[Open RP] Britain's Merchant District

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Valonia
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[Open RP] Britain's Merchant District

Post by Valonia »

(Open RP, everyone free to join, etc. etc. Leaving a lot of details unsaid so other people can fill in their own ideas.)

Britain’s Merchant District encompassed both sides of the river. All manner of goods and services could be purchased if one had the coin.

Valonia headed in the direction she assumed the weaponsmiths would be, but as she passed a fruit stand, a question occurred to her. Since her companion was a sort-of-magely sort, Val turned to Siva and posed a question:

“I understand mages have the capability of Creating Food using a spell of some sort. But where does the food itself come from? Does the spell turn the reagents into the food substance? Does the spell summon the food from… the ether, I assume? Does the spell summon the food from… other places? Such as, if a mage were to cast the spell to Create Food, would it summon a bunch of grapes off the table of a farmer somewhere?”
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Trithemius
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Wizard Grammar 103

Post by Trithemius »

Siva considered her colleague's question while she looked around the market.

"An interesting incantation that one. It seems less useful than a coin in a place like this but it might be invaluable to an explorer or castaway in the right situation. Or rather, in a bad situation."

The slight druid stiffened, adopting a pose reminiscent of an advocate in court or a lecturer in a classroom. It was a little incongruous in the bustle of the market.

"KAL is the Word of calling or summoning and is typically used to invoke the presence of something across great distances. Often this something is an abstract though such as 'fire' or 'light'. When a specific thing is sought POR or movement tends to be involved. So if I wanted that particular apple then an incantation of POR might serve but if I wanted to call forth an apple from the realm of endless apples or the Idea of Apple then KAL would be used. Assuming there is an infinity of apples somewhere across the wide Void."

Siva seemed to realise too late she was lecturing and attempted a more natural stance as she moved on a little quicker from the cart and the bemused fruit vendor.

"IN creates or causes the apple, based on the notions of the thing held by the mage. Or so it has been suggested to me. I wonder if a mage who has not seen an apple might create some other fruit and think it an apple. Interesting to contemplate but hard to test since apples are fairly ubiquitous in the experience of all the mages that I know.".

"Is that ... enough? Is it too much? I have a habit of answering that I've picked up from my time at the Lyceum."
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Re: [Open RP] Britain's Merchant District

Post by Valonia »

“No, not too much,” Val replied. “I have not spent time at the Lycaeum, so your explanation was quite useful. It explains what I wanted to know.”

She had been to Moonglow, but that was pretty much the extent of her experience with such things. And her Moonglow visit had come after she had already chosen the path of the druid. Previous to that, her life involved farming. If violence hadn’t disrupted that life, she’d expected she would probably still be on a farm, if not the very same one she had grown up on.

Or perhaps not. Who could tell what life would have brought if one event hadn’t altered others? Perhaps Valonia would still have been discontent, even with the bucolic calm of pastoral life. After all, she had already once ’sold that world to buy fire’, as the poem went. Perhaps she would always have traded simplicity for more. After all, the parts of her life that she valued most involved having access to the things she could not have possibly dreamed of as a simple farmer. Even these mage ramblings were things she saved up and stored like ill-gotten treasures.

Still, she put those thoughts out of her mind.

“Let me see if I understand. The phrasing I know of is ‘In Mani Ylem’. So, the ‘In’ isn’t summoning a physical object from somewhere, exactly… It means the spell is likely drawing on the aether to manifest an idea of what the caster may see as ‘food’, yes?” she puzzled out. “Or rather… ‘healing matter’, I suppose. And the actual form that food takes may depend on the caster and their experiences, yes?”

She was probably oversimplifying it, but the idea made sense to her.

It was probably also giving away the fact that she’d studied this more than she was willing to let on. In spite of her somewhat cavalier attitude, she had made an effort to study the Words of Power. Not all of them, nor anything terribly ancient, but it made sense to start with what seemed like the basic magical alphabet.

It still did not seem terribly practical to her compared to paying a coin for an apple, but she understood the spell better now, at any rate.

“I wonder why it does not summon bandages though,” she frowned. “Perhaps the caster’s intent may have something to do with it? If I cast the spell intending a bandage, perhaps it would give me one rather than an apple?”

She paused. “Oh. Um. But yes. A sword for you. Do you, ah, have a type in mind? Fencing? Something heavier?”
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REALITY GRADIENT

Post by Trithemius »

"I should think that evoking a bandage, using reagents and one's own knowledge and energy to create one from nothing, in order to treat a wound would be quite inefficient when compared to using a different incantation to close the wound with magic. It is like a apple and coin example in reverse. Besides we are all wearing potential bandages are we not?"

Siva swished her cloak with a slight flourish, as if to punctuate.

"As for intent, I think that some of imagination of the mage is filtered by the spell itself. The use of books as the focus for magery means that doing magery is easier but that it is a little less imaginative. Let me think of an analogy... perhaps a spell in a workbook is like a gate in a long fence - you could cross anywhere but you'd need to climb over whereas the gate is easier but it is only in one place. I don't know if that works? I didn't say "surmounting, with Will, the ambient reality gradient..." though so I consider it a successful analogy."

