Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 12 Feb 2006 to 13 Feb 2006 (#2006-26) From: MYSTARA-L automatic digest system Date: 14/02/2006, 19:00 To: MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 7 messages totalling 248 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. Flaems, Old Alphatians & Elements (2) 2. Voyage of the Princess Ark back in Dragon (2) 3. Bruce Heard on the MMB (2) 4. Alphaks (was: Flaems...) ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2006 12:24:57 +0200 From: Ville V Lahde Subject: Flaems, Old Alphatians & Elements I haven't been able to follow the latest discussion closely, but somebody was wondering about the status of the other elements (earth & water) in the academic debate in Old Alphatia. Just a thought: perhaps their elemental system was bipolar, and not the quartet known in Mystara? In RW history there have been many versions of elementalism. In ancient China earth and air for example were considered to be the main ones, and the rest (more than two) were only combinations. But I recognise an inherent problem. In OD&D cosmology the four elements are a REAL feature of the world. I guess the Old Alphatians wouldn't have made such a clear mistake in their elementalism... But: perhaps the Air - Fire -dispute was originated by a specific question, and it became an issue between those schools, leaving the others in the sidelines. Perhaps something like the phlogiston-debate? Is Fire inherent or is it a derivatice of Air? (In OD&D cosmology the former would be true.) Ville ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2006 13:44:39 +0100 From: Havard Faanes Subject: Voyage of the Princess Ark back in Dragon So.. I assume everyone has heard about this by now? :) http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=583120 How do people feel about this? 1) Excited? 2) Indifferent? 3) Disappointed? Håvard :D ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2006 13:53:56 +0100 From: Havard Faanes Subject: Re: Bruce Heard on the MMB --- Giampaolo Agosta skrev: > Hi all, > > for those who don't read the MMB as well, there's a > post by Bruce here: > > http://boards1.wizards.com/showpost.php?p=8431226&postcount=23 I forgot you had already made your post about this Giampaolo! Bruce told me he is too busy to become a regular on our forums these days, but that he would drop by every now and then, and also hopefully make an appearance after we've had a chance to read the june issue of Dragon. Can't wait! :) Håvard ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2006 11:01:05 -0400 From: Steven Carter Subject: Re: Flaems, Old Alphatians & Elements It's absolutely possible to say that culturally the Alphatians were dualists - at least the vast majority. Any dissenting opinions would likely be shouted down by both factions. On 13/02/06, Ville V Lahde wrote: > Just a thought: perhaps their elemental system was bipolar, and not the > quartet known in Mystara? In RW history there have been many versions > of elementalism. In ancient China earth and air for example were > considered to be the main ones, and the rest (more than two) were only > combinations. > > But I recognise an inherent problem. In OD&D cosmology the four > elements are a REAL feature of the world. I guess the Old Alphatians > wouldn't have made such a clear mistake in their elementalism... ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2006 16:06:38 +0100 From: Giampaolo Agosta Subject: Re: Bruce Heard on the MMB Havard Faanes ha scritto: > > http://boards1.wizards.com/showpost.php?p=8431226&postcount=23 > > I forgot you had already made your post about this > Giampaolo! :) > Bruce told me he is too busy to become a regular on > our forums these days, but that he would drop by every > now and then, and also hopefully make an appearance > after we've had a chance to read the june issue of > Dragon. Can't wait! :) Same here. GP ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2006 16:15:52 +0100 From: Giampaolo Agosta Subject: Re: Voyage of the Princess Ark back in Dragon Havard Faanes ha scritto: > So.. I assume everyone has heard about this by now? :) > > http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=583120 > > How do people feel about this? > > 1) Excited? Exited, of course :D GP ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2006 18:46:24 +0100 From: Francesco Defferrari Subject: Re: Alphaks (was: Flaems...) And the highest wizards > were lazy so why would they go to the trouble of creating a lot of > mechanisms and creatures to do the work when lots of commoners would > be available to do the work? Which isn't to say that there wouldn't > be lots of ambitious wizards, alchemists, enchanters, etc, who would do > that, but I don't think that a planet (a star system) would be > mechanized. Well the Alphatian booklet in DotE says on page 4 that "almost every representative of the [alphatian] race wielded magic". But this refers only to "pure" alphatians, so maybe among cypris and other races there were more commoners. Anyway I don't imagine Old Alphatia as a place full of iron and mechanical golems, I'd rather say that they had a lot of air elementals or air golems as servants, and a very high magic world. I think the "nobles and commoners" social system was estabilished only in Mystara, and things were quite different in the alphatian home world, where maybe the social difference was mostly between "pure" air wizards alphatian and all the others, so explaining why the air-fire debate was so much important, because behind it there was a social struggle between the rich and powerful air wizards, the old nobility of the empire, and the cypric fire wizards, a new social class, something like nobility and middle class before the french revolution. After the destruction of the alphatian homeworld the new empire tried to integrate more the cypris people and all the not-atlantean in the upper class, that anyway became naturally more and more a matter of who wielded magic and who didn't. Anyway I believe there are alphatian kingdoms, like Arogansa, that are still ruled by an "old blood" pure alphatian nobility. bye, Francesco ___________________________________ Yahoo! Mail: gratis 1GB per i messaggi e allegati da 10MB http://mail.yahoo.it ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ End of MYSTARA-L Digest - 12 Feb 2006 to 13 Feb 2006 (#2006-26) ***************************************************************