Creation Daily

[Eagle of the Forest Path he/him]

I've been working on a story set on a world that's basically one giant ocean.
People live in big, stone, skyscraper-like cities (I'm calling them spires) that stick up out of the water.

My reasoning behind this is that these spires are built on the tops of mountains in an underwater mountain range, which are either just above or just below the water line.
(never mind for now where they got the stone for building the spires)

But now I've got a question which my relative lack of scientific education prevents me from finding an answer for. I'm hoping someone here can help me a bit.

If the underseas mountain range was sort of circular, would it be possible that the interior of the range would be a lot shallower than the outside?
I'd need something between 20 and 200 meters deep (about 60 to 600 feet) so my inhabitants can do seaweed farming.
I could handwave this, I guess, but I really prefer not having to do that too often, or on too large a scale.
 

[Three1415]

On 8/5/2016 at 2:44 AM, Eagle of the Forest Path said:

I've been working on a story set on a world that's basically one giant ocean.
People live in big, stone, skyscraper-like cities (I'm calling them spires) that stick up out of the water.

My reasoning behind this is that these spires are built on the tops of mountains in an underwater mountain range, which are either just above or just below the water line.
(never mind for now where they got the stone for building the spires)

But now I've got a question which my relative lack of scientific education prevents me from finding an answer for. I'm hoping someone here can help me a bit.

If the underseas mountain range was sort of circular, would it be possible that the interior of the range would be a lot shallower than the outside?
I'd need something between 20 and 200 meters deep (about 60 to 600 feet) so my inhabitants can do seaweed farming.
I could handwave this, I guess, but I really prefer not having to do that too often, or on too large a scale.
 

If the mountain range were circular, yes, due to the increased elevation of the center the ocean would effectively be far shallower (of course, it would be rather inconsistent, with peaks yielding far shallower sections and the valleys between them far deeper). The only problem I see is obtaining a circular mountain range in the first place; as mountain ranges are created by the linear collisions between tectonic plates they tend to form in roughly straight bands rather than closed arcs, as shown on the cool mountain range map/chart thing I found. 

The primary exception to this on Earth are the Himalayas; some weird geology (specifically the weakness of the Indian and Asian plates) resulted in their mutual collision causing both to be accordioned upwards rather than one subducting under the other, so if you want similar features on your planet, it's not at all unreasonable (although it will be more of a plateau than a true mountain range, though that might actually work better for your purposes). 

Edited August 9, 2016 by Three1415

[Oversleep]

I stumbled across a video from Jack Daniel's web series. It was about a luthier making an instrument.

And then I thought that such craftsmen would be valued even more if the musicians used their instruments to perform magic.

I have to think about it, but I think a battle would look like orchestra concert...

[Landis963 he/him]

On 8/9/2016 at 6:13 PM, Oversleep said:

I stumbled across a video from Jack Daniel's web series. It was about a luthier making an instrument.

And then I thought that such craftsmen would be valued even more if the musicians used their instruments to perform magic.

I have to think about it, but I think a battle would look like orchestra concert...

"Devil Went Down to Georgia," eat your heart out.  Especially if you make the magic good in a solo context, in addition to orchestral.  

Anyway, I was recently struck by inspiration for a magic system, but it suffers from being the barest sketch of concept.  The basis is that there is a special kind of crystal bead that can be attuned to a person.  Something about the crystals determines what sort of magic it can produce.  My original thought is that one of the powers on offer is a sort of teleportation: A charged bead can exchange places with its attuned user (For simplicity's sake, I'm assuming that the bead in question marks where the incoming user's center of gravity will be after the jump, and the user's center of gravity pre-jump is where the crystal moves to).  This would be demonstrated in a Szethian scene where an assassin or fighter has a whole bunch of throwing knifes, with these stones in them somehow, and uses the jumps (note to self: get a better name for the teleport) to gain height/speed/distance on his pursuers.  

[Oversleep]

6 hours ago, Landis963 said:

This would be demonstrated in a Szethian scene where an assassin or fighter has a whole bunch of throwing knifes, with these stones in them somehow, and uses the jumps (note to self: get a better name for the teleport) to gain height/speed/distance on his pursuers.  

One of the most badass characters in Naruto is widely feared because of exactly this (widely feared as unconditional order "if you see him, run"). He showers the area with knives with teleportation markings and can teleport between them. Combine that with high reaction time and he is capable of slaying a whole squadron. Look up "Minato".

[Landis963 he/him]

2 hours ago, Oversleep said:

One of the most badass characters in Naruto is widely feared because of exactly this (widely feared as unconditional order "if you see him, run"). He showers the area with knives with teleportation markings and can teleport between them. Combine that with high reaction time and he is capable of slaying a whole squadron. Look up "Minato".

I just did, and wow, I see what you mean.  I looked him up, and started watching his fights for examples of how the demonstrator would act in a scene.  Luckily, I hit on Minato's fight scene vs. the Raikage, which happens to include him throwing a whole mess of kunai to use as teleportation targets, just like my system was designed.  However, some minor differences: When the assassin teleports to one of his knives, the knife is teleported to his former location, so he can't immediately use it for assault purposes.  Also, Minato frequently teleports to some place in the vicinity of his knives (or rather the TP spell bound to them), which does not work if the crystals are being swapped for the characters' center of gravity.  Last, (and this last really makes him OP) he can place a teleport spell on anything with long enough contact, meaning that given a long enough engagement the enemy is a valid target for teleportation.  And given that the "engagements" in question (vs. Raikage, and the flashback one vs. Kakashi) were, at best, a few seconds long, I can see why he is so widely feared.  

[Oversleep]

@Landis963, yeah, of course there are differences, but the general idea is similar enough that I though you may benefit from some reference material ;P

43 minutes ago, Landis963 said:

Luckily, I hit on Minato's fight scene vs. the Raikage

Minato had like three - four fights in the entire series, so it was very likely you'd hit that one. Minato is a mostly flashback character who died 12 years before the start of the series

[Landis963 he/him]

13 hours ago, Oversleep said:

@Landis963, yeah, of course there are differences, but the general idea is similar enough that I though you may benefit from some reference material ;P

Minato had like three - four fights in the entire series, so it was very likely you'd hit that one. Minato is a mostly flashback character who died 12 years before the start of the series

Oh.  I was wondering why his hairstyle looked so similar to the title character's.  Anyway, now the system has ballooned a bit, and gained a precursor in a magic system regarding ground crystals that would be blown at an enemy to produce effects (the beads would be a concentrated and standardized, for lack of a better term, version of this system).  

[Young Bard he/him]

I'm up to that point I always get up to where I usually give up on a story, just after the 'first ordeal' stage, about the 25,000 word mark. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has a specific point when writing where it just feels like a slog to get through anything... How do you all get the motivation to keep going and to get past it?

[Kyrt Malthorn he/him]

3 hours ago, The Young Bard said:

I'm up to that point I always get up to where I usually give up on a story, just after the 'first ordeal' stage, about the 25,000 word mark. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has a specific point when writing where it just feels like a slog to get through anything... How do you all get the motivation to keep going and to get past it?

Ya just gonna let 25,000 words go to waste?

Of course you're not.  That's half a novel.  If you can't seem to write anything good, write it badly.  Come back later and do it better.  But give your ideas a long leash; most often if I find a particularly hard hump, it's because the characters are being forced in a way they don't want to go.  Read an article about writing processes, motivation - whatever it is you're struggling with.  Most often that's what I find I'm doing when the lights go on and I realize why I'm stuck.  Most importantly: press on!

[Hobbit]

On 8/5/2016 at 2:44 AM, Eagle of the Forest Path said:

I've been working on a story set on a world that's basically one giant ocean.
People live in big, stone, skyscraper-like cities (I'm calling them spires) that stick up out of the water.

