Trinket (Nov 22)

[Catherine_Puce]

Oh yes, a well-prepared defense indeed... which, unfortunately, will only hold up in a Rac Conan court. All others have their own laws and customs, and his defense might not hold up in them.

Case in point... if the local Baron is the Law, Quentyn will have a bit of trouble trying to get out of jail if he offends his Odiousness. Not that he couldn't get help from someone to break out, but staying out of legal trouble will be much more difficult...

We could said the same for a Rac Conan's judge. Even if you win your case, you can to send in jail for offence to the court (the judge being the representative of the court and of the justice). They can be corrupted too and I trust the Duke to see how much Quentyn can more useful for him if he do community work that rot in jail. Hard labour born with a justice officer with a practical mind.

Quentyn sera toujours à la merci de lois injustes.

S.P.P.

[Persephone_Kore]

I'm not sure it was ever exactly supposed to be a legal defense in the first place, or at any rate it's not a case to make in court on its own. Not even back home, although back home the office of Questor is recognized (if sometimes reluctantly), which certainly makes things different from a place where, well, it isn't.

The journal is a written record that he would presumably have put down somewhat sooner (thus closer to the time of the events) than he would be likely to be called to account; thus his story would hopefully be organized, thought through about how to tell it, and so forth so that he wouldn't have to hem and haw and get tongue-tied due to lack of preparation. The journal is actually described, when first introduced, as a way for Quentyn to get his version of things to be the first version in writing. Presumably it would require not only copying out but some rewriting before he distributed it to a general audience -- sometimes it's possible to give a much more coherent account with hindsight than at intervals in the middle of events -- but having gotten a start and having a record is still good.

Being a Questor is only likely to help him, in a legal sense, in a Rac Conan court, this is true. But I think having written down his actions -- or, if he did indeed leave the journal safely in his ship, having thought about his actions already with it in mind that he would want to write them down later -- is still likely to be helpful to him in terms of explaining himself.

(I, on the other hand, am rambling, and will stop it now.)

[Axelgear]

.we need to see if Quentyn's going to explain what the lux sprites are and that they're harmless.

Şaaruuk

I hate to reach so far back but I had to take a stab at this...

I think we know why Quentyn doesn't explain it:

[url=http://npc.comicgenesis.com/d/20040108.html]There's other stuff both before and after this one, but it illustrates the point well[/quote]

Something does strike mes as odd though... He said "We ran into problems, however, when we ran into races to whom Lux was both invisible and intangible." Which makes me ask... Then how can Marsha see it?

[Catherine_Puce]

The lux itself is invsible and intangible. When you use it, this is not the same thing. The luxtricks aren't invisible. The only thing that humans don't see is the basic ressources to make this tricks. They are all around them but still they can see it. LIght coming from nowhere is magic, light seem a lot more mundane if you see the plug where it's connected.

C'est le mystère qui l'entoure qui rend la magie si merveilleuse.

S.P.P.

[Axelgear]

Hmm, true, but we also see Quentyn at a building where lux is created, and we can clearly see it manifesting as visual light. This tells me that Lux becoming visual and sensate is something another creature couldn't notice, but Rac's can. Therefore, does this not apply to ALL things?

And by the way, Lux seems to have some potency for Necromancy, which makes me wonder just how powerful it can become. If you can use it to bring in as much dark power as was used to create the Wights, could it not be used to essentially create a wave of dark power that could extinguish life much as one snuffs out a flame?

But that's just a random thought. Enjoy.

[StrangeWulf13]

Lux would extinguish large amounts of life only in the same way that the power released from a split atom would. In other words, by vaporizing anything within a set distance.

Remember, this is an energy here, not strictly magic. There are things it can and cannot do. It can create wights, but I'm not so sure it could do what you're suggesting, Axel. Besides, necromancy doesn't really exist in this universe, only the appearance of it. Any real "necromancy" is probably just biomancy or a chemical trick. Maybe even something using rare herbs, like the voodoo witches used.

As for Quentyn at the Luxfont... that was artistic expression. We're not seeing visible light so much as a Rac Conan's perception of lux. I know, it can be a little confusing, but remember that lux can't be seen without luxsight, and that not all "pretty lights" represent lux. In this comic, most of it is simply lux being wasted as a lightshow. May I present this and this as evidence to my point. Notice how the Rac Conan wizard doesn't use "pretty lights" when reclaiming his staff.

'Course, in this case, it's not really wasting it since he's trying to make them. Admit it; you'd like one too. I know I would!

[Axelgear]

Well, energy is energy, and the body is powered by electrical impulses. There's also the question where that oh-so-lovely five-rat thing came from. I think it's one of those things where science and fantasy blur.

I provide two explainations:

Scientific: Lux can manipulate magnetic and/or electrical energy in the air, as per the moving of objects. If you can manipulate it to the point where you can channel electricity out of one location and into another, you can, quite litterally, rip the electricity from a creatures heart and/or brain, causing them to die pretty much instantly. It can also be reformatted, reviving a creature but with the electric energy in their brain altered as to eliminate memory and ensure they only accept commands from a master. In essence, zombies. Another thought would be killing a creature and using electricity to shock their muscles to get them moving. The body would still decay, and they'd still move jerkily, as per the Zombie standard.

Fantasy: Creatures created using the darker aspects of Lux, as per Necromancy, can litterally drain the life from a creature, feeding on its very animus to empower themself.

