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Continued brainstorming SPOILERS
🕑 Added 2023-09-13 18:00:38 +0000 UTCI went through and read all the comments and will pluck out a few I resonated with and weigh them and ask questions of you.
1: One of the most common threads of thought was that once he makes a table of essences, he should be able to mix-match them at will, using Abun'zaul's ultimate flexibility to produce exactly what he needs to cast anything. combine this with an AI that can predict the effects, and he can make any spell effect on demand. This IS perry's ultimate goal, and something he's working towards, but it's kind of a capstone event that prevents Perry from ever having to come up with his trademark clever workarounds ever again. In short, achieving it will most likely be the end of the crafting aspect of the story, and maybe the beginning of the end of the series as a whole.
is there a believable way to limit it/should we limit it? If we don't is there a way to shift the focus of the story in such a way that it is still entertaining? Can we shift to handwavy spell-effects while still being entertaining? As in there's no defined number of times he can cast things, just magic that happens, and he's a certain amount of tuckered out after each cast? I know stories can work like that, but they require a lighter hand than I've had thus far. It would be a bit of a shift and tough for me to acclimatize to, but it might have to happen.
2: What do you want the 3-D shape of the Essence map to look like? @Red Viking mentioned it looking like a nebula, and i took it one step further. My first thought was it looked like a galaxy, with distinct arms leading toward a central point, you could apply different kinds of magic to all the arms, as they lead towards a central point.
Or maybe have it look like Yggdrasil? similar thing with branches and roots going up/down to define different kinds of magic. Might even look like The Tide, who knows?
3: (SPOILERS, SERIOUSLY) As for chekov's guns, we've got Solaris, who's been (or will be) infected with an aggressive form of dementia by a bio-type tinker. The virus itself can/has been cleared up by turning into light, but the effects themselves tipped a domino that will will slowly compound and lead him to becoming an obstacle Perry will have to surmount.
Another chekov's gun I just recently thought of is the dream-visiting spell that Perry got in...was it book 2? it was never used, and seems like it might come in clutch Vs. either Tyrannus or Solaris...I mean, assuming Solaris still sleeps.
4: the soul-surgery equipment seems like it'll be instrumental in measuring essence wavelengths to find their common patterns and organize them. It'll just be refined and recalibrated to watch a few spells happen in realtime.
Furthermore, the soul-surgery equipment seems like it would offer Tyrannus the opportunity to do what Perry refused to do, and custom-design his own powerful demonic servants by butchering their souls into twisted devotion.
5: I'm getting a general consensus that we'd like to be present for baby time, then maybe fast forward a couple years until the little one is able to shriek words and be actual character?
6: Any thoughts on new perks for level 15? We might be getting there sooner rather than later.
Comments
Thomasaurus Rex
I think it would be pretty cool if Perry and the Dragon didn't fight. Like at some point the dragon is going to stop treating Perry like a squishy human and start treating him more like a dragon and they just work together after parry impresses him enough. As for question 2 above though, i though it should be like a tesseract, where whatever "element" you look at is like the center of a ball structure, and moving to any other element changes the whole structure so the new element is in the center and the rest sorta of juggle around the edges to fit, like a map where going off one edge leads to the other or basically have there be no edge, like a 4x game with north/south and east/west wrap
Jake
I stopped reading after 2 because of the big SPOILER word thanks for that.
Jake
For 2 it might be difficult but I don't think you should limit yourself to pure 3d.Essences seem to exist in multiple dimensions already. Might be too hard but maybe a galaxy e yes but one where each time you change the viewing angle you get a new tree. So that like the periodic table relationships are there and gaps and essences in them can be inferred. However it is nearly infinite or at least a few hundred inter relations per essence and only a supercomputer or someone like paradox or a dragon can ever remember the angles/super positions that lead to a certain tree and connections at any point on the table. Makes me think of the long Mars from Terry pratchett.
Robert Apgar
For 2, if the map wasn't static that seems appropriate to explain the odd steps behind creating spells, they would be the methods you changes a variable essence into a fixed value.
Robert Apgar
So for 1. As far as power scale goes Perry regularly encounters people that even with the handwavyiness it would barely tickle them (Gods and those higher dimension beings). I dont think you want to make all other enemies irrelevant though, also even with a predictive AI he doesnt really have control of his super essence so you could gate that. I think the big win from the table of essence could be having a formulaic way to churn out new spells for himself. Like calculating viable chemical compounds but much harder. He could then have to reformat pieces of his flexible essence or available essences and then use different methods to refine it into a spell form?
Sdff
I'm very confused by what Perry is. And think that Tyranus should just get "accidentally" stuck in between The Eldritch Mimic(AbuZual,) The Grey Goo(Dad's Tinker Soul,) The Young Mimic/Tinker(Perry's Soul.) getting stuck in an eternal fight for control of a shapeshifter/power mimic's soul is some fun X-Men's Legion shit, and could be fun Krtptonite for interesting horrozontal powerscaling to prevent things from getting Number Go Up📈🆙⬆️👆⤴️☝️tedious. Also fake stock/science advice from a dragon would be funny, and seeing a 4 way brawl of souls for every level up could be fun.
