Ah, thank you, Posy! I’m always curious about how the stories work for a new reader, coming in at a random point. Really pleased to hear it was entertaining. :)
Hope you enjoy the earlier chapters, if you have time to check it out!
For a moment the reader thought, "Ah! Simon is pulling a "1970's Doctor Who," where last week's cliffhanger will be resolved by Daryla very quickly, followed by, "Oh, shit, smart monsters!"
Now, is there someone traitorous in the caravan who will still sell out our heroes? Hopefully not.
Monster hunter name check? See you soon!
This would have been a good battle for Lola's latent magic to manifest, which couid absolutely do, say, things to her hands, as an uncontrolled burst of powerful magic from someone untrained and ignorant of the magic theory of Palinor couid manifest in so-so-many chaotic and dangerous ways. Yup, I'm still on top of this hill. Soon enough, the reader will either have a very satisfying, "See? SEE?" moment, or will wander off, grumbling in a mildly annoyed fashion. If the speculated plot point is correct, this flashback arc is when the trigger gets pulled.
We'll argue the vaksha has some intelligence. Sure, fires couid occur at night naturally, but that's a thunderstorm and wildfire which you avoid not try to flap out. Torches - control of one's nighttime environment - requires planning and technology (even though a torch is simple it's still involving construction, storage of fuel, soaking fabric, etc). Countering this unnatural light source requires some sort of learned behavior. Now the reader screams across to himself about how he damn well can die on two hills at once.
Simon the artist is ready to be a professional book jacket artist. Like so-so many professional cover artists, Simon the artist ignored Simon the writer's description and rendered the vaksha in orange, not in snowy white.
The NaMoWriMore situation is tragic.
The reMarkable Paper Pro launch video is utterly pretentious, and, after reading reMarkable's own site, and a couple of reviews, it's absolutely not the correct gadget for me. But, yes, it's sexy.
Haha, fair point - though maybe not all vaksha have the same fur colouring and patterns!
As a nocturnal predator, has the vaksha naturally ended up targeting magic-capable creatures (which are considerably more vulnerable at night), or has the vaksha specifically chosen to hunt at night because it knows magic is mostly off the table? And when up against sentient beings which are capable creating fire/light, do they know to kjll the lights — or is that simply an obvious behaviour for a predator which relies on darkness?
We can debate this - but, ultimately, as the creator, either you have the definitive answer, or you're willing to deliberately leave it ambiguous as a detail which you don't need defined.
I lean towards some form of reasoned/learned behavior for targeting torches, for the reason stated above - torches are technology, and outside potential millions of years of evolution vs a few hundred/thousand years of civilization.
Hunting magic creatures at night absolutely could be instinct, but specific targeting of a light source, especially by using their membranes (side note - obviously I have to begin by drawing from the real world) - something likely originally used for gliding (like a flying squirrel) or as a drag chute (felines) as freaking fans. There's trial and error involved, and not all of the species got it - as evidenced by the first one getting itself killed.
Instinctive behavior - hardwired behavior - would, I argue, have hit the torches FIRST. What we see (as I interpret it), is the first vaksha wanders in, gets its organs squashed, and the rest of the pack/pride/collective noun changes tactics to eliminate a revealed theat.
Side note: I lived in the "Coyote Hills" for 40 years. A coyote is considered an individual hunter. Yeah, those in area adopted new tactics. First they began hunting in trios... Around when we left they were shifting to packs. Kinda scary... I'd face down a single coyote as a 10 ten old (and did). A trio I'd face down in my 40s...aggressive moves got them to scatter from me. When they started shifting to full on packs? They'd totally take out an adult human should they choose. Six-to-eight 30-50lb (15-25kg) canines acting with a unified goal? Oof. Fortunately for me, the last time I encountered a pack at 2am they would still scatter if I charged them. More fortunately I figured out their deployment patterns, so I'd move at the lead group, pivot and go towards the second group, then pivot and go towards the third. Since I could demonstrate to the coyotes I knew where they were and had no fear they'd avoid me. But these techniques were developed going out to walk Laura in when she'd get home from work as she's a foot shorter and half my mass. She was intimidated enough she wanted the protection.
But that shift from lone hunter, to trios, to trios of pairs is adaptive, learned behavior shifting hundreds of years of previously observed behavior within half a century. The coyotes adapted over decades to humans building thousands of houses in their territory.
Another angle — as to whether I know the definitive answer or not — is to consider it from the in-universe point of view, which is that naturalists might not know for sure. They have their theories, but vaksha are inherently difficult (and dangerous) to study.
