[Giwdul]

Awesome new additions. Loved it!

Here are a bunch of little things I found. I went through other threads and tried to make sure that I am not double-reporting issues that other people have already brought up.

?) = Something off but not sure how to fix it.
M) = Small modification might be in order
L) = Larger modification might be in order
S) = Spelling error
*)Suggested modification

M)we forced to act in good faith
*)we were forced to act in good faith

M)what has that to do with Nysegard
*)what has that got to do with Nysegard
*2)what does that have to do with Nysegard

M)as that is the closest location to the knight we have
*)as that is the closest location we have to where the knight is being held

M)but it does compete for them in terms of collecting the mana
*)but it does compete with them in terms of collecting the mana

S)launching arrows and cross bolts
*)launching arrows and crossbow bolts

S)You swore the would be cut off!
*)You swore they would be cut off!

M)popping out of brain tumor after
*)popping out of a brain tumor after

M)Makes feel like less of a failure
*)Makes me feel like less of a failure

S)then waiting for word from saviors
*)than waiting for word from saviors

M)Karis drew back in shock, too surprised by the gateway that had been dead for over four thousand years, and thought to be inoperable opened!
*)Karis drew back in shock and surprise as the gateway that had been dead for over four thousand years, and thought to be inoperable opened!

M)wearing flowing robes with arcane symbols
*)wearing flowing robes covered with arcane symbols
*2)wearing flowing robes embroidered with arcane symbols

M)difficult to keep all of insanity straight
*)difficult to keep all of the insanity straight

M)Arch-Diocate Iskerus brought him
*)Arch-Diocate Iskerus brought her

M)fading in, even as he faded out
*)fading in, even as he’d faded out

?)a man in his late-twenties
*)Seems like Talarius would be older than this. Late thirties maybe?

S)given then a show of force
*)given them a show of force

M)We have none.
*)We have nothing.
*2)We have no means to get them out.

M)part a new standard
*)part of a new standard

S)Lester Garflog
*)Lesteroth Garflog

L)The Unlife was using the chaos to maximum effect. Their resources would quickly be exhausted before too long. The Citadel was heavily reliant on heavenly resources.
*)The Unlife was using the chaos to maximum effect. Their main army was quickly moving in, building and fortifying siege emplacements. Their advance units were starting to put pressure on the wall defenders. The defenses of the Citadel, always heavily reliant on heavenly resources, were now woefully under powered.

L)The big problem was that the local avatars could not easily store great amounts of mana, so they would have to work to carefully time worship services and mana expenditures. They would be on a very tight budget in terms of mana usage. Every drop would count, there would be nothing to spare.
*)The first of the main problems was that the local avatars could not easily store great amounts of mana, so they would have to work to carefully time worship services and mana expenditures. They would be on a very tight budget in terms of mana usage. Every drop would count, there would be nothing to spare. The next problem was that the manual processing and distribution of mana would be fully occupying the avatars. They would be, effectively, incapacitated and thus completely unable to aid in the direct defense of the Citadel.

M)I really hope we are going to Nysegard to battle the Storm Lords.
*)I really hope we are going to the Citadel to battle the Storm Lords.
-)Talarius is already in Nysegard when he says this.

M)justice that the same fate befall.
*)justice that the same fate befall them.

M)Makes feel like less of a failure
*)Makes me feel like less of a failure

M)other Orcus and perhaps Sentir Fallon
*)other than Orcus and perhaps Sentir Fallon

M)there must be over well over three thousand demonics
*)there must be well over three thousand demonics

M)commune who where were frantically casting spells
*)commune who were frantically casting spells

M)something I had every seriously considered.
*)something I had ever seriously considered.

M)without using every piece of mana you can get your hands on.
*)without using every shred/drop of mana you can get your hands on.

M)He pointed over to the second tower where their vision could see the Death Cheaters dancing.
*)He pointed over to the second tower where their enhanced vision showed the Death Cheaters dancing.

