What would readers prefer?

  • Pure narrative quest: no dice will be used, the author will have free reign to decide what happens.

    Votes: 25 59.5%
  • New dice system: the author will design a new, better dice system to add some randomness and risk.

    Votes: 17 40.5%

  • Total voters
    42
  • Poll closed .
That doesn't mean Ryza should react to the results of that investigation with gratitude. It's not all Flarestone's fault, but that doesn't mean Ryza should act happy about it.
Ah yes, because it would have been so much better if she kept the damn thing

Edit: I'm being sarcastic here, if you couldn't tell.
 
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[X] Swallowing your pain, you push all the feelings and hurt into the back of your mind. You have to be strong. "Thank you," you say, tucking Father's stone into your pocket next to yours. "We… should talk elsewhere. There's a lot to be said."

[X] A flare of anger weaves its way through the hurt; for all that she brought this to you, this human should not have been in your home! "What do you want?" you ask sharply. Your tolerance for niceties is exhausted.

Either of these make more sense to me. The hug reaction seems a bit odd imo; I don't doubt that Ryza is glad to have her Father's stone in hand instead of never seeing it again, but personally gratitude wouldn't be my primary emotion in such a situation.
 
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Yeah, this is one of the tougher votes for me. There's been a lot of good points raised by people on all three sides, IMO.

[X] Swallowing your pain, you push all the feelings and hurt into the back of your mind. You have to be strong. "Thank you," you say, tucking Father's stone into your pocket next to yours. "We… should talk elsewhere. There's a lot to be said."

Tentatively going with this for now though. This very much is complicated for Ryza and while it's perhaps not the healthiest reaction, we've been given numerous signs, especially recently, that Ryza hasn't processed a lot of these things in a healthy way to this point. I definitely think her emotions end up boiling over as a result of this, but probably either privately at her shrine or maybe with Artemis or Sypha.
 
[X] Swallowing your pain, you push all the feelings and hurt into the back of your mind. You have to be strong. "Thank you," you say, tucking Father's stone into your pocket next to yours. "We… should talk elsewhere. There's a lot to be said."
 
Another thing worth noting here is that from Flamestone's interlude we know that her first and only reaction was fear of reprisal. Then when she finally gets here she gets distracted during her introduction to Ryza asking her how to spell stuff while still holding her father's stone.

That doesn't speak to a lot of contrition or emotional understanding of what's going on here.

I mean if you were robbing someone, stumbled over the body of their father, and then delivered his severed head to them would you stop to ask about their shoes? There's being an airhead academic and then there's that.

Ryza having a negative reaction is more fitting to the three overlapping emotional blows she's taken recently, but it's also healthier because it communicates what she's going through more clearly to the people around her.

Flamestone might not have meant it, but right now she's stomping all over sensitive issues and doesn't seem to have internalized that it's causing real pain to someone; or at least that that pain matters outside the context of violent consequences.

Flamestone needs to see what she's doing, and Ryza's friends need something more than uneasy evasion and a shouting match to contextualize the problem. Intellectual understanding doesn't cut it when dealing with stuff people want to avoid dealing with.

Building bridges over that gap seems healthier long term than allowing them to continue ignoring the issue.
 
[X] Swallowing your pain, you push all the feelings and hurt into the back of your mind. You have to be strong. "Thank you," you say, tucking Father's stone into your pocket next to yours. "We… should talk elsewhere. There's a lot to be said."

Man, what a vote. Good discussions all around.
 
[X] Write-in: A deep sadness wells up in you. To wake up knowing your parents must be dead is vastly different from holding proof. "Please excuse me, for just a few minutes," you say quietly. Your eyes are already filling with tears.

You know what if Ryza is supposed to be the heart, screw swallowing her feelings. But I also wasn't a fan of the other two options. So here's a write in to express her grief that isn't taking it out on Flarestone.
 
