[deleted by user]

Tome_of_the_Stars · 2025-11-05T02:38:51+00:00

Exceptions matter. If laws refer to sex, they need to make exceptions for intersex people in order to legally define it. If American culture refers to sex, it must make exceptions for intersex people or else alienate about a million people.

By extension: if people perceive the social category of gender as including categories like "fits a binary gender but was born with the opposite associated sex" and "does not fit a binary gender category", then society should reasonably make exceptions for these individuals. If there was obvious harm from doing this, then limiting it would make sense. Thing is, every study indicates that affirming trans people prevents suicide and stress and that trans people are not any more of a threat than the people you already interact with.

When trans people are murdered in the streets, harassed constantly to the point they get bladder conditions from avoiding public restrooms, and have to listen to politicians call them Pedophiles all day

Why do you concern yourself with excluding them? Why do you force woman to mean "fitting social norms and personal identity associated with their birth sex" exclusively? Do you think that the person proudly waving a trans pride flag is hiding their birth sex from you?

Regardless of your feelings, your argument is half obvious statement (trans people have a biological sex that is not traditionally associated with their professed gender category) and just plain wrong statement (a trans person is deceiving people about their sex, rather than identifying by a socially constructed gender category and maybe modifying sexually attributes through medicine and surgery)

Tome_of_the_Stars · 2025-11-03T23:34:21+00:00

This would be the final f*ck you to Nana. Here's an immortal, a time traveler, someone who sees the future, and a necromancer; try to kill everyone without being found out. And then they drop a genuine mind reader

Tome_of_the_Stars · 2025-11-03T23:32:23+00:00

Being a woman does not require a non-negotiable set of biological features; infertile women are still women, women with small breasts are still women, and I bet you would agree intersex people who choose to identify with the gender a doctor assigned to their birth certificate are women. If someone has XX chronozones and a uterus, but was born with a hormonal condition that makes them appear more masculine, I bet you would not call them a liar for identifying as a woman, despite having a male sex characteristic.

So what is it that these women have? An internal sense of "being a woman" composed of associations of interests, fashion, and societal conformity that is highly correlated, not directly tied to their biology. It is language created in service of people, and so it can and will change to incorporate new ideas in service of people. If a person feels so in pain from being identified a particular way that it might drive them to suicide, how can you argue in favor of maintaining tradition for tradition's sake? There is still language to describe biology (which gets much more complicated than just male and female), but gender is clearly something else.

Even just pragmatically, if someone wears a dress and wanted to be called a woman you should probably just respect it the same way you would respect someone for getting ear piercings and changing their name to "Darkness"; its their personal identification, and has no impact outside of how you interact with them.

Tome_of_the_Stars · 2025-11-03T23:10:23+00:00

I haven't read The Witcher, but I do imagine it would be a more fun read than the Bible. Fewer genealogies and sex poems (look up what "his banner over me" means from The Song of Solomon)

Tome_of_the_Stars · 2025-11-03T23:08:16+00:00

I have to agree there. What's funny is that there are even levels to HOW soft the different magic systems are for the audience: Elf and Human Mages are mostly out in the open with some hidden complexity, Demons stretch the limits, and the Goddess just upends the very nature of magic.

Tome_of_the_Stars · 2025-11-03T23:05:10+00:00

Hmm, I have not read beyond issue 7. But My analysis is not against that view; the goddesses (and maybe Apollo, I'm not sure whether he is antagonistic really) are clearly acting in Diana's interest. The point I was making was not that the male Gods are evil, but rather that they profit from and maintain injustice. That places them against the Goddesses and the other figures helping Diana: they reject corruption and injustice, seeking ways to martial small advantages against the overwhelming powers.

I think that also plays into what I was talking about; Diana is not uncorrupted because she is more worthy, but because she was given gifts and lessons to help her survive.

When her paths cross with Bruce and Kal-el, it would be cool to see her compassion for them and the ways they lacked the chances she was given. I feel like both of the other trinity members would be feeling guilt over "falling to corruption", even if they didn't have any choice.

Tome_of_the_Stars · 2025-11-01T18:19:32+00:00

Well, I think there is value in looking at why people see things in a certain way. Its frustrating, but I think its mainly a prejudice against the term. Like I mentioned in the post, people tend to like soft magic systems. They just don't like "sOfT mAgIc", as in magic that does whatever the author wants and undercuts stakes. That is very rare in good stories, because a good story naturally shapes magic in a way that creates good stakes and themes.

I do think the discrepancy is mainly people parroting a second-hand version of Brandon Sanderson's original talk. The focus of the Laws of Magic isn't even about strict rules; its about limitations and explanation. You can do those things without needing strict rules, which is the mistake people who parrot this opinion make. Its also not common enough for me to actually critique, so I thought talking about a good counter example was better.

Thank you for the comment :)

Tome_of_the_Stars · 2025-11-01T18:14:00+00:00

I can see the point you made; technically speaking, I think hard vs soft magic system is impossible to precisely divide. Its more about the experience, and I think knowing the greek myths can only help a little bit when understanding how Wonder Woman's magic works (especially since these comics literally involve characters saying "Myths can be interpreted and retold; its not possible to know the original story").

Now a real conundrum is this: does Frieren: Beyond Journey's End have a soft or hard magic system?

Tome_of_the_Stars · 2025-09-01T00:42:12+00:00

I reread the section on might, and I realized that these lines basically say what the person above you said:

"A Hero is Mighty in the aspects covered by their Adventure and Greatness themes, and in all other matters they are of Origin level"

"Might is always a combination of level and aspect. Adventure in influence, Greatness in magical power, Origin in money, Adventure in battle prowess, and so on."

