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[RT] [HF] Mother of Learning Chapter 51: Out of Control

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u/Lugnut1206:

Three restarts to recover the memory packet with obviously crucial information and he goes and potentially pisses off red cloak? Red cloak has been AWOL for dozens of restarts, what are the odds he'll return within the next three?

u/OutOfNiceUsernames:

It feels like the memory deterioration deadline is used whenever something needs to be handwaved away and is ignored whenever the main plotline needs to be advanced.

I am guessing author is trying to synchronise the moment when the two plot lines (Aranea’s revelation v.s. Ultimate stand down) will blow up in Zorian’s face, and the timelines ended up a bit more mismatched than originally intended.

u/abcd_z:

> It feels like the memory deterioration deadline is used whenever something needs to be handwaved away and is ignored whenever the main plotline needs to be advanced.

I feel this way as well.  In chapter 48 he decides to go to Cyoria because "he didn't need to set aside an entire restart to [attack aranea and learn to read memory packets]".

Uh yeah, he kind of does!  Time is limited and every minute counts!

u/BSSolo:

Yes.  This is incredibly dumb on Zorian's part.

Stretching his timeline out into something linear, he has a deadline in 3 months, and some things he wants to get done in the next year.  

Not only does he neglect the nearest deadline for a further one, but he does it in a way that may result in him "losing" weeks of time due to an early reset.

How many updates have we been putting off the memory packet for now?

u/-Fender-:

Has it been confirmed that it works this way? I mean, if Zorian dies after one week, would the mind packet degrade by a full month anyway, or would it only degrade by that one week? 

Does his soul get sent back immediately (and concurrently from the souls of Zach and Red Robe and any other potential time stragglers because of time shenanigans), or does it remain floating around somewhere for the entire duration of the restart, with the mind packet continuously degrading, for the entire month until the restart?

u/xibfeii:

I agree with you that from what we know of soul/memory mechanics it seems somewhat unlikely that the packet would decay while dead, and highly unlikely that it would decay further by "switching" a reset (which is Zorian's preferred response to a bad situation). Recall that Memory of Sublime Glories gave the initial time limit as 3 months, which has nothing to do with number of restarts.

Indeed, if there are a limited amount of "low hanging" aranean minds to experiment on, a strategy to optimize 
"(memory research)/(time limit used)" would be to force a restart every time he begins to exhaust these easy prey (of course this would alert red robe, and speed the distant degrading of the time loop, but would be a potential last resort)

However, I'm unsure whether either Zorian or nobody103 agree with this line of thought: the wording from the latest chapter of "2 restarts left" instead of "2 months left" mildly suggests they do not.

u/-Fender-:

I thought that the reason Zorian usually didn't go twice after the same web was because after reading their minds once, he saw no value in doing so again, as he had already gone through them. Maybe he thought that there were no longer any secrets hidden in that particular aranea, or that if he had done it once, that he would be able to do so again effortlessly and thus it would be useless to him in gaining more skills?

They never really specified, so it's hard to tell whether or not that method you suggested would truly help.

u/Xtraordinaire:

I think Zorian's love of multitasking is clouding his judgement. However, from a story-telling standpoint...

HELL, IT'S ABOUT TIME.

u/melmonella:

>Red cloak

If Red Robe ends up being that red cloak goblin from the Order Of The Stick, it would be the bestest plot twist ever.

u/literal-hitler:

It depends on if the universe runs on cause and effect or narrativium.

u/Lugnut1206:

It's supposed to be cause and effect if it's in this subreddit

u/None:

[deleted]

u/Dwood15:

It also might just mean that Zorian himself is not entirely rational. Everything going on in the story has a reason. His priorities could be getting messed up.

u/vallar57:

With every restart the Red Robe doesn't show up the probability of him showing rises, assuming we take that he is preparing something as a basis. If Zorian can run investigation in parallel with researching mind magic, then there is little reason not to. And if the Red Robe isn't brewing anything, then no harm done.

u/cretan_bull:

Alternatively, with every restart Red Robe doesn't show, the probability that something permanent happened to him and he won't be appearing in the future increases.

u/None:

I have a crazy theory what if red robe needs to interact with a time traveler to update his memories? And his current strategy isn't working.

