Post by darian on Apr 27, 2008 8:04:06 GMT -5
Of Illusion
There are several inconsistencies which perpetrate themselves throughout Hollow, most of a rather benign nature. Dragons which mosey into pubs without putting a wall out of commission, dryads with vampiric next of kin bedding down and producing children with elves of indiscriminately aged, austere, and hazily noble backgrounds, etc.Most of it is worth a chuckle, at the very least, most find, I suppose.
The most severe of transgressions, however, has been administered to the character class of the Illusionist.
The general misconceptions which the name has gathered unto itself, distortedly, as though it were itself the illusion, have maimed the legacy to such a degree that the majority of those who are illusionists are either reduced into proceeding as though they were not, out of sheer vexation at the task of function as an Illusionist in a world which perceives you as something spelled the same, though clearly not what you seem to think you are, or proceeding in alignment with this cultural mythology of the classes.
The name is, ultimately, a deceptive one, and one which has specific connotations in the dirt world that do not necessarily apply to it in the world of the collective keystroke. The problem will generally not arise so forcedly in other races, classes, due to their derivation from ultimately mythical sources into an ultimately mythical world - Vampires, Barbarians, Bards. Whatever specifications Hollow has tacked on to these things, you are never so far from the truth when you come in that you cannot play a convincingly manifest character which will ultimately remain unscathed when the administrators swoop down to rectify your assumptions.
The Illusionist, however, carries the connotation of the trickster, hoodwinkery, the flimflam man of lesser, if at all, mystical functionality.
Due primarily to the consistently superior prowess of all members to all members, such petty tricks are merely acknowledged, in order that they may be shrugged off, and magicians of elemental or physical potency cleave you with fire in an instant, or Barbarians slash at your illusions, only to find them just that, only to slash instead into you - but a lowly flimflam man, of course, and of no true place. It's like signing up to be a suede-shoe'd slickster of a lawyer, only to be bracketed with hustlers of an all together separate order, the car salesman and smack slingers of the arcane realms.
The root of the error, and what must first be understood before we may proceed to conclude that Illusionists are even a probable selection at all in a world where the tangible is so very devastating in even the most bombastic of hands, is this:
That the Illusion is sensory, and not psychological.
This is a most laughable fallacy when explored to even its smallest rational conclusions.
Were illusions merely visual, or auditory, or tactile, then what they would constitute is the simplest of physical manipulations to duplicate sounds and images - magical light tampering, a forcing of sound from controlled friction by the particles of the airs, a summoning of wind or any other physical explanation an illusionist could offer.
This manner of illusion is merely applying an admittedly deft sense of creation with the most basic of magical functions, and ultimately differs in no serious regard from conventional arcane methods, differs only in their lack of development and application.
This may seem enough to justify a class, may even offer an easy route in or out of the illusory: learn to manipulate these fields on their intenser planes as well as the deceptive, or use what you already know as a magician of the physical world to create illusions.
This, however, is the pot and the kettle calling the television screen black.
That is, after all, what the power button is for, to unleash the vast array of depictions capable from so small and typical an object, by a series of minutely complex, mechanical manipulations.
In the case of the Illusionist, the powers are a studious absorption into the focal points of the mind, combined with an extensive capacity for channeling and manipulating the tense and combustive stream of magical energies.
You get into the mind, the holy sanctum of the body, by understanding how to. That is the first, and simplest, of steps.
To linger on it, however, I cannot see how it is by any means a simple or easily acquired skill - you must understand yourself, your own mind, its functions, obtain this solidarity and proceed to understand each of these in other beings as well.
The Illusionist is an adept psychologist, the master of context, the preacher of perspective.
He must be, for once he understands how to magically tap connections between beings, he must move so subtly that no conscious or subconscious entity will notice his stirrings until the great vat is boiling over.
To manipulate the senses from their internal route; consider, for a moment, the psychological occurrence of synaethesia, when the senses cross wires in the mind and begin to operate through each other - colors heard, visions smelled, breezes seen.
A very real, dirt world illustration of the kind of function an Illusionist must comprehend and control to the utmost degree.
The senses must be made to apprehend what is not there.
So far, the first and second types of illusionist mentioned still ultimately perform the same tasks, merely through different means, if I am not mistaken.
This is where they differ:
The psychological Illusionist has the capacity to reach out and touch other beings, can sense them, must know them, can infiltrate them.
