Kobold King

Harry Potter spoilers:

* sigh * Might as well intervene to make sure this doesn't take forever. It was pretty obvious where everything was ultimately going anyway. MV 10 TONIGHT WE DINE IN ASTORIA Backtrack 22

There are too many amazing settings here to name independently. Seriously, I'd be delighted to read a novel set in any one of the worlds and settings you guys have been working on. Here's a quick synopsis of two alien races I've been developing for a while. By my calculations my setting should have over four thousand different civilizations, but I've only conceived of about two dozen and have only really developed a small handful. So please enjoy these two synopses while I get back to work. The Skordyr One of the earliest races humanity encountered, and fortunately one of the friendliest. These large blue millipedes live in bustling hives that they dig into the roots of enormous trees on their homeworld, separating their labor by caste much as the ants of Earth. Unlike ants however, Skordyr castes are fluid. After a few weeks of metamorphosis a Skordyr individual can shift into any of over a dozen different castes, changing body as well as brain chemistry in the process. Naturally sexless, they can even shift into specific Male, Female, and Incubator forms for breeding. Despite the autonomy available to each member of the hive, Skordyr communities regulate themselves easily as a whole, with members pushed by a strong instinct to perform whatever task they sense the hive requires. Famed for their loyalty and devotion to the hive, Skordyr can be found on most worlds thanks to their contracts with other races. Human colonial cities in particular were often built with Skordyr labor, with the alien insects paid for their services with lodging in subterranean areas of the settlements. The Luthings Resembling a cross between a monkey, a horse, and some kind of enormous spider, Luthings are one of the odder races to be found in this section of the galaxy. These beings are native to the planet Eden--a terrifying planet that is nothing like its namesake. Luthings are well-adapted to the extremely hostile ecosystems of their homeworld, capable of enormous speed and agility. Long claws at the end of each leg aide them both in rushing up trees and fending off predators, and a total of four eyes on each side of their ridged heads allow them to see in all directions at once. While arguably more intelligent even than humans on average, in over three million years of history Luthings have developed nothing even resembling a civilization. They wander across continents with no conception of territory or nationality, developing some tools where needed but usually leaving their knick-knacks and inventions behind them when their nomadic instincts lead them forward. As a result those transported off-world can find it difficult to adjust when surrounded by more civilized species, as Luthings have no natural conceptions of personal property or possessions. Essentially they're hyperactive, love climbing and scratching things, eat whatever they can fit in their mouths, instantly evacuate their bowels whenever startled, steal whatever happens to catch their all-seeing eyes, and are prone to mathematical and existentialist ponderings that can drive a man to confusion or depression within hours. You could travel for millions of light years and not find a worse potential room mate than a Luthing.

If she made a good argument about musical therapy or music's use in stress relief, he would. There's a precedent for it considering Glamour's belt full of iPods, but he'd only create "luxury items" if he were convinced of some practical application.

I would have appreciated a little more info, but I'm glad to have been responded to.

EDIT: Ninja'd.

King of the Kobolds, Supreme Emperor of All He Surveys, Wisest of the Western Wisdom-Wielders, Traveler of the Four Dimensions, Master of the Manifold Manly Macaronis, Teacher of the Terrible Toddler, Keeper of the Kicking Crazy Cockerels, Gatherer of the Goat's Great Milk, Eater of Eggs, Poster of Ponies, and Utmost Ubiquiter of Upvotes. Or if that's too long, you can just keep calling me "Jared" or "Kobold."

The Vashikaran spambots. Constantly.

Does Autumn have a way of contacting them? I can't remember if they took a radio with them. In any case, I can see them fleeing the fight altogether once lightning bolts start coming their way, potentially making their way to HQ in an attempt to sort things out. If they get there at the same time as Deathwish, maybe they could hear about Impact leaving the city from him.

Sparks. I forgot about that. How long do you think it'll take to get them through the Frequency fight and back on the road to Portland? Will Baxter have any time to recruit Backtrack before they leave?

Alright, I'll put something steering towards that in. Oh, and congratulations to TwiLyght for graduating today.

I'll set aside some time today to write up a brief Lightwards reaction, then the attack can start. Did we ever agree on what exactly they'll be doing with the Unicyclist?

The consequences of Sam or Revolution not being able to fight back would have to be more horrifying to me than utterly scrapping all of my current plans. Which means, Nighthound. Cool. And I look forward to seeing Voidgaze challenge Altermind on moral grounds, despite how poorly that'll probably turn out.

Um... no? Maybe? Attack them and find out? Hmm. That does put her in an odd position. If I recall correctly most of her corruption merely surfaced as her getting angry or indignant. Considering she spent her childhood holed up in an abandoned building with occasional servants bringing her food, could those emotions simply be justified as her having developed a slightly volatile personality without Calamity's influence?

Darkrose is still an open threat if the Trifecta come anywhere near Sam. Given I chose the name for sounding sufficiently goth-like, I'm now wondering if goths make up the entire upper hierarchy of the Coven. By the way, Edge, I don't know if you'll answer this, have already answered this, or what... but has Voidgaze already faced her fear?

"I'm going to sterilize the filth of humanity... with my fist."

Like that? Fus ro d'aww!

He shouldn't RAFO the west coast, I should think, considering the book's set in Atlanta. And if he gives TwiLyght a minimalist answer on that front, we should still try to get more info out of him at other signings. Hurry! Edit the post before TwiLyght founds the world's first puglifications house. ...Which might not be a bad thing.

I kind of wish I'd asked about the Illustrated Guide to Epics just to make sure the idea's in his head, but what's done is done. Firefight:

And Backtrack becomes Night's Sorrow. Because he sees past nights and sobs about them.

Tell me about the Coven! ... Well waddya know. Reposting my question actually got results! Not very impressive results--we know scarcely anything we didn't know or had guessed already--but hey, it's better than a question that sits on the bottom of the AMA and rots, right? Hopefully we'll get a meatier answer to TwiLyght's west coast Epics question.

Uh... what? I for one didn't detect any liespren at all in the posts here. And for the record, Sarah and [DATA EXPUNGED] are both awesome names.

Oh, don't worry about it. I don't exactly know what those cats are doing in the sink, or why there's a book about Stalin in the background, but I respectfully think that you're wrong and that image does help any situation.

Arsenal will transmit that the Deathwish situation has been resolved momentarily, so Weeks is more likely to be sent after Frequency's gang. Along with some of the Epics at the clinic, depending on how things go. In other news, a friend of my mother's just left town a few minutes ago, but before she left I was able to talk to her about aphasia. (In December she graduates school and becomes a speech pathologist, so she knows a lot about the subject.) Apparently Voidus' Epic has a particular variety of aphasia called fluent aphasia, which is characterized by the fact that the speaker has no difficulty speaking, but only in saying the right words. Frighteningly, most victims of fluent aphasia have no idea that they have a disorder, as their garbled words sound perfect in their own ears. It is everyone else's speech that they don't understand, meaning that one of the hardest parts of treating a victim of fluent aphasia is convincing him that he has a disorder in the first place. So Aphasia can neither communicate nor be communicated with while in his trances, and there's no way he'd be able to circumvent his aphasia by writing or otherwise recording his thoughts. The language portions of his brain would become completely scrambled during these visions, though an argument could be made for a telepathic Epic being able to pull the unaltered future from his brain.

My name is ancient. It appears in one of the most revered holy books in the world; in modern times it is often associated with jewels and the market that sells them. I share it with poets, actors, politicians, sportsmen, scientists, and even a noted historian. In the Hebrew language, it means "Descent." I am...