Author Topic: Sponsored Magic debt compels?  (Read 1172 times)

Offline Belial666

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Sponsored Magic debt compels?
« on: April 06, 2011, 10:00:09 AM »
Any examples of debt compels for various types of sponsored magic? Soulfire and Hellfire - and to a lesser extent Seelie and Unseelie magic - are fairly easy to come up with something but other forms of sponsored magic are harder to do. Some types of sponsored magic don't seem to have an aware entity tied to them that can ask for compels. Some examples include Leyline Magic, Kemmlerian Necromancy, Elemental Magic (i.e. tapping the power of natural phenomena) and other forms of sponsored magic getting its power from sources not tied to a personified entity. Outsider Magic is also iffy; the Old Ones are supposed to be kind of unfathomable so it might be hard to nail down their agenda.

Offline Haru

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Re: Sponsored Magic debt compels?
« Reply #1 on: April 06, 2011, 10:30:55 AM »
I imagine, Kemmlerian Necromancy works on some sort of WWKD self initiative. So if you are compelled on a debt with Kemmlerian Necromancy, you are forced to inflict death and chaos, even if what you are destroying or who you are killing is important to you (either emotionally or for your plans).

In the case of leylines, it is probably a bit more abstract, but still doable, I think. As a natural phenomenon, a leyline is in a kind of balance, that probably comes from its surroundings. If you tap too deep into a leyline for power, the whole system gets out of balance, and because the wizard tapped into the leyline and connected with it, he will also be out of balance, until he does something to restore that balance. Maybe the tapped leyline suddenly lets plants wither in its surroundings, and the wizard would have to try and restore this in order to balance the leyline again. Maybe he has to do some sort of shamanistic ritual to slowly fuel up the leyline again, during which time he is not allowed to eat or drink or even sleep.

Or a different approach:
Harry didn't want to cross over into the nevernever at demonreach, because of the dark leyline there and what might be on the other side. Maybe there is an entity connected to every leyline, only they are not that obvious, but they still come to collect.

As for outsiders, who knows, what they want? Maybe they don't even try to compel any single debt, but wait till it piles up to the size of mount Rushmore and then they compel them all at once to push one of their minions inside you to kill you from inside and take over your body, so they can slowly get some of their people in place to finally open the outer gates. There is a reason, Outsider Magic is forbidden, even talking about it.
“Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?”
― Terry Pratchett, Going Postal

Offline sinker

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Re: Sponsored Magic debt compels?
« Reply #2 on: April 06, 2011, 05:43:41 PM »
Another way of looking at leyline or elemental compels is through immediate unforeseen dangers. For example when Harry tapped the storm in the first book he showed some signs of damage afterward (his fingernails were blackened). I'm not saying that example is really compel worthy, but think of that on a greater scale.

You could also compel them towards promoting the leyline or the element. When someone taps a fire, maybe later they could be compelled to burn something? Kinda what haru was getting at but more direct.

You could look at it a little more abstractly too and simply apply an aspect of the element to the person. Someone taps a storm then in the next scene (a social conflict say) they are compelled to be "stormy"? Not my favorite answer but I guess it works.

Finally you could take the big view of that and think of the elements and such as being forces of the (taoist-style) Universe, with it's own agenda. So with this concept I'd compel them to work towards the greater good (whatever you felt that was at the time).

Offline Becq

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Re: Sponsored Magic debt compels?
« Reply #3 on: April 06, 2011, 06:09:40 PM »
I think a key point is that ALL sponsored magic, by definition, must be tied to a 'personified entity' of sorts.  "These power sources, called sponsors, are at least semi-aware, if not fully-aware, entities." (YS287)  That said, it might not always be obvious in some cases that the Source in question is anything more than a pool of energy to be tapped -- Ley Lines are a good example of this, with the portions of the series involving Demonreach being a good example of how there can be a sentience behind such power.

What about power sources that simply came to be, without any entity involved to create the pool?  I see this as a chicken/egg question.  Sometimes an entity creates a pool of power and allows it to be tapped by others, for a price.  And other times, a pool of power the grows large enough to be tapped by others develops a form of sentience of its own.  Any concentration of power without such a sentience would probably attract some form of spirit that then adopts it as its own (possibly changing hands several times as the pool grew larger and attracted more powerful spirits).

So Elemental Magic would come from elemental spirit (whether they created the magic or were created by it doesn't matter), Ley Line Magic would be governed by the genius loci who reside at those locations, and Kemmlerian Necromancy...  Well, the details are up to those telling the story.  In the case of Kemmlerian Necromancy, you might say that it was a source of power developed and focused into a useful source by Kemmler himself.  And most likely the Sponsor is either Kemmler himself, transformed into a spirit form and working his will through others, or it is a spirit created by the concentration of death magic, and imprinted by the Kemler's goals.