Brief Q&A

[sythyry]

And how did they determine a tail was required for the magic, if everything she's around seems to do the magic for her? I admit, this one confuses me a bit. Unless... maybe the deity (Gornn or something?) has changed the nendrai again and they actually don't require a tail to do magic? Ew... that'd be unpleasant -- endless magic, limited only by the kid's imagination. ;-p

Gnarn

Well, we're pretty sure it all starts at the tail, and not just because nendrai all say that it does. We have, as best we can, been watching all of Vae's magic use for a year. She's cast two spells that didn't involve her tail, but they were little spontaneous spells that cost cley in the usual way -- I could have done the same. Nendrai get the same sort of magic that primes get, as well as their tail Mutoc powers, but they just don't use them very often.

This was when she was with Greenspikes. She was trying to look unobtrustively prime at the time. Now, no sensible prime would spont a spell to unspill a cup of water when she was drinking outdoors and the well was nearby -- that is the hallmark and habit of someone with unlimited magic. But she used ordinary child's magic to do it.

Anyways, all of the other spells that we've seen have actually come from her tail -- or from whatever part of herself her tail got shapeshifted into. With the tree, it was one of the branches. They've all been from tailtouch, and cast on something she was tailtouching -- which can, unfortunately, always include herself, the air nearby, the space nearby, the ambient light, the ambient sound, and various other things. So, if she wanted to blast someone with lightning, she'd turn a breeze on her tail into a lightning bolt aimed at them.

If she wanted to turn someone into a large pot of osso buco, she'd have to touch them with her tail. But, since she's so good at Locador, she can probably use another spell to let her tailtip touch something half a mile away.

Which can, incidentally, be defended against in various ways. I don't get those defenses myself, since I am likely to be near enough for a mundane tailtouch and I'm not supposed to be fighting her. The people who are being equipped to fight her will have those defenses. I don't know much about them, of course -- it's not Strenata or Rhedwy, though I think Paarhan might be. I don't want to be involved! I don't want to be seen as someone from whom that information could be extracted!

She could certainly be trying to decieve us on this point. She was canny enough to be careful not to cast her better spells when we were around, except when she was very upset.

Comments

[collie13.livejournal.com]

That clarifies considerably -- thank you! Fascinating world you live in. ;)

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Some weeks I'd rather move to a tedious one.

[Bard grins, though. Since this is an RPG setting, we've got a much more concrete magic theory (and many other things) that a typical fantasy writer needs or wants. It's actually a hard SF setting, IMAO, but one in which the laws of physics are people. Some of them psychopathic.]

[yotogi.livejournal.com]

Some of them psychopathic.

Those are the best ones!

[striderhlc.livejournal.com]

[I can only assume that in this case, IMAO stands for "In My Almighty Opinion"? :) ]

- HC

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

[In My Arrogant Opinion. I am definitely not Almighty.]