Questions on Shapeshifting
- This topic has 4 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 3 years, 10 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
That’s pretty much dead on.
Only real difference from what I think you said is that the mana is more like an exoskeleton on the animus, holding the animus in. If the animus goes away, the mana has nothing holding it together and it dissipates…sort of like when a crab molts you get the left over exo-skeleton and a “soft shell crab” with a flimsy body. The old exoskeleton eventually decays only in this case faster.
This is why, if Antefalken leaves his “clothes” in some maiden’s bedroom, they simply dissolve. Without him to hold it together. We assume he pulls his animus with him from the clothes as he flies out the bedroom window while the maiden’s father or brother comes charging into the room to protect her honor.
The mana exoskeleton defaults to what the original summoning form. What the shapshifter is doing is learning how to reshape that form and mold it differently. Generally, they have to concentrate at some level, to keep it from returning to the default form. This is why most demons either can’t shapeshift or have only a few forms.
It varies greatly from demon to demon. Lilith changes form quite a bit. Sam has a few default forms. Asmodeus generally looks the same for a few decades or centuries and then changes. He does have a couple other “scary” “demon” forms that he uses (see wikipedia) but he mainly uses those ceremonially.
Hesselforthalus…well…as you will see, he’s rather quixotic. None of the Denubian Demon[i]TM[/i] default forms are particularly static…
Chapter 131: Mount Doom: DOA +9, Early first period
My main question is, Why doesn’t Tom ask Antefalken for help in learning how to make clothing?
I mean, before, he didn’t ask stuff of Antefalkan because he wanted to appear powerful and whatnot. Now, though, Antefalken knows that Tom is a 16 year old who’s only been a demon for 5 weeks or so, and Antefalken was the one who introduced the topic to Tom. Also, apparently making clothes and doing cosmetic changes is easier than actual shapeshifting, or at least has less stringent mana requirements.
Additionally, why is Tom going straight for this super complicated, multilayered set of robes? Why not underwear, or t-shirt and jeans? He apparently does have 16 years of being a normal kid, right?
Yes, that all makes a lot of sense.
However, the first time he starts trying it, the musical number, he’s stoned out of his gourd. So logic had very little to do with it.
But I think for his subsequent I will take your advice and get Antefalken involved. And I suspect Antefalken will give him the same advice you mentioned.
Great idea!
Chapter 132: Mount Doom: Early Second Period, is actually when he first seriously tries it. Here, though, he’s just trying it out as a stress relief after the luncheon with the gods, so I guess you could argue that he didn’t want to ask Antefalken at first.
However, the whole shapeshifting thing does bring up some other questions. First, let me state how a demon’s form seems to work, or at least for demons summoned like Tom was:
The thoughts of the summoners and the summoned design the type and physical characteristics of the demon.
The mana in the bindings provide the raw materials to create the framework, or the physical body of the demon.
Then, the demon sleeps in the mana-rich Abyss to fill up the framework with energy.Demons increase in power over time by working to expand or reinforcing their framework to hold more energy, like how Exador’s shadow demon spent millennia become a greater demon.
Thus, by shapeshifting, the demon tries to figure out a different physical framework that can still hold all of their mana. Essentially, they create a second body, then wrap it around their current body, including all the mana and animus.
So, creating clothes and other “material” things would be like thinking of a smaller framework, and then filling it with enough mana to make it solid. However, there needs to be animus holding the thing so no mana seeps out, or the imperfect container naturally lets mana seep out and it needs to be replenished by the user? So when the framework is left alone, away from the maker’s anima/source of mana, the mana inside leaks out and it fades away. Or the anima that is used as the framework unravels without constant attention, and the mana container just collapses.
Anyway, this is just a thought of what shapeshifting and making physical objects using it entails in the Astlan multiverse.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.