[OOC] The Prophecy

[Nib]

I will have a post up tomorrow night. The hotel I'm staying in tonight doesn't have internet. The one I'll be in tomorrow will though

[ASTA]

cthulu said
@DJ No hurry with the Collab we can wait. I haven't posted here for a while, the heat and I disagree quite a lot and it makes me...ill-tempered so I wanted to be able to type this without being in a foul mood. I personally do not see anything wrong with the race options we have, when something new is thought up brilliant, but this just seems to me to be a way of going 'I want to play an untouchable, unbeatable awesome perfect character'. Which I can honestly say bores me to absolute tears. I think I got halfway into the description of each and went 'oh they're just human barbarians but too hard and strong for people to beat apparently. Yawn.' And stopped reading. Whats wrong with the Niin, Humans, Nightwalkers, Deigan, T...(forgotten the big massive don't mess with us characters we already have Ta...something?) or the rest of a plethora of races we have? Whats happened to all the small little vulnerable fragile characters that are actually FUN to roleplay with? Characters like Jaelenc who yes, is strong but nearly DIED at least once since I joined. Or Olan who pretty much did die if it weren't for Thaler's stupid wish. Characters as over powered as this and to some extent Aemoten make me feel like there's absolutely no point in me posting at all. They know everything, they can beat any enemy, they can survive any fight, so whats the point in me even being IN this roleplay when my character can't help at all and when she tries to, she magically becomes a fuck up and has to sit back and let the OP characters fix everything while tutting her, in my opinion, humanity.

To put some of your concerns to rest (and to touch on what Shien has already said), I've decided to port a new species into the roleplay because the character I have in mind is one of the few new characters I've created in a number of years. This character, his name being Claw, is someone who I want to develop further, and to watch him grow as a person as he undertakes adventures in this persistent world that you all have created.

I don't know what the species Shien has rattled off exactly are nor do I know what it is that exactly makes them superior (in a physical and/or combat-based case) to my creation. What I do know is that A) I don't really care, B) I've long since deemed it unimportant to my roleplay experience and C) It's very likely that more of Claw's kind will not feature in the roleplay given Malkor-Kurz's non-critical importance in the story line and its geographical location, eliminating any chance of these listed species ever interacting with one another unless a drastic change occurs.

[Additionally, a species is only as effective as its environment, its physical attributes and the tactics that it employs allow it to be. To be truthful, there is no such thing as an all-powerful creature that rules supreme in every situation that it is thrown into. Even dragons, mythical beasts that lovers of fantasy enjoy writing off as 'invincible' weapons of mass destruction, are absolutely drowning in weaknesses and shortcomings that a mere congregation of determined (and well-coordinated) farmers can exploit to score a victory against .]

[ASTA]

.

[Dark Jack]

It's always nice to hear someone mention their awareness of the importance of character development and growth; I know many, possibly even most, players know this, but seeing it confirmed just warms my heart (reread that and thought it might come off as sarcastic, so I better point out that I am sincere). I realize that the post wasn't directed at me, per se, but nevertheless I feel the need to assure you that thus far there hasn't been any reason that your character or the species it represents would be lore-breaking (which is my main concern with new things added to the universe; it's a huge pain having to make sure things don't contradict each other, both for me and for you as you have to deal with me maneuvering your peoples around and trying to find the particular little place they would fit in the best), and that for all intents and purposes, as far as I know by now (leaving room for the improbable), your Claw should be welcome to explore the Planes with the rest.

And yeah, most beings have weaknesses... in fact I'd go as far as to say that they all have them. Dragons, as you used as an example, are indeed no exception, which is one of the reasons they have been successfully hunted to near-extinction in The Prophecy. Some weaknesses may be hard to find or entirely unexploitable due to the circumstances, but even the immortals and deities of this universe have them. So... yeah. I agree.

(That little character you have there in your signature... some of the shorter animation-loops are almost hypnotizing. Before I knew it I'd been staring dazedly at it for several minutes. Interesting...)

[cthulu]

@Dj and Shien Have an operation on Thursday, may be spotty before and quite possibly absent for a while after depending on recovery rates and stuff.

[Nib]

I may have to delay my post another day. I've hit a brick wall in the middle of writing it. I apologize.

