Cast a spell, grandma, grandpa, gray bear. Woman cast a spell, grandfather cast a spell: countries where witchcraft is the norm. Papua New Guinea

Epigraph
- From now on, call me Sid.
Lord of Fire!
- Hey, fire lord, your tail is on fire!
"Glacial period"

Good must be with fists. If it doesn’t have fists, it means it’s evil, because it was evil that was most often hit on the glasses by pumped-up classmates in childhood. For this reason, it grew up evil, with plans to destroy the world in the glove compartment. It is not without reason that there is an opinion among people that a big elephant is kind, and a small pug is evil and disgusting. Being big and strong, it is relatively easy to be kind, because potential enemies will simply bypass you. In such conditions, it is much easier to believe in Santa Claus and dandelions. But to be skinny means to be beaten. Is it always? Not at all, and fantasy offers all non-muscular, but wiry characters a wonderful recipe for standing up for themselves. Good may be dead, but with fists. You just need to know how to use magic.

Cast your spell, grandpa...
Magic is one of the pillars on which all modern fantasy rests. Take the fireballs and curses out of the song and you will automatically turn the fantasy world into something else. Fantasy is, first of all, not a guy with a sword three times the height of a man, but a dwarf girl with sparks flying out of her fingers. You can throw a slipper at me, but I am firmly convinced that magic is approximately 50% of the fantastic nature of the universe. And not a percent less. But somehow I got carried away. We seem to have gathered here on business. The point is what happened to spellcasting characters throughout the Diablo games.

In the first part, a frail but promising racial-chocolate Magician reached Tristram from the distant east, where the carpets are sooooo thick and the women wear curtains over their faces. The game affectionately called the members of his Order the Brotherhood of Vizjerei, whose magical subversive activities have long been spoiling the blood of the entire Underworld. But let's return to our Magician. In a red battle robe, with a staff at the ready, he bravely descends into the dungeon, ready for anything... and dies from the clutches of the first Fallen, if your hands are not straight enough. Yes, yes, what did you want? Morgan Freeman from the world of Sanctuary is in very poor health, and at first, inexperienced players constantly have to play orderlies, reincarnating their grandfather a hundred times a day. At the end of the game, however, an experienced Mage can calmly finish half the dungeon with one spell, but you still have to live to reach these levels. And he, the rebellious one, is looking for a storm so that he can die in this storm. The game gave the Mage a couple of dozen spells to choose from, which he could raise up to level 15. Want to slow roast succubi? Please! Do you want to destroy a horde of skeletons with a holy word? No problem. The only difficulty was to quickly switch between spells and not die at the very beginning. The rest became just a matter of technique. The magician became an indestructible tank, which could only be destroyed by a careless game. Next is more fun, because Diablo II is coming out.

Cast your spell, grandma...
In the second part of the imperishable story, the dark-skinned Sorceress in a green bikini with a decent set of fiery-electro-freezing dirty tricks becomes the successor to the Magician’s work. If our grandfather mainly tormented evil spirits with fire and lightning, then the Sorceress in most cases prefers cold. A strange craving for ice for an inhabitant of warm lands, but oh well. If you have some imagination, it is quite possible to write her down as the granddaughter or daughter of our red-robed sorcerer, who followed in the footsteps of her ancestor. It’s their family thing, you know, to eradicate evil on the planet. However, on the topic of the origin of the Sorceress, history is very categorical: judge for yourself, the sorceresses of Zann Ezu are positioned by a completely different magical community than Vizjerei. And if the latter desperately need world domination, then the witches sit peacefully in the wilderness and build houses from the enchanted snow.

Although in many ways the Sorceress is similar to her predecessor, it should be noted that Blizzard has significantly strengthened her, and she will put her Mage trainer on her shoulder with one left hand. In addition to a very extensive set of elemental spells, which are fiercely hated by all local weather forecasters, the Sorceress can teleport, or fly, as people say. Being the most popular character for finding good gear, the sorceress in 1.10 becomes a scary zonder hero, since the total damage from her spells is more like Bill Gates' bank account. The amount of damage, as well as the above-mentioned teleport, is actively used by insidious PKs, lying in wait for victims in dark alleys and blowing out their (victims, not alleys) ears with one spell. But on baal runs, the Sorceress is practically irreplaceable, although due to her relatively frail health (genetics, you know, you can’t argue with), many players refuse to fly, citing a lack of mana. Although you and I know that they are simply afraid of not fitting into the turn.

