Speculations on the Sword

Shyal_malkes · Post by **Shyal_malkes** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 9:22 pm

i just had a disturbing thought

i feared that quentyn would wake up from a dream he's been having ever since <a href="http://npc.keenspace.com/d/20020203.htm ... 03.html</a>

where did my brain come up with that idea

bad brain! bad!

where's my whakadu when i need it?!

ps. i hope the link turns out ok, it's the first time i've tried making one on a forum.

Mutant for Hire · Post by **Mutant for Hire** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 9:25 pm

Sharuuk wrote: Unless the govt tries to take it away from him "for his own safety" or another fave, "national security" in which case they'd have to kill him to accomplish this which just might trigger a catastrophic reaction from the sword.

But that's just the "I don't trust ANY government" paranoid in me talking here.

They're well intentioned, but we all know that a certain road is paved with good intentions. They suppressed the other business because they didn't want a panic. This wouldn't necessarily cause a panic. The government isn't evil, it just has a different priority than the truth. Like any and all governments, ultimately it's job is to keep the peace and work towards general prosperity.

I would actually hope that the wizards and other aritficiers would keep quiet about how powerful Quentyn's sword might be. Let the Questor have his "secret weapon"....the council has NO NEED OR RIGHT TO KNOW! They quashed his work in the tunnels wanting it kept secret with threats of trashing his credibility if he spoke the truth..? Fine, then neither Quentyn nor anyone else is under ANY OBLIGATION to tell the council or guardsmen squat!

If Quentyn's sword is a major breakthrough in lux technology which could lead to a new generation of powerful artifacts, then yes, the Council needs to know. Unless you'd rather the Council make ill-informed judgements that could hurt a lot of innocent people just because Quentyn's feelings were hurt, would you?

I think Quentyn is better than that personally.

And for that matter, we don't know what the relationship is between the Wizard's College and the Council. If the Wizard's College is funded by the Council or governed by it in some way, then yes, they do have a right to know. For that matter, one of the Wizard's College might in fact sit on the council.

In any case, yes, the Council will probably need to know. Keeping secrets from them out of spite is not a particularly good idea.

StrangeWulf13 · Post by **StrangeWulf13** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 10:09 pm

My first thought when I saw the lux pattern was something like this:

".......is it just me........or is this the love child of a Mendelbrot... thingy...and a star nebula?"

Yeah, my brain's weird like that.

As for the sword, yeah, it shouldn't be doing what it does... as far as they know. See, under their current knowledge of luxcraft, the sword is an enigma. It does things no other weapon does, and they don't know why because everything they know tells them it shouldn't be doing them. As such, they are very interested in seeing what makes it tick.

So, naturally, when Master Irons small scan produced little more than the equivilant of a third or forth generation Dragon, as it were, he was confused by the apparent gibberish he saw. So, they had Quentyn test it a few times. Still didn't do much for 'em. Finally, they decided to use one of the deep scanning rooms... and basically extrapolated into a tenth generation Dragon. You can imagine the uproar it caused. Not to mention the wild screaming of a very excited Kestral. (Several of the local students are still gettin' their ears checked daily after that day.)

So far most of the guesses seem to either be too grand or too conservative. I can safely say we're not gonna see a talking sword here that makes much sense. And I for one doubt the possibility of any true AI that might come about anywhere. People seem to forget that you need a soul to go along with that intelligent mind humans seem to keep to themselves.

And this is not gonna be the equivilent of a small nuke on yer hip, alright? Because 1) Rac Conans have a lot of magic users, but few that could ever hope to challenge a human mage; and 2) it's already been established that you can't put hundreds of spells on any artifact... except perhaps one like Quentyn's (and even then it's gotta have limits; everything does).

As cool as that would be, we'd quickly reach the point where he was literally "eight feet tall and fartin' thunderbolts". I don't think a comic about a near demi-god character would be that entertaining. Plus, it's hard to sympathize with someone who can level mountains when you yourself have trouble lifting a bag of sand up to the levy to help hold back the floodwaters. I for one would quickly become bored with it.

At any rate, we'll soon learn just what all those little sparklies mean in due time.

Astral · Post by **Astral** » Thu Apr 21, 2005 11:45 pm

Scearly enough.... it looks like a DNA pattern.. could it be that Qunintyn is 'metapsyicaly' bound to the sword? That its once scrambled lux patterns reasembled them selves using Quins own biology as a blue-print?

BBlalock · Post by **BBlalock** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 1:39 am

Where are you getting DNA out of that?

I looks like the folks who recognized specifically which fractal pattern it is are on the right track, fractals nicely explains why there are spell patterns that trail off into nothing.

They're not trailing off into nothing, they're just too small to see with Iron's benchtop equipment.

