Saturday, November 14, 2015

Extermination Discussion Thread

As requested, a dedicated place for general discussion of Extermination.

317 comments:

  1. While interesting, the magic banana is probably sterile and not a plot device. Unless he uses the banana as a template to make all the fruit grown in his greenhouse magic fruit. I would think he would need to study the banana tree the fruit came from.

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    1. He's probably going to split the banana between his harem and himself. He'll probably also get a batch of apples from the Aesir later next volume probably.

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    2. There are multiple way this could go if he held onto it. If not sterile he could try to grow it, he could try to replicate its magic with the held of the nymphs and dryads and create his own fruit trees, or he could simple try to replicate the affects to create a demigod transformation.

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    3. I figure he will study the magic of fruit or apple and then apply that to something of his own. Maybe combine it with what he figures out form the Dark elf wine. And what happens if it is grown in a mana rich endowment?

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    4. BAST is using mana to become divine! ! She Is not using apples or bananas.
      That is the motive of Mara to break the anchor. (to made divine by her mother)

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  2. I agree. The banana is most likely never to be heard about again. Why would it be when he still has to save Idun and her apples.

    Also, the AA gun m made seems inefficient. With four barrels and each with a one second reload, that is only 240 rounds. AA cannon needs to fire thousands. it is very hard to hit a flying target.

    Thought the airship was awesome. Should build an armada in next book. Bomb the carp out of enemies.

    Love this series. Make number four book first before sci-fi one. Can't wait that look. Need my next fix. Always did love books that had wondrous weapons magic and buildings.

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    1. You aren't trying to hit fast moving targets like planes. You are trying to hit flying lizards like dragons or pterodactyls. Neither one is going to be flying very fast.
      The max (dive) speed of a bird is 300 km/hour, while common dive speed is around 200 km/hour, roughly the speed of WW1 airplane.
      To compare, by WW2, airplanes reached 1000 km/hour speeds.

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    2. I guess, but if I had to face something that can fly and drop bombs on me, I would want a weapon that can put a lot of rounds down range as quickly as possible. Like a mini gun. Daniel could make something like that. It would not fire as fast as a real one, but could still fire quite fast. 10 barrels, 1 round each per second, 600 rounds. Three times the amount the current one fires.

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    3. Just pointing this out, this is gaea's garden of ambrosial bananas in a dinasaur world. Back then, bananas had seeds. And this is a magical place. And gaea is big on life, nature, and fertility. I can't imagine any plant she has not having seeds unless it is a plant that has two gender types (male/female, the males won't have seeds).
      With Daniel's flesh and mana sorcery i wonder if he can make a fruit with apples and bananas~ that is more powerful than either one individually. Could work... But i can't think the normal individuals (or gods) of that world would alter bananas too be seedless. If they did, gaea would change it back. But even if the gods and people could, they wouldn't do something so pointless.

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    4. When limited to a certain rate of fire per barrel, you would think a gatling-gun style weapon would be the first thing to come to mind. You wouldn't even have heat problems, so it could fire for as long as needed and put out an unimaginable amount of firepower... especially with exploding shells.

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    5. Having force magic your bullets are not required to move in a straight line in your weapon until full acceleration. And I wonder why the barrels are solid. There is no need to contain an expanding gas. You'd rather want it out of the way.

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    6. Guessing that medieval people might have an easier time keeping the end of the barrel away from their face or bodies and it makes it easier to aim? I'm unsure. It could have holes too help with the air vacuum the bullet would leave behind, since the air density, without an explosion is not going to help. The barrel would actually slow it down and make the enchantment work harder if the explosion doesn't take place and the pressure doesn't get alleviated fairly quickly.

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    7. Actually, you probably want both ends of the barrel to be open to solve the vacuum problem. Having a straight guidance and the anchor for the force field close to the bullet/shell makes sense, but why solid? Slits would help. Especially with the mortar. If he is ready to go to "mithril" for the mortar tube he might make a portable mortar.
      It may just be a thoughtless copy of the gun principle without consideration for the principles behind it and could be rectified in the next batches.

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    8. I think your forgetting the fact that the original design of the guns uses force magic pressed against the breech, as for a barrel, its simply easier to control and with something that big and solid moving that fast you do want a solid barrell, slits unless very well machined are going to cause jamming and barrel explosions.

      I do agree with the gatling style though, If you make a dedicated factory, or even just modify an existing one. You can get rid of all the excess from a gun, have the barrel, and a block for mounting it on one end with block 2/3 of the way down the barrely to mate against the rest, would simplify the enchant really because your getting rid of a lot of the details needed to make a gun ergonomic. I think you could easily make it in such a way to have 6-8 of them in a nice compact stack, I would use those on the gunship and without all the complex machinery needed to make an actual gatling gun, you could stack them easier together than the normal guns, alot easier.

      I think the next ship he builds should be more along the lines of a gunship, with his current technology that would be very easy to do with minimal time investment in additional technology. Simply copy the current one, keep the same layout that he has, and just modify one wall to glass with guns.

      I think with a modified force field on the airship he could negate alot of the recoil issues as well, or even simply, make small station keeping motors along with his flight motors. Have two pairs of dual gatlings, probably 2-4 of the guns off the trucks, either double or quad stacked, and I think without too much work he could make a workable gun using mortar style rounds, likely a double as well. If not mortar size I think at this point he has the skill to upsize the truck guns a well, I forget what size he said those were, 75mm?

      Double mainly for reload speeds, something like that you fire in sequence, fire one with a 500# shell at one good target and then wait till your next one. That way you can have the shell maker built into the gun.

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    9. I agree with the above. Also incorporate some of this stuff into his castle. He has been avoiding artillery because of the difficulty in training and aiming but he should look away from modern artillery and into the mostly direct fore versions from the civil war era. Easier to fire and aim especially at something big like a great beast charging at you.
      Lastly also think more about the recoilless rifle / other types of antimateriel rifles for his men. Give each squad something to take down the biggies

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    10. If I understand the idea of a recoilless rifle correctly, it works by diverting gases to the rear. That cannot work in a system without gases. You'd need a counterweight.It seems like sand is easier to conjure than metal, so it should work.

      "with something that big and solid moving"
      So the bullet is actually in contact with the barrel? Why? If you have this nice hovercraft spell, this would be an ideal area to apply it to. It seemed to me that the barrel only functions to conduct magic, not to contain significant forces.

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  3. Okay, so there were a lot of good ideas about what can be done with magic and I had a lot of fun reading them. So I thought it would be great if we could gather everything in a single place. Unfortunately, I don't have time to search reread through the 100+ so it would be awesome if people could just tack on their additions to this comment. Being easy to read is a plus.


    Anyways, onto cool ideas (NOTE: A lot of these ideas are NOT mine; I just don't remember the names of the people who suggested them):

    - Making a meat "healing/cloning" enchantment that regenerates slabs of meat to deal with the livestock shortage that is inevitably going to happen in space-constrained conditions

    - Conjuring nukes (guided magic field that summons and encloses radioactive material in super-strong forcefields)

    -Mage-slaying bullets

    - Magnesium flares

    - Healing room (room enchanted to heal anybody that's inside it; same as amulet but AoE rather than on equip)

    - Machine guns and shotguns

    - Water Cutter, except for with highly pressurized (a hundred times more than your average water cutter) lava for pesky anti-magic enemies

    - Guided artillery using projection fields (summoning beacon and have shells home towards the beacon source)

    -Implanting the power-amulets inside the body (lot harder to steal and there's plenty of free space in a body. Kind of)

    - Dark Elves with sniper rifles. If a measly human (albeit a very badass one) can hit targets from one and a half miles a way, a Dark Elf with good eyesight, wind magic and probably a bunch of other shit that may be helpful can too. Come on, you know you want this.


    I'll try to look through the other posts in a couple of days and add more ideas in. But contributions would be greatly welcomed.

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    1. Explosive weapons that don't deplete the plants core. Earth has a ton of naturally explosive material, like our planet was designed to kill us.

      Poison gas artillery shells

      Proximity mines

      Grande launchers

      Flamethrower that uses highly flammable jelly to make it stick to enemies

      Sticky grenades

      Floating battle platforms that have artillery and AA guns promenade onto them

      Ruby, sapphire, silver, and other rare metals/gems - can never have enough wealth

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    2. The last idea should have the word "generator" after metals/gems

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    3. A power source made of diamond, the strongest substance on that planet. Breaking the incredibly strong bonds of the carbon-carbon matrix should provide a lot of energy.

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    4. Flesh and mana sorcery to add more transformations. I said this before, but logically speaking, if he knows the principles of transformation (the theory, whatever), then he can use it. All he would need is data/info/knowledge/understanding/samples of the creature he wants to turn into. He already has the understanding (principles/theory) down. With samples he could get data/info/knowledge of the specifics of that creature. I assume mana sorcery can fill in the blanks with magical creatures, and flesh can be primarily physical.
      Will he get any other ambrosial foods?
      Is Pan still alive? If so he could invite him if Hecate has a good relationship with him. The more blessings the merrier.

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    5. send up a bunch of blimp drones into the surrounding countryside, rising all the way up into the upper stratosphere, each with a factory that could summon and release 100 lb slugs of iron to use in orbital bombardments. They'd be too high for live creatures to fly to, and effectively invisible from that distance. Only problem would be accuracy.

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    6. Create an artificial intelligence. Try and copy Daniel's conscious with flesh sorcery and imprint it onto a power source. Allow this being to make any improvements to the island without exhausting himself.

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    7. Black Berry I like the orbital bombardment idea.

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    8. Diamonds will not work that is why he went from iron to stone.

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    9. - Lightning rods on all of the buildings; seems like the Norse god's favorite form of fire-support is big-ass lightning bolts.

      - Applying partial Dark Elf transformation (night vision, balance, strength, etc.) to his troops

      - Bleeding in force, flesh, and any other useful magic into the mana generator for the groves

      -Super unrealistic, but radioactive death beam created by forming a force container with the opened end pointed at the enemy and then summoning radioactive material inside. Yeah, I know, I know. But it's a literal death ray

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    10. What about flesh and earth sorcery? I bet Daniel could make some very interesting golems, maybe a cat golem for his soon to be daughter, that will protect her, keep her warm, as well as have other magical properties. Maybe it can grow in size to be a mount that can claw itself up walls. Or even replicate itself. The perfect bodyguard that never tires. Might think of giving one to the prince, as an "apology" to try and smooth things over. Just look into its eyes and name it and its bound to you.

