Full Version: Magical Traditions Common to Istanbul/Constantinople
I'm looking for suggestions on magical traditions common in and near Istanbul/Constantinople. In particular, a suggestion for a Turkish minotaur combat mage that intends to follow the Bull mentor spirit (so the Islamic magic tradition is out) would be appreciated.
No completly what you asked for maybe, but if you want a mystic background... Maybe he is a Yezidi Kurd? This is a curious minor religion who have links to pre-islamic kurdish believes, and there is kurds in Turkey. Also, that would bring a 'twice a minority' side to your character...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yazidi
Maybe this will be helpfull to you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yazidi
Maybe this will be helpfull to you.
What about Zarathustra?
Only regerence I uncovered on pre-islamic shamanism in modern-day Turkey: Shamanism
Some of the articles I read through indicated that the Alevi tribes in Turkey still practice a form of Islam with significant shamanic influences.
I can't vouch for the entry's accuracy or neutrality.
[ Spoiler ]
Some of the articles I read through indicated that the Alevi tribes in Turkey still practice a form of Islam with significant shamanic influences.
I can't vouch for the entry's accuracy or neutrality.
QUOTE (Angier @ Sep 9 2008, 11:19 AM) 
What about Zarathustra?
Zoroastrism? It's more an Iran and around thing, but maybe. Constantinope/Istanbul always was cosmopolitean...
I may just opt for Hermetic, but it still feels odd to me to take mentor spirits as a mage.
How 'bout that?
QUOTE
How 'bout that?
Street Magic specifically spells out that Islamic tradition magicians - which would include Sufi mystics - never have mentor spirits. Since I want to take Bull as a mentor spirit, this rules out the Islamic Tradition - as I noted in my opening post.
Yeah, I'm kinda fuzzy on the finder details of Street Magic...
Then how about some form of ancient hellenic pagan... thang. I mean, the old Greeks had a thing for bulls.
Yeah, I know, you can't go back to Constantinople.
Then how about some form of ancient hellenic pagan... thang. I mean, the old Greeks had a thing for bulls.
Yeah, I know, you can't go back to Constantinople.
What tradition would Hellenic paganism follow? IIRC, the Hermetic seems to follow the classic Greek spirit/spell associations (very roughly since there's not really much else for comparison), but is there anything closer in Street Magic?
See Street Magic on classical patrons. The tradition would mostly be Hermeticism, or occasionally Chaos Magic (Prometheus). Black Magic should also be doable.
QUOTE (HappyDaze @ Sep 9 2008, 04:04 PM)
What tradition would Hellenic paganism follow? IIRC, the Hermetic seems to follow the classic Greek spirit/spell associations (very roughly since there's not really much else for comparison), but is there anything closer in Street Magic?
Aside from what's been mentioned, I (and Frank and others) did a write up of Greek Paganism a while back here.
As for the Bull mentor bit, that fits nicely with the classical worship of Mithra, which would fall under the Zoroastrian tradition IMO.
There are bulls all over mythology. The Cretan Bull would be especially appropriate if your minotaur was Turkish by way of Cyprus and did the Hellenistic thing.
Rather than Cyprus, I'm actually going for a German Turk (with the Bilingual Quality for German and Turkish) that travels between Istanbul and the AGS for shadow business. Our group does a lot of travel...
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