Drasvin

Luckily, this is comics, not game, so we don't need to care about it being OP. That's not entirely true. While games are more sensitive to character power levels, an extremely powerful character in any narrative work can remove dramatic tension, requiring either contrivances or escalation to explain why the OP character doesn't simply solve the problem causing the dramatic tension. EGS does focus more on social aspects than straight combat, but given Grace's pacifistic, fun-loving, and over-all friendly nature, the most likely spells for Grace to get if she awakens would be social in aspect.

Are we even certain that's baby Grace and not just some random baby? I seem to recall Dr Sciuridae saying that Grace was born already in her half squirrel form. I don't think she'd have the ability to morph into a human form that early. I think it's supposed to be representative of how Grace's Magic Power is as weak as a baby, while her Uryuom Power is big and beefy.

We haven't seen it used on-panel, but there is a well-known source of D&D-style Necromancy in the setting. Necromancy isn't just the undead. It also deals with life force, such as stealing it from another creature (Vampiric Touch is a very useful spell), so the EGS-vampires make considerable use of D&D Necromancy. Also, from what I've been told, healing magic was also considered Necromancy before third edition, again because D&D!Necromancy is about manipulating the forces of life, death, and rebirth.

She at least doesn't like vampire romance. I get the feeling she might be slightly more accepting of vampire hunting fiction Maybe? Assuming their flight isn't 100% magic and the wing action is required in some fashion, have a human riding on its back would make flight difficult due to legs getting in the way of wings, squeezing flight muscles to stay on its back, the fact that humans are heavy... but I doubt it would be impossible. When did "Hippo" cease to be a synonym for horse for the typical English speaker and instead refer to the hippopotamus? Probably around the time Latin stopped being mandatory for understanding the Bible. Either that or when the African safari started to become a major thing in popular culture. Interesting tidbit: the word hippopotamus literally means 'River Horse'

I doubt the Uryuom parent planet outlaws an CMD capable of running OOP software, just that it outlaws the device using OOP software. Will mentioned that there are sanctioned programming languages, so it's possible that it's not just a ban on OOP programming, but a ban on programming for the CMD with languages that aren't sanctioned and none of the sanctioned languages are OOP languages. So if a device is found with software that wasn't designed with a sanctioned language, the device would probably be confiscated and the owner/builder fined. The problem that Will and Gill had was that the sanctioned languages have limitations, redundancies, and complexities. It might theoretically possible to design clone morphs with the sanctioned languages, but doing so would be incredibly difficult and might require more system resources than the average CMD has available. (Tedd had to perform hardware upgrades on the TFG before it could do clone forms, even with more efficient programming languages at his disposal)