My reasoning behind this is that these spires are built on the tops of mountains in an underwater mountain range, which are either just above or just below the water line.
(never mind for now where they got the stone for building the spires)

But now I've got a question which my relative lack of scientific education prevents me from finding an answer for. I'm hoping someone here can help me a bit.

If the underseas mountain range was sort of circular, would it be possible that the interior of the range would be a lot shallower than the outside?
I'd need something between 20 and 200 meters deep (about 60 to 600 feet) so my inhabitants can do seaweed farming.
I could handwave this, I guess, but I really prefer not having to do that too often, or on too large a scale.
 

Just randomly saw this!  I'm not sure if you're still working on this idea, @Eagle of the Forest Path, but have you heard of the aging of volcanic islands to form an atoll? 

http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/kits/corals/media/supp_coral04a.html

https://blog.tahiti.com/2012/06/14/whats-an-atoll/

It seems like a series of atolls could fit your needs pretty well.  

[Eagle of the Forest Path he/him]

3 hours ago, Hobbit said:

Just randomly saw this!  I'm not sure if you're still working on this idea, @Eagle of the Forest Path, but have you heard of the aging of volcanic islands to form an atoll? 

http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/kits/corals/media/supp_coral04a.html

https://blog.tahiti.com/2012/06/14/whats-an-atoll/

It seems like a series of atolls could fit your needs pretty well.  

I am still working on it (you'll be able to read the story in Reading Excuses soon), and I had considered atolls but rejected them.
If you're going to build 50 story granite skyscrapers, you want as solid a foundation you can get. Dead coral doesn't really fit the bill.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

edit: OH! were you talking about the seaweed farming? Yeah, that would fit rather well, actually. Thanks!

Edited August 17, 2016 by Eagle of the Forest Path

[Hobbit]

7 hours ago, Eagle of the Forest Path said:

I am still working on it (you'll be able to read the story in Reading Excuses soon), and I had considered atolls but rejected them.
If you're going to build 50 story granite skyscrapers, you want as solid a foundation you can get. Dead coral doesn't really fit the bill.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

edit: OH! were you talking about the seaweed farming? Yeah, that would fit rather well, actually. Thanks!

Yeah if the skyscrapers are 50 stories and granite, an atoll won't work.  I guess they could build smaller structures if they cleared off the dead coral and built directly on the sunken island.

But I was focused more about the seaweed farming situation.  Mmmm seaweed!  Looking forward to reading about it!

[Oversleep]

I'm going back and forth on the armor/weapons being material/summonable or not.

I mean, the whole concept is that armor and weapons are like condensated power, kind of programmed magic.
If I make them immaterial and summonable, there is no tension in a sword being broken or anything. Just desummon and summon back a new copy.
If they're material and not summonable, they can be stolen. I like that. On the other hand, they have to be stored somewhere. Imagine Peter Parker hiding in his closet something which amounts to Iron Man armor. Just not doable.
Also, I want my characters to have them handy, because otherwise half of the plot would be "we have to get our stuff fast before that monster/eldritch abomination/horror entity/puppy kills too many people".

I thought about making the summoning process longer and requiring concentration, but that doesn't cut it. Once it's done it would still retain all the plot flaws. Namely, being broken would be insignificant. I want such occurences to be hugely impactful. ("That guy broke Captain's America shield!" or "What will Thor do with Mjolnir hidden from him?" et cetera)

How to make something easily accessible wherever you go but at the same time you can loose it? How to make it prone to damage but eteric in nature?

[Aonar he/him]

2 hours ago, Oversleep said:

I'm going back and forth on the armor/weapons being material/summonable or not.

I mean, the whole concept is that armor and weapons are like condensated power, kind of programmed magic.
If I make them immaterial and summonable, there is no tension in a sword being broken or anything. Just desummon and summon back a new copy.
If they're material and not summonable, they can be stolen. I like that. On the other hand, they have to be stored somewhere. Imagine Peter Parker hiding in his closet something which amounts to Iron Man armor. Just not doable.
Also, I want my characters to have them handy, because otherwise half of the plot would be "we have to get our stuff fast before that monster/eldritch abomination/horror entity/puppy kills too many people".

