 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Vote for me here! 
You can vote once a day, I think. |
FAQ/Info
Since I don't get any questions frequently it's just info for now.
Info about the world.
Note: contains spoilers!
And some of the info hasn't even been mentioned in the comic! I'm not even sure these data will still be valid in a couple of months, because only the stuff that appeared in the comic is the established info...
On the other hand, it will take years to explain all of this, and some of this data might help you understand the action/dialogs
SPOILERS AHEAD
Okay, you've been warned.
You will see a lot of characters with "special powers"
These powers will [with some exceptions] belong to 3 types:
Mindcrafting.
Mindcrafting talents are divided into two classes:
passive and active.
Passive is also known as "empathy", it lets you feel the emotions, feelings, intentions, sometimes thoughts of other people.
You can also feel the presence of people, and other life forms.
Main use for these powers is in detecting danger.
It's usualy quite safe to use these powers, unfortunately the results are quite random. (knowing the enemy usualy helps)
Sometimes you can "predict the future" by catching people's plans about the future.
ie. if your friend is plotting against you, you're quite likely to feel it (Even if you don't meet them in person! However meeting them helps.) but if they hire someone stranger to plot against you, your chances decrease.
If someone sets up a trap, their negative intentions can be felt in the area. However if their make the trap accidentaly (ie. by not fixing the stairs), feeling that is difficult.
Of course, if you meet someone, you can usualy tell a lot about the person, ie. whether they are telling the truth.
It is possible to lie to a mindcrafter, but it usualy takes a lot of training, an other mindcrafter to "block" the first one. You can also get an anti-mindcrafting training, that works like scrambling the signal, but the mindcrafter might suspect you are hiding something.
Note, you cannot hear the thoughts of a person with passive mindcrafting!
Active.
These powers are used transfer data to other persons brain (and sometimes from other persons brain too.) Examples: telepathy- lets you "talk" with other mindcrafters, sometimes regular people can use it too (but it makes them less regular than regular regular people)
brainwashing- lets you implant thoughts into other person, usualy against their will.
brainscanning- lets you extract memories from a person. This one lets you hear the thoughts of a person.
psionic blast-active mindcrafting can also be used for stunning/immobilising a person.
Main backslash of active mindcrafting is that it effectively connects your brain with your intended victim, the results are often quite bad for the mindcrafter, resulting in psychological disorders, neurological trauma, or even death.
Not to mention mindcrafters are often haunted by traumatic childhood memories of their victims.
The chances of something going wrong are increased by:
the victim having undergone an anti-mindcrafting training.
the victim beeing excited.
the victim beeing a looney.
the victim not beeing a human.
and other factors
note: telepathy is usualy quite safe, because the both participating parties cooperate, rather than fight.
note2: physical contact makes mindcrafting easier.
Main advantage of mindcrafting is that it works everywhere, everytime (just not against every person).
While in some worlds the magic is very weak, mindcrafting is always the same strenght.
Main disadvantage is that it is quite inpredictible
All mindcrafters are forced to have an "eye" tatoo on their forehead.
That's beacuse the people that hold the power wouldn't like their lies revealed by accidentally talking to someone who can sense it, now would they?
back to top
Jumping/Teleportation
These powers let you jump between worlds.
Or more precisely between "normal world" and a paralel universe named "the nowhere"
The nowhere is connected with many "normal worlds", so jumping is also a way of travelling between them.
Teleportation within one world is done in two stages- teleporting to nowhere, travelling a short distance there, and teleporting back.
Different parts of the nowhere are connected to different worlds, so teleporting between two worlds just makes the distance to travel in the nowhere longer.
[note: this part is subject to change]The nowhere is multi dimensional space. To travel through it you need to "flatten it" into regular 3D+time space. The person controlling the jump usualy does that sub-counsiously. Should they lose counsiousness for some reason (ie. from exhaustion), the nowhere will become multi dimensional again, desintegrating the team.
(BTW, it's the flattening what produces the awesome visual effects observed in the nowhere. The actual nowhere is probably black, or gray... or brown).
Some worlds have certain limitations to jumping.
