[UA] Avatar: The Mentally Ill Mathematician?

[gaston at math.sunysb.edu]

Actually, I think you're totally right.  The way I was picturing this
working was Mentally Ill Mathematician is just the latest ascension in a
long history of this Archetype.  Which is what drew me to Wallace's quote
- that, while this persona in our culture has correlaries throughout
history, those correlaries seem at first glimpse radically different drom
its current instantiation.

So in Aboriginal Culture, the MIM would have been the Firebringer.  Then,
through the ages, the archetype changed with a series of ascensions, until
Cantor or whomever ascended in the early 20th century as the MIM.

(John Nash was probably a Godwalker.  His recovery may indicate another
ascension, and the Archetype changing once more?)

And so I'm trying to think of Avatar Channels that work in broad enough
strokes to encompass the general Promethean nature of the Avatar, rather
than the specific Mathematical nature of its current incarnation.

...and I'm drawing a blank.  I mean, the idea essentially is a sacrifice
of sanity for knowledge, right?  So the first avatar channel would, I
think, do something like let you take a failed mark in a madness meter in
exchange for retroactive success (ala Entropomancy I Win) on a Mind-based
roll?

But the thing is, that's about all I can see the Archetype entailing.  The
Sanity -> Knowledge Exchange.  So either the other channels get more
specific with the current state of the Archetype, or I need to think of a
couple more 'feats' that are like that one, only more so.

Which is where I'm drawing the blank.

>This is personally what I don't like about The Avatars in UA. The
>Archetype is supposed to be a universal component of humanity but
>where does The Mentally Ill Mathematician fit into Aboriginal culture?
>Not anywhere really.

>Thus, Archetypes should really be quite generic, actual Archetypes
>that people fit but as they grow in power they can actually twist that
>Archetype to fit their own ends. They are so embedded within the
>Archetype by the time they hit Godwalker that the Avatar changes the
>Archetype and vice versa.
>[...]
>Now, I'm not saying their can't be a Mentally Ill Mathematician, but
>whoever wants that Archetype to really fit into the Clergy will have to
>start with Ascending as the Wielder of Fire (the burned and scarred
>God of light and creativity, patron of artists and inventors) and
>defining his Godwalker channel as something to do more with logic
>and madness rather than creativity and sacrifice.

>>So - a (post) modern incarnation of an avatar first represented by
>>Prometheus.  The mentally ill mathematician. Think we can cook up
>>some channels and a taboo?