In Another World with Truck-kun (Yet Another Damn Isekai Story)

[Black Aeronaut]

Argh.

Here I am, supposed to be working on a bunch of other shit.

AND I GOT AN IDEA FOR AN ORIGINAL ISEKAI STORY THAT WON'T LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE.

I blame https://writeordie.com/ for this.  Dr. Wicked truly lives up to his name.

Anyhow, here.  Tear it up, guys.  Keep in mind that I wrote this on a web app that promotes sheer word output above all else.  There's been minimal editing done on this.

Basic premise comes from the writing prompt, "What if the truck that killed you came to the next world with you?  IN ANOTHER WORLD WITH TRUCK-KUN!"  Except my expy doesn't get nailed with a truck...

---

I saw him, just an ordinary fellow looking at the trucks at a rest stop.

Oh, me?  Nothing special - just a rest break.  I was driving cross-country for a move that I honestly didn't want to make.

But the guy there seemed a little odd.  Not in the way he dressed or anything, though it seemed slightly antiquated with his wide brimmed hat and heavy duster coat.  It was in how he gazed at the tractor-trailer rigs in awe.  They shouldn't be that interesting.

Should they?

At the moment, I saw another semi-truck pulling into the rest stop.  There was only one available space left, and the guy in the duster coat was standing right in it.  The driver would never see him until it was too late!

"HEY!  WATCH IT WATCH IT!"  I cried out as I ran over to him and pulled the guy out of harm's way.  He was perplexed by my actions until the semi-truck rolled past us with only scant feet to spare.

I breathed out a sigh of relief.  "Dude, you gotta be careful standing out here.  Truck drivers don't always have the best viewing angles."

"Thank you, kindly, stranger!" said the young man - he was definitely youthful - he couldn't have been any older than eighteen.  "Forgive me for my absent mindedness.  Where I'm from, I've never seen such vehicles as these!"

I blinked at that.  "You haven't?"

"Oh no.  Our own forms of conveyance are much smaller and very much simpler."

What kind of podunk back-water did this guy come from?

He then continued, "If the merchants in my land had such vehicles, I could only imagine the prosperity it would bring.  But I fear they might be too big."

I blinked again.  Too big?  Podunk Backwater wasn't cutting it.  Was this dude Amish on Rumspringa or something?

But me being me, I was a helpful soul, so instead of exclaiming on his apparent experience, I pointed out my own truck - a modest little Mazda B-series using the third-generation Ford Ranger body, complete with a simple camper shell and a 5x10 two-axle enclosed rental trailer.

"Why not something like my truck.  It's got plenty of cargo space, and it can even tow a trailer, too."

"Oh my!  Why, that is a wonderful machine you have there," he said as he walked towards it.

Scrappy was my pride and joy.  I had taken great pains in keeping the truck repaired and maintained because it had literally saved my life once.  At a time when I was homeless, Scrappy's cargo bed with it's basic camper shell gave me a place of shelter and storage.  I kept food in coolers, cooked on a camping stove, and slept in a cot in the back of my faithful and dependable little truck.

"I can tell that you place a great deal of love and trust in this vehicle." said the Man.

"You could?"

"Indeed.  It's a well worn device.  But it's still in great shape.  Very much like a good pair of old trousers.  And this device on the back... I can tell that it fulfills some kind of function with the way it's meant to slide in and out, but I cannot for the life of me suss it out."

He was talking about the brake actuator on the trailer's tongue.  The trailer in question was an older 5x10ft van-trailer model from a popular rental company well known for its reliable trucks and trailers.

"It's called a surge brake," I explained.  "When I use the brakes to slow my truck, the momentum of this trailer and it's load causes it to press up against the hitch.  When that happens, a cylinder filled with oil is compressed, and pushes the fluid through steel tubes into the brake cylinders on all four wheels of this trailer.  It's so effective that I hardly even notice that I have the trailer."

"Truly?  This is indeed a wondrous device you have, good sir!  Perhaps I should invite you to my homeland.  It would be a blessing if you could provide services in transporting goods there."

I blinked at that.  "Is that a job offer?" I asked.

The man smiled at me.  "And if it is as such?"

"I would ask what it would pay."

The young man nodded sagely.  "A fair question.  Monetarily, I would not be compensating you.  That will be up to the people whose goods you are transporting.  However, I will personally see to it that your health is maintained and that your vehicle will never have need of repairs."

I blinked again.  "A health plan and a maintenance plan?  And what if there is an accident that damages my truck?"

"Then I will also see to it that it is of no matter."

I raised an eyebrow.  "That sounds too good to be true.  What's the catch?"

"Ah, you have a sharp mind, good sir.  In this case, I would have you work for my people until you're of an age to retire...  And given all the good you can do with such a magnificent machine, I imagine that your retirement would be very comfortable indeed."

"And if I change my mind?"

He gave me a somewhat smug little smile.  "You won't.  My homeland is a place of great bounty and plentiful beam.  And the woman-folk there are all quite pleasant... each in their own ways, anyhow."

My eyebrows crawled to the top of my hairline.  "Hold the phone, you're trying to bribe me with girls!?"

"Oh?  Am I mistaken?  Perhaps you have other preferences.  It's not so strange."

"Not that!" I cried out.  "I mean that other bit makes it sound like you're a human trafficker!"

He blinked at me in confusion.  "A what now?"

I sighed.  Simple folk.  Simple terms.  "You deal in slaves!"

"Oh, no!  Great maker forbid it!  While others may do such things, I assure you that my followers are not of that mindset.  The person must be free to live their own life on their own terms."

I frowned at that.  While it was a nice sounding platitude...  "You haven't happened to have read a book called The Fountainhead, have you?"

"Should I have?" he asked in confusion.

"Don't," I said flatly.  "It espouses platitudes similar to what you were talking about, but at the cost of exploiting others in the process.  They claim that this 'Objectivist Philosophy' does not promote such things, but the logic does not follow.  To follow those teachings, you must exploit others unfairly."

"Oh, I see.  That is dreadful.  Worry not, good sir.  For while my followers are of the merchant's mindset, we follow a path of benefiting each other in our dealings - mutual enrichment through commerce and trade."

"So, capitalism with a socialist slant.  I can get behind that.  But here's the final question: how do I know that everything you've told me isn't some fantasy?"

