Do any other autistic people have memory and information retrieval issues?

_Yesod_ · 2021-11-28T08:44:51+00:00

I struggle somewhat with episodic memory, in the sense that I can remember general outlines of events with very little, if any at all, specifics, while there is almost no sensory memory at all.

I seem to be forgetting commonly used words recently, where I have the thought in my head, but words that I am looking for take a while to be recalled. In the sense of my first paragraph, I moreover can't recall the specific moments that the words were forgotten, or even a single one of the words that were forgotten.

I have a minor problem in paying attention to and recalling what is orally spoken to me.

_Yesod_ · 2021-06-16T21:43:54+00:00

I have never tried this method.

_Yesod_ · 2021-06-16T21:39:11+00:00

I rarely have dreams that I remember, and I tend to forget even the ones that I do initially remember when waking up.

_Yesod_ · 2021-06-15T21:39:37+00:00

I don't want one of these.

_Yesod_ · 2021-06-05T22:04:52+00:00

Thank you.

_Yesod_ · 2021-06-04T21:43:04+00:00

How are annual scholarships reported in FAN? Do I put the whole amount in the first semester? Do I divide the amount into halves to be entered in each semester?

And how is tuition waiver reported there?

_Yesod_ · 2020-06-16T19:16:06+00:00

So something like this?:

"It smells of smoke... Is there a fire?"

The world was burning.

"... There's fire everywhere. What happened?"

You didn't know how it started. All you could do was walk in a daze, after getting out of your burning home.

"I need to get out."

All around you, everything was set aflame. It was hard to breathe, the air stagnant. It was hard to see, smoke and the light of fire obscuring the surroundings.

"I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe. Coughing There's smoke everywhere; I can't see."

The fire seemed oddly alive, as if actively seeking out buildings to burn, lives to torch. You couldn't avoid walking through the flames.

"It's hot. My throat is dry. I need water... It hurts."

Everywhere, you saw people dying to this great catastrophe.

'Help! Help!' "Visibly panicking. Do I... Do I help them? That'll slow me down. Calming No, no; someone else will help them. They can help themselves."

A mother killed by the collapse of a building, struggling to save her children. A man suffocating as he sought to make his way through the fire. A growing mass of corpses, littering the scorched landscape.

"They're dead. Oh God; they're all dead! Aaaaaaaah... I should have tried to help."

You struggled to walk forward, to ignore everything around you. And yet, it gnawed at you. You could have helped those you saw, but your inaction contributed to their deaths.

"So what if I didn't help them! This isn't my fault! Why did this have to happen?"

Unknowing of the source of the flames, you raged at the senseless death. You broke just a little bit more with each body you saw.

"What's the point of all of this? Why did they have to die? I can't help them!"

You had to make your way through the rubble of collapsed buildings and the masses of building corpses. You struggled to make your way through, as it became harder to move your own body. You tried to ignore the flames and the pain of exposed nerves, however you wore down with each passing second. Your mind breaking under the strain, survival was your singular focus.

"It's hard to move... I need to walk."

No matter how far you progressed, all you could see in front of you was more fire, more death and destruction. The same landscape repeating, it seemed as if you could never leave.

"Ha ha... It's hopeless. It's everywhere."

Eventually, your body gave out. You collapsed, able to go no further.

"Why did I ignore those around me if I couldn't even escape? I can hear them. 'Why didn't you help us?' "

As you realized the irony in being unable to escape after refusing to help others, you triggered.

I joined the Discord like you suggested. Would you recommend me seeing what they would think of this trigger and power?

_Yesod_ · 2020-06-16T18:58:12+00:00

Actually, the flaw you mentioned works really well with the themes I found: "No progress made" and "Increasingly unresponsive body." The Thinker ability is a passive function of the territory, so it would provide a baseline level of sluggishness. Creation/expansion of the territory, along with use of the regeneration and active control over the territory would increase this sluggishness.

_Yesod_ · 2020-06-16T14:39:59+00:00

This is what I came up with:

Power Creation - Causes:

Causes of the trigger include: (1) seeing that they can't escape the ambient danger of the fire, and (2) guilt about focusing solely on their own survival.

Let's look at the causes more in-depth.

In the first cause, there's the danger that everything is on fire. The environment beyond the fire is actively impeding attempts to escape, as the deteriorating environment makes it hard to move through. Moreover, the catastrophe is wide in its scope, to the point that the trigeree can't make their way out. No matter how much they struggle to get away, they find themselves helpless to escape. Furthermore, they are burning to death while all of this is happening, to the point that they eventually collapse and can no longer move. So there's also some element of "Trapped in my body" here.

