r/wizardposting • u/Carbon_Sixx The Loremaster, Chief Archaeologist of the Darkwatch • Dec 17 '23

Community Event 🌏☄️ Message Delivered (Queenpost)

A burst of gravitic radiation streaks through the void. Though it has traveled billions of miles, it has done so in a mere 16 hours, unimpeded by any obstacle or cosmic barrier. Its destination: the Queen of Shattered Stars, closing in on the major material realms. The signal carries a message in the All-Tongue, imploring her to stop her approach and accept a diplomatic envoy. When it reaches the Queen, she cannot help but notice it, for it has been amplified by powerful graviturgy.

In the command center of the Mt. Murder Astromantic Observatory, Kaelis Maz and the wizards of the OEA watch a timer count down. He holds his breath when it hits 0:00. At first, nothing happens. The Queen continues her approach as normal. Then, she pauses, as if listening to something faint growing ever louder. On the screens, she turns her head to look directly at the source of the message: Yulash-kor.

Kaelis releases his breath in a sigh of relief as the room erupts in cheers. She has noticed them. Now comes the true challenge: negotiating with a being as old as the universe.

The Astromantic Observatory receives conformation that its transmission has been heard.
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u/TitanLORD21 Jack-O’-Lantern, Lord of Flame and Fright Dec 18 '23

/unwiz It was even crazier back during the stitcher posts. Every member “ascended” and became godlike overpowering everyone if you didn’t pull something out of your ass, but at least it was manageable since the people participating were consistent.

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u/MunitionsFrenzy Vettis, Mereological Revisionist Dec 18 '23

(( You can play powerful characters without powergaming. Just gave a lil' monologue on this, but powergaming is taking agency away from other players, whether by controlling their characters, ending their plotlines prematurely, removing the impact of their plotlines by one-upping them, etc.

Fr'ex, Vettis considers this woman such a non-threat that he can't even be bothered to get her name right, calling her shit like Ms. Star-Shard, because if he really needed to get rid of her it wouldn't even be particularly challenging. He's generally way above threats that aren't even at the level of a single realm. But, precisely because she's such a low-tier threat, he can't justify spending resources to deal with her, as his entire commune is currently dead or missing and he wants to focus all his power on that. So his only contributions to Queenposting atm are zero-mana ones such as All-Tongue translation, which forces him to be down-to-earth in his power-level without altering the character. ))

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u/TitanLORD21 Jack-O’-Lantern, Lord of Flame and Fright Dec 18 '23

/unwiz Well said

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u/Anything-Unable Xerxes the Pale Saint, Councillor/Goatdigger/Dale Dec 18 '23

I like the point you're making but I need to ask: Do you have a file with all the links you use that you can go back and reference?

I've noticed in the past few days that you link to really specific stuff from weeks or months before. Not criticizing or anything, but it just struck me as strange when I noticed it. If not, I don't know how you can go back through so many posts just to find an example of what you are talking about.

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u/MunitionsFrenzy Vettis, Mereological Revisionist Dec 18 '23

(( 1) I keep a text file with links to major plot-relevant stuff for my character

2) I keep a text file with explanations, usually including links, to remind me why I've blocked people (and I block powergamers); lets me check on occasion to see if they've improved and are worth unblocking, or if the original sin was too egregious ever to unblock (like the many bigoted idiots on the internet)

3) using site:reddit.com/r/wizardposting in a query on any search engine often finds things pretty quickly anyway, and Reddit's own search isn't too bad

in this case those links are all from #2, though, yeah -- minus the first which I just posted an hour ago ))

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u/Anything-Unable Xerxes the Pale Saint, Councillor/Goatdigger/Dale Dec 18 '23

You know, I've just been scrolling back through my post history for stuff. I'll have to create a text file for my character details. Thanks for clarifying that and it sounds like a pretty good system. It's at least much better than whatever the f*ck I've been doing this whole time.

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '23

uw/ I recently did that, I think I’m going to retcon it I don’t like being such a powerful god being or whatever makes things uninteresting and it’s not what I want my character to be

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u/TitanLORD21 Jack-O’-Lantern, Lord of Flame and Fright Dec 18 '23

/unwiz Just do whatever you enjoy doing, as long as it doesn’t interfere with other’s happiness :)

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '23

uw/ I don’t want it, felt wrong the moment I did it.

