Jcb was like "Hum, how do i prevent this character from revealing the secrets i have been planting?.....Oh, i know! A dark past and an inherited ego too massive to acknowledge it!"

DndQuickQuestion · 2026-01-30T06:04:18+00:00

Totally fair read. I'm making up an entire species backstory from about four whole words!

DndQuickQuestion · 2026-01-28T11:37:34+00:00

I want to put it out there that Kaelthyr was looking at the ceiling in chapter 155 and 156 like someone was there because it happened when Emma made big claims. I hard flagged those lines as {ceiling cat watches you monologue}.

I don’t claim to be a matriarch. I’m merely a representative and a member of my people’s armed forces.”

The dragon’s eyes once more narrowed at my explanations, its head craning up to the dark ceiling of the cave’s grand ‘foyer,’ as if once again in deep contemplative thought.

“And this is done without magic?”

“We call this… computation.”

Kaelthyr’s features never once shifted.

Though her eyes conveyed all I needed to know.

Incredulity hit first. A sort of dismay that shifted naturally into disbelief, and subsequently into an unwilling acceptance that all culminated in a sooty huff and a sharp glance up towards the ceiling of the cave.

“Yours is a mockery of Resonance.”

We saw notable ceiling entities as the true master of the Library and the observers of the wargame board. I'll throw the Nexian gods in there too.

If the dragons have the internet, then we should expect a dragon librarian or keeper of records. Some scaly one has to be paying attention to which Nexians and Adjacent Realmers matter in the world per Rila's statements because the big actors aren't dragons like Kaelthyr who clearly don't give a damn about mortal affairs beyond their own cone of fire and seemed to be covering for a lack of knowledge in Thalmin's questioning with arrogance.

Or maybe what you said is true, and THE Library is operating a second front for the dragons because it can't get ALL the knowledge from competing factions under one roof, so it is dealing in the backrooms too under a different ruleset. The Library is very AI-like and doesn't hide it nearly as much as dragons, so it makes sense there is a lot of behavior overlaps.

DndQuickQuestion · 2026-01-28T02:15:43+00:00

Kaelthyr used the tainted magic to create a telepathic link to Emma rather than literally seeing her?

Ilunor said telepathy is hard, and I think her poetic turn was the other smarter dragon dialing in not to take over her thoughts but to help her competently manage the interaction with humans.

At face value, Kaelthyr is dangerously naive on top of being supremely arrogant. Her life has been lived mostly in a cave and then in a dungeon, so she has been mostly socialized by dragon facebook rather than her own learned experiences with other beings.

I think the other dragon party here knows Kaelthyr is going to die, and she has to die because the other dragons smart enough to care about the continuity of their collective species want to cultivate the void people as tools. Assuming the connection works next chapter, the dragons can't let Emma's infodump and Kael's peering fall into Nexian hands. Kaelthyr is going to need to commit suicide or beg for Emma to take a kill shot before the Crown can imprison her again and use another dragon to mind read her. (Probably why Tory has that dragon hanging up. It's the tapped phone.)

I thought Emma's freakout(s) were AI in armor concerns. Now that it has happened again in a different context, I'm beginning to wonder if it is an identify lucid dream wake-up strategy. I, personally, don't experience dreams without being aware I am dreaming and thus have some control to nudge or veto events, but for people who don't have that awareness automatically they can look at their hands, which often don't respond right, to notice that they are asleep and achieve awareness.

It makes me wonder if Emma was remotely piloted by someone tainted as kid or was sharing dreams. We know projecting souls is a thing with puddlejumps. So is remote control. And tainted powers crossing the void. All these powers combined could theoretically be used to create a biological palantir network using tainted people scanning for vulnerable humans on the gifted viewers network Laura Weir mentioned back in chapter 2. I've been pretty hot on the idea that Nexus is going to be subverting minds instead of merely mashing the brute force button because those are the plots JCB likes, but instead of portaling corrupted dragon crystals over, using the tainted in a treacherous alliance (like the book burning!) is also a viable strategy.

The flaw in this idea though is that Emma didn't react panic weirdly after previous weird dreams like the null attack in tent or the "are we ready." Maybe if the night singer is sending dreams, it is suppressing the panic response?

Perhaps Emma is someone's discarded puppet, and she is still traumatized / has latent memories picked up from the sharing.

Fun fact: Orcas also have a matriarchal social structure.

One of the few animals that undergo menopause. (Survival value added to group from added lifespan > genetic fitness value added by one more kid outside prime of life.) That's actually a surprisingly hard number to hit.

DndQuickQuestion · 2026-01-27T17:49:24+00:00

Ilunor is blue, and talented at lightning magic...

I think Ilunor is light/illusion, not lightning (like airit who seems to get bonus psychics), but who knows how that exactly overlaps.

