973 réponses à ce sujet

[Raonar]

Shadow of Light Dragon wrote...

@Raonar - Contrived or not, anyone reading a Blight-era fic is going to base what the Deep Roads should look like on the games first and foremost, if only because many haven't even touched the novels. Not that this should stop how you write your story. I'm just saying.

I totally know what you mean. That's why I lampshade the lore holes whenever I change something.

Like, for instance, the Aeducan thaig expedition was abandoned in the middle in my story, so the Wardens end up going there for the shield later, during the succession mess. What I changed was the place where the shield is found. The King and Harrowmont say the it's is beneath the floor of the central room... but there is no conceivable reason for that central room to be a relatively puny and rundown crypt.

Thaigs were essentially cities themselves, and the Aeducan thaig was one of the most important and (probably) largest. So I turned the central hall into... a grand, palace-like central hall.

And when the others gawked at the interior (I put one of those big lyrium cubes, like the one above the first broodmother you find in Awakening, as a chandelier stand-in), I had had the DN say that there was no logical reason why the building should have been anything else, mentioning the "rundown crypt" possibility from the top of his head.

Klidi wrote...

I agree that they could use a bronto, but
they'd probably have to rent it, and I'm sure such thing would be rather
expensive (especially to surfacers), and they would have to carry extra
food and water for the animal. It would also need to be guarded, so the
fighting force of the party would be always decreased. And they would
have to make the same distance twice - to explore the area and then to
return for the cart, so it would considerably slow down the whole
expedition. More trouble, than it's worth.

But that's just my
opinion, of course. It's a new idea, and if you'll use it in a story,
I'll check it out to see how it worked.

I doubt renting a bronto would be more than a few silvers, or 10 gold at worst. And I already finished the deep roads excursion (chapter 47 is where it starts). As for dividing the force, I see nothin wrong with that. They know if there are darkspawn ahead, and how many,, so they can judge just fine if it's safe to split up for a few hours.

[Corker]

Raonar wrote...

Magically-created ice ramp/bridge?

Quick!  To the Google machine!

I'm not totally sold on an ice arch being exactly equivalent to an ice bridge, but my initial reaction of "Oh God no, the fracture mechanics!" seems unfounded.  But it does sound like you either need a mage who is extremely well-practiced in getting the shape right, if it's spray-and-pray ice formation, or else has a specific Ice Bridge spell that does the shaping for them.

EDIT: And I think this highlights a hazard of these sorts of arguments.

Fantasy is meant to be fantastic.  There can be magical ice bridges and soaring skyscraper towers and giant winged lizards that fly, despite everything aerodynamics has to say about that.  You don't buy a game called "Dragon Age" and then complain that it's not realistic that a dragon's skin-and-bone wing could support the forces needed to keep it aloft.  It's a dragon fighting wizards and realism went bye-bye a while ago.  Trying to make it realistic is a trap.

Which doesn't mean that it shouldn't make sense.  (Subjective distinction? Probably.)

Modifié par Corker, 16 avril 2012 - 02:10 .

[maxernst]

I'm not convinced the encumbrance issue is as big a problem as most here seem to think. Soldiers marched in chain mail. Probably nobody ever marched in plate, but that's because anybody who could afford plate would have been on horseback as much as weight. If an average Roman soldier could march in chain mail, I don't see why an exceptionally strong man couldn't march in plate. The Roman soldiers carried a lot of gear with them, too--they weren't called Marius' mules for nothing. Admittedly, their 8-man leather tents were probably carried by mules and/or non-combatants, but people go backpacking with tents all the time in extremely difficult terrain for fun. Presumably you'd want to ditch that heavy pack when you're in combat. It would slow you down but most of the time, you're not in that big a hurry. And in the specific case of going to the Circle Tower and back, you could leave most of your gear back at Redcliffe castle.