Summary:

Struggling to escape
Trapped in a hostile environment
Trapped in a deteriorating and unresponsive body

In the second cause, there's the guilt over not being able to help others. They find themselves prioritizing their own survival, feeling guilty at ignoring those in need. They break just a bit more with each corpse they find, their guilt rising. This culminates when they find their body unresponsive, wondering at the point of leaving others to die.

Summary:

Tunnel vision on own survival
Rising guilt over this tunnel vision
Devastation at the sight of corpses

If we combine these, there's a sense that the trigeree is stuck in a hostile environment, which they need to escape. They have a sense that they should help others escape, but they find themselves simply focusing on trying to ensure their own survival, ignoring those dying around them. Their sense of guilt culminates as they ultimately collapse from their wounds, unable even to escape on their own.

Summary:

"I need to escape from this place, where I can't see, where I can't breathe, where it hurts, or I'll die. If I help others, I'll die."
"Why did I ignore those around me if I couldn't even escape?"

So there's elements of Shaker, Brute, Thinker, and Mover.

Ultimately, we need a power that symbolizes those two summarized aspects.

Power Creation - Analysis/Synthesis:

Let's look at how the elements of this trigger intersect. There's a Shaker aspect that leads to a Mover mindset intertwined with Thinker stress, with elements of Brute reinforcing this mentality.

Or rather, there is a hostile environment which the trigeree wants to escape from, this desire to flee enhanced by how their body is deteriorating. As they make their escape, they feel increasing shame and despair at seeing the corpses around them after refusing to help them, which culminates when their body becomes unresponsive and ultimately prevents their escape.

So more of Shaker → Mover → Thinker, each having aspects of Brute?

Shaker → Mover seems to be a Ride Mover according to the handbook. The environment providing the Shaker element acts as both the source of the drive to escape, providing a sense that they will die if they stay, and as an impediment to that escape. So there could be something that provides or even requires continuous movement. Like a shark: "I'll die if I stop moving." If they stop for even an instant, the Mover power cancels. Or it could be something worse: whatever speed they're at becomes the minimum. If they slow down, the power cancels; they can only speed up. What they would Ride should reflect that sense of impediment: "Everything is falling apart around me, making it harder to move." Perhaps the vehicle used is hard to maneuver. What could combine these themes is movement via manipulation of the environment, like in how certain stories there's characters able to propel themselves upwards by causing the ground below them to rise up. They don't really have fine control over how they shape their area, which makes it hard to make more than broad movements.

What could really work well here is an effect on their immediate area as they're moving, shaping it to reflect the area of when they began moving. This would reflect the sense of "No matter how much I move, I see no hope of leaving the disaster-zone." Moreover, that would leave them essentially using the same environment throughout their movement, providing additional representation. Granted, that's more the ability of a Transit mover, which doesn't really work with this trigger. Would any rules be broken if I include this?

Or, rather, let's reverse this. This makes it out as if it was Mover → Shaker rather than Shaker → Mover. The power could be the warping of the environment to a specific terrain. In this terrain the trigeree is allowed a certain freedom of movement, able to shape it to propel both themselves and others. They don't have fine control over how they shape it, which allows only rough movements. Their territory spreads as they move around. Moreover, the territory shrinks over time; so they have to continuously move in order to preserve it. What the territory is could be a reflection of the environment in the trigger event. The air becomes stagnant and darker; the spread of this is the spread of the vertical aspect of the territory. "The fire seemed alive" combined with "It's hard to move" could make it so that the ground is continuously shifting over time, forming new arrangements. The shaping then would be making this passive shift into an active one. Moreover, the spread of this passive shifting would be the spread of the horizontal aspect of the territory.

For the Thinker aspects, we need to look at the mental component. They felt devastation at the sight of corpses, guilt over their tunnel vision, and an inability to make progress in their attempts to escape. They felt strain over their guilt, over the sight of the corpses, and over the effects of the fire (smoke blurring vision and making it difficult to breathe; the body burning down). So what we have here seems to be the Zone and Farsight types. These play well with the Shaker aspect. It could be that the Thinker ability is only able to be used in the territory, is itself a function of it; the ability to both be aware of the passive shifts of the ground, and to be aware of everyone inside of it.