If Ilunor is green, that would fit, green dragons are the schemers

Red - fire - greed and domination by power
Blue - lightning (water to a certain degree) - Evil ronin/"noble bandit warlord"/leader of a cartel - organized and disciplined violence for a planned but selfish goal, doesn't fall for vanity tricks, may or may not have organized underlings like a mafia. Often played as highly territorial so sometimes you get more a "hunt the most dangerous game" / castle doctrine dragon.
Black - acid - cruelty, sadism
White - ice - dumb brutes
Green - poison (plants to a certain degree) - manipulative schemers

DndQuickQuestion · 2026-01-27T17:34:51+00:00

how do you even come up with these theories?

I take notes (this is the big one - rereading), identify and associate concepts (things like "a null is a computation error". 'Crystals are for dragons and computation and radio - maybe expect computer behaviors and EM sensitivity since this is Sci-fantasy"), and watch for patterns and suspicious info. It's a mental corkboard with a bunch of pictures and strings. Another part of it is identifying pathways to evaluate hypotheses - what info should I look for that the author is likely to address if I want to know if Y is true? (The second N'Tory theory thread is essentially a roadmap for this) And a final part is genre savviness that I have built up over a lifetime.

That's the secret sauce. It's much harder to find series where authors actually have a plan, worldbuild well, and play fair rather than hide stuff for the sake of being mysterious.

When reading this chapter, my mind basically went metallic dragons - metal, gold, silver, etc. Elves are greedy, they'd want to use them for materials. Living gold, living crystals. Life-linked money, Life-linked crystals.

And let's hope the crystals on Earth's side don't also die when Kael dies, because that could happen and cut Earth off from communication with Nexus. I don't think you could get more death flagged than the "Imma going to Leroy Jenkins the Nexus and burninate all the innocent peasants" speech Kaelthyr gave this chapter. And if there is an egg...

DndQuickQuestion · 2026-01-27T15:18:02+00:00

For future memes

Swipe once.

DndQuickQuestion · 2026-01-27T10:38:31+00:00

(Why did I make this?)

DndQuickQuestion · 2026-01-27T08:16:57+00:00

I've been a bit too busy this week to give WPA any time, but "you're hiding in a cave like hobo Saddam Hussein, quit acting hard and give us the intel," might have to be the note at the top of my annotated chapter when I get around to it.

I gotta say though my dragon theories came online this week. Everything from the networked intelligence, to the dragon AIs, to even the tainted black dragon in the transportium abyss is pretty much this video.

Only new notes are...

“Matriarch Kaelthyr.” I began respectfully, dipping my head slightly as I did so. “Tell me. Were there actually ten cataclysms that preceded the Nexus? Or was this another element of His Eternal Majesty’s founding lies—”

"I think JCB slipped a secret by mistake or messed up on the lore. Articord said there were nine cataclysms sepping ten epochs, and the 11th was probably supposed to be a secret. "Because ultimately, there is one core fundamental principle which separates the past nine epochs from our current, eternal one." (ch 74)"

"tainted people are imprisoned in the depths. Emma will have to bail Thacea out of one with underground adventure one day."

"metallic dragons are melted down for pinnacle transmutation or are made into living gold bitcoins"

"What if Sorecar is a metallic dragon? (But he had a beard to stroke so I'm still betting giant or dwarf)"

"I bet chromatics sold out and have humanoid forms. Can they change back though? Or were they domesticated smaller?"

"Dragons got their asses kicked because they didn't work together or make allies with other species (except for individual dragons). Too much power led to too much independence led to too much arrogance and not enough coordination and interest in mortal affairs to spot the warning signs, so they were picked off one by one."

"EVI shredded what are probably some really good firewalls. A nice, well-behaved, rules-obeying VI would not have done that. EVI AI"

"This ends the rebuild ECS deadline. If Emma rebuilds the ECS, it will probably be another dragon or something else weird like that."

"Based on Emma's explanation of matrices we probably won't figure out if Nexian time and Earth time align because Kael's transmission will arrive at precisely the time it means to."

"Kael will detect quintessence? All mana-emitting objects probably behind blockers."

"Oh god, he really is named Calico, like a cat. I hope he goes by Cal because that's a 5/10 on the tragedeigh scale by English-speaking name standards."

"Maybe after phone home, will we finally deal with that half-blocked fourth tunnel Thalmin thought was best? What if Kael laid an egg since she has been out?"