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    11. Could try and copy some of the magic of the ape-men combined with golem magic to create a blood-golem (reminds me of Diablo 2 necromancer). He has unlimited supply of blood from his flesh sorcery and it would drain the magic and blood from enemies. It would need to be protected from dispels though as it seemed to be weak to that in his fight against Korak

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    12. Golem creation falls more under mana sorcery than earth. At least how they are normally made. Since they are lumps of earth with enchantments. Flesh is more focused on biological and not necessarily sentient beings. Though it could be interesting to make a golem with the blueprint of a living creature(s) used as the principles and transferred into an earthy way. It would take a tone of mana sorcery, with the understanding of life principles from flesh sorcery, and some other principles and foundation would come from earth sorcery.
      Cool idea, but it would take weeks-months for daniel. Though i don't know if that particular e was bought up. It might show up later. Maybe as a place for the spirits to inhabit if/when they are called up.
      But it is probably easier to make normal golems... The ones above would be something like living golems with something like organs made with earth but to support the golem body.

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    13. That is exactly the problem. He has to stop doing everything magical himself. He needs to concentrate on R & D. Golems are known and useful. So get people who make them.

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    14. Couldn't he just make a goem factory? And couldn't he do the same for giving people genetic/mana modifications? If/when he figures it and and decides to. Though i assume he will want to supervise the human modifications since that is kinda complex and changing something that already is as opposed to making something new...

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    15. Now that Daniel has decided to go vertical on his keep – he needs to start going down as well. He still needs someplace secret for the Apple grove.

      I also think he needs a power room. And if he puts it down there with them, I think it would be pretty safe. I am sure the Grove is going to need lots of power. I think he needs at least a hundred cores in there. Power the Apple grove, Power a shield for the castle (multiple types), Hidden temples so they can funnel mana into them.

      Open another temple for Hecate that people can worship at. So that’s 3 temples for her. The Private temple, the public temple, and the hidden temple. I was wondering if he made some cores for the temples and have Cerise ask Hecate for some spells to protect and to keep them hidden. He could then study that and learn.

      He should probably build a couple of temples for his daughter (private/hidden).

      As far as mortal combat I think he has made great strides. So I think he has time to improve his magic combat abilities. That anti-magic arrow he was hit with and the curse he saw on Hecate’s arm – these are the area’s he needs to focus on. Plus he now wants to kill Gia. He is not going to do that with a bigger gun.

      Speaking of Killing Gia. We have 3 spell that seem to eat on the essence of life. The stargate that eats souls, Cerise knives, and Avilla recipe. He needs to study these and see if they have a common denominator or combine all 3 into a supper version.

      But that will only weaken her, with people worshipping her she will be reborn (if I understand what Bast said). I was thinking if he could preserve the body and put it in a thing that syphons off the mana (what he did with the mercury demon). Keep her in a comma forever. But that does not explain what will happen with the other gods that die in the war. How did the new gods kill off the old gods? Did they kill every worshiper?

      Killing a god will bring a shit storm his way. Right now he is too small for the gods to care about. But if he kills ones, that is another story. Just saying.

      He really needs to up his magic game. Just having a big generator is not enough. I am hoping his understanding in the nature of magic will allow him to learn fast enough. Combine with that bit he learned from Cerise about molding her magic – he could mold his own magic and the covens. Maybe he has a chance.

      Side note. It appears that Daniel is doing the lion’s share of the work in the coven. It also seems like the only person getting less sex than him is Elin. I still want the story focused about him, but now that the rest of the coven have handed off the majority of their non-coven duties I expect more coven related magic. Yes, it was mentioned that the coven was doing protection wards -- not enough. I want more coven level magic. Group magic seems the most potent in that realm. Ok, part of the blame is on him for trying to shoulder it all and I do not think he is teaching the rest of the coven enough. But darn it, 3 of his coven have been doing magic since birth. One of them has probably acquired more theoretical magical knowledge that any other mortal. And finally we have one that is god touched (Tina). I expect great things from that coven.

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    16. Ambient mana generators connected to a power stone , think glade plug ins .

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    17. At most he would probably need ten mana generators. One of the least efficient materials used is iron, the one he gave hecate was mostly iron and not at the max size. It generated a third of what she generates. One generator made of gold or silver or something about as efficient as those, should be enough to power the whole place and store some power, since it generates power endlessly. That is assuming no strain. So honestly, the more the merrier! If he had, hmmm, lets say twenty, that would be a heckton of mana. I assume it would generate more than gaea can. Though i don't know how much gaea generates in comparison to hecate. He should probably have at least fifty before he foghts with any gods directly. And a godly mana battery. The generators would be there to ensure that he produces more than the god can. And the gods can get tired, as can daniel, but his mana generators are another story. He should have at least four safe rooms in his castle. Rooms that nobody but him can get to. And they would hold all his mana generators.
      If he builds underground, he will need to go fairly deep, then build a domed ceiling to support his castle. Or he could build underground a hundred feet or a mile away from his castle to give an escape route and have it far away from anything that could destroy his castle.
      Hopefully daniel grows the apples and bananas~ as well as fusing them together. Oh! More mana, the faster they grow! Probably...

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    18. In addition to the transformations Daniel still have the "physical enhancements" mentioned in book two he can do that will take days to do. Given that his transformations only take about an hour they could be extremely powerful.

      Book two quote "cat-girls, anime elves, gender reversals, and assortment of cosmetic changes and some physical enhancements that might actually be useful if they weren't so complex that it would take days to do one."

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    19. Modify the matter to mana spell to use inner electrons of atoms. That generates X-rays without neutrons. A radiation weapon without lingering effects.

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  5. Whatever happen to Brand and Prince Caspar attacks? Did they win in Wiersberg? What other battles did they take on? Did they win? Did they lose? Are there still 9 enemy armies with a devour? What happen to Tova and her daughters? What ever happen to the settlement form Varo? Did we at least kept the animals for farms on the island? Did Black ever figure out how to create more Wolfen? Could we rig a telegraph? Or as James E Givens have mention use scrying for targeting with Mortars/ Canons? We could as C_Booth has said is there a way to take back control of the weather?
    That’s just to name a few questions.
    Oh by the way I figure Black could feed at this moment around 80,000.
    The shortest location of conflict is by our standers-
    The Franks = 12drive = 1.5hr flight
    Greece = 25hr drive = 3hr flight
    Italy = 16hr drive = 2hrs flight
    Naples = 18hr drive = 2.5hr flight
    Wiersberg = 4hr drive = 1hr flight
    These are battle we can reach in a reasonable amount of time, instead of using souls for that gate.

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    1. @ 40 mph, the travel times for the blimps are most likely similar (or slower) than driving times

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    2. His old blimp was built

      - without streamlining
      - without a lot of air mages (laminar flows, favorite winds, weather prediction)
      - without weight banishment spells
      - if he can conjure up air his engine should be more efficient

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    3. I was wondering, the dark elves were going to put some runes on the craft. Could he change his bubble field enchantment to incorporate the runes? He teamed up with Elin to make the water conjuring device. He needs to team up with a dark elf and put some stuff on the airship.
      Btw, I like the whole airship concept in this story.

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  6. Build a freaking tank that fires plasma

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  7. Good ideas but, in many cases, they seem to be "fighting the last battle". If Daniel was successful, then there will be very few additional andregi arriving, leaving only the existing armies on Midgard to defeat. Hel will most likely retain her undead for the "last battle", and goblins, giants, etc can easily be killed with existing weapons.

    On the other hand, Daniel's expressed goal is to "kill a goddess", and it appears that he will need to "up his game" to the level of Great Beasts, demigods, and gods.
    Perhaps the discussion should refocus on the means and necessary abilities for Daniel to protect his coven and island from those increased threats...

    Daniel's primary advantage, beyond the "cheats" that his sorceries give him, is his knowledge from another world. That knowledge opens up possibilities that are unknown to others in his current environment, including gods. All he needs is time (which he hasn't had much of) and imagination (which he has in full abundance).

    Flesh & mana -- Daniel's already examined a goddess & several demigods, what more does he need to build a "template"?

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    1. I'm assuming that he would need genetic material as well as magical essence sample. Since demigods, gods, and magical beings in general run on more than purely the physical. Trying to get a sample of that essence... Could be painful for the, ah, giver. Though i doubt that. It depends on the extraction process. He would need to study it in depth, and try to alter either his own or someone else's body with suitable genetics (shouldn't particularly matter which demigod or god if he focuses on the parts that are particular to demigods and gods.) and weave the magical essence into the body during or after the flesh process.
      The extraction process could be like a scan. The data is kept (unsure how this would work in particular) and there is an imprint of the magical essence. Another is doing what cerise did to the ice wolf (is it frost wolf?). The ambrosial fruits probably alter genetics slightly while giving a whole bunch of magical essence. OOOOOO!!! Will he get anther sorcery from that?!?!?! Since that is how demigods would normally get sorceries (if they were mortal before)... So exciting!

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    2. There are certainly additional sorceries to gain. With as large a "multiverse" as the author has given himself to play in and depending his pace, there are many more books to be written.

      As an example, in the first book Hecate finds Daniel and brings him to Midgard. No doubt there were reasons being not being seen by others that she was so "small" initially.
      Daniel gains his sorceries during his journey -- exactly what did he travel through, and what is the "source" of all the sorceries, sorceries that contain information that apparently even the gods don't know. Hecate "broke the rules" to get Daniel -- who sets the rules that the gods must follow?

      Given time, Daniel may even be able to include ideas from SciFi that he's read -- no end to possibilities and plots...

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    3. There are certainly additional sorceries to gain. With as large a "multiverse" as the author has given himself to play in and depending his pace, there are many more books to be written.

      As an example, in the first book Hecate finds Daniel and brings him to Midgard. No doubt there were reasons being not being seen by others that she was so "small" initially.
      Daniel gains his sorceries during his journey -- exactly what did he travel through, and what is the "source" of all the sorceries, sorceries that contain information that apparently even the gods don't know. Hecate "broke the rules" to get Daniel -- who sets the rules that the gods must follow?

      Given time, Daniel may even be able to include ideas from SciFi that he's read -- no end to possibilities and plots...

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    4. And, sorceries are based around an idea/concept/thought/word/meaning. Whatever one believes applies to it, will apply to it. In this, meaning is most important. I think the stuff he went through to get the sorceries is kinda like the divine version of a super energy drink. It was his thoughts and knowledge that were amped and cemented using certain words to base his sorceries around.
      If he had no knowledge of atoms, it wouludn't appear in his mana sorcery at all. But since he knows about it, his mind added that to the list of what could be, so it was, and badabing, badaboom, it was done. Hecate said that if the power he was going through wasn't focused it would have killed him.
      My guess is that place is a wellspring or source of power. (It is probably a dimension without the universal laws about matter/energy/power conservation. If thereare infinite dimensions, and most dimensions will have different rules than our own, then it wold logically follow that at least some of them do not follow our universal laws.)
      When Hecate said there were thousands of sorceries, she probably meant they are limitless or infinite. The only constraints would be the mind of the individual that is acquiring the sorceries themselves.

