DC Lore AMA

[TJ09]

might have already been answered, but is there any religions on valkemar? Is it like a "human" religion with a god, or one with dragons (for example, the GoN)?

The post sock linked is almost two years old, and I've been thinking. There are definitely people who would worship the GoN and its Avatars, but there's probably also people who worship the primal spirits I've mentioned a bunch recently. There's one for each element, and they're believed to the creators/originators of that element and all things related to it in the world. It'd be an older form of worship (likely less popular/antiquated by the time period that the holiday events take place in), though there'd still be their share of worshippers (especially mana-transformed humans).

 

The ice and water temples from the recent holiday event are two examples of such primal spirit worshipping (to spirits tentatively named Aso and Thalassa, respectively).

[Dark Lord Vector]

So how does dark magic/necromancy work exactly in this world? Are there people out there who deliberately try to raise an army of the dead for their own purposes, is raising the dead limited to just dragons? Or can one raise the other races into either their normal selves or as a zombie.

 

Finally is it an illegal practice or is it just frowned upon?

[Zeditha]

So how does dark magic/necromancy work exactly in this world? Are there people out there who deliberately try to raise an army of the dead for their own purposes, is raising the dead limited to just dragons? Or can one raise the other races into either their normal selves or as a zombie.

 

Finally is it an illegal practice or is it just frowned upon?

My take would be that as Zombies are threatening, dangerous creatures, necromancy as a practice is frowned upon for its destructive potential - but its successes are celebrated.

 

I like to think of Soulpeaces sometimes becoming a travelling zombie-remover of sorts, always turning up where they're needed most.

(I just had an idea for a RP and now I need to write it out )

 

But still, I'd like to know more. Do Zombies appear instantly after necromancy, or would it be possible for a corpse to appear to stay dead, and then appear as a Zombie some time later? (How much time would that take?) Also, since the Zombies' description states that 'any resemblance to their past breed as long since rotted away', what we do in-game (killing and then instantly reviving) isn't possible? How much time would have to have passed before a Zombie could emerge from the subject of a necromancy attempt?

[TJ09]

So how does dark magic/necromancy work exactly in this world?

I assume you don't mean "dark magic" as in "dark mana," but actually necromancy. That is, the act of bringing things back from the dead.

 

I've talked about a separate, immaterial plane that runs alongside our own. On this plane exists the energy that magic taps into, as well as the "souls" of living beings. When something dies, the connection between its soul on one plane and its physical being on the other is severed; the soul will usually dissipate after some time (though if it doesn't, that could possibly be the source of "ghosts" and the like).

Until a soul dissipates, it is sometimes possible to reattach the soul do a body. It is often believed that this is only possible when destiny allows for it (i.e. it was "not their time to die"). Sometimes this reattachment doesn't quite return things to the same state (either intentionally or accidentally). This is what makes zombies.

 

Are there people out there who deliberately try to raise an army of the dead for their own purposes,

There are always power-hungry beings who will attempt to gain more influence and dominion through whatever means are available. Necromancy is certainly one such mean.

 

is raising the dead limited to just dragons? Or can one raise the other races into either their normal selves or as a zombie.

I don't see why it would be; there's nothing there that's super specific to dragons, especially with the mechanisms I described above.

 

Finally is it an illegal practice or is it just frowned upon?

Culture is not a homogenous thing. Is it an illegal practice in some places? Sure. Is it legal in some places? Probably. Is it frowned upon in some places? Very likely. Is it not frowned upon in some places? Also strongly possible.

 

One thing about having sparse communities without the instant ability to communicate that has only developed "recently" in the history of Earth is that communities tend to be pretty isolated, and as part of that culture tends to diverge and form its own pockets. I haven't decided exactly what type of government(s) Galsreim has, but the distance means that not all laws get enforced everywhere—who would enforce them?

 

Most places likely buy into the "destiny" thing where if you die, then it was meant to be, and disrupting that is unnatural. But I've already though of and developed one specific community that strongly believes in bringing members back from the dead if their death was not "earned."

[TJ09]

But still, I'd like to know more. Do Zombies appear instantly after necromancy, or would it be possible for a corpse to appear to stay dead, and then appear as a Zombie some time later? (How much time would that take?) Also, since the Zombies' description states that 'any resemblance to their past breed as long since rotted away', what we do in-game (killing and then instantly reviving) isn't possible? How much time would have to have passed before a Zombie could emerge from the subject of a necromancy attempt?

I guess given that zombies are only really active at night (which is likely more an aversion to light than anything else), doing the process in bright light could appear to have had no effect until when it becomes dark.

 

All of the on-site timeframes are unrealistic and way off (even relative to each other).

[Kakaru_of_DOOM]

You mentioned these primal elemental spirits. Could you explain a bit about them? How much power over their elements do they have? Do they have physical forms? How well-known is/was their existence? Can they be killed? Are they still around somewhere on Valkemare? Are there legends surrounding them? If mana-transformed hominid populations still worship them as you said, surely the longer-lived dragons would still remember when their presence was more prevalent?

 

Is their (at least theoretical) existence known enough that it would make sense to mention them in the encyclopedia? Even if it is just an additional sentence under 'elements' that doesn't explain very much.

 

---

 

Do you want users to try making canonical descriptions? Your dismissal of many things as 'non-canon' implies to be that you have a strong idea of what is canon, but since much of it is not accessible to the average user, we cannot try to write descriptions that match it. If canon doesn't apply to descriptions nor the holiday events, what is canonical?

...On second thought, I don't know that this is a good question to ask, since it's not really "lore". I'm leaving it here in case there is an answer/explanation, but if there isn't, feel free to ignore it.

[TJ09]

You mentioned these primal elemental spirits. Could you explain a bit about them? How much power over their elements do they have? Do they have physical forms? How well-known is/was their existence? Can they be killed? Are they still around somewhere on Valkemare? Are there legends surrounding them? If mana-transformed hominid populations still worship them as you said, surely the longer-lived dragons would still remember when their presence was more prevalent?

Well, like I said, they're believed to be the originators of their elements, meaning they're from the very creation of the world (it's hard to have oceans that predate the spirit responsible for water). I'd say given that, they have a pretty good grasp over their elements.

 

But do they actually exist, or is it all just part of some creation myth? That will be left up to speculation.

 

Do you want users to try making canonical descriptions? Your dismissal of many things as 'non-canon' implies to be that you have a strong idea of what is canon, but since much of it is not accessible to the average user, we cannot try to write descriptions that match it. If canon doesn't apply to descriptions nor the holiday events, what is canonical?

I don't think it's really possible. Canon user descriptions means that those dragons and their traits are actually a part of the official lore. It's a difference between canon Pokemon lore saying the PC became the champion on Kanto, which definitively happens in the game (and is referenced in future generations as well, e.g. Gen II's post game), and the specific actions in a playthrough of Pokemon being canon (e.g. Trainer MIKE became the champion with his party of six Rattatas).

[kreepers_killer]

In dragons's descriptions, it says that dragons use telepathy with each other and to speak to other creatures.

 

Dragons don’t communicate with each other verbally, but they will growl to scare off predators and frighten prey. Young dragons will emit an extremely high-pitched squeal when they are frightened. To communicate, they use telepathy with each other and to speak to other creatures.

 

A chicken is never called a dragon, but it's called a "creature".

 

Does that mean chickens use telepathy?

 

 

Another question: Zombies's description says it will mindlessly kill any living creature without regard to friend or foe. How can people have zombies on their scrolls without being killed by it? Is that a bit dangerous?

[TJ09]

A chicken is never called a dragon, but it's called a "creature".

 

Does that mean chickens use telepathy?

The text doesn't say that anything that's a creature can use telepathy, but that dragons can use telepathy to communicate with creatures.

 

It's basically the same as saying "I can talk to a chicken." It doesn't mean the chicken can or will talk back.

 

Another question: Zombies's description says it will mindlessly kill any living creature without regard to friend or foe. How can people have zombies on their scrolls without being killed by it? Is that a bit dangerous?

Because in canon lore no one actually "owns" that many dragons, so it's not even a problem to consider.

[Kakaru_of_DOOM]

Dragons have nearly unlimited lifespans. Approximately how long? Hundreds of years? Thousands? 4.6 billion?

 

Approximately how old is Valkemare itself? Was it formed (relatively) recently by magic, or did it evolve naturally from pieces of rocky stuff in space? If it's the former, are there still dragons old enough to remember?

[TJ09]

Dragons have nearly unlimited lifespans. Approximately how long? Hundreds of years? Thousands? 4.6 billion?

Probably on the order of hundreds. That is, they live for generations on a human timescale, and the same dragon that a grandmother (or great grandmother) tells stories about to her grandchildren may be seen by her granddaughters. Thus, from human timescales, they live a really long time.

 

Also, I believe I've said elsewhere that, given dragon culture, it's very unlikely that a human would see a dragon that has died of old age, which may artificially inflate perception of their age.

 

Approximately how old is Valkemare itself? Was it formed (relatively) recently by magic, or did it evolve naturally from pieces of rocky stuff in space? If it's the former, are there still dragons old enough to remember?

It's hard to pin down exactly when the "current" time period is that gets referred to, since it doesn't really have any specific implications on the site itself.

