2010-06-12: Saturday Filler Infodump: The Battlemages

[The Comment Golem]

Discussion thread for Saturday Filler Infodump: The Battlemages

[Graybeard]

Oh, my. The opportunities that this little blurb are going to give us in Errant Road are ... substantial. Thank you.

[Lindley]

If they don't have flight magic yet, then what are these things?

[Graybeard]

If they don't have flight magic yet, then what are these things?

Airships don't require magic, they just require lighter-than-airium. In the Real World, airships were developed at a time when viable internal-combustion engines were far enough in the future to be indistinguishable from magic.

[mindstalk]

Huh, update! Only saw this due to checking the forum.

There's also Tsuiraku itself, but that's probably one or more of not replicable, flight only in the sense of being really really really slow, expensive, or other things. Vs. what might be *personal* flight magic.

spoiler: the Tsuirakuan nation survives the story. Possbily the floating city itself does.
spoiler: one wonders if events in the story will change the rules of the game. Do elves not have flight because they're dumb, or can't maintain the infrastructure, or just never stumbled on it, or have had no need to show it... or does something happen to make flight magic more viable?

Do the various names have legitimate Japanese roots? I suspect Mekani doesn't, even though it could be a Japanese word.
Kado being the newest... I suspect that's "split off last week" new, to exploit Sarine's little game-changing bribe.

Man, that might be stumping the Council. "She was the worst asylum-grantee ever, breaking parole within days (or hours), kidnapping or subverting multiple mages and guards... and in the process advanced our tech by millennia as a casual bribe. And apparently our elven literature too, not that we care. What *do* we do with her?"

[Rakshasa Taisab]

Do the various names have legitimate Japanese roots? I suspect Mekani doesn't, even though it could be a Japanese word.
Kado being the newest... I suspect that's "split off last week" new, to exploit Sarine's little game-changing bribe.

Touroku - 登録: Registration, entry, record. This means the entry/registration itself, and if you make it a verb (~suru 〜する) it means the act of registering for something, or making an entry in a list, etc. The use of this word in this way makes little sense.

Seishou - 清祥／斉唱: Either spirit/energy or singing/chanting. Might also be some combination of the 8 different meanings I could find since none of them really match perfectly.

Mekani - メカニ: Imported foreign word, based on mechanized or something.

Kouken - 後見: Guardian. This one relates to a person that is e.g. a legal guardian of someone or backstage support, rather than someone or something that watches over and protects you.

Kado - 門／角: Either gate or corner.

[Forrest]

Touroku - 登録: Registration, entry, record. This means the entry/registration itself, and if you make it a verb (~suru 〜する) it means the act of registering for something, or making an entry in a list, etc. The use of this word in this way makes little sense.

Rough translation: "enlisted"?

Seishou - 清祥／斉唱: Either spirit/energy or singing/chanting. Might also be some combination of the 8 different meanings I could find since none of them really match perfectly.

Energy sounds most appropriate, given their role in dispersing large amounts of it in sudden bursts.

Kouken - 後見: Guardian. This one relates to a person that is e.g. a legal guardian of someone or backstage support, rather than someone or something that watches over and protects you.

"Backstage support" sounds appropriate for the role described for them.

Kado - 門／角: Either gate or corner.

"Gate" makes much more sense for their role.

[wrog]

Touroku - 登録: Registration, entry, record. This means the entry/registration itself, and if you make it a verb (~suru 〜する) it means the act of registering for something, or making an entry in a list, etc. The use of this word in this way makes little sense.

The Touroku = those who have just registered. Works for me; what's the problem?

[Neko7]

As far as flight magic goes, we should remember this page:
http://www.errantstory.com/2006-06-23/526

[Rakshasa Taisab]

The Touroku = those who have just registered. Works for me; what's the problem?

Perhaps the part where it doesn't mean that? Nor does it mean enlisted (person). It refers to the actual registry entry, not what/who has been registered.

Kashikanhei (下士官兵) is an enlisted man, and important to note is the first kanji which means under, and the second which means earth/ground and is often used for ground troops.

BTW, the 'backstage support' thing was in the sense of stage plays, etc. It is more of a look after as a parent/advisor kind of way.