He then smiled cunningly at me.  "Fantasy, you say?  When you live in such a world with such incredible wonders?"  He then laughed softly in spite of himself.  "I would imagine that my homeland would seem to be a fantasy land to you.  But I assure you, it is very much real."

"Well, we have a saying that seeing is believing."

"Is that so?  Then perhaps I shall show you, then..."

And then suddenly I was no longer in Texas.

It looked and felt like Texas.

But gone were the rest stop and the freeway.  Gone were the wheel noise of hundreds of cars and trucks moving at 85 miles per hour.  Gone was the faint hint of diesel exhaust.

In it's place, rolling hills covered with vibrantly green oak forest.  Clear blue skies - like one of Texas's Frog Stranglers had blown through - as far as the eye can see.  And a simple, lonely, dusty two-track trail, carving it's way through the hills.

The only things that remained were myself, my truck and trailer, and the strange man.

I looked around, my heart beginning to race as the excitement and anxiety built up in my chest.

"Where are we?" I breathed out.

"In a world like the one you were in before, but different.  Here, technology has not advanced much because magic fulfills most of the needs of the common people.  Here, we Gods walk the Earth and take great care of our young ones.  Here is a world where you can make real and honest change."

"You're not kidding, are you."  It wasn't a question, and he only smiled smugly at me reply.

I went and sat down on a nearby rock and out my head between my knees and simply focused on breathing and getting my mind in order.  After what seemed like hours, though, I finally felt myself begin to settle once more, and I addressed the man without moving from my spot.

"Why me?"

"Why not?" he replied.

I sighed.  "Okay, not the best question to ask.  Better question: Why at all?"

"Why at all indeed.  I am a God of Commerce and Trade.  Every time people here make a fair deal with each other, they are doing so with my commandments to my faithful in mind.  As a result, this country is one of the better ones to reside in.  However..."

"However?" I asked.

"The people here have stagnated.  There is no innovation because they see no need for it.  This land is prosperous... but it is not what your people have aimed to become."

"My people are selfish, greedy, and arrogant backstabbers who desire nothing more that to live in some fantasy world of kings and serfs."

"Not all of them.  Some of them dream of better things.  You are one of them.  You dream of going to far off lands.  You are Ishmael.  "I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts."  Though you love your home, you also desire to see what is out there.  What is strange and unknown.  To learn and innovate.  To bring people to a higher understanding and spread prosperity.

"Believe it or not, these are essential traits of the merchant man.  Without exploring the unknown, you will never find and develop new markets and new opportunities.    You will never spread the prosperity that I so wish for my people to have."

"Okay then.  So, that answers why at all and why me.  Now, do you honestly think that I can do this?  If this world is as primitive as I think you're implying, then I will not have the materials to maintain my truck."

The God smiled at me.  "I already told you this will not be an issue.  I have blessed your wonderful machine to be resistant to the wiles of entropy.  It will be many decades until something will need to be fixed.  And you, for that matter, will have that same boon."

"Your health will be seen to, huh?"

The God smiled.  "You should look at yourself in the mirror."

That took me aback as I recalled a saying, when a God laughs, you run as fast as you can.  I went to look at myself in one of Scrappy's sideview mirrors and I could not believe what I saw.

"I'm a kid again!?"

"You are of the age of eighteen - the age at which young men are permitted to go out into the world to make their livings.  Although I should mention that they are usually well cared for despite that."

"Doting families?" I asked.

The God grinned.  "In a manner of speaking, yes."

I sighed.  "Okay, this is going way beyond just transporting goods or even fomenting development.  You've got an angle you're working."

"You're not wrong, for certain.  I will tell you this much: just be the person you are now - a good man that will help others in need.  One who believes in fair trade and equal value.  One who is unafraid to stand up for what he believes in."

"I don't know about that last part."

"I know.  Your past has been a hurtful one."  I gave the God a glare as he went on.  "I do not blame you for your anxieties.  They are not of your own making.  They're the work of a man who had no idea what to do with a dreamer like you.  But I know that had things been different...  I know that your mother was likened unto the Moon - demure, sweet, gentle, and beautiful; that your father likened unto the Sun - bold, strong, brilliant, and intense.  Had things been different, you would have been the beautifully shining morning star between then, becoming a beacon for others to home in on."

"Had things been different," I spat out with resentment.

"I know.  The past is the past, my good sir.  But here?  You can start again.  You can prove yourself in a world that is unfettered by preconceptions of education - where people care about raw ability and the goodness of their hearts.  With this, you can make waves that will bring about great and wonderful change in this world - change that is long overdue in coming."

"There will be people that resist that change."

"Some.  However, once others see how it can benefit their lives, the majority will embrace it."

I sighed at that.  "So.  I'm in some Isekai story, huh?"

"Isekai, what on...  OH!"  And with that, the God laughed mirthfully, but in a way that I knew did not mean bad news for me.  "You are quite the genre-savvy one!  That will be of great assistance to you here."

I then reassessed my thoughts about him laughing.  I was fucked.

"hooo boy."

The God chuckled once more, then said in a kindly tone, "Do not fret so, my good sir.  You will find that this world is quite agreeable with you, even though you will run into troubles at times.  In the face of your intellect and your heart, they will not be insurmountable to you."

"Troubles, huh?"

"Don't worry about that for now.  You will have plenty of time to steel yourself for what is to come.  For now... Follow this trail.  It will lead you to the city of Saint Antonius.  You will find it familiar in some ways, and there will be plenty of work there waiting for you."

"And what about my belongings?" I asked.  "I can't just dump them in the street."

"You're a resourceful man, my good sir.  Consider this my first testing of your abilities as my agent in this world.  Impress me, good sir."

He disappeared and I sighed.  There was nothing more left for me except to jump into Scrappy and start driving.

Man, the rental company was gonna be upset about not getting their trailer back.  But as far as I was concerned, they could just suck it.  Here, it was as good as mine and as soon as I could, I would set to removing their livery from its aluminum skin.

---

I drove carefully over the trail.  While it was well packed, it was still rough and primitive.  And if this really was Texas only but through a mirror... then I knew this trail would become impassible once the rains came.

And come they will.  I could see bluebonnets, painted brush, and the myriad of other Texas wild flowers carpeting the meadows and glades that I passed through with a riot of colors.  This was Texas Springtime in full swing, which meant the thundershowers came quickly and frequently in these parts.  At one point I startled some roosting birds into the air, and in turn sent up a massive flock that curtained the sky for several minutes until they all settled once more, now inured to the unique sound of my truck.