S)he was exhausted form battling
*)he was exhausted from battling

?)He and Talarius had actually been out longer than most.
*)He and Stainsberry had actually been out longer than most.

M)the central command center tower
*)the central command tower
*2)the central tower housing the command center

M)information we have been working on is suspect.
*)information we have been working with is suspect.
*2)information we have been going on is suspect.

M)Time for his step-brother to pay his share
*)Time for his step-brother to start paying off his debts.

M)That’s sounds like huge circle.
*)That sounds like a huge circle.
*2)That must be one huge circle.

M)with the army is now located is in the Abyss?
*)with the army is now located in the Abyss?
*2)with the army on it is now located in the Abyss?

[Giwdul]

Sounds awesome. Looking forward to it.

[Giwdul]

Is there any ETA on beta 1?

[Giwdul]

Something has been bugging me:
Doom has an unending supply of jewls and gold (wealth).
Doom makes it’s own mana.
Doom has it’s own access to the material plains.

So, what the hell do the Gods pay them with, to keep prisoners in Tartarus? I can’t think of a reasonable currency that Doom doesn’t already make for itself.

[Giwdul]

[quote]There were comments about too little tension early on, I think Has any of this improved, what areas/sections need to get more tension and how much, thoughts?

How are humor levels?
[/quote]

I think that there are two distinct types of tension in a book, there is the tension that a given character is feeling/experiencing and there is the ‘on the edge of your seat’ tension/anticipation that the reader is feeling as the story unfolds.

I have always considered the DoA series to be one of the best books I’ve ever read for ‘on the edge of your seat’ tension/anticipation. I think that this book lives up to that very well. That said, this type of tension does tend to wear off after several re-reads so I am not ‘feeling it’ as much as the first time through (I have now read each version of the book the whole way through (or very close) at least once and select sections have been re-read a dozen, or more, times).

As far as individual character tension, I am not super picky about whether this or that character is feeling enough tension as long as what they are feeling has come about in a natural/organic type of way. As far as this goes, I am not currently getting an ‘off’ feeling from any of the main character’s tension levels.

Not the greatest judge of humor here but I like how things are currently going in that department.

[Giwdul]

Had an idea for a cool Doom-Buster and a possible counter for it. I realize that you have already made the call about who/what the DB is going to be. I will just throw this idea out there. Maybe a piece of it can be of use.

[b]Vampyre Dragon:[/b]
These monstrosities are gigantic dragons that have been turned using a variation of the Vampyre infection. Once they have fully turned, they are placed in a state of suspended animation and enchanted adamantite plate-armor is then fused onto every inch of the beasts. Their teeth and claws are removed and replaced with razor sharp serrated metal copies that have been spelled with various soul-sucking/rending magics. They were invented and created by one Stoivenychas a.k.a The Dark Apostle.

When these creatures are unleashed into battle, a team of liches will link together and channel mana into the armor to help protect the monsters from magical attacks.

The draconian nature combined with the vampyre feeding-frenzy causes these creatures to be in a constant state of insane rage. Killing and devouring anything that moves. Due to their completely insane and bestial nature, these monsters are effectively immune to all coercion/compulsion magics (such as those used to control demons). The secrets of the original control spells were lost with TDA when he was consumed by a COD.

The SL can barely steer them at a given target under the best of conditions. The only reason they ever go in the desired direction is because they prefer to eat the living rather than the unlife. Since they are nearly impossible to control, the SL have not deployed these creatures since the death of TDA.

The Vampyre Dragons are kept in a state of suspended animation while not being used.

The only reliable way to kill one of these creatures is for a team of D’Orcs to physically drag it to the ground, pry the plate-armor off the back of it’s neck and sever the spine with an axe.
There are tales of a saint who managed to somehow reach, and hang onto, the back of a VD’s neck. He then cooked it with holy-fire for several minutes, finally managing to burn through the spinal column and kill it. Unfortunately, he was eaten, shortly afterward, while attempting to duplicate this feat and no one has ever managed to pull it off again.