In other words, there is no capacity for proving these illusions what they are until a mind is strong enough to seize itself.
The senses include pain. Should the Illusionist wish to conjure a sword to hack at you with, he could administer all wounds upon you in your perceptions, and afflict all requisite pain as well.
In this way, the Illusionist is an artist, and succeeds only in as much as his aesthetic, creative abilities are convincingly able to seduce the mind into not questioning what it should ideally believe itself to be seeing.
To the logistics of it - the potential for God-moding and ubering up Illusionists is therefore phenomenal, and must be carefully marshaled by clear judgment and a proportional awareness of boundaries. The Illusory equivalent of the SWORD OF DOOM!!!!!!! is every bit as laughable, if not moreso, considering the implications of it.
Should an Illusionist wish to make you think you are walking somewhere when you are standing still, he could, in theory, do so.
Casting Illusions, therefore, on NPCs, is one thing altogether, while tact and finesse are required when administering them on players, which to a roleplayer of any real capabilities, so far as I have seen, this would be an unspoken fact of the agreement implicit between him and his fellow creators. You don't dick around with the people you're asking to read your posts and react to your character, and the mental connection requires a comfort zone - it cannot be denied, but is silly to exploit.
The reactions to Illusions are the most troublesome of the lot.
In five words one can discount an illusion on the strength of his character's mind.
This, however, was always a problem for Illusionists, and if it's not this which occurs then you are merely ignored or misconstrued.
Just as well, however, in five words an Illusionist can say that what he was doing was really an Illusion all along.
So far, then, as actually typing an Illusionist
Illusions are tactical constructions that require agility, forethought, and invention of the most spontaneous and demanding order - an alternate reality framed with a constant awareness of reality proper, and the ability to comprehend the extent to which a mind will follow your lead.
The more skillful the Illusionist, the more convincing the Illusions, the more a mind will follow him.
The question of syntax, however, and sentence structure must come to mind - Does the illusionist frame his illusions, like traps, and spring them on unwitting victims; or even frame them innocently enough, but still wait to reveal what they truly are?
Does the Illusionist inform the present company through an OOC comment; are there tells; pre-arrangements?
These concepts and problems will and must arise if you are to harness the capacities of the Illusionist to their fullest degree.
There is ample room for concern with a class like an Illusionist.
He raises many questions simply by functioning, and it is only the fortune that at any given time on Hollow there are, only ever at most, a handful of Illusionists - most of the time all but non practicing.
The most severe of transgressions, however, has been administered to the character class of the Illusionist.
The general misconceptions which the name has gathered unto itself, distortedly, as though it were itself the illusion, have maimed the legacy to such a degree that the majority of those who are illusionists are either reduced into proceeding as though they were not, out of sheer vexation at the task of function as an Illusionist in a world which perceives you as something spelled the same, though clearly not what you seem to think you are, or proceeding in alignment with this cultural mythology of the classes.
The name is, ultimately, a deceptive one, and one which has specific connotations in the dirt world that do not necessarily apply to it in the world of the collective keystroke. The problem will generally not arise so forcedly in other races, classes, due to their derivation from ultimately mythical sources into an ultimately mythical world - Vampires, Barbarians, Bards. Whatever specifications Hollow has tacked on to these things, you are never so far from the truth when you come in that you cannot play a convincingly manifest character which will ultimately remain unscathed when the administrators swoop down to rectify your assumptions.
The Illusionist, however, carries the connotation of the trickster, hoodwinkery, the flimflam man of lesser, if at all, mystical functionality.
Due primarily to the consistently superior prowess of all members to all members, such petty tricks are merely acknowledged, in order that they may be shrugged off, and magicians of elemental or physical potency cleave you with fire in an instant, or Barbarians slash at your illusions, only to find them just that, only to slash instead into you - but a lowly flimflam man, of course, and of no true place. It's like signing up to be a suede-shoe'd slickster of a lawyer, only to be bracketed with hustlers of an all together separate order, the car salesman and smack slingers of the arcane realms.
The root of the error, and what must first be understood before we may proceed to conclude that Illusionists are even a probable selection at all in a world where the tangible is so very devastating in even the most bombastic of hands, is this:
That the Illusion is sensory, and not psychological.
This is a most laughable fallacy when explored to even its smallest rational conclusions.
Were illusions merely visual, or auditory, or tactile, then what they would constitute is the simplest of physical manipulations to duplicate sounds and images - magical light tampering, a forcing of sound from controlled friction by the particles of the airs, a summoning of wind or any other physical explanation an illusionist could offer.