It would explain why he spent so much time with the invasion; assuming he knew zach was a compete moron and  always took the bait

u/Nepene:

While the memory packet is useful, he is pissing off red cloak to get the same info that the Aranea acquired. She investigated the invaders with the full resources of her nation, he's investigating it with the full force of Eldemar. It's useful, but it's hardly obvious that it's more useful than a proper investigation being an alien mind package from someone with little proper under. Furthermore, it's not like he's had a general policy of completely avoiding risks up to this point. He fought Aranea with mind magic and attacked the invaders and invaded the manor before. 

If he lets Red Cloak enact his scheme then he may return at any time (and he expects him to return soon) with some gamechanging plan that ruins him. The army is there to act as a huge bullet soak. The army pisses off red cloak and the church, and to get to him Red has to fight through the army and the church, forces which already have shown they can defeat the lich who is superior to Red.

u/melmonella:

>unless he found a way to instantly reach another continent

Yep, it's confirmed, Zorian will meet Damien eventually. This can't not be foreshadowing.

u/ZeroNihilist:

If only he'd come across long-range teleportation devices. A gate of some sort, perhaps.

u/melmonella:

A shame no such thing exists in a working condition.

u/None:

Its not like a average student would be able to operate it anyway

u/None:

Not a bad chance that it's because these battles are going to get WAY too intense for even small armies. A whole city is destroyed, so pulling all the talent off the bench is going to be necessary if he's taking it seriously, which means... asking his very talented brother for help.

u/Gauntlet:

There's somemething I've been wondering and forgetting for a while now, the beginning of this chapter brought it back to me. We know Zorian is sleeping through the first 8 hours of the time loop, is he ever going to find a spell that will force his soul to wake him up at midnight? What could he influence if he did that? How important are those first 8 hours?

u/Red_Navy:

If he doesn't find a way to wake up on time he's going to be vulnerable to any looper that finds his identity. He really needs to get on that.

u/Lethalmud:

Were not even sure if it is not already happening. If red robe would kill him in his sleep on 9 out of 10 restarts, Zorian wouldn't even notice.

u/InsaneBranch:

Now that's a scary thought.
It would also explain RR's perceived inactivity.

u/pizzahotdoglover:

I've been wondering why he doesn't just train his mind to wake up in the middle of the night in the weeks leading up to the restart.  Even just getting in the habit of waking up early would save him from getting jumped on every time.

u/GlueBoy:

I think there's a lot of evidence pointing towards Red Robe being Zac's rebellious simulacrum. I've thought this since my latest re-read, and this chapter pretty much confirms it in my mind.

u/cretan_bull:

The only other mentions of simulacrums in the story are:

### Chapter 26 - Soulkill
> For a moment, the matriarch was afraid that they had killed the man, making all her preparations and plotting meaningless… but the reality turned out to be far worse than that. Instead of erupting into a shower of blood and gore, the robed man simply… turned into smoke.

>The opponent they had been fighting hadn't been the third time traveler in person. It had been merely an ectoplasmic shell infused with some of his skill and magic. A simulacrum, meant to test the waters and distract them.

> A cone of purple light washed over the room, instantly slaying all of the human mercenaries and scores of her loyal aranea. Damnation – their opponent had taken advantage of the distraction their simulacrum had provided and set up an ambush of his own. She turned to sound a retreat to-

### Chapter 29 - The Hunters and the Hunted

> Grey hunters had known weaknesses. First of all, they were purely melee opponents – if you could keep them at distance, there was nothing they could do to you. The trouble was that they were really, really good at closing in on their target. Secondly, they were ultimately just magical animals so they could be lured into prepared traps and kill zones fairly easily. The problem here was that they were fast and tough enough to probably survive such a blunder. The magic sense the grey hunter demonstrated in Zorian's first encounter with it probably also helped it avoid the most blatant of such traps.