Sure, she does have that spell, but I still think her rampage would be with the hammers, because those will be the weapons she'll instinctively use. Unless she trained with the "real" weapons much more than shown. I imagine she has some training with real weapons. When the comic first started, she was an extreme cynic that strove to hold to (a biased version of) logic and while it might not be a pleasant line of thought, being prepared for a vampire attack would be a reasonable course of action, especially as she's already been specifically targeted once. Magic is a force capable of flagrantly violating the laws of reality. If Magic wanted there to be enough energy for everyone to use big, dramatic spells, there would be enough energy for everyone to use big,dramatic spells, Conservation of Energy be damned. Magic is a force capable of flagrantly violating SOME laws of reality. That doesn't means there are no laws which it MUST follow - although we will likely have hard time to differentiate between what magic wants and what it must do - if that distinction even have any sense (water usually flows down because it wants or because it must?). For water, the distinction doesn't make any sense, as it doesn't have a will of it's own(as far as we know at least), while magic does have a will of it's own. Also we have seen it massive violate the law of Conservation of Energy and Matter with Nanase's doll spell. That spell creates a permanent doll, made out what seems to be wood. I'm not sure how much mass the doll has, and searching for the mass of a comparable-sized doll through google was largely inconclusive, but assuming the doll has a mass of 2 lbm (0.907185 kg), calculating E=mc2 gives us approximentaly 81.5337 petaJoules of energy to create such an object according to real life physics. That's roughly equivalent to 1294 times the energy released by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Uryuom abilities are predictable because those abilities are part of their anatomy and biology. Unpredictable biology tends to have severe consequences. Also by that token, it would be possible that there could be conditions that make Uryuom abilities chaotic and dramatic. Such conditions would be like severe allergies or illnesses. Hopefully rare, extremely worrisome when they happen, and potentially dangerous (depending on how exactly Uryuom biology works) if not treated. There was seven vampires in downtown Moperville and it's notable and big cause of concern. Most magic users likely don't know aberrations exists AND will never meet one. Case in point, Edward didn't considered necessary to warn Elliot and Ellen about them. He also didn't warned Diane yet. Susan needed to go to France before being attacked - nothing happened till then. And the same logic could be applied to wizards as well. We've seen four confirmed wizards on panel: Adrian Raven, Abraham(Who traveled all the way from Britain to hunt Ellen), Agent Wolf (A government agent of notable skill and power, so would certainly be high on their list to recruit and deploy and potentially problematic areas), and Magus (who is from a different reality altogether and is currently trapped on the spirit plane). Wizards might not be common enough for your average magic user to come in contact with them Despite all talk about Not-Tengu not being special, the amount of magic users like that is apparently low and generally, people like Noriko are able to hunt them down before they cause serious damage. I imagine the reason that 'evil' magic users is low (seemingly at least) is in part because of the efforts of people like Noriko and the government agents and in part because most people have a degree of a conscience. Maybe not to Elliot or Grace levels, but enough that they don't actively hurt people without a really good reason. Except most magic users are civilians. They don't walk around in some uniform that declares them a magic user nor are the majority part of the military or law enforcement. On top of that, the ability to sense magical power appears to be fairly rare. In the main cast, only Tedd (who is special) and Elliot have been noted to be able to sense magical power, and Elliot's ability is unreliable. Outside of the main cast, I know Greg, Luke, Abraham, Raven, the Immortals, and the griffin couple can sense magic, but I'm not sure if any other magic users have been noted to possess the ability. So if a magic user wanted to perform a terror strike on a random group of civilians, there