Latest Page Discussions/Comic Update Chitchat

[Sc0ut]

Er, mages are even less reliable; they could talk only to other mages, they need either be asleep or tremendous concentration, and they seems to be unable to rely anything more than short messages in "hyperconcentration" regime.

Make more sence to just place automatic radio relay stations in Silent World, to retranslate communications.

Sure they can only talk to other mages, but there are always mages both on the field and back at home. Where's the problem? And while it does seem to take concentration, Reynir is able to do it every time he needs to, instantly. The second time, when he contacted Onni in dog form, they actually had a dialogue that could have been longer if Lalli didn't interrupt Reynir.

I don't want them to replace the radio with this. As I said, two means of communication are better than one. All I'm saying is that there is a huge unused resource there.

Grade E cat: it is possible that the family ties or some other thing like that are relevant, and the reason why this type of communication isn't used more widely. I guess we'll have to wait for more info on that.

[JoB]

I've had a funny thought all week. Until I get proven wrong (or right, who knows?) I'm imagining that the nanny is Emil's fylgia that's disguising itself both due to watching over an atheist and being something that would be really out of place in a fancy interior.

... and she's actually perfectly happy that Emil doesn't eat up on all those cakes?

[JoB]

One of my *hum* story interpretation clashes with JoB had a closely related subject matter. I was wondering if the boat was soon going to be close enough for any mages riding it to reach the crew's mages. If I remember correctly, JoB pointed out that Reynir hadn't run into other mages on the way to Onni's place in Chapter 7 and took it to mean that some kind of connection was needed for mage-to-mage contact (the connection being having seen Onni's photo in Reynir's case). If he's right, that could be an extra complication for setting up an official mage-to-mage communication system.

Let's be practical here: We know for a fact that Iceland has impotant trading connections at least to Öresundsbro base (Admiral Olsen complained how "overrun" his base is with them) and Bornholm (Reynir easily found himself a ride on one of those ships). If Icelanders were aware that long-distance seiður dream-conferences are possible and even remotely as reliable as radio, there'ld be one or two seiður posted in both places in permanence, whether it's necessary to introduce them to each other in person beforehand or not. How likely would it be, then, that Reynir has never heard of such a system, given his fascinated listening to his adventuring siblings' tales?

[Grade E cat]

I'm afraid any answer I can give to this will be colored by my semi-suspicion that there have been some active efforts to keep Reynir from becoming aware of his powers. In my mind, such efforts would include a lot of misinformation and deliberate omissions concerning mages and magic.

Anyone else has any ideas?

[Vafhudr]

I was under the impression that the magic practiced in Iceland was very different from the magic practiced in Finland. So while both might be able to do dream things, mages in Iceland approach it from a different angle than do the Finns. Two different streams that don't really touch, talk, or exchange notes to begin with.

[Dilandu]

I'm afraid any answer I can give to this will be colored by my semi-suspicion that there have been some active efforts to keep Reynir from becoming aware of his powers. In my mind, such efforts would include a lot of misinformation and deliberate omissions concerning mages and magic.

Anyone else has any ideas?

Hm, for what reason? It doesn't seems that Iceland suppress mages or denied their existence.

[Windfighter]

Hm, for what reason? It doesn't seems that Iceland suppress mages or denied their existence.

Not Iceland, but his parents might have in order to keep their only non-immune child safetly at home!

[Róisín]

I think Windy has the right of it. Reynir's parents concealed from him that the ban on non-immunes travelling within Iceland had been lifted. He didn't know until his brother told him that he could have gone to the capital. This might have been because all Reynir's older siblings had dangerous jobs, and they wanted to keep at least their precious non-immune baby safe, but I think that his father at least, and possibly both his parents, know he is a mage and are concealing that too. Look at his mother's expression  in that family portrait.

[Grade E cat]

This my intepretation as well. My own theory includes his siblings having a part in it as well and ties with the idea that one of his sisters is actually a mage that I used in one of my AU fanfics.

Otherwise, concerning the actual latest page: I was suspecting that dream could possibly be of the evening whatever caused Emil's family to loose its money, but I hadn't considered something catching fire could be involved. As plenty of people have mentioned on disqus already, this possible cause and effect (the only certain part right now is that something is bruning, we don't know if it actually has anything to do with family fortune loss yet) has interesting implications for the present day.

[Hrollo]

Wondering… if this is a fire that devasted Emil's town, as it seems to be implied from Emil saying "this dream always ends long before the fire spreads here" (suggesting it's a recurring dream of a memory of a real event), and young Emil was very unhappy about his parents never being home… could it be that Emil likes fire so much because it destroyed the family's business and wealth, forcing Emil's parents to spend much more time at home because they could not afford a maid anymore, and so Emil got to see his parents more because of the fire?

[ZanarNaryon]

And the shippers cheered.

And I plug my ears, because I'm not up for this

[Sc0ut]

And the shippers cheered.

And I plug my ears, because I'm not up for this

Thank you, you non-shippers are always so generous to remind us shippers that our happiness bothers you Always nice to hear.

[Dilandu]

Ok, so now Emil have... what?

* Some sort of direct mental communication with Lalli? Hope not. It would be... too chiched. Not to mention that hardly possible for non-infected non-mage.

* Lalli's neuroclone in Emil's brain? More interesting, but hardly possible. There isn't enough space or processing capability in human brain to support two distinc personalities (and while we could discuss the "soul" concept, I hope, we all agree, that any kind of thinking & speaking required working brain?)

* Lalli's... neural shadow in Emil's brain? I.e. not completely neuroclone; just sort of... parallel thinking, by rearranging some parts of Emil's brain to Lalli's imprints. No "little Lalli" in Emil's mind, of course; just the Emil's brain now have a small parallel processing unit, which worked close to Lalli's brain.

Hm...

[Windfighter]

Ok, so now Emil have... what?

* Some sort of direct mental communication with Lalli? Hope not. It would be... too chiched. Not to mention that hardly possible for non-infected non-mage.

* Lalli's neuroclone in Emil's brain? More interesting, but hardly possible. There isn't enough space or processing capability in human brain to support two distinc personalities (and while we could discuss the "soul" concept, I hope, we all agree, that any kind of thinking & speaking required working brain?)

* Lalli's... neural shadow in Emil's brain? I.e. not completely neuroclone; just sort of... parallel thinking, by rearranging some parts of Emil's brain to Lalli's imprints. No "little Lalli" in Emil's mind, of course; just the Emil's brain now have a small parallel processing unit, which worked close to Lalli's brain.

Hm...

His body is carrying Lalli's soul! Which gives him a direct mental communication with him! How do you know that's not possible for non-infected non-mages? Because it obviously is!
(or Emil got infected sometime and it awakened his hidden mage-powers, I dunno)

[Dilandu]

His body is carrying Lalli's soul! Which gives him a direct mental communication with him! How do you know that's not possible for non-infected non-mages? Because it obviously is!
(or Emil got infected sometime and it awakened his hidden mage-powers, I dunno)

I mentioned that:

and while we could discuss the "soul" concept, I hope, we all agree, that any kind of thinking & speaking required working brain?

Soul is a good metaphysical thing, but it's generally agreed that yo actually think you need a brain. Question is, which brain is used? Lalli's, in some sort of magical neurolink, or Emil's, in some sort of magical neuro-imprinting?