>He could think of a several ways to trap it, but most of them required knowledge of spells that he didn't have. If he knew how to make a simulacrum and open portals, he could simply send in his simulacrum as bait and then open a portal leading to wherever he set the trap up. Hell, simply knowing how to make a simulacrum would make things a million times easier since he could make test his ideas without endangering himself. If he knew large terrain alteration spells he could simply seal it off in its lair and wait for it to suffocate. If he knew the spells to manipulate large amounts of water he might be able to drown it. And so on, and so on…

It's already confirmed that at one point in time Red Robe was a simulacrum, so that is evidence (though fairly weak) for your theory. If simulacrums are "sufficiently real that some people have argued the use of the spell is inherently unethical", then it seems possible that a simulacrum has sufficient agency to make different decisions than its progenitor. Alternatively, as a creation by soul magic, perhaps it might be possible for a hostile necromancer to forcibly create a simulacrum of a targeted individual and twist its purpose to their will; could Red Robe have been created by Quatach-Ichl when he attacked Zach and then have persisted separately in the time loop through Zach's soul mark?

Red Robe's simulacrum was killed by the aranea, then he ambushed and "soul-killed" the aranea, then he defeated Zorian and he hasn't turned up since. If Red-Robe-as-a-simulacrum could create a simulacrum of himself, that would be consistent with his ambush of the aranea.

Red Robe's disappearance could be elegantly explained if it was a consequence of the destruction of his simulacrum, however I don't see a particularly plausible set of circumstances and events that would be consistent with this. Perhaps the destruction of the simulacrum somehow confused the time loop sufficiently that it failed to loop him. If the time loop was built by people, programmed in soul magic, then it almost certainly has bugs. The destruction of a simulacrum of a simulacrum of the targeted entity might just hit a corner case.

It is also possible that Red Robe is some sort of soul construct, similar to but more "real" than a simulacrum, created by Quatach-Ichl from Zach. This might make it more credible that Red Robe could create his own simulacrum. Importantly, it means that if we learn more about the limitations of simulacrums and they are inconsistent with Red Robe's actions or being looped, it wouldn't necessarily contradict this theory.

u/-Fender-:

> Perhaps the destruction of the simulacrum somehow confused the time loop sufficiently that it failed to loop him. If the time loop was built by people, programmed in soul magic, then it almost certainly has bugs. The destruction of a simulacrum of a simulacrum of the targeted entity might just hit a corner case.

I can't speak for the rest, but we know that this explanation cannot be right. The restart in which Red Robe confronted Zorian was the one after his simulacrum had been defeated. Therefore, we can confirm that he has already looped at least once since this event. 

Furthermore, he seems to have a much better understanding of the time loop's characteristics and limitations than anyone else. If anyone would be aware of such an obvious problem with his own existence and the time loop itself, it would be him. Therefore, I strongly doubt that he would have used one of the only spells that could permanently disable himself. He's never shown himself to be this foolish.

u/MaddoScientisto:

wait a second.
What if the simulacron gets made only when Zach doesn't fight his guardian and flees?

Did we see red robe or his influence in loops in which Zach didn't stay home?

I'm theorizing that the simulacron is created from Zac by the guardian or somebody else if he stays in cyoria and if he flees at the start of the loop then it doesn't get made at all

u/-Fender-:

Without Red Robe's influence, the invasion would never be as successful. (Without the summoned demons, anyways.) We've seen this ever since the aranea have been killed, since the invaders no longer have the knowledge to take over the wards around the Academy, or to know where the most effective places to land artillery strikes are located. With Red Robe's knowledge, they are fully capable of doing these things. We've often seen the invasion play through with success even without Zach's presence before the aranea were killed, even when he had taken on Tesen.

