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 lightless. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lightless. 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.
Sep 19, 2010
Magic part 1
Let's talk about magic a bit. I need the Lightless to have some kind of magic in it. But what, exactly? An idea occurred to me today while reading Celia Friedman's Black Sun Rising.
To put it simply:
1) There exist a spirit world, which co-exists in the same space with reality. The two universes are separate, but they interact with each other.
2) The spirit world is filled with protospirits, which are shapeless figments of...well, energy, for the lack of better word. You might think of them as sort of ectoplasm.
3) Nearby thoughts, ideas and emotions manipulate these protospirits so that they take form.
4) When they take form they can interact with the reality. This interaction can take many shapes, but the effects are mostly so minor as to be undetectable. For example, dislike of something causes repulsion, lust creates the sensation of heat, etc. These are normally unconscious and very, very weak.
5) Someone talented and trained can, however, manipulate these protospirits consciously. This is called magic.
Magic is, in essence, very simple. If you need a sword, for example, you form an image of a sword, fix it in place, and focus in making it real. This creates an illusion of sword. With enough concentration the sword gains substance. This is the essence of much of the magic: with enough concentration, almost anything can be created this way. However, whatever created, ceases to exist once the magic-user stops concentrating and concentrating takes energy, so that even the most gifted can't maintain something substantial for very long periods of time.
Manipulating what already exists is much the same: The magic-user forms an image of what he wants to happen, and the forces it to become real. Sealing a wound, for example, is done by creating a mental image of the skin without the wound, placing the image into the same space where the wound is, and concentrating very hard. Note that actually healing a wound is actually fairly complex procedure, since it involves knowledge of anatomy: it's not enough to merely recreate the outer layer of the skin, if the wound has damaged muscles or other tissue. Merely sealing a wound stops blood loss, but doesn't replace the lost blood.
Creating permanent substance is more difficult. Once the substance has been created, the protospirit or protospirits of which it consists must be formed into a real spirit. That involves reaching into the spirit world where the substance exists, and forcing it to become solid. It requires enormous effort on the part of the maker, and the success is often incomplete the first time, meaning that the magic-user will have to reach into spirit world again to repeat the process or the spirit will fall apart eventually: depending on the degree of success, that could take from minutes to weeks.
To put it simply:
1) There exist a spirit world, which co-exists in the same space with reality. The two universes are separate, but they interact with each other.
2) The spirit world is filled with protospirits, which are shapeless figments of...well, energy, for the lack of better word. You might think of them as sort of ectoplasm.
3) Nearby thoughts, ideas and emotions manipulate these protospirits so that they take form.
4) When they take form they can interact with the reality. This interaction can take many shapes, but the effects are mostly so minor as to be undetectable. For example, dislike of something causes repulsion, lust creates the sensation of heat, etc. These are normally unconscious and very, very weak.
5) Someone talented and trained can, however, manipulate these protospirits consciously. This is called magic.
Magic is, in essence, very simple. If you need a sword, for example, you form an image of a sword, fix it in place, and focus in making it real. This creates an illusion of sword. With enough concentration the sword gains substance. This is the essence of much of the magic: with enough concentration, almost anything can be created this way. However, whatever created, ceases to exist once the magic-user stops concentrating and concentrating takes energy, so that even the most gifted can't maintain something substantial for very long periods of time.
Manipulating what already exists is much the same: The magic-user forms an image of what he wants to happen, and the forces it to become real. Sealing a wound, for example, is done by creating a mental image of the skin without the wound, placing the image into the same space where the wound is, and concentrating very hard. Note that actually healing a wound is actually fairly complex procedure, since it involves knowledge of anatomy: it's not enough to merely recreate the outer layer of the skin, if the wound has damaged muscles or other tissue. Merely sealing a wound stops blood loss, but doesn't replace the lost blood.
Creating permanent substance is more difficult. Once the substance has been created, the protospirit or protospirits of which it consists must be formed into a real spirit. That involves reaching into the spirit world where the substance exists, and forcing it to become solid. It requires enormous effort on the part of the maker, and the success is often incomplete the first time, meaning that the magic-user will have to reach into spirit world again to repeat the process or the spirit will fall apart eventually: depending on the degree of success, that could take from minutes to weeks.
May 23, 2010
The guardians
What is to be a Guardian? To serve the people, to help those in need.
What is the oath of a Guardian? To Never draw a weapon except to protect the innocent, himself, or fellow guardians. To never kill in anger, for even those serving the light deserve mourning for their souls. To dedicate his life for all people; even murderers, even those too arrogant to see the need, even those who serve the light.
The guardians is an international organization of monks who are fiercely dedicated to darkness. They are widely respected, if not always liked. They come from all walks of life and serve in different roles from warriors to preachers to healers.
The organization is divided to several factions which are: Guardians of Blade, Guardians of Spirit, Guardians of Life, Guardians of Knowledge and Soulguardians.
Soulguardians is the faction with most members and least standing. Soulguardians are people who have taken the pledge of Guardian, but haven't dedicated their lives to the Guardians completely: They're mostly ordinary people who have earned the honor of becoming Guardian, but haven't taken the training(although some of them choose to take the training later) required to become member of one of the other factions. Some of them also act in some minor role in the organization as clerks, for example, and all will help the organization when needed. While most of them will pass some information to Guardians, if something important comes to their attention, a few will become informants(or spies, if you will). Most of the them wear their role publicly however, and are honorbound to keep some information from the organization.
Guardians of Blade are the second most numerous in their members. While their main purpose is to serve as bodyguards to members of other factions, few of whom are trained in their use and even fewer who actually carry any except when expecting confrontation(like when traveling through wilderness), they also represent a military power, should need arise, and act as thiefcatchers in some communities. Their garrisons and patrols also serve as a visible reminder of the dangers of wandering to light. Their combat prowess is legendary: it is said that while a Guardian of Blade will rarely start a fight, it's even rarer for one not to finish one. While that's somewhat exaggerated, their prowess in single combat is equal or better to that of most elite troops and their training for larger confrontations almost on par with that.
Guardians of Spirit are the third most numerous, while far behind Guardians of Blade in numbers. They are the preachers and ministers as well as masters of ceremonies. While not all villages have a Guardian as priests, they're fairly common and there's usually one in every big village, even if he isn't acting as a priest, and almost always one or two in towns. Their main aim isn't necessarily to act as priests, but to help people who have spiritual problems, persuade those who have chosen light to return to darkness and to keep people from going to the side of light. Many of them also know minor spells, but primary spellcasters are rare.
Guardians of Life act are healers. They usually live in cities and bigger towns, but if need arises, they're also willing to travel where ever needed. In villages where the healer is communal they are not needed, but in towns and cities where the poorest people can't afford to pay for healing, they are needed; unlike other healers, they help all the people, even those who cannot afford to pay. From those who can afford to pay nothing, they charge nothing. From everyone else they only ask what is freely given; lots of people pay in favors, few in money. Even so the Guardians of Life rarely live in poverty. Most of them use magic to aid in healing, but again spellcasters of notable power are few and far between.
Guardians of Knowledge are the least numerous faction. They are teachers and scholars. Some of them act as traveling teachers, teaching some of everything to children in villages, but rarely staying in one place for very long. Others have permanent schools in towns or cities, sometimes multiple Guardians teaching different subjects under same roof. Yet others act as private teachers for children of nobles and wealthy merchants. And some are just scholars, focused on gathering knowledge, new and old. Every Guardian(except Soulguardians) has been taught by multitude of Guardians of Knowledge. All Guardians of Knowledge know at least a little magic, and all different degrees of magical learning can be found amongst them.
What is the oath of a Guardian? To Never draw a weapon except to protect the innocent, himself, or fellow guardians. To never kill in anger, for even those serving the light deserve mourning for their souls. To dedicate his life for all people; even murderers, even those too arrogant to see the need, even those who serve the light.
