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sparkindarknessApparently I need to post this now because places of power are inherently linked to sympathetic magic.
No, I don't know why either.
Also, Prisa's giving me a huge and weird history on Arthurian legend that makes NO sense unless you understand places of power.
See? I told you I'd been letting all of this slack.
Places of Power
There are places around the world that ooze power in big lovely globules. They can be used to Enhance magic, power magic, make maghical artefacts, make the best Sympathetic components, summon the best spirits and generally are just the best. Camaalis loves them, protects them, nurtures them, makes them grow and even creates new ones. Camaalis love standing in the middle of them playing god. It is an item of supreme jealousy on the part of the Concord that Camaalis has so many of these in such a small place and that they are so powerful. It was also an issue of major contention during the Concord War that Camaalis was stealing places of power belonging to others (an accusation that is hotly denied… and likely true *flees Camaalis death glares*).
There are different kinds of places of power depending on exactly which Power is present, naturally:
Wellsprings and Leylines
These draw upon the First Power, the Power of the Lady. Wellsprings are places of incredible natural power. Usually they are found in ancient places of incredible natural beauty or power – national parks, isolated beaches, deep oceans, forests – anywhere where nature is ascendant. Every now and then there will be a Wellspring in urban areas that Camaalis does not quite understand – they don’t quite know what powers it and why it has arisen there, but it adds weight to the argument that the First Power is changing, not dying. Other Camaalis say that it is just some outlets for power that have nowhere else to go – the First Power is there but there aren’t enough wild places left so they come out where they can. They point to the very small number and weak nature of urban Wellsprings as proof.
Most Wellsprings carry the aspect of their locality. So, a Wellspring in the middle of some volcanic springs will carry the aspect of fire and be very useful to Elementalists, but not so much to Life Weavers. A Wellspring in the middle of an ancient, beautiful forest will carry the aspect of Life. One on a beach will carry Water and Change etc. A very few rare and well stewarded Wellsprings will be pure or carry several aspects – for example at the base of a mountain, in a forest, near a sun baked beach will carry several aspects from several natural wonders. These are very rare and very highly prizes.
Leylines are lines of first Power energy that connect between Wellsprings. A Ley Line can stretch for literally hundreds or thousands of miles. The further you get from the Wellsprings at either end, the less powerful the Ley Line is but the more pure it is as well. Pure Ley Lines are not as powerful as aspected ones but they are more universally useful. Ley Lines are good sources of power like Wellsprings but they have the added bonus of being powerful Connections between places. It is possible to travel or send spells down Ley Lines very quickly.
Wellsprings are very difficult to create. Camaalis finds a sight of great natural beauty and potential and tend it to maintain it’s power while at the same time drawing on the First Power and allowing it to permeate the area. Eventually the site will draw the power itself and become a Wellspring. Reverence of nature also tends to aid the process so Camaalis often encouraged sacred groves and nature worshippers to use the sight for their ceremonies. This takes a great deal of time, patience and power. Wellsprings can be very fragile, vulnerable to pollution and severe habitat change which can weaken or destroy the Wellspring. Wellsprings can also be weakened by the paths of their Ley Lines being so damaged as the corrupted energy will flow back into the Wellspring.
Normal people in Wellsprings generally feel a sense of awe and completeness as the energy flows through them and the sheer magnitude of the world.
Nexus and Astral Lines
These draw upon the Second Power and the principles are much the same as for Wellsprings and Ley Lines, just adapted for the Second Power, the Power of the Lord – they enhance and empower and provide Sympathetic components etc for the Second Power. In addition they tend to be heavily inhabited by spirits – making contact very easy (if not communication). Nexus are very heavily linked to location, even more so than Wellsprings. A Nexus in a graveyard will be a powerful gateway through to the lands of the dead and a great boost to Necromancers but it will be almost completely useless to a Shaman (at best giving them an area where the walls between worlds are a little thinner).