And then I met my first locals.

[classicdrogn]

Considering how many issekai stories involve becoming, opposing, or trying to avoid getting involved with a demon lord, being compared to the morning star by your ROB is not entirely reassuring, now is it?

[Black Aeronaut]

That's Judeo-Christianity.

Ancient Greeks saw it as the representation of all that is beautiful and named it Venus.

[Inquisitive Raven]

I doubt the part about naming the star because that's the Roman version of her name.

[Black Aeronaut]

* Black Aeronaut shrugs.

Either way, when it comes to the more evil interpretations of the Morning Star, that was all on Judaeo-Christianity.  Everyone else interpreted the Morning Star as a symbol of brilliance and beauty.

[Labster]

If we're talking the Roman versions I'd be more worried about Saturn being corrupted. Or Chibimoon.

At least you didn't trick us with a naked wolf girl at the beginning of the story.

[classicdrogn]

The insert/viewpoint character is from a modern US background, and therefor a predominantly Judaeo-christian society. Obviously you do know your greco-roman myth as well, but as a reader my expectation is that it's going to be viewed that way first unless called out differently in the text.

Isn't the whole morning star/fallen angel bit from, well, basically Christian Bible fanfic that's just old enough to be treated seriously anyway? Book of Enoch kind of thing. (I'm pretty anti-theist myself so I tend to avoid religious material in any form, but I rmemeber being told something like that anyway)

[Black Aeronaut]

So, world building...  Polygynous marriages are going to be the norm, but I think I've worked out a good reason for it, as well as a workable system...

---

While there are certainly various nations on this alternate version of our world, events have transpired that have enforced a certain societal model.  There have been some very wild swings in the past, but enough time has passed that matters around the world have settled into this particular model in general.

Approximately five-thousand years ago, there had been a great mage who was spited by a faithless lover.  To make certain that all women value their men, he made a powerful curse that effected all the world: all human and human-like beings have a low male/female ratio.  The current ratio is approximately one male to every five females.

The curse is no longer active, but its aftereffects are still being felt after thousands of years.  The curse killed all men that had a tendency to produce boys, as well as women that carried the tendency and passed them to their sons.  This caused a nearly-complete collapse of society at the time, and a great deal of knowledge was lost, knocking all societies back into a sort of second Bronze Age.

After thousands of years, things have settled into a very workable pattern.  Men are in a semi-protected status while women, for the most part, are in charge.  While the society is matriarchal, it is patrilocal and polygynus.

Family groups traditionally have even numbers of matriarchs - 2, 4, 6, 8 and so on.  This is to provide the patriarch a tie-breaking vote on family councils.  To facilitate this, many girls will first pair off with each other as lovers and friends.  Sometimes they are sisters, but not usually.  It's not really frowned upon because it's not like there would be any danger of inbreeding.  For these people, it's only incest if it's between a male and a female within a nuclear family (immediate family of brothers, sisters, mother and father).

Additionally, homosexuality among women is not only tolerated, but also encouraged to an extant due to the lack of men.  When two girls pair off together and wed, it is considered ideal that at least one of them be bisexual.  Afterwards, this pair of wives can, if they wish to, be wedded to a man.  However, this does not mean that both wives in this triad must have sexual relations with their husband.  In this way, a woman may have two mutually exclusive lovers - her husband and her wife.

This also goes a long way towards stemming jealousy between wives.  It's hard to feel left out of something when you already have a partner of your own.

Heterosexuality among women is not exactly smiled upon, but it is tolerated.  As an individual, they can wed a man, but on the same token they must be willing to share him with others should he choose to marry more wives.

It is actually quite common that rather than be lovers, two heterosexual women marry because they are very close to each other, like as though they were twins reunited after having been separated at birth.  These couples are close enough that they have no qualms about sharing a husband between them.

Homosexuality among men is also tolerated, though somewhat less so because there are already so few available men.  However, if two men marry women and produce children, then it is socially acceptable for these men to be lovers.

In fact, it is in this way that family alliances can be forged through a love connection without marriage being an issue, hence why this behavior is not entirely shunned.

While men are semi-protected, this does not mean they have it easy.  In order to attract wives, they have to demonstrate that they are competent fathers above all else because seeing to the upbringing and education of their children is of paramount importance.  It is acceptable that a man apply himself to a trade, but only so long as he is willing to teach this trade to his children.

Gender does not really factor in much in regards to child rearing.  Both parents are expected to do their share, though it's considered important that fathers share a close bond with their daughters, and likewise mothers to their sons.  It is felt that, in this way, children learn how to love as husbands and wives from their parents.  Although there are certainly plenty of Daddy's Boys and Mommy's Girls out there.

Men also must demonstrate some degree of political acumen.  While women are in primary control of the households, it is the men who go forward to represent their house and its interests.

The reason this society is patrilocal is because men are the primary land owners.  Before a man is considered for marriage, it is usually expected that he own property so that he may raise his family there.

Conversely, women are typically the owners of livestock and goods.  In this way, as a man provides land and a house for his family, the women provide all the other essentials as they marry into his house.

Women can own land as well, though this is typically reserved as inheritance for their children.  In the meantime, a woman may administer this land and see to its development if she chooses to do so.

Young women, even after they've found their sister-wife, are considered to still be apart of their father's family until they find a husband.  Although they're free to live on either family's property until then, and it's not uncommon to see the two women spending weeks or days at a time at each other's household.

Lineages are traced primarily by the male line - this was only to make tracing a geneological chart as simple as possible.  However, surnames come in two parts: a patrileneal name and a matrilineal name, much like the system the Spaniards use.  Children from a union will take on the patrilineal names from both of their parents to make their own surname.  In this way, even though the patrilineal name is used, there is a clear and distinct relation to the mother revealed when the names of both mother and child are known.

Middle names exist, but these are reserved solely as a pet name used by family and close friends.  As such, they are only officially recorded if the individual wishes it.  Although there are times when some people prefer their middle name over their given name, as parents with a penchant for embarrassing names are still an issue.

Families are generally rated in political clout by the number of associated wives.  The simple fact being that the more skilled a man is, the larger his family tends to be; and the larger the family is, the more influence it has.

Family rankings use polygons to denote their ranks as the polygonal shape directly references the number of wives.

