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A few in game questions


Adrian
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Rhi:

"1.  Old Elumian isn't exactly the same as Latin, but, yes, we think you can assume they are functionally the same, and it isn't overtly magical.

1a.  If you're asking if you can arrange pheme sequences in the same kind of palindromic grid: that's an insanely cool idea.  ;)

2.  Not Mormo, exactly.  The most infamous analogue is a female lake fairy or phantom called Achelois or Achilee who enters people's homes and does terrible things, leaving behind wet footprints or handprints."

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@Legate of Mineta: 1. Would it be appropriate for Zoe Melis to use the word archon as a generic term for a ruler, due to to her Chorian background and/or scholarliness? This would not be portrayed as a common thing in my adventure - she would clarify her meaning immediately.

2. Is the term sorcerer ever used for magic users in the Empire of Man? If so, what meaning does it have? Does it refer (as with the Latin) to a person who uses lots for divination?

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Rhi;

"1) Yes - but it's kind of like "Caesar" or "Magi."  When the word "Archon" is used casually, the average Chorian speaker will think you're alluding to specific historical figures (the great leaders of old - King Durand/Archon Dourandos, etc.) rather than to the broader class that ultimately carried the same title.

But, yeah, rulers of cities (and other organizations) certainly used the title - and in some cases may still keep it as an honorific.  It's fair game, if very unusual.

2) Yes to "sorcerer."  It has two competing connotations: if used casually, it's probably disparaging: a word for an untrained augur or astrologer who's making stuff up as she goes.  If used formally, it describes a specialized class of astrologers that used enchanted tiles (or in some cases the bones of creatures or people who died under very specific "divine" circumstances - hit by lightning at auspicious moments, etc.) for complex readings and formulations."

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How complete is the Imperial Temple's control of distant, more rural areas, insofar as their ability to suppress local traditions in favor of their own? Assuming said local traditions aren't outright blasphemous and/or legally problematic, of course.

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7 hours ago, vdalson said:

Sorry, this question has probably been asked multiple times before.

How thoroughly is all the lore managed for Academagia? Is there some sort of central 'encyclopedia' that has been edited over the years? Is it physical or digital?

The Team Apparently keeps notes about the NPC students, which they modify sometimes in response to other writers' submissions/suggestions (such as mine).

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3 hours ago, Legate of Mineta said:

Rhi;

Heh! The time investment needed is a bit prohibitive, but it does need to be done at some point.

May I PM you about doing such an effort? I am quite serious about it - and would be willing to be bound by an NDA. It could even be only about the lore/background, not about the plans for the series. In my job, I handle much more sensitive things all the time.

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I think some questions are in order! :)

1. What's the record for longest amount of time to cast a spell? In theory, How long could you keep a palette up to work on if you wanted to work on a powerful and complex spell?

2. Since the Wall is quite obviously in disrepair in certain segments, a part of me has to ask if tiny bits of it get taken illicitly and sold as souvenirs or research items? How is this combated?

3. How is the Academagia's magic refuse and rubbish dealt with? (After it finally piles up so high that they can't ignore it any more of course...)

4. While Professor Briardi is a very prominent member of the Academagia, seen in many adventures, how much of her influence is due to her position, and how much is from her relationship to the current Legate? If a certain daring Aranaz regent became Legate, wouldn't her influence in the school plummet? Does her present influence inspire some of the malcontents ired by her position t speak out against her more strongly than they might otherwise?

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From the Team:

"1.  We're assuming that we're really talking about "longest amount of time to cast a spell without using other magic to preserve a palette" - which is possible, if tricky.  (Tricky also in the sense that spells cast with magically altered palettes have a huge chance of misfiring.)

It's largely a function of concentration and mental stamina - von Rupprecht can reportedly keep a palette open for almost a minute if he's showing off.  The question of records is complicated, though, by stories about monks who keep palettes up for years at a time while meditating or as a show of holiness.  Most academics are too cynical to take these stories literally - and those that do take them literally posit that the palettes might be "sterile," and unable to actually trigger a spell - but there's probably enough truth to them to suggest that ascetics have managed to keep the things going for hours or days at a time.

2.  A certain amount of theft is really accepted as inevitable - though it helps that there are several folk tales (possibly manufactured by crafty authorities in previous centuries) about people stealing bits of the Wall and then getting blasted by draconic magic meant to break the wall.

That said, the Wall is the Wall.  Pieces that can be carried off are already effectively no longer part of the larger enchantment - breaking off a bit that was still empowered would require significant magical exertions, and there are people (those darn monks again) who are attuned enough to sense that kind of thing.  It's meant to be easy to track down astrologically, too.

3.  In the Academy's early centuries, over the course of an academic year, all the potentially dangerous stuff was dumped in a building remembered poetically as "the Vault of the Sunset," and eleven days after the end of classes all the professors would join together to dispose of it.  It's generally assumed that they Gatesed the hell out of it, frankly.

Around about 914, that stopped working.  Something had gone wrong in the Vault, and the city was in the middle of a spate of rioting, and... well, one thing led to another and the Vault was simply buried; it's generally believed that the Artiglio Tower and the north wall of the garden/menagerie complex is above the old location.  (And don't think Briardi doesn't occasionally have nightmares about that.)

After that disaster, they contracted a local family of shipbuilders, the Lucidi, to build a fleet of barges every summer - over the course of the year, magical waste and byproducts would be taken to the ships and sealed away.  On the eleventh day after the end of classes, there would then be an airborne procession as all the barges were flown from Chorda (the mountain, not the heath) to some kind of magically induced inferno in the sky, and spectacular fireworks would ensue.

In the 12th century, the Academy had some rough times and could no longer afford the expenditure - or maybe their relationship with the Lucidi fell apart; the records are unclear.  Either way, the barges simply stopped being made, and arrangements were made with the Ratcatchers' Guild (who had their own ways of disposing of things best left unseen) to have Academy waste quietly removed.

From 1294-1296, the Ratcatchers and the Thieves' Guild went to war, and the disposal service - like a lot of things in Mineta - was severely impeded.  The Legate of 1296, Conante Urbano, ultimately negotiated the creation of a new entity, the Preservationists' Guild, from both Ratcatchers and Thieves, to keep the resulting mess from irrevocably poisoning the city's water supply (since then, as now, unmonitored Academy waste had a way of ending up in Ardica Lake).

And the Preservationists' Guild is still around today, though their ties to the various Thieves' Guilds are no longer as open as they once were.  There are exceptions, but the general rule is that Academy waste is hauled by night, every night, to a cluster of warehouses in Undergate, and once a month they use certain of the Ratcatchers' hidden instruments to destroy anything that can't be kept.

4.  Oh, absolutely.  The Regent of Durand is always going to be a political force at the Academy and in the City, but the fact is that Orso, being Orso, leans hard on Briardi - and so, in practice, Durand is more powerful than it's been in centuries.  When Orso goes, a whole lot of knives will be out for Briardi (and for Sido, for that matter) unless the Captain makes her Legate in her own right.

There are definitely quarters in which that idea is not popular.  ;)"

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