Spiritual Nexus happen in areas that the spirits of that particular Realm are most attracted to. The number of spirits and power of the spirits will thin the wall between the Realms and allow the foreign Realms energy to spill into the ‘real’ world. So graveyards attract spirits of the dead, pristine wilderness can attract nature spirits, urban areas various technology spirits etc. Creating Nexus is relatively simple and usually easier than creating Wellsprings. Camaalis sets up the location to be pleasing to the spirits and then parts the walls between Realsm and infuse the area with energy, much the same as you would with a Wellspring. The difference is that if you attract many spirits/Realm denizens to the area then they will continue to build and develop it without Camaalis needing to put as much power and input in. Once the ghosts are at the graveyard, Camaalis doesn’t have to keep infusing the area with death energy, it will come automatically. The problem is that if you hand over creation, maintenance and development to spirits then you don’t have as much say on the final result.
Astral lines radiate from a Nexus in the same way that Ley Lines radiate from a Wellspring. The difference is that Astral Lines do not travel over the world but travel to their Realm of origin – this makes for easy spell casting and travel across the Realms but not for travelling great distances across this Realm or for calling Second Power Energy anywhere but at a Nexus. Nexuses and Astral Lines are always aspected. There is never a “pure” Nexus.
Nexus are easier to make than Wellsprings but they are even more vulnerable. Second Power energy is not of this Realm. Sure, Realm energy always spills between all Realms, but it’s a low, background amount. A large collection of power in a Nexus is not “natural” or normal for this Realm. It’s like water at the top of a hill. Some naturally exists in puddles and making things damp, but a large amount is going up hill is going to just flow down hill again unless you’ve got some kind of a pumping system to move the water back. This means that A Nexus is always in danger of draining away the same as the pool at the top of the hill. The “pumping system” for a Nexus is usually spirits of various kinds. At that cemetery the Nexus is maintained by the ghostly presence. This means that if the spirits leave or are reduced in number/strength then the Nexus itself will dry up or shrink. This makes Nexus more fragile than Wellsprings as spirits can be capricious. A Wellspring needs something quite major – pollution or severe habitat change, to be destroyed. A Nexus just needs something that will offend or anger the spirits – and that can be as minor as someone entering the Nexus wearing the wrong colour.
And advantage of Nexus is that you cannot destroy them by harming their Astral lines as you can a Wellspring with their Ley Lines, because Astral lines go to the next Realm, they don’t stay in this line.
When normal people enter a Nexus they generally feel creeped out. They feel the primary power of the Nexus (so that graveyard is scary, a forest is a wilderness place) but there is always an element of being alien. That forest will never feel like a Wellspring, awe inspiring and beautiful, it will feel huge and lost and dark and frightening full of the unknown. The Realm energy is so alien to what most people face that it is frightening.
Relics, Consecrated/Desecrated Land. Inspired Land
These are all largely words for the same thing. These are sights that have been imbued with the Third Power, the Power of Self. They can be used for all the same things as Nexus and Wellspring (empowerment, sympathetic magic, enhancement, etc etc) but for the Third Power.
The Third Power is the Power of Self, the Power of one of our traits writ large. So Sorcery is the inherent power of destruction that all people carry. Mystic Voice is the inherent power of creativity etc. Places empowered by the Third Power (Consecrated/Desecrated/Inspired Land) are usually places where incredible things have happened (good and bad) that have left a mark by the things people felt there (such as Woodstock and Auschwitz). Others are not sites of incredible events but carry great emotional weight with a very large number of people (St. Peter’s Cathedral, the Kab’a in Mecca) because there are such a vast number of people all vesting that part of themselves in the place. The fact that the most powerful of these tended to be holy land (because of the millions of people revering them) is why Camaalis refers to it as Consecrated land. The fact that horrendous tragedies also tend to become magical places of the Third Power (all the grief and pain and suffering of thousands of people on a large scale leaves its mark) is why Camaalis call others Desecrated. In theory they’re the same thing but most people don’t like linking them.
Naturally these places are very power specific. A Sorcerer is not going to get much of a buzz out of Woodstock while a Mystic Voice will get a huge charge. A White Mage will just sit down and cry at Auschwitz and will get no power. The power of these sites depends on how much emotional investment (not the best term, but it will do) people have put into it.
