‘That is largely correct,’ said Qorvass. ‘We have never had “kings,” per se, but we did believe that individuals with a certain power had been chosen to guide our people.’
Hector put two and two together and looked at Asad, who was busy yawning and hardly even seemed to be paying attention.
‘Such individuals are historically quite rare,’ Qorvass went on. ‘They usually appear only once in five generations. Oftentimes longer. There were several instances where we went without a clear leader for extended periods of time. But then the gods decided to play a cruel prank on us, and three children manifested the divine ability in the span of a single year.’
‘I suppose it would’ve been too much to ask for them to just rule together,’ said Garovel dryly.
‘The children themselves were not the real problem,’ said Qorvass. ‘They were children. They did as their Hahls told them. And each Hahl feared--perhaps quite correctly--that one of the other two Hahls would betray them for power. And precaution became escalation, and escalation became war.’
Hector still didn’t understand something. “But, er... uh, how did the Shards factor in?”
‘The Shards are powerful catalysts for servant abilities,’ said Garovel. ‘And they work for anyone, divine power or no. They would even work for you, for instance. But there is a catch.’
Hector was not surprised.
‘They fall dormant when there remains no living person who wields the Sandlord’s divine ability with sufficient skill.’
“Uh... not sure I understand...”
‘It has to do with the way they were made,’ said Garovel. ‘The so-called “Dry God” was, in truth, just another person who happened to have the divine ability. Like our good friend Asad here.’
Asad matched Hector’s gaze evenly. His expression seemed somehow sad.
‘The Dry God’s real name was Rasalased, and he was one of the most powerful servants of his age,’ said Garovel. ‘The story goes that he was so powerful and so heavily relied upon by his people that he became terrified of what would happen to them if he were ever killed in battle. As was known to happen. So he created the Shards, hoping that they would help keep the Sandlords safe after he was gone. The only problem was that in order to create them, he had to fuse his soul with his ability so completely that he turned himself to crystal. Which killed both him and his reaper, ironically.’
A dark serial novel. Set in a modern fantasy world called Eleg. Mature language. Updates every night at midnight PST by ~400 words.
The story goes that he was so powerful and so heavily relied upon by his people that he became terrified of [what] would happen to them if he were ever killed in battle.
ReplyDeleteThe only problem was that in order to create them, he had to fuse his soul with his ability so completely [the>that] he turned himself to crystal.
Fixed, thank you.
ReplyDeleteAs fast as hector is advancing he doesn't count as no sand power. Would be interesting to test them to see if they work though.
ReplyDeleteAre divine abilities always materialization? Or can they be transfiguration as well? And the creation of the Shards seems almost like an integration power.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone else find Asad terribly hot? Even though we don't even know what he looks like really? I mean, seriously! I just want him to *explicit content removed* all night long!
ReplyDeleteTypo:
ReplyDeleteWe have never had “kings,” [per say]
Technically, it's "per se", but you see "per say" so often that it might be considered synonymous by now. It's just that "per say" doesn't mean anything.
Yep, yep. Totally brain farted there. Thank you for the correction.
ReplyDeleteHaha.
ReplyDeleteYup, I was right.
ReplyDeleteSorry, but he already has a wife and children... And I don't think he is the kind to cheat.
ReplyDeleteYou should go for Ibai :D
Lol Haqq's shield is really nothing to brag about when there are things like the Quta Jaf’lah and Warrenhold out in the world
ReplyDeleteYeah, but I don't think Hector can carry Warrenhold with him everywhere he goes.
ReplyDeleteOh crap! I've finally caught up completely, I need to say something to commemorate my catching up!
ReplyDeleteUm....umm....uhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....I....Like....Pie.
What would be the point of doing that?
ReplyDeleteIt only needs a sand power to be active, it still works for anyone
ReplyDeleteMeh. I've already shipped Ibai with Emiliana, so if anyone else tries to get his attention I'll just have to kill them to protect my OTP.
