36 KiB
[RT][HF] A Practical Guide to Evil: Book 4: Chapter 16: Pirouette
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Author: u/Zayits *
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URL: https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2018/05/21/chapter-16-pirouette/
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Score: 89
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Created: 2018-05-21T04:01:27
Post:
Comments:
u/panchoadrenalina [+39] (17 minutes later)
"“Welp,” I said, and run away." this made me lol hard. and the saint swallowed it whole
u/Mountebank [+18] (49 minutes later)
Cat must be distantly related to the Joestar family.
u/akaltyn [+2] (a day later)
Also made me think of the time she had the prince shot from miles away before the battle. A good example of rational!evil of the sort this story initially appealed based on
u/mojojo46 [+30] (2 hours later)
As a reminder, we're getting this fast 3-chapters-a-week because of patreon donators. Consider throwing erraticerrata a couple bucks a month if you enjoy the story!
u/notsureiflying [+18] (4 hours later)
I lost limbs all the time and you didn’t hear me yelling about it
Hehehe
I decided then and there Masego was getting a raise. Which shouldn’t be hard, considering I wasn’t paying him.
Gotta love her sass
u/akaltyn [+2] (a day later)
Masego: Can I have another tower, with a lava moat this time?
u/Mountebank [+15] (47 minutes later)
Huh. I was expecting "absolute positioning" to be an application of very precise scrying that would allow Cat to open a tiny portal to Arcadia inside someone's brain for an instant lobotomy. They did build that super expensive Observatory, after all. Hopefully Cat is still keeping a trick like this up her sleeve.
u/hoja_nasredin [+7] Dai-Gurren Brigade (5 hours later)
all this fuss and they are recycling a Warlock trick.
u/drakeblood4 [+26] A Practical Guide to Evil (5 hours later)
When you're the barely financially stable spinoff state of a backwater nowhere country in a destabilized, constantly infighting part of the world, you take what you can get.
u/Chesheire [+5] (18 hours later)
backwater nowhere country
Hey, they're not a backwater! They're Praes's indentured backwater farmland!
u/drakeblood4 [+9] A Practical Guide to Evil (18 hours later)
Black called Praes a backwater. Praes is pretty significant and cosmopolitan compared to Callow, and, as a client state of Praes, Callow is also inferior to it along that axis. Callow is doubly backwater to a backwater. It's double decker recursively backwater. It's so backwater it's under the regular backwater in an underwater current of even more backerer water.
u/Yes_This_Is_God [+10] (21 hours later)
And now, part of it is underwater too.
u/drakeblood4 [+5] A Practical Guide to Evil (22 hours later)
You. I like you.
u/ProfessorPhi [+8] (8 hours later)
It may have the other benefit of making the battlefield a part of winter which would grant Cat a huge benefit.
u/hoja_nasredin [+7] Dai-Gurren Brigade (8 hours later)
when you have to choose between an insta win and an advantage... Was she worried heroes would stop it if it was an insta win attack?
u/RynnisOne [+11] (10 hours later)
Probably. Plus, if she demonstrates, say, the ability to drop a mountain on enemy cities at whim, it'd be one of those "unite the planet against her in desperation" forms of doomsday weapons that ensure her eventually defeat by am army of avenging heroes.
This will kill some, but mostly put the enemy into chaos for a bit, make them VERY uncomfortable, and... more importantly, keep their healers and fire using heroes busy for a bit.
u/roninmuffins [+7] (13 hours later)
Don't sleep on battlefield control, especially since her aim is less, murder everyone, and more, make them take their ball and go home
u/akaltyn [+3] (a day later)
Also, has a massive morale effect. Thousands of conscripts are now soaked, freezing, and up to their knees in mud. Even if none of them die their effectiveness and general willingness to fight will be shot. And with an army that big with so many non professional soldiers thats a big problem, if a few units panic it could start a general rout.
u/akaltyn [+3] (a day later)
The heroes seem pretty good at dealing with direct threats, e.g. if you have a massive kill em all curse or something. But the advantage of the water is that its a big mundane problem that they can't confront directly. Their powers are optimised for combat, not dealing with a massive swamp, or several thousand cold and wet soldiers.
