Fantasy Skyfarers: the OOC Chat

[Killigrew]

I've put in some world building elements into my post. I've tried to take care of the energy problem with an in-world material with really really high specific heat. Since that was bothering me a little lol. I hope this is okay?

Edit: sorry if my writing is a bit sloppy. I'm used to posting and then editing bits of my writing as I read it. But I forgot that this site marks my edits as spam if I do that more than twice ;(

The hype to read your post has now increased 1000%.

 

[Killigrew]

S sharramon
The hype to read your post was well-placed. I'm really not scientifically-minded and really appreciate the idea! This is exactly what's so fun about rping; my weaknesses are made less horrible when someone like you steps in

I'll add Bericite to the lore!!

Soviet Panda
I think the main thing in your CS (that I haven't had a chance to read thoroughly or explain some of the things I'm thinking could help...) is the description of how runes don't work for other signs. Anyone can write any sign's rune, but the sign runes only activate for people that bear the corresponding sign.

DatDerpyCookie
thanks for the bandages!!
It's a few posts back, but I'll edit out the mention of sign runes being different colors. It's an interesting concept, and I really do like it, but I think it might be a lot to remember! We'd have to draft out the color of each sign and make sure people stay consistent; it's just easier to make all the signs glow white instead.

Sorry, I love ideas like that. I'd love to implement it if I were writing alone v__v

Spoiler: I can't just delete it!

Plus, as Rena had said, red runes weren't too improbable. After all, the runes she usually worked with were white, green, and only occasionally black - the inviting dark color of deception and disguise. Maybe red runes represented wrath, or raw power...?

 

[sharramon]

I like that you liked it! I'm actually an engineer (with an actual degree no less!), so I actively worry about these things when I'm thinking about world building lol. The amount of googling I did on materials and energy transfer....

Molten salt energy storage is actually a real and viable thing in the real world btw. With some magic, the energy loss shouldn't be as bad so I thought that this would probably be a fun way for energy to be stored in day to day things on the islands. I was also thinking that maybe it's harder to do very localized controlled kinetic energy (to avoid the whole problem with guns and such). I dunno, I'm kinda doing my head in.

Also, it seems like the most feasible way to have an aircraft would actually be to just have some kind of huge balloon, or some unknown rune script that we don't fully understand. Like we could have just copied the entire rune script that keep the islands afloat from the monoliths that works as long as we feed it sufficient energy. Also we could have funny screwed up magnetic fields on the planet itself that makes floating islands possible, but that sound like a headache to figure out over hand wavy magic stuff.

 

[Mad Prince of Sanity]

S sharramon

You are treading the line into what we fondly call the territory of "over-thinking it" my friend. lol

 

[Killigrew]

Also, it seems like the most feasible way to have an aircraft would actually be to just have some kind of huge balloon, or some unknown rune script that we don't fully understand. Like we could have just copied the entire rune script that keep the islands afloat from the monoliths that works as we feed it sufficient energy. Also we could have funny screwed up magnetic fields on the planet itself that makes floating islands possible, but that sound like a headache to figure out over hand wavy magic stuff.

Wow, that's a really cool idea. o__o
I'm going to give these options some thought tonight as I sleep.

EDIT: Bah, prince! There's no such thing as overthinking!!!

 

[Mad Prince of Sanity]

*Stares at Killigrew intensely, but silently* 0_0

 

[sharramon]

You are treading the line into what we fondly call the territory of "over-thinking it" my friend. lol

Haha.... yeah... maybe. But whenever I think about writing I usually start with 'how does everything work'? So I run into problems really quickly. Also, if we have a more detailed explanation I feel that I actually give the writers in the RP more freedom, since they don't have to constantly go 'does this make sense'? I'm fine with specific instances of 'this is magic we don't quite fully understand but can use'. But using magic as an endless supply of deus ex machina usually makes it a little iffy.

 

[Blemmigan]

Oh no an Actual Engineer... sweats nervously

I think I was going for the... runes are drawn from somewhere, like a reservoir of a world right next to this one, probably effecting it in some way that the rune-users aren't aware of. But even if that were the case it's a bit out of the scope of what this RP is covering :v
So yes I'm 1000% down for any kind of explanation.. big ol' fan of worldbuilding and... well, not even science, more like new rules for what science is in this entirely different universe.

Also: I'll still be active/around/reading, but I've found myself suddenly moving house at the moment, so am involved with sorting all that out... with a bit of luck, anyway.
(All of which means: another person who agrees with pushing ahead with the plot)

 

[DatDerpyCookie]

S sharramon
The hype to read your post was well-placed. I'm really not scientifically-minded and really appreciate the idea! This is exactly what's so fun about rping; my weaknesses are made less horrible when someone like you steps in

I'll add Bericite to the lore!!

Soviet Panda
I think the main thing in your CS (that I haven't had a chance to read thoroughly or explain some of the things I'm thinking could help...) is the description of how runes don't work for other signs. Anyone can write any sign's rune, but the sign runes only activate for people that bear the corresponding sign.

DatDerpyCookie
thanks for the bandages!!
It's a few posts back, but I'll edit out the mention of sign runes being different colors. It's an interesting concept, and I really do like it, but I think it might be a lot to remember! We'd have to draft out the color of each sign and make sure people stay consistent; it's just easier to make all the signs glow white instead.

Sorry, I love ideas like that. I'd love to implement it if I were writing alone v__v

Spoiler: I can't just delete it!

Plus, as Rena had said, red runes weren't too improbable. After all, the runes she usually worked with were white, green, and only occasionally black - the inviting dark color of deception and disguise. Maybe red runes represented wrath, or raw power...?

It's no problem, all the different rune colors would've been hard to keep track of, lol. But thanks for saving that little blurb anyways!

 

[Killigrew]

Oh no an Actual Engineer... sweats nervously

I think I was going for the... runes are drawn from somewhere, like a reservoir of a world right next to this one, probably effecting it in some way that the rune-users aren't aware of. But even if that were the case it's a bit out of the scope of what this RP is covering :v
So yes I'm 1000% down for any kind of explanation.. big ol' fan of worldbuilding and... well, not even science, more like new rules for what science is in this entirely different universe.

Like we could have just copied the entire rune script that keep the islands afloat from the monoliths that works as long as we feed it sufficient energy.

Also we could have funny screwed up magnetic fields on the planet itself that makes floating islands possible, but that sound like a headache to figure out over hand wavy magic stuff.

Oh wowwww cool ideas

Yeah, my main intention with the runes was that they were something like DNA but for all of nature -- commands that set molecules into action. Flight runes I suppose could make the ship float just as well -- to lessen its weight and draw atmosphere around the item to make it lift into the air. Correct me if I'm wrong; hopefully this isn't grossly unscientific haha.

It would be interesting to add the addendum that the brighter a rune shines, the more intense its power. I'll have to make sure there are no loopholes with that before I set it in stone, though.

 

[Soviet Panda]

He'd have other people write the runes. "Could you be a dear and write the rune for flight on that pair of shoes there for me? Oh, those shoes aren't for me. You'll find out who they're for. You'll find out." Something along those lines.

 

[Killigrew]

He'd have other people write the runes. "Could you be a dear and write the rune for flight on that pair of shoes there for me? Oh, those shoes aren't for me. You'll find out who they're for. You'll find out." Something along those lines.

To clarify, it was this part of the CS!

However, the limitations of runes were so quickly found by him. He simply could not create certain runes, the unseen hand of fate adding a kink where a straight line was supposed to be or otherwise ruining the rune.

 

[Soviet Panda]

Ah. Well that's an easy enough fix.

 

[sharramon]

Yeah, my main intention with the runes was that they were something like DNA but for all of nature -- commands that set molecules into action. Flight runes I suppose could make the ship float just as well -- to lessen its weight and draw atmosphere around the item to make it lift into the air. Correct me if I'm wrong; hopefully this isn't grossly unscientific haha.

So I thought that the runes could tell stuff to do what we wanted as long as we specified it well enough. This could help us do things that are a little bit more complicated easily like 'turn heat energy into light' since technically light is just a type of energy (sort of...), and it would actually be way more efficient if we could just force some electrons to go into higher energy states and then fall back again to emit light. What we do in real life is similar, but we have to sort through a lot of messiness to get there. But if we had a command that literally just was 'make light' then that makes the work easier.

There's something called gravitons that are theorized to exist that make gravity work, but I literally have no idea how any of this field works (hahaha quantum, pls someone be a theoretical physicist). But we could have some long piece of script that seems to work to lift large objects into the sky by resisting the pull of gravity somehow, and we literally have no idea what a lot of these runes mean maybe(?). This would be the most magical way I could think of making it work while remaining within our known science.

There was a cool story I read somewhere where AI in a game world thought that game commands were spells from god, and they didn't know what a lot of it meant but used chunks of it anyway for desired effects, and some people would experiment what parts of the code might mean to try and figure the language out. I'm thinking of runes a bit like that at the moment, but with affinities too, which would make the whole thing even more difficult to rune scholars to figure out (like what if part of the line was meant to be activated by one affinity and the other part another?).

It helps because most of programming feels like this (although I'm not a software engineer, I code a little and apparently most of my software friends apparently agree with this so much it hurts)

Which means that trying to figure out complicated commands when we don't even know the language (that's probably even more complicated than computer code) would be hilariously sad. So we've actually only managed to understand very small parts of the language that are in common use.

Programming Sucks

This blog post is a fun read to understand it.

It would be interesting to add the addendum that the brighter a rune shines, the more intense its power.

I mean, it could be that runes have some energy leakage, so when it's using a ton of energy some of it leaks as light. It's like when we use electronics we lose some energy as heat. That would give it a solid in-world reason.

 

[Soviet Panda]

To clarify, it was this part of the CS!

Changes have been made to say that they just didn't work no matter how well he made the runes.

 

[Killigrew]

UPDATE: Finally got around to adding Orpheus to the cast page! A belated welcome to Sharramon!

 

[Killigrew]

woah, somehow I missed that you had posted this giant!!

So I thought that the runes could tell stuff to do what we wanted as long as we specified it well enough. This could help us do things that are a little bit more complicated easily like 'turn heat energy into light' since technically light is just a type of energy (sort of...), and it would actually be way more efficient if we could just force some electrons to go into higher energy states and then fall back again to emit light. What we do in real life is similar, but we have to sort through a lot of messiness to get there. But if we had a command that literally just was 'make light' then that makes the work easier.

Times like these, I really wish I had studied science in college instead. It'd be so cool to just draw from my memory bank what's feasible to do if we could control molecules on command.

But we could have some long piece of script that seems to work to lift large objects into the sky by resisting the pull of gravity somehow, and we literally have no idea what a lot of these runes mean maybe(?). This would be the most magical way I could think of making it work while remaining within our known science.

Now that sounds good to me. Maybe they'd just call it the "lift!" rune

There was a cool story I read somewhere where AI in a game world thought that game commands were spells from god, and they didn't know what a lot of it meant but used chunks of it anyway for desired effects, and some people would experiment what parts of the code might mean to try and figure the language out. I'm thinking of runes a bit like that at the moment, but with affinities too, which would make the whole thing even more difficult to rune scholars to figure out (like what if part of the line was meant to be activated by one affinity and the other part another?).

dude that's exactly what I was thinking would be fun about it. Almost like a video game except it's real life for them! And then the affinities bit just messes with the ease of use and limits everyone's power

It helps because most of programming feels like this (although I'm not a software engineer, I code a little and apparently most of my software friends apparently agree with this so much it hurts)

My dad and bros are all software engineers, so I hear a lot about commands resulting in action, a lot of structured thinking. It's partly why I was willing to take on a more 'scientific' styled magic rather than my usual mythological-style magic, because of that minimal experience x) They never quite said what the article you posted said, but the idea of commands and difficulty explaining the concept and inept employees was the same ole story.

So we've actually only managed to understand very small parts of the language that are in common use.

Very true! You're adding so much logic to this lore, I love it. Now that partial understanding of the monoliths makes so much sense =u =

I mean, it could be that runes have some energy leakage, so when it's using a ton of energy some of it leaks as light. It's like when we use electronics we lose some energy as heat. That would give it a solid in-world reason.

Exquisite, sounds perfect!

 

[Killigrew]

awright
Coin DatDerpyCookie Emiya Shin Blemmigan
I'll have the conversation switch to "What sort of land do you think we'll discover?" What would be the answer your character would give? I'll include it in my ending post
I imagine Yason (dubbed "Sir Uncreative") expects it'll be a company of sky islands like those we came from, except instead of having a history of war, they're all very peaceful. (Also, who among your characters would groan at this idea? lol)

 

[Killigrew]

UPDATE: Added two entries to the lore section; one on the ship and the other on the watches. The ship has a name now!

 

[Mad Prince of Sanity]

*gAsP* Is it now the HMS Pooben-Floober!?

 

[sharramon]

My dad and bros are all software engineers, so I hear a lot about commands resulting in action, a lot of structured thinking. It's partly why I was willing to take on a more 'scientific' styled magic rather than my usual mythological-style magic, because of that minimal experience x) They never quite said what the article you posted said, but the idea of commands and difficulty explaining the concept and inept employees was the same ole story.

Lol ask them "What's it like reading other people's codes without comments?"

I'll try and pm you stuff like this in the future though, I feel like I've flooded this thread a little. I would've done it already, but the site says I need 10 posts before I can start sending pms? This should be my 10th post though :^)

 

[Blemmigan]

I'll try and pm you stuff like this in the future though, I feel like I've flooded this thread a little. I would've done it already, but the site says I need 10 posts before I can start sending pms? This should be my 10th post though :^)

I'd say it's all part of the fun of everyone speculating/discussing what makes the world tick, and general conversation about building it up.

I like the concept of... not knowing quite how the runes work but using them anyway. So, say they are built on what the monoliths within each city... people found out that they could channel them by drawing and naming the runes provided. Then people tweak them, maybe by accident at first, and find out that certain people can do certain other things with these altered runes (based on their signs, their training, their mindset, whatever). Then people started changing them on purpose.

And although there's some logic to it, such as basing it on the runes they know already work, I see understanding the language of runes as being less like a science and more like n organic, flawed language... or even, more like throwing spaghetti at a wall. But in a really scholarly, academic, snooty way, at least in Hellinopolis. By those who write long papers about the significance of adding a half-standard arc with an Economidis flare to the family of typical buoyancy runes. And then argue about it in their papers, with insults couched in educated language.

The people who probably make real progress in understanding (certain) runes would be those who use them on a day-to-day basis, and find certain tweaks or combinations that work for them. They probably don't write important papers about them, but they share it with others in their line of work, or pass it down to their children, and it becomes part of what makes them stand out as a worker. In time that becomes more widely known and argued about. And in the other direction, starting up top, any actual breakthroughs would be studied and tested and papers peer-reviewed, and eventually trickle down and become accessible to those who wanted (or could afford) to learn about them, before becoming so commonplace that nobody knows who invented them in the first place, either.

But... yeah. I guess mostly like how certain words and terms and phrases become popular, those would be the most common ones. With certain runes falling in and out of fashion, or being replaced by "improved" versions, or rediscovered after people realised that a certain rune is just better at a certain job and why did they stop using it?

Some people may well be working on trying to crack the runic code, like identifying atoms, and from that trying to figure out how they can interact, fitting them together to build tangible things... then I guess it wouldn't be magic any more. Which I mean, obviously, in this world it's commonplace, but I suppose I like to think that the rules keep changing whenever people think they figure them out. So they're not so much like molecules as... something alive, or conscious. Influenced by the people who use them as well as being an influence.

Obviously that's just speculation/the mind picture I seem to have somehow built up. I definitely tend towards the "all is not as it seems"... I guess I'm one who prefers puzzling over a mystery to actually having an answer. Which helps nobody.

And once the rules are set down I'll adhere to those instead of throwing more speculation that ends up contradicting other stuff... whoops >__>

awright
I'll have the conversation switch to "What sort of land do you think we'll discover?" What would be the answer your character would give? I'll include it in my ending post
I imagine Yason (dubbed "Sir Uncreative") expects it'll be a company of sky islands like those we came from, except instead of having a history of war, they're all very peaceful. (Also, who among your characters would groan at this idea? lol)

"Maybe," she said, doubtfully. "But if there are others out there, why haven't they come to visit us? Unless they don't have cities and universities and... and society like we do."

The fact that they literally only just built a ship themselves doesn't feature, apparently.
She'd definitely be suspicious of anywhere they did find, and wouldn't expect a utopia. Plus, you can't live in Hellinopolis without having a little haughtiness ingrained into your way of thinking when it comes to other, probably-ignorant places. But she would be polite about it, seeing as Yason went out of his way to be polite to her (in her eyes, anyway). Overall, wary. Probably expecting dangerous things. Or maybe being around so many soldiers (for the first time in her life) is making her paranoid.

 

[sharramon]

Obviously that's just speculation/the mind picture I seem to have somehow built up. I definitely tend towards the "all is not as it seems"... I guess I'm one who prefers puzzling over a mystery to actually having an answer. Which helps nobody.
.

Haha, I mean I get what you mean though. There's a weird thing about magic being front and center of the story, which is that they might stand for something more than just functionality. I mean, it would be easy to just build a science around, but that might make it a little trivial in storytelling.

Since it seems that you're thinking a little on the 'magic should mean something more than just science', as runes could be viewed as a language and a way of life. It just seems like a confusion brought about with the fact that we're using runes as a story telling element to fit both science AND language (so academia vs the everyday man), so we have to still make enough wiggle room that it can accommodate both.

I'd love to have a separate conversation with you about it, since this is actually a problem I've been kinda struggling with myself! We should schedule a discord chat or something sometime.

 

[Killigrew]

S sharramon haha, I really don't mind the OOC filled with thoughts of the lore and speculation about what kind of world we'll find! That sort of thing will help to incite creativity, which is exactly what I'm wanting to see

Some people may well be working on trying to crack the runic code, like identifying atoms, and from that trying to figure out how they can interact, fitting them together to build tangible things... then I guess it wouldn't be magic any more. Which I mean, obviously, in this world it's commonplace, but I suppose I like to think that the rules keep changing whenever people think they figure them out. So they're not so much like molecules as... something alive, or conscious. Influenced by the people who use them as well as being an influence.

Hmm... You do add an element of mystery... It would be interesting for the rules of the runes to change. I'll definitely keep the idea in mind.
As for modification of runes to get new runes, that totally makes sense too, like happening upon new runes by accident. For the most part, I was thinking it'd be like they copy down the runes from the monolith as exactly as possible and test out the results; all educated people are trained in runic knowledge and it's quite a lot to remember so usually there's a library of the known runes somewhere accessible. Definitely dig the theory of advancement, and could totally see that referenced by characters -- some certain scholars held in high regard because of how they modified runes or found some new use for a particular rune, or just brought a rune back from the dead. These scholars could be like Galileo with the telescope, just an educated man observing something common workers do and making it 'mainstream,' so that everyone has the knowledge.

 

[Killigrew]

DatDerpyCookie
Alright, I've got Coin's and Emiya's replies via discord,

Aera'll say:
"I think... we'll discover a huge patch of greenlands, fit for farming and rearing! Exchanges of culture too!"

And Jura'll say something ridiculous that even he doesn't believe.

What'll your doctor do/say?