Drasvin

Weak organisation. Typical of CEOs who try to do everything themselves. Also look at all the health hazards around Mount Doom. That place needed an OSHA overhaul if any place ever did. It worked well for Lofwyr of Sauder-Krupp. Sauder-Krupp's the largest megacorporation and Lofwyr micromanages everything. Just don't displease the great dragon, or you might end up on his lunch list (Also, implying that he eats those that displease him might displease Lofwyr)

My guess is Ellen just did a wake-up super (for those unfamiliar with the term, it's from the fighting game community, when a player uses a super move right after getting up from being knocked down), though the growling roar noise makes me uncertain. The tail on the golem is certainly interesting. Could be a point towards Uryuom inspiration. Could also be due to some kind of animalistic influence. Needs more data.

With Dan's commentary, it would seem that Kevin is a more recent creation, rather than an inert artifact from a previous system. He not only knows modern English, but also gets Elizabethan English significantly wrong AND thinks the 'Ye Olde English' sounds sophisticated and 'mystical.' As for why Kevin, a wizard training device, would be considered useless (considering that even simple and benign wands can be used to awaken magic), he seems rather obnoxious and temperamental. The DGB probably just figured no one would be able to put up with Kevin long enough to get any use out of him.

Where are you getting those numbers? I though it's supposed to be ~ 1000 ... But, yes. It's EVIDENT that majority of people with magic talent is not awakened. The previous magic reset apparently worked REALLY WELL. ...I blame my memory. It rebels against me sometimes.

That kinda proves the fact that Human's take inspiration from previous examples, you got H.G Wells coming up with a description, where he got that from though, was it truly conjecture about how Humans could evolve, or did he himself take inspiration from other examples in order to write his stories. My point is that other media took that description and used it as inspiration for other works, Dan most likely used that description to create Uryuoms, it stands to reason that if Humans in EGS could base religions on Fairies acting like Gods, they could also base other works and such on interactions with Aliens, especially since EGS has both sci-fi (aliens, alternate realities) and fantasy (magic, fairies) elements then Human history in EGS should likely have a mix of both. While humans in EGS could base religions on extraterrestrial visitors, that doesn't mean they necessarily did. Just because there are both sci-fi and fantasy elements in the present of the setting, doesn't mean there needs to be a mix of both in the distant past of the setting as well. Especially with sci-fi, as a major theme of science is progress and advancement. Things are discovered and invented. Old ideas being proven false and refined or discarded. New ideas being formulated and tested. Forcing sci-fi elements into the distant past makes the setting feel less dynamic. In the case of EGS, having the Uryuom visit Earth in ancient times makes them feel less like a species on the cutting-edge of advancement, and more like an ancient precursor, appearing not as a dynamic people but as something from myth and legend. Not an equal people, but something that by its nature demands to be either revered or feared. Even in Stargate, this aspect presented itself. Of the species that had visited Earth in the distant past, the asgardians were a dying race with a severe lack of creativity (they needed humans to come up with novel-ish solutions to fighting the replicators) and the gou'ald society had stagnated significantly until the humans of Earth shook things up by killing Ra, and both species had the tendency to treat the humans of Earth as a lesser species, either to protect or to subjugate, but not equals (The asgardians started treating the humans better when the humans started saving the asgardians, but I'm not sure they ever fully treated them as equals).

Just because she doesn't know her heritage doesn't mean her parents are hiding something from her. There are lot's of families in the USA that aren't that concerned about family heritage, especially when that heritage is heavily mixed, as implied by Ashley in this comic. Even Elliot isn't certain where his family is from. Also, even if both of Ashley's parents are wizards (which they don't need to be, both being wizards just guarantees that the child will be a wizard, but even a single parent being a wizard has a chance to pass on their wizard-ness), that doesn't mean they have magic either, as being a wizard and being Awakened are completely independent variables. Being a wizard is genetic (or at least something close to genetic) while being Awakened is a state of magical growth and capability. Given that a vast majority of the ~3000 seers(which does require both parents to be wizards) have never used magic, it's likely they've never even encountered magic and therefor their parents likely aren't Awakened either. So there's precedent for families of unAwakened wizards that might not even know magic exists.

