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Story Friday February 23, 2018

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4 minutes ago, Southern Cross said:

Actually, judging by Grace, it's possible the reason Vlad had such difficulty with transforming was that he has no lespuko DNA.

Entirely so, but I think it is equally possible that it was because the genetic manipulation done by the company was so bungled that it damaged Vlad's natural shapeshifting abilities. (This is my preferred headcanon but it is based on nothing else than my own story conceptions, so please feel free to ignore it.)

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27 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:

Entirely so, but I think it is equally possible that it was because the genetic manipulation done by the company was so bungled that it damaged Vlad's natural shapeshifting abilities. (This is my preferred headcanon but it is based on nothing else than my own story conceptions, so please feel free to ignore it.)

Bungled by overloading. Birds, bats, and ... was there a leopard in there, as well as Human and Uryuom? Just being alive to begin with should credit Vlad with a win.

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There's no proof Vladia would still have trouble transforming. In fact, there's really no indication she was hurt in any way when Ellen zapped her from Vlad to Vladia. The way I look at it is that Vladia hated being an inhuman monster, and that's the reason she won't transform. But to defend someone she cares about? Eventually we may find out about that.

Say, what ever happened to that guy who tried to rob Sarah and Grace at the mall?

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55 minutes ago, ChronosCat said:

However, most transformations in the series, including the ones caused by the TFG, cast an enchantment upon the subject, and under the magic system that was in effect prior to this chapter, enchantments couldn't permanently change you (unless you got pregnant and transforming back to normal would harm the fetus); if you disliked or were indifferent to the transformation it would eventually wear off, and even if you liked it it would never become your base form (meaning new transformation spells or simply changing your mind could dispel it). It will take at least a month (in story) before the change in magic can result in any enchantment-based transformations becoming permanent.

- Just to clarify: permanency in this context means that the transformation becomes the new base form, right?

- And judging from Tedd's shocked reaction and Magic's explanation, the transformations had the potential of becoming permanent with all the magic energy sustaining them, they were just never kept on long enough to make that happen.

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38 minutes ago, Southern Cross said:

Actually, judging by Grace, it's possible the reason Vlad had such difficulty with transforming was that he has no lespuko DNA.

32 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:

Entirely so, but I think it is equally possible that it was because the genetic manipulation done by the company was so bungled that it damaged Vlad's natural shapeshifting abilities. (This is my preferred headcanon but it is based on nothing else than my own story conceptions, so please feel free to ignore it.)

I think you're both right.    I think Vlad was such an absurd combination of species that shape-shifting to/from his nonhuman form was so very hard.  Throwing Lespuko into Vlad's mix would have probably saved Vlad a lot of pain but as explained with Grace/Shade-Tail, the Lespuko ability to pick, choose and combine pieces of forms is very powerful and dangerous.  Without the threat of Damian, the Shady corporation lab appears to have chosen to not to take the risk and Vlad paid the price..

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7 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Knowing who the hell Dave Barry is/was. Worse, realizing he's only three  years older than you.

You know what's even worse?  Seeing a recent picture of Brendan Fraser, and realizing he looks 10 years younger than you while being 11 years older than you.

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So am I the only one that thinks "magic storms" that transformed people randomly would be fun? 

Imagine the news casts:  "Mostly cloudy with a chance of cat girls today, bring an umbrella and some catnip on your commute to work."

Yeah...probably just me.  :P

 

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3 minutes ago, Circe said:

So am I the only one that thinks "magic storms" that transformed people randomly would be fun? 

Imagine the news casts:  "Mostly cloudy with a chance of cat girls today, bring an umbrella and some catnip on your commute to work."

Yeah...probably just me.  :P

 

More like "mostly cloudy with a chance of screaming many-limbed chaos spawns and impossible violations of physics and biology. Bring a few holy or blessed relics to mercy-kill the suffering and purge heresy."

Capture433243262.png

Gonna need a bigger blessed chainsword...

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13 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

I admit that I can't get that bit about ancient magical devices and wands beginning to work again out of my mind. That one alone has endless story potential.

"So, Will? Would there be any immediate effects of old magical devices beginning to work again we should be concerned about?"
"Hmm. The Animated Chess Pieces of Shuma-Gorath would come alive again and follow instructions. That might upset the people in British Museum a little."
"That doesn't sound so bad."
"Oh, and the Pillars of Infinity that once kept Atlantis from sinking will regain their potency and make it emerge from the ocean anew."
"Okay, that is a bit more concerning."
"Of course, its re-emergence will cause tidal waves and the oceans to rise one and a half meters, and the Stygian Basin in the middle of the continent will somewhat lower your planetary albedo with a resulting world average temperature increase of approximately three fifths of a degree celsius."
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

"Also the Terracotta Army has come to life and is rampaging across Asia"

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13 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

I admit that I can't get that bit about ancient magical devices and wands beginning to work again out of my mind. That one alone has endless story potential.