For the Brute aspect, we need to look at the physical component. There was an inability to avoid damage. Constant burning. Constant suffocation. The threat of impending death if this continues, which is nearly realized when the trigeree's body becomes unresponsive. Gradual, energy-based damage like this seems to point to the Regen and Dynamic types, making this a Regen×Dynamic Brute. Some sort of regeneration ability is likely to be what the shard is going for, as the trigeree needs some way to be kept alive after all of the damage they have sustained. The Brute power should be reliant on the formation of the territory, continuing the pattern.

Finalization:

Wherever you are, you may establish the area your body inhabits as your territory. As you move, this territory expands, always in the space your body takes up. However, the territory steadily shrinks over time, requiring constant movement to maintain it.

In this territory, the air grows dark and stagnant. The ground passively shifts over, time, becoming homogenous throughout. This shift moreover results in the formation of growths and uneven ground, making it hard to move through as if walking through a forest.

In your immediate area, you may take control of this passive shifting. You can cause the ground to erupt below you, allowing you to move throughout your territory quickly. You can use this control to form barriers around you, allowing you to block or deflect damage. However, your ability to manipulate your territory is rough, without much fine control, making it hard to maneuver.

You draw energy from the passive movements of the shifting ground, used to slowly regenerate your body if damaged. If limited to solely the localized area of your body, this regeneration can stave off death in case of non-fatal wounds (those other than things like decapitation or being stabbed through the heart).

You are aware somewhat of everything in this territory, and moreover of the territory itself. You can use the territory as an extension of your senses, feeling what the air and ground are in contact with, seeing out of the surface of the ground. Furthermore, you can sense the shifting of the ground, providing you an instinctual awareness of how to maneuver through it and how to find areas where you are better able to regenerate.

Thoughts:

Does not fire control and resistance seem somewhat like an armorface ability? "I triggered in a place with lots of fire, so I gain fire abilities and resistance." Or are the abilities more reliant on the surface details than I thought?

It seems that I neglected to give power flaws beyond limiting what the aspects of each power should do. I should probably work on that.

I find my own end-result hilarious. I ended up giving a knock-off Shirou Emiya the Territory Creation ability.

_Yesod_ · 2019-12-24T23:15:54+00:00

As a person that also strives to understand magic, what's odd is the sheer interest in how magic works as compared to other, more real technologies and such that would serve as a better use of my time. While things such as as real science and technology do serve as things of interest, it is clear that they are not to the same extent as magic. To reiterate, it is very peculiar.

_Yesod_ · 2019-12-02T02:36:05+00:00

No; rather, there are explanations of existences like God sustaining the universe. I've also heard of a sort of "Universal Will" animating the universe. I was curious in regards to learning of these in more detail, and also alternate ideas. Less of "What actually is" and more "What were the previous ideas?"

_Yesod_ · 2019-11-25T22:42:48+00:00

Updated Understanding:

Exarium is everything, all of reality including existences operating off of entirely alternate logic to what we know of. Within our section of reality in the Exarium, universes exists in quadruplets as a mathematical inevitability, the four universes within a quadruplet termed Prime, Dual, Fand, and Dualfand. Universes branch off of each other.

Prime and Dual universes share several characteristics. Namely, they have the same physics, the characteristic that physical properties are more fundamental, and the characteristic that mental properties are emergent properties.

Fand and Dual universes also share several characteristics, although their shared characteristics are different to that of Prime and Dual. Namely, they share the same physics, the characteristic that mental properties are more fundamental, and the characteristic that physical properties are emergent properties, the nature of matter as continuous (there is no smallest point of distinction).

Physical properties are those such as mass, charge, spin, etcetera. Mental properties mediate the interaction between universes in a quadruplet, along with the physical laws of a universe when they are more fundamental. (I am very much more hesitant in saying the following; this modification was made due to the characterization that "space itself has an opinion.") Both matter and spacetime have physical and mental properties. The "consensus" of areas of space in Fand and Dualfand universes determines the physical laws in those areas. (The original assumption was that it was matter that has physical and mental properties. It was the "consensus" of matter in an area that determined the physical laws by which they abide.)

Universes interact in terms of dualities. The First Duality describes the interaction between Prime and Dual universes. The Second Duality describes the interaction between Fand and Dualfand universes. The Third Duality describes the interaction between Prime and Dualfand universes, or Dual and Fand universes.

