Creation Daily

[Edgedancer he/him]

So I just thought of something really awesome.

 

Thread magic. Yes, Im serious.

 

The Weavers can force their Will on thread. They can control how it moves, make it stiffen and become hard, possibly make it flammable, the thread is really good at closing wounds... and possibly other openings (This entire idea may have come from that I really just wanted to sew someones mouth shut with a telekinetically controlled thread), to not make them to powerful they cant control hair on someones head and they cant control thread unless they first "enchant" it, whatever that means, I'll tell you when I figure it out.

 

There may be more magic systems like this. I have the mental image of someone cutting down a tree, splitting it into fire wood and setting it on fire, all with their mind.

It took me a while to realize you were talking about the yarn kind of thread and not the forum kind of thread.

[Zathoth]

It took me a while to realize you were talking about the yarn kind of thread and not the forum kind of thread.

Those kind of thread mages are called moderators.

[Oversleep]

And thread divine beings would be administrators, and server host would be the Creator or something.

[Oversleep]

Would somebody be interested in a very short text from the setting I described earlier? I wrote it already in Polish, but I could try to translate it to English. It's sort of what-if-story in urban fantasy which have just gone post-apo.

[Mistrunner]

Christmas is either about Jesus or family—depending on who you ask. Most people who say it's about Jesus don't pick that one over the other; they just celebrate both.

I'm not complaining. The two go together pretty nicely. The Christmas story, after all, stars a family—the Family, Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus. The woman with the courage to be the Promised One's Mother, the man with the faith and strength of character to stick up for her, and the Child born to save the world. When I think what Mary must've gone through, conceiving a child out of wedlock; and what Joseph must've endured to stand by her side….well, it's enough to make anyone admire them.

I guess that's part of why everyone appreciates their families a little more around the holidays. I'm not saying kids suddenly realize their moms are as awesome as Mary was, or that their dads could be Joseph in a pinch; I just think that the season puts family front and center, so people are more grateful for theirs. You only get one, after all. Might as well be thankful for it.

It's just….sometimes I wonder about that Family. We only ever see them at their best. Mary choosing to bear the Messiah, despite all the ire she'd face. Joseph deciding to break it off quietly so Mary wouldn't be disgraced, then reversing his decision when God showed him the big picture. They were awesome, but they were human. Mary might've had a bad day and yelled at Jesus for no reason. Joseph might've grouched at him for leaving the door open one too many times. Would Jesus have done that? I bet He wouldn't have. He would've closed the door every time He came inside, so Joseph wouldn't have had a reason to get mad at Him.

I mean, Jesus was perfect, after all. That's the whole point of Him. He lived the perfect life to give us an example to follow. So I wonder what He did, when his parents acted a little too human. When Mary stomped around the house and sighed for hours because someone forgot to feed the cat, He probably quietly fed the cat and apologized when He saw her, even if it wasn't His fault the cat didn't get fed. When Joseph had a bad day at work and came home shouting at his kids for stupid reasons, Jesus probably sat down with His father and let him vent. Probably got him some coffee, too.

Of course, people can be much worse than that. I'll bet there were days when Mary felt like everything was conspiring against her and scolded the first person she saw just for the sake of scolding them. If that person was Jesus, He probably took it in stride. Probably stood there and listened to her yell. He wouldn't have talked back to her. Wouldn't have said "Mom, I didn't do this thing you think I did." Wouldn't have said she overreacted. Wouldn't have told her that it hurt when she called Him a failure of a child, and that she shouldn't say such hurtful things.

When Joseph whispered behind his back that He was a disappointment, Jesus wouldn't have confronted him on it. No, He would've let it slide. Parents are everyone's first taste of authority, and authority figures should be respected. Honored. You don't honor authority figures by bringing up every tiny thing they say. It doesn't matter how much those things hurt. You have to let them slide. And Jesus would've let them slide. Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, wouldn't have wanted His parents to feel guilty. Not after all they'd been through to bring Him into the world.

