[OOC] The Prophecy

[Rhaevnn Xeno]

The plot thickens! *dun dun dunnn*

[Dark Jack]

Just to be sure that I'm not twiddling my thumbs when I should be posting: there are others that want to post before me in the Drunken Dove scene, right?

[Mercinus3]

Aye, I'm one of them. I should have some free time in the next couple of days to make a post.

M3

[Dark Jack]

@Mercinus3? @Shienvien? @Ashgan? @yoshua171?
...Post?

[yoshua171]

I was under the impression that it was merc's turn. I'm not going anywhere. Unless I explicitly say I'm leaving you can expect that I still have every intention of participating. Although I admit that sometimes I forget to post ^^;

So the occasional tagging can be helpful lol.

[Shienvien]

*raises a hand from her spot on the floor*

I'm still alive, I assure you. And my next IC post in, well, anywhere will be here. I daren't make a definite guess when anymore, but probably not today.

[Shienvien]

Alright, it's not much, it's long overdue, but at least it's a post. Jack's turn on that side, I reckon.

[Mercinus3]

@Mercinus3? @Shienvien? @Ashgan? @yoshua171?
...Post?

@Dark Jack

That's my bad! Just posted something.

M3

[Ashgan]

Yo, I can't seem to find a map of Rodoria anymore (seems lacking from the compendium?). Could you guys link me one or refresh my mind on where Center Lake is?

[Shienvien]

@Ashgan Yeah, it's not there because I've been kind of extensively preoccupied so I *still* haven't finished the new version of it completely. (I can write up posts mostly only because the comparative effort - or at least the time spent - is much less...)
The old image is here.

[Ashgan]

Thanks Shien! Hard to believe but I actually forgot about that rather massive lake.

[Rhaevnn Xeno]

<Snipped quote by Dark Jack>

That's my bad! Just posted something.

M3

@Mercinus3

M3! Glad to see that university hasn't killed you yet. ^_^

[Dark Jack]

@yoshua171, do you have anything to add before I start writing a post for the Drunken Dove scene?

[yoshua171]

I think maybe a thing or two. I can probably get a post up today.

[yoshua171]

Correction. Go ahead @Dark Jack. I tried writing a post, but only managed about a paragraph. I don't think he has enough that is truly worth him reacting/responding to or thinking about that I can stretch. Plus I'd rather not stretch a post out. Better to have more to work with and have a post with actual substance methinks.

[Shienvien]

Whose turn next on the Zerul-side? Rhae's?

[Shienvien]

@Rhaevnn Xeno?

