Saga of the Horse
Koaring's ears immediately perk forward when he hears of a method to make mortals kinder: he may have found one answer to the difficulty he faces in 'rescuing' his daughter from the life of an evil hag. The extreme growing conditions may need to be overcome, but he can hardly wait to begin experiments.
The Godswine also intrigues him, but for an entirely different project. He has a magical harp that could use more strongly enchanted strings. So he asks Chet: "The Godswine melts in ordinary temperatures, but can it be stabilized? I am thinking of alloying it with Frost Copper, for instance."
Koaring stores 3 Wonder Palm Nuts, 3 chunks of Godswine, and 9 tufts of Electric Blue Moss, all in the ALS for the moment. He also moves his entire store of Frost Copper bars to the Lab Storage.
Chet considers the question.
"You should be able to stabilize it with a creative application of divine energy. Not sure alloying a mineral that is to be consumed with a mineral generally not eaten by organic lifeforms is the wisest way of going about it, but I suppose that it could work..."The instructor scratches his blow hole.
"What I'd do is plate it with a thin layer of frost copper, which I'd peel away when it was time to consume it. What are you thinking about doing with solid Godswine anyway?"
Dun considers her knight's report for a few minutes before continuing.
"Yes... I think I understand. Infiltrating or taking control of one of the University's families and departments could give me one of the only useful power bases in the city. Alternatively, I could attempt to create a new source of wealth or power.
To that end, I have three questions. Bear in mind that I am a god, so your answers needn't be reasonable.
One: What do the wizards want or need? What would they pay dearly for, what would make them strong or useful, what do they not even know they lack?
Two: What do the common inhabitants of this city want or need? What would give them pleasure or purpose, and so in turn please Húndàn?
Three: What do the rayherd tribes of the surrounding areas and beyond want or need? What would rally them to my banner or lure them to my table?"
The Knight does their best to answer your questions in the order they are posed. "I'd say Wizards fall into four groups, great one, when it comes to what they want. Those tied to the military are most concerned with Húndàn rising in power, so that they might one day contest the Dire Orca for control of shallower water. The Wizards in Húndàn's personal court and inner circle crave rare materials and divine essence to experiment with, like their master does. The wizards of the great families of the University are most concerned with protecting and expanding their power base. The wizards without direct ties to the institutions of power, of course, seek power, and often wealth; They typically work as healers, smiths, masons, and glassblowers, and trade on their professional reputation above all else. I'd say most wizards, regardless of status or profession, are also interested in knowledge for knowledge's sake."
The mortal can only shrug at your second question. "I'm afraid I cannot offer much insight on the common people. I've been raised at the military academy since I came to this place, and have had very little business with the average inhabitant of the city. Almost everybody I have dealt with so far is either my better or my peer. Húndàn does well at providing for his people. I'm sure many are happy living quiet and comfortable lives. But I'm also sure there are always those with ambitions, or at least dreams of great wealth."
The soldier finally moves onto the third question. "Most of the reyherd tribes are led by traditionalist chieftains who cling to the old ways. The scour the abyssal floor, looking for food for their beasts, who in turn provide them with blood and eggs. Few want anything to do with the outside world, but even those ones are willing to send excess population away to Húndàn in exchange for gifts of weapons and food. Best in their eyes to send the troublemakers and change bringers somewhere they can do no harm, but I'm sure many would remove Húndàn and his cities if they had the means to do so, so as to open up more seafloor for themselves. I'm sure in the ranks of this very unit are plenty of banished tribesquid who were sent away for dreaming too big."
It pauses before continuing, and gives his own steed a pat on the hump. "Of course, sometimes a leader rises who wants to move his tribe into the future. A good handful now raise breeds of ray that are far better at providing death to a battlefield than they are at providing food to a table. They both sell those rays directly to Húndàn, and use them to raid their neighbors for slaves, who are also sold to the Enigma Sharks as soldiers. They grow rich off this trade, and eventually can afford arms and armor for their entire population, at which point they often become too ambitious for their own good, contest for control of shallow well-lit waters, and get smacked by the Dire Orca. I have heard tales of many tribal leaders, including my own grandfather, who fell in battle against the dolphin-fiends only to be replaced by an ambitionless traditionalist. But there are plenty of tribes out there who would have plenty of use for a god."
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Topic: Academy of the Young Gods (IC Thread) (Read 19399 times)