Trine - First and Lowest Rank and a base unit within the household.  Every two wives married to a man forms a Trine.

Triad - First Rank - A trine plus one woman, forming a Triad.

Quad(ralateral) - Second Ranking - Two Trines connected at their apexes.

Penta(gon) - Sedond Ranking - Two Trines plus one woman.

Hexa(gon) - Third Rank - Three Trines joined at their apexes.

Septa(gon) - Third Rank - Three Trines plus one woman.

Octo(gon) - Fourth Rank - Four Trines joined at their apexes.

Nona(gon) - Fourth Rank - Four Trines plus one woman.

Deca(gon) - Fifth and Highest Rank - Five Trines joined at their apexes.

No man, not even a king, is allowed more than ten wives for matters of practicality.  It is not considered fair to the children in such an arrangement.  These houses tend to produce many children and a man in such a house will be relegated mostly to educating his children.

These shapes also shape the lives within the house.  For each Trine and Single Wife, a man must devote a single day and night out of the week catering specifically to that part of his family.  This is part of why ten is considered the maximum allowed, as a man will spend five days out of the week focused solely on his family.  In such a family, his free days are not truly free, as such will be his house's political power that he must devote those remaining days to dealing with inter-family affairs and politics.

[classicdrogn]

The tendency to produce boys is entirely a question of whether a particular sperm is carrying an X or Y chromosome, the only way you get men without it is if something interferes and turns on male traits in the genertics despite having XX, which is pretty much the opposite of what you're looking for. I mean, you copuld have the fantasy world running on a different genetic basis entirely and folks just look human because the gods think that's hot, but that leaves your insert fundamentally incompatible with the locals unless he's been physically transformed (or is actually a mindstate duplicate in a new body, which is the same for your purposes but leaves the original self behind, probably mind hwammied to not rmemeber anything after saving the odd guy from getting squished.) in the transition.

Really, you're probably best off just making it a genetic disorder like the Graysons in Honor Harrington, some kind of magical equivalent like a nonhuman god angey about human birth rates making it so only one boy child will ever be born to a particular couple, or something along those lines. It also has to be something that's still active, or birth rates will essentially immediately go back to even chances.

All you really need is a standard fantasy deathworld and the biological tendency for guys to want to show off for and protect the girls; simple attrition from being the ones to jump in front of the monster first will skew your population ratio at that point, much like I figure things would work out among ninja clans in Naruto when far more ninja are male than female (2:1 on genin teams with a lower and lower ratio with age and rank) so most of the ones in the line of fire are guys while the girls have to compete or team up to get a guy who has the genetic advantages for teh next generation to maintain and hopefully improve their abilities.

[ECSNorway]

@classicdrogn: There are genetic conditions which specifically affect the Y chromosome. Something with a similar method of effect would account for the pattern as well.

[classicdrogn]

Yes... I specifically mentioned that in the second paragraph, then some more fantasy-ish alternatives. Ultimately it's up to BA, of course.

I'm not so sure about the bit of tracing lineage through the male line making things easier, either - I mean, anyone present at the time can pretty decisively verify that this baby has that mother, but exactly which man was involved the better part of a year ago relies more on accurate and honest retelling, barring DNA testing or effective divination magic. Unless you (BA) meant that the paternal naming convention makes tracing that half of the family easier in the assumption that it is accurately applied, which yeah I guess so.

[Black Aeronaut]

It's taken me a while to get around to answering this...

...But it turns out I'm actually correct in my assumptions.  (!!)

Mr. Gellatly found evidence that men carry a gene that determines the percentage of X and Y chromosomes in their sperm, and that the gene comes in three alleles, or versions. One produces mostly X chromosomes, another mostly Y, and the third yields equal numbers of both.

Source for said article is here:
https://collective-action.info/sites/def...Ratios.pdf

So it's simple enough to say that carriers of any of the two out of the three alleles that cause even or greater numbers of Y-chromosomes to be generated were killed off by said curse.

It would only be the men, though, as this gene is carried only on the Y-chromosome, and not the X.  So a minor adjustment will be needed, but nothing that will drastically change the setting I've established thus far.

[Black Aeronaut]

More world building stuff.



Technology-wise, most of the 'civilized world' has been hovering somewhere between Renaissance and Pre-Industrial - pretty much back to where they were when everything went to hell... but because magic has been juuuuusssst effective enough, no one has ever seen the need to improve upon things.



Food preservation?  Magic.  Sanitation?  Magic.  Health issues?  Magic.



The primary limiting factor will be that all magic requires a tangible fuel that, for lack of a better term, I'm going to call Mana for now.  This has to be mined from deposits in the Earth.  And while deposits can be depleted, if left alone for a few hundred years, they can replenish themselves.  Thus, while they're not exactly running out, they don't really have mana to burn.  It has to be carefully rationed out.



To this end, they use Mana as a currency in a sort of trickle-down system that actually works.  All mana deposits belong to the country they're found in.  After it's been refined, the noble families get a stipend depending on the services they render unto the country.  From there, noble families have to pay everyone that works under them - usually merchants and contractors that handle whatever interests they have in that region.  From there, wealth gets distributed among the commoners.  Merchants and contractors pay for goods and services to keep their businesses going, and the people that provide these goods and services pay out to their workers.  These workers buy goods and services themselves, putting mana back into the economy.



The system can be abused, but this usually doesn't go on very long.  It's a well-established fact that mana absolutely must circulate through the economy, otherwise important public services such as sanitation and infrastructure like water works and roads begin to literally crumble.  And then it's only a matter of time before the pitchforks start coming.



This is the sheer beauty of this set up: no need for taxes.  Why bother with taxes when you're already collecting all of the currency and then distributing it?  Maintaining infrastructure and such is paid directly out of the country's coffers, as well as salaries for government employees, as well as maintenance and other upkeep.  In this way, the initial distribution takes place, and the mana flows forth.



The biggest issue of all, though, is that magic costs quite a bit.  While the formation of mana in the Earth seems to violate the laws of thermodynamics, the usage of mana most certainly does not!  And thermodynamics strikes back with a vengeance, at that!  The more complicated a spell is, the more mana it will consume.  This is because magical spells are similar in some ways to an electrical circuit, and it other ways to a system of pipes.



The circuitry aspects of it are very similar to integrated circuitry in a computer chip.



Yes, that's right.  These people have the basics of computer programming in their hands, and they don't even realize what kind of potential this represents.