For example in some worlds you can only appear/disappear in certain places, these places would be called "jump spots". (usualy the jump spost would be placed randomly, at distances ca. 100m (900ft.), but that depends on the world)
Sometimes the limitations are asymetrical: ie. the world lets you teleport out (to the nowhere) in any place, but you can only teleport in (from the nowhere) in some places.
(in that case, a common practice of protecting a place against jumpers, is putting a stone blocks in all the jump spots. And the jump spots are called "entry spots")
Other worlds might have limitations to teleporting out, or both, or none.
Jumping usualy comes with a limited ability to "feel" your surroundings.
It usualy only works when you are in the nowhere, and you can only feel if the place you are going to teleport in is is safe. But some people can feel the world around them. Not with much detail mind you, but enough to avoid walls and furnitures in the dark.
back to top
Magic
Casting a spell is achieved by creating and controling magical energy.
It is done with thoughts and/or hand gestures, sometimes artifacts are used to help control the flow of energy.
note: "real magic" has no vocal components, so you won't see real wizards shouting "fureaaaa baaall!". (unless they feel like doing so ;).)
The combination of energy fields created is a spell.
Once created, the spell will do what it was designed for...
usualy that means travelling towards the enemy, and exploding.
But more complex spells can display way more complicated behaviours, ie. they can home on target, or they can wait for activation (as traps)
More complicated spells start behaving like computer programs, they process the input data, and activate procedures according to them.
Quite often you will see spells bound to an item- they are actually spells that were programmed to stay in the item, and activate upon reciving a certain signal.
(Standart artifact for containing spells is a "spell gem", (it looks like a half-sphere (okay, maybe half-of-a-bit-flattened-sphere) made of transparent glass, it's usualy embeded in metal). You will see these quite often too.)
Typical activation signals include: touching the artifact, making a certain gesture/waving the artifact in a given pattern, saying/shouting a given password (like "fureaaaa baaaal!!"), but these are only used by people with no magic talents on their own.
Real wizards use a small and simple spell, that in turn activates bigger spell within the artifact.
Number of spells that can be bound to a given gem is limited by size/quality of the gem, and the skills of wizard. Too many spells in one place interfere with each other, and they just disappear.
Material components- people used to believe they are important, but later it was discovered they were just helping to form the thoughts of the caster.
A little exception is some fire spells, that actually use flammable materials. These spells are often used against shielded enemies- in the usual scenario the spell carries the flaming stuff towards the target, target's anti-magic shield destroys the spell, but the flaming stuff continues, and destroys the target.
Purely magical fire cannot penetrate anti-magic shield.
Magic and Mindcrafting:
You can use magic to "mimic" certain aspects of mindcrafting.
For example: you can cast a spell that will let you brainwash someone. But:
it takes an expert wizard to do so
it's more dangerous than if a real mindcrafter did so. Especially if the target has been trained against mindcrafting.
the results are much cruder
and you cannot do passive mindcrafting that way (!), active only!
So you can: use telepathy, psionic blast, brainwashing and brainscanning.
But you cannot predict danger, nor feel the people intentions.
Magic and Jumping:
more or less the same as mindcrafting:
It takes a lot of skill, and power to jump using magic. It also takes more power to maintain the "nowhere flattening field".
And it's much cruder- jumping that way causes bigger noises, and visual effects, and other effects. Natural jumpers are way more stealthy.
Plus one more limitation: you cannot just cast "jump spell", that's because you are 3D and you cannot just reach beyond your world like that. You need something that goes to other dimensions as a starting point.
Classic example: with the help of a jumper, you create a jump spell, and lock it in a spell gem.
less classic example: with the help of a jumper, together you create a little spell that connects one world with the nowhere. The spell itself does nothing. But later, when you need it, you can modify, enlarge, duplicate, and do other things with that spell, and eventually you form something that lets you jump.
Note, in some worlds magic is weaker than usual, and then a wizard cannot use their magic-based jumping/mindcrafting.
Note: magic doesn't work in the multi dimensional part of the nowhere. It does work in the "flattened" part though.
back to top
Since I don't get any questions frequently it's just info for now.
Info about the world.
