>>Well, there have to be some limitations to what Empaths can do. Otherwise no one would die.

I'm not going to touch on permanent injuries too much, since I don't know enough about how they've been presented in the past, but I'll go for the limitations tangent. The ultimate limitation of Empathy-as-mortals-know-it is Life itself. The cycle of life, death, creation and destruction has a teleological weight behind it and, from there, a sense of what is "meant to be" and "not meant to be."

Empathy cannot create what was, within Life's set limitations, not meant to be. Life magic in general terms, powered by this cycle, cannot violate the cycle. To do so would be like trying to build a wall out of air (without a Warrior Mage): the medium simply cannot do what the magician in this case conceives it to do. Immortality is abhorrent to how the cycle works. Things are born, experience and contribute, then die off as the next generation takes their turn. Nature does not want you to live forever, but to have your rightful place in the cycle and then return from whence you came.

It's possible that there are some plateaus of Life magic that supersede this limitation, by tapping into some higher idea of life than the relatively crude mechanism of the Plane of Abiding, but if so nobody has proven it. Instead, this is traditionally where necromancy comes in; the magic of breaking the cycle.

-Armifer
<Kvlt> Step 1: Want stuff! Step 2: Be ambitious! Step 3: Believe in the ability of your fellow man to carry you to heights you are too incompetent to reach alone.

>Is this a reason why shifting is taboo in the Empath guild? They can shift you younger, and theoretically extend your life beyond what's "meant to be"?<

Shifting is cosmetic, so I think it must be something else.



- Mazrian

The Flying Company
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d194/huldahspal/flyingcompany.png

Last I had heard on it was that Shift Age is ICly regarded as cosmetic only, but it literally changes your age due to technical limitations they had at the time. After all, a literal interpretation of the ability right now is pretty silly ("I...shift time to make you be born a week earlier?").

-Armifer
<Kvlt> Step 1: Want stuff! Step 2: Be ambitious! Step 3: Believe in the ability of your fellow man to carry you to heights you are too incompetent to reach alone.

>>("I...shift time to make you be born a week earlier?").

Isn't Jomay like 600 years old at this point?

--Player of Szrael --

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Professional Healers Association Fee Calcs: http://empathunion.com (G3 script and web calc links in the sidebar.)

PHA Crossing Healing spot: east, north, go backdoor from Empath guild. (Try gwething if no one is there!)

>> Last I had heard on it was that Shift Age is ICly regarded as cosmetic only, but it literally changes your age due to technical limitations they had at the time.

I actually asked about this when Obseden was writing Shift/Features 2.0 because that was my understanding too. He said it was not a technical limitation, and that it was intentional.

I have no bloody clue at this point.

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Rev. Reene

"...[gods] are symbols in a way that no human being, however 'archetypal', can ever be. They are actors playing parts that are real only for us; they are the masks behind which we see our own faces."

I like my fiction to make sense, so I'd really like to see Shift be given some kind of coherent lore.

It's been both said that Shift is purely cosmetic and that it changing your birthday is not merely a system limitation and is intentional. Both arguments have their problems and contradictions though.

But this is something better done in the Shift folder probably.

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Rev. Reene

"...[gods] are symbols in a way that no human being, however 'archetypal', can ever be. They are actors playing parts that are real only for us; they are the masks behind which we see our own faces."

Get some green dye, train up ME and ask Solomon to change your name to Yoda?

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Dartenian says, "The thing that makes Dragon Dance king is that it pretty much bonuses every single that can possibly be buffed for combat. Including at least two things that don't even exist."

Does being deaf and/or mute count? Cuz that I've seen.

Segmere
Shadow Priest, Baron's Own Militia

"The best cure for insomnia is to get a lot of sleep." ~WC Fields

<<I don't think it's pothible to roleplay a character with a deformity or quirk.

Fixed that for you. Cheerth!

-Evran

Crackling with unspent rage since 386A.V.

One of the history books in the Academy speaks of someone important being asthmatic. Or does that count as a weakness?


Thanks,
Lucerella