On another note (aimed at mostly Jack, I suppose), a random thought-question that another thread elsewhere provoked, and I know I briefly contemplated, but never really asked.
Namely, as you or might not recall, I have always been able to conjure mental imagery and auditory info with relative ease in my mind, and with some practice (once I actually realized what I was doing, and that these all are pretty much the same thing) have further honed it and extended it to other senses (like the ability to feel pressure, pain, hot or cold) ... and maybe taken it a bit farther than even just senses or easily observable things like heartrate.
Among other things, I've commented on how I pretty much envision all roleplayed scenes in my mind (I will generally all my roleplayed - and solo-written, for the matter - scenes as if a floating camera would, for the lack of a better description; background-info and other meta isn't passed through this process, though), deriving my characters' actions not too unlike I would predict the actions of any real person I know more than only superficially, and then translating what I see/hear/know as happening back into words and somewhere along the lines adding the various meta (now when I think of it, it might actually be more accurate to say I switch between three separate processes - the "simulation" that I see and hear and then try to describe, my characters' thoughts and the prediction of their actions, which is somewhat separate from the "simulation" that tells me where everything is, and then there is the part that is responsible for the background-info (which, for the matter, does not run in simulation-time, which is how how long blocks of text between action happen ... those are not what the character(s) is(/are) thinking, it's just background-info for the reader so they'd have some context)). Atop of everything, I don't really normally think in either worlds or images; I'm overwhelmingly an abstract thinker and only - for example - have a mental dialogue when I'm trying to formulate things to actually write them down as text or say them. (I recall having a conversation with Yoshua over that...) I'm not sure whether it's always a good thing ... being an abstract thinker. It can make your thoughts significantly harder to properly convey, for one.
I know we vaguely talked about the body/feeling altering thing a while back (a couple of times, actually), mostly in relation to what the Wardens do, but also in the way of real-life phenomena and general curiosity. What we did not talk about (unless we refer to one of the dream-conversations and my brief notion of occasionally sleep-type dreaming when not fully asleep), though, was the mental image/real image overlap. And Gerald's Shadow Image.
Apparently, some people do not have "mind's eye" like that, or it's fairly weak (I've known that for a while, just that was being discussed). When conjuring an image while awake - such as when making a new creature or a machine, or when writing or roleplaying -, I actually do "see" both the real space in front of me and my mental image, but am only really paying attention to one at a time.
If you asked me what was in front of me, I'd know. I suppose it could be compared to being suddenly addressed while concentrating on something else - in that my automatic reaction might be to go "Ah, what?", but within half a second or so my brain would have caught up and I'll actually know what was asked without there being a need for repetition. (Which can be a bit awkward, the "Ah, what?" followed by a half-a-second pause and then the actual answer, as generally I'll start to properly reply when the person has also (almost) begun to repeat the question.) Not sure whether explanation helped, but in any case - I am only paying attention to one "layer", but I am nevertheless fully aware of both. (Mind, I can also substitute other sensations this way, though the "paying attention" part might slightly interfere with doing anything else at the same time.)
Would there be similarity between the Shadow Image experience and visualization/mental construction/sleep-type dreams while awake and also sensing your body? Would people with functional "mind's eye" have easier time with the experience?

((Sidenote: Very tired, didn't proofread, may do so in the morning. Pardon for any possible nonsense.))

[Dark Jack]

The entire process you describe does sound familiar, though I can't really say that mine is exactly the same. Most notably I don't think my writing process can be described as having phases in the first place; I tend to jump back and forth between writing description of events, picturing them in my mind (often one fragmented image at the time, expanded only as far as the context requires it to be) and writing background information and indirect thoughts. Although often (as I know you do as well, Shien) my process will also be interspersed with breaks for physically testing various movements with my own body (and occasionally consulting someone else on whether it works the same for someone with joints with normal mobility) and muttering dialogue to myself to test the time it would take to say it and help me imagine how it would be said (interestingly, I seem to have much harder mentally reproducing sounds than I have images).
I never realized that not everyone has a "mind's eye", as you call it, but I guess it makes sense.
And yeah, Shadow Image (and the different-nature spells that share it's incantation, the names of which I don't remember because - I just realized - the document in which I had recorded spells in was lost in a recent reformatting of my PC; I remember only that there were three in total, and that the other two manifested for light-affinity and other affinities, respectively) does work very similarly to that. I also imagine that a "mind's eye" would not only make it easier to do it, I figure it would probably be impossible to do it without one. The same goes for teleportation, unless the target location is somewhere magically marked in advance rather than mentally selected during casting.

[Shienvien]

I know I have seen some info on the Shadow Image and associated spells, as well as their internal workings in the prophecy OoC, but not the current variant of it ... let me check whether it was in the text-bits salvaged from the old forum. Indeed, here:

Furthermore certain spells that are "element-neutral" - that is, do not command a particular element to manifest - but nevertheless contain words in the spellcasting language that refers to an element will cause different effects for someone with that particular elemental affinity. In the Spectral Projection spell (Thoph setogar gohn jhoon, caihl brijhal caihl gothor, peigein brega, translating loosely into "Summon [the] projection owned [by] me, [which] pierces light [and] pierces shadow, [and let that] place [and this] become one") the inclusion of "gothor" (shadow) makes the spell manifest as Gerald's Shadow Image in someone with shadow-affinity (someone with light-affinity would get a third manifestation called Blinding Visage (a spell that creates an image of the caster that glows very brightly, blindingly so to most races, and which allows the caster to sense and speak through this, but not to cast magic, as Shadow Image does) due to the inclusion of the word "brijhal" (light)).