[b]Now to kill it:[/b]
In his big battles, Tom has (so far) managed to pull off some kind of cool trick which we, as readers, understand (having been in his head during the process), but which makes him look like a stupendously powerful/knowledgeable super-being to everyone else.
Against Talarius and the church and rod, he used the illumination stream tap.
Against the knights of chaos, he used the area-freeze.
So, I am wondering: when the SL pull out all the stops, do you have another cool move prepared for Tom to tip the tides of battle and completely vanquish the Unlife?

If you don’t yet have a finishing move prepared for him, I had a cool idea for one:
Channeling a volcanic eruption through one of his worm-holes. Basically just rev the magma chamber of the Doom of Nysegard and then open a portal into it with the other end point at whatever he want’s to blast.

Ever since I thought of it, I have really wanted to see Tom channel a volcanic eruption out of thin air in the middle of battle. It would be freaking awesome! And very doable (I think).

Now, how to get Tom to ‘figure this trick out’. Maybe something along these lines:
Tom is battling some super powered monster and getting his ass kicked.
Tom’s internal dialog:
Grrr, this thing is tough.
GAH that hurt! Got to stop fooling around and come up with a real plan for beating this thing.
Wish I could blast it with a volcanic eruption like I did to that chaos maelstrom.
But my volcano is all the way over on the isle of doom.
Wait a minute! I got my army from there to here via a portal, why can’t I get a volcanic eruption here the same way?
Huh. Ok, lets give it a shot.

[Giwdul]

An Idea:

Details of heavenly architecture (school of the el-ohim perhaps?)
Avatars do not connect directly to their various illuminaries. Rather, a part of canonization is the process of linking the new Saint to a Holy-Saintly Medallion and then, linking this HSM into the Good-Pool. As the new saint accumulates iluminaries, they are linked to the HSM.
The HSM is usually worn by the saint to whom it belongs.
The HSM has several functions:
Allow the iluminaries to draw down mana while their saint is otherwise engaged (taking a dump for example).
Provide automatic regulation of the ilumination streams for how much mana can be drawn down from the Good pool.
Store prayers until the saint can get around to reading them.

Avatars are not allowed to take their HSM’s out of their respective outer-plains. There are two main reasons for this:
1)If an HSM were to be stolen by a demon/enemy pantheon. It would be a huge security breach.
2)If a HSM were to enter the material plains, every single iluminary connected to it would instantly have a direct real-time compass-reading on it.
Exception) When high powered Avatars (Attendant archon/prophet or above) are sent in to ‘bring down the wrath of God’, they will often carry their HSM with them (this is to cover how the Avatars were still connected to their local iluminaries when the interdiction wards went up).

This could explain the disconnection in Freehold. Hilda still has her connection to her HSM but the connections between the HSM and the illuminaries have been cut.

[url=http://astlan.net/Default.aspx?tabid=388&g=posts&t=373]Info on this from TAG here[/url]

[Giwdul]

[quote]BTW your image didn’t show up, Giwdul. Image linking is a pain, but if you upload images to your albums (top links on right) you can then insert album images fairly easily.[/quote]
Oops.

Fixed. I think. I am seeing it.

[Giwdul]

[quote]The analogy I use today is that they are VPN tunnels through the internet. Or, in older computer parlance, the are “Sessions” something that web browsers simulate when you log into a site (in the old days they were true private/dedicated links)

Of course, I wrote the rules for this stuff around 1992 plus or minus. I had the Internet, but VPN’s weren’t so much. Dial up modem was probably a bit better.

I think of the link and it’s auto-keep up being like pings, or a “heartbeat” that says both sides of a session are present.[/quote]

The thing I am trying to figure is that those types of connections route through an existing communications-network not empty space (meaning space not populated by an existing communications network). I see something like this working if someone were to stand at a random location on the Doom-net and use it to ‘ping’ Tom.