Astral · Post by **Astral** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 1:42 am

Have you ever seen a diogram of a partly unravled chromosone with all the attoms displayed? Cus it looks suprisingly like that picky. Of cource this could be just coinsudence, but that is what specualtion is for I supose

BBlalock · Post by **BBlalock** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 2:23 am

Astral wrote:Have you ever seen a diogram of a partly unravled chromosone with all the attoms displayed? Cus it looks suprisingly like that picky. Of cource this could be just coinsudence, but that is what specualtion is for I supose

No I haven't, and I can't find it with Google. Got a link? (I am curious, I am not trying to be argumentative.)

Thanks!

Astral · Post by **Astral** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 2:25 am

I'll cirtainatly try to find one, but it'd depend on finding one simerler to the ilerstrations in my old biology book. Looking at it too, there's a few shapes that I don't think would ocure even in a badly tangled DNA strand, so I'm probably horribly wrong about that obersvation

Astral · Post by **Astral** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 2:35 am

http://www.finkbeiner.com/Scientific/Images/DNA.jpg
Ok times that by three and mix it up a little and you'll have a piky similour to the one in my bio book.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/3 ... in_203.jpg
Not quite as good but still pritty close and you see the colours, plus the extra colours in the scan could be other bace pairs that don't ocure in earth biology.

http://www.thepsychictouch.com/helix.jpg
Thats about the closest I found but its realy small >.<

SolidusRaccoon · Post by **SolidusRaccoon** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 2:54 am

Double Helix.

Astral · Post by **Astral** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 2:57 am

muh

Yesh I know its suposed to be a double helix.. why?

RHJunior · Post by **RHJunior** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 4:21 am

actually, what you're looking at is a Dragon Fractal.

I won't tell any more. You'll have to read the comic to figure it out.

SolidusRaccoon · Post by **SolidusRaccoon** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 4:23 am

Still it's dang cool looking.

KeeCoyote · Post by **KeeCoyote** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 5:23 am

You do know that fractals if they curve enough are a infinite amount of area in a curved and twisted into a finite amount of space. Its more than having a nuke on your hip. its having a a red giant star or a supernova on your hip.
so being frightened is a good thing.

SolidusRaccoon · Post by **SolidusRaccoon** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 6:05 am

KeeCoyote wrote:You do know that fractals if they curve enough are a infinite amount of area in a curved and twisted into a finite amount of space. Its more than having a nuke on your hip. its having a a red giant star or a supernova on your hip.
so being frightened is a good thing.

Whoa, that's heavy.

Shyal_malkes · Post by **Shyal_malkes** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 7:54 am

RHJunior wrote:actually, what you're looking at is a Dragon Fractal.

well ok, so we know what it IS, but we still don't know what it DOES

still looks pretty though. and hard to make too.

...and thank goodness it wasn't all a dream.

CasVeg · Post by **CasVeg** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 11:02 am

A small amount of research (10-15 minutes worth) confirmed what I suspected and then some:

(1.) The sword can probably absorb energy at ultra-low frequencies; this would normally require a huge device. While low-frequency translates into low-energy, the total amount of power at low frequencies can be staggering. It's really a case of "water, water every where and not a drop to drink". It's always been there, everywhere, but inaccessible to any practical means. While other artifacts absorb "surface" energy, Quentyn and Co. managed to create a device that effectively taps into an underground power source that noone else else was using. The power boost from the extra high-frequency lux in the Seven Villages area is just icing on the cake.

(2.) The sword can probably operate at multiple frequencies at the same time. (Oh, wait, it does do that.)

Sharuuk wrote:You KNOW that Master Irons is going to want to know just exactly HOW this level of work was accomplished by a first year....and a drunk first year at that!

The Dragon curve is origami for idiots. That's how a drunk first year managed to do it.

StrangeWulf13 wrote:(1.) . . .And even then it's gotta have limits; everything does.

(2.) It's hard to sympathize with someone who can level mountains when you yourself have trouble lifting a bag of sand up to the levy to help hold back the floodwaters.

(1.) It's using a fractal rune; so, it's already breaking several limits.

(2.) The Vash Fan Club doesn't like you.

KeeCoyote wrote:It's more than having a nuke on your hip; it's having a red giant star or a supernova on your hip.

How about a quasar?

SolidusRaccoon · Post by **SolidusRaccoon** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 11:30 am

Now all we need to do is find out that sword is not made from regular old steel, it is actually made from Naquada.

RHJunior · Post by **RHJunior** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 11:37 am

Minor hints:

A pattern is not power, any more than a computer circuit is the electricity that fuels it.

SolidusRaccoon · Post by **SolidusRaccoon** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 11:45 am

RHJunior wrote:Minor hints:

A pattern is not power, any more than a computer circuit is the electricity that fuels it.

Hnh, I see. Verrrrrrrrrrry Interesting.