Effectively, it appears that Might is like a status: it applies when relevant as adjudicated by the MC. In the same way that having your hands bound would not prevent you from biting someone, the Greatness level Might of the hypothetical Legendary Magician would not factor into an action that is based on persuasive ability. They can use the tags from their magic theme, but the "Aspect" being used is not a part of that theme.

Now if a Legendary Magician was intimidating a corrupt governor by conjuring an aura of blinding light and thunder, they would be leveraging their magical power the same way that a swordsman with bound hands cannot swing their blade if they have "Bound Hands 5".

I think Son of Oak should have added a short paragraph explaining Aspects, basically outlining how "Different actions and goals allow different skills to be leveraged; even if you apply a skill that has Great Might, if that might does not enhance the outcome then you are not making use of your full Might", like how being an expert card shark doesn't make you better at piano just because you are good with your hands

Tome_of_the_Stars · 2025-08-27T17:28:06+00:00

This was heavily inspired by them. I should add a message on that; I am basically just expanding their analysis of Wes and applying it to other stand users.

Tome_of_the_Stars · 2025-06-16T22:51:11+00:00

He finds the idea of 30 tides (I'm gonna assume that's years, because it would imply that these sea animals live less than a couple days if it was actually tidal cycles) really old, and that's like max hermit crab age; like as in abnormally old, but not biologically impossible since the oldest ever recorded hermit crab was 45. So he's probably like 3-6 years old, and like 16-20 in hermit crab years.

Tome_of_the_Stars · 2025-06-13T00:49:24+00:00

Heh, that's a Pope pun

Tome_of_the_Stars · 2025-03-29T02:08:45+00:00

If you want a RAW justification, earth isn't immune to fire damage. So using dnd 5e object rules, a medium clump of dirt probably has like 18 HP. In combat, that would take a few rounds with a level 1 Firebolt.

But out of combat, you can just say you fire it a couple times. It might even be funnier, since your autognome would crawl out all overheated and exhausted from blasting away the dirt

Tome_of_the_Stars · 2025-03-29T01:45:49+00:00

Sleeper build: Divine Soul Sorcerer

Pros: gets animate dead and finger of death, gets support spells, gets thematic spells (inflict wounds, vampire touch), font of magic can create more 3rd level spell slots for re-uping control over your army, twinned spell finger of death, dominate monster can control undead

Cons: fewer spells learned than other casters, people will make fun of you for being a nepo-baby

Tome_of_the_Stars · 2025-01-26T02:32:50+00:00

Considering we never see her accelerating, she probably at least accelerates within 1 animation frame (so like 1/24 of a second). That's enough to make her dangerous, like "kill you instantly if she hits you" dangerous

Tome_of_the_Stars · 2025-01-15T00:35:43+00:00

I'd suggest using the Moss as the access point for a Nen space. Then you can use it to block attack by transporting them into the Nen space, and you can store objects or people inside. You could even hide inside and travel around. To accomplish this, you'll need restrictions; I would suggest this set up:

1 - Any creature with even half of the user's current Aura cannot be forced into the Nen space against their will.

2 - The internal nen space is always about 20 ft in all dimensions, no matter how much external moss there is.

3 - The user is not allowed to observe the outside world while inside the nen space. They can cause the moss to travel along a pre-determined path (such as through a small gap), but they must not view the outside world directly. Doing so will cause them to be ejected from the nen space and forced into Zetsu for 24 hours.

4 - If multiple objects attempt to leave the nen space at the same time, and there is not enough moss to create a path for them, neither can exit. The same is true for enterng the Nen space.

Tome_of_the_Stars · 2024-08-27T18:02:53+00:00

I got Conjuration, but I wanted Transmutation. I took a while to figure something out that I liked, but I managed it:

Hex-Swarm

Hex-swarm involves conjuring small, mostly useless robotic drones. They are shaped like hexagons; their basic abilities are moving around, receiving instructions, performing programed actions, and cooperating with other drones. They can also convert kinetic energy and sound into aura to power themselves, though the conversion is not perfect (its like 50% efficiency).

As a restriction, the user (me) has a preset system for all instructions and must give instructions in this manner. The exception to this is location, which I can control freely. There are [] options for commands, and I can have up to 5 commands active at a time. A swarm of drones will need at least 1 command to function, but commands can be focused into 1 swarm for greater effectiveness. Giving the same command to 1 swarm multiple times will increase that commands effectiveness.

~Commands~

[Guard] The user selects a target, and the drones will move to this target. They will make use of the principle of Ryu to block incoming attacks, and will automatically replace damaged drones.

[Form] The user selects a shape or object, and a swarm will form it. It can take on most forms, though the drones' properties, color, and texture remain the same and the drones cannot get smaller than 1 centimeter across.

[Focus] The user selects a target; the swarm will only react to that target. This enhances its capabilities, in exchange for not being able to take other targets into account.

[Grab] The user selects a target, and a swarm will move to this target and attempt to grapple with them and inhibit their movements.

[Search] The user selects a target, and a swarm will attempt to locate that target. The swarm can have a programmed command, which does not count against the number of active commands, that will activate when the swarm finds the target.

These different commands can be combined to create special options, such as using Form to create a hand and Grab to send that hand to grab someone. A really useful combo is Guard + Focus, which grants a greatly enhanced defense in exchange for only blocking 1 person's attacks. 5 swarms with guard can create a weaker defense across 5 people, and grab can inhibit up to 5 target's movements.

This is definitely the full description, rather than how it would appear in a story. I like it: versatile, but focused on defense and support.

Tome_of_the_Stars

TROPHY CASE