u/CapUnusual4213

Minor Book 3 Spoiler.

Does anyone know why Shirtaloon took away Jason’s Quest System?

Was it just to make him (Jason) seem more adrift in Books 4-6?

So at some point we learn that the Church of Fertility lets people of different species have children together. Could the Church let an LGBT couple have a child that was biologically both of theirs?

So, I’m on my third reread and I just noticed that runics are described a few times as having blue skin so dark it’s almost black. Later on they are just described as dark skinned with the glowing runes.

Did anyone else miss out on these guys being blue, or was it just me?

I’ve never written fanfic before, but this series has tickled my brain with the way one would create a character that I’ve decided to try to fully flesh out abilities for an Iron ranker while having clear paths/options for growth at Rank Ups. The idea is for an affliction controller who gradually erases every advantage an enemy has until they’re trapped in a battle they can no longer win.

Void

Basic - Empty Vessel- cleanses one debuff from self.

Anticipation AS - Null Presence- Space tends to bend around you increasing the chance for attacks to miss. This ability increases for each instance of Tainted on attacker.

Barrier AS - Spatial Severance- For an ongoing mana cost, prevent dimensional effects from manifesting within your aura.

Foot AS - Void Step- Short Range teleport 

Moment AS - Momentary Absence- For a short period of time physical objects in your path become intangible to you allowing you to pass harmlessly through them.

Potent

Basic - Supercharge- temporarily increase Health/Stamina/Mana Regeneration 

Echo AS - Hollow Residual- Your Void Step ability leaves behind a temporary copy of yourself.

Focus AS - Compound- Doubles the amount of Taint and Entropy you have applied to the Target 

Foot AS - Escalating Encumbrance- Reduce target’s Speed attribute based upon the instances of Tainted or Entropy on target.

Persistence AS - Cascade Failure- For every instance of Tainted on target apply an instance of Entropy. For every instance of Entropy on target apply an instance of Empty Body.

Corrupt 

Basic - Mark the Unclean- Attacks apply the Tainted debuff. Tainted decreases the effectiveness of Boons and HoTs. This ability increases for each instance of Tainted on the target.

Eyes AS - Sight of the Wicked- Able to visually tell if a target is under the effects of either a Boon or HoT

Feeble AS - Degradation- Applies an instance of Entropy. Target’s Power Attribute is reduced. This reduction is increased based upon the number of instances of Entropy affecting target.

Hunt AS - Bountiful Remains- Enemies defeated by you or an ally within your aura can become useful items and/or Spirit Coins

Wrath AS - Wrathful Reversal- Temporarily turn Boons into Debuffs and Heal-over-times into Damage-over-times.

Vortex 

Basic - Consuming Vortex- Aura - Enemies who attack you or an ally within your aura receive the Entropy debuff. Entropy decreases the duration of Boons and Heal-over-time effects for each instance of Entropy.

Fire AS - Entropic Burn- Applies an instance of Empty Body on Target. Empty Body deals Cold damage over time.

Might AS - Convergent Maelstrom- Create a point of warped space that continuously drags enemies towards the center.

Preparation AS - Elsewhere Aperture- Create a small portal to access a personal storage space.

Shield AS - Event Horizon- Conjure several miniature vortices that orbit you and intercept incoming attacks 

Thoughts?

It’s said that Essence users have an innate sense of what their abilities do, but do people have that same ability to identify Essences? Or is it more that they have unique shapes/colors/patterns that people learn and can thereafter identify?

If someone were to get these essences, what’s the group think of what the confluence would be? I’m currently leaning towards either Cataclysm or Doom.

In my head, Deceit and Destruction started a cult where they forced essences on people (I have a scenario of how/why it could happen) and a character is given those three essences to cause havoc.

Or am I the only one bothered by two out of three posts here being absurd fancasts?

Edit: obviously people are going to want to post their fan-casts, and I’m not saying that they shouldn’t be able to, simply that it might be preferable to have them as a Megathread. Or maybe a group of Megathreads. 1 for the Royal Court of Princess Donut, 1 for the members of Sweet Home Yolanda, 1 for any other Crawlers, and a fourth for the various aliens.

At one point I swear it’s said that Zara’s brother became the new Storm King, but then in book 12 it’s said that the new king is her cousin. Am I misremembering the part where it’s said it’s her brother in an earlier book?

Rl;Dr: What the title asks.

I started a reread a month ago and shortly after started toying around with a Character Builder/Deck Builder board game based on the series. Pulled up the wiki to check out the various canonical essences and “discovered“ the Void essence. . . and now my brain is fixated upon it. I keep coming up with half-baked concepts when pairing it with things like Myriad and Potent, or Dark and Dimension, or Mirror and Flesh, etc. Unfortunately I’m not finding good confluences for any of these (although I think Doom and Time could certainly work for some) and that got me wondering if any character in the series has a Void essence.

