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A few in game questions


Adrian
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M;

"The actual origin of the suites is probably as obscure in Mineta as it is here, but the reason that these particular four symbols took root in the city may be that there's a kind of narrative logic that sustains them.  If you ask your average eleven-year-old, what you'll be told is that the deck is supposed to represent either Mineta or the Empire itself, and the suites the great powers that sustain(ed) it: Cups for the Temples, Coins for the Guilds, Wands for the Academy (and the Imperial Praecantati/Magical Order of old), and Swords for the Guard.

The cards themselves go back to at least the fourteenth century, and that conceptual framework... well, it first appears in writing just a couple of decades after the creation of the oldest known/surviving deck (the Obelli set).

Make of that what you will...."

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GC;

"We can't really say anything about the ultimate source of the Mysterious Package.  The proximate source was a lawyer who visited the player character a couple of days before he/she/they left for the Academy; the implication given was that the lawyer represented the estate of an absent (possibly but not necessarily deceased) individual, and that specific instructions had been left to deliver this package to that child on that date - with the understanding that the package itself was not to be opened until the student was physically present at the school.  The lawyer was willing to swear that she didn't believe that the bequest was made in malice, and the student had the right to refuse it, and that's all you know."

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This is a weird and probably dumb question, but I got the idea in my head and now it's stuck.

So the Negated background gives +2 with Ana Flavia Bessa and with Joana. Since it mentions that the girl had candy to give you, and we already know that AFB has a reason to be sympathetic towards anyone just for being cursed, it seems obviously implied that Joana is the girl that you saved.

However, I was thinking about what kind of classes my Negated character might take, and it occurred to me that Joana's crafting-oriented path might be a sensible one. (Also, AFB's luck would put her in the path of a proscribed Negation spell.) Is there any chance that it's actually a sneaky switcheroo and Joana is sympathetic because she has a similar difficulty with spellcasting, while AFB is the girl you saved?


Edit: Also Joana is pointed out to be "not as confident with a wand" as Philippe is in the Revision Pop Quiz adventure (and he's not particularly a genius with spells), and most other incidents I can recall, she uses a potion and her fists. I'm forming an extensive theory here.

Thank you as always for all of your answers and time.

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Rhi;

"There are different goblin (or, more delicately, Folletto) communities, and they have different rules.  Sometimes they just give themselves descriptive titles, and that's all an outsider will ever hear.  "Quick Biter," "River Green," "Queen Howler."

If you're looking for a quick and dirty way to generate goblin personal names: masculine names often end in "e," while feminine names often end in "i" or "u."  "T" instead of "d," constantly.  Short vowel sounds at the start of a name tend to be preceded by a "V."  There's usually a "k" or "kh" in place of "c" or "g."

You can start with Italian or Italian-esque names - given geographical proximity, there's a surprising amount of overlap - and work out, usually with contractions or vowel compression.  "Eraldo" = "Virate" (or "Viratu," feminine).  "Leopoldo" = "Lupute."  "Coriolano" = "Kurulaune"/"Khurulauni."  "Durand" = "Turate" or just "Trate."

What you're probably most likely to get in a social setting is a mix-and-match: "Quick Biter Virate" introducing himself as "Biter Vire," or "Queen Howler Khurulauni" going by "Howler Khuru."

One last note: goblins don't like giving real names to wizards.  They know names have power, after all.  Titles are fine.  Titles and partial names are fine.  You're also likely to hear things like "You pick a name," or on-the-spot pseudonyms chosen from locations or situations.  A goblin you meet in a cavern might call herself "Cave-Grabber" or "Mole Claw.""

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Rhi;

"1.  Yes.

The word "goblin" is in common use in human populations.  It's hundreds of years old, and it's actually a corruption of an archaic Folletto title, "Khobelu," which translates into something like "Mischief-Making Knight" or "War Jester."  Not a position with a lot of human parallels.  Humans picked it up from what Folletti of the time called some of their greatest heroes - or, if you prefer, the jerks who made the most mischief around the human territories of the Empire - and they never really knew or cared that it wasn't the name of the whole species.

It's not an insult to them, exactly, but they do understand that it's not usually used respectfully.  (Which is a bit ironic, since nobody in their right mind would want to insult a genuine Khobelu.)

"Folletto" isn't actually that much better - it's another human word, and it basically means "little fool."  But over the past couple of centuries there have been "Folletto wars" (usually relatively minor engagements) in which The People came off well, so the name has come to represent a certain amount of dignity.  They don't mind it so much.

2.  Yes.  Absolutely.  They're not uncommon in the south, and a few have had real success as singers in Minetan opera."

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Rhi;

"Complicated question.  Every individual has a unique relationship with magic, and handedness is almost certainly an element in play; there are even some astrologers who refer to the "alignment" of a subject's astrological house in terms of handedness (though it's not common).

But the old folk belief that left-handed people are innately more magical has been disproved to the Academy's satisfaction, and the exact nature of the effect of handedness isn't understood.  It's often referred to as a matter of "flavor," a kind of way of describing magical signatures beyond pure power levels or categorical affinities."

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Rhi;

"Nothing that survived the fall of the Empire. In the late fourteenth century there was a something remembered as "the Giant of Calamina" that helped to protect the southernmost extremities of the Wall against a dragon-cultist attack.  It stood maybe forty feet tall, and it was metal - gold or bronze - and from a number of accounts it had fiery wings, with which it could fly in short bursts.  When the fighting was over, it was just gone, apparently having fallen down to the world below.

Nobody knows its origins (though Gates magic, surprisingly, was quickly ruled out); nobody knows if it was a living thing or controlled/ridden by wizards.  It was an amazing spectacle, though, and people in the East still tell stories about it.

Every so often magical engineers and shipbuilders in the north (and even in Thevre) swear they can build something similar, but since a couple of high-profile attempts ended in humiliating failure it's generally difficult to find anyone willing to foot the bill.

One mildly amusing side-note is that a good percentage of the Professor CogSpring toys were derived from miniature prototypes for one of those humiliating failures."

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S;

The reply. ;)

"1.  Yes, actually, and the Captain of Mineta owns it.  It's a peculiar thing, coming not from the modern northeast corners of the world, but from roughly 5th century Cimone.  The casing is silver, it's about the size of a (relatively big) music box, and the scene in constant action is a wolf chasing a fox through a forest as wind shakes the trees.  Written records suggest that it played some kind of chimes until around the 11th century, but at this point even finely-tailored Revision magic can't seem to restore that function.  It's called "The Dancers," and at this point it's been almost 180 years since it was last shut down, repaired, and restarted.

Pelia may covet it.

2.  "Professor CogSpring" is the name of the central character in a line of toys, strategy games, and novels of extremely questionable literary value.  The original prototype "CogSpring" was the work of a Minetan engineer trying to make a fortune building war-golems in Thevre, but when that didn't pan out he came home and made his fortune in a less... traditional way.  It's widely understood that he's from an old aristocratic family - and, indeed, that he was a student in Vernin (and the character of the Professor may've been based on one of his old instructors) - and that probably explains why his name isn't widely known; it's not the sort of thing a family like the Chards (not that he's a Chard) would boast about.

The company that runs the show is known as the A.O. Corporation (after "Astarta Ofelia," Professor CogSpring's daughter, in the internal mythology)."

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S;

"No....

There's epic fan debate about whether living or historical figures are the basis for characters in Professor CogSpring, despite the fact that some of the clues aren't exactly subtle.  (Professor CogSpring's own catchphrase is "Vernin's teeth!" and his archenemy is one Regent Malafurnace, though the core setting is never officially named as the Academy of Mineta.)

That said, one of the more defensible theories is that at least some of the personalities in the CogSpring saga came from the rivalry between Theory of Enchantment Professor Valerio d'Ava and Morvidus Regent Kim Haxney from about 1626 to Haxney's unfortunate disappearance (hunting the Aurean bear) in 1634.

The conspiracists particularly love to note that Orso himself was a Vernin student in this period, and very likely knows the mysterious CogSpring creator...or is the creator himself?"

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On 8/31/2021 at 9:02 AM, Legate of Mineta said:

"though the core setting is never officially named as the Academy of Mineta.)"

Would I be correct in thinking that choosing to set a wargame in a school for magic (rather than, for example, in a fictionalized counterpart to the frontiers of the Empire of Man) is at least in part because authorities might object to popular media dealing with contemporary powers fighting each other when the Empire of Man is not itself at war? Cf., the real-life play "A Game at Chess", which was banned for criticizing certain actual governmental policies in a thinly fictionalized form.

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