The guardians is an international organization of monks who are fiercely dedicated to darkness. They are widely respected, if not always liked. They come from all walks of life and serve in different roles from warriors to preachers to healers.
The organization is divided to several factions which are: Guardians of Blade, Guardians of Spirit, Guardians of Life, Guardians of Knowledge and Soulguardians.
Soulguardians is the faction with most members and least standing. Soulguardians are people who have taken the pledge of Guardian, but haven't dedicated their lives to the Guardians completely: They're mostly ordinary people who have earned the honor of becoming Guardian, but haven't taken the training(although some of them choose to take the training later) required to become member of one of the other factions. Some of them also act in some minor role in the organization as clerks, for example, and all will help the organization when needed. While most of them will pass some information to Guardians, if something important comes to their attention, a few will become informants(or spies, if you will). Most of the them wear their role publicly however, and are honorbound to keep some information from the organization.
Guardians of Blade are the second most numerous in their members. While their main purpose is to serve as bodyguards to members of other factions, few of whom are trained in their use and even fewer who actually carry any except when expecting confrontation(like when traveling through wilderness), they also represent a military power, should need arise, and act as thiefcatchers in some communities. Their garrisons and patrols also serve as a visible reminder of the dangers of wandering to light. Their combat prowess is legendary: it is said that while a Guardian of Blade will rarely start a fight, it's even rarer for one not to finish one. While that's somewhat exaggerated, their prowess in single combat is equal or better to that of most elite troops and their training for larger confrontations almost on par with that.
Guardians of Spirit are the third most numerous, while far behind Guardians of Blade in numbers. They are the preachers and ministers as well as masters of ceremonies. While not all villages have a Guardian as priests, they're fairly common and there's usually one in every big village, even if he isn't acting as a priest, and almost always one or two in towns. Their main aim isn't necessarily to act as priests, but to help people who have spiritual problems, persuade those who have chosen light to return to darkness and to keep people from going to the side of light. Many of them also know minor spells, but primary spellcasters are rare.
Guardians of Life act are healers. They usually live in cities and bigger towns, but if need arises, they're also willing to travel where ever needed. In villages where the healer is communal they are not needed, but in towns and cities where the poorest people can't afford to pay for healing, they are needed; unlike other healers, they help all the people, even those who cannot afford to pay. From those who can afford to pay nothing, they charge nothing. From everyone else they only ask what is freely given; lots of people pay in favors, few in money. Even so the Guardians of Life rarely live in poverty. Most of them use magic to aid in healing, but again spellcasters of notable power are few and far between.
Guardians of Knowledge are the least numerous faction. They are teachers and scholars. Some of them act as traveling teachers, teaching some of everything to children in villages, but rarely staying in one place for very long. Others have permanent schools in towns or cities, sometimes multiple Guardians teaching different subjects under same roof. Yet others act as private teachers for children of nobles and wealthy merchants. And some are just scholars, focused on gathering knowledge, new and old. Every Guardian(except Soulguardians) has been taught by multitude of Guardians of Knowledge. All Guardians of Knowledge know at least a little magic, and all different degrees of magical learning can be found amongst them.
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.
Feb 27, 2010
RP
Well, since I seem to be making no progress by myself, I decided to make an RP out of it. At the very least this'll make me rethink magic and create some details to setting. I'll probably make the RP cross with my main character, so I'll be getting plot advancement as well.
Jan 20, 2010
Richbrook
Reichenbach(or Richbrook) is a small village that has gotten its name from a small river that flows through it. The river is named so because it flows through several iron and copper mines.
The village stands in a large cave and is locally famous because the cave contains several buildings instead of each building being a cave in its own. Most of the villagers still live in their own caves nearby, but the large cave contains an inn, the village's common storage house(mostly for ores) and a temple. The river continues through the cave and ends to a series of falls. It is suspected to contribute to Nebelriver which flows near the City of Mists (or Nebel, as it is more commonly known), but that hasn't been tested since the falls make the river unusable for transport anyway.
The village stands in a large cave and is locally famous because the cave contains several buildings instead of each building being a cave in its own. Most of the villagers still live in their own caves nearby, but the large cave contains an inn, the village's common storage house(mostly for ores) and a temple. The river continues through the cave and ends to a series of falls. It is suspected to contribute to Nebelriver which flows near the City of Mists (or Nebel, as it is more commonly known), but that hasn't been tested since the falls make the river unusable for transport anyway.
Dec 30, 2009
the humble beginning
This is the very first paragraph that I've written for Lightless.
Aram woke up at usual time, just before Outer Dark ended, right when it was coldest. As he dressed, he thought it funny, not for the first time, that the temperatures underground would be effected by the cycle of the accursed Great Light. As he moved through the 6-foot tall doorway that was nevertheless not quite tall enough for him he noticed an unfamiliar breeze, cold enough to make him shiver. “Good morning, lad. Grab some breakfast, then we'll go look at that cave-in that happened during the night. It has to be close since we can feel the breeze here. Goes near surface, too, or the breeze wouldn't be that cold.
I thought I should put the first paragraph here, since this is what this blog is about. In the future I'm going to restrict myself to putting only relevant text samples here. Nevertheless, I suspect it'll be quite a lot.
Aram woke up at usual time, just before Outer Dark ended, right when it was coldest. As he dressed, he thought it funny, not for the first time, that the temperatures underground would be effected by the cycle of the accursed Great Light. As he moved through the 6-foot tall doorway that was nevertheless not quite tall enough for him he noticed an unfamiliar breeze, cold enough to make him shiver. “Good morning, lad. Grab some breakfast, then we'll go look at that cave-in that happened during the night. It has to be close since we can feel the breeze here. Goes near surface, too, or the breeze wouldn't be that cold.
I thought I should put the first paragraph here, since this is what this blog is about. In the future I'm going to restrict myself to putting only relevant text samples here. Nevertheless, I suspect it'll be quite a lot.
Dec 29, 2009
If you are reading this today...
...then what the hell are you doing here? Congratulations on finding this blog so early, though. You're probably a psychic or something.
More likely you found this post by following a link from the front page, because this is supposed to be an introductory post and an explanation. Please notice that I'm not a native english speaker and therefore I may use odd word choices and frases and a mixture of american english and british english(of that you may thank the school system where we were taught mostly british english, while everywhere else being subjected mostly to american english). My grammar and spelling should mostly be good, though.
First the explanation. The introduction stuff isn't really important, after all. This blog is a recording of a new world, which has existed in my head for a while in one form or another. It also records the stories I'm going to set in the world. My eventual purpose is to write, and possibly even publish(in some form) a novel based on the setting. The blog's main function is to force me to write down my thoughts and ideas, so that I'll actually make some progress. Edit: Originally there were some promises related to regular posts. It just isn't happening. At the moment I have two posts half-written and no idea when I'll have another complete post. So let's just say that I'll post about once a week. That way the posts will be more complete and longer. I'll eventually get around to posting other things too and perhaps even make regular weekly(or monthly) features for the blog. You'll just have to wait a while
What, exactly, is Lightless? It's a world where the side of Light is the side of evil. It's a world where the evil Lightfriends are the equivalent of todays terrorists. It's a world where humanity has escaped the Sun and is now living in magnificent cavern cities. Lightless begun one day when, inspired mostly by Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, I thought "why is the side of light always the side of good? Why not the other way around?" The idea of light being the side of evil lead to other implications which lead to Lightless.
Now that the explanation is out of the way, let's get to the introduction. I am a man of many guises and even now I'm unsure whether to reveal my real name(something which I have done in the internet so few times that I can count them with fingers of one hand). For now, you shall know me as DreamSeeker, although since you are here, you probably know me by at least one other nickname already(in fact, you might even know my real name). I am a twenty-year-old soon to be math student in the University of Helsinki(starting January 18th). I'm native finnish, born in Helsinki, and my hobbies include surfing in the tubes, poker, playing classical guitar and reading and writing. I also try to excersize by at least walking a few kilometers every day.
My taste in literature consists mostly of fantasy with occasional scifi and horror dropped in. I listen a lot of music, mostly metal, and my current favourite genre is power metal, although that may be changing slowly.
I'm tallish with dark hair currently cut short(I really miss my long hair, but I had to cut it off) and green eyes. I usually have a few days of beard growth and I have a lean frame.
About ads:(I realize this might not be the best place to talk about them, but it's linked from the front page) I realize many of you probably use ad-blocking software like AdBlock Plus(I use it myself in most sites), but I do my best to weed irritating and out of place ads(there has been lots of Bible related ads which I've removed, for example. I try to be pretty picky, albeit less so with text ads), so I'd appreciate if you turned it off in my blog. Also, if you spot ads that you find particularly irritating or ads that link to malicious sites, feel free to post their urls in the comments of this post.
More likely you found this post by following a link from the front page, because this is supposed to be an introductory post and an explanation. Please notice that I'm not a native english speaker and therefore I may use odd word choices and frases and a mixture of american english and british english(of that you may thank the school system where we were taught mostly british english, while everywhere else being subjected mostly to american english). My grammar and spelling should mostly be good, though.
First the explanation. The introduction stuff isn't really important, after all. This blog is a recording of a new world, which has existed in my head for a while in one form or another. It also records the stories I'm going to set in the world. My eventual purpose is to write, and possibly even publish(in some form) a novel based on the setting. The blog's main function is to force me to write down my thoughts and ideas, so that I'll actually make some progress. Edit: Originally there were some promises related to regular posts. It just isn't happening. At the moment I have two posts half-written and no idea when I'll have another complete post. So let's just say that I'll post about once a week. That way the posts will be more complete and longer. I'll eventually get around to posting other things too and perhaps even make regular weekly(or monthly) features for the blog. You'll just have to wait a while
What, exactly, is Lightless? It's a world where the side of Light is the side of evil. It's a world where the evil Lightfriends are the equivalent of todays terrorists. It's a world where humanity has escaped the Sun and is now living in magnificent cavern cities. Lightless begun one day when, inspired mostly by Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, I thought "why is the side of light always the side of good? Why not the other way around?" The idea of light being the side of evil lead to other implications which lead to Lightless.
Now that the explanation is out of the way, let's get to the introduction. I am a man of many guises and even now I'm unsure whether to reveal my real name(something which I have done in the internet so few times that I can count them with fingers of one hand). For now, you shall know me as DreamSeeker, although since you are here, you probably know me by at least one other nickname already(in fact, you might even know my real name). I am a twenty-year-old soon to be math student in the University of Helsinki(starting January 18th). I'm native finnish, born in Helsinki, and my hobbies include surfing in the tubes, poker, playing classical guitar and reading and writing. I also try to excersize by at least walking a few kilometers every day.
My taste in literature consists mostly of fantasy with occasional scifi and horror dropped in. I listen a lot of music, mostly metal, and my current favourite genre is power metal, although that may be changing slowly.
I'm tallish with dark hair currently cut short(I really miss my long hair, but I had to cut it off) and green eyes. I usually have a few days of beard growth and I have a lean frame.
About ads:(I realize this might not be the best place to talk about them, but it's linked from the front page) I realize many of you probably use ad-blocking software like AdBlock Plus(I use it myself in most sites), but I do my best to weed irritating and out of place ads(there has been lots of Bible related ads which I've removed, for example. I try to be pretty picky, albeit less so with text ads), so I'd appreciate if you turned it off in my blog. Also, if you spot ads that you find particularly irritating or ads that link to malicious sites, feel free to post their urls in the comments of this post.
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