Ideas Changes and Concepts

This section contains a spew of ideas for changes and additions.

Anti-Magic
In the scene where Kamboolii is up against the Constable's men and Quig comes to help him, I need to preface something about the bolts. The reader will ask the question: if the technology of Meitroz is such that they have blusses that fire slugs, why are these guards armed with crossbows? (I know I would ask this question). The answer should be defined earlier when Felix and Draden are dealing with Constable Ettin.

Cermino is the name of a substance that absorbs Ka. So far I've only defined this as possible by certain crystals, so it's going to be a new addttion to the technomagic. Cermino will be rare, but not extremely rare. It should also have a place in history. Various wars have been fought using different degrees of magic on Minth. Some of these were wars against incredibly powerful mages. To fight these battles, cermio was tapped as a resource and used to construct weapons capable of draining mages.

Contable Ettin will arm his men with cermino crossbow bolts. These are constructed to do as little physical damage as possible. Essentially they're injector-tipped barbs that contain a liquid cermino substrate in liquid form. On impact, they stick to the target but only penetrate about an inch deep, then inject the substrate into the target. The substrate contains forged spellbound cermino that quickly drains the target of Ka.

The Ember-Wight Flaw
Why not kill Achu Bon and elminate the circumstance by where he releases the wight in the first place? There must be a reason this isn't done. And therefore the wight needs to be released, and therefore I need to come up with how it is required - how it benefits the Wu and why Kamboolii should allow it. Let the brainstorming commence.

Felix - Attitude and Demeanor
Originally my concept for Felix was that he come across to the reader as an absolute jerk. In retrospect, I don't think this works. Felix is a noble. He possesses a "superiority" complex primarily due to his position in life and how he's been raised. He enjoys his station in life as a noble and the heir to the Regency of Hezwuuld. And he precieves commoners as being "lesser" than the nobility primarily because it's part of his perception of them that they are lesser. They aren't educated. They work for a living. And they must obey the rule of the upper class.

But this doesn't mean Felix is heartless. He cares for people in his own way, seeing most commoners as a valuable resource that he needs to "promote" in order to improve their working efficiency. Therefore, while Felix might treat Quig as something of a peon, he also wants Quig to "become" something useful. I think something of this attitude should rub off during the time in Xull'Arae. Perhaps a scene where Felix encourages Quig to study something in particular, then talks later with Roki about how Quig "won't be useful to him until he learns more about being a spellbinder."

Kamboolii's Death Comments
In the beginning scene, Nappa tells Kamboolii that he may be in for a nasty death. Kamboolii reacts strangely to this, and sort of blows it off. Perhaps Nappa shouldn't let it go so easily. Might give more tension to the scene if he highlights this for Kamboolii. Although, realistically, Kamboolii has probably died many times doing this so maybe he doesn't care. But Nappa might want to at least apologize further. After all, Nappa isn't the one who has to die since his operation in the story takes place largely above and beyond what's happening.

Magical Currency of Minth
I settled on three basic denominations, gave them names, and then went on with writing. Then we had this discussion last year about magical currency that reports back to a central agency allowing the King to track the location of the currency. This made me think about the effort that would need to be put forth to spellbind all these coins. Spellbinding is a profession on this particular world, but only a small percentage of the population would fall into that profession (presumably the brightest individuals outside the wealthy families would migrate to this profession as it provides the most effective means of becoming wealthy beyond being born wealthy). All "mages" on this world are SpellBinders, you can't "cast" magic there, you have to create an artifact.

In order to actually produce a large number of spellbound coins to track them, the King would need dozens of SpellBinders working as a team where the coins are stamped. Plus they'd have to be sworn to secrecy, and perhaps segregated (like slaves working in a secluded area). Could the process be automated? (This would be the first automated process for them if so). I'm considering that too. It would work a lot better.

Anyway, my thought was that if I could explain it to myself and justify it, the coins could make an "ultimate intelligence weapon" for the monarchy. For, unbeknownst to the general population, the King can actually see and hear out of the face of his ancestor on the coin (speak too, but that might blow the secret, so it's rarely done). By convention, the faces minted on the coins during any given monarchy is from two kings (or queens) back. So usually the King is looking out of the face of his grandfather.

My lowest denomination coin is the cronos, which would be the best candidate for this. People tend to keep their terins and tridees in their pockets or coin purses so as not to lose them, but the petty cronos is like a penny - still valuable, but something you might set on a table or dump in a coin holder. Therefore its the most likely to allow the King to see out of it. The other ones just show him the inside of a coin purse or a chest - not helpful.

I figure if even ten percent of these cronos could be spellbound (my stories word for enchanted) in this way, it would allow the King a considerable degree of personal intelligence when using the main interface to the coins, which would probably be a scrying pool under his castle or a special mask or something. And the kingdom in question is six hundred years old, so if they've been doing this for hundreds of years, that makes a lot of cronos out there spellbound.

And then, of course, there's the idea that the King might also be able to kill someone holding one of these coins somehow, or perform other effects on them without them knowing, like alter their mind, read their thoughts, influence their decisions, etc.

It seems like a cool idea, though I haven't introduced it yet. I'm planning on using it as part of the fourth book.

The Ember-Origin Theory
As explained by ArchMage Chambeeta Kamboolii.

