Thus Spake Zaraborgstrom/Hephaestus
(This was in response to ADamiani, who said "Also, on a more nitpicky note, the permanent crafting charms feel like they're designed for you to foist off on NPCs rather than play Hephestus (tie up 2/3 of my essence for 12 stories? Sure!), which I kept trying to do.")
Hephaestus can work, and it may be a useful illustration of how social interaction works in the Wyld.
So, let's say that you're Hephaestus.
Suppose that you labor on your own personal projects all the time. Well, eventually, you'll have a lot of artifacts, but you might never get there---reasonably speaking, the Essence commitment is a bit prohibitive if someone decides to attack you.
So how do you get around this?
One method is to spend a lot of your time doing commissions for the other Olympians, or for the defense of Mt. Olympus as a whole.
Now what happens when someone decides to attack you?
Well, I mean, sure, they can do it. They might do it. Someone tries to seduce you, or take your loot, or whatever. But you can certainly say, "You know, if I have to drop my commitment to handle this fight, I will. And be a lot more hesitant about committing to stuff for you guys in the future."
At which point, unless they think you're bluffing, the lord of the realm and whomever you're making something for have a motivation to whap the person for you.
So suddenly we have four classic-style myths:
1. The Hephaestus-clone gets grumpy because people push him around and goes on strike, and must be appeased.
2. The Hephaestus-clone pushes too hard on his "what if I go on strike?" immunity, e.g. by launching little Cup and Staff and Sword and Ring attacks against random peers on the theory that they can't afford to escalate when fighting back, and gets slapped down.
3. The Hephaestus-clone tries to get people to leave him alone long enough to do something of his own.
4. The Hephaestus-clone discovers that some god is training up a little common demigod to do crafting and mess up his monopoly. High-stakes politics ensue.
That's how it's intended to play out, pretty much, anyway. If you perform a necessary function for the body politic, then there is a constant balance between "we need you, so we can't afford to challenge you" and "we need you, so we'd like to enslave you."
If you want to make wonders without interference, then it might be worth talking to people in advance to set up the social balance necessary. ^_^
Rebecca