13 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

"Oh, and the Pillars of Infinity that once kept Atlantis from sinking will regain their potency and make it emerge from the ocean anew."

Hmmm ... I'm skeptical about magic allowing something as strong when it tried to not be public, but on the other hand if it ever did, Atlantis likely was the place.

12 hours ago, wanderingmagus said:

"Become random... massive storms of chaos magic... people would stop using magic"

*looks over at Warhammer rulebooks* I think the WoM massively underestimates the natural, possibly insane curiosity of mortals.

Or it would be even MORE random and destructive, no matter how unbelievably that sounds to people who know warhammer.

11 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

Magic's weak spot is understanding individuals. People in general would stop using magic. Individual ambitious would-be wizards would continue like no tomorrow. They would likely also die in droves but there would always follow more to replace them.

... if those chaos magic storms are massive enough, there might NOT be tomorrow.

11 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

and the players argued about whether being undead counted as a form of doping

... what is there to argue about? Of course it does.

8 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Younger people calling you "Dad."

:)

8 hours ago, Drasvin said:

Whoever ends up trying to catalogue all the magical effects and artifacts (because someone in the setting will. If nothing else, someone will set up a wiki about it. Wikis are everywhere) is going to have their work cut out for them if any of the old systems have a resurgence. Seemingly conflicting rules make for massive headaches.

Maybe seers can recognize which set of rules the specific spell belongs to?

Also, most likely, the "resurgence" will be very limited.

8 hours ago, Tuscahoma said:

So new spells learned naturally are only from the default system, but a wizard can learn spells from other sources.  A seer could see an artifact in use and learn the spells it uses.  Could a regular wizard do that as well?  We really haven't seen how regular wizards learn spells form other people to be able to say whether or not they could learn from an artifact.  Still, that means at least one thousand people in the world who might be able to learn ancient, forgotten, possibly forbidden, maybe world-shaking magic.  And in the case of seers, could make wands that allow the casting of said spells.

Wizards can definitely learn the spells FROM seers.

8 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

So adjusting the rules of magic is sort of like when you're adjusting the colors on a picture; you don't want all the colors at max or you'll wind up with solid white, or at minimum as that'll be black, and keeping everything in the middle doesn't change anything. (Another example that comes to mind is adjusting the sound on a sound system / program that allows you to play around with multiple characteristics of the sound.)

There is word for that. "Balancing".

8 hours ago, Tuscahoma said:

Oh wow, just realized.  Once Magic goes public and knowledge of transformations becoming permanent is common, we will see humanity start to really change.  Imagine a world full of people who realize they can become whatever they want by magic.  Stronger, handsomer, furrier, taller, smaller, different colors, extra sets of things, whatever.  Generations from now, humans might not be recognizably human anymore.

Most humans would probably stay within human limits ... like, they would be stronger and handsomer but still recognizably humans. Minorities however ... it will be interesting to see how many races - as in, groups of people who obviously belong together - emerge as opposed to how many people ends up with form which would be totally individual.

Still, presumably people will still be one species. In fact, so far we didn't hear anything about transformation affecting offspring.

6 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Edward pointed out to Tedd that there are people whose job is filling up wikis with nonsense. Probably Edward is one of them.

Unlikely. Maybe that's what he started as and maybe he does something like this from time to time for fun, but as a director of paranormal division OR diplomacy it's not his job now.

3 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

if you disliked or were indifferent to the transformation it would eventually wear off, and even if you liked it it would never become your base form (meaning new transformation spells or simply changing your mind could dispel it)

Up until now, it ALWAYS weared off. I think that only the "minor change" allowed to keep the enchantment indefinitely if you like it.

3 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

As for Vladia, her being part Uryuom means concepts like "base forms" and "permanent transformations" are theoretically irrelevant - Greater Chimeras always have the power to transform at will into any previous form they've held. The reason she doesn't transform is because she's okay with her current form and she is afraid of the pain and physical trauma her transformations caused in the past - but if she ever has a reason to transform and feels brave enough to do so, nothing magical is stopping her.

Yes. Uryuoms (and Greater Chimeras) don't have single base form. They can have as many as they want to.

Vladia THINKS that Ellen did something weird with the spell, as it even removed her antennae, but I don't believe it was actually permanent. Even if she wouldn't be able to change herself, she could always use TF gun, which would likely unlock her completely.

2 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Say, what ever happened to that guy who tried to rob Sarah and Grace at the mall?

He did repent and now works with the elderly and volunteers at soup kitchens.