might be a magic user in that group without them even knowing. I doubt his vendetta was the only reason, though it certainly was a driving one. If word of what he was doing got to the authorities, he would have to contend with government agents. Especially if he was IDed, because then the agents would bring in the big guns (magical SWAT team!). He might have been extremely arrogant, but I doubt he was stupid enough to give the government reason to believe he was alive and active. Again, this obviously don't happen often. Pandora is likely only immortal that much crazy (Voltaire, while more evil, is likely less crazy). I don't know. Someone who wants to bring about a better world by killing innocent people sure does seem crazy to me. True, but some people do. And there's a lot of people in the world. Just find one person, dope them up with magic, and then maneuver them into place for wicked, horrible plans. Immortals have the advantage of a large scope and the ability to wait a long time. We don't know what the relationship between governments and paranormal organizations is: it's possible that USA is exception rather than rule. But that's not important: yes, there are organizations maintaining the status quo through threat of repercussions, and they have enough battle-trained magic users for this threat to be taken seriously ... which might not really work as good in case of more combat oriented magic. France at least has a paranormal organization as part of their government. I also have a hard time imagining that most governments would completely relegate something as significant and powerful as a covert, super-powered police force to a private organization. As for using battle-trained mages in cases where combat magic pops up, it wouldn't be an ideal situation, but would probably be akin to a shoot out with the police: An extremely dangerous situation with a high possibility of collateral damage, which includes to possibility of the police using their heavier armaments or calling for beefier help if the situation is dire enough The wild west is a lot less wild then Hollywood depicts it. Yes it was a lawless and violent period, with three wars and a significant amount of banditry, but most of the violence (that not from the wars at least) and banditry was in part due to a combination of social instability of the expanding frontier and lack of funding and manpower for law enforcement in the area. In towns and cities with solid governance and law enforcement, there was a different story. In the real life Dodge City, one of the very first laws enacted after the municipal government was formed was to outlaw concealed carry of firearms, which was soon expanded to open carry as well. Even in the rural areas, most people depended on law enforcement, such as the Texas Rangers, for keeping the peace. Provided that Pandora isn't lying (and there doesn't seem to be any reason why she would be), the US government is not above strong arming people with rare and useful abilities into service. That's a worrying thought, but the paranormal divisions are still subject to oversight and regulation, so there is likely a limit on what they are allowed to do. I'm not sure if Voltaire was lying when said she's not threat to him. And Jerry even implied that there IS some self-defence exception to the "empower and guide" cause. On the other hand, Voltaire WAS looking concerned, so maybe there IS something Tara could do to him if he wouldn't retreat quickly - possibly not kill him but still harm him or cause pain. He admitted part of the reason she wasn't a threat to him was because he could retreat to a plane of existence out of her reach. So he wasn't completely lying at least. Voltaire being forced to retreat, and the implied existence of the self-defense clause, leads me to believe that a powerful enough mortal could maim, or even kill, an Immortal. Such a death likely wouldn't be permanent (if an Immortal permanently dying is even possible, I doubt it would be that "easy") and would instead be an improper death, not keeping the immortal out the game forever, but certainly handicapping them for a good long while. Though that leads to another question: how powerful is powerful enough? Assuming the Immortal is on the physical plane, it's implied that the government agents could fight and defeat an Immortal (assuming the Immortal is playing fair which they wouldn't), but Agent Wolf has been noted as one of the most powerful Wizards in the Midwestern USA.