Note: contains spoilers!
And some of the info hasn't even been mentioned in the comic! I'm not even sure these data will still be valid in a couple of months, because only the stuff that appeared in the comic is the established info...
On the other hand, it will take years to explain all of this, and some of this data might help you understand the action/dialogs
SPOILERS AHEAD
Okay, you've been warned.
You will see a lot of characters with "special powers"
These powers will [with some exceptions] belong to 3 types:
- Mindcrafting (something like psionics)
- Jumping (teleportation) (Also explains the parallel universes)
- Magic (self explanatory, but a bit different than DnD)
Mindcrafting.
Mindcrafting talents are divided into two classes:
passive and active.
Passive is also known as "empathy", it lets you feel the emotions, feelings, intentions, sometimes thoughts of other people.
You can also feel the presence of people, and other life forms.
Main use for these powers is in detecting danger.
It's usualy quite safe to use these powers, unfortunately the results are quite random. (knowing the enemy usualy helps)
Sometimes you can "predict the future" by catching people's plans about the future.
ie. if your friend is plotting against you, you're quite likely to feel it (Even if you don't meet them in person! However meeting them helps.) but if they hire someone stranger to plot against you, your chances decrease.
If someone sets up a trap, their negative intentions can be felt in the area. However if their make the trap accidentaly (ie. by not fixing the stairs), feeling that is difficult.
Of course, if you meet someone, you can usualy tell a lot about the person, ie. whether they are telling the truth.
It is possible to lie to a mindcrafter, but it usualy takes a lot of training, an other mindcrafter to "block" the first one. You can also get an anti-mindcrafting training, that works like scrambling the signal, but the mindcrafter might suspect you are hiding something.
Note, you cannot hear the thoughts of a person with passive mindcrafting!
Active.
These powers are used transfer data to other persons brain (and sometimes from other persons brain too.) Examples: telepathy- lets you "talk" with other mindcrafters, sometimes regular people can use it too (but it makes them less regular than regular regular people)
brainwashing- lets you implant thoughts into other person, usualy against their will.
brainscanning- lets you extract memories from a person. This one lets you hear the thoughts of a person.
psionic blast-active mindcrafting can also be used for stunning/immobilising a person.
Main backslash of active mindcrafting is that it effectively connects your brain with your intended victim, the results are often quite bad for the mindcrafter, resulting in psychological disorders, neurological trauma, or even death.
Not to mention mindcrafters are often haunted by traumatic childhood memories of their victims.
The chances of something going wrong are increased by:
the victim having undergone an anti-mindcrafting training.
the victim beeing excited.
the victim beeing a looney.
the victim not beeing a human.
and other factors
note: telepathy is usualy quite safe, because the both participating parties cooperate, rather than fight.
note2: physical contact makes mindcrafting easier.
Main advantage of mindcrafting is that it works everywhere, everytime (just not against every person).
While in some worlds the magic is very weak, mindcrafting is always the same strenght.
Main disadvantage is that it is quite inpredictible
All mindcrafters are forced to have an "eye" tatoo on their forehead.
That's beacuse the people that hold the power wouldn't like their lies revealed by accidentally talking to someone who can sense it, now would they?
back to top
Jumping/Teleportation
These powers let you jump between worlds.
Or more precisely between "normal world" and a paralel universe named "the nowhere"
The nowhere is connected with many "normal worlds", so jumping is also a way of travelling between them.
Teleportation within one world is done in two stages- teleporting to nowhere, travelling a short distance there, and teleporting back.
Different parts of the nowhere are connected to different worlds, so teleporting between two worlds just makes the distance to travel in the nowhere longer.
[note: this part is subject to change]The nowhere is multi dimensional space. To travel through it you need to "flatten it" into regular 3D+time space. The person controlling the jump usualy does that sub-counsiously. Should they lose counsiousness for some reason (ie. from exhaustion), the nowhere will become multi dimensional again, desintegrating the team.
(BTW, it's the flattening what produces the awesome visual effects observed in the nowhere. The actual nowhere is probably black, or gray... or brown).
Some worlds have certain limitations to jumping.