So that cannot be it. It does not completely remove the possibility that Tesen himself is Red Robe, but it does disprove the theory that Zach dueling Tesen removes Red Robe from the entire equation.

u/OutOfNiceUsernames:

>Simulacrums do not have [souls]

How would it survive a reset without a soul of its own? Or do you mean Zac’s main soul is currently feeding two bodies?

u/GlueBoy:

I don't think that the process by which red robe survives a reset has been teased yet. My theory is that the simulacrum came about as a result of the whole situation revealed regarding Zac's family and inheritance in the last chapter. Kind of like a wonky "dark side" thing HPMOR had going on with Harry. This additional mention of simulacrums is meant to remind the reader of this previously established, unfired chekov's gun.


What I think will happen is that the upcoming end of arc 2 will reveal the identity of Red Robe at the climax, leaving the exact details as a cliffhanger. Zorian will be confronted on his distrust of Zac in some way, perhaps causing him to change his mind on it, and then he will be vindicated when Zac unwittingly betrays him, and Red Robe is revealed.

u/FiveColorGoodStuff:

Yes, Zorian's Arc-1 dream of levitating Kirielle has finally been realized!

I think this battle might be the end of Arc 2. It's already about to reach Arc 1's length (26 chapters) and this might be a suitably big event to end it on, depending on what is discovered in the mansion. If not this, then perhaps the opening of the memory packet will do it. Ether way, the story is heating up!

u/ZantetsukenX:

I'm leaning towards the memory packet reveal being the big climactic finish of the arc.

u/CorneliusPhi:

Yeah probably, but I think this represents the beginning of the end, as it were.

u/Cheese_Ninja:

Zorian finally achieves his goal of levitating his little sister at the beginning of the loop.  I think he entirely skipped the small animal portion of that training, (the last living thing I remember him levitating was a praying mantis) so Xvim's lessons must have been pretty damn useful.

I agree with the other poster that going after Sudomir instead of focusing on the memory packet wasn't entirely sensible, but at least Zorian made an attempt to explain his actions and things spiraled out of his control pretty quickly once Alanic decided he needed to be involved.  I feel like the major factor is still plot reasons though.  The information in the packet would either alter his later decisions too much and/or it would be more dramatic to reveal it after this particular storyline.

Feels like that early bit of discussion with Barak is some supporting evidence for the time loop being alternate universes, because of the whole "copies of people" thing.  

The basic theory I'm running on at this point:

1. From the original timeline at the start of the planar alignment, a few hours before Zorian wakes up, a copy is made of the nearby physical universe.

2. Copies of souls are added. For time loopers, it uses the soul that existed at the end of the last loop.  For "soulkilled" beings, it doesn't make copies at all.

3. This splinter universe and people in it carry out their lives for a month, at which point the planar alignment reaches its peak and the splinter universe ceases to exist, any "time-looper" souls tagged by the master spell are then inserted into their new bodies in another newly created universe. This can be triggered early with the death of the prime time-looper (Zach) or activation of the switch on Zach and Zorian's souls.

4. Rinse and Repeat several thousand times.  The timeloop spell runs out of charge.

5. Loop ends, the time-looper souls are reinserted into their original bodies at the start of the "loop".  "Soulkilled" beings are once again present.  

And then we'll have the final story arc, with no second chances at that point.  Interference from demonic/divine planes will once again be on the table, as will predicting the future after the planar alignment's peak.

u/vallar57:

Everything you neeed from a chapter. A clear show of MC power growth, a bit of worldbuilding/research, badass secondary characters, some good action, and a cliffhanger. Awesome.

u/None:
```
[deleted]
```
- u/Dwood15:
```
Always too short.
```

u/Agasthenes:

Bonedragon, that seems like a interesting fight. I wonder where that thing was before...

u/theneoroot:

Probably wasn't "assembled", or maybe in the end of the restart it is sent somewhere.

u/-Fender-:

Maybe simply hidden in the roof of the mansion. After all, personally, I wouldn't release a giant undead dragon in my house to kill a single intruder, even if I had one at my disposal. Especially if I have a priceless crystal pillar that I've been working on for over a decade located in there.

u/Agasthenes:

Okay, and it is gigantic. Probably wouldn't even fit inside the mansions halls

u/Averusblack:
```
Trapped under a glacier in Icecrown.
```

u/Xtraordinaire:

That chapter name is promising. Yep, registering multiple substance impacts on the fan.  

