I'd like to know your idea.
If I were to use the JM it would be that it was land locked in either a cave or on a mountian peak unable to move outside of water. Perhaps the adventure hook would be that it sought to get to the Last Sea and beseeches the PC to transport it there.
Brax used it in the game we played in Vegas. He can elaborate.
From what I heard, the 3.5 Marquess is quite a work of genius
JM = Jade Marques
I know that where is the Jade Marque from?
Psionic Artifacts of Athas
I read that befire but just didn't remember the shi. Hmmn blatant Elric of Melnibone rip off.
Boy, have we got a surprise for you
And its impressive. /kudos
Offical Jade Marquess 3.5 stats? Joy! :P
I've never used it. I like the concept of it, but feel there's some cheesiness to it. A ship that tears thru the ground? Sounds to Spelljammery to me.
If I were to use the JM it would be that it was land locked in either a cave or on a mountian peak unable to move outside of water. Perhaps the adventure hook would be that it sought to get to the Last Sea and beseeches the PC to transport it there.
It wants to commit suicide?
You realize that's about the only practical way listed of destroying the thing, sail it into a body of water.
In our game, Jon managed to stow away on the thing with a small party. It was aware of his presence, but fortunately for Jon, it was well-fed at the time. I was unsure of whether it would be able to communicate Jon's presence to its undead captain.
It wants to commit suicide?
You realize that's about the only practical way listed of destroying the thing, sail it into a body of water.
I'm fully aware that's one of the ways it could be destroyed. I pointed out that if I were to use it, I wasn't going to allow it to traverse over the land. Its a simple matter of removing the salt water bit as one of the means of destroying the JM.
Boy, have we got a surprise for you
Great! If they are letting brun01 have a hand in updating and making official artifacts, I will have to go back to playing "sticks and stones"!!!
I'm fully aware that's one of the ways it could be destroyed. I pointed out that if I were to use it, I wasn't going to allow it to traverse over the land. Its a simple matter of removing the salt water bit as one of the means of destroying the JM.
I don't think it's quite that simple. It's also a matter of overhauling the item's whole defining ability, and the place that it plays in the campaign. That's like saying that you'll have psionicists in your campaign except that they cast spells instead of using psionics. Unless I greatly misunderstand you, you like the idea of a haunted ship that eats its crew, and you're OK with the name "Jade Marquess," but everything else has to go?
The whole story of all the ship's captains following it around, and all the undead encounters, that would be pretty hard to carry over to a water only vessel on Athas.
Unless I greatly misunderstand you, you like the idea of a haunted ship that eats its crew, and you're OK with the name "Jade Marquess," but everything else has to go?.
Pretty much how I feel. A hunted land locked ship wishing to see the sea again works for me.
The whole story of all the ship's captains following it around, and all the undead encounters, that would be pretty hard to carry over to a water only vessel on Athas.
Not with some creativity. Change those restless undead captains to thrall servants who scour the desert for victims to feed to their master works just as fine IMO.
Pretty much how I feel. A hunted land locked ship wishing to see the sea again works for me.
Not with some creativity. Change those restless undead captains to thrall servants who scour the desert for victims to feed to their master works just as fine IMO.
Whether it's "as" good is a matter of taste, but it's objectively a very a different story; you've essentially turned the JM into a super zombie plant. What I liked about the JM, was the multi-polar nature of the adventure. Lots of different interests involved. Each captain out to possess the JM. And it would be strange that people would still be coming to captain the ship now that it was land-locked.
Whether it's "as" good is a matter of taste, but it's objectively a very a different story; you've essentially turned the JM into a super zombie plant. What I liked about the JM, was the multi-polar nature of the adventure. Lots of different interests involved.
There are some similarities I suppose but just the same, the JM has some similarities to the Spelljammer from the SJ setting.
There are some similarities I suppose but just the same, the JM has some similarities to the Spelljammer from the SJ setting.
