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[Curris]

No, I confirm Retread's statements. The Bug metaplane is crowded, but don't think of it as a physicality filling a volume, but instead as an emotional need to consume (Bug's defining trait).

They aren't out of space, they are out of resources (Hosts).

And of course, Queen bugs you see here in the real world are just underlings to things you could see in that metaplane. . .

[Gabriel]

You know, I never did claim to be the end-all-be-all of Earthdawn... I made a few references and conjectures and you put me in that role.

A FEW?? You know, if I rana  search on topics involving ED words & phrases, I bet every one would start and end with you and take up more total space than the Paddin' thread, chummer.

And yeah, I can see the point you and Curris are making about out of rescources. Still, I'm glad I'm not a mage. I'd hate to run into THAT on an astral quest.

Gabriel

[kv]

Hey, what are fovea?

I was reading about 'pits' in the astral in Chi-Town after the wall comes down, and I was curious, because someone mentioned that they were similar to fovea of Aztlan.

  -kv

[ROOTless]

If I recall correctly, they are sort of 'holes' in astral space. A localized area with no astral space (or possible just a very high-level manawarp).
Enough to kill (or drive mad) anyone astrally projecting inside.

But ofcourse, I may be mixing it up with something else, since I haven't touched that book in years.  ;)

[kv]

So they're not like a pit where there's no astral buildup or anything?

Is there anything that sorts out background count to make things safe for spellcasters?

  -kv

[Retread]

It's a dead zone where there is little or no mana. The FAB III bacteria that consumes mana that was used against the bug spirits became attached to the areas of background count caused by the blast. Additionally, the FAB III was also "eating" the ghosts created at the Shattergraves.

The Fovoae in Aztlan are a result of channeling mana through a network of Teocalli altars with blood magic. The differential is created when mana is sucked from one place and used elsewhere. The places where the network was imperfect and intersected were hit with the worst of the draining effect, in effect creating a "dead zone" or "hole" in the astral where little or no mana exists. The purpose of moving this mana around was to increase the size of the mana spike that was acting like a bridge to the metaplane of "the Enemy." A large enough series of blood rituals combined with this networked mana would allow for an area with a high enough mana level to create a physical rift to the plane of the Horoi.

To answer your other question Kid, there is an Filtering metamagic that eseentially creates a filter to clean out nasty bits of pollution inside background count. This metamagic is a crude form of Spell Matrix.

[kv]

So... filtering Metamagic gets rid of background count?

Just where the mage uses it? Just where the mage is?

  -kv

[Gabriel]

No, Filtering lets you cast cleaner magic within a BC area. Cleansing cleans that BC. Two seperate meta-magics that have similar effects to the caster. And if you want to know more about Fovae, check out the Aztlan Sourcebook.

Gabriel

[Retread]

The Blood Mage Gestalt is directly responsible for the Fovoae in Aztlan. They use a blood magic technique whereby they combine their blood together with a pumping machine and use ritual metamagic to link the teocalli (a kind of giant foci) to the master Teocalli in Tenochtitlan, where another ritual will take place to summon the tzitzimine into this world.

The strange community blood ritual is interesting indeed. All members of this Gestalt must be of the same blood-type or they would suffer a horrible allergic reaction. When combined in the ritual, the gestalt becomes one astral being with mental attributes equal to the average of all members combined. However, this abomination has an initiate grade equal to the combined grade of all members currently sharing their blood. This combining is considered one astral being that can project and move about in astral form or perform any other task from sorcery to summoning. This gestalt uses many human sacrifices, especially initiates, to sacrifice for very potent high-drain magic. The use of this magic causes a mana-spike. This mana-spike will allow the tzitzimine into this world. I believe the Blood Mage Gestalt was destroyed during the Year of the Comet, when Ghostwalker attacked the Tenochtitlan teocalli and pulled a massive bloody astral form from the inside of the ruined teocalli. I suspect that on that night, Ghostwalker may have saved the entire world...

Observe: Genesis states that the world was Darkness, ravenously consumed by demons. The Japanese creation myth has similar demons. The Aztec and Mayan creation myths involve dark winged demon-like creatures of sheer evil that devour the world. All of these creation myths speak of one thing: "The Enemy."

[Gabriel]

Yes, but all "mythic" belief systems have all of the same elements to them: the Enemy, the Alpha, the Omega, specifc Gods/beings that embody human aspects. So the question becomes, are these similarities based on a shared history, or are they all projections of humanity's collective need to embody ideals in order to deal with them?

And as for the Teocali that Ghostwalker took out, as I recall, that was in Denver. And since that it's the tmain Teocali in Tenochtitlan (sp?) I doubt that would have destroyed this cabal you're talking about. I can't remember off hand if he WENT to Aztlan to kick hoop, but I know the incident you are refering to was in Denver. I can't see Ghostwalker making a direct attack into Aztlan at all since that is Halpa's territory. At least I beleive it is Hualpa's territory.

Gabriel

[kv]

Yeah, is there much record of Dragon's holdings? I know Lowfyr holds power in the Rhine-Ruer Megaplex, Lung controls some of the Chinese Triads, and Hestaby has Northern CalFree covered. What about Hualpa (wait- isn't she in charge of Amazonia?) What about Aden? Or other dragons mentioned in Canon?

  -kv

[ROOTless]

A few others are mentioned, yes.

Mainly in Dragons of the Sixth World.

[Gabriel]

Hualpa is Amazonia? Ok, I think that's right. But I still can't see Ghostwalker heading into the heart of Aztlan. But I'm gonna check anyway since I have now completely confused myself as to what DID happen.

Gabriel, Senile Elf

[Gabriel]

Ok, here's the paydata.

According to Year of the Comet, Ghostwalker flew directly from the Rift in Washington DC to Denever, picking up a physical body somewhere on the way, and immediately began blasting the Aztland teocali. He engaged, and tried to physically tear apart, a giagantic spirit which was described as being red around the edges and covered in blood, but was destracted by an attack helicopter and a drone (shich he destroyed) and let the blood spirit go. The blood spirit got away.

So if that was the gestault that Ghostwalker was fighting (and I bet ou my right arm that it was) then the thing was not destroyed, but was probably torn up pretty bad. If the gestalt is a sum of all the linked indeviduals, then I'm sure that damage to the gestalt woud result in some of them actually being killed and the rest of the mass being propped up by the surviving mages. So maybe some of the important ones got geekd by the wizworm. Who can say?

If you have any more info on this, Retread, post it. You've got me really curious about this again.

Gabriel

[Retread]

Well, I got that data from the Threats Sourcebook, 2nd edition. The Ghostwalker thing is a conjecture I based upon that. I imagine that Ghostwalker could sense through his body (probably buried somewhere near Denver) that a powerful ritual was taking place. I also suspect that Aztlan was so peeved about losing their territory in the FRFZ (Front-range Free Zone) not because of the actual property involved but rather the significant amount of mana they were directing to that area. Remember that Ghostwalker summoned some very powerful spirits to defend him against the Azzies that night. He probably drew upon all the power being stored near that area. Additionally, being able to draw on a mana source from further away than the rest of their teocalli was probably a boon as they were drawing enough from Aztlan to create the Fovoae in the first place. Several other places were attacked by Ghostwalker that night. In my wildest speculation, I believe the Azzies were trying to do something nasty to Ghostwalker's body. Imagine a fully formed Gestalt posessing the body of a projecting dragon... scary, neh?

I was wrong about the Teocalli being in Tenochtitlan, I must have crossed a wire or something.