(C&C) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

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elemtilas
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Re: (C&C) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Post by elemtilas »

LinguoFranco wrote: 06 Aug 2018 04:53 I want to present a magic system I'm working on for a critique, but I'm concerned about people stealing my ideas.
Looks like you're in a bit of a pickle! You want a critique of something, but it seems you don't want the critique bad enough to post here on account of trade secrets being stolen.

Your concern is 100% legitimate. If your idea is good, it is certainly "borrow" worthy! Even if it's just someone here who likes some motif and fits it into their own work.

All I can say is if you want the critique bad enough, you'll suck up your concerns and post enough of your idea to give a good critique, or send it privately to a couple different folks. I'm happy to take a look at it privately if you like.
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Re: (C&C) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Post by Axiem »

My personal experience is that ideas are a dime a dozen; what really matters is execution. And two people will often take the same core idea and run in two very different ways with it.

I'd say posting your ideas for critique—especially of world aspects or magic systems—you have very little to worry about.

(Posting actual prose, however, does run the risk of plagiarism, or running afoul of publishers. That's a very different thing)

But, that's my two cents. You're free to post or not post stuff as you please. 🤷🏼‍♀️
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Re: (C&C) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Post by hoeroathlo »

does this make any sense at all? its really late and i'm half asleep making up stuff, and to me it does
/pt̪u/ --> /pθu/ --> /pθu/ --> /pθʷ/ --> /ɸʷ/ --> /ɸ/
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Post by shimobaatar »

hoeroathlo wrote: 21 Sep 2018 05:42 does this make any sense at all? its really late and i'm half asleep making up stuff, and to me it does
/pt̪u/ --> /pθu/ --> /pθu/ --> /pθʷ/ --> /ɸʷ/ --> /ɸ/
This is the thread for quick questions about conworlds and concultures, so this would probably be a better question for the equivalent thread about conlangs.

That aside, the lenition of a stop next to another stop seems fine to me, as does the labialization (although I don't know how likely /u/ would be to drop if this were a monosyllabic word). The loss of labialization on a labial consonant is also nothing weird. The only part that I'm really unsure about is /pθʷ/ > /ɸʷ/.

Perhaps someone else could weigh in on that?
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Post by Salmoneus »

shimobaatar wrote: 21 Sep 2018 06:00
hoeroathlo wrote: 21 Sep 2018 05:42 does this make any sense at all? its really late and i'm half asleep making up stuff, and to me it does
/pt̪u/ --> /pθu/ --> /pθu/ --> /pθʷ/ --> /ɸʷ/ --> /ɸ/
This is the thread for quick questions about conworlds and concultures, so this would probably be a better question for the equivalent thread about conlangs.

That aside, the lenition of a stop next to another stop seems fine to me, as does the labialization (although I don't know how likely /u/ would be to drop if this were a monosyllabic word). The loss of labialization on a labial consonant is also nothing weird. The only part that I'm really unsure about is /pθʷ/ > /ɸʷ/.

Perhaps someone else could weigh in on that?
It sems unlikely as a single leap to me, but that doesn't matter - you can very easily make pθʷ > pɸʷ > ɸʷ
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Re: (C&C) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Post by LinguoFranco »

Okay, after a lot of consideration, I've decided to share my magic system for critiques.

I wanted to move away from the standard mana system, but I think I ended up recreating it somewhat. In this conworld, there exists a plant (which for now I will call 'Arcana') that produces its own magical energy, also called Arcana. An individual can consume the plant in order to be able to channel the Arcana through them and use magic. However, this is risky, as the body can reject the plant and is poisonous to those who are not born with magical talent. Actually, the real Arcana plant itself can also be deadly if consumed without proper preparation. There is also another plant that is very similar in appearance, but contains a lethal poison, so it is very important for people, mages especially, to recognize the difference between the different species of plants.

This is as far as I have gotten, as I have not figured out what the magic will do, yet.
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Re: (C&C) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Post by gestaltist »

LinguoFranco wrote: 31 Oct 2018 15:58 Okay, after a lot of consideration, I've decided to share my magic system for critiques.

