I doubt there is enough to work with, but I'd love to see the treant history documented. Maybe during the course of the current Ladrial quest we'll get more to work with.

Lumi actually had something with treants tied into his backstory before the Nature's Wrath release event, so I was absolutely thrilled to see them. I'd love to have something more in-depth to draw upon.

Also, do we have a reiver history yet?

~ Lumi, tree-hugger

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And.. an empath has the chance to boneshatter someone. That's pretty violent.

Accidents happen to pacifists too, you know.

I would love a good history on what happened to the Sylvan people who were lost in Elanthia and those who went off to search for them, forever leaving behind the home they had found. Did villages develop of them? Are they all mixed into other societies? How much of the culture they once had is still in practice? My understanding is Sylvans are very accepting of half-sylvans, as part of thier own race, is this because being outside thier home for so long they have had to accept in order to survive, or because they being outsiders and outcast, understand how important roots are?


Is it not safer to cower in the caves of lies than to stand on the cliffs of truth? When one stands in the sunlight, and feels the winds of reality, how shameful seem the dark shelters of falsehood, how foolish to have once feared daylight and fresh air.

Not sure what I have read doesn't give anything about what happened to the Sylvans left oustide after they city was closed off. Either I am missing it, or they have not been documented yet.


Is it not safer to cower in the caves of lies than to stand on the cliffs of truth? When one stands in the sunlight, and feels the winds of reality, how shameful seem the dark shelters of falsehood, how foolish to have once feared daylight and fresh air.

>>Any sylvans existing now are descended from those who left the Yuriqen when it was closed off, or who were part of splinter groups in the initial treks who didn't make it to Yuriqen to begin with.

I think it would be fun if Yuriqen was discovered and the sylvan culture had degraded over time to the level of say orcs, or some other dumb brute, bent on the complete conquest of elanth.


Salim

>>Us GS'ers hide in the dark spots of our homes with only the glow of the monitor to guide us. Society never has to know the depths to which our geekiness sinks.-Coonass

Heh.

rail

Gemstone's history sorted by race and culture!
http://www.riversrest.net/Highmount/tomes.htm

what about something on weapons and armor of the ages? assuming theres enough information not sure it exists


Fyrentennimar

It is kind of odd that we have submarines and airships no extensive use of cannons and firearms.

Fyrentennimar

Maybe one of the components of gunpowder is rare in Elanthia.


However, I do think this was explained in a recent thread on magical vs. standard development in another folder. Here's the start of that thread -- https://www.play.net/forums/messages.asp?forum=102&category=9&topic=14&message=1230. Lot of interesting commentary from GMs in there.

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Check out the Lore Benefits Summation Chart at... http://carabele.com/odds/LoreBenefits.htm

<< It is kind of odd that we have submarines and airships no extensive use of cannons and firearms. >>

It's not terribly odd, considering the pervasive nature of magic in Elanthia. Magic is simply easier in most respects when compared to cannons. A mage can summon flaming meteors, who cares silly little cannons. :grin:

--
Naos

Just stuff 50 chrism gems down the barrel, add a cannon ball, and set it off... (hum)

I suspect a more likely development would be something along the lines of a Siege Golem, honking big Constructs that not only hurl boulders (or iron balls) around but can actually defend themselves. Tactically superior to cannons, since they don't require crews and dangerous explosives and can just stomp around to whereever they're needed.

Failing that, in a non-magical realm you just recruit a tribe of Giants.

Your statement made me consider something. What about those who don't have the resource to fall back on mages who can summon meteors? I.E., what if someone like the Baron of Jantalar didn't have the Mandis Crystals, didn't have hardly any mages of his own, and wanted to find a means to off set his military's weakness? I could see it being developed in a situation like that, to go from curiousity to weapon of war.

rail

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He finds 40 virgins and gives his troops meteor swarm imbeds.....


-player of hakwea

"Perhaps you need to go back over to the Sorcery forums. This is the Development folder where ideas can be discussed freely. This isn't the folder to harp on ideas in attempts to stop them." -gswizard

>Ah, you're making a fallacy. You're presuming that a mage and scientist/alchemist are the same thing. As our own world demonstrates, there's nothing magical about the construction of a canon and the production of gun powder. Really, the only limitation that I can think of is simply the conception of the idea and having the ability to gain the necessary raw materials. <Rail>

I think he meant in terms of financial resources. If you don't have the cash to go hire a couple mages, you don't have the cash to fund an R&D department, or even a cannon assembly plant if the research were finished already.

But I thought the Mandis Crystal was actually the perfect answer. If Hochstib wanted a substitute for mages in his army, since he obviously couldn't have magic users, that seems like the perfect set of circumstances to lead to the R&D of chemical explosives and siegery.

~ Lumi

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And.. an empath has the chance to boneshatter someone. That's pretty violent.

Accidents happen to pacifists too, you know.

heh I was gonna say something like what u did but couldnt remember if he hated magicians or just couldnt find any to hire

Fyrentennimar

>In any case, the point I was trying to make is that mage-power is likely far cheaper than the alternative, and more or less universally 'better' at what it does.

Certainly faster. We already 'know' how magical explosives work...and the power for them is everywhere. You don't have to dig in dung piles for saltpetre, go to the nearest volcano to obtain some brimstone, and go to the nearest forest to burn some trees.

Has anyone stumbled on potassium nitrate combined with carbon and sulfur in specific proportions yet? That strikes me as an unusually random historical accident; which could occur any time between the dark ages and a thousand years later. Particularly in a world where alchemy works and chemistry isn't born yet...

>Sure, everytime you pee on a fire in a sulfuric area

Right chemicals, wrong proportions.

"Most historians believe that gunpowder was first discovered sometime during the Sui and Tang dynasties (~600-900 A.D.) in China. It was most likely discovered accidentally by alchemists who were experimenting with sulfurous mixtures in an attempt to create an elixir of life. During this period of chemical discovery and experimentation, the alchemists kept records of certain poisonous and dangerous compositions that should never be mixed - including one particular mixture consisting of sulfur, saltpeter (potassium nitrate), honey, and arsenic disulfide. The texts make reference to such a mixture igniting accidentally while being cooked over a fire, resulting in a large, bright, hot flame that burned the hands and faces of the alchemists tending to it, and even burnt down the shack there were cooking it in! Despite the warnings, some alchemists were intrigued by the mixture, and continued experimenting with it to try to find ways to make it more powerful. Their crude mixtures weren't as powerful as modern gunpowder because it didn't contain as much potassium nitrate, but nevertheless burned very hot and bright. It was named huo yao, or the "fire chemical"."

http://www.pyrouniverse.com/history.htm

That's just an extraordinarily unlikely sequence of events, and historically it could easily take place much earlier or much later in the timeline.

We'll just have to be happy with the explanation that is hasn't happened in Elanthia yet.

Can you imagine arsenic disulfide in your elixer of life!? :shudder: