...

[Rainjay]

did you ever find an image that could depict Shale that made you happier?

Unfortunately not. While I wanted her to look as though she actually was composed of vines, I can't find anything that maintains the blue color of her skin, nor anything that really fits at all D: Still looking though.

As for your post, I enjoyed it! I like the descriptions of her wounds, how the "scabs" can be seen through simply because of her biology. It made me shudder a little when I realized she could like... see inside herself, but more from an empathy-pain sort of place than from a place of disgust. Super neat!

Thanks! :)

So, one thing I guess I didn't really clarify at all... (I'm obviously horrible at clarification which is why I'm glad you guys are all so good about asking questions I never think to answer beforehand.) is that the Council would likely say something along the lines of "We welcome you to our table." to each and every person who is going to be a part of that meeting. Whether or not the characters understand it to mean they can sit down is another thing because the implication that they can sit at the table could definitely be exclusive to Edhil culture if people want it to be that way.

I went with Shale simply not understanding it meant "take a seat". But mostly I wanted to give you + Nem a chance to respond to each other before Shale really did anything.

 

[Thought Manifest]

@WarriorHeart, the changes all look good. I look forward to seeing what you've decided to add. I really like the idea that you added that the shape-shift is really hard to hold onto around other Amlugan, but it's easier around other bipeds. It's sensible, and it's really cool.

@Trivia, oooooh. Yeah. I completely misunderstood that. My bad. That's still super cool, though. =D

I know I probably shouldn't be frustrated with myself, but I also realize that if I'd at least updated the info as we came up with it, I could have prevented a lot of my frustration that I'm feeling with myself now. hahah Just gotta say that @Nemaisare is a life saver for having collected all the information for me in one spot via PM's so that all I have to do is figure out how to code it into the main post. Though... a part of me is wishing I'd reserved multiple posts in the beginning to better separate the information. Oh well!

I feel like different varieties of magic will access different sources, and those sources would require different levels of concentration. For instance, I see Life Energy as being the simplest to access because it's literally already there inside the magic user. They just need to figure out how to channel it in such a way that they don't bring themselves to the brink of collapse just like physical activity might do. This is the type that the majority of people use, and it's usually used in conjunction with the other two sources. The second easiest might be Earth Energy because I feel like it's just right there beneath their feet, and it can be channeled through the earth itself to their bodies. Celestial Energy is probably the most difficult and not necessarily because it's hard to access (because seriously... sunlight is power even in our world, and it's all around) but because it is probably the most dangerous. Because magic must be channeled through the magic user's body, Celestial Energy is probably really easy to overload on, and while it might feel incredibly empowering at first, it could burn a person's chi pathways up and leave them physically crippled, unable to use magic, or even dead if not channeled carefully.

As for differences in the magic used in conjunction with the sources... I feel like any magic dealing with stuff that's made from the earth (animal communication, plants, earthbending :: coughs :: I mean making stuff from dirt... >.>;; etc etc) is probably more in line with Earth Energy. Anything dealing with healing flora/fauna, power sharing/stealing from bodies, telepathy, etc. is Life Energy. Anything dealing with light and darkness and things that defy the natural world would be celestial. Many things require combinations of things. Berseker Magic is probably a combo of Life and Earth Energy. Imbuement probably requires a combination of all three (the Earth to ground the magic, Celestial to make it last, and Life because every imbued item requires a magic user's own kind of stamp/flare). I'm totally open to suggestions about what sources could/should go into which abilities, too!

I imagine that because some magics are better suited to some sources than others, the outcome is definitely affected. Using the wrong source could either cause disastrous results (explosions, death, bad things in general) or the results just won't hold at all or they may even have zero effect.

I love these questions. They're hard, but they're awesome. Give me more. =D


@Rainjay, aww. That sucks. I hope you happen upon the perfect image at some point even if it's later down the line.

We still have a few more people who need to post in Group A before I can post again, but I understand.

 

[Firewombat]

@Thought Manifest

My thought for where that particular scene went, was that Ajani would be captured, and interact with her captor - the elf in question for a time. This could even be months or years before they all start pouring into that meeting room to discuss the big mission. Point is though - I'll be making, maybe one or two more posts like this detailing how she came to be part of the Resistence after that first event took place.


Also, y'all know that there'll be bending. I haven't even gotten to the part where she shows how strong her kung-fu is.

 

[Thought Manifest]

@Firewombat, that works for me. I look forward to seeing more of the backstory as we progress through the present. I'm assuming that's what the italics are for (to differentiate between what happened in the past and what happened in the present), so as soon as you're able to update your post with what's also happening in the present, I'll put a strike through your name in the main post where I listed the posting order.