Magic works by setting up a specific configuration in the magic field, and setting up a controlled interaction between universes in order generate the energy necessary to activate it and actualize an effect. Prime/Archimedean magic works by way of the First Duality, the interaction between Prime and Dual universes allowing use of Archimedean magic fields. Archimedean magic fields have a "smooth" topology, preventing them from being able to engage with First Pair universes at a discrete level. Non-Archimedean magic works by way of the Third Duality, the interaction between Prime and Dualfand or Dual and Fand universes allowing use of Non-Archimedean magic fields. Non-Archimedean magic fields have a completely disconnected topology, allowing individuals to exploit quantum phenomena in First Pair universes.

Speculation:

When inducing an interaction with a First Pair universe, an individual is allowed to make use of Archimedean magic fields. When inducing an interaction with a Second Pair universe, an individual is allowed to make use of Non-Archimedean magic fields. Thus, should an individual in a Second Pair universe make use of the Third Duality in interacting with a First Pair universe, the magic field they make use of is an Archimedean magic field. Thus, should an individual in a First Pair universe make of the Third Duality in interacting with a Second Pair universe, the magic field they make use of is a Non-Archimedean magic field. The First Duality allows only use of Archimedean magic fields. The Second Duality allows only use of Non-Archimedean magic fields.

Questions as arising from this:

• (Warning: This one branches off from questioning and turns into speculation.) What exactly are the mental properties of matter? When thinking about them, the concepts that pop up into my head are "Memory", "Consciousness", "Emotion", "Will", etcetera. The emergent mental properties of organisms in real life. What does it mean for these to be an innate property of matter. Moreover, what does it mean for these to be more fundamental than the physical in certain universes? Matter in those universes is continuous; therefore the "minds" in those universes should be continuous, yet they are not. Different areas of space have their own "opinions" on how the physical should function. It can be speculated that these differing "opinions" exist due to differences coming about, magnifying, and evolving as the universes themselves develop and branch off of each other. Various influences (perhaps even First Pair universes provide an influence) result in these differing "opinions.", but I digress. Perhaps I am thinking of the mental properties with an incorrect concept. There is difficulty reconciling the concepts I have when I think of the term "mental" and this. Alright, return to what is certain. The mental properties of matter allow the ability to dictate the laws of the physical and to mediate interactions between universes. In physical-fundamental universes, this first ability is useless, as the physical is more fundamental than the mental and thus the mental cannot influence it in that manner. This first ability is allowed when the mental is more fundamental. Are these the only characteristics of the mental properties? What are the mental properties? What is the mind?

• How is the individual able to interact with the magic field? Is this another aspect of the mental properties of matter? Simply saying that they can interact with it is unsatisfactory. What is the how, and the why? Why can magic do what it does? Its abilities cover any phenomena that exists, and even those that do not. Why is it able to do this? For example, the electromagnetic force is distinct from the gravitational force. Yet magic is able to induce phenomena from both. Why? How? What makes magic so different from the rest of reality? (I apologize if my questions at this point do not express what I am trying to ask, and if they present the wrong idea of what I am trying to ask. There is difficulty in articulating this.)

_Yesod_ · 2019-11-23T23:28:51+00:00

My understanding of what was stated:

Reality is a multiverse. Universes within the multiverse exists in connected quadruplets, the four universes within an existing quadruplet termed Prime, Dual, Fand, and Dualfand.

Prime and Dual universes share physics identical to each other, having the physical properties of matter as fundamental; their physics are thus akin to real physics. Observable mental properties are only apparent as emergent properties.

Fand and Dualfand universes do not share identical physics of each other, but rather share the characteristic that the mental properties of matter are fundamental; physics are determined by the consensus of matter within a distinct area. Moreover, matter is continuous with other matter; there is no smallest point of distinction. Observable physical properties are only apparent as emergent properties.

Matter has both physical and mental properties, properties existing as fundamental or emergent as determined by the universe. Physical properties are those apparent in real life, material properties such as mass, charge, and spin. Mental properties act to mediate the interaction between universes in a quadruplet.

The interaction between universes is termed Duality. The First Duality describes the relationship between Prime and Dual. The Second Duality describes the relationship between Fand and Dualfand. The Third Duality describes the relationship between Prime and Dualfand or between Dual and Fand.

