[UA] Some Thoughts on Fan-Made Adepts and Avatars

[Chris Cooper]

--- George Guy <meebler at gmail.com> wrote:

> Reading through the adept school and archetype
> submissions on UA.com, I've
> come up with a few general critiques.  Take them for
> what you will.

Make sure
> that your archetype's taboo isn't too broad, and
> that someone antithetical
> to your conception of the archetype couldn't follow
> it.  On the other hand,
> don't make it too specific; unexpected thematic
> variations are always cool,
> especially if they lead to ascension wars.

An archetype should be easily identifiable in most
cultures. The archetype should also be the pure
version of the symbol it expresses, the Ur-identity.

> *Having your Cake and Eating it Too Should be Hard.*
>  Adept/avatar hybrids
> are rare for a reason.

I disagree. If there is no immediate taboo clash your
combo should be fine. If you want a entropomancer and
fool combo, you only blow your entropomancer taboo, if
you use the fool channel. 

> *Keep it Postmodern.*  I think I've finally come up
> with a clear definition
> of what Stolze and Tynes call "postmodern magick". 
> *Postmodern magick* *relies
> on personalized, egocentric philosophies.*  All of
> the old schools have
> selfish principals, but they don't admit it and try
> to apply those
> principals universally.  

Post Modern Magick is true through most times as it
expresses contemperary ideals. The systems may change
but it is always about the individual sorcerer.

I thought old schools die because they become too
heavy and unwieldy with symbolism and artificial
ritual that it becomes philosophy and dies. Think of
it like fashion sense. Certain things just have
universal appeal, some things do not. 

The root to all adept magick is the one, the sorcerer.
Without the one, the school flounders and dies. Magick
is something the adept possesses and nurtures
selfishly despite it being technically impossible to
give away.

Cryptomancy is dying
> because it relies on objective
> truth.  If your magick is based on lies, you need an
> absolute truth to
> twist.  

I thought Cryptomancer is dying because it is too good
at what it does, swamped by its own successful
obscurity. Or perhaps this is a lie. But the reason it
survived for so long is that they adapted their school
all through the ages, keeping it fresh, dumping the
stale concepts.

Post Modern does not exclude the old only how the old
is presented in context. The old magick schools that
survived because of Darwin's Survival of the Most
Adaptable. Old schools like dipsomancy survived
because it is universal and currently applicable not
because it has the most power. Cryptomancers still
chug along because there manipulation of the Absolaute
Truth still has cultural currency.

Cheers,

Chris.



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