I would not be opposed to us hitting Steampunk in, say... eighty plus turns from now? Right now we are barely forming the first towns, not even true city states, and animal husbandry hasn't even taken off yet (to say nothing of pottery, the wheel, or archery!).
Hailfire: Often the same. I utterly dragged myself along for four-five days writing that last post, then scrapped the whole thing and re-wrote it in a couple of hours. The problem I was having (and hadn't twigged was the problem) was that my original character design of Rust wasn't sympathetic. He was a whiny, self-pitying bastard who started fights he couldn't finished, which was utterly unsympathetic in a northren. I didn't like the character, so I had trouble writing him. Response: Rewrite the character. I like this hot-tempered version of Rust much more, and the fact that he isn't an idiot like version 1 Rust would have been (What's that, ULTEEMAT POWAAH? No stigs attached? Okai!).
Spoon: When I develop the patience to plot out stories and character design in advance.
Demantiae: You might have to hold off using that spider, as it's a direct manifestation of Jack in disguise (I am pretty much hoping against hope that the others won't godmode [irony] and instantly detect his presence, as this sort of ruins the ability for this one guy to develop Blood Magic long enough to come to a point of confrontation with his betters). There will be other spiders this turn, though.
Magic as Art, Magic as Technology
Going to take a leaf out of the well-constructed mythos of Arcanum for inspiration here and make a couple of proposals:
Magic as Technology: Follows the rules of technological development. Right now we sort of have this in a very basic sense. This is the path of wizardry; mortals develop/gods provide a base level of magic (e.g. Principles of Fire Magic). From that base theory, new 'tech levels' can develop such as 'Offensive Pyrotechnics', 'Reaction Magic' and so on, so forth. Just making these titles up, but the idea is that each level of magic is dependent upon the previous one. The downside to this is that it will take mortals generations to develop these techniques further and further, progressing up the magical tech tree. The upside is that so long as a source of teaching (tutor, library) exists, any mortal can learn all of the steps thus far researched.
Magic as Art: There is only one base level to this form of magic (e.g. 'Blood Magic') though it might have specialisations or subsets of the main principle within it (e.g. 'Sacrifice', 'Vitality', 'Control'). Within a single mortal lifetime, a mortal may develop to the utmost degree of this art, limited only by his own personal potential. Unlike a technological form of magic, there is no research limit - magic is a personal art that is shaped by the will of the user. On the other hand, magic cannot be reliably taught any more than sculpting can. Yes, certain principles can be taught but most of the work will rely on the user. As a result, whereas with tech magic a user can learn all there is to know in relatively few years (depending on field of study, advancement of magic tech) and then spend the rest of his life perhaps researching a new level for others to follow on from, art magic will be a lifetime process of development for the user.
Blood Magic
This will be explored in posts over the next few days (sorry again for dragging things out!), but Blood Magic could be either Art or Science. What I do know is that it will rest on three core principles; Sacrifice, Vitality and Control. But before I can even get into that, time to sort out Estriss, and my third mystery mortal pawn.
Ungh. I don't actually try to make these long posts, it sort of just happens.
Edit: Also, more criticisms please. Praise is awesome and necessary, but doesn't help me improve.
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Topic: Godhood III OOC Thread (Read 112074 times)