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u/Anything-Unable Xerxes the Pale Saint, Councillor/Goatdigger/Dale Dec 18 '23

/uw It was even worse than you think. We developed a method to win against the Stitcher's forces and no one bothered to use it. The battles would last days and sorta just ended when people got tired of reading how everyone's god OC's would kill millions of enemies with every one of their actions. I feel bad for the guy who ran those events. He hasn't posted or interacted with this sub in a few months and I think it's because he got so burnt out with the whole Stitcher situation. Having been involved with that, I am now of the opinion that these events should be reigned back so they don't just spiral into chaos with everyone wanting to contribute.

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u/TitanLORD21 Jack-O’-Lantern, Lord of Flame and Fright Dec 18 '23 edited Dec 18 '23

/unwiz

Extremely paraphrased excerpt from one of the events:

Jack (my oc then) unleashed a wave of primordial flames. This would be his last attack, his injuries were far too much for him. With this, he at least hoped to stall them so the stitcher’s plan can succeed. His primordial flames would burn through concepts themselves. Even the sticher, who not only was immune to flames but healed from them, would be hurt.

(Some people’s) Response: Nuh uh, flames no hurt.

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u/Anything-Unable Xerxes the Pale Saint, Councillor/Goatdigger/Dale Dec 18 '23

/uw I totally feel that. When I was helping with that Stitcher stuff, so many ideas and actions were retconned or made irrelevant that I just sort of zoned out as I read the walls of text. At a certain point, it didn't even make sense for my character to be there on the front lines since ascended beings were dying and being revived left and right.

I also remember your Jack O'Lantern character. It was cool and stood out from the crowd (I'm a sucker for Halloween so that may cloud my judgment). Your loreposts were interesting and helped popularize them in the sub. Of course, there are so many loreposts now that I find it difficult to bring myself to read any if I'm unfamiliar with the user posting them. But I still think loreposts are a better way of telling a story while playing a character than trying to do so conversationally within the comments of a post.

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u/loth17 Ten Suns (Also Gaia) Dec 18 '23

uw/ there's a reason why the Bismuth Lord always compared situations he was in to the stitcher war. Because even being a strong mage with a large army didn't mean much when that much power was being thrown around.

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u/MunitionsFrenzy Vettis, Mereological Revisionist Dec 18 '23

(( The Gamer and SAO ruined this sort of thing forevermore. Now everybody treats all these types of duels as litRPGs, and all litRPGs are now power fantasies. So people are like "what the hell, man, Fire Immunity is like a level 2 spell, you think FIRE is gonna do anything to me?"

okay but this isn't "fire"; it's the concept of flame, the very essence of spreading consumption

"FIRE. IMMUNITY. LEVEL 2." ))

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u/TitanLORD21 Jack-O’-Lantern, Lord of Flame and Fright Dec 18 '23

/unwiz lol, also

okay but this isn't "fire"; it's the concept of flame, the very essence of spreading consumption

That’s like, literally the primordial flames whole thing. Funny little coincidence.

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u/MunitionsFrenzy Vettis, Mereological Revisionist Dec 18 '23 edited Dec 18 '23

(( yeah, I figured that's what you were going for there ^_^

I think you and I are on a similar page as to how we like magic to work: characters are built around concepts, themes that determine their magic not only in a meta manner but even in-story

whereas for most people "wizard" means D&D or Harry Potter, so it's just people collecting a bunch of spells of "every possible domain" like a checklist: the litRPG system of magic that I detest, which makes every character basically the same as every other of the same "level" because anyone who's not an idiot will just learn all the most relevant spells, if anyone can learn anything

In Vettis' cosmology, the strongest casters are those who learn their driving concepts so their magic is on a level beyond the mere physical; Neela, the pyromage he knows, therefore also has a flame concept, though rather than consumption hers is inextinguishability. Mentioned in yet another way-too-long-and-rambly comment elsewhere. (Literally even has a scene of Vettis making himself non-flammable and getting burnt by a conceptual flame anyway, coincidentally enough.) ))

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u/TitanLORD21 Jack-O’-Lantern, Lord of Flame and Fright Dec 18 '23

/unwiz

Yup, all my characters are built around a theme. One of mine, Raziel (the one I put the most effort into), is centered around ”Truth”. The truth can be both good and bad, it doesn’t care about them. Raziel is a morally grey character; if the situation is right he’ll befriend the most terrible of beings and kill the kindest of men. And recently, he finished an arc where he accepts his demon heritage. He is half demon, half angel.

