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Knight of Wessex (A Written World Quest)

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I.F. Ister said:
"Done in an improper manner," Reinald pauses for a moment, his oft chapped lips finding foes in grinding teeth, "the manipulation of the soul, the Psyche, could well be considered sacrilege of the highest degree. Before Charlemagne was visited by an angel of the Lord bearing the secrets of the art, there are many tales of unwary men being struck down or excommunicated for daring to delve into secrets beyond their rightful knowledge."
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Reinald: Let us suppose Crowley helped you spot the retreating forms of a bandit, a Norseman, and a Heretical Cultivator. You have a bow that can make any arrow strike true, but only two arrows left in your quiver. What would you do?
Audrey: ...Shoot the Heretic twice?
Reinald: Correct; clever girl.
 
I was actually trying to sleep a bit because I had a burgeoning headache and I didn't want to take some Ibuprofin for it, but sadly, the headache would not be denied.

Owwwwwwwwww

(Ibuprofin has since been consumed but the ow is real)

Joking aside, I anticipated Metaphor eating my attention and I prewrote most of this yesterday!
 
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[X] Begin Metamorphosis Now
-[X] Iceni Mudcrow

This seems more useful with our strategy and also more interesting a direction for a crow to take
 
thisisinsane said:
Can we ask Crowley what he wants or is he not separate, or mature enough, to have a his own opinion?
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Not really mature enough to give more than vague impressions. Also, on a meta level, this would still be your decision even if he was fully adult and you asked him. If you wait and ask him once he's fully cognizant and obey his wishes religiously, you'd still get to vote on what his decision is. You can think of this decision as being sort of driven by Audrey's intuition about what he'd want if you like...they share a soul, so that's a thing she can intuit.
 
Silverking said:
Reinald: Let us suppose Crowley helped you spot the retreating forms of a bandit, a Norseman, and a Heretical Cultivator. You have a bow that can make any arrow strike true, but only two arrows left in your quiver. What would you do?
Audrey: ...Shoot the Heretic twice?
Reinald: Correct; clever girl.
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Hunh. And here my head went in a different direction entirely.
Reinald: And that's why we don't try bonding with bovines for any reason under any circumstances.
Audrey:..Has anyone ever had a revelation as to why it always ends in exploded craniums or labyrinths cut into the local fields!?!
Reinald: I personally would perfer the revelation as to why there are more than a handful of records of that happening, and at least thrice I had to personally deal with the aftermath!
 
For the record, Psyche's "Superpower" in terms of being the "Thinking" stat for Chivalrics, is that it's exceptional at dividing attention.

In short, you can effectively "Think" in your Psyche number of ways at a single time without any real difficulty, and when you bring it all back together again, nothing is lost. This is part of how it works for animal companions, you're effectively doing a subdivision of your Psyche into them, almost like a cutting from a tree, and you maintain it long enough that it becomes self-sufficient and you regain the "Slot" over the course of a few months or so. Generally not useful for most applications because the world's evershifting and it's better to maintain flexibility than risk getting bushwhacked by something you weren't specced for, but good ole' Emperor Charlie was a genius and figured this shit out from almost base principles to derive the Companion system that helps make Chivalrics pop off.

I think there's some groups that use warhounds instead of birbs, (Or there should be at least), but the Birb + Horse combo is the standard for good reason, because having a flying support unit and a high mobility, high mass killing machine carrying your virtually invincible battle tank is just a hard to beat combination.
 
Alectai said:
In short, you can effectively "Think" in your Psyche number of ways at a single time without any real difficulty, and when you bring it all back together again, nothing is lost. This is part of how it works for animal companions, you're effectively doing a subdivision of your Psyche into them, almost like a cutting from a tree, and you maintain it long enough that it becomes self-sufficient and you regain the "Slot" over the course of a few months or so.
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...I won't say that anyone has ever succeeded in trying to pervert this into creating a hivemind of multiple people or perhaps simply one mind puppeting multiple bodies, but I am almost certain that someone has tried.
 
Silverking said:
...I won't say that anyone has ever succeeded in trying to pervert this into creating a hivemind of multiple people or perhaps simply one mind puppeting multiple bodies, but I am almost certain that someone has tried.
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I agree someone has likely tried, but it probably didn't work. It works in animals because they are theologically empty. There's space inside to put a Psyche fragment in...the same is not true of humans, who have their own mind and soul filling up that space. Putting them into objects is probably more likely to work, though I don't believe Carolingians have a strong tradition of intelligent items.

But people? Doesn't work well. Also, probably gets you accused of witchcraft.
 
>Warhounds instead of birds.

Have you heard of the St. Bernard breed?

In our timeline this breed was used as a rescue dog for saving stranded travelers in the reigion they're named for.

The main problem I've had with trying to write the omake here is figuring out when I have enough story to work with/demonstrate the character.

Also slightly arguing with myself about whether I should go lady knight or not- the initial idea was more of a magical girl but being a girl knight is seen as odd in-setting…
 
Zaealix said:
Have you heard of the St. Bernard breed?