There are no lines of any kind with the Third Power – every site is personal and unique. The only connections it has to others are to those who view the site as important – so the Kab’a, being a huge one, has a connection to devout Muslims. These links tend to be very numerous pretty impossible to distinguish. Sure, you could technically use the Kab’a to cast a spell on all devout Muslims – but you would have to use it on ALL. It’s nearly impossible without a LOT of work to pick out one in the flood (frankly, it would be easier to track him down physically and go visit him). While it may sound powerful to be able to cast a spell on ALL Muslims or Catholics etc you would still have to rustle up a HUGE amount of power to be able to have any appreciable effect on them all – sure you have a Target Connection with the Kab’a and even a power boost (if you want to use its appropriate aspect) but it’s not going to be enough to give you enough power to effect over a million people.
Now, if some Consecrated Land is only of local importance – with only a small number of people “investing” their emotions in it – then yes, then it can be powerful.
Another interesting difference of the Third Power magical sites are Relics. Relics are just the same as Consecrated/Desecrated/Inspired land – they have been imbued with the Third Power through “emotional investment” of large numbers of people or by very powerful people. The difference is that Relics aren’t places – they can be objects or even people so long as people invest sufficient emotion into them. So you get holy objects, the shroud of Turin etc, even prophets and saints. If several thousand people believe that a nun can heal with her touch then they may actually invest enough emotion in her to make her a Relic of Healing (she won’t be performing miracles that are too incredible, but a Mage with healing powers could use her as a Connection of Empowerment.
Alternatively, an object can become a relic because it was involved in a huge atrocity or wondrous event involving lots of emotion.
Creating a Relic/Consecrated Land is quite difficult, it requires Camaalis to go out and somehow convince large numbers of people to emotionally invest in a place or object. There are various ways of doing this including starting your own religion (always useful) or starting new legends. It is difficult to sway large numbers of people, especially in these increasingly cynical times. Of course, an act of sheer wonder or an utter atrocity can also cause Consecrated Land
Still, it can be worth the effort. After all, one Camaalis ancestor is highly revered for adding two extremely powerful Relics to the Camaalis collection (a goblet and a sword) and all he had to do was magically seal the sword in a stone.
A Magician (or Channeler) cannot become a Relic. Their own magic tends to absorb or counteract the emotion invested in them. They already have the Powers running through them in a large amount, extra just flows off them. They can use human Relics but they cannot become Relics themselves.
Enchanted items can become Relics, but they need to be carefully handled if you don’t want the magic to conflict or counteract.
Multiple Power Sites
It is possible for a site to be a Wellspring AND a Nexus AND Consecrated Land. But these are EXTREMELY rare and any attempt to force it can often damage it’s current magic. One example is the healing springs of Lourdes. A Wellspring of Water and Healing, many people came to its waters to heal. With careful monitoring spirits of healing and hope congregated there, attracted by the newly cured and hopeful people who gathered in ever larger numbers. Over the centuries millions of people came to believe in the spring’s healing powers and invested a vast amount of their hope in it eventually Consecrating the Land.
This is very delicate. Magicians have tried to duplicate this with other healing springs and failed disastrously – one opened a path to the spirit world but it was spirits of disease and pain that were attracted, not health and healing. This effectively destroyed the Wellspring. Another got sufficient healing spirits there but then realised that the local authorities began charging admission. Suddenly the belief wasn’t hope and healing, but greed and avarice – which drove off the spirits destroying it as a Nexus# and their ill use and excessive traffic damaged the land destroying the Wellspring.
Camaalis’ policy is to monitor, nudge and protect but never ever try to actively create a multiple power site.
No, I don't know why either.
Also, Prisa's giving me a huge and weird history on Arthurian legend that makes NO sense unless you understand places of power.
See? I told you I'd been letting all of this slack.
Places of Power
There are places around the world that ooze power in big lovely globules. They can be used to Enhance magic, power magic, make maghical artefacts, make the best Sympathetic components, summon the best spirits and generally are just the best. Camaalis loves them, protects them, nurtures them, makes them grow and even creates new ones. Camaalis love standing in the middle of them playing god. It is an item of supreme jealousy on the part of the Concord that Camaalis has so many of these in such a small place and that they are so powerful. It was also an issue of major contention during the Concord War that Camaalis was stealing places of power belonging to others (an accusation that is hotly denied… and likely true *flees Camaalis death glares*).
