Alicornutopia

Most of the other glowficcers have at least one specific forum thread, so I figured I'd do that too, in case anyone wants to talk to me in public.

("Glowfic Classifieds" entry, containing most-current information on settings & characters & interests)

I currently have two characters who inhabit an original world, Thanjen and Teytis. They might be templatey in the future, but for now getting them to be three-dimensional is a sufficient challenge.

The world has no proper name but has occasionally been called “claimverse” OOC, and is designed to be “hard SF”-ish — working out the consequences of one special feature.

Feel free to ask me questions, ask my characters questions, ask about the worldbuilding — it all helps me figure out what I'm doing. (My first glowfic thread was also, approximately, my very first attempt at fiction at all. I am surprised at the degree to which it was not a complete disaster.)

What Hogwarts House would thanjen be in?

More than you asked: Thanjen doesn't fit anywhere but Gryffindor. Teytis would like half-Ravenclaw-half-Hufflepuff but settles for Hufflepuff. I have a sketch of a third character who would be Ravenclaw. No character I've yet thought up will touch Slytherin because they all value an environment of people-being-nice-to-people too much.

(I preemptively decline to think about Quinn birth blessings at this time.)

Can you fully explain Claimverse and kored (right?) here please? (I keep having to reread threads to get worldbuilding info)

I have A Document Which is a Full Explanation which is unfortunately not quite finished, in the particularly bad way of having obsolete info. You may consider me having been reminded to finish it sometime.

For the moment, is there some particular aspect you would like explained in more detail?

A short summary of the magic and maybe you pming me your gchat for forcepatterning deconfusion purposes.

Okay, so the really densely packed summary of well-established parts. (I may or may not update this particular post with revisions.)

Claims:

It is a feature of the universe (*) that there can exist a certain relationship between some matter and a mind (kored), which can fairly be described as a sort of “claim” or “ownership”. (Of course, this means that it is also a feature of the universe that minds are special.)

• In order to claim something, you must touch it (where “you” includes everything you have previously claimed).
• Therefore, the thicker something is, the longer it takes to claim completely since you must go from the outside in.
• The less homogeneous a material is, the harder it is to claim. Thus metal and glass are very easy, plastic is slightly slower, rock is quite slow, dead or living tissue (e.g. wood) is extremely slow.
• You have a particular advantage in claiming anything you are already able to move or sense, especially if it is particularly natural to do so. Therefore it is uniquely easy to claim your own body.

(*) But what about interaction with other worlds? Well, that's another topic, but I have a less-well-defined set of rules for that (subject to variation at authors' discretion) which is sort of thematically/metaphysically related to the rest of the world design.

Sensing:

Having that claim allows you to be aware of the state of that matter, as an additional sense.

• in fact, in order to maintain it you must continue being aware of it, hence there is a fuzzy limit on how much you can keep and how far it can get away from you before you stop being able to pay attention (not necessarily consciously) to all of it and you lose your claim.
• (Gases cannot be claimed because they are constantly in so much random motion.)
• This additional sense makes you aware of pressure, vibration, temperature, etc. Therefore it can be used to sense light, sound, and so on via appropriately sensitive materials.
• It is easy to ignore that extra sensory input, or more usually treat it as something not-obtrusive. If you turn it off too hard, you lose your claim.

Movement:

The claim also allows you to cause there to be an otherwise-sourceless force between any two atoms you own. Better learn your basic Newtonian mechanics. The energy for this force is a distinct type of potential energy. This is typically classified into three basic uses:

• Obviously, this allows for telekinesis (“movement”). But not unsupported floating: there must always be something to push against. If that something is solidly attached to the earth, you're pretty much set.
• The force can be left to continue to exist without further attention (“forcepatterning”). Its magnitude may be defined as a function of the distance between the two atoms, or the first derivative of that distance (the speed at which they are becoming closer or separating). Precisely and finely creating a forcepattern is a sort of mental effort that must be practiced.
  • Forcepatterns do not go away when a claim is lost, therefore one can make “artifacts” (entamsilt) for other people to use.
• By applying a repelling force between the atoms of a solid, it is possible to “reshape” it, much as if it were melted but without any heat.

If you claim a block of ice and then turn it into steam, does the claim break?

Yes.

You need to be careful when claiming living things; is this also true when releasing those claims?