The gameplay for the Sorceress was extremely interesting. Throw an Ice Ball here, snap a Meteor there... oh-oh-oh, but I’d rather treat this group of bastards like that! O_O The presence of immunity to the elements in various monsters greatly puzzled the player at the hellish level of difficulty, forcing him to either download additional branches of spells, losing in damage to the main element, or go hand in hand with someone else, imitating Legolas with Gimli. However, thanks to the Teleport, any (or almost any) Sorceress could quickly gallop through the game, stopping briefly only at key points. When rumors about the third part began to stir among the people, it is clear that Blizzard could not pass by such a colorful character and, grabbing him by the chest, dragged him into Diablo III. Meet the Sorcerer!

And to hell with you, do magic together!
This time, the magic class came to us directly from the island of Xiansai, where the precociously talented pupils of the local magic school bore their teachers so much that they sent them to the mainland in the hope of correction. And not just where they are sent, but to Vizdzherei. If you believe the history of the class, young Sorcerers leave Vizdzheri with the ease of a kolobok who left both his grandmother and his grandfather. Having read comics about superheroes and having a set of young pyrotechnicians in their arsenal, the Sorcerers in the third part clearly lay claim to the laurels of Harry Potter from the world of Sanctuary. Wayward, but very talented, they have no problem scattering hordes of evil spirits, destroying them with any spell that comes to hand, just like their historical ancestors. True, now there is no talk of external similarity, since the Sorcerers clearly came from the Chinese branch of Sanctuary. Packed in clothes, which is somewhat atypical for sorcerer classes, they squint maliciously and smile insidiously, ready to roast any enemy in the fire. The sorcerers still master the rare magical art of Avado and Avaposle and kill monsters left and right, regardless of the degree of survivability.

True, the fight will now have to be more desperate, since Blizzard, wanting to surprise the players with a heart attack, has reduced the area affected by spells, and now, in order to kill a bunch of zombies, you will first have to run to this pile and stand almost end-to-end. Add to this a traditionally flimsy constitution and poor health - and you get a Kamikaze Sorcerer, who, briskly running across the battlefield and swearing non-stop, is trying to kill the devils and save his skin. An endless flow of adrenaline is guaranteed.

In addition, not so long ago the forge of the most best games(IMHO, of course!) stated that each hero will have his own energy. Our Asian friends were destined for Instability. I have no idea what it is or how it works, but, as someone joked in the comments, when this energy is counted after the death of the hero, a characteristic nuclear fungus will appear at the place of death. I feel, however, that in this situation the essence of playing for the Sorcerer will be to die in the very bad place.. anyway. Every joke has a grain of humor in it, you know.

As for the set of spells, in many ways it repeats those from the second part. Fans of Sorceresses were happy to see in the preliminary announcements the beloved Teleport, the deadly Meteor, the refreshing Buran and the multi-headed Hydra. But new ones have been added to the old “classic” spells, such as Slow Time and Electric Chain. Needless to say, the visuals of the magical combat are striking in their beauty and effectiveness, and I am beginning to understand Blizzard in their decision to limit the number of party members to four players. Four Sorcerers, huddled together, will create such an endless fireworks display on the screen that, in comparison, the visuals of the battles in “Avatar” will seem like childish underpainting. Sparks are flying, ice is freezing - and you are standing in the center. Nice to introduce myself, Earthquake Director, it's a pleasure!

The audience is debating, debating... they've finished debating!
When the Sorcerer was announced at BlizzCon 2008, players were impressed for a very long time. In the vast majority of cases, it was purely positive, since the style of playing for the Sorceress was very carefully transferred to the third part, and the gameplay seemed interesting and exciting. According to surveys, the third the class immediately topped the rating of heroes for the right of the first night, leaving the Barbarian and Witch Doctor far behind.The branches of spells, as well as the spells themselves, were considered by many to be at least interesting and worthy of attention, and all the complaints of the players were mainly about the gameplay video, when the Sorceress walked like a superhero stomps into Leoric's dungeon. Like, everything looks a little primitive for a game that has been in development for so long. Otherwise, the players were satisfied, and when someone with a particularly big eye saw the class spheres of mages, joy knew no bounds.

