Warnings/Cautions
USER: Horatio | POSTED 5-6-1990 17:06:02
SUBJECT: Warnings/Cautions
This board is a place to report things people need to aware of for their own safety. Monster sightings, dangerous magical practices, anything people might need to know. I think the first warning is The Fairy Ring in EPCOT! - avoid stepping into any ring of mushrooms you come across.
If you learn about something dangerous, post about it here.
USER: CanadaHam | POSTED 5-6-1990 21:57:33
SUBJECT: UFO Sighting
There are lights over the Northwest Territories most nights. They stay away from the populated areas, but if you are WATCHFUL you can ALWAYS find them.
USER: AngelBlsd | POSTED 5-6-1990 22:02:07
SUBJECT: Satan and his minions
The greatest danger to us all are the legions of demons at Satan's command. They are everywhere, but by embracing Jesus with your whole heart, you can be saved from them. Brother Gideon can show the way.
USER: wilmarose | POSTED 5-6-1990 6:24:08
SUBJECT: south bay vampires
there are Vampires in south bay, maybe in the rest of los angeles county too. we think it is one or two older ones and they make a bunch of revenants.
USER: MinieBoop | POSTED 6-6-1990 13:12:51
SUBJECT: MOre Fairies in Orlando!
I found a stone with a hole worn through it and I've been peeking through it all day - and I think there may be a LOT of fairies hanging around Disney World? :-O
USER: Horatio | POSTED 6-6-1990 14:00:12
SUBJECT: RE: MOre Fairies in Orlando! (MinieBoop)
Can you be more specific about what you are seeing? I mean...aren't there always a lot of things at Disney that could look like Magic or fairies?
USER: MinieBoop | POSTED 6-6-1990 14:43:06
SUBJECT: RE: RE: MOre Fairies in Orlando! (MinieBoop) (Horatio)
It's all sorts of little things...there are doors that i never noticed before, that i can't seem to look at when I'm not peeking through the stone. Some of those are in the tunnels under the Magic Kingdom, where only the staff go. Some of the people going around the park look weird through the stone too - mostly just really crazy hair and eye colors, and I can never spot them again once I look away. they don't seem to be hurting anything, but why are fairies coming to Disney World?
USER: SilverLeaf | POSTED 6-6-1990 15:03:41
SUBJECT: RE: RE: RE: MOre Fairies in Orlando! (MinieBoop) (Horatio) (SilverLeaf)
Minieboop, please be careful. I'm sure fairies love Disney World because they can go under the radar. And Disney portrays fairies in a positive light, so children don't know about the scarier side of Faerie anymore. Don't go through any of those doors, and try not to let anyone see you looking through the stone. Most fairies are relatively harmless, if mischievous. There are some, though... if you see somewhat short men with red hats through that stone, get away quickly, and WITHOUT letting them see the stone!
USER: MinieBoop | POSTED 6-6-1990 15:27:07
SUBJECT: Im Being Careful! (SilverLeaf)
I am being careful! I've glued the stone inside my Minnie mask so nobody can tell I'm looking through it! :-) Isn't that clever?? I think the fairies must like how they are in the movies, there are so many here! I'm getting a lot of costume ideas!! (although some of them are NOT park-friendly - I'll save those for special parties!)
USER: SilverLeaf | POSTED 6-6-1990 16:00:36
SUBJECT: RE: Im Being Careful! (SilverLeaf) (MinieBoop)
Oh, Minieboop, that *is* clever! I'm so glad you're being careful. I really don't want anything bad to happen to you.
USER: Moloch | POSTED 7-6-1990 11:29:54
SUBJECT: RE: RE: Im Being Careful! (SilverLeaf) (MinieBoop)
Special parties, huh? Care to elaborate on those? ;-)
USER: MinieBoop | POSTED 7-6-1990 11:32:24
SUBJECT: RE: RE: RE: Im Being Careful! (SilverLeaf) (MinieBoop) (Moloch)
I'm pretty sure you aren't old enough to know about them yet. Maybe when you grow up. TTFN!
USER: Moloch | POSTED 7-6-1990 11:54:01
SUBJECT: Old Enough (MinieBoop)
I am 23; that should be old enough for anything.
USER: MinieBoop | POSTED 7-6-1990 11:58:50
SUBJECT: RE: Old Enough (MinieBoop) (Moloch)
Really? You don't act a day over sixteen. ;-)
USER: Night-1 | POSTED 7-6-1990 13:23:38
SUBJECT: Stone Circles or Megaliths
Well, I'm not sure to what extent this applies to you in the U.S., but if you ever come to Europe, keep an eye out for unnatural stone circles. You know, like Stonehenge in England. You can find such sites in many places, especially in France, England, Ireland, Scotland, Denmark, Spain, and —you guessed it— Germany.
Even though it's often unknown who built these sites, traces of occult forces that once operated there may still be present. Many of these places seem to have a bloody past—not only because of pagan blood sacrifices, but also because these sites served as places of judgment (a courtroom, sacred arena, and execution site all in one).