For example in some worlds you can only appear/disappear in certain places, these places would be called "jump spots". (usualy the jump spost would be placed randomly, at distances ca. 100m (900ft.), but that depends on the world)
Sometimes the limitations are asymetrical: ie. the world lets you teleport out (to the nowhere) in any place, but you can only teleport in (from the nowhere) in some places.
(in that case, a common practice of protecting a place against jumpers, is putting a stone blocks in all the jump spots. And the jump spots are called "entry spots")
Other worlds might have limitations to teleporting out, or both, or none.
Jumping usualy comes with a limited ability to "feel" your surroundings.
It usualy only works when you are in the nowhere, and you can only feel if the place you are going to teleport in is is safe. But some people can feel the world around them. Not with much detail mind you, but enough to avoid walls and furnitures in the dark.
back to top
Magic
Casting a spell is achieved by creating and controling magical energy.
It is done with thoughts and/or hand gestures, sometimes artifacts are used to help control the flow of energy.
note: "real magic" has no vocal components, so you won't see real wizards shouting "fureaaaa baaall!". (unless they feel like doing so ;).)
The combination of energy fields created is a spell.
Once created, the spell will do what it was designed for...
usualy that means travelling towards the enemy, and exploding.
But more complex spells can display way more complicated behaviours, ie. they can home on target, or they can wait for activation (as traps)
More complicated spells start behaving like computer programs, they process the input data, and activate procedures according to them.
Quite often you will see spells bound to an item- they are actually spells that were programmed to stay in the item, and activate upon reciving a certain signal.
(Standart artifact for containing spells is a "spell gem", (it looks like a half-sphere (okay, maybe half-of-a-bit-flattened-sphere) made of transparent glass, it's usualy embeded in metal). You will see these quite often too.)
Typical activation signals include: touching the artifact, making a certain gesture/waving the artifact in a given pattern, saying/shouting a given password (like "fureaaaa baaaal!!"), but these are only used by people with no magic talents on their own.
Real wizards use a small and simple spell, that in turn activates bigger spell within the artifact.
Number of spells that can be bound to a given gem is limited by size/quality of the gem, and the skills of wizard. Too many spells in one place interfere with each other, and they just disappear.
Material components- people used to believe they are important, but later it was discovered they were just helping to form the thoughts of the caster.
A little exception is some fire spells, that actually use flammable materials. These spells are often used against shielded enemies- in the usual scenario the spell carries the flaming stuff towards the target, target's anti-magic shield destroys the spell, but the flaming stuff continues, and destroys the target.
Purely magical fire cannot penetrate anti-magic shield.
Magic and Mindcrafting:
You can use magic to "mimic" certain aspects of mindcrafting.
For example: you can cast a spell that will let you brainwash someone. But:
it takes an expert wizard to do so
it's more dangerous than if a real mindcrafter did so. Especially if the target has been trained against mindcrafting.
the results are much cruder
and you cannot do passive mindcrafting that way (!), active only!
So you can: use telepathy, psionic blast, brainwashing and brainscanning.
But you cannot predict danger, nor feel the people intentions.
Magic and Jumping:
more or less the same as mindcrafting:
It takes a lot of skill, and power to jump using magic. It also takes more power to maintain the "nowhere flattening field".
And it's much cruder- jumping that way causes bigger noises, and visual effects, and other effects. Natural jumpers are way more stealthy.
Plus one more limitation: you cannot just cast "jump spell", that's because you are 3D and you cannot just reach beyond your world like that. You need something that goes to other dimensions as a starting point.
Classic example: with the help of a jumper, you create a jump spell, and lock it in a spell gem.
less classic example: with the help of a jumper, together you create a little spell that connects one world with the nowhere. The spell itself does nothing. But later, when you need it, you can modify, enlarge, duplicate, and do other things with that spell, and eventually you form something that lets you jump.
Note, in some worlds magic is weaker than usual, and then a wizard cannot use their magic-based jumping/mindcrafting.
Note: magic doesn't work in the multi dimensional part of the nowhere. It does work in the "flattened" part though.
back to top
The site is mine, all mine! (c)2001-2004+ YarpsDat