u/ATRDCI [+3] (13 hours later)
Yes though not quite in that way.. Remember that with the gates she could in theory take an army traipsing across Procer with The Principate unable to stop her because she just gates to another part of the country (that they can't predict) before an enemy force can close in. But (moral arguments aside) that's the sort of weapon that would demand a unified response from basically the rest of the world that would be completely unwilling to end hostilities until Cat is dead because she showed herself to be so dangerous. She has to temper what she uses so that Procer actually feels like they have the option of ending the crusade and at least temporarily coexisting with Cat and Callow
u/hoja_nasredin [+2] Dai-Gurren Brigade (14 hours later)
yeah Erratica spent a lot fo chapters hammering in that concepts. Which sound funny as in the real world Nukes didn't provoke such a reaction, they ended preventing wars.
Yeah I understand that heroes involvement is a strong point against Doomsday weapons but still the logic is flawed.
u/ATRDCI [+12] (16 hours later)
Well, story patterns in and of themselves deter any (rational) villain from using them because it is guaranteed to eventually fail in some way that leads to their downfall. But there are a couple differences that explain why nukes were a deterrent in real life but rough equivalents don't function similarly.
The big one is MAD. Namely that in real life other nations outside of the US got nukes as well relatively quickly. MAD doesn't work without each side being able to hit just as hard and Good generally speaking doesn't havve the power to hit as hard as a doomsday weapon outside of flinging heroes at them hoping one can call down an Angel to enter creation. Related is that good knows they are right. So while they don't have the juice to immediately counter a doomsday weapon, they also have a moral certainty that won't let them surrender in the face of a show of overwhelming force like normal people would. It's why Cat is basing her strategy of getting surrender from the crusade around losses suffered by Princes of the material realm, not suffered by heroes which ultimately only answer to higher loftier concerns
The second is that real life leaders have to give something of a shit about their citizens. Remember, part of the reason the A bomb was used is that a conventional invasion of Japan would have resulted in a very large number of Japanese and American casualities. In terms of deaths caused, fire bombing by the US was far more deadly than the two dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Calernia doesn't fare near as well here. Evil obviously has had villains who literally could not care less (Akua) but even in Procer, which is probably the best life a peasant could have, any nonnamed that wasnt rich in the best case scenario lives the life of a serf. Procer cares about it's people in general, strategically (have enough to fill army, defend the chain of hunger, to farm food, etc.) but would take a succesful First Liesse happening, even if it was to one of their own cities. MAD only works if the potiental loss is too great for you to be willing to bear, and in a fight against a side you know to be Evil and where your citizens are thought of as at least somewhat expendable, that scope of loss is very narrow indeed.
u/hoja_nasredin [+1] Dai-Gurren Brigade (a day later)
good point about only one side having the WEAPON
u/akaltyn [+3] (a day later)
The international community traditionally tends to rally round when a state thats seen as irrational/aggressive is getting nuclear weapons or similar. (See Iran and NK). And Evil is prety much by definition irrational (at least from the perspective of the Good nations).
Their world also doesn't really seem to have a single superpower, or unified body that can set rules and norms, in the way the USA or UN did in the 20th century IRL. So the situation is maybe more analogous to WW1 where people invade based on seeing enemies building up forces and power.
u/Ardvarkeating101 [+14] Father of Learning (34 minutes later)
I hereby proclaim Masego lord of the blue skies and
fluffy white cloudsflying glaciers
u/Yes_This_Is_God [+10] (34 minutes later)
This chapter delivered, for sure. Action packed chapter with a great mix of humor and seriousness. It reads like one of the recent Marvel films.
Can’t wait to see how dropping a lake of Winter affects the battlefield. It’s kinda funny—it’s a winter version of Akua’s instant demongate.
u/Flamesmcgee [+7] (18 hours later)
It reads like one of the recent Marvel films.
Albeit with less retarded battle tactics. Looking at you, Wakanda.
u/Ardvarkeating101 [+5] Father of Learning (19 hours later)
Vibranium may be a power source and indestructible body armor, but god forbid you use it to make a tank!
u/DaystarEld [+6] Pokémon Professor (20 hours later)
Fuck tanks, they have airplanes! That whole scene was just so frustrating.
u/Flamesmcgee [+3] (a day later)
I mean, that too. But even with only the assets they displayed, (hard-light shielding on both personal and large scale, indestructible body armor, hologram illusions, laser-rifle infantry and planes) you could still come up with a better tactics than the one they went with.
u/akaltyn [+2] (a day later)
It’s kinda funny—it’s a winter version of Akua’s instant demongate.
