A few in game questions

[Schwarzbart]

Will the statue that was build on your request for Durand also have the name of the player mentioned once it is finished? After all you asked for the statue instead of a money reward for finding and bringing back a long lost person. I suspect either in Y2 or Y3 you suddenly get Glory because the statue is finished.

[Good Coyote]

Piggybacking a little, would that have ramifications for college politics, if a student not from Durand donates the statue? 

Might it be perceived as a friendly gesture from Avila to Durand, for example, and once the rivalries heat up, might it play a part in Avila and Durand students seeing each other as allies?

(Though I assume nothing can help if the student is from Aranaz.)


Also: How infamous are the parents of the Child of Sky Pirates? Does it depend on how "successful" they are, as determined by Station? Does anybody actually believe in their package delivery front?

[Schwarzbart]

@Good Coyoteif the player is in Aranaz (s)he only can take the money because the other exit don't exist for them. This still don't change that someone can change the college at a later point and is in Aranaz when the statue is finished.

[Legate of Mineta]

Replies!

"Statue, we can't say too much.

That said, we would expect that the good will engendered by the gesture will probably attach more to the Player Character than to his/her/their College - at least in the near term.  And there's basically no way that Durand, as a College, would let its guard down around Aranaz, as a College, because of something a student did while in a third College. 

Not unless Regent von Rupprecht resigned when the student transferred, anyway. 

As for the Child of Sky Pirates background: it's safe to assume that the parents aren't very active around Mineta (and, indeed, may occasionally work as privateers for the Captain in other lands).  They're not going to be famous around the school - though, actually, it's possible that Miya or Antonio might find their names familiar."

And:

"The Random Event seems like it would work!

As for the Orso situation... [Redacted], of course."

[Schwarzbart]

How many 1st year have to share the same dorm bedroom in Morvidus? 

Do this change if the player (male) is a from a wealthy royal noble family?

[Legate of Mineta]

Per the Team's notes:

"As a rule, it's two to a room - but it can be one.

In Y1:

Beatrix and Uliva were roommates.

Eliana and Joana were roommates.

Mairgrete was alone.

Philippe was alone (or forced to share a room with his brother).

Vettor and Malthazar were roommates.

Girars and Hettor were roommates.

By implication, the Player also had a solo room.  Granted, it's possible that a female player character could live with Mairgrete, but it's hard to imagine a boy being forced to share a room with Philippe and not getting at least a random event out of it.  ;)"

[freespace2dotcom]

Are there ways to revise oneself into a state of apparent undeath without actually dying? Enough to fool actual undead and spells designed to detect them? And no, I'm sure glamours could work to an extent and indeed would be much easier, but then it would be easier to detect, I think.

 

[Legate of Mineta]

Free;

"It's not a casual thing.  It isn't hard to use Revision to simulate death, just by dramatically slowing down bodily processes, but undeath is different - the most common physical components (especially the blood of the undead) are largely toxic or corrupting in and of themselves, and there are spiritual dimensions as well.

There are spells that will give you bits of the effect: you can make your skin cold, you can make it difficult to detect a heartbeat, and you can affect the quality of your breath.  And there are certain tests you can beat if you know they're coming and can prepare; rather famously, if you wear a coat a particularly powerful vampire was buried in and use Revision to magically empower it, you can confuse some simple Astrological tests.  (Though even that may be unhealthy for you in the long run.)

But, ultimately, it's an extraordinarily complicated deception; everything has to go right, and you have to be lucky too.  You can't make yourself completely pass for undead at a glance with a Revision; you can just give yourself the tools you need to support some really good lies.

That said, you are right about the Glamours: you can make a more compelling pretense with them, but they're easy to break, and when they fail they fail completely."

[Schwarzbart]

Just curious how is BCS manage to handle the summer / winter time changes for their meeting given that some country like Russia never change and the other countries around the world change at different days?

[Legate of Mineta]

We follow daylight savings time, so it does mean twice a year meetings have to shift. We're used to it now, though.

[Rhialto]

@Legate of Mineta: Are there any instrument makers as famous as real-life's Stradivari within the Empire of Man?

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

"It's hard to make an exact comparison with Stradivari because our view of Antonio and his family benefits from centuries of appraisal and cultural evolution.  In Mineta, on the other hand, the violin is less than a hundred years old, and the modern, more-than-slightly-guitar-like form of the lyre (formally known as the lira chitara) has only caught on in the last thirty years or so, virtually supplanting the classical lyre of Yesson and Rucuid.

The actual creator of the violin is known only as "Anonymous of Mineta" (though there are some from further south who would claim him for Braida).  The story has it that he was a luthier who was given a challenge to make an instrument for a fairy queen to take away in place of his daughter (whom she wanted for a handmaiden); the lady was delighted with her gift, and though she took it away she offered the luthier a choice - either his instrument or his name could become known to the world.  You can guess the way the story ends.

That's not to say it's necessarily true.

