aeromancer

It's not really going to help without a more in-depth explanation of each one, but I can just give you the list if you want it. Send me a PM and I'll send you the list that way, offer stands for anyone who wants it.

Wow, that's more than I expected in such a short period of time. Thank you all, let me see what I can do with each one. That would have to be a 'Law' governing the use of the Arts - [Bind] + [Inverse] + [Sympathy] + [Legendary]. The latter two allow you to access anyone using powers and the first two would create the negative repercussion and bind it to the wielder based off the power. I need a better name for the [Legendary] word - it's actually a meta word which involved the manipulation of the magic system itself and the [Legendary] title is an artifact of its original use in my system. There are actually two characters already who have dedicated time control powers, a third who can accelerate his mental speed (but not physical speed), and a fourth who abuses [Cold] powers to use superspeed. (Superspeed is really easy to get with my system - just use the [Quicken] word, but it has nasty friction based repercussions without Necessary Secondary Powers, so no one really has Flash-level superspeed. Except the one guy who does using ice powers.) Time travel actually does exist, in theory. (The point of the magic system is for every power to be replicated, after all.) The problem is that if you travel back in time while interacting with normal mass (read: while not in a vacuum) the normal mass will treat your mass like antimatter and violently annihilate, so precautions would have to be taken. Thing is, since the scientific knowledge of the world doesn't extend to matter/antimatter, all anyone knows about traveling back in time is that it violently explodes you and no one wants to try it. So, time travel is possible, but will never be used in my book. This means that I can have my cake and eat it too. (Thanks, relativistic physics!) There are six words tied to elemental powers - [Fire] [Water] [Iron] [Cold] [Air] [Lightning], which can be combined with either [Project] or [Construct] to access almost any basic level elemental power - though something like a storm-based power might require multiple words - some combination of [Water] [Air] or [Lightning] depending on the aspect. I have a character who can borrow other character's powers and replicate them - though not at the Taskmaster equivalent. More similar to Kakashi, I think. I'm not overly familiar with Naruto, my obsession is more with American comics than Japanese ones. (aeromancer does a quick google search in the background.) Actually, I have a character who is creepily similar to Kakashi, apparently, because her gimmick is replicating her opponents 'words' with seems to be the same thing as the way ninjutsu works in Naruto that Kakashi uses? Taskmaster can replicate physical movements, and I have a character who can sort of do that - its a kind of marionette spell where the caster can control their body perfectly, regardless of physical skill. A wielder could read a manual or watch a master and then perfectly replicate those moves, so definitely similar to Taskmaster in that sense. (Though that ability would work on Deadpool, which Taskmaster's doesn't for no explainable reason.) Flight is easy and can be done in a lot of ways - wind manipulation, gravity manipulation, simple telekinesis. As for 'simple power which is deadly when developed' ... well, it's kind of a thing. Most character only have a small handful of 'words', so the goal is to use your 'words' in ingenious combinations rather than string together gargantuan spells. Of course you give me hard ones. Johnny Storm, somehow still the only person to hold the title 'Human Torch' in Marvel comics, is a pyrokinetic of the highest caliber and can reach the temperature of a supernova. (And he isn't even considered to be the strongest member of the FF!) To fully replicate his powers, a 'paragraph' is needed. Some basics spells like a fireball, [Fire] + [Project] and the ability to create fire constructs [Fire] + [Construct] is necessary. I'm also going to add in the ability to generate gas [Air] + [Construct] because fires need to consume something when they burn, so I'll give him some fuel. Then we add two more 'sentences' - a 'Flame On!' sentence, [Fire] + [Shapeshift] which lets him turn his body into fire and one which gives him access to an incredibly powerful source of flame - [Fire] + [Enhance] to give him really hot flames. Package those all together and we get a 'paragraph' we can call 'The Human Torch'. Magneto we basically have to cheat for. [Magnetism] is not a word in my system, the reason being that the technology curve just isn't there yet for people to understand it but [Lightning] is there because electricity has been around since the time of the Greeks. Granted, they didn't really know what it was but that is where we get the term electricity from. Unfortunately, I don't want to give magnetic powers based off lightning because Magneto doesn't have any electricity powers, he only has magnetic ones. So, like I said, we're cheating. And here's how we do it: a very simple [Iron] + [Conduit] + [Projection] + [Field]. Our Magneto knock-off can create a field where anything ferrous within it is attracted to anything else ferrous within it. Harry Dresden. Alright. So, his list of powers as of the most recent book Battle Ground is staggeringly high. He has, in no specific order and without going into too much spoilers (but I'm still marking it under spoiler) the following non-exhaustive list of powers which I am mainly doing from memory: Speaking of eldritch powers, Dresden is basically one of those at this point. I do really like the system within Dresden Files because it serves the plot very well, is sufficiently fantasy, and actually fits into the FATE system great, but it doesn't really mesh well with my system. I'm going to have to ask you to pick a few of his more signature abilities to see if I can replicate that because replicating Dresden's full list of powers would be ... strenuous. Shapeshifting is easy, there's actually a word for it - [Shapeshift] Teleportation is ... tricky. There are a few ways I've tried - one is a space-bending variant were you shorten the distance between two points but it doesn't work if there's something in the way (something with a lot of mass - air is fine, mountains are not). There's astral projection, but that's not in person, it's a dream form of transportation which is heavily influenced by Wheel of Time but can't get you physically from one place to the other. True teleportation, that is, the instantaneous transportation of one object in one place to a different place, does not exist in my system. I suppose I could just use tessering from Wrinkle in Time, but that seems a little too advanced of a concept what with folding space and all. I think I might need a fresh word for that to happen. Waterbending is [Water] + [Construct] or [Water] + [Projection], depending on the nature of what you want to do. Mind reading is [Mind] + [Sympathy] Thanks, all! Kudos for @ginger_reckoning for giving me something to think about, and the rest of y'all for the fun exercise.