2 hours ago, detrius said:

Just to clarify: permanency in this context means that the transformation becomes the new base form, right?

Yes.

1 hour ago, Circe said:

So am I the only one that thinks "magic storms" that transformed people randomly would be fun? 

Imagine the news casts:  "Mostly cloudy with a chance of cat girls today, bring an umbrella and some catnip on your commute to work."

It would only be fun for people who themselves are immune and shielded. Something like us (*knocking on fourth wall*).

21 minutes ago, Vorlonagent said:
1 hour ago, Scotty said:

"Also the Terracotta Army has come to life and is rampaging across Asia"

...In search of enlightenment?  Been done.

Actually, no. The Terracotta army are golems, they simply follow the program. Sure, they damage everything in their path, but noone told them to be careful and not damage bridges as there were no bridges there when they started.

Now, let's hope someone will find the artefact which designates him as someone with authority to change their orders before it's too late. And that such someone is not some dangerous lunatic (with small red button).

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2 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Actually, no. The Terracotta army are golems, they simply follow the program. Sure, they damage everything in their path, but noone told them to be careful and not damage bridges as there were no bridges there when they started.

Now, let's hope someone will find the artefact which designates him as someone with authority to change their orders before it's too late. And that such someone is not some dangerous lunatic (with small red button).

That was basically my thinking as well.

 

Though there might be some statues that were living people at one time, we know Abraham turned himself to stone which has it's own safeguards and such that's linked to the dewitchery diamond, but there might be other people that were turned to stone in one of the previous systems that might be revived now?

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6 minutes ago, Scotty said:

Though there might be some statues that were living people at one time, we know Abraham turned himself to stone which has it's own safeguards and such that's linked to the dewitchery diamond, but there might be other people that were turned to stone in one of the previous systems that might be revived now?

After all those years, probably not without external help.

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1 hour ago, hkmaly said:

After all those years, probably not without external help.

Though it does make me wonder, if magic did change, Abraham could have been stuck as a statue until someone else convinced the WoM to do minimum change and made previous systems work again.

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9 hours ago, Tuscahoma said:

Oh wow, just realized.  Once Magic goes public and knowledge of transformations becoming permanent is common, we will see humanity start to really change.  Imagine a world full of people who realize they can become whatever they want by magic.  Stronger, handsomer, furrier, taller, smaller, different colors, extra sets of things, whatever.  Generations from now, humans might not be recognizably human anymore.

They might be different physically, they're still going to be more or less the same psychologically(Though maybe the differences would help break apart some of the old divisions of race and gender and such) They're still going to have the same needs, wants, and desires that fundamentally shape who people are.

Also, I wonder if wide spread transformation magic would make it easier or harder for uryuoms to remain hidden.

1 hour ago, hkmaly said:
1 hour ago, Vorlonagent said:
2 hours ago, Scotty said:

"Also the Terracotta Army has come to life and is rampaging across Asia"

...In search of enlightenment?  Been done.

Actually, no. The Terracotta army are golems, they simply follow the program. Sure, they damage everything in their path, but noone told them to be careful and not damage bridges as there were no bridges there when they started.

Now, let's hope someone will find the artefact which designates him as someone with authority to change their orders before it's too late. And that such someone is not some dangerous lunatic (with small red button).

Though if the artefact isn't found, the effects of the army would likely be minimal. The army was created for the purpose of guarding the tomb of the First Emperor of China. Any terracotta soldiers not at the tomb site would try to get back to it, but otherwise the army would probably be a minimal threat.

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17 minutes ago, Scotty said:
1 hour ago, hkmaly said:

After all those years, probably not without external help.

Though it does make me wonder, if magic did change, Abraham could have been stuck as a statue until someone else convinced the WoM to do minimum change and made previous systems work again.

Yes ; not only the spell making him human would presumably stop working ; also the dewitchery diamond itself, which is trigger of his awakening, will stop working.

13 minutes ago, Drasvin said:

They might be different physically, they're still going to be more or less the same psychologically(Though maybe the differences would help break apart some of the old divisions of race and gender and such) They're still going to have the same needs, wants, and desires that fundamentally shape who people are.

They would also most likely have more or less same organs inside. Most people won't do any changes to stuff they don't understand.

13 minutes ago, Drasvin said:

Also, I wonder if wide spread transformation magic would make it easier or harder for uryuoms to remain hidden.

Easier to hide from people. Harder to hide from authorities, as wide spread transformation magic likely brings wide spread identification magic.

13 minutes ago, Drasvin said:

Though if the artefact isn't found, the effects of the army would likely be minimal. The army was created for the purpose of guarding the tomb of the First Emperor of China. Any terracotta soldiers not at the tomb site would try to get back to it, but otherwise the army would probably be a minimal threat.