Dark Jack

There was a listing of additional Arcane words at some point (which I put on the Compendium site), but regrettably I've not seen a full listing of spells.

((Backup. Backup everything. I know I have everything I've ever written, drawn, played, photographed although I may not know where exactly... Many a thing has been lost in the voids of my backup storage... That's several terabites, so finding something with an obscure name may take time, to say the least.))

Oh, and my writing process does not have phases - there are no three separate passes. If anything, it's more like multithreading ... one thread is on the foreground, the two others are in background and either stopped and waiting for their turn or running subconsciously, and my consciousness is (occasionally quite rapidly) switching between them as need be? Does that make sense?
- Human consciousnesses are quite good at switching contexts. They're also notoriously bad at conscious parallel processing. Thusly, there is generally only one thing properly in focus, or under conscious attention, but to make up for that, the focus can (for the most part) be switched fairly easily (occasionally the thought you were trying to formulate may be lost when something intervenes). You sort of can multiple-focus, some people more than others, but it's difficult to uphold and generally tends to fall back to just your usual rapid context-switching. (Note that it's strictly about conscious focus - the less conscious parts can happily take over things like driving, walking, the actual physical typing when writing is concerned, even some calculations and analysis which isn't memorized ... the latter can be annoying in case people start asking where did the result come from.)

And yeah, the ... more experimental and consultational part of writing. I suppose I see it more as putting the general writing completely on standby until I have the info I need to continue? As in, I wouldn't exactly be in the writing-mode while I'm doing the research... "Taking a break from writing to [...]" is actually quite apt way to put it.

Edit:

interestingly, I seem to have much harder mentally reproducing sounds than I have images

On a random derivative thought, do you, for instance, ever get songs stuck in your head?

[Dark Jack]

The search function for this forum is useless at the moment, it seems, but by manually going through one page after another and doing searching each for the word "spell", I actually found the list of spells I put in here! It's not the updated one I lost, but at least it saves me the effort of rediscovering some of the incantations and effects. I'll just grab that and save it, so that I have my spellbook again.
Here it is again, for anyone that might be curious about it:

Spellbook

Arcane spells:
Acidic Lunge: Thoph menrirl kohrx vanedth maaez grumert, cowath thoujm vanedth dregoth, harteor setogar jhoon. "Extract air [and] change [it to] liquid water [and] earth, [with the] power [of] destruction [of] liquid fire, [and] release [it] projected [from] myself." Forms a glob of extremely potent acid in front of the caster, which hurls itself in whatever direction the caster desires to rapidly corrode anything it touches. Alternate versions: Air-affinity (Corrosive Fog): When striking a target the glob will, instead of splattering, disperse into green fog that spreads over a progressively growing area, continuously corroding anything within it with exponentially decreasing efficiency until it disperses altogether. Water-affinity (Acid Fist): The glob of acid is launched with far greater force and velocity than usual, and is capable of knocking a grown man off his feet in addition to its corrosive properties. Earth-affinity (Greater Acidic Lunge): Improves upon the normal version by greatly increasing the corrosive properties of the spell. Fire-affinity (Burning Glob): In addition to its usual properties, the acid made by the spell also manifests as heated almost to the point of vaporizing, and will both corrode and burn anything it hits for increased destructive properties.
Bonds of the Land: Thoph smaiwe gohn grumert sonedth, tuagar eren meethal caihl menrirl, lemesatheli dweneth lemesatheli, dweneth sonedth meethal xarthliir caihl menrirl, kohrx harteor dweneth, lemesatheli brega, jhoon cowath. "Summon [the] hardness of stone, small [and] flat spheres [with] holes [of] air, copy [and] lock [these together and] copy [again], lock [together] strongly [with a] cylinder penetrated [by] air, alternately open [or] locked, copy all, [put it in] my power." High-difficulty spell that forms shackles of the minerals of the soil, with the bindings, once closed, being unlocked by the caster's will alone. Alternate versions: Earth- or stone-affinity (No name): creates bulkier, even stronger shackles. Air-affinity (No name): Shackles are lighter and frailer, but can be remotely moved by the caster's will.
Boom: Dweneth baadas meethal menrirl, harteor jhoon cowath thagir. "Hold sound [in a] sphere [of] wind, unleash [it by] my [will as a] powerful explosion." Causes a deafening burst of sound to emit from the caster. Alternate versions: Sound-affinity (Dread Pandemonium): Causes a sound even louder than the normal version, capable of bursting most eardrums and causing unconsciousness within several feet of the caster. Air-affinity (Cry of Dismissal): Adds a shockwave to the burst of sound, knocking down those near the caster in addition to deafening and dazing them.
Electric Surge: Thagir dhnirhilk atonakuv, setogar jhoon. "Spread out/cause explosion [of] chaotic lightning, projected [from] myself." A low-difficulty spell that causes the caster's body to briefly wrap in electricity, which then immediately leaps outward in all directions and electrocutes anything and anyone within range. Alternate versions: Lightning-affinity (No name): Results in a significantly more deadly Electrical Surge, with a much larger area of effect. Chaos-affinity (Lightning Vortex): The spell manifests not as lightning spreading out from the caster, but as a number of arcing bolts of lightning that are projected continuously for several seconds, whipping from side to side and up and down, electrocuting whatever they touch. Has longer range and higher destructive power than the original, but is less reliable as not all targets might be near the randomly appearing arcs of lightning.
Emberstorm: Lemesatheli lemesatheli tuagar dregoth, raithla faihgn menrirl gnaihf jhoon. "Copy [and] copy [over] shrunken flame, not moved [by] wind [and] instead [by] me." Summons a multitude of tiny specks of fire from the center of the caster's palms, which will move as directed by the caster's will independently of ambient wind. Each bit of flame has limited destructive potential and are relatively harmless, although they have been known to ignite flammable materials they come into direct contact with. Alternate versions: Fire-affinity (Firestorm): Causes the flames created by the spell to radiate significantly more heat than the original version, allowing ignition of materials to occur faster and lending the spell greater destructive power. Air-affinity (No name): Causes the air within the Emberstorm to move with the magic, making the movement of the flames also create gusts of wind dependent on its movement speed.
Fireball: Purthev cowath thagir meethal dregoth. "Summon [a] powerful explosive ball [of] fire." Very popular low-difficulty energy-expensive spell that summons a single large orb of self-contained flame, which is launched in a given direction at the caster's command. Upon impact with any physical obstruction it will detonate into an explosion of considerable force and heat. Alternate versions: Fire-affinity (Greater Fireball): The fireball burns even more intensely than usual, and upon exploding will unleash a scorching inferno to burn adjacent targets even more than the original version would have.
Flaming Volley: Purthev tuagar meethal dregoth harteor dregoth thagir, lemesatheli raithla lemesatheli, cowath gohn shnail jhoon. "Summon small balls [of] fire [that] unleash fiery explosions, copy [in] another place [and] copy [more], [its] power belongs [to its] master [who is] me." Creates a number of small fireballs in front of the caster, which will hold stationary in relation to the caster until commanded to move, at which time they will shoot forward and upwards to rain down on the area of effect, causing fiery explosions where they hit. Alternate versions: Fire-affinity (Greater Flaming Volley): The fireballs created by the spell burn more hotly and brightly, and upon impact create much more devastating explosions capable of charring flesh in an instant.
Gravitational Defiance: Dweneth jhoon raithla peigein grumert, tuagar jhoon sonedth brega menrirl. "Seal my movement towards [the] ground, diminish my solidity [and make me] one with [the] wind." Causes the gravitational acceleration of the caster to decrease greatly and usually sets their terminal velocity to a non-lethal speed to allow long falls to be endured without sustaining injury or death.
Spark Javelin: Setogar atonakuv jhoon, dweneth cowath tywrui thoulg, raithla gohn peignein. "Project lightning [from] myself, constraining [its] power [in a] elongated [and] sharp [shape], moving [to] its destination." Creates an electrical charge in the caster's hand, to be launched in any desired direction. Upon launch it will assume the appearance of a short spear made of lightning, which will travel unwaveringly forward, potentially passing through and electrocuting numerous targets before its energy is depleted. Alternate versions: Lightning-affinity (Lightning Spear): Creates a bigger, even more powerful electrical projectile that can char flesh at contact and travel further than the original spell.
Spectral Projection: Thoph setogar gohn jhoon, caihl brijhal caihl gothor, peigein brega. "Summon [the] projection owned [by] me, [which] pierces light [and] pierces shadow, [and let that] place [and this] become one." Projects the caster's senses to another location, allowing one to see and hear what occurs elsewhere without being physically present. Alternate versions: Shadow-affinity (Shadow Image): Instead of creating an invisible projection of the caster's senses, this spell forms a ghostly black silhouette of the caster at the location and allows it to not only sense through this, but also speak through and invoke magic through it. Light-affinity (Blinding Visage): Like Shadow Image, this causes the appearance of a visible form at the destination of the spell, only now the spell will manifest as a brightly glowing phantom, through which the caster can sense and speak, but not invoke magic.