[Mercinus3]

Dark Jack said Heh, it was only just before writing this that I actually went through the effort of going back and seeing what was edited in your post, Rhaevnn, and woah, you weren't lying; it was changed a lot more than I suspected it would have been. I quite like the way it turned out, I must say (though I do feel the need to point out that the thirty-inch long beak of that pick is hardly a "spike the size of a man"). And how flamboyantly old Morgan moves against our new villain... I'll have to react to that. Merc? If you read this, is there anything I should be aware of Ixion doing/saying when writing a post, or might you actually have time to drop an IC post in a near future?I'm really sorry Ixion and Morgan decided to fight this guy, though... this is going to be almost as far from a fair fight as it can be. But you'll see for yourselves when I post as him next.

Hi Jack. I just have relatives that I haven't seen in a while from the States over for the past few weeks (something I had mentioned in a previous post, but I think the visit has restricted my posting to being non-existant). As they are heading back tomorrow morning(?), I will be free again and will be able to get a post by the end of tomorrow. (Shien, if I haven't, poke me on Skype and I'll get it done).

M3

[ASTA]

Dark Jack said
It's always nice to hear someone mention their awareness of the importance of character development and growth; I know many, possibly even most, players know this, but seeing it confirmed just warms my heart (reread that and thought it might come off as sarcastic, so I better point out that I am sincere). I realize that the post wasn't directed at me, per se, but nevertheless I feel the need to assure you that thus far there hasn't been any reason that your character or the species it represents would be lore-breaking (which is my main concern with new things added to the universe; it's a huge pain having to make sure things don't contradict each other, both for me and for you as you have to deal with me maneuvering your peoples around and trying to find the particular little place they would fit in the best), and that for all intents and purposes, as far as I know by now (leaving room for the improbable), your Claw should be welcome to explore the Planes with the rest.And yeah, most beings have weaknesses... in fact I'd go as far as to say that they all have them. Dragons, as you used as an example, are indeed no exception, which is one of the reasons they have been successfully hunted to near-extinction in The Prophecy. Some weaknesses may be hard to find or entirely unexploitable due to the circumstances, but even the immortals and deities of this universe have them. So... yeah. I agree.(That little character you have there in your signature... some of the shorter animation-loops are almost hypnotizing. Before I knew it I'd been staring dazedly at it for several minutes. Interesting...)

Character growth is one of the most important things to me. I'd honestly be somewhat saddened if the RP solely revolved around combat, since it wouldn't give me much of a chance to explore Claw's key psychological shortcomings and the deliberating social struggles he experiences on a day-to-day basis. It's going to be interesting watching him function in an environment where government is the norm, where the concept of 'buying' trumps the notion of 'stealing and forcibly taking,' and where people yield to authority and control without indulging in their (at least to him) innate urge and intrinsic duty to rebel. I want to give off the impression that Claw is indeed alien and is unversed in the ways of the folk outside of his native homeland, and that he does not bear total sameness to the other intelligent species of the known world on both a psychological and physiological level. He's a frustrated and borderline lost soul that needs guidance and help--two things that his persona would not willingly admit--- in a foreign land, so I suppose that you could say that a party of adventurers do not need Claw as much as Claw needs them.

In a nutshell, he isn't the one to go if a deal needs to be brokered between the group and a pompous lord of some sort, if someone needs to be non-violently persuaded to do something or if a crowd of angry people needs to be calmed down. Claw will probably suffer greatly on an emotional and mental basis, though not so much physically due to how his species is designed and the hardships he's been through.

Anyway, enough rambling. Shien and I have been talking over Skype about magic. Claw's magical talents deal with the manipulation, nullification and amplification of soundwaves. I know that soul energy is used to power magic in this world, and that magic typically increases in potency and reliability with use.

Claw is what you would call an 'Echoer', a term attributed to an individual del-korm male or female that was born with the power to control sound. My own setting requires Echoers to consume the voices of the defeated foes. All voices are not sufficient however, for even the thunderous roar of a lazy and unworthy wyvern is laughably weak when compared to the wizened photonics of an elderly king that has led his nation through several wars and snatched up victory with each campaign's conclusion. For Echoers, the power of a creature's soul or voice is determined by the deeds the being accomplished during its life. Strong voices augment and sustain Claw's powers and additionally help him strengthen his control over them.

Shien has told me that there are certain creatures that can do something similar. If so, how is it performed? It would be nice to know so that I can make relevant changes and such if needed. Also, are all souls the same strength? Are some more powerful than others?