Siva paused, looking at a distant building before walking again. A look suggesting curiousity remained on her face.

"As for swords - I like something light, but with two edges. For balance. Symbolic and actual. It helps if no-one can mistake it for an outsized dagger."
Last edited by Trithemius on Fri Feb 19, 2021 3:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: [Open RP] Britain's Merchant District

Post by Valonia »

“Broadsword or longsword then?” Valonia replied idly, her mind still poring over the other woman’s explanations. “A broadsword might have interesting symbolism, depending on how the individual sword is balanced. Light to raise, weighty to descend... that sort of thing.”

She had her opinions, of course, though her thoughts were preoccupied with the impromptu lesson.

Surmounting reality with Will. She liked that. She liked it a lot, actually. She understood the fence analogy, of course. But she liked the other wording better. It just felt more like making a deliberate, intentional choice, rather than ease of convenience. And she liked that part.

Then again, perhaps she always had. She liked the concept of using her will to affect change on her circumstances, rather than being some passive actor in her own life. It was why she had never truly been content settling for life on the farm, and she was one of the first to volunteer to fight when others had disrupted it. She hadn’t been the leader, as she had no training in such things, but it hadn’t taken much convincing for her to join the defense… especially with the persuasion of a particular young man of her acquaintance. Really, that a paladin had been willing to teach them to defend themselves was just icing on the cake. He just helped them be more successful at it, teaching them how to fight, rather than pelting their foes with rocks, sticks, and farming implements. But they had practically resolved to fight all on their own.

We sell the world to buy fire, she thought once again to herself. Our way lighted by burning men. It was odd that she thought of him now. Perhaps searching for swords had inspired some sort of unwelcome nostalgia.

“And I like your analogy, by the way,” Valonia said, turning from her own thoughts and following her companion’s shopping meandering. “And the wording of the original too, I think.”
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The Importance of Agenda

Post by Trithemius »

"Why thank you Val. The original text is fairly abstruse, but it's different from a lot of magical writing... actually we might be able to..."

Siva looked around at the buildings, distracted apparently.

"No - we already have an agenda: swords and then questions. So... swords then. I think they should be this way?"

The cloaked druid walked more briskly in her intended direction.

"I think a broadsword. It is a little lighter, without looking too dagger-like. I don't want to have to heft too much steel around since I don't expect to be fighting automatons or knights. And If I do happen to encounter any I'll just run."
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Discretion being the better part of... you know.

Post by Valonia »

“That would not be terribly valorous of you, but likely the better idea,” Val commented, her longer strides keeping up easily with Siva’s. “Automatons are rare enough, but I cannot imagine why you would need to fight knights anyway. I have not encountered any lawbreaking ones -- and besides they are not as clunky, slow, and awkward as people would have you believe. You cannot just knock them down and claim victory. They are harder to fight than most people seem to think.”

She shook her head. People seemed to think one could just shove a heavily armored person on their back and run away while they flailed helplessly like a flipped-over turtle. It definitely did not work like that. In her experience, most people who tended to walk around in armor like that were not only accustomed to their usual armor, but also strong and dexterous enough to get up just fine after they’d been knocked over. Therefore, if given the choice between avoidance and combat, it was far less hassle to simply avoid knights altogether-…

Well, in times past, anyway. These days, she wasn’t going to run if knights accosted her for some reason (assuming they were the lawful kind). She was a druid now; Justice was kind of part of the package. And if she’d truly done something wrong enough that she needed to be taken into custody, she had little interest in avoiding consequences.

And it wasn’t as if she’d encountered any dark knights anyway. Not in the morality sense, at any rate. There was that sellsword who wore darker colored armor… but she wasn’t entirely sure that he counted as a knight? He seemed to act like one. And she certainly wasn’t avoiding him anyway. He did say he enjoyed spending time with her, so maybe… No, no, she was likely reading into the situation too much. A person could be kind without it meaning anything more, after all. Small kindnesses did not mean it would be appropriate or welcome to consider shoving him backward onto his back to see how strong and dexterous he was.

She put those thoughts out of her mind, turning her attention once more to the task at hand.

“Weaponsmith is here,” Val pointed out. “Swords, then questions. And possibly questions about swords.”
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BRAVELY SIVA RECALLED AWAY...

Post by Trithemius »

Siva smirked infinitesimally at the mention of Valour, but waited quietly as Val returned from her inner thoughts.

"I've not made an in depth study of Valiant behaviour even if I have had some experience of... what was it? Road Justice? Magery is a fine ally in the avoidance of conflict though, when that conflict serves no ultimate purpose."

The light tapping of her staff was as precise and as regular sounding as a metronome as she marched towards the weaponsmith's door.

"Are you planning to get anything in the way of blades Val? Or have you taken a vow?"
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Swords don't kill people, people kill people

Post by Valonia »

"Yes," she answered simply, though her expression became serious. "And while I would not say that I have studied Valor, exactly, I suppose the part that matters most is the conviction you are following. It is sometimes hard to assess in the moment which conflicts serve a purpose, and which do not."

She shrugged a shoulder.

"And one can mistake emotion for conviction, at times."

It wasn't an excuse, but more an explanation, perhaps. She had some experience with such things, after all.
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