But….I don't know. I look at Him later on, and I don't know how to make all that fit. I mean, look at the woman caught in adultery. He risked His life to save her, even when she was clearly in the wrong. Those Pharisees were authority figures, and Jesus stood up to them. He preached against them. He called them "whitewashed tombs."

Still, they weren't parents. They were authority figures, yeah. But they weren't parents. "Honor thy father and mother," says the Fifth Commandment. No ifs, ands, or buts. Nowhere does it say "Honor thy Pharisees" or "Honor thy pastors." Just parents. They're the only ones singled out. They're special. Jesus never called anyone's mother or father a "brood of vipers."

I can't stop thinking of that sermon, though. You know the one, where he said "Which of you, if your son asks for a fish, would give him a snake? Or if he asks for a loaf of bread, would give him a stone?" Those questions are rhetorical. Jesus wanted to make a point, that no parent would give their children snakes or stones instead of meeting their basic needs, so God won't do that, either.

Except for my parents.

Oh, oh no. I didn't mean it like that. My parents never neglected me. I always had clothes in my closet, a warm room to sleep in, food in the fridge when I got home from school. The only time I went to bed hungry was when I talked back. I may not have known what I said wrong when I said it, but I knew by the next morning. Some jokes are only funny when the parents make them. You can't call your dad retarded with a smile on your face, even if he did the same thing to you the night before.

I didn't go hungry, not physically, anyway. But….maybe it's wrong to call it hunger, but that's the only word I have for it. If I came home from school in tears, I never got a hug. Just a, "What happened this time?" and a list of everything I should've done differently to keep those bullies from targeting me. If I brought home a C, I never got told I was smart enough for a B. I just got to stay up until midnight working on practice problems out of the book, my dad making me do them again and again until I got them right. If I ate lunch alone, I never told my mom. I never cried where she could see. She wanted her kids to be happy, and seeing me unhappy would've made her unhappy.

Were Mary and Joseph like that?

Sometimes, I like to cast my parents as Bible characters and see how they would've done things differently. My dad does pretty well as some of the generals in the Old Testament. My mom would've made a decent Martha. But I've never made them Mary and Joseph. I'm afraid to try.

I don't want to imagine my mother, demanding a twelve-point plan from God Himself, detailing precisely how she'll benefit from bearing the Messiah.

I don't want to picture my father, throwing up his hands, vowing to tell the whole of Nazareth about how his fiancee was messing around.

I don't want to see them yelling at Jesus.

I don't want to see them demanding He be a Messiah made in their image.

I don't want to see Jesus crying when their words slice deep.

I don't want to see them yelling at Him for crying.

I don't want to see Jesus curled on His bed, wondering when He'll stop being such a colossal screwup.

I just want the Holy Family to remain the way it is: Mother Mary, smiling sweetly at her son. Father Joseph, one hand cradling his Divine Stepson and the other wrapped protectively around his wife. Baby Jesus, gazing up at the two greatest parents He could ask for.

Parents who love Him when He leaves the door open.

Who hug Him close when He has a bad day at school.

Who would smite any bully who teased Him off the face of the Earth.

Who don't make Him feel like a disappointment to them. To His teachers. To God.

I know all this is moot. Jesus was perfect, right? He wouldn't have disappointed His parents, so they wouldn't have had anything to yell over.

But it's nice to think about. That even if Jesus had screwed up once in a while, Mary and Joseph would've let him. They would've kept on loving him, knowing God had a purpose in mind.

Jesus never screwed up. I know that.

But I like to believe in parents who keep on loving their kids, even when they fail.

*breaks upvote button*

[Curious Anamaximder he/him]

Christmas is either about Jesus or family—depending on who you ask. Most people who say it's about Jesus don't pick that one over the other; they just celebrate both. 