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  8. A factory to make stationary armored floating platforms, another to make high-caliber long-range fast rate of fire weapons (like the AA guns). With infinite exploding ammo. Mount the gun(s) on the floating armored platform, tow into position over the city walls ,and lock them in place. Make sure they have some kind of access, like a floating elevator.
    Those kinds of guns require less than 5 minutes of training. Normally "Wear hearing protection" and "Don't touch the hot barrel." You don't even really aim them, you "Walk the bullets towards the target." You could have 8 years olds slaughtering entire armies.

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  9. I think that he should work and make a weapon that employs the curse that wounded Hecate and him with the mage killer bolt. If you drain/adsorb the energy/mana of spells/wards you will defeat them. At the moment every attack is force vs force but if you 'unplug' or drain their energy you will defeat it easier. That is how Cerise fights.

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  10. Communication/communication center
    - remote cameras that feed into illusion based monitors.
    - communication hub link to enchanted items for the officers
    - remote lockdown of security doors throughout the complex
    - Remote operated gun/golems.

    Mana based computers. The translation ring was able to store data so he can adapt this to be able to store information/programs/video etc. He is a programmer so this should be within his expertise. Illusion/force based touch monitors as an interface.

    Set up force blade traps on the outside of his fortifications. Anyone who tries to climb it get sliced in half.

    Ring of holding that converts any mass inside it into mana. Major artifact for Hecate that can be replenished. Major power up for her.

    Ring of sorcery. Implant some of instinctive knowledge to give to other coven members. e.g. Flesh for Elin to improve her healing -

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    1. The translation ring could easily store and change body types like human to elf to cat.
      The bag of holding can easily hold several 80 lb.mana generators.

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    2. That should be command/communication center, some place where Demetrious can monitor the enter citadel when under attack and command responses

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    3. If Daniel figures out "dimensional" sorceries, I doubt he would make a bag, unless that bag was big enough to hold a forest complete with woodland creatures and the greenhouse effects (sun/rain). If he does figure that out though it would change everything in the books. Communications, transportation, living space, he'd be making his own mount Olympus.

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  11. I wish Black would take a more active role in the design of his fortress. Just like how he created a kitchen with 20th century flare. I wish he could have better theme buildings. Maybe something all his people could enjoy and not think about war 24/7. Morale has got to be low everywhere. With his military edge and the fact that he defeated so many I believe he has time to think about his own people.
    Black could create a luxurious tropical oasis pool/ bar. Maybe recreate hotels he remember visiting or at least something artistic like maybe some fountains/ parks where people could relax. Some other options would be building Ball rooms, Theaters, or even some sort of Entertainment/ Game area.
    This would make his Allies want to stay and not need to stay.

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    1. One of the biggest problem that Daniel is having is a lack of time. Besides the occasional amenities for his girls, he is focusing his research time on survival, not luxury.


      Besides, I think his allies are more than willing to (literally in some cases) suck his dick even without the luxury/entertainment areas. He saved both of the groups from certain death, restored the nature spirits to the peak of their power, and has promised to cure the children problem for the dark elves that have been plaguing them for 2 millennium.


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    2. Compare to the living arrangements most people would be used to his fortress is palatial. Stable warm temperature, bathing facilities, toilets, his secret service has rec room, some people will be able to visit the groves.

      The other thing is you want your soldiers training with their new weaponry, not spending all their time entertaining themselves or getting drunk.

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    3. Can a person train, guard/ work and sleep 24/7 without cracking. In the middle of all this being in fear of attack or maybe dyeing of the cold going through your mind.

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    4. They'll want a tavern. Yet that would cut his people off from the talk of the town. The economic conditions will also promote prostitution. But he's hardly the kind to run a brothel.
      Anything alien is too alien for him to be good at the task.

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  12. Right now I'm pretty sure he's screwed for space, but the best wall type fortifications ever designed was the star design. It makes all your walls viewable from another wall, creates natural kill boxes, makes it incredibly difficult to assault directly.
    Another idea, simple cheaty weapons for everyone. He doesn't really need to summon aluminum from the depths of the earth for every device if makes if he already has a massive stockpile, he can just summon from the one stockpile of ingots. He can also make a device that makes magically reinforced thick aluminum six foot long cylinders with reinforced honeycombed insides, with a near infinity sharp force spear tip. He can make a device that makes these super spears in infinite quantities and just stick it in the city square. Another one that makes force riot shields in infinite quantities. Another that's some kind of activatable force body armor. You could arm the whole city in a week or 2. Add in a device that makes instant steel walls in any dimensions the wielder wants and I'm pretty sure the city could defend itself.

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    1. Actually at the moment he has more space than he needs. Each of his towers has 12 levels, his palace has bout the same and he can fit another similar 6-8 similar buildings, if I recall correctly, before he has to expand his island.

      The star fortress design while allowing him to shoot on incoming enemies from multiple angles also expands the length of his walls. These would need to be manned and he is already short of soldiers as it is. Also not sure how usable the space on the arms would be for erecting housing etc.

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    2. He also doesn't want to arm the city too heavily as the weapons may eventually be used against him.

      He also have restrictions on what he can produce if he wants to keep the Red Conclave on his side. Specifically mage killing weapons and weapons that use a lot of ambient mana.

      Delete
  13. I wrote an idea for a fort earlier and this is what I said.
    I would re-structure the fort.
    I would have a wall a 100 feet out at least in open water and 3 feet above water, with an expanse of at least 30 feet. I'll also add mines both on land and water. If creatures try to get close by going underwater they would have to go over this hill. They will be seen and destroyed.
    I would place at least (5) independent ravelin towers 50 feet out in the moat. To counter anything coming over the harbor wall.
    I would have a star fort, so there won't be any dead zones. In the center I'd build a crownwork to observe the enemy and have mortars in place to reinforce the curtain wall. This crownwork will also have curtain wall and moat as a last stand. This is where the armory/ magazine will be station.
    I would have everything rig with a counter weight for easy and fast movement of either closing or opening gates/ bridge/ and entrances. I would place a gate like a movable section of wall for the main entrance. I would also create a bridge that slides back into the floor of the star fort.
    I'd also create a secondary gate bridge (hornwork), with a dry dock connected.
    Before even getting on any bridge I would have a tenaille protecting that.
    I would have the causeway from land to fort angled toward the left side because most warriors are right handed, so their shields are on their left. This gives us a clear angle of fire.
    I would have a garage/ shop/ launch bay for our vehicles, with a fast release and recovery ability from the star fort. I'd also have a runway that raise from the moat leading into the harbor for launching.
    I'd have several shields using independent power converters for shield(s) in different locations with backup converters.
    Signal rockets with different colors(explosions) for emergency.
    Reflective light signals for long distance.
    300 feet speaking tubes for short distance.
    I would have a CIC to direct the battle in the crownwork.
    Healing stretchers. I'd have a stone baton with a button that when press deploys a stretcher. When wounded are place on the stretcher it will heal indiscriminately, while healing the stretcher will automatically take them to a secure location (main medical).

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  14. Why not just float\fly the fort and use a elevator?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Because as soon as the enemy finds a working counter-spell to negate your floating spell, it's game over.


      Also, the amount of energy needed to float the fortress would probably exceed anything a single reactor could generate. You would have to tie in multiple energy sources.

      Delete
    2. He could probably move his Citadel if he wanted to but actual flight may be a bit much.

      The levitation spell works by pushing downwards on anything underneath it so it wont be able to generate enough lift by pushing on anything other than the ground.

      I doubt his force Balloons and weight reduction enchantment would generate enough buoyancy to float his fortress above anything his levitation spell could achieve.

      Delete
    3. What if he made his castle about the same weight as air? Then just use some force pushers to move. Just don't try this in a storm... That would be a bumpy ride...

      Delete
  15. If Daniel needs more room there is always the seabed to build on in secret with a tunnel between it and a offshore platform he can fly between from his fort to the platform

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    Replies
    1. I suspect he first needs to deal with Gaia before going down into the Earth is a real option.

      Delete
    2. not under the ocean floor on the ocean's floor

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  16. The wall is 60 feet thick and goes up 80 feet (straight, not angled), then there's a walkway area backed by and additional wall 40 feet high. With protruding towers at the 4 corners, with an AA gun on each. Pretty sure he removed the water access the Dryad's used somewhere between when he extended the walls out (which he did first) and he bulldozed his old fort (which he did last).
    The tiered design of the wall itself is fine, very economical considering he doesn't own the land his walls currently sit on, I just think the star design is better.
    I think he's doing pretty well considering he hasn't been at this for a month yet, his island isn't even 2 weeks old at the end of book 3.

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  19. I think a little older than 2 weeks old as the entire dark elves trip almost took a week itself.
    Anyway a new idea of focusing a little less on defense (although a few more turrets would be awesome as well as making the water of the most close to boiling). I say take a page out of the ww2 on handbook of war: Blitzkrieg/armored brigades. Namely make a few more skimmers as armored troop transports maybe with some extra magical protection. Then add tanks (similar to skimmer but heavier on armament: Big gun firing explosive, fragmenting, penetrator, etc rounds. Maybe some smaller guns for close in defense. He can even make a skimmer with an open back with a couple mortars for mobile artillery.

    One last defensive idea is a railgun type thing. If he makes something with a 5 meter long barrel he can probably get a pretty ridiculous velocity out of a solid round. Doesn't need to explode and the top of the walls/ arcology buildings are tall enough he has pretty much open sightlines surrounding a good part of the city. Much easier to aim than the mortars and anything going that fast will do a lot of damage. Also a shit ton of energy which will probably collapse most physical defense wards

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    Replies
    1. Developing some sort of light machine gun would be a logical next for the expeditionary forces. Similar to the quad guns but maybe with a revolving cylinder or a magazine that replaces the ammo rather than summoning then firing the bullet in the barrel. Wouldn't want to arm all his troops with it but have a couple of the more capable shooters use it with each skimmer.

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  20. Oh almost forgot. Brown you are a genius writer and I look forward to the next books. But don't feel too much pressure. We may complain but in the end we will wait for more of these books

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  21. When the Prince find out about Daniel food production and trading airships He is going to try to commander as much as he can .With the ability to just leave it becomes a moot point to try

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    Replies
    1. That raises a point. How important is Kozalin to Prince Caspar? He is prince to the whole realm. Is one city worth pissing off the wizards? I doubt he'd go all out. He may be bought of with some food and weapons going his way, as long as his personal safety is guaranteed.

      Delete
    2. I get the impression that none of the rulers care that much about Kozalin or the country. If they are even remotely smart they would have come to the same conclusions as Black: the city, let alone the country, cannot be saved. There are simply not enough defenders, and even if there were, food is going to become a serious issue in a matter of months. They also do not fear death, since that just means they go to Valhalla to continue the good fight.

