Well, my usual position is "Poe could easily write it either way". I was being simplistically elf-victorious to counteract the simplistic human-victorious statements.Kincaide wrote:Not quite, there is no reason any of those advantages could not be turned around to bite the elves in the ass.mindstalk wrote:Victory: elves, no losses.
A field battle between Tsuiraku and elves is probably a fair match, yes. Protecting all the human population from sneaky magical rangers is another matter. And yes, Tsuiraku's redundantly supported, blowing up one levitator or the other won't sink it. A nuke-level anti-magic device could take out both at once.Genealogies aside, if the Tsuirakans are half the magical badasses they've set themselves up to be then their combat mages could at least remove the magical advantage and level the playing field . Tsuiraku was also designed with several redundant systems to prevent it from going the way of Midgard.
Meh, Jon's gotten lucky and made good use of opportunities. But it's not clear what the extent of defensive magic is. Or of countermeasures: Ian made a gun too hot to hold (Organian maneuver!) "Let me ignite that gunpowder for you" might be a possibility. Mind control can keep you from wanting to shoot. Invisibility denies a target. It's not just gun vs. fireball. Meji, who is a teenage delinquent, can destroy things in a variety of ways, disguise herself, and turn invisible. Sarine can wipe memories or totally dominate a non-mage. Another elf was able to clear a street of humans. And there's healing and telepathy, and teleportation logistics.As Jon has demonstrated, the invention of firearms seems to have raised human soldiers to the level of most combat mages and made them easily replicable. It takes a much shorter time to train a grunt to shoot straight than to train someone to have enough mental discipline not to have their fireballs explode in their own faces.
One skilled mage could probably destroy a whole camp of non-mages, or get them to destroy each other, without them ever knowing she was there.
Tsuiraku's a threat in a fair fight. The time ninjas are threats, for now. Veracia's at least noticeable, though they just lost their main threat. The rest... I think any advanced magical population can dominate or at least wipe out a non-magical one, given the capabilities we've seen.
Elves had four societies, which merged over time and with advanced technology. They've got one society now because only 3000 are left. Humans are separated by, well, poor technology. Elves haven't pissed off Farrell or the Confederacy that we know of. Hell, haven't pissed off Veracia much either, though the Church might fear them.The main advantage of humanity is their diversity. Where the elves have stuck to one society, the humans are divided up into Farrel, the Northern Confederacy, Tsuiraku, and Veracia. Pretty much all of whom the elves have pissed off in one form or another.
I don't know if elves even *have* a gene pool problem. Breeding-at-all problem, obviously.While the elves are accomplished with magical and martial prowess they simply do not have the allies or resources for the drawn out war which this will inevitably turn into. Some plot device involving Exitialis might be employed but there is already one demi-god on the loose that would be more than happy to go to war with another of its kind and if push come to shove and Meji unlocks her powers then it'll be a two on one fight. Even if the elves did survive the conflict I doubt they would have a stable enough gene pool to really support a viable breeding population even without their current problems with reproduction.
