Crafting an Ordeal?

[kd7sov]

I'm working on a fic - a crossover with My Little Pony, for those who may be curious - and have hit a snag: I have no idea how to make an Ordeal. From canon, I've gleaned that Ordeals:

• Usually (appear to) result directly from a new wizard's early attempts at spelling
• Nearly always involve some direct manifestation of the Lone Power
• Usually take place

Comments

[labellementeuse]

Interesting (and tough!) question! I've ever been able to think up an Ordeal to my own satisfaction. Your assessments seem pretty on the money except for the time-flow thing, which I see as a coincidental rather than intrinsic part of the Ordeal - except for Ronan's. But there wasn't any in Dairine's or Arhu's/Ith's, was in Nita and Kit's as a matter of convenience, and was more of a glitch in Darryl's. (and the same with the direct manifestation of the LP; although It's appeared in most of the Ordeals we've seen, I've long felt that the wizards we meet are fairly exceptional; people tended to be impressed by Nita and Kit's records and, of course, Dairine and Darryl's exceptionality is canonical

[kd7sov]

Thanks for your thoughts!

I think you're a bit off on the LP thing; AWOM introduces Mamvish, who had a LP-free Ordeal, which was apparently one of only eleven in the Milky Way in the past five centuries. I'm rather curious about what those Ordeals involve, but I suspect we're unlikely to find out. Which is not to say that the main characters aren't exceptional, but that doesn't seem to be their exception.

That's a way of looking at it that I hadn't considered. Thanks, you've got me thinking in some new directions. I don't actually have a solution yet, but I think I'm closer than I was.

[labellementeuse]

I think you're a bit off on the LP thing; AWOM introduces Mamvish, who had a LP-free Ordeal, which was apparently one of only eleven in the Milky Way in the past five centuriesBut that is, I believe, direct or indirect intervention. Mamvish is an Abstainee; it's not that her Ordeal didn't involve *direct* intervention, it's that the LP just didn't show up at all. Ronan's Ordeal, on the other hand, didn't involve the LP actually appearing as an avatar, but Ronan isn't an Abstainee. The LP was *indirectly* involved, presumably both in a destroying/chaotic aspect as the wind trying to wreck the boat (perhaps?) but certainly as the internal part of Ronan which wants him to choose not to save the people in it. But that's not *direct* intervention of the Lone Power; it's indirect, invisible but still important, more like the way the LP appears in A Wizard of Mars - not as a brooding, malevolent, and good-looking presence in a nice suit, but in the place where the LP always is, the place where he is most difficult to face: in the human heart

[labellementeuse]

Sorry, that was me.

[windtear]

I don't see Ordeals like that at all. I think that you are mistaken in the focus. In my opinion, the Ordeal involves solving a problem that includes facing an aspect of yourself that feeds the Lone One and defeating it. The Ordeal doesn't necessarily shape the wizard in itself as much as the knowledge of yourself so gained has ongoing effects on your character and actions. I guess you need to ask yourself, what outcome do I want from this, and what issue inside your character's head needs addressing? My example: I had a character who had low self-esteem and low assertiveness, was afraid of the dark and mildly claustrophobic trapped in a broken elevator with four other people for ninety minutes, for her Ordeal. If she'd failed to overcome her fears and take control of the situation, talking down the others and gently persuading the electronics in the elevator to start working again, the paranoid one who was carrying a gun in her purse would have freaked out and started shooting. As it was, everybody got out and the paranoid one

[kd7sov]

An interesting perspective. And potentially useful, although I don't exactly know what outcome I want for the character.

1. Yes and no, as I see it. No, the specific spell doesn't shape the Ordeal itself, but it definitely leads to it. The 'missing piece' of Kit's spell led him to invite Nita and to meet Fred, who informed them about the missing Book. For that matter, the objectives of his and Nita's first spells were, respectively, more power and finding a missing thing; in the end, they had found a very powerful missing thing. Dairine's first spells took her offworld, on a chase that got her to a place where she could create the mobiles so they could make their Choice and she could learn... responsibility? Motherhood? Relationship? You get the idea. Not directly determining, but introducing.

2. I disagree, as with labellementeuse above, but I doubt I have the words to convince you to take up my point of view