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    3. But what would they do? Board a ship and sail to Africa?

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    4. Assuming kozalin is still standing when Daniel gets back, he might be able to prolong its life somewhat. He can make something like the original rod he made to build the island give it to Elin as she seems to have intent control down so she can make a better wall for kozalin in a few days. It would be a little harder as she doesn't have the earth sense he has and it might be a little tricky considering kozalins wards
      But I agree with above that doesn't mean anything if kozakin doesn't get some food. They're probably ok for at least a few months but after that they're kind of screwed

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    5. Not that Daniel needs more money but with another airship or two he could easily buy food from warmer places and sell it to kozalin .

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    6. Marginal. If you reckon with 1kg per person and day and give Kozalin only 100000 inhabitants you end up with 100 tons per day. And who has that much food to sell?
      He'd need two full trips of the Intrepid per day to supply the city even under the most generous assumptions. And then he must have no disruptions due to bad weather.

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    7. Sell food to the city , not feed the city . Doesn't India have a lot of cows

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    8. Daniel has the gold to feed Kozalin and there are lots of places to trade for food (china Egypt India Africa other worlds and races) The weather would be a factor but not a insurmountable 0ne (wait them out or land and drive in from different routes) But with the ability to move the base everyone else will turnon/not support the one provoking him to leave with his food and protection. You do not even have to threaten to leave just show you can (move he base out over the ocean and back to test that it works)

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    9. Skogheim shows another possibility. If he can copy the hibernation spell, he could store a lot of people on his island.
      Yes, it is possible to do long distance trade. The question remains where he can find many places that can can quickly come up with hundreds of tons of grain?That depends on the transport infrastructure of other countries. It seems that on land they are limited to road transport.

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    10. With the groves massively powered up, and the potential agricultural space virtually limitless simply feeding Kozalin is more a question of organization than anything else; feeding them, and the island population WELL on the other hand seems to be considerably harder, so far Daniel hasn't even mentioned the livestock situation, but without a ready source of protein life becomes considerably harder for humans, impossible for carnivores like the griffins; solving this issue should be a priority, whether through a large, and protected, fishing operation, aqua culture, the keeping of regular livestock, or some sort of flesh sorcery cloning meat in vats I'll leave up to the author ;).

      As to trade, as far as I know there wasn't a lot of surplus production given medieval farming methods, most of it was subsistence farming, and the infrastructure to move a surplus was limited; most food had to be produced very close to where it was consumed, and considering the size of Kozalin airlifting in enough to matter should be almost impossible, irrespective of how difficult it would be to collect in the first place. European grain futures went out of style for 1500 years with the collapse of the Roman empire, and that was in our reality ;)

      Delete
    11. http://www.splendidtable.org/story/how-to-feed-10000-people-from-food-grown-on-3-acres-in-the-city

      3 acres in a city feeding 10,000 people.
      Black has about 12 acres. Lettuce, radishes, mustard greens, spinach, scallions, turnips, cucumbers, squash, cantaloupe and watermelon could take roughly 4 to 10 days to grow. With the help of Dryads I can see them accomplishing this in 12 hours.
      So 12 acres would equal 40,000 people, but with the Dryads help I don’t see a reason why they couldn’t double their amount to feed 80,000 people easily and I believe this is still on the low end.

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  22. I wouldn’t mind reading more about the rescuing of villages, towns, or settlements. But I have a question why would the villages believe a bunch of dark elf’s are here to save them?

    The Crust and Upper Mantel gives us roughly 1,800 miles deep. The Prince didn’t say anything about how deep we could go. We have all the space we need without the fear of weather or attack.

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    Replies
    1. Going deep when an Earth godess is your enemy is questionable. If you know space expansion magic, you can apply it to a building.

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    2. He could also go even higher by adding his weight reduction enchantment to any extra construction upwards.

      Delete
    3. That turns any disspell going through from a major hassle into a catastrophe. Otherwise he'd build permanent force constructs.

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  23. Ok, so i want to make a post on the possible sorceries. I'm gonna keep it general since, well, there is no real reason to go deeply into specifics.
    1) spirit (includes elemental, spirit generation [newly created spirit], spirit alteration/manipulation, spirit perception) idk...
    2) mind (knowledge, psi, mental powers, knowledge from objects obtained in essentially a matter of seconds-minutes [books].)
    3) shadow (illusion, some mind, light, shadow, darkness, unseen, space [move through shadow, cut with it]).
    4) dimensional (space, travel.)

    Just trying to get some ideas rollings. I like mind the most, and it would complement his flesh and mana sorceries. Would it be good if he completed his fire sorcery? Add some more to his others? Maybe add a sorcery called war? Air and water might be good too. Spirit would compete the flesh, mind, mana, and spirit set if he gets mind and spirit. Electricity might be nice? But that might come with air, if he connects it with air...

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    Replies
    1. Energy, it's very generic but with knowledge of modern physics it covers heat, light, electricity, force (kinetic), gravity, radiation, and even chemical if you know enough. In addition if you "munchkin the shit out of it" you can use the "matter is energy" argument to control that through a single concept.

      Delete
    2. Yes you could do what you said essentially, but it might require more time in that uber powerful place to fully get it. If it covers more concepts, larger meaning, it will take more time/power to obtain that sorcery. Though i do like that one, just pointing out that it is unlikely to be complete if starting out the journey with it, and the holder has already received a couple sorceries. It's a small gamble. It is likely to have all that you need besides life, unless you count life energy under energy (which i would recommend).
      If you apply the concept that everything is connected, energy is matter, matter is energy, they are both simply different parts of the dimension, made up of the dimension, then understand that the dimension is just like a giant mind/spirit, but different rules, then it goes on and on, connecting to everything. Where it ends is up to the individual.
      But i think what you said would have only taken about 3 ish of his roughly 5 sorcery slots. Since the there are some conjoining concepts that would combine things and speed them along, those are more efficient, more bang for your buck.
      Also, the word isn't necessary in and of itself, as far as i can tell, it is more the meaning behind it. What attaches to it.
      Honestly, one of the best methods is to have one sorcery that is focused on gaining more sorceries. Haha! Have a sorcery that makes a space around the user, in this space, the user is the master/god of everything, including universal laws/rules/restrictions/boundaries (within reason, since the user is still in a dimension that could crush them like the ant they are if irritated enough) the user can say, in their space (preferably less than a cm from their skin around their body) is the place where Daniel got his sorceries. Or other things like that would work too. That is actually cheating though... Which is why you want to make sure the admin doesn't get too irritated by you biting it's reality. Pray you are not noticed. Or that it is too minor for it to care.
      Or maybe a sorcery that lets the user gain the magics and sorceries of others with ease?

      Delete
  24. Sorcery of wards. Daniel has almost unlimited power so if he gets a sorcery of wards he would be able to close up his magical defenses. Also good to be able to analyze an opponents magical defenses and figure out what they are vulnerable to

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  25. New weapon (ha ha) missiles ,mortar warheads ,thruster delivery ,control ring targeting .the size of arrows with all the devastation you want .you could even customize the warhead (antimagic ,armor piercing, even fuel air bombs) with the flying and speed no conventional army is going to matter

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  26. Magic Known:
    Black-
    Force, Earth, Flesh, Fire, Magic
    Elin-
    Water, Healing
    Mara-
    Fire, Unlock/ Dispell
    Cerise-
    Dark
    Avilla-
    Enchantments

    Summing
    Freeze
    Plant Growth
    Language
    Space
    Lightening
    Barrier

    Please add on if you remember more.

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    Replies
    1. Cerise also knows demon summoning as that is how she got her succubus powers, Weapon sense etc. She just hasn't done any summoning as Daniel says too dangerous.

      It wouldn't surprise me if Sefwin ends up joining the coven and she seems pretty handy at it as well. Dark elves are unable to have children with humans however Daniel as the Dark elf transformation so could potentially work.

      Hopefully Daniel will get time to study at the library. Learning those disintegration and flash step spells Leo uses would be pretty awesome.

      Delete
    2. Remote sensing. His biggest weakness is intelligence. With things like a devourer going around, he cannot afford an intelligence failure. His sensors and defences against infiltration are also weak. Anything small capable of flight attacking at night and he is in deep trouble.

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    3. It would be cool if Elin could transfer her knowledge into the translation ring, make a spell for the ring to read books for him or derive some photographic memory spell from it.

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  27. Don't forget to build a nursery as well
    That stuff is important for the ladies

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  28. Oooh magic toys would be so cute for the little ones.

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  29. Good complements to his current list of Masteries, by order of awesomeness:
    Soul
    Energy
    Space
    Time
    Alchemy
    Enchantment
    Summoning
    Necromancy

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  30. I have an idea but its hard to explain (kinda) Mara is two people ,two souls ,one body.
    why not do the opposite with Danny multiple bodies, one soul. Bud/grow a new body but leave its nerves/brain still until complete. If you grow another arm those that make it another person? At what point does a body part grow a soul? Heck of a way to cut down on his man power shortage

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    Replies
    1. Make a clone army. Would be pretty amazing.l

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    2. Well, he could learn to make golems. Or task his elves with making them. Or take Tova in.

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  31. oops meant leave nerves/brain still connected to original

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  32. If you have intent control, weight negation, force magic and and an explosion effect, you have a SAM and ant-tank weapon on line-of-sight basis.
    If you combine the magic of the translation ring and the magic between the stones the Riven Covennant is stored upon you essentially have telepathy.

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  33. Idun asked quite a lot back in book 2. Bypass the Warding, bypass the guards on Bifrost Bridge, Break into Asgard, distract several demigods, and move an entire orchard as well as Idun herself and her dryad back through all of that. All for (1xtree)+3+9 apples, of which he would need hundreds in order to become a demigod. Otherwise they are useless to him. She could just be misreading the situation with her offer, and Brand does owe him a favor.

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    Replies
    1. There is supposed to be a back door into the Aesir, via the world tree. Extinction actually describes what seems to be the world tree as Daniel goes visiting gaea's home.

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  34. How many of those beasts from Tartarus can be talked with?

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  35. With Daniel base in its current state I see very few ways to assault it or him.
    1 Lure him out by attacking Kozalin citizens
    2 soul swapping to infiltrate/ sabotage/ kidnapping
    3 coercion (political, financial, or social)
    4 Tunnel under
    that's all I've come up . How else would you attack him?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. - gas
      - small infiltrators (insects like in the attack against Kozalin)
      - germ warfare
      - shapeshifter agents
      - attrition & siege

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    2. - wormholes, teleportation, hidden ways, the Dark Portal ...
      - sale of poisoned food
      - giant lightning bolts
      - great tidal waves
      - immaterial attackers (wraiths, ghosts, ...)
      - great beasts
      - mind control
      - earth magic (liquify the ground below Black Island)

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    3. - invisible assassins
      - air assault

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    4. Well some of those wont work. Tunneling under would force the tunnelers to go through his floor which has the same reinforcement enchantments as his wall but is thicker as it goes all the way to the bedrock. Liquefying the bedrock may work but would take huge amounts of mama and if Daniel was around he could probably spread his island floor deeper to compensate.
      For a lot of the others its unclear how comprehensive the wards his coven have set are. But I guess we'll find out in the next book. Although one easy way Daniel could improve his security is by giving the secret service and other sentries some of amulets that gives them the mage sight he once shared with cerise. Then they can see spells/invisible assasins/etc coming

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    5. More radical: Banish the stone under a part of the keep.

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  36. The Lego construction blocks – I am assuming that is what was meant.

    That needs to be fleshed out a bit. What is stopping the walls from coming down during an earth quake. The walls are sitting on the floor; the walls are not connected to the main walls. The first guy has a 3 integrated wall room (“u” shaped with the open end facing the outer wall). The second room is “L” shaped, so it has an integrated 2 walls. The last room, does it just get a front wall? So unstable.

    You also have the top. Not connected to the celling? Open areas between rooms? Talk about hearing your neighbors thru the walls!

    I am just saying everything can not be done with one device making stone Lego’s. I need more.

    Now I am not looking for some long story line – but that head Elf should mention it in a meeting. Say something about organizing it a bit so all walls are integrated and using mortar. Maybe they need to tear down the old walls, but Daniel volunteering to fuse the current walls together? Oh, Tina is good at mimicking magic -- use this as an opportunity to teach her something? I like Tina, i want her to grow a bit.

    Btw, none of this would have popped into my head if it was not for the earth quake.

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    Replies
    1. Isn't the entire castle, like, one single piece of Iron at its core, and he's just been growing it as he expands it? That sounds a lot more secure then mortar to me.

      They just cover up the iron with wood or whatever, because living in iron rooms isn't very comfortable.

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    2. The castle is an iron framework surrounded by stone.

      I do get Muehe's point though about the Lego walls. When I too read that part I realized that they weren't anchored. The residents have no way to alter the citadel so they can't attach the lego wall pieces to the main structure, but Pelagia's comments make me think they found a solution.

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    3. I thought they work by placing them into a corner and they form a wall by joining the structure growing from the floor up to the ceiling.

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  37. Oh, just had another thought. A map room magically linked to the tower. Right now, Daniel can sense what his magic is doing (he sensed the magic draw during the earthquake). This is the sort of information his military leader always need access to. Combine it with some sort of sensing magic. If nothing else maybe he could use the concept of spy satellites but using supper small balloons -- really high up. I am not talking airships, more like a collection of charms on a balloon.

    Of course that means he needs to figure out the whole communication thing.
    Balloon charm
    Air Stabilizer charm
    Propulsion in case weather pushes it off course
    Camera charm or equivalent
    Magic sensing Charm
    Backscatter x-ray Charm
    Radar or echo sensor charm – really should be passive
    Infrared Charm
    Communication charm
    Shield charm
    Mana storage charm

    No Power source, use the ambient magic collector.
    Self-destruct charm that triggers if the shield is penetrated, magic gets too close, or loses communication with Comm room.

    All supper small, what if they were beads. 12 beads on an aluminum hoop suspended from am invisible balloon a 10,000 feet up. That should be really hard to find. A storm would really handicap it a lot of that but it does not sound like anyone uses crystal balls. So it is the best I could think of.

    He needs to add all that to his air ships as well. (After he invents all of them). Of course if he can do all that, then armed drone construction is next.

    Not keeping it very real am i.

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    Replies
    1. Having a Command and Control center with a huge map with all different sensors would be pretty handy. Especially in conjuncture with call for fire or in coordination with attack/ defense plans.

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  38. Mara's third task , eliminate Daniel ?

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    1. Daniel is more of a nuisance than a threat to Loki and co at the moment. Which is why he didn't want Gaea to find out he was in her realm before her army dies mysterious otherwise she would start throwing Great Beasts etc at Kozalin.

      With Brands escape they will blame it on the Aesir.

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    2. I doubt Loki wants to exterminate mankind. Who would worship him? That is Gaea's obsession. Loki is happy if the rank's of Odin's fans are sufficiently thinned. The rest gets an offer that is hard to refuse.

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  39. * Another magic Idea a castle seed (for ability to build),translation ring (blue prints) and a mana transmission feed (for power)
    You could rebuild the walls around the city overnight with one
    Make arcology seeds and fortify the city one block at a time
    * Use Avilla's gingerbread men and a ring of translation make copies of the conclaves library (incidentally the rings info can teach Tina to read and Daniel magic)

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    Replies
    1. Maybe a central magic computer core thing, and have people link up with it with rings to help them build their preferred living space? The core would have the knowledge/restrictions/rules/methods/colors/sizes/material/angles/doors/walls/stuff, the core would do the changes, the ring would be the link.
      It might be better to have the ring do the changes from the intent/words/gestures of the wearer, and get info from the core for detailed parts or things they can/can't do. Such as building outside their allotted space.
      Then you only have one detailed object and can connect it to a lot of little objects. I don't think Daniel has enough time to make a dictionary or two, or even what i just mentioned, but for later, it's a fun idea, or something similar...

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    2. animate metal skeletons and bind civilian souls to them with loyalty compulsions (so no one else can) thus you have smart golems resurrect them later if you can. The souls would be going to Hel not Valhalla

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  40. How much of the city was destroyed by the earthquake? What are they going to do with all the homeless people?

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    Replies
    1. First thing, not daniels problem unless he is asked by the prince.
      Second, people know people.
      Daniels shelters probably still have a bit of room.
      ... Thats all i could really think of... Oh, they could also freeze on the streets, or they are killed in the attack. Or die in falling rubble... Or suffocate/freeze under it while nobody knows you are there. Not pleasent. But that is the kinda thing that will happen when you get an earthquake in a subzero place.

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    2. I have the nasty feeling that given his food supply the prince is happy with a reduction of population.

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  41. Why did Daniel tell Hecate he couldn't make a much bigger stone when his first one was five or six tons ?

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    Replies
    1. The author is trying to put a limiter on the 'Infinite power' concept, as his characters are quickly adapting to its presence and the need for a separation between human and godly levels of power. With a whole power stone labeled as a "minor artifact," it tells the reader that the MC's main cheat won't be effective to any great length in a God War.

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    2. It may have been bigger, but was it better in terms of output? It is useless if efficiency falls faster than size. They last longer, but that's not a factor.

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    3. It is a minor artifact that is made in about an hour. How many artifacts does a god have? A demigod? How long does it take to make them? How big is the difference between a minor artifact when compared to a normal or grand/greater/elder/ancient artifact? How long would it take him to make one? A couple days? Is he going to invite the wizards into his castle as a refuge? He could make a tunnel to their stronghold and line the floor of the tunnel with explosives, like he did for his bridge, so they could escape when they need to.

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  42. Not many of the demons are rational though Tova seemed to know of several that are more reasonal.

    The devourer army the spawned at Naples will be something that will be a huge problem sometime. Their ability to evolve is rather nasty and they may even be able to climb his walls. This may be a problem he will have to simply use his nuke on.

    Not sure how far Naples is from his location though that would just give them more time for the army to grow.

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  43. Distance is about 1500km taking Hamburg for Kozalin.

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  44. Kudos to the author. I never considered Mount Olympus to be an arcology. The gods were not living on the top of the mountain, but inside. So, Black as the new Zeus in Mount Black? ;)

    I am curious, how are gods created? Demigod is definitely an option for mortals, eating 365 bananas or apples seem to do the trick, and Greek mythology also has the tests going on (even if that is mostly for the mortal children of the gods) where the ruling deity grants it as a reward.

    Mind you, Daniel is already at a lesser demi-god power, so becoming an actual demi-god would boost his power a lot. Hecate also suggested he has barely touched his full potential in book 2 and he has not developed anything truly new in regards to magical abilities. All he did was create new tools and learn a thing or two about magical creatures. He barely scratched the potential of his flesh magic for example.

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    Replies
    1. Pointing out that children between gods are still called demigods. It's pobably a power thing. Age, believers, power, that sorta thing. Daniel could probably only be called a lesser demigod in the sense that his personal power reserves and generation is low compared to most.
      So the difference between a god and demigod might boil down to power reserves and generation? But a god might have the additional requirement of having at least one follower?
      I'm assuming the ambrosial foods are changing them little by little, so if one eats 365 of them in one day, it would do more than eating one, but less than eating them throughout a year. Going along with that, it can be assumed that spacing them out at of more than a couple hours gives a higher efficiency of their usage. Longer intervals would be pointless, but you probably wouldn't lose or waste any of the power.

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  45. You know I also wonder if Daniel is going to give his men better defenses as well as weapons. He had the shields early in book 2 and nothing really since. You know if he made a factory where people just put in their armor and 20 minutes later they get the same enchantment as his coat (negate the physical force of the attack) his men suddenly become pretty damn hard to kill without magic or enchanted items

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  46. Here's a weird concept. Narfing is a sentient snake-fish AND a demi-god. If Daniel caught him and stuck him in a super-fish tank, would the resulting sushi be just as good as golden apples and bananas? With regeneration, it would be an infinite supply of demi-god sushi. With flesh sorcery, would it be that hard to both knock Narfing out, paralyze him, and kill his sense of pain? I mean, according to norse mythology, doesn't Thor do something similar with his goats?

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    1. Mara might get mad if Daniel eats her cousin .

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    2. Probably tastes like eel though . Yum

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    3. Haha! I both love this idea and think it is evil... Wonderful, but evil. Though in a humane way, like humane mind control.
      So why not take a sample of his essence (if he could really turn into ambrosial sushi) and copy it into a few hundred eels/fish/snakes/meat, put them in the device that was mentioned, a viola! Or use the apples and bananas ambrosial essence as an example and put that in them? Whatever works... Using sentient beings for food... Well, it depends on the situation, but if you don't really need to, then don't. Need to like you are starving and going to die unless you eat them.

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  47. Idle question: Daniel's pistol is a six-shooter, but so far he's only enchanted 3 of the chambers:
    1. .50 cal basic slug
    2. bouncing slug with force blades
    3. exploding round, conjuring ~3 pounds pressurized molten iron on striking target

    That leaves him with 3 more slots for new ammo types. What sounds good? Possible suggestions:
    * Smoke round for tactical concealment, possibly using his fire sorcery and conjured flammable matter.
    * Tear gas round, conjuring a large volume of gas, possibly with flesh magic to mimic a biological agent like skunk musk, cayenne extract, or some other irritant for non-lethal crowd control.
    * Poison round using flesh magic to conjure either contact or injectable natural poison. Ideally imprinted on an armor-piercing slug.
    * Hyper-velocity armor-piercing round. Probably uses force magic to apply acceleration to the bullet throughout flight like a rocket instead of a single explosive push.
    * Tracking round. Lower-velocity barbed bullet designed to stick to target and maintain a connection to the shooter so the target can be tracked. Alternately could be used as homing device for indirect guided weapons like a forward observer's laser designator.
    * Curse round. Attaches one of Cerise's curses to the bullet to extend its range.
    * Paralysis round. Uses flesh magic curse to short-circuit nervous system on contact for non-lethal takedowns. Potentially bypasses metal (conductive) armor.
    * Laser round. Don't have light magic yet, but if it can be learned from Conclave could be combined with David's scientific knowledge to build lasers or masers.
    * Flash-bang round. Light and noise (collapsing force bubbles?) on contact for non-lethal crowd control.
    * Shaped charge round. An explosive round using force magic to focus the blast into a single point for maximum armor penetration (like modern HEAT rounds).
    * Biological round. Conjures infectious agents (bacteria, viruses, prions, etc) after penetrating target.
    * Shotgun round. Sprays blast of pellets in a 5 degree arc after leaving barrel for close, unarmored targets. Could use rock salt for (mostly) non-lethal irritants.
    * Silver round. Silver slug frangible for weres (if they exist in this world.).
    * Cold iron round. Cold iron frangible slug for fae.
    * Bolo round. 2 rounds connected by wire.
    * Net round. Conjures large volume of hooked or sticky netting, shortly before striking. Netting could be physical (wire, spider silk, etc), force constructs, or a combination of both.
    * Glue round. Conjures large volume of glue/adhesive on striking. Could be combined with paralysis toxin for greater effect.
    * Summoning round. Summons demon at destination. Nothing like having an unbound ungol appear in the enemy camp to cause lots of chaos.
    * Mud round. Turns the earth in a 20 foot radius to mud/quicksand for 5 seconds.
    * Flamethrower round. Acts like standard flamer for a few seconds for short-range fire damage.
    * Plasma round. Like the plasma projection from Grinder. Either set to erupt from barrel or attached to bullet and set to go off on striking.
    * Illumination round. Timed round, conjures force parachute and light spell after x seconds.

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    1. Couple more:
      * Grapnel round. Slow round, with bullet attached to the gun by a long wire spooling out from round as it flies to target. Bullet enchanted to adhere to whatever it hits (barbs? glue?)
      * Lava round. Spray of lava from gun barrel like is used in the gate defensive spikes. All the burn-iness of normal flames but the lava will stick to things and can't be easily washed off.

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    2. I would add a few
      * dispel round - attaches to a ward or magical creature and uses a link to the shotgun power source to continually apply a dispelling round. Not so ifesul straight away but over time turn big bad dragon/demigod/demon/etc into soft mushy biological waiting to die
      * radiation round - also slow acting. Maybe use when enemy is running away and too tough to kill with other options. Slowly and mysteriously causes death
      * make illumination rounds be color spectacle - good for battlefield communications
      * void/concussion round - similar to what he did to the sea serpent - creates a vacuum quickly and then releases it - for when explosions cause problems but implosions are welcome
      * give some of these to cerises gun
      * and lastly not a round but something somebody suggested earlier which would be awesome - dark elf snipers with some of these - it would be like the white ghost/Hitchcock/chuck Norris level of destruction in one stealthy package

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    3. * anti magic rounds - He needs something to deal with magical armor, wards and golems

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    4. Adapt the penetrator rounds to his gun

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  48. Black has explained how he could not create a personal shield, but could he create a set size shield? What I’m getting at is could Black create a fortress shield or multiple segmented shields? Just like his personal shield protects him, but allow him to fire his gun. If he has this option he would not need to fear attacks from the air, well until they figure out something else to attack with. This defense would be the quickest way to fortify the entire city of Kozalin. Of course this would take multiple power cores, but since the power cores have a range of several miles I see no reason why they can’t be place on Blacks Island.

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  49. Hey guys, I had some thoughts I wanted to share ;)

    1) The flight situation - BWB VTOL
    When Daniel originally designed his blimp he built the most basic version he could get away with, no streamlining, no tail/shaped rear end to minimize drag; recreating the Intrepid with a droplet shape would speed her up considerably, while simultaneously increasing stability considerably. Shouldn't be too hard to do, he doesn't even have start from scratch, he could just add the shaped pieces as a superstructure to the current model, the benefits of reduced vortex drag would still outweigh the larger surface area considerably... BUT:

    Why not go another route entirely? With his new weight-negation sorcery it should be relatively simple for Daniel to create a VTOL (vertical take-off/landing) airplane, and if he adopts a blended-wing body design he'd have huge cargo capacity, far better speed, less weather issues, while retaining all the advantages of a blimp, such as slow flight and hover for bombing, with no need for a runway ;).

    2) The groves - demigod situation
    I've read a bunch of speculation about the godly banana/apples, and Daniel's potential power-up through sorcery, but what about the groves? Demetrios refers to his having almost demigod like powers back when his dryads lived in one of Pan's sacred groves, with access to a divine pantheon's mana pool; I have no idea what the exact effect will be, but with Pelagia's grove fully powered up and Daniel in place of a Satyr we should see some noticeable changes without the need for godly fruit.

    3) Raw materials - blast furnace
    Daniel refers numerous times to the limitations of the materials he can conjure, be it pure iron/nickel iron, aluminum or fused quartz, and their drawbacks in terms of weight vs. strength. Well, now that he's figured out a materials factory, the next step should be the design of a basic blast furnace. Steel is obviously already known, considering that the city armory seems to refine his summoned nickel-iron in bulk for their arms production.
    Summoning iron is trivial for him, now all he needs is coke and a magically heated blast furnace and he could have high-quality steel mass-produced in any quantity he needs for his projects. It'd probably be a good idea to hire someone scientifically inclined to do some basic materials science on his behalf, considering he can summon any element it should be achievable to recreate anything from stainless (containing chromium) to high-tensile steel pretty quickly, by playing around with the carbon content and adding different metals to create alloys. Steel would massively increase the strength of his construction, and give him much better material to work with to build his vehicles.
    He might not be able to summon it, but once it's there he can shape it just as easily as anything else made of "earth" ;).

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    1. Regarding the flight issue, there is one big question: why bother?
      With a streamlined design he should get up to 150km/h or so and from a military viewpoint an airship based on force magic and vacuum is harder to kill than an aircraft. He has no issues with flammable gas or loss of buoyant gas if the vehicle is damaged. And a larger ship means more fire power.
      An aerodynamic craft would mean a lot of additional control issues and just be a bit faster. So what?

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    2. I would agree with one exception. Make a few more cerise type bikes that can fly. Give them to a couple dark elves with two of the skimmer cannons. Instant scouts/mobile destruction

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    3. Why bother? More speed means more rescue missions flown in the same time, so more people saved, more resources collected, or whatever else you could hope to accomplish with a blimp done in less time; considering that we're talking about the apocalypse, getting more done in less time seems important.

      From a military perspective a blimp is a soft target, it is slow, lacks maneuverability and is highly sensitive to being grounded by bad weather. In a dog fight, fast and nimble beats slow and sluggish any day, and the first time a dragon drops out of the sky and on top of the Intrepid will be the airship's last (recall, the frost giant clans are allied with dragons, and who does Daniel massacre on a regular basis... food for thought). Doing the same thing to a plane going 400+ mph is a mite more difficult.

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    4. Capacity is speed times load times availability in first approximation. In second approximation speed is rendered less effective by time consumed loading and unloading. And he needs trained crews. Anything lighter than air has benign failure modes. You set the propulsion to zero and lift high enough and you drift safely. This is not at all true of a an aerodynamic craft.

      At the very worst an aerostat can deploy an anchor an use a force sphere. An aerodynamic craft is doomed if you interrupt the flow of air. A dog fight is not something you can do with the level of control a craft DB can construct in a reasonable time frame.

      Thirdly, armament. He is not building a fighter aircraft. He's building a bomber and transporter. He cannot depend on beating an enemy in the air by outmaneuvering him. He has to be able to kill a dragon when loading. That suggests that he will build a vehicle with a nice armament and a force field. He should be able to build a dragon slaying SAM.

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    5. Think about it, the loading time is going to be fixed within a certain window, depending on the level of preparedness of the people you need to load, so the only variable you can truly affect is speed; once you have picked all the low-hanging fruit in terms of surviving castles and towns, you will have to travel further and further afield, so your speed becomes more and more important overall.

      Regarding dog fights, they don't need to become actual fights, but the worst case scenario you need to prepare for is something like a dragon literally sitting on top of your blimp, tearing it apart in mid-air, or riding it down into the ground. No force dome that Daniel's built to-date could defend against a dragon, particularly not the weak lift bubbles, so if the enemy can destroy all four at once you drop like a rock, with the reforming bubbles slowing your descent only marginally.

      You can't fight a threat like that, you either get away, which requires you to be faster than the dragon, or you die messily.

      Final point, what I described was a VTOL-capable craft, so long as thrust is maintained no airflow over the wings is necessary for lift, it can actively hover/rise, rather than being reliant on passive lift like a blimp.

      I don't want to start a flame war, I just think that there are reasonable arguments to be made for flying faster and farther ;).

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    6. Just read your last paragraph Unknown...

      I think that even if he manages to create an insta-kill dragon slayer, his most vulnerable time for a dragon attack won't be the loading once an area has been secured, but the time spent travelling to and from a site; considering what he's built so far you are entirely correct in saying he's not at dog-fighting level... that'd be the time to run/fly faster than whatever's chasing you xD.

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    7. "I just think that there are reasonable arguments to be made for flying faster and farther"

      Obviously and nobody disputed that. The disagreement was on the value of those improvements versus development effort and complexity. No hard feelings on that account.

      "the only variable you can truly affect is speed"

      Why? Load is also a variable you can affect. Also, the more doors, the swifter the loading. And remember that airships scale better than aerodynamic craft.
      Obviously load determines what you can transport at all, e.g. a dryad in tree form, a paralyzed dragon, Narfing ... . Secondly from a tactical perspective, load is an advantage. If you need multiple trips, you become predictable.

      "so long as thrust is maintained no airflow over the wings is necessary for lift"

      Now we are entering a strange territory. Considering the physics any object with a sufficiently powerful weight negation spell is an aerostat. The object retains volume, hence buoyancy, yet it has no weight. It will float even without lift cells. If you really go too low on weight, you lose stability, however.
      Now, there is a very important drawback. You really don't want peasants and livestock to experience zero-g. You might counteract that with force magic, but at that point you have yet another complex control mechanism that must not fail.