I forgot about that fact, though I wonder how that would affect enchantments on a person before the Guardian spell is cast, i.e. Ashley casting Cheerleadra then Guardian in this hypothetical scenario. That depends on how they stack with each other (If they stack at all, of course). Ideally, the strength boost would stack, but even if that boost doesn't, Cheerleadra still has utility effects, like accelerated healing and becoming one with their cell phone, that could be useful to the Guardian form (the cell phone then isn't likely to be useful in most combats, but the instincts from the Guardian form would help in maximizing that benefit in the cases where it is) This would be the biggest roadblock to the combo, in my opinion. I'm not sure she currently has enough power to even be able to cast Guardian form in the first place, much less maintain both it and Cheerleadra at the same time for any meaningful length of time. Though my speculation is for future situations, likely after Ashley has gotten significant amounts of training. The white also doesn't match up with the lighting highlights on the rest of the golem's body in the first panel. A large centered highlight would suggest the light source is directly in front, but the highlights on the golem's body suggest the light source is above it and to the (panel) right. Antennae would likely be too delicate to properly sculpt, though a tail should be fairly easy. The thick lines across all the golem's joints suggests it's not a single piece of stone, but instead is made up of separate pieces that are likely held together with magic, which would be the more realistic way to design an automaton made out of stone as stone isn't very flexible.(The broken arm seems to be broken just above where the elbow would be) A tail would simply be multiple small sections that connect on the back near the joint between the pelvic section and the abdominal section. Again, if the uryuom had interstellar capability long before Humans started forming settlements and such. There's no evidence that they had the capability that long ago.(And even if they did, space is big. The number of stars in the Milky Way is between 100 and 400 billion) Going by the Wikipedia article, the first instance of the Greys' design was in 1893 in H.G. Wells "Man of the Year Million" and is a hypothetical of what humans could eventually become. The design as an extraterrestrial became popular with the Roswell incident. Stargate is a fun and interesting series, but I don't think it's a good model for depicting past cultures, especially for a series that already has powerful magical entites that could be seen as gods, like the fairies/Immortals and beings like Heka (which is the name of the Ancient Egyptian god of magic). That is the smartest course of action if one is simply looking for sapient life, as early stage pioneers/explorers would like be. Though some scientists would likely want to study the development of early civilizations or even pre-civilization sapients. In those cases, obvious communication signals would be insufficient, and more involved search methods would need to be employed. Though such searches are unlikely to occur until interstellar travel is firmly established. I think Dan's being vague about where they're from for the same reason he's been vague about when the last magic change was or how old Pandora was. Though there isn't much reason to do so for Uryuoms, unless Dan is worried that he'd have to be accurate about the planet, like if he randomly picked a star and said they came from a planet around that, he might get emails saying that there's no known planet, of the known planets around it couldn't possibly support life, or something like that. Being vague about which planet the Uryuoms are from also has the benefit of side-stepping potential issues of scale. The stellar disk of the Milky Way galaxy is 100,000 lightyears(5.8786x10^17 miles/9.4607x10^17 km) in diameter and on average 1000 lightyears(5.8786x10^15 miles/9.4607x10^15 km) thick

I'm not entirely certain that Kevin is from a previous system of magic. His design seems too modern and the facility did have artifacts that weren't inert in it. On the other hand, a wizard teacher doesn't seem like something that would be deemed useless unless Kevin is extraordinarily bad at teaching wizards. Sometimes confidence can be its own brand of crazy. Since the golem hasn't gone on a rampage tearing the place apart to find its library, it probably won't be a threat unless someone provokes it. (Hopefully uselessly hitting it in the face with a talking wand isn't enough to provoke it) He was either inert at the time he came into government possession, or the officials deemed him too useless to need securing in a better facility. Given the fact it's speaking in a long dead language and didn't bust out of its crate until now, it's probably been inert since a previous system change, meaning the damage isn't from gunshots, but magical attacks.

