NutraNESIV.5: Fantasy Remastered

I had thought thaumaturgy was only effective on sentient beings, though I suppose some elementals might qualify as sentient.

This is why I thought geomancy was needed to bind elementals to your will

(for instance, contacting an elemental plane may go over better if the astralist is masked in the ley lines of El-Or)

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though I misremembered the particulars.

Edit: Ninja'ed sounds great nutra.

Tecknojock said:

I had thought thaumaturgy was only effective on sentient beings, though I suppose some elementals might qualify as sentient.

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Elementals in this setting are very much sentient.

This is why I thought geomancy was needed to bind elementals to your will though I misremembered the particulars.

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Well, you are right in a certain regard. The Malachim golems are an example of 'summoned' creatures using geomantic (and artification) magick. The way Malachim golems work is that they pretty much trick El-Or into thinking that they are a part of it, thus resulting in El-Or throwing up some kind of defense (i.e. blasts of mud). The Malachim then will trap these magickal bits of El-Or around some kind of core (made via artification) and continue to employ the golems as servants so long as the core remains stable. It's a pretty messy process and I am leaving out a few key steps for the sake of secrecy, but this is a (pretty brutish) way to get a summon via geomancery.

Now the main difference between a mud elemental and a Malachim's mud golem is that a mud elemental can cast its own magick. Sure a Malachim golem is ostensibly magick, can shoot bits of itself at enemies via 'mud blasts' and the like, but a mud elemental operates as any humanoid mage would: it says some magick words/does some silly gestures/thinks some powerful thought and boom, magick. Hence why thaumaturgy is needed to control these beings; they are free agents even when summoned.

I'll wait then, I don't want to do things in the story I'm writing to be impossible at this current stage.

...

Just do it, mortal.

theDright said:

I'll wait then, I don't want to do things in the story I'm writing to be impossible at this current stage.

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Don't worry if it's impossible, I'll just dull it down. For instance, in thomas.berubeg's story he has a teenage Malachim girl make a clay doll dance about with a flick of her hand. Such kind of control over magick is a bit and that girl would have to be some sort of hero-of-the-ages prodigy to do that (no fault on your part, thomas, I have yet to make it clear what player limits are). I did, however, like the use of a 'testing doll' to determine a Malachim's magickal ability, as after all 99% of Malachim magick will be spent on making their golems. So I have incorporated it in the update, albeit in a somewhat watered down interpretation.

I encourage any and all stories!

It's a story, more than anything. If it sounds cool, I write it... maybe it's a bit of an exageration, but... still. It sounds cool

And 99% of my own magic will probably used for maiming and torturing things, I assume.

Gal Fazkind and the Giants

The clan of WaergDol were in mourning. At dawn, a dozen giants had struck from the hills, killing over half the clan and leaving their shredded remains scattered throughout the valley. More worriesome to the clan, were those the giants had carried off, for reasons unknown. Those kleofkinde that were carried off would never have their bones laid to rest in the ossuaries below Waerghem KlefAsa, their strength and spirit excised from their people. All day, the dead were consumed, their bones collected, and the herds regathered for the trek back to Waerghem KlefAsa, a defeated clan, the shame of the city.

As the sun reddened the sky in the west, screaming kleofkinde ran out of the surrounding hills, driven on by roaring bellows that were all too familiar from the morning. The clan had no idea how so many kleofkinde had escaped, when none had escaped giants' clutches before. A fire, bright as the setting sun, blazed up in front of the advancing giants. The roaring bellows of the giants changed into panicked screams, a sound none of the clan had heard so loud. A strange kleofkind, with a dozen tails and rows of horns, burning as if a pyre, struck at the giants with his axe, and burned them with his presence. The giants turning to run, the pyre leaped off the stranger, as if a lion in pursuit, chasing the giants into the night. Turning to face clan WaergDol, his flesh resembled a fused and charred mess, but he grabbed a stone flask off of his clothing, tipped it upon himself, and his flesh was made anew in a burst of sound, light, and wet wind, a scent like rosemary lingering. Clan WaergDol had never seen such a kleofkind. He said his name is Gal, but of his clan, tribe, or city he said nothing.