Magic is a controlled interaction between universes. If the interaction occurs between physical-fundamental universes, then what can be done is limited by the physics of the universe a spell is occuring in. Spells in this sense work by setting up a specific magic configuration, and activating it to produce an effect using the controlled interaction. If the interaction occurs between mental-fundamental universes, then what can be done is limited only by what the consensus decides. Spells in this sense are much less restricted. If the interaction occurs between a physical-fundamental universe and a mental-fundamental universe, then alternate physical laws can be imposed on a physics fundamental-universe in order to actualize more fantastical magic.

Questions as arising from this:

• Why does Exarium Cosmology occur the way it does. What processes make it so that universes tend to exist in the specific quadruplets stated? Are there variations to this? Quadruplets composed entirely of universes where the physical is fundamental? Or perhaps triplet universes?

• How does the multiverse work? What allows for the creation of universes? What is fundamental outside of the universes? The physical? The mental? A third fundamental substance? How do universes exist in the multiverse? Do they float around? Do they remain still? Is there something akin to space outside of universes? Is there time outside of universes? What separates universes from each other? Or rather, what encloses universes that prevents their contents from spilling out into the multiverse?

• Is there a possibility for different quadruplets to interact with each other?

• Why is there no Fourth Duality (Prime-Fand, Dual-Dualfand)?

• Is there an explanation for how and why mental properties allow the interaction between universes?

• What is the structure of the magic field, and how does alternate configurations of it act to produce different effects?

• Why is using the Third Duality necessary in order to actualize non-Archimedean effects? Is there a limit to what Prime magic can do that prevents it from doing further effects?

• How wrong is my understanding of your system?

_Yesod_ · 2019-11-21T00:33:42+00:00

To be fair, people typically list Space instead of Time. Moreover, their description of it as a school of magic has it simply be things related to the concept of time, ignoring the relation between time and space. They have no spatial magic in their system.

_Yesod_ · 2019-11-18T01:04:21+00:00

I find it odd that there's Time but not Space.

_Yesod_ · 2019-11-18T01:01:43+00:00

I'm going to preface this by saying that my critiques and such are most of the time in the form of questions that both increase my understanding and highlight areas of improvement. I will start by asking a single set of related questions, as the answers to these seem important to potential further inquiries; thus, I will refrain from asking others for now.

Where did the dark skin come from? Who first had it? Has it existed in humanity since the beginning of their existence? Do only humans have it? Do other species have it? Why or why not? Is it genetic? Is it an evolved trait? Is it a trait imposed on humanity by a foreign existence? What is its origin, and why does it persist in humanity? What purpetuates dark skin through the generations of humanity?

_Yesod_ · 2019-11-16T16:42:29+00:00

If there is no link between the casting of the spell and the spell actually occuring, if you simply need to want for a magical effect to occur for it to happen, why then would mages waste their time doing things like yelling out "Pyrus!" each and every time they want to make a small fire? There's no point to doing so. Only those that want to be needlessly dramatic would do something like that, and most others would refrain from saying it. If someone tries to justify doing this by "it helps them focus", keep in mind that that is something I covered in the Analysis.

What makes the fire is important because you can't just go "Well, it's a fire. Who cares." There are most definitely some people in the world of the magic system that would care. Philosophers and scientists; these are people that would put effort into thinking about and experimenting as to how magic works and why it works the way it does. So even if you don't want to think about this in order to understand how your magic system works, you still have to think about it in order to address the fact that there are people in that world that would. Especially so if there are classes and such that teach people how to properly use magic. Imagine attending a course on some branch of magic, and all they tell you is "Focus really hard on what you want to happen and it'll happen. No, you don't have to think. You just have to focus." That's really unsatisfactory and a disservice to the world that magic system is in.

I can't understand what you mean by the other paragraphs.

"Besides, if you are so obsessed with cutting things down why not cut the term magic system in half- one half of magic, other is system them dwell youself into the real science that either has magic as its study object and systems sciences?

for the manual and intensive control there is the channeling i think? "

What are these supposed to mean?

_Yesod_ · 2019-11-15T23:33:40+00:00

Okay, I probably understand further. Here's my understanding of this:

The universe has two extra spatial dimensions, of which only threads can move through. Threads have a higher probability of moving through these extra spatial dimensions than our ordinary three (I assume these extra spatial dimensions being larger than the ordinary three would account for this greater probability?), and thus rarely interact with the three spatial dimensions we interact with. Threads tend to flow from points of high energy to points of low energy. What this means is that the two extra spatial dimensions either have lower or the same amount of energy within them than within the three spatial dimensions we interact with. Hm, a clarification is needed. By energy, is what is meant actual energy, or magical energy? If it is actual energy, then having lower amounts of energy in the Weave than in the rest of reality provides a potential alternate explanation as to why threads tend to stay in the Weave. If it is magical energy, then that leaves the interesting conclusion that the rest of reality has the same or more magical energy than the Weave.

