10 KiB
Mother Of Learning: Worldbuilding posted by the author
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Author: u/Fredlage *
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URL: https://motheroflearninguniverse.wordpress.com/2016/07/02/sapient-species-of-the-world/
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Score: 62
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Created: 2016-07-02T13:39:20
Post:
Comments:
u/InsaneBranch [+20] (17 hours later)
"Dragons possess their own brand of structured magic, which has never been successfully copied by human mages. Quite simply, the issue is that dragons possess far bigger mana reserves than humans, and the sheer amount of energies involved in dragon spellcasting is virtually impossible for human spellcasters to match. Not every dragon is proficient in this form of magic, however – most don’t have the talent or patience for it, and instead simply rely on their innate magical abilities."
Go Zach, go Zach ... you can be the first one to learn dragon magic with your enormous mana reserves.
u/elevul [+2] Cyoria Observer (21 hours later)
Yep, DragonZach to the rescue!
u/MoralRelativity [+1] (20 hours later)
Yeah, love that idea.
u/Green0Photon [+1] Student in Cyoria, Minmay, and Ranvar (a day later)
Zach should become a dragon-shifter.
u/ggrey7 [+1] (4 days later)
"Far bigger" reserves could mean a few thousand times a normal human's. Zach only has 200 times, iirc. But gotta keep the dream alive.
u/Cheese_Ninja [+1] (4 days later)
Yeah, I think Zach's reserves are probably far short. He can shoot 232 magic missles, but his mana reserves are probably only around half that due to efficiency bonuses from shaping skills and near perfection with the magic missle spell. So his natural starting reserves weren't nearly as inhuman as Zorian seemed to think, just on the extreme high end, probably around 29 or so compared to Zorian's 8.
u/InsaneBranch [+1] (4 days later)
True, true.
His mana magnitude (60) was already marked as inhuman though ... Might as well be draconic. :P
u/Cheese_Ninja [+2] (5 days later)
That's a mistaken assumption on Zorian's part, since he wasn't taking efficiency gains into account. Zach's probably more of a 29.
Q: Does Zach's "232 magic missiles" comment include the efficiency gains, like Zorian's current 35, or is it as Zorian assumes, and 232 is his magnitude of magic reserves.
A: It includes the efficiency gains. There is no way to disentangle them from everything else when measuring things.
u/Fredlage [+9] (6 minutes later)
Very interesting stuff. The fact that he's put so much thought on the Lizardmen makes me think we'll be seeing them on the quest for the keys.
u/None [+1] (4 hours later)
Part of Damien's expedition perhaps? Would be interesting if he had a few.
u/Themnos [+6] (5 hours later)
That was interesting. Is there really just 5 sapient species in this world though? I was sure others had been mentioned.
u/Fredlage [+4] (7 hours later)
At the beginning he mentions these are the ones that are thriving instead of just surviving, meaning there are others that aren't quite that well developed.
u/MoralRelativity [+2] (11 hours later)
The Sulrothum cannot speak a human tongue, their mouthparts incapable of producing proper sounds to manage it, ... by studying looted objects or questioning human captives.
There's a bit of a contradiction here. They can't speak any human language but they can question human captives.
u/Bowbreaker [+3] Solitary Locust (18 hours later)
Not speaking =/= Not understanding.
At least in this case where it's due to how their mouths are formed.
u/InsaneBranch [+2] (18 hours later)
I don't think this is the problem MoralRelativity presented, but rather the questioning itself. How are they supposed to ask questions?
But perhaps, as they learned to understand human languages, humans near borders also learned to understand sulrothum language.
u/rhaps0dy4 [+8] (19 hours later)
How are they supposed to ask questions?
Maybe they write the questions.
u/MoralRelativity [+1] (20 hours later)
That's a good resolution to the contradiction I saw. I had assumed questioning would be verbal.
u/MoralRelativity [+1] (11 hours later)
Predictions:
- Zach and Zorian will meet Lizardmen, Sulrothum and Dragons.
- One of the keys will be in Sulrothum territory.