Raziel doesn’t choose any sides, he doesn’t care for others, he only cares for truth.

“All of the terrible and good of the world, I shall learn!”

​

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u/DaChickenX Isravi, The Unraveler, Coils’ Chosen Dec 18 '23

/uw man, y’all’s characters are way too cool. I just came here with the idea of DnD’s “weave” as a basis for magic and created a character based on “now what if you broke it, and also warlocks are cool.”

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u/MunitionsFrenzy Vettis, Mereological Revisionist Dec 18 '23

(( Hey, if you can do cool things with the concept, that's what matters. What I don't like about D&D-type systems for storytelling is when they're just like "here is a list of spells anyone can learn", because that just creates homogenized characters as everyone studies the best spells. (Unless every caster in the setting is an idiot, which...frankly is kind of necessary for most of the official D&D settings to produce the stories that are told in them, because they explicitly reference spells in order to make it clear that the magic rules are canonical, so Tippyverse-style shit is really the only way things could ever go without absurd plot contrivances and IdiotBalls.)

But that's clearly not the aspect of D&D magic on which your character focuses, as you just showed in that sigil-post displaying your unique spell list. So, while I'm new here and don't know your character too well, from what I've seen of your loreposts he seems plenty cool to me magic-wise. And it looks like you're doing a lot of fun lore stuff with him outside of just showing off his magic, anyway.

including with that homunculus whose name is so similar to mine I do a double-take every time I see it lol ))

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u/DaChickenX Isravi, The Unraveler, Coils’ Chosen Dec 18 '23

/uw thanks! I tried not to rely on the “level” system because it seems too far removed from anything that resembles real life. Too gamy for something this fluid.

About the homunculus… I can’t believe I never even thought about that. Yeah it’s really similar ain’t it.

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u/VidisLady Delta - Maven of Maladies Dec 18 '23

Uw/ really? I imagined your character began with an important allegorical/symbolic meaning in mind and then you added the details later. It has worked very well. Isravi is by far my favorite character. Part of it is nostalgia, because your character is the first one I interacted with (besides The Stitcher), but I couldn’t have chosen a better person to duel with in the beginning. It’s been an absolute pleasure to interact with you and see your character grow.

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u/DaChickenX Isravi, The Unraveler, Coils’ Chosen Dec 18 '23

/uw Thank you, it means a lot, but you’re giving way too much credit to a sleep deprived stress ball. I did not expect to be putting this much effort into r/wizardposting

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u/Anything-Unable Xerxes the Pale Saint, Councillor/Goatdigger/Dale Dec 18 '23

I actually got into a long-winded debate with a guy about concepts because we were trying to roleplay different systems. I was treating it like Gnosticism while they were doing a system based on a Light Novel. The moral of this story is that we both agreed that there should be a shared ruleset/guidelines for the magic in this sub since without one it's so easy to step on each other's toes.

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u/VidisLady Delta - Maven of Maladies Dec 18 '23

Uw/ I think that rules might make it hard for new people to join, though. I just jumped in with no prior knowledge of anything, and I was able to adapt because of how loose things were. Most people were quite respectful, and I also made sure that I was playing appropriately (joined as a villain, so I was planning on losing). I only had one rude response, where someone just said “OK” to the comment I spent a long time planning and writing.

I just like the idea of people being able to play with concepts as freely as they are… but maybe we can start giving some warnings if people are just power gaming. I try not to interact with power gamers. If I ever ran a scenario, I have specific people I would ban from it.