 

[Beckett]

Finally posted. I'm still getting a feel for these characters, but they are growing on me. Hopefully I didn't miss or mistake any important information IC. If someone catches something off, let me know.

 

[Thought Manifest]

@Beckett, I didn't notice anything that was off, but if any of you have figured out anything about me by now, it's that I'm not reliable when it comes to being concise about my own freaking rp. XDDD

I really enjoyed your post! Hue seems like he's going to be a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to the tension between Vahn and Zora. =D

 

[Trivia]

@Thought Manifest , it's easy enough to mistake :)

And you really shouldn't feel so frustrated :P You're creating a whole world, bound to be some things you miss. And keeping things updated is hard, I more than understand that. Nem's always awesome like that. (but shh, don't tell her I said that :P ). Also, though it might be a bit of a hassle, you do technically have your character sheets that you could edit information into, if you feel it is necessary. Having your characters posted back here on the 12th page might not be ideal, but people are probably just going to be clicking on the links in the 'Accepted Characters' tab anyway, so it wouldn't be the end of the world.

I'm loving your magic information :)

So, in theory, a person could kill themselves if they use too much of their own life source of magic? Or just become fatigued/sick? And does greater power come from a greater depth of knowledge, a natural propensity, or a sort of increased endurance? (Though, I imagine it would be more a combination?) Could a person access the Life energy in other beings? Because, I feel a bit like that might be how Cemgollors can make plants grow faster. Either they are forcing the plant to use its Life energy in that way, or they are imbuing it with their own, or with Earth energy? And communication with animals seems kind of as though they might be... sort of, weaving life energies together? Maybe? If that makes sense? Or touching the other's Life energy. And maybe something similar for telepathy (which I did notice you mentioned, and then may have forgotten while I got caught up in writing this paragraph).

Would channeling these sources feel different? Or does that depend on the individual? You've said magic is more or less constantly present, but does it have any physical presence? Can it be smelled or seen or felt, similar to standing on a bridge in a storm, when you can feel the electricity in the air (and then move off the bridge because, seriously, lightning)?

Earthbending is badass ;)

Could an imbued item be traced back to its creator? Or, I suppose any piece of magic... Would channeling Earth or Celestial energies also leave a bit of the person in them? This is hard to articulate. The general question being would a spell that was cast or piece of magic that was performed be any different to the magic that exists in these energy sources beyond organization and pattern? And might those patterns be traceable even if the person wasn't meaning to put their stamp on it perse?

I love asking questions :)

 

[Thought Manifest]

That's true. I considered that, I just wasn't sure if I should move my sheets so far back. However, it's kinda looking like my best option, and it would give me the opportunity to edit the info I'm missing from those into the repost anyway. So much to do! =D

In theory, yes, they could fatigue/sicken themselves and if it got too out of hand, they could end up killing themselves by burning up too much of their own juice.

I imagine greater power could come from both a natural propensity and greater knowledge. I mean, let's say you have two naturally gifted people, but one studies hard and the other just studies every now and then. The one who studies harder is going to be better than the one who doesn't study as much. On the other hand, someone naturally gifted who doesn't study at all probably won't be as good as that person who is working their butt off to get really good but doesn't have a natural boost like the first person. It's kind of a combination of potential combined with ambition and hard work.

Yes! They can access others' Life Energy. I imagine it's taboo to do it to other sentient beings without permission, but it's kind of along the same lines as a Nestad's ability to "power share." I also imagined that when Zora heals via the chi pathways, she's combining her life energy to the person she's healing. I kind of saw Cemgollors doing the same thing you thought where they combine their energy into a plant's energy to coax it into faster growth, but I think it would also need the third application of Earth Energy for very rapid growth because there's only so much growth life energy can provide due to natural laws and limitations. I also imagine it's considered evil to use a person's Life Energy without asking, especially if it's used to the point where the person is fatigued or killed. It would be like draining someone's blood from their body. Not a nice thing to do. However, I do see it as significantly more challenging to use someone else's than one's own energy because everyone's energy has it's own fingerprint, if you will, and energy won't be quite the same between the races even.

I see stuff like animal communication being strictly Life Energy to Life Energy because it doesn't seem like something super complex. Telepathy is a bit more complex. I imagine it would definitely need Life Energy combined with Celestial Energy because Celestial Energy, I feel, allows for dealings with the most difficult spells, namely those things dealing with the complexities of the brain. Brain stuff = Life + Celestial. Body Stuff = Life + Earth.

I think it probably feels different depending on the source. I feel like each individual has their own sort of fingerprint, and I feel like the three main sources would likely feel very different from each other. However, the feeling probably varies between individuals. Some people might feel Celestial Energy is warmer and some might feel it's cooler. Some people might feel like Earth Energy feels muddy while another person might think it's coarser feeling. I think this contributes to how willing a person is to focus on one or two sources over the other one(s) in much the same way that a person might love a food's texture and another person might not be able to eat a food at all because they find that texture repulsive.

