This mage would be in huge demand from monarchs and churches in a historical setting or presidents and CEOs in a modern one. The ability to make it rain in dry areas, or stop raining in wet areas, would increase agricultural profits by an untold margin. They can’t summon lightning strikes or storms, but they can turn a day from rainy to sunny and back again.
We can all see how eye lasers and death curses can be used to prevent oppression, but noncombat powers have enormous potential as well, perhaps even more so.Ĭonsider a mage who can control the weather. However, in most stories, you don’t even have to consider the clever ways mages might use minor powers because authors love to give their heroes major powers instead. If mages can predict the outcomes of random probability, they can use casinos as their own personal ATMs. If mages can see through the eyes of animals, they can know in advance where enemy soldiers will be and ambush them before every battle. If the mages in your setting have weak elemental control, they can use it to trip their opponents by sloshing water under their feet or make a killing in the gemstone business by brushing useless earth off valuable ore without the need for expensive tools. You can see this dynamic at work in competitive sports, where the difference of a few inches in height or a few pounds in weight has a huge effect on the outcome of a contest. A little supernatural power goes a long way, and humans are notoriously good at leveraging seemingly small advantages into big gains. This is a difficult issue even for low-magic stories. It’s Hard to Oppress Magesīefore we even get into the social and political problems of this trope, there’s a practical barrier that most stories fail to overcome: How do you oppress someone who can shoot fire out of their hands? Why This Trope Doesn’t Work I’d love to see some 13th-century priests try to put this lady on trial.įirst, let’s examine why this trope fails in every story that uses it. * It doesn’t matter exactly where the power comes from or how it manifests the important part is that a supernatural ability is the primary mark of oppression. X-Men is one well-known example, as are the new Fantastic Beast films.
#Wow mage time warp worthless full#
So, naturally, I decided it made sense to double down and write a full article about why this trope doesn’t work and why we should stop using it.įor the sake of brevity, I use “oppressed mages” to mean any situation in which people are systematically mistreated and marginalized specifically because of their supernatural abilities, whether they use spellbooks or mutant genes. This trope is incredibly popular, and many beloved stories employ it. That is the most bizarre, strangest - and in my opinion, worst - Anima Power I have come across in Torghast.I talk about stories that misunderstand power and privilege a lot here on ye olde Mythcreants, but I get by far the most pushback when it comes to the trope of oppressed mages. Leaving the instance counted as ending the buff. We looted our Soul Ash and ran out.īack in the lobby of Torghast, we were all dead. We had to kill the boss before Time Warp ended. We made it to the final boss with no lives left. Nope! That instead meant we couldn’t use Time Warp until the last boss. They had assumed that if we left the floor before it expires, we avoided the death. That makes Time Warp last 300% longer, but when it ends, everyone instantly dies. Turned out, the Mage in the group had chosen Timebreaker’s Paradox.
When we entered the floor, however, the entire party died, instantly. That “next floor” was the third floor - the easy floor where you dodge a trap or two, talk to a Broker and buy stuff, then move on. As a group, we cleared a floor, then we moved onto the next one. One run, however, I experienced the strangest ability I’ve seen yet.
Sometimes, the text of the spell is so long, I can’t read it all without mousing over. Or increase damage and healing but lower your movement speed. Maybe they increase your damage output but reduce your healing.
Some make are more mundane, like flat damage increases or buffs to speed.Īnd then there are those that come with a drawback. Killing certain mini-bosses, mobs, or breaking the defenseless pottery will reward you with enhancements to your skills and powers. Torghast is all about picking up new powers from Anima Cells and using those powers to increasing effect.
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