Particle Manipulation

[Swimmingly he/him]

So do you need to add heat to the system to get anything heavier than iron? That would follow roughly the rules of stellar nuclear fusion, where it creates energy to make iron (with decreasing returns as you get closer) then the reaction doesn't perpetuate itself - it doesn't create more energy than it uses. Scaled down, it would mean that creating anything out of iron would take power, whether up or down. An iron suit of armour, for example, would take a source of power to change. Give them some kind of restriction about changing living things, and, on the tundra, without any heat besides what he can get by coaxing the nitrogen in the wind into oxygen, a manipulator would be powerless against a man wearing and wielding only cold iron.

Ooh, and that would mean that a sealed vial of some dense iron-or-lighter metal could also be used as a battery, by spending hours pouring heat into it to transform it down to hydrogen - but still at the density of iron.

Actually, now that I think of it, that sounds like it would just combust on its own. Maybe not that far down then. Perhaps to lithium.

Edited July 16, 2014 by Swimmingly

[Endurant Archivist he/him]

@Chrono that sword, the Buster Sword, is insane. I didn't actually think they would be able to lift, or swing, or anything with that thing. Wow...great work by that blacksmith.

Anyway, the idea with the nukes is amusing. Maybe way down the road, but my stories, right now, are set in a late medieval/early renaissance period. There are variations, I'll post a topic on the timeline of my universe some other time. But essentially, that's where people are.

People fear the manipulators they know about, or at least, most do. There's a band that are studying the effects of manipulation, but it's still and early science. This is where most known manipulators are located.

 

@Swimmingly the iron–if it's changed up three times to copper–would draw the extra energy from itself. So there would be less iron. But some heat could be taken in the transfer. Just like it's given off if you go down. That could also cause some restrictions on how quickly you could shift down elements without causing extreme heat.

I'm not sure I'm understanding your concept with a manipulator against a man in a cold iron suit. Could you explain that more?

 

Another concept I was having was the ability to teleport to specific locations. Along these routes there could be way stations set up, so that more and more manipulators could use them, easing the difficulty of teleporting. This isn't something that will be discovered right away, but once it is, the implications for travel are incredible, vs more mundane traveling by foot. Then there are possibilities for paying a manipulator to transport you faster. I wonder what effect that would have on you?

[Swimmingly he/him]

Well, if you can draw energy from mass, then the iron suit isn't as good an idea. I was under the impression that you needed an outside source to push elements away from iron, so any material would effectively contain a store of energy proportional to its distance from iron on the periodic table - and iron would contain no energy that the manipulator could draw on at all.

Which opens up the possibility of manipulators unconsciously draw energy by drawing trace elements in their vicinity towards iron. This might make them feel more clearheaded and focused while practising, because there would actually be a higher oxygen content in the air near them. On the other hand, precious metals would develop impurities, gems might change colours for the same reason, and generally odd and arcane effects. oh, and lead would become gold - after going through a quicksilver stage.

On teleportation, I'd be wary of mistakes or malfeasance. Very wary, to the point that I might not accept a jump from anyone I didn't trust.

Edited July 17, 2014 by Swimmingly

[Endurant Archivist he/him]

The particle manipulation is made possible by the manipulator. It won't be dependent on iron really, just burn heat off if you're shifting down, consuming heat if your shifting up. All in a local area around the shifting material. I think that it would be cool, but there's no real reason it would be pivoting off of iron. It'll just be a shifting point, whatever element you're working on will cause either heat or cold as you shift it. Now, maybe in more extreme situations, like heavier materials, more heat or coldness could be caused by a shift. So if you shift lead, it creates a lot of heat when you go to gold. Or visa versa.

 

Teleportation, I agree. It's dangerous, though if you explore ahead to the next location, you can be sure you won't die if you try it. And I definitely wouldn't trust someone else with it, not right away. Over time though, maybe there could be couriers, manipulators that just shift from place to place and can deliver messages or items if there was a great enough need.

[Swimmingly he/him]

If malicious things can be done with manipulation, I would think said couriers would be prime targets for bribes.

[Chrono she/her]

Manipulators would have to be highly trained so that they don't materialize someone into a mountain or five feet into the ground. That would suck really bad. I definitely would not take a trip from a random guy I didn't trust. 

 

Also, Manipulation sounds like something that could easily be abused, like Forgery. Manipulator that teleports into the middle of an army, changes the water to mercury, quickly leaves. You'd have to have your own force of manipulators guarding everything that could be technically manipulated. Security would be a real problem. 

 

In order to combat how OP this teleporting is, could rival Manipulators "jam" the space where the Manipulator wants to teleport, making it very risky to try and teleport there? I think it'd be very interesting to see Manipulators try and fight each other this way.

[Endurant Archivist he/him]

I haven't forgotten about your ideas. Just been busy. I'll edit this post tomorrow with some thoughts.

 

--edit--

 

@Swimmingly agreed. There would be a constant conflict between their rarity and their usefulness. Integrate them into society too much and they become targets. Keep them out and they're feared.

 

@Chrono training is a huge part of a manipulator's life. There's a whole facility dedicated to understanding it more. And yes, a manipulator could jam the space just by placing something else where you teleport to. Like a rock.

Edited July 22, 2014 by Endurant Archivist