The next morning, clan WaergDol returned to Waerghem KlefAsa, their spirits high. Many returned who had once been thought lost, bringing with them the stranger Gal Fazkind, kin to fire.

See, here is why I say you guys can do no real wrong when writing stories. Expect giants in the update, but given that I have a 1000+ years to play with for your peoples, Dright, I can (and most likely will) place this event as happening during the mysterious 'Forgotten Ages'. It probably will act as the part-myth, part-historical accounts for why the giants (of which there are only a few) and the kleofkinde war with each other.

This may or may not be the reason that Between collapsed.

Nieleve and Cliavin had toiled for eons to arrive at this moment. Finally, the time had come, were they would surpass their current status as demi gods and elevate to the same level of existence as [void]. No longer would they have to rely on man to create diminished replicas of themselves, but rather they would have the power to bestow life from their fingertips, to create beings in any form they chose and to put those beings on any plane of existence they could devise. After the discovery of vivification by Nieleve months ago they worked tirelessly to understand the nature of this magick and finally they had the final piece of the puzzle. Nieleve would be the first to undergo the ritual and once she had all the powers of [void] she would bestow them onto Cliavin.

I looked on from afar as ten thousand of our strongest mages encircled the dark obsidian alter on which Nieleve lay. Her fair body was gently illuminated by the warm glow of a multitude of candle. The flicker of the flames casted dancing shadows across the flowing script of magical incantations carved into the face of the alter. Each of the mages wore dark ceremonial robes inlayed with gold lining and carried a ceremonial dagger at their hip. In their arm’s they each held a male infant, it’s fear quelled by the powerful thaumaturgic magick commanded by the mages. The high priestess raised her infant into the air and began chanting a flowing tongue, her words seeped in magic and the rest on the mages followed suit. Midway through the ritual all of the mages slit the throats of the infant they carried in unison. A silvery ethereal flowed out of the body of the infants and into Nieleve as the mages continued chanting, the babies discarded at their feet.

At last, the flow of life force began to die down to a trickle as one by one the infants ceased providing it, their life-force exhausted. Just as the spell appeared to be a success, a dark void opened where Nieleve lay, as if the fabric of Between itself had been torn apart by the power of the spell. It quickly expanded and consumed all of the participants in the great spell.

Cliavin reached out to her sister with her magick, and probing beyond the void she felt the presence of Nieleve, but something was wrong. Nieleve could not reach back and touch Cliavin, as if the failure of the spell had robbed her of the majority of her magick. Cliavin rushed back to her people so that she could send them into the void to retrieve her sister. By the time Cliavin returned with the rest of the Terlan the void had increased in size by tenfold. Except for a small personal staff, Cliavin sent rest of her people into the void while she remained behind in order to prevent the rift from spreading to the rest of the Between.

Constructive criticism is welcome. This is the first time I've actually written a story for a NES or even anything not related to school for that matter so go easy on me.

It's good. A great first effort. (I feel it's a much better story than most of mine are.)

Adrogans said:

Bah slavery is useless. Everything has a purpose and until that is discovered can perform labor to earn a living. Once they have their purpose they will fill the need of creation.

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Bragaash find your views on world idiotic. Stronger will always rule over weaker. That is why Bragaash rule over elves.

We said nothing of strength we use people for what they are useful for. Why is this odd?

The malachim do not understand the need to keep living slaves: That only allows for rebellion.

OOC:
So...... How bad is it that i've spent the last hour reading and rereading this thread and Daftnes instead of studying for Social Evolution? (my final is tomorrow morning... and I'm not ready.)

OOC: That's normal for me when I was in college...course it never seemed to impede me much.

thomas.berubeg said:

The malachim do not understand the need to keep living slaves: That only allows for rebellion.

