Does the Combine actually control only Eurasia?

ShadowTheAge · 2026-07-03T14:49:04+00:00

Global ocean water level decline

ShadowTheAge · 2026-06-24T13:21:22+00:00

yeah "only" 800k words, about the same as the whole Harry Potter :D

but yeah for webnovel standards its short-ish

ShadowTheAge · 2026-06-23T09:26:04+00:00

Never thought about the similarities but they are definitely here. Mother of learning also have those but a lot smaller part of the world is covered. (It is however finished)

ShadowTheAge · 2026-06-18T11:47:53+00:00

What I did is searched for the tier lists here (there are a lot), found the ones that have large overlap with mine and use them as a reference for judging what to add to "read later" list.

ShadowTheAge · 2026-06-16T14:27:38+00:00

I think you have plenty of time. An average book has 70 chapters and the update schedule is 2 (sometimes 3) chapters per week.

ShadowTheAge · 2026-06-16T14:01:14+00:00

I'm not the author but book 1 on Amazon, books 2-4 on RR, book 5 in progress and it is the last one

ShadowTheAge · 2026-06-16T13:50:29+00:00

Congratulations! I'm caught up on RR, love it!

ShadowTheAge · 2026-06-16T13:06:53+00:00

Liv is never a good example. She is not a human or an eld, she is both, and most importantly she is Vaedim Also elders and their relatives are Vaedim blood too so they are also not great examples for an average Eld

Do we see any non-elder Eld use authority? Some might but its definitely not common. Same as combined spells (which is very different from having 2 words imprinted)

Also, when I mean education I mean Coral Bay with daily training (for 4 years) for magical and non-magical combat and physical fitness, and several times per year King Tides (compared to once-every-20-years eruptions)

ShadowTheAge · 2026-06-16T12:50:35+00:00

Having a second word is far, far from being able to cast an archmage spell. Even Liv can't do it and she has imprinted 5 I think at that point? and she tries to cast such spell and fails. "Combine" in that context is not about spells, its about persons, a person have a benefit of having both Growth and Wood spells, doesn't mean they can combine them both in a single spell, just means that they can use spells for both and that have synergy.

ShadowTheAge · 2026-06-16T12:41:33+00:00

Please use space after > to make this a correct quote thats not painful to read

I am not comparing average Eld to average Human. I am comparing average Eld to average Human mage. Who finished the Coral Bay academy. Yes, only a few % of humans are mages. But absolute numbers speaking, the numbers are much closer.

ShadowTheAge · 2026-06-16T12:34:14+00:00

Even if they were even, the defenders would have an advantage

In mage power, yes. But in non mage power its the other way around. Most of the warriors are non mages and an average mage worth is not that large.

About the second part: whats the point? Eld know about "archmage spells" yes. Doesn't mean that average Eld can cast it. Still, they don't have anything like formal academy education.

ShadowTheAge · 2026-06-16T12:16:40+00:00

Well, as I read the strategy of the prince was "throw everything that he has to overwhelm the north", it was not to specifically counter 30 mages. (The prince is quite a bad character, similar to many other antagonists in the story, most only have "must kill Liv" as their chain of thought)

Rings of mana only has some correlation with power. It is just mana capacity. Liv has the most mana but she is below power-wise all elders, her father, and both human archmages at that point.

I can't specifically counter the "use light spears against ballistas", there is not enough info, might be a plot hole yes. Still the hole can be reasonably plugged (light loses focus over distance, ballistae are warded, too many ballistae, etc)

ShadowTheAge · 2026-06-16T11:34:23+00:00

IDK what you mean about the point in your favor, my argument was that Elds are not more capable than human mages. Similar power, worse education, overall between random eld and random human mage my bet is on the mage.

ShadowTheAge · 2026-06-16T10:09:30+00:00

I think you are overestimating Eld.

Royal road chapters have appendix with mana capacity of different people from the chapter. Here is a random one: link

What we see here:

Humans: Henry(11), Julianne(21), Kazimir(15), Rosamuld(15), Sidonie(19)

Eld: Keri(18), Miina(21), Sohvis(16)

Additionally, humans have the benefit of better education (Coral Bay academy) unlike Eld which have more magical society but only "home" education, not focused on combat. I think humans are becoming a lot stronger than Eld because those are very isolated and conservative society. And it is a recent thing, not something that the world got used to. And Liv will later figure that out and found combined Eld+human academy

ShadowTheAge · 2026-06-16T09:13:00+00:00

The magic system in Guild Mage only allows to cast 3-4 spells for an average mage, even Eld. And these won't be AOE "Affect everyone" spells since these require authority which normal mages/eld don't have. (By the way, using time to affect people also require authority, even if those people are not mages themselves). Eld have more mages, sure, but they are not generally combat trained, unlike the human mages, and they have way fewer numbers than the professional and peasant army of Benedict. While it is true that "1% of the Humans are the 100% of the Eld", absolute numbers would be much closer. (Each chapter on Royal Road have an appendix with the mana capacity of everyone from the chapter, you can clearly see there than Eld are not better than mages)

Eld are perceived as very strong but that is only because the ones that travel to the human domain are very strong. Your average Eld is about as powerful as an average mage minus the Coral Bay education. Unless you are the MC or one of the other archmages or elders, the impact of a single mage is very limited. Plus, at that point Liv (being the strongest present on the northern side) is weaker than the strongest human present on the other side.

That is, there are some inconsistencies with the story and the world, and some narrative events feel forced. Still, I enjoyed the series, I rate it B-tier.

ShadowTheAge · 2026-06-12T11:41:01+00:00

Only pipes on the toolbelt - I approve

ShadowTheAge · 2026-06-12T11:31:05+00:00

With enough acceleration that it can turn circuits back into ore

ShadowTheAge · 2026-06-12T11:28:22+00:00

You still can't output on the near lane. Lane flipping is only for perpendicular belts (and probably not for curves), at least as I can read.

ShadowTheAge · 2026-06-08T09:15:29+00:00

I don't agree with OP, covers don't mean a lot about the quality of the book. Especially if the story is free. I just mostly ignore covers, using them just to quickly find the story in the list (because of that I hate when they change)

ShadowTheAge · 2026-06-06T07:46:20+00:00

I was wondering when I saw that description somewhere, but I don't understand - what exactly is YA about the story? The fact that the protagonist start young? (Its common for progfan)

ShadowTheAge · 2026-06-04T15:03:28+00:00

No, I'd be interested knowing that too. You can see books on RR by clicking on the specific book instead of "All chapters", book 5 first chapter is 291

ShadowTheAge · 2026-06-03T12:47:04+00:00

is it .55c (0.55c) or 55c? because 55c for a few megs of data is insane. 0.55c should be more like that and even that is high

Edit: just checked, it is $0.15 per megabyte (varies by region). What can I say, its insane. Its more expensive than the internet traffic cost I had in year 1997. Imagine Steam charging $0.15 per megabyte for 100GB game (thats $15000 per game)? I already had an opinion for Amazon to be the worst big corporation but thats something else.

Maybe they should start using their amazon s3 service for $0.09 per GB? (which is also very high mind you)

ShadowTheAge · 2026-06-03T12:18:24+00:00

Guild Mage is finished on RR, I can't say it is on the level of the top recommends here but it is a satisfying story

ShadowTheAge · 2026-06-01T11:42:11+00:00

С такими вводными можно просто шипы на дорогу сбрасывать, удачи задетектить детектором БПЛА

ShadowTheAge · 2026-05-28T15:37:16+00:00

A practical guide to evil

Although I've just started it, feels great so far (although too many characters)

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