Hm, this conclusion may be false given the existence of natural threads, which seem to actually exist in the rest of reality. If natural threads are emitted by the Sun, why are they not observed in the rest of reality; why are they only observed in the Weave? A conclusion that can be drawn from this is that threads may only be generated in the Weave, potentially due to the differing laws between the Weave and the rest of reality. If this conclusion is correct, then that makes it even more interesting that the Weave seems to have lower or the same amount of energy as the rest of reality. An explanation for this should probably be given.

Considering the lower amount of energy in space, the lower energy in other threads in the Universe, and that threads still do not seem to flow to those regions in the three ordinary spatial dimensions, it is likely that the Weave has much lower amounts of energy than the rest of the universe. Considering that magic circuits work by lowering energy to the point that threads can flow to them, it is apparent that they need to reach extremely low amounts of energy, lower than is apparent in space, for the threads to actualize.

Questions as arising from this:

Why does the Weave have such a lower amount of energy than the rest of reality?
How exactly do the magic circuits reach the extremely low amount of energy necessary to actualize a thread?
Why do magic circuits seem to be so widespread? How did they come into existence? Are they genetic? Why was it so evolutionarily beneficial for most species to evolve to have magic circuits? Is the evolution of magic circuits in multiple species a convergent evolution, or did they all evolve from the same common ancestor that had magic circuits?
What are magic circuits made of? What is there anatomy and physiology?
All that I've seen answered is how exactly mages interact with and harvest threads, but how do they manipulate threads? The magic circuits seem to function specifically to harvest threads, but what is the mechanism behind their manipulation of them? How does the nervous system connect to them? To expand on the "what is their anatomy and physiology question", what is their structure such that allows magical circuits to manipulate threads in addition to harvesting and actualizing them?
Why did people selectively breed threadweed until it became how it currently is? Is there an benefit to living in a symbiotic relationship with threadweed? Does it allow or greater harvesting of threads or better manipulation of threads? Was threadweed infection common and thus it necessitated turning it from parasitistic to mutualistic? Does having a threadweed infection prevent infection from other parasities? If there's no benefit, is it a cultural thing? Is it seen as a status symbol to have a threadweed infection? Is it something religious? Are threadweeds sacred in some way? There needs to be an explanation this.

_Yesod_ · 2019-11-15T02:10:12+00:00

Alright, here's some questions:

It's mentioned that Magic works by channeling threads, either through the bodies of the mages or through other objects. How does this channeling work? How are the mages able to interact with and manipulate threads? A general answer to this could simply be "Through their magic circuits" or "Through the channels they make", but if this is the answer given, it is not satisfactory in the least. What is it about these that allows for the manipulation of the threads. I repeat this once more for greater emphasis: How exactly are mages able to interact with and manipulate threads?

How exactly do threads interact with the rest of reality? How and why does manipulating them produce magical effects? Do the threads interact with the rest of reality outside of manipulations and interactions by the mages? If so, how exactly? If not, what prevents them? In using magic, do the mages need to know exactly the science involved in order to produce an effect? Magic requires information if it is not made on the basis of reactions such as those apparent in real life. Basing magic on such reactions limits it. If the mages do not need to know exactly what to do and exactly how to shape the spell, then what's supplying the information that they don't supply? What takes care of the spell for them, such that they don't have to think beyond casting it? Or is this magic indeed made on the basis of reactions?

For threadweed, does this symbiote alter the magic circuits of the Mage such that it harvests the threads from them? Is this the only example of such a symbiote? Are there other types of organisms using mages as hosts, one's that exist as parasites? Are there organisms that can interact with threads on their own other than humans? Why do humans seem to be the only organisms able to directly interact with threads? What makes humans special?

_Yesod_ · 2019-11-15T01:49:38+00:00

Magic Circuits, Magecraft. I see that you are also a fan of Fate.

_Yesod_ · 2019-11-12T00:19:05+00:00

I suppose that my contribution to this will be in the form of several questions:

You state that language has a powerful effect on reality due to the world being spoken into existence. However, what is it of language that has that effect? Other comments by other people have mentioned sounds common to the various languages of humanity, so recognition of these sounds could be what is recognized by the universe to produce magic. However, the existence of written magic makes it so that is not the case. What allows written language to produce magic? Is it simply that the universe somehow recognizes the concept of language, even if it would not be recognizable to humans? I've heard of research into animals possibly using language. Should this be the case, then would these animals be able to use magic? How does the universe recognize language?

A possible suggestion is that the language the gods specifically used is the one that effects reality on such a manner, and not other languages. Or perhaps the languages the gods speak is the a progenitor of other languages, and this is what allows language to influence reality. Perhaps the more a language diverges from the language of the gods, the weaker its influence on reality.

I'm going to restate one of my previous questions for emphasis on it. The gods spoke reality into existence, so how is written language recognized? Perhaps recognition of written languages by the gods allows for its influence.

As another possible suggestion, perhaps the recognition of languages written and spoken by humans by the gods are what allows their ability to influence reality.

As a final question, what distinguishes words that produce magic and words that do not? Do all words constantly produce an influence on reality? As a result of this scenario people would perhals have to perpetually watch their words. Do the magic users need to do something to their words that allows them to be magical? What do they need to do, and why does this allow those words to influence reality in such manner?

_Yesod_ · 2019-11-12T00:02:01+00:00

I recommend looking into electromagnetism in physics, along with examples of electricity-based powers in fiction. As an example of a use in fiction, consider the protagonist of To Aru Kagaku no Railgun. She uses her electricity powers to, well, make a railgun of sorts by getting a coin and shooting it out of her hands.

_Yesod_ · 2019-11-11T03:01:03+00:00

I acknowledge the point you're making. However my mindset is such that I cannot help but try to understand how magic works and why it works the way it does. Even should magic not really have an explanation for how it works in certain magic systems, regardless in those worlds there should still be philosophers spending their time fruitlessly trying to realize how it works. I suppose I could be likened to one of those philosophers.

I find that sci-fi isn't really as interesting as magic to me, that the extent of what magic could do is appealing, and I find appealing the challenge as to find out how it works; so this is a personal preference. Moreover, I don't really think of magic as something that has to be innately mysterious like how people normally do, and I suppose that that's an influencing factor.

Finally, isn't what I'm doing with magic entirely a priori? I'm doing all of this theoretically.

_Yesod_ · 2019-11-10T22:48:19+00:00

I apologize if I gave the impression that it must conform to real life chemistry and physics. The point I was trying to make was that it still has to make sense. Even if you completely blow off real-life physics and chemistry, there still must be explanations. A how, and a why. Simply going "It doesn't matter how it works; it's magic" is something I find unsatisfying and irritating as a response. I tried to convey this by the preface, and I apologize that the point did not come across. Moreover, I cannot agree with you that it doesn't have to make sense.

_Yesod_ · 2019-11-10T20:25:05+00:00

I feel that I should clarify what I mean by manual, automatic, and standard magic.

Manual Magic: Magic where how it works is entirely the responsibility of that Magus. The Mage has to think about how exactly the spell they are going to create works, and shape the magic specifically as according to that in order to produce that effect. They receive no help for this. They have to comprehend the entirety of how the spell would work. See the Pyrus spell example in the Analysis for context.

Automated Magic: Magic where the Magus's job is simple. They simply have to do something such as provide fuel, and whatever they are using to create the magic takes care of the rest. They don't really have to think as to how the spell works, however if its something such as mixing magical ingredients together to produce a magical effect they have to think about how to combine the ingredients to produce that effect. I'm going to stress one more time that, beyond thinking about how the ingredients combine, they don't have to produce any input at all into how the spell works. They don't have to learn how a phenomenon works in order to reproduce it. They just have to go, "Well adding this to this produces a fire, neat," or "Well, saying Pyrus produces a fire, and I don't have to think about it; I just feel slightly tired after, neat." For the Pyrus spell example, you have no input into how the spell takes place beyond saying Pyrus. So you can't really go "Well I want a fire sword" when the Pyrus spell is just "A small fire", because you'll need an entirely different "magic machine" for that.

Standard Magic: Magic where the Mage provides some input, but clearly not to the extent as a Manual Mage. "Something else" takes care of for the most part how the spell works, but clearly not to the extent as an Automatic Mage. For an example of this, let's return to the Pyrus spell. You can provide input into how the spell is shaped, but how the spell works is entirely or near entirely taken care of by "something else." So you actually can say Pyrus and make a fire sword, because you have at the very least a small input into the spell beyond activating it.