ReplyDeleteThe shield's regeneration was really a secondary feature to keep it from being rendered pointless by getting destroyed and staying that way. The real big deal was the defense boost, and the fact that nobody near emperor level had to die for it. As far as I understand it, the shield is like that except for servant power not passive soul defense, and with the level of someone absurdly powerful even compared to Abbas Saqqaf. What I wonder about the shards is what they do to prevent theft. Unless they can be used remotely, they still need to lug the shards around and keep any enemies from touching them. Also, I wonder if anyone, having stolen the shards, would think to kidnap, box, and freeze a sandlord of sand to ensure that the power supply cannot be shut off.
ReplyDeleteIt said they're a catalyst for abilities, which makes me think they're something you only have to use once. I guess Rasalased was planning for the Sandlords to hang onto them and only let people they really liked get the benefit from them.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't he look AWESOME carrying Warrenhold? I'd hold more respect for him if I was just meeting him at that point.
ReplyDeleteMore importantly, if he met a dangerous Abolisher (read: any of them), he could just put it down on them.
ReplyDeleteProbably done with Pan-Rozum, which grants aspects of integration for mass users even during normal use, which this was not. Also, I'm pretty sure that at least the rain and sand powers are only materialization, just because water transfig would be utterly lame. Interestingly, both of the abilities have fairly cookie-cutter solid materializer uses, although they make up for being boring by starting from useful cookie-cutter skill packages and then cheating profusely.
ReplyDeleteIf Asad isn't strong enough to power up the shards, my guess is that its just a specific amount of soul power or strength, and that Asad will be close enough to turn them on with a fresh emergence, a new cheat, or just some normal growth.
ReplyDeleteIt would be hard for anything besides compound materialization to be special by servant standards.
ReplyDeleteDestruction just has shapes, so aside from actual letters there's no surprises you could get there.
Alteration doesn't have any forces that would really surprise you, unless you get two powers, which even the divine rain and sand abilities don't do. Although I suppose there might be a class of forces that are rare, like if physical constants such as inertia or the gas constant were rare but possible while energies like light or gravity were standard.
Integration and mutation eventually end up with a whole library of materials, so which one you start with isn't terribly relevant.
That leaves the mass types. There aren't any single elements that would be a surprise, so divine abilities would have to be compounds. Compounds are generally more chemically stable than single elements, so they would be most suited to materialization users, who rely more on physical than chemical properties.
Lol welcome!
ReplyDeleteEh, he's too childish for my taste.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if any emperors with it or just really strong materialization users in the past or present ever made entire castles from their powers where the only way in was over bridges, also made from their powers so they could just make a part vanish to drop people to their deaths or stop them from crossing over. I mean seriously, if you had an entire castle made of you're own material then no one could ever catch you in it. Well, unless it was someone who countered your abilities like karkash and hector.
ReplyDeleteAlmost makes me wonder if they get used up. The amount left doesn't sound like 1/3 of a human sized pile, and I would expect that they would be divvied up fairly.
ReplyDeleteThere are a few other things that could be impressive for materialization, such as exotic elements not found in nature. As I've stated before, astatine materialization in an Abolisher would be utterly terrifying, as would uranium, plutonium, or, if isotopes are possible, deuterium.
ReplyDeleteI imagine that isotopes are a very high-level technique within an element.
ReplyDeleteThere's more than 3 Hahls. Najir might not have even been one of the three from the war.
ReplyDeleteCarbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Phosphorus, Sulfur. The elements common in the human body, which transfiguration servants combine with their element to get the compounds and reactions they use.
ReplyDeleteI certainly never said that solid materialization is weak, just comparatively boring. In fact, it kind of dominates the scene at low levels, up to around 10 years I'd say. What I said was lame was water materialization. You can't do any fun chemical tricks with water because its already fairly chemically stable, and it can't do anything impressive except hot gas jets that would hurt you the most.
ReplyDeleteSteam cannon.
ReplyDelete