The analogy of pipes enters the picture in that mana, like water within pipes, must fill the magical 'circuit' before it can function.  And like water, it's usually lost once the spell has done it's job - that mana left over in the circuit disperses.  (Not to mention the energy spent on doing the actual work.  Granted, magic in and of itself is a very efficient process, there is still a measurable loss of energy.)



You could recapture the leftover energy, but it's a zero-sum game.  This is where thermodynamics bites the hardest.  Recapturing that energy means reverting it back into it's physical form of mana.  This is not unlike trying to un-burn coal or oil - it's possible, but you're going to lose a lot more than you gain.



For this reason, simple spells with a small area of effect are common place because the circuit does not need to be large or complex.  But the larger the are of effect is (or the more complicated the spell is), then the more mana it will take just to power up the spell.  For this reason, larger, more complicated spells are used primarily for public works, and are managed very carefully while being being kept energized over long periods of time.



Spells can be cast in several ways.



Most commonly seen method is runic magic circles.  Circles can have layers within layers, and as well as separate circles inside a larger one, allowing for a certain degree of modular building.  These are typically your larger "public works" spells.



Another common method is to carve a wand or a staff with several prepared spells for quick casting.  These are useful for self defense, but can also be used as tools.  Wands are generally one-note devices, while some staffs have been known to have as many as twenty different spell arrays carved into it.  It all depends on the available surface area and your skill with a whittling knife.



Modular spell construction factors in here much more, as you can selectively activate arrays to combine into various effects.  An example would be a simple fire-blasting spell.  While one array carries the fire spell itself, several more arrays can direct how it is to be employed - such as an area effect, a wall, a concentrated burst (fireball!) and so on.



Another method of spell casting is by verbal incantation.  The simple fact is that with a sufficiently disciplined mind, the spell arrays can be created out of the raw magical energy itself.  The incantation serves as a focus for the mind in order to help visualize the array.



The downside is that this can take time, especially for more complex spells.  Even worse, if the caster's concentration is broken, the energy already present in the array can backlash against them.  And on top of it all, if you have an enemy who is particularly sharp, they can discern what sort of spell is coming before you can finish casting.  However, the bonus here is that a spell can be altered on the fly, which can grant a critical tactical advantage in a constantly shifting battle.



Of course, there is also the option of silent casting.  This is much more difficult to pull off because you don't have the incantation to act as a focus for your mind.  You need to come up with it entirely inside your head.  This has an advantage over recitation in that with a sufficiently disciplined mind, a spell can be cast much faster and leave your enemy without any clue as to what's coming.



This makes silent casters the most difficult of all mages to deal with, though they are exceedingly rare in number.  Typically, most silent casters are members of the longest-lived races , such as Kitsune, Fae Elves, Vampires, or the rare human who's mind is such that simply imagining the spell arrays that clearly comes as second nature to them.

---

As for societies....

*Sighs*

This is going to take a lot of work and effort, because I'm having to do what D.D. Webb has been doing with The Gods are Bastards (more or less, anyway, as I blend DnD and JRPG elements with historical fiction), only with the additional step of piping it all through the lens of "Women Have Controlled The World For The Last 5,000 Years".  No playing in the shadows, no subtleties.  It is a Woman's World, full stop.

And I'll undoubtedly be having to beat a path through quandaries like: What does true equality among the genders look like?  It's not like I haven't grappled with subjects like this before, but now it's going to be implicit in the very setting.

For the moment, I'm looking at how things in North and South America would have developed in this case.  Particularly Mesoamerican and similar cultures.  I'm playing with the idea that there was never any Conquistadors, but there was an attempt at annexation that did not go well.  Combined with the plagues of Smallpox, Measles, Whooping Cough, and others...  The various shattered empires eventually all wound up being gathered together into one very authoritarian and VERY MEAN monoculture that sees war and conquest as a way of life, only more ion line with the Apache's Counting Coup.

Fantasy elements I'm thinking of including would be mostly elves and forest spirits... But socially speaking, these elves would have more in common with the Drow seen in Forgotten Realms.  And the creatures and spirits of the jungles would be every bit as blood thirsty and vicious as what you'd find in the Underdark.

That's just an idea for now, as I'm intending for there to be conflict in the south such that fortress cities are a fact of life.

Any help would be appreciated

[classicdrogn]

Well for one thing, if you're familiar with the ancient "palace economy" societies, your system with mana sounds rather like it. If not, definitely look some of that up.

WRT magical tools, can a formula be written as a linear array, rather than a ring? Could the characters of the array be themselves on rings orthagonal to the path of the array, so you can change what a certain tool will do given time to twiddle the rings around? Probably not as convenient as the multi-setting wand in Terry Pratchett's Discworld Witches books, but from the sound of things also less likely to get stuck on pumpkins. Can physically small inscriptions handle as much power as the same thing written larger, and does it affect the mana cost? What about special inks or materials of one sort or another other than your glowing magic rocks versus carving out empty spaces in a substrate with carved characters? Does the type or grain of wood matter, or conditions the tree grew in? Different types of stone and environmental conditions, aside form the caster being able to maintain concentration during them? Relative positions of celestial bodies? The caster's moral, physical, or marital status? Will it blend, and can it run Crysis?

I'm not so sure about the monoculture thing - this ties back to the palace economy bit, but the way you have mana a physical thing critical to the functioning of society and extracted at lots of small, relatively long term locations that nonetheless still get depleted after a while and are distributed by the local lord really works against the idea of large nations, or entities larger than one lord's soldiers and charisma can convince to work for her. Larger alliances would of course form, but when the mana begins to run low whoever is relying on it has the options of moving their operation, conquering one of those neighbors, or having their population absorbed by them wherever they can fit and falling out of the ruling class with no tributary income to distribute. Male or female, those who go through the concerted effort to gain power seldom willingly give it up, and those raised in power are if anything going to be even more appalled at the idea.

That might count as a "monoculture" itself I guess, but with myriad small fief-doms dominating their particular fief and uncertain relations with the neighbors it seems more like they'd tend to become a bit insular and each develop their own customs and so on.

[Black Aeronaut]

Wooo-weee.  So much at once.  Let's see about breaking it down...

Well for one thing, if you're familiar with the ancient "palace economy" societies, your system with mana sounds rather like it. If not, definitely look some of that up.

I'll get right on that.  Thanks!

WRT magical tools, can a formula be written as a linear array, rather than a ring?

I would sayyyyy....  yes.  I would like to run with the idea that the magic system works similarly to the system in we see in Diane Duane's Young Wizards series, only not as flexible.

For example, in her books you can pretty much get air to become solid by reminding it that it can be solid, and basically go, "Pretty please will you do it for me?"  In this system, in order to get air to become a solid, you have to actually move the energy around to make it change states from gas, to liquid, and then solid.

I'm still fuzzy on this, though.  I'd like for there to be a very strong correlation to physics and chemistry, but no one's really happened upon why these things happen because the magical arrays just makes these things happen.

Could the characters of the array be themselves on rings orthagonal to the path of the array, so you can change what a certain tool will do given time to twiddle the rings around? Probably not as convenient as the multi-setting wand in Terry Pratchett's Discworld Witches books, but from the sound of things also less likely to get stuck on pumpkins.

This will actually be pretty much how wands and staffs function, except in a linear fashion (arrays carved along the long axis).  A wand or a staff will have parts of an array on each section, strategically placed to handle different parts of a spell.  As I mentioned earlier with a basic fire spell, the first segment will have the fire spell itself, the next one can dictate how much energy you want to put into it, and another will dictate what shape it will take, and so on, and so forth.  Rotating the segments of the staff or wand will give you the combination you want, and then it's pretty much just point-and-shoot.

Can physically small inscriptions handle as much power as the same thing written larger, and does it affect the mana cost?

Yes, this will have an effect on both counts.  Larger arrays can carry more mana, and therefore will have great capacitance for executing a spell.  Which will be why wands are only really good for small, utilitarian tasks, but staffs are the more preferred go-to choice for moderate-sized effects.  This will be why wands are not often seen - given how Mana is precious, you'll only see the more well-to-do bothering with them because wands can only really do things that anyone can do on their own - it just makes it more convenient and easy.

Public works and the like, as mentioned before, will be specially maintained magic arrays that are kept charged for as long as possible.

Here's an idea.  Waste of mana can be greatly mitigated by ensuring you're only using exactly as much as you need.  There will be a minimum needed charge before the array can work, and in general this will be lost once the array is discharged, but carefully planning the array out to be as "small" as possible and still perform the work will be both a matter of artisanal skill as well as...  Well, I guess you could call it "tight and clean coding".  So more often than not, two people will be involved in making an array - the person that engineers the code, and the person that actually writes it out.  Though there will be those that can do both, but they'll be considered extremely skilled high level mages.

What about special inks or materials of one sort or another other than your glowing magic rocks versus carving out empty spaces in a substrate with carved characters? Does the type or grain of wood matter, or conditions the tree grew in? Different types of stone and environmental conditions, aside form the caster being able to maintain concentration during them?

I actually hadn't thought about that, but now that you bring it up, it makes a lot of sense.  Some materials will handle properties of magic better than others.  (I plan on this having a lot of analogues to how electricity and water are measured - pressure, rate of flow, volts, amperes... you get the idea.)

So certain woods farmed in certain conditions will be more efficient with manna than others, as well as different types of stone, and other construction materials - all with a grading system that rates how well each property is handled.

Relative positions of celestial bodies? The caster's moral, physical, or marital status? Will it blend, and can it run Crysis?

Hah!  These things not quite so much.  Celestial bodies will depend on the spell - most don't rely on it, but spells that play into astronomy and timekeeping would.

The caster's emotional state will play in to how well they can cast a spell - being able to focus on what they're doing and all.  Possibly physical attributes, too, since that can play a role in how well a person can focus.  But the other stuff would be more in the domain of how well they get along with their Gods and who happens to be their patron deity.

As for the role the Gods will play, mostly they simply impart wisdom and, now and then, empower their more devout clerics and paladins.  They won't simply give away the Secrets of the Universe simply because it's a bad idea to twink the noobs in this case.  Unfortunately, things have progressed with such glacial slowness that they're actually wishing they could interfere directly.  But one of them figured out a clever workaround - he just had to convince someone to move into the neighborhood so he can inspire others.

It will eventually blend things quite nicely, but it will be a while until it can run Crysis. 

I'm not so sure about the monoculture thing - this ties back to the palace economy bit, but the way you have mana a physical thing critical to the functioning of society and extracted at lots of small, relatively long term locations that nonetheless still get depleted after a while and are distributed by the local lord really works against the idea of large nations, or entities larger than one lord's soldiers and charisma can convince to work for her. Larger alliances would of course form, but when the mana begins to run low whoever is relying on it has the options of moving their operation, conquering one of those neighbors, or having their population absorbed by them wherever they can fit and falling out of the ruling class with no tributary income to distribute. Male or female, those who go through the concerted effort to gain power seldom willingly give it up, and those raised in power are if anything going to be even more appalled at the idea.

That might count as a "monoculture" itself I guess, but with myriad small fief-doms dominating their particular fief and uncertain relations with the neighbors it seems more like they'd tend to become a bit insular and each develop their own customs and so on.

I've been giving a bit of thought on this.  The idea so far is to have something like House Harkonnen from Dune come into being, only it would be it's own little empire, carved out of Mesoamerica and filled with blood and vitriol.

Once the plagues had done their damage, a young upstart decides enough is enough, they're gonna go a-conquering.  Trouble is, their young mind got warped by the things they saw, and a self-styled God of Cruelty took notice and liked what she saw.

Only thing was?  This was a male.

But that didn't matter.  She empowered him because she got a kick out of seeing him literally rape and pillage his way across the land, and a line of adherents quickly formed up behind him, becoming his Priests who were every bit as vile as he was.  He quickly instated each of them as the head of their own fiefs.

But here's the scary part: He's Evil Overlord List Compliant, and while they perform acts of cruelty on each other in the name of their god, all of his people are well fed, well educated, and thoroughly brainwashed.  (Imagine what North Korea could be if it only could.  Yeah, that.)

The mana mines are carefully tended and rotated.  All of his priests have all that they could desire (and any traitors are quickly and publicly dealt with).  Nothing is left to chance.  And while life is dog-eat-dog, it is only in accordance with their god's wishes, and not because of starvation or destitution.

A perfect dystopia that harkens to the Fall of the Eldar in Warhammer 40K.  Or, if it helps, like Reavers from Firefly, except with a thin veneer of civilization.

The other Gods would dearly like to do something about them, but they've been just so plain nasty and tenacious that it's all their children could do to just stem the tide.

Thoughts?

[robkelk]

Well for one thing, if you're familiar with the ancient "palace economy" societies, your system with mana sounds rather like it. If not, definitely look some of that up.

Another thing to look up is the "gift economy", including but not limited to the potlatch.

[classicdrogn]

Well, my first reaction is "An entire civilization devoted to Malsumis!?" though honestly the only time I'd ever heard of her is in Stewart92's Spirit of the Gamer (rewrite) over on SB, despite being from RL mythology. Otherwise, my only real feeling is the usual one that I don't like "evil empires" that run on cruelty and don't see how they can continue to function even with moderate to heavy brainwashing that This Is Normal, Carry On, because even when this sucking is normal people get sick of it and try to get rid of whoever is making it suck.

Whether that amounts to much in the larger scale or just a constantly rotating crab bucket where today's peon is tomorrow's ayatollah of rock'n'rollah sitting on a throne made from the bones of his predecessors until the next lucky rebel adds his skull to the pile is another question, but it always feels implausible to have it make for a stable situation. Maybe it;s just me, I talk a good game about being antisocial, am not about to throw away my little list (and they never would be missed, no they never would be missed,) and certainly never feel like I'd rather be in a group than alone, but I also think everything works better when people are polite and kind to each other so if nothing else an Empire of Eeevil should be just plain out-produced and out-competed by a society that doesn't (at the institutional level) waste energy on petty cruelty and where people are at least not unhappy about what they need to do to maintain it. Like how around the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries the idea that figuring out what the most efficient way to lift a shovelful of whatever was, buying shovels that facilitated it, and giving the shovelers paid breaks to rest in actually resulting in more tons of shit shoveled per day and a net profit gained some traction and suddenly productivity began shooting up.

A nifty link I found while making an attempt at fact-checking myself: History of Ergonomics | Japanese Ergonomics Society

[Black Aeronaut]

Hrm.

Well, while I've been playing with the idea, I've been looking at dystopias in fiction, and the one thing they all seem to have in common is an oppressed lower-class.

Another thing is that I mentioned Drow before.  So, why not have a COMPLETE role reversal?  Instead of the Underdark, you'd have Jungles of Death.  Instead of black-skin and white-haired Drow, you'd have Wood Elves with sun-bronzed skin and dark hair.

Ironically, the Drow aren't enslaved.  They're merely driven out.  Drow can't reproduce quickly enough to make for an effective slave race, as not even their longer life spans hold up for much under this punishment.

Humans, though, are endurance-monsters and do reproduce quickly enough, making them ideal slaves.

The Wood Elves are obviously racist, and even misogynistic.  While females are technically "equal" it's obviously not the case.  And other races aside from Drow and Humans are only barely tolerated.  They're regarded little better than the Romani have been IRL and pretty much get the same treatment.

It's a lot easier to incentivize cruelty when there's lower classes to be cruel to.

Thoughts?

[classicdrogn]

Well, I guess they'd count as the kind of designated enemy people love to see foiled. It certainly makes for a more plausible Nastybad Empire, anyway.

I was thinking about the magic stuff some more today myself, and came up with some possibilities relating to the shape of an array:

- - -

Linear arrays tend to produce a directional effect, obviously enough, whether a sudden burst like an attack spell, a more sustained but still tightly focused effect like a magical tool or communications device, etc. They're the simplest form of spell, that nearly anyone who puts any effort into it can learn to create well enough to generally achieve the intended effect, though of course accuracy in the inscription and skill in using it is still the difference between success and costly, possibly dangerous failure.

Circles are the next step up in difficulty, and tend to produce effects with a strongly defined edge around a defined volume, making them better for defensive or many industrial processes. Magic that lasts longer than the caster actively conentrats on it almost always involves a circle, as energy cintinues to flow around and around the spell pattern until it bleeds away. Not only must the individual characters be inscribed as accurately as for a linear spell, they must also be spaced perfectly around the perimeter and flow seamlessly in keeping with the logic of the spell when it reaches the beginning point again. The edge of teh effect is also typically at least twice as strong as the interior, which can be intentionally reinforced via a double circle that puts a second layer with a reversed boundary just inside the first, this being the basic principle behind combat shield spells.

For an area effect that is dense and uniform thourghout much of its volume before startign to fade or in more energetic applications flare and trail off at the egdes, you need a cruciform spell, Two lines crossing once will do, and is the peak of what all but the most learned or talented can achieve, as the difficulty of balancing each segment of each line rises quickly, and the intersection point must always be a single character that fits into both spells.

For a simple cross, regular polygon, or small, regular lattice (hashtags and so on are in this category as well) that's not so bad - four and lately nine intersection illusions have become popular both as projected for a crowd or in smaller form as ornaments in the homes of lords with more money than sense - but star-form spell inscriptions are the mark of a master, and producing a safe and functional pentacle unaided is the typical masterwork required to qualify for the rank. Adding a circle-form spell around the outside is also common unless harshly pressed for time or mana, to provide protection in case the inscription is faulty or becomes damaged later, and one few casters will begrudge the extra expense to have.

Theoretically, following this logic, point spells should exist and be even simpler, but a single character used as a focus for a caster's concentration instead acts like a linear spell, for reasons that nearly every mage will have a different idea about. Most boil down to either the act of reading the symbol predisposing the caster to think of it as being directional, the material or lines forming it actually making it directional regardless of intent or clarity of focus, or the minimal physical anchor leaving it susceptible to influence by the normally negligible ambient magical energy in the environment. Attempts to circumvent this effect usually end in explosions or the caster learning to work without a physical focus at all, which some take to mean that a mind, will, or soul is the only point-class spell, having no form, size, or other measurable characteristic save for a location and the ability to shape mana. Whatever the truth may be, the gods are at best vague and more commonly silent on such matters even to their most favored, with the rare exceptions who claim to have received enlightenment either unable or unwilling to share any more detail.

- - -

So?

[Black Aeronaut]

Everyone's gotta have their Romulan and Klingons.

We'll get to our metaphorical Kilingons in a sec here.

For know, I'd just like to say that I think Circles and Linear formats would probably be equally easy/hard, as with either one you need to make certain that the array you're carving will fit perfectly into the space you intend for it.  Circles would be considered 'more advanced' only because they can be scaled to absurd proportions.  Like maybe a Siege Shield that can protect a fortress city from extended sieges until help arrives.