It's likely true that pilgrims didn't use tents, but I seriously doubt they slept with no shelter in cold weather or pouring rain. But I don't imagine they had to, because along pilgrimage routes there would have been some kind of shelter every few hours. The medieval landscape was dotted with tiny villages everywhere. There wasn't a lot of unused arable land (Europe was seriously overpopulated by the 14th century) and it wouldn't be feasible to work lands that were many miles from your home, so outside of areas unsuitable for cultivation (like mountains and swamps), you'd never be traveling more than a few miles between villages. So with the exception of a few places (Frostback Mountains and Haven), the party wouldn't necessarily need tents. But if they are concerned about being caught by Loghain's men, they might not want to take that route. On the other hand, it seemed to me that hardly anybody believed that the Grey Wardens had betrayed the King, and Loghain's authority beyond Denerim is shaky to say the least. Besides, it's not like people would have seen photos, so how would people know you were the Grey Warden, if you're not telling? OK--Sten and Shale are huge giveaways, which is why I left them out of my Blight account. Once you're known to be traveling with a golem and/or a Qunari, it's pretty hard to be incognito.

@Corker, the key to whether something "makes sense" or not is whether the internal logic of the setting is consistent. You can have things which are impossible according to our physics if there's a reason--places could have been constructed with the help of magic, dragons are innately magical etc.

[Corker]

@maxernst, internal logic is key, but... I'm grasping at something else, I think. It's a bit tangled in my head.

It's tedious to stop and explain everything, especially when the answer is always "it's magic" or "it's [ space hippies ]" (You know, 3rd season classic Trek, when it was space hippies and space Vietnam War and space Jack the Ripper and space this and space that? Except 'fantasy' instead of 'space'.)

It's also grating to use medieval Western Europe as a notional/inspirational baseline, then get the details wrong.

Especially when the details barely matter. But if they barely matter, why do they grate?

I don't know. I wish there were no cotton smallclothes in DA fanfiction, especially when just "smallclothes" would do, but... who cares? Aren't I just being a nit-picking pedant? Should I just assume there's a fiber called 'cotton' in Ferelden that fills the same purpose as linen?

But if I can't trust the words in the book to mean what they say, what good are they?

How much history should a fantasy writer know?  How much engineering, science, religion, politics, war-fighting, survival...?  Is dressing out a deer required?  Creation of period food over a hearth and consumption of same?  Visitation of a place with no running water or modern sanitation to get those savory details right?

I dunno.

Modifié par Corker, 16 avril 2012 - 05:51 .

[Raonar]

Corker wrote...

@maxernst, internal logic is key, but... I'm grasping at something else, I think. It's a bit tangled in my head.

It's tedious to stop and explain everything, especially when the answer is always "it's magic" or "it's [ space hippies ]" (You know, 3rd season classic Trek, when it was space hippies and space Vietnam War and space Jack the Ripper and space this and space that? Except 'fantasy' instead of 'space'.)

It's also grating to use medieval Western Europe as a notional/inspirational baseline, then get the details wrong.

Especially when the details barely matter. But if they barely matter, why do they grate?

I don't know. I wish there were no cotton smallclothes in DA fanfiction, especially when just "smallclothes" would do, but... who cares? Aren't I just being a nit-picking pedant? Should I just assume there's a fiber called 'cotton' in Ferelden that fills the same purpose as linen?

But if I can't trust the words in the book to mean what they say, what good are they?

How much history should a fantasy writer know?

The answer: the details shouldn't matter at all. I mean, just take the word "smallclothes" itself. Normally, it means, or is supposed to mean, 18th century male knee-breeches. British english did have it used in lieu of underwear at one point, but it also meant handkerchiefs and whatever other, well, small pieces of appareil existed at the time.

And I suppose mixing up cotton and linen is regrettably common. Sigh.

In the end, it boils down to what people take into account in their suspension of disbelief, and experience has shown me that readers can be a fickle lot. They range from people who coherently analyze their point when preparing to raise an issue with it, to, say, those who skim through parts of the story because they didn't like that portion of the game (or the themes dealt with there, or whatever other reason), but then huff about how they can't seem to empathise with the characters afterwards. Ah well.

How
much history should a fantasy writer know?  How much engineering,
science, religion, politics, war-fighting, survival...?  Is dressing out
a deer required?  Creation of period food over a hearth and consumption
of same?  Visitation of a place with no running water or modern
sanitation to get those savory details right?

I dunno.

I think it depends on whether a story is supposed to be hard or light fiction.

Modifié par Raonar, 16 avril 2012 - 06:02 .