I do think magical acts leave a sort of energy "residue" behind. I think it's invisible but can definitely be felt depending on how powerful. I'm sure there are spells that can give a visual that may not have been seen by the naked eye otherwise. A weaker spell might not really be felt at all while a powerful one might be able to leave a residue that leaves one's arm hairs standing on end.

I feel like those who imbue items tend to purposely leave their "signature" on it because that's their work of art, and they want the credit. So usually, yes, but a very, very skilled imbuer could probably imbue items that leave no or very little trace of the creator.

I'm not one hundred percent sure I'm understanding your last question beyond the "stamp" thing. I think that one would have to purposely be working to hide their magical signature to keep it from being traceable. Otherwise, it's just there naturally like, again, a fingerprint.

 

[Trivia]

I imagine greater power could come from both a natural propensity and greater knowledge. I mean, let's say you have two naturally gifted people, but one studies hard and the other just studies every now and then. The one who studies harder is going to be better than the one who doesn't study as much. On the other hand, someone naturally gifted who doesn't study at all probably won't be as good as that person who is working their butt off to get really good but doesn't have a natural boost like the first person. It's kind of a combination of potential combined with ambition and hard work.

Extending an earlier metaphor about physical fitness, are some people just born with a larger 'pool' of Life energy, so to speak? And practice makes it deeper? I suppose, how much would amount of energy vs. knowledge of how to work it affect a spell?

And I recognize that my questions are not necessarily all that pertinent to the rp as it stands :) So, I am grateful for your awesome and detailed replies, but I will understand if you would rather direct your energies at something a bit more productive.

I kind of saw Cemgollors doing the same thing you thought where they combine their energy into a plant's energy to coax it into faster growth, but I think it would also need the third application of Earth Energy for very rapid growth because there's only so much growth life energy can provide due to natural laws and limitations

That totally makes sense! Would this additional energy negate the effect of mitosis on the cells' centrioles? (Translated from bio nerd just in case: would it allow them to divide more often and so extend the plant's life to allow it to grow at this extended pace and much larger than normal with either no effect, or a latent effect?) I imagine that might depend on the person's skill as a magic-user, huh?

I see stuff like animal communication being strictly Life Energy to Life Energy because it doesn't seem like something super complex. Telepathy is a bit more complex. I imagine it would definitely need Life Energy combined with Celestial Energy because Celestial Energy, I feel, allows for dealings with the most difficult spells, namely those things dealing with the complexities of the brain. Brain stuff = Life + Celestial. Body Stuff = Life + Earth.

Awr, animals got brains too :P But, I guess it's more of a difference between simple communication and actually shifting someone's thoughts, right?

I think it probably feels different depending on the source. I feel like each individual has their own sort of fingerprint, and I feel like the three main sources would likely feel very different from each other. However, the feeling probably varies between individuals. Some people might feel Celestial Energy is warmer and some might feel it's cooler. Some people might feel like Earth Energy feels muddy while another person might think it's coarser feeling. I think this contributes to how willing a person is to focus on one or two sources over the other one(s) in much the same way that a person might love a food's texture and another person might not be able to eat a food at all because they find that texture repulsive.

Like mushrooms... (Sorry, Truffle.)

I do think magical acts leave a sort of energy "residue" behind. I think it's invisible but can definitely be felt depending on how powerful. I'm sure there are spells that can give a visual that may not have been seen by the naked eye otherwise. A weaker spell might not really be felt at all while a powerful one might be able to leave a residue that leaves one's arm hairs standing on end.

I imagine people's sensitivity to it differs some too, like a 'haunting' of magic except it doesn't rely on belief?

I feel like those who imbue items tend to purposely leave their "signature" on it because that's their work of art, and they want the credit. So usually, yes, but a very, very skilled imbuer could probably imbue items that leave no or very little trace of the creator.

I'm not one hundred percent sure I'm understanding your last question beyond the "stamp" thing. I think that one would have to purposely be working to hide their magical signature to keep it from being traceable. Otherwise, it's just there naturally like, again, a fingerprint.

That was pretty much exactly what I was getting at :) So, a person would have to be familiar with how someone does magic before they could recognize that person's work? Similar to how the police need an existing database to run fingerprints against?

 

[Rainjay]

You gonna right up a summary of this magic stuff? O.O Because what I've skimmed is lovely, but my eyes are too tired to sit and read through the text X_X

 

[Beckett]

@Rainjay
Agreed! Also, after rereading your post I'm wishing I had Hue interact with your character more. I just didn't want to put too much into the intro, otherwise we will be spending weeks just trying to sort out responses to everyone :)

How many people have yet to post? I'm still learning all of the "faces" in this role play.