When Alanic said the soul well was tugging on his souls... Is it a typo or does he really have multiple souls?

And... as long as we're talking of plurals, I'm fairly certain plural of vortex is vortices. (don't hate me)

So, Zorian made a huge splash. It is possible that the gateway to Ibasa is already functioning and invaders will be sending backup in the next chapter, meaning even further escalation of conflict. Not that they have a chance against Military forces, but they could wipe Zorian's party, since it's not a full-blown army and then stall, maybe. Somehow.

The bigger problem is that this should alert Red Robe in the next restart to see if Zorian would repeat the assault on Sudomir. Zorian should really try to lay low and focus on that memory packet. The clock is still ticking.

u/literal-hitler:

Yeah, the tugging on his souls part was annoying. I think Zorian would have said something if it weren't a typo.

>noun, plural vortexes, vortices

www.dictionary.com/browse/vortex

u/Xtraordinaire:

Hm. My bad.

I will still insist that vortices has a better ring to it.

u/I-want-pulao:

It's a typo - I read it again and it shows up as 'tugging on my soul'.

u/bumbiedumb:

I love the world building that nobody103 is currently doing. However i have a few questions and speculations particularly on the politics of Altazia that i wish for clarification.

NOTE: I highly suggest people View the map and READ all of the comments below the Map

1.) Where did The Weeping originated from?

The Weeping, in my opinion, is the most interesting point in telling history of Altiazia. It acts a major catalyst for the whole story. The Weeping wipeout 1/5 of a country population. Sapping the vitality of major nations and their ability to wage wars, due to the reduced productivity & loss of population. This break in turn allows lots of micro-nations to continue to exist after the Splinter wars.(More in Details later) The Ulquuan Ibasa seizes the opportunity to launch an invasion. (Which seems to be extremely ineffective in the terms geopolitics and more like to terrorism). The only clue given on the origin of Weeping is that it originated from Eldemar. The logical Conclusion i have is that the Weeping is naturally born from the war during the splinter wars. Diseases such as thyroid, INFLUENZA *wink*, Syphilis, cholera could traces their existence in Major Wars/ Warring period. (source below)
I like this idea as it adds depth into the World Building by showing that the world built is dynamic and the events are interrelated somehow, a sense of realism to the world.

source: http://urbanrim.org.uk/diseases.htm

2.) The reason Behind The Great Push.
Colonizing and cultivating new lands is extremely costly in terms of money, resource & Manpower. Historically, the colonization of Americas boils down to 2 points, 1. The hope of finding gold 2. Escape from European religious and feudal war. It makes no sense for Eldemar to devote its resources into cultivating new lands when

1. No mention of precious mental or resources throughout the story in the Great Northern Forest.

2. Weak, fertile/developed micro-States neighbors ripe for the taking. Developed lands are way easier, cheaper and profitable than cultivating new ones.  

3. Strong rivals that are either Extremely Wealthy/Technologically Advance or have Powerful Military. The rival Nations may threaten Eldemar if it focus too much resources into cultivating & colonizing new land, neglecting its military or technology.

4. Decentralizes the government. Larger area = harder to maintain = more power to governor/merchant/church/Mage Guild*(*Impt). A big No-No to any monarchy constitution. 


I speculate that Eldemar are diplomatically isolated by her rivals and neighbor states. Meaning, all of them wants Eldemar to fuck off. This could be due to the fact that Eldemar is the direct successor to the old alliance and a lot of historic grievance towards Eldemar due to The Splinter Wars. This provide powerful incentives for other major power to form a coalition to wipe out Eldemar. Couple with the fact that Eldemar is located in Altiazia Central valley, which infers that Eldemar sits on a large spread of fertile plains that geographically speaking extremely easy to invade.

