A few ramblings
Jul. 9th, 2007 08:14 pmThere are very few feelings I like better than when things click into place, when it all fits together. This comes into play in many areas (watching Heroes, for instance), but is perhaps the most exciting in worldembellishing.
You see, I don't really build worlds. I expand existing worlds, I cobble together pieces of other worlds (which is one reason I don't intend to professionally publish any fiction I may write), but I don't make something up out of my own head. What I really like is taking a fictional world and expanding it in directions that it hadn't gone before. I've even gotten to the point where, when I encounter a new canon, I have that type of analysis running somewhere in the back of my brain, looking for things I can expand on. But for instance, in RuneScape I recently started the Sorceress' Garden minigame. One of the characters involved is the Apprentice to the aforementioned Sorceress. When you talk to her she has to clean the floor; you can offer to cast a wind- or water-based spell to help her, but she refuses, saying that the Sorceress will be able to tell if she uses magic. This by itself tells me two things: first, that some thaumic signature remains; that is, there is a residue left by the spell on the target, which can be sensed by skilled practitioners. And second, that this signature does not indicate, with any great reliablility, who cast the spell in question. Later in the same conversation you offer to let the Apprentice teleport you to the Garden, to which she agrees with no objection. This, combined with the earlier, tells me that there is no or next to no thaumic splash; all the spell's energy toes into the target. Yes, this is the terminology I used when I was first thinking these things.
In other news, I've found a wondrous author. For a while I've been reading through the archives on
limyaael's journal, and found in late 2003 a recommendation for Revelation by Carol Berg, which is the second in its trilogy. From the way she described the book I thought I might like it, so I recently got the first one - Transformation - from the local library. It was astounding. What with work it took me four days to finish, but for those four days I didn't read any other books. I don't think I've ever found another author so gripping,, with such command of language and plot.
You see, I don't really build worlds. I expand existing worlds, I cobble together pieces of other worlds (which is one reason I don't intend to professionally publish any fiction I may write), but I don't make something up out of my own head. What I really like is taking a fictional world and expanding it in directions that it hadn't gone before. I've even gotten to the point where, when I encounter a new canon, I have that type of analysis running somewhere in the back of my brain, looking for things I can expand on. But for instance, in RuneScape I recently started the Sorceress' Garden minigame. One of the characters involved is the Apprentice to the aforementioned Sorceress. When you talk to her she has to clean the floor; you can offer to cast a wind- or water-based spell to help her, but she refuses, saying that the Sorceress will be able to tell if she uses magic. This by itself tells me two things: first, that some thaumic signature remains; that is, there is a residue left by the spell on the target, which can be sensed by skilled practitioners. And second, that this signature does not indicate, with any great reliablility, who cast the spell in question. Later in the same conversation you offer to let the Apprentice teleport you to the Garden, to which she agrees with no objection. This, combined with the earlier, tells me that there is no or next to no thaumic splash; all the spell's energy toes into the target. Yes, this is the terminology I used when I was first thinking these things.
In other news, I've found a wondrous author. For a while I've been reading through the archives on
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