I wanted to move away from the standard mana system, but I think I ended up recreating it somewhat. In this conworld, there exists a plant (which for now I will call 'Arcana') that produces its own magical energy, also called Arcana. An individual can consume the plant in order to be able to channel the Arcana through them and use magic. However, this is risky, as the body can reject the plant and is poisonous to those who are not born with magical talent. Actually, the real Arcana plant itself can also be deadly if consumed without proper preparation. There is also another plant that is very similar in appearance, but contains a lethal poison, so it is very important for people, mages especially, to recognize the difference between the different species of plants.

This is as far as I have gotten, as I have not figured out what the magic will do, yet.
It's not much of a system yet, TBH. I like the idea of magic coming from ingesting a given plant. I dislike the fact that you require a magical talent for that. By adding this restriction, your 'Arcana' becomes just another mana that happens to come from another plant and not a ley line or something. Personally, I'd find it much more interesting if it gave anyone who eats it magical power. First off, this opens up interesting cultural considerations: power holders would be likely to want to restrict the availability of the plant to have a monopoly on that, etc. On the other hand, animals eating the plant could also gain magical powers which would be interesting.
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Re: (C&C) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Post by fruityloops »

Is it possible to be born an adult or young teenager and have all the knowledge of the world in your brain? the idea occured me recently,
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Re: (C&C) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

Post by shimobaatar »

fruityloops wrote: 01 Nov 2018 15:43 Is it possible to be born an adult or young teenager and have all the knowledge of the world in your brain? the idea occured me recently,
Wait, what? What’s the context for this question? In the real world, the answer is, of course, “No, absolutely not”. It’s not possible to be born as anything other than a baby. Given that, along with the fact that this is in the C&C section, I assume you’re asking in the context of a particular fictional setting? If so, which?
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Post by LinguoFranco »

gestaltist wrote: 31 Oct 2018 20:05
LinguoFranco wrote: 31 Oct 2018 15:58 Okay, after a lot of consideration, I've decided to share my magic system for critiques.

I wanted to move away from the standard mana system, but I think I ended up recreating it somewhat. In this conworld, there exists a plant (which for now I will call 'Arcana') that produces its own magical energy, also called Arcana. An individual can consume the plant in order to be able to channel the Arcana through them and use magic. However, this is risky, as the body can reject the plant and is poisonous to those who are not born with magical talent. Actually, the real Arcana plant itself can also be deadly if consumed without proper preparation. There is also another plant that is very similar in appearance, but contains a lethal poison, so it is very important for people, mages especially, to recognize the difference between the different species of plants.

This is as far as I have gotten, as I have not figured out what the magic will do, yet.
It's not much of a system yet, TBH. I like the idea of magic coming from ingesting a given plant. I dislike the fact that you require a magical talent for that. By adding this restriction, your 'Arcana' becomes just another mana that happens to come from another plant and not a ley line or something. Personally, I'd find it much more interesting if it gave anyone who eats it magical power. First off, this opens up interesting cultural considerations: power holders would be likely to want to restrict the availability of the plant to have a monopoly on that, etc. On the other hand, animals eating the plant could also gain magical powers which would be interesting.
You're right, I'll scrap the magical talent idea. I'm not sure what kind of magic the users can use yet, but I have been wanting to write a story where enchanted weapons and armor play a big part of it, though I'm not sure if this is the right kind of magic system for that.
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Post by jimydog000 »

fruityloops wrote: 01 Nov 2018 15:43 Is it possible to be born an adult or young teenager and have all the knowledge of the world in your brain? the idea occured me recently,
All of the knowledge of the world, in the real world? No.

Don't take this the wrong way, but I googled this and found a Wikipedia article on it.
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Post by elemtilas »

jimydog000 wrote: 03 Nov 2018 13:18
fruityloops wrote: 01 Nov 2018 15:43 Is it possible to be born an adult or young teenager and have all the knowledge of the world in your brain? the idea occured me recently,
All of the knowledge of the world, in the real world? No.

Don't take this the wrong way, but I googled this and found a Wikipedia article on it.
Perhaps in a very tiny world.

Genetic memory is interesting indeed. I read recently about sea slugs or sea cucumbers (or some such aquatic vegetable) where they would teach one of the poor buggers something, then chop him up and inject his genes into a different untutored individual. The other fellow "learned" or rather absorbed the first one's memories.

Could be a useful consideration!
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Post by Ælfwine »

elemtilas wrote: 03 Nov 2018 17:14
jimydog000 wrote: 03 Nov 2018 13:18
fruityloops wrote: 01 Nov 2018 15:43 Is it possible to be born an adult or young teenager and have all the knowledge of the world in your brain? the idea occured me recently,
All of the knowledge of the world, in the real world? No.

Don't take this the wrong way, but I googled this and found a Wikipedia article on it.
Perhaps in a very tiny world.

Genetic memory is interesting indeed. I read recently about sea slugs or sea cucumbers (or some such aquatic vegetable) where they would teach one of the poor buggers something, then chop him up and inject his genes into a different untutored individual. The other fellow "learned" or rather absorbed the first one's memories.

Could be a useful consideration!
My god that is disturbing. Science fiction material, for sure.
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Post by Pabappa »

You could have language be hardwired too, and have babies come out of the womb screaming at cursing at their mother and everyone around them to hurry up and get them out.
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Post by elemtilas »

Pabappa wrote: 03 Nov 2018 18:28 You could have language be hardwired too, and have babies come out of the womb screaming at cursing at their mother and everyone around them to hurry up and get them out.
Or, since it's someone else's memories, screaming for that damn gin and tonic they've ordered like every night for the last sixty years.
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Post by Axiem »

A random idea for a story/novel/whatever I've had is that after you die in this life, you're then born in the Next Earth, which is exactly like this Earth, except everyone is born with the memories of their previous life in the First Earth. Mind, you might not be born in the same place and most certainly not to the same people—the way I see it, there's kind of like a queue of souls from First Earth (ordered by time of death), and any time a soul is needed in a baby in Second Earth, whoever's at the front of the line gets picked.

So you have a world where people are aware of all sorts of technological things—but so is everyone else! And who knows what sort of body you're in this time around.

And some people—like say, Adolf Hitler—may very well keep secret who they were in First Earth.

...I digress.

Insert witty question here.
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Post by elemtilas »

Axiem wrote: 04 Nov 2018 04:24 A random idea for a story/novel/whatever I've had is that after you die in this life, you're then born in the Next Earth, which is exactly like this Earth, except everyone is born with the memories of their previous life in the First Earth. Mind, you might not be born in the same place and most certainly not to the same people—the way I see it, there's kind of like a queue of souls from First Earth (ordered by time of death), and any time a soul is needed in a baby in Second Earth, whoever's at the front of the line gets picked.

So you have a world where people are aware of all sorts of technological things—but so is everyone else! And who knows what sort of body you're in this time around.

And some people—like say, Adolf Hitler—may very well keep secret who they were in First Earth.

...I digress.

Insert witty question here.
Not so much witty as merely curious...

Do souls bop back and forth between two worlds only, or is this a more linear arrangement like 1 > 2 > 3 > 4?
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Post by Axiem »

elemtilas wrote: 04 Nov 2018 05:15 Do souls bop back and forth between two worlds only, or is this a more linear arrangement like 1 > 2 > 3 > 4?
Linear arrangement, though in Second Earth there's a lot of debate over whether it stops there or just keeps going to e.g. Third Earth and so on. There's probably even some people who, down on their luck, commit suicide in the hopes of being born as "someone better" in the Third Earth.
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Post by J Reggie »

That sounds like a really cool idea that I'd love to see developed further. I wonder if people would try to find people they knew in the previous life. What would the response be to someone who didn't say who they were? Would people automatically assume they were someone awful? There are so many interesting possibilities for stories in that world.
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Post by Axiem »

The Riverworld books by Philip José Farmer have a similar sort-of premise to the worldbuilding, though it apparently goes in a different direction.

I agree that it's an intriguing idea for a setting. Do people re-name? Do they go by their previous name? How do they prove they are who they say they are (e.g. for celebrities or politicians or whatever)? Does it ultimately become inconsequential—the sort of thing you might discuss on a first date and that's about it—or do people construct identity based on their previous identity?

What about people who switch sexes? Or switch races? Or suddenly have physical disorders—or suddenly don't? What about people who had mental disorders; do those carry over? Does memory loss from e.g. Alzheimers?

I'd love to see someone take this idea and run with it :D
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