      "requires you to be faster than the dragon, or you die messily"

      Accepting the premise, we must ask whether this can be achieved with an airship. DB is not constrained by the limitations of a blimp. He can integrate the lift cells into the frame. That gives him the classic Zeppelin shape. If he's willing to depend on force magic to control the air flow around the nose, the limit on speed is power, not strength of the construction material. The Hindenburg had a top speed of 135 km/h. If he really needs to there is a good chance he can make an airship that can outrun a dragon. Dragons are not that aerodynamic.

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    8. Daniel seems to be well aware of the potential benefits of better aerodynamics or true airplanes. He certainly contemplates it often enough in the book. His biggest issue appears to be that (a) he has trouble shaping the stuff - round corners are not exactly easy, and (b) running an airplane requires considerable skill and is not error friendly. He has no flight simulators. Besides, the early planes were not particularly more effective than his current airships who suffer few from the weaknesses of hydrogen zeppelins of RL. It is fun speculation, but I suspect Daniel has more pressing matters where it is much more efficient to spend time on ;)

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  50. Well, so long as the coven continues to concentrate and layer their wards and power at their citadel, they shouldn't have a problem from this point forward. Remember from the beginning of book one, her house had been alive and fighting off the goblins before Daniel came. Scale that up and make it stupid powerful.
    Titanium summoning factory.
    Tungsten summoning factory.
    20 colossal elephant sized golems made of solid enchanted tungsten.
    A factory that makes suits of magical Power Armor.
    A factory that makes rings of general immortality and regeneration, so he stops loosing people.
    Some kind of statue that uses flesh magic to make people into Captain America knockoffs. Like he did to himself in book one.

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    1. I like your whole Titanium summoning factory and Tungsten summoning factory.

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    2. Why bot summon a fairly common alloy with the element you want and seperate it from those you don't? Then banish whatever you don't want...

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    3. I think i may or may not have read the idea i posted above somewhere else on this site? I'm unsure...

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  51. i wonder how much power can be pushed through his spells, cause if a spell can take the entire output of a mana reactor (like the aluminium factory) can it take more? as far as i remember having more mana power will make thing go faster in certain applications (like growing the black citadel) so unless it's the amount of power destroying the enchantments, could he not make a factory or factory's that produce the more rare elements? like pure iron, titanium, tungsten or maybe even some alloys like steel and such? since Oskar is going back to being a blacksmith, have him try and recreate some of those steel alloys and then (if possible) make another factory to pump that particular alloy out

    making golems would put some meat on his bare bones army, however he does not know how to make a golem, if he does find out how to make golems i think it would be easier on the spell integerty for mass production to make the golem in pieces and either have people at the end assemble them or have another factory who's sole function is to assemble the golems (cause they are going to be heavy) soo a factory each for legs, waist, torso, head, power source, and several for the different kinds of arms (normal, melee, ranged and shield types, or posibly just one factory that can change between arm types produced as needed),,, man that's going to be time consuming to do (imo at least a week or more with all the other stuff going on) with the requirement that he has decent metals to actualy feed the golem production, like steel and not the normal nickel iron he can make, plus! he needs radio's! he's been going on about that for 2 books now!

    now if the city is really doomed (or get's kicked out by the prince, who knows it may happen) or for some reason he need's to move, i was thinking that he could raise the citadel higher, make a cut somewhere in the base, put a "less weight" enchantment on the citadel powered by more than one mana reactor or have more than one enchantment each powered by a mana reactor, reshape to a wider base to have a bunch of wheels (like the Riga-Baumann Scheuerle SPMT only everywhere, google it and you will know what it is) have a few more mana reactors to power movement and BOOM! moveing fortress (will also need some mana reactor powered spells of earth banishment and creation for road construction and removel so no convenient highway for enemies to use)
    would this be fast? well for a fortress it's a blistering speed of 10 kilometers per day! or w/e measurement they use in that world for distance

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    1. oh and since hecate seems to be on good terms with daniel, why doesn't he make a amulet for her as well? since it would only be at best a minor item to her it would still help with w/e she is doing,,, hmmm, she is a goddess soo she can probaly handle more than one at it's current output so he could make a custom set of items for her

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    2. The svartalfar know how to make golems. So do the wizards of the Conclave.

      That raises two points. Given that moving the fortress would mean a lot of effort, wouldn't that be better spent on building a backup in a warmer clime?
      And secondly, Kozalin holds an extremely valuable resource in form of the library and the wizards. If worst comes to worst shouldn't he better team up with the wizards and revolt against the prince?

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    3. The prince would have to be utterly stupid to conventionally attack Daniel. He has too little of his garrison left and considering Daniel has saved the garrisons ass more than a few times I'm not even sure the garrison will follow that order. On the other hand a sneak attack by him would work a lot better. A lot if Daniels gate house defenses really on heat and in book two the royal guard showed that wasn't a problem for them. So maybe Daniel needs some variety in his defenses. If he added a water conjuration effect between the gate and the conjured stone he could drown/boil enemies there (not pretty but it works) or maybe some Indiana Jones style wall guns

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    4. hmm, you know, he has not made any pitfall traps, he could easly make one filled with a poisonous acid or lava, and it can be activated with earth banishment on the floor

      "That raises two points. Given that moving the fortress would mean a lot of effort, wouldn't that be better spent on building a backup in a warmer clime?"

      how would he get the people there without some of them dieing? plus a alot of effort has been put into fortifing the place with spells, and remember how he moved her kitchen so she didn't have to hurt herself trying to move her shrine? and idk if it would be safer for them to move south where it will be a bit warmer, or north where the cold will pretty much kill anything without a very high restence to cold (like the north pole)

      "Kozalin holds an extremely valuable resource in form of the library and the wizards. If worst comes to worst shouldn't he better team up with the wizards and revolt against the prince?"

      well now that all depends on the situation: who is angry at who, who need help, what needs to be done, what is going to happen no matter what is done, what can be salvaged before w/e happens and hope that there is enough time for action

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    5. Daniel has studied the golem enchantments before when Elin was infected with the mercury golem and he has also seen plenty of golems around the city.

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  52. In book 2 Daniel lists some of the transformations he knows he can do: "Catgirls, anime elves, gender reversals, and assorment of cosmetic changes, and some physical enhancements that might actually be useful if they weren't so complex it would take days to do one."

    If he wants male cat shifters, why not just transform them into catgirls, and then apply a gender reversal?

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  53. I think he should build a attack helicopter like an AH-1 Cobra he can make it from aluminum or 'mithril' he doesnt need a motor with his force enchantment he just needs the blades on ball bearings and with structural enchantments it would be pretty tough and super light. But its more of a clear weather vessel so its use would have to remain around Black Keep.

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  54. Thanks for the book.

    Events have been very dense some timeskip might help to get some magic development done and let some people (witches) arrive.
    The relations to the nobles and the conclave will turn sour anway (food shortage).
    The griffins migrating to the dark fortress would be funny.
    How does he get the supplies for Avilla?

    As he thought a lot about communication devices he should build some soon.

    create Chimaira transformations (feywolf, cat-woman, dark-elf, ...)

    Let the dark-elfs scavange books and artefacts.

    More coven magic. (plus larger coven or sub-covens)

    If he trusts her he could use a bunch of powersources to summon a neutron star into a confinement barrier and turn it in a powersource for Hecate.
    (matter in neutron stars and black holes should brake down more or less by itself and gravity magic could be derived from the flight magic)
    (Hecate is weak with few followers and needs some upgrades which could empower him as her champion.)

    Make some swords out of metallic glas with mithril inlayes for enchantments.

    Get some (magic) teachers for his daughter and create a school/daycare for his people.

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    1. ""The griffins migrating to the dark fortress would be funny""
      that would be funny :) also an extra source of tension between him and the prince

      ""How does he get the supplies for Avilla""
      he doesn't, Avilla get's the food herself, get gifted food, or more likely both

      ""If he trusts her he could use a bunch of powersources to summon a neutron star into a confinement barrier and turn it in a powersource for Hecate""
      uhh, no, that's not happening, imo that's a very fragile enchantment world ending BOMB, which would probaly blowup in his face (and the world) the first time he tries to attempt it, and even if it did work, most of the power recived from it would have to back into powering the containment magic holding it together, plus in his mind his earth sorcery is summoning materials from the earth,,, somewhat, not lightyears away

      best materials i believe would be dense and stable, in the platuium group metals

      ""Make some swords out of metallic glas with mithril inlayes for enchantments""
      for who and why? being that close to a dinosaur or any other dangerous creature with a magic sword is just silly when you could have a bigger gun and just blast it to pieces, having it as a backup weapon is fine, but i'm sure the elves can make those enchanted blades, and not out of glass too

      ""Get some (magic) teachers for his daughter and create a school/daycare for his people""
      1: his girls will teach his kids magic, probaly elin for the major share
      2: most kids are dead right now (cause of the cold and not enough food) the kids that did survive are mostly over 10YO, so kids are not a major concern atm
      3: he is definitely going to make a school, however that will be at best just starting in book 5, and more likely in book 6 (if it get's that far {i want book 6!!!}) as he has more pressing matters of survival right now

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    2. Yeah, hate to strike down your idea but assuming that Daniel could somehow summon the mass of a neutron star from nth number of light years away, the explosive decompression would make his magma bombs look like those little firecrackers they set off on holidays; compared to a nuclear bomb. Tl;dr, planet explodes, everybody dies.

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  55. Okay, it seems to me that nearly every single post here is about "What cool stuff Daniel can do with is magic."


