[UA] Re: Paradoxes

[George Guy]

Let me rephrase that:

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

On 5/16/07, George Guy <meebler at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 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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>
>
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