Vae asks...

[sythyry]

The apology do I make now for not replying so well the last of my questions; each and every response that comes to me I shall give a reply today.

And -- what sort of monsters do you and your people suffer from?

Comments

[zeeth_kyrah]

Now, now, many of these technicians are still in the "early alchemy" stage of experimentation, where you don't actually know what something does to a particular person until you've already tried it, and nobody really knows why these things work. Technicians of the spirit (who can observe the problem directly and work on it in its own terms) are rare because half or more of the population refuses to believe in their capabilities, and thus training is hard or impossible to find.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

And how are these spirit-technicians trained, and how do they know what they can do?

[zeeth_kyrah]

Their training often depends on the school of thought which they are led to discover. Very few know their options from a young age, and many are led to believe themselves mad. There are few to no formal institutes for training, only individual teachers who may or may not be certified to teach. Often, spirits and gods substitute as teachers when no other teacher can be found; and often higher levels of attainment must be taught in this manner.

They know what they can do by the shapes of their own magerium, but rather than a simple observation by magical sight, they must be taught their limits and the areas in which they can grow. For example, my ability to move matter is extremely limited (perhaps a level of 1), but my ability to sense and direct pure energy is very strong for my world (somewhere around a 7), and I can communicate with spirits very well (30), including an ability to translate what they say to me if they normally speak a different language (uncommon but known to occur).

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

The subtle and complicated is this to me! Not mad are you, though?

[zeeth_kyrah]

Not to my knowledge am I mad, only sometimes disappointed. (: