Things to do before vacation, ideally over the next two weeks: - get European Vax Certificate on phone (take paperwork to pharmacy) - buy Pickerl for Austrian autobahn. shouldn't need to use any but if i do, the fines are draconian - make packing list (bring at least one nice dress)
I am stuck at work and it's tge new thing, so ask me worldbuilding questions about summoningverse i guess?
I am stuck at work and it's tge new thing, so ask me worldbuilding questions about summoningverse i guess?
Does every major city have a capital-N-Necromancer? Are there necros with that kind of political clout who aren't stuck to a territory?
Alright this gonna be A Long One. Short: no, but it's complicated Long: no, BUT Generally, the appeal of a City hinges on a number if factors. Size, sure. But age factors heavily, as does history. A City that's been a cultural/religious center for ages will be more attraktive than one that's only 100 years old but hugelarge. So Sydney, Australia? Less of a draw than Edinborough, despite being ten times the size. Because Syndey's not been densly settled for that long, and a lot if the things that would tie the dead to the place, like graves, Ritual sites family (even very distant family) from before it got officially founded isn't there anymore. But generally, old, bug places have Necromancers. They usually even have more than one. London used to be split up with the one with the most powerful portion getting the capital N. Matt is just....unusually strong to keep hold of that much on his own. But places like Beijing or Rome or Kairo or Delhi or Mexico City have entire families/clan in charge, with the head if the family getting the capital N. Or metaphirically getting it. Not every place calls a Necromancer a Necromancer, the terminology is largely european but since we're set up in London for this. Side note: North America by and large has what other places consider A Shortage of necros. The people who used to do it often got moved, killed, or otherwise lost the connection due to colonzation and vamps often moved in before new necros could spring up, so the power structures in say New York are very, very different from, to note another big harbour City, Lissabon. This...has been a problem if the vamps in question are assholes. It's Not Yet been a big problem on the ghost side but it absolutely will be in the next few hundred years, as the current ghosts degrade to Wraiths. Especially because some asshole vamps over there like to hunt down emergent necros and kill or hobble them because EW Control. Now places with a lot of untamed undead nonsense tend to eventually get necros, one way or the other. It's a niche that wants filled, so the natural occuring frequency of psychics tends to lean sharply towards Mediums, until some genuine necros Start coming through even if the original Families with the potential for it died out. Side note side note: that's why Chicago currently has a Lord (Simon), thst is: a Vampire running the show on the local undead. Which, Simon is mostly a good egg so that works okay for the mortals but it's also a Situation basically unheard off in Europe for the last few centuries. No as for travelling capital N ones? Generally, no. Mostly because you become a Necromancer only in tie to the place. It's a bit like being a mayor. Sure you're also being the mayor of X while on the other side of the country, but you also got fuckall to say there. A Necro draws their power, and just the political one, from their city. It's the background of undead and death in their City, their connection to it, that takes them to the N instead of the n. It's familiarity with the place that brings dome of the ease and strength with which a Necro can wield the local magic. That's also why small places don't get Necros: not enough background radiation to make it a title. Basically, like Goldfisch: big pond gets you a bigger fish. Small pond means a powerful necro won't expand to full potential. Never mind the responsibility. They are after all tasked with keeping an eye on the undead in their territory. Travelling comes with about the same hassle as a dark age Monarch travelling to a potential hostile kingdom while the Knights st home are eyeing the throne. Now lowercase necros? They can go where they please, and often do. Studying abroad or if it's a 'wild' necro, getting adopted by a family often involves a at least temporary move. And of course they can just up and go, since necros usually don't live off their craft and their job or school or whatever might necessitate a move.
*Hand wiggles* Not a lot. Like, of course there's Geme's group, but it's not very large, and not all of them are dedicated worshippers of her. There's modern pagans and Geme feels....some kind of way about them. Because on one hand if course her deity deserves worship! It's great that people fo this! On thd other hand, the original context is very much lacking and it makes Geme feel....well, old for one, but also like something's been irretrievably lost and now those people are poking at it with Sticks and it reminds her more of that loss. On the third, Mutant hand, her having veen in London, and been involved in the commjnity means that sone of the local vamps have taken up...not full-on worship, but a sort of lowkey honoring of Erishkigal, less so out of personal reverence to her as much as out of a feeling of reciprocity towards Geme. Because She Cares about that sort of thing.
my brain refuses to generate Actual Quastion so i ask u the same i asked ivy: what's ur fave really weird piece of worldbuilding from summoningverse?