In our timeline this breed was used as a rescue dog for saving stranded travelers in the reigion they're named for.
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I will note that St Bernards are a few thousand years out of date for story-timeline. ~1700 or so for when they're first mentioned.
Zaealix said:
Also slightly arguing with myself about whether I should go lady knight or not- the initial idea was more of a magical girl but being a girl knight is seen as odd in-setting…
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Go for it! While lady knights are rare, that doesn't mean they don't exist.
 
Happy with either given result. Some other ideas:

[X] Begin Metamorphosis Now
-[X] Greater Smokecrow (Commands Wind, Fire and mostly Smoke)
--[x] Have Crowley roost in a blacksmith or bakery, where he is exposed to heat, flame and smoke

[X] Begin Metamorphosis Now
-[x] Hidden Woodcrow (Camoflage bird with plant control abilities
--[x] Raise Crowley in the nearby woods

[X] Begin Metamorphosis Now
-[x] Tin Cavecrow (Bird with metallic feathers and affinity for darkness)
--[x] Have Crowley roost in an abandoned tin mine (Wessex was connected to the tin trade, apparently)

I wonder if human-made terrain can affect animal development. I suspect raising Crowley in a church might render him Holy, but duplicating Knightly or Priestly abilities would mean having less breadth of power, which is less fun, and I'm morbidly curious about raising him in a graveyard, but I suspect necromantic abilities would be, uh, frowned upon. Raising him in a library to increase and emphasize corvid intelligence might be fun, but I'm not sure we need a crow smarter and better-read than we are.
 
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It says putting it off would allow for more complex metamorphosis. Would we not also already have to start the process now, to make use of the extra time to do a more complex process?
 
Kiera said:
It says putting it off would allow for more complex metamorphosis. Would we not also already have to start the process now, to make use of the extra time to do a more complex process?
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You may have misunderstood. It isn't a more complex metamorphosis, but a more unusual one.

Now, I actually disagree with the phrase unusual being used here, but it is ultimately semantics. Neither greater stormcrows or Iceni mudcrows are exactly common varieties of crow in these parts. Stormcrows of all variety are far more common on the coast and Iceni mudcrows are often only found in the peat bogs of East Anglia.
 
Would having one element to work with allow more power/skill with that one element than it would have if Crowley had more of them and had to divide his attention?

Would it be viable to get Crowley to be able to make illusions if we get him a light affinity? By, say, taking him to see a lot of stained glass windows and how the light goes through them, going to watch the dawn, just observing light under a lot of circumstances?
 
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Kiera said:
Would having one element to work with allow more power/skill with that one element than it would have if Crowley had more of them and had to divide his attention?
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On paper, sure. In practice, not at all.

It's a bit like a guy who only learned how to punch got in a fight with a guy who knows how to punch, kick, and wrestle.
 
KreenWarrior said:
[X] Begin Metamorphosis Now
-[X] Greater Smokecrow (Commands Wind, Fire and mostly Smoke)
--[x] Have Crowley roost in a blacksmith or bakery, where he is exposed to heat, flame and smoke
-[x] Hidden Woodcrow (Camoflage bird with plant control abilities
--[x] Raise Crowley in the nearby woods
-[x] Tin Cavecrow (Bird with metallic feathers and affinity for darkness)
--[x] Have Crowley roost in an abandoned tin mine (Wessex was connected to the tin trade, apparently)
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The formatting on this is weird, these should be three separate votes. You can vote for all three, but this is combining them into one option which would not work.

Kiera said:
Would it be viable to get Crowley to be able to make illusions if we get him a light affinity? By, say, taking him to see a lot of stained glass windows and how the light goes through them, going to watch the dawn, just observing light under a lot of circumstances?
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Theoretically possible, I think? You could try anyway. Though, for the record, as a crow, Crowley will be getting some trickster-y stuff regardless of his elemental affiliation. There's some very tricky stuff to be done with storms and mud alike.
 
DeadmanwalkingXI said:
The formatting on this is weird, these should be three separate votes. You can vote for all three, but this is combining them into one option which would not work.



Theoretically possible, I think? You could try anyway. Though, for the record, as a crow, Crowley will be getting some trickster-y stuff regardless of his elemental affiliation. There's some very tricky stuff to be done with storms and mud alike.
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Aye, mainly wanted to check they were approved first. Also just a brain farther on how to format the vote. Fixed now I think.
 
KreenWarrior said:
[X] Begin Metamorphosis Now
-[x] Tin Cavecrow (Bird with metallic feathers and affinity for darkness)
--[x] Have Crowley roost in an abandoned tin mine (Wessex was connected to the tin trade, apparently)
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Not this part of Wessex, it wasn't.

The tin mines are in Cornwall. You're in Warwickshire.

Also, even if you were in the right spot, *tin* of all metals? You can bend a bar of tin with your bare hands, with little effort at that.
 
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