[UA] Re: Paradoxes

[George Guy]

Conceal to Reveal: Personamancy, Cryptomancy, Cliomancy, Infomancy,
Dipsomancy, Oneiromancy, Narcoalchemy, Iconomancy
Corrupt to Redeem: Plutomancy, Pornomancy, Amoromancy, Kleptomancy,
Bibliomancy
Surrender to Control: Entropomancy, Annihilomancy, Epideromancy,
Irascimancy, Urbanomancy, Videomancy, Mechanomancy
(Or vice-versa, on all accounts.)

On 5/16/07, Chris Cooper <insectking at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> --- Shawn Isenhart <isen0011 at umn.edu> wrote:
>
> > If I stop eating I will become beautiful.
> > I can control my life through controlling my food.
> > I'm unhappy so I binge which makes me unhappy.
> >
> > Any of these could become an awesome school.  Folks
> > who starve
> > themselves for charges.  Folks who can't stop
> > eating.  Folks who go on a
> > power binge, and then purge it all out.
>
> ESURIOMANCY
>
> Esuriomancy is an ancient school of ascetic magick
> that had a recent revival in the Information Age.
> Instead of invigorating a school, which was largely
> small fry, the new school plucked at the heartstrings
> of a disjointed glamour-hungry youth and found
> salvation in a new faith to the Devouring Mother.
>
> ASCETICISM
> All cultures have had ascetics, those who chose to
> eschew the material world and society to endure
> privations in order to understand the divine. India
> had fakirs, China had Buddhists, and Europe had
> anchorites.
>
> In Europe, the ascetics had a long, quiet, solitary
> life if they kept to themselves, lived in caves, and
> sat on top of poles all day. They were quiet and pious
> and where lauded as long as they stayed away from the
> masses. As evidenced by Bishop Priscillian when his
> vows of poverty and chastity started spreading around
> the town of Avila, the church suddenly thought
> different when tithed income suddenly dropped.
>
> Charged with heresy with side orders of witchcraft,
> devil worship, and sexual orgies, Priscillian was
> declared guilty, excommunicated, and killed. The early
> church installed a much more materialistic bishop to
> ensure the money flowed. That was European
> Asceticism's day of glory.
>
> Ascetic Priscillianism still drifts about Spain. It of
> course never ended well when spiritual people went
> against the flow of money. What did you think happened
> to the Cathar Heretics in France? Christians and
> Gnostics had to suffer for that one. Jewish Gnostics
> were just snubbed not stabbed. Only in the East did
> ascetics continue to flourish.
>
> After their haphazard and humbly unrecorded history of
> intolerance, the Ascetics dwindled, with an occasional
> unwashed crackpot finding some lost soul to prentice.
> Ignored or at least occasionally shot at in the World
> Wars or Revolution of the Week.
>
> In the sixties, Beatles went to see gurus in India and
> suddenly the occasional wandering hermit was
> surrounded by truth seeking hippies and groupies. In
> communes, the Ascetics taught new adepts with the
> amazing fertilizer of street drugs.
>
> By the seventies, people merely liked talking about
> the amazing spiritual power of the fakirs and the
> psychic strength of Buddhist monks but no one really
> wanted to miss tea for the ability to levitate a rock.
>
>
> For two long and dry decades, Erusiomancy went back to
> being the school of freaks in a subculture of freaks,
> until the mid-nineties when the anorexics found
> companionship and rebellion against society
>
> ANALATRY
>
> What started out as a rebellion against conventional
> decree that anorexia nervosa is a dangerous
> psychological neurosis, anorexics united by the
> internet argued that anorexia is a lifestyle choice.
>
> As a uniting symbol, Ana evolved to symbolise the
> anorexic choice, she became an imaginary but
> supportive mother figure.