Slight change of topic, but I have an interesting Worldbuilding exercise that I need help with. Essentially, I'm trying to come up with a magic system that can replicated any version of any power, that is to say, a skilled practitioner using it would be able to replicate the effect of any kind of magic spell, superhuman ability, or any other version of a power found in literature, though not necessarily all from the same source. Why I'm doing this is for two reasons, 1) because the vast spread of powers means that I have a lot of freedom to work with when it comes to character concepts and 2) because I think it's very cool to create a system like this. Anyway, if you're interested in the technical details, read the spoiler, if not, skip to the challenge which actually works better if you have no knowledge of how the system works. (Once you help with the challenge, you can take a look at how the system works - it won't spoil anything.) Worldbuilding exercise: I'm creating a magic system that can be theoretically used to replicate any power, so what I'm asking for is as follows: Would you kindly rattle off your favorite power that you've seen in all forms of media so I can see if my system can be used to replicate it? Just saying the power is fine, but giving me a bit of context so I can understand the power is even better. Everything here is available, give me the most outlandish and weird powers you can think of so I can see if my system works against it, everything from Gambit's kinetic energy abilities; the spells used in Harry Potter; whatever Brandon Sanderson magic system is your favorite; take your pick.

Thoughts As I Go: Prologue: Pg. 1 – Did you know a group of crows is called a ‘murder’? You could swap that into the first sentence instead of ‘a massive cloud’. Just pointing that out. Pg. 1 – A breastplate is usually, but not always a solid piece of forged metal – it can’t rise and fall with a person’s chest very well. Scale-male would probably work better. Also, how does one end up with an arrow under his armpit? I mean, it’s possible, but it’s an unlikely shot. Pg. 2 – I’m getting a massive ‘Knights Radiant’ vibe with the talk of power, laws, and blades right now. Pg. 3 – I don’t know the name of the viewpoint character – is he S or A? Also, I get that this is the prologue so nothing will really be explained, but I would have like to know a bit about this person’s history. Pg. 4 – Ah, a subscriber to the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes, I see. But the question is, is S correct about it in regards to this world or is it merely a philosophy he chooses to follow? Chapter One: Pg. 1 – A scimitar with a flail attached? That’s an interesting weapon. Does the flail exist to be used as a weapon or to be bound to the wielder’s hand? Pg. 3 – A bit of heavy handed foreshadowing with the Fell Knight (unless it’s set up to be subverted in which case I withdraw this comment.) Pg. 4 – That’s a pretty neat trick to throw a knife with such accuracy after sustaining repeated head trauma. Pg. 6 – It’s raining assassins, apparently. This is actually kind of interesting. Pg. 7 – P’s introduction feels a bit rushed. Overall: Prologue: I’m of the belief that prologue should exist, unfortunately, a prologue can really only be judge as being good or not when the whole story exists. That said, the prologue is interesting enough to make me want to read more, and I got Knight Radiant vibes from it. I like Knight Radiant vibes. I’d still like a little bit of backstory or motivation for the viewpoint character, though. Chapter 1: This feels a little rushed to me. I don’t know what Blades are (I’m guessing they’re made from meteor metal) or what they represent or why they’re important. I don’t know much about the characters and there are two named dead characters in the first chapter. That in it of itself, I appreciate – so long as the casualty count doesn’t drop. It’s a cheap trick to murder characters in Act 1, Scene 1 and then never let another named character die for the remainder of the book. A little more development for V’s father and T would go a long way into making me more invested in the characters that survived.