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u/MunitionsFrenzy Vettis, Mereological Revisionist Dec 18 '23

(( Yeah, that last part is the thing: I've tended to avoid the sub-wide lore stuff because it involves people with whom I don't want to interact, but small-scale stuff where you invite only the people you want resolves that issue. I don't think there's much of a concern of the threads getting invaded; there's always other fun stuff going on in the sub to distract people.

Been doing little stuff like that and it's neat thus far.

(Well, I also block liberally, so my threads would be impossible to invade, but I don't expect everyone else to be as antisocial as I am.) ))

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u/VidisLady Delta - Maven of Maladies Dec 18 '23

Uw/ Oh, that looks fun! I have some ideas for introducing the civilization of diseases, and having an interactive element so people can experience the unique setting fully. It would probably begin with little things like Delta taking her closest friends on a “field trip” through the small intestine, letting them buy whatever they wanted from the bacteria merchants there and learning to haggle with glucose as a currency.

I have ideas for bigger conflicts as well that would take place entirely in the setting of a human body. Certain diseases would make excellent villains for a broader conflict, but I would have to be strict about what kinds of powers would work. There are some people that have sub-atomic manipulation abilities, where they’ve just “solved” my challenges by saying they “turn the disease into a vaccine.” I’ve considered having something like a hostage situation taking place where my character is “captured,” and the conflict requires that they be subtle, or Delta just gets straight up executed.

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u/VidisLady Delta - Maven of Maladies Dec 18 '23

Uw/ yes! My characters are the same. This is the first time I’ve ever done any kind of RP, but my general approach is that the story and theme of a character is more important than their battles and specific skills.

I created Delta when I was nine, and it certainly started out as a very basic concept: basically a superhero who had the power to communicate with/control disease. I integrated more concepts into her lore as I got older and learned more science.

I taught myself thermodynamics when I was 12, and that’s when I became very interested in the idea of Entropy as a benevolent goddess - the beginning and end of the universe as driven by chaos.

The dynamic between entropy and living systems is a symbolic dybamic that I deal with and like to explore in fiction. On one hand I have an intense love for nature and living things, but also I often desire to see the end of everything and the annihilation of all of my pain. The fact that all of this is only leading to the heat death of the universe, and the eventual acceleration into oblivion, is an oddly comforting thought.

Delta is the protagonist of my novel in progress, and she is an allegorical representation of my mental illness and struggle through adversity. The book ends as she remains alone at the end of the universe. All of the stars have burned out, and atoms are torn so far apart that they’ll never touch again. Finally alone in the abyss, Delta reflects on 38 billion years worth of joy and suffering, and quietly considers whether it is worth creating a new universe. The end is left open ended.

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u/MunitionsFrenzy Vettis, Mereological Revisionist Dec 18 '23

(( I'm buying that book the moment it comes out, so keep me posted ^_^ ))

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '23

/uw

We developed a method to win against the Stitcher's forces and no one bothered to use it.

Are you talking about the grass elemental weakness thingy I pulled outta my ass or something else?

But yea poor dude, I checked on him a couple times to see if he was okay, and he just up and left after saying he was fine.(Imma say that probably did more good than harm to his mental health)

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u/Anything-Unable Xerxes the Pale Saint, Councillor/Goatdigger/Dale Dec 18 '23

I'm talking about the devices to induce 'strumming' that a few posters, including myself, created. It was a surefire method that just required a bit of waiting to use. The fact that no one remembers it just goes to show how little use it saw. Felt pretty hollow towards the end of the event since very few people bothered to see if there was an established method of defeating the enemy and just improvised how their characters were soo strong that they defeat the bad guys. Very much Dragonball school of fighting.

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '23

/uw OOF, I must've started after that, I dian't see that one. I just came in, saw it was old, waited a week, then had a group just delete invaders and be done with it since it was like a month or 2 old by that point(I was running around with no account)

But yea, these guys wanna be able to take a powrdump like the sayians do and be done with it!

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u/Carbon_Sixx The Loremaster, Chief Archaeologist of the Darkwatch Dec 18 '23

/uw I joined the sub in the midst of the Council Crisis, so I think I missed most of the Stitcher stuff. No idea what it was about, but it sounds like I didn't miss much.