Winter isn't as horribly destructive to creation as hell seems to be. Akua's gate could open up and have thousands of deadly and near unkillable demons spewing out. The big fear they had was is the defenders lost it would just keep spilling out demons and they'd ravage a massive area
u/AmeteurOpinions [+8] Finally, everyone was working together. (23 hours later)
u/FormerlySarsaparilla [+3] (a day later)
That is an extremely relevant XKCD.
u/AmeteurOpinions [+1] Finally, everyone was working together. (2 days later)
I genuinely wonder if the author understands the magnitude of the kinetic weapon Cat just deployed. Her gate is a mile wide.
u/FormerlySarsaparilla [+2] (2 days later)
Yeah I'm kind of waiting for the next chapter to give a bit more explanation. I don't see how Cat's own army survives this, if the author has done the math.
u/0nion0 [+2] (2 days later)
Munroe assumes the droplet forms at 2km I'm the air. Juniper mentions that the gate wasn't formed high enough for gravity to be a divine blow, so the impact being nullified by fortifications on a hill isn't much of a stretch.
u/nineran [+6] (12 hours later)
!I'm expecting Saint to cut the water away somehow. Or GP to evaporate it all, since he's using the light of the Summer Sun for fun.!<
u/paradoxinclination [+8] (23 minutes later)
Clever. This particular application of Cat's portals shouldn't even kill too many crusaders, which is a bonus.
u/Yes_This_Is_God [+17] (40 minutes later)
I think that much water is very deadly. Like a cold brick wall hitting you.
u/Zayits [+12] (an hour later)
And the best of it all, it can't be blocked by the fences. Priests and mages aren't anywhere in sight, so no bullshit miracles evaporating it all (hopefully). Depending on how much water Cat can bring through, the battlefield now is either a swamp or a lake, so while priests can still either cover the soldiers or provide solid ground, the defenders will have more time before the army lumbers to them.
And here I was wondering why didn't they mine the grounds before the palisades.
u/narfanator [+11] (5 hours later)
Huh. You know, if Cat was really clever (by which I mean Juniper) they would have set up in such a way that the best place for the enemy to camp was a on series of rises, such that when all that water was dropped on them it turned into a series of marsh-islands.... but that Juniper's own position would not be an island.
"Hah, you thought you were fighting a field battle when in fact you were defending a siege!"
u/Zayits [+2] (11 hours later)
Why give the enemy safe grounds? Siege against superior numbers would be even bigger disadvantage to Cat, not to mention she'd have to cross the water to take the camp.
I'm wondering why didn't she reduce the numbers of crusaders before the battle if she ended up using it anyway. My best guess is to give an impression that this is a line-of-sight last-ditch attack and not something she can do anywhere at will, so the potential enemies wouldn't see it as an excuse to rush her instead of agreeing to a treaty.
u/Flashbunny [+3] (15 hours later)
They're running out of supplies, which is why they need to take this city quickly - if they're stuck on islands without boats that's basically a death sentence unless they can GTFO with magic.
u/Zayits [+3] (15 hours later)
that's basically a death sentence unless they can GTFO with magic
See, this is the part where the plan relies on the assembled priests, mages, younger and older heroes not coming up with something while their army is being starved out. Not to mention that, again, if she thought that was a viable option she would have done it earlier, and that the defenders starting on lower grounds and then flooding them makes no sense.
u/Flashbunny [+1] (16 hours later)
Sure, but I was responding to your claim that:
Siege against superior numbers would be even bigger disadvantage to Cat, not to mention she'd have to cross the water to take the camp.
If this were somehow to come about it would actually be a major advantage - the onus isn't on her to sally forth and attack their camp, it's on them to come to her or they'll just starve. I'm not sure if they even could get their army out - surviving impossible bullshit is for Named. If they did, it would at least cost them a significant amount of bullshit.
