The posts on anime sorcery got me wondering. Now, somewhat of a fan of fair nippon, I sat down and thought about a 'typically japanese' view of sorcery [1].

So, demons are connected to ancestry, and age, things that are venerated and respected.

Object demons become family Heirlooms, imbued with the strength of use by great men [and women], possessor, and possibly parasite demons, and maybe even passers, are Ancestors, brought back to aid their descendants, and hell, inconspicuous demons could be that too, or, perhaps, household gods. Add 'ofuda' as was pointed out somewhere else, as 'preformatted' pacts, and you've got quite a viable basic mythos behind 'Koumajutso', lit. demon summoning, that reflects base aspects of japanese character. Now, that took about six minutes, and some playing with an online english/japanese dictionary.

What I'm trying to figure out is what other nationalities easily conform to entirely steretypical models like the above. Any thoughts?

[1] Ron's question: "If every sorcerer in the world was gathered in one place, what would it look like", which I've always been tempted to answer with some kind of big transglobal Forge disco. Eek.

For a world spaning sorcerer campaign, perhaps using Lore to determine how fixed into native mysticism a character is?

With low lore scores, a character can only summon and bind by very strict traditional methods based on his cultural upbringing... while at higher Lore, the adept realizes that demons can be all things to all people, and what (and how) one summons is determined no by any one set of beliefs and myths, but by state of mind. Eventualy, masters (lore 5 and 6) invent their own personal mythology which idealy complements their character and personal style. As a person grows more experienced and as the mind broadens, sorcery becomes less ritualized and more personal.

Just a stylistic thought.





But another line of thinking I was mucking about with is Noir style sorcery... (I'm a huge Bogart fan). Object demons abound (the Fem Fatal's red lipstick, the privite dic's trench coat, the mob torpedo's pair of .45's) as do psycho-demons (the dic's opressive sense of justice, the fem fatal's alure). Demons as places (the Wealthy Client's mansion as demon which corrupts his family into a bunch of gambling, drinking, degenerates). Demons as funny little people, informants, and partners; creepy, often evil, but almost NEVER overtly supernatural.


Or a Road Rage style game set in a post-civilization Astralian outback in which all the demons are motor vehicles, and all Need fule of some sort (whatever that might turn out to be!)

Bailywolf wrote:
But another line of thinking I was mucking about with is Noir style sorcery... (I'm a huge Bogart fan). Object demons abound (the Fem Fatal's red lipstick, the privite dic's trench coat, the mob torpedo's pair of .45's) as do psycho-demons (the dic's opressive sense of justice, the fem fatal's alure). Demons as places (the Wealthy Client's mansion as demon which corrupts his family into a bunch of gambling, drinking, degenerates). Demons as funny little people, informants, and partners; creepy, often evil, but almost NEVER overtly supernatural.

TQuid

Clearly you are a superior human being. It is the only explination for your affection for such a genera bending classic. Well noted. There is also an (inferior) sequel called Witch Hunt. It stars Dennis Hopper instead of Fred Ward as Harry P Lovecraft... but its still pretty cool.

Thank you both for pointing out the names of those movies...now I can go hunt them down. I watched them on HBO years ago and I've been desirous of copies ever since.

It also got me into the whole modern noir sorcery thing, which got me into sorcerer.

Ron, both the movies mentioned should be in the Sorcerer bibliography (filmography?) because they just ARE.

Speaking of international sorcerers, I just watched a Thai ghost movie called Nang Nak (Ghost Wife). It was cool, and beautiful, and very sad. I guess it won several pan-Asian film awards a couple of years ago.

In it, the Buddhist dignitary (they call him 'your dignitary' in the subtitles, like 'your highness') finally summons the ghost up and banishes her by having her husband (widower, that is) say goodbye.

The cool part is that she says to him that now she must serve the Buddhist dignitary until she's worked off the karma of her evil deeds. And I said to myself: whoa.

The ghosthunter who, when he resolves a ghost's crisis, the ghost becomes (for a time) his servant. That would make god's own Sorcerer character.

-Vincent

I just finished watching Legend of Zu two days ago, which is biggest budgeted HK movie for special effects. While it was primarily inspireing me for ideas for my Forgotten Fist design, it could easily apply to Sorcerer as well.

The struggle takes place between the immortal taoist schools that live atop Mount Zu, and a sorcerer long lost to power known as Insomnia. The Emei school, requires that you find your own special sword(object demon) out of a flying mountain imbedded with swords,"Each weapon has its own spirit". Also the weapons can follow people throughout their various incarnations in life.

Insomnia eats souls of humans, immortals and weapons alike and can regenerate for each soul it eats. The head priest of Emei travels to another dimension to summon a weapon known as "the power of the universe"(summon), leaving behind his mind as a glowing blue crystal that grants magic powers(another object demon).

This movie is full of ideas for demons, uses of powers, and what happens when enough sorcerers get together.

Chris

Zu is cool as hell, and Nang Nak seems excelent!

I've got a mini-setting in the works (and Ron should relentlessly mock me for the snails pace I'm keeping on its developement) called Wuxia. inspired in no small part by movies like Zu and Storm Riders (as well as the long literary tradition of Chinese fantasy, martial arts, and occult ficiton).

My take on Demons is that they are mystic Styles of martial arts which imbue their masters with awesome powers... but humanity is Honor, and Honor implies Duty. More than a kung fu fighting game, I want it to tell stories about conflicting loyalities, betrayal, and reclaimed honor. But of course there has to be some good kung fu fighting too!

Bailywolf wrote:
I've got a mini-setting in the works (and Ron should relentlessly mock me for the snails pace I'm keeping on its developement) called Wuxia.