Suggestions for Thirteen Core Disciplines...

[George Lightgood]

Anybody have any suggestions for thirteen disciplines in which my fantasy race would train? At first, I thought of listing the ones I came up with, but then it seemed that letting the cumulative brain power of Mythic Scribes 'have at it' was better.

In summary, my Fantasy race requires that individuals maintain ongoing studies in thirteen core disciplines. (i.e. Wisdom, Intelligence, yadda yadda) A quasi-path to enlightenment thing, I guess. I am scraping the bottom of the proverbial barrel here. Thirteen is the number as it revolves around a 13 month calendar. They are a long lived race, though not immortal. Any suggestions would be most welcome.

Thanks a lot in advance!

 

[Logos&Eidos]

If your disciplines are what I believe them to be,type of magic/superpowers, then I have to tropes for you.

Main/Superpower Lottery - Television Tropes & Idioms

Main/Stock Superpowers - Television Tropes & Idioms


Simply pick the powers that are applicable to your world and the cultures therein.

 

[George Lightgood]

Ah, thank you for that suggestion, Logos. I should have clarified. It is not superpowers or anything like that. It would be thirteen disciplines in life that might be valued by a long-lived, advanced culture. For example, I had Empathy as one. Wisdom as another. Healing was one, also. Theoretically, they could be called areas of enlightenment or something.

I just started to run dry and I don't want Origami to be one of the discipline, ya know?

 

[WooHooMan]

Scroll through this page, there's a whole bunch.
Virtue - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Also, one of my favorite examples of this in fantasy...
Eight Virtues - The Codex of Editable Wisdom, a Wikia wiki for Ultima and Ultima Online

I did something similar to this but my whole "path to enlightenment" was based on understanding. So, "understanding blank" then I just filled in the blank with things like "faith, nature, logic" and so forth.
Creating a fill-in-the-blank statement could be a good way to make sure all your disciplines fit the purpose of the system.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

I'm trying to think of things that were either taught in schools or valuable in previous societies.

Trade - the how to plus currency conversion, and ethics of etc
Languages
Diplomacy - including knowledge of other cultures.
Faith / religion
Science
History
Healing
Poetry - also epic ballads
Philosophy
Mathematics
Herbs (might be part of healing)
Magic
Warcraft - tactics / strategy
Weapons
Games - chess and go etc
Art - painting, sculpture etc

Unfortunately I don't think you can teach wisdom. You teach knowedge and skill. Wisdom you sort of pick up from experience.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[George Lightgood]

Bravo! Now we are cooking with gas. Thank you, both of you, for the time you took to reply in depth.

...Unfortunately I don't think you can teach wisdom. You teach knowedge and skill. Wisdom you sort of pick up from experience. Cheers, Greg.

There are a couple on your list that, in hindsight, should have been obvious (i.e. philosophy). As for your wisdom comment, true that.

Scroll through this page...

Woo Hoo, I appreciate the heads up on those sites. Very helpful.

 

[skip.knox]

Some random thoughts. Cherry pick as you please.

Seven Liberal Arts: astronomy, arithmetic, geometry, music, grammar, rhetoric, logic. The first four were the Quadrivium (Four Paths, or Four Methodologies) and the latter three were the Trivium. The quadrivium dealt with numbers, the trivium with words. This could be mapped over to magicks, with a bit of imagination.

Yes, that's only seven. How about we add the four essences of earth, fire, water and air? Now it's eleven. Hm. Oh, add the quintessence, the Fifth Element, the secret to alchemy. That's twelve.

Twelve is a good number. You could map that over to the twelve signs of the zodiac and add the whole of astrology into the mix. Every discipline would have characteristics, affinities, oppositions, symbol, etc.

But you wanted thirteen. Damn you. Okay, the Secret Art or the Hidden Art or the Dark Art would work. The one discipline that is the wild card, the forbidden way. Not taught by decent folk.

If you wanted to go another direction entirely, try eastern religions. There are, for example, three core disciplines in Buddhism, but there are a hundred variations thereon. There are five pillars in Islam, but Sufism and other branches can offer variety. Hinduism has ten disciplines right out of the box.

Mix and match! Trade 'em with your friends! Gotta catch them all!

 

[Hainted]

If it's "quasi-enlightenment" then just name what it is the training is supposed to teach them without specifying the method. i.e. The Path of Honesty could be followed by someone who's a merchant, a guardsman, or a historian. Or to look at it another way the guardsman could be trying to improve his Honesty, Justice, Fortitude, and Clemency disciplines while the historian is improving Reason, Honesty,Tranquility, and Modesty. I also agree Wisdom is something gained from adhering to these disciplines, not something that can be taught.

(FYI: my examples are pulled from a religion in my WIP where the 14 virtues are Prudence, Temperance, Justice, Fortitude, Honesty, Modesty, Clemency, Devotion, Tranquility, Health, Liberty, Gaiety, Love, and Reason. Feel free to usethese as points to help you.)

 

[K.S. Crooks]

I like the suggestion of Psychtick in using subjects from school. These can also be broken down in a fantasy world. Science can be separated into living and non-living; combat into armed and unarmed; art into visual and musical; experts in other cultures/languages. Hope this sparks a few ideas.

 

[spectre]

this type of thing seems to flux depending on the culture you're working with. my favorite reference on that kind of topic would be sun Tzu's art of war because even though it's about military tactic, there are little tidbits of common sense in there that stand out. some ideas though:

piety
wealth
productivity
good nature
conservativeness
nationalism
faith
persistence/discipline
easy going nature, live and let go, know when to walk away
family values
grounded reality
trustworthiness, secrecy
follow me blind, don't ask questions

there's my off the top thirteen

 

[Zāl Dastān]

It would be very helpful if you could give us a bit more about this people and their customs.
In general, perhaps consider subdividing the 13 into 'seasons' if such a notion is appropriate for your story's world. Maybe even have Wisdom stand alone as the 13th, kind of like the 'governor' of the other disciplines.

Perhaps something like the following:

Spring (Concerning Obedience)
Humility
Patience
Persistence

Summer (Concerning Pleasure)
Joy
Gratitude
Compassion

Autumn (Concerning Self Sacrifice)
Obedience
Temperance
Labor

Winter (Concerning Death)
Reverence (honoring the dead. Perhaps ancestors?)
Family
Legacy

The Thirteenth Discipline (by which the others are governed)
Wisdom

Just my 2 Cents