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Messages - Snark Knight

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1081
DF Spoilers / Re: A warden's sword for Harry...
« on: July 06, 2017, 02:54:44 PM »
And have Harry go even deeper in her debt?

If he wants a fae metal spear point for his staff, he'd probably end up owing a favour to the fae smith.

At this point, he's probably better off paying the svartalves in diamonds for any smithing he needs done.

1082
DF Spoilers / Re: A warden's sword for Harry...
« on: July 06, 2017, 01:04:32 PM »
Personally, I like the idea of the Winter mantle being used to supplement his staff.  He could use ice to form edges along four feet of its length, leaving him a two foot handle for his ice sword-staff.  Not to mention he could use ice to make it a spear, or even a sickle.

And just think of all the Game of Thrones pop culture references about White Walker ice weapons ...

1083
I've started to connect the blackstaff with things falling to the planet(the classic 'calamity from the skies' trope like in FF7) but New Madrid was one that just didn't add up, being an earthquake.

Krakatoa was a big volcano, so really only Casaverde and Tunguska were "bomb it from orbit" type events.

1084
I have a theory that the Blackstaff can removed ALL black magic taint from it's user.  Even taint that was gained prior to the Blackstaff's acquisition.
Therefore, it's possible that Eb did some horrendeous things before acquiring the BS, and the BS cleaned him up aftwards.

I'm not sure I buy that Eb was walking around with the taint of having caused hundreds of deaths on him for eighty-odd years between New Madrid and gaining the Blackstaff, apparently as captain of the Wardens for a chunk of that time, and nobody would have noticed something wrong with him.

Although given the WOJ that the Blackstaff chooses his or her own successor, it's possible they'd be heavily biased in favour of one of their own apprentices as the person best trusted to use it responsibly. I wonder if the collection of journals is not just a chain of masters and apprentices, but Blackstaffs and their chosen successors? In that case, New Madrid might have been an act of Ebenezar's predecessor, or the predecessor loaned a trusted apprentice the artifact for one-time use for some compelling reason.

1085
DF Spoilers / Re: WK Mantle or Lawbreaker taint?
« on: July 05, 2017, 06:27:27 PM »
If you violate the first law, even in self defense, you still have the taint.  This is evidenced by the kid in SF who could see the taint of HWWB on Harry.

That mark on Harry was a scar from contact with the Walker while it was pursuing him, not the later action of killing Justin in combat. Though given the flashback in GS, the Walker seemed to want to set him on a path to go after Justin, so it's a fine distinction.


Yeah, Hannah Asher had reason for her initial killing, being raped for heaven sake, but she didn't surrender to the Wardens at that time. If she had a good advocate she might have survived under the Doom.  ...  So it is understandable that Hannah ran from the Wardens, but at the same time was she ever able to check her slide into warlockhood?  It isn't totally clear whether or not at the time of Changes when her friends died when their vamp halves died that she wasn't already a warlock.

She was a warlock for killing the Wardens who tried to arrest her, at least. But there seems to be variation in how high-functioning warlocks can be. The paradigm is that rationalizing that it's right to do an act of dark magic warps the caster so they're more likely to do the same thing again, right? So someone like Hannah (or Harry himself) who kills in self-defense is changed by that experience, but I think it's specific to responding to future threats with wrath, rather than a general temptation to burn everybody for shits 'n giggles. Harry even recognizes that tendency in himself - among other mentions, one of the significant realizations in Ghost Story is that he's tended to embrace anger when threatened as an alternative to fear, and he can't really do that when he's watching his friends in physical danger but can't intervene himself. He just doesn't connect those temper issues to his initial experience with killing Justin, but I think that's where they originated.

It's a qualitatively different personality change from someone who kills for personal gain, or in anger that's not connected to a direct threat to their own safety (e.g. the young Korean warlock Langtry used as an example). The option of leniency in self defense cases probably exists because there's more of a chance of rehabilitation for those who have become wrathful when genuinely threatened than there is for those who have changed to believe in using their magic to initiate aggression. I don't think it was an accident that Ebenezar kept Harry largely isolated to a safe environment on his farm (aside from the one encounter with teenage bullies in town, where Harry remembers just staring them down because he knew they weren't a real threat - in hindsight, I suspect Eb was treating that as a test).