I thought about making the summoning process longer and requiring concentration, but that doesn't cut it. Once it's done it would still retain all the plot flaws. Namely, being broken would be insignificant. I want such occurences to be hugely impactful. ("That guy broke Captain's America shield!" or "What will Thor do with Mjolnir hidden from him?" et cetera)

How to make something easily accessible wherever you go but at the same time you can loose it? How to make it prone to damage but eteric in nature?

So these weapons/armours are supposed to be physical manifestations of the bearer's power, yes? How much work goes into creating one of these? How closely is it related to it's bearer's magic?

I'd run a patch roughly along these lines:

• Weapons/armour are not stored physically; they are part of the mage's magic, and while not in use, have no physical form. However, summoning/dismissing is a somewhat involved process; takes several second's concentration, and direct physical contact. (Obviously, really only important to dismissing.) [As such, they can be lost or stolen while physical.]
• As these weapons are a physical manifestation of their maker's power, their destruction has ramifications. The raw power backlashes against it's wielder, temporarily weakening their magic and preventing them from recreating the weapon for weeks, months or even longer, depending on the mage's ability and how much of their power was bound up in it. [Breaking has consequences.]
• If another mage steals of one of these weapons, they can do very nasty things with it. [Not something you brought up, but it's an idea for you to play with. What happens if one is stolen by an enemy mage? Can they use it to cripple it's bearer? Consume it to enhance their own magic? Up to you, obviously, but I kind of like it.]

[Eccentric Hero he/him]

4 hours ago, Oversleep said:

I'm going back and forth on the armor/weapons being material/summonable or not.

I mean, the whole concept is that armor and weapons are like condensated power, kind of programmed magic.
If I make them immaterial and summonable, there is no tension in a sword being broken or anything. Just desummon and summon back a new copy.
If they're material and not summonable, they can be stolen. I like that. On the other hand, they have to be stored somewhere. Imagine Peter Parker hiding in his closet something which amounts to Iron Man armor. Just not doable.
Also, I want my characters to have them handy, because otherwise half of the plot would be "we have to get our stuff fast before that monster/eldritch abomination/horror entity/puppy kills too many people".

I thought about making the summoning process longer and requiring concentration, but that doesn't cut it. Once it's done it would still retain all the plot flaws. Namely, being broken would be insignificant. I want such occurences to be hugely impactful. ("That guy broke Captain's America shield!" or "What will Thor do with Mjolnir hidden from him?" et cetera)

How to make something easily accessible wherever you go but at the same time you can loose it? How to make it prone to damage but eteric in nature?

You only used Marvel references.

I've been working out a magic system that centers on this. (Please don't steal; You could use this as inspiration or make it a minor ability that doesn't get used much in your magic system.)

I got my idea of the mechanics of storage from a few places. Sanderson said that he invented shardblades because he wanted summonable swords that make sense magically. I wondered how to do this without the spiritual realm. And in "Inside Out" there is a a bag that can store a lot because it is abstract. That word clicked in. I got the idea of abstract storage.

Here's the basics:

You must have direct contact with the object to store it. It takes some time, energy, and concentration to store an item the first time but gets easier over time. Each item you store will create a pathway in the brain to store it. When you summon it, it will come out exactly as stored and in the same area. eg: Standing with arm extended. With some skill you could store it to be summoned in any posture with arm extended, etc. You just have to create the pathways in your brain to store it right. If you create the pathway right, you could summon it with a motion. It all depends on skill and practice.

I also thought that maybe one could transfer some mass, or perhaps one's own energy, into energy to shoot (maybe like Steelheart or Conflux). This would probably be very tough to execute.

