A few in game questions

[freespace2dotcom]

Is there any extra danger beyond mundane fire hazard should one of the pieces become unsealed?

[Legate of Mineta]

Free;

"It's thought that there might be.  These aren't flames burning on wicks that have been carefully maintained; they're self-sustaining fiery wisps, and they're somewhat resistant to Negation (though Briardi has personally snuffed out a few).  The fear is that, if freed, they will tend to seek each other out, reunite, and presumably gain in power.  It probably wouldn't be a full return of the Fire Moon, but it's not anything anyone particularly wants to encourage.

The enchantments on the lanterns are quite strong, though; they're not easy to break or unseal."

[Good Coyote]

1. Are there any faux dragons in the Wortham Fens?

2. Why does Blackheath give a point of Riding? Are you Riding anything more interesting than horses out there? Is it just the only way to travel in that area?

3. What is the quality of student life like in the background schools? Do any of them approach the Vernin dorms? Any of them anywhere close to the Avila boys' dorm?

4. I assume full scholarships are theoretically possible to any of the background schools, but if I was a kid in Elumia and didn't know if I was going to get any scholarships yet.. how rich would my family have to be in order for me to feel like I didn't have to worry about it, for each of the schools?

5. Is it common for people to travel great distances for the background schools, or is the student population generally more local than that of the Academagia?

6. Does graduation from Safaviore's usually come with an expectation of actual military service afterwards? Is it owed as part of the tuition? If so, can you buy yourself out of the obligation if you have the resources? 

7. Does the term "second fiddle" exist, with the same etymology and implication of resentment, or if not then does an equivalent term exist?

(Also, thank you very much for your answers to my last questions.)

[Legate of Mineta]

gc;

"1.  Yes, actually, but they're not easy to find - they're smart enough to fear humans as a rule.  That said, the Blackheath headmaster is unusually tolerant of them, and they occasionally come out at night to pick through the midden-heaps outside the school walls.

2.  It's mostly horses and donkeys - and, yes, Blackheath is far enough away from even a substantial village to make travel fairly unpleasant on foot.

3.  Quality of life varies, unsurprisingly.  Baltagio is closest to Vernin for sheer style, but the cliffside living can't quite compete to the sorts of tower suites that Catherine can expect to inhabit by fifth year.  Blackheath has relatively modern facilities, so it's at least warm and stable, but it's situated in a bog in the middle of nowhere; the food's not great, and amenities can be hard to come by.  Chameil is clean and elegant and relatively austere; it doesn't go for gorgeous tapestries on the walls, but the lights are good and clean water isn't hard to come by.  The Purple Academy is a humble cluster of new and rebuilt buildings in the middle of what's essentially an old war zone, and the locals don't trust them at all; the wizards who run the place have too much pride to make it look like the boys' corners of Avila, but it's not a place designed to make its students feel too comfortable.  Safaviore is at least partially an homage to the Durand campus at the Academy of Mineta: comfortable, clean, close to what we'd call Romanesque in architectural style, designed to survive a siege.  It's well funded, but the people running the place wouldn't want to be accused of pampering the kids.  Vihuela might've competed with the better corners of Avila a few hundred years ago, but it's in genteel decline now; it's a lovely place to be, but you have to brace yourself for plaster falling off the walls.

4.  In every case but Safaviore, you'd probably assume you wouldn't have a chance if you weren't at least upper middle class, with a decent amount of evening leisure.  It's not necessarily true, but it's what you'd expect.

5.  As a rule, the Academagia attracts students from farther afield than anywhere else in the known world.  But the other schools - particularly Baltagio and Vihuela - do attract a number of applicants from around the old Empire; you wouldn't be shocked to find a Minetan in any of them.

That said, assume that in most of these cases fifty percent or more of the student body comes from within two hundred miles of the school.

