[UA] Oh, Those Wacky Cliomancers

[Nick Wedig]

>> Anyway, what if the whole deal was an attempt by some cobweb farmer to hog all the charges from that site, and have all the other clios getting nothing.
>
>Then I'd say he's fixing to get his ass handed to him.

Well, the basic plan would be comparable to a dipsomancer stealing Dr. Ugly Mouth's cup and replacing it with an exact replica.  At first, the guy wouldn't notice, until he tried charging.  Then, he wouldn't know what happened to the real one and get angry, but you'd never hear much about the cliomancers seeking William's real home (drunks seeking magic cups and levitating things, however, would be a job for the Sleepers).  If he was wrong on the metaphysics of cliomancy, and it is about public perception rather than what actualy occurred, then yes, he's just screwing himself over.

>Official history that folks have studied for years can be wrong. So--if the charge comes from the investment of the students, then even if the history's wrong, that's where the charge is. The 'reality' of the situation is meaningless. Unless you want to have two slightly different arcanodynamics running simultaneously. (I'd probably go that route)

I'm not certain I want both, but I'm just trying to clarify which to work with.

> But this could provide some additional motive for folks that want to alter,
>invent, or forget history. Maybe Gibbon or Toynbee were up to something. Maybe the post-modern revisionists are up to something. Maybe there's a soundstage in Hutchinson, Kansas where the 'real' charges for the lunar landing reside. A Cliomancer would have to go to the moon to be sure. But we've been over that before.

Well, if the school's about what the public perceives as true, then the soundstage is worth nothing (perhaps a minor, if some word's gotten out about it but it's not well known) and the moon's still the Big Prize.  But if it's about what actually occurred (whether anyone knows about it or not) then you'll find conspiratorial minded adepts seeking out obscure soundstages (then again, they're probably doing so anyway, but just misunderstanding the school and gonna get nothing).

Mr. Teapot
first man on the moon

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