Book 2 – Text Updates 013

[the_tick_rules]

I dunno how high misty was either. I remember Jack was called a master class by Jillian once and Parson refered to Wanda as master class when she led the dance-fighting uncroaked. But how far below that is adept? We dunno.

[DoctorJest]

[...] all nearby sides except Charlescomm and Transylvito.

Charlescomm is a "nearby" side. An interesting piece of information.

We already knew that.

[splintermute]

[...] all nearby sides except Charlescomm and Transylvito.

Charlescomm is a "nearby" side. An interesting piece of information.

We already knew that.

How did we already know that? There's been no prior indication of Charlie's location; Charlie has archons scattered at posts all over the world in anticipation of potential contracts; archons have huge move (higher than dwagons, pwobably), so if Charlie wanted to call a bunch to one location, he could presumably just gather a bunch of localized "cells" together; and he initially described tBfGK as "the Great Western Conflict", suggesting there are or were other major conflicts his forces could reach. Charlie's city could have been anywhere on Erf.

[ftl]

How did we already know that? There's been no prior indication of Charlie's location; Charlie has archons scattered at posts all over the world in anticipation of potential contracts; archons have huge move (higher than dwagons, pwobably), so if Charlie wanted to call a bunch to one location, he could presumably just gather a bunch of localized "cells" together; and he initially described tBfGK as "the Great Western Conflict", suggesting there are or were other major conflicts his forces could reach. Charlie's city could have been anywhere on Erf.

Charlie is nearby enough to potentially have units in the conflict. We knew that before, that's still all we know now.

[splintermute]

Yes, Charlie can have units in the conflict, but according to the archons, Charlie can have units anywhere on Erf ("farther out into Erfworld than most sides imagined the world existed"). Perhaps one of the things that make the archons so valuable as mercenaries is that they take their turn before most other sides on Erf - if you hire Charlescomm, you can nip most conflicts in the bud with a focused display of overwhelming force. However, this is the first time we've heard Charlescomm described as "nearby." Maggie might have said/thought "before other possible sides in the conflict except..." or something to that effect, rather than "nearby."

Also, I think it's interesting that she mentions "natural spot in the turn order" rather than just "spot," suggesting there might be such a thing as an "unnatural spot in the turn order," and I don't think an alliance would make your turn order unnatural - maybe there actually is a way to magically manipulate turn order, presumably with a turnamancer.

[The Shadow]

The most interesting tidbit for me was the fact that GK has scouts "hundreds of hexes away".

How far is that? I'd have to think it's beyond GK's immediate neighbors. Is this a normal thing, or a result of GK having archon scouts?

If GK keeps scouting outward, they may discover more about the wider world than Charlescomm wants them to know...

[build6]

The most interesting tidbit for me was the fact that GK has scouts "hundreds of hexes away".

hrm! that's a good/interesting catch. now that you mention it, it does seem "unusual"... why see what's going on that far off if you've got to be worried about fighting that's going on much closer to home, after all.

How far is that? I'd have to think it's beyond GK's immediate neighbors. Is this a normal thing, or a result of GK having archon scouts?

I'll bet it was Parson's idea to send them out far. Stanley seems... incurious

EDIT: hrm, then again, if there are units with 50+ move, then "hundreds" of hexes doesn't seem THAT far away

[ftl]

However, this is the first time we've heard Charlescomm described as "nearby." Maggie might have said/thought "before other possible sides in the conflict except..." or something to that effect, rather than "nearby."

Nearby is shorter to say. When you think to yourself, you don't go out of the way to be precise - and besides, "before other possible sides" isn't any better and could be nitpicked anyway.

Depending on who I'm talking to, "oh, he lives nearby me" might mean the same street, the same city, or the same state. In this case, the most obvious interpretation of "nearby" is "close enough to have units here." What else would it mean? Why would Maggie suddenly care about actual physical distance in that sentence - then she'd also have to clarify that there AREN'T units from sides that aren't nearby but might have units there anyway, and we'd have endless speculation about not-nearby sides suddenly showing up...

[Dr Pepper]

Astronomers use the term "local group" to refer to a cluster of galaxies.

[theseus2x]

[...] all nearby sides except Charlescomm and Transylvito.

Charlescomm is a "nearby" side. An interesting piece of information.

We already knew that.

Well, Charlie, if the Archons info to Parson is true, is "local" pretty much everywhere. There's no reason to think his physical capital is THAT close to this mess.

[Pax]

It seems to me as if master would be above adept. And I think that although Master-Class is an all-encompassing term, each discipline has a different name for their Masters. E.G. Grand Abbey for Florists and Mastermind for Thinkamancers.

Well, it could go either way. For one example ... Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar novels (and other in the same setting), for example, give mages rankings as so:

1. Apprentice: can only access the energy within their own body;
2. Journeyman: can also access ambient energies around them;
3. Master: can also access the tremendous energy of Ley Lines;
4. Adept: can also access the incalculable energy of Nodes.