1086
Thanks, Serack. I forgot about this, cause I had the New Madrid earthquake of 1811 as a starting point for Eb's Blackstaff career in mind.  :)
It really fits too well to be coincidence.

Wait, were we just assuming he'd done New Madrid all along? Somehow I'd got the impression it was one of the ones he admitted to Harry in BR (along with Krakatoa and Tunguska).

Edit: Krakatoa was 1883. So I guess either he pretty much used the Blackstaff immediately upon taking it up to cause the eruption (and it's within the margin of error to Jim's ca. 1884-85 answer), or the eruption broke both the laws on time travel and collateral damage of mortal lives.

1087
DF Spoilers / Re: Is There More Magic In the World?
« on: July 04, 2017, 05:58:48 PM »
There's probably some kind of a trade-off, whereby there's more humans, but our spread has also driven many animal species to extinction, so the net amount of life hasn't changed as much as you'd think just from our numbers.

1088
DF Spoilers / Re: New Blackstaff discussion
« on: July 04, 2017, 05:33:42 PM »
I'm wondering how close real-world politics are to touchy topics, but I kinda want a citation needed here.

Just for the sake of an English-language citation that he has high domestic popularity, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/how-to-understand-putins-jaw-droppingly-high-approval-ratings/2016/03/05/17f5d8f2-d5ba-11e5-a65b-587e721fb231_story.html

(I claim no expertise on whether respondents genuinely love him or fear the government can see their individual answers)

1089
DF Spoilers / Re: The most frightening Denarian yet?
« on: July 04, 2017, 03:28:52 PM »
2.  There was an attack on Arctis Tor, and when Harry saw the damage he commented that he couldn't have done that much damage even with Hellfire.  Well a Dragon using hellfire probably could.

Harry had a mere shadow of a Fallen in his head, and some of the Denarians were stronger in their own right than he was as of PG. I would not conclude that the magnitude of damage there could only be attributed to inhumanly powerful hosts - Namshiel probably could have done it alone, or in combination with Tessa and / or Rosanna.


A Bigfoot took up a Coin, and Goodman Grey was offered a Coin so we can assume he could take it up.  Coins aren't limited to mortals.

They're still a great deal closer to mortal-kind than they are to Dragons. I can't really see any of the Fallen risking bonding to something that might realistically be more powerful than they themselves are, and possibly getting stuck as the junior partner.

I'd buy Dragons being susceptible to N-fection more plausibly than them being suitable for coins, but I'm not yet convinced Ferrovax was targeted with either. It seems a little unsurprising for them to have played the same trick on him that they got Lea with, at this point, and the coin theory would just be upscaling the same surprise that the Genoskwa was already used for. I kind of think Jim will have something more out of left field for Mr. Ferro's next appearance.

1090
DF Spoilers / Re: Has anyone put Nic's plan togther?
« on: July 04, 2017, 03:22:57 PM »
Nicodemus wouldn't appear in dead beat to do a darkhallow even if the information was given to him on a silver plate. Anduriel would not like it.

I'm sure Anduriel wouldn't like his host getting that powerful, true - but I don't think someone without inherent use of magic could do enough necromancy to work the Darkhallow, either.


You mean what delusion Anduriel sold him? Do you really think it is that important  :)

Anduriel might manipulate him about tactics-level decisions for expediency and to shape an even more corrupted host (like 'kill your daughter for the sake of the mission') but I don't think it follows that Nic is duped about the broad cause they're working toward.

I think from Nic and Deirdre's dialogues, the general outline of their thinking is pretty much analogous to how Cowl rationalized pursuing the Darkhallow (presumably because Kumori was within earshot) - the established order is so fragile SOMEBODY is going to succeed in overturning it, so it might as well be the less bad option. I think the Denarians who willingly cooperate with their Fallen believe Hell's apocalypse stands the best chance of averting the even worse Outsider version, so they're gathering power for that cause. The Archive's functions in coordinating the Oblivion War could easily have been adapted to tracking down Outsider cultists for assassination, and Hades was quite open about confirming the artifacts were weapons.