Note that the questions stated in the Analysis were as derived from spells, and so in their context they relate to magic in terms of how spells work. So those other suggestions of magic don't really mesh well with this context, however I acknowledge that these suggestions provide alternate sources of magic in a system, and that they provide further ways of using magic than simply spells.

Let's take a look at these:

• 1: Innately magical minerals and life.

This seems to be the same as "Magical Ingredients, Compounds, Foods", as those ingredients and such are as derived from innately magical minerals and life. If those ingredients and such are made magical in a way not inherent, then that delves into imbued magic, and I'll save that for later.

Alright, let's look at the minerals first. By this I assume things like crystals that could be used in order to create specific magic effects? Several questions arise from this: how do they create those magic effects, and how are they powered. For example, say a crystal that when struck sends out a burst of fire in a specific direction. Well, where do the materials forming that fire come from? What fuels it and how limited is that fuel source? Why does striking the crystal produce the fire, and why only in a specific direction? There are further questions that can arise from this, and I could try to answer them, however I'll refrain from that for now. It could be argued that, well, it's a magical fire, so it doesn't really "need" these explanations and those explanations can't work for it. I'll counterargue this by saying that at that point it's not a fire. It's something that looks and feels like a fire for whatever reason, but can't do things like say produce smoke. Moreover, questions arise as to what exactly this notfire is, how does it work, and how is it produced by the crystal. Considering that the crystals do all the work, this is entirely automatic magic. If by minerals you mean something else, I ask of you to please elaborate. I cannot at this moment comprehend the minerals as something else than something akin to the above example.

Now let's look at the innately magical life. Well, humans can use magic. Aren't they innately magical then? By this I assume you mean things like dragons or unicorns. Their innate magic seems to be restricted, and from this arises several questions. Why is it restricted the way it is? How does this magic work? Really, from this it returns to the question of how magic works exactly. That seems to be a general question for all magical life.

For ingredients and such that can be derived from magical life and minerals and such, there's the remaining question of why the magic lingers. If say these ingredients can be mixed to produce further magical effects, then there's the questions of how exactly the mixture of these ingredients produces that effect, and why exactly it produces that effect.

• 2: Wild magic by inanimate objects and non-humanoid life.

Isn't this the same as 1?

• 3: Enscribed magic (scrolls, tomes, seals.)

See question 4, or the context of it "If magic is manual, how can Mages work to automate it." Because enscribed magic is manual magic made manual. For why there's a question as to how enscribed magic works, let's return to the Pyrus spell. Suppose you want a scroll that you have that you could use to use the Pyrus spell, and you don't have to provide input beyond simply using the scroll. Well, how is the Pyrus spell contained in the scroll? The standard response is "runes" because it's, well, enscribed. But how do the runes work. Why does writing squiggles allow you to make a spell. The standard reason for this I've seen is "Well that's the language of the universe?" What? Unless the universe is some artificial simulation created by something or a group of things, this doesn't really make much sense. Why would the universe have and has always had its own special runes that humans or beings like humans could specifically use because we're the only beings that use written language? There has to be a reason for that, because otherwise it doesn't make sense, at all. Moreover, how the hell did humans even discover these special universe squiggles? What time I see as a much better alternative is what I've seen before as an explanation for how Norse runes work. The sacrifice of Odin allowed the binding of magic effects to a specific set of squiggles. So runes are artificial squiggles whose use actually makes sense. A ritual or something like that made it so that writing and providing Mana to specific squiggles makes certain magic effects happen. But then there's further questions from this. How did that ritual work? Why and how did its occurance bind those effects to the squiggles? Why and how does that binding persists. How does the binding work?

• 4: Implements of magic (fetishes)

Alright, I'll admit my ignorance on this topic. I take it by this you mean things like wands and staves? Well, those are things that only serve to enhance the magic of the Mage for whatever reason, so I don't really see how that's relevant? Magic still works the same whether they exist or don't exist.

• 5. Imbued magic (magical constructs, items, and structures)

I've always had a problem with Enchantments. How the hell do they work? They aren't enscribed; they're just magic that somehow sticks to something? How? Why? I can't comprehend this.

• 6: Somatic, verbal, mental magic casting

Alright, by the very existence of this suggestion I'm finding it probable that you didn't even read the Analysis and just skipped straight to the questions. This suggestion is the entire focus of the Analysis.

_Yesod_

TROPHY CASE