Technically, non-avian bones are hollow as well. The difference is what they're filled with. Mammalian bones are primarily full of marrow, a soft tissue responsible for the production of blood cells. Avian bones tend to be filled with air with criss-crossing structures from structural strength that is needed to withstand the stresses of taking of, flying, and landing (think of all the stress that gets put on a person's legs with jumping and landing from that jump). Likely the TFG might be able to give a person pneumatized bones (nasal cavities in the skull are an example of pneumatized bones in human) but it can't give you an avian skeletal system, as it would require a massive overhaul of your skeleton. Pneumatizing bones, fusing bones together, potentially increasing the number of vertebrae. Though pneumatizing a large number of bones might bring up the safety consideration of not having enough blood cell production if the form is maintained for too long.

Actually, what Verres says is that the NUMBER OF WAYS is bigger for external triggers. Being awakened by immortal might still be more common than all other ways combined. Or not, of course - we have no information in either direction (the fact that Pandora went on marking rampage doesn't count). True, though the point of built in reasons to use magic still stands. With hammers. Which can only stun. I don't see any problem Note that Susan's awakening likely count as proper, despite not matching any of Verres described way exactly ... but either her training with hammers counts as "work hard for it" or her being marked counts as "magic being trigger" despite not leading to awakening directly. She still has her old mark spell: summoning weapons from her magic chest, which would be substantially more dangerous when combined with stun hammers, especially as I think we've seen instances of Susan dual-wielding hammers. Also Susan's awakening was proper because it was internally triggered (as this comic mentions that internal triggers do not result in magic build-up) by incredibly powerful emotions. While the event that caused the emotions was external, emotions are inherently internal. Though an emotion-based awakening still likely requires a large amount of magical 'strength,' otherwise the high schools would be even more swamped with magically potent teenagers. I'd say it's more like Magic wants to have a bit of fun, but it doesn't want to be overwhelmed. Like it's fine with causing a few people here and there to awaken and give them funky spells and such, but if everyone knew about magic and how easy it'd be to get it, it'd be like a quiet coffee shop that had been content with serving 10-20 customers a day suddenly being featured on the top ten best kept secrets list and having hundreds of people coming in. If Magic is an entity with a mind controlling the system, it probably has it's limits for how much ground it can cover, actually it makes sense considering the way magic flows around the world with areas that can have more or less magic energy. Actually the "mind" note is superfluous: with the way magic flows around the world, it's likely that with enough magic users, the amount of magic would start being limiting factor, with dramatic (and therefore high-energy) stuff being most likely to be cut off. Magic would probably start to work more deterministic, which is against her goals. Magic is a force capable of flagrantly violating the laws of reality. If Magic wanted there to be enough energy for everyone to use big, dramatic spells, there would be enough energy for everyone to use big,dramatic spells, Conservation of Energy be damned. Uhhh .... if he will be using spell with combat utility ON the wizard, it might be hard for him to concentrate on learning the spell With proper planing (such a bold approach would require a descent amount of intelligence and forethought to avoid getting blasted into a bazillion pieces), the wizard can ensure conditions such that the wizard would be able to concentrate on learning the spell. Simplest would be to attack the person with a summon and watch from the shadows. If summons are out of the question, then there are still possible strategies. If the desired spell is defensive, then the wizard largely has to keep the target on the defensive, attacking consistently and steadily enough that the target doesn't get the chance to go on the offensive. Offensive spells would be trickier, as it would require ample defenses so the wizard isn't overwhelmed but also for conditions to be right so that the target doesn't simply flee. I'm not entirely sure what you mean be that. A minmaxing RPG player is going to have powerful abilities, but unless it's a social (or otherwise non-combat) game, they're also going to be socially incompetent outcasts depending on the rest of the party (or the party face if it's a group of largely minmaxers) to get through any encounter that doesn't involve reducing things to chunky salsa and pink mist, and might even be weak in some aspects of combat if they are deemed unneeded for the build. Whereas the EGS cast is full of a lot of well-rounded characters with cool and interesting powers and a variety of social quirks and proficiencies. Exactly. EGS cast is full of a lot of well-rounded characters with big variety of powers, which would either not happen or be very exceptional in world where anyone having magic is forced to be ready to use it for defence ASAP. Except there are already a significant number of threats that demand combat readiness. First and foremost is the vampires/abberations. While they would be unlikely to directly attack an awakened person if not forced to, they could potentially target the friends and loved ones of those that are awakened. We've also seen that vampires will intentionally hunt down people with an inherent talent for vampire hunting but that are still Sleeping. In France, Susan was targeted and Diane was targeted by the Spiderpire. Also, unless one has access to a means to track vampires, they can seemingly come out of nowhere. There were seven vampires in downtown Moperville, and the main cast were none the wiser until Andrea told them about it. So any mage worrying about looming threats is going to have to worry about vampires attacking their friends and loved ones. Secondly, there is the threat of crazy magic-users like Not-Tengu. Even though they were expecting dangerous out-of-towners to be drawn to the high energy levels, the group was still blindsided by him and his ploy. Imagine how much damage he could have caused if he was less interested in creating a cult to feed his ego and more interested in spreading terror and chaos. Thirldly, and most significantly, is the threat of crazed immortals, like Pandora and Voltaire. Immortals cannot be detected unless they want to be, not even by other immortals. While they have some very solid rules to prevent spoiling the sandbox, those rules have rather massive loopholes. All it would take for a bored and/or angry imortal to cause trouble would be to mark someone with a useful spell, then get a piece of jewelry onto that person, load them up on enough magical power to remove coherent thought, and then guide them into mayhem. Or one could take Voltaire's route of lies and manipulation to get a powerful entity to attack a weaker one. Largely, what stops these threats from being constant is the threat of repercussions. The non-Immortal threats have to worry about both the law and monster hunters.All of the governments of the world (or at least the stable ones) have divisions for dealing with paranormal threats. So monsters and other magic-users of ill-repute have to slink in the shadows and try to avoid the gaze of these organizations, lest the hammer of justice fall upon their head. And even in the shadows, they have to worry about monster hunters, freelancers and good Samaritans that seek to make the world a safer place. Even Immortals have to tread lightly, lest they risk over stepping the bounds of the rules, or angering another Immortal who will put into motion their own machinations to cause trouble for the first Immortal (though some Immortals might see that as a plus...), or angering a powerful non-Immortal that might attack and possibly over-power them (That certainly looks like concern in panel five)