I was basing my assumption on the recent Q&A showing a beefy Uryuom, there is a resemblance to that and as I said, if humans created it, they could still have took inspiration from Uryuoms if they at the time believed Uryuoms to be a godlike or at least a superior race. And of course they could easily take liberties in certain aspects of the design. The only resemblances I see are basic size and shape (which aren't really distinctive of uryuoms. They're normally rather small) and the eyes. Though the white part on the eyes of Uryuom are simply the highlights from where the light reflects off of their eyes, which doesn't move when they look somewhere else. The white part of the golem's eye appears to change and shift without it moving where the golem is in relation to the lighting, implying something other than a highlight. Also another major difference I forgot to note, the Golem doesn't have a tail. Uryuoms have tails longer than their torsos. It's possible the tail could have been broken off, but I doubt it as all the damage appears to be on one side of the golem. She's not seer, she doesn't UNDERSTAND the spells. Now, Tedd could be able to combine those spells. Of course, AFTER Nanase shows him the guardian form, which means someone needs to be in danger, she can't show it at will like other spells. I meant combo as in "cast one spell then cast the other." Earth magic enchantments can stack (as seen with the Escape from the Mall storyline), so I don't see any reason why she wouldn't be able to do that. That's dependent on when uryuoms discovered interstellar travel (and when their explorers traveled to the Sol system for that matter. Space is big). They more than likely haven't had interstellar travel since the species first came into being, so they would have to have invented it at some point in their history. If their progression is similar to that of the Second Life uryuoms, then they could have arrived by the late 18th century, but other than speculation, there's no evidence that they could have arrived in an earlier time period. It's possible that the uryuom that fought in the SL American Revolution were an exploration team. Interstellar travel might even had been fairly new at that time. Even if interstellar travel wasn't new, space is big. The uryuom finding the Sol system before humans invent technology to broadcast signals beyond our atmosphere would require them to stumble across it. If they're specifically looking for other sapient life, they would still need to check every star system with a planet in the Habitable Zone and there's increasing evidence that planets around stars are really common. Also the strange art work and tales that lead people to speculate about ancient extraterrestrial encounters could easily be attributed to fairies and other strange magical beings in the EGS universe.

Some interesting developments, certainly. The golem appears to have taken considerable damage from various small blasts, instead of the conventional weapons that would have been around at the time of the previous magic change, meaning it was under attack by magic users. One question though: was the golem the guardian of a library, or was it ordered to attack a library? My guess would be that it's a guardian, but it's vague enough that it could be either. On top of that, Ashley is a wizard. That certainly opens up some interesting possibilities, like her learning the Cheerleadra form (And crazy idea just popped into my head. Have Ashley learn both the Cheerleadra spell and Nanase's Guardian form spell, then combo them together). Well, when someone stands in a powder magazine and throws a lit match, bad things are going to happen. Though the characters in question didn't know they were in a powder magazine... The golem looks human shaped to me. The head has roughly the same shape as a human skull with no mouth or nasal hole and the cheek bones and contours are smoothed. The eyes look like empty eye sockets with some kind of magical light inside them (or at least the one eye that is working). Also the golem has human-esque hands. Most uryuom I could find are depicted with 3 fingers plus a thumb and the golem has four fingers plus a thumb, like humans do. (There are a couple instances of Lavender being depicted with four fingers plus a thumb, but I personally attribute that to her having one or more forms that are highly styled around humans. Also she is a secretary. An additional finger is probably helpful in typing) Any spells she learns personally should be the current system, though she probably could pick up some older system spells from all the old artifacts activating around her. Then again, magic has shown that it can easily be confused about people, so if Ashley first several spells are learned from older system artifacts, then it's possible her personal magic system setting will get switched to that of an older system. I already told everyone that Sheldon the wand was obviously working in the Catskills (AKA the Jewish Alps, AKA the Borscht Belt). Haven't you ever seen Dirty Dancing? That's the place and the era where the movie is set. Sheldon the Wand might have actually been around in the Elizabethan Era, but he switched to at least 20th-century language without any magical special effects, so it's probably shtick with all the thous and thines and prithees. I'll take Sheldon's word about Ashley being a real wizard, if a weak one. That's technically possible, as the facility doesn't just hold (previously) inert artifacts, it also holds artifacts that were deemed to be of too little use to be a danger or even worth much more than just boxing up and forgetting about them. If that's the case though, then the prospects of the wand being able to help Ashley out of her current mess do not look good. There are almost certainly wizards that don't know they're wizards. There are over 3000 seers. Only 5 of them have ever used magic, meaning most probably haven't even seen magic. And seers require the right mixture of heritage that requires them to be born from two wizard parents. This sent a small shiver down my spine. I've had Shadowrun on my mind a lot, and that reminded me about the Great Ghost Dance. I hope the Great Ghost Dance doesn't happen in EGS. (For those unfamiliar with Shadowrun, the Great Ghost Dance was a massive magical ritual during the civil war between the many/all of the native American tribes/nations and the USA that caused wide spread damage, disrupted weather patterns for decades, and lead to the US being shattered into multiple smaller nations) That might also explain why the golem isn't more extensively damaged. It's only missing an eye and an arm, it has a crater in its chestplate and blast marks all down it's left side (Actually, it's kinda strange that all the damage is on one side of the golem)