    So let's talk about something else:

    - Favorite major character

    -Favorite minor character

    -Favorite male character (that's not Daniel)

    For me:
    Major Character:
    Minor: Alanna
    Male: Brand

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    1. well, the thing is, we state what char's we like and maybe for what reason, and that's it, the topic of conversation is done

      but for daniel's magic we can let our imagination run wild of what he can/could/should/cannot do and sometimes the time frame for said magics and maybe what we would even do if we were in his place

      you would probaly have a better time trying to start the topic of how the girls are now going to use the extra power, but that's a bit difficult as the kind of life that they have lived is outside of our experiences and that they have not currently showen us how much imagination that they can apply to their own magic,,, though we could talk more about spells requiring the entire coven

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    2. Pixel has a point. But to keep you happy

      Major: Elin - nothing like a bookworm to later pull you out of trouble

      Minor: Hecate - pulls off badass goddess without having to be a bitch to all people or demand "respect" from her followers in all sorts of petty ways

      Male: Steelbinder - manages to pull off not being an a**hole a lot better than other wizards/nobles/knights etc


      Now to the fun stuff: I wonder if Daniels earth sorcery lets him change allotropes of carbon? No need to conjure metals if he can get some basic forms of carbon down. Namely graphene - ridiculously tensile strength and lonsdaleite - harder than diamond. Between the two (and possibly some hybrid form if that's even possible) he could make ridiculously lightweight but insanely strong everything. From unbreakable swords with a strong razor sharp edge to light airships (pun intended). Hell if manages armor it would be a great back up for his wards

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    3. he probaly can, but it would be very difficult to do, if you remember how hard it was for him to summon pure iron and how it takes the entire output of a mana reactor for a bit of gold each day
      the kind of things he needs now is just decent items, good items take some time, and great items take alot of time, plus he has no internet so he cant look up things he may not even remember and magic may provide a solution anyways

      what he could do is make some more lightsabers for the expedition force, which for now is the over skilled elves, i'm sure some of them would love to have them, or just give a plasma edge to their weapons, and just have the power draw from the sub-amulets

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    4. It is a bit hard to discuss the magic of the coven, since we know so little about it. Daniel's magic is easier, since we have RL science as a reference. The author seems to have his own magic foundation though that seems to differ from more traditional magic models of mythology and fantasy. For example, what are the limits of 'shadow' magic and the curses of Cerise?

      As for liking characters, I think Alana has potential as a minor character. She intrigues me. As a major character Elin seems to be the most interesting. I also agree that Steelbinder is an interesting minor male character. He seems to be highly intelligent, and actually a decent man. Mind you, if he actually did manipulate events so that Elin ended up with Daniel outside of the cold iron fortress as he implies, than he needs watching. It was not outside of scope since Daniel was already known to help the underdog and have no issue at all with different species, but still ;)

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  56. Upon reflection, what surprises me the most is that Daniel hasn't made any sex toys for the four women in his coven. In the weeks it took to get to Kozalin, and the weeks after, the idea couldn't have not occurred to Daniel. Especially with Cerise around being suggestive 24/7.

    A strap on dildo/double headed dildo that either anchors itself on the pelvis or in the vagina, and has a vibrate and/or heating function would take Daniel less than a couple hours to make, and would make at least one of the women rather deliriously happy.

    Also an egg vibrator, a vibrating dildo, anal beads, butt plug, nipple clamps, etc. would be quick and easy to make and rather appreciated by at least Cerise, minimum.

    Possible sexual things Daniel probably also doesn't have time to make, but would be a hit: A water bed, a massage machine, a sex-swing, special organic lubricant, carefully crafted (to prevent user harm and discomfort and avoid enhanced strength damage) basic bdsm kit, and a spell that can causes body parts to vibrate.

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  57. Major: Tina
    Minor: Alanna
    Male: Demetrios
    But what constitutes a Major Character? Besides the Covens mates

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  58. Oh yeah, another thing that I noticed that wasn't discussed that much (either that or I missed it within these 170+ comments).


    What races would you like to see coming to the Black Citadel and why?


    -Ljósálfar/generic Alfar (but since we already have Dark Elves, they may not be necessary): Mostly because more magic doesn't hurt

    -Some Fairies: Illusions may be useful, Also, see above point about more magic

    -Griffins/Pegasi/Wyverns/Dragons: Blimps are fairly slow, flying cavalry/support may help even things out. Especially since with the infinite ammo, they don't have to worry about weight

    -Harpies (although not sure how that would work depending on the mythology. But then again, they may have been kicked out of the Underworld after Hades was disposed of): See above

    -Naga/Medusae/Lamias/Salamanders (although there's is already one from Pelagia's grove so it may be a moot point): Meh, would be cool. And being coldblooded, they're probably the ones that would get the most affected by the weather

    -Brownies/Domovoi+Kikimora/Hobs/Tomte/kobolds/house-elf: General house spirits that support the place from the background. Also, Hestia did mention some of her people (although she was probably talking more about hearth witches)

    -Gnomes: Inventions! And since Daniel already gave most of the dwarfs the finger, this may be the only way to get








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    1. Oh, and the Djinn/Jinn I guess. Although they would probably be hanging around in the Middle East, not Europe

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    2. Personally I like light elves and tech savvy dwarfs. Or maybe a Huldra.

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    3. The gnomes of inventions is a D&D trope. The gnomes from European mythology are more like brownies and even that is probably more of a modernization. In Viking myth it were the dwarves who craft and invent and they were not particular friendly as we already have seen ;)

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  59. And also, on a similar note, what are some interesting powers that Hecate can form alliances with?

    Already implied:
    -Prometheus
    -Idrun
    -Summer Court
    -Nature spirits

    Interesting ones:

    -The Morrigan: she's pretty much the Irish version of Bast with some traits of Hecate

    -Hephaestus if he's still alive

    -Santa Claus (or Father Christmas/Sinterklaas): I know it's stupid and pointless (especially since one of the supposed predecessor figure of Santa Claus is supposedly Odin), but it would be glorious.


    Meh, I suck with European mythology.

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    1. Prometheus is at best a side story until mara joins the coven
      Idrun would probaly be after Prometheus joins and after bast grows up, then somehow daniel+gods sneek in to save Idrun
      Summer Court so far seems to be on the negitive side of neutral, plus we dont know much about them
      Nature spirits = ???

      it's possible that he could gain a non-aggression pact with loki and family through mara

      for the other olympian gods, we dont know where most of them are, though it seems that the most powerfull are either dead or imprisoned

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    2. The gods of the Balts, Finns and Slavs may still exist. With rebirthing Bast an alliance with Egypt is impossible but the Gods of Arabia and the Near East may then be natural allies. A djinn could be a valuable asset.

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    3. There is also the god of the seas too.

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    4. Mara will want to complete her third task. Loki is devious. Getting Idun out would hit the Aesir hard, as they need her apples. So would Loki suggest that Mara be tasked with kidnapping Idun? Does Hestia have a secret channel to Loki?

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    5. i always had the feeling that sea gods are neutral in everything, but very temperamental to any perceived insults or anything else that they like or dislike

      ""Mara will want to complete her third task. Loki is devious. Getting Idun out would hit the Aesir hard, as they need her apples. So would Loki suggest that Mara be tasked with kidnapping Idun? Does Hestia have a secret channel to Loki?""
      why do i feel that mara's task will take up a whole book? (w/e the task is) with only partial success (as in her soul is compleat but no godly power)

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  60. OK, should we maybe discuss the reaction and plans of Loki's faction now?

    1. Will Gaea indeed blame Odin?
    (Incidentally, DB should have Pelagia create a weak plague. If he can deploy it and wipe out a small village while "accidentally" being observed, the question what he did will seem to be answered)

    2. What will happen to the alliance between Loki and Gaea? How much of mankind does Loki need to wipe out to destroy the Aesir anchor? Is that mission achieved?

    3. What will Odin do? Assuming that Brand escapes and reports he will know that the wizards have a weapon of mass destruction. And obviously, why did Brand stage that raid? Was he really that ignorant? Or more deviously, did Hecate or Hestia request a raid at that time?

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    1. 1. Will Gaea indeed blame Odin?
      maybe? certainly she will be blaming some deity as she has prepared for any known "mortal" means of attack
      1.1 Incidentally, DB should have Pelagia create a weak plague. If he can deploy it and wipe out a small village while "accidentally" being observed, the question what he did will seem to be answered
      why would he want to point a finger at himself to all the gods that he did that? better to just keep that a secret at least until he can defend his home from gods

      2. What will happen to the alliance between Loki and Gaea?
      probaly still allies but strained, and with Gaia being less important

      3. What will Odin do?
      we dont know, he will fight, do things, but we the readers will not know untill he is intruduced as a char
      3.1 Brand reports that the wizards have a weapon of mass destruction
      ummm,,, how does he know this? sure he know that DB is a powerfull guy, with many unseen skills and knowledge, but he didn't see DB do anything, and the red conclave doesn't seem to have the capability to make WMD's
      3.2 why did Brand stage that raid?
      we dont know, and we may never know (could just be stupidy and overconfidence on Brand) it's not like we need to know everything that going on, exept with the main chars,,,,,, eventually

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    2. There was an unknown device within him. It might be a red herring and only related to his escape, but I seriously doubt Brand is the kind of guy who rushes into something without a plan. For all we know, he does something that kills Gaia's unborn daughter. Mara blames Daniel and we have some serious drama at our hands ;)

      I do agree that Brand has seen nothing too extra-ordinary. At most he wonders what Daniel is exactly since he apparently has the power to defeat demi-gods. I am surprised Brand seems to think he will meet Daniel at Valhalla even though the man is aware Daniel's soul is promised to somebody else and that Daniel seems to be more friendly with Loki's side than his. Daniel might oppose Gaia, but he is awfully friendly with Mara. Does he know something we don't or was it just a habitual expression?

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    3. hmmm, for a real twist, say that gaia's new daughter is actualy the body for the other personality/soul that inside mara

      as for the device inside Brand, i first thought it was a bomb, or posion, but it could have several functions, since we have been told he's a divine assasin it follows that he has some special tools
      ,,,,,,,,,,
      random thought, daniel needs one of those god eaters, for those pesky demi-gods that would just keep comming back from the dead (along with anyone else that comes back too) hopefully a intelligent or trainable one, as for right now he does not have any way of keeping people who will not stay dead as dead

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    4. "why would he want to point a finger at himself to all the gods that he did that?"

      He already badly mauled a demigod. Loki at least will neither expect nor believe that he did nothing to stop the Andregi. If he has no clue, he will search for an answer and maybe find out. If he knows of a failed counter measure, everything is explained.

      "how does he know this? sure he know that DB is a powerfull guy, with many unseen skills and knowledge, but he didn't see DB do anything, and the red conclave doesn't seem to have the capability to make WMD's"

      Exactly. DB killed a demigod. Brand will report that. He was there, a week later a mysterious weapon kills the slumbering heroes. He will draw his conclusions.

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  61. oh ho! i think i found future plot points

    “No living man can command the Skyhammer, Exalted One, and the Sleeping Giant is as dormant as ever.”

    i think he's going to get the giant, and the skyhammer will be his weapon but something will need to happen to the conclave first, or it's another enemy to beat after it wakes up -.-

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  62. I'm not going to read through 200 comments to see if this has been touched upon yet, but I started this series and the first book was a super fast read because of the sex. That first book was great, the further we get from that the less you go into details about it.

    I started reading Fimbulwinter due to a recommendation based on the fact that I was reading the Gor Saga and really wasn't enjoying it. Your first book was a breath of fresh air. Give me sexy naked girls again.

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  63. Maybe the skyhammer isn't magical but high tech mechanical(ufo or watever).
    I wonder wen he is going to get avilla's other stuff from granny's home , with his skyship it is a 2 hour trip at most.
    Also he could check up on marigold for survivors or family from his soldiers

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