There are hundreds if not thousands of different magical traditions, not counting individuals who create their own variations of the traditions and whose apprentices in turn create their variation of that variation and so on ad infinitum. However, all magic users and their traditions can be categorized into one of several groups.
Mage, magician, magic user: These are generic words that can be used of anyone who uses magic. Other words used sometimes: Wizard(for old magic users), warlock(for magic users who serve demons).
Spirit binder: Spirit binders are magic users who focus on creating, modifying, controlling and using permanent or long lasting spirits. If a spirit binder needs fireball, he will simply summon or create a fire-spirit and control it into creating one. Depending on his skill and intention, the spirit might be permanent or last only a few uses. Since creating and summoning spirits takes time, a spirit binder is likely to have a number of spirits following him around, ready to be used as necessary. Created spirits rarely have any kind of physical presence, so it can be difficult for the uninitiated to tell spirit binders apart from other people.
Spellslinger: Spellslingers are magic users who focus on casting spells, as opposed to creating spirits. Since spells are single use and made in moments, spellslingers lack the raw power of spirit binders who often spend hours or days - and sometimes much longer - feeding energy to a single spirit that can grow to a tremendous power. However, spellslingers make up for it in versatility: Not only can a spellslinger use any spell he has memorized on a moments notice, a skilled spellslinger can create entirely new effects and put them to good use within minutes while a spirit binder, however skilled, is limited to a few dozen effects he can achieve via his available spirits at best.
It should be noted that while spirit binders and spellslingers are clearly separate categories, few practitioners fall purely into one or the other: Almost all spirit binders know the theory behind spells and can, at the very least, use some basic spells for simple tasks that just aren't worth creating a new spirit for, like lighting a campfire and or shaving his beard, as well as a few more advanced tricks. Similarly, spellslingers tend to know the theory behind creating and summoning spirits and may very well have a spirit or two following them at all times. Some even go further than that, and attempt to strike balance between the two, though such balanced approach rarely accomplishes anything that wouldn't be better done by focusing on one aspect and merely dappling in the other.
Priests: Priests are agents of local gods that have access to some part of that god's power as long as they stay within the god's area of influence. Most priests are also spirit binders of some kind as well, though their skill is often fairly limited. More rarely, a spellslinger becomes a priest, complementing priestly rituals with their spells. Even rarer are towns where each priest is taught spells in addition to priestly rituals.
Summoner: Summoners are a kind of spirit binder who works complicated rituals and bindings to bring Outsiders into the world and control them. Since both angels from Heaven and demons of Oblivion are openly hostile to life or at least naturally inclined to causing destruction, summoners are generally viewed as highly suspect at best, and lynched upon discovery at worst, no matter what their intentions. Naturally, many who gravitate towards the path of a summoner are already inclined towards either Lightbringers or Diabolists and others, even if they start with good intention, are often seduced by the lies - or perhaps the truths - of demons or angels. Even the ones who are righteous are, at best, playing with fire as any angel or demon who escapes bindings is sure to cause harm if it's not quickly banished. Thus the hostility summoners face is very much earned, even if there are a few of those who are both righteous and skilled enough to command the power of summoning with little risk to themselves or others.
Necromancer: Though they are in many ways similar to summoners as they, too, summon beings from another world, necromancers deserve their own entry. Necromancers are spirit binders who focus on summoning and communing with spirits of the dead from the Beyond. Though the uneducated sometimes view necromancers with suspicion, most people show them respect, even reverence. Most necromancers spend their time seeking and talking with the spirits of the dead and sometimes summoning(or banishing) them either for their own reasons or because their paid to do so - for example, many a child has wanted to exchange a few last words with a parent who died suddenly. Properly bound souls can also perform other services for the necromancer, such as guiding them through tunnels or lending them their power, though forcing the spirits of the dead to perform such tasks is highly frowned upon where it isn't banned, so the legitimate necromancers are reduced to merely bargaining with the dead for their services.
Mystic: Mystic are spirit binders focused on dealing with and studying natural spirits as well as creatures such as the fae. They, like necromancers, are often called for when an Outsider or a spirit of the dead needs to be banished, for they are often experts at banishing that which does not belong in this world.