[maxernst]

I think you have to remember that Thedas is not Western Europe and while it parallels it in many ways, I don't see why the same fabrics would necessarily be used. They didn't use cotton in Europe because it wasn't grown there, so it was an expensive luxury fabric like silk, but they grow cotton in Greece and Spain today. Now, fantasy art with people clad in stretchy, clingy fabrics that resemble spandex bothers me, because there aren't any natural fibres like that. As it happens small clothes in my fic are linen (or silk if you're rich enough) but cotton isn't bothersome. Nor am I bothered by the presence of peanuts, tomatoes, potatoes, or maize. These things would bother me in a genuine historical fiction set in Europe, and perhaps a Guy Gavriel Kay style pseudo-historical fiction (I am careful to avoid them in a fantasy game I'm running that's closely modeled on 7th century Italy), but in an entirely separate fantasy world, no.

Modifié par maxernst, 16 avril 2012 - 06:12 .

[Corker]

maxernst wrote...

I think you have to remember that Thedas is not Western Europe and while it parallels it in many ways, I don't see why the same fabrics would necessarily be used.

That's kind of my point, I think.  When you use something as a parallel, inspiration, or basis, it sets up an expectation.  It's okay to deviate from that expectation, because it's a fantasy.  But how do you tell a purposeful change of the basis from an oopsie?  You'd have to explain (or not care).  If you explain, suddenly your characters are discussing the merits of Antivan versus smuggled Imperial cotton (even if it grows in Thedas, I doubt it grows in Ferelden's climate), so your readers know the cotton is there on purpose, but now they're wondering what cotton has to do with the Blight.

Or you don't explain, and we're back to the problem of establishing an internal logic.  How am I supposed to know which buildings are held up by physics, which by magic, and which by the author's grand imagination and disinterest in civil engineering?

And I'm actually okay with the third option.  I'm pretty sure Tolkien didn't do a wind shear analysis on Saruman's tower, accounting for 100-year gale force winds with a robust safety factor, all while keeping in mind pre-modern construction techniques.   (Because it really, really isn't important to the narrative how the tower came to be built, right?)  And yet... without some level of... scholarship? sanity? genre convention?...  similar authorial lapses in other areas is 'immersion-breaking' for some.  (I'm not fond of the phrase but I'll deploy it.) 

Why am I okay with Saruman's tower and not okay with cotton underpants?  (In stories, I mean.  I have nothing against Hanes or Fruit of the Loom.) 

...is it an issue of trust and vision? Or just personal taste?  Have to poke it some more.  :/

[ShadowLordXII]

Mind if I jump in? I don't see a lot of writer's forums on this sight.

How did other writers incorporate class specializations without it coming out of nowhere? Especially the ones from Awakening?

[Shadow of Light Dragon]

Incorporate them how? Have them learn the skills or use the skills?

There was a prompt in the Zevran thread some time ago that might give you some ideas of how different writers deal with it. Go here and check out the entries under 'Rogue Specializations'.

[maxernst]

Corker wrote...

maxernst wrote...

I think you have to remember that Thedas is not Western Europe and while it parallels it in many ways, I don't see why the same fabrics would necessarily be used.

That's kind of my point, I think.  When you use something as a parallel, inspiration, or basis, it sets up an expectation.  It's okay to deviate from that expectation, because it's a fantasy.  But how do you tell a purposeful change of the basis from an oopsie?  You'd have to explain (or not care).  If you explain, suddenly your characters are discussing the merits of Antivan versus smuggled Imperial cotton (even if it grows in Thedas, I doubt it grows in Ferelden's climate), so your readers know the cotton is there on purpose, but now they're wondering what cotton has to do with the Blight.

Or you don't explain, and we're back to the problem of establishing an internal logic.  How am I supposed to know which buildings are held up by physics, which by magic, and which by the author's grand imagination and disinterest in civil engineering?

And I'm actually okay with the third option.  I'm pretty sure Tolkien didn't do a wind shear analysis on Saruman's tower, accounting for 100-year gale force winds with a robust safety factor, all while keeping in mind pre-modern construction techniques.   (Because it really, really isn't important to the narrative how the tower came to be built, right?)  And yet... without some level of... scholarship? sanity? genre convention?...  similar authorial lapses in other areas is 'immersion-breaking' for some.  (I'm not fond of the phrase but I'll deploy it.) 

Why am I okay with Saruman's tower and not okay with cotton underpants?  (In stories, I mean.  I have nothing against Hanes or Fruit of the Loom.) 

