[UA] Question about Cliomancy

[Greg Stolze]

>Hi all,
>
>here's a question about Cliomancy: it's supposed to be history-based magic.
>Why does it concern itself solely with places and not, for instance,
>artifacts?
>
>An example: The Egyptian Museum of Berlin, Germany, as a place is moderately
>well-known at best in the populace. The building pales in comparison with
>its immediate surroundings, so a Cliomancer's best bet is possibly to just
>cross the street to Palais Charlottenburg. But the museum houses the famous
>bust of Nofretete, and this alone, I think, should generate at least a
>significant charge a day. And if it were loaned to another museum or toured,
>it would take that charge with it. So if Cliomancy is based on history, why
>is exclusive value given to places?

Cliomancy, as presented, is the magick of using history to gather up left
over attention.  The historical importance of a given object (or location)
is less important than how often people think of it.  The White House is
powerful because people think of it all the time.  Bust of Nefertiti...?
Not so much.  Maybe worth a minor charge because of its ancillary
association with "Ancient Egypt."  I'll grant that it is one of the things
people think of.

My rule of thumb is, if you can use a location as the punchline of a joke,
it's probably significant.  ("...Times Square?  I thought this was
Graceland!")

With all that in mind, there's no reason a cliomancer couldn't have an
alternate fix on objects, as long as s/he wasn't charging off of places as
well.  I don't have any particular problem with the cliomancer who has Lee
Harvey Oswald's gun getting charges from it.  The phrase "holy grail" is in
such common use that the real object would surely yield some charges.  But
the place-based Clios may be more prominent for any number of reasons.

1) It's how Dugan Forsythe conceived of it and taught it, and it's only now
starting to mutate with people charging off things.  Or people, for that
matter.  (Is some Clio hanging around Clinton and making sure he stays in
the public eye?  Nah...)

2) If you charge off objects, you always have to worry that some
mechanomancer is going to send his army of flesh-eating tin ants to take it
away from you.  Locations do not have this problem.

-G.

[I]f you can't understand why the product of a lurid genre is lurid, then I
can't help you. You may as well complain that your computer is a computer.
    -Justin Achilli



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