Hmm….

Automatic re-connection of broken/severed links:
When the blocking influence is removed from between the two endpoints of a broken link, the link automatically re-connects. It is often asked, how does the link find the pathway to re-connect with itself? Following is an extract from a document containing a possible answer to this question:

Decoded from a McDonalds napkin that had been scribbled on by the most ancient being in the multiverse (Note: when reading this, keep in mind that the author of this theory has, over the course of his life, consumed an amount of demon weed exceeding the mass of most habitable planets):
“When a link is created, it connects it’s two end-points via a magical cable. This is well known. What is not well known is that the link also creates a parallel connection between those two end-points within the fabric of fate. If the link is somehow severed, it can re-connect with itself by following this ‘thread of fate’ once the blocking agency is removed.”

Explanatory note by the napkin decoder:
The fabric of fate is composed of all the threads of possibility/probability that indicate whether any two objects/beings will have some type of interaction. When powerful mana wielders (powerful wizards, demons, gods etc..) interact with each other, the threads of fate become snarled and convoluted due to the fact that the beings involved are creating unusual connections between multiple universes, plains of reality etc…

[Giwdul]

[quote]So how about an ARC?

Avatar Response Center (or Console) or AARC Avatar Automated Response Center
[/quote]

I like that.

[Giwdul]

Since the Storm Lords have previously fought and killed quite a number of D’Orcs and Avatars. I think that they should definitely have some heavy-duty weaponry / forces for anti-supernatural warfare.

Getting the equipment to the battlefield is not a problem. They have been planning this for a thousand years or so right? They just need to pull out and set up the pre-fabricated runic gateway that leads back to the main arsenal. The one that was made a couple hundred years ago, stashed in the emergency-backup wagon, and forgotten about#-o .

[Giwdul]

[quote]
[quote]Getting the equipment to the battlefield is not a problem. They have been planning this for a thousand years or so right? They just need to pull out and set up the pre-fabricated runic gateway that leads back to the main arsenal. The one that was made a couple hundred years ago, stashed in the emergency-backup wagon, and forgotten about.[/quote]

That’s the spirit!

Now if I just knew what that thing was![/quote]

Spent a bunch of time creating an unstoppable force of super-warriors and now can’t figure out how anyone can stand against them[lol] .

Have you considered Hulk-Zombies/Vampires/Vampyres?

Unlife creatures have to be pretty much pulverized to kill most types right?
Vampyres with adamantite enhanced skeletons (like Wolverine)? Normally hibernate as they require huge amounts of mana and animus to be up and about but can go toe to toe with a D’Orc if need be.

[Giwdul]

So, I was trying to hash out (in my head) some specifics on how links work and I realized that there is a problem:
Hilda is in Freehold with Trisfelt when the Inferno crosses into the Abyss. Hilda says “my links have just been cut”. Since Hilda was located on Astlan at that time, her links to her illuminaries should not have been cut when they crossed into the Abyss.
At that point, she would have been operating as a link-relay between them and Tierhalon.

[quote]Hilda tilted her head to the side, frowning. “I am not sure…” Noticing Trisfelt’s concern, she shook her head. “Sorry, no, I myself am fine. I just have some links to some of my patients and those links were just broken.”[/quote]

Possible solution 1:
Have Hilda be in Tierhalon when the Inferno cross into the Abyss. She looses all contact.

Possible solution 2:
Have Hilda sense that something just changed with her links. She then goes to report and looses the links to her illuminaries on Inferno the instant she reaches Tierhalon.

[Giwdul]

Question:
When Ruiden was in Murgatroy, he “sensed Talarius’ presence” and ran to find the portal. How did Ruiden sense Talarius’ presence?
Ruiden has a link to Talarius. That link should have been up and working throughout HH.

