Obsidimen Racial Memory

Discussion on game mastering Earthdawn. May contain spoilers; caution is recommended!
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Obsidimen Racial Memory

Postby TarlimanJoppos » Wed Dec 21, 2011 9:10 pm

I asked this question a couple years ago, and never got a really good answer on it. Okay, a few starting premises:

1. The Liferock contains the collective memories of all of the obsidimen of the Brotherhood who have ever existed.
2. This is because when an obsidiman grows old, he merges back into his Liferock, body, mind, and spirit.
3. When a Liferock decides to create a new obsidiman, it extrudes a body, pinches off a bit of the collective spirit of the Brotherhood to animate it, and downloads memories into the new rock brother, so that the new obsidiman is "born" with language and basic skills.

Now:

Could an obsidiman remember events from the life experiences of previous obsidimen of his Brotherhood? What's to stop the Liferock from downloading pre-Scourge memories into a post-Scourge obsidiman?
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Re: Obsidimen Racial Memory

Postby Penagain » Thu Dec 22, 2011 12:58 am

Personal thoughts:

My feeling is that the Liferock's collective spirit wants to understand--to acquire as much comprehension of the world as possible. Thus it provides its offspring the necessary knowledge to function in the world. But issuing specific memories, while certainly possible, would interfere, to my mind, with the process of collecting new understanding. It is in the Liferocks's best interest to gather un-biased intelligence through its Obsidimen.

At least that's how such a question is answered in my head!
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Re: Obsidimen Racial Memory

Postby Telarus_KSC » Thu Dec 22, 2011 2:03 am

My thinking follows similar lines, but I consider the Obsidimen living near the Liferock to have access to these "Akashic Records" like memories. Any memories (dreams, or even waking day-dreams while doing a similar activity) would not be remembers in first person tho ...i.e., it would not be "I remember carving these runes 200 years ago".. but something like "Pendegast the Wizard sat and laboriously scratched these same runes into another stone 200 years ago. Yet my muscles echo with his movements."

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Re: Obsidimen Racial Memory

Postby ragbasti » Thu Dec 22, 2011 6:49 am

I would generally say it is possible to gain such information from the Liferock - however if you or one of your players thinks about using that you should keep in mind the different understand of time for an obsidiman compared to other namegivers.
What might seem like a short gathering of information inside the liferock for your obsidiman, if he even does have a sense of time when merged, could very well be years in the outside world.

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Re: Obsidimen Racial Memory

Postby thezombiekat » Thu Dec 22, 2011 8:45 pm

Sounds like a possible alternative to a ghost master. An obsidemen could merge with a life rock that once had a high circle adept and get his training in the dreaming. I would rule the training itself doesn’t take any longer but you need to allow a weak or 2 for the pleasantries.

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Re: Obsidimen Racial Memory

Postby TarlimanJoppos » Mon Jan 02, 2012 8:01 pm

Hm. Some interesting ideas. So what if the Liferock wanted to gather specific information about how something had changed in the past several hundred years? I could see an obsidiman being created/extruded specifically for the mission, and being pre-loaded with information that he would need for the comparison. Such a character wouldn't necessarily be playable, but might make for an interesting NPC. "I was sent into the world to survey the valleys within a month's walk of my Liferock, and compare the changes wrought by the Scourge. I can tell you much about this area, but do not expect me to leave it, as that would run contrary to my purpose for existing."
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Re: Obsidimen Racial Memory

Postby arma » Mon Jan 02, 2012 10:08 pm

The funny part is, the obsidiman himself wouldn't really have to know (that there is a purpose to his existence, the liferock can just make it a subconscious thing).
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