Black spells:
Shared Fate: Biehl bethaath qyth gaath veehn voohl. "Bind [together] lives [and] fates, [let] death [call for] powerful retribution." Magically joins the fates of the caster and the target, ensuring that if either of them dies while the spell is in effect, so will the other.

EDIT: Now why is that Hider not working...
EDIT2: Actually, what is up with the Arcane Spells section-header, too...

As for the parallel processing of human minds and its capability for switching focus quickly but keeping each process running continuously, it's something I grew rather familiar with during some of the bore boring/easy classes/lectures I've had to attend over the years. I'd sit with my laptop in front of me, looking at the blackboard and following the lecture with my eyes and pseudo-subconsciously listen to what was being said, while consciously focusing on the laptop where I'd be writing some story or another (it's amazing how reliable muscle-memory can be when your brain is not trying to interfere; I think I've made less typos while trying to pay attention to something else than I have focusing on writing, on a errors per time-basis). It's for that same reason that I've always tended to look somewhat skeptically at people claiming (very confidently, too) that one can only think of one thing at the time.
Interestingly I find that my focus is usually more reliable when running parallel processes than when I'm focusing on one particular thing. During those classes/lectures I pretty much never lost track of where I had gotten to in writing, or what was going on (though there usually was a short pause whenever I was asked a question during which I had to quickly recount what had just been said to myself), but when I try to concentrate... For instance, I'm pretty focused when playing Dark Souls, but if someone walks between me and the monitor while I'm playing - even if they're just walking past and only occupy the space for a split-second - I can feel like I have to get my bearings again all over, as though I've completely lost track of where I am in the game and what I am doing. That's probably one of the reasons that I like listening to music while writing, since otherwise I get distracted much too easily.

As for the matter of having songs stuck in my head, that does occasionally happen, yes... though not the "true" version of the song. I know what the song sounds like, of course, but the version playing in my head tends to be one isolated piece of sound, like just the vocal artist, or just one or two instruments rather than the combined musical score. And it's usually just a short bit of the song rather than the song in its entirety, like the chorus, or even just part of the chorus. And don't even get me started on remembering the lyrics... (I think the only songs I am currently capable of correctly reciting the lyrics from (that have lyrics) are Still Alive and Want You Gone, from Portal and Portal 2 respectively.)
I enjoy listening to music, but I guess my memory is just more visual than it is auditory.