...is it an issue of trust and vision? Or just personal taste?  Have to poke it some more.  :/

I think personal taste--what things you know and are important to you--is a very large part of it.   I tend to be more bothered by issues like how can there possibly be enough food in the Deep Roads to sustain dwarven cities?  At first, I thought Orzammar traded lyrium and finely crafted armor and weapons in return for food from the surface, but what about Kal Sharok?  Then, there's the problem of language in Thedas.  I find it really difficult to believe that people in a country with place names like Redcliffe and Highever speak the same language as people who speak with strong french accents and use names like Val Royeaux and Val Foret, or another group of people who use names like Minrathous and Carastes  I could accept it if the old Tevinter tongue had spread everywhere, but even then, surely after a thousand years, the languages spoken in different parts of Thedas should have diverged significantly, like the different Romance languages in Europe did.  Hell, a thousand years after the fall of the empire, the latin-based tongue spoken in Paris and Provence were no longer mutually intelligible, let alone Portugal and Romania.  Yeah, I know it makes everything much more convenient if everybody speaks the same language.  A world whereeducated  people use a frozen language like Church Latin for international communication I'll believe, but a medieval world where everybody speaks the same language in everyday life with some regional accent differences is tough to swallow.  On the other hand,  I couldn't less about the textiles in use in Thedas.

And I do think that the closeness of the parallel is important.  In a work like Guy Gavriel Kay's Sailing to Sarantium or the Lions of Al Rassan, the closeness to history is strong enough that any anachronism or out-of-culture feature is jarring.  In Thedas, I think the parallels are only there to contribute the flavor of the familiar, so that the author doesn't have to create entirely novel words for everything.  Although creating new words is better than using familiar ones to describe things that are very different (e.g. making glass and ebony super-high-grade weapons material).

Modifié par maxernst, 16 avril 2012 - 10:22 .

[ShadowLordXII]

Shadow of Light Dragon wrote...

Incorporate them how? Have them learn the skills or use the skills?

There was a prompt in the Zevran thread some time ago that might give you some ideas of how different writers deal with it. Go here and check out the entries under 'Rogue Specializations'.

Yeah, a believable way to have them learn the specializations and incorporating them into their styles.  Something like that, just looking for ideas.

[Shadow of Light Dragon]

It might depend on the specialisation, or skill. For instance, a Shadow is self taught. One assumes practice and a certain amount of experimentation.

Then there's Legionnaire Scout. Apparently you can only get Blessing of the Ancestors after spending ages around unrefined lyrium and becoming attuned to it. One could argue that only a dwarf can manage this, due to lyrium's effects on other races.

Spirit Warrior could be taken as the non-demonic version of the Reaver spec. While Reavers have their basis in blood magic and demons, Spirit Warriors commune with the other denizens of the Fade (somehow).

Battlemages? Well, it's magic. Maybe they get involved in actual close-quarter situations often enough that they develop personal protection measures, or hit on them out of instinct in a moment of stress. Keeper is pretty obviously -- you're taught by another Keeper (or find some old elven lore).

Guardian is the one I can't work out. Everything in that spec screams magic, yet it has no mention of magical ability, unlike Spirit Warrior. Unless you want to treat it as another magic warrior spec, I'd take it as the skill descriptions being worded poorly. How you'd learn to 'build a shield' around someone without magic or bricks is beyond me.

[ShadowLordXII]

Okay...that makes sense.

Could Spirit Warrior potentially be something attained through latent magical ability?

It's gained by communing with Fade spirits, but only mages can consciously do that. Is it possible that the warrior in question had magical ancestry but didn't magical ability by themselves to have been counted and taken in as a mage?

Guardian is probably the same as the templar specialization. A branch of technical magic that only works in one area. While templar "magic" only works against magic and demons, the Guardians abilities can only be used to defend the party and raise their defense.

[Shadow of Light Dragon]

ShadowLordXII wrote...

Okay...that makes sense.

Could Spirit Warrior potentially be something attained through latent magical ability?

I guess if you wanted to play it that way, but I'd prefer to say no as it's a Warrior skill, not a mage skill. In other words, characters with magical ability can't learn it.  Edit: Scratch that last bit. See note at the end of this post.