This manner of illusion is merely applying an admittedly deft sense of creation with the most basic of magical functions, and ultimately differs in no serious regard from conventional arcane methods, differs only in their lack of development and application.
This may seem enough to justify a class, may even offer an easy route in or out of the illusory: learn to manipulate these fields on their intenser planes as well as the deceptive, or use what you already know as a magician of the physical world to create illusions.
This, however, is the pot and the kettle calling the television screen black.
That is, after all, what the power button is for, to unleash the vast array of depictions capable from so small and typical an object, by a series of minutely complex, mechanical manipulations.
In the case of the Illusionist, the powers are a studious absorption into the focal points of the mind, combined with an extensive capacity for channeling and manipulating the tense and combustive stream of magical energies.
You get into the mind, the holy sanctum of the body, by understanding how to. That is the first, and simplest, of steps.
To linger on it, however, I cannot see how it is by any means a simple or easily acquired skill - you must understand yourself, your own mind, its functions, obtain this solidarity and proceed to understand each of these in other beings as well.
The Illusionist is an adept psychologist, the master of context, the preacher of perspective.
He must be, for once he understands how to magically tap connections between beings, he must move so subtly that no conscious or subconscious entity will notice his stirrings until the great vat is boiling over.
To manipulate the senses from their internal route; consider, for a moment, the psychological occurrence of synaethesia, when the senses cross wires in the mind and begin to operate through each other - colors heard, visions smelled, breezes seen.
A very real, dirt world illustration of the kind of function an Illusionist must comprehend and control to the utmost degree.
The senses must be made to apprehend what is not there.
So far, the first and second types of illusionist mentioned still ultimately perform the same tasks, merely through different means, if I am not mistaken.
This is where they differ:
The psychological Illusionist has the capacity to reach out and touch other beings, can sense them, must know them, can infiltrate them.
In other words, there is no capacity for proving these illusions what they are until a mind is strong enough to seize itself.
The senses include pain. Should the Illusionist wish to conjure a sword to hack at you with, he could administer all wounds upon you in your perceptions, and afflict all requisite pain as well.
In this way, the Illusionist is an artist, and succeeds only in as much as his aesthetic, creative abilities are convincingly able to seduce the mind into not questioning what it should ideally believe itself to be seeing.
To the logistics of it - the potential for God-moding and ubering up Illusionists is therefore phenomenal, and must be carefully marshaled by clear judgment and a proportional awareness of boundaries. The Illusory equivalent of the SWORD OF DOOM!!!!!!! is every bit as laughable, if not moreso, considering the implications of it.
Should an Illusionist wish to make you think you are walking somewhere when you are standing still, he could, in theory, do so.
Casting Illusions, therefore, on NPCs, is one thing altogether, while tact and finesse are required when administering them on players, which to a roleplayer of any real capabilities, so far as I have seen, this would be an unspoken fact of the agreement implicit between him and his fellow creators. You don't dick around with the people you're asking to read your posts and react to your character, and the mental connection requires a comfort zone - it cannot be denied, but is silly to exploit.
The reactions to Illusions are the most troublesome of the lot.
In five words one can discount an illusion on the strength of his character's mind.
This, however, was always a problem for Illusionists, and if it's not this which occurs then you are merely ignored or misconstrued.
Just as well, however, in five words an Illusionist can say that what he was doing was really an Illusion all along.
So far, then, as actually typing an Illusionist
Illusions are tactical constructions that require agility, forethought, and invention of the most spontaneous and demanding order - an alternate reality framed with a constant awareness of reality proper, and the ability to comprehend the extent to which a mind will follow your lead.
The more skillful the Illusionist, the more convincing the Illusions, the more a mind will follow him.
The question of syntax, however, and sentence structure must come to mind - Does the illusionist frame his illusions, like traps, and spring them on unwitting victims; or even frame them innocently enough, but still wait to reveal what they truly are?
Does the Illusionist inform the present company through an OOC comment; are there tells; pre-arrangements?
These concepts and problems will and must arise if you are to harness the capacities of the Illusionist to their fullest degree.
There is ample room for concern with a class like an Illusionist.
He raises many questions simply by functioning, and it is only the fortune that at any given time on Hollow there are, only ever at most, a handful of Illusionists - most of the time all but non practicing.