Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zombiegleemax Aug 01, 2004 20:38:38	So, the way I understand how magic works, preserving and defiling are really the same thing, just to a different degree. The novels make it fairly clear that preserving or defiling is just a matter of caster choice at the time of casting. If 10 preservers cast the same spell in the same spot, would that have the same result as a defiler casting a spell in that spot? If a preserver cast a spell in a corn field (I have no clue if they have corn on Athas as I think about it) would it impact the yield? Sure the plants wouldn't die, but would yield drop from 150 bushels per acre to 100? It seems to me that any kind of arcane magic is bad for the environment, preserving may not be dumping raw sewage into the oceans, but it's probably comparable to a filtered exhaust stack at a coal burning power plant. There really is no point to this thread, just interested in what other people think.
#2 zombiegleemax Aug 01, 2004 23:48:46	IIRC the difference was once described in either a novel or a sourcebook as being that the preserver "replaces the life force taken with some of her own." So the answer to your question should be that there is a difference in quality and not not merely in quantity. Incidentally, such a model would entail that either Athas is not subject to the laws of thermodynamics and/or mass-energy conservation, or that "life energy" is not really energy.
#3 xlorepdarkhelm_dup Aug 02, 2004 0:41:32	I personally ruled that there was a chance of defiling if a preserver cast spells from the exact same set of plants within a day. 2x from the same set was fine, but more than that, and you're treading on very thin ice. Of course, I also had it so higher level preservers could potentially cast from the same spot more frequently, as they have learned a finer control over how to drain the energy, and actually can pull energy from a much wider radius (at the same rate which a low-level preserver gathers from a smaller radius), taking substantially less energy from each plant as a result. As long as the plants aren't completely drained (and subsiquently defiled), they are replenished by the next day.