 

I'm not complaining. The two go together pretty nicely. The Christmas story, after all, stars a family—the Family, Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus. The woman with the courage to be the Promised One's Mother, the man with the faith and strength of character to stick up for her, and the Child born to save the world. When I think what Mary must've gone through, conceiving a child out of wedlock; and what Joseph must've endured to stand by her side….well, it's enough to make anyone admire them. 

 

I guess that's part of why everyone appreciates their families a little more around the holidays. I'm not saying kids suddenly realize their moms are as awesome as Mary was, or that their dads could be Joseph in a pinch; I just think that the season puts family front and center, so people are more grateful for theirs. You only get one, after all. Might as well be thankful for it. 

 

It's just….sometimes I wonder about that Family. We only ever see them at their best. Mary choosing to bear the Messiah, despite all the ire she'd face. Joseph deciding to break it off quietly so Mary wouldn't be disgraced, then reversing his decision when God showed him the big picture. They were awesome, but they were human. Mary might've had a bad day and yelled at Jesus for no reason. Joseph might've grouched at him for leaving the door open one too many times. Would Jesus have done that? I bet He wouldn't have. He would've closed the door every time He came inside, so Joseph wouldn't have had a reason to get mad at Him. 

 

I mean, Jesus was perfect, after all. That's the whole point of Him. He lived the perfect life to give us an example to follow. So I wonder what He did, when his parents acted a little too human. When Mary stomped around the house and sighed for hours because someone forgot to feed the cat, He probably quietly fed the cat and apologized when He saw her, even if it wasn't His fault the cat didn't get fed. When Joseph had a bad day at work and came home shouting at his kids for stupid reasons, Jesus probably sat down with His father and let him vent. Probably got him some coffee, too. 

 

Of course, people can be much worse than that. I'll bet there were days when Mary felt like everything was conspiring against her and scolded the first person she saw just for the sake of scolding them. If that person was Jesus, He probably took it in stride. Probably stood there and listened to her yell. He wouldn't have talked back to her. Wouldn't have said "Mom, I didn't do this thing you think I did." Wouldn't have said she overreacted. Wouldn't have told her that it hurt when she called Him a failure of a child, and that she shouldn't say such hurtful things. 

 

When Joseph whispered behind his back that He was a disappointment, Jesus wouldn't have confronted him on it. No, He would've let it slide. Parents are everyone's first taste of authority, and authority figures should be respected. Honored. You don't honor authority figures by bringing up every tiny thing they say. It doesn't matter how much those things hurt. You have to let them slide. And Jesus would've let them slide. Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, wouldn't have wanted His parents to feel guilty. Not after all they'd been through to bring Him into the world. 

 

But….I don't know. I look at Him later on, and I don't know how to make all that fit. I mean, look at the woman caught in adultery. He risked His life to save her, even when she was clearly in the wrong. Those Pharisees were authority figures, and Jesus stood up to them. He preached against them. He called them "whitewashed tombs." 

 

Still, they weren't parents. They were authority figures, yeah. But they weren't parents. "Honor thy father and mother," says the Fifth Commandment. No ifs, ands, or buts. Nowhere does it say "Honor thy Pharisees" or "Honor thy pastors." Just parents. They're the only ones singled out. They're special. Jesus never called anyone's mother or father a "brood of vipers." 

 

I can't stop thinking of that sermon, though. You know the one, where he said "Which of you, if your son asks for a fish, would give him a snake? Or if he asks for a loaf of bread, would give him a stone?" Those questions are rhetorical. Jesus wanted to make a point, that no parent would give their children snakes or stones instead of meeting their basic needs, so God won't do that, either. 

 

Except for my parents. 

 

Oh, oh no. I didn't mean it like that. My parents never neglected me. I always had clothes in my closet, a warm room to sleep in, food in the fridge when I got home from school. The only time I went to bed hungry was when I talked back. I may not have known what I said wrong when I said it, but I knew by the next morning. Some jokes are only funny when the parents make them. You can't call your dad retarded with a smile on your face, even if he did the same thing to you the night before. 

 

I didn't go hungry, not physically, anyway. But….maybe it's wrong to call it hunger, but that's the only word I have for it. If I came home from school in tears, I never got a hug. Just a, "What happened this time?" and a list of everything I should've done differently to keep those bullies from targeting me. If I brought home a C, I never got told I was smart enough for a B. I just got to stay up until midnight working on practice problems out of the book, my dad making me do them again and again until I got them right. If I ate lunch alone, I never told my mom. I never cried where she could see. She wanted her kids to be happy, and seeing me unhappy would've made her unhappy. 

 

Were Mary and Joseph like that? 

 

Sometimes, I like to cast my parents as Bible characters and see how they would've done things differently. My dad does pretty well as some of the generals in the Old Testament. My mom would've made a decent Martha. But I've never made them Mary and Joseph. I'm afraid to try. 

 

I don't want to imagine my mother, demanding a twelve-point plan from God Himself, detailing precisely how she'll benefit from bearing the Messiah. 

 

I don't want to picture my father, throwing up his hands, vowing to tell the whole of Nazareth about how his fiancee was messing around. 

 

I don't want to see them yelling at Jesus. 

 

I don't want to see them demanding He be a Messiah made in their image. 

 

I don't want to see Jesus crying when their words slice deep. 

 

I don't want to see them yelling at Him for crying. 

 

I don't want to see Jesus curled on His bed, wondering when He'll stop being such a colossal screwup. 

 

I just want the Holy Family to remain the way it is: Mother Mary, smiling sweetly at her son. Father Joseph, one hand cradling his Divine Stepson and the other wrapped protectively around his wife. Baby Jesus, gazing up at the two greatest parents He could ask for. 

 

Parents who love Him when He leaves the door open. 

 

Who hug Him close when He has a bad day at school. 

 

Who would smite any bully who teased Him off the face of the Earth. 

 

Who don't make Him feel like a disappointment to them. To His teachers. To God. 

 

I know all this is moot. Jesus was perfect, right? He wouldn't have disappointed His parents, so they wouldn't have had anything to yell over. 

 

But it's nice to think about. That even if Jesus had screwed up once in a while, Mary and Joseph would've let him. They would've kept on loving him, knowing God had a purpose in mind. 

 

Jesus never screwed up. I know that. 

 

But I like to believe in parents who keep on loving their kids, even when they fail. 

 

Oh my storms. That is one of the most beautiful things I have ever read. 

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

*breaks upvote button*

Oh my storms. That is one of the most beautiful things I have ever read. 

 

Thanks.

[Kobold King he/him]

As if time travel weren't confusing enough already, people who travel through time find themselves arriving at their destination in a flash of light, surrounded by a flock of tiny thumbnail-sized fish with hummingbird wings. The fish all immediately scatter in all directions before evaporating into bubbles of blue light, vanishing within seconds.

 

Nobody has any idea where the fish come from or what their connection to time travel is. There are civilizations that have studied time for millennia that can only shrug at the phenomenon and say, as is always the case in paradoxes and temporal anomalies, "We're sure it makes sense in context."

 

 

Of course... I know what the fish are and where they come from. But then, I'm omniscient.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

As if time travel weren't confusing enough already, people who travel through time find themselves arriving at their destination in a flash of light, surrounded by a flock of tiny thumbnail-sized fish with hummingbird wings. The fish all immediately scatter in all directions before evaporating into bubbles of blue light, vanishing within seconds.

 

Nobody has any idea where the fish come from or what their connection to time travel is. There are civilizations that have studied time for millennia that can only shrug at the phenomenon and say, as is always the case in paradoxes and temporal anomalies, "We're sure it makes sense in context."

 

 

Of course... I know what the fish are and where they come from. But then, I'm omniscient.

 

My theory: Mr. Omniscient is trolling the heck out of time travelers.  

[SmurfAquamarineBodies he/him]

Ugh, I dislike doing this, uncertain as to why but whatever.

 

So I created a thread called 'My magic system'. I am going to be editiong that first post on a somewhat regular basis. Though it will only be small changes for now. As I get more into it the changes will get bigger but I would find it helpful if people could read through it and tell me if they think it works.

[Kobold King he/him]

*Cough.* A parody of Scissor Sisters' "I Can't Decide" about the hardships of making a timeline for your world.

 

 

This really should be easy, right?

 

 

It's... not...

Easy makin' yourself a timeline

Sorting out those wars and truces

Thinking through a new tech's uses

List and parse years both at the same time

I think there's something I've forgotten

Oh, yeah King Greg's dead and rotten

 

I'm not a genius author

Don't want to do a rushed job

Timelines should make this easy

So why's it made me crazy?

 

I can't decide where to place this thing in time

Should this come before Caesar

Or should I give up and cry?

No wonder why

My brain feels dead inside

From counting years where kingdoms died

Search the web and find a guide

We're going for a ride.

 

It's... no...

Cinch convincing readers to like you

They think I know what I am doin'

When in my head just nothin's stewin'

Missing kludged-up details's not like you

These centuries all leave me crippled

Oh look, in this one, events are tripled

 

I've got to hand it to you

Not sure I've thought this all through

It's my own rules that fooled me

To think this would be easy!

 

I can't decide where to place this thing in time

What date should this war stop on

Before the next one passes by

No wonder why

My brain feels dead inside

This freakin' timeline's broke my stride

Search the web and find a guide

We're going for a ride.

 

Oh I could pick the years with dice

And not consult the timeline twice

I won't deny I'll feel much better when it's done.

I could keep all of it up here

But I might forget a big year

And ruin the whole story

That's why

 

I can't decide where to place this thing in time

When I make it arbitrary

New sets of problems just arise

No wonder why

My brain feels dead inside

This timeline's made me lose my mind

Search the web and find a guide

We're going for a ride.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

*Cough.* A parody of Scissor Sisters' "I Can't Decide" about the hardships of making a timeline for your world.

 

 

This really should be easy, right?

 

 

It's... not...

Easy makin' yourself a timeline

Sorting out those wars and truces

Thinking through a new tech's uses

List and parse years both at the same time

I think there's something I've forgotten

Oh, yeah King Greg's dead and rotten

 

I'm not a genius author

Don't want to do a rushed job

Timelines should make this easy

So why's it made me crazy?

 

I can't decide where to place this thing in time

Should this come before Caesar

Or should I give up and cry?

No wonder why

My brain feels dead inside

From counting years where kingdoms died

Search the web and find a guide

We're going for a ride.

 

It's... no...

Cinch convincing readers to like you

They think I know what I am doin'

When in my head just nothin's stewin'

Missing kludged-up details's not like you

These centuries all leave me crippled

Oh look, in this one, events are tripled

 

I've got to hand it to you

Not sure I've thought this all through

It's my own rules that fooled me

To think this would be easy!

 

I can't decide where to place this thing in time

What date should this war stop on

Before the next one passes by

No wonder why

My brain feels dead inside

This freakin' timeline's broke my stride

Search the web and find a guide

We're going for a ride.

 

Oh I could pick the years with dice

And not consult the timeline twice

I won't deny I'll feel much better when it's done.

I could keep all of it up here

But I might forget a big year

And ruin the whole story

That's why

 

I can't decide where to place this thing in time

When I make it arbitrary

New sets of problems just arise

No wonder why

My brain feels dead inside

This timeline's made me lose my mind

Search the web and find a guide

We're going for a ride.

 

This is one of my primary reasons for originally wanting to go the Who route—make major events fixed points in time, with only minor changes allowed—before some people helped me see that changing history with superpowers is the whole point of my WIP. So now I'm having to figure out how to change things in a logical way, which is harder than it sounds, and it sounds pretty hard.

[Kobold King he/him]

This is one of my primary reasons for originally wanting to go the Who route—make major events fixed points in time, with only minor changes allowed—before some people helped me see that changing history with superpowers is the whole point of my WIP. So now I'm having to figure out how to change things in a logical way, which is harder than it sounds, and it sounds pretty hard.

 

 

Is it the whole point of your WIP? I think the idea of history marching along the same path, mirroring our world even with the minor changes of superpowers, is pretty cool in its own right. If you aren't having fun derailing history and inventing a brand new Earth I see no reason for you to have to. Your novel will be just as interesting if the Vietnam War was fought with pyrokinetics as it would be if it never happened at all.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

Is it the whole point of your WIP? I think the idea of history marching along the same path, mirroring our world even with the minor changes of superpowers, is pretty cool in its own right. If you aren't having fun derailing history and inventing a brand new Earth I see no reason for you to have to. Your novel will be just as interesting if the Vietnam War was fought with pyrokinetics as it would be if it never happened at all.

 

Well, the whole reason superpowers exist in this universe is because their creator wanted to give power back to the disenfranchised. I'm not sure if I'll keep it, but the introductory prologue document is a note from her perspective saying as much. That seemed like a good theme to embrace—how giving superpowers to the powerless would have changed history, for better, worse, and everything in between. 

[Patar he/him]

I've just posted chapter two to my project ​The Osterix Chronicles. I also added a prologue. It is posted in the thread The Osterix Chronicles. If y'all would check it out and give me some feedback, that'd be great! Thanks guys    

[Lindel he/him]

A magic system idea that's been on my mind lately is something involving "storing" different forms of potential energy in yourself or objects and drawing upon that Potential later. The idea being that there are uses both for the act of storing up fuel and the release of said fuel. Yet I once again find myself hopelessly inept in the physics department. If I were to hold a bowling ball out a high window, store all that potential energy, and continued to store that as I let go of the ball, what would happen? Would it remain fixed in place? That's what I'd like it to do, but I'm not sure I understand the physics correctly. Normally we think of working against gravity as requiring work, but if the potential energy is being removed before it has a chance to convert to kinetic, then there wouldn't be anything to make the ball fall, right? Although, come to think of it, I think I missed something rather obvious. If there's no energy whatsoever that's actively causing it to fall toward the planet, it'd shoot off into space, I suppose. You could at leats slow down the rate at which something falls, correct? Someone help me before I hurt myself...

[Oversleep]

Sounds like a cross between "Kingkiller Chronicles" sympathy and Feruchemy (no offence).

As for your magic, I'd say storing potential energy will gonna be really hard to work with, since the potential energy doesn't exist - if you tried storing kinetic energy as something is falling, fine, it falls slower; but if you try to rob the thing of its potential energy... well, the gravitational potential energy is just a way of saying how much energy is needed to move said object from the surface (in simplification, it really depends on center of mass, but we can omit that) to the height its at. E= mass*height*gravitational acceleration. If you try to take away a part of this energy, some component must decrease. If we go with decreasing height, then the object is simply falling and you're effectively robbing it of kinetical energy. If we go with decreasing mass, well, the object is now lighter, but nothing changed in it, so its complicated. Gravitational acceleration is of the planet, so I doubt your mages could do that.

It won't simply just float in place; the thing is
 

 

Normally we think of working against gravity as requiring work, but if the potential energy is being removed before it has a chance to convert to kinetic, then there wouldn't be anything to make the ball fall, right?

This train of thought is misguided. What makes the ball fall is gravity, not transformation of potential energy into kinetic energy. You swapped the effect with the cause - we started using potential energy only because someone thought "If I drop this ball, its gonna gain kinetic energy; but what if I don't drop it?".
The potential energy is only there because the object is in gravitational field, not the other way around.