Thank goodness for modern technology. I get to enjoy music without worrying about it horribly maiming me.

I'm not entirely sure why, but I am greatly amused by Justin calling Dan an old man.

Yeah. It totally sucks when that happens, and it's not limited to just literature. Big names in any medium can end up building 'echo chambers' around themselves which ultimately makes their craft suffer and most don't realize the mistake until after they've already crashed, if they ever do. To be fair, a story in which the main character never makes any decisions could be good if handled properly, probably with statements about free-will or a lesson about needing to learn to take control and have agency in one's life. Such a story would be difficult to write well, requiring a damn good author and an editor willing to trim the fat and fix problem areas to keep the story working and functional. But that's if the story is about a character that doesn't express agency in her life. If it's a story about something else...

I'd say it's more like Magic wants to have a bit of fun, but it doesn't want to be overwhelmed. Like it's fine with causing a few people here and there to awaken and give them funky spells and such, but if everyone knew about magic and how easy it'd be to get it, it'd be like a quiet coffee shop that had been content with serving 10-20 customers a day suddenly being featured on the top ten best kept secrets list and having hundreds of people coming in. If Magic is an entity with a mind controlling the system, it probably has it's limits for how much ground it can cover, actually it makes sense considering the way magic flows around the world with areas that can have more or less magic energy. That's a good point. Though I would still posit that magic doesn't care about the general masquerade, even if it doesn't want to be overwhelmed. To use your coffee shop metaphor, the shop is fine with hundreds people watching through the windows, as long as they don't come in and cause a burden on the staff. Though that sounds a little creepy with the metaphor, since most coffee shop as far as I know aren't providing a performance or spectacle with their product, whereas magic kinda is.

