Mages and Holdings

[Matthew M. Colville]

OK, I have a question. How does a blooded mage go from having no
holdings to a single holding?

-Matthew

-

[Jonathan Picklesimer]

On Tue, 7 Jan 1997, Matthew M. Colville wrote:

> OK, I have a question. How does a blooded mage go from having no
> holdings to a single holding?
>
> -Matthew

Matthew,

Have you purchased the Complete Book of Magecraft(BoM)? It has some really
interesting ideas about blooded mages and how to run them. I feel that
the mages gain holdings by identifying sources. Once they have found a
source, then it will take time and effort for them to discover the
secrets of the source, conceal its location, and learn to tap its magical
power. The impression the BoM gives is that each source is relatively
unique. Just because your mage has discovered a splendid waterfall that
is a potent source does not mean that he automatically knows how to tap
mehbail(sp) from an ancient grove of elm trees. So it takes time to
learn how to gain control of all of the magical powers of the source. In
addition, I think that if a mage discovers a source that is already being
used by another mage, then he may conisder that a zero level holding and begin
to try to exert his will/presence on the source. If he survives, he may
have a new source.

The BoM also points out that all of the magic in a province does not stay
put. If there is a natural disaster or a development of some kind that affects
the source, not only will the source not be as powerful, but changes in
the land may cause the magical energy to flow to a different collection
point, much like water in a dammed stream.

You can also poison or ruin a source. It takes a lot of power to
completely destroy one, but if you wanted to make things hard on a mage,
you could always have people trying to develop in that area, and thus
constantly threaten his power. You must be careful doing this for you
"do not meddle in the affairs of wizards for they are subtle, and quick
to anger."

Jonathan