 

[Trivia]

@Beckett There's a handy little list in the first post to keep track of who is in each group. It is very nearly up to date :) Under the 'Posting Expectations' tab. Just Auralnaut left in the Fatanen party and Sarcor and Torack in the Edhil party, though I believe that Firewombat has been asked to just add something from the present day into their post...

@Rainjay I imagine there will be, but there are a lot of other updates too. Poor lady's a right busy bee :) If she doesn't mind, and I have the time, I might write up a quick summary for those who weren't asking silly questions :)

 

[Thought Manifest]

@Trivia, all answers I gave were before work yesterday, but I don't have time to answer the other questions in detail until after work today. Yay for essentially having back-to-back shifts. I would answer from my phone, but it takes too long and Swype is infinitely frustrating about "correcting" my words into things I never wanted to say in the first place, so the magic questions are going to have to wait until after work tonight or before work tomorrow.

@Rainjay and @Beckett, yes! I will be making a section all about the magic stuff.


@Nemaisare, if you get the chance and want to collect the magic info I've talked about with @Trivia so far and PM it to me, that would be awesome and super helpful, but only do if you have time for it. No pressure. I'll try to collect anything else and add it into our info collecting PM thread, too. Also, @Trivia, if you want to write a summary, you can. Again, don't do it unless you have time, but I wouldn't mind. I'm going to eventually make more detailed sections about each magical Source and the kinds of spells and magic that work best with it, but a summary would probably be a nice segway into the whole shebang.


@Beckett, there will be plenty of time for character interaction soon. The intros are just to get them all in their positions for now. @Trivia answered the posting thing. =D


@WarriorHeart, your post was a lot of fun. I see the High King being like, "WTF do we have here? He kicked all ya'll's butts, I see? Lovely!" and because his mind is a tad warped, he'll probably be all for having this new guy go along for the ride. Of course, the dialogue will be cleaner and the decision making a little less... weird, but yeah. We'll get there, and it will be fun!

One nitpick. I understand the point of colourizing dialogue, but I actually find it incredibly distracting while reading, and it completely takes me out of what I'm reading. I guess I mean it just disrupts the flow of reading for me. I won't make you go through and change your current post, but in the future if you could refrain from doing that, I would greatly, greatly appreciate it. I don't mind the box around the whole posth. That can stay. Just the font colours through the text would preferably not be in future posts. Thanks!

 

[WarriorHeart]

@WarriorHeart, your post was a lot of fun. I see the High King being like, "WTF do we have here? He kicked all ya'll's butts, I see? Lovely!" and because his mind is a tad warped, he'll probably be all for having this new guy go along for the ride. Of course, the dialogue will be cleaner and the decision making a little less... weird, but yeah. We'll get there, and it will be fun!

One nitpick. I understand the point of colourizing dialogue, but I actually find it incredibly distracting while reading, and it completely takes me out of what I'm reading. I guess I mean it just disrupts the flow of reading for me. I won't make you go through and change your current post, but in the future if you could refrain from doing that, I would greatly, greatly appreciate it. I don't mind the box around the whole posth. That can stay. Just the font colours through the text would preferably not be in future posts. Thanks!

Thanks, boss lady! I had fun writing it. I have no problem neutralizing my dialog. One question: I use italics and color to denote a character's thoughts. Since italics is used to show emphasis as well, do you have a suggestion for how to denote his inner dialog?

 

[Thought Manifest]

@WarriorHeart, italics are perfectly fine for thoughts. Please, keep that. I don't find that distracting, and I knew right away that your character was having specific thoughts when it was italicized. That's pretty standard for writing, and I would like you to not change that aspect. Keeping internal thoughts clearly separate from emphasis in posts can be done via something along the lines of, "Blah blah blah... Got me some internal monologue... Bloober Newt thought to himself." Adding the "such-and-such character thought" part has always been a good go-to for that sort of thing, in my opinion.

 

[Beckett]

@WarriorHeart,

I don't know if this will help, but you need to emphasize an italicized word, you may simply un-italicize it.

Example:
I can no longer doubt myself. I must do this.

Thanks @Trivia, that is a nifty chart. I do a lot of reading from mobile and have missed some updates.

 

[Firewombat]

Pardon me taking so long, I must've seriously burned myself out on writing that first post that everything I've tried to add on as ''The Present'' has felt a little sub-par. I'll be writing up something again right now.

 

[Firewombat]

Well, the site just ate it up and sent it to the void. Sigh. I'll be a while longer, I guess.

 

[Nemaisare]

Evil site. I feel for you.

 

[Beckett]

That sucks. I always write offsite for this very reason, its happened too many times.