The way I figured it was ...NO! Magic and it's use is dependant on a
form of philosophy and a system of beliefs of the part of the mage. The East
and West differ greatly on these points, and I therefore took it as given that
the two societys would derive vastly different methods of controlling that force
we all know and love called 'magic'. It's the same reason that mages can't
cast cleric spells, etc.
Criss Invidiata
aka
Napolean BlownApart
Emperor of the Asylum
"Eagles may soar...
but a weasel will
never get sucked into
a jet engine!"
According to the book, Wu Jen can learn MU spells, though they must learn
them at the MU level. For example, Phantasmal Force is a 2nd level wu jen
spell, but if a wu jen learned it from an Occidental MU scroll, he'd have
to learn it as a third level spell. If wu jen can learn MU spells, it
follows that MU's can learn wu jen spells, under the same conditions. I
haven't got OA with me, but I believe it states that a wu jen must use
_read magic_ and _read languages_ to use an MU spell. If so, this would
imply that elven mages would also need _read languages_, etc., which is
ridiculous.
Geoffrey Fagan (gef...@uokmax.uucp)