The plague plot in DM might even have been connected somehow - perhaps culling back the mortal population would have hurt their rivals (fewer summoners for Outsiders, less food for the Red Court, fewer practitioners for the Fomor to kidnap for their plans) in addition to the vague description that the Denarians get stronger by spreading suffering.

1091
DF Spoilers / Re: Smaug, Mr. Ferro... and Dollar Signs in the Eyes
« on: June 30, 2017, 05:31:56 PM »
^ Maybe they just need a little https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0ry4qBSX2U

1092
DF Spoilers / Re: WK Mantle or Lawbreaker taint?
« on: June 30, 2017, 05:26:39 PM »
That's an interesting point.  What constitutes 'using' magic?

In this context, I'd go with the same description of gathering, shaping and releasing energy that Harry described in BR as analogous to loading, aiming and firing a gun. With the malocchio, Lord Raith's helpers were getting the power from the Walker but splitting those three tasks, with the difference in shaping it with intent accounting for why the curse' killings went from comic-book ridiculous when Trixie was running that step to fast and surgically lethal in the hands of the more competent sorceress.

With the heart-ripper curse, all of that was already automated and set up to go as soon as a compatible ritual knife was used to spill a life's blood sacrifice and trigger propagation along the bloodline. Harry's narration didn't talk about manipulating energy at all, just using the knife.

1093
DF Spoilers / Re: WK Mantle or Lawbreaker taint?
« on: June 29, 2017, 10:30:11 PM »
I think the key mentioned in that WOJ (a recent one not in the index, Im looking) even if there is an eventual death, there was never a specific Choice made to "Kill".  He didnt Kill them, he freed them from a magical parasitic force that was trying to consume their Souls;  after that Nature took its course (and it's Due), but Id argue that isnt on him.

That's why I don't really find the "effects matter more than intentions" WOJ sensible. The explanation of warlock soul tainting is that to cast nasty spells, you have to convince yourself it's right, and causing the warping of ethical standards. How can that be sensibly applied to unanticipated collateral damage?

But in terms of the elimination of the Red Court and the subsequent deaths of most of the Fellowship half-turned losing their protection against aging, no, I don't believe Harry could have acquired any warlock taint from that. Why? Because he didn't cast the spell - the Reds' sorcerers did that themselves; he and Susan just hijacked its targeting by giving it her blood instead. It didn't take any act of magic (the Red King tried to send one of his warriors to sacrifice Maggie, and Susan would have stabbed herself but for losing control of her hands during the transformation) at that point.

Now, that's not to say it didn't have fairly hideous moral repercussions anyway - but it didn't inherently change the specific dimension of how Harry interacts with magic in an addictively mind-altering way.

1094
In reality, I suspect the Blackstaff is usually not super skilled in these dark magics as they lack the in depth practice in those arts that they have in other magical schools.  So any magic is going to be relatively inefficient compared to what else they can cast.

I don't think it gets more efficient that Ebenezar's life shutdown on the Red Court mercenaries. They just dropped without a mark on them, at no apparent cost of exertion to him.

1095
DF Spoilers / Re: New Blackstaff discussion
« on: June 29, 2017, 06:01:23 PM »
Damn. I could have sworn there was something more recent -- either a public appearance or an AMA -- where he said someone tried going after her to get to him, and one of the events he mentions in Blood Rites was him getting revenge.

I'm pretty sure I recall something like that from one of the AMA's, including that he tried to stay away from Maggie Sr. so his enemies wouldn't learn she mattered to him up until her powers manifested.

Edit: Oh, yes. That stuck in my memory because it was part of the same answer as something ... uhh ... just a teensy bit important.

https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/3lye65/i_am_jim_butcher_author_of_the_dresden_files_and/cvadt1h/

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