Well, that felt rather sudden. It makes since that Susan would want to test that it worked, especially given there was no physical transformation, but it still felt like a rather sudden jump to taking off her shirt. ... Not that I'm complaining, to be honest.

There could be any number of variables that would determine how quickly someone could build enough magic energy to be able to cast spells, Nanase comes from a long line of monster hunters who were very powerful so she of course would have been the quickest, Elliot's family history is unknown but it possible his nature as a protector from bullies helped, Justin was of course slower to learn but then he hadn't been training as seriously as Nanase and Elliot. As for why no one else showed any signs, it's likely they were like that Eric guy and didn't stick with it long enough. It's possible all of the other students weren't patient enough to stick through it, but I don't think that's the case. There were four examples of people that the training worked for in the dojo and anyone that understands anime (or real martial arts for that matter) would know that training takes time(In some anime, the main character can fast track the training, but not everyone gets to be the main character). Eric probably wasn't the only impatient student, but it would be a stretch if all his students were unwilling to stick it out. It could be due to numerous variables that affect how quickly someone builds up enough energy to be able to use magic (with ASMA you don't need to go all the way to awakening and spells to get results, as seen with Justin and Elliot, who both had magical abilities through ASMA before they were awakened. And maybe even Greg who might be awakened but could just be dreaming with an abnormally large number of magical abilities due to his fighting style), but if that's the case, it's still a series of unknowns that could make it difficult for Greg to retain students if he decides to try reopening his dojo.

The last panel of when Greg mentions his reasons he said "Anyone can get magic without us being able to predict what spells they get" that sounds a lot like what Edward would have said. Yes. Edward has mentioned many times that anyone can get magic. There's nothing special about those who get magic, other than being lucky enough to trip over one of the many avenues of power. Edward described getting magic as building up muscles until you awaken (or get lucky with a shortcut). The accessibility of magic being so easy is one of, if not the biggest, concern for the DGB. So with everything that Edward has said about magic, why didn't Greg's training work for the majority of his students?

Edward told Elliot and Ellen what the training did for them in terms of their awakenings, what would be preventing Edward from telling Greg, Greg has magic so Edward would need to make sure Greg was in the know about how he got it so that he understood the need for secrecy. It's possible that Greg even went to Edward to ask how his training only worked for 3 people with Edward saying "you should feel lucky it's only worked for those particular three, it would have made my job a lot worse." That explains why it gave magic to Nanase and Elliot, but it doesn't explain why it didn't give magic to anyone else, which is the problem I'm getting at. From everything we've heard from Edward on the subject, the training should have worked for all of Greg's students, not just three. If Greg decided to reopen the ASMA dojo due to magic becoming more public, he's still going to have that problem

The reason that Greg closed the ASMA dojo was because he talked to Edward about how Elliot, Nanase, Justin and himself got their abilities. So while Greg originally didn't know how he got his abilities, Edward telling him how, plus stressing how easy it'd be for others to get it, Greg considered himself lucky that his training only produced results in those three and he didn't want to continue if there was a possibility of someone using their training to get some bad spells and do bad things with them. While that is a principal reason (if not the principal reason) for him to close his dojo, I'm not sure Edward would be able to tell him why his training worked for some people and not for others. From what Edward has mentioned on panel before, all you need to get magic is to work hard or get lucky(or unlucky, depending on ones view of Immortals and their machinations). Special qualities can help with certain avenues of power, but aren't needed to get magic. Greg lost all his other students because what he was doing didn't work for them. If he can't figure out why his training works for some and not others, he would have trouble keeping enough students to be able to afford to keep the dojo open.