Evoker: Evokers(or sorcerers, as they are also called) are spellslingers focused on quick and dirty magic. Unlike most other spellslingers, they often do not memorize spells at all - instead, they memorize components of spells and use them to create whatever effect is required on the spot or even disregard the use of spells completely and merely use their natural affinity create a suitable effect. Only the most gifted spellslingers become evokers, and highly trained evokers are truly a sight to behold - combining versatility greater than any mere spellslinger with personal power allowing them to rival many spirit binders.
Adept: Adepts are warrior-mages, combining magic with skill in arms. Most adepts focus solely in either spells or spirits, for splitting their already split focus is something only the most talented among them can afford. A spellslinger-adept will most of the time focus on destructive spells and short duration boosts to their physical abilities, while spirit binder - adepts bind spirits within themselves, their arms and their armor to increase their physical prowess and make tools that not even a master craftsman can match.
Showing posts with label details. Show all posts
Showing posts with label details. Show all posts
Feb 24, 2011
Magic part 2: About spirits
Spirit is defined as a permanent or long-lasting formation of protospirits. These fall into three categories as follows:
Artificial spirits: These are spirits created by magic-users.They vary in complexity and power by their purpose and the skill and power of their creator. There are many reasons why someone would want to create a spirit, but the most common ones are wanting to create a permanent effect or wanting to create a spell-effect beyond his or her normal means. Creating a permanent effect is fairly simple: you simply force the spell already in effect solidify into a spirit. This takes a lot of effort and usually a long time. Creating a spell-effect beyond your means is more difficult: you start by making a small part of it suspended and then solidifying it. Then you create next part and keep doing it until the effect is complete. This can take anything from days to months. At the end you simply trigger the effect and it happens, provided all the parts fit together seamlessly and you didn't make any mistakes. Otherwise the result might either be something close to what you intended or completely different depending on the degree of failure. Since solidifying the parts means it's permanent, you could then recharge it, or let the ghost of the spell simply fade away.
Natural spirits: These are permanent formations of proto-spirits that appear naturally. They vary in power from barely detectable to something that would take several magic-users decades or even centuries to match. Their effects vary from obvious(like ever-burning flame) to non-detectable. This has nothing to do with their actual power: A vast formation could appear to do nothing at all, where a small one might do something that something so small couldn't possibly do if it had been crafted by humans. Some of these are beneficial, like clearing the air or creating a barrier against nightmares. Some, on the other hand, are harmful or even deadly to anyone in their presence.
Man-influenced spirits: These are born either from carefully observed rituals and belief or from the raw influence of human emotions, thoughts and dreams. They belong to three different classes: gods, dreams and nightmares.
Gods are born from ritual following of humans from particular village or town. The villagers follow a set of customs and rituals which, due to the force of human emotions and beliefs channeled via the rituals form a god. The god begins as a simple automaton and gradually gains power and sentience, eventually reaching human-level sapience. The presence of a god acts as a ward against nightmares and more concrete dangers like cave-ins and raids as long as the rituals are being followed. It is time, rather than the number of followers, that gives a god its power. A millenia old god is powerful indeed, outmatching even the most powerful humans and protecting its home from almost all dangers. A few decades old god, on the other hand, could at best give moderate protection against nightmares. On the other hand, gods also have one severe limitation: they cannot reach beyond their area. This is usually the village or town and some of the closest tunnels and farms, but can extend several miles beyond that or be limited to the village proper. The limits seem to be completely random, but the older the god, the more absolute the limits are: a relatively young god wouldn't be able to step far beyond its area, but could influence things a day's travel away. An old god, on the other hand, couldn't step outside its area of influence anything beyond what it could see. The exception to this is if there is a shrine to the god outside its area of influence: the god couldn't actually be in the shrine, but its protection would extend to there.
Dreams are spirits created from thoughts, ideas and emotions of humans. Most of them are simple ghosts without sentience or much power beyond evoking the emotions and thoughts that created them. They and their kind can be found everywhere and they can be easily attracted or repelled with magic, as suits the magic-user. Some dreams, on the other hand, grow more powerful and eventually gain sentience. They can use magic like humans can, although it's usually limited to effects related to whatever the dream is associated with: One associated with with lust couldn't move a rock or cause two humans to fall in love with each other, but it could make someone look more attractive or make two humans drawn to each other by lust.They can also manifest physically, appearing vaguely humanoid, with associated emotions and thoughts clearly warping their form: A dream associated with lust, for example, might appear like a physically attractive, but not necessarily beautiful woman where as one associated with anger might appear as a hulking, beast-like figure. Dreams like this can't be attracted or repelled like ordinary dreams, but they can sometimes be summoned and bargained with.
Nightmares are like dreams, but created exclusively from negative emotions and thoughts. Like dreams, most of them are mere phantasms, easily repelled with positive thoughts or, indeed, any human presence at all. Also like dreams, some of them gain power and eventually sentience and ability to manifest physically. They can also be summoned, but unlike dreams, they usually can't be bargained with as most of them, while sentient, lack necessary intelligence or indeed, any motivation to see humans as anything but food or victims. These nightmares regularly are attracted to traveling routes and often assault travelers in order to kill or kidnap them for their twisted purposes. They are difficult to kill, and killing them is indeed impossible without powerful magic, but as they manifest in order to attack, they can often be repelled even without magic and they shouldn't pose any threat to a competent magic-user. Exceptions exist, of course. These are called demons, and they are very powerful nightmares indeed. Where other nightmares can't be bargained with, demons delight in dealing with mortals as long as there is gain in it. A demon can even appear inside a town if it's summoned, though they're usually reluctant to do so as their presence is enough to alert the god and even a weak god can at the very least repel most if not all demons and the stronger ones can destroy any demon outright if one happens to get inside it's sphere of influence. Where as most nightmares manifest as humanoid, with little magic in their disposal, a demon can take many forms ranging from fully human to something directly out of the worst nightmares and they have powerful magics in their disposal.
Artificial spirits: These are spirits created by magic-users.They vary in complexity and power by their purpose and the skill and power of their creator. There are many reasons why someone would want to create a spirit, but the most common ones are wanting to create a permanent effect or wanting to create a spell-effect beyond his or her normal means. Creating a permanent effect is fairly simple: you simply force the spell already in effect solidify into a spirit. This takes a lot of effort and usually a long time. Creating a spell-effect beyond your means is more difficult: you start by making a small part of it suspended and then solidifying it. Then you create next part and keep doing it until the effect is complete. This can take anything from days to months. At the end you simply trigger the effect and it happens, provided all the parts fit together seamlessly and you didn't make any mistakes. Otherwise the result might either be something close to what you intended or completely different depending on the degree of failure. Since solidifying the parts means it's permanent, you could then recharge it, or let the ghost of the spell simply fade away.
Natural spirits: These are permanent formations of proto-spirits that appear naturally. They vary in power from barely detectable to something that would take several magic-users decades or even centuries to match. Their effects vary from obvious(like ever-burning flame) to non-detectable. This has nothing to do with their actual power: A vast formation could appear to do nothing at all, where a small one might do something that something so small couldn't possibly do if it had been crafted by humans. Some of these are beneficial, like clearing the air or creating a barrier against nightmares. Some, on the other hand, are harmful or even deadly to anyone in their presence.
Man-influenced spirits: These are born either from carefully observed rituals and belief or from the raw influence of human emotions, thoughts and dreams. They belong to three different classes: gods, dreams and nightmares.
Gods are born from ritual following of humans from particular village or town. The villagers follow a set of customs and rituals which, due to the force of human emotions and beliefs channeled via the rituals form a god. The god begins as a simple automaton and gradually gains power and sentience, eventually reaching human-level sapience. The presence of a god acts as a ward against nightmares and more concrete dangers like cave-ins and raids as long as the rituals are being followed. It is time, rather than the number of followers, that gives a god its power. A millenia old god is powerful indeed, outmatching even the most powerful humans and protecting its home from almost all dangers. A few decades old god, on the other hand, could at best give moderate protection against nightmares. On the other hand, gods also have one severe limitation: they cannot reach beyond their area. This is usually the village or town and some of the closest tunnels and farms, but can extend several miles beyond that or be limited to the village proper. The limits seem to be completely random, but the older the god, the more absolute the limits are: a relatively young god wouldn't be able to step far beyond its area, but could influence things a day's travel away. An old god, on the other hand, couldn't step outside its area of influence anything beyond what it could see. The exception to this is if there is a shrine to the god outside its area of influence: the god couldn't actually be in the shrine, but its protection would extend to there.
Dreams are spirits created from thoughts, ideas and emotions of humans. Most of them are simple ghosts without sentience or much power beyond evoking the emotions and thoughts that created them. They and their kind can be found everywhere and they can be easily attracted or repelled with magic, as suits the magic-user. Some dreams, on the other hand, grow more powerful and eventually gain sentience. They can use magic like humans can, although it's usually limited to effects related to whatever the dream is associated with: One associated with with lust couldn't move a rock or cause two humans to fall in love with each other, but it could make someone look more attractive or make two humans drawn to each other by lust.They can also manifest physically, appearing vaguely humanoid, with associated emotions and thoughts clearly warping their form: A dream associated with lust, for example, might appear like a physically attractive, but not necessarily beautiful woman where as one associated with anger might appear as a hulking, beast-like figure. Dreams like this can't be attracted or repelled like ordinary dreams, but they can sometimes be summoned and bargained with.
Nightmares are like dreams, but created exclusively from negative emotions and thoughts. Like dreams, most of them are mere phantasms, easily repelled with positive thoughts or, indeed, any human presence at all. Also like dreams, some of them gain power and eventually sentience and ability to manifest physically. They can also be summoned, but unlike dreams, they usually can't be bargained with as most of them, while sentient, lack necessary intelligence or indeed, any motivation to see humans as anything but food or victims. These nightmares regularly are attracted to traveling routes and often assault travelers in order to kill or kidnap them for their twisted purposes. They are difficult to kill, and killing them is indeed impossible without powerful magic, but as they manifest in order to attack, they can often be repelled even without magic and they shouldn't pose any threat to a competent magic-user. Exceptions exist, of course. These are called demons, and they are very powerful nightmares indeed. Where other nightmares can't be bargained with, demons delight in dealing with mortals as long as there is gain in it. A demon can even appear inside a town if it's summoned, though they're usually reluctant to do so as their presence is enough to alert the god and even a weak god can at the very least repel most if not all demons and the stronger ones can destroy any demon outright if one happens to get inside it's sphere of influence. Where as most nightmares manifest as humanoid, with little magic in their disposal, a demon can take many forms ranging from fully human to something directly out of the worst nightmares and they have powerful magics in their disposal.
Mar 15, 2010
What is worth? part 2/?
Continued from the first part
Now that I have the outlines of how the economy works, I need to work out how much everything is worth. Let's start from the farmer: How much is the net-worth of farmer's produce? Let's say that it's 10 bweepers/day spread over the entire year(I'll just assume that year is 365 days, for now. I may change that later). How much of that goes to himself and his family as food? In a village probably 2/3 people are farmers and their families(who also help running the farms), there's a smith, a major, a healer/magic user and the rest are hunters. In a village there's between 100 and 300 people total, averaging about 200. In a city, on the other hand, there are no farmers. How many capita/city? Considering technology level and limitations of caves, a reasonable number would be...I actually have no idea.
Hmm. Apparently a typical medieval city had about 300 000 inhabitants. Considering the limitations of caves(you can only have so much empty space in a limited volume without risking cave-ins, even with supporting structures. Of course the amount is bigger relative to volume close to surface(how deep do the caves extend? And how close to the surface will there be cities? what about villages? Yet more things I'll need to figure out. The more answers I figure out, the more questions there are), I think the number will have to be drastically lower. 50 000? That should be good enough approximation for now(I'll probably need to make another post about this sometime. Luckily the number isn't really vital for now(which begs the question why I just spent about quarter hour trying to figure it out), so I don't have to do that now).
So, a village has about 200 inhabitants, city 50 000 and there are 100 villages to one city. That means the amount of farmers to everyone else is about 100*133:100*67+50 000 or 13 300:56 700 (which rounds to about 1:4). Hmm. Even considering hunters(which will number around 7 000) the number of food producers is pretty low. Less than 40% of the total population. I'm not an expert on medieval economics, but that seems pretty low. Of course, there's magic involved in the equation, but it shouldn't effect the food production. Or should it?
half hour later...
After throughout research I finally stumbled upon this wikipedia article, which indicates that peasants could live with only 20% of their produce or less. So the numbers seem to be just fine.
Now, where was I...Oh, right. So an average peasant produces 10 bweepers of value per day. Since there is 4 other people who also need farm products, he uses 2 bweepers worth of that himself. That means that he gets to sell those 8 bweepers worth. Boy, is he going to be rich! That's almost 6 thrones a year(5.84, to be exact)! Yeah, right. I bet he doesn't even know what a throne looks like. Tune in next time to see what happens to all that money.
Now that I have the outlines of how the economy works, I need to work out how much everything is worth. Let's start from the farmer: How much is the net-worth of farmer's produce? Let's say that it's 10 bweepers/day spread over the entire year(I'll just assume that year is 365 days, for now. I may change that later). How much of that goes to himself and his family as food? In a village probably 2/3 people are farmers and their families(who also help running the farms), there's a smith, a major, a healer/magic user and the rest are hunters. In a village there's between 100 and 300 people total, averaging about 200. In a city, on the other hand, there are no farmers. How many capita/city? Considering technology level and limitations of caves, a reasonable number would be...I actually have no idea.
Hmm. Apparently a typical medieval city had about 300 000 inhabitants. Considering the limitations of caves(you can only have so much empty space in a limited volume without risking cave-ins, even with supporting structures. Of course the amount is bigger relative to volume close to surface(how deep do the caves extend? And how close to the surface will there be cities? what about villages? Yet more things I'll need to figure out. The more answers I figure out, the more questions there are), I think the number will have to be drastically lower. 50 000? That should be good enough approximation for now(I'll probably need to make another post about this sometime. Luckily the number isn't really vital for now(which begs the question why I just spent about quarter hour trying to figure it out), so I don't have to do that now).
So, a village has about 200 inhabitants, city 50 000 and there are 100 villages to one city. That means the amount of farmers to everyone else is about 100*133:100*67+50 000 or 13 300:56 700 (which rounds to about 1:4). Hmm. Even considering hunters(which will number around 7 000) the number of food producers is pretty low. Less than 40% of the total population. I'm not an expert on medieval economics, but that seems pretty low. Of course, there's magic involved in the equation, but it shouldn't effect the food production. Or should it?
half hour later...
After throughout research I finally stumbled upon this wikipedia article, which indicates that peasants could live with only 20% of their produce or less. So the numbers seem to be just fine.
Now, where was I...Oh, right. So an average peasant produces 10 bweepers of value per day. Since there is 4 other people who also need farm products, he uses 2 bweepers worth of that himself. That means that he gets to sell those 8 bweepers worth. Boy, is he going to be rich! That's almost 6 thrones a year(5.84, to be exact)! Yeah, right. I bet he doesn't even know what a throne looks like. Tune in next time to see what happens to all that money.
Mar 11, 2010
Other sentients
I've been thinking about having other races(to use the D&D term, "race" meaning sentient species like humans or elves or dwarves) in the Lightless. I don't really have to worry about making the setting even more unique, so I don't have to start from the scratch, although I don't want to make exact copies either. It's really a dilemma: On one hand I want humans to be the people around: when I introduce a character I don't want the first reaction to be "Is she human or elf or what?". On the other hand, I think exclusively human fantasy settings are rare for a reason: no matter how well you describe the humans, you're not going to get the same amount of "Wow" as you could get by introducing something new(or not so new. Just about everyone has elves. They're still better than having nothing but humans). Tolkien had elves for a reason(500-word rant and it's cause deleted. It was about the drow).
At this point I haven't decided yet whether there are other races(and I probably wouldn't tell even if I had. I'd like to keep my players dark about some things at least for a while yet), but they certainly wont be prevalent. Right now I'm thinking of having fey and dwarves. In fact, I've already decided that the fey exist at least in the legends: go beck in time far enough and just about everyone is either linked to religion in some way(a prophet, a saint, a...crusader?) or you can find a legend linking them to fey by being a fey, a half-fey, a fey-blooded or at least allied to the fey.
So, what would the fey be like(remember that all this may well be scrapped and even if it isn't, it's entirely possible that the fey don't come up)? Fairies are usually smaller than humans(varying from the size of a largish bug to child-sized). I think I'll go with fey being about 2/3rd's of a human size. Obviously they're superior to humans: they're not as strong, but they're faster, as tough(even though they're smaller), healthier, smarter and capable of flying. They also live in an area 300 miles north-northeast of the players starting point(just kidding...probably).
Dwarves are easier(same goes for dwarves). Since I don't want them in the same space as humans, I'll just move them to surface: instead of working with stone, they work with wood. Every dwarf is a master woodcrafter. Metals are not very prevalent, since they could bump into humans digging too deep(work THAT into Dwarffortress. I dare you!). Otherwise they're just standard dwarves:Hardworking, heavy-drinking, grumpy, violent short people.
At this point I haven't decided yet whether there are other races(and I probably wouldn't tell even if I had. I'd like to keep my players dark about some things at least for a while yet), but they certainly wont be prevalent. Right now I'm thinking of having fey and dwarves. In fact, I've already decided that the fey exist at least in the legends: go beck in time far enough and just about everyone is either linked to religion in some way(a prophet, a saint, a...crusader?) or you can find a legend linking them to fey by being a fey, a half-fey, a fey-blooded or at least allied to the fey.
So, what would the fey be like(remember that all this may well be scrapped and even if it isn't, it's entirely possible that the fey don't come up)? Fairies are usually smaller than humans(varying from the size of a largish bug to child-sized). I think I'll go with fey being about 2/3rd's of a human size. Obviously they're superior to humans: they're not as strong, but they're faster, as tough(even though they're smaller), healthier, smarter and capable of flying. They also live in an area 300 miles north-northeast of the players starting point(just kidding...probably).
Dwarves are easier(same goes for dwarves). Since I don't want them in the same space as humans, I'll just move them to surface: instead of working with stone, they work with wood. Every dwarf is a master woodcrafter. Metals are not very prevalent, since they could bump into humans digging too deep(work THAT into Dwarffortress. I dare you!). Otherwise they're just standard dwarves:Hardworking, heavy-drinking, grumpy, violent short people.
Mar 4, 2010
What is worth? part 1/?
Following from the previous post, now I have a money system. But it's not very useful to know that one throne is worth 500 bweepers, when we don't know what a bweeper is worth. So know I need to figure out what everything is worth.
We know have the following units:
Bweeper
Double-whistle=25 bweepers
Throne=20 double-whistles
Hmm. Double-whistle is a little cumbersome to say or write. I imagine that it would get shortened pretty quickly in spoken language and generation or two later it would be shortened in written language, too. I think just dropping the whistle part should be sufficient. So one throne=20 doubles.
Back to the topic. I should aim for the values to be at the very least realistic enough for casual observer to fail to spot anything obviously wrong. Bweeper should be small enough that it's fractions don't come into the play. I think I should start from a small village environment where there aren't that many variables. In small village with little connection to outside world apart from the occasional peddler, most of the trade is direct exchange with items and services without money being necessary.
Most people are farmers or hunters who do a little bit of everything from fixing their tools of trade(when it can be done without a forge) to making their own clothes either from wool(or equivalent, more likely) up or at least from fabric. These people are in effect nearly self-sufficient: as generalists they rarely have need for specialists, even though they would get better quality work from using one. Farming isn't very lucrative, so their net-worth isn't very high.
A village also needs a blacksmith. Farmers could probably make their own forges, but considering that a forge needs yet another separate building, it's heavy work and they don't have that much use for it themselves, it just isn't worth it. In the end a professional blacksmith is better for everyone. There are several other trades that probably have a specialist: a healer/priest who knows mostly everything there is to know about different herbs and treatments in the collective wisdom of village there is to know. Again, farmers probably could know these things themselves and probably do know at least the basics, but when you're really sick you're going to need help, anyway. There's also some kind of mayor who acts as spokesperson, judge/arbiter etc. Mayor probably has a side-trade too, at least in smaller villages. With the danger of cave-ins being everpresent, there probably is an architect as well, to regulate building. There may also be a magic-user, but since one isn't strictly necessary, it's more likely that one has taken the role of healer and uses other magic only irregularly.
I've already written almost 500 words and I've barely scratched the topic I intended to write about. On the plus side, now I have all the necessary pieces to grab the issue. I think I'll leave the rest for tomorrow. I clearly need to think about this some more.
We know have the following units:
Bweeper
Double-whistle=25 bweepers
Throne=20 double-whistles
Hmm. Double-whistle is a little cumbersome to say or write. I imagine that it would get shortened pretty quickly in spoken language and generation or two later it would be shortened in written language, too. I think just dropping the whistle part should be sufficient. So one throne=20 doubles.
Back to the topic. I should aim for the values to be at the very least realistic enough for casual observer to fail to spot anything obviously wrong. Bweeper should be small enough that it's fractions don't come into the play. I think I should start from a small village environment where there aren't that many variables. In small village with little connection to outside world apart from the occasional peddler, most of the trade is direct exchange with items and services without money being necessary.
Most people are farmers or hunters who do a little bit of everything from fixing their tools of trade(when it can be done without a forge) to making their own clothes either from wool(or equivalent, more likely) up or at least from fabric. These people are in effect nearly self-sufficient: as generalists they rarely have need for specialists, even though they would get better quality work from using one. Farming isn't very lucrative, so their net-worth isn't very high.
A village also needs a blacksmith. Farmers could probably make their own forges, but considering that a forge needs yet another separate building, it's heavy work and they don't have that much use for it themselves, it just isn't worth it. In the end a professional blacksmith is better for everyone. There are several other trades that probably have a specialist: a healer/priest who knows mostly everything there is to know about different herbs and treatments in the collective wisdom of village there is to know. Again, farmers probably could know these things themselves and probably do know at least the basics, but when you're really sick you're going to need help, anyway. There's also some kind of mayor who acts as spokesperson, judge/arbiter etc. Mayor probably has a side-trade too, at least in smaller villages. With the danger of cave-ins being everpresent, there probably is an architect as well, to regulate building. There may also be a magic-user, but since one isn't strictly necessary, it's more likely that one has taken the role of healer and uses other magic only irregularly.
I've already written almost 500 words and I've barely scratched the topic I intended to write about. On the plus side, now I have all the necessary pieces to grab the issue. I think I'll leave the rest for tomorrow. I clearly need to think about this some more.
Mar 2, 2010
Money, money, money!
Spoiler warning: while this post doesn't spoil anything about the plot, it does contain information that the characters couldn't know and that could possibly be immersion breaking.
What would be appropriate money system for the Lightless? In fantasy genre, gold is used to the exclusion of other options, with silver and copper filling for smaller units. But since most people don't use light at all except for engineers and magic-users who need to see the schematics(reading by touch is all fine and well, but it doesn't work when pictures are used), gold wouldn't really fit. After all, it was used not only for it's value, but because it's beautiful to look at and difficult to forge. But you can't sense gold's beauty without light, and the sound, weight and feel would be easier to forge. While gold may be rare, since it isn't really very useful(what is gold useful apart from electronics? False teeth? I can't really think of anything) and doesn't have aesthetic value without light, I really have to look elsewhere.
What I really need is something that either feels or sound unique. Shells of rare mollusks? Doesn't really work in day-to-day life. While I can imagine them being collected from several beaches or even a single beach perhaps only during a certain time of year and they could certainly feel and sound pleasant, they're either too large and cumbersome or too brittle.
But...Suppose there was such a rare species with easily recognizable feel and sound. Perhaps it might even have been used as a currency in the past. I'm sure the shells could have been replicated in metal. It would have to be a hard metal, otherwise they would still be damaged easily. It would also have to sound pleasant and the exact sound would have to be difficult to reproduce. Gold is obviously out of question because it's too soft at least as a pure metal. Besides, I don't want to replicate the clichee.
The shells are beautifully engraved with text identifying the mint, kingdom where they were made, year and value. They are made from silver-palladium alloy the exact recipe of which is a secret. While some forgers in the past have identified and replicated the alloy correctly, none of them has ever been able to replicate the exact sound the shells create. The secret of the sound is a small bubble of mercury in the middle of the shell. The sound is thought to be impossible to replicate exactly and most people handling money daily are well-practiced in identifying the sound of a forgery. The shells come in several variations: the smallest of the is half-inch from top to bottom and produces a sound near the high-end of the hearing spectrum. It's called bweeper. Old people sometimes have trouble identifying them correctly. The second smallest is a full inch long and is five times as valuable as the smallest one. It is called whistle. The third one is inch and a quarter long and worth ten bweepers. It's called key, and it's sound is often used to tune instruments.The fourth is the least valuable double-shell: it is made of two 3/4 inches long shells joined in the middle. It is worth twenty five times bweepers and it's named double-whistle. The second double-shell is made of two 9/8 of an inch long shells, worth two double-whistles and called double-key. The last double-shell, throne, is 11/8 of an inch long and it's worth twenty double-whistles. Numbers are usually called in bweepers and double-whistles or, when dealing with large sums, in thrones.
What would be appropriate money system for the Lightless? In fantasy genre, gold is used to the exclusion of other options, with silver and copper filling for smaller units. But since most people don't use light at all except for engineers and magic-users who need to see the schematics(reading by touch is all fine and well, but it doesn't work when pictures are used), gold wouldn't really fit. After all, it was used not only for it's value, but because it's beautiful to look at and difficult to forge. But you can't sense gold's beauty without light, and the sound, weight and feel would be easier to forge. While gold may be rare, since it isn't really very useful(what is gold useful apart from electronics? False teeth? I can't really think of anything) and doesn't have aesthetic value without light, I really have to look elsewhere.
What I really need is something that either feels or sound unique. Shells of rare mollusks? Doesn't really work in day-to-day life. While I can imagine them being collected from several beaches or even a single beach perhaps only during a certain time of year and they could certainly feel and sound pleasant, they're either too large and cumbersome or too brittle.
But...Suppose there was such a rare species with easily recognizable feel and sound. Perhaps it might even have been used as a currency in the past. I'm sure the shells could have been replicated in metal. It would have to be a hard metal, otherwise they would still be damaged easily. It would also have to sound pleasant and the exact sound would have to be difficult to reproduce. Gold is obviously out of question because it's too soft at least as a pure metal. Besides, I don't want to replicate the clichee.
The shells are beautifully engraved with text identifying the mint, kingdom where they were made, year and value. They are made from silver-palladium alloy the exact recipe of which is a secret. While some forgers in the past have identified and replicated the alloy correctly, none of them has ever been able to replicate the exact sound the shells create. The secret of the sound is a small bubble of mercury in the middle of the shell. The sound is thought to be impossible to replicate exactly and most people handling money daily are well-practiced in identifying the sound of a forgery. The shells come in several variations: the smallest of the is half-inch from top to bottom and produces a sound near the high-end of the hearing spectrum. It's called bweeper. Old people sometimes have trouble identifying them correctly. The second smallest is a full inch long and is five times as valuable as the smallest one. It is called whistle. The third one is inch and a quarter long and worth ten bweepers. It's called key, and it's sound is often used to tune instruments.The fourth is the least valuable double-shell: it is made of two 3/4 inches long shells joined in the middle. It is worth twenty five times bweepers and it's named double-whistle. The second double-shell is made of two 9/8 of an inch long shells, worth two double-whistles and called double-key. The last double-shell, throne, is 11/8 of an inch long and it's worth twenty double-whistles. Numbers are usually called in bweepers and double-whistles or, when dealing with large sums, in thrones.
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