I don't think it's going to happen, I just think your assertion that it would somehow be a disadvantage for Cat is nonsense.
u/Zayits [+1] (17 hours later)
Ah, I thought you meant the plan would be for Cat's forces to attack the camp. As for just leaving the crusaders there, the time until starvation becomes a potential problem and the time until one of the heroes decides to play Moses differ by orders of magnitude, and that's not counting the possibilities like the priests putting together a bridge. The only way the water can be an undeniable advantage to Cat is when the good guys can't bullshit their way out of it because the crusaders are already in there, and her main means of delivering it is by opening the portal above the target.
u/narfanator [+1] (16 hours later)
She wouldn't have to do shit. They're out of food, remember?
u/hoja_nasredin [+1] Dai-Gurren Brigade (14 hours later)
blocked by the fences Warlock proved that a big enough rock can't. be blocked by magic.
u/paradoxinclination [+10] (an hour later)
I should have said that it'll kill *relatively* few crusaders, compared to a similar amount of gravel or lava or something. Quite a few are still going to be drowned, crushed by icebergs, or squished by water pressure/their own men, but it's still surprisingly gentle.
u/xland44 [+7] (5 hours later)
I think you're underestimating the force of water. A cubed meter of water weighs a ton - something like that falling from such a height has got to pack a punch. Also, you can't really swim in armor so even if you survive the water hitting you, you'll drown.
u/CouteauBleu [+3] We are the Empire. (10 hours later)
Plus, the water would make a tidal wave all around the area under the portal, whereas lava would mostly affect the area directly under it and spread slowly.
u/Friedoobrain [+6] (13 hours later)
Beyond all the other points people have made, it's also Winter water. A lot of soldiers might die just from hypothermia.
u/Cryxx [+1] (7 hours later)
lava
I was thinking of lava when I read that passage, too. Ah, the Wheel of Time nostalgia.
u/destravous [+4] (34 minutes later)
The question is, how high up was the gate opened? High enough and nothing would survive.
u/NotACauldronAgent [+3] Probably (54 minutes later)
I’m not sure we’re quite at Saga of Soul levels of escalation yet. But we’re getting closer.
u/destravous [+2] (55 minutes later)
Saga of Soul
What is this a reference too? (And is it worth a read/visit/watch?)
u/Chaoszerom [+4] (3 hours later)
Web fiction, abandonware, but the bit that did exist is pretty good. Magical girl one-trick-pony meets physics.
u/LordSwedish [+3] Q Continuum (13 hours later)
She's not really a one-trick-pony, thinking with portals is just ridiculously more powerful than anything else. Without spoiling it for anyone else, firing a high velocity depleted uranium bars the size of a person is what you do when you don't want to make a mess.
u/tadrinth [+1] (19 hours later)
I would recommend it:
Not your Typical Magical Girl Story.
Meet Eriko, an introverted, intellectual teenage girl with good intentions.
Now, watch Eriko get caught in the middle of multiple simultaneous plots as fairies, demons, inter-dimensional empires, evil geniuses, immortal killers, cosmic horrors and more all make their move, and it's up to her to save the day.
u/sparr [+1] (13 hours later)
Maybe if/when icebergs fall through, but water falling from a high distance has a remarkably low terminal velocity.
u/destravous [+1] (14 hours later)
Hmm maybe, depends on if it spreads out far enough for air resistance to have an affect. I guess that would put a hard cap on the hight though. Too high and it will just rain in a very large area.
u/akaltyn [+1] (a day later)
The impression I got was the gate was formed at roughly ground level, we've seen in the past that gates match their approximate position on the other side (e.g. gates you can walkthough have land on the other side, and the small number of gates in the air cat made when attacking the army camp led to air on teh other side as well. ) So water was able to flow through, because thats what water does, but its not dropping form the sky
u/Zayits [+5] (2 hours later)
You know, the narration never mentioned the relief of the battlefield, other than Catherine's fortifications being on a slope with a ditch in front. Depending on how much water there's going to be brought through, it can go a number of ways, from the knights mopping up everyone who tries to come ashore to the flood washing away the proceran camp with the rest of their supplies.
u/notagiantdolphin [+19] (2 hours later)
Thief did once steal an entire fleet of ships. If it does flood the region completely, she could deploy another recently stolen set and turn it into the world's most one-sided naval battle.
