A few in game questions

[Legate of Mineta]

S;

"Yes, Astrology can confuse Astrology.  (Technically Astrology should be incapable of delivering false information, but it can be made to give information that’s hard to correctly interpret.)

As for Gates: [Redacted]"

[freespace2dotcom]

1. We all know that Vernin's present regent was chosen for reasons outside of his knowledge of the college's discipline. How would you rate ol' Alazzo as an enchanter, and has he gotten better since becoming Regent?

2. How does Schohanwicht react to Mastery being used in their campus. I am of course referring to the odd individual quietly minding their own business practicing phemes in a corner, and not trying to Master a professor into revealing their identity. We all can guess how THAT would go. A troublemaker is a troublemaker. But is Mastery considered trouble? I can see both sides to the argument, as Mastery has a lot more baggage and I'm sure they don't want to be associated with it. Yet I feel it would be hypocritical to not at least tolerale a little of it so long as it didn't interfere with the school itself. I realize that a detailed explanation is not going to be forthcoming for spoiler's sake, but surely the school would anticipate some students to have at least a passing interest in the other forbidden magic and set some basic rules down for new students to nip problems before they start? 

[Legate of Mineta]

Free;

"1.  Oh, Alazzo is a talented craftsman, but you'd have to call him... maybe a gifted hobbyist?  He excelled as an enchanter when he was in school himself, then didn't do much with it as an adult - certainly professionally - until he was brought on as Regent.  He's less rusty now than he was when he first took the job, and is certainly capable of giving intelligent, detailed criticism and commentary, but nobody would mistake him for a mastercraftsman.  Note that that isn't something he's embarrassed about; the overwhelming majority of Vernin alumni are in the same boat, or are even less skilled.

2.  Rather than directly answer the question, we'll just note that any student who spends a serious amount of time at Schohanwicht will discover that a number of Gates wizards through the years have felt very strongly that Gates wouldn't be illegal at all if Mastery mages hadn't conspired to bring them down.  Gates "culture" is hardly monolithic, but for a lot of practitioners there's kind of a romanticized view of themselves as libertarian explorers - whereas Mastery mages just want slaves.

The popular association between the two disciplines among the uninitiated is widely seen as grossly unfair, basically.

At the same time, you'd be right to say that they would hardly call in the Minetan Guard.  ;)"

[Schwarzbart]

the first day in Y2 still have at last 1 full day with 4 timeslot at the Academagia? If so my current char would still have 1 time slot to find a place for his books or pack beside the 3 time slot he have to spend on turn in lvl 10 Favor from 3 Regent  

[Legate of Mineta]

S;

Yep, although some actions/areas are not available at certain Time Slots, of course.

[Schwarzbart]

Isn't the story from Broken Pines inconsistent with what get told in Student Adventure Beatrix vonWetgen?

Spoiler

The first tells that there is a group that want to bring back they wyvern and the second tells that there still wyvern in the Imperial Reserve

 

[Rhialto]

1 hour ago, Schwarzbart said:

Isn't the story from Broken Pines inconsistent with what get told in Student Adventure Beatrix vonWetgen?

  Hide contents

The first tells that there is a group that want to bring back they wyvern and the second tells that there still wyvern in the Imperial Reserve

 

Ah, but the rareness of the wyverns is so great that the wyvern-restoration group can be understood as wanting to bring back more wyverns. Given how difficult to access the Imperial Reserve is, I would not be surprised if the existence of wyverns within the Imperial Reserve is not widely known - and may be kept as a secret in order to avoid attracting wyvern cultists such as appear in von Wetgen's adventure.

[Legate of Mineta]

S & Rhi;

"The critters in Beatrix's adventure were specifically crimson-tailed ground wyverns - not exactly popular with the people of Elumia, but probably more like an Asian water monitor than a "true" wyvern; on the other hand, what we saw in the Broken Pines adventure was winged, fire-breathing, and much, much, much closer to being outright draconic.  That was the type that was thought to have been completely wiped out in ages past."

 

[Schwarzbart]

For me a wyvern was always something like a pterosaur with a poisonous tail and not such a wide variation of species. ^^

[Rhialto]

5 hours ago, Legate of Mineta said:

S & Rhi;

"The critters in Beatrix's adventure were specifically crimson-tailed ground wyverns - not exactly popular with the people of Elumia, but probably more like an Asian water monitor than a "true" wyvern; on the other hand, what we saw in the Broken Pines adventure was winged, fire-breathing, and much, much, much closer to being outright draconic.  That was the type that was thought to have been completely wiped out in ages past."

