View Single Post
Old 09-01-2019, 09:02 PM   #5
David L Pulver
AlienAbductee
 
David L Pulver's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: In the UFO
Default Re: How Many High-IQ Wizards?

Quote:
Originally Posted by hcobb View Post
I've tried to run the numbers for the wizards of Dran and they all get sucked into jobs just running the place. There simply aren't any wizards available for random encounters.

https://www.hcobb.com/tft/wizards_dran.html
Very interesting numbers. (By Dran you're counting just the dutchy, and not all of southern Ellyntia, right?

The reason I ask is that it seems very possible that Dran, as the wealthiest regional area and probably he best school, acts to suck both the most promising students ("send you away to Dranning") and best extra high-end talent away from surrounding areas (much like, say, Hollywood does actors). Local rulers probably take action to mitigate this, but it's likely an effect...

I also wonder how the choice of a formalized "wizards' school setup" affects this? If well run it may increase the number of children who learn to be wizards and allow efficient use of apprentices (cheap labor, as you say). On the other hand, it's also possible that wizardry requires less complex training. Perhaps at least some of the 6-15 year period can either be self-taught or be taught without requiring a wizard -- (or is passed from wizard parent to wizard child as a family background). That is, the basics could be purely academic preparation (e.g., reading the right books, understanding certain songs, etc.) plus a huge helping of innate ability. In other words, perhaps, anyone with, say, Literacy or Bard might be able to do the teaching of a young wizard; in noble or well off families with books, this might even be self-taught, and this gives them the ability to reach, say, IQ 8-10 spells, perhaps higher if they do well and come to a real wizard's attention. At some point between age 13-16 those with real ability are directly apprenticed to a wizard, with most wizards having 2-5 apprentices depending on how much they are into the large circle enchanting...

Of course, we DO know wizard schools of the formal sort exist (cf. T'Reo School in Wizard) and it is quite possible Dranning indeed has one, and if so, it's likely more efficient in raising better mages. it may be possible to assume that the majority of places on Cidri lack such schools, at least in any real professional fashion. (Especially advanced ones: for much of the middle ages, Europe and the Islamic world managed about one university for every 25 million people...)
__________________
Is love like the bittersweet taste of marmalade on burnt toast?

Last edited by David L Pulver; 09-01-2019 at 09:27 PM.
David L Pulver is offline   Reply With Quote