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A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover

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Azel said:
A large part of that is the urban-rural divide though. Fertility is higher in rural areas and the population drive in pre-industrial societies is purely the rural space, with the urban areas providing strongly negative population growth. The other big indicator for fertility is socio-economic positions, specifically the need to have children who take care of you once you are too old to support yourself and the lack of alternatives to manual labor to support yourself.

Also, you are missing the point. The prevalence of the trait will still shrink in percentage of the total population right from the beginning, and unless Ff-pairs will reliably produce more then one offspring with F-phenotype, the trait will die out after a few generations. This is wholly independent of total population development. SD having a lower fertility rate then the rural areas would just accelerate an inevitable trend.
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Hmm... fair point, in that case yes two parents with the trait will always produce children with the trait.

Goldfish said:
@DragonParadox, are people going to be able to choose which cantrips they will be able to use? It would be unfortunate if they are gained randomly, as not all cantrips are created equally and many are extremely niche.

I hope we'll get at least a couple interludes from the perspective of people who have suddenly developed magical powers (though extremely limited ones), including not only citizens, but also visiting merchants, tourists, transient travelers, and even foreign spies. This is such a major development, not to mention being really neat, that it deserves a lot of coverage.
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They will get to choose, though not necessarily consciously, it will be a wisdom check to see how much control of the process they get.

Shador said:
@DragonParadox When is Viserys Nature of a Realm going to actualy do something? Shouldn't our firsts clerics have appeared by now?
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Very soon now, I don't want to say more since it will be a surprise IC as well.
 
Azel said:
A large part of that is the urban-rural divide though. Fertility is higher in rural areas and the population drive in pre-industrial societies is purely the rural space, with the urban areas providing strongly negative population growth. The other big indicator for fertility is socio-economic positions, specifically the need to have children who take care of you once you are too old to support yourself and the lack of alternatives to manual labor to support yourself.

Also, you are missing the point. The prevalence of the trait will still shrink in percentage of the total population right from the beginning, and unless Ff-pairs will reliably produce more then one offspring with F-phenotype, the trait will die out after a few generations. This is wholly independent of total population development. SD having a lower fertility rate then the rural areas would just accelerate an inevitable trend.
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This depends on the impact that "developing the gift" has on how much it spreads. Don't ask me how "stronger bloodlines" and spontaneously developing sorcery interact with nonmagical genetics, but I'd bet you that those who develop this gift into actual Sorcerer levels will be more likely to spread it. @DragonParadox?
And it's not like we've got a school which goes about helping you awaken latent Sorcerer gifts, is it?

I don't expect it to actually vanish entirely, even though it may fail to spread over the entire world. It'll be just another bloodline among the many which are going around in humans.
 
TalonofAnathrax said:
This depends on the impact that "developing the gift" has on how much it spreads. Don't ask me how "stronger bloodlines" and spontaneously developing sorcery interact with nonmagical genetics, but I'd bet you that those who develop this gift into actual Sorcerer levels will be more likely to spread it. @DragonParadox?
And it's not like we've got a school which goes about helping you awaken latent Sorcerer gifts, is it?

I don't expect it to actually vanish entirely, even though it may fail to spread over the entire world. It'll be just another bloodline among the many which are going around in humans.
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Yeah, but those bloodlines tend to be pretty widespread, if weak. I mean, latent dragonblood is all over Dragonstone, just because of three centuries worth of Targ bastards. If this wasn't a rather resilient trait, it should have died out by now.

Having this boon-trait be markedly less resilient then any other magical bloodline we encountered so far would be rather weird.
 
[X] The Boon of Fire Kindled in the Humblest Hearth: The entire population of Sorcerer's Deep gains the Bonus Feat Arcane Talent. The boon is hereditary and semi-dominant, the number of those blessed are likely to spread and increase in time. Those who wield such minor magics are more likely to bloom into full sorcery. In such a case they may freely exchange the feat for Minor Spell Expertise as soon as they have gained the ability to cast Level 3 spells

Let's get us some more mages.
 
Azel said:
A large part of that is the urban-rural divide though. Fertility is higher in rural areas and the population drive in pre-industrial societies is purely the rural space, with the urban areas providing strongly negative population growth. The other big indicator for fertility is socio-economic positions, specifically the need to have children who take care of you once you are too old to support yourself and the lack of alternatives to manual labor to support yourself.

Also, you are missing the point. The prevalence of the trait will still shrink in percentage of the total population right from the beginning, and unless Ff-pairs will reliably produce more then one offspring with F-phenotype, the trait will die out after a few generations. This is wholly independent of total population development. SD having a lower fertility rate then the rural areas would just accelerate an inevitable trend.
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There are all sorts of socio-economic and cultural influences that come into play here as well. Those with the blessing are more likely to become full mages, meaning they're more likely to be wealthy and successful, and thus more likely to be desirable mates. And the children produced by those pairings will also be more likely to be mages, so the trend will continue.

Depending on how the blessing is passed down, how many become mages, and a host of other factors, this could be the beginning of a distinct strain of Planetosi humanity, one that is innately more magical than average muggles, much like the Valyrians themselves were set apart from the norm by being Dragonblooded.

Major Families and Bloodlines could begin to coalesce within just a few generations.

@DragonParadox, any chance the offspring of two blessed individuals might have distinct phenotypic traits, like the typical Valyrian hair and eyes? If so, considering the origin of the blessing, fiery red hair or eyes might be one fitting option.
 
Goldfish said:
There are all sorts of socio-economic and cultural influences that come into play here as well. Those with the blessing are more likely to become full mages, meaning they're more likely to be wealthy and successful, and thus more likely to be desirable mates. And the children produced by those pairings will also be more likely to be mages, so the trend will continue.
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That's the opposite of how it works. Higher education and higher social status lead to less children, not more.
 
Azel said:
That's the opposite of how it works. Higher education and higher social status lead to less children, not more.
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I'm not saying they'll have more children, I'm saying that those children they do produce are more likely to be mages, who in turn will produce more mages, and so on. Mages will more likely end up choosing mates from within their peer groups, who will likely also be mages, further reinforcing the trend. It's not about everyone having magic, but about how it becomes concentrated into a number of bloodlines all but guaranteed to be magical from one generation to the next.

Those Bloodlines will likely remain concentrated within SD, further cementing it as the magical epicenter of the Material realm, not to mention the capital of the Imperium.
 
DragonParadox said:
Walder Prime: You don't say... :V
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Walder Prime is an outlier and shouldn't be counted.
Goldfish said:
I'm not saying they'll have more children, I'm saying that those children they do produce are more likely to be mages, who in turn will produce more mages, and so on. Mages will more likely end up choosing mates from within their peer groups, who will likely also be mages, further reinforcing the trend. It's not about everyone having magic, but about how it becomes concentrated into a number of bloodlines all but guaranteed to be magical from one generation to the next.

Those Bloodlines will likely remain concentrated within SD, further cementing it as the magical epicenter of the Material realm, not to mention the capital of the Imperium.
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Odds are though that those bloodlines will not expand, but rather shrink.
 
Azel said:
Odds are though that those bloodlines will not expand, but rather shrink.
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That's fine. There is already plenty of magical potential to draw upon.

They could also end up breeding with Dragons, Genies, and Fey, further enhancing their Bloodlines with inhuman power and traits, because why not?

I would love to see a few dozen powerful magical bloodlines become relatively common throughout the Imperium. That way lies flavor! 🤓
 
Still though, with how Mages and magic are perceived nowadays as signs of status, wealth and opportunity to move up in society thanks to Viserys, the Companions and the Scholarum I imagine many people once they realize the effects of the blessing would start having children or desire more children than they initially planned. So I'd say we'd see a high short-term baby boom before slowly dropping down and stabilizing.

The only issue I see with this blessing though is that there are still more than just a few of less than moral people living in the realm and they might decide that they too want a good chance of having a magically talented child or just having said child regardless if its theirs or not. So we might see some rich people from outside SD try to take advantage of some of the poorer folks in SD promising them wealth and comfort if they produce them magically talented children. Theirs also a good chance of kidnapping or even human trafficking though with the presence of the inquisition I expect these issues to not last very long or as least be minimized as much as possible.
 
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To pick up an old joke that just got rated by Odgorian's determined march through the quest, have we ever made the Fall of Asmodeus into a play?
 
Artemis1992 said:
Fall of Asmodeus
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There was a poem or parable or something mentioned which was slightly controversial mentioned in the Old Town arc with a fragment of a fragment of the truth of this. It was basically "Paradise Lost".

But no we never specifically ever had the thought "let's do a Not!Paradise Lost script!" at any point in the quest.
 
[X] The Boon of Fire Kindled in the Humblest Hearth: The entire population of Sorcerer's Deep gains the Bonus Feat Arcane Talent. The boon is hereditary and semi-dominant, the number of those blessed are likely to spread and increase in time. Those who wield such minor magics are more likely to bloom into full sorcery. In such a case they may freely exchange the feat for Minor Spell Expertise as soon as they have gained the ability to cast Level 3 spells

Total no-brainer for me tbh
 
[X] The Boon of Fire Kindled in the Humblest Hearth: The entire population of Sorcerer's Deep gains the Bonus Feat Arcane Talent. The boon is hereditary and semi-dominant, the number of those blessed are likely to spread and increase in time. Those who wield such minor magics are more likely to bloom into full sorcery. In such a case they may freely exchange the feat for Minor Spell Expertise as soon as they have gained the ability to cast Level 3 spells

I want everyone to be able to wiggle their fingers and do stuff!
 
[X] The Boon of Fire Kindled in the Humblest Hearth: The entire population of Sorcerer's Deep gains the Bonus Feat Arcane Talent. The boon is hereditary and semi-dominant, the number of those blessed are likely to spread and increase in time. Those who wield such minor magics are more likely to bloom into full sorcery. In such a case they may freely exchange the feat for Minor Spell Expertise as soon as they have gained the ability to cast Level 3 spells
 
[X] The Boon of Fire Kindled in the Humblest Hearth: The entire population of Sorcerer's Deep gains the Bonus Feat Arcane Talent. The boon is hereditary and semi-dominant, the number of those blessed are likely to spread and increase in time. Those who wield such minor magics are more likely to bloom into full sorcery. In such a case they may freely exchange the feat for Minor Spell Expertise as soon as they have gained the ability to cast Level 3 spells
 
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