u/Zayits [+6] (5 hours later)
If it does flood the region completely, Cat's point of minimizing the collateral would be rendered moot. Besides, with the icegergs in the stream there's no point in navigating it.
u/Cryxx [+4] (7 hours later)
I think that would almost be too awesome. Any Proceran with some appreciation for badassery would defect on the spot.
u/KindleFlame [+4] (23 hours later)
Does this one count as a draw against the Saint? If so, the next encounter night be interesting, given Cat's already lost to her before.
u/WalterTFD [+7] (23 minutes later)
"Lord of the Red Skies" isn't so unique anymore, huh? The thing I always thought prevetned this trick was that the Gate has to be formed at Cat's position, or another gate makers. Is Larat up in the sky?
u/hoja_nasredin [+2] Dai-Gurren Brigade (5 hours later)
why is cat pouring water instead of icebergs? To hinder but not decimate enemies? Is she pulling her punches?
u/Zayits [+11] (5 hours later)
It's ice-cold water that can't be contained by the fences, and it's dropped from the sky on an army standing in a battle formation. Even those who won't be crushed directly are still risking hypothermia depending on the amount of water and the time they spend in it. Meanwhile, Cat's forces are on a slope behind a ditch.
Also, the icebergs are there too, they just will be sucked in last.
u/Cryxx [+8] (7 hours later)
It's too bad the Grey Fkn Pilgrim is gonna warm up at least half the army with his twice stolen sun :/.
u/Razorhead [+2] (6 hours later)
Not to mention Cat has power over Winter. She can do a lot with cold temperatures when the battlefield and her enemies are literally covered in water.
u/fyfsixseven [+3] (14 hours later)
You know how in WWI, simple barbed wires made it almost impossible for infantry to charge a position? A lake on your head, even aside from the drowning and crushing and freezing deaths, will make it nigh impossible to take the defender's position. You will advance so slowly, if you can even advance at all, that the artillery and archers will pick everyone off before you make halfway.
u/cyberdsaiyan [+3] (40 minutes later)
wow, I kept imagining what could incapacitate a host enough but not completely annihilate them, this is above and beyond.
u/CouteauBleu [+3] We are the Empire. (an hour later)
Oh shit. That's, what, ten thousand soldiers she just killed? With trump cards like these, who even needs demons and zombie armies?
u/RynnisOne [+4] (10 hours later)
Villains who don't want their one-trick-pony turned into glue by heroes, I'd imagine.
u/Law_Student [+10] (12 hours later)
I hadn't realized before that the current Zombie is literally a one trick pony. That's pretty fantastic.
u/Tallergeese [+3] (a day later)
So... Is there any reason why Cat couldn't set up the portals in the reverse direction? Just transport an entire enemy army from Creation directly into Arcadia. If she's feeling kind, they'll just be marooned in an alternate dimension filled with probably hostile fae. Pretty decent hostage bait. If not, she can transport them into Arcadia... a mile above the surface. That usage has way less collateral damage than transferring stuff from Arcadia into Creation.
u/akaltyn [+1] (a day later)
I'm not sure but it seemed to me like the reason this works is that they were targetting a water area, so as soon as there was a new direction it could flow it naturally flowed out. (Like opening a whole in a swimming pool or something). I don't think she could get the enemies to go into arcadia without them willingly walking through.
u/Tallergeese [+3] (a day later)
I was thinking just set the gate horizontally a bit beneath the surface of the ground and have everything fall through.
You can't typically scry underground though, so that might not work. You'd have to set the gate on the surface of the ground, but there might be weird limitation about that too, like a gate has to be a plane, so you couldn't open one on the ground unless the ground was perfectly flat or something. We don't have know what would happen if she tried opening up a gate at, say, knee height where a bunch of people/objects already exist either.
u/Arganthonius [+2] (6 minutes later)
Nice gambit. Wonder how many times they can use it.
u/Sarkavonsy [+17] (2 hours later)
Against heroes like Pilgrim and Saint? Twice, and the second time it will backfire.
u/Arganthonius [+0] (7 hours later)
I figured, but I think the narrative is my least favorite part of this story. I prefer the Game of Thrones approach of "Aegon had dragons and conquered the whole continent by using the same approach over and over again, because no one had an answer for it."