An endothermic reaction is when the product has more inherit energy than the reactants and thus takes in heat. Ice turning to water is an example of this - heat goes into ice and the ice melts. An exothermic reaction is the opposite - the product has less energy because heat was expelled. Water freezing to ice is an example of this - energy leaves the water as it turns to ice. It thus follows, naturally, as long as you're dealing with a closed system, that every endothermic reaction has an equal exothermic reaction - when ice melts, the ice undergo an endothermic reaction as it gains heat but the air around it undergoes an exothermic reaction as the heat from the air goes into the ice. This is where I was confused, because a character being able to draw heat into themselves is both an endothermic and an exothermic reaction - endothermic from their end as they absorb heat into themselves and exothermic as they draw heat from whatever they're dealing with externally. If you've decided to delineate the power as the user's body, that's no cause for concern - there you have clear lines as to what constitutes exothermic and endothermic.

I can see I'm not the first, but let me welcome to Reading Excuses. And now, for my critique. Thoughts As I Go: Pg. 1 – A’s name throws me off a bit – it’s the name I’d expect from an Indiana Jones knockoff, perhaps, not from what A is described to me, though that might be my own prejudice talking, so pay it no mind. Pg. 1 – This line of ‘still important, in a way’, seems to imply that A is some kind of paper tiger or puppet monarch; no one with any real power besides being a figurehead. But then it continues with ‘give orders’ and ‘make decisions’, so I’m getting a mixed message about her. Pg. 1 – Steampunk walking carriages. I like those, so that’s a plus, but unfortunately not very indicative of the technology level if they’re discussing adding wheels. Pg. 2 – G and J are mentioned in the same sentence as being A’s apprentices, yet G is apparently twice J’s age. While that’s technically possible, it threw me for a loop. Pg. 2 – So A controls the Quorum, which controls … something E related, but I’m not sure exactly what. How much power does she have? Pg. 4 – Perspective shift to an adolescent young boy. Is this going to be recurring? I’m now not really getting a sense of the age this work is meant for. Pg. 6 – I really wish I knew what kind of government existed already if I’m being told that there are protests to shift it to a republic. Pg. 7 – Reincarnation? Ah, now we’re getting somewhere interesting. The ‘can’t kill the protagonists because worse things will happen’ angle does pique my curiosity – it’ll require a better-than-average villain to deal with that flaw. Pg. 7 – I very much doubt J is as required to running the country as he thinks he is. In fact, I’d guess he and G just agree to everything A says, so … how much power does A have again? I seem to keep circling back to this. Pg. 8 – And now we’re onto necromancy. Which is used for animating horseless carriages, apparently. Please tell me that human souls aren’t used for transporting people from point A to point B and it's horse souls or something. Pg. 9 – Isn’t Al not supposed to have Ak with her? Pg. 11 – Thermal energy and endothermic energy is the same thing. If all that’s happening is that heat is being transferred, I can’t really see a distinction. Pg. 13 – Why is J the only one who can figure out that its obviously a trap? No one throws a coup and invites three powerful mages to it unless they have the means to neutralize said mages. Pg. 14 – Apparently not ‘too late’ if a bump can ruin the pattern Overall: The general idea behind this submission is good, the execution is somewhat flawed. The character introductions need a bit of work; and if there’s a coup that’s occurring, I’d really like to know the stakes involved – who are these people and what powers do they have? What kind of world politics are we dealing with? I hesitate to say this, but I think this piece could really benefit from some exposition – not a dry exposition, of course, but more details would always be appreciated. Perhaps J could be lectured on world politics a bit by G or A? It certainly wouldn’t look out of place. There are also a couple plot holes (like the fact that only J realize it was a trap), but those could be solved as well. I like the idea as I see it – political intrigue, powerful mages who can’t be killed because of the threat of resurrection, a rebellious population, and the potential looming threat of chaos – but I think it could definitely use some rewrites.