Eldemar might had taken the Russian approach and colonize large swath of land as buffer zones. (For more information into Russian reasons for colonizing Siberia the *Video Link* below provides a great summary into the subject) might plan and using the Great Winter Mountains as a geography barrier thats much easier to defend. (Look at map 2) 


 Map Link 1: http://dodo-ptica.deviantart.com/art/Altazia-Political-Outline-575261642

 Map Link 2: http://dodo-ptica.deviantart.com/art/Altazia-479207173

 Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE6rSljTwdUThey


4.) Is the Lich, Quatach-Ichl the de-facto Leader/King of  Uquaan Ibasa? Is the Lich a Rational Actor in the story or is he mad and dangerous.

The Lich is my favourite character in the story for 1. the most OP character inside the story. 2. Seems to be highly intelligent/rational, given that his the most powerful mage in existence for a thousand years or something. The personality of the Lich is very important as to the next question.

5. What is even the purpose of Cyoria invasion for the Ibasans.

The Invasion itself seems to me to be utterly meaningless. Why would a country sent its finest army and general to commit seemingly meaningless terrorism?!? Even trying to summon a primordial demon just to wreak meaningless havoc! Even Real life terrorist have their own agenda in carrying out terrorism. It would make zero sense for a country to spend so much resources (Eg. Loot-crates filled with expensive potions and Cash) They even use up tamed Trolls which i guess cost a fucking bomb to breed and train. Sure its mentioned that the Ibasan felt left out by the rest of the continent and wanting to stay relevant like a suburban dad with his teenage son, but this invasion seems to be a utter waste of time and resources for such a poor country. They simply do not have the logistics and resource available in maintaining rule even after conquering it.First will be the army, than rebellion, followed opportunist neighboring countries invasion. The campaign was doomed to fail!
Summoning the primordial rampaging around the continent is practically asking for it. Countries might group up and attack the Ibasan island as they view them to be a very serious threat. The same way america felt after 911 for this invasion. 
The invasion might be a rally point for a full blown invasion with full public support. Hell, even Zorian himself also said so that the government will act instead of idle around if the invasion succeeded.
I hated this as it portrays the Ibasans as the same villain you will find in cartoons that find joy in creating meaningless trouble. The enemy suddenly feel very shallow and exist purely for the sake of the plot. 

I feel that this invasion should serve as a act in a grander geopolitical strategy. For example, to become the 4th Force in the Altazia Central valley. The Ibasan have been looking for ways to get back into Altazia ever since the Necromancy Wars. However, as the old alliance stands, they do not have much chance against a singular powerful force that could crush any chance of invasion. So, they waited for any opportunity that arises and that first opportunity arises from the ashes of Splinter wars. The Old Alliance have finally been broken apart, however being isolated for the continent for a long time, their military was simply unmatched for the more technological advance militaries of the central continent nations. However, The Weeping which wiped out nearly 1/5 of the population on central continent had greatly reduced military power and influence of the bigger nation such as Eldemar and Sulamnon. The Ibasan view this as an opportunity to re-enter Altazia politics. The first thing they need to do is to be "relevant", to do so they decided invade Cyoria. I mean what better way to say your powerful and scary than to suddenly invade the second biggest city filled with powerful mage with a freaking huge as army that have mutant trolls and ironbeaks and ending off with summoning a huge as primordial beast in the middle of the said city. The Ibasan prolly plan for the primordial to rampage around the countryside of Eldemar for a day or two before it running out of juice. They then prolly "mysteriously" disappeared back in Cyoria.

Once the invasion is proclaimed successful, they could start reaching out towards all the smaller states who are sick of the three major powers. I mean between your neighbor enemy who prolly will annex you the next few years or an potentially strong ally who demonstrated the ability to raze a fucking city with an army of beast and able to summon a huge ass powerful beast to destroy you, theres really not much of a competition. Beside the Ibasans Mainland is so far away from the altazia continent. The huge distance could provide the smaller states relief as if they ever go to war with the Ibasans, they will have trouble maintaining the huge logistics and supply line for a prolonged war. 

