Thus Spake Zarataylor/DemonLegions

izzylobo - 02/23/2004 21:07:17

> GoldenH > I'm not sure about that - I've only had time to briefly go over Outcastes, so busy indeed, but I get the impression that not only do they have fewer spells, they also have fewer practitioners.

***\\ The Lookshy Academy of Sorcery\\ Lookshy makes more use of sorcery than most other organizations in Creation — a larger percentage of Abyssals and Sidereals are sorcerers, but Lookshy has more of them, rivaling the Realm (with more than three times Lookshy’s Dragon-Blooded population) in terms of total numbers of sorcerers.

Lookshy’s stores of magical knowledge are limited, but the Seventh Legion takes ruthless advantage of them. Nearly one in six Dragon-Blooded has some knowledge of sorcery, and sorcerer-technicians are integrated into the field forces at the wing level and even lower — most special-operations units have at least a single sorcerer, and large units have as many as a dozen, though this is rare.\\ ***

Pg. 37

> GoldenH > Consider that there are something like 500 sorcerers in the Realm, and 200 top notch, badass sorcerers. Plus they got Mnemon - Lookshy ain't got nothing on 'mnemon.

Maybe not. But they've probably got a couple of elder Sorcerer-Engineers who are close - The Realm isn't the only place that has access to anagathics and age-defying Hearthstones, even if Lookshy doesn't have a giant dinosaur that pees magic Oil of Olay.

And they have around the same number of sorcerers, in total (around 3k D-Bs, one in six knows sorcery = around 500).

Where they are weak is in summoning - maybe only 150, two hundred tops are cleared for demonology and summoning spells. But summoning has its own disadvantages (see below).

> GoldenH > In an all out war you could be sure that these sorcerers would be kicking ass and taking names. At the very least they could summon up a demon horde a few years in advance. Completely dedicated to the task, the Realm could summon up 15 demon legions every year. I'd say that Lookshy could summon roughly half that. It's a matter of numbers.

The reason there aren't huge hordes of demons wandering Creation as a result of these kinds of Demon Legions is simple - people quickly figure out that there's a point of diminishing returns on demon summoning. Summoning up a Blood Ape, or even ten blood apes, isn't a problem. Summoning up five thousand of them? That's a problem. Not in that it isn't feasible, in terms of "can you do it?", in terms of "what are the repercussions of doing so?"

Blood Apes are gonna kill people. That's their job. They aren't soldiers - they're demon-thugs. At some point, if you don't specifically tell them *not* to eat people, they're gonna start - and then they're gonna start eating people you didn't specifically tell them *not* to eat. Not because they're trying to subvert your will - but because, well, eating things is what they *DO*. It's like asking a traffic light not to change, only without the off switch.

Same problem with pretty much every other First Circle demon - they are all either pretty monomaniacal, and easily frustrated if they don't get to do what they want to do - or are just totally alien, and prone to doing things like flying into a mindless rage because of a child's song, and re-arranging the child so that they are more harmonious - the wind whistling through their hollow bones is so much nicer, don't you think?

The more demons you whistle up, the more problems you have, unless you set them to a specific task - at which point they go off to do it. Because they only really answer to *you* (even if you tell them to follow other's orders), and you can't be everywhere at once, and, if not firmly guided, they're gonna do what they're supposed to do - which is usually not good for the countryside, the populace, local farm animals, young children, dogs, cats, and small beavers named Belvedere (especially them).

Basically, both sides would be using targeted applications of Demons, Elementals, maybe even spirits if they both got desperate enough (and a fight between Sunipa, Tien Yu, and the Central God of War, or the God of the Realm, would be an interesting one indeed...), but I don't think there's gonna be huge legions of demons fielded by any side in any major conflict (even Samea mostly used them as heavy combat strikers, in limited numbers, rather than as general field units - and she's probably hauled more Names out of Malfeas than anyone since the Contagion). But the Realm would be able to maintain that ability longer than the Seventh, because they've probably got more folks who know how (on the other hand, if it was getting desperate, I'd imagine strictures would be loosened at the Lookshy Academy).

That is, not until the Empress returns with her honor guard, of course...

Scott Taylor