The Prophecy OOC - Epic High Fanatasy Adventure

[Hymusia]

I@m back, I'm working on a post and Hooowee! Love all the posts I've missed, they're great!

[Shienvien]

@DJ: Could you please tell me whether there are any larger settlements within two days' journey to the Anaxim side of the Sloth river that Aemoten might know of? He doesn't have overly exact picture of the map, but he did travel arond eight years ago when he first arrived in Rodoria (and to a smaller extent afterwards) and therefore should have some recollection on where the main roads and towns are.

(I'd like to post tonight-tomorrow; I asked more questions back then, but the rest aren't that important at the time being - well, I *am* still interested in what the replies are, but the answers to the other questions aren't in the way of me typing up the next post. I gather you are somewhat preoccupied these days.)

[Dark Jack]

Friday is here, and with it comes precious, precious free time (cue choir of angels and harp-music) which allows me to actually stop by and write something meaningful for a change, rather than just keep updated on what's happening and then end up thinking "no way I have time to give a proper answer for that right now..."
But now I am here!

When you ask about settlements on the Anaxim side of Sloth's River, I am going to assume that you mean actually in the duchy of Anaxim, since Seclyr is on the same side of the river and within half a day's journey - but Jillian would not want to go there, even though there are actually two settlements - a small town and a even smaller village - within two days' walk in that direction. In Anaxim... although one would need to cross a branch of the river to get there (there is a bridge), one might reach a small town along the northern fringe of Anaxim Forest (that is, east-southeast of where the companions are now). Along the western fringe was where the companions just came from, so you know there is nothing there, and aside from that, everything in Anaxim within that distance is occupied by Anaxim Forest.

Other metals do indeed share some of these traits (metal is generally more resistant to magic than non-metals), though none to the extent silver is, and with impure metals (such as steel, which contains carbon) the resistance is very low, and even pure iron has but a fraction of the anti-magical properties silver has... platinum is a special case in that it does not insulate against magic as silver does and thus does not offer any protection if one were to wear it, but it itself is virtually immune to magical influence, meaning it cannot be damaged, changed (which includes being enchanted), moved or in any way affected by magic. Other metals have various degrees of self-shielding and general resistance against magic, but none to the point of silver and platinum. And for the sake of mentioning, ghiril has high immunity against magic but provides neglectible protection against it, and whereas Sartal does offer some resistance against magic, but is actually quite easily affected by magic - though it should be noted that the amount of magical energy it would take to affect Sartal enough to damage or alter its physical properties would be so huge that it would kill even the strongest mage.
What iron does to ghosts and specters simply what I have already stated: it disrupts their form and causes their magical energy to temporarily disperse, forcing them to reform before they can interact with the physical realm again. This does not harm them per se, not anymore than it would to throw a large rock in a stream to disrupt its current, but each time they reform after having been scattered, they have to spend a little energy putting themselves back together, progressively weakening them until they reach the point of being weak as an actual dead person, which will then cause them to pass on to an afterlife. Silver, as I said, does not disrupt ghosts and specters, but simply prevents their passage as they cannot pass through it. Iron is still more effective against them, but silver might provide temporary protection.
As for whether silver would work against the magic of deities... that would be somewhat circumstancial. If a Favored One called upon their power to use against someone, silver would be capable of protecting its wielder against it just as it would any other kind of magic (unless of course the magic was directly targeting the silver - as I previously mentioned, silver is not immune to magic, it merely insulates against it, which are different properties altogether). But if the deity administered its power personally (as in, giving particular attention to the invokation of its power by a Favored One, or if it attacks the wielder of silver on its own accord), then it would indeed be able to easily negate the protection silver offers, if nothing else then through the sheer enormity of power that is at a deity's disposal.

