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Apr. 25th, 2016 02:30 pmLearning more and more about how Vicky's homeverse works as I poke at magic systems.
One thing: in conservative magical families of ANY walk (fae human whatever) there's a bias against "blue collar" spellcraft--like, Vicky's father Owain has an affinity for magnetism and electricity, so he's a registered electrician (has apprentices and his own business and all). Some families--including his birth house (which is why he left)--have issues with that kind of a thing. They think it's lowly or unimaginative.
This can cause huge issues, of course. (See: the case of Perry Masterton, a mage-kid with water affinity who left home along with his little bro because he was not "a proper heir". His water magic is practical and he didn't have any affinity with the family's other branch of data-processing magecraft. He probably would've ended up raging himself into oblivion like Earthbound's Pokey if he hadn't met Vicky and Co. He now works for Sidonie's dad Edmond Dumont Ohakim, who's a dowser and plumber and general hydrology wizard. Perry has a definite knack for how 2 water in howse, and he feels good about it.)
More progressive magi giggle behind their hands at the idea of practical being "lowly". The Greene House (says Vicky: "we like the pun~") is largely practical magi--geomancy and botany and alchemy and machinist-fu. Some might find this funky given the house is blessed by Omhar the Illumined and Somna the Dreamweaver--but the house is all about bringing a dream into reality in a practical and concrete way.
So yeah. Basically, there's some narfy assumptions made about blue-collar and even some white-collar mages, and an upper-class-twit attitude in some older and more set-in-their-ways houses. But that kind of stagnation runs counter to how magic really IS. Some stagnated houses have found their crests (like a magical rune/blazon--it can be carried in a bloodline or granted ceremonially or both) losing potency or focus. The house Vicky's dad left was a bed of nails for its odd folks out; they left, and now the house's crest is kind of unravelling and changing against the wishes of the house's heads.
The worst-case scenario for a house married to its image/its idea of what it SHOULD be? crest dissipation--something that's happening to the house of Darach Ailbhe (a friend of Vicky's whose family forbade him from handfasting with her or even SEEING her since she's not naturally-born as such, but rather an alchemical-and-biological "creation"). the Ailbhe house was having problems for a while, and its elders' rejection of Vicky and others led to unrest and infighting. The house basically shattered along generational lines and is in the process of dividing into separate branches--legally united for practicality's sake, but that's about all. A lack of compassion basically diluted who they ARE.
The fragments of the unravelled crest seem to be strengthening in the branch houses that embraced change.
SO YEAH. MAGICAL POLITICAL WHEEEEE
One thing: in conservative magical families of ANY walk (fae human whatever) there's a bias against "blue collar" spellcraft--like, Vicky's father Owain has an affinity for magnetism and electricity, so he's a registered electrician (has apprentices and his own business and all). Some families--including his birth house (which is why he left)--have issues with that kind of a thing. They think it's lowly or unimaginative.
This can cause huge issues, of course. (See: the case of Perry Masterton, a mage-kid with water affinity who left home along with his little bro because he was not "a proper heir". His water magic is practical and he didn't have any affinity with the family's other branch of data-processing magecraft. He probably would've ended up raging himself into oblivion like Earthbound's Pokey if he hadn't met Vicky and Co. He now works for Sidonie's dad Edmond Dumont Ohakim, who's a dowser and plumber and general hydrology wizard. Perry has a definite knack for how 2 water in howse, and he feels good about it.)
More progressive magi giggle behind their hands at the idea of practical being "lowly". The Greene House (says Vicky: "we like the pun~") is largely practical magi--geomancy and botany and alchemy and machinist-fu. Some might find this funky given the house is blessed by Omhar the Illumined and Somna the Dreamweaver--but the house is all about bringing a dream into reality in a practical and concrete way.
So yeah. Basically, there's some narfy assumptions made about blue-collar and even some white-collar mages, and an upper-class-twit attitude in some older and more set-in-their-ways houses. But that kind of stagnation runs counter to how magic really IS. Some stagnated houses have found their crests (like a magical rune/blazon--it can be carried in a bloodline or granted ceremonially or both) losing potency or focus. The house Vicky's dad left was a bed of nails for its odd folks out; they left, and now the house's crest is kind of unravelling and changing against the wishes of the house's heads.
The worst-case scenario for a house married to its image/its idea of what it SHOULD be? crest dissipation--something that's happening to the house of Darach Ailbhe (a friend of Vicky's whose family forbade him from handfasting with her or even SEEING her since she's not naturally-born as such, but rather an alchemical-and-biological "creation"). the Ailbhe house was having problems for a while, and its elders' rejection of Vicky and others led to unrest and infighting. The house basically shattered along generational lines and is in the process of dividing into separate branches--legally united for practicality's sake, but that's about all. A lack of compassion basically diluted who they ARE.
The fragments of the unravelled crest seem to be strengthening in the branch houses that embraced change.
SO YEAH. MAGICAL POLITICAL WHEEEEE
