[mrganondorf]

Wheel of Time has a fairly fleshed out magic system but I'm hesitant to recommend it.

all i remember is that i gave up

[The Sharmat]

Yeah I did too.

There was a time when Robert Jordan was the end all be all of contemporary fantasy and I'm glad that time is gone.

[SilentRoamer]

Sanderson did such a good job with the Allomancy\Feuromancy systems in the Mistborn trilogy - then he completely butchered the One Power system in Wheel of Time. Whatever criticisms can be laid at WoT feet the magic system was ridiculously internally self consistent. The notes RJ kept on the power rankings are crazy!

[mrganondorf]

is this branch of sorcery mentioned anywhere else in the series?

TDTCB, p. 319 "Achamian had decided to revisit an old passion of his.  He would cook.  All sorcerers had studied ALCHEMY to some extent, and all alchemists, at least those worth their salt, knew how to cook."

Any idea what gnostic alchemy would look like?  I'm having trouble picturing Eleazarus cooking...

[Quinthane]

Well, Eleazarus was an Anagogic schoolman....so the image of him using the Gnosis to cook would, i imagine, look roughly the same as the image of me using the Gnosis to cook.


unlike my psukhe-a-chinos.

[Wilshire]

is this branch of sorcery mentioned anywhere else in the series?

TDTCB, p. 319 "Achamian had decided to revisit an old passion of his.  He would cook.  All sorcerers had studied ALCHEMY to some extent, and all alchemists, at least those worth their salt, knew how to cook."

Any idea what gnostic alchemy would look like?  I'm having trouble picturing Eleazarus cooking...

Thats an interesting catch.  I wonder if that is just a medieval-esque reference to chemistry, or if there are magical branches that delve into manipulating and imbuing items (beyond chorae and the other sorcerous artifacts), making potions with magical properties, etc.

[The Sharmat]

I suspect that it's just poorly understood Iron Age chemistry, with bits of magic added to it. Some parts of it actually do things, some parts don't.

As for the manipulating and imbuing items with things...the Gnostic schools of the Ancient North seem to have excelled at this, judging by a lot of the stuff in the Coffers. We don't see that in the Three Seas for some reason. Lost knowledge, or is their simply a greater cultural taboo against sorcery in the Three Seas than in the Ancient North, so there's simply no market?

[Francis Buck]

is this branch of sorcery mentioned anywhere else in the series?

TDTCB, p. 319 "Achamian had decided to revisit an old passion of his.  He would cook.  All sorcerers had studied ALCHEMY to some extent, and all alchemists, at least those worth their salt, knew how to cook."

Any idea what gnostic alchemy would look like?  I'm having trouble picturing Eleazarus cooking...

Yeah, I've noted this before, especially since we never really hear of alchemy again to my knowledge. I think it's most likely what The Sharmat said above, I.E. a poor understanding of chemistry with maybe a few magical flourishes here and there. It seems like a grey area though. Can you imbue magical properties onto a liquid? Haven't all the magical objects we've seen required runes and stuff? And even then...what would you make out of it? Sorcery is destructive (or at least, distortive, by nature). I find the concept of magical artifacts fairly interesting, if only because we know so little about the mechanics/possibilities of it all.

[locke]

Shit, they think the bubbles from boiling water are magic or angry water

[mrganondorf]

Shit, they think the bubbles from boiling water are magic or angry water

lol, enrage the water!  it is time for tea!

[mrganondorf]

i wonder if the prohibition on sorcerers getting married is really a prohibition on sorcerers producing children.  like if the mark does strange and dangerous things to the fetus, kind of like Alia in Dune?

[Alia]

But OTOH while they are forbidden to get married, they freely take lovers. I would rather think more along the lines of celibacy introduced in the RC church - it's a move to stop the rise of sorcerous dynasties.

[mrganondorf]

But OTOH while they are forbidden to get married, they freely take lovers. I would rather think more along the lines of celibacy introduced in the RC church - it's a move to stop the rise of sorcerous dynasties.

ah! i'm sure you are right.  it would be cool if Bakker ever writes about a past school that was organized as a dynasty.  it could be torn apart by a conflict between the sorcerers loyal to the ruling family and those not

unrelated--even though it is officially illegal to have a sorcere without a school, i bet someone like the Scarlet Spires could make use of an "independent contractor."  like if they wanted to have an assassin but be able to disavow them if caught

[Wilshire]

The Mysunsai are mercenaries. Basically the same thing.

[Simas Polchias]

I'm having trouble picturing Eleazarus cooking...

Now I'm having trouble to stop imaging Eleazarus & Iokus cooking chanv in Breaking Bad style.