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The Old Hack

Story Friday August 18, 2017

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10 hours ago, Haylo said:

I'm guessing that originally it was personal feelings that were preserved, then someone found a way to instead use that capability to pass on more knowledge and a bigger "starter seed" of power, and the temptation to save more and more power crept up on them untill personal feelings got crowded out.

I think that originally NOTHING was preserved and preserving knowledge was easier than preserving feelings. Of course I have nothing to support it ...

9 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

I'm wondering if Dan really had the plot thought out as far as we've gotten when he made this title page a little more than a year ago.

I think he has rough draft for plot all the way to solving Lord Tedd and possibly more, but that doesn't mean there can't be changes done.

49 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

(and just exactly who did Pandora empower and guide to put up that dam, anyway?)

Noone ; as she explained to Dream Wizard - while Sarah got it on her own - putting up that dam was empowering Moperville, so totally allowed.

3 hours ago, Scotty said:

She can still know about him, how else would he have helped Magus in the first Sister arc? Sirleck bribed the guard to let Elliot and Tedd into the facility with the Diamond, I doubt Magus found him by himself, Pandora would have found Sirleck for Magus.

Also, based on that comic, I think that Sirleck wouldn't move finger for Magus without Pandora threatening him.

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4 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Also, based on that comic, I think that Sirleck wouldn't move finger for Magus without Pandora threatening him.

The next page had Sirleck say "I only helped you because that ancient crazy Immortal was with you." My guess is that Sirleck believes that Pandora doesn't care what happens to Magus. But it doesn't matter really because Sirleck didn't do enough research (as in he didn't tell Magus) on Adrian Raven before sending vampires after him.

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23 hours ago, CNash said:

Does Sirleck actually bear the gang any ill will outside of doing favours for people who do? Obviously he's not a fan of Pandora, and he seems like the kind of person to be capriciously cruel to mortals just to piss her off, though.

He's the most hated variety of Aberration, deliberately antagonising an Immortal is not something to be done lightly unless there's a huge reward involved.

22 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Like I said in the last post and at least one post quite some time ago, Sirleck's not dead yet. Sirleck is the type of abberation Immortals hate the most; he hasn't survived by being careless. There's some prize he's going for that justifies the enormous risk he's taking. I think the only reason he co-operated with Magus to allow Elliot to get to the Dewitchery Diamond. was that he knew Magus could always find him and an Immortal could always find Magus if she wanted to.

Maybe Sirleck's real goal is to get Magus killed, removing the connection between himself and that very dangerous Immortal. I suspect it's quite hard for most Immortals to detect aberrations of Sirleck's ilk. It would be sweet revenge to possess Magus' body--but Magus with a body would become once again an extremely powerful wizard. Powerful wizards can even threaten Immortals. Of course, there is another Immortal who's aware of Sirleck, but Sirleck doesn't know that yet.

I'm pretty sure the goal is to steal Magus' body. http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=1128

That's what the comic strongly implies to me anyway.

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7 hours ago, partner555 said:

He's the most hated variety of Aberration, deliberately antagonising an Immortal is not something to be done lightly unless there's a huge reward involved.

One wonders why they are the most hated variety of Aberration for Immortals....perhaps because he has the most potential to force them into doing things by taking over a beloved family member?

7 hours ago, partner555 said:

I'm pretty sure the goal is to steal Magus' body. http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=1128

That's what the comic strongly implies to me anyway.

I think that was his original goal.  Then he found out that there was a half-Immortal around.  Given the choice between possessing a possibly powerful wizard not from this world, and a powerful wizard who can live for centuries and is already proven powerful in this world....

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1 hour ago, CritterKeeper said:

One wonders why they are the most hated variety of Aberration for Immortals....perhaps because he has the most potential to force them into doing things by taking over a beloved family member?

Possibly that, but also the simple fact that body snatchers don't just kill and steal life from others. They steal autonomy. They suppress the free will of the host, trapping them in their own bodies as an amoral, uncaring, and unseen monstrosity controls them like a puppet.

