[UA] The lure of epideromancy

[James O'Rance]

Hello folks -

Last week I was cooking a bit of meat when I had one of those 
standing-on-the-edge-of-a-cliff moments - I suddenly realised that it would 
be very easy to slam my open palms against the very hot grill and provide 
myself with some nasty burns. Didn't do it, though. :)

Later that day I made a joke about it, saying that it probably would have 
given me a significant charge as an Epideromancer. Fortunately, I have a 
pretty good separation of rpgs and reality, so I wasn't tempted! However, as 
a measure of how appropriate I consider a magic school I often consider 
whether I would be able tpo put myself through its charge-gathering and 
taboos. If the school is too demanding for me (a non-magic obsessed person) 
then it seems about right.

For example, dipsomancy, entropomancy, epideromancy, mechanomancy, and 
pornomancy are all schools that I would find very difficult to follow. 
Cliomancy seems a bit "soft", and I wish I was able to break the taboo on 
Plutomancy.

Later in the week, I found myself flipping through the epideromancy spells, 
and something nudged its way into my attention. Epideromancers can heal 
wounds for minor charges, and I began to wonder what counted as a "wound"... 
cuts and burns, certainly, but how about sunburns? Or skin cancer? Tooth 
decay? Liver damage?

I'm a diabetic, and I know that given a nice clean scalpel and careful 
consideration, I could clinically wound myself and bandage it just as easily 
as I give myself insulin injections. Suddenly epideromancy begins to seem 
more reasonable. What are a few well-concealed scars compared to better 
health?

Then I started thinking about random magic, and what kind of healing I might 
manage with significant charges. I'm not thrilled about the body that 
genetics and soft Western living have given me... Basically, it comes down 
to this thought:

How many toes would I need to cut off to cure my diabetes?

Hmmmm. That's a disturbing thing to think.

On the other hand, now I can get into the head of epideromancer GMCs. I may 
never be able to do that with pornomancers - goes too much against the 
grain, I think. You don't need to read about my issues, though.


Cheers,

James O’Rance
“Divine being creates petting zoo. It gets out of hand.”
- The Bible (summarised by John W. Mangrum)

http://www.geocities.com/dragon-dreamer/

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