'My enemy used this tactic before' is not, on its own, a satisfying counter. And something as versatile as absolute positioning should be the focus of an entire campaign, or even overarching military strategy as long as it can be used.
It's like a new mechanic in a game. The most satisfaction would derive from exploring it and using it in a multitude of different ways, not observing it from a superficial perspective and then tossing it away.
Using it to move cities around, shape the terrain, teleport specific units to/away from battles, creating large portals to other armies and shuffling around the battlefield. So many fun things to do.
And for that matter, I like the idea of flying fortresses and crazy magic items. The story is great, I just wish it allowed for Cat acting like a real crazy villain, even if it's subverted heavily. (Like, making a series of flying farms to optimize crop production, or manipulating giant nets to catch large amounts of fish. Warlock's reality alterations could be used to establish trade with Arcadia/other realms. Demons, if properly controlled, could be used to improve manufacturing processes, like shutting down harmful oxygenation processes when forging blades, etc.)
u/Zayits [+11] (8 hours later)
Game of Thrones approach of "Aegon had dragons and conquered the whole continent by using the same approach over and over again, because no one had an answer for it."
Well, that's how Triumphant's conquest worked. That said, any approach with a singular point of failure (a flying fortress with a levitation-controlling array in the center of it, a magical system for opening portals that can only be used by one person under specific conditions, a group of being from another dimension bound to a specific artifact) wil have heroes thown at it until one of them rolls the right combination for exploiting that weakness. Triumphant won not becaus there were no heroes with an advantage against devils or demons, but because there were too many devils and demons for them to fight. When she ran itno something she couldn't throw demons at (Tyrian sea) she lost momentum, while the heroes kept coming until there was enough to contain all she could have mustered (at least I assume so; her defeat isn't exactly described in detail, save for the fact that she let all the demons she had in Praes loose when she brought down the Tower on top of her enemies).
As for the stuff you mentioned, while portals are Catherine's schtick and can be explored in her story, the rest is harder to exploit. Most magic stuff can't simultaneously be mass-produced, controlled or used safely, and if you look at places like the Wasteland, even their disproportional amount of practitioners barely makes a dent in the pile that is supporting a nation.
u/None [+2] (13 hours later)
[deleted]
u/werafdsaew [+7] (13 hours later)
No that's the Dead King and some other Tyrant.
u/Ardvarkeating101 [+1] Father of Learning (19 hours later)
An unnamed Dread Emperor/Empress tried to conquer, through their own, temporary, Hell portals, the Hell the Dead King successfully conquered. It ended up backfiring so hard Maleficent the Second ended up using a Demon of Absence to erase it from history.
u/narfanator [+2] (3 hours later)
Oh gods, so good.
Also, ye olde height/pressure differential trick :D
u/aeschenkarnos [+2] (9 hours later)
Now that's thinking with portals!
u/tjhance [+2] (23 hours later)
so, I tried out this story but I put it down around chapter 16. Can someone convince me to keep reading?
Here was my experience:
- First chapter, introduced to Cat, she seems interesting, good so far
- Black Knight shows up, drives the plot, chooses Cat for completely opaque reasons. I get a little bored.
- Some trippy dream thing happens, whatever.
- some sort of fight between Cat and other squire-wannabes. Not really sure who these guys were or where they came from. Some parts of the fight were cool, I guess.
- Black knight uses his command voice to control Cat. Cat sees the results of her actions. OH SHIT, now shit is getting real.
- Gnomes, red letters?? wow, this sounds intriguing.
- Oh, I also thought the concept of 'Scribe', someone whose superpower appears to be being really good at paperwork, pretty amusing.
- Now we're at... battle school...? Gnome plotline is dropped? Totally not invested in whatever fight is going down right now.
And... that's where I stopped because I couldn't force myself to slog through this battle stuff. So given which parts I liked and didn't like, should I keep on going?
u/Zayits [+4] (a day later)
Some trippy dream thing happens, whatever.
some sort of fight between Cat and other squire-wannabes. Not really sure who these guys were or where they came from. Some parts of the fight were cool, I guess.
Gnome plotline is dropped?