"The Ember-Origin theory postulates that we all exist within an Ember Wight right now, and that everything we perceive as ‘reality’ is simply the imaginings of our spiritual selves. Essentially, we live within a ‘sleeve’ of imagination held intact by multiple uniform beliefs, or perhaps the main mentality of the Ember Wight itself. And everything we see and do is part of this shared illusion – a dream if you will – that is used by the Ember Wight as both fuel and entertainment. Our emotions become motives. Our beliefs become reality. Our concepts become the framework for what will come. And we are but small drops in this endless ocean, this… dream realm. Only in death is the illusion wiped away and do we return to the reality of our imprisonment. But if the Ember Wight in question happens to be a good one, such as the Calibian Ember Wights, which I would assume to be the case since we don’t all live in torment, then one can assume the ‘reality’ beyond this reality would be nothing more than an opportunity to live again and join in the next dream. One that might be even better.

Harbored within these sleeves of dreamstates, we are shuttled along with the Ember Wight on its endless journey through the folds of the fifth dimension, and undoubtedly those beyond that we have no conception for. Probability is merely one encapsulation of time. Other exist as well. Endless varieties stacked on top of each other. Bubbles within bubbles within bubbles. Waves over waves.

But, of course, this is merely a theory, and more likely we all exist inside the mind of some writer somewhere who has no idea what he’s doing to us."

Starships
Not currently used, these are some other ships, some space-capable, that exist in other cultures within the realmhead.

Toris

Built by the Taurs - on of the more advanced cultures of Taur - these are massively large ships built of three concentric toroids, smaller on the outside and larger going in. In the center is a very large sphere. The sphere's gravity is toward the center where the power generation and central runes are. The surface of the sphere is the crew shell, a maze of small compartments and cabins. The bridge is a set of chairs that lay on their backs and look out through a series of small ports. The bottom of the sphere can lower a ramp. The top of the sphere swivels and contains four launchers that fire guided missiles.

Lightbox "Built by Humans of some as yet undetermined culture. This is a cube with a metal hatch. It's not too large. The interior cabin can hold about six people. When activated, it converts to light and back. In its light state, the crew can maneuver the ship through space. It is invulnerable to material attacks in its light state, but can be damaged by gravitational weapons and alterations to physics. It has no weaponry, and is uses strictly for transportation."

Wu Shuttle

A click sounded. Detaching from the dock, the light-bridge faded away and the oval plate drifted slowly from the station. As it passed through the bubble-shield the field of energy bent around them changing shape into that of a translucent creature, long of limb and possessed of six wings jutting out from its center. Like a great blue misty bird, or perhaps a six finned fish, the shuttle flew outward into the extrasphere with Legalo and Manu inside of it.

Spinships

As used in the third book. Base plate, seats, and triple rings. Central power source - nemoc crystal - and a rune stack. Capable of pulling aether power. Modified versions can pull Ka from the crew (assuming they're appropriately powerful enough - these take a lot of energy). Shields and pyrotic bolts.

Lenscraft

As used in the third book. Small crystal toris with central sphere and single pilot. Reliant on Ka from the sun. Cannot fly in shadow or darkness. Shields and short range kinetic bolts.

Alpha Quig
As the main story continues in book four, the "left behind" Alpha Quig has a lot of work to do. Some questions remain about what role Monty, Felix, and Roki will play. Will Alpha Quig go to Bragmeyer as a result of his actions at the end of book two? Will he be able to leave Minth at all now that the Custodians have made Tolos and Kuldorii temporal quarantine zones? Will Quig help the Nohii rebel?

Regardless of the answers, someone from the Wu will have to send Quig information. The Kuduu is on the move, and the next Emerald Rising looks to be particularly nasty. The Ember Wight's sorceress puppet is at work here, slipping into the timeline and manipulating events for its own purposes. This realmhead is not safe. It is a target. And the souls of the dead Yottish are to be presented with a chance for revenge against the Cordvin dictatorship.

Quig needs to learn of these events in order to have a chance at saving his world and stopping the Yottish invasion of Meitroz. A crystal ball, ancient and possessed with a mind of its own, wired into the emerald network, watching and waiting, an artifact of his ancestors, a remnant of the Tanathian Legacy. And what of the Jailors? What of that forgotten cult? Will they aid him, or see him as a tool to be used to their own ends?

Fish Heads
In the last chapter of the first book, I introduce a new species. Essentially, it's a robot with an aquarium for a head, and it's controlled by a school of colorful fish that form a psionic mass-mind. However, each fish represents a specific attribute of the individual intellect, and they can speak to each other privately within the aquarim, outside of the mass-mind. For this reason, it might be fun to occasionally have the fish comment on what's happening in the scene around them, but the character itself (the voice coming out the speaker of Mr. Roboto) is the mass-mind.

This race also exists in the Nexus, and I need to give it a name.

Ordinite - Ka Storing Mineral
I need to indroduce this. Golems like Neg would use ordinite to store Ka. Ordinite should probably absorb Ka from the sun, but also be capable of taking a charge from people. It shouldn't be entirely new technology, but the vast majority of it should be used in constructing the rune-road, which makes it very hard to come by. And the only lucrative source is the mines run by the King using the incarcerated laborers in Bragmeyer.

Quotes
"It isn't about good and evil, it's about power." - The Emberwight

"Everyone dies, it's just a matter of when." - Kamboolii

"Everyone's crazy, it's just a matter of how much." - Kamboolii

"Your flesh will decorate my wall." - Horfaths Maelron

"Teffing tea-holes." - Monty and Denae.