It's gained by communing with Fade spirits, but only mages can consciously do that.

That's not entirely correct. A Fade spirit that has crossed over could commune with a non-mage, and the novel Asunder has shown that even Tranquil can attract the attention of Fade denizens if they do so in a place where the veil is thin. The problem is attracting a spirit instead of a demon, as spirits, according to Justice, prefer to avoid mortals.

I think with the Spirit Warrior spec they were trying to do a fighter version of Spirit Healer. That mage spec describes a healer who performs their magic with the regular aid of spirits. A mage might be able to get away with this, but I can't see a warrior doing the same unless they were possessed. So again I'll have to go for sloppy writing and disconnection to lore. While it is indeed possible for a non-mage to be possessed, the spec implies the warrior 'flirts', and so has somehow established a way to regularly chat with spirits, even during battle! You'd have to figure out a way for them to do this, without the warrior having an innate magical talent. Having a magical item of some sort might work, I guess...a walkie talkie to the Spirit world...I dunno. It's sounds kind of hokey to me.

Is it possible that the warrior in question had magical ancestry but didn't magical ability by themselves to have been counted and taken in as a mage?

Any magical ability at all makes one a mage. Even if you only have the power to light a candle, you can still become an abomination.

Guardian is probably the same as the templar specialization. A branch of technical magic that only works in one area. While templar "magic" only works against magic and demons, the Guardians abilities can only be used to defend the party and raise their defense.

Except the reason why Templar magic works as it does is supposed to be due to lyrium, despite the descriptions that say anyone with the appropriately disciplined mind can mimic them.

A Guardian would need something to power their abilities, be it a substance or source of magic (like Fenris' lyrium brands)--but again while not being a mage. Reavers and assassins use a form of blood rituals to give them their more magical abilities. Neither the Guardian nor Spirit Warrior specs involve blood rites, but maybe there could be a non-blood equivalent for the channeling of benevolent spirit power.

Actually, that sounds pretty cool. Maybe I'll use that one day. XD

Anyway, again, I don't think the abilities of these specs were given a great deal of thought when they were being written. Perhaps they didn't think people would read them, or care about lore breakages.

Edit: I see no reason why a mage couldn't get the same abilities. I mean, at least they can chat with spirits for magical aid, per Spirit Healer. The point though, is that apparently a non-mage can do the same thing.

Modifié par Shadow of Light Dragon, 17 avril 2012 - 02:53 .

[BevH]

I can easily see how an arcane warrior could gain their skill before leaving the tower. I would think it's taught to mages as a way to defend themselves when magic isn't a practical option. Battlemage would then simply be an extention of the arcane warrior skill.

[Shadow of Light Dragon]

But there are no arcane warriors in the tower. It's virtually a lost talent.

Edit: Besides the trainer, who died so long ago he can't even remember, I think you see all of two arcane warriors in the game. One's a dragon cultist in Haven, the other's an elf you can fight in the Proving Arena.

Modifié par Shadow of Light Dragon, 17 avril 2012 - 02:38 .

[BevH]

Shadow of Light Dragon wrote...

But there are no arcane warriors in the tower. It's virtually a lost talent.

Edit: Besides the trainer, who died so long ago he can't even remember, I think you see all of two arcane warriors in the game. One's a dragon cultist in Haven, the other's an elf you can fight in the Proving Arena.

Oh Pshaw!! Let me have my fantasy!

[Raonar]

I actually have a spirit warrior as one of the protagonists. He stumbled over a breach in the veil in the deep roads and got dream-possessed by a demon, who was sending lyrium energy tof a pride demon that had usurped the realm of a benevolent spirit in the fade. The spirit helped the guy out of the possession. In return, the guy killed the lower-ranked sloth demon on his side of the veil. That way, there was no one to send a constant stream of energy from the lyrium into the fade, which rendered the pride demon there much less powerful. After curbstomping it and making it flee into the material plane (Pride became the fade Beast from the Asunder quest) the good spirit got his realm back....

But the problem was that the place on our side of the fade was completely LOADED with darkspawn taint, and the dwarf was going to die/whatever... But the Spirit was one of Honor, so it had to repay him somehow... So he pulled the veil inward and anchored the tear in his body, in order to constantly have enough magic to keep the taint sealed.