I'm not sure how I feel about the departure from the turn based battle system, but I will admit that the system peaked during the Zero duology. Spoilers because I discuss some technical aspects of gameplay and certain bosses in Sky and Azure.

Lighting a weapon on fire is generally more hazardous to the user than anyone else, though. Especially when the weapon in question is an unwieldy chain.

Three more practical weapons followed by three slightly cooler looking ones, followed by a rant on swords. Quarterstaff You could also call them bo staffs it you want, but the humble quarterstaff is one of the best medieval weapons around. It's incredibly easy to make - just a length of wood, really, and add some iron bands to the ends for added weight. It's got more reach than a sword does and is better at close-quarters than a sword as well. The fact that its equally dangerous at both ends, unlike a spear, means that there's greater flexibility for wielding it. They can also be wielded one handed (albeit very poorly), so a skilled fighter can go staff-and-sword if they feel like. Bill A halberd was a cross between an axe and a spear, arguably taking the best from both, and the bill was a cross between a halberd and a fishhook. A long haft with a hooked and curved blade at the end. It's unsuited for infantry combat, but its very good for fighting against an opponent with significant size advantage, such as a mounted opponent or a dragon. Spears are overrated compared to what other weapons can take their spot; and I'd argue for bills. Scythes This does show up from time to time in fantasy, traditionally in the form of impractically large scythes wielded by the smallest girl in the cast, I'm not sure why that is. That said, there's no reason why you can't arm entire mobs with scythes, contrary to the belief that it must be an impractical weapon. It's common enough to arm peasant mobs, sharp enough to kill, and the awkward attack angles from the scythe give it a significant advantage when wielded against soldiers who are trained against normal weapons like spears, swords, or lances. Meteor Hammer It's a length of chain with metal balls on both ends. It's kind of like a flail when it comes to offensive attack, except its a bit more flexible and because of the length of chain, its an incredibly powerful weapon. It also comes with a drawback, namely that its a two-handed weapon (it takes two hands to use properly) and it can't be used to defend at all. Not a very practical weapon, certainly, but the nice trade off of power against defense makes it appealing from a writing standpoint. Sansetsukon A bit further in the 'impractical but awesome looking' field then the meteor hammer is the sansetsuon,a three-section staff which are kind of like nunchaku except there are three sections instead of two. It's horribly impractical, to be sure, but in terms of flavor and appearance - it's amazing. A skilled practitioner can have the sections whirling around them using them for both offense and defense and it folds nicely to make for easy carrying. Definitely something you can give to the 'old master' character. Swordbreaker The perfect weapon for a subversive protagonist. While the ordinary protagonist might wield a sword, your protagonist will wield a swordbreaker, a specially made dagger that resembles a comb on a hilt. The weapon is designed to catch and lock blades with the teeth of the swordbreaker, which disarms the opponents and allows the protagonist free reign to fight the rest of the battle sword-less. Traditionally an off-hand weapon, similar to a main gauche, but there's no reason why your protagonist can't dual wield them just to show off how much they hate swords. Why Swords Are Awesome If you've read Wheel of Time, you'd know of the Aiel, who will wield every weapon but a sword, the stated reason being that the only purpose of a sword is to harm other humans - any other weapon (dagger, spear, hammer, etc.) has other purposes as well. I think that sentiment is part of why swords are such a storied component of fantasy - it represents war in a way no other weapon does, and that symbolism can be tied into other things as well. Take Link's Master Sword, for instance - the sword represent the ultimate embodiment of the fight against evil, and it just has more weight to me as a sword than if it were, say, the Master Hammer. Swords are also versatile, not in the sense of the weapon itself (they aren't), but there are dozens upon dozens of swords, each with its own individual brand of expressiveness that you can't get with other weapons. If someone wields an axe or a spear, that's fine - but that doesn't tell us much about the character aside from a few stereotypes and most readers won't be able to discern the difference between a broad axe or a bearded axe. Swords, on the other hand, are much more expressive - readers will have a different reaction to a katana-wielding protagonist than a gladius-wielding one. Even with similar swords, they can be incredibly expressive - the zwiehander suggests a mercenary background, the greatsword suggests a noble one, and the executioner's sword suggests a far darker backstory. There's a lot of storytelling you can get from such a little blade. It's also (generally) more difficult to forge a sword than most other weapons, making them more expensive, not to mention that there's generally a greater heritage or attacked value to it. Spear heads are easy to make, axes are slightly more difficult, but a masterfully forged sword is very much in a class of its own, making it easier for a protagonist to go through better and better weapons. There's not much room for improvement with a spear, at least in the range of normal weapons excluding magic, but there's so much room for growth with a sword. Am I saying that protagonists should only use swords? Not really; though I wouldn't necessarily mind it. What I am saying is to not reject a sword-wielding main character just because its a sword. There's nothing wrong with using tropes. But if you feel like you don't need a sword, and an alternate weapon would serve your character better, by all means, use other weapons.