>
> In the late eighties Olga Vermeer stumbled into
> Amsterdam's occult underground and her worldview took
> another unhealthy turn from sorcery. She was a victim
> of incestuous sexual abuse from a young age and from
> her preteen years drifted between self-injury and
> anorexia. Guilt prevented her from divulging her
> abuser. For Olga, admitting her emotional damage would
> be an intolerable weakness, the shame of complicit
> sinfulness.
>
> It was not a big surprise to be targeted by a series
> of abusers when the distinction between rape and
> serial one-night stands was nonexistent. After another
> meaningless night of consensual but involuntary sex,
> the last of her innocence, her untouchable soul was
> befouled with the sticky fingerprints of dirty magick.
>
>
> With glittering and hungry eyes, flesh-worker showed
> her his secret and he reached in and touched her in a
> special place. When he was finished, he stroked her
> cowed head whispered at her to keep their big secret.
>
> In a daze, Olga went home and threw away her blades
> and buried her knives, curled up in bed, and just
> stopped eating.
>
> As her family's concern mounted, she entered a stark
> decline shut off to emotional access. She hovered
> between life and death and entered a twilight trance.
>
> In her delirium, Olga saw and was comforted by a
> beautifully skeletal woman whom she knew as Ana. When
> she woke up in hospital fed with tubes and drips, she
> knew she had received something sacred, a vision.
>
> Olga launched into the world fervent with her good
> news, Ana was real and anorexia was not just a
> lifestyle choice but a spiritual path, by wasting away
> the ugliness, the true beauty of the truth shone
> through.
>
> When they had filled her with enough spiritually
> diminishing substance, Olga had the strength to
> escape.
>
> Moving into Germany, she found and discovered the
> secret community of anorexics. She eventually
> discovered a cabal of anorexic Wicca pariahs. These
> Wicca had discovered an Ascetic Master, and where
> being trained by him paying with board, lodging and
> sexual servicing.
>
> When she started preaching to them the truth of Ana,
> the Thin Goddess, with access to nascent magick, she
> created a school of adepts.
>
> The Wicca anorexics took to Analatry quickly, faster
> than to the old fart-bag Ascetic. It was not too long
> before they learned what they could from him and
> bounced him back into a life of drunken homelessness.
> Bolstered by knowledge in sorcery and their new faith
> in Ana, the new esuriomancers spread the word, and
> travelled, developing their school on the road. By
> using their new religion as an outreach program, they
> infiltrated websites, mailing lists, and therapy
> groups to placate girls and women suffering doubts
> from their secret discipline.
>
> Those anorexics deemed possessing the right potential
> where recruited into the Petite Church of Skinny Bones
> where they worship the Thin Beautiful Mother.
>
> In two years after her Vision, Olga's priestesses of
> petite founded a stable resource and outlet for their
> ministering duties. Within four years of finding
> religion and some of that recovering in hospital, the
> brittle-toothed and sallow-skinned Olga fervently
> worships Ana, a name for the Devouring Mother, a mask
> of the Mother. By starving herself, Olga found the
> holy spirit of Ana inside her and could let it out
> into the world.
>
> Analatrists perform the same steps to magick as
> Ascetics do, by privation and starvation they gain
> magickal power through harmful sacrifice. The
> cachexia, the thinning away of their impure and ugly
> bodies was the mark of been blessed by the grace of
> Ana.
>
> Anyone can be Ana's friend; all you have to do is stop
> hiding your inner beauty with earthly substance.
> Analatrists can only train anorexics, any other sort
> of eating disorder needs another sort of twist. It is
> suspected that there might be a Bulemic mageekian but
> these rumours are unsubstantiated and binge eating
> plutophages have chewed out their own niche.
>
> Analatry is a modern, revived version of Erusiomancy,
> the ancient school of divine ascetic magick. Since
> meeting, the two schools have parted ways. They refer
> to Asceticism as Old School Esuriomancy and Analatry
> as Young School Asceticism.