See, I get the feeling that, like with Worm, stuff like this is a casualty of the story being recommended on r/rational. This story isn't entirely (or even mostly) about optimizing the world: the industrial revolution is nowhere in sight (the society seems to be barely nearing Renaissance at best), and the whole concept of Fate is about history being driven into the ground by the constant repetition of established patterns.
Creation, broadly speaking, isn’t a world that encourages technological progress, and the gnomes are only a part of the problem. That said, they aren't a mere plot device, it's just that in a world where a reasonable reaction to a more experienced wizard telling you not to meddle in something dangerous is to burn your research and salt the ashes, where just keeping notes on certain subjects warps reality and where the only warning before everything you know will be wiped off the face of the Earth is a letter in a red leather sheath, everybody in the know has no reason nor an inclination to pursue those avenues of research. The gnomes are still mentioned here and there, but nobody wants to pull a pin on that grenade.
Given what you paid attention to and what you didn't (like Name dreams and Heiress' appearance) I feel the need to clarify that this story is explicitly genre savvy and deals first and foremost with breaking out of story patterns that lead nowhere. The world the characters live in isn't the one which innovation in and of itself can improve, so they look primarily to manipulating what already exists rather than creating something new.
For me it wasn't really what Worm was to superhero fiction, since I read way too much fantasy that is genre-savvy to some extent, so making it a system with rules and memes of its own (like Rule of Three, which isn't nearly as formalized in our stories, of flying fortresses as the foremost example of a magical weapon with glaring inherent weaknesses) is a logical next step.
That said, I like Erraticerrata's take on genre awareness more than almost any other, because it comes to the logical conclusion where other commentaries on the genre conventions sort of leave the thought hanging. Playing a trope straight may be done well, but while it being a trope in the first place means that there are examples of it being done well, that also raises the bar over time. Deconstructing the trope requires bringing a misconception into a reality where it would have no reason to exist in the first place, which needs either a sufficiently naive character to bring it up or a convoluted set-up for what is all too often an unnecessary detour. Demonstrating a cliche ironically is easy to mishandle, since the author risks being either too repetitive and unoriginal, lazy and obvious or, again, shoehorning into the story something that doesn't belong in its world.
Guideverse has an actual reason for stories repeating over and over: the Roles are the repetitive patterns in the Fate as they are known to people. That's why stealth Names aren't a thing despite covert tactics being brutally effective against systems relying on singular individual like the Named (a Name is fueled by its tale as it is told, and you need to at least keep people speculating, like the Assassin), but comic reliefs are (stories spread based on their entertainment value, making the amusing characters invulnerable as long as they are funny). Human decisions matter not just because they are far more convoluted than simple physical processes and we need different models to understand them, but because there are beings who make the choices matter. Magic and spells seem to take advantage of that, manipulating the Pattern more directly than living a story would, more flexible in terms of control over the results but with less reach in manipulation of the consequences.
u/Tallergeese [+2] (a day later)
Starting from the War College, a whole lot of words are used to describe large scale battle tactics and maneuvers. Honestly, I find that kind of tedious myself at points. As of Book 4, gnomes have still not really been explored as a plot point. Scribe hasn't gotten a whole lot of attention either. We are eventually introduced to some other unconventional Names though. Cat continues to escalate and do continually more impressively badass things, but the scale of conflicts she engages in means there's a lot of focus on big battles and politics too rather than just individual action.
u/tjhance [+1] (a day later)
Thanks, this was useful information.
u/royishere [+1] (a day later)
I thought the plot quality dropped significantly after the war college (though the prose quality continues to increase) and the parts I once found charming and fun have become grating and annoying. A lot of the most interesting parts of the setting got not-exactly-retconned to be less interesting and now I'm struggling to find anything redeeming about the continued story.
If you've reached the war college and you aren't enjoying it now, I would give up.
u/LordGoldenroot [+4] (a day later)
I was the opposite in that I thought the war college was a huge drop in quality before going back up after that arc ended. I think different parts of the story appeal to different people so whether its quality increases or decreases at certain points likely depends on the reader in question.
u/hoja_nasredin [+2] Dai-Gurren Brigade (a day later)
war college
For it was the lowest point. No real stakes, and it was very boring.