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[X] A flare of anger weaves its way through the hurt; for all that she brought this to you, this human should not have been in your home! "What do you want?" you ask sharply. Your tolerance for niceties is exhausted.
 
[X] Write-in: A deep sadness wells up in you. To wake up knowing your parents must be dead is vastly different from holding proof. "Please excuse me, for just a few minutes," you say quietly. Your eyes are already filling with tears.

You know what if Ryza is supposed to be the heart, screw swallowing her feelings. But I also wasn't a fan of the other two options. So here's a write in to express her grief that isn't taking it out on Flarestone.

...you know what? I like this better, yes.

It's probably not going to win, though.

Nonetheless, I think we have an internal consensus that this is better than what we had previously, so we might as well take a chance on it.

[X] Write-in: A deep sadness wells up in you. To wake up knowing your parents must be dead is vastly different from holding proof. "Please excuse me, for just a few minutes," you say quietly. Your eyes are already filling with tears.
 
[X] Write-in: A deep sadness wells up in you. To wake up knowing your parents must be dead is vastly different from holding proof. "Please excuse me, for just a few minutes," you say quietly. Your eyes are already filling with tears.

I think I like this better than the existing options.
 
[X] Write-in: A deep sadness wells up in you. To wake up knowing your parents must be dead is vastly different from holding proof. "Please excuse me, for just a few minutes," you say quietly. Your eyes are already filling with tears.
 
Hey @SoaringHawk218, I was wondering; might there be a way Ryza could find for humans to create magic that doesn't require using manakete stuff as a source?

I don't know if there are any other natural sources around, or if a manakete might theoretically be able to gather magic and stick it into a form that human mages could use, like artificial stones.
 
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Hey @SoaringHawk218, I was wondering; might there be a way Ryza could find a way for humans to create magic that doesn't require using manakete stuff as a source?

I don't know if there are any other natural sources around, or if a manakete might theoretically be able to gather magic and stick it into a form that human mages could use, like artificial stones.

That is Ryza's current long-term goal. She doesn't want to take magic away from humans, having seen how much they rely on it, but she doesn't want them using the remains of her people to do it.

As for her chances of success: all I will say is that it's possible.
 
[X] A flare of anger weaves its way through the hurt; for all that she brought this to you, this human should not have been in your home! "What do you want?" you ask sharply. Your tolerance for niceties is exhausted.

[X] Swallowing your pain, you push all the feelings and hurt into the back of your mind. You have to be strong. "Thank you," you say, tucking Father's stone into your pocket next to yours. "We… should talk elsewhere. There's a lot to be said."
[X] Write-in: A deep sadness wells up in you. To wake up knowing your parents must be dead is vastly different from holding proof. "Please excuse me, for just a few minutes," you say quietly. Your eyes are already filling with tears.

Anything that isn't the 'cute' option. Human voters picking the options convenient to human characters always sticks wrong in fiction involving nonhumans. I also dislike emotional reactions being up to a vote. Actions, sure, but emotion is not controllable.
 
Is direct magic strictly speaking necessary?

It's cool, but novel research into empowering people sounds very difficult.

It sounds like the current human mechanism for enchantment involved the use of dragonstone dust for everything, or at least key power components. Presumably the rune work Ryza's father used didn't.

Figuring out how to make a rune based tool for producing more runes sounds a lot less complicated even if it'd still be difficult.

From that point, assuming I understand how the system works correctly, they could shift from free from magic to manufacturing purpose built magitech. Which would be a bit rough, but could have it's own advantages.

Even if I'm wrong on my base assumption here I think it's worth looking at the problem from the perspective of solving the problems magic is currently used to solve instead of trying to replicate the exact system currently in place by different means.
 
[X] Swallowing your pain, you push all the feelings and hurt into the back of your mind. You have to be strong. "Thank you," you say, tucking Father's stone into your pocket next to yours. "We… should talk elsewhere. There's a lot to be said."
[X] Write-in: A deep sadness wells up in you. To wake up knowing your parents must be dead is vastly different from holding proof. "Please excuse me, for just a few minutes," you say quietly. Your eyes are already filling with tears.
 