[Lindel he/him]

Thanks for replying, Oversleep! Feruchemy was definitely one of my first thoughts as well, but I don't think the idea of storing up a pool of magical energy and drawing on it to perform said magic is hardly a unique concept, though it is admittedly a more central concept in Feruchemy. As for Sympathy, I have yet to read Kingkiller Chronicles, so I can't speak to any similarities there.

As I said, my grasp on physics is dubious (read: nonexistent) at best. I've tried researching this, but I was unable to decipher those who were answering my questions, and the "For Dummies" explanations never fully address my questions. So where is the energy coming from if I drop the ball?

If I drop it, it gains a bunch of kinetic energy, since its now moving in a new direction at a high speed. But if I don't drop the ball, there's no extra kinetic energy. So where is all that energy actually coming from?

Edited January 7, 2016 by Lindel

[Oversleep]

It's like - okay, it's not as nonexistant as I led you to believe - okay, lets assume you start at height H=0m. Then you move the ball to H=1m. You struggled against the gravity to raise this ball by 1 meter. So the ball 'gained' energy. When you drop it, that energy converts to kinetic energy.

Okay, but what if we started at h=1m? Like the ball was made at this height? No energy was expended to raise it to this level, right? That's where potential energy comes in. Imagine the Earth as a sphere and add layers around it every 1 meter from surface. Those layers would be some kind of "energy layers" - the ball which is at the height of one meter has some gravitational potential energy, as everything on that level; that potential energy can be only "harvested"/"used" when the ball gets lower, so it "falls". Then - and only then - the potential energy converts to kinetic energy (and thermal and a few more, but we assume perfect conditions, right?).

Moving 'down' a layer means losing potential energy and gaining kinetic energy and moving "up" a layer means the energy has to be expended and you gain potential energy.

If something is unclear, please ask.

(P.S. It's all assuming the Earth as our point of view, of course. It would look a little different from the space, but it doesn't matter)

Edited January 8, 2016 by Oversleep

[Lindel he/him]

Okay, that's really helpful. Now I get why "storing" that potential energy would make little sense, as it's unclear what that would even mean. Just by being located above the surface of the earth, an object has a certain amount of potential energy, and it wouldn't make sense for that energy to simply go away if someone were to "drain" it, since the object would still be at the same height and therefore the same level of potential energy.

The kind of thing I want to be able to accomplish with the magic as far as kinetic energy goes is things like jumping out of an dropship and storing a bunch of Potential during the fall to land without any injury, then later using that Potential to send enemies flying across the battlefield. Store up enough and you could start doing cool stuff like ripping up the ground and creating localized earthquakes. That's the idea. Is there any way to make the physics behind that at least slightly believable?

[Patar he/him]

So I have a question about switching viewpoints mid-chapter. That question pretty much being: When is it acceptable? I just finished writing a chapter, and looking back on it, it feels a bit short. I was considering lengthening the chapter by combining it with the chapter after it, but it would be from a different character's viewpoint. Would that be ok to do? Sorry if this seems like a dumb question, I'm a bit new to this writing thing   

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

So I have a question about switching viewpoints mid-chapter. That question pretty much being: When is it acceptable? I just finished writing a chapter, and looking back on it, it feels a bit short. I was considering lengthening the chapter by combining it with the chapter after it, but it would be from a different character's viewpoint. Would that be ok to do? Sorry if this seems like a dumb question, I'm a bit new to this writing thing

It's acceptable when it makes sense and the viewpoint switch is clear and serves a purpose. Don't switch viewpoints just for the sake of switching or having one character talk up another (Cassandra Clare ). But if it makes sense and serves a purpose, do it.

[Aonar he/him]

Okay, that's really helpful. Now I get why "storing" that potential energy would make little sense, as it's unclear what that would even mean. Just by being located above the surface of the earth, an object has a certain amount of potential energy, and it wouldn't make sense for that energy to simply go away if someone were to "drain" it, since the object would still be at the same height and therefore the same level of potential energy.

