Questions about Demonic Translation Aura
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Divine/Magical Runes.
Not a language per, but a point worth noting in the book. I.e. something Tom should as the librarian about.
In Chapter 117, in the second section where Damien, Vaselle, Gastrope, Tal Gor, and company are talking around the portal that Tom just went through, they postulate the existence of a Demonic Aura that allows for everyone within a certain radius of a demon to speak Universal. Even assuming that only sentient beings that formerly possess a language can speak it, wouldn’t the fact that everyone around you is suddenly speaking your original language be a big clue that there’s a demon nearby?
Does this aura also surround other beings that speak Universal (like, I’m assuming, saints, gods, avatars)?
Does this aura still exist when a demon is in a non-demon form? For example, is that aura around Rupert when he is in his orc form?
Since this aura exists, is it detectable via magic spells?
Can this aura be turned off, since Demons naturally speak Universal? Can a demon choose to speak Universal in only one language, so as to appear normal? (Tom would speak English, which gets turned into Universal, which then gets turned into Trade?)
What about if the demon is speaking to someone via some long distance method? There are radios in some universes, so does the aura travel over the phone to whomever is on the other side? If not, would a conference call between Tom, Tal Gor, and Gastrope require Tom to translate what Tal Gor and Gastrope say?
If this aura does exist only with physical proximity, if Tom opened up portals from him to everywhere in Astlan, each of which is only 1 millimeter large, thereby having him technically being near everywhere at once, would everyone suddenly be able to understand everyone else?
Does this aura still remain on dead demon flesh? If someone carved up Tom’s arm and transported it somewhere else, would the people around the arm be able to speak Universal? Could it be made so that such a thing happens? (I’m assuming that this is all translater spells do, but it would probably be easier to inscribe the spell upon the flesh of a creature that speaks Universal.)
Oh so many excellent questions…
I need to think about them.
Originally, it was, in my mind, simply that demons could speak every language and they did not translate it for everyone, but then in Mount Doom and….
I would assume that most demons, or at least higher up ones could turn it on and off.
That cluing in about a demon nearby is a big thing. Did not even think of that! Ack. Well it could be rather humerous. I really don’t think it would ever happen enough for most people to notice because very few people have regular conversations with demons. However, if there were wizards in a summoning together that had different native tongues…it would come up.
To be honest, I hate such gimicks, from the TARDIS to Star Treks always there translators that magically function even when Kirk is stripped down bare and brawling with an alien.
However, it is useful…
If demons can speak and read universal, which mean that they can speak and read any language, then why couldn’t anyone from Tom’s party read the sign they found on a wall back in book 2 when they originally started wandering around Mt. Doom?
I thought that you had already implied that subtextually in that same chapter when swarzen(&(%$q…….UM that D’warg whose name i can never pronounce, even in my head, has to be suppressing her Demonic Translation Aura on purpose, most cuz she’d have to be bored after so long in the abyss. And she has to be at least Greater Demon level cuz how she got her injury. or was i reading to much into that.
Well….
Not sure if you read too much into it. I basically addressed this by having the other characters ask the question about “why” it didn’t work with BlackFarts (the english translation of her name)
So the question of whether D’Wargs don’t translate or whether it is Schwarzenfurze being a big black fart…will not be clear. 🙂
I would assume she’s a greater demon at this point. She’s been around for a long time.
When I saw the question above about other beings who speak universal being able to project a Translation Aura, I remembered something from HH:
[quote]Jenn was waiting in line to fill a bucket of water from the wargtown well when an orc behind her bellowed out, “Hilda! You have returned! It is my turn to buy you a drink!” Her first thought was that it was odd to hear an orc [h]speak perfect trade tongue[/h].[/quote]
Is this because Hilda and company are there and one or all of them are projecting some kind of Translation Aura?I also have a question of my own: It has been mentioned in several places that the rules of magic change by varying amounts from one material plane to the next. Would this auto-translation work on a demon-mages’ knowledge of magic?
If a human travels to another plane with significantly different rules, I would assume that he would have to learn the new rules and then adjust all his spells accordingly. But, if a demon does the same thing, will he have to relearn? Or, will his knowledge of magic get auto-translated into the framework of the new universe and he will be ready to rock and roll with zero relearning to do?[quote=Giwdul;4329]When I saw the question above about other beings who speak universal being able to project a Translation Aura, I remembered something from HH:
[quote]Jenn was waiting in line to fill a bucket of water from the wargtown well when an orc behind her bellowed out, “Hilda! You have returned! It is my turn to buy you a drink!” Her first thought was that it was odd to hear an orc [h]speak perfect trade tongue[/h].[/quote]
Is this because Hilda and company are there and one or all of them are projecting some kind of Translation Aura? [/quote]Yep. That’s why.
[quote=Giwdul;4329]
I also have a question of my own: It has been mentioned in several places that the rules of magic change by varying amounts from one material plane to the next. Would this auto-translation work on a demon-mages’ knowledge of magic?
If a human travels to another plane with significantly different rules, I would assume that he would have to learn the new rules and then adjust all his spells accordingly. But, if a demon does the same thing, will he have to relearn? Or, will his knowledge of magic get auto-translated into the framework of the new universe and he will be ready to rock and roll with zero relearning to do?[/quote]The translation would not affect spell casting ability. You are correct in that you would need to learn new spells/new rules or at least test it out.
However, within a single universe, a localverse, no translation is needed. The laws of magic are exactly the same on each world in the localverse. Spells may be, and more powerful ones always are, different because of whoever invented them, but you can use the same spells on other worlds.
Animagic, however, works relatively reliably everywhere it can work. I say this because it’s mainly adhoc stuff that is done by feel/by gut/by experience and the animage can adapt as they detect differences/issues.
In particular, you will find that animistic druidism/shamanism is much more common/centralized than wizardry across worlds.
Gormegast, where Trig Bioblast lives has very little wizardry, it’s a tech universe. However, shamanism is a thing, and they use it for FTL communication between spacecraft/bases/worlds etc.
Actually the same thing that the shamans are doing in book 3 when they all get together. That works on a wide number of worlds.
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