I had thought of a scene in which the magic user grabs an enemy's face and somehow stores his stomach acid and summons it on his thumbs as he wipes the enemy's eyes with it. This would probably be too complex to carry out. You'd have to store some of the stomach acid, recreate the pathway to make it summon on thumbs, and then summon it. I don't even know if moving the summoning area should be allowed.

Pathway is probably not the right word, but I hope you get what i mean.

Edited August 18, 2016 by Eccentric Hero

[Edgedancer he/him]

11 hours ago, Oversleep said:

I'm going back and forth on the armor/weapons being material/summonable or not.

I mean, the whole concept is that armor and weapons are like condensated power, kind of programmed magic.
If I make them immaterial and summonable, there is no tension in a sword being broken or anything. Just desummon and summon back a new copy.
If they're material and not summonable, they can be stolen. I like that. On the other hand, they have to be stored somewhere. Imagine Peter Parker hiding in his closet something which amounts to Iron Man armor. Just not doable.
Also, I want my characters to have them handy, because otherwise half of the plot would be "we have to get our stuff fast before that monster/eldritch abomination/horror entity/puppy kills too many people".

I thought about making the summoning process longer and requiring concentration, but that doesn't cut it. Once it's done it would still retain all the plot flaws. Namely, being broken would be insignificant. I want such occurences to be hugely impactful. ("That guy broke Captain's America shield!" or "What will Thor do with Mjolnir hidden from him?" et cetera)

How to make something easily accessible wherever you go but at the same time you can loose it? How to make it prone to damage but eteric in nature?

You could always make it so that desummoning and resummoning doesn't actually change the state of the weapon, so they could mabe use that to gather ale the pieces back after it got shattered but actually fixing it still requires a more involved process. Think of them being broken as akin to a bug in the programming that needs to be carefully fixed by the mage.

[Oversleep]

A random idea for somebody to use:
Basically, you'd have to have at least three different factions and at least two of them at odds with each other. Let's keep it simple and name them Red, Green and Blue. Green and Blue doesn not get along. It works for superheros factions, secret agents, mage societies et cetera.

Our protagonist, a member of Red comes home. Perhaps he's back from something that needed his attention. Either he does something which causes this discovery or already finds his parents trying to murder each other upon discovery that they're Green and Blue, respectively.

From that point it can go many ways. He can choose to reveal himself or not. He can try to stop them, talk some sense into them or just be too shocked and just stands there. His parents may be talked down as it was just a natural reaction and they decide they can live with it or maybe they'll part and try to kill each other later.

It can be additionaly complicated with how much Green and Blue don't like each other. Is it just some friction between factions, are they enemies, are they natural enemies, mortal life-sworn enemies or maybe even literally opposing forces with bloody conflict going back thousands of years back?
Are Green and Blue aware of existence of Red? If they are, what are their relations to Red? Are they the same or different?
The list goes on.

------------

Soulsmiths: I've been thinking some about the whole armor/weapon thing, but no final conclusions yet.
Meanwhile, I realized that when I was balancing Angle's powerset I left him with little offensive powers. Right now his only attack option is comparable to drawing Nightblood. I need to think of a way to use his ability offensively. He can't just use projectiles as they'd have to be similarly nerfed as the sword (although projectiles are interesting given the fact his ability grants natural understanding and control over the angles. He could be a Deadshot).

I thought he could break bones by altering the angles of the limbs but it runs straight into the reason I purposefully weakened telekinesis. Because you can't just tear people apart.

[Patar he/him]

So I had a question about POV characters, that being: How many is it ok to have? In The Osterix Chronicles, I have two main POV characters, and as of right now I've got two side POV characters. But I'm considering adding a few more, to where I'd have around six or seven POV characters. Do you guys think that's to much?

[Eagle of the Forest Path he/him]

4 hours ago, Patar said:

So I had a question about POV characters, that being: How many is it ok to have? In The Osterix Chronicles, I have two main POV characters, and as of right now I've got two side POV characters. But I'm considering adding a few more, to where I'd have around six or seven POV characters. Do you guys think that's to much?