Back in the real world, your coyote stories are quite chilling! Bearing in mind that living in England basically means I never need to worry about dangerous wildlife (other than Lyme’s disease ticks, those guys are bad). Having to respect your natural habitat in that way is quite an unknown concept to most British people, I think.
In the US we kept our cats inside, so we didn't have to worry about protecting the cats from coyotes. In Ireland we keep the cats inside to protect birds, mice, hedgehogs, and foxes from the cats! For cats are absolutely alpha predators and the most deadly mammals in their size class.
Point taken on the Palinor perspective on vakshs studies.
My current notes for my Pangaea TTRPG are all written from the perspective of the old Atlantian writings as interpreted by the Sages at the Library of Chironopolis. Which gives me leeway if I change things. Obviously someone's observations or interpretation was wrong. It ALSO means, as I move farther across the supercontinent from the Library I write things up differently to reflect other culture's views. Which is part of why I've been developing the damn thing for 13 years. When doing Pangaea, and everyone is on a single supercontinent I don't really have "off the map" areas to leave alone. As well developed as, say, Lord of the Rings is, Tolkien only really dealt with his "Western Europe." everything east of Mordor, south of Gondor, or north of around the Lonely Mountain is cheerfully ignored because they don't come into the story. Ok, Mordor has some "Men of Rhún" doing naval duties, but we learn absolutely nothing about their culture.
I have no choice. I have at least sketch out the entire supercontinent, TWICE, since the backstory has the Catyckism (destruction of Atlantis, and the day the entire world shifted it's rotation)... Meaning I have to start with pre-Catyclism, then figure out what happens when, say, a tropical nation suddenly is in the arctic regions. To use a bad real word analogy, how do the Maori change when they suddenly become Eskimo? Their original vegetation probably died. Most of their food animals probably died. They need to adapt REALLY quickly to their new climate or they're gonna die.
Didn't make my design tasks easy. Even if I DID start with the tried and true "Take an existing Earth culture or two, mash them together, and make 'em 'fantastic,'" cheat since that's the pre-Catyclism start point, then I have to figure out the adaptations!
It doesn't help I've gone back and forth on if the "current time" is about 100-150 years after Cataclysm, or 500ish years after. Aka 4ish generations later or 20ish.
I was spellbound. This was my first chapter to read and - even though I'm obviously arriving in the middle of something - I loved it.
Ah, thank you, Posy! I’m always curious about how the stories work for a new reader, coming in at a random point. Really pleased to hear it was entertaining. :)
Hope you enjoy the earlier chapters, if you have time to check it out!
For a moment the reader thought, "Ah! Simon is pulling a "1970's Doctor Who," where last week's cliffhanger will be resolved by Daryla very quickly, followed by, "Oh, shit, smart monsters!"
Now, is there someone traitorous in the caravan who will still sell out our heroes? Hopefully not.
Monster hunter name check? See you soon!
This would have been a good battle for Lola's latent magic to manifest, which couid absolutely do, say, things to her hands, as an uncontrolled burst of powerful magic from someone untrained and ignorant of the magic theory of Palinor couid manifest in so-so-many chaotic and dangerous ways. Yup, I'm still on top of this hill. Soon enough, the reader will either have a very satisfying, "See? SEE?" moment, or will wander off, grumbling in a mildly annoyed fashion. If the speculated plot point is correct, this flashback arc is when the trigger gets pulled.
We'll argue the vaksha has some intelligence. Sure, fires couid occur at night naturally, but that's a thunderstorm and wildfire which you avoid not try to flap out. Torches - control of one's nighttime environment - requires planning and technology (even though a torch is simple it's still involving construction, storage of fuel, soaking fabric, etc). Countering this unnatural light source requires some sort of learned behavior. Now the reader screams across to himself about how he damn well can die on two hills at once.
Simon the artist is ready to be a professional book jacket artist. Like so-so many professional cover artists, Simon the artist ignored Simon the writer's description and rendered the vaksha in orange, not in snowy white.
The NaMoWriMore situation is tragic.
The reMarkable Paper Pro launch video is utterly pretentious, and, after reading reMarkable's own site, and a couple of reviews, it's absolutely not the correct gadget for me. But, yes, it's sexy.
Haha, fair point - though maybe not all vaksha have the same fur colouring and patterns!
As a nocturnal predator, has the vaksha naturally ended up targeting magic-capable creatures (which are considerably more vulnerable at night), or has the vaksha specifically chosen to hunt at night because it knows magic is mostly off the table? And when up against sentient beings which are capable creating fire/light, do they know to kjll the lights — or is that simply an obvious behaviour for a predator which relies on darkness?
We can debate this - but, ultimately, as the creator, either you have the definitive answer, or you're willing to deliberately leave it ambiguous as a detail which you don't need defined.
I lean towards some form of reasoned/learned behavior for targeting torches, for the reason stated above - torches are technology, and outside potential millions of years of evolution vs a few hundred/thousand years of civilization.
Hunting magic creatures at night absolutely could be instinct, but specific targeting of a light source, especially by using their membranes (side note - obviously I have to begin by drawing from the real world) - something likely originally used for gliding (like a flying squirrel) or as a drag chute (felines) as freaking fans. There's trial and error involved, and not all of the species got it - as evidenced by the first one getting itself killed.
Instinctive behavior - hardwired behavior - would, I argue, have hit the torches FIRST. What we see (as I interpret it), is the first vaksha wanders in, gets its organs squashed, and the rest of the pack/pride/collective noun changes tactics to eliminate a revealed theat.
Side note: I lived in the "Coyote Hills" for 40 years. A coyote is considered an individual hunter. Yeah, those in area adopted new tactics. First they began hunting in trios... Around when we left they were shifting to packs. Kinda scary... I'd face down a single coyote as a 10 ten old (and did). A trio I'd face down in my 40s...aggressive moves got them to scatter from me. When they started shifting to full on packs? They'd totally take out an adult human should they choose. Six-to-eight 30-50lb (15-25kg) canines acting with a unified goal? Oof. Fortunately for me, the last time I encountered a pack at 2am they would still scatter if I charged them. More fortunately I figured out their deployment patterns, so I'd move at the lead group, pivot and go towards the second group, then pivot and go towards the third. Since I could demonstrate to the coyotes I knew where they were and had no fear they'd avoid me. But these techniques were developed going out to walk Laura in when she'd get home from work as she's a foot shorter and half my mass. She was intimidated enough she wanted the protection.
But that shift from lone hunter, to trios, to trios of pairs is adaptive, learned behavior shifting hundreds of years of previously observed behavior within half a century. The coyotes adapted over decades to humans building thousands of houses in their territory.
Another angle — as to whether I know the definitive answer or not — is to consider it from the in-universe point of view, which is that naturalists might not know for sure. They have their theories, but vaksha are inherently difficult (and dangerous) to study.
Back in the real world, your coyote stories are quite chilling! Bearing in mind that living in England basically means I never need to worry about dangerous wildlife (other than Lyme’s disease ticks, those guys are bad). Having to respect your natural habitat in that way is quite an unknown concept to most British people, I think.
In the US we kept our cats inside, so we didn't have to worry about protecting the cats from coyotes. In Ireland we keep the cats inside to protect birds, mice, hedgehogs, and foxes from the cats! For cats are absolutely alpha predators and the most deadly mammals in their size class.
Point taken on the Palinor perspective on vakshs studies.
My current notes for my Pangaea TTRPG are all written from the perspective of the old Atlantian writings as interpreted by the Sages at the Library of Chironopolis. Which gives me leeway if I change things. Obviously someone's observations or interpretation was wrong. It ALSO means, as I move farther across the supercontinent from the Library I write things up differently to reflect other culture's views. Which is part of why I've been developing the damn thing for 13 years. When doing Pangaea, and everyone is on a single supercontinent I don't really have "off the map" areas to leave alone. As well developed as, say, Lord of the Rings is, Tolkien only really dealt with his "Western Europe." everything east of Mordor, south of Gondor, or north of around the Lonely Mountain is cheerfully ignored because they don't come into the story. Ok, Mordor has some "Men of Rhún" doing naval duties, but we learn absolutely nothing about their culture.
I have no choice. I have at least sketch out the entire supercontinent, TWICE, since the backstory has the Catyckism (destruction of Atlantis, and the day the entire world shifted it's rotation)... Meaning I have to start with pre-Catyclism, then figure out what happens when, say, a tropical nation suddenly is in the arctic regions. To use a bad real word analogy, how do the Maori change when they suddenly become Eskimo? Their original vegetation probably died. Most of their food animals probably died. They need to adapt REALLY quickly to their new climate or they're gonna die.
Didn't make my design tasks easy. Even if I DID start with the tried and true "Take an existing Earth culture or two, mash them together, and make 'em 'fantastic,'" cheat since that's the pre-Catyclism start point, then I have to figure out the adaptations!
It doesn't help I've gone back and forth on if the "current time" is about 100-150 years after Cataclysm, or 500ish years after. Aka 4ish generations later or 20ish.
Thanks for the link!