DC Lore AMA

[TJ09]

Given the sheer size of some of the dragons, I think we'd need some equally large prey animals to sustain them. Preferably magical ones with their own (limited) supply of mana for nutrients and the like. Hmmmmm.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure there's some large cattle-like herbivores that serve as a nice meaty food source for dragons.

 

I'm picturing something large and furry.

[Fiona]

Wooly Mammoth, anyone?

 

 

That's something of what I picture when I think of large herbivores for our plains dragons to munch on.

[Dirtytabs]

An of meat would work.

 

Let's see if I can word this: Valkemare's time period is sort-of-around-ish medieval Europe to give us an idea of where it's set, with technology to match. (Plus magic.) Is the human populace's thinking generally similar to that of medieval Earth residents then? Pink is a bloody color, life springs out of puddles, bathing is weird, that sort of thing.

[TJ09]

Let's see if I can word this: Valkemare's time period is sort-of-around-ish medieval Europe to give us an idea of where it's set, with technology to match. (Plus magic.) Is the human populace's thinking generally similar to that of medieval Earth residents then? Pink is a bloody color, life springs out of puddles, bathing is weird, that sort of thing.

Since I have the opportunity to pick and choose which bits of culture that I want, let's say the things that don't make sense probably aren't there.

 

Valkemare would have developed its own superstitions/folklore, for one. And I'd say society is more advanced than medieval Europe, but in an orthogonal manner (thanks to mana).

[TJ09]

An of meat would work.

is actually pretty close to my headcanon for that.

 

But using its design verbatim is no fun; we have the opportunity to be original here, so let's take it.

[MessengerDragon]

What level are the people of Valkemere at in regards to ships and sailing?

[TJ09]

What level are the people of Valkemere at in regards to ships and sailing?

Ships are still the best way to travel long distances when there's an ocean involved. Thanks to mana, consistent wind can be ensured for large boats (it'd takes a lot of mana), and perhaps paddle-type propulsion can be accomplished with mana as well.

 

So it's faster than the several-weeks-to-one-month-if-you-survive type of thing that would otherwise be the case.

[Lavinia]

Which current in-cave dragons would be highest up on the food chain?

[TJ09]

Which current in-cave dragons would be highest up on the food chain?

The most violent/hardest-to-kill/least tasty ones. Turpentines are probably unlikely to be eaten, Stones are probably not worth the effort, Greens would be more likely to win in a fight, and so on.

[Nyastara]

Can humans use the Magi's "Teleport" bsa for transportation? (like teleporting from biome to biome, long distance travel, objects other than eggs)

 

Is there a maximum range to the Magi's Teleport bsa?

Edited April 3, 2015 by Nyastara

[TJ09]

Can humans use the Magi's "Teleport" bsa for transportation? (like teleporting from biome to biome, long distance travel, objects other than eggs)

 

Is there a maximum range to the Magi's Teleport bsa?

Teleportation wouldn't actually be used to trade things in-world like it is on-site. Given that everyone involved seems to be at or near The Cave, then it doesn't even make sense to use magic when you could just physically swap.

 

Teleporting living things seems risky anyways, but it could probably be made safe within a few limits (e.g. teleporting from a known location to another known location to avoid shifting vectors and such).

[TJ09]

How well would this work, too? How far away does a Magi have to be before they can't teleport something? Can they teleport objects, or things in liquid or gaseous form? Does the mass of the object affect the amount of magic needed for teleportation? Is teleportation precise, or is there a reasonable margin of error? What happens if a Magi tries to teleport something to a place where something else already is? Can they teleport something anywhere, no matter the distance? Can they teleport something somewhere they've never been to? Do they have a cool down time per each teleportation, and how long does it last? Can you describe how it would be to be teleported?

 

I feel like an interviewer...sorry, got a little carried away...

Teleportation would take an amount of energy equal to (or slightly higher than) the amount required to move the object that distance. The savings is in the fact that you don't have to expend the energy of transporting yourself as well (and other similar inefficiencies). So range and distance are bound by the available energy.

 

I'm tempted to say teleporting actually just swaps the matter at the two locations (teleporting and leaving behind a vacuum would be pretty disruptive, as would the need to put the displaced air/matter on the other end somewhere). That answers a bunch of your questions about "what if."

[Dewdropmon]

Teleportation would take an amount of energy equal to (or slightly higher than) the amount required to move the object that distance. The savings is in the fact that you don't have to expend the energy of transporting yourself as well (and other similar inefficiencies). So range and distance are bound by the available energy.