With the life-shaping and the zic-chil, this might not be the only similarity to SJ, if it was similar. I never played SJ, so I don't know. Originally, I didn't like the fact that the JM was life-shaped ... magic seemed to better fit some of the abilities and the association with undeath. But then, there was divine magic even in the Blue Age.
Originally, I didn't like the fact that the JM was life-shaped ... magic seemed to better fit some of the abilities and the association with undeath. But then, there was divine magic even in the Blue Age.
Agreed. Never made any sense to me that something that appears to be crafted from an inanimate slab of jade was animated and given life thru life-shaping. Magic seems a more logical choice.
Agreed. Never made any sense to me that something that appears to crafted from an inanimate slab of jade was animated and given life thru life-shaping. Magic seems a more logical choice.
Which is why, at its bery basis, the JM is not that fun of an artifact for me: You need to ignore the fact that it predates magic and is made of lifeshaped...jade? (Unless it just looks like jade...can't recall what the book says.) It seems out of place as an artifact dating from the Blue Age, but not from the Green Age.
Which is why, at its bery basis, the JM is not that fun of an artifact for me: You need to ignore the fact that it predates magic and is made of lifeshaped...jade? (Unless it just looks like jade...can't recall what the book says.)
I'm not sure that the JM does pre-date divine magic, and I see nothing in the JM that would require arcane magic.
Additionally, I don't think that the sources even say that life-shaping pre-dates divine magic. My guess is that it does not, and that shaman-types have been around since long before the first World Age. That seems more reasonable to me than to infer that halflings were pithing around with biological engineering millenia before they developed animist elemental worship.
Of all the cultures that I've ever encountered, the Balinese religion seems the closest to Athasian elemental worship as the DS sources generally describe it, and I think that has a lot to do with Bali being a volcanic island, at the mercy of the surrounding oceans, & winds. (Not to mention the omnipresent primal elemental forces of the volcano.) The quasi-official timeline posits a struggle between elemental priests and life-shapers before the struggle between shapers and benders. We -->might<-- interpret struggle as a religious revival of old ideas, not unlike what we sometimes see in our own post-rationalist society. Fundamental elementalists or elemental fundamentalists, take your pick ;)
It seems out of place as an artifact dating from the Blue Age, but not from the Green Age.
I strongly agree, although perhaps Bruno will change my mind on this. But I'm not sure why there could not be an life shaped artifact made during the brief age of Rebirth, or during the early Green Age. My feeling is that the JM was made during the 40 years or so sometimes called the Age of Rebirth, after much of the ocean became land, and after the rebirth races emerged, but before the rebirth races discovered psionics (which arguably marks the start of the Green Age per se.) The Rebirth was a time of transition. It would make sense for some life-shapers to work up a ship that traveled on land. And it's also during the time of re-birth that we'd have the most likely scenario where elves might be communicating with life-shapers ... since that's the generation of elves that had just been halflings, and might have still in those early days remembered their halfling pasts.
One of Bruno's main arguments for this being life-shaped was the rhulisti face on front. But since the timelime posits the rhulisti had their elemental clerics, I'm not sure that proves life-shaping. If there were still rhulisti elementalists around, the JM might have been their work. Different halfling groups may have responded differently to the Rebirth, at least initially.
I suspect that Athas should have nothing associated with undead prior to the Rebirth. Correct me if I'm mistaken, but I can't remember any published source positing undead creatures existing during the Blue Age. The Gray seems to be something that's grown up over the years. We know there were some undead during the Green Age; some of those are still around. But most undead seem to appear during the Cleansing Wars or afterwards. My own feel is that a number of cataclysms have created the Grey, or rather, given the Grey the qualities it has today.
The obsidian cataclysm is the most prominent and obvious example of an incident massively increasing the number of undead on Athas, and connecting the material world to the world of spirits. But we know that the Green Age had its meorties as well. We could say that prior to the obsidian cataclysm, that you didn't just become undead accidentally, but were made one. But I don't like that interpretation; there's probably some source out there describing other accidental undead that appeared prior to the obsidian cataclysm. Surely not all the Green Age undead are T'lizes and Raaigs and such. I'd be surprised if there were no krags or banshees prior to the obsidian cataclysm.