One of Greg's biggest problems with getting students is he doesn't know why it worked for him, Elliot, Nanase, and Justin. It didn't work for any of his other students. Unless he can figure out why, he's going to struggle to keep students. I'm not so surprised. In canon, Susan didn't actually fight with a sword until she killed the first vampire at the mall. I think the only other times Susan summoned a sword in canon were: In Sister when Susan summoned a sword during the second fight with the Goo, but didn't use it.) In Hammerchlorians, during the flashback to what happened in France and again to demonstrate to Sarah and Grace that she doesn't have the same sword. Earlier in Sister III when Susan found out there had been seven different vampires in Moperville. I think it might be worth noting that while Susan has "a couple" of swords, she didn't mention having an axe. Axes are a lot easier to come by than real swords. Why? Maybe because killing her first vampire with an axe has something to do with it. I'm pretty sure she's using her sword against Goo here, but you don't actually need to learn anything to fight against goo. She probably DID summoned the sword on other occasions but not for real fight, yes ... still, the reason why she has the swords in first place is because she's afraid more vampires will find her. For the same reason, it would make sense for her to learn how to use the swords. But there IS explanation, actually: maybe she DID tried to learn swordfighting by watching movies or something, and was confident it would be enough until she found it isn't. She DID mentioned she has some tools, and axes as WEAPONS are harder to find than swords ; what is easier to find are wood-cutting axes, which aren't good in fight, and fire-fighters axes, which might be usable but still counts more like tools ... ... yes, she might avoid axes due to her first vampire ... or because axes are HEAVY. It's also possible she DOES have axe in the trunk but doesn't want to talk about it. Also, EVERYONE knows that sword-fighting is a thing. The fact that fighting with battle axes allowed for more finesse than woodcutting is less known. Using a sword is easy (stick the sharp end into the thing that you want to stop living). It's using a sword well and with competence that requires extensive training. My guess is that Susan expected her knowledge of how a sword basically works, the fact that aberrations are weak to magical weapons, and her experience with the stun hammers(In the scenes were she uses the sword in the mall, it seems like she's swinging it like she would swing a hammer) would be enough. Wouldn't be the first time Susan had an expectation that turned out to be untrue. The problem with her relying on her hammer experience is that while hammers and swords have similar strike motions (swinging the striking end towards your target), they function very differently as weapons. Hammers tend to favor wide, powerful swings that maximize the effect of their weight, while swords tend to favor much swifter and more complex motions to slip through defenses and slice through the target. Yes, I can see this. If he hasn't been exposed to the right kind of anime, find some with flying combat or throw in some superhero genre stuff. With enough exposure he will work out an extension system of flight-based martial arts. And probably also develop some sort of flying ability as well. That "insight" was probably his awakening. And I don't think he didn't saw any anime with flying combat. It might have been his awakening. The only official word we have on whether or not Greg is awakened is basically a non-committal shrug. I would be surprised if Greg never saw Dragonball Z, given it's extremely popular in the US and I think is the anime responsible for kicking of the anime boom here in the US.

At first I was a little confused as to why Arthur ordered an emergency evacuation instead of a lockdown of the facility. Then I realized that the guard might not be trained for the kind of containment procedures that would be needed to properly secure the artifacts that are sitting around in unshielded, wooden crates. I imagine a proper containment team would require the skill, precision, and patience of a bomb squad. Especially with how many artifacts are in the building (each crate is at least one artifact and might be more if they packed multiple artifacts into each crate). Hopefully they have some documentation on what those artifacts are supposed to do(and have off-site copies of that documentation), as such would make the containment team's job easier/safer. If that is the case, it's a little heartwarming that Arthur ordered the personnel to get to safety instead of locking the place down and waiting for the containment team to show up. Someone might sneak into the facility while it's unguarded, but he's done what he can to minimize risk to people. I'm not so sure it wouldn't prove anything. Magus and Elliot are alternate reality versions of each other, so theoretically they should have the same, or close to the same, potential. I understand there are a lot more variables in play, so it wouldn't completely prove Elliot's point, but it would lend evidence towards it. Given how many previously inert artifacts are in the building, almost anything could happen. From summoning monstrosities from beyond space and time, to a massive slow-motion explosion, to teleporting the facility to the far side of the moon to almost anything else the imagination could come up with.