Possible answer 1:
Ruiden’s link to Talarius re-routed through the portal that Tom had created. This would give Ruiden a path to the portal.
Problem:
If links auto-reroute through available portals, the illumination streams of the Avatars and priests at the Citadel would have auto-rerouted through Tom’s runic gate the second he opened it.
Also, whenever someone opens a portal to the Abyss, every bound demon near the Abyss end and every Conjurer near the Material end would find their links auto-rerouted through the portal (Conjurers: “WTF??!!”; Demons: “Whoopee!!”).

Possible answer 2:
Ruiden was able to detect the portal (or Tom) via his super-perceptions.
Problem:
This doesn’t explain how he was able to sense Talarius’ presence from Murgatroy.

Question:
Sentir Falon has traveled to the Abyss on multiple occasions without being caught by the other avatars or Tiernon. Sentir Falon is a high ranking avatar with a lot of important links to important people. When he travels to the abyss, these links should, normally, be cut and that should be noticed by someone in Tierhallon. Why isn’t this happening?

Possible answer 1:
Sentir Falon created a small portal from the Abyss to one of the material plains and threaded all of his links through it while he was in the Abyss.

Possible answer 2:
Sentir Falon built himself some type of link-relay gizmo on the material plains that allows him to maintain his links while in the abyss.

[Giwdul]

The issues of link-mechanics and the details of how the interdiction wards work have been going around for a little while now.

I have encountered two types of problems in other books where the author gets detailed in the ‘science of magic’. First is that an author can easily end up contradicting his previously stated ‘rules’ (the more specific the rules are, the easier they are to accidentally break. Especially in a series of this size and scope). The other thing is that an author paints himself into a corner (figuratively speaking), laying out rules that then limit and cramp his style latter on.

Last night I sat down and hammered out some ideas that I had about link-mechanics and the interdiction wards. I hope that a few of these ideas might be useful in some way. The details of links have gotten a little confusing for me at this point. I have tried to take into account all of the current linking rules as stated so far in the DoA books.
My multiversal physics and multidimensional math (>3 dimensions) is not what it could be, so I apologize in advance if my imaginary science is off.

[b]Link Theory:[/b]

Link data / facts / things to be explained:
1. A Link is a magical-energy cable connecting two points.
2. All types of Links are variations on this (#1) theme.
3. Magical links can conduct both mana and animus.
4. Magical links can be used for targeting spells, anchoring portals and other similar tasks.
5. Magical links can be used for many levels of communication and power sharing.
6. Magical links are not constrained by material reality (not limited to 3-dimensional space).
7. Magical links break when they are run from the outer planes to the abyss or vise versa.
8. Links can be protected from damage/tampering by placing insulating spells around the links. These insulating spells are called “ciphers”.
9. Various spells can interrupt/interfere-with a link. Some wards have this effect to some degree or other.
10. Links can be anchored to both physical items and souls. A Link can be anchored to a soul by one of two means:
1. Coercive binding spells.
2. Willing recipient.
11. When a link crosses out of material reality, it will appear to extend out from it’s anchor for anywhere between 5 and 50 feet before fading out of view (Assuming you are using wizard-sight or some variation of it).

In the simplest terms, a Link can be thought of as a unidirectional, extra-dimensional, magical ‘tube’ through which mana and animus can flow. While links can conduct raw mana and animus (illumination streams), they can also be used to target spells such as Inter-dimensional portals and most other distance spells.

Links are not effected by distance, a link between two items 5 feet apart will not require extra power to maintain the connection if you move the two items 500 leagues apart. Once a link is created, it does not require further powering to maintain it.

