[UA] 1930's UA

[S. Ben Melhuish]

Sam Gibbons wrote:
> What is the collective opinion of the group regarding post-modern magick in
> the 1930's? How would it differ? How would it be similar? Is it feasible?
> How powerful is the Hermeticism from bygone days? Is it even still
> lingering? What schools/paths would be around?

I know earlier settings for UA have been suggested and discussed; see if 
you can find something in the list archives.

I haven't given it much thought, but here are some things I would do off 
the top of my head:

* Hermeticism works.  Maybe it's fading (but people wouldn't know why), 
but it's still a force.
* Mechanomancy is in its prime.  It's not new anymore, but hasn't 
started fading yet, either.  Lots of powerful Central European dukes. 
Cryptomancy probably is powerful, too.
* There may be one or two other schools like mechanomancy & cryptomancy 
(call 'em "modern" schools; I have no idea what they'd be) which are 
relatively new, but aren't postmodern like most of the UA2 canon schools 
are, and will have faded out by the time of UA2 canon.
* Speaking of which, an unofficial serial ("Welter & Waste" by James 
Palmer, check the archives) suggested that entropomancy was invented by 
a Jewish refugee/resistance fighter during WWII.
* Maybe dipsomancy is a hip new school (esp. with prohibition making it 
more of a transgression)?
* There is probably some kind of sex magick school, maybe tied with 
hermeticism, and unrelated to the pornomancers.
* Avatars exist, of course.  Most of the archetypes exist, and most are 
very similar (or idential) to the UA2 canon descriptions (though 
ascensions between then and now might have tweaked a few).
* And finally, speaking of modernism vs. postmodernism (see above), if 
you're feeling scholarly, dig up a digestable reference and figure out 
the difference between the two, which might give insight into how magick 
is different then vs. now.  (I'd talk about it right now, but I'm a 
physicist/programmer, not a critical theorist, and would probably be 
Dead Wrong on most counts.)

I think the rules and themes of UA would port nicely to the 1930s, with 
no changes I can think of right now.

-- Sben

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