The people who most famously took up the crafting of violins were the apprentices of Errico Bracciazani in the Studio Bracciazani.  His daughter Lucia was thought to have perfected the form, but her secrets were stolen by her father's mistress, Edine Vezin, who created a competing house of luthiers.  (In fairness, that's the way the story is told in Mineta, where Lucia is a local legend.  In the Merilien-speaking world, the House of Vezin has a more heroic story.)  In the current generation, Danolo Bracciazani and Marivelle Berrec-Vezin are the most famous bearers of the family names.

The father of the lira chitara, on the other hand, is a lunatic troubadour named Carlus Lakestone - a legitimate genius who slept with all the wrong people, built gorgeous instruments and wrote brilliant songs to get out of trouble, and then repeated the process over and over in different towns.  He's probably still alive, and Tarvixio Sido rather famously spent about eighteen months traveling as a young man to try to meet him."

[freespace2dotcom]

Did Sido succeed in his quest to meet this person?

[Schwarzbart]

How is the past name of the clockmakers daughter Pelia? 

[Legate of Mineta]

S;

I'm not sure I follow the question- what do you mean?

[Schwarzbart]

how is the family name of Pelia from the "Clockmaker Adventure"?

[Legate of Mineta]

S;

"She doesn't consistently use one.  Her father chose a surname for himself when he came to Mineta - "Rosso," because he had red hair - but it's not one that Pelia feels a lot of attachment to.

In the official Academy records, she'll probably be Pelia Urmakersdattir, for what it's worth...."

[Rhialto]

1 hour ago, Legate of Mineta said:

S;

"She doesn't consistently use one.  Her father chose a surname for himself when he came to Mineta - "Rosso," because he had red hair - but it's not one that Pelia feels a lot of attachment to.

In the official Academy records, she'll probably be Pelia Urmakersdattir, for what it's worth...."

Is it considered eccentric in Mineta for people to want to change their surnames in such circumstances?

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

"Eccentric, but not scandalous.  Pelia's not changing her identity or hiding from her past - if anything, she appears to be boasting about her father's professional standing.  A bit crass, maybe, but Mineta's seen worse."

[isadorbg]

On 3/19/2021 at 10:24 PM, Legate of Mineta said:

An expanded answer for Schwarzbart:

"Descended of Royalty without Station: Nobility suggests either that you're descended from a cadet branch of the family that lost or voluntarily forfeited its titles or that you're descended from a royal bastard who never had a title to begin with but was sufficiently famous to be recognized and remembered.  You've grown up in a family line that means a lot to the family itself, but you didn't and don't necessarily enjoy elevated status in various courts and you're not likely to be sought out as an aristocratic marriage partner unless you bring a lot of wealth or personal accomplishment to the table.

Descended of Royalty with Station: Nobility means you're of a genuinely exalted bloodline and are likely to be invited to parties at one of Catherine's family's palaces at some point, even if the Chards and your family have been feuding for a century and a half."

What about Descended from Heroes and Descended of Traitors? What do they mean and how do they interact with each others (since you can pick both unlike Descended of Royalty)

I guess the ancestors mentioned must be of Empire-wide fame. Especially Traitors since it randomly targets students. A shame that the PC is the only one who doesn't know much about their ancestor. 😅

[Legate of Mineta]

Isadorbg;

Ah now that, alas, is [Redacted].

[Schwarzbart]

Do I understand the working of material shaping correct that it is actual a short living enchantment with revision effect that you place on your hand? Otherwise I couldn't bend my head around why such a simple spell could affect multiple objects that didn't need to be present during the casting.

(The writer probably wanted to avoid the object declaration part and have some lasting useful effect, sadly this way opened quite the can of worms)

[Legate of Mineta]

S;

"The reference to "hands" in the spell's description is more poetic than literal.

The spell is a notable one for Year 1 because it can modify itself while being cast.  We're getting into Theory of Magic territory here, but the three component phemes - Alteration, Artificial and Structure - have an interaction that retains the Spell's energies for use over time.

With a spell like Minor Size Contraction you draw the Phemes to create the magical effect and then you direct the effect to the intended target.  The performance of the magic takes seconds at most: the magical energies are gathered and channeled and it's done.

With Material Shaping, that magical effect is bound at the fringes of the caster's Palette for days, and can be redirected as needed in that period; the casting doesn't conclude when the first target is selected."

[Schwarzbart]

Wow, so it actual work quite different then I imagined! It also brings the question how many such effects a Palette can handle and what happens when the mage draw a different Palette while a spell like Material Shaping is still active.

Good that I have written in my story about Michael that he used a modified version of the Material Shaping spell ^^. (Probably modified to one target only and reduced time but with stronger effect on the target and Cleanse and Rework as reason why he could come up with that)

[freespace2dotcom]

Since we're talking spells, can I ask about Corner Sight? How difficult is it for specialists with no training in other pillars to cast? And how many people  at the Academagia are aware of it? Since generalized studying is frowned on, is use of such a spell discouraged? As a mage grows in power, does the effect grow stronger, or is it's effect more random in how strong it is?