And, yes, there is also an implicit "better than merely Adept" ranking, which no living mortal has held in several thousand years (the awe-inspiring power of legendary people like Urtho, "the Mage of Silence").

Thus, I submit that it depends where the inspiration for those ranks came from.

[dgorn]

Here's kind of a silly question, and I'm not sure if someone didn't ask this already...

Why not just give an iBook to someone there, like Jack (someone who isn't likely to be actively engaged in the fighting), and order them to give minute-by-minute updates of the situation? Then you wouldn't need to spend any of Maggie's juice to learn what's happening, or to give orders, and you can use her exclusively for opening thinkagrams when you need visuals.

EDIT: ok, maybe not Jack, as it just occured to me that you'd want coherent answers. But you get the idea

[Lord Kasavin]

Here's kind of a silly question, and I'm not sure if someone didn't ask this already...

Why not just give an iBook to someone there, like Jack (someone who isn't likely to be actively engaged in the fighting), and order them to give minute-by-minute updates of the situation? Then you wouldn't need to spend any of Maggie's juice to learn what's happening, or to give orders, and you can use her exclusively for opening thinkagrams when you need visuals.

EDIT: ok, maybe not Jack, as it just occured to me that you'd want coherent answers. But you get the idea

This was addressed in a summer update. Parson and Maggie no longer believe Eyebooks are secure since Charlie "hacked" them. They're still fine to talk to Charlie, but they believe any other sort of communication gets picked up by Charlie, and that would be bad.

[regisminae]

Here's kind of a silly question, and I'm not sure if someone didn't ask this already...

Why not just give an iBook to someone there, like Jack (someone who isn't likely to be actively engaged in the fighting), and order them to give minute-by-minute updates of the situation? Then you wouldn't need to spend any of Maggie's juice to learn what's happening, or to give orders, and you can use her exclusively for opening thinkagrams when you need visuals.

EDIT: ok, maybe not Jack, as it just occured to me that you'd want coherent answers. But you get the idea

Jack's answers are coherent... they just require one to construct his frame of reference to decode.

[dgorn]

Oh yeah, i do vaguely remember that now. Interesting that they think the eye-books aren't secure but that think-a-grams are. They're all based on think-mancy, right?

[Oberon]

Yes, Charlie can have units in the conflict, but according to the archons, Charlie can have units anywhere on Erf ("farther out into Erfworld than most sides imagined the world existed").

Nearby is shorter to say. When you think to yourself, you don't go out of the way to be precise - and besides, "before other possible sides" isn't any better and could be nitpicked anyway.

Well, Charlie, if the Archons info to Parson is true, is "local" pretty much everywhere. There's no reason to think his physical capital is THAT close to this mess.

All true to some degree or another. However, we also learned that Maggie has "an ordered mind." It's not nice to ascribe sloppy or ambiguous thinking to an ordered mind. I'll prefer to think (hope?) that Charlescomm is close enough, and with the location of his capital known (as the existence of a "pocket kingdom" is "impossible"), so that he can actually be threatened should the story arc need to take that turn.

Another point in favor of this thought (hope?) is that Parson was concerned that if Stanley knew that Charley was probably behind the absence of natural gobwin allies that he would have gone after him. You can't rightly go after someone if you either do not know where their city is or if it is so far away as to be highly impractical to move your armies there.

[doran]

Oh yeah, i do vaguely remember that now. Interesting that they think the eye-books aren't secure but that think-a-grams are. They're all based on think-mancy, right?

Maybe it takes more juice to intercept a thinkagram with video/audio, than the text messages of the eyebooks.

On the other hand maybe this is a power Charlie has had all along and is keeping in reserve.

[Oberon]

On the other hand maybe this is a power Charlie has had all along and is keeping in reserve.

I always took this as being yet another case of Charlie or the archons having the power needed at the time. It's a rather repetitive theme.

[Dancing Cthulhu]

Depending on who I'm talking to, "oh, he lives nearby me" might mean the same street, the same city, or the same state. In this case, the most obvious interpretation of "nearby" is "close enough to have units here." What else would it mean? Why would Maggie suddenly care about actual physical distance in that sentence - then she'd also have to clarify that there AREN'T units from sides that aren't nearby but might have units there anyway, and we'd have endless speculation about not-nearby sides suddenly showing up...

I always thought it was just an assumption on Maggie's part, much like this. Everything is relative with Charlie, location wise. We know his units are spread far wider across Erfworld then most sides, and everyone seems to know of him. So it seems fair to think of Charlescomm as "nearby" when its units have the potential to be in any battlespace.

[theseus2x]

Sure. But it seems a certainly that Wanda's decrypted Archons would know where Charlescomm's capital is. Which means Wanda (if she thought to ask) and Parson (we MUST assume he'd ask) would know, even if the rest of Erfworld was in the dark.