EDIT: Also, the body snatcher exists on the spiritual plane. Immortals are stronger there, but it is kinda their home turf. Some might take offense to that home turf being encroached upon.

1 hour ago, CritterKeeper said:

I think that was his original goal.  Then he found out that there was a half-Immortal around.  Given the choice between possessing a possibly powerful wizard not from this world, and a powerful wizard who can live for centuries and is already proven powerful in this world....

I don't think he plans to take control of Adrian. For one, Adrian already has public ties and connections AND has ties and connections into the magical community. If he starts acting strangely, then people are going to get suspicious. While Magus is a powerful wizard, he also has the massive draw that no one in the main EGS-verse knows him, outside of Pandora. He has no ties or connections. No one would know he exists, much less care if something happened to him. With the exception of Pandora, no one would notice Magus acting out of character, because no one would know what would be in character for him. For a life-sucking parasite that wants to remain in secret, but also in control of the host, that's a very tempting prospect.

And even if Adrian's long-lifespan is a greater draw than the secretiveness of Magus, there are other potential dangers to consider. For one, an elf's immortal parents might have a strong emotional connection to their offspring, or a vow to watch over and protect said off-spring from a previous life, meaning that taking control of said elf is going to paint a target on Sirleck's back. Also I'm not sure if an elf would count as a mortal for purposes of Immortal law. If not, then an Immortal would not be restricted to the 'Empower and Guide' rules when dealing with elves. I don't know how that would work with a body snatcher controlling an elf though. Immortals seem to be prohibited from directly killing a vampire themselves, or at least are highly unwilling to directly engage them(It has been said that human wizards can defeat Immortals, assuming the Immortal is fighting fair, and vampires were human magic users that were able to 'transcend mortality' via predatory and/or parasitic means).

Edited by Drasvin
Another thought.

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4 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:
11 hours ago, partner555 said:

He's the most hated variety of Aberration, deliberately antagonising an Immortal is not something to be done lightly unless there's a huge reward involved.

One wonders why they are the most hated variety of Aberration for Immortals....perhaps because he has the most potential to force them into doing things by taking over a beloved family member?

It might be because their method of parasitism makes them protected by immortals law: as long as the person they took over is alive, immortals can't directly hurt them.

(Although ... apparently even "normal" vampires are somehow protected ... but maybe these ones are protected more?)

3 hours ago, Drasvin said:
4 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

I think that was his original goal.  Then he found out that there was a half-Immortal around.  Given the choice between possessing a possibly powerful wizard not from this world, and a powerful wizard who can live for centuries and is already proven powerful in this world....

I don't think he plans to take control of Adrian. For one, Adrian already has public ties and connections AND has ties and connections into the magical community. If he starts acting strangely, then people are going to get suspicious. While Magus is a powerful wizard, he also has the massive draw that no one in the main EGS-verse knows him, outside of Pandora. He has no ties or connections. No one would know he exists, much less care if something happened to him. With the exception of Pandora, no one would notice Magus acting out of character, because no one would know what would be in character for him. For a life-sucking parasite that wants to remain in secret, but also in control of the host, that's a very tempting prospect.

Also, as far as Sirleck knows, even Pandora might not notice Magus acting out of character due to her age and limited sanity. (WE know she's more sane than she shown to Magus, but Sirleck probably doesn't.)

3 hours ago, Drasvin said:

And even if Adrian's long-lifespan is a greater draw than the secretiveness of Magus, there are other potential dangers to consider. For one, an elf's immortal parents might have a strong emotional connection to their offspring, or a vow to watch over and protect said off-spring from a previous life, meaning that taking control of said elf is going to paint a target on Sirleck's back.

For two, Adrian himself might be powerful enough to NOT be possessed.

For three, even OTHER immortals might be even more pissed if they see aberration attacking elf. It kinda sets bad precedent.

 

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35 minutes ago, CritterKeeper said:

Hmm, horribly OP, but might account for it....can he take over Immortals?

If he could, Immortals would be in open war with this kind of aberration and Pandora would be force-reset for letting him live. IMHO.