However, some original players were hostile to the ban on the use of such hammers, citing the fact that if their game wants to upgrade the Sorcerer-Hulk, no one has the right to prohibit them from doing so. However, on this moment Blizzard, through the mouth of Bashiok, confirmed that the ban is still in force, and no one is planning to lift it yet. That's it.

We can talk for a long time about what the Sorcerers will be like when the third part is finally completed. It may also happen that everything will not turn out as rosy as the players imagine. However, out of habit, I will believe in the best and hope that the most magical class will turn out to be as cool as we all imagine. It's magic, after all, and maybe Blizzard won't be greedy and spend as much mana on Sorcerers as it takes to make this class worthy of its ancestors.

During the World Cup in South Africa, Paul the octopus, who predicted many outcomes, including the final victory of Spain, became the most popular animal on Earth. The unfortunate cephalopod did not survive such attention - and already in the fall he quietly died at the age of two and a half years in the aquarium of the Center sea ​​life"Oberhausen.

To be honest, I’m pretty tired of the World Cup,” Paul said in an interview with one of my colleagues in July 2010. - I thought that all this madness would end after Euro 2008, but, alas. Now I seem doomed to play the role of a jester for the rest of my days. You know, in Lately all my three octopus hearts are visited by forebodings. I don't have much left.

As we see, poor Paul was right and, contrary to the promises of his owners, he never saw the free waters of the ocean. But he left an indelible mark on history, and after him many imitators appeared: pigs, monkeys, parrots, rats. Everyone predicted something and everyone was presented to the world as oracles.

The need for magic is inherent in people from childhood, says the permanent expert of SE-Voskresenya, a psychiatrist from the Serbsky Institute Timur Nenashev. – Football is a game, and in any game there should be a place for miracles. The story with the octopus, as well as with its successors and imitators, is direct proof of this. Why did people accept "octopus magic" so easily? Because it diversified the pathetic seriousness of such an event as the World Cup.

Attempts to use supernatural forces in football were made both before and after the famous octopus.

On the eve of the same 2010 World Cup, FIFA sent a letter to the organizers, warning them about the inadmissibility of performing African magical rituals during the tournament. The formal reason was an incident in Swaziland, where football players damaged the fields of the country's main stadium by burying amulets and charms in the turf, as well as scorching these places with fire. In Africa, black magic with its indispensable talismanic attributes is commonplace. Everyone remembers the success of the Senegal team at the 2002 World Cup and the group of men with diamonds and amulets in the stands. They say that in the budgets of most African football clubs there is even a special item of expenditure on witchcraft (in formal language this is called “psychological preparation”), and sponsors have always generously paid for the services of shamans. And the best African football players, moving to European clubs, bring their traditions to the Old World.

FOOTBALL TEAM USING VOODOO by mbalekin

Sometimes, however, witchcraft led to tragic consequences. For example, in 2008, the English Daily Telegraph wrote about a sad incident that happened in Democratic Republic Congo in the city of Butembo. The goalkeeper of the Niuki System team began to cast magic right during the game with the Sokozaki club, which first provoked a fight between the players, and then riots in the stands. As a result, everything escalated into citywide pogroms, the police used special means, and 13 people died.

Things are very serious in Haiti, where Voodoo sorcerers live. As you know, they are not to be trifled with, so the whole country treats this cult with great respect. In 1996, the Racing team from the city of Gonaives became the national champion, but on the order of one of the competitors, one night the Voodoo sorcerer sprinkled the doors of the club office with the blood of a black rooster, and Racing could not win anything for 12 years. The curse was lifted only in 2008, when the team again became the champion. Maybe an even more powerful sorcerer has been found?