Yes, it is possible to make black magic traps and wards, although these will usually be less discriminate about the circumstances it takes to trigger them than those created with arcane glyphs. These represent a convenient loophole when it comes to the unpredictable energy-consumption related to black magic, though, as firstly, one actually has to connect a flow of energy to written Devil's Tongue before it becomes infused with it and takes on magical nature, and secondly, even though the magic at this point will try to take whatever amount of magical energy it needs to manifest in the way it wants, there is a limit as to how much magical energy can be contained in a rune (dependent on its size - larger runes can hold more magical energy) which provides a natural limiter as to how much energy it can take, preventing accidental deaths by excessive magical exhaustion.
Whether a magical glyph could be made that feeds on the energy of its victim to fuel itself... well, the short answer would be no, simply put because of the First Law of Magic: Power Demands Sacrifice. In other words, a glyph can do absolutely nothing and is of utterly mundane nature until the moment it is supplied with magical energy. Stealing magical energy from someone is doing something, which would require magical energy to be done in the first place. I guess a ward could be made that drained magical energy from its victim if it was infused with the energy to do this by its caster, and then use the energy stolen to extend the duration of the drain, but even then the First Law of Magic would mean that the ward would have to spend more energy to function than it would gain from its victim, meaning that the ward would most likely be depleted before the victim. Likewise, one could make it so that one glyph drained energy from its victim, which it then supplied to another glyph to fuel a second trap, but again that would mean that this second trap would gain considerably less energy than was infused into the glyph stealing the energy.
One could safely ingrave both arcane and black runes on an object as long as they are not unleashed at the same time, yes. Such glyphs are sealed to preserve energy as long as they are not activated, meaning that one can be unsealed without influencing another sealed one. But if both were to be unsealed at the same time, the energies would try to combine, and... well, it wouldn't be pretty. Or actually it might be, could result in some quite spectacular fireworks, but hardly enjoyable to the person responsible.
Crystal prisons are already made from material similar to that runesword handles are made from, and their very nature already facilitates an easier bonding between the wielder and the energy stored in the crystal prison. There is a difference between creating a conduit allowing easy transference of magical energy from one physical object to another, though, and integrating the object into the natural flow of one's soul, which would be necessary to render the two quantities of magical energy practically one and ensure that black magic taps into both equally. The energy Rune Mages channel into their swords does so almost automatically and requiring no conscious effort, yes, but the runesword does not become part of the flow of their soul, just a place where stray magical energy will pass into once in a while with no real real integration into the flow of the soul. Altering the very flow of the soul is excessively difficult to learn and remains strenuous to do consciously even once one has acquired the ability - necromancy and Art of the Warden are not easy abilities to learn, after all - no matter how little resistance there is between where it is coming from and where it is to go.
Devil's Tongue... As a matter of fact you are mistaken as to whether it is possible to speak it without invoking magic - mortals cannot speak the Devil's Tongue without invoking black magic, whether they mean to or not, which is also why I was concerned back when our True Child, before I knew her true nature and still thought she was human, spoke with Thelos in the Devil's Tongue. One could intentionally pronounce words wrong or break them into syllables with long pauses in between to speak the words without invoking magic, but even then one would have to be extremely cautious to avoid accidentally casting a black spell. Writing it down is possible, though, as written Devil's Tongue does require a conscious supply of energy in order to become magical in nature. In fact, there has already been numerous cases of written Devil's Tongue in the story so far, without anyone even realizing it. Do you recall Thelos' tattoos, and the strange patterns he used to draw on everything? That was Devil's Tongue, mundane because they had not been "plugged into" a source of magical energy they could draw their power from.

...I think that answers the questions posed since last time I posted. Hope it makes sense.

[Dreadlord]

These past few days have been bad for me, and they've shown me, that, well, I'm really, truly sorry, but I just can't come to RPG anymore. Brand is in a spot where he can die easily, so there's no need to make something up for him.

Again, I'm sorry this is so sudden and I'm sorry I can't tell you why, but it's just really personal. It was fun while it lasted - I had some good and some bad times, but I don't regret any of it. Bro love to you all.

[Dark Jack]

I'm... sorry to hear that. Still, I'm glad that you at least told us plainly so I would not have to make any difficult decisions (again) about what to do about your character.

Good luck with whatever it is that troubles you, and know that if circumstances changes, this RP will likely still be here with a spot waiting for you. And that in the meantime, we'll take care of the donkey, and I'll make sure to keep Immanuel entertained.

[Shienvien]

It tends to be the exact opposite for me, available time wise - the middle of the week is typically quite calm and I'm all free to do whatever I want, but come Friday and I find myself amidst the most various of happenings. Today, for instance, I am semi-managing an event which I had no idea would even take place before Thursday evening, and which I wasn't supposed to as much as attend before late evening yesterday, which was when I received the news that the person who was actually supposed to be in charge is ill.
- As far as posting goes, I still intend to do so today, but relatively late at night. (Technically tomorrow very early morning, probably; here I am counting time by when I sleep again.)

And yes, that indeed answers the questions I raised quite nicely; at the very least I didn't have any difficulties understanding what you were trying to say, or in which way I can't carry over the concepts of one world to another.
(In my world, for example, it was possible to create objects which automatically 'adjusted' their level of contained magic to whichever entity or object that was at least partly magical in nature and came to contact it - and in case said object was set to then take and spend the obtained magic somehow, it could quite easily get to the point where the magical side of whatever was being drained in this manner was depleted (if it was object or entity simply containing magic) or could no longer sustain itself (if it was an object or entity made of magic). There also existed entities who could 'drain' the same - and it took almost no effort as long as the other remained more powerful. Technically they could go past that point and even deplete others, too, but rather than using all of their own magic up (which'd kill them) to be able to do so naturally, they simply spent some of the magic at their disposal to forcefully draw past the point of even levels (no gain in the latter case, just loss, and this already required substantial mental effort and control of one's powers to carry through). - From the moment onward it was entirely impossible to draw magic in this way from something magical, it was so tightly bound that there was absolutely no way at all to use said magic to any extent.
...Most of the last paragraph has very little to do with Reniam or the Prophecy, but is here just to give a moment of comparison in regards to at least one of the aspects.)

That is interesting, though, that the words associated with black magic can't be spoken at all by mortals without invoking it. Certainly makes learning black magic a bit harder than I've been imagining this far ... especially if what Jaelnec recalled is true and it is technically possible to cast a spell by just thinking it loudly in one's head. ... How does one usually learn black magic?
...Also, I am kind of trying to come up with alternate uses for the metal staffs (if you can recall, Ardjan Elantair, the human mage Aemoten knows, had one such) that were quite powerful artifacts in the Hektareian world, but can carry only a few of the qualities they had there in Reniam solely because the magic of the two worlds differs that much.



