Comic Discussion - 20-03-2005

[Bigdude]

It's not necessary that the "rabble in the street" are convinced Quentyn's a hero, although the paper will help in that area.

The social circles that the miller's family run in will know, as will the wizards, the artificers and a bunch of other "movers and shakers".

Quentyn is now firmly in business .

[Dalak Lutra]

[quote="The JAM"][...unWARP!!!]

Good evening.


Hopefully, Sanctuary City officials will make a press release telling the REAL facts about all this.

And I'd like to see Rahan's face when he hears about this.

[Aurrin]

I don't know. In some ways, it would almost kinda kill one of the basic parts of what makes the story 'work' if he were suddenly considered to be real. Plus, I remember RH repeatedly saying that just because he beat the rats and kept them from the Luxfont didn't mean he'd get any real recognition. I have a feeling he will somehow get relegated to the back page of the main paper again, and although he'll have some supporters, he won't have many more.

[Maxgoof]

BTW - what is the translation of "too ra loo"?

Hooray! Yippee! Wow!

[Ringcaat]

Part of a song, I think? "Tura lura lie" comes to mind, although undoubtedly spelled differently and actually meaning something. :) Obviously here it means "How 'bout that?!"

Edit: Huh! Upon Googling, it looks like I actually spelled it right after all, and it's part of an old Irish lullaby. Could RH have thrown this in deliberately to coincide with St. Patrick's Day? Subconsciously, perhaps?

[Skip Sanders]

Re: remuneration

Well, there are probably laws regarding Questor 'salvage rights' when they deal with evil lairs, labs, and the like. Perhaps they get a 10% of salvaged value 'fee' on top of any contracted amount, or the like.

That would amount to quite a bit of cash, for this one, given the massive amounts of Pharaohs' Amber to be salvaged in there.

[SolidusRaccoon]

I don't know. In some ways, it would almost kinda kill one of the basic parts of what makes the story 'work' if he were suddenly considered to be real. Plus, I remember RH repeatedly saying that just because he beat the rats and kept them from the Luxfont didn't mean he'd get any real recognition. I have a feeling he will somehow get relegated to the back page of the main paper again, and although he'll have some supporters, he won't have many more.

Wekk it doesnt't matter if he gets formal reconition. He's still the number one hero to Collin and besides true heroes never get their full reconition.

[StrangeWulf13]

*snip* ..."river of black"... *snip*

Consider... when Quentyn tried kenning the shadow rats himself, and then used magesight, it was as if they weren't even there. They were like black holes in the flow of lux, sucking it all in and never releasing it. You know where they are by sight alone, or by the "cookie cutout" they make when using magesight.

Nessie basically kenned the underside of the city without trying, and panicked when she found a very large portion of it blacked out from her senses... and moving.

This somewhat relates to the "Pillars of Creation" introduced in the later novels of the Sword of Truth series. Author Terry Goodkind basically introduced people who were unaffected by magic, and couldn't see most of its fancier effects. A fireball or lightning bolt passed right through them with no harm done.

Now, the shadow rats weren't invulnerable to magic, but they did have a similar ability to appear almost invisible to those using their skill with magic to see. For all that person can tell, they are not there. Same with the Pillars of Creation. Any wizard or sorceress using their gift to see the world around them would find a contradiction: a person standing in front of them that their eyes said were there, but their gift said did not. Kinda like hearing a voice and not seeing where it's coming from.

Things are a bit flashier in the Questorverse, so it's only natural that Nessie would become concerned when an area of her kenning suddenly went black, and then started to move under the streets. Imagine having Superman's x-ray vision, and then discovering an area where you can't see through... and it's moving.

I think you'd be a might bit concerned about that.

[SolidusRaccoon]

Imagine having Superman's x-ray vision, and then discovering an area where you can't see through... and it's moving.

I think you'd be a might bit concerned about that.

Or a river of molten lead.

[Mwalimu]

Good explanation. I had to reread my own post to see what it was referring to. It turns out my choice of words wasn't the best.

When I spoke of other interpreting the "river of black", I meant those who hear about it secondhand or worse, whereas your reply is with respect to Nessie and any others who might have kenned it - your guess is as good as mine how many Rac Conan we're talking about here. But between them and the folk who actually saw the wights, we may not be talking about a lot of folk here.

Which brings me back to my original question - how are all the other folk, who had no firsthand exposure to the wights, going to react to the news about them, especially those in positions of authority? Will they even believe any of this happened at all?

[Kerry Skydancer]

Wights are known to them, even if rat-king wights aren't; they've got Irons and the Millfolks backing the story; they've got the newly-discovered Beither lair. If the powers-that-be don't believe the story at that point, they need to be replaced by someone with more than three functioning synapses per committee.

[StrangeWulf13]

To be honest? A snowball has a better chance in heck.

Wizard's First Rule: People are stupid because they believe what they want to be true, or what they fear to be true.

The pervading opinion about Questors in general varies, but it mostly is founded on the belief that they are obsolete, a throwback to old times. Like some of the newspapers said, it's sort of an "Aww, ain't that quaint?" kinda thing.

His reputation will go up, but it will not soar. People will believe what they want, and if it does not match the truth, well that won't bother them one bit.