What do you mean by "side POV"? It's a rather different question between adding a side character with their own character arc or adding a chapter from the viewpoint of a guard who's about to be killed by your main character. I'll assume you mean characters with an arc.

It ultimately depends on the length of the story. In general, the longer the story, the more POV characters you're "allowed". 7 or 6 POVs are usually only found in rather long works: 300k words and up. There's a margin of error there, of course, this is a very rough guesstimate; but if its shorter than 200k words, most writers just don't have enough space to adequately explore that many characters. (yes, that is 300k and 200k, it's not a typo, I judge 300k to be a median value, while 200k is like a low-end limit)

There's other considerations, including writing experience and target audience, but I don't know enough about those to advise on them. 

[Darkness Ascendant he/him]

On 10/08/2016 at 8:13 AM, Oversleep said:

I stumbled across a video from Jack Daniel's web series. It was about a luthier making an instrument.

And then I thought that such craftsmen would be valued even more if the musicians used their instruments to perform magic.

I have to think about it, but I think a battle would look like orchestra concert...

Read the Hush by Sky Melkie-Wegener. You have to

@Patar, If your story is long enough, I reckon you would be able to put in some single scenes from the perspective of  "side" character. Traitor Son Cycle does this well. Focusing on their protagonists yet also putting in the perspective of other more minor characters as Eagle has said

Edited August 23, 2016 by Darkness Ascendant

[Darkness Ascendant he/him]

I have this idea which I called the Chronicle. The Chronicle are a line of beings who chronicle the passing of time during the course of it. They die when they finish their book. But they have the ability to alter the past by rewriting bits of their Chronicle. the story was that a group of fellows venture out, upon hearing the myth of the Chronicler, so they can alter the past and make themselves the rulers of the world, but along their way, they change, and become better people. While they are on their journey, their homeland is attacked by beings from the Chaos Beyond. And so they go to the Chronicler, pleading to rewrite history, so the Chaos never attack. etc etc

[Zathoth]

Warning: This is a link to Tv Tropes

I'll do my best to sum it up so you dont spend all day clicking through tv tropes.

So fire burns, ice freezes and lightning electrocutes, but the other common elements really all do the same thing, earth hurls rocks, water hurls water, wind just blows you away, pun intended, and so on.

Anyway my question is: can anyone think of an 'element' that does a more interesting kind of damage, like burning, electrocuting or freezing?

[Oversleep]

5 minutes ago, Morzathoth said:

Anyway my question is: can anyone think of an 'element' that does a more interesting kind of damage, like burning, electrocuting or freezing?

So I thought to approach this not from the "what damage should element do" angle, but from looking up various types of wounds.

Sadly, there are not many of them - there are thermal (accounted for by fire and ice), electrocution (lightning), chemical wounds (probably acid and/or poison element), and many different physical wounds.

So it's gonna be hard to think something up. You could start messing around with psychic powers, but I guess that's not what you're looking for. How about inflicting neuro damage? Like 'rewiring' nerves so that the control of the body is lost? That's gonna be also electricity, or maybe a healing element. I stole it from Naruto.

[Zathoth]

4 minutes ago, Oversleep said:

So I thought to approach this not from the "what damage should element do" angle, but from looking up various types of wounds.

Sadly, there are not many of them - there are thermal (accounted for by fire and ice), electrocution (lightning), chemical wounds (probably acid and/or poison element), and many different physical wounds.

So it's gonna be hard to think something up. You could start messing around with psychic powers, but I guess that's not what you're looking for. How about inflicting neuro damage? Like 'rewiring' nerves so that the control of the body is lost? That's gonna be also electricity, or maybe a healing element. I stole it from Naruto.

Thats a much better angle to approach this from.

That is not a bad idea... as badly as Naruto triple backwards flipped the shark it had some good ideas

I guess I'll just have to turn turn stuff into jelly or dried husks if I want interesting injuries.