I've giving you a fair warning now - there's a lot of slog in Wheel of Time. Like, entire books of slog. It's a tough series to read and can take even dedicated readers years to finish. That being the case, I wouldn't warn you against reading it - there's still a lot of really good stuff in the series and the ending was done very well. (At least, I enjoyed the ending immensely. I understand there's some mild controversy about some minor parts.) Just wanted to give you the heads-up so you don't get overly discouraged around the mid-to-late books where the slog is the worse. Also, yes, please read Michael Moorcock. He's a criminally underrated fantasy author. I don't know why more people haven't even heard of him, much less read him.

I remember playing CSII on my old laptop when it came out. It was a nightmare. It was updated a month or two after it came out so it runs smoothly now, but when it initially came out it would reload everything in the environment every time there was a transition, and my laptop wasn't even decent quality when it came to playing games. I had to wait thirty seconds every time there was a transition, as in, every time I got attacked in a dungeon, thirty seconds to load the fight, ten seconds to actually fight, and thirty seconds to reload the dungeon. It took me hours to complete each one of the individual shrines. Thankfully, that was patched so the game remembered the last area you've been to which meant that dungeon running became much smoother. The CSI andII computer ports were (eventually) really good port. Thankfully my laptop is slightly better these days so I had no problems running CSIII.

Bamboo doesn't work, though. It's explosive growth is only because it grows during a single 60 day period during the year, so the poor pegasi are out of luck the other 305/306 days of the year, not to mention that it take three years to even start growing at all once planted. Relative to other plants, it's actually a pretty slow grower. I wouldn't get hung up on this. Enough laws are being violated as it is by the pegasi flying - there's no way for their wings to generate enough thrust, among other things - so the audience shouldn't blink twice if the pegasi eat the same as normal horses do, but even still, that's a lot of food. That said... Imagine if you had the island covered in trees which produce airborne seeds that drift on the wind and would periodically release clouds of the seeds into the air, which the pegasi then flew after in great flock to eat. Seems like kind of interesting food for pegasi to eat. Something based off the cottonwood, maybe?

Easy enough. Let's say there are three groups of genes that you need to have all of them to become a pegasus and all the pegasus traits in them are recessive. That's a 1/(4^3) chance, or 1/64, and that's when both parents are crossbreeds. If you had a normal flock of horses and there was a 50/50 split in the gene pool for all these genes, then the odds of any one horse out of this flock being a pegasus is also 1/64, though if you decided to have it something like a 70/30 split, than the odds of any one horse is 1/721. Zorses! But actually, there's the potential for the opposite too - you have the Liger which is half-tiger, half-lion, and considerably bigger than most. It's a monstrous nine-foot cat that's basically unequaled for potential and the largest feline alive. Just make sure it's the correct halves, because the other way is the Tigon, which is also pretty neat, but nowhere near the size of a liger. As far as names for a group of pegasi, my vote is for 'constellation', which might be a bit too on the nose, considering that there's actually a constellation called pegasus, but I think it might work.

