[TSoY] Words of Zu, how powerful are they?
dindenver:
All,
I am prepping for a campaign soon (maybe in about a month) and one thing I am not clear on is the relative power of a Zu (Or Uz) word.
Part of me has this idea for a house rule that allows you to obtain words at an accelerated pace (e.g., each time you spend an advance on learning a word, it gives you a number of words equal to the advances spent on words - do 1 for the first, 2 for the second (for a total of 3) 3 for the third, etc.). Obviously, if one Zu word is equal in efficiency to one Secret, than this is a bad idea. But if it is not, this might balance it up a bit, no?
Also, while we are talking Zu, if you know one language (Zu or Uz), can you understand the other? Are the words (apart from Zu and Uz) the same? Can you tell that someone is speaking Uz if they don't use that word (Uz)?
Eero Tuovinen:
Zu and Uz are not so much separate languages as just different forces powering the same language, or something like that - the language of Zu is the same regardless.
As for the power of Zu, my own feeling has always been that it's blatantly powerful. That is, however, largely because I prefer to play a relatively low-magic game where magic is an arduous process wherein everything has a price - threecorner magic, for example, routinely takes penalty dice with me if the magician doesn't have some ritual implements and time to work. In this context Zu breaks the rules: it's immediate and it has some outright blatant effects, and requires minimal exertion. Especially creating things out of thin air is just something that is either lame or awesome in the sort of Near I like to run. I know it might not be that drastic for folks used to D&D-style summoning magics, but just snapping your fingers and creating living beings or complex tools out of nothing is about as vulgar as magic can get from my viewpoint.
Regardless of whether that works for you, the mechanics themselves are fine as they are - the actual effectiveness of Zu is not so much dependant on the number of words a given character knows, anyway, so there's little reason to give more or less words for the same Advances. Then there is the fact that relative efficiency is not very important in TSoY anyway - if Zu is the tool you have to work with, then you don't really have a choice about it, whether you might perceive it as weaker or stronger or whatever compared to some other magic. The thing that's certain is that Zu is different from whatever you're comparing it to.
dindenver:
Eero,
Thanks as always for the thorough reply.
OK, so we won't know if someone is speaking Uz or Zu until they use those specific words then, right?
Also, while I have you on the hook, are there any syllables of Zu that are surprisingly powerful or weak?
I hear what you are saying, I think I want to go for a mid-level magic. Not quite the gritty, low Magic of a Robert E Howard classic, but not quite the over-the-top everything is magic of D&D. Basically, I want learning to be a good magic user to be on the same level of difficulty to being an expert swordsmen or world class diplomat. I am obsessed with magic, so it will be hard for me to town it down much lower than that anyways, lol
In fact, I think that is one thing that fascinates me about TSoY, it seems like each culture is defined by its magic. In fact, in the core book, every culture has its own form of magic.
Eero Tuovinen:
Yeah, you can only find out whether somebody is using Uz or Zu by asking them to pronounce that word.
As for powerful Zu... I'd say this depends a lot on how the SG interprets the Zu rules. You see, the way I play is that I handle Zu as a sort of evil genie - I twist the intent of whatever a character pronounces as far as it'll go, especially if the character's Ability check was anything but great. I do this to encourage using several words and to make Zu a bit more unexpected in use.
In that context powerful Zu is often the stuff you know will work, and the words that you can combine to known effect. More generally, though, powerful Zu is the stuff that is in concordance with what you know your character will be doing. Generally we're not thinking of power, though, when playing; we're much more worried about creating interesting Zu. I'll take something interesting like "twat/fuck/rut" over useful any day. Note that there is actually, when playing by the rules, any point in the play procedure where you have to care about the strength of Zu: in character creation you pick Zu words that make sense for your character, and later in play it's up to the SG to determine which words make an appearance. Where these words then end up is all up to the players in play - if your character perceives some word as so important that they need to get it, they'll do just that.
Also, I agree with you about the cultural magics, that is a very strong aspect of what makes TSoY itself.
oliof:
The young Zaru kids huddled next to the Elder sitting at the long end of the hut they were ushered in after a long day in the rice fields. „Tell us the Story of Zu“, some begged, and the Elder, back broken from years and decades of work, blind from bamboo splintering a couple of years ago, began telling the story of Zu with her resonating voice.
In the old times, Zu was all-encompassing, peace-bringing and uniting. Everything that was said, was, and no wish went unheard and unfulfilled. If you needed to cross the ocean, you talked to the waves to carry you over, if you needed to plough the earth, you asked the stones to turn themselves over, if you wanted to give your loved-one a flower, it would be there when you whispered it to the rose bushes.
A man came into the hut, upright, his Zaru hat all but hiding his face – except for the gleam in his eyes. Ahhh, Elder, are you telling the story about cozy Zu again? What about Uz? Some of the kids startled, because they knew that man as a Life-Ender, Breath-Taker, Word-Stealer when he was uttering the Syllable of Destruction without breaking his smile, without his eyes losing the mad, moon-like gleam. The Zaru were tasked with keeping Zu safe, but we failed. Out-Siders stole the secret of Zu and built an empire that, in the end, proved to be too big for it's own good. And it broke the world – or so people thought. Truth is, Zu broke the world, by acknowledging it's other side, Uz – what had been created had to be undone, and this meant that everything has to come to an end…
The young man suddenly stopped talking, gasped for air and grabbed at his throat like the Overseer that had been stung in the face by a swarm of bees a while ago. The room reverberated with meaning, the elder had ushered only one word.
Silence.
The kids stared at the man in horror, whose gleaming stare broke, whose smile lead the path when he turned to flee.
They turned back to the Elder, looking at him. He coughed a bit, and blood swelled through his lips. Some of the older attendants hushed the other kids out, only a small girl with dark eyes staid with the Elder. She looked as if she were still listening inwards, and she knew now what it meant for the world to be quiet.
She put the Elders' body flat on the back, stepped out the hut, got a burning branch from the fire outside and set the ancient building on fire.
In other words, there is no measure for the power of Zu if you believe the back story. After all, Zu broke (or unbroke) Maldor – something being powerful enough to cause a gobal cataclysm (or avert it barely) is quite powerful IMHO. Still, it's a matter of applicability to a given situation and ability (in a mechanical and literary sense) of someone to use them.
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