There is BIG overlap between general masquerade and not going mainstream. True, the general masquerade is helpful for avoiding going mainstream, but it also can run counter to Magic's objectives. We know of Magic has a flair for the dramatic and by my account seems to want to be used. It largely gives spells that fits the recipients personalities and/or desires, spells that would in theory be desirable by the recipients and therefor be used more often. Also external triggers of awakenings that aren't immortals, which are more common than the internal triggers that do not, extrapolating from what Mr Verres says here, lead to energy build-ups that force the mage to use their magic or have it use itself at potentially inopportune moments. Internal triggers are likely exempt from energy build-ups because they either require intentional effort or come with their own impetus for magic use (if Jerry hadn't intervened, Susan's angst-induced awakening would probably have lead to an angst-induced rampage). A desire to be used, combined with a desire to be flashy and dramatic makes a general masquerade very difficult to maintain. It wouldn't be impossible to maintain, as long as you have people willing to work together to maintain it (or be cowed by potential punishments for attempting to break it).But Magic itself doesn't seem to care if the public knows it exists. It seems to want to be special and to be adored and appreciated. Possibly to be entertained. Sure government wants THEM to have combat spells. Others, on the other hand? I'm sure government DON'T want most magic users having combat spells. Of course the government doesn't want combat spells in the hands of civilians. The government and it's agents are (mostly) concerned with public safety. Unfortunately, the governments of the world get no say so in how the magic system is designed. Magic itself decides that.They simply get to react and work within and around the system. As implied by Mr Verres here, black market wands are fairly easy to make. The black market is currently kept manageable through a combination of small size (likely due to secret keeping and other active suppression) and the fact that the black market runs more on fiction than actual magic (so if you ordered a black market explosive, homing fireball wand, you might get the real deal, or you might get a useless stick covered in glitter and new age crystals), but Mr. Verres is concerned that breaking the masquerade would increase the size and danger of the black market by flushing the fiction out and driving up demand. Also I just realized I didn't fully address your initial point about the variety of spells, if wizards gain additional spells through reading spellbooks. To be honest, even if wizards get additional spells from just seeing the spell cast, combat would still be a simple means of getting desirable spells. If the desired spell has any combat utility, direct or not, the wizard could simply attack the person and force them into a situation where they have to use the desired spell as often as possible. If the wizard needs to see the spell more often than would be feasible in the fight, then they could simply retreat, lay low, and attack again later. Rise and repeat until the desired spell is obtained or the spell's owner becomes unable and/or unwilling to use it in a fight, in which case the spell's owner is killed or captured for more direct torture. I'm not entirely sure what you mean be that. A minmaxing RPG player is going to have powerful abilities, but unless it's a social (or otherwise non-combat) game, they're also going to be socially incompetent outcasts depending on the rest of the party (or the party face if it's a group of largely minmaxers) to get through any encounter that doesn't involve reducing things to chunky salsa and pink mist, and might even be weak in some aspects of combat if they are deemed unneeded for the build. Whereas the EGS cast is full of a lot of well-rounded characters with cool and interesting powers and a variety of social quirks and proficiencies. This is actually tricky: on one hand, we see how normal can a life of magic users be, not speaking about mundane people. On other hand, existence of magic inevitably have big influence on how the world looks and works. The masquerade can only explain SOME things. Wars tend to be hard to camouflage. Of course, you can always say that Dan goofed up and will need some deux ex machina to fix it when the issue became apparent. Wars can be difficult to camouflage, but some details about magic have leaked out into the general populace, even before the general masquerade was broken. There are numerous myths and legends, along with more modern conspiracy theories, urban legends, and truth disguised as fiction (that last one we have no confirmation for, but I wouldn't be surprised happening as long as the author writing the fiction is careful with which details are divulged. Could provide a nice plausible deniability) The masquerade has largely been maintained by the governments of the world and the majority of the immortals working to keep things under-wraps and from getting out of hand. Mr. Verres has an incredible knack for cover-up with the most flimsy of methods, like signs and shirts stating the disguise or the old tried and true of weather balloons and swamp gas, and canonically these methods work and work well, or at least well enough for the general populace. Skeptics will always be skeptical and all. The general masquerade is only breaking down now because one immortal started gaming the magic system and modern information technology to make the masquerade untenable.