Jason was going to give his brother these essences, and that made me start thinking about the potential powers, which lead to me postulating that they’d create a Chimera Confluence and result in another afflictions-based power set.

Thoughts?

Is it ever touched upon if someone could have 2-3 of the same Essence?

As the title asks. My friend and I have been brainstorming ideas for a few days and that makes me wonder if there is actually a game being made.

Edit: the issue with a TTRPG is the sheer number of Essence combinations. Even limiting the 145 known ones to 75 that’s still 70,000+ combinations. We were thinking more The Game of Life meets a Deck Builder. You’d move along a game board and get game cards that give you essences that you could keep/use or sell; as well as finding awakening stones. The rarer the awakening stone the more ability cards you would get to look at before choosing one.

“The monster surge is coming! Can you survive the life of an Adventurer and be ready in time? Collect your 3 Essences to discover your Confluence and find your 20 Awakening stones to unlock your full powers! Complete your character deck and see how many monster waves your team can survive!”

Is it that people conflate “legal” with “moral“ and “illegal“ with “immoral“?

Obviously, a person has to live within their means, but there are plenty of jobs where working 40 hours a week does not provide enough to live by any means. Why does society say this is okay?

For starters, in case it matters, I’m a gay, autistic male with ADHD and Bipolar from a conservative Midwest town.

My parents divorced when I was in high school, but my sister and I knew it would happen since I was in kindergarten.

Almost 20 years ago my mother moved away from the Midwest and to Florida to be closer to her retired mother who had dementia. She was very cordial about the move and even had asked my sister and I if we were okay with her moving so far away, which obviously we were. She would still come back to visit at least once a year, generally in the summer, and we would talk on the phone for an hour or so 1-4 times a month.

About 10 years ago, I moved about 2 hours away from my home town to a more liberal area so as to feel more at peace. Since doing so it became harder and harder to make plans with my mother when she would visit as all of her family still lived in the town. She would always let me know in advance when she was coming, I’d immediately remind her of my “set” days off and ask if any of those would work for her because otherwise I would need a few weeks notice in order to request off of work. She would always then make some comment about needing to check in with person X, Y, or Z because she wanted to see them as well and that she’d get back to me. She’d then not get back to me until days before her planned visit, far too late for me to get off of work. Despite not feeling “at fault“ if I then wasn’t able to see her, I would still feel like a failure and like a bad son.

The straw that then broke this camel’s back was when I found out a week into a two week trip that she was back in the Midwest to babysit for my sister’s kids while my sister took a trip with her husband. After I coincidentally found out, she put little to no effort into trying to make plans with me, which left me a little angry and more than a little hurt. Cut to a few weeks later when she texts me that she’ll be in the Midwest again in a few months and definitely wanted to see me. I, seeing the same pattern playing out, finally confronted her on her habit of putting off making definitive plans with me until the last second. I said something along the lines of “great, you’ll be in town those dates, but when are you actually *free*?” and then point out how she always says that she needs to check with other people first. Her only response was to say she was hurt that I’d noticed such a thing.

Because she refuses to acknowledge her actions, I’ve gone no contact. AITAH for doing so? I love and miss my mother, but I don’t miss the feelings of being made to feel worthless. Honestly it feels like no matter what I do I still lose.

So in the campaign I’m creating, the final dungeon requires them to open every door, but each door contains the “essence” of a card from the Deck of Many Things. Most of the campaign will revolve around them doing tasks for various entities to learn what each door will do when opened. I’m using a mix between the 5E and 5.5E deck rules, as well switching a few up completely. I’m also planning on their being four doors that they’ll never learn about short of opening it and figuring it out in hopes of maintaining some level of mystery.

For example, the Rogue door would be a mystery and will deal 1d4 of psychic damage to whomever opens it. The next time that character opens a door they’ll take 1d6 psychic damage, then 1d8, and on and on up to 1d20.

For the Flames door, another one that’ll be a mystery, I’m planning on 3(X) hostile werewolves appearing where X is the amount of doors that character has opened.

Where I’m looking for advice is potential interaction between the previously mentioned Flames door and the Comet door. Comet will also “summon” a hostile creature, and if the door opener single handedly defeats that creature they gain a level. Should I have Comet also summon a werewolf in case the character that opened Flames also opens Comet to prompt a “oh no, which one do I need to defeat solo/do I need to defeat them all solo?” conundrum, or should I just pick a different creature for the Comet door? Or, do I pick a separate creature for Comet *unless* the same character opens both and *then* use an additional Werewolf?

Additional information that may be pertinent is that the characters will be level 15 when entering the dungeon.

So, at the Roundtable just after Ross was recruited he had a golden opportunity to throw Harry under the bus and didn’t. Zach is spouting his ideas about who could be a Traitor based on who knew Harry had a shield or not. Why didn’t Ross point out what actually happened as a theory? Similar to how Harry “theorized“ what Paul did and why, why didn’t Ross say something along the lines of “for all we know Harry is a Traitor who used having a shield to cover a recruitment”?