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Age of Ice and Blood: A Pathfinder System Heroic Fantasy Quest

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Random semi-related fact, Medieval priests practiced necromancy a lot even though it was supposed to be forbidden. Uh...I don't mean "raise zombies" kind of necromancy, but "summon spirits for knowledge" kind of necromancy.

They also poked around at demonology. It wasn't common enough that literally every priest did, but it was common enough to be considered a problem to be addressed.

So it wasn't exactly unknown for religious figures to be poking at magic.
 
Rictus said:
Random semi-related fact, Medieval priests practiced necromancy a lot even though it was supposed to be forbidden. Uh...I don't mean "raise zombies" kind of necromancy, but "summon spirits for knowledge" kind of necromancy.

They also poked around at demonology. It wasn't common enough that literally every priest did, but it was common enough to be considered a problem to be addressed.

So it wasn't exactly unknown for religious figures to be poking at magic.
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Keep in mind we mostly know about that stuff from the very er... 'reliable' sources of ecclesiastic and civil courts passing judgement on those same priests and that in turn is mostly based on confessions extracted under torture. I think it is fair to say that what we are mostly dealing with is unimaginative torturers asking for similar confessions and not the common attempted practice of magic
 
[X] It is sorcery, tread warily lest if cost you more than any mortal battle could

- healthy paranoia is good especially in a strange new world
 
[X] It is just as the doctor says an odd mineral

I don't know what you guys are talking about with the whole more in character thing. We're still in character building right now, so we have the freedom to pick the lens Ronald views this sort of stuff through.

Picking standard peasant response number two might be a reasonable direction to take him, but it isn't a helpful one.

Burning the witch is all well an good when you have the whole town with you and your target doesn't actually have any powers.

If the locals are on the side of the magic users and the witch in question can actually hex you then it's a different proposition.

Ronald is going to have to grapple with this stuff no matter what we choose, but it'd be a mistake to lean into attitudes that will make interacting with the wider world harder.
 
The vote is pretty close so I think I'll leave it up for a while longer

The Vote is Not closed.
Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Aug 11, 2021 at 2:04 AM, finished with 41 posts and 21 votes.
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Artemis1992 said:
In Pathfinder thousands.
The cursed ones seem to pretty rare among those.

In real life an unknown number. I usually assume that things I don't understand are not magical though.
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My original comment was in regards to being a medieval knight in a low magic fantasy setting who has not encountered something as unexplainable since i highly doubt that they teach the scientific method and rationalization in Knight school (this is a pun joke).
 
butchock said:
My original comment was in regards to being a medieval knight in a low magic fantasy setting who has not encountered something as unexplainable since i highly doubt that they teach the scientific method and rationalization in Knight school (this is a pun joke).
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But he has likely encounter lots of inexplainable things.
He likely knows little of medicine, but assumes that Zaia's treatments are not magical.
He knows little of sailing, but assumes that the captain does his work without witchcraft.

Here he has something strange, but not stranger than magnets, which the learned man assures him are mundane, so there is no reason to be paranoid about it.
 
Artemis1992 said:
But he has likely encounter lots of inexplainable things.
He likely knows little of medicine, but assumes that Zaia's treatments are not magical.
He knows little of sailing, but assumes that the captain does his work without witchcraft.

Here he has something strange, but not stranger than magnets, which the learned man assures him are mundane, so there is no reason to be paranoid about it.
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Yes that's Understandable, but people have been sailing in the Mediterranean for a very long time now and our PC has likely been around people that treats wounds since his youth hence he has context and can see these things as mundane. But a strange green rock? Maybe if he gets used to it he wont be as suspicious of it, but it being the second day of just discovering it, a healthy wariness of new things is warranted.
 
butchock said:
Yes that's Understandable, but people have been sailing in the Mediterranean for a very long time now and our PC has likely been around people that treats wounds since his youth hence he has context and can see these things as mundane. But a strange green rock? Maybe if he gets used to it he wont be as suspicious of it, but it being the second day of just discovering it, a healthy wariness of new things is warranted.
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I think it would be the most practical attitude if he just assumes that it's not really his business if it's magic or not.

The doctor can care for the nature of things, a priest can care about the theological implications, for Roland the stone is just a tool that can help his men find land before supplies run out.
Not something to worry about, or be wary of.
 
Artemis1992 said:
I think it would be the most practical attitude if he just assumes that it's not really his business if it's magic or not.

The doctor can care for the nature of things, a priest can care about the theological implications, for Roland the stone is just a tool that can help his men find land before supplies run out.
Not something to worry about, or be wary of.
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I agree that practicality and pragmatism is necessary as a leader of men, but this vote is about character development as stated by the GM, and i'd rather our PC be wary of new things until it proves itself.
 
[X] It is just as the doctor says an odd mineral

Magnets, how so they work? Rationalising the stone thingy as some exotic form of magnet makes sense.

Plus, while the 10,000 Greek cried in relief upon seeing the sea, at this point the ship will be quite happy to see anything else besides more thalatta.
 
butchock said:
I agree that practicality and pragmatism is necessary as a leader of men, but this vote is about character development as stated by the GM, and i'd rather our PC be wary of new things until it proves itself.
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The difference between healthy paranoia and the regular old crazy kind is how it impacts your ability to interact with the world around you.

Being so wary of new things that even when presented with an explanation from a reasonably reliable source you still get twitchy about a life saving tool is probably leaning towards the unhealthy side of things.
 
DragonParadox said:
For people who want to use Roland's loss of faith to argue that sorcery is not so bad, you do have to explain the mechanism by which you get there. Like how does the princes being dishonorable make witchcraft OK?
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Here us how I see it.

Divine Right to rule undermined by the princes behavior.

If the that doctrine is false, maybe other doctrine can be false.

The stone is not doing anything a magnet wouldn't do. Maybe it is harmless sorcery.
 
Acolyte said:
Here us how I see it.

Divine Right to rule undermined by the princes behavior.

If the that doctrine is false, maybe other doctrine can be false.

The stone is not doing anything a magnet wouldn't do. Maybe it is harmless sorcery.
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Keep in mind Roland did not feel betrayed by his own king, he still believes in that. He just does not believe that 'holy' of righteous war can exist
 
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