@Boney I there any chance at all that I can convince you to be overly generous and lenient by restructuring the vote so that Cython/We is a separate option in
addition to one of the more mundane ones? Because neither of the two is what one would rightly call practical or sensible, but one of them is almost definitely going to win, to the point that all the merits of all the "normal" ones are completely overshadowed, or at least that's what I anticipate. And at the same time if one of the sensible options somehow does win because all the "no monsters" voters come together and narrowly win through approval voting then all the Cython/We fans will forevermore remember this day as the day where the Library "became boring". Even though before today the Library was just fine and that objectively wouldn't change. In other words this choice we have here is the most polarized OOC fun vs IC practicality votes yet. And that saddens me personally.
And yes, I get that I'm asking for the moon here. And that I am appealing to your emotions. I won't ask again if the answer is no and I'll definitely get over it. But I have to at least try.
Orbs of Sorcery are what the Colleges used to make stuff like the giant Hysh death-rays the Light College has.
Seeing how Teclis gave only one to each College, where does the Order of Light get additional ones from? Or is there canonically only a single death-ray machine?
Added a line about Orbs of Sorcery to the update:
A single one of them can allow for magical phenomena that would normally take an entire array of conventional power stones and be a lot easier to build around as well, and a socket for them can be found at the heart of the most potent and rarely-used Battle Altars of the Colleges.
Do we know what each (or any one) College is currently using their Orb of Sorcery for?
Technically speaking, nothing's stopping her. Practically speaking, a human-sized Orb would be such ludicrous overkill there wouldn't be a whole lot the Empire could possibly construct that would be able to make use of it. You'd essentially be making a wind-based nuclear explosive and asking people if they have anything that needs powering with the sun.
Make a Hysh one, study how to make it go boom widely (as opposed to ripping a hole in reality or whatever) and drop the resulting bomb in the Chaos Wastes?
The bigger risk is that we have no idea what the maximum size is. So if it for any reason is smaller than the size we are trying to go for then the resulting oopsie will be really bad.
And if we are creating eight oversized ones at the same time for efficiency instead of wasting 7/8ths of however much AV we need to play it safe, then said oopsie is eight times as big and made of Dhar. Third Polar Gate anyone?
Added a note regarding the workings of libraries:
- A note on libraries: The possessiveness of some potential recruits is not as much of a concern as you might think. in this era, most libraries only ever lend out books if they have multiple copies or to exceptionally trusted individuals. They don't work the same way as modern libraries, where almost everything is expected to go out the door on a regular basis.
That's definitely true, but we are hoping for this Library to last forever and Cython is immortal. So when the day comes where this Library would modernize into a modern Library, Cython might stand in the way of that.
Yes, I am being very optimistic here.
The time it takes for a Daemon's corpse to start disintegrating varies based on ambient magical energy. It might be a problem if he made a habit of not wiping his sword down after battles and let Daemon blood disintegrate on the stones.
I was thinking less problem and more that his sword is purposely built for Powerstone enlargement to be a useful side effect. The sockets around them would have to be able to expand and retract though.
They'd permanently lose Cityborn privileges by doing so. You might be able to find one or two individuals, but not enough to staff the whole library.
What about Faniour?
I really dislike the orphan option. They don't help the library in any single way. Every other option makes the library a little better in its own way, but not the orphans. The orphan option is for getting fanatical loyalty to Mathilde and honestly, what the hell are we gonna do with that? What's the point? Helping orphans is good but we asked Belegar for a library, not an orphanage.
They would help in that they would do whatever Mathilde thinks is best, without bringing their own baggage and convictions in.
But IMO that's both overly optimistic and short sighted thinking. A bunch of (Human?) orphans are not all guaranteed to be loyal, because they are still people with their own minds and dreams and stories. Also, what would happen after Mathilde's death? They would become an independent and self-perpetuating organization that could evolve in pretty much whatever direction over the centuries.
