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I think it's best to think of entelechs as Lovecraftian Horrors Out of Time and Space. The idea is basically a trope in fantasy, which Graydon is playing with. What is interesting about them in this world, though, is that pretty well everything else supernatural can be attributed to 100,000 years of super-powerful magicians loving around around. Like it could easily be the modern world, except magic appears and magicians gently caress everything up, creating demons etc in the process. Whereas entelechs seem to be very much Other. (I guess fire elementals too. Although I wonder whether those also might be the result of past magical fuckery. All that said, what the gently caress is a tagmat?
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Dec 22, 2023 05:02
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Lead out in cuffs posted:All that said, what the gently caress is a tagmat? ”AMOGAS” posted:“I should like to refute you.” Acraisais salts their tea a second time. “Yet we have accepted precedent for tagmat or coercer talents and controlling influences.” Coercers can command the nervous system of others; entelechs can command reality. By extension, we can guess that tagmats can control thoughts/intellect. There’s some extra backing for this assumption in UOB, where Crow tells Eugenia about what the tagmat flavor is for and says “Order’s youth happened in the memory,” Crow says. “In a time when no one trusted that their thoughts were their own thoughts.”
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Dec 22, 2023 05:18
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Right, sort of like how some weeds, demons, and creatures like Eustace have minds but no nervous system. A coercer couldn't affect them, but a tagmat could. I'm kinda curious what it's an abbreviation of, though. It sounds a bit like tagmentation, but I'm sure it's not related to that.
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Dec 22, 2023 08:04
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Lead out in cuffs posted:Right, sort of like how some weeds, demons, and creatures like Eustace have minds but no nervous system. A coercer couldn't affect them, but a tagmat could. Ordinarily I'd figure out what Greek/Old English/French word it was intended to be, but "tagma" is a term for a Byzantine military grouping which wouldn't seem to work. (It also now carries the meaning of "order" in the sense of a military honor, but wasn't historically, so I can't imagine that's how Graydon intended it to be read, despite the obvious connection to Order the independent.) So maybe a corruption of something else?
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Dec 22, 2023 08:39
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i dunno, "ordering"/"arrangement" for thought control kind of makes sense
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Dec 22, 2023 11:11
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I had thought tagmats were akin to reality warpers.
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Dec 22, 2023 15:52
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Thread has motivated me to start another read through, it's always wild to see what newly makes sense... And what still doesn't. There are turns of phrase in here that leave me scratching my head. A "unique author voice" is the start of the description, but a ways from it's finish.
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Dec 24, 2023 04:19
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Bringing this back because I am re-reading and am about halfway through A Mist of Grit and Splinters. Duckling says the multiplier of a Creek heavy battalion is 11. Earlier in the book they discuss Hammer, and mention that they were a “considerable untrained talent” who glassed 50 square km at some point using the standard. The standard’s multiplier applies to whatever talent is brought to it. Fire is well trained and when cohered with Shadow is about one Blossom. Fire can latch.
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May 27, 2024 22:42
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Later in AMOGAS this gets explained. A subset of Blossom can latch (or Fire) - it’s not at all clear that the full entity could. And if the whole entity did and ran their output through the focus, the standard would melt. AMOGAS p260.)
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May 27, 2024 23:11
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Kalman posted:Later in AMOGAS this gets explained. A subset of Blossom can latch (or Fire) - it’s not at all clear that the full entity could. And if the whole entity did and ran their output through the focus, the standard would melt. AMOGAS p260.) Can you cite more precisely or quote the passage in spoilers? I’m not seeing it in google books at the cited page. p284? ulmont fucked around with this message at 23:54 on May 27, 2024 |
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May 27, 2024 23:51
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ulmont posted:Can you cite more precisely or quote the passage in spoilers? I’m not seeing it in google books at p.260. The conversation with Acraisais. “Why doesn’t an independent overwhelm the focus-mind?” Acraisais’ been rehearsing in their head. “Most independents lack the strength.” To overwhelm by superiority of Power. Clarity of understanding anyone could have. “Someone like Captain Blossom’s not the whole. The whole and the focus multiplier’d melt the standard.” Experiment’s been avoided.
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May 27, 2024 23:52
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Kalman posted:The conversation with Acraisais. Got it. I have that at p284.
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May 27, 2024 23:55
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secular woods sex posted:Fire is well trained and when cohered with Shadow is about one Blossom. Fire can latch. I read the books a few years ago and I remember what this means, but you show this sentence to someone who hasn't read the books and they'll have no clue.
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May 28, 2024 00:15
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The first part is just power levels. The second part a reader of The March North will get from the first few chapters.
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May 28, 2024 02:06
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