[X] Write-in: A deep sadness wells up in you. To wake up knowing your parents must be dead is vastly different from holding proof. "Please excuse me, for just a few minutes," you say quietly. Your eyes are already filling with tears.
 
Is direct magic strictly speaking necessary?

It's cool, but novel research into empowering people sounds very difficult.

It sounds like the current human mechanism for enchantment involved the use of dragonstone dust for everything, or at least key power components. Presumably the rune work Ryza's father used didn't.

Figuring out how to make a rune based tool for producing more runes sounds a lot less complicated even if it'd still be difficult.

From that point, assuming I understand how the system works correctly, they could shift from free from magic to manufacturing purpose built magitech. Which would be a bit rough, but could have it's own advantages.

Even if I'm wrong on my base assumption here I think it's worth looking at the problem from the perspective of solving the problems magic is currently used to solve instead of trying to replicate the exact system currently in place by different means.
Humans are capable of shaping magic, but they need a source of it. If I understand correctly. To make a rune that makes runes you'd still need a magic source.

In other words, I don't think the problem is that humans are in the loop, it's basically fossil fuel dependence.

Ryza needs to find an alternate fuel source, or crack the problem of how manakete naturally gather magic and figure out how to create a synthetic variant for humans. A synthetic dragonstone or something of that nature.
 
Humans are capable of shaping magic, but they need a source of it. If I understand correctly. To make a rune that makes runes you'd still need a magic source.

In other words, I don't think the problem is that humans are in the loop, it's basically fossil fuel dependence.

Ryza needs to find an alternate fuel source, or crack the problem of how manakete naturally gather magic and figure out how to create a synthetic variant for humans. A synthetic dragonstone or something of that nature.
Then there's still the question of how exactly Manakete fueled their permanent magic items. Presumably Ryza's father couldn't have powered a rune array for a length of time he didn't know and couldn't prepare for that had to last past his own death. He also probably wasn't using dragonstone dust to make it work.

Ryza's own tablet that she uses as a tome also probably doesn't do that.

Sounds like someone figured out automating the process of gathering magic already to me.
 
Then there's still the question of how exactly Manakete fueled their permanent magic items. Presumably Ryza's father couldn't have powered a rune array for a length of time he didn't know and couldn't prepare for that had to last past his own death. He also probably wasn't using dragonstone dust to make it work.

Ryza's own tablet that she uses as a tome also probably doesn't do that.

Sounds like someone figured out automating the process of gathering magic already to me.

The thing with manakete runes is that they have to be recharged fairly often. It's not a big deal, a manakete can do it easily enough, but they only last for a few hours to a day depending on what exactly they do. They're also way more efficient than human ones, so Ryza's pretty sure the human ones she's seen would die within minutes if they didn't have an internal power source.

The only example of a manakete rune structure lasting longer is the Long Sleep one Ryza was in, and she has no clue how her dad pulled that one off. I do, but she hasn't figured it out.
 
The only example of a manakete rune structure lasting longer is the Long Sleep one Ryza was in, and she has no clue how her dad pulled that one off. I do, bu
One thought; there were a ton of runes in that array. They could have been mostly there as batteries; each one holds a little bit of power that feeds into the functional portion of the array instead of using it for something, and together they add up to enough to power a thing for a long time. Basically like rigging batteries up in series.

Edit:
I missed the obvious. There was a manakete in the room. Ryza could also have been the power source if she was in stasis, but her stone wasn't.
 
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[X] Write-in: A deep sadness wells up in you. To wake up knowing your parents must be dead is vastly different from holding proof. "Please excuse me, for just a few minutes," you say quietly. Your eyes are already filling with tears.

It doesn't seem likely that the anger one will win out, so I'll leave out the other one.
 
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