[MUD-Dev] OT: Caballah [was Character development]

[Marian Griffith]

In <URL:/archives/meow?group+local.muddev> on Sun 12 Apr, Vadim Tkachenko wrote:
> Alex Oren wrote:

> > On Thu, 9 Apr 1998 20:26:10 PST8PDT, Vadim Tkachenko wrote:

> > } Like, can the Caballist be a Paladin? [...] and if it
> > } happens, say, that the one who is a Caballist will try to perform some
> > } good (positive-aligned) actions, the backfire will be tremendous, but
> > } anyway one would be able to do that.

> > Why is there a problem with Caballists performing "good (positive-aligned)"
> > actions?
> > The Caballah is the Jewish mysticism.  It tries to explain the working
> > of the universe from the Jewish religion POV and, on some levels, pro-
> > vide means to influence it.  Would you say Physics is inherently evil?

> Consider it my mistake. I had no idea about the origins of Caballah (and
> what it is all about) and somehow the name itself was idiomatically
> linked to evil things in the place I'm from (its pronunciation resembles
> something else, which is definitely evil).

A caballist is commonly meant as 'a follower of the Cabal',  not a scholar
of the Caballah. The Cabal being the leaders of a secret but highly power-
full group typically deriving their powers from demonic or satanic sources
and thus a caballist  is somebody who uses evil sources to gain power.  In
this respect a caballist is indeed the anti-thesis of the paladdin.  I can
not remember which book first coined the Cabal but certainly somebody else
on this list knows.

Marian
--
Yes - at last - You. I Choose you. Out of all the world,
out of all the seeking, I have found you, young sister of
my heart! You are mine and I am yours - and never again
will there be loneliness ...

Rolan Choosing Talia,
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey