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A few in game questions


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Rhi;

"One standout that a player character might well recognize would be Taberfex, a figure from the fourth and fifth centuries.  These days he's actually most famous as a stock character in a kind of comedic play - a mischievous king or duke who disguises himself as a commoner to seduce innocent women, but who usually loses the girl in the end to the more forthright Simonetto - but once upon a time there was an actual entity known for wearing dragonskin boots and leading packs of supernatural jackals in weird midnight hunts.  Astrological historians believe he created the Lago del Piede ("the Lake of the Foot") a few days' ride south of Mineta, though the details are long since lost.  He might have been a faerie knight, he might have been a human wizard who married (or was taken by and escaped from) a faerie queen, or he might have been something completely different."

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  • 2 weeks later...

M;

"The equivalent to our Arabic numerals - what's currently in use in Mineta - are the numeri moderni.

Numeri arcaici, older numerals, were what was established at the creation of the Empire of Man, and it's fair to say that they're our equivalent to Roman numerals.  That said, it's worth noting that they weren't traditional at that point; they were invented in the burst of creativity that came in the early days of empire - part of a new system meant to consolidate several pre-existing mathematical languages and inaugurate a new, divinely inspired era.

From what records remain, Draconic-age numerals - numeri primitivi - varied regionally, tended to be simplified for impression into clay tablets or carved stone, and probably looked more like Aegean numerals than anything else."

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@Legate of Mineta: 1. Would it be legal in the Empire of Man to publish a story pretty-much identical to "The Words of Guru", by C. M. Kornbluth - a horror story that is a first-person account of learning how to use gates and mastery magic (where the precise techniques are not described)?

2. Are there rumours about people operating like Guru in "The Words of Guru", by C. M. Kornbluth - sneaking into children's lifes, secretly teaching them gates and mastery magic, and inducting them into extra-universal cults of gates mages?

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Rhi;

For all three:

"1.  Legality would be kind of a gray area.  In theory, you could get away with it; in practice, it's the sort of thing that would be published in Pievre and smuggled into Mineta in unmarked crates and then sold at hugely marked up prices in dodgy bookstores.

2.  Oh, for sure.  Some people even allege that there's a secret extra-dimensional school where children are taught all sorts of vile and dangerous practices!  ;)

3.  It would probably take a few steps, but Astrology's generally really good at blood connections - even if she couldn't get a name, she could probably fairly easily find out where he is (unless he's shielded) and work from there."

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On 4/13/2022 at 7:55 PM, Rhialto said:

2. Are there rumours about people operating like Guru in "The Words of Guru", by C. M. Kornbluth - sneaking into children's lifes, secretly teaching them gates and mastery magic, and inducting them into extra-universal cults of gates mages?

Did you forget the event where you get candy from a stranger that if eaten introduce you to gate magic? Not even sure if there isn't a follow up in Y1 because I never eaten them ^^.

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9 hours ago, Schwarzbart said:

Did you forget the event where you get candy from a stranger that if eaten introduce you to gate magic? Not even sure if there isn't a follow up in Y1 because I never eaten them ^^.

Strangers handing out candy are, I suppose, somehow infiltrating children's lives - but I never thought of it in that way until now. Many thanks for the suggestion, though.

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And here you go!

"It's not canon at this point, but given that the CogSpring empire has been seen in-game to've started as magical wargaming - but to extend to a body of attendant fiction (or to've started as fiction and to have launched magical wargames) - it's not hard to see that milieu supporting tabletop RPG systems as well.

And if CogSpring can do it, so can others!"

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M;

"Those vampires were... fairly exotic, even by Minetan standards.

There are multiple strains of vampirism, presumably with different magical/Gates origins, and they have different characteristics and different vulnerabilities.  Acute vulnerability to sunlight, bursting into flames and whatnot, is very common in the present day. It's joked that they're the rats of the undead world: breeding quickly and congregating underground among the vermin.

Typical vampires sleep compulsively during the day - maybe they can be roused for short times, but for the most part they rely on servants (human and otherwise, often showing signs consistent with Mastery) for protection and disguise. The "classical" vampiric strain, associated of old with the Aiti and the Cold Forest of Priestadt, are generally of the "compulsive sleep while the sun's out" school of vampirism.  Some have more extreme susceptibilities, but it's thought that that might be a price they voluntarily paid for unusual powers; vampires are often in contact with extra-planar entities even darker than themselves, whether they like it or not.

The ones who seem mostly unaffected by sunlight are very rare, and often seem to resist some of the vampire's other compulsions - they can go months or years without feeding, and often make a show of being polite about it.  There are theories that this represents an intentional strain of vampirism: something designed by wizards hunting for immortality and originally inflicted on themselves.  The obvious downside is that they tend to succumb to various forms of dementia; in the end they're often the most terrifying of the lot."

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45 minutes ago, Legate of Mineta said:

M;

"Those vampires were... fairly exotic, even by Minetan standards.

There are multiple strains of vampirism, presumably with different magical/Gates origins, and they have different characteristics and different vulnerabilities.  Acute vulnerability to sunlight, bursting into flames and whatnot, is very common in the present day. It's joked that they're the rats of the undead world: breeding quickly and congregating underground among the vermin.

Typical vampires sleep compulsively during the day - maybe they can be roused for short times, but for the most part they rely on servants (human and otherwise, often showing signs consistent with Mastery) for protection and disguise. The "classical" vampiric strain, associated of old with the Aiti and the Cold Forest of Priestadt, are generally of the "compulsive sleep while the sun's out" school of vampirism.  Some have more extreme susceptibilities, but it's thought that that might be a price they voluntarily paid for unusual powers; vampires are often in contact with extra-planar entities even darker than themselves, whether they like it or not.

The ones who seem mostly unaffected by sunlight are very rare, and often seem to resist some of the vampire's other compulsions - they can go months or years without feeding, and often make a show of being polite about it.  There are theories that this represents an intentional strain of vampirism: something designed by wizards hunting for immortality and originally inflicted on themselves.  The obvious downside is that they tend to succumb to various forms of dementia; in the end they're often the most terrifying of the lot."

Great! I am so glad to learn that not all vampires in this setting are so weak as to automatically die when struck by sunlight. But what percentage, roughly, have this weakness? And would the average person in Mineta assume that all vampires are so weak?

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How faux pas would it be for a bard or storyteller or what have you to tell stories in a public location about Icanicix/Kazus, as in the historic figures from the First Captivity, doing what they are famed for? Obviously no spells would be described beyond the broadest of terms, and assume that the stories paint them in a "what they (allegedly) did was honestly kinda immoral in hindsight, but they were fighting a literal war against dragons in those days, so they didn't have much choice either" type of light.

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M;

"Icanicix and Kazus weren't like wizards today.  They were giants, beloved by the Gods, and their magics were accordingly well-governed and necessary to defeat the Dragons. But their apprentices, and the students which followed -their lessers, in every way- were unable to handle such dangerous magics with the same wisdom as their great namesakes. Tales of their exploits, when recited, are always tempered by the sober realization that there are some gifts which Man is not the equal to. If they're generous, they'll add a 'yet' to that.

That said, if a tale-teller spent too much time dwelling on the awesome specifics of certain magical actions (particularly since they're not widely known), it would start seeming subversive fast.  Probably wouldn't get you arrested, but could well get you beaten up."

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@Legate of Mineta: 1. I hope that I have not asked this question before, but if it were to become known that a student at the Academagia would be very interested in learning about spells specifically to dispel mastery magic, would such attract suspicion?

2. Are records about spells specifically to dispel mastery magic kept out of easy access for fear that they would be used by mastery mages (or aspiring mastery mages)?

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Rhi;

"1.  Not in a negative way!  On the contrary, Negation specialists in Mastery-breaking are very well regarded, even if some of them take on a kind of dangerous inquisitorial bent over time. Note that for Negation of this type it's generally more important to know the subject rather than the spell, so there's less of a danger to learn Mastery yourself.

Heck, Briardi might give you special library access if she got a good vibe from you.

2.  Yeah, there are definitely books in the Restricted section (see above) that fall into that category.  That said, Mastery isn't like Gates, where people of good will can (behind closed doors) argue about what constitutes the greater good.  Most wizards agree that Mastery run amok is a real problem, and people being able to defend themselves... well, embracing that ideal is worth a certain amount of risk.""

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