There are different kinds of places of power depending on exactly which Power is present, naturally:
Wellsprings and Leylines
These draw upon the First Power, the Power of the Lady. Wellsprings are places of incredible natural power. Usually they are found in ancient places of incredible natural beauty or power – national parks, isolated beaches, deep oceans, forests – anywhere where nature is ascendant. Every now and then there will be a Wellspring in urban areas that Camaalis does not quite understand – they don’t quite know what powers it and why it has arisen there, but it adds weight to the argument that the First Power is changing, not dying. Other Camaalis say that it is just some outlets for power that have nowhere else to go – the First Power is there but there aren’t enough wild places left so they come out where they can. They point to the very small number and weak nature of urban Wellsprings as proof.
Most Wellsprings carry the aspect of their locality. So, a Wellspring in the middle of some volcanic springs will carry the aspect of fire and be very useful to Elementalists, but not so much to Life Weavers. A Wellspring in the middle of an ancient, beautiful forest will carry the aspect of Life. One on a beach will carry Water and Change etc. A very few rare and well stewarded Wellsprings will be pure or carry several aspects – for example at the base of a mountain, in a forest, near a sun baked beach will carry several aspects from several natural wonders. These are very rare and very highly prizes.
Leylines are lines of first Power energy that connect between Wellsprings. A Ley Line can stretch for literally hundreds or thousands of miles. The further you get from the Wellsprings at either end, the less powerful the Ley Line is but the more pure it is as well. Pure Ley Lines are not as powerful as aspected ones but they are more universally useful. Ley Lines are good sources of power like Wellsprings but they have the added bonus of being powerful Connections between places. It is possible to travel or send spells down Ley Lines very quickly.
Wellsprings are very difficult to create. Camaalis finds a sight of great natural beauty and potential and tend it to maintain it’s power while at the same time drawing on the First Power and allowing it to permeate the area. Eventually the site will draw the power itself and become a Wellspring. Reverence of nature also tends to aid the process so Camaalis often encouraged sacred groves and nature worshippers to use the sight for their ceremonies. This takes a great deal of time, patience and power. Wellsprings can be very fragile, vulnerable to pollution and severe habitat change which can weaken or destroy the Wellspring. Wellsprings can also be weakened by the paths of their Ley Lines being so damaged as the corrupted energy will flow back into the Wellspring.
Normal people in Wellsprings generally feel a sense of awe and completeness as the energy flows through them and the sheer magnitude of the world.
Nexus and Astral Lines
These draw upon the Second Power and the principles are much the same as for Wellsprings and Ley Lines, just adapted for the Second Power, the Power of the Lord – they enhance and empower and provide Sympathetic components etc for the Second Power. In addition they tend to be heavily inhabited by spirits – making contact very easy (if not communication). Nexus are very heavily linked to location, even more so than Wellsprings. A Nexus in a graveyard will be a powerful gateway through to the lands of the dead and a great boost to Necromancers but it will be almost completely useless to a Shaman (at best giving them an area where the walls between worlds are a little thinner).
Spiritual Nexus happen in areas that the spirits of that particular Realm are most attracted to. The number of spirits and power of the spirits will thin the wall between the Realms and allow the foreign Realms energy to spill into the ‘real’ world. So graveyards attract spirits of the dead, pristine wilderness can attract nature spirits, urban areas various technology spirits etc. Creating Nexus is relatively simple and usually easier than creating Wellsprings. Camaalis sets up the location to be pleasing to the spirits and then parts the walls between Realsm and infuse the area with energy, much the same as you would with a Wellspring. The difference is that if you attract many spirits/Realm denizens to the area then they will continue to build and develop it without Camaalis needing to put as much power and input in. Once the ghosts are at the graveyard, Camaalis doesn’t have to keep infusing the area with death energy, it will come automatically. The problem is that if you hand over creation, maintenance and development to spirits then you don’t have as much say on the final result.
Astral lines radiate from a Nexus in the same way that Ley Lines radiate from a Wellspring. The difference is that Astral Lines do not travel over the world but travel to their Realm of origin – this makes for easy spell casting and travel across the Realms but not for travelling great distances across this Realm or for calling Second Power Energy anywhere but at a Nexus. Nexuses and Astral Lines are always aspected. There is never a “pure” Nexus.
Nexus are easier to make than Wellsprings but they are even more vulnerable. Second Power energy is not of this Realm. Sure, Realm energy always spills between all Realms, but it’s a low, background amount. A large collection of power in a Nexus is not “natural” or normal for this Realm. It’s like water at the top of a hill. Some naturally exists in puddles and making things damp, but a large amount is going up hill is going to just flow down hill again unless you’ve got some kind of a pumping system to move the water back. This means that A Nexus is always in danger of draining away the same as the pool at the top of the hill. The “pumping system” for a Nexus is usually spirits of various kinds. At that cemetery the Nexus is maintained by the ghostly presence. This means that if the spirits leave or are reduced in number/strength then the Nexus itself will dry up or shrink. This makes Nexus more fragile than Wellsprings as spirits can be capricious. A Wellspring needs something quite major – pollution or severe habitat change, to be destroyed. A Nexus just needs something that will offend or anger the spirits – and that can be as minor as someone entering the Nexus wearing the wrong colour.
And advantage of Nexus is that you cannot destroy them by harming their Astral lines as you can a Wellspring with their Ley Lines, because Astral lines go to the next Realm, they don’t stay in this line.
When normal people enter a Nexus they generally feel creeped out. They feel the primary power of the Nexus (so that graveyard is scary, a forest is a wilderness place) but there is always an element of being alien. That forest will never feel like a Wellspring, awe inspiring and beautiful, it will feel huge and lost and dark and frightening full of the unknown. The Realm energy is so alien to what most people face that it is frightening.
Relics, Consecrated/Desecrated Land. Inspired Land
These are all largely words for the same thing. These are sights that have been imbued with the Third Power, the Power of Self. They can be used for all the same things as Nexus and Wellspring (empowerment, sympathetic magic, enhancement, etc etc) but for the Third Power.
The Third Power is the Power of Self, the Power of one of our traits writ large. So Sorcery is the inherent power of destruction that all people carry. Mystic Voice is the inherent power of creativity etc. Places empowered by the Third Power (Consecrated/Desecrated/Inspired Land) are usually places where incredible things have happened (good and bad) that have left a mark by the things people felt there (such as Woodstock and Auschwitz). Others are not sites of incredible events but carry great emotional weight with a very large number of people (St. Peter’s Cathedral, the Kab’a in Mecca) because there are such a vast number of people all vesting that part of themselves in the place. The fact that the most powerful of these tended to be holy land (because of the millions of people revering them) is why Camaalis refers to it as Consecrated land. The fact that horrendous tragedies also tend to become magical places of the Third Power (all the grief and pain and suffering of thousands of people on a large scale leaves its mark) is why Camaalis call others Desecrated. In theory they’re the same thing but most people don’t like linking them.
Naturally these places are very power specific. A Sorcerer is not going to get much of a buzz out of Woodstock while a Mystic Voice will get a huge charge. A White Mage will just sit down and cry at Auschwitz and will get no power. The power of these sites depends on how much emotional investment (not the best term, but it will do) people have put into it.
There are no lines of any kind with the Third Power – every site is personal and unique. The only connections it has to others are to those who view the site as important – so the Kab’a, being a huge one, has a connection to devout Muslims. These links tend to be very numerous pretty impossible to distinguish. Sure, you could technically use the Kab’a to cast a spell on all devout Muslims – but you would have to use it on ALL. It’s nearly impossible without a LOT of work to pick out one in the flood (frankly, it would be easier to track him down physically and go visit him). While it may sound powerful to be able to cast a spell on ALL Muslims or Catholics etc you would still have to rustle up a HUGE amount of power to be able to have any appreciable effect on them all – sure you have a Target Connection with the Kab’a and even a power boost (if you want to use its appropriate aspect) but it’s not going to be enough to give you enough power to effect over a million people.
Now, if some Consecrated Land is only of local importance – with only a small number of people “investing” their emotions in it – then yes, then it can be powerful.
Another interesting difference of the Third Power magical sites are Relics. Relics are just the same as Consecrated/Desecrated/Inspired land – they have been imbued with the Third Power through “emotional investment” of large numbers of people or by very powerful people. The difference is that Relics aren’t places – they can be objects or even people so long as people invest sufficient emotion into them. So you get holy objects, the shroud of Turin etc, even prophets and saints. If several thousand people believe that a nun can heal with her touch then they may actually invest enough emotion in her to make her a Relic of Healing (she won’t be performing miracles that are too incredible, but a Mage with healing powers could use her as a Connection of Empowerment.