The end goal of the Ibasans is to establish itself as the 4th power by creating a new alliance of smaller noble nations, encircling the major power (REFER TO THE MAP BELOW) and acting as the center pillar of the alliance.

Map Link 3: http://dodo-ptica.deviantart.com/art/Altazia-s-Central-Valley-525095257

__________________________________________________________________________________________
I hope that i have not missed out any minor details in the story and feel free to correct me if theres any flaws in my theory and pleas provide me with your opinion and your take on the political situation in Altazia. I Hated stories that perceive history and politics as a single chain of events. It should be dynamic as many factors are always connected with each other; cause(s) and effect(s). If requested i will do sort of a story version of the history Altazia Named "Splinter of Splinters" and post it up on reddit :P

All Links___________________________________________________________________________________

 Source: http://urbanrim.org.uk/diseases.htm

 Map Link 1: http://dodo-ptica.deviantart.com/art/Altazia-Political-Outline-575261642

 Map Link 2: http://dodo-ptica.deviantart.com/art/Altazia-479207173

 Map Link 3: http://dodo-ptica.deviantart.com/art/Altazia-s-Central-Valley-525095257

 Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE6rSljTwdUThey


Edit: i Missed out on mentioning of the relationship between the Crown and the Mage Guild

u/nobody103:

>I speculate that Eldemar are diplomatically isolated by her rivals and neighbor states. Meaning, all of them wants Eldemar to fuck off.

You don't have to speculate this - this is exactly what Eldemar's diplomatic situation is about. I implied so pretty heavily in the story, and directly said so on DeviantArt. The problem is that Eldemar's leadership is really arrogant and pushy in their diplomacy. They hate to compromise on anything and are pretty open about wanting to reabsorb all the other splinter states under rather unfavorable terms. They're the only legitimate successor of the Old Alliance, dammit, why are all these little statelets demanding that Eldemar treat them as legitimate sovereign nations!?

And, of course, if they attack any one of those little states they're basically plunging the continent right back into another round of Splinter Wars... which they can't afford to do at the moment.

>If requested i will do sort of a story version of the history Altazia Named "Splinter of Splinters" and post it up on reddit :P

I really have to get going in regards to writing those worldbuilding posts I've been meaning to do since forever...

u/None:

>The Invasion itself seems to me to be utterly meaningless. Why would a country sent its finest army and general to commit seemingly meaningless terrorism?!? Even trying to summon a primordial demon just to wreak meaningless havoc!

I feel necromancy and any of the angle/demon stuff are both poorly explained and based on the planet alignment and time travel being linked, probably deeply related

Maybe demons are/have masses of soul energy? And this lich used a terrorist group to summon it just to drain it

Maybe the lich was late to join in this war and he's really after the soul crystal? He does have all his forces go through the place its being held which the day after the invasion may, just may be on their way home

u/None:

[deleted]

u/Jon_Freebird:

Yeah, it's cool to see him mastering the levitation. Last time we saw him working on it he was struggling with a preying mantis and now he can lift Kiri for an hour.

u/Gauntlet:

The fire vortex seems like a hood spell to teach his classmates for the end of the month.

u/-Fender-:

(Repost from the [noveltranslations thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/noveltranslations/comments/4d8aso/en_mother_of_learning_chapter_51/))

Two things that stood out to me in this chapter were that we learned (even if we had to suspect it to some extent) why best-girl-Tinami was interested in Zorian's lineage, being from a witch family and probably sharing their interest in bloodlines. It's likely that knowing that Zorian had witch blood in his veins was enough for her to consider him a good prospect for marriage or reproduction with her or another member of her family.

Second thing that I thought was interesting was this line by Alanic (emphasis mine):

> "There is no need," Alanic said calmly. "I can feel the spiritual sinkhole tugging at my **souls** easily enough."