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Bragaash see the world differently - a working man works and lives in the world he is created for. If working man works poorly, he will starve and die. So working man has two options - either loan some food from others or to die. Few choose the honorable death. But what happens if working man can not repay his depts? He has eaten, but has not worked for his food. He has taken something of others but can not give it back. This is stealing - taking someone elses food and not paying for it. Slavery would allow this individual to continue his existence. To pay his depts. He would both be fed and would work for his depts. Slavery would cure him of his demons and evil spirits of laziness. Slavery could make a thief into a honest worker - with fear of the whip and learning habit of working every day.

What about war slaves? People work for village. Village works for Tribe. Tribe works for Clan or kingdom. And kingdom works to protect its inhabitants and ease their life. So person works to protect and eases his life. What if that village or that Tribe does not work to protect or ease their life? They live, but they do not work hard enough. They live in dept. And depts must be payed. So war is declared. And weak kingdom will be knocked down in size. Weakened in numbers of men. And those few who survived, those worked hard enough to earn survival. To earn their bread.

To earn ones bread or to steal another mans bread. A thief will always be caught. If not by orc then by spirits of life and death. Thief will pay for his depts.

OOC:
So...... How bad is it that i've spent the last hour reading and rereading this thread and Daftnes instead of studying for Social Evolution? (my final is tomorrow morning... and I'm not ready.)

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3 essays, 1 technical manual (2 pages), 1/2 autcad drawing. Last day to these things is friday. I wrote all this instead.

The Dohtel do not understand this slavery concept to begin with. Every Dohtel has its place and that place will be discovered by experience and exploring. Eventually each Dohtel will fill its purpose to better the Dohtel.

EDIT- The Dohtel are a 'pure' race in that they have little variation, are fairly centralized, and limit foreigners. So slavery would be almost entirely Dohtel enslaving Dohtel and that just doesn't fly. At least at this point in time...who knows where they will end up.

Northen Wolf said:

Bragaash see the world differently - a working man works and lives in the world he is created for. If working man works poorly, he will starve and die. So working man has two options - either loan some food from others or to die. Few choose the honorable death. But what happens if working man can not repay his depts? He has eaten, but has not worked for his food. He has taken something of others but can not give it back. This is stealing - taking someone elses food and not paying for it. Slavery would allow this individual to continue his existence. To pay his depts. He would both be fed and would work for his depts. Slavery would cure him of his demons and evil spirits of laziness. Slavery could make a thief into a honest worker - with fear of the whip and learning habit of working every day.

What about war slaves? People work for village. Village works for Tribe. Tribe works for Clan or kingdom. And kingdom works to protect its inhabitants and ease their life. So person works to protect and eases his life. What if that village or that Tribe does not work to protect or ease their life? They live, but they do not work hard enough. They live in dept. And depts must be payed. So war is declared. And weak kingdom will be knocked down in size. Weakened in numbers of men. And those few who survived, those worked hard enough to earn survival. To earn their bread.

To earn ones bread or to steal another mans bread. A thief will always be caught. If not by orc then by spirits of life and death. Thief will pay for his depts.

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You actually bring up a very interesting point, using Slavery more in it's historical context than in it's modern one. Slavery, for much of history, was what you described, a relatively small scale institution. That, I think, is the difference between Slavery for the Bragaash, and Slavery for the Icarans: The Bragaash tribes enslave each other and the elves, but it's not industrialized slavery. The Slavery the Bragaash practice is similar to that practiced by most middle range societies, with the slaves becoming a part of the tribe at some point, with a reasonable chance of redemption and freedom. In contrast, Slavery in the Icarans is industrialized, and has much more in common with the American South than it does with slavery in, say, 1st century Germanic Tribes. Icaran slavery has no chance of redemption, no chance of freedom.