After the guy becomes a grey warden years later, the Spirit (who has a nice realm of mountains and rivers in the fade) doesn't need to use all the power available to keep the taint contained... which means that the dwarf can finally use the magic for other things (mostly forcefields and turning any sharp object into an absurdly sharp blade, but it takes months for him to work out how everything works, so he is a sort of... artificial dwarven mage i guess? That can't affect anything farther from where he can extend the veil -which is his own body for the most part-? He completely lost his innate dwarven magic resistance when he turned into this btw).

There are drawbacks to this though, not the least of which is a wild magic effect on nearby mages (usually allies), including a tendency to cause ALL healing spells cast on him to fizzle out or blow up in people's faces (Wynne finds this especially frustrating).

Legionnaire Scout: The DC sort of becomes a magically-immune guy, due to a weird happening in the Circle Demon possession quest and constant exposure to the magical outpour from the guy above. Unfortunately, it also shuts down all enchantments on his equipment. No damage immunity ability though. I doubt I'd find a way to handwave something like that.

The Circle Elf Blood Mage becomes a sort of supermage because the Spirit I talked about above approached him for a deal (he became a sort of watchdog for the dwarf in exchange for power).

I also added the Warcry ability of the Champion, the one with a weird knocback effect, to Piotin Aeducan, but explained it as the ability of some dwarves to reject the magic around them so suddently that the air is pulled along, leading to a sort of air buffer effect.

Feasible or not? I suppose it depends on suspension of disbelief again, like most everything else.

Modifié par Raonar, 17 avril 2012 - 06:36 .

[ShadowLordXII]

Raonar wrote...

I actually have a spirit warrior as one of the protagonists. He stumbled over a breach in the veil in the deep roads and got dream-possessed by a demon, who was sending lyrium energy tof a pride demon that had usurped the realm of a benevolent spirit in the fade. The spirit helped the guy out of the possession. In return, the guy killed the lower-ranked sloth demon on his side of the veil. That way, there was no one to send a constant stream of energy from the lyrium into the fade, which rendered the pride demon there much less powerful. After curbstomping it and making it flee into the material plane (Pride became the fade Beast from the Asunder quest) the good spirit got his realm back....

But the problem was that the place on our side of the fade was completely LOADED with darkspawn taint, and the dwarf was going to die/whatever... But the Spirit was one of Honor, so it had to repay him somehow... So he pulled the veil inward and anchored the tear in his body, in order to constantly have enough magic to keep the taint sealed.

After the guy becomes a grey warden years later, the Spirit (who has a nice realm of mountains and rivers in the fade) doesn't need to use all the power available to keep the taint contained... which means that the dwarf can finally use the magic for other things (mostly forcefields and turning any sharp object into an absurdly sharp blade, but it takes months for him to work out how everything works, so he is a sort of... artificial dwarven mage i guess? That can't affect anything farther from where he can extend the veil -which is his own body for the most part-? He completely lost his innate dwarven magic resistance when he turned into this btw).

There are drawbacks to this though, not the least of which is a wild magic effect on nearby mages (usually allies), including a tendency to cause ALL healing spells cast on him to fizzle out or blow up in people's faces (Wynne finds this especially frustrating).

Legionnaire Scout: The DC sort of becomes a magically-immune guy, due to a weird happening in the Circle Demon possession quest and constant exposure to the magical outpour from the guy above. Unfortunately, it also shuts down all enchantments on his equipment. No damage immunity ability though. I doubt I'd find a way to handwave something like that.

The Circle Elf Blood Mage becomes a sort of supermage because the Spirit I talked about above approached him for a deal (he became a sort of watchdog for the dwarf in exchange for power).

I also added the Warcry ability of the Champion, the one with a weird knocback effect, to Piotin Aeducan, but explained it as the ability of some dwarves to reject the magic around them so suddently that the air is pulled along, leading to a sort of air buffer effect.

Feasible or not? I suppose it depends on suspension of disbelief again, like most everything else.

Thanks Raonar, I've actually read your story and it's an amazingly well-put together tale.

Reason I was asking was because I'm writing a humor/drama story about all six wardens being recruited and now that they're about to leave Lothering, I'm pondering their specializations since Lothering is around the time when the first spec. is unlocked in the game.