Alternatively, an object can become a relic because it was involved in a huge atrocity or wondrous event involving lots of emotion.
Creating a Relic/Consecrated Land is quite difficult, it requires Camaalis to go out and somehow convince large numbers of people to emotionally invest in a place or object. There are various ways of doing this including starting your own religion (always useful) or starting new legends. It is difficult to sway large numbers of people, especially in these increasingly cynical times. Of course, an act of sheer wonder or an utter atrocity can also cause Consecrated Land
Still, it can be worth the effort. After all, one Camaalis ancestor is highly revered for adding two extremely powerful Relics to the Camaalis collection (a goblet and a sword) and all he had to do was magically seal the sword in a stone.
A Magician (or Channeler) cannot become a Relic. Their own magic tends to absorb or counteract the emotion invested in them. They already have the Powers running through them in a large amount, extra just flows off them. They can use human Relics but they cannot become Relics themselves.
Enchanted items can become Relics, but they need to be carefully handled if you don’t want the magic to conflict or counteract.
Multiple Power Sites
It is possible for a site to be a Wellspring AND a Nexus AND Consecrated Land. But these are EXTREMELY rare and any attempt to force it can often damage it’s current magic. One example is the healing springs of Lourdes. A Wellspring of Water and Healing, many people came to its waters to heal. With careful monitoring spirits of healing and hope congregated there, attracted by the newly cured and hopeful people who gathered in ever larger numbers. Over the centuries millions of people came to believe in the spring’s healing powers and invested a vast amount of their hope in it eventually Consecrating the Land.
This is very delicate. Magicians have tried to duplicate this with other healing springs and failed disastrously – one opened a path to the spirit world but it was spirits of disease and pain that were attracted, not health and healing. This effectively destroyed the Wellspring. Another got sufficient healing spirits there but then realised that the local authorities began charging admission. Suddenly the belief wasn’t hope and healing, but greed and avarice – which drove off the spirits destroying it as a Nexus# and their ill use and excessive traffic damaged the land destroying the Wellspring.
Camaalis’ policy is to monitor, nudge and protect but never ever try to actively create a multiple power site.
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-12 05:18 pm (UTC)i have envy. i especially like that last example of how a place can be all three things at once, and yeah, i could see that being very difficult to duplicate and easily messed up.
so, do i have this straight-- wellspring places are of here, but MORE so, kinda like if you took a photograph of a place and then cranked up the intensity of the color (if y'know, if you saw energy in color-terms.). and the nexus places are creepy because they are tied to OTHER (if you took that photo and maybe flipped it to negative or ran it thru a filter), and the imbued lands are focused emotional power (maybe take that photo and then give a certain human attribute to it, gave it a face--angry land or sad land or creative land...). it's a neat explaination for the feelings/results you get from being in certain places and how'd it be an asset or a hinderance or neither.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-13 02:16 pm (UTC)Yeah, multiple power sites just break. It's nearly impossible to force and you usually smash them if they don't smash themselves - but they are beautiful when they work.
Yes, Wellsprings are of the First Power, they are here, this reality with this reality's powers but they're CONCENTRATED. So it's all intense and wwwooooowww!
Nexus are creepy because they're alien. They do not belong here. It would be like a photo where all the colours ran or the colours were wrong or perhaps there were things in the photo that you can't quite see and don't make much sense (like shadows that SUGGEST but you can't quite see what they suggest) yes a flipped to negative would be very much the case. Something you should recognise but feels so very very wrong.
I would say an imbued land would be a painted photo - a photo that has then being touched up to emphasise and change the colours - so hope would all be shiny and brighter, horror would have muted grey tones with perhaps one or two stark reds.
And yep, that’s why some places feel a little freaky and some places just leave you awed and some places just make you want to sit down and cry for no good reason.
Side point - it is actually easier for a non-magic user or a Channeler to sense a place of power than a Magician that does not share that power. So, a Cleric (wielder of the second power) may walk through a Wellspring and not even realise it. The power is there and obvious to normal people and REALLY obvious to a Wizard but it doesn’t compete with the Cleric’s OWN power and his own sensitivity (kind of like hearing background noise that drowns it out). When they DO sense it they can usually recognise it for what it is (and will usually leave well enough alone) but sensing it in the first place is a little touch and go - they have to be looking for it.