Either this was a typo, either Alanic has somehow gained multiple souls through his soul magic ventures, or either he has given us another hint on the true nature of souls, that they are not single and integral entities, but rather a combination of many distinct parts. As long as the explanation is not the first I mentioned, this is very interesting.

Edit: Alanic's line has been confirmed to be no more than a typo.

u/traverseda:

Confirmed as typo. Well at least it's fixed now.

u/-Fender-:

Well that's disappointing, although probably more consistent with Alanic's character. 

Thanks for pointing out the correction.

u/None:

[deleted]

u/-Fender-:

Something to consider though is that Zorian himself gave Tinami no indication whatsoever that he was psychic in that restart. And since she has made no mention of him being open in that restart and any other, and since she requires spells to be able to use mind magic, we know that she isn't open herself, and therefore wouldn't be able to find that out about Zorian without him telling her.

So although I am sure that she suspected that it was possible that Zorian had some bloodline power from his witch grandmother, she had no way of confirming whether such a power was ever in his family, or whether his bloodline power (if any) would be related to psychic abilities, or whether she could somehow inherit it herself rather than her own children inheriting it.

So it definitely opens up a potential path for Zorian becoming close to the Aope family in the future, but with the limited amount of information Tinami held in that restart, she had no way to know that he was related to any psychic abilities. Unless she is aware of things we aren't, and all witches are psychics to some degree. Or unless her excitement was because the possibility existed that his family used to be psychic, and she was looking forward to investigating the possibility herself for any potential heirs Zorian might have.

u/theneoroot:

Very nice chapter, I hope the story keeps surprising me, but the longer it gets the easier it will be to foresee what will happen.

I believe the aranea memory pack will have very limited use to Zorian, he'll discover something really important but it will take several restarts to do something with/about it. There probably will be things he dismisses/overlooks that are important, though. There always are.

What I'm most excited about however is how far can he get with Xvim properly instructing him. What worries me is the fact that the loop is "deteriorating", we don't really know what that means yet, right? I hope the story doesn't simply end without the loop ending, or when the loop ends, but that it keeps going for some time. It'll be fun to have Zorian get used to being mortal and having no time again.

As for Red Robe, the simulacrum idea makes a bit of sense, but I really doubt that he is Zach's, because if he truly is then wouldn't killing Zach also end Red Robe? Why would the simulacrum have to mind read Zach? He might be something else, maybe when the Lich used the spell that brought Zorian into the loop, he also mangled Zach's soul enough that it created another being entirely? Zach went missing for several loops after that and came back with his memories all screwed up, he likely hasn't gotten them back yet, so Red Robe might be a "soul twin" with part of Zach's memories or such.

TL;DR Story is developing nicely, can't wait till Zorian can be strong enough to deal with surprises. I seriously hope it happens, the fact that he could get in trouble if a dozen owls attack him by surprise is kind of pathetic. I also wish he did more life-risking things, like going after the grey hunter. Ending restarts by the time limit is boring.

u/Anderkent:

This chapter felt shorter than the previous one - maybe because I tend to skim over the 'Kirelle is being spoiled again' parts - but hey! Things are happening!

u/2-4601:

A shame nobody in Cyoria made *The Exorcist* before Zorian's mum saw Kirelle floating down the stairs.

u/solthas:

Found a couple potential typos.

> I'm guessing that there are more people with, shall we say, interesting *background* than most people would be willing to admit.

backgrounds?

> He gave Batak a non-comital response, unsure whether he should take the man's offer, and *left home*.

left for home?

> There is no need," Alanic said calmly. "I can feel the spiritual sinkhole tugging at my *souls* easily enough.

my soul?

u/usui_no_jikan:

Alanic is perhaps much stronger than he shows, even here, given

"I can feel the spiritual sinkhole tugging at my **souls**" (emphasis mine)


Having more than one soul may power him in the manner similar to how Sudomir powers his wards.

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[RT] [HF] Mother of Learning Chapter 51: Out of Control

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