Questions about Visitor

[rockeye_stonetoe]

whatever-mushrooms-have-that-isn't-root

Sorry for going off topic, but I don't like incomplete sciency things. The word for mushroom 'roots' is mycelium, plural mycelia.

[Nemo]

I am undecided on whether there is vacuum, but you stop being able to fly before that.

So if...someone...has a space ship, they could improvise their own floating sky-island while also being certain that nobody else can get that high? Obviously parking in orbit isn't an option, but sorcery can make fuel.

[rockeye_stonetoe]

It's an interesting problem, a better long term solution would be an underground base since the whole thing won't crash if an engine fails and it's easier to get things like water and air (recycling these is relatively expensive), but that compromises secrecy/security.

[atheistcanuck]

does the Illyan get perfect memory as a special kind power? (is that taken already?)

[Kappa]

Yes. Frostvanes have an inviolate aspect - e.g. a frostvane with "inviolate form" can't be shape-changed or substantially injured. Elialuara (who still needs a nickname) has an inviolate memory, but that is a secret because someone who's literally incapable of forgetting a name is Very Alarming and she doesn't want to Very Alarm the members of Serene's court. (Serene has settled pretty firmly on her nickname now. Her true name is Rohinaie.)

[Bluelantern]

Yes. Frostvanes have an inviolate aspect - e.g. a frostvane with "inviolate form" can't be shape-changed or substantially injured. Elialuara (who still needs a nickname) has an inviolate memory, but that is a secret because someone who's literally incapable of forgetting a name is Very Alarming and she doesn't want to Very Alarm the members of Serene's court. (Serene has settled pretty firmly on her nickname now. Her true name is Rohinaie.)

You just can't share fairy names like that kappa!

Any idea for Serene's kind yet? She is going to be like, the matriarch or something?

[DanielH]

I’m having a hard time imagining a Gregor actually keeping a fairy court.

Would inviolate form (as an easier example to work with) also prevent deliberate form changes? That is, if a frostvane with inviolate form *wanted* to be shape changed, would that be possible?

Does Serene know about the inviolate memory?

[Kappa]

Serene does know about the inviolate memory.

I'm not totally sure about inviolate form, but I suspect deliberate form changes wouldn't work - more specifically, I think that frostvanes' inviolate aspects do not work in such a way that they can be got around by ordering the frostvane to agree to things. If that means the frostvane also doesn't have a choice about their inviolateness, well, then that's what it means.

[DanielH]

Generally orders can’t affect your actual desires so much. It could be set up in a way that it’s impossible to order and not susceptible to blackmail. For example, I doubt an Elcenian dragon could be ordered into accepting a syllable from somebody’s name (not that fairies would generally want to give this order).

[Kappa]

I'm unsure of the exact parameters regarding people being ordered to agree to things and how that interacts with magic.

Regarding why Serene keeps a court: I ran with the "what if a bunch of fairies dug deep underground and set up a whole society there completely cut off from the surface world" idea. Serene started in the cave, and the thing about the cave is that you can't really leave. And she didn't like how it was being run, and the only way to change that was to run it herself, so that's what she did.