Yes! Usually those who live close to the water, but frankly there's nothing from stopping someone from having an aquarium fish familiar, especially if they do elemental or weather magic a lot. For most people, a familiar is a special, treasured pet that helps with magic but giving them more/different atunements and letting them store and disperse magic. Necromancers tend to need familiars with maximum movement range, since they often also patrol territory for them, so a lot of them these days have birds actually. You'd think a pigeon would be a bad familiar. But no, they're people birds, they're inconspicous, and a bird that can throw off simple magic is anything but easy prey.
Oooh, are there any tendencies towards diurnal/nocturnal/crepuscular animals depending on when mages are most likely to need the assistance?
Yes and no? Mages usually pick animals that fit with their lifes. That includes those that fit their own circadian rhythm for the most part. (that thing about vamps and bats is not an accident) That said, some people deliberately pick a 'counterweight', especially if they're very good at mind magic. Because that can allow them to use the senses of their familiar, and that's often easiest while you're asleep, so they might go for something that has a very different circadian rythm, to allow the to basically maximize the day without actually foregoing sleep.
I've been staring at this question for A While (days) because i'm...really bad at judging what counts as weird? Mostly because I spend so much doing worldbuilding for this and it's like. Hm. Okay the sizeshifting dragons are probably not weird (and also not mine, they're Kaida's). But do the deepsea mermaids count? Especially if they never come up? There are spots that are 'weird' in world because they're either so thin that the fae realms start leaking over, or some other magical nonsense happened that fucked with physics in a subtle but persistent manner And a lot of Matt's weirdness is...probably just gross to other people, so I just... I really don't know. I'm bad at judging what counts as weird. I know it's not a great answer, but it's the best I got.
Spoiler: wow so many words Ooh! That makes sense! While I could imagine that a familiar might potentially be more resilient to keeping an unusual schedule, though who knows, I was just remembering giving a sugar glider thyroid medication. They’re extremely fast and acrobatic, and the glider didn’t love taking the medication, so there was no hecking way I was going to be able to catch him while he was awake and active. They’re nocturnal, so the most surefire thing was to get the pouch where he slept out of the cage around dawn and dusk, give him his meds, feed him a treat, and let him get back to sleep. I was thinking of how drowsy he was. Poor little guy. He absolutely could wake up and be fully alert during the day if necessary, and it’s not like daylight burned his eyes or anything (though what a waste of absolutely incredible low light vision to keep a sugar glider awake in the day), but he was clearly not intended to be up at that hour. He was so sleepy. I bet a crow or raven could be an interesting and stylish choice for the vampire who would like a familiar keeping an eye on things during the day. People seem to forget somehow, despite overwhelming casually observable evidence, that both ravens and crows are diurnal birds. Though honestly a pigeon is indeed probably one of the best possible choices if you’re trying to actually avoid attention. Oh hey! Depending on where you are and if you have a nearby body of relatively nonviolent water, a Canada goose would draw a little bit of casual attention because large bird, but hell if it wouldn’t be a pretty fucking effective and honestly extremely inconspicuous way to drive off intruders. Very few people, even birdwatchers, feel a need to seek out any one particular Canada goose. And I doubt anyone would think it was the slightest bit weird or indicative of anything noteworthy about a parcel of land if any trespassers got chased off by an aggressive goose. That’s how the goose do. An owl could be a very interesting alternative choice for the creature of the night looking for a winged companion who would be up at night. Even the huge ones are amazingly silent and fairly inconspicuous unless they decide it’s time to yell amongst themselves, as birds do sometimes. I’ve seen a positively enormous owl make a hairpin turn to juuuust avoid nosediving onto the street, and I didn’t hear even a whisper of sound even though I was pretty darn close. If I’d been looking the other direction, I wouldn’t have had a clue that an owl had been there at all. In flight they’re stealthier than bats, whose wings don’t afford them that kind of silence. Bats are a lot slower, and their flight pattern is much more eye catchingly jerky, sorta like a butterfly. I’ve seen a bat do exactly the same maneuver of pulling out of a dive just before splatting onto the street, though not with anything even approaching the same speed as the owl. It made a soft papery sound. Still extremely quiet, but a small bat is still significantly louder in flight than a very big owl. Otoh, bats are fucking awesome. And you really can’t beat them for ability to navigate while airborne in actual absence of light, not just very low light. Also you can sometimes casually spot a perching owl’s silhouette even when it’s quite dark if you’re paying attention to your surroundings, but a bat? I don’t fucking think so. You’re probably not going to ever notice a bat just chilling in a tree at night without some completely incredible luck, a doctorate in bats, and/or heightened senses of your own. If I wanted a familiar who could inconspicuously drive away intruders from my home, specifically at night when I’m more likely to be out and about, I might consider a skunk. They can make themselves quite scarce when they like, but no one is gonna be especially surprised if they see a skunk near a residence at night, at least not in this geographical region. It’s an amazing deterrent even for the kind of people who seem to think that their dog’s lack of understanding of property lines is an opportunity to assuage their curiosity because it’s somehow okay to go places they know they shouldn’t be as long as their unwitting canine accomplice is leading the way? That’s creepy and potentially dangerous. Skunks are extremely effective at reminding people that a leash is supposed to help you attend to your dog’s safety by keeping them from wandering where they shouldn’t. I find the smell pretty distressing, but skunks don’t spray except as a last resort anyway, so I don’t think I’d be primarily worried about the smell if it came to that. Yeesh. Apparently I have a lot of thoughts about this topic. It is a very cool topic.
