Hi,
So I’d like to discuss all these points in more detail, but I’m short on time, so will have to come back to them in a later point.
I do think however, that you may be reading me, in these posts a little too literally on some occasions. By which i mean, I may use examples to make a point, but that doesn’t mean it has anything to do with the story (e.g. the Vatican and books and QFT)
So let me first of all address QFT. And this is way out there, and not apriori part of the story, just my thinking. What binds the multiverse together is QFT, different planes of existence have different laws of physics, but these are not so much different “laws” as different sets of quantum topologies. Meaning alternate realities may use alternate dimensions, I.e. Astlan may not use all the same topological dimensions as Earth and thus the laws of physics are/can be/may be different.
Now add on to the fact that quantum phenomena express themselves differently depending on how you look at them (wave, particle duality) and extrapolate from there and this is how you get different interpretations of “the same thing” or similar things. Things in Astlan don’t necessarily translate to quarks and gluons in Astlan, even though when looking at them from an Earth perspective, that’s what they see.
Now this is by no means a way of explaining the various laws of physics, it’s just a viewpoint for looking at what we don’t understand but trying to get at some underlying super-reality.
Yes, there are multiple groups in Astlan that are familiar with the atomic model of the universe, Lenamare is just one of the most advanced. That was a too literal case. I did not mean to imply he’s the only one, but the people that do understand it aren’t all that common, and may not be from Astlan. People do travel to other planes of existence to and from Astlan.
Glass though is easy. Sorcery, Thaumaturgy and Pyromancy…the transmutation of sand to a liquid state…all very well studied and understood. Once in a liquid state, a Sorcerer has no problem making flat glass. he/she can make it do whatever they want, then just let it cool (OK, maybe a bit more complicated…but it’s a point)
Note (or do note in book 2) that mirrors are actually fairly common among the magic enabled…so lots of flat glass. In this case, don’t think of medieval Europe thing of all things “Fantasy Middle Ages” and Magic Mirrors…mirror mirror on the wall…yes…in the real world mirrors were crappy and hard to come by, but not in many fantasy worlds (other than GoT, of course)
Actually, they don’t so much have a problem with chemical potions blowing up, just alchemical ones. I haven’t posted it on the site, but there both chemical reagents and potions and alchemical ones. The difference is that the alchemical ones use elementally affiliated components combined with mana to create “magic potions” vs “non-magic potions”
But, be clear, I’m not saying which are used in paper making, I don’t really know, I’m sure there are a wide variety of different methods used by different vendors.
Jenn is middle class. Her parents are merchants who pay a tuition to Lenamare each year. It’s not cheap, it’s about like college or private school here.
However, Lenamare has access to lots of books, lots of blank books and in fact requires his students to use them, not so much for notes (that is scrolls or loose paper mostly) but they need to get used to writing books, it’s a big part of academic life.
Typically, most books used have very simple leather bindings, possibly died, but most like not, just a soft “brownish leather” ignore the library in the picture, assume those are very valuable old/published/purchased books.
The reasons they look alike other than age is because they are both very simple bound leather books. The main differentiation between them is that one is nearly impossible to open.
Here is a modern example of what I am talking about.
[img=http://www.roguejournals.com/assets/components/phpthumbof/cache/701dbe9313e09df87cab6f003cf82ccb.dada0cda86436fee2b6ebe75d471cb2f.jpg]Leather bound book[/img]
Anyway, gotta run for the moment.