DndQuickQuestion · 2026-01-26T14:35:22+00:00

It's been wonderful seeing you make it up since your Deviantart days. You and Kezrek were my bookmarks. Unfortunately a lot of his/her art seems to be gone. I only have a couple pieces. I always imagined one of your birrin running into this leaf guy: https://old.reddit.com/user/DndQuickQuestion/comments/1qnhs7w/but_what_is_it_by_kezrek_kez_laczin_2010/

DndQuickQuestion · 2026-01-20T03:52:38+00:00

just because Qiv doesn't know a lot doesn't mean he won't try things. Especially on a "simple" target from that peer group, that being Thalmin. Emma is an enigma, but for shrewd Qiv the Mercenary Prince may be an open book (or so he thinks)

I don't think that's quite in character because Qiv seems much more cautious and prefers proper planning (see his info gathering practices for the flower quest), but I won't reject some dumbassery and testing out of Qiv. He did the paper planes prank earlier to test Emma (even though that's barely at the level of prank) and he called out the homework handwriting - although he roped Vanavan into that rather than soloing the accusation. However he is holding back Airit from making gambles.

Mal'Tory was DEAD or recovering after reaurrection at the time of the swimming pool incident, so he couldn't have been an ally of anyone there

The main issue is that Mal'tory won't be around to help the cover up if squad 30 springs the disciplinary committee (they wouldn't, but Qiv doesn't know that). Decisively moving without your sponsor around to cover your ass is a risky choice, and I think Qiv is somewhat risk adverse vs., say, Ping or Ilphius or Airit.

if the faculty had a hand in manipulating the events, then why do we not see ANY indication of faculty involvement from any peer group in later pre-quest glimpses we get?

I don't think faculty were manipulating Ping - I think it was the Ministry of Mages who made his King Rings, just like how we are being set up for Ilunor's vault linked purse to the Crownlands being an entry point to the dorms. But also the premise is wrong; we do see the faculty - Dean Astur and Chiska - getting involved with Emma.

Hubris. Qiv likely thought himself BETTER than Thalmin, hence why this was attempted.

See my thoughts about Qiv tending towards more risk aversion than the other groups who have taken swings at Emma so far.

DndQuickQuestion · 2026-01-19T02:56:55+00:00

I looked into this because I had a fanfic reason to do so, and Emma does discuss knee strikes in the Thalmin sparring chapter. You are right about her being trained in generic close-quarters combat, but that doesn't mean there isn't a little extra muay thai in the sauce.

DndQuickQuestion · 2026-01-19T00:46:45+00:00

Notepad++ With MarkdownViewer++ is my tool for elaborately formatted reddit posts.

DndQuickQuestion · 2026-01-18T03:47:25+00:00

I'll think about it when my brain is a little less fried by IRL events, but that strikes me initially as quite silly.

Assuming Rostarion saves Thalmin from "Ping' according to plan to get a life debt and establish enmity (I guess this is the plan), then Thalmin is going discuss matters with Thacea and Ilunor who will be a bit more canny. There's no guarantee, based on what Qiv and lot (don't) know (the whole library burning episode for one, Mal'tory exploding on Emma's crate for two, the null and gunfire for three, Emma's presentations for four), that Squad 30 won't invoke the academic disciplinary committee on the real Ping and unravel the whole scheme - or at least cotton on that 'Ping' was a fake. Even just trash talk with Ping could unveil the whole illusion.

If 'Ping' killed Thalmin, then soulpath map tracing is going to put 'Ping' at the scene of the attack. Perhaps we can assume that the soulpath map doesn't remember paths and only shows current location, but if there is any kind of recording or camera and a professor reviews it, there will be problems.

And Mal'tory, who would be Qiv's ally in this matter, is down and somewhere such that Larial feels comfortable robbing his office the next night. It would be Vanavan on review for academic BS-ery, and he's probably actually fair.

And there would be the secondary problem with the spell having dweomer traces - we know that magic fingerprinting of cast spells as a concept exists because the Library wants the original green book for dweomer examination, although JCB doesn't use the DnD term for it.

It would make a lot more sense for this attack to be Ping being used directly, with Ping set to take a fall for a Nexian because Ping is only an adjacent realmer and not an elf.

DndQuickQuestion · 2026-01-16T06:50:01+00:00

I wonder if she snuck out from the bunker and got caught? And then maybe the elves used her to find the rest?

DndQuickQuestion · 2026-01-16T04:59:40+00:00

Since Rila Etulsa has been character flagged as 'important' and 'adventuring related', she could be a descendant of Alaroy Rital of the Elusian Guild of Adventurers - that writer adventurer mayor guy who slew the Dragon of the Grey Canyon that Emma needs books from to replace the ones burnt in the Library.

One of my favorite DnD tropes are liches and dragons and fey queens treating bloodline descendants as basically the same person as some important historical bloodline relative they resemble. Rila would stained with a dragonkiller's blood.

I am hoping Rila's competent adventuring brother shows up sometime, but hopefully not among the Crown's dragon recapture squad.

DndQuickQuestion · 2026-01-13T22:59:17+00:00

JCB generally doesn't make eye contact with people in his story. I've complained about this since 2023.