okay so. i got my lil vignette thing for austrian autobahn, i got my haircut, i have a dentist and car maintenance appointment set up the only thing missing from my vacation prep is the EU covid vaxx thing which i cannot do currently because there was a fairly masive security fault discovered in the system that they're trying to fix. Reckon worst case i can bring the paperwork? but man i would prefer to have it on my phone for ease of access. But!! at least most my prep is done.
*shrieks excitedly* Okay. So. A few years ago i was in Copenhagen, and visited the national Museum there. And there was one room that really stuck with me. The room contains a bog body, and it was set up beautifully. The middle of the room is set with with a half-high pedestal with a glass top that the bog body (a woman) is sunken into. The floor and pedestal are dark. The only light comes from the ambient light inside the pedestal and the walls, which are made to look like a Forest at dawn or dusk, trees backlit to be just black shadows. There's soft sounds too, like a Forest and distant voices. I got there very early and got to see this room alone, when it was quiet, and it was just. Moving. Touching. And in that room, on the wall, is a poem on the topic of human sacrifice that just emphasized the entire experience. Back then i didn't take a photo of the poem because it seemed very wrong to.pull out my phone and take a photo inside that room and destriy this weird, unreal Atmosphäre. But today, on a whim i looked for the poem again. And turns out? Someone else took photos instead. So now i have that poem again and i still love it so much
And like. Copenhagen had a lot of Art Installations that did things to me. There was one in an old cistern that was mirrors and light and Bell sounds, in this dark, cool, damp place that was in total contradt to the summer heat above Or the one in the Museum if modern Art that was a path picked across gravel and past strange concrete statues and abstractish paintings in low light inside the Museum and it felt like i was exploring some post apocalyptic thing And both of those were very different from a lot if modern Art i had seen before and they really were experiences. And then there was another modern Art thing on another floor if the museum and that just felt crowded and chaotic and shrill which i'm p sure was the artists intend but man. Man. Those other two had me spend so much time there just soaking up the atmosphere and looking and feeling and i liked them a lot more.
Bungie stop fucking with things i enjoy challenge First the big Healy super can now be shot down by the boss, deleting like half the usability for warlocks in endgame content because we don't have a sensible DPS option that doesn't also block the shit out of the boss critspot for anyone else... And niw they are nerfing the shit out of the exotic that made the Garden of Salvation boss doable. Because it allowed to circumvent an already machnic stuffed fight by holding one specific spot with two welllocks, putting down their super in turns. Which now doesn't work anymore because they capped in super regen Yes i know they want to make 'other options viable' but listen there aren't other options. Warlock damage supers do fucking pittance against a boss (unlike hunter super) we don't get DPS increase exotics (unlike Titan super) and now we can't even be effektive support. Like, i want to like assemblers because they let you dish out healing without everyone tied down in one spot, but every time i tried to use them and asked my team.mates if it was helpful i get back a 'oh i didn't notice' do clearly the answer is 'no,' So like. Fuck i guess my class is just gonna be useless ballast And ngl, i'm not playing space magic shooter for zhe *gun* i play for the space magic. If i wanted the guns i could play fucking call of duty.
This is starting to sound a lot like "Overwatch is bad now b/c Blizz thinks all supports need higher DPS and nothing else"