 

From a scientific perspective, it took 4.5 billion years for the Earth to reach where it is now, and on that scale, the difference between present day and the medieval ages is almost literally insignificant. If life were to actually form on Valkemare in the same way it did on Earth, then "billions" would be the right answer. But no human would really be able to know that, and I've tried to answer most questions from a perspective of what humans would actually know (though some of the "how does X-thing-that-doesn't exist-on-Earth work" questions are too tempting to not go into theoretical detail on).

 

From a lore perspective, a few things:

• The creation myth has the primal spirits creating the world and everything in it using their control over the elements. This would place the believed age of the world on the order of thousands of years, and its manner of creation as being significantly different from that of Earth.
• For the most likely definition of "current" that I would use (that is, the time period I would probably tell stories from), this is not the first iteration of human civilization. There is at least one known previous civilization that rose to great power and fell.

Either way, the chance of dragons being around from the creation of the world is minuscule (read: pretty much zero but I don't like absolutes). The chance of dragons even being around from the previous age of humanity is similarly low; it'd be fresher in the collective minds of dragons than humanity, but that's trivially true to say given the difference in lifespan.

[Dirtytabs]

Can you tell us more about Jean-Claude Van Damme?

[TJ09]

Can you tell us more about Jean-Claude Van Damme?

Well, originally born Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg in 1960, he's a Belgian actor.

 

But I don't know what that has to do with Valkemare, so this feels a bit off topic.

[Dirtytabs]

The "REMAIN GOOD FRIENDS" choice in the Valentine's text adventure goes

You tell your date that you had a wonderful time and greatly appreciate their friendship. The two of you simultaneously jump into the air and exchange the World’s Best High-Five, and then hug each other goodbye. You bid them goodnight and return to your home, reflecting on how lucky you are - for as the great poet-philosopher Jean-Claude Van Damme once said, “Rare as is true love, true friendship is rarer.”

THE END

 

The narration sounds like it's within the story. Is/Was there a great poet-philosopher named Jean-Claude Van Damme in this setting?

Edit: Ah. Well. Ha. The canonness of events has been addressed before. I should compile these.

Edited February 14, 2017 by dirtytabs

[TJ09]

The "REMAIN GOOD FRIENDS" choice in the Valentine's text adventure goes

 

 

The narration sounds like it's within the story. Is/Was there a great poet-philosopher named Jean-Claude Van Damme in this setting?

Events are non-canon.

 

It is referencing the Real World JCVD.

[Dirtytabs]

Is the human population of Valkemare comparable to that of Earth in the same time period (Medieval-ish)?

[Kakaru_of_DOOM]

The Valentine's event is definitely not canon, but how possible are some of the things in it? Is it possible for animals to develop human-level intelligence, perhaps because by being neutral-mana transformed? Alternatively, what does happen to a creature exposed to excessive amounts of unaligned mana / equal amounts of all types of mana?

 

Do rhyming-curses exist on Valkemare? If so, is it a common practice for Valkemarian poets to intentionally inflict themselves with (presumably temporary) versions of it? What happens if you attempt to inflict an individual with both a couplet-rhyme version and a terza rima version at the same time?

Edited February 18, 2017 by Kakaru_of_DOOM

[TJ09]

Is the human population of Valkemare comparable to that of Earth in the same time period (Medieval-ish)?

That would place the population of Valkemare somewhere between dozens of millions to low hundreds of millions.

 

I haven't decided on the physical scale of things. I'd like Galsreim to be continent-sized, in order to house all these different dragons, but I haven't decided if: that's feasible, and if other parts of the world would end up being more dense because they would be fewer things that are clearly above humans on the food chain (my view of Galsreim is that it's somewhat sparse, but if dragons/other beasts are just as common elsewhere in the world, then that lack of density would be problematic).

 

tl;dr: dragons take up a lot of space, which means less space for people. If I had to say something, the population is likely lower, but not by many orders of magnitude or anything.

[TJ09]

The Valentine's event is definitely not canon, but how possible are some of the things in it? Is it possible for animals to develop human-level intelligence, perhaps because by being neutral-mana transformed? Alternatively, what does happen to a creature exposed to excessive amounts of unaligned mana / equal amounts of all types of mana?

There was some past discussion on what each type of mana would do to a human; the effects would be along the same lines for other animals (though not identical due to differences in physiology; the farther from humans the more different the effects are). I don't remember what/if anything was talked about for neutral mana.

 

Animals gaining sentience is definitely a possibility.

 

Do rhyming-curses exist on Valkemare?

I would say the fallacy here is assuming magic is like it is in the Harry Potter world: that there are specific, well-defined spells, and as such there are a specific, well-defined subset of spells dubbed "curses," with their own sub-categories. It's more like language: you can be extremely expressive and more-or-less convey any sort of "meaning" you want. So yes, it's possible to use magic to force a group of people to only speak in rhymes. But it wouldn't be some specific "rhyming curse.

 

What happens if you attempt to inflict an individual with both a couplet-rhyme version and a terza rima version at the same time?

Depends a lot on the rules of the specific magic used. If they conflicted, maybe one overrides the other. Maybe it's a union of the two (someone could choose either style of poetry). Or maybe it's the intersection.

[Kakaru_of_DOOM]

It's not that I was assuming there are spells; I get that mana + willpower = effect. I was simply at a loss as to what element would incite versification. Anyways, the spell seems fundamentally silly to me in a way that seems to clash with the serious world you depict. Is it a problem that I use 'curse' to refer to 'spell with a lingering effect (usually negative)'? If so, what terminology should I use when describing this magic system?

 

I don't think there was any mention of neutral mana in the event, but I am curious about it: what does it do? Are there things that can be done with neutral mana that are beyond the other elements? I believe it was mentioned that neutral mana crystals/liquid mana exist; but I don't remember if they were pure or formed from a mixture of light, dark, and magi. If the latter, and you use some for an aligned spell, does the unused mana from the other two elements remain? If you strap a large crystal to the back of a lab rat, I assume the rodent will become mana-transformed. What effects come from neutral mana-transformation? Is there a primal neutral mana spirit (or legends thereof)?

Edited February 21, 2017 by Kakaru_of_DOOM

[TJ09]

I don't think there was any mention of neutral mana in the event, but I am curious about it: what does it do? Are there things that can be done with neutral mana that are beyond the other elements? I believe it was mentioned that neutral mana crystals/liquid mana exist; but I don't remember if they were pure or formed from a mixture of light, dark, and magi. If the latter, and you use some for an aligned spell, does the unused mana from the other two elements remain?

I have a few theories on how neutral mana could work. In any case, it is its own distinct thing, rather than just a label for an amalgamation of other types of mana.

 

One, it could simply be a more versatile, but less efficient form of mana. So it may be able to do the same things as, say, life mana, but it would take more of it to accomplish the same effect. In this way, light mana could also be a middle ground: more efficient than neutral mana at things water mana can do, but less efficient than water mana.

This could be interesting in a few ways. Perhaps elemental mana, while more powerful, is also more volatile and dangerous, so most humans stick to the safer-but-weaker neutral mana. Perhaps it's even not possible to refine elemental mana to be safe, meaning it can't be used by humans without experiencing transformative side effects.

 

Alternatively, anything that doesn't fall under a specific element is under the domain of "neutral" magic. Cassare dragons (a neutral breed) are distinctly magical in their ability to negate magic (at least, my headcanon for them is that it's a passive magical effect.

 

These two things aren't necessarily mutually exlusive, either.

What effects come from neutral mana-transformation?

I don't think most of the elemental transformations have been figured out. Neutral is no exception.

 

Is there a primal neutral mana spirit (or legends thereof)?

There is. The current working name for it is Staterae.

[Dirtytabs]

Are all BSAs canon? Never mind game stuff like cooldown days, but can we assume that reds can incubate eggs, vampires may turn standard dragons, bolts can temporarily halt growth, etc. in-story/in-universe?

[Kakaru_of_DOOM]

Cassare dragons (a neutral breed) are distinctly magical in their ability to negate magic (at least, my headcanon for them is that it's a passive magical effect.

So does that mean that anyone with a neutral talent and/or piece of neutral mana can cast cassare-like antimagic? I mean, it would probably require conscious effort for a non-cassare and be a lot more taxing than a 'passive ability', but still. If you use such magic (or waft a cassare) near raw mana, does the mana evaporate because of the antimagic or simply become inert until the anti-magic is removed from the area?

 

Is there any difference (other than transport/storage issues) between the states of mana? For example, is one type better than the other for long-term/short-term effects, or is one easier to release the energy from?

[TJ09]

Are all BSAs canon? Never mind game stuff like cooldown days, but can we assume that reds can incubate eggs, vampires may turn standard dragons, bolts can temporarily halt growth, etc. in-story/in-universe?

They represent canon behaviors/attributes of those breeds, but as a game action they may not be explicitly canon.

 

That is, reds incubate eggs, and vampires reproduce parasitically, but reds probably don't incubate the eggs of other dragons.

[Dirtytabs]

You enter the cave and see many large dragons scattered about, some with hatchlings, sleeping on piles of gold.

This seems to be a shared trait among DC dragons. Why do dragons hoard shiny things and sleep on it? A lot of other media say "because they are greedy", but they're the villains in those stories.