So I'd say that while the obsidian cataclysm was the main cause of why the grey is what it is, and why undeath is so common on Athas, I think that other incidents had an incremental effect. The Pristine Tower, for instance; the massive changes of the sun before the Rebirth, and at the dawn of the Cleansing Wars. Possibly whatever incident sparked the psionic dawn of the Green Age, may have related to the Grey.
Finally (sorry for the detour), life-shaping might not have been the only trick up the nature-masters' sleeve. They did, after all, make the Pristine Tower.
I'm not sure that the JM does pre-date divine magic
....yes, something I didn't consider. Too often magic stuff is arcane, while at priori nothing's to stop it from being divine. Good point. So the JM could be a Blue Age rhulisti artifact created by...rhuilsti clerics.
...strange, but nothing wrong with it. Again, too often the rhulisti are associated with "technology" and thus "pseudo-scientific principles" (lifeshaping), so we're reluctant to make them magical, yet they did have divine magic.
I suspect that Athas should have nothing associated with undead prior to the Rebirth. Correct me if I'm mistaken, but I can't remember any published source positing undead creatures existing during the Blue Age. The Gray seems to be something that's grown up over the years. We know there were some undead during the Green Age; some of those are still around. But most undead seem to appear during the Cleansing Wars or afterwards. My own feel is that a number of cataclysms have created the Grey, or rather, given the Grey the qualities it has today.
I'd say that the Gray was always there, in dimished form or not. I think the Gray's qualities as a storytelling device, and as a setting anchoring structure (i.e. something that shapes everything else), should require of it to be as basic as the sun, i.e. it always was there.
As for undead, I don't see why it couldn't be said they never existed during the Blue Age, as long as its still true that dead rhulisti went to the Gray...just that at the time none of them ever came back in some form or another to plague the world. No wraiths or spirits lingering in the Gray. No skeletons on Athas. This I could go along with it.
No Gray in the past, however, would need better arguments for me. Maybe the Gray of today is what it is because of certain events in the past...ok, but no Gray in the past?
....yes, something I didn't consider. Too often magic stuff is arcane, while at priori nothing's to stop it from being divine. Good point. So the JM could be a Blue Age rhulisti artifact created by...rhuilsti clerics.
...strange, but nothing wrong with it. Again, too often the rhulisti are associated with "technology" and thus "pseudo-scientific principles" (lifeshaping), so we're reluctant to make them magical, yet they did have divine magic.
If the association is too strong and the idea of rhulisti clerics confuses readers, we could use the word rhulisti to describe the secular society. In that case, the word rhulisti would not describe all blue age halflings. Rhulisti might describe only those under the domination of the nature masters, or it might group those that went with the nature-benders as well.
Alternately, if rhulisti applies to all halflings, then it still would make sense that someone who knew a little about the blue age would assume that rhulisti had no elemental clerics, since the NMs apparently won the wars, and probably wrote the histories to their satisfaction. Not that anyone reads many blue age history books these days ... but suffice to say that the accounts that the pyreen and that Rajaat heard about would have been ... colored.
I'd say that the Gray was always there, in dimished form or not. I think the Gray's qualities as a storytelling device, and as a setting anchoring structure (i.e. something that shapes everything else), should require of it to be as basic as the sun, i.e. it always was there.
As for undead, I don't see why it couldn't be said they never existed during the Blue Age, as long as its still true that dead rhulisti went to the Gray...just that at the time none of them ever came back in some form or another to plague the world. No wraiths or spirits lingering in the Gray. No skeletons on Athas. This I could go along with it.
No Gray in the past, however, would need better arguments for me. Maybe the Gray of today is what it is because of certain events in the past...ok, but no Gray in the past?
I have always wondered if Rajaat didn’t change the Grey in some way so that he could use the life force of those slain to power magics at the close of the Cleansing Wars. If the Grey was different before, then all the energy that is there could be siphoned of to fuel some epic restorationist spell that brought back the Blue Age. I wouldn’t say that Rajaat made the Grey, but maybe he tweaked it to “store” the energy in other ways.
Spirits are time and again used to power spells, and spirits are routinely absorbed into the fabric of the Gray, so why not? I wouldn't make it official, but a strong contender among an unofficial list that designers could look at when writting projets. I haven't much seen theories of Athas' restoration by Rajaat's hands that are logical, this may be the first.I'd say that the Gray was always there, in dimished form or not. I think the Gray's qualities as a storytelling device, and as a setting anchoring structure (i.e. something that shapes everything else), should require of it to be as basic as the sun, i.e. it always was there.
As for undead, I don't see why it couldn't be said they never existed during the Blue Age, as long as its still true that dead rhulisti went to the Gray...just that at the time none of them ever came back in some form or another to plague the world. No wraiths or spirits lingering in the Gray. No skeletons on Athas. This I could go along with it.
No Gray in the past, however, would need better arguments for me. Maybe the Gray of today is what it is because of certain events in the past...ok, but no Gray in the past?
Correct; that's precisely what I meant when I said "created the gray, or rather, given the Grey the qualities it has today." I meant "created" the gray in the sense that Rajaat created his champions. The people existed before they were champions, but Rajaat gave them the qualities that made them champions. The gray may have been called something else -- might have been a different color for all we know ;)
As for undead, I don't see why it couldn't be said they never existed during the Blue Age, as long as its still true that dead rhulisti went to the Gray...just that at the time none of them ever came back in some form or another to plague the world. No wraiths or spirits lingering in the Gray. No skeletons on Athas. This I could go along with it.
I like it, since it gives us no reliable link to history of the blue age -- or whatever occurred before the first World's Age. And also explains why the world isn't full of the spirits of creatures that died when the oceans dried up.
The one piece that I have in LC that relates to the Wind Mages, btw, is an ivory structure that protrudes from the far western area of the Trembling Plains, the part called the Blood Prairie. Only protruding 25 feet or so from the ground, this structure was once part of a great horn. It was hollowed out and turned into a tower during the Green Age (when the ground level was lower). If you descend the staircase, you can descend all the way down into the skull of the great beast, one of many ocean creatures that perished at the end of the Blue Age.
The Ivory Tower (Sandwolf's torre de marfil) was the place where an organization was founded, that eventually was called the "wind mages."
Ah! I found it. ... but this is the wrong thread for it. I'm going way off topic here. ;D
Ah! I found it. ... but this is the wrong thread for it. I'm going way off topic here. ;D
Please do post about it elsewhere, I want to know!
/me like Wind MagesPlease do post about it elsewhere, I want to know!
not that you need it Penn, but here you go.
Please do post about it elsewhere, I want to know!
Chris just linked you -- I posted it there, just for you.
I agree with Brax in that there is nothing to say that the JM could not have been made in the time that the Rebirth began - could have been a last ditch effort for some of the halflings to eight move themselves and/or materials the wanted protected over the newly surfaced land -> and a ship seems the local form for this convayance because they would have been familiar with the building of such things, where as carts and other such wheel-based means of transportation may not have been that well designed - tha tand the lack of roads would have made using a cart/wagon/ect... very difficult.
Excellent point about the familiar form of transport, Kal. Transport would have been a problem. We know that the rhulisti had some airships, but even so, they would have been used to doing most of their shipping by sea.
Your post made me think for a strangely plausible reason for the JM's hunger for people. After the ocean dried but before the forests had time to grow, there were probably at least some desparate rebirth people outside the cities. With a new system of government in an isolated city-state like Giustenal or Bodach, the easiest way to deal with your toughest criminals is exile. Traveling by land was probably dangerous to the halflings. What better way to tell those savage degenerate rebirth races to stay away than an unmistakable ship that eats people?