>
> Esuriomancers came in two flavours, thin, old, and
> boring Ascetics and skinny, young, and flashy
> Analatry. There is gender discrimination in the
> official Analatry cabal but nothing in the adept
> school itself. Thus, most Analatrists are female but
> Ascetics are mixed. Of interest, there is a
> demarcating age difference between the schools; people
> over 30 are normally Old School Ascetics, those under
> 30 are Young School Analatrists. Perhaps old
> Analatrists do not die they just go to Asceticism.
>
> OLD SCHOOL ASCETICS
> Generate a minor charge: Fast for a day without
> eating.
>
> Generate a significant charge: Fast without water
> until you suffer an isolation check.
>
> Taboo: Ascetics must eat when thirsting or drink when
> starving, but neither both nor neither in the same
> day.
>
> YOUNG SCHOOL ANAS
> Generate a minor charge: Sacrifice sustenance for day
> without eating.
>
> Generate a significant charge: Dance a dizzy spell of
> ecstasy. The Analatrist must roll under her Wasting
> skill to generate a significant charge.
>
> Taboo: swallow anything with calories. If food is
> swallowed, but is regurgitated within the same round;
> Ana has blessed you making you vomit it all up and you
> keep your charges. Water is a freely permitted
> sacrament.
>
> Ironically, recovering in hospital does not void
> charges because you are fed "Nil by Mouth", but you
> cannot gain any new ones either.
>
> Blast: The esuriomancy blast causes the victim's
> stomach and digestive tract to clench up painfully.
> This can cause pain, nausea, vomiting, and internal
> bleeding. The significant charge causes many small
> tears in the digestive tract, causing it to flood with
> blood. The bleeding causes additional discomfort with
> nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.
>
> Symbolic Tension: This is different for the two
> subschools. The young-school esuriomancer destroys her
> body for the sake of beauty. An old school
> esuriomancer has a much weaker symbolic tension: she
> releases her mind by starving her body.
>
> Two Schools: An Esuriomancer who is female, under 30,
> and trained by TBM is a member of the Young School,
> and uses the Young School Minor Formulas (as well as
> Common Formulas). Others are Old School Esuriomancers,
> and use Old School and Common Formulas. Because of the
> weaker symbolic tension of the Old School, all Old
> School Esuriomancers have to pay an additional charge
> for all common formula spells.
>
> Random Magic: Hunger and self-control; old School
> random magic also deals with fanaticism, while young
> school random magic relates to concepts of beauty and
> attractiveness.
>
> Charging tips: See the Hungry Thirsty mechanics below.
> Most esuriomancers earn a minor charge a day most
> days, and get a chance for a significant charge often
> but irregularly. This can be very risky, though -
> someone who seeks charges indiscriminately often ends
> hurt or hospitalised and unable to continue.
>
> Starting Charges: None.
>
> Common Minor Formulas
>
> Gaze Into The Abyss
> 1 minor charge
> Detect how hungry someone is, and their general
> dietary patterns and habits. You can also use this to
> detect another Esuriomancer, or, for that matter, a
> Gastromancer. Furthermore, you're able to see
> intangible beings made from hunger, such as
> thaumovores, Esuriomancers using "Abandon the Flesh"
> and demons motivated by physical hunger.
>
> Empty Inside
> 1 minor charge
> A single target gains your Waste skill for an hour
> with all the penalties, and will feel incredibly
> hungry, no matter how much they eat.
>
> Indigestion
> 2 minor charges
> This is the Esuriomancy minor blast.
>
> Young School Minor Formulas
>
> No, You're the Freak!
> 3 minor charges.
> This spell affects a single target that becomes, in
> everyone's eyes, repulsively ugly. This even affects
> the subject's own perceptions. Nothing about their
> appearance changes - it just somehow seems loathsome,
> and any flaws or distinctive characteristics become
> overbearingly painfully repulsive. This lasts a day.