I've got a few questions about this: If pegasi can crossbreed with horses and produce viable offspring which are horses, that seems to indicate that pegasus genes are recessive in nature and what that means is that if you took a crossbred pair of horses with pegasi genes, would approximately 1/4 of their offspring be pegasi? And, furthermore, if you crossbred a pure pegasi with a hybrid horse, would that result in half normal horses, half pegasi? If the island is too far away for the pegasi to fly anywhere else, how did the horses get there in the first place? Ships don't typically carry horses with them, unless they're transporting livestock, and there's not really a good reason for a livestock ship to be there, though I suppose the easy answer would just be that a ship carrying horses got wrecked on the island. And, again, if the island is too far away for the pegasi to fly elsewhere, I suppose a crude solution would be to neuter the island's horse population, though I'd imagine that the protagonists would definitely have moral qualms against doing so. If pegasi seemingly prefer mating with horses and that produces horses, then why are there still Pegasi on the island? I suppose that if you accept the premise of my first question that could explain that the population fell into a Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium of some kind, but then that seems to provide decent enough ways to breed pegasi into existence. Are pegasi magical in nature? I suppose I should have asked this earlier, but generally you prefer writing more realistic fantasy so I feel comfortable with the genetics questions, but how exactly do they fly? Adding wings to the side of the horse will never give it enough lift to get off the ground, especially with a rider. And, on that note, how much can they carry? If you're relying on pegasi to solve your logistic issues, they've got to be carrying a lot to make up for all the space that a transport ship or a supply barge can hold. Are there pegasi-powered boats? Instead of sails, you just harness some pegasi like you would a coach or a cart or something and just let them fly, dragging the ship behind them. You'd need an inordinate amount of horsepower to move a boat - a quick Google indicated that the earliest steamboat had 19 horsepower, so if you want to move anything large, you'd need a flock of pegasi. And, on that note, what are a group of pegasi called? You've got your parliament of owls, your murder of crows, your conspiracy of ravens, your thunder of dragons, naturally, but what do you call a whole group of pegasi? The earliest form of rail transport was horses drawing carts along rails. This actually seems like normal horses would be better because they use up less energy while walking than pegasi do by flying, so what incentive is there to replace the rail system with pegasi? Unless there are only islands, but in that case, why is there even a rail system to begin with? (I guess the larger islands might have one.) Are they used militarily at all? Aerial forces are a game-changer from literally any standpoint and any army, what with their ability to effortlessly scale siege walls, their quick deployment and re-deployment on a battlefield, scouting capabilities, communication abilities, and the ability to rain a never-ending onslaught of javelins from several hundred feet into the air. Forget about a monopoly on trade, I'd be terrified of one country having all the pegasi because that lets them field a nearly unstoppable army. (You would need some really good anti-air abilities to stop an angry army of pegasus knights charging at you.) I'll ask more question as they come to me, and if you want, I'd be happy to further discuss any of this. I wouldn't recommend using my favorite internet haunt right now (Worldbuilding Stack Exchange), but if you wind up with some very specific questions that you want answers for, then go ahead and do it. (Or poke around for the pegasus-related question.) EDIT: So I've done so poking around on Worldbuilding and the general consensus seems to be that 1) Pegasi are impossible without magic and 2) this isn't true if the atmosphere is really dense. But if you want to have realistic flying pegasi by increasing the atmospheric density, that also will lead to a whole other slew of things, (like people being able to fly using wings a la Icarus, for instance) so I'm not sure I'd recommend it.

@Weltall I stand corrected. And that's quite frankly horrifying. Still, it's not as consistent as the physical build, so I don't think I'll be trying that anytime soon, but that's a lot of damage.

Really? The strongest build I know in CSII is a physical one, not a magical one, though it requires a ton of rare quartz and a maxed-out Master Quartz that's moderately hard to obtain. I'll explain it down below in a spoiler. But, honestly, once you get to that point, you can start one-shoting most of the bosses in CSII's final area and trivialize the game's final fight, so I'm not even sure I'd recommend using the build. I haven't played CSII recently, so I don't remember how much you can cut down on magic casting and recovery times, but in CSIII you can spam Arts like crazy with the right builds, but I didn't use offensive Arts builds that much in CSII. It never seemed that bad for me, but I play XCOM, so every time someone misses with a basic attack my response is 'Eh. At least he didn't fire a rocket clean across the map and start a chain reaction among cars which then kills half my squad.' A Hit 1 quartz will do wonders for landing hits more often, or just use Arts with characters who have shaky hit rates. Anyway, the ultimate build for CSII: (slight story spoilers because it requires certain crafts that aren't obtained until halfway through the game)

It's nice to hang out with fellow fans, and there are very few people who can properly appreciate my choice of avatar. I have not played the Geofront translation, though I have played the older translation, but I would like to play the new translation. Also, Zero is a good game and Azure is an even better one, so I don't mind replaying the series. I know very little about Hajimari because I'm absolutely terrified of CS IV spoilers, which I'm under the impression that it's not bad about, some stuff just gets spoiled by nature. Cold Steel I, for instance, spoils some of Trails in the Sky, just by the nature of the sequel, though its very little. CS III spoils the absolute crud out of it because we returning main characters running their mouths off about the ultimate fate of certain characters. Out of curiosity, is the standard assumption here that people have played through Trails in the Sky or just have played Cold Steel?

Oh, hey, there's a Kiseki fandom here. Learn something new every day. Anyway, time for introductions. ahem "It's me! Everyone's favorite history teacher, Thomas Lysander!" I think that covers everything about me, right? There's nothing I forgot to say? Excellent. I'm an old(ish) fan of the series, I'm currently caught up with all the games that are released in the US, I have a decent knowledge of Ao no Kiseki and Zero no Kiseki, but I know nothing about CS IV (and would like to keep it that way). Not to mention that, since I play on PC, I won't be getting CS IV until 2021. But I am looking forward to playing the Geofront translation patch on that score.

You've piqued my philosophy. I see that you're drawing a distinction between (presumably) me as a 'decent normal human being' and the 'general human population'. That is to say, you've drawn a distinction between them and consider a certain segment to be more prone to violence, though I have two things to add. First, thank you very kindly for including me in the first category and not the second, I very deliberately reveal little about myself so its nice to see someone who will assume the good in a faceless voice across the Internet. I'm being genuine here, we could use more of people assuming the good in others. Second, I shall in turn extend you the benefit of the doubt and assume that when you say 'general human population', you aren't really referring to most of humanity, you are rather referring to the 'dregs', as it were, people who are inherently evil and find it easier to perform acts of villainy, such as murder. There is indeed a school of thought which states that, by and large, humans are good people, however, for certain reasons; there are people who are not. For the general population at large, the 'decent normal human beings', they find crime abhorrent and can scarcely consider the thought of murdering someone in cold blood, let alone actually doing it. The 'dregs', the inherent criminals, those who were born evil and those of their ilk who have carved the history of humanity bloody with their butchery are almost of a different kind altogether and it would take rather great and exceptional conditions to move someone from the first category to the second. This is one school of thought of the condition of evil within humanity. However, it is not a school of belief that I ascribe to. Evil is not so foreign, even to good, righteous people, as many would like to believe. I do not believe that those who have committed crimes, and even those who have knowingly aided in great atrocities, have any greater capacity for evil than any other person; the key difference between the two lies within the choices they've made. And, perhaps those choices are not as simple or easy to make as we would like to believe. Certainly, it's a nice thought that upstanding members of society would never stoop so low as to kill innocents, yet that simply isn't the case - you may be familiar with the concept of 'the banality of evil', which proves, at the very least, that there are methods of spreading evil and atrocities such that an entire population is willingly complicit, yet believes they've done no wrong. I believe that any person, given the right leverage, incentives, threats, or a combination of the three, could be put into a situation where they would very feasibly consider murder, perhaps justified or perhaps not justified at all. I have a short story called Fault Tolerant which has a normal person's descent into evil as one of the key aspects of the plot. Like I said, ask yourself if you would ever be willing to kill someone. What if your parents were threatened? What if it were a friend? What if the death of one life saved five? What if you knew that no one would ever find out and the person you're attacking did something to warrant extreme punishment, yet you knew that no one could convict this person in court? All I'm saying is, I don't think it's so simple to say that, even for a decent normal person, it would not be incredibly difficult to create circumstances where they would be able to kill someone. (Sorry for the ramble, but as you can see, I kind of like discussing these kinds of things and I feel there's a certain minimum that needs to be said to do this justice. I also don't mean anything personally against you, but its entirely possible that we have different assumptions and beliefs so it might be hard for us to agree on something. Thanks for hearing me out.)

