the "Old Wizards" and the preserving half of Sorce

Taken from the helpfile on the sorceror guild:

In very ancient times, well before the Dragon's arrival in the Known World, the old wizards would learn their magicks through four simple paths of learning (also called the paths of magick). After the Dragon's arrival, and relentless hunting of all true mages, and after the dark times that followed the Dragon's departure, defilers began to walk the land. While defilers use the very same learning paths as did the old wizards, they do not restore life but only take it to fuel their spells.

Then taken from the helpfile on gather:

Examples:


> gather 15 self
(Preserving.)

> gather 20 land
(Defiling.)

So is the fear related to 'Defilers' attributed to Preservers as well?- Merely for the fact that they -could- rape the land of its lifeforce but choose not to? And would these "Preservers" be akin to the "Old Wizards" that existed in the Dragon age? Or were those even more different, having to not even draw the energy from themselves.

And then also on a side note, can non-sorcerors 'water' arable land? And if so how... just 'pour' water out? Or is there some special command? This would be helpful to know for farmers, or just people that want to be more then neutral on their relationship to the land.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Yes, non-sorc's can water the land.

Now, as I have had it explained to me, a Preserver can start out as a preserver, but will rarely ever stay one, for the cost of drawing from one's self is so costly and painful that they innately turn to other things as sources of power. Also, the defilers end up more powerful because of the almost unlimited ability to pull from everything, while once more, preservers are forced to stick solely with them selves.

As far as the fear factor goes, one will rarely stick around any magick wielder of a sorc's caliber to discover whther or not he is really a defiler or a preserver. Both draw from the same spells, so to outsiders who see them fleetingly, they will seem the same.

[Savak]

The colorizer (7DVz's) is basically right, and your more detailed questions I think are -well- beyond the real scope of general knowledge.  Watering the land --> "pour <container> ground".

In fact, I doubt most people would have heard much in the way of stories about Old Wizards and the like, or at least would have little confidence in the accuracy of those stories (kinda like Little Red Riding Hood).  You're entirely welcome to build on or embellish those stories however you like, for local lore.

-Savak

[Pungee]

I would note that talking about Magickers, Wizards, Sorcerers and the like would be extremely detrimental to ones reputation ICly unless it was followed by a strung of curses heaped upon their ilk.