mum... and someone's baby?

-What did you do on the yard? mum inquires, -And why did you suddenly change clothes? You should be sleeping already – you even woke up Runar.

I’m totally dumbfounded. So Marisha honestly forgat to tell me, that while I was away I got a new little brother – CALLED RUNAR?!

Without saying a word I wander to my room and change my look a little, so that people wouldn't mix me up with some freakin' mawaka in the future!

since I’m now in the game, the posts are going to be very short, not necessarily correct, or informative until the novelty wears off and I start getting into the finer points

So I was pretty much on the ball when the head start began yesterday, I was a minute or two behind the login server coming back online, and ended up with a 30/40 minute wait to get in… thats acceptable to me, I know they need to throttle this down… I feel kind of bad for the people who had to wait much longer than that.

About an hour in, my connection failed (router problem not server problem)… I was pleased to learn that there is a grace period for disconnects and the queue… skipped it… got right back in… woot!

I’ve been working on Veritas, my Sorcerer, currently level 15… he’s coming along, I’m almost to the point where I left off in the beta and I’m only a day in… so I’m pleased with that.

Now, I don’t get crafting, it doesn’t seem all that interesting, or useful in the early stages of the game, and appears to be very expensive. Sure the work orders help in reducing the amount of mat farming, but the reagent cost starts pilling up fast, and it’s time consuming. Looking at Aion Armory at the stuff that you get your hands on in the end and they seem pretty good, although I don’t really have a good reference for good items you get outside of crafting. I’ve yet to find a good site with details on crafting in Aion that is really useful, if you’ve found one, please let me know (detailed information about trade skills in general is preferable, but detailed specific ones would be very helpful as well).