Either explaination works and fits my suggestion.

[Earl McClaw]

I provide two explainations:

Scientific: <snip>

Fantasy: Creatures created using the darker aspects of Lux, as per Necromancy, can litterally drain the life from a creature, feeding on its very animus to empower themself.

Either explaination works and fits my suggestion.

Except that the second appears to violate some of Ralph's tennets for the TotQ world. As StrangeWulf13 said, Lux is just energy. As with fire and electricity, it doesn't have a "light" or "dark" aspect. That's a matter of the person using it.

An animated corpse would be more like a "flesh" golem, a construct of formerly living tissue that lux causes to move. It would have no mind or thoughts.

Ralph has already said that lux can't be used for mind control (and therefore probably no other telephathic-like effects), so wiping memories is out.

So far in the strip and the CDs the closest thing to the "undead" of any kind has been the wights, which fed not no "life" but on lux, which is generated by living things. Except that wights were not formerly living.

[Canis_lupus]

Ralph has already said that lux can't be used for mind control (and therefore probably no other telephathic-like effects), so wiping memories is out.

If this is true than how was Nessie able to control the animals as seen herehttp://npc.comicgenesis.com/d/20040323.html ? I dont remember every detail but i though she used Lux for that.

[BrockthePaine]

Ralph has already said that lux can't be used for mind control (and therefore probably no other telephathic-like effects), so wiping memories is out.

If this is true than how was Nessie able to control the animals as seen herehttp://npc.comicgenesis.com/d/20040323.html ? I dont remember every detail but i though she used Lux for that.

She convinced them, not controled them.

[BlasTech]

Also there's a relationship between how intelligent a creature is and how difficult it is to implant those kind of suggestions. The animals can be difficult (as we saw with the mudgullet), but for most sentient creatures its meant to be impossible.

[Nick012000]

Eh. You could still mess with someones head royally by causing magnetic/electrical feilds in a person's brain. Raw emotions, monotonous sensory input, and making someone move in a particular direction by messing with their sense of balance are easy. More complex things would be commensurably more difficult, however.

[Tom Mazanec]

What if you telekinesed the brain physically?

[Shyal_malkes]

I don't think that would work.

it's been discussed before that there is a kind of aura that exists that prevents or resists people making spells that directly effect internal organs and such.

not sure when I heard that but I thought of it as working like your personal code imprinted in the lux and in order to get a spell to work requires a different code, well if your own code already exists there then the code required for the spell has a more difficult time existing in the same place.

but that's just me.

[Shyal_malkes]

I don't think that would work.

it's been discussed before that there is a kind of aura that exists that prevents or resists people making spells that directly effect internal organs and such.

not sure when I heard that but I thought of it as working like your personal code imprinted in the lux and in order to get a spell to work requires a different code, well if your own code already exists there then the code required for the spell has a more difficult time existing in the same place.

but that's just me.

[MikeVanPelt]

it's been discussed before that there is a kind of aura that exists that prevents or resists people making spells that directly effect internal organs and such.

Hmmm.... Interesting. Now, does this lux shield exist in all life forms, or only those with lux ability? Maybe Quentyn discovers that humans are quite vulnerable to this means of attack.

[BlasTech]

it's been discussed before that there is a kind of aura that exists that prevents or resists people making spells that directly effect internal organs and such.

Hmmm.... Interesting. Now, does this lux shield exist in all life forms, or only those with lux ability? Maybe Quentyn discovers that humans are quite vulnerable to this means of attack.

I think i remember hearing that too, although i cant remember when I have a feeling the aura might work on the same basis (or actually be responsible for) the greater sentience - greater innate resistance to mind "control" effect.

[Shyal_malkes]

it's frustrating, I went into the between worlds RP Mun thread to see if that was where I'd heard it from (there's a lot of good info on the rac-cona, lux, and the seven villages that Ralph just drops into there, I was shocked at how much I'd actually forgotten already) but to no avail.

it wasn't in there, maybe in the Mysteries Mun thread? I'll have to look later. I've got an english paper to do and stuff.


...


what?! I actually try to do homework every now and again, there's nothing wrong with that, stop looking at me that way!

[Axelgear]

I don't think that would work.

it's been discussed before that there is a kind of aura that exists that prevents or resists people making spells that directly effect internal organs and such.

not sure when I heard that but I thought of it as working like your personal code imprinted in the lux and in order to get a spell to work requires a different code, well if your own code already exists there then the code required for the spell has a more difficult time existing in the same place.

but that's just me.

Can you say Plothole? Heh, just kidding. But that means if your personal code blocks certain things, cannot evil people weild it to control others?

[StrangeWulf13]

All right, let's clear things up a bit. Mind control is possible, but only to a certain extent, like hypnosis but stronger. It works best on small, simple creatures, such as birds, rats, mock tentacles, and bog dragons. The bigger and more intelligent, the more difficult it is to control or even give suggestions. "Like pushing seeds into hard earth" as it were.

Sentient creatures cannot be controlled, simply because they'll notice if someone's poking around in their brain. All it takes is one second to realize those thoughts are not your own... or that the headache you feel is the result of some idiot mage trying to make you his minion. That's when you rally the mob with torches and pitchforks.

Long story short, mind control cannot be done on anyone with sentience, whether Human or Rac Conan, and whether they're lux blind or a high-powered mage.

Still, there's always controlling a swarm of vermin to wreak destruction about the countryside.