I'm unsure if Claw can actually detect how potent a creature's soul is (would this ability be more in line with a Sniffer maybe?), but this does bring me into another point:

In order to make the best use out of his more offensive abilities, Claw peers beyond the veil of space to basically detect how a creature registers in the known universe. This is just a fancy way of describing how Claw picks up the ambient frequencies at which all things vibrate at. When this frequency is found, Claw matches it and disrupts that object's molecular structure by assaulting it with sound, which (provided he throws enough magical energy into it) enables him to vibrate a person to death or level a small hovel. Or something along those lines.

Honestly, it probably isn't the most efficient way of ending life (very painful and deliberating type of magic, though), but the arcane talents and sub-powers of Echoers have to do more with utility and recreational use rather than strictly offensive uses (such as acoustic levitation, sound therapy, voice mimicry, silencing one's physical movements or the sound of your partner's crossbow's firing mechanism, or repairing compromised steel or other materials using ultrasonic impact treatment techniques).

[Rhaevnn Xeno]

@ASTA
I love how you're hoping to allow Claw to wield "sound magic" - I once had an elvish bard who could wield similar power and it was blast to use iq application (though I never thought about using it to silence something or repair metal through sound). He was so much fun to write (and people loved reading his actions!)

It's safe to say I'm excited for Claw. :3 Can't wait to see a character sheet!

[Shienvien]

Just for the record, what I mentioned was the general possibility of draining magical/soul energy from the environment (such as what for example liches and to an extent plants have been described to do) or other beings (xuhrl-njok, what Gerald/the Withering has been doing) when he brought up soul-consumption as an ability.
(I have since also pointed out soul sizes vary by individual/species, and that only the "size" of the soul grows with magic-usage, not necessarily the reliability of your magic (although the latter is trainable, too). And other various bits, ways that souls in this world work a bit differently than voices/souls of his own setting.)

- And before it is raised as a concern, what ASTA listed are (some of) the theoretically possible applications of such sound magic, not necessarily things that Claw himself has mastered. And what he can do is often more the result of trial and error, I think ASTA mentioned; he is obviously no molecular physicist (descriptions on this level are for OoC clarity's sake).

Hrm... I have sort of been considering the initial titles references for players, rather than what the people are known as in the world? Aemoten's immortality is certainly one thing he is usually very reserved about, and only handful of people know of (even with Olan, Thaler, and soon Jaelnec included ... there are exactly two other living people who are aware of the fact). Etakar I am not counting in here; he is a bit of a hard-to-determine case.

(By the way, have you extended the world? The last time I asked, the areas past relevant areas of Kirirak weren't too detailed (and Reniam wasn't even decidedly a planet or anything else), aside of Junica being somewhere west of the Yawning Gorge.)

[ASTA]

When creating magic, I usually draw from the physical laws that govern and maintain our world. Things like the electromagnetic force or gravity, for example. The small number of applications I've listed for Claw's sound abilities are actually rooted n the domain of reality. Try Googling some of them if you're interested.

I've yet to decide exactly what Claw can and cannot do with his powers, but I'm probably going to tie them in with his deeds, accomplishments and childhood. He learned most of what he knows from his mother, who unfortunately grew to hate Claw for something that he did. In the early years, he was probably schooled in the non-violent uses of Echoing, while Claw himself learned much in its offensive capabilities when he and his mother began feuding with one another.

[Dark Jack]