In nature, the most venemous creatures are often brightly colored in order to warn predators. The combination of a strange bright Jade ship with the obvious rhulisti face and the tendency to eat people might be no coincidence. If Kal's right, and I think he is, then there were probably whole fleets of halfling land-ships during the rebirth, and all would have been targets for desperado-types. The Jade Marquess would have been notorious. You don't go after that one!
The Jade Marquis could easily be lifeshaped. If you designed a lifeform that would 'poo' out a jade marquis, then the jade marquis itself may not be a life form, but the result of lifeshaping.
I like that. Mother of Jade. :D
Still, life shaping does *not* explain that strange connection with undeath. Rhul-tal or no rhul-tal, there is some divine magic at work in the Jade Marquess. Not sure why there might not have been some crossover heresy, even in the blue age, between divine magic and life-shaping.
With the coming of the Brown Tide and the Rebirth upon them, a faction of the rhulisti runts made the JM to travel over land like I has stated perviously. Now, with the seas retreating, many of the current forms of life-shaped material might not have been functional, and so not ones to waste things, the rhulisti used the life-energies of their creations to grow the JM - with the unfortunate and unforseen side effect of making the ship require being fed sentiant creatures (I think that was the requirement but IDNHTBIFOM).
FYI - jade is a stone that represents luck (if you give it to someone else) and health - so who is to say that the rhulisti did not have the same beliefs and used jade because this was to be the ship that would carry some of them or their collected knowledge so a place where they could escape the Rebirth.
I like that. Mother of Jade. :D
Still, life shaping does *not* explain that strange connection with undeath. Rhul-tal or no rhul-tal, there is some divine magic at work in the Jade Marquess. Not sure why there might not have been some crossover heresy, even in the blue age, between divine magic and life-shaping.
Maybe THAT was the essence of Nature Bending. The Nature Masters didn't' like an elemental influence on their works.
I do not know that I would advocate for a whole flrret of ships like the JM - .
To clarify: I did not advocate a fleet of ships like the JM. I think that the whole people-eating, jade, etc. aspects were always unique to the JM.
I apologize if it seemed like I was putting words into your mouth, suggesting that you had advocated a fleet of ships. I was just extrapolating from the facts that you laid out. The factors that you described (lack of roads, transition mentality, existing technology, etc.) would make it more likely that halflings would make a life-shaped ground-based ship, rather than a wheeled wagon. Another factor is what I said -- the great forests hadn't grown up yet during the early Rebirth years, so easier to make life-shaped vessels than to get the timber to make a fleet of wagons.
Halfling cities were cut off from each other. They were used to using ships. The land may have been inhabited by persons that the halflings regarded as hostile. There was little timber, and halflings were used to making life-shaped objects to solve everything. I have yet to see any life-shaped wheeled vehicle. In the light of those facts, the Jade Marquess makes a lot more sense.
Halfling cities were cut off from each other. They were used to using ships. The land may have been inhabited by persons that the halflings regarded as hostile. There was little timber, and halflings were used to making life-shaped objects to solve everything. I have yet to see any life-shaped wheeled vehicle. In the light of those facts, the Jade Marquess makes a lot more sense.
Flying or swimming life-shaped vehicles would make even more sense
Flying or swimming life-shaped vehicles would make even more sense
I agree that they eventually went with airships; that's the story I've told in part of LC.
I'm simply saying that during this time of transition; that people tried a number of different things before settling on what made most sense. For one thing, it takes time and training crew an airship. Halflings had been sailing the seas for generations. Remember also the halfling civilizations were isolated. I doubt that every town and city had facilities and knowhow to make airships. Cities that had been making sea-ships for generations, and had crews to support them, might have found that in their situation, it made more sense to make a land-ship to set out to trade with other halfling cities, rather than waiting for someone to make air-ships to come and get them.
Inertia is a strong force in history. Consider the fact that we're typing on keyboards that use a format specifically designed to slow down typing so that the keys don't jam. I have enough faith in the human race to believe that we'll eventually adapt to a writing interface that makes more sense for our modern needs. But knowing history, I'd not be surprised if another generation or two went by before we adapt to what makes more sense.