Often, ordinary crooks pose as Voodoo sorcerers, offering fans for 10 - 20 euros to perform a ritual in honor of their favorite team. During major tournaments there are enough such “magicians” in all cities. In Spain, during the 2008 European Championship, “Voodoo kits” were sold in all major supermarkets. Interestingly, one of the dolls, which had to be pricked with a needle, was dressed in the uniform of the Russian national team.

However, there is another kind of magic. In particular, on the Internet you can find many advertisements like “hereditary sorceress predicts the outcome of football matches”, or “I will bewitch a football player”, or “the sexiest football player suitable for you” and stuff like that. Since there is a lot of supply, it means there is also demand - in any case, the services of fortune tellers are not cheap.

And there is such a thing as dreams and their interpretations. Here’s what, for example, old man Freud’s dream book says: “If in a dream you play football, you are used to manipulating people and don’t think at all that others may not always like it. If it’s important to you how people will treat you , whom you consider to be your friends, then you need to change your behavior. Watching someone else play football - do not attach so much of great importance someone else's opinion. Surely you yourself have been convinced more than once that someone else’s opinion is not always correct.”

Or here's another version. “Play by yourself: there will be disputes over property, money, dividends.”

Well, as we see, the mysterious and inexplicable occupy an important place in football. Some will call it magic, others – superstition. Be that as it may, it would be much more boring without all this.

Dmitry ZELENOV

I have a sister, Yulka, a person completely far from any kind of mysticism (but even an old woman can have a problem), and her friend was Lentik (Lena). Lentik suddenly had an attack of acute shortage money supply, something didn’t work out with my husband’s work, which, of course, is a sign of interference dark forces, and as a consequence - “the crocodile is not caught, the coconut does not grow.” Lentik, our horse, was not a working horse, but a so-so pony, she said to herself that “that’s not why mom raised the kitty” (Ukrainian), for this reason, apparently, her friendship with work did not happen. Lentik, in fact, was idle, calling this matter “jam! I’m raising children.” By the way, she and her husband had a wonderful, smart daughter and, characteristically, the child did not call himself “you.”

At this time of total bad luck, Lentik used hidden reserves (from her husband) and in a narrow circle of women, in a whisper interrupted by excitement, the address of a “very strong grandmother-witch” was made public, specializing exclusively in material “affairs”, helping everyone with prayers, but taking a lot. This didn’t bother Lentik and even spurred him on, rich people, they say, are smart people, and money won’t go to hell for any crap that doesn’t have God’s power, so he has to go surrender to this grandma, and immediately. Appointments are by appointment only, hence the logical conclusion that the office is serious. Having signed up over the phone and borrowed some money (a considerable amount in hard currency), taking my Yulia and two black chicken eggs, bought for the occasion at the nearest grocery store, the girls went to the Master to save their families from bankruptcy and any shame.

Something immediately went wrong: the minibus broke down, Lentik lost his expensive umbrella (?!) (it’s winter outside, it’s -17 Celsius outside, just a minute. The problem asks: why did he give it up to her?), from Yulia a lucky button came off, a ritual egg broke in a lady's purse, and hiccups began. No one heeded these ominous costs, and the gloomy motorcade without an umbrella inexorably approached the cherished address.

The door opened, and the group of guests, with difficulty focusing, was closely examined by a not very sober woman. Having led the clients into the kitchen of the communal apartment and seated Lentik on a dirty stool, she began to perform sacred acts. Having broken the ritual egg into a dusty liter jar, the sorceress began to shake it in the jar over the seated woman’s head. These passes were of a very long nature, and it seemed to the respected public that this trance would be endless, because the witch, closing her eyes, increased the amplitude of the vibration of the container, spilling part of the ritual omelette on Lentik’s head. Lentik screamed dully, the grandmother perked up, bristled all over, opened her cloudy left eye and, having carefully scanned the dirty yellow substance remaining in the jar, screamed piercingly: “*** power! God is holy! The twelve apostles will help you!” The client’s obsession passed away in an instant, the girls neighed treacherously and, without leaving the master even a hangover, they ended the mystical audience. A curtain.

P.S.: They laughed for a long time and... treacherously.

edited news Lida Lazareva - 7-09-2015, 07:44