Right now I've decided that the human mage (token evil teammate) is probably going to become a force mage or a battle mage and I was really considering making the human noble a spirit warrior to add one more "magic" user to even out the party.  But I'm trying to think about how to do so without it being interpreted as hax.

(Spoilers for story: Long story short, the human male noble was adopted the Couslands and his real parentage possesses magic ancestry.  So I had an idea that the noble named Revan eventually comes in contact with a Fade Spirit who uses fade energies to awaken his latent magical ability and it manifests as the Spirit Warrior spec.  Then it's played for laughs when he's completely drained after using it's abilities or when the mage steals Revan's gathered magic for his spells: Spoilers end)

[Klidi]

@maxernst - what you say about food in Orzammar and language is true. But that doesn't bother me in the stories, because that was like that in Gaider's books and in the game, as well. It's canon and it's not possible to really change without making it completely AU. Which is also fine, of course.

I changed a lot of things in the game that didn't make sense for me, especially in Orzammar. And now I'm dealing with Branka. I can pretend that all the dwarves eat are nugs and mushrooms... in the cities. But. My Surana explained to Shale they can't go searching for her thaig, because they would run out of supplies. To which she replied, that if Branka could survive for two years, they can surive for another week. And that made me think. What did Branka eat? In the Deep Roads. Lone woman.

But if the other authors decide not to go AU, I can't blame them.

Things that were added by the fanfic author bother me only if they feel out of place in the story. And that depends on the author's skills.But what always puts me off from reading are ilogical things, that show the author never gave a damn thought about what they're writing.

@ShadowlordXII - but if you have all six Wardens, you'll also have Surana, no? So evill Amell will not be the only mage. But the story sounds good - especially the idea of one mage stealing energy from his companions.

I didn't give my characters Awakening specializations, because I want them to work hard on developing their skills themselves. None of them was 'destined' or 'chosen' in any way. They're a bunch of random guys, no special lineage (well, except Alistair, of course ), no partnerships with demons and spirits that would make things easier for them.

Even my Arcane Warrior - he learned "memories" of how the skill should look like. But to know how you should do something and be able to do it are two different things. He had to train hard to become stronger and more dextrous; then he had to learn basics of fighting with daggers. During the training he "remembered" movements and tricks that enabled him to become better faster in much less time (normally it would take years. He learned the ability to change magic energy to strength months later. He first used it in Orzammar... his last Treaty mission. (But far from the end of the story).

[ShadowLordXII]

@Klidi - I have all six origins as Wardens with F-Cousland and F-Surana as non-warden companions. Surana was briefly with the party at Ostagar and only recently rejoined them. So amongst the wardens, Amell is the only mage.

Terrifying...isn't it?

[Corker]

Hopefully, you'll enjoy this article discussing the tension between changing usage of language and grammar standards.

Edit: There's a book mentioned in the article, called "If You Catch and Adjective, Kill It."  I clicked through to Amazon to see it and found this bit of tongue-in-cheek waggery in the summary:

"Learn how to write better with classic advice from writers such as Mark Twain (“If you catch an adjective, kill it”), Stephen King (“I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs”), and Gertrude Stein (“Nouns . . . are completely not interesting”)."

Verbs held together by prepositions!  That's the way of the future!

Modifié par Corker, 18 avril 2012 - 02:01 .

[Raonar]

Or like when we avoid "he said" or the like so much that we land into the totally opposite extreme and start using words people (and often we ourselves) haven't heard of before... making our writing seem snobby and immersion-breaking.

Example: to asseverate. Ugh.

[maxernst]

Corker wrote...

Hopefully, you'll enjoy this article discussing the tension between changing usage of language and grammar standards.

Edit: There's a book mentioned in the article, called "If You Catch and Adjective, Kill It."  I clicked through to Amazon to see it and found this bit of tongue-in-cheek waggery in the summary:

"Learn how to write better with classic advice from writers such as Mark Twain (“If you catch an adjective, kill it”), Stephen King (“I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs”), and Gertrude Stein (“Nouns . . . are completely not interesting”)."

Verbs held together by prepositions!  That's the way of the future!

Or maybe lots of blank pages.  After all, if music is the silences in between, and architecture the spaces, why not apply the same minimalist aesthetic to prose?

[Corker]

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Modifié par Corker, 18 avril 2012 - 04:00 .