In a way, while both are SLAVERY, one should really have different words for the two.

thomas.berubeg said:

You actually bring up a very interesting point, using Slavery more in it's historical context than in it's modern one. Slavery, for much of history, was what you described, a relatively small scale institution. That, I think, is the difference between Slavery for the Bragaash, and Slavery for the Icarans: The Bragaash tribes enslave each other and the elves, but it's not industrialized slavery. The Slavery the Bragaash practice is similar to that practiced by most middle range societies, with the slaves becoming a part of the tribe at some point, with a reasonable chance of redemption and freedom. In contrast, Slavery in the Icarans is industrialized, and has much more in common with the American South than it does with slavery in, say, 1st century Germanic Tribes. Icaran slavery has no chance of redemption, no chance of freedom.

In a way, while both are SLAVERY, one should really have different words for the two.

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OOC: Urhm. IMO Bragaash won't enslave eachother. Living by honor code, most of them will rather die than enslave each other. Besides, only weaker races (in this case elves) are worth enslaving (because they do not work hard enough to earn their freedom according to Bragaash thoughts) - Nutra may say which he feels is right, but I think that Bragaash should not enslave fellow orcs. I think forced military garrison duty and/or being exiled from society and marriage prospects and/or death instead of slavement of ones own race.

I also think that Bragaash are merciless towards escaped slaves (brutally kill and torture the ones who escape, to prevent further escapes) but slaves can earn their freedom after working certain amount of years - No use of keeping old/weak slave on food roll, if you could fresh one in markets. Freed slaves would/could still find work to do and food to eat, many will attempt to return to place where they were taken from, only to find nothing waiting for them there or never even making out of Woods.

Bragaash also practice quite a bit industrial slavery - doing heavy work of building roads and tiring work of tending farms with enslaved (captured during raids) population. Whilst the work, that slaves do is not as difficult or dangerous as, for an example, working in roman mines (which was a death sentence).

Heaviest work (clearing forest and building roads) is given to newest slaves to sort out sick from the healthy and weak from the strong and to train discipline. Freshly captured slaves are not sent into woods by owners tho but by military instead (the ones who captured the slaves). This means that any slave who tries to escape. Well. Orcs know how to have their "fun" and trackers could always use practice. Heavy labor of building roads through dangerous and large woods is death sentence to many, but after that working on fields every day seems like a walk in the park.

Northen Wolf said:

OOC: Urhm. IMO Bragaash won't enslave eachother. Living by honor code, most of them will rather die than enslave each other. Besides, only weaker races (in this case elves) are worth enslaving (because they do not work hard enough to earn their freedom according to Bragaash thoughts) - Nutra may say which he feels is right, but I think that Bragaash should not enslave fellow orcs. I think forced military garrison duty and/or being exiled from society and marriage prospects and/or death instead of slavement of ones own race.

I also think that Bragaash are merciless towards escaped slaves (brutally kill and torture the ones who escape, to prevent further escapes) but slaves can earn their freedom after working certain amount of years - No use of keeping old/weak slave on food roll, if you could fresh one in markets. Freed slaves would/could still find work to do and food to eat, many will attempt to return to place where they were taken from, only to find nothing waiting for them there or never even making out of Woods.

Bragaash also practice quite a bit industrial slavery - doing heavy work of building roads and tiring work of tending farms with enslaved (captured during raids) population. Whilst the work, that slaves do is not as difficult or dangerous as, for an example, working in roman mines (which was a death sentence).

Heaviest work (clearing forest and building roads) is given to newest slaves to sort out sick from the healthy and weak from the strong and to train discipline. Freshly captured slaves are not sent into woods by owners tho but by military instead (the ones who captured the slaves). This means that any slave who tries to escape. Well. Orcs know how to have their "fun" and trackers could always use practice. Heavy labor of building roads through dangerous and large woods is death sentence to many, but after that working on fields every day seems like a walk in the park.

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is bragaash society that organized, though? I was under the impression that, at it's most centralized (At this point in the game) it's a conglameration of independant tribes and confederations of tribes, with Clanial being merely the largest of these.