Oh - and Brax - I know you were not putting words in my mouth, I just wanted to pre-empt the thought that there might be more like the JM out there
A singe ship takes years to make and the idea that they would have spent the time on making multiple ships like the JM, when they were limited in resources, runt power, and time just seems like too much of a stretch to me - that they had the time to make the one ship to carry their most valuable research or core people away is much more plausible IMO.
I think someone said that there we a basically working with a time of like 40ish years here, so how long would it take to "grow" (for lack of a better term) a life-shaped ship? Years I would think - but maybe that is why it needs to feed, the rhulisti made it small, and very quickly out of desperation and then fed it a bunch of their other creations or foes, and the JM basically is hemorrhaging energy, energy it can only replace by consuming living creatures.
Hummmmm....that is a thought too.
Stupid humans! I will deal with their filth after I have removed the taint of the runts from the world!!!
Oh - and Brax - I know you were not putting words in my mouth, I just wanted to pre-empt the thought that there might be more like the JM out there
A singe ship takes years to make and the idea that they would have spent the time on making multiple ships like the JM, when they were limited in resources, runt power, and time just seems like too much of a stretch to me - that they had the time to make the one ship to carry their most valuable research or core people away is much more plausible IMO.
I think someone said that there we a basically working with a time of like 40ish years here, so how long would it take to "grow" (for lack of a better term) a life-shaped ship? Years I would think - but maybe that is why it needs to feed, the rhulisti made it small, and very quickly out of desperation and then fed it a bunch of their other creations or foes, and the JM basically is hemorrhaging energy, energy it can only replace by consuming living creatures.
Hummmmm....that is a thought too.
A fleet may have been stretching it, but the idea of a bright green ship that eats people, is an idea that I think probably developed from the experience of sending land-ships out, and having only a few return telling terrible stories of the other creatures inhabiting the land in between. What makes the most sense is what Sysanne said, build airships and just avoid the big rebirth abominations altogether. OTOH, if any halfling nature was at all as vain and vindictive and inertial as human nature is, I could easily see a group of ****** off halfling sailors and life-shaping ship-builders putting their heart and soul into building a ship that would get through, no matter what.
Example of inertia at work:
When the US and USSR were having our little space race, the state of computers at the time made it necessary for astronauts to be able to do written calculations. Trouble is, most pens at the time relied on gravity. The USA spent a great deal of money researching and producing a pen that would write in zero-gravity.
The USSR, on the other hand, simply gave their astronauts pencils. :D
Here, airships do make more sense, but people don't always do what makes most sense. Hence the Jade Marquess.
Stupid humans! I will deal with their filth after I have removed the taint of the runts from the world!!!
:D That's the spirit!
A singe ship takes years to make and the idea that they would have spent the time on making multiple ships like the JM, when they were limited in resources, runt power, and time just seems like too much of a stretch to me - that they had the time to make the one ship to carry their most valuable research or core people away is much more plausible IMO.
When you say "ships like the JM." do you simply mean landships? Or do you mean person-eating ships made of life-shaped jade?
I think someone said that there we a basically working with a time of like 40ish years here, so how long would it take to "grow" (for lack of a better term) a life-shaped ship?
Ask Bruno. He's the only one of us that's spent time with the life-shapers.
Years I would think - but maybe that is why it needs to feed, the rhulisti made it small, and very quickly out of desperation and then fed it a bunch of their other creations or foes, and the JM basically is hemorrhaging energy, energy it can only replace by consuming living creatures.
Hummmmm....that is a thought too
Yes, it is! You hear that, Bruno? Looks like you've got two viable, believable theories for the origin of the JM. Some life-shapers say that the rhulisti deliberately made it to eat whoever was standing in its way, to frighten enemies from attacking the ship. Others say that the builders were in a hurry, perhaps their island-turned-mountaintop city needed food supplies, so they rushed the building process that should have taken years, and since they were out of Cahm-rahn, made a ship that could feed itself.
-brax, who loves having multiple, conflicting stories behind everything.