With magic in my worlds I usually start out with a foundation built on scientific principles, sometimes mixed with psychological phenomena that can easily seem supernatural, and then expand from there until it becomes a new kind of science altogether - which is what magic basically is in The Prophecy; a self-invented science - with laws and principles of its own, some derived from how we know the world in our time of advanced technology and knowledge and some derived from the faulty perception of the world that beings from medieval times might have had, or at least have in the Planes. Shien might have mentioned this, but one of the Laws of Magic in this universe - the sixth of them and coincidentially my favorite and most correct one among them - is "change never exceeds what you know". Magic in this universe is based on science, but exists as an extension of the will and mind of the creature who uses it. Thus even though the ability to "disrupt molecular structure" with sound makes a certain amount of sense from our point of view, it's not possible to do with magic in this world because the beings therein have no knowledge of molecular science, or even the existence of molecules. At the current level magic only really materializes its effects on macro-level, and the effects produced will adhere to the mistaken expectations its user has to these.
That being said, using this Echoer-ability you describe does sound like it would work relatively well explained as a type of sound-element magic, although I sincerely doubt that using it would allow "acoustic levitation" or "ultrasonic impact techniques". It would be a matter of forcing magical energy of the wielder's soul to manifest through sheer force of will, making it manifest as one desires... but I already wrote about that in the Compendium Shien showed you. Control of sound could still be rather useful for a lot of purposes, I'd say, despite the awareness of the nature of soundwaves not being understood in Reniam and thus cannot be perfectly reproduced through magic... all the easily detectable properties of sound are known, after all, and those alone should go a long way.
As to the manner in which Claw should "consume the voices" of others, I've been giving that some thought... Draining energy from the environment is probably less applicable in this case, since while this does occur constantly with the entities Shien mentioned, the process is still very slow; in fact a regular mortal would be able to channel as much magical energy from the Spirit Realm in one average night's sleep as a plant would be able to draw from Reniam over two weeks (liches do it somewhat faster than plants, but only if they can continuously relocate to areas with untapped ambient energy; if they stay in the same place they will actually be slower than plants due to having to wait for their surroundings to become resaturated with energy before they can draw from them again). The ability to drain souls is feasible (not very effective if the "defeated foe" is dead, and quite morally questionable if it's alive), particularly if compared to the Xuhrl-njok's ability (which both increases their power and extends their life when they do so), although it doesn't seem entirely fitting in regards to how it's supposed to function in the original concept, with experienced and wise beings possessing more power to consume than beasts as a matter of course (Prophecy wyverns don't roar, by the way; they screech and wail). I started thinking about designing the ability to work by drawing power from others' Seeds of Good and Evil, similar to how Harvesters do (though that would be a seriously grim comparison to be able to make), but even this doesn't guarantee that things would work the same. But as Shien said it's possible.

And you're right, of course, Shien... the titles are mainly for the players to have a way to get a quick idea of what kind of character it is, and is only secondarily for IC, and even then they are not guaranteed to be used there at all. Aemoten's title as "the Immortal Warrior" is one that is rather unlikely to be known IC, I'll admit, but seemed appropriate for players to quick-reference.
The world... while not officially expanded just yet, as more and more things were added to the south and west in particular (starting when I added the Xuhrl-njok, actually) I started privately filling in the blanks, designing geography and assigning general cultural trends to various areas of the land. It's not as finished as the relevant areas of Kirirak and most of the western nations don't even have names, but all-in-all I've probably mentally expanded the world to some five times the size of the original map. And I think I've ended up deciding on Reniam being a planet after all.

I would post in the IC, but it seems I'll have to wait and see how Morgan reacts to Ixion's spell there, first. And waiting for Ashgan in Jillian's scene...

Oh, and I was just notified that the university I applied to nearly a year ago has accepted the application; I'll be returning to my studies in September.

[Shienvien]

(I posted in collab yesterday.)

I think I touched on magic being somewhat linked to knowledge some time back... Essentially it comes down to how well you observe (well, Claw observes) sound-phenomena, no? (As it so is that just seeing a fire allows you to make something that looks and behaves almost like fire, and the heat can cause purely natural fire to ignite atop of it.) Acoustic levitation and impact treatment, as well as the ability to cause remote precision-explosions in non-vacuum conditions (interference can both weaken and amplify a wave phenomenon ... make the waves interfere in a specific way after going through anything in between without causing any damage and you get a strong enough spike to make an explosion, and potentially a rather powerful one) are fairly unlikely to have noticed, but other things... That silence is just the lack of sound, that sound is reflected back as an echo that returns the faster the closer the surface, that rather loud noises really hurt (and perhaps even someone who has gone deaf, had ears bleed, collapsed unconscious, or even died from a loud sound in his vicinity), noticed how you can feel vibrations in your chest with very low sounds, how glass cups might decide to "sing along" to the notes they themselves produce, how some things may break to sound, or how a loud sound can trigger an avalanche... Yeah. So he could technically replicate a very wide array of effects just by having figured out they occur by seeing, feeling, and hearing them.
- If he noticed that a thing decided to respond to a sound, and then increased the loudness out of sheer boredom, I'd assume said thing might still eventually explode, since the structure (though not the molecules ... the structure itself, since molecules are usually too high frequency to be identified as sounds; no living being can hear sonic water-vaporizers, for instance) is, after all, still subjected to its own frequency at extremely high volume.