- One of the keys will be in the territory of a dragon civilisation.
u/None [+1] (13 hours later)
Zach already encountered a dragon. In chapter 14(?), after several short restarts, Zorian reads an article about him killing a dragon that's been troubling humans. We've been wondering for a while if there was a greater reason to this than Zach wanting to do something cool, but we don't know what it could be... Until now, maybe.
u/MoralRelativity [+1] (16 hours later)
Yes, of course he did. Thanks for the reminder. That's why they've burned through so many restarts because he wanted to kill a dragon and kept trying until he did so.
u/hoja_nasredin [+0] Dai-Gurren Brigade (a day later)
One thing that often bothered me.
IF dragons are more itnellgient, more powerfull and live MUCH longer then humans, how come they are not secretly controllign thte human states from the shadows?
Is the author around in this thread?
u/nobody103 [+7] (3 days later)
How would they secretly control human communities, exactly? It's hard enough to do that as a human, I can't imagine that an 8 meter long flying lizard arriving periodically to 'advise' local rulers would be much of a secret to anyone. These are not quite D&D dragons, with their ability to all assume human form if they feel like it.
Aside from that, there is a matter of dragons being largely ignorant of human society and its rules, and would find it hard to manipulate it - openly or from shadows. They may be intelligent, but they are also largely solitary - social manipulation is not something they're good at.
They do manipulate the human communities that live near them in a way. If one human polity is hostile to them and the other isn't (or not as much), they will sometimes help out the friendlier one by spying on the hostile power for them and doing random acts of sabotage. And if they're pestered by individuals or small groups they can't get to easily, they will sometimes bribe other humans to deal with them.
In short, the dragons are not in position to secretly control any society. They're not subtle, have a hard time dealing with actual societies, not are they so overwhelming they can just move into a large human polity and start giving orders.
u/hoja_nasredin [+1] Dai-Gurren Brigade (4 days later)
Acutaly you are right. Being a social manipulator is not an obvious skill, and someone from a solitary and completely different species will have a very hard time at it.
u/Cheese_Ninja [+1] (4 days later)
My image of dragons in this world are that they are a bunch of recluses who want to be left alone, with enough strength to deal with most individuals who go after them.
Was Cyoria ever home to dragons, as a rank 9 mana well? Or did they decide it wasn't worth the massive amount of dungeon creatures they'd have to contend with?
And it's a bit far off, but do you intend to write more stories set in this world after you finish Mother of Learning?
u/nobody103 [+6] (4 days later)
Was Cyoria ever home to dragons, as a rank 9 mana well?
I honestly never considered it. Let's say no, for the reason you mentioned.
And it's a bit far off, but do you intend to write more stories set in this world after you finish Mother of Learning?
Not really. I have ideas for other stories, but they're set in different worlds. I did think about writing another (much shorter) story about the events immediately following MoL - a sort of arc 4 to the story, if you will. But that is not even in planning stages, as I don't want to get ahead of myself. Resolution to MoL must come first before I seriously consider something like that.
u/thrawnca [+1] Carbon-based biped (4 months later)
their ability to all assume human form if they feel like it
Does that, perhaps, suggest that some dragons can assume human form sometimes?
Could the source of Zach's oversized mana reserves actually be draconic lineage?
u/nobody103 [+2] (4 months later)
Dragons can assume human form the same way humans can assume a dragon one - by chopping a human into pieces and making a transformation potion/ritual. They just need to find a friendly alchemist or learn how to do it themselves.
I confess I didn't put much thought into whether or not shapeshifters can breed with species whose form they assumed. I leave it up to you to make your own conclusions.
u/thrawnca [+1] Carbon-based biped (4 months later)
I confess I didn't put much thought into whether or not shapeshifters can breed with species whose form they assumed.
Sounds like a "no", then, for the purposes of the story. Oh well :).
u/ajuc [+1] (a day later)
Are people secretly controlling ants from the shadows? Some of them - yes, but mostly we don't care.
u/hoja_nasredin [+1] Dai-Gurren Brigade (a day later)
ants don't go around treatening to kill us. Stuff that did treaten to kill us either got extint or like wolfes got reduced in slavery.
u/ajuc [+1] (a day later)
Wolves are neither extinct nor in slavery - there are tousands of free wolves in Europe.
And we were killing them for economic reasons anyway. Nobody is killing poisonous snakes or alligators just because they are dangerous. When we kill them it's for their skin or other stuff.
u/Nepene [+1] (2 days later)
They can only go out for a few days or weeks, why would they have taken out humanity? Plus, humans can kill dragons.