Example of inertia at work:
When the US and USSR were having our little space race, the state of computers at the time made it necessary for astronauts to be able to do written calculations. Trouble is, most pens at the time relied on gravity. The USA spent a great deal of money researching and producing a pen that would write in zero-gravity.
The USSR, on the other hand, simply gave their astronauts pencils. :D
It's a nice story, but it's not true. And there are several valid reasons for not using a pencil in orbit. Tip breaks (I know, what are the chances of that happening) and now you've got a tiny piece of graphite floating around, just waiting to poke you in the eye, or fly up your nose, or whatever it is that bored graphite hoodlums do in freefall. There are also issues with just how flammible graphite and wood are -- especially in a high oxyegen atmosphere. Given that they'd just had a fire on a capsule, they were maybe a bit worried about that sort of thing.
And, apparently, NASA didn't even comission the thing. Fisher developed the pen on his own dime, without being asked. Eventually, both NASA and the russians started using it.
http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher_Space_Pen
So, a secondary "interia" claim: Never let the facts stand in the way of a good fable.
Nice! :DIt's a nice story, but it's not true.
Flip, you've passed some very interesting and relevant facts onto the story, and I'm grateful, since I'd only heard the other side. I didn't know, for example, that a private citizen commissioned the pen on his own dime. But do you realize nothing you said contradicted anything that I said? A country's name does not necessarily point to actions of its government bureaucracies.
This set of concentric stories is an excellent illustration of how stories work, and which facts are important to which point of view. Especially when patriotism gets involved. As a teenager, I really enjoyed unwrapping the concentric boxes of mystery that we've called the "boston massacre."
And there are several valid reasons for not using a pencil in orbit. Tip breaks (I know, what are the chances of that happening) and now you've got a tiny piece of graphite floating around, just waiting to poke you in the eye, or fly up your nose, or whatever it is that bored graphite hoodlums do in freefall. There are also issues with just how flammible graphite and wood are -- especially in a high oxyegen atmosphere. Given that they'd just had a fire on a capsule, they were maybe a bit worried about that sort of thing.
And, apparently, NASA didn't even comission the thing. Fisher developed the pen on his own dime, without being asked. Eventually, both NASA and the russians started using it.
http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher_Space_Pen
You think that lifelong halfling sailors could not think of reasons to stay with the landships rather than going to airships, reasons that many of them would not find compelling and valid?
But do you realize nothing you said contradicted anything that I said? A country's name does not necessarily point to actions of its government bureaucracies.
Not necessarily, but it very frequently does exactly that. The name of a country, when used as the actor in a scentance, refers to it's government. Especially in the circles I deal with. It's a shorthand, because most people accept that as the meaning, and can't be bothered to spell everything out to the tenth degree of precision in their casual speech.
Listen to NPR sometime. They use the shorthand of using the capitol city's name to refer to the government of a country all the time. They also refer to the actions or opinions of the government by using the country's name. When they are referring to citizens of the country, they call that out specifically.
Not necessarily, but it very frequently does exactly that. The name of a country, when used as the actor in a scentance, refers to it's government. Especially in the circles I deal with. It's a shorthand, because most people accept that as the meaning, and can't be bothered to spell everything out to the tenth degree of precision in their casual speech.
Listen to NPR sometime. They use the shorthand of using the capitol city's name to refer to the government of a country all the time. They also refer to the actions or opinions of the government by using the country's name. When they are referring to citizens of the country, they call that out specifically.
I'm a big fan of precise diction myself. If I'd known that it was a private citizen who had done it, I'd have said those facts. The facts you added to change the nature of the story dramatically. But I think you'd be hard-pressed to find an NPR broadcaster who ued te word "true" as you used it.
I agree that not everything that tsr came up with for darksun is gold. But with imagination, creativity and an open mind, you could make anything work (except spacehips and halfling invaders!)
If you dislike the ship on water or land maybe the silt sea will do. Perhaps this ship doesn't need to ride along the silt shoals. It's high manuverbility could spell doom to many silt captains.