 

Would such polysemy for the term wyvern be common knowledge in Mineta, or only known to scholars?

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

"It would be relatively common knowledge, inasmuch as the player character didn't bat an eye over it in the von Wetgen adventure.  Ground wyverns are probably relatively famous, even if few people have ever seen them - they're just draconic enough to be dramatic, but they're not considered inherently evil, and that makes them interesting."

[freespace2dotcom]

Is there any historical precident of dragons disguising themselves as human? Not that there would be any doing that in the modern day, surely...

[Legate of Mineta]

[Redacted Redacted Redacted]

[Schwarzbart]

Are the stories about the dragons point towards that there might be different races and if so where there some racial differences how they handled humans?

[Legate of Mineta]

S;

"As a field of study, this is pretty much forbidden to students.  So what follows is by definition untrustworthy.

Still, in terms of folklore, dragons seem more like the gods of Olympus: a complicated and vast family rather than a collection of distinct breeds.

When it’s said that true wyverns are likely related to dragons, incidentally, the thought is actually that they were a kind of Familiar race, possibly created by Gates.  But nobody even begins to know for sure."

[Rhialto]

@Legate of Mineta: Are there investors in pheme research/discovery?

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

"Not as many as you’d think.  It’s the kind of research that’s seen as elevated above commercial interests - which means it’s the work of aristocrats, tenured academics, or temple grandees.  Specialized outside sponsorship would just seem grubby.

That said, there are consortiums, mostly in the costers, who seek out unknown Phemes for the purposes of advantages in trade and commerce. The mages in question are generally bonded members of the Coster, geased to service."

[Rhialto]

18 hours ago, Legate of Mineta said:

bonded members of the Coster, geased to service."

Are geases as closely regulated and treated with suspicion as Syncronicity is? After all, geases and mastery compel people to do what they might not do.

[freespace2dotcom]

1. What's the most dangerous familiar any student has ever had at the Academagia?

2. Who has been the most vocal public speaker in Mineta at least, on lifting the ban on Gates in recent years?

3. Would a necklace with a single Dragon tooth on it cause anybody to turn heads? What if it was discovered that the tooth was removed with Gates magic, and both the tooth and the dragon it came from was still alive? (I'm imagining that though there would be some curious unknown Revision based enchantments on it, the necklace would not be a Gates magic item in and of itself.)

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

"There's an Astrological component to a geas; it's not that another person is imposing his will upon you, but rather that Destiny/the stars are acting through you.  It helps that it's consensually entered into, or imposed under very strict guidelines overseen by the Temple."

Free;

"1.  Subject to debate, but probably a lamia.  Spectral night-creature that, as a group, likes to steal children and seduce adults.  This one was liberated from her "base nature" by the bond, but was generally considered a disaster waiting to happen.  Her student was expelled for reasons that have since been sealed.

2.  Probably Hadreno Suso.  He's the heir apparent to a major trading family that has fallen on very hard times; his argument is that banning Gates is actually the result of the political influence of the great airship trading guilds and not a legitimate point of public interest.  He's not taken very seriously, though, and periodically gets detained by the Guard for disturbing the peace.

3.  You would presumptively be considered a dragon cultist even before Gates magic came into the picture.  It's very much the sort of thing that attracts attention."

[Schwarzbart]

Who of the Regency is a former player character in the BCS RPG group?

[Legate of Mineta]

S;

[Redacted].

[Rhialto]

11 hours ago, Legate of Mineta said:

2.  Probably Hadreno Suso.  He's the heir apparent to a major trading family that has fallen on very hard times; his argument is that banning Gates is actually the result of the political influence of the great airship trading guilds and not a legitimate point of public interest.  He's not taken very seriously, though, and periodically gets detained by the Guard for disturbing the peace.

Does Flore know about his arguments?

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

"Probably not in great detail, but yes.  In fact, he's probably made direct appeals to her family at various points, though they wouldn't have gone very far."

[Schwarzbart]

13 hours ago, Legate of Mineta said:

Rhi;

"There's an Astrological component to a geas; it's not that another person is imposing his will upon you, but rather that Destiny/the stars are acting through you.  It helps that it's consensually entered into, or imposed under very strict guidelines overseen by the Temple."

So to study geas one also need some knowledge in Astrology beside Glamour?