The kind of rules they set up suggest they don't have any real enemy ; the gods or whatever Mantle of Heka is might be similarly powerful but likely don't fight with fairies based on some agreement (which may or may not be magically binding) and anyone else would be too weak to kill them. Or at least that's what they believe.

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16 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

Hmm, horribly OP, but might account for it....can he take over Immortals?

I doubt it. And even if he could, it certainly would trigger the self-defense clause of Immortal Law, allowing the would-be victim to unleash destructive force. Or run away to another layer of reality. Either option likely doesn't take very long to pull off, so even a moment of realization could pull the Immortal out of danger, and they tend to be observant.

16 hours ago, hkmaly said:

The kind of rules they set up suggest they don't have any real enemy ; the gods or whatever Mantle of Heka is might be similarly powerful but likely don't fight with fairies based on some agreement (which may or may not be magically binding) and anyone else would be too weak to kill them. Or at least that's what they believe.

I think it's less the fairies don't have any real enemies and more that they can escape to other layers of reality and are nigh-impossible to track. They can run and hide from anything that is a significant threat, where they can plot said threat's demise from safety.

That said, I think one of the reasons for the Laws of the Fairies is to avoid making humanity, and possibly other mortals, overly angry at them. Humans can reach levels of power rivaling that of the fairies (at least in the physical plane), and humans are numerous. While the secrecy of magical affairs would limit how much could be actively leveraged against them, open hostilities against humans would end very badly for the fairies. Especially if human ingenuity leads to the discovery of a way to track fairies (Finding them on the physical plane wouldn't be too hard. You just need the means to detect the magical potency of your average human/mortal creature. Then everyone that doesn't detect is a potential fairy in disguise, though you would have to be careful as such a method would get false positives on the severely magically impaired and anyone who resisted the detection method) and/or drag the fairies to the physical plane to make them stand and fight.

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4 hours ago, Drasvin said:
21 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

Hmm, horribly OP, but might account for it....can he take over Immortals?

I doubt it. And even if he could, it certainly would trigger the self-defense clause of Immortal Law, allowing the would-be victim to unleash destructive force. Or run away to another layer of reality. Either option likely doesn't take very long to pull off, so even a moment of realization could pull the Immortal out of danger, and they tend to be observant.

And note that active defense in moment someone is trying to attach to you tend to be very effective.

4 hours ago, Drasvin said:

I think it's less the fairies don't have any real enemies and more that they can escape to other layers of reality and are nigh-impossible to track. They can run and hide from anything that is a significant threat, where they can plot said threat's demise from safety.

It would still count as "no real enemies" if they have enemies which are "just" incapable of tracking them and unable to attack so quickly the fairy wouldn't be able to run.

4 hours ago, Drasvin said:

That said, I think one of the reasons for the Laws of the Fairies is to avoid making humanity, and possibly other mortals, overly angry at them. Humans can reach levels of power rivaling that of the fairies (at least in the physical plane), and humans are numerous. While the secrecy of magical affairs would limit how much could be actively leveraged against them, open hostilities against humans would end very badly for the fairies. Especially if human ingenuity leads to the discovery of a way to track fairies (Finding them on the physical plane wouldn't be too hard. You just need the means to detect the magical potency of your average human/mortal creature. Then everyone that doesn't detect is a potential fairy in disguise, though you would have to be careful as such a method would get false positives on the severely magically impaired and anyone who resisted the detection method) and/or drag the fairies to the physical plane to make them stand and fight.

I don't think it's about power. Humans are definitely no real enemies for fairies, possibly with exception of seers. BUT they can hurt fairies indirectly: if fairies will get known to be dangerous, humans may stop cooperating and be much less fun. I mean, it might be fun first few times when everyone is running from you when you appear, but it gets old fast.

Consider how differently would this strip continue if people would know that anything from fairy is dangerous and shouldn't be touched.

And humans would be capable to be even LESS fun if they realize that it's their best way to hurt fairies.

Also, there is big element of "don't break toys of other fairies" in their laws.

 

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