Surprisingly, a lot of things, assuming the 'you' is referring to humanity as a whole rather than me specifically. Murder can be done out of passion or it be premeditated. The first, passion, merely requires a trigger of some kind - a jealous lover, for instance; someone who's been driven irrationally angry. As long as the state of extreme emotion is believable, that is, the reader can understand why the situation might induce the MC within that extreme emotion, it's fair game. Premeditated can be a whole other kettle of fish though. Sure, you have the premeditated caused by extreme emotion, where some form of mental stress (rage, betrayal, hatred, etc.) causes the MC to plan the murder, but then you also have another aspect - murder done with what the MC believes to be a just cause, that is, instead of the MC choosing to kill someone because they are giving in to their emotions, they have chosen to kill someone because they believe it to be the right thing to do. A vigilante for instance, might ruthlessly murder criminals for petty offenses because said vigilante believes it to be correct. Or, if you want to put the MC in a horrible situation, perhaps some villain has kidnapped someone close to the MC and threatened to kill them unless the MC kill someone else. Ultimately, the best way to think about it is to ask yourself, "What would it take for me to kill someone?" The usual motives are either greed or ideology - that is, you believe in the cause that they're propagating or you're getting something out of the terrorist organization in return, generally large amounts of money. If you aren't the leader of a terrorist organization (and sometimes even if you are) there's not a lot that someone would personally gain from joining them, so the question is just 'Why would they choose to join, then?' The answer, like I said, is either greed - therefore there is something to gain - or ideology. Ideology is, unsurprisingly, very complicated. You have the basic version, which is the MC believes in the terrorist's cause. But there are other version as well - perhaps the MC is a loner or an outcast and desperately wants something cause to give their life meaning. Perhaps the MC doesn't agree with the terrorists but hates what the terrorists are fighting so they've elected to pick what they consider the lesser of two evils. Perhaps the MC has friends or relatives within the terrorist organization and feels compelled to join them, partially as a result of peer pressure, but also because the MC respects these people already within the organization and assumes that if they've joined, there must be a good reason to join. Given the nature of both murder and terrorism, this is only scratching the surface when it comes to various causes and reasons behind why a person would want to perform either murder or terrorism. I'd recommend you do research on your own based on some of the concepts that I've outlined here if you like them, and if you want to ask me more questions or to discuss this further, I'd be happy to help.

As long as we're talking Dresden, I feel the need to point out that Peace Talks is actually out! It's been out for almost a week, actually. And I've read it (somehow), and it's very good. I will just give a quick heads up and point out that Peace Talks and the upcoming Battle Ground were originally supposed to be the same book, so this isn't quite as self-contained as the other books in the series, but Battle Ground is coming out in September, so it's not too long a wait. Especially considering how long it took between Skin Game and Peace Talks. Rumor has it that the next Dresden book is going to be called Mirror, Mirror, but Jim Butcher said he's working on the second Cinder Spires, which is great, because Cinder Spires is good steampunk and I can never get enough good steampunk. It kind of seems that everyone on this forum is Dresden Files fan, huh? It might be an interesting idea to try to start a forum RP using the Dresden Files tabletop. I know it's FATE based system and supposedly the FATE system is really flexible and narrative based.

Fingers crossed for 2022 in Chicago, though from my understanding it's going to take place in the summer and I prefer the American Midwest in the winter. (I'm kind of weird like that.) Though, if we're being honest, there isn't a very good chance that I'll be able to go even if it is in Chicago, and even less of a chance for 2021 Washington DC. Still, there is a slim chance.

Case in point, most of Crossroads of Twilight (Book 10) takes place chronologically about halfway though Winter's Heart (Book 9). But since there are just so many viewpoint characters separated at that point in the series, there's not a lot of overlap of characters between the two books, it's not that much of a problem. Granted, Crossroads is generally considered to be the weakest book in the entire series, but it's not because of PoV jumping, it's because nothing happens in it. As long as things are happening and the characters don't interact with each other, then I think it's entirely doable.

I didn't enjoy Goldenhand. It's supposed to be a continuation of the series, but half the book about a pair of minor characters from the original books and the other half is based off a short story I already read. I supposed it wouldn't be bad if you haven't read the short story, because the book seems to be written based on the assumption that you haven't, but I have, so I was bored reading it. I'd probably have enjoyed if I hadn't gone in with expectations, but you can't write book 4 of a series and decide to go off in a different direction. It's kind of like my opinion of Orson Scott Card's Formic Wars series. I cracked open the series expecting something akin to Ender's Game, and it's not. It's good sci-fi with asteroid mining and plucky heroes and ridiculous plans, but it's not Ender's Game. It's like Orson Scott Card mapped out the series and then just decided to toss it into the Formic Wars because it was kind of relevant. Goldenhand is good fantasy, but not a good sequel to Abhorsen, and as a result, I wasn't a fan. Clariel was better.

Seconded. I cannot believe I forgot the Abhorsen Trilogy in my list. It's highly underrated, as one of the greatest fantasy trilogies ever written. (And it wasn't even supposed to be a trilogy - it was originally just intended to be two books, Sabriel and Abhorsen, but Abhorsen got so large the front half got split off it to become Lirael.) Also, it has Mogget. Everyone loves Mogget. Also, I'm not sure if you want to go down the manga hole (and if you do, I can't help), but I have a decent knowledge of American comics, so I could offer a few suggestion if you're looking for that. (Hint: Kamala Khan as the new Ms. Marvel is probably your best bet.)