I though that most of them were excavated but seems not so.

So, unless the ACTUAL last order was something different and they were only re-purposed as guard when their magic stopped working ...

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44 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Yes ; not only the spell making him human would presumably stop working ; also the dewitchery diamond itself, which is trigger of his awakening, will stop working.

Actually the entire spell switching him back and forth from human to statue might fail, leaving him human and unable to return to hibernation. But as you said, the diamond would fail, too.

...I just had a thought. What if they are storing old devices in the storage unit that has the diamond? Devices that no longer worked... but just got returned to operation mere minutes before Magus and Sirleck will arrive? :icon_eek:

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49 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:

...I just had a thought. What if they are storing old devices in the storage unit that has the diamond? Devices that no longer worked... but just got returned to operation mere minutes before Magus and Sirleck will arrive? :icon_eek:

"minutes"? If it would be hour, it will make no difference. They only need to get there before the team Arthur will send.

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So because it wasn't a severe change, Seers, aside from Tedd, Arthur and Van, won't know anything's different, the spread of knowledge may be slower this way, organizations like the paranormal division could still be able to do some form of damage control.

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3 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Hmmm ... I'm skeptical about magic allowing something as strong when it tried to not be public, but on the other hand if it ever did, Atlantis likely was the place.

Well, it was mostly just trying for humour, not positing a realistic scenario for EGS. There is also the tectonical problem of where this lost continent might be sited. Of course El Goonish Earth might differ from ours but on our earth at least I don't think there is room for any Atlantis on the tectonic map. I also made the rather large assumption that magic strong enough to keep a continent from sinking (even if massively powerful) would also be powerful enough to raise it again after it had sunk. That is by no means a given, particularly if its primary function was as a stopgap. For example, a boat is kept afloat by plugging a hole in its side. If the plug is then removed and the boat sinks, just returning the plug to its place won't really be enough to restore buoyancy.

3 hours ago, hkmaly said:

... if those chaos magic storms are massive enough, there might NOT be tomorrow.

Certainly. Try to explain that to the eager would-be wizards, mind you. Every single one. There is always another optimist.

11 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

"minutes"? If it would be hour, it will make no difference. They only need to get there before the team Arthur will send.

True enough, but the timing is still there... and the mind boggles at the concept. Or mine does, anyway. :icon_eek:

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42 minutes ago, Scotty said:

So because it wasn't a severe change, Seers, aside from Tedd, Arthur and Van, won't know anything's different, the spread of knowledge may be slower this way, organizations like the paranormal division could still be able to do some form of damage control.

Exactly. (I understood it already from comics but nice having it confirmed.)

Of course, the REASON why magic changed in first place was too much exposure, so that damage control is unlikely to restore status quo, BUT they have at least chance to delay and form it somewhat. With thousand seers knowing new rules and them suddenly forced to re-teach all magic users they have, they wouldn't have a chance.

35 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:
4 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Hmmm ... I'm skeptical about magic allowing something as strong when it tried to not be public, but on the other hand if it ever did, Atlantis likely was the place.

Well, it was mostly just trying for humour, not positing a realistic scenario for EGS. There is also the tectonical problem of where this lost continent might be sited. Of course El Goonish Earth might differ from ours but on our earth at least I don't think there is room for any Atlantis on the tectonic map. I also made the rather large assumption that magic strong enough to keep a continent from sinking (even if massively powerful) would also be powerful enough to raise it again after it had sunk. That is by no means a given, particularly if its primary function was as a stopgap. For example, a boat is kept afloat by plugging a hole in its side. If the plug is then removed and the boat sinks, just returning the plug to its place won't really be enough to restore buoyancy.

And related to the tectonic map note, there might not be anything to raise anymore.

(On the other hand, maybe you - and Plato - overestimate size of Atlantis. If it was small, it would fit on lot of places.)

35 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:
4 hours ago, hkmaly said:

... if those chaos magic storms are massive enough, there might NOT be tomorrow.

Certainly. Try to explain that to the eager would-be wizards, mind you. Every single one. There is always another optimist.

I'll rather do something more useful, like making sure I'm out of range.

Also, you missed the option that making sure there is no tomorrow may be what they WANT to do. There are people like that.

 

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13 hours ago, Drasvin said:

Whoever ends up trying to catalogue all the magical effects and artifacts (because someone in the setting will. If nothing else, someone will set up a wiki about it. Wikis are everywhere) is going to have their work cut out for them if any of the old systems have a resurgence. Seemingly conflicting rules make for massive headaches.

I wonder how many "Ancient Magic Artifacts" in storage will turn out to be fakes?  And of those that aren't fakes, will the actual power level be significantly different (plus or minus) than the artifact's reputation would imply?

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