Post by Maerin on Jun 28, 2011 22:51:45 GMT
Knowledge (theology & philosophy) would definitely be an understanding of a setting's religions similar to what a divinity student would know in our world...with a couple caveats.
Irrespective of how one might view morality and spirituality in our world, the spirituality of morality in Magnamund is an undoubtable component of the setting. Put another way, though a person might argue that the study of a religion or philosophy one does not believe in might be possible in our world (for whatever reasons you want to offer to back that arguement up with), the arguement is not going to work nearly as well for a being in Magnamund. Consequently, one cannot get very far in, say, a study of religions worshiping Naar or some other manifestation of Evil without...well...worshipping Naar and/or that other manifestation of Evil. Such practice would have an obvious and consequent impact on how Good a being you are. Corruption is an influence scorned only at one's own peril in Magnamund.
Conversely, your "divinity student" in Magnamund is going to have a much better understanding for (because it is a real threat) the lines that shouldn't really be crossed in "studying", "dabbling", or what have you with Evil.
All of the above, of course, also applies to those rare Evil scholars attempting to "study" the practices and principles of Good. Needless to say, however, "uncorruption" is a very uncommon force of influence in Magnamund.
As a side note, the following is just as true in Magnamund as it is in the real world. First, knowledge known is typically viewed through the lenses of one's biases (personal, cultural, religious, etc.). The higher your skill check (generally reflecting more Ranks you have in a Knowledge skill, feats enhancing that Knowledge skill, etc), the more likely you are to have a less "clouded" understanding. That is not only true when the Knowledge skill is being applied to someone else's religion/philosophy/culture/etc/etc, but also true when it is being applied to your own. Second, the more obscure a piece of knowledge is, the more unlikely it is going to be that you know it at all, and the more unlikely it is that you will know it well/accurately. That is also measured by how high a given Knowledge skill check proves to be.
You would approach a question of Knowledge (magic & arcana) in the same fashion as any and all of the previous discussions. The skill "Knowledge (magic & arcana)" is likely to be limited, if only because it is so broad. Not completely unuseful, of course. Jynx and Ilia have it, representing overall familiarities with the subject but not anything approaching real expertise. Castiel has that skill too, but he also "enchances" his Knowledge skills with a couple additional, more specific Knowledge skills. However, if all one wants is a general familiarity with the subject, there's nothing wrong with the more generalized Knowledge skills (so long as one does not get TOO generalized, as discussed previously).
But, as discussed above, if you wanted to achieve a high degree of expertise with such a broad Knowledge skill, you will have to "feed" it a significant amount of Ranks to make it productive. That stands to reason, representing the significant investments of time, study and learning necessary to achieve both breadth and depth to a very large subject.
Your example of Knowledge (magical creations) could be taken a couple different directions. After all, a lot of things are "magical creations". Something created through alchemical knowledge might be considered a magical creation. So is the giak spawned in the pits of Helgedad. But I think, from your context, it sounds like you were leaning more towards the latter over the former.
Maerin grins. Can't imagine that idea might be merely coincidental, considering some of the information recently offered to the player characters by the NPCs you have been talking with.
So you might need to sell me on why Altor might have a significant (depending on how many Ranks we're talking about here) learning investment in a subject that doesn't apparently relate much to his concept. What reasons would Altor have to study Knowledge (crafted life), considering your concept and your character's background? Remember, most (though not all) of the beings in Magnamund that go in for crafting living creatures do tend to be the bad guys. And, that being the case, I'm going to point back up in this post to the comments I made about the frequent fates of those who study (and if there are enough Ranks put in, undoubtedly practice..."theory" only goes so far) the arts of the Enemy. Remember the time frame this game is set in.
Irrespective of how one might view morality and spirituality in our world, the spirituality of morality in Magnamund is an undoubtable component of the setting. Put another way, though a person might argue that the study of a religion or philosophy one does not believe in might be possible in our world (for whatever reasons you want to offer to back that arguement up with), the arguement is not going to work nearly as well for a being in Magnamund. Consequently, one cannot get very far in, say, a study of religions worshiping Naar or some other manifestation of Evil without...well...worshipping Naar and/or that other manifestation of Evil. Such practice would have an obvious and consequent impact on how Good a being you are. Corruption is an influence scorned only at one's own peril in Magnamund.
Conversely, your "divinity student" in Magnamund is going to have a much better understanding for (because it is a real threat) the lines that shouldn't really be crossed in "studying", "dabbling", or what have you with Evil.
All of the above, of course, also applies to those rare Evil scholars attempting to "study" the practices and principles of Good. Needless to say, however, "uncorruption" is a very uncommon force of influence in Magnamund.
As a side note, the following is just as true in Magnamund as it is in the real world. First, knowledge known is typically viewed through the lenses of one's biases (personal, cultural, religious, etc.). The higher your skill check (generally reflecting more Ranks you have in a Knowledge skill, feats enhancing that Knowledge skill, etc), the more likely you are to have a less "clouded" understanding. That is not only true when the Knowledge skill is being applied to someone else's religion/philosophy/culture/etc/etc, but also true when it is being applied to your own. Second, the more obscure a piece of knowledge is, the more unlikely it is going to be that you know it at all, and the more unlikely it is that you will know it well/accurately. That is also measured by how high a given Knowledge skill check proves to be.
You would approach a question of Knowledge (magic & arcana) in the same fashion as any and all of the previous discussions. The skill "Knowledge (magic & arcana)" is likely to be limited, if only because it is so broad. Not completely unuseful, of course. Jynx and Ilia have it, representing overall familiarities with the subject but not anything approaching real expertise. Castiel has that skill too, but he also "enchances" his Knowledge skills with a couple additional, more specific Knowledge skills. However, if all one wants is a general familiarity with the subject, there's nothing wrong with the more generalized Knowledge skills (so long as one does not get TOO generalized, as discussed previously).
But, as discussed above, if you wanted to achieve a high degree of expertise with such a broad Knowledge skill, you will have to "feed" it a significant amount of Ranks to make it productive. That stands to reason, representing the significant investments of time, study and learning necessary to achieve both breadth and depth to a very large subject.
Your example of Knowledge (magical creations) could be taken a couple different directions. After all, a lot of things are "magical creations". Something created through alchemical knowledge might be considered a magical creation. So is the giak spawned in the pits of Helgedad. But I think, from your context, it sounds like you were leaning more towards the latter over the former.
Maerin grins. Can't imagine that idea might be merely coincidental, considering some of the information recently offered to the player characters by the NPCs you have been talking with.
So you might need to sell me on why Altor might have a significant (depending on how many Ranks we're talking about here) learning investment in a subject that doesn't apparently relate much to his concept. What reasons would Altor have to study Knowledge (crafted life), considering your concept and your character's background? Remember, most (though not all) of the beings in Magnamund that go in for crafting living creatures do tend to be the bad guys. And, that being the case, I'm going to point back up in this post to the comments I made about the frequent fates of those who study (and if there are enough Ranks put in, undoubtedly practice..."theory" only goes so far) the arts of the Enemy. Remember the time frame this game is set in.