[UA] Re: Traumamancy

[rex monday]

Wow, this is really close to a school of magic I was chewing on in my head. 
I was tossing around the idea of calling it Lachrimancy and having it be the 
polar opposite of Irascimancy. I was thinking it would have been developed 
by a major Irascimancer, or possibly the founder, who got a free trip to the 
House of Renunciation.

So basically, as a sort of mirror to Irasc., the "tear jerkers" would have 
to get others to cry and comfort them, but could never partake of their own 
grief. They could never express their own pain.

What do you think?


>Message: 5
>From: "Joshua Knorr" <j-knorr at uchicago.edu>
>To: <ua at lists.uchicago.edu>
>Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2000 16:02:53 -0500
>charset="iso-8859-1"
>Subject: [UA] Traumamancy
>Reply-To: ua at lists.uchicago.edu
>
>"Life is pain.  Anyone who tells you different is trying to sell you
>something."
>	- Dread Pirate Roberts
>
>We all go through periods of suffering, grief, and loss.  Each person's 
>life
>story has tragic chapters - times of darkness and depression, pains both
>great and small.  If we're lucky, we come through the other side better
>people.  We learn from our mistakes and losses, and we set the pain behind
>us and move forward.
>
>Not traumamancers.  For these adepts, pain is both power and price - it is
>the source of their magic and the downside that comes with it.
>Traumamancers (sometimes called "Hamlets") are obsessed with a certain
>painful event from their past - a Core Trauma.  A Core Trauma can be almost
>anything painful, from the loss of a dear friend to a suicide attempt to
>some sort of abuse.  Traumamancers are obsessed with keeping this event
>fresh in their mind, yet they cannot achieve any sort of closure or
>resolution for it, either.  From this tension comes the power they wield
>over the emotions of others.
>
>If these adepts seem to have more than a passing resemblance to
>epideromancers, you're right. But where epideromancers torture themselves 
>in
>order to gain mastery over their bodies, the pain traumamancers inflict on
>themselves serves to allow that pain mastery over them.
>
>Note that a Core Trauma need not be a single event.  It can a series of
>occurrences, but there needs to be a central pain in order to provide the
>focus a Traumamancer needs.  A Core Trauma also corresponds to one of the
>five Madness Meters, much as a Fear stimulus does.
>
>Taboo: Traumamancers cannot seek or achieve any sort of resolution of
>closure regarding their Core Trauma.  They cannot get effective counseling
>for their problems, nor can they come to such an understanding on their 
>own.
>The wound must always be there, open, for a traumamancer to gain power.
>What this also means is that Traumamancers cannot gain Hardened notches 
>when
>exposed to stimuli that closely relate to their Core Trauma [GM's
>discretion].  A Traumamancer can choose to automatically fail the check in
>question (thus avoiding the risk of getting Hardened and losing all
>charges), but doing so is in and of itself a Self-6 check.  Remember,
>traumamancers always *think* that they are trying to come to grips with
>their pain.
>
>Minor charge: Spend an hour meditating on your Core Trauma.  This is
>frequently done with the aid of "mementos", various places or objects
>(trinkets, songs, books, esp. diaries) that somehow relate to the Core
>Trauma.
>
>Significant charge: Spend four hours talking to someone else about the pain
>in either his/her life or your own.  Note that if the focus of the
>conversation is the adept's Core Trauma, this conversation cannot possibly
>lead to meaningful resolution.  If the adept is on the receiving end of 
>some
>competent therapy, he/she will begin to unconsciously sabotage the dialogue
>as he/she begins to feel the power of pain leaving.  After a session or two
>of this, a therapist will most likely conclude that the patient is "not
>serious" about treatment and will end the professional relationship.
>Alternatively, create a new "memento" relating to your trauma.  The most
>common way to do this is with some artistic expression (painting, song,
>writing), although there are other ways possible as well.
>
>Major charge: Witness an event that replicates your Core Trauma.  This
>re-enactment must be real on the part of the participants - it cannot be
>deliberately staged, although more than one Hamlet has unconsciously
>arranged circumstances to unwittingly induce others into participating in
>such events.
>OR
>Sever ties to all your "mementos".  If they are physical things you must
>destroy them.  If they are places you must vow never to visit them again.
>Traumamancers call this "Facing the Fire".  It represents an attempt to be
>free of one's Trauma once and for all - and will result in the loss of all
>other charges.  It is very dangerous - more than one adept has cracked 
>under
>the pressure and succumbed to insanity when trying to confront his/her 
>past.
>Needless to say that multiple Madness rolls will be involved.  If
>successful, the Traumamancer has one last major charge.  Once it is spent,
>the adept loses all magickal abilities and is no longer a Traumamancer.
>
>Random magickal domain: Emotion and fate.  Traumancers specialize in making
>things go right for people (a misguided attempt to correct the terrible
>events of the past) or in putting people at ease with their unquiet
>thoughts.
>
>[Formula spells later.]
>
>Joshua Knorr
>WWBBD?
>
>

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