[b]Link Fail-Over:[/b]
Link fail-over is the process whereby a magical connection re-routs through a secondary link-path if the primary link-path becomes unavailable/is interrupted.
Let us use an example:
A wizard creates a link between a medalion (worn around his neck) and his personal mana pool (a jeweled embedded in a staff). He then adds two links, first is between the medallion and a magical dagger, second is between the magical dagger and his mana pool (on the staff).
Now:
The link between the medallion and the mana pool is somehow broken.
Manual Fail-Over:
The wizard mentally re-routes the connection between his medallion and the mana pool.
Automatic Fail-Over:
The wizard having anticipated this possibility crafted an auto-reroute spell into his medallion and that spell takes care of the re-routing without him having to do anything.
[b]
Inter-Planar Links (IPL):[/b]
When the endpoints of a link lie on different planes, the link will extend out of it’s physical anchor for a short distance* before punching through the wall of that reality/plain, crossing through the astral plain and punching through the wall of the destination reality/plain and finally connecting to it’s anchor on that end.
*: The direction in which a link extends from it’s anchor before exiting a physical plain will be defined by the beliefs of the person who created the link. This is why links from priests to the outer plains go up, they think of heaven as being ‘up in the sky’.
Note – STIO: When a link passes through the walls of a reality/plain, it picks up a small oscillating vibration from the interaction of the link and the boundaries of that space-time, this is the STIO (Space Time Interaction Oscillation) (need a cool name for this)(this is a hypothetical I came up with to explain the outer-plains → Abyss link breakage).

[b]Localverse Links (LL):[/b]
This is a theory that I made up to explain why long-distance links within a localverse use extra-dimensional pathways to get from point a to point b.
Short distance links will take straight paths through the material world (3 dimensional reality) from one endpoint to the next.
Long distance links can behave differently depending on exactly how far apart the two endpoints are.
Links between planets in a given universe (refereed to as ‘planes of a given localverse’) will usually take a path through inter-planar space (astral plain). This is caused by the distortion of space-time from the gravitational field of the star around which a given planet orbits.
If one endpoint of a link is on, or very close to, the space-time horizon (see illustration) of the other endpoint, the link will take a direct path in the material plain (3 dimensional space) from one endpoint to the next.
If one endpoint of a link is below the space-time horizon of the other endpoint (see illustration), the link will pass out of the material plain and through the Astral Plain to reach the other endpoint. This is similar to a full inter-planar link (see above, IPL).
The distance from a given point to it’s space-time horizon can be found by calculating the local space-time curvature using the mass of the solar-system host star. However, these calculations are beyond the scope of this document (distance to space-time horizon is typically 1.5 to 2 planetary diameters for most habitable planets).

The following illustration is a two dimensional concept-schematic of Localverse-Link routing:
[albumimg]38[/albumimg]

[b]Automatic re-connection of links:[/b]
Links that have been severed will automatically re-connect if the blocking influence is removed.
Not clear on how this works (currently chalked up to “it’s magic”).

[b]Links between Outer Plains and the Abyss:[/b]
(Read section on Inter-Planar links first)
It has been theorized that the breakage of links between the Outer Plains and the Abyss can be explained as follows:
STIO-O = The STIO of the Outer Plains (identical for all outer plains).
STIO-A = The STIO of the Abyss.
As these two oscillating vibrations (STIO-O & STIO-A) combine along the section of link that is on the astral plain, between the abyss and the outer plains, they cause the link to oscillate at it’s resonant frequency. Over the span of about 0.01 seconds, the oscillation builds until the link is ripped apart.
It has been theorized that there are material plains that have STIO’s that would cause resonant oscillations in inter-dimensional links and thus make it impossible to link between them. However, no such pair of plains has ever been discovered by any of the very few researchers who have gone looking.

[b]Interdiction Wards (IW):[/b]
The dreaded Interdiction Wards create a barrier to all inter-planar connections in a specific area.
While the IW manifests on the material plains as a sphere or dome, the ward is actually an extra-dimensional energy field which creates an impenetrable barrier just outside of the material plain (3 dimensional reality).
Any link or portal that crosses the boundaries of the material plain (3 dimensional space) within the area of effect is immediately severed when the wards are activated. Any subsequent attempt to make extra-planar connections is blocked as soon as the spell making the connection crosses the edge of material reality. This also cuts off inter-planetary (inter-plane in a given localverse) links (see LL section).

[Author]

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