Wencit's destructive spell

Polyglot wrote:And considering Wencit dying of old age - is old age death something that a champion of Tomanak could prevent or heal? Or is that only effective against wounds, infection, and the like?

It may well depend on how "dying of old age" is defined. I suspect he could heal a single point failure, a heart attack for example. But I doubt he could heal multiorgan failure with all the organs simply being worn out.

It would be interesting to see how a wild wizard dies of old age. Do the die the same way us normals do or is it more spectacular? Various other authors have similar type people disintegrate into dust etc. I wonder if Weber will do the same?

biochem wrote:

Polyglot wrote:And considering Wencit dying of old age - is old age death something that a champion of Tomanak could prevent or heal? Or is that only effective against wounds, infection, and the like?

It may well depend on how "dying of old age" is defined. I suspect he could heal a single point failure, a heart attack for example. But I doubt he could heal multiorgan failure with all the organs simply being worn out.

It would be interesting to see how a wild wizard dies of old age. Do the die the same way us normals do or is it more spectacular? Various other authors have similar type people disintegrate into dust etc. I wonder if Weber will do the same?

What is the textev that Wencit is dying of old age. IIRC, he has said that he can die of old age, not that he is in imminent danger of doing so.

There's no text evidence that he's dying of old age.

My thought was that if his holding that "destructive spell" prevented the Dark Wizards from invading, then they can only invade if Wencit "died of old age" or was killed.

fallsfromtrees wrote:
What is the textev that Wencit is dying of old age. IIRC, he has said that he can die of old age, not that he is in imminent danger of doing so.

One thing that I think is being overlooked in this discussion is that in order for the God's of Light to prevail in Orfressa's group of universes, it is not enough to simply defeat the wizard lords of Kontovar and their forces and allies.

Remember that 10,000 years ago, Ottovar and Gwynnytha won the wizard war's, set down the Strictures of Ottovar, and established Council of White Wizards to enforce those strictures. Despite this, black wizardry eventually reared its ugly head again and forces of the Dark came frighteningly close to winning a total victory.

What is required is to eventually bring about sea change in the attitudes of humanity and establish a stable society capable of perpetuating those new attitudes such that it is no longer possible that enough people will turn to the dark for them to ever again threaten humanity as a whole.

Simply destroying the continent of Kontovar would do little or nothing to bring about that change. In fact, doing so in the face of anything less than the existential threat that existed at the end of the Fall of Kontovar might well set a precedent that would make the ultimate victory of the dark gods more likely.

All of the is on top of the personal cost to Wencit of once again perpetrating death and destruction on such a massive scale.

looksbeforeheleaps wrote:One thing that I think is being overlooked in this discussion is that in order for the God's of Light to prevail in Orfressa's group of universes, it is not enough to simply defeat the wizard lords of Kontovar and their forces and allies.

Remember that 10,000 years ago, Ottovar and Gwynnytha won the wizard war's, set down the Strictures of Ottovar, and established Council of White Wizards to enforce those strictures. Despite this, black wizardry eventually reared its ugly head again and forces of the Dark came frighteningly close to winning a total victory.

What is required is to eventually bring about sea change in the attitudes of humanity and establish a stable society capable of perpetuating those new attitudes such that it is no longer possible that enough people will turn to the dark for them to ever again threaten humanity as a whole.

Simply destroying the continent of Kontovar would do little or nothing to bring about that change. In fact, doing so in the face of anything less than the existential threat that existed at the end of the Fall of Kontovar might well set a precedent that would make the ultimate victory of the dark gods more likely.

All of the is on top of the personal cost to Wencit of once again perpetrating death and destruction on such a massive scale.

This appears to be the reason that Wencit is pushing the mages so hard as an alternative to wizardry - he has apparently come to the conclusion that wizardry will never be controllable, so he is in effective going to see about wiping it out, and have the mages as a control for the occasional person with a gift for the Art who manages to accomplish something.

Well, with Bahzell and Leana's daughter's affinity for harp, it now seems MUCH less likely, but my own thought on the nuclear option was that Wencit would find a near immortal successor with a much stronger body by training Bahzell and Leana's child as a wild wizard. Someone with a life expectancy already longer than a half elf, with the body strength of Bahzell and the magic field link strengthing it, augmented by becoming a Wild Wizard.... Such a being would likely be able to use the spell if passed to him by Wencit w/o burning themselves out.

Also, I was thinking it was more that wizardry is too powerful and tempting for the general populace. But if Wencit takes a few hundred years to train an apprentice who he has confidence in to carry the reins for the next several thousand years....

And where would such an apprentice be trained but in the mage's hall, under semkirk's guidence and an entire flock of mind readers to watch his motives and detect any hint of dark magic.

You'll recall that Wencit gave his magic library to the mage's guild, so it would be the logical place for him to train an apprentice.

For that matter, maybe the crown will be recovered and entrusted to the mage's guild or my proposed successor to Wencit. If it's not a noble blood line that has the crown, but the mage's guild, it'd always be given to a guild master who is already a strong psionicist and is experienced in restricting his own mental powers.

hmm, just realized just how close the mage's skill set is to the crown. If it had been distributed in the bodies of a large number of slaves, that could be a place Wencit wouldn't go, he might realize where it was, but be unwilling to kill several hundred people to reconstruct it. But then he might have taken the time to gather them and awaken the power from it....

nah, he said he thought the mages came from wizards being careless. : )

Morris