The energy of blood, as well as the arcane powers of the past, remain firmly anchored there to this day—and it is said that beings of the moon and darkness can draw upon these energies. That is why one should be cautious near these places: The stones may be harmless, but what they attract most certainly is not…
USER: FringeDr | POSTED 7-6-1990 15:38:10
SUBJECT: RE: Stone Circles or Megaliths (Night-1)
I've taken thaumometric readings near Stonehenge and several other stone circles in England and Wales, and they always register a higher magical concentration than the surrounding area - it goes up and down with the overall trends, but runs higher in those locations. I've been trying to determine if this is due to the impact of the circles themselves, or if the circles were built in those locations because they are naturally higher already. There are other places that have higher readings, but they are also usually marked with human activity and structures used for spiritual/religious/magical practices, so they don't solve the underlying question - are places of higher magical potential made, naturally occuring, or both? What do you think?
USER: Night-1 | POSTED 7-6-1990 16:00:01
SUBJECT: RE: RE: Stone Circles or Megaliths (Night-1) (FringeDr)
Oh, that's interesting, as it ties in with some of my own theories, but also with the conjectures from my ancestor's diary… oh man, I need a better term for it. Right, from now on I'll use the term ‘Hermann's Journal' – I think that's accurate, as it's not just a diary but much more than that… but I digress.
So Hermann suspects that the stone circles he once came across were originally built in places where the Otherworld came close to ours – just as fairy rings mark such places – only he was convinced that the structures themselves were intended to serve as a kind of seal, or rather a barrier to prevent beings from the Otherworld from entering our world. As a result, mana accumulates there in greater quantities. That is why beings from the Otherworld and other magical creatures are drawn to these places. Similarly, this is why pagan cultures much later used these places for the rituals and so on mentioned earlier, as the Magic was particularly strong here and was only subsequently tainted by blood magic.
Having looked through his notes and compared them with a few other folkloric records, I see things somewhat differently from my esteemed great-great-great-great-?-grandfather: I believe that ancient cultures once experienced a period when magic was far more active (and no, this has nothing to do with numerology or anything of the sort). Just as water needs a spring, so too does mana (I'm using the word Hermann once chose to describe the substance of magical energy) need a source, and these points were presumably such sources of mana – Hermann was probably also right that they were connected to the Otherworld; perhaps there really was a metaphysical boundary here or something of the sort. But I don't think the stones were intended as a barrier, but rather as amplifiers and reservoirs. Thus, the first rituals performed here would have been designed to harness this energy. And later, as the Age of Magic came to an end on Earth and the mana slowly flowed back, it was the rituals that, in turn, filled the stones with energy. Since blood and life represent the strongest forms of energy known to us (and are even accorded special status in the Bible – which can otherwise be described as rather magic-phobic), I think this is precisely what has ensured that the reservoirs still exhibit a slight magical activity to this day – albeit nowhere near as much as they once did.
It's like a battery that's been left in an unused device for ages, slowly discharging, and which might still be used one last time to give off a brief flash of light.
Since you mentioned that other people also erect places associated with certain types of rituals, it follows that even unconscious rituals are sufficient to activate mana through life energy, and that buildings erected by people can even be used unwittingly as stores of magic – which makes the theory of stores and amplifiers, if built correctly, seem even more convincing overall. If we now add the fact that the moon and certain star constellations are regarded by many cultures as having an influence on the Earth (and no, I don't believe in horoscopes!), we can assume that the moon may have a similar effect on mana as it does on the sea (tides). That, in turn, would explain why ancient rituals are almost exclusively performed at night, with references such as ‘at the full moon' or ‘new moon' at the ‘winter solstice', etc. – and why creatures of the night are particularly drawn to them… I think I've strayed quite a bit off topic now, haven't I? Why is it already 2 am over here?
By the way, which method of thaumatic energy measurement did you use?
USER: FringeDr | 7-6-1990 16:48:07
SUBJECT: RE: RE: RE: Stone Circles or Megaliths (Night-1) (FringeDr) (Night-1)
Oh, that's a fascinating way of decribing it, and very close to the understanding Horatio and I have come to - you can read about our theoretical framework in the Magic lore bulletin. We have definitely observed cycles associated with solar and lunar activity, and there are spikes in thaumic density when those cycles are moving towards peak.
My thaumometer is, at its core, a precision radioactive noise source - I use a small radiation source that randomly emits alpha particles, and a Geiger counter that detects them, along with a thaumic device which biases which emissions successfully traverse the detector aperture. Basically, if the potential for magic increases, the detection of alpha particles becomes steadily less random, and is instead regimented closer and closer to one particle per millisecond. There are theoretical levels above that, of course - but all instruments have their limits, and enhancing the sensitivity of this one would be quite difficult at this time.
