Book 2 – Text Updates 038

[Dante]

Could be, but no. The tiara design is unmistakable.

[effataigus]

'm not saying that Stanley's luck with the dragons was definitely due to Charlie, but both of those anomalies seem (to me anyway) to be weird but in similar ways.

There's a big difference, there is a reason for removing gobwins. But why would charlie help Stanley to finish Faq? It wasn't the hammer, if Charlie were that interested in the Hammer it would have been easier to dispatch a few tens of archons to each hex around Stanley's likely path to Faq.

Well, as you mention, there's wanting Faq dead as a possible motivation. Alternately, it might help towards getting the arkenhammer without losing many of his precious archons, this theory has a fair number of premises to go on:

If the fall of Faq was when the gobwins turned and dropped Saline IV.
If Charlie didn't know that Stanley had been promoted to heir.
If arkentools depop when their wielder depops (or alternately, if Charlie didn't think he could retrive the arkenhammer if Stanley depopped for any reason).
Then Charlie would want Stanley to win that fight... barely... leaving him as a neutral warlord in a poorly-defended city.

Anyway, this theory relies upon a lot of knowledge that we don't have regarding both the magic system (how one might influence pop-rates) and Charlie's motivations. In my tin-foil filing system, it is under the heading "back-burnered."

[mmooneybsa]

Ok I have skipped some posts but...

Has anyone else speculated that the manipulation of natural allies &/or random pop rates is a power of the another Arkentool? Be it the 4th known or an unknown tool. Any speculation on the -mancy of the tool that would do this? (Dittomancy?)

The Arkendish allows the manipulation of alliances (speculated), & popability of Archons.
The Arkenhammer allows the popping of Dwagons.
Arkenpliers 'repop' units. It could also be said it changes the alliance of units (albeit once croaked).

[gameboy1234]

Here's a little fun thing I made. It's slightly not safe for work and kids due to use of the B-S-word.

Spoiler: show

[Gnosko]

Instead of Neil deGrasse Tyson, could that be Martin Luther King Jr. ?

[effataigus]

Instead of Neil deGrasse Tyson, could that be Martin Luther King Jr. ?

I'd think MLK Jr. would be a better fit as a hippiemancer than as a thinkamancer.

[Gnosko]

Instead of Neil deGrasse Tyson, could that be Martin Luther King Jr. ?

I'd think MLK Jr. would be a better fit as a hippiemancer than as a thinkamancer.

Good point.

[Oberon]

Turnamancy
As far as we know, a Turnamancer must be in the hex where the spells are being cast. Only known references to Turnamancy, the caster is always in the city, whether for speeding up production or casting that spell.

Another reference to Turnamancy and proximity: Turning a unit. Vanna could either spend several leisurely turns with Duncan, or make an attempt at Ansom from a reasonably close (shootin' close) range.

[Lor]

On the subject of conspiracies, here's some PURE tinhattery:

Anyone considered that it may have been Wanda who set up Banhammer for the fall, and allied with Charlie to do it?

She liked Jullian and was beholden to the predictamancer, so the former was out-of-city, and I'm proposing that Charlie somehow got her out (a link, maybe?). I don't remember how Jack survived.

And then when Charlie was brought up to Parson, Wanda said that Stanley doesn't like him. I think she may have either engineered that dislike, or she was outright lying in order to keep Parson away from Charlie.

You may now remove your hats.

[Hiai]

Reading Maggie's description of what thinkamancy "looks" like gave me a mental image of MK thinkamancers as HAM radio operators sitting around in a room together, monitoring different radio bands for certain activity. Like those HAM radio operators, who all seem to have specialized equipment and the nerdy expertise to use it, the thinkamancers would have access to all the "bands" anyone else does, but actually be able to identify and tune to each band, unlike everyone else.

For instance, if I were to listen to the radio, I'd have to turn the dial around until I came a cross an audible signal, then try to fine-tune it to the best frequency nearby to understand what I was hearing. A Ham operator would possibly hear the same frequencies as I, but be able to interpret what was happening in the "static" frequncies that I quickly dialed past. So, taking it a bit further, audible speech heard by those in the vicinity would be the "good stations" one might turn to automatically, by-passing the "static" stations as being "blank", whereas a thinkamancer could "hear" the static and understand it, because they are thought patterns rather than audible patterns, and only they have the equipment to "hear" it. Just as some HAM operators are more proficient at tuning than others, Master-class would be better at it than Adept-class, etc.

This would fit well with the explanation of "strings" they tune to, as well as giving an extra dimension to the notorious "G-String" reference. Of course the G-string is funny as the reference to skimpy underclothing, but the G-string of a guitar (or other stringed instrument) tends to be the one considered a nightmare to keep in tune with the other notes, always sharper or flatter than the other notes. Kind of like sentient beings tend to easily fight themselves out of being in harmony with the rest of the chord of the Universe.

Spoiler: show

I hope the last Arkentool isn't the ArkenTuningFork, because wouldn't that be the thing that keeps dragging that pesky Free Will thing out of the way to make things more harmonious? I mean, the Titans already look like the King of Rock and Roll as it is!

Anyhow, in my analogy, Charlie would be the FCC, perhaps, monitoring everything over the waves (selectively, of course), and coming down like a hammer on the "independent" guys who sit out there with their HAM broadcasts, the second they start looking like any kind of serious threat to their authority. An integral and unavoidable part of the system for a good chunk of the world, but definitely NOT part of the community as anything other than an obstacle. Something that those who do it for "love of the game" specifically go out of their way to flout and undermine whenever possible, but only in the subtle and sneaky ways that won't get them caught and punished. The FCC may have the best equipment and best funding, like Charlie and his Arkendish, but they can't truly "Rule the Airwaves" any more than Charlie could rule Thought. He may hack a Thinkagram, but he can't hack a person's mind, necessarily...but only because he doesn't have the subtle, intuitive knowledge that a true Thinkamancer would have.

[Firkraag]

Couldn't the blonde woman next to Aristotle be Olivia Dunham?

[GaryThunder]

Hmm...I think we're approaching the "did Charlie mastermind the fall of Faq by manipulating feral dwagon placement" problem from the wrong angle. Charlie doesn't need to use convoluted Luckamancy or Turnamancy spells, or even risky links, to alter the pop rate of feral dwagons. Why should he, when he can probably simply cause the randomly popped dwagons to move to certain hexes when they take their first turn in the morning? Surely these feral dwagons have move, probably as much as their GK counterparts. (Perhaps moderately less so, if move is a stat that increases with level. Either way, though.)

Natural Thinkamancy governs orders to units, Loyalty, Obedience, all that jazz. I definitely find it plausible that Charlie was able to grab these Barbarian units by the G-string and give them "orders" to move to selected hexes along Stanley's route. He could either remotely sense them or hire a Lookamancer from the Magic Kingdom to find them, if he needed to. Though Parson does once suggest something similar as a possibility, spoofing orders to a unit of a side seems a bit broken even for Charlie. But jabbing the Thinkamancy equivalent of a hot wire into the "Obey orders!" section of the feral dwagons' dumb animal brains is much more reasonable. It doesn't seem any more unreasonable than any other power of the Arkendish I could name.

This could also provide an explanation as to why Gobwins seem to be mysteriously staying away from Gobwin Knob: every time a roaming tribe tunnels close, their Chief goes all sparkly-eyed for a second and then abruptly orders an about-face.

[coyo]

A thinkamancer must have been used in the creation of the SPW spell, so it sounds like they may have expected something in the exchange. They certainly must have known about it.

It makes me wonder, too. The foolmancy/eyemancy/thinkomancy link was the 'shrewdest thing' attributed to Stanley.
I wonder if that really was his idea after all.

[Rizban]

It makes me wonder, too. The foolmancy/eyemancy/thinkomancy link was the 'shrewdest thing' attributed to Stanley.
I wonder if that really was his idea after all.