>
> Target Weight
> 5 minor charges
> You gain a +30% bonus to any skills related to
> appearance or social influence, including Charm, Lie,
> and Distracting Physique, until you next violate
> taboo.
>
> Old School Minor Formulas
>
> Greater Cause
> 5 minor charges
> Some stroke of luck, or change of heart, affects the
> world in a way you'd consider better. You must specify
> the cause you wish to forward. It won't necessarily be
> a huge change, but something will change, you'll know
> the result, and it will happen within a day of using
> this formula.
>
> Rebirth of the Self
> 7 minor charges
> You gain a +30% bonus to your Mind and Soul scores
> until you next violate taboo. This also increases your
> Esuriomancy skill, but doesn't affect any other Mind
> or Soul skills.
>
> Significant Formulas
>
> Massive Purge
> 1 significant charge
> This is the Esuriomancy Significant blast.
>
> Abandon the Flesh
> 1 significant charge
> Your body loses consciousness and your senses are
> temporarily transported to a place of your choice. You
> can give a very general description or a specific one,
> as long as you'd be able to immediately recognize what
> you want to observe. You can't affect the place you
> watch, even with magic, and you can't perceive what's
> happening with your body. While you're out, your body
> is very vulnerable to possession; you get no
> resistance at all. This formula lasts an hour, or
> until you end it voluntarily.
>
> Unforgettable Me
> 1 significant charge
> You gain +5% permanently to a Body or Soul skill
> related to beauty or social influence. This can't take
> your skill above the appropriate attribute.
>
> My Body, My Problem
> 1 significant charge
> Heal the sum of the dice roll to yourself. You can't
> repair starvation damage with this formula.
>
> Vision Quest
> 1 significant charges
> Travel alone for an hour, and you'll start to see
> things. These are typically mystical messages about
> your current situation and often takes the form of a
> conversation with a supernatural or totemic being, who
> gives instructions. This may be a way of receiving
> messages from the Invisible Clergy.
>
> NEW RULES
> HUNGRY THIRSTY
> Starvation of food and dehydration of water is a rule
> system required by Eurisomancy's Ascetics and
> Analatrists. It is applicable to general gaming as
> well.
>
> STARVATION
> The average human body can go without eating for about
> thirty days.
>
> Wasting, or cachexia, from starvation affects the
> target from the second day after eating. It is as a
> special Body skill called Wasting.
>
> Wasting rises from 0% to 1% after the first day of
> starvation and another 1% every day afterwards.
> Wasting affects the Body, Mind, and Speed Stats and
> Skills. Any roll on those Stats and skills equal or
> below the Wasting skill watermark fails and it leaves
> the malnourished person dizzy and stunned for as many
> rounds equal to the lowest die off the failed result.
>
> If the starved person rolls a critical or matched
> pair, equal or under their Wasting skill, they suffer
> the sum of the roll as damage. This is exhaustion,
> bruising from collapsing, or just trauma from
> exertion.
>
> The Wasting also negates any attempts mundane,
> non-magickal healing and medicine if the healing roll
> is equal or beneath the Wasting mark.
>
> If the Wasting skill hits half or more of your Wound
> score, all but the simplest food is toxic. When eating
> roll your Wound score as a check. Failure means the
> person takes the sum of the roll as damage as the body
> violently and bloodily heaves up the food.
>
> When the Wasting exceeds current wound level, the
> starved person dies.
>
> Note: Wasting can also be used to measure slow but
> progressive diseases of the body, like cancer or
> HIV/AIDS.
>
> DEHYDRATION
> You lose 10% off all Stats and current wound level
> after the first day and 10% every day after that. Make
> an Isolation check once per day, the rank equal to the
> tens of the penalty. If the character fails their
> Isolation stress check, the person's three Passions
> realign to Get Potable Liquids Now!
>
> There is no cold turkey experience like someone
> deprived of the water. It is like slow, slow, dry
> strangulation.
>
> By Ted Pro with Chris Cooper
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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