AlternateMechanics/DSAlternateDemenses
According to Savant and Sorcerer, Demenses tend to space themselves out roughly every four to five miles; closer as you get nearer the Elemental Poles. Further, a given Terrestrial Demense is the result of two ley-lines of Elemental energy crossing.
However, this results in a pair of oddities- the Blessed Isle having a 20:1 ratio of Hearthstones to Dragonblooded, and major cities not really being centered on clusters of powerful Manses, as has been previously depicted.
Thus, I ponder alternate ways to handle Demenses- both their frequency and their spacing.
Assumptions:
A) Imagine elemental ley lines as rivers. These rivers were meant to help keep Creation stable; to lock it further in place against he Wyld. A Demense is a damn; for whatever reason (frequently, but not always, another element interposes itself), the energy - verbage. Ideas refuse to wordify. Basically that the line should have a constant strength going through Creation, but that strength is instead tapped and weakened by Demenses, which siphon away part of the power.
B) The amount of each elemental power is flexibly fixed; aspect cannot be 'converted', only the lines of power changed.
C) The inverse square law of Essence applies- imagine the pure elemental channel, stretching back to the Pole, as having an attractive force, which holds the Essence in an orbit around it. It is the most distant Essence which gets picked up first, and in greatest quantity. Pulling further from the same line gets harder and harder, until it is almost impossible by the time it reaches the three other Poles. One of the reasons the Blessed Isle was the seat of the Solar Deliberative was for the happy confluence of Essence it had, being both next to one pole, and in a middling heavy pool of the other four.
D) It is possible to follow a given line of elemental power backwards, towards it's destination Pole, and tap it or twist it away from existing Manses. This is rarely done, however, as it's Not Subtle, and pisses of LOTS of people. The actual line of Essence itself
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Any more on this? It looks interesting, but unfinished. -- JesseLowe