 

I'm tempted to say teleporting actually just swaps the matter at the two locations (teleporting and leaving behind a vacuum would be pretty disruptive, as would the need to put the displaced air/matter on the other end somewhere). That answers a bunch of your questions about "what if."

When it comes to teleportation you might try looking at what Anne McCaffrey did in her Dragonriders of Pern series with the teleportation abilities of her dragons and see if you can get some inspiration for a definite answer from that. I rather like how she handled it.

[Dirtytabs]

Did you base the names Valkemare, Galsreim, Aurax, and Cirion on an existing (Earth or Earth-author-made) language?

What are the demonym(s) for those locations?

[TJ09]

Did you base the names Valkemare, Galsreim, Aurax, and Cirion on an existing (Earth or Earth-author-made) language?

What are the demonym(s) for those locations?

They came from a few places. For many/most/all of those, the artists posted a few suggestions, and I took them and modified them in arbitrary ways to make them sound better to me, and used that. Many of those original suggestions do come from real-world (or fictional real-world) languages.

 

For example, Galsreim was suggested by JOTB as "Gaisrem" with the note "Lithuanian, fire and land."

 

Aurax was suggested by Fiona BlueFire based on aurum (Latin) + random -ax suffix.

 

Valkemare was a random mashup of things I did based on a few other suggestions (that I don't feel like looking up the exact origins of).

[Nerei]

Is the Festival of Eggs a real holiday in Valkemare? If so, why is it celebrated?

[TJ09]

Is the Festival of Eggs a real holiday in Valkemare? If so, why is it celebrated?

Totally. Think of as a large-scale version of the egg hunt part of Easter (that is, take only that bit and blow it up to its own multi-day holiday/festival). Everyone gets involved in decorating eggs (not real dragon eggs, though) and hunting for them.

 

The best idea I have so far for "why" is that it started as some thing to "celebrate" the relationship between dragons and humans, but has evolved into "hey it's spring and it's warm now, let's have a holiday."

[Chaos Rider]

Oh. That's pretty cool. How do the other holidays correlate? Are there any other holidays in Valkemare that don't appear in the game?

 

On an unrelated note, are dragons cold- or warm-blooded? Since so many are very active, I would guess warm-blooded, but they are reptiles...if they're cold-blooded, do they ever spend time sunning themselves?

Or if only some dragons are warm/cold blooded then which ones?

[TJ09]

On an unrelated note, are dragons cold- or warm-blooded? Since so many are very active, I would guess warm-blooded, but they are reptiles...if they're cold-blooded, do they ever spend time sunning themselves?

Dragons are probably poikilotherms, and may or may not have some exothermic reactions to help keep them warm. Not in the manner that humans do; rather, I'm thinking that dragons almost definitely have some mana stores, and mana is an energy source, so they might be able to process it to keep warm.

[NatPur]

So, this world has humans, dragons, dinos and chickens in it so far as we know ... are there other (magical or not) creatures like unicorns, mermaids, were-creatures, fairies etc?

[Nerei]

Can mana affect nonliving things? Does it originate from Valkemare, and is it found elsewhere in the universe?

[TJ09]

So, this world has humans, dragons, dinos and chickens in it so far as we know ... are there other (magical or not) creatures like unicorns, mermaids, were-creatures, fairies etc?

https://forums.dragcave.net/index.php?showtopic=167509

[TJ09]

Can mana affect nonliving things? Does it originate from Valkemare, and is it found elsewhere in the universe?

Depends on what you mean by affect. On its own? Probably not. Obviously someone could use mana in a manner that affects a thing that isn't living, though.

 

It also depends on your interpretation of "originate." Mana "originates" from Valkemare in the same manner that fossil fuels "originate" from Earth (minus the part where they're made from dead things)--Natural gas is simply a chemical, so it could form elsewhere in the universe, but it's quite unlikely. Similarly, mana could exist outside of Valkemare, but in its exact form that's a very-close-to-zero chance.

[Banyanpan]

If a Nocturne stays away from light can they avoid freezing? For instance if they live underground where light can't reach them.

[TJ09]

If a Nocturne stays away from light can they avoid freezing? For instance if they live underground where light can't reach them.

I'm tempted to say that the transformation is something that nocturnes control, but they do it because they are highly sensitive to sunlight/bright light. By that, then yes, a nocturne in a dark environment wouldn't need to transform.