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A few in game questions


Adrian
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I think I have seen the topic somewhere, but cannot find it... It could also be somewhere in this topic, buried amongst the load of other interesting tidbits about the setting.

 

Anyway... on to my question:

Which language do they speak in which region?

I mostly ask due to the Heritage backgrounds that give several bonusses, but no language skills.

Which made me wonder if someone who has a certain heritage should not also speak that language. Even if one does not understand all the specifics and history of one's language, one can still speak it.

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I want a Heritage: Medinei. Would you guys ever consider that one? >.>

 

As for actual in game questioning, Sky Pirates background: "At the same time, you'll be 10% more likely to be Discovered when indulging in illicit behavior...". What exactly is illict behavior? It doesn't seem to be raising my chance of being discovered in bad places that much- at least not by 10%. Is it for casting the nasty spells and carrying bad items around only, or have I just been very lucky and it counts for detection chances, too?

 

 

These are some questions that'll likely never come up in the light-hearted game Academagia is, but as a morbid person, I feel a need to ask.

 

Familiars: what happens if one is killed? Some familiars, specifically ones like little rat, seem like there are quite a bit unfortunate endings that could come to them if someone took their eye off their familiar for too long. Not all cats, snakes, and birds of prey near the campus are familiars, there are gigantic jerkface bullies, there are regular pirate invasions, there are carts in Mineta, there are accidental spells... how does that feel for the character? I imagine if the animal was simply very very injured, professors and elder students (and even first year ones who could) would all band together to help, but considering familiars occasionally go off on adventures on their own, that doesn't always mean they'd be able to be helped if something sudden happened- cart, for instance.

 

Related to that, does the Academagia have any sort of counseling? If the Regents/other students reported that a student was depressed or suffering from severe anxiety, would anything be done for them?

 

Similar, what exactly is the bullying policy? You can take your rivals money, their items, and their peace of mind, I know. You can challenge to duels. You can ice them up, set night-terrors on them, sic your familiar on them, put them in states of extreme confusion and worse, and of course punch them. Using Gates and Mastery magic on them is obviously forbidden, and you can only set them on little fire, not big fires. I assume targeting other students familiars is frowned upon. I know that while you can sword and dagger others in duels, you can't do it while up and around the campus. I also assume that going deliberately out to break another students leg is, well, very bad- one thing if it happened accidentally during a duel, another to deliberately target. I assume gaslighting and other attempts to drive another student crazy are frowned upon. But all of those are 'assume'. And where do Glamour spells play in to it? Love charms? Is poisoning another okay?

 

If a Bully managed to trap a student in say, the infirmary for weeks on end (JOANA :E), would the instructors step in?

 

What are the rules on drinking, drugs, and sexual activities? I imagine 'not on campus' is high up there, but do the instructors go out of their way to make sure students aren't engaging in such things off campus? (Obviously, more an issue for fourth/fifth years then first, but even in first year I know there's some events that imply your character is able to try alcohol.) I imagine particularly the first and last would be hard...

 

Would students (particularly older ones- I'm guessing first years would be forbidden) be able to gain permission from their Regents to, if they got a steady job for somewhere, wear the uniform of that job and toss aside the robes? I imagine that for instance, working at Alice's Tavern, she just has you put on an apron over your robes and be careful... but I imagine if you had Superb Cook of Awesome Magical Cookingness in year Four, they might be able to get a job at the Roses or that ritzy fattening place, which likely demand their workers in a waiters black slacks/white shirt deal or cooks whites, depending.

 

(Have you found the rest of the information on what the uniforms look like from the shoulders down, btw, and what the dress code fully is? >.>)

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Mikka;

 

Sure, I'll send that one in. :)

 

I believe it raises your Chance of being discovered with illegal items.

 

Familiars can and do perish, and it is an emotional trauma magnified by the strength of the Bond.

 

Magic between Students is not strictly regulated (as I am sure you can tell), and in many cases bullying is institutionalized: it's inherent to the competition instilled between Colleges, Students, in society, and as a product of the feudal modes practiced in Elumia. There are some who would like to change that, of course. I am sure you can guess who. ;)

 

Death, severe injury and mental infirmities are dealt with very severely, and as a consequence rarely happen. A Student being bullied to this point would be expected to step forward...but there is a strong peer pressure against this, too. It's an unpleasant situation.

 

It's possible for Regents for grant that permission, certainly.

 

I haven't found that concept art yet, sorry! :)

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What are the rules on drinking, drugs, and sexual activities? I imagine 'not on campus' is high up there, but do the instructors go out of their way to make sure students aren't engaging in such things off campus? (Obviously, more an issue for fourth/fifth years then first, but even in first year I know there's some events that imply your character is able to try alcohol.) I imagine particularly the first and last would be hard...

I think this Question was missed in the answear.

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Whoa, I missed that.

 

These activities are frowned upon by the Regents, who (as with Bullying) do actually have a code of ethics which governs this behavior. In practice (again, as with Bullying), it depends on the Regent and whether or not these activities are discovered by an Instructor (or Parents). Off campus is actually more important than on campus, surprisingly, because the Academagia takes great pains to try to keep relations with the Upper City somewhat cordial.

 

These kinds of transgressions are seriously punished, and may fall under mental impairment discipline above. Sexual activities are typically remanded to the Parents. Society and Family being what it is in Elumia, anything that involves potential pregnancy amongst bloodlines of quality is probably cause for cloistering. ;)

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Aha, that's pretty much what I figured. Thank you so much for all the answers (and yay for sending through my request for that heritage background! <3).

 

Do you have any hints on what the heraldry for the two now gone collages might have looked like? Any specific creatures or items pictured on them/associated with them?

 

Failing that (or not failing that XD), what the dominant colors might have been (such as how Red is all over Durand common room and so on)?

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I can say with full confidence that no one stepped in while Philipe was bullying me all year round this latest game - I even had 21 stress at one point (twenty one!!) before I finally took a day off and recovered. But of cause player characters are usually going to be alright in the end so I guess the teachers don't really care. But it is a valid question - if I were from day one to keep someone *cough* permanently in the infirmary - would anyone step in?

 

Good questions though, I look forward to the answers =)

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Yeah, most of my questions more for roleplay/event text reasons then expectations on how it would work in game. The problem is balancing realism with fun: to be blunt, the combination of mastery magic being forbidden but glamour being allowed (meaning one can't really seriously 'cure' the chemical imbalances of depression, but one can certainly place another traumatizing illusions and drive away all their friends), full out beat-downs being allowed as long as you don't get caught (how many times do Phillipe or Joana beat you up if you fail in their events, again?), hundreds of different ways of sabotaging other students in ways that don't even cause the instructors to look up ("Oh, you know how that's your favorite instructor? WELL NOW THEY HATE YOU. Also, your now behind in all your courses due to my sabotaging your work! And I just got five points merit points subtracted from your collage so all your collage-mates can hate you! Then I reduced your charm to zero! And I totally destroyed your clique and thus all your friendships! lolololtrolllolololol!"), plus the amount of freedom the students have (there doesn't seem to be all too much stopping two students from going down to Mineta claiming to be after school supplies, ditching their robes in the various dark alleys (shoving them in a bag, and then simply pulling a laborers robe/tunic sort of thing over the hose and white shirt) you inevitably get ambushed in during the familiar plots in Mineta, booking a Room for a night in one of the more ugly districts (such as the one you get sent to when working with Magsa, or where you're constantly running in to the Pitts), then buying alcohol, drugs, who knows what else, having sex, and generally causing a ruckus, then putting the robes back on and heading back to the Academagia) makes me think that life at the Academagia could easily lead to a lot of depressed, suicidal, pregnant, addicted, and miserable teens.

 

But as this is not Degrassi: the Video Game (...thank goodness (though I have a friend that insists that thing is fun, not that she's ever let me play it)), things such as 'Joana picks on me every other day, sending my stress skyrocketing and causing me to miss two days a week due to infirmary visits' leads more to your character going "Ah well, will try again!" rather then "I hate myself and this place and feel completely broken and unhappy and can no longer function due to my horrendous self-esteem, paranoia, and my building suspicion that no one cares for me at all" (unless you wanted to try a roleplay that way, I guess).

 

Thus, despite my smart-alack comment (and admittedly inappropriate: I've lost people to it, and know it's a very difficult topic and thus I should probably change it) about having your character commit suicide if they throw themselves out the window during the Civil Law adventure, I'm pretty certain Academagia will not have an opportunity to allow your character to commit suicide or get pregnant, even in year five, though there may be a carefully done story or two talking about it and consequences. (And if they did, it would almost certainly be something done in a DLC-expansion that had a rating up. Or I suppose someone could probably mod something in, but... ergh. :P I don't think that would be worthwhile pay out.)

 

On the other hand, I do think they are interesting issues to talk and think about all the same. If depressing.

 

 

Back on topic... interesting about the Icanicix color! How much does Icanicix Hall (and the other one, that's name is escaping me at the moment) hold from it's history as once being the campus of a collage? Have all symbols/art been destroyed and walls/carpeting redone? Could someone walking through it deduct 'Oh, this was once a common room... these study cubicles/small rooms must have been bedroom', or does it look like any ordinary lecture hall?

 

Do you know if the Heraldry for the other collages followed any of the traditional rules? Most of them certainly seem to- Avila's is almost perfect, actually, only missing the torque, and no one really cares about the torque.

 

Are there any stories about what's on the Heraldry that you can share?

 

Specically... Aranaz and Avila have flowers as their supporters, Durand has flowers on the shields acting as supporters, Godina has a six pointed flowers that could perhaps be considered supporters, there are six pointed... snow flakes is what they look like but probably flowers on the mantling for Hedi, Morvidus has those pretty white ones that are somewhere between part of the shield and supporters, and Vernin indeed has some pink ones that seem to be supporters. What kind of flowers are they meant to be (are they real, or Academagia-only)? The ones for Aranaz, Avila, and Morvidus look extremely familiar to me (...I think the Aranaz one is in my yard), but I'm not very good with flowers, so I wonder.

 

How about animals? Aranaz has the sphinx over the pen and sword which is over the swan- what was that symbolizing? Hedi has a merman or woman, a red bird, and a... creature with four legs in a tail... what are they? Godina's wolf and star is interesting as well. I think Morvidus is going with a Bear and a Hart, but I'm not sure there. Durand has the dancing animals of Norway (I swear, the lion on Norway's crestis drunk, and no one will convince me otherwise) as a Griffon and a Cat. Vernin dropped the animals, though the crest gives the impression of antlers (at least to me). And I don't even know what's going on with Avila- a tree, a bird, pims, and a branch of some sort?

 

What language are the mottos written in, Old Elumian? In the same, what about the language of the old(e) titles? Was Durand actually named Duratres in his own language, or was that a name given to him by those that followed him in a different tongue?

 

All of it is interesting, though I may have dropped too many questions at once. ;;

 

...Oh, right. Common rooms! Are any of the others completely covered with one color the way the Durand one is covered with red (or pink... Silke!)? Green and Avila and Blue and Aranaz seem to match up, but the others have different colors of robes and circles, which is confusing to me. XD

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Mikka;

 

I'd like to add a few things to that Bullying discussion, but...I'd better wait until I am 100% certain they'll be in Year 2. :)

 

Both Kazus and Icanicix are mostly in good shape, and it's readily apparent which rooms served which function.

 

All of the Collegiate heraldry has a story behind it (but does not truly follow European rules), and they all have a number of other elements not portrayed which went into older forms of the crest. Some of these you may see in later years. To go over this full list would take some time, so it will have to be a mystery for now. You learn more about these in certain lores, as well as in future lores.

 

All of the flowers are (mostly) real-world flowers, or at least inspired by them. ;)

 

The mottoes are Old Elumian, and the names you see there are the actual, original names of the Kings and Queens, before their Eluminization (as it were!)

 

I believe most common rooms are decorated with the motifs of their College. When no specific color is predominant, you could expect a mix of the colors on the crest.

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Ooo... well, if you want to share without waiting, we'll understand that things change. :D <3

 

And I'm eager to see more about the heraldry. Yay!

 

 

Another question... one knows the fate of King Durand (or at least, that he was cursed to wander). Are the fates of the other Kings and Queens known? Did they suffer a similar fate? Sadly, even with the collage lores, information on some (Morvidus and Vernin especially) is hard to come by.

 

(Any hints where one can find the deed Aranaz did that led to him... er... inspiring such mixed feelings? I know you said the info's in the game, and I'm guessing it's a Research topic, but either I haven't found it or I've done a skim and miss so far.)

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Speaking of paranoia, I recently found out that there is an emotion "Fear of Rabies" - I'll admit I was impressed! All things considered, my little girl (albeit with an amazing mental and physical fortitude) with high-teens of stress began having these fears as something that quite impressed me. Rabies might even be reasonable after being bullied every day since the start of the school year.

 

As for dying of natural causes... well, a knife to the back naturally brings about death (or back pains, depending on the competence of the assailant) - I'd even go so far as to say that even magic in this universe comes so naturally that death by spell could be considered natural. (At least in certain parts of the world)

 

 

As for the kings and queens, sadly I don't know what made King Aranaz change his mind, I am guessing (but purely guessing) that he had intended his betrayal already before King Durand came to his court, but a direct reason has yet eluded me. (I can still admire that he managed to make his betrayal count in the degrees that it did).

The Mallen Field research conserns mostly (if not 'only') the battle and betrayal at Mallen Field - not the earlier history. I stumbled into some earlier but didn't mark down where it was or what it was about. (sadly. I do remember some tidbits though - I'll have to get to work on the research! Humph!)

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Speaking of death, how exactly do the people handle the recently deceased? Do they bury them or cremate them?

 

And maybe I didn't do enough research but where exactly is the wall that keeps the dragons out? I finished the Aultrine problem quest adventure, but I don't think it mention where the wall was. Or is it because I should be doing history instead?mellow.gif

 

Most importantly, and this is bugging me ever since the first time I was attacked by this event, what in the gods name is Sage water? If anybody says it is soda water, I will cast Wrath of the Comet's Tail on you. laugh.gif

 

Oh yes, an interesting thing happened to me when I first started DLC 13. The moment I start Juvenalia, I got hit by Awesome Community Event NO. 13. Yes, 13.....

 

What does that mean?

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<Sighs in relieve>

 

Thanks, because my imagination makes me think that It was unsuitable for kids. smile.gif

 

Just one more, how strong do you have to be to conjure a large viewing screen like in the game? The tavern owners must have paid a small fortune.

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  • 2 weeks later...

What are pims made of? Copper, gold..silver? Or are the different coins made of different metal? I'm not sure if it was mentioned in the game.

 

Is there a skill that makes being Befriended more difficult or is it just a question of Charm? For example, quite a lot of students fail at Befriending my character at the end of the game but have it easier at the beginning.

 

Also, is it a bug or is it just not possible to train Minetan Swagger?

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