*nods to Kashim* I agree with you, especially because if one looks into the histories Ladantine's Cosmic Hope team's discussion talked about the danger of having Kethuru involved and how to deal with him...

"“Not unless we become Vernal Gods,” said the Emperor. “Once we find our way back to Lusternia, we’ll drain the nexuses of power as they did during the Vernal Wars and raise ourselves up as gods. Then, we awaken Avechna who will drive back Kethuru. Afterwards, we can divide Lusternia up among us and be worshipped as the new gods and command all that we survey.”"

It wasn't Ladantine's intentions to destroy the world, it was his intention to rule it. He wasn't stupid... and this is the exact reason why most Celestian arguments against the Taint involving Kethuru fall on their asses... Mags are as anti-Kethuru as anyone.

Either way, OOC, I for one don't feel the taint is actually doing any destroying. I myself have done studies in and out of character, and I found that the taint is fully capable of sustaining life. On top of that, Viscanti are proof of the effects on Taint as well.

The taint doesn't destroy life entirely, but it does replace it with a different sort of life.

It's like the aliens in the Alien movies. They don't abolish all life. They follow a natural (for them) process of transforming all life into themselves.

Whether that is a good or a bad thing is entirely dependant on whether or not you're an alien. As non-aliens, most viewers of those movies do not wish for an alien victory.

Regardless, an Aquamancer demesne does -exactly- the same thing that a Geomancer one does. Except, Aquamancers just leave a sparkling pool of water, and Geomancers "sicken the land."

It would be nice to see them brought more in-line with one another, whether it's to make the Aquamancer demesne more volatile (The land suffocates under a sparkling flood of crystal-blue water), or to make the Geomancer's more neutral and dealing more with Earth.

While I don't necessarily disagree with this, isn't that a lot like changing the facts to fit the theory?

Also remember that Aquamancers worked for the healing of the land. I don't think they will ever 'suffocate' it.

Again, I believe the key is not in making Celest's environment/essence poisonous like taint is, but making their philosophy/actions offensive.

In terms of game mechanics, they are identical as concerns the landscape. So, it isn't adjusting facts to fit a theory.

And I doubt the Aquamancers sought to heal the land by flooding it. Floods tend to be, you know, a bad thing. Go look up some pictures of the midwest after the Mississippi flood of 95/96 (around there) and try to tell me that was good for the land.

Well, it's very similar. The floods DON'T suffocate the land, writing that they do changes that.

Anyway, it's not the same kind of flood. It's "shallow, crystal clear water." Not "house destroying, torrential, contaminated, muddy water."

Not always bad.

Communities farming near rivers often depend on flooding to improve soil quality periodically. Flooding, when natural and not the result of damming or other such human genius, is just something that happens. If people are silly enough to live in a flood zone it's their own problem .

Now, then. Flooding doesn't hurt the land?

You show me pictures of roads, bridges and crop fields and try to convince me that flooding hurts the land? No. In it's natural context, flooding is simply another part of nature, just as bushfires are.

Aquamancer's flood could be infused with Light - the artificial, cosmic vibrations.

But it's not Cosmic, it's Elemental, and uncorrupted by the Cosm.

EDIT: Plus, Nok, that's all well and good, but you find me ONE room demesned by an Aquamancer that looks like that and I'll concede your point. Good luck.

RE: Quidgyboo

Just because it can occur naturally doesn't mean it's healthy for the environment. Brushfires, if unchecked, can devastate large areas of the land and kill off large tracts of land for years and years. If I went around with a "brushfire" demesne that burnt down everything in my path, I doubt Serenwilde would be saying, "Well, okay, it occurs naturally, so it's fine with us that you burn down our forest and torch the Moonhart Mother Tree!"



That's a really far stretch by any means of the imagination.

RE: Nejii

That's my point. The description is pretty flattering to flooding the room, whereas it isn't to a Geomancer demesning. It'd be nice if the flooding was a bit more "damaging" in the description.

It's a little difficult to mix in game and out of game, but bushfires are actually needed for many native Australian plants to reproduce. If they don't occur the plants will go dormant and eventually die.

The way I look at it, if it occurs naturally then it is meant to happen. That is not to say I'd sit back and let whatever happens happen, though.

Well, if it works for Geomancers...
Thing is that it's confusing because Taint is present in elemental and cosmic, while Light is not.

Just wait for Pyromancers!

Supposedly, the occasional fire occurring in a natural forest is not enough to destroy or even seriously damage it. (A great deal of North American forest can't really be called natural at this point.)

So Serenwilde would probably not object to the occasional forest fire that wiped out a couple rooms and then a few game years later those rooms come back with an altered description implying they are more vital and full of new growth.

And If the aquamancers started flooding Serenwilde, I imagine that Serenwilde would object.

We would object to someone coming along burning down our trees, I imagine, but if the fire occured naturally Laneth, my character, would argue that we let it take its course.

I don't think anyone is arguing that Serenwilde should go ballistic if there's a naturally occuring fire or flood. A demesne, however, is not natural and is a sustained presence.

I find it highly likely that such an extended flood would be damaging to the landscape. There aren't a whole lot of land-based plants that grow underwater, after all.

The Taint and the Light are not equal and opposite powers, that's why. The Light is the force that seems to have dominated each of the Cosmic planes prior to Kethuru's release. It was, and for the most part still is, contained there. Celestines and Paladins can, in a sense, draw the light out, but for the most part it resides in the cosmic and has no desire to spread beyond the cosmic.

The Taint is... let's call it a "catalyst for change" created by the touch of Kethuru. It's whole purpose (or at least Kethuru's was) is to taint and/or consume everything it touches. So when Kethuru was released it hit Nil, the spread into elemental Earth, then Magnagora.

So basically the short explanation for that is that Light originates in Celestia, and stays in Celestia. Taint does not original in Nil. It originates in Astral, and spreads to Nil and Earth.

...although, come to think of it now, stuff on the elemental water plane produces light essence. So maybe the elemental plane of Water *is* contaminated by the Light.