Evil Mage Concept

[jarandhel]

So, I had an evil character concept for Mage today:

An Amish VirtualAdept.

I really hope nobody just snarked whatever they were drinking all over their hardware...

Seriously, though, I think it could work. The Digital Web in Mage is reachable not just via computers, but Astrally as well. Kid could have grown up Amish but always had machines talking to him. He'd have a big thing for the concept of "appropriate technology", treat machines a lot like living things (a "horse whisperer" type for tech), visit the digital web in trances/dreams, maybe even have something computer-like built out of an old manual typewriter and a few other things that works purely via magic. Not sure if that would push it too far towards the Sons of Ether though. But I really think that with enough thought and planning, this character would be possible to pull off. And hell... most of the Pow-Wow system of magic that is practiced in the Pennsylvania Dutch areas is based off of principles of Correspondence. I'm not going to play him anytime soon, but I could... someday. :)

Comments

[tlttlotd.livejournal.com]

Holy crap, that's cool.

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

*grins* Came to me while I was reading the player's guide. I might just keep that concept around for some point in the future. I'd probably have to familiarize myself with the specifics of what the Amish believe, particularly regarding technology, before I could fully flesh out the character... but I really think with enough thought it could be made to work. :)

[hasufin.livejournal.com]

I'm told - and this may well be me talking out my ass - that not all Amish are against tech. It's more about not being reliant on the outside, and not being worldly, selfish, proud, etc. For example, there's one case where an Amish farmer was actually ordered by his bishop to use a gas-powered tractor, because he had severe arthritis and could not use a horse-drawn plow.

So, this isn't too out there, really. It would however take a significant amount of understanding of the philosophy of Amish thought.

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

True, that's part of the whole appropriate technology thing... that's actually a term used in Amish teaching, one that has been noticed with approval by the sustainable development movement, which is where I heard of it. It's also the reason why they will use telephones in public pay-booths but will not accept them in their houses, and will use pocket calculators but not allow electricity in their home.

[hasufin.livejournal.com]

The real problem, as I see it, is the doctrine of separation. There's really no way you can be an active internet user and claim to be maintaining a separation from the outside world. It will involve some first-class philosophical gymnastics to make that work.

Honestly, I think you'd have a better time of it as a Son of Ether. The Amish certainly have the potential to come up with some really clever offbeat stuff, and the paradigm could involve biblical justification. I mean, imagine the energy available in the interface between a local region where pi is equal to 4, and where pi is equal to 3.141579...?

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

Well, it might work with a teen going through rumspringa when he can experience the outside world before deciding whether or not to join the church. Alternately, an argument could be made that the technology is not significantly different from the printed word or the telephone... due to its equivalence with a telephone, it may not be desirable in the house, but there would be less justification for it not to be part of the community at all, particularly if it received any necessary electricity through power generated on-site through gas generators not hooked up to the grid. Different groups seem to have different Ordnung, or at least interpret them differently. I'd need to do a lot more research, and also figure out how much would apply if the means to access the internet was magical rather than technological.

A son of ether would actually be more difficult as their paradigm by nature requires a scientific basis, even if that is nonstandard science. The Amish do not school their children in science, as a rule, only in the three rs and the elements of a trade. Plus, the native magic of the region is Pow-Wow folk magic, which almost exclusively relies upon principles of correspondence. Working with the sphere of matter might be seen by the Amish as too worldly, too concerned with material things. Pure information would transcend the worldly, and the idea that a community could stay connected even over long distances might appeal to the Amish as it would help foster community rather than destroying it. There's at least a rational justification for an Amish kid to pursue the idea and not see it as a real violation of the ordnung or their other beliefs, even if it eventually gets him shunned by the rest of his community. There are apparently a lot of such doctrinal differences among the Amish, even some Amish that drive black cars from what I was reading rather than using the traditional horse and buggy.

[starlightforest.livejournal.com]

You're going to hell.

I really hope nobody just snarked whatever they were drinking all over their hardware...

"Snarfed" maybe. "Snark"ing it would have to do with insulting its colour or something. ;)

This is such a twistedly cool idea. But yeah, I think you're treading close to Son of Ether territory.

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes I am going to hell. :)

I've seen snarked used for spraying something you just drank before. Snarfed carries the meaning "to devour rapidly" in english, so that's generally not a good idea to use for doing just the opposite. I believe the use of snark in this sense may be derived from its older use as hacker slang for a system failure, since it is literally a system failure occurring while swallowing liquid.

And thanks. :) And you guys might be right, I'm not sure, but I still think the distinction is that son's of ether need to have a paradigm that involves science, scientific principles. I think that would be more foreign to the Amish mindset than a paradigm that sees everything/everyone as connected, since they are a very communal people and their traditional magic is based on principles of sympathy and contagion.