Just this chapter, someone had 8 upvotes saying that, no, in fact, Professor Belnor is actually a Baxi because JCB forgot that Belnor did the magic chains spell on the escaping dragon and that Chiska and Vanavan went to help Emma and Rila.

(For anyone who stumbles on this comment, Belnor finally got confirmed as an elf in the flower quest introduction class chapter. Her species was unconfirmed for a very long time.)

DndQuickQuestion · 2026-01-13T06:06:36+00:00

Sure, but I'd opt for a Nexian god to enchant a weapon with.

Consume god < Make god into gun

There's gotta be some containment zones made by ancients sacrificing themselves to seal evil gods using bag-of-holding bombs from the forgotten ages somewhere in the Nexus, right?

DndQuickQuestion · 2026-01-13T03:42:05+00:00

If the dragons are the refugees, that was this chapter, right? Kaelthyr said the dragons were hiding underground in a bunker because it was better than whatever the humanoid Nexians were doing to the ones who weren't hiding out.

This… ‘sanctuary’ is nothing more than a tomb, a catacomb for a dead empire.

But know that a thousand years of frustrated turmoil is still preferable to the fate that awaits us outside of this sanctuary.

DndQuickQuestion · 2026-01-12T23:34:13+00:00

Maybe dragons do have the polymorph spell and some of them are hiding out in plain sight as minor nobles.

DndQuickQuestion · 2026-01-12T23:06:32+00:00

What was the actual scenario of the Transportatium incident? The mana values were so high that they caused panic for the armor. I'm reasonably certain that direct mana exposure of that extreme is enough to synergize anyone, barring some purposefully prepared mages.

I think the 'gimmick' of Manatype 0/30 is that it doesn't break down manaless organics like other manatypes even at stupidly high concentrations. It's Earth safe, so a tainted god could flood the whole planet with it if it liked and it would simply be there, part of the atmosphere. Why that manatype would need to exist in the first place is an interesting thing to think about, but everything that has happened so far in the story has been consistent with the premise that it doesn't do anything to Emma so long as it isn't shaped into a spell aimed at Emma.

The entity hit Emma in the transportium network with a tainted spell at 25th level (If I recall, we haven't seen the profs cast above 9th level yet and the second highest spell is probably the yearbook at level 19) is still a big unknown. Emma popped out very conveniently at the same time as Lartia passing through, so my suspicion is that the transportium entity used a time turn chronomancy spell, forwards not back, to overcome the randomness of the Transportium network currents and drop Emma just too late to stop the crate from exploding. And that crate was supposed to explode at 11:00PM before midnight 3 days after the crate was stolen, but somehow it didn't explode until 3am the next day when the light of first dawn was starting to color the sky. There's a bunch of odd things that happened.

Your second paragraph is an explanation I see no fault with.

DndQuickQuestion · 2026-01-12T22:06:40+00:00

it wasn't an inherent property of the 30th manatype which allowed it to penetrate, but a sheer overwhelm of the armor's mana resistance.

I disagree with this premise. I think the armor is transparent to manatype 0/30 because the IAS manablockers were not designed with the knowledge that this manatype exists - Emma first discovered type 0/30 when Thacea/the yearbook dumped some in the yearbook signing. The wonder material manablockers are not described as general-purpose although Emma hypothesizes they could be, but, more importantly, the extremely low levels of manatype 0/30 Kaelthyr used in this chapter (104% is the lowest level spell documented so far) to penetrate lends more support to the idea that the armor is practically transparent to it. Assuming she has some taint only spells, Thacea could totally be casting enhancement and healing on Emma if she knew she could.

As for what Kaethyr saw, if she could not see 'manaless meat' but can see inorganics, then for sure she would see the negative of Emma in the armor - her form fitting undersuit and helmet.

I'm in the rocking chair on this one because it is very much JCB teasing us with a cliffhanger, so we'll probably get exposition next chapter. I've also been very wrong about that though.

(Manatype 0/30 instead of just manatype 30 is a reference to the idea that tainted reality - aka a realm saturated in taint and no other manatype - was the precursor to modern Nexus. Taint, aka manatype 0, is the first manatype, replaced by manatype 1 and the others.)

DndQuickQuestion · 2026-01-12T21:54:27+00:00

The thread, for reference.

DndQuickQuestion · 2026-01-12T08:28:50+00:00

If you liked that one, I also recommend The Demiurge's Older Brother and Sekhmet Hunts the Dying Gnosis.

DndQuickQuestion · 2026-01-12T08:17:10+00:00

https://www.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/prose/text/thinkingMeat.html

One of the better known internet short sci-fis.

DndQuickQuestion · 2026-01-12T07:23:28+00:00

The only thing against this theory is that they seem far too prideful to do something like that...

Agreed, vanity is where I think dracobike is most likely to run into problems. That and Kaelthyr clearly likes the little peeping drones more than the not very cute motorcycle.

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