6.  There's a frequent expectation, but not a formal obligation.

7.  The term "second fiddle" does exist, with more or less the same connotations and origins.  You're also likely to hear someone in that kind of position described as "the jongleur at the feast," where a jongleur is a juggler/minor minstrel/warm-up act, and a proper feast is implicitly likely to have a proper troubadour or some other higher-class performer attracting the bulk of the attention."

[yurisama]

Does the Purple actually teach and research Astrology for powerful, unique spells or is just enough to fool the authorities?

[Legate of Mineta]

y-sama;

Pretty sure that answer is [Redacted].

[Metis]

Is there any student or faculty member at the Academagia who is (in)famous for being particularly vocal about Pievre, for good or ill?

[Legate of Mineta]

M;

"Aenor Charpentier is a Hedi student in the year ahead of the player character; when she was a first year she tried to start a "pro-republic club" dedicated to bringing the virtues of Pievran governance to Mineta.  It was shot down mercilessly, with certain players in Aranaz bringing the kind of loathing they usually reserve for Durand.  If Aenor's still plotting by the player's first year, she's doing it in secret - but she's still got a reputation as a Pievran shill."

[Rhialto]

9 minutes ago, Legate of Mineta said:

M;

"Aenor Charpentier is a Hedi student in the year ahead of the player character; when she was a first year she tried to start a "pro-republic club" dedicated to bringing the virtues of Pievran governance to Mineta.  It was shot down mercilessly, with certain players in Aranaz bringing the kind of loathing they usually reserve for Durand.  If Aenor's still plotting by the player's first year, she's doing it in secret - but she's still got a reputation as a Pievran shill."

Is she a shill, or does she genuinely support Pievrian republicanism?

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

I mean...you'd have to ask her.

[Rhialto]

@Legate of Mineta: Would I be correct in thinking that Neta is subjected to racism/speciesm because of her non-human heritage (and speculation about it)?

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

No, not at the Academagia in particular- back home, though, yes.

[Rhialto]

18 minutes ago, Legate of Mineta said:

Rhi;

No, not at the Academagia in particular- back home, though, yes.

Do they at least speculate about her non-human origins?

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

Mmm, you'd have to ask them, I suppose.

[Schwarzbart]

https://steamcommunity.com/app/533480/discussions/0/5251727781288991782/

Quote

 

How to make letters bigger

My eyes can't take it when i try to select actions on my new monitor. Can i enlarge, bold or change the font of the letters?

 

I want to forward this question from the Steam forum.

[Legate of Mineta]

S;

+/- on the numpad is the general way to increase the font, but some of the elements can't be increased this way, unfortunately.

[Metis]

How paranoid is the Academagia's faculty about anything and everything that's known to be Gates-created? Even if something is known to be completely benign.

[yurisama]

Gates and completely benign should be a paradox

[Legate of Mineta]

I think what y-sama said.

[freespace2dotcom]

What is the record for most spells cast/maintained by a single mage at once?

[Legate of Mineta]

Free;

"There are stories of mages having hundreds of spells maintained simultaneously - but whether this is braggadocio or fact is unknown.  Even the Academy doesn't have authenticated records of this kind; it's not a field of endeavor that lends itself well to competition, and most of the wizards powerful enough to maintain scores or more spells at a time simply don't like to advertise the catalogue of magics at their command."

[Schwarzbart]

I suspect it is also a problem to find out if the spells in question are maintained by the mage him/her self and not via familiar or some enchantment way.

[Legate of Mineta]

S;

And there are many problems with Glamours here, too.

[Rhialto]

@Legate of Mineta: It is fair to say that Sima knows about Lambert's interest in gates magic, even if not necessarily how far he has gone in his studies? He is, after all, known to explore forbidden places with Sima, who delights in enthralling boys - from whose ranks Lambert is not the most subtle, it must be said.

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

"Oh, we suspect that Sima has a pretty good idea about Lambert's more... out-of-school interests.  She wouldn't lightly call attention to them, though, and she wouldn't be in a hurry to confirm anyone else's suspicions - both because she actually respects Lambert and because he might know things about her that she wouldn't want shared.  ;-)"