The kind of thing I want to be able to accomplish with the magic as far as kinetic energy goes is things like jumping out of an dropship and storing a bunch of Potential during the fall to land without any injury, then later using that Potential to send enemies flying across the battlefield. Store up enough and you could start doing cool stuff like ripping up the ground and creating localized earthquakes. That's the idea. Is there any way to make the physics behind that at least slightly believable?

 

I'm not Oversleep, but I can answer a bit of this one. (I've got a character in the Reckoners RPG who's powers work off basically the same principle.) You could store kinetic energy to slow a fall; how much so would depend on the "resolution" of the storage. If you stored kinetic energy every second, your speed would never exceed 9.8m/s (the base rate of acceleration due to gravity). The more often per second you store, the slower you go. However, there's a caveat to this. Because the formula for kinetic energy is 1/2mv^2, mages in this system will gain exponentially more power if they store while travelling at a high speed (as close to terminal velocity as possible, or, if they're falling for long enough, by storing whenever they reach terminal velocity).

 

Earthquakes might be a bit of a stretch (a 1.5 magnitude earthquake, which is too small to be even noticed by a human, releases about 11 megajoules of energy; or about a hundred times what is contained by a human travelling at terminal velocity [125 kilojoules]), but with enough kinetic energy, you could definitely do a lot of damage. 

Edited January 8, 2016 by Aonar Faileas

[Patar he/him]

It's acceptable when it makes sense and the viewpoint switch is clear and serves a purpose. Don't switch viewpoints just for the sake of switching or having one character talk up another (Cassandra Clare ). But if it makes sense and serves a purpose, do it.

Thanks! I'm looking back at the chapter, and despite the fact that it's a bit short, I like the way I ended it. I'll probably end up having two viewpoints in the next chapter, and I think it will make more sense to do so that way.

[Oversleep]

Okay, that's really helpful. Now I get why "storing" that potential energy would make little sense, as it's unclear what that would even mean. Just by being located above the surface of the earth, an object has a certain amount of potential energy, and it wouldn't make sense for that energy to simply go away if someone were to "drain" it, since the object would still be at the same height and therefore the same level of potential energy.

The kind of thing I want to be able to accomplish with the magic as far as kinetic energy goes is things like jumping out of an dropship and storing a bunch of Potential during the fall to land without any injury, then later using that Potential to send enemies flying across the battlefield. Store up enough and you could start doing cool stuff like ripping up the ground and creating localized earthquakes. That's the idea. Is there any way to make the physics behind that at least slightly believable?

Yeah, storing actual energy would be a lot easier. You just have to remember consequences.

For example, storing in free-fall will reduce the speed. If you store all of the kinetical energy, that would mean you don't fall while gravity is still working.

You could think 'wait, if he's not falling, he has no speed and thus no kinetic energy, so what is he storing?'. Well, he has no kinetic energy because he stores all of it.

So the effect is like "there should be more energy than there actually is" kind of situations when storing. Your magic would be about energy getting put in situation but somehow disappearing in mage's storage.

Your characters would have to be careful with that - imagine being in a train going 100km/h. If your characters stores 5% of that kinetic energy, that means he goes now only 95km/h. So, relative to the train, he moves back 139cm per second. He is gonna get pulled back. It would be like running at 5km/h straight into the wall at the time of impact and then getting crushed into the wall (can't tell how hard, too lazy to do the math right now). If he tried to store half of his kinetic energy, then... splat.

I suggest not operating with percents (since there is a difference between storing half of kinetic energy while going 1km/h and 100km/h) and instead using some units. Or maybe putting some reminder that storing half of this is possible, but half of this isn't, because it's too much for mage's abilities?

Another important thing - mages can only augment (using magic) and decrease (storing magic) existing energy. You can't run forward and use kinetic energy in opposite direction. You can only use that to be pulled forward. At high enough energy usage you turn into cannonball.