The difference is that "depriving people of a reference of their spells" will not be that big incentive. Option to learn their spells WILL be. And while those combats will be dramatic, they would also make harder to keep magic from public knowledge. And they would "militarize" magic - currently, lot of people have very different, INTERESTING spells, while real and serious risk of combat would mean most would want fireballs. We don't know the reason for it, it wasn't even directly mentioned, but from how the world look it's likely magic doesn't WANT to be mostly used in combat. (At least on this half of world. The other half of world have lot of signs of magic being used in combat a lot there.) Keeping magic out of the public eye is a concern of the governments and various other groups with a concern for public safety. I'm not sure Magic itself cares about the general masquerade, as long as it's use doesn't go 'mainstream'. Also, the government has the means of giving standard issue spells through wands already. If they wanted to 'militarize' magic, they already have the means, regardless of how wizards get extra spells (also it seems the standard issue combat spell for the FBI is a lightning bolt-esque spell, which I guess has less risk of collateral damage?). And I wouldn't say that magic doesn't want to be used for combat. Quite a few characters have magic with direct combat applications: Susan (weapon summoning), Nanase (Guardian form, decoy, color clone, strength augmentation from ASMA), Elliot (Cheerleadra form and also strength augmentation from ASMA), Justin (Aura-based strength boosting beyond the basic augmentation afforded by ASMA), Not-Tengu(Monster form), Adrian and Abraham(admittedly they are both wizards, but still seem to have a decent repertoire of combat spells), and Noriko (possibly also a wizard, but a crazy powerful monster hunter regardless). And then there are the spells with incidental combat application: Ellen's various beams (She technically also has the ASMA strength augmentation option), Rhoda's size control magic, Dex's summoning (requires a power boost to be actually threatening, though might still be useful for distractions if need be), Nanase's fairy form, Luke's aura sight (useful for analyzing enemies' magic potential), and Tedd's analysis ability (like Luke's aura sight, but useful for understanding enemy spells and potentially finding a weak point). To me, Magic seems pretty fine with combat heavy applications. Just the comic puts greater emphasis on the characters' personal lives then the high action scenes. I agree, but unfortunately, the people in-charge of handing out spellbooks seems to largely be government officials and immortals. The government officials are either going to be too stuffy to use game as the cover, or are going to use the Mr. Verres brand of obfuscation, which side-steps one disadvantage of putting an rpg title on the spellbook cover (someone getting interested in the book and trying to find a copy of it online). And I imagine the immortals, being entities that have been kinda, sorta alive for centuries, would tend to hold to tried and true methods, though some 'younger' immortals might experiment with new ideas like that. Also if a person goes to Ye Old Magic Shoppe to get a spellbook, it's likely they could get the book customized to their liking, though that would likely cost more than off-the-shelf books (Mr. Verres mentioned ordering custom spellbooks, which implies there are standard ones) Yes, very interesting question. Note that it might also completely disappear. Good point. I had overlooked the fact that the books are generated whole cloth by magic.

Shiiiiiny....wait...was I supposed to be doing something?

Yeah. Take the Council of Nicaea for instance. A massive congregation of bishops to hammer out theological issues. Got rather heated at times, and even devolved into a brawl at one point.

That's exactly the reason why I think it will NOT be possible. Magic might be trolling, but not maliciously, and this sounds like something which wouldn't make sense as a mechanism ... I don't see it as Magic being malicious. Maybe punishing, in the "You should have protected your spellbook better" sense, but not malicious. And to be fair, even if wizards don't learn spells from other people's spellbooks, it is still entirely possible to steal a person's spellbook to deprive them of a reference of their spells, forcing them to figure stuff out through trail and error (or to go through the trouble of getting a new spellbook), meaning keeping the spellbook safe is very important regardless of whether or not wizards have particular interest in them. If wizards do have particular interest in the spellbooks of others, then it would give the wizards incentive to either seek out someone willing to share a book peacefully, or engage someone in epic, dramatic combat for the possession of the book, assuming other magic users are properly protecting their books. Honestly, I think the fact that spellbooks have really mundane titles supports the hypothesis that anyone could read a spellbook, assuming they could parse the diction that even the books' proper owners struggle with. We've seen the titles of two spellbooks on panel so far, Susan's, The Ecology of Anteaters(Not a Spellbook), and Elliot's, A Perfectly Normal Book. The second one was ordered up by Mister Verres and clearly shows his style of obfuscation, which inexplicably works in other cover up situations for some reason. The first was generated by Jerry, and uses a fairly dry and academic title, while dipping a little into the Verres-brand of disguise at the end (If it works why not use it?). Sure, someone who is really interested in anteaters might open the book and try to read it, but most people don't read academic books, sometimes even when they need to. Assuming Sarah actually saw the title of Nanase's book, it's like to also be something dry and academic, possibly pertaining to squirrels or woodland critters in general. If non-awakened couldn't read a spellbook, then why have it appear as something dry and mundane (or 'perfectly normal' in the case of Elliot's spellbook)? Why not have the book appear as something the owner would want to read regularly, or at least have on their person semi-regularly, like a journal, or a good fiction book or just simply have it as an untitled book? If non-awakened can't read the spellbook, then there would be little to no danger to the masquerade of them trying to read it. There would still be the danger of enemies trying to steal the book, which having the book either be untitled or something potentially of sentimental value (other than being a spellbook) would help hide it from those that would like to steal it. Also a read thought that popped into my head at one point: What happens to a spellbook when it's owner dies? Does the book retain the information within it, or does it become blank once the owner perishes? The idea is kinda pertinent to the 'wizards get spells from spellbooks' idea, but still is an interesting thought nugget otherwise.