@Dreadlord: That's certainly regrettable; nevertheless, good luck getting over whatever hardships you have hit, and thank you for letting us know.

(Erm... And as for Brand, do we still keep to the plan we came up with for him prior to Dreadlord's return?)

[Dark Jack]

No, since Dreadlord basically just suggested so himself, we are going to let him have died from his injuries. It's not going to sit well with Thaler (I imagine) and Jaelnec (who thought he saved him), but it'll be more realistic and easier for our part, as cruel as that might sound. Besides, it doesn't seem likely from what Dreadlord just reported that he will return anytime soon, so there is really little point... Maybe if Dreadlord returns, Brand can make a return as a ghost or a demon? Heh.

When one learns black magic, one is heavily reliant on written instructions, which will teach the words for the spells, and a teacher that can explain pronounciation of the Devil's Tongue - as I mentioned before, carefully broken-up syllables can trick black magic into not recognizing the words, so one can somewhat safely explain the pronounciation one syllable at the time without invoking magic. But you are quite right: while being able to cast black magic is so easy that it can be done by accident, learning how to use it and achieving mastery of it is notoriously difficult, even more so than virtually any other kind of magic. Or, well, maybe not difficult per se, but certainly infuriatingly painstaking.
Luckily for the citizens of Reniam, not all words in the Devil's Tongue can invoke spells on their own, or speaking the names of demonspawn would be quite a risky business. The translations of their infernal desires are relatively rarely single-word spells, too... Although, some are. A particular demonspawn named Gaath (death) comes to mind...

As for these metal staffs of yours, I guess they could be used defensively to parry projectile-type spells, or they could be useful simply because they are relatively difficult to affect with magic (dependent on what metal they are made from). They might also be used because resistant metals (whereby I mean those that insulate against it, like silver, not those with increased immunity, like platinum) are good at conducting and dispersing energy across its surface, which (as is seen with runeswords) can also be used offensively if one does it right.

EDIT: Oh, one detail I haven't thought to mention yet: tarken can speak Devil's Tongue without invoking black magic, thanks to their racial inability to use magic. So there are some mortals that can use it.

[Shienvien]

Okay, will be taken into account. If Brand is dead, then he's dead ... not that I, if that decision was left to me, would probably have decided much differently, given what probability there would realistically have been for him to survive with those injuries. In fact, he is in such a bad condition that Etakar has been entirely ignoring his existence... (Dekkuns were described to be uncannily good at predicting how great a chance one has at surviving.)

The metal staffs, by the way, could actually be very effectively used to both disperse magical barriers (however not for the same reasons metal objects might do so in Reniam, and they weren't better than anything else at blocking projectile-spells) and to shatter magic-absorbing barriers, but it wasn't their main purpose.
Their main purpose was to let the wielder successfully harness magic which was otherwise extremely hard to transform into complex spells: the metal staffs were commonly given to individuals classified as black mages - who in that realm were for one far more powerful than was the norm, and whose magic was naturally much 'rawer' than that of other mages. - Meaning that black mages were both immensely powerful and didn't have their own 'branch' of magic, no matter how vague, but rather could learn to use literally any form of tergan magic in existence with equal efficiency ... as long as they could get the magic to properly transform into what they wanted. The metal staffs, then, made it very easy to do the latter.
In addition to that, most metal staffs also could store an amount of magic (that's why there were the color-changing stones adorning the upper ends), and practically all of them were made so that only one person could use them, whereas if someone not meant to tried to use one ... well, they were very lucky if the thing wasn't set to kill them at giving a try. Physically attacking someone with a metal staff could be fairly effective if you wanted to kill them, too, especially in case of one that has the blade-extension, though any could do notable crushing-damage. Some metal staffs had additional magical glyphs and such, too.
- Oh, and those weren't made of any single metal or alloy, but rather a complex combination of different alloys and pure metals.
(So as to explain what the metal staffs originally were; probably should have added that bit in the first place. As said, I find it quite hard to fit something perfectly analogous into Reniam, and those things were quite significant in their original forms.)

[Dark Jack]

I wasn't guessing at their original function, you just said you were thinking of an alternate use of the staffs, and I offered a suggestion (I actually forgot about the bit about being able to pierce magical barriers, though - a resistant metal would be able to do that (resistant metals don't break or in any way undo protective magic in Reniam, it is just able to pass through it with less difficulty than most other matter, leaving itself and the magic intact)). Metal staffs would make quite deadly weapons, I agree, and I figure they would be even more so if engraved the same way runeswords are, enabling them to channel and manifest magic along its length to empower itself. It would be harder to achieve without the magically conductive crystal handle, but still possible.

[yoshua171]

0_0

It amazes me how much has been put into this world. Even after reading nearly the whole OP way back I am still impressed. Can't wait to interact with everyone, trying to finish up a post I started constructing months ago >_>