So, 60 some-odd years from now in the awakened world, would the kind of fires we see in California be dealt with by spirits?

Normal water spirits would help in limited areas, perhaps guarding a single home, but I can see an enterprising magician starting a business or hiring herself out to an insurance company and offering coverage for a wealthy gated community with an invoked spirit with the storm power. Yes, there is lightning listed in the storm power description, but with the torrential precipitation also suggested, the net effect should be to drench quite a large area with just one spirit. Even with the strictest interpretation of how long a service lasts from a bound spirit, half a day's drenching would go a long way.

"Yes, sir, for just a small monthly fee, we will guarantee rainfall when you need it. And we will install a lightning rod for your home, free of charge."

Fuck the storm spirits, use extended area "Control Fire."

"Okay, you can go out now. Thank you."

The Storm power is always destructive. You want the Weather Control power off a water spirit.

-Frank

Yeah, or else you'd have enterprising terrorists using an invoked Fire spirits storm power to cause a firestorm. Wait a sec... why wouldn't they be doing that? Force 5 invoked spirit + storm = half kilometer radius of burning things.

Hmmm..
..From another viewpoint..

Would Nature Spirits want what's best for the land ??
In which case they may WANT grass fires, etc as they are necessary for some trees to start growing.


In Australia, the Aborigines used to set controlled files every year or so to control when and where forest/grass fires occurred, and to enable new trees to germinate.

Upon the appearance of the 'civilised' white man, that all stopped and now there are regular, uncontrolled forest/grass fires.


So, which would be considered better for the land..
..And which view would a Nature Spirit advocate ??

In fact, would a Shaman-type person [as Shamen no longer exist as they did in the previous SR] work with the natural cycle of death and rebirth and allow forest/grass fires, typhoons, torrential rain, etc ??


Just my thruppence..

In rereading the Storm power, I see the duration is 'Special', but no explicit instructions exist in the power description. The nearest I can figure, the power is a one-shot blast that does damage, not quite instantaneous but not sustained either. In that respect, the Weather Control power is better, as it is sustained. Storm could still help fight a full firestorm as we see in California right now. From a Force 5 spirit, a 5DV blast wouldn't do much to the houses, but surely the rain would make things harder to burn.

Weather Control has its own problems, though. It takes time to wind up to full strength, eg. a Force 5 spirit would take about 2 hours to build the weather (say rain in the California example). Also, there is no indication how large an area can be affected. The range is LOS, but it can't be that weather everywhere the spirit can 'see' is affected, can it?

As a forest fire preventative measure, though, I have to agree with Frank and say Weather Control looks better. And it doesn't require an Invoked spirit. Storm might be a desperation measure if the fire is at your back fence and coming on strong.

I dunno, I'd say combat spell AE Water effect (Called, I dunno, waterball or something equally stupid) would work better. (Reduces fire DV by DV of spell)

We still use controlled fires here in Illinois for a variety of reasons.

I would think a good fire department would have a mage on hand to summon elementals for fighting fires.

For example, an earth elemental would be extremely useful in digging trenches to keep the fire from speading.

High force water spirit using elemental attack, told to attack the fire until its out (only 1 service).

I suppose to keep things even we should also be talking about how toxic avengers will be using spirits to create giant wildfires to purge the earth of the corruption of civilization.

on a similar note, we had a 'run' once during YotC, right after the gigantic earthquakes in Japan. an earthquake of that magnitude is likely to have far-reaching effects, one of which being a tidal wave that would raise the water level six feet on the Seattle coast. our rag-tag group of researchers, mafia drivers, scientists, and mages (lots of mages) went out and created a gigantic baffle in the middle of the ocean by forming massive blocks of ice and holding them in position with levitation spells. the formation disrupted the wave, breaking it into a series of smaller waves; the water rose about a foot, total.

Yeah. California does regular controlled burns, man. Really. Our entire state is a freakin' tinderbox.

Sometimes you don't get to it fast enough, tho.

Ahhh...soooo... follow the links and read the manual. What a concept!

Thanks.