The further away from the incident they were, and the less they know someone who was directly involved, the less likely they are to believe it.

The best way I can demonstrate it is by comparing this to people's reactions to 9/11.

While we do have a few advantages over the Rac Cona Daihm, what with TV and video cameras, some of our responses were similar as to what we may see in the next few days (going by Questor time, that is).

Even though I've seen the videos and know these terrible things happened, it still seems so... unreal to me. Everything from the horrible deaths of those innocent people, to the invasion of Afgahnistan, and then Iraq, just seems so... distant.

I want to care, and I do. But it's so hard when something inside you doesn't want to believe, doesn't want to acknowledge what those evil men did to my country. The human urge to deny reality is strong sometimes, and in some people it's strong enough to push away sanity, replacing it with delusions they use to "cope" with their situation. The lengths people will sometimes go to in order to convince themselves something isn't real can be quite amazing.

Considering all this, and their lack of recording technology, how easy do you think it would be to convince a whole country of Rac Conans stuck in their ways that one boy saved their society from near disaster?

I do not have high hopes.

[Rich-online]

Regardless of whatever else happens, I bet Quentyn is going to rethink that holiday to the British Isles. I don't think he wants to see another wight

[Squirrelly61104]

One point that hasn't been considered in these learned discussions is what impact the name Beither is going to have on how the story is covered. Remember, this guy is the Rac-Conan Daimh equivelant of, you should pardon the expression, the boogey man.
IF the authorities back up Quentyn claim that he:
a) Found an abandoned lab of Beithers and
b) Dealt with one of Beithers creations
then Quentyns stock should go up significantly.
Consider: if I find a cache of forgotten US army armaments left over from WW II, and disarm an unstable weapon, I get 10 lines on page three.
If I find a cache of forgotten secret NAZI armaments left over from WW II, and disarm an unstable weapon, I get the cover of the New York Times.

On the other paw, people are going to start expecting Quentyn to resemble more his original portrait from fact and opinion. Clients are going to be expecting a broad shouldered, square chinned (muzzled?) he-man, to match his accomplishments. Having clients going 'oh pooh' when they actually meet him should keep his ego under control.

OFF TOPIC:
Regarding confusion over 911, I might recomend the March 2005 issue of Popular Mechanics. They debunk some of the rumors going around regarding that day. The stories circulating range from innocent statements blown all out of context to serious conspiracy nuts altering their 'evidence' to prove their claims.

[StrangeWulf13]

I read that. Think I put up a link to it in my Live Journal. Very informative.

I don't know if they cover every theory, but it is a good breath of fresh air and common sense, which is something we all need once in a while.

[LoneWolf23k]

Wights are known to them, even if rat-king wights aren't; they've got Irons and the Millfolks backing the story; they've got the newly-discovered Beither lair. If the powers-that-be don't believe the story at that point, they need to be replaced by someone with more than three functioning synapses per committee.

Either that, or the "Powers that Be" might quickly work to cover up the discovery, so as to avoid a panic or a rush of protest about "how the council missed one of Beither's lairs, even though they had him in custody for a year!"

[Tbolt]

Rats! Lonewolf, you beat me to the punch.

Bethier seems to be the Rac-conan's equivalent to Dr. Mengele. The powers that be may not want to publish the discovery of a semi-functional lab for three reasons I can think of:

1. Politics; someone in power might lose face because this lab that was supposed to have been destroyed somehow remained intact.

2. Crowd control; finding the Nazi equivalent to the manhattan project under the streets of manhattan might not rest well with the locals, the same might apply here.

3. Weirdos; is there a cult of Bethier that idolises him for some strange reason and might want to get ahold of his work by whatever means possible?

Given the facy that Bethier was executed some three centuries prior probably negates most of these concerns and our young hero will get most of the credit he deserves. I wonder if he might be hired to try to sniff out other possible surviving labs?

[SolidusRaccoon]

Number 3 would be a good possibility.

[StrangeWulf13]

It might not be people who are "disciples" persay of Rosad Beither. They may merely be upcoming biomancers whose morals are beginning to get a bit skewwed, like his were in his pursuit for the patronus monstrum. (I feel like I'm reciting a Harry Potter spell. Oh well...) These would be the most dangerous individuals to take an interest in such news. Most likely, the lab will be destroyed before they get a chance to peek at it, but there's no telling what inspirations they might glean from it.

There is no law that says all Rac Conans must be good people, just as there is no such law for humans or any other sentient species (angels and other such beings aside; they're kinda different from us, and not all believe in their existance). Who knows when the next Rosad Beither appears? Or worse yet, someone who gets himself into the "Kings of the Seven Villages" display... by taking several hundred innocents with him into his grave.

Whatever evil rears its ugly, wart-covered head, you can be sure the Rac Cona Daihm will not tolerate it, and our Questor lad may be at the front lines when the battle cry is sounded.

Only wish a dragon would crash into someone's backyard... and we'd all see just how truly powerful these ringtailed folk can be in large numbers.

Only thing I fear more than an army of hobbits is one made up of Rac Conans. They have no such delusions of "being late for supper" because an adventure falls into their laps.