Because it was mostly to create the omnitable, I would say it probably was his idea. I mean, casters don't really care about troop movements or orders in the field, especially not Thinkamancers who can already pinpoint locations of all units under their side's control. However, an overlord who rose up through the ranks would be intimately familiar with the need for adequate troop management and oversight, and it would be well within their experience to realize the benefit of having such a setup.

That said, I'm of the belief that Stanley isn't as stupid as most people think. True he's a poor ruler, but lack of leadership and management skills doesn't make one an idiot. He's obviously a capable combatant and field commander, and the idea for the table is something well within his area of expertise.

[coyo]

That said, I'm of the belief that Stanley isn't as stupid as most people think. True he's a poor ruler, but lack of leadership and management skills doesn't make one an idiot. He's obviously a capable combatant and field commander, and the idea for the table is something well within his area of expertise.

I agree with you that he's probably not quite so stupid, he's just direct. I'd even hazard to say that Lord Hamster would have less freedom under other rules than under Stanley.

I would still wonder, how he managed to figure out how to put such a 'fighting table' together.

[GaryThunder]

Stanley's problem is that he's a sterling warlord, a decent tactician, a dwagon tamer and a very tough physical fighter with the Arkenhammer...but, as he complained to Parson over the summer updates, "Who am I gonna fight? What dwagons am I gonna tame?...I have to stay in here with you!" He's a great warlord but an incompetent Ruler because he doesn't have the skill set to be a Ruler. Stanley's not a big-picture kinda guy, no strategist he. The combat talents he does have are made useless by the need to keep him safe and out of combat.

Hmm...if we're to dip into the "Charlie masterminded the fall of Faq" pool of speculation, this situation might have been engineered by Charlie. Saline was, at least by Sizemore's description, a good man. A Royal, but from the brief depiction we've seen of him, he doesn't seem like the sort to rudely brush off Sizemore for no real reason like Slately did to Ace. So Charlie (tinfoil hat, tinfoil hat) had Saline croaked and thus ensured that the new Ruler of Gobwin Knob, the wielder of an Arkentool, is too far out of his depth to be able to keep himself alive in the situation he found himself in.

[GKBeetle]

People on this forum seem to think that Charlie is influencing pop rates of gobwins around Gobwin Knob. Is there any proof that Charlie is doing this. Was it in a text update that I missed? I remember an update saying that gobwins were no longer popping around Gobwin Knob, but I don't remember any update saying it was Charlie's doing. Am I missing something?

[Gnosko]

People on this forum seem to think that Charlie is influencing pop rates of gobwins around Gobwin Knob. Is there any proof that Charlie is doing this. Was it in a text update that I missed? I remember an update saying that gobwins were no longer popping around Gobwin Knob, but I don't remember any update saying it was Charlie's doing. Am I missing something?

It's because, to the best of my memory, it has not been explained why they cant find any gobwins and with our current information (and with a tinfoil hat) Charlie is the prime suspect.

[Althernai]

People on this forum seem to think that Charlie is influencing pop rates of gobwins around Gobwin Knob. Is there any proof that Charlie is doing this. Was it in a text update that I missed? I remember an update saying that gobwins were no longer popping around Gobwin Knob, but I don't remember any update saying it was Charlie's doing. Am I missing something?

Yes:

One thing he never volunteered in these meetings was that the bracer gave a 78% likelihood that there was something fishy going on with the lack of Gobwins and prevalence of Marbits.

And if there was, then there was a better than 92% chance that the agency behind it was Charlescomm.

It's not certain that it's Charlie, but it's significantly more likely than not (particularly since we, the readers, know that he has a tendency to manipulate natural allies whereas Parson does not know this and is probably not putting it into his calculations).

[boegiboe]

Why do folks speculate on the fourth Arkentool? Isn't it pretty obviously, based on the usual referential sense of humor of Erfworld, the Arkenstone of Tolkien? In other words, it mainly served as an in-joke that the Happy Meal said there were four known Arkentools.