Except that Tedd admits it might not be that easy just a couple panels latter, showing that he's not certain if that's the method that wizards learn spells from others, though it implies that he figures it's something fairly easy. Reading a spellbook would be fairly simple, and the EGS spellbooks aren't just simple books that explain spell. They are intrinsically linked to their owner. Whenever the owner earns a new spell, the book automagically gains new pages detailing the new spell in exact detail. It also changes when the spells update. Also on the incantations/calling the spells, it might also provide a some extra oomph, as calling your attacks is a rather dramatic thing to do and Magic loves being dramatic. If that's true, a long incantation would likely only be helpful with the proper setting, like lighting, candles, fancy diagrams, and the like. Also calling the name of your spell might be a useful mnemonic device for wizards who have dozens of spells, since spell casting in EGS is largely subconscious and intent based, losing focus might result in casting a similar but different spell from the one desired (especially as Magic seems to like to troll people sometimes)

I like that video. That's where I learned about ClF3 from. I wonder if neutrinos set of AA. Would explain why it explodes in an air-tight, shock-proof case. While such moderators are bad, they do sadly exist.

Agreed. Also kinda amusing with the fact that Susan went through a similar arc of character development.

...okay. That might be more flammable than ClF3, but harder to keep on hand as FOOF decomposes very rapidly. Also according to Wikipedia, FOOF has fewer uses outside of idle amusement, whereas ClF3is regularly used by the semiconductor industry to clean their chemical vapor disposition chambers and was once considered for use as rocket fuel (and was decided against due to difficulties handling it. I've heard the accident that resulted in ClF3 burning through concrete and the gravel beneath was when NASA was transporting some of it for testing)

Chlorine Trifluoride is arguably the most flammable chemical known to humanity. It can burn almost anything, even things that are normally considered inflammable, like sand and asbestos. To quote Wikipedia, "In an industrial accident, a spill of 900 kg of chlorine trifluoride burned through 30 cm of concrete and 90 cm of gravel beneath" And if spilled on something, there is no way to extinguish it other than letting it burn itself out. It reacts violently with water, so it will explode if you try to put it out with anything water-based. It is its own oxidizer, so atmospheric displacing extinguishers like CO2 and halon do nothing to it. Though it can be safely stored in an air-tight steel drum as long as you're very careful with it.

drives in on a forklift carrying a steel drum labeled ClF3 One order of unquenchable fire?

There wouldn't be hybrids, as wizards can gain spells through the normal personality-tailored method. Being a wizard just adds a new method of gaining spells. There's nothing to suggest that being a wizard would cause a person to lose the normal method of earning spells other than a notion of balance or fairness and the EGS-verse isn't an rpg. The different types of magic aren't balanced against each other. If the magic of the EGS-verse was intended to be balanced in some manner, then there would be serious questions about Grace, who is possibly the most powerful person in Moperville that isn't an immortal and she got that power for just being who she is.

Ellen's beams mimic the delivery method of her 'curse'. In this case, the TF Gun and it's V5 setting. So her beam would probably only last a month or so. The reason Vladia is still transformed, is because she is a greater chimera. Greater chimeras are of uryoum descent (which is what separates greater and lesser chimera) so she wasn't enchanted by Ellen's uryuom-mimicking V5 beam and instead gained a new form to transform into(Not that she's likely to use her transformation ability due to almost dying the first time he tried to).