USER: Full Moon Tracker | POSTED 8-6-1990 0:00:00
SUBJECT: Full Moon
USER: Night-1 | POSTED 8-6-1990 1:23:46
SUBJECT: Magical Sience (FringeDr)
I just finished reading through the Magic Lore post. Actually, the theories are relatively consistent with one another. The comparison of Thaum (which has a nice ring to it) / Mana with water and ice is particularly elegant. Above all, this comparison can also be applied to the rise in the total amount of Mana in the world. Because your measurements still show fluctuations in the flow even though the total value is rising. It's like the ocean with its tides: at high tide, the water level doesn't just rise—there are constant small or larger waves, even as the total amount of water increases. This similar behavior would suggest that the moon does indeed influence the Thaum tide, or at least the Mana currently present in our world.
Since you were able to detect the mana using alpha particles—that is, radioactivity—doesn't that mean it must actually be a physical phenomenon whose full nature we do not yet understand? (Just as the ancient Germans had no idea how lightning worked, and we've now harnessed it—more or less.) - Unfortunately, my knowledge of nuclear physics is… rather rudimentary, if not nonexistent. - But have you ever tried taking measurements in places that were exposed to high levels of radioactivity—like Hiroshima and Nagasaki? I'm guessing the test sites in Nevada and New Mexico are still off-limits—and Chernobyl is probably still off-limits as well.
One more thought: If Thaum behaves like ice that thaws and freezes, then we should actually be able to intentionally thaw it using an external force (an equivalent to heat)—if we could do this with a certain degree of reliability, we'd be able to suddenly create the right conditions to tap into the rules of magical physics even in places that seem to have little mana, right?
So many thoughts are running through my head right now… but the librarian is giving me that dirty look again, and the next class is about to start.
USER: FringeDr | POSTED 8-6-1990 6:58:29
SUBJECT: RE: Magical Sience (FringeDr) (Night-1)
The tides analogy is exactly right - I know it is the one that Grimalkin prefers as well, from a practitioner's perspective. And much like the tides get influence from the sun and moon, the thaumic field has multiple points of influence as well, although I'm sure we haven't identified them all. And to be honest, while I've documented the rise and fall of thaumic density, I can't truly say why it changes - I suspect it will be a long time before we comprehend the mechanisms underlying these fluctuations.
On the thaumometer - the radiation is not actually the important part. It's just a convenient source of randomness. In theory, I could build a thaumometer around any sufficiently random phenomenon. What it measures is the decrease in entropy. The thaumic device in the thaumometer attempts to change the probabilty of a particle passing through the detector. The americium emits alpha particles randomly, and some of them pass through the mica of the detector aperature. If the thaumic density is too low for the thaumic device to function, these pass through randomly - I might see a pattern of detections like this: 0 1 5 0 0 4 3 5 6 7. As the thaumic density increases, the device grows more effective at altering probability, and the pattern will change, eventually reaching a perfectly ordered pattern of one detection per millisecond: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1. If I had structured it around a set of dice, it would be like rolling 7 7 7 7 7 7 indefinitely. So what the thaumometer detects is how well a particular thaumic device can impact entropy, which is proportional to the overall power of magic in the vicinity. If the thaumometer's readings are random, the thaumic density is too low to activate the magic which orders the particles. If it is perfectly ordered, it is higher than the thaumometer can measure (I haven't encountered that yet). And getting a proper read on a site requires taking multiple measurements at various times, to see how it behaves during various cycles. So, a factory might have undetectable thaumic levels most of the time, but by measuring the impact of the full moon, or the spikes at dawn and dusk, or the four-minute microcycle, I can figure out what its baseline likely is (despite it being below the dectection threshold of the thaumometer).
Your final thought is why I'm so interested in these places where the readings are higher than their surroundings - like stone circles. If those are constructed to have that effect, we can study them to see how to manipulate the local concentration. On the other hand, if they are naturally occurring variations, that's a different line of inquiry - they may be outside our ability to create, then. I haven't found anything that creates localized increases in thaumic density yet, but I have identified patterns in the areas with localized decreases - mostly heavy industrial sites. So I'm hopeful that thaumic levels are something we can manipulate, eventually.
USER: Night-1 | POSTED 8-6-1990 7:41:12
SUBJECT: RE: RE: Magical Sience (FringeDr) (Night-1) (FringeDr)
Were you ever able to get readings with the Thaumometer from a person that claims to be able to use any kind of magic? While I read that you have a 'test-subject', I would be interested to know if the readings vary when a person uses magic as to the more or less static (while increasing or ebbing) static mana of a location — This could be interesting to compare with other uses of magic later on, to see if different kinds of magic produce different environmental results within the manaflow itself.
USER: FringeDr | POSTED 8-6-1990 8:26:45
SUBJECT: RE: RE: RE: Magical Sience (FringeDr) (Night-1) (FringeDr) (Night-1)
I've taken readings during supernatural events, but the thaumometer doesn't register any change in the local levels based on those events. Either it isn't sufficiently sensitive to register whatever alterations they are making, or the thaumic field is not impacted or consumed by those activities. I suspect that it enables it, but the use of magic neither creates or destroys thaums - it just shapes them to create an effect. Interacting directly with the thaumic field does appear to be exhausting to the subject, however.
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