MA: Al-Murrah: Desert Dwellers

[DrPraetorious]

There are several sects of dervishes that perform a whirling dance (or other moving meditation) while carrying swords, probably for symbolic purposes. Maybe some of them would also fight this way but I kinda doubt it.

Anyway, other (completely different?) sufis developed a formidable reputation as highly elite light cavalry, and the two descriptions were somehow merged in the west. Or so I have been told.

Anyway, as Sombre points out, like all mammals, Sufis can be cruel *or* totally awesome.

Given the close links in practice (if not in doctrine) between sufi sects and far-eastern religions, I do think WSN is the right magic for sufi practitioners.

You could legitimately give alchemists almost any combination of magic paths you wanted. If you want to be historical, they viewed themselves as a continuation of greek traditions, so you could give them the same mix of magic as an arcoscephale mystic, or something similar. Fire/air would certainly work.

The choice of death magic reflects a lovecraftian influence - HP Lovecraft loved arabic folklore, although the state of scholarship in the early 20th century was fairly primitive.

Anyway, all that "calling forth from dead saltes" stuff that HPL goes on about has alchemical roots, and it's really cool, so I think alchemists should do that. I'm sure that astrology played a bigger role than necromancy in alchemic practice, but - the purpose of alchemy is to flip and out and kill people.