(...It also doesn't take being consciously aware of the thing's structure for me to know when a tool I am holding will snap if I strain it just a marginal amount more. And as far as I am aware, I have been quite right in my conclusions - when it comes to things being destroyed when I ignore that feeling, anyway. Not only did I break a spade or two (well, it was two), but I also managed to make a high carbon steel knife abruptly explode into shrapnel one time. So ... yeah. If I warn you something will most likely break, it most likely will.)

And congratulations on being accepted, Jack! That's a good news indeed.

@Nessa: Wishing you good luck for tomorrow.

[Rhaevnn Xeno]

@DJ
I actually thought I would wait to post Morgan's reaction to Ixion's spell simply because I'm not sure that "Red" would be swept by Morgan or not. But, if it is a guaranteed sweep, I'll be posting up sometime today.

[Dark Jack]

Well the way I read Merc's post Ixion cast the spell before Morgan landed his blow, so I thought it might have altered the initial attack itself from what it originally was... But if Morgan will really just follow through with the attack, I'll want to post first and describe the actual result of the attack.

And yeah, Shien, that's basically what I meant. And thank you. Also, I didn't even realize that the surgery would be tomorrow until I read you wishing good luck; naturally my thoughts will be with you as well, Nessa.

[Rhaevnn Xeno]

@DJ
Ah, ok. I read it as Ixion sent the illusion after the chokehold was executed (as Morgan wouldn't have said his second sentence until "Red" was on his back) but I can work with it. Expect a post up sometime today (more than likely after 5pm EST, as that's when I get off work)

[Shienvien]

My main point in that was that you can get quite far with observation and pure trial and error, even if you do not know how the things you do precisely work. (In the end, there was already an individual who used a thin ray of extremely concentrated light to neatly and nigh-instantaneously cut through matter, which isn't perhaps the most obvious application of light, either.)

Hrm... And if Olan does still not know what more to do (I doubt Thaler will be taking much initiative right now), you could post just Jaelnec's (and possibly the corporal's) reaction to Aemoten? He would be heading over to the others soon enough; it just turned out there were a few things to be said as he was trying to gather himself up after the fight.

[cthulu]

@Shien thanks hun. Hopefully won't affect my posting overly.

[Mercinus3]

Ah, my post is kinda unclear on that as you still haven't responded to the attack, DJ. I'll edit my post to clarify that.

EDIT: Scratch that, Rhae replied with Ixion using the illusion spell before they he grappled who I assume would be Grim.

M3

[ASTA]

Yes, Claw learned his talents from trial and error.

Claw doesn't know what a molecule is, but he can see vibrations all around him by switching to a magically-powered type of *'meta sight'. At some point, he probably messed around with various frequencies and found that strange (and rather destructive) things unfolded when he practiced this art on individual objects or living creatures. Granted, this is one of the higher-end applications for Claw's Echoing abilities (as well as the possibility of causing spontaneous explosions to occur, though without the flame effect), but it's within the realm of possibility.

Unsure if I'll even use something like that though. From a realistic standpoint, he'll only use things that are actually useful to him. Making something explode isn't that useful given it draws unwanted attention to Claw's person, which is bad in a land where the Crusader extremist group (Shien told me about them) wanders about and where frightened villages and towns might decide to don pitchforks, swords and woodcutting axes to do away with the large canine-like creature that's been heard and seen doing undesirable things.

When I was designing the Echo, the idea was to create a magic type that was both a worthy blessing but also a terrible curse---one that grows in power with each use, and that cannot be rectified in any shape or form. I don't want to go down the cliche route and claim that Claw gradually loses his sanity or something, but I originally had it to where Claw's own essence slowly degraded as he made use of his otherworldly talents, opening him up to death's waiting embrace and where his own soul will not go on to the afterlife (if such a thing even awaits the del-korm species. I don't think I ever designed one).

Also, would it be acceptable to have Claw take a page out of the Xuhrl-njok's playbook and consume the hearts of living creatures to power his magic and give it the capacity to grow in strength?

*I might alter this to where Claw can feel and hear these vibrations. The idea of 'seeing' and not 'hearing' kind of clashes with the overall theme I'm going for anyway.