Magus has been putting a lot of effort into justifying his decision to turn male, even refusing to consider that his society's reasoning might be flawed. He mentioned having the debate about gender many times before, to the point he refused to have it when talking to Elliot and Ashley. That leads me to suspect there might be more to his choice than wanting to be a better battlemage. It's possible that most combat spells in Magus's universe scale off of physical strength, similar to how Nanase's fairy punch spell is as strong as her punches.

Remember all those crystal fragments flying everywhere? Remember how much trouble recovering fragments of another shattered crystal was in Inu Yasha? That's because the shards in Inu Yasha retained a degree of the magic of the crystal they came from and scattered themselves across Japan. That's not necessarily the case with the Dewitchery Diamond. It's possible that shattering the crystal dissipated the magic within it, rendering the shards as inert as any mundane crystal. Then one would just need a broom to sweep up the pieces. Also the pieces of the Diamond certainly didn't scatter to the four-winds, as the debris can still be seen in the corner of panel 1 on this page, right in front of the open crate(a good number of the fragments are probably still in the crate, as Magus didn't take it out when he touched it).

And now events are beginning to accelerate very quickly. With emotions running high as they are right now, I really doubt that a fight can be avoided at this point, unless the government goons show up in a much more timely manner than Magus figured they would. Even if Magus was going to wake up Ellen and ask for her consent before trying to turn her male, I'm not sure he would have accepted her refusal. His emotions are running high, he doesn't have time for an in-depth discussion, and he's already come up with a reason to dismiss Ellen's protests, as seen on the last page. Magus would want to wake up Ellen and ask her consent in order to soothe his own conscience (he does consider himself to be a good person, just one that was dealt a particularly bad hand), but signs point to him not respecting Ellen's decision, especially as it would likely run counter to his preconceived notions. I'm wondering if those plot hammers are going to be put into action, or if those boxes are just full of herring.

...that brought to mind the mental image of the main cast doing a super sentai-style team attack. I did not know that I wanted this to be a thing that happens but I want that to be a thing that happens.

It would be rather nicely ironic to have Mr. "I Became A Man To Be Stronger" beaten by the super-powered female form of someone who spends most of his time in male form... Not just the super-powered female form of someone who spends most of his time in male form, but the super-powered female form of him from another universe. It would be as definitive evidence that his belief is flawed as one can get without involving time travel and divergent timeline shenanigans.

I am afraid it will not be that easy. Magus has a good deal of confidence in his magical power and it may well be justified. If there is a fight, it won't be an easy one. Most likely, but I strongly suspect that Magus's prejudices are coloring his perceptions and he might not be as strong relative to the main cast as he thinks he is. He's not going to be a push-over, he is a trained battle mage after all, but his own confidence, combined with those prejudices, could be his undoing.

Ah, so this is how the fight between Magus and Elliot starts. Unless Ashley is able to convince Magus otherwise, but I doubt that is going to happen. I really hope Elliot goes Cheerleadra and wipes the floor with Magus.

Actually, what comes out the nozzle is a generally-undesirable but (according to current knowledge and theory) unavoidable side effect. The thrust occurs because there is no part of the rocket blocking the nozzle, so the pressure being applied in that direction does not affect the rocket as a whole, while the pressure in the opposite direction is pressing against the wall of the reaction chamber and trying to push the rocket away from the center of the reaction. The stuff coming out of the nozzle is very important, due to the fact that rockets primarily operate on Newton's 3rd Law (For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction). If they didn't expel reaction mass, then they wouldn't work in space. As an action-reaction system, the amount thrust generated by the rocket is dependent on the mass and the exhaust velocity of the reaction mass. In orbit, this can even be achieved with non-combusted gasses and materials, as is often done with maneuvering thrusters, though such systems don't generate as much thrust per unit of mass expelled, as it's much more difficult to accelerate the reaction mass to the same velocities as a combustion-based engine, which is why they're not used as main engines, at least in atmosphere. The nozzle itself is responsible for expanding and accelerating the combustion gases. The gases are initially moving at subsonic speed as they enter the nozzle system, which then constricts down to the throat. As it constricts, the hot gases are forced to accelerate until the velocity becomes sonic(Mach 1.0). The nozzle then expands, causing the gases to accelerate further to supersonic velocities. By the time the gases exit the nozzle, they should ideally be the same pressure as the ambient atmosphere in order to maximize thrust and ensure a consistent flow of reaction mass.