Shark_Force wrote:i see my family regularly too (i see my parents or talk to them most days, i see at least 2 of my siblings once a week and often 3-4 times a week for hours, and regularly see my grandparents and some of my uncles or aunts at least once a week on average). i wouldn't constantly expect them to be around in an environment that they absolutely despise all the time, though. if i had to work at a garbage dump all day, i wouldn't ask my sister to come to the garbage dump and hang around with me just in case there's a job that needs another person. she doesn't want to be there, whether i'm there or not, and i know that. that's why i wouldn't ask my sister to do that. even though i enjoy my sister's company and i may otherwise see her on a regular basis. but again, if i know i'm about to need some extra help, yeah, i'll totally call my sister up and ask for some help. if my dad calls because he's having a hard time understanding how to use his computer, i'll do my best to lend a hand, sometimes coming over, sometimes trying to walk him through it over the phone (which is always a miserable experience).
and no, calling them family is not excessive. the book is quite clear that elementals regard you as being like their brother (or, i suppose, sister, though again i'm not entirely certain elementals can actually distinguish human genders or if they even fully grasp the concept of multiple genders at all).
and if you forced your sister to undergo something that is roughly like days of sleep deprivation... eventually, she may very well snap and decide to kill you. if you *force* your brother or sister to do something they hate day in day out for weeks on end, and no, not just ask, but *forcibly hold them in that situation*, then pretty soon they're not going to view you in the typical way you might view a brother or sister. so yeah, under normal circumstances, your siblings won't try to kill you. after you torture them for a few weeks, i wouldn't expect them to behave normally, and quite frankly, as noted, if you do torture your siblings for weeks on end, you are a horrible person, the worst of the worst.
if you need assistance at a moment's notice, you have the abilities and magic that come from being a warlock. within a few levels, you most likely have the ability to summon minor elementals using spell magic, meaning that within 3-5 seconds, you can probably have an elemental right there beside you to lend a hand (and otherwise help can be on the way within half an hour or so). unless you're doing something particularly unusual, that should generally be enough. you are not a helpless child. you shouldn't need your mommy to come into work to change your diaper, and you shouldn't be asking your daddy to beat up the kid that made fun of you in school. you can probably shoot lightning bolts powerful enough to destroy a tank or blanket a small village in fog so thick that you can barely see your hand in front of your face or something like that.
as to the specific mention of warlocks binding elementals into the constructs in the siege on tolkeen, well...
1) i wouldn't use those books as an example of what you should do for anything. in fact, while discussing the siege on tolkeen is about as close to a guaranteed flamewar as you can get on these boards, one thing both sides seem to think is that they were incredibly poorly written... it's just that they usually disagree on what the exact flaws are, depending mostly on whether they think the war should have gone more in tolkeen's favour or more in the CS's favour.
2) as i recall, that's a vague rumour as to how the constructs are made, not so much a clear statement. some people think there are bound elementals in there. personally, considering that should bloody well have caused a massive civil war in tolkeen as all the warlocks in the city go postal, i tend to presume it is not the case, but then again, i also prefer to ignore most the stuff that isn't left unspecified in those books as well, because damn those books are just a horrible mess.
Brace yourself, I'm a bit windy here; and good points you make.
There has to be more to a Warlock OCC than just living life and occasionally summoning an elemental to come over and help him redo his roof, burn off his pile of trash, or shape out his basement. The family your describing isn't a family business, that is run by the head of the family, the Warlock.
The Warlock would be like the Don of the family, but the Overboss or whatever you want to call him would be the boss of bosses who oversee's all the families, and this would be like the Elemental AI.
Mafia is known as a very family oriented organization, where there immediate family is very important to them, as well as extended. These are the elementals because these are the people you trust and respect the most.
Part of doing your job as a Warlock is taking care of business and you utilize your family to further the family business, which is most likely crime related with a good possibilty of violence. This fits to represent the dangers inherent in Rifts.
When talking about business, your employees (elementals) which in this case is family, are there to further that family business.
Also calling on family only when you need something (aka summoning elementals) in my book is bad form. No one likes it when friends call them up just to ask for something.
If you don't have an elemental around very often because he's unconfortable then you would practically never talk to them, and when you call them to help you with something, you are probably not socializing with them. And I would think most didn't become a Warlock because they were bored, but for some driving reason to obtain power by researching and learning of Elemental entity and then reaching out to them to bond. I don't think it says it but I would imagine there is some type of negotiation there.
What I'm getting at is if I was a Warlock, I would think I have some overiding reasons why I chose this uncertain path, and then the elements I came to cherish like family, I would want to socialize with them, not just call them when I have work for them, because that is not family oriented, but I would also expect them to look out for the family and further it's goals, even if it's not that comfortable, because is it not selfish to put your individual comforts ahead of your families?