Otherwise, I like everything else - especially the idea of nexus points where multiple linear arrays criss-cross each other.

---

So, we've heard about our metaphorical Romulans.

Let's get into our metaphorical Klingons.

We already know that in many other countries men are treated little better than breeding studs.  Their rights are few in number, and generally amount to being protected from neglect and harm.  In fact, in many of these countries, it is a capitol offense to cause any harm to a man.

But there, their rights pretty much end.  They are usually kept confined to their own suites while the women they have been contracted to breed with all take their turns with him as they feel like it.

It's a bit like Geminar from Tenchi Muyo: War on Geminar, where males that can pilot the Sacred Mechanoids are treated as fragile things, but also bred like race horses.  Except it's even more restrictive.

It is not a terrible life.  In these places, men will always have good food and comfortable living conditions, and be permitted intellectual and even artisanal pursuits.  But they reside in gilded cages and rarely see others - they hardly even get to see their children, and the women that permit a man to be apart of their daughter's life is considered to be very progressive or even radical.

(While considered taboo in most countries, some others will breed a daughter with her father for the sake of establishing certain genetic traits.  Thus, males in these places are never permitted to see their children.  With the relationship between the two being known only to their house matriarchs, this practice carries on with neither party being the wiser.  The only inhibition is the threat of dangerous recessive traits building up in the genepool, and this ironically enough keeps the practice from getting out of hand.)

In some places, though, it is even worse.

The Holy Jade Dragon Empire is one such country.  Located in what we would call China, it is ruled over exclusively by a race of dragons that can assume human form.  These dragons not only form the nobility, but the warrior and religious casts as well.  Each of these casts are regarded as equal to each other as there is a certain system of checks and balances, however it's plainly clear that it's the religious caste that really calls the shots.

The Noble Caste are strategists and leaders, taught from a very young age the finer aspects of the art of war, as well as all the other skills required to administer a massive standing army.  However, they do not make laws and they do not have any training to fight for themselves.  As far as dragons go, they are soft and physically weak, but only in comparison to the Warrior Caste.

At the head of this caste is the Empress of the Holy Jade Dragon Empire.  While she does indeed act as the commander-in-chief of their armies, in all other aspects she is a mere figurehead.  Strangely, the Empress is obligated to lay as many fertile eggs as possible.  This is because the decision on who will next ascend the throne is decided on by the Religious Caste.  The choice is always based on merits alone, and the rest of the princesses will be assigned to offices they are deemed fit for.  There is absolutely no room for petty intrigues, and those that attempt it are executed.  The only way they may be saved is if the person they plotted against forgives them.  However, it puts both parties in a precarious situation, because should the original offender attempt to manipulate the court again...  Both of them will be executed, as the one who granted forgiveness was evidently not a good enough judge of character, and therefore unfit to lead.

The Warrior Caste is about what you would expect.  Each one is harshly drilled from the moment they can pick up a weapon.  While the Nobility studies strategy, the warriors study tactics.  Their only concern is to win battles - the direction a war goes is handled by the nobility.  To this end, most are illiterate, relying instead on a small set of simple ideograms for written communication.  They are expected to devote themselves to the battle field.

There is also a certain Darwinism to be had here.  The warriors, having been raised with nothing but war on their minds, are put on the front lines at a very young age of fourteen years old.  A fair number of these warriors killed through simple attrition.  Those that do make it to the age of twenty are retired to breeding duties until they can no longer breed.  And once they can no longer lay eggs, they become teachers and instructors for the hatchlings.  Once dibilitation from old age begins to hamper their ability to teach, they are granted the mercy of a swift and painless passing so as not to suffer the indignities of death from old age.

The Religious Caste not only forms the core of their clergy, but they also serve as their lawmakers as The Empire is most emphatically a theocracy.  While the Nobility lead the armies, it is truly the Religious Caste that are in charge, as they give the Nobility the words of their God of War.  They are, of course, the most well educated, however deal very little - if at all - with the art of war.

The Religious Caste also determines which males are fit to breed.  They look carefully at a number of aspects, but the greatest care is given to selecting the males that the Empress will breed with.  Great emphasis is placed on intelligence and cognitive ability so the next generation of leaders is made from the best stock available.

There is a worker caste, of course, but they are serfs for all intents and purposes.  They're as illiterate the Warrior Caste and consist of other races - humans, beast-kin, and fae - people who have been conquered over the centuries of on-again, off-again warfare.  While they do enjoy some protections - after all, wounded, sick, or dead workers cannot provide for the Empire - any signs of uprising are dealt with swiftly and lethally.

Males are slaves - full stop.  Their health is maintained quite well, but they are taught nothing more than how to talk and what their place is.  They are harshly punished for transgressions as well.  Attempt to run away and their feet will be amputated.  Attempt to harm another woman and their hands will be severed.  Be caught trying to read and their eyes will be burned out.  Bear false witness against someone and their tongue will be removed.

They will never execute a male as they see death as a reward to be earned.  Nor will a male ever be harmed in such a way as to keep them from breeding.  The only thing males have in their favor is that harming them in such a way as to hamper or eliminate their ability to breed is a capitol offense and will result in immediate execution.

And there's that.  Definitely "Bad Guys", but without anywhere nearly as much institutionalized cruelty.  Just....

....VERY Authoritarian.

Next I think I'll do a story post, but after that I'd like to cover something that'll be a little more fun.

Pirates and The God of Thieves.

[classicdrogn]

Well, with the linear arrays, I was mainly thinking you can write it at the "correct" size and spacing, and it's however long as it is. Now if you're putting multiple spells on a single object like a staff, or have a limited space the inscription has to fit inside, that gets trickier, but to make a single spell you can pretty much cut to fit, or at worst have the maximum length of your available material as a constraint.

For the new bits, eh, Obviously Evil Empire is Obviously Evil. I'm not so sure about the illiterate warrior caste, though - either their simplified writing system is just a "secret language" or it's probably not sufficient to accurately convey the intent of orders to a commander in the field, or whoever is the most senior survivor after the command staff gets turned into chunky salsa by some kind of magically animated flying bundle of blades. The serfs should also be at least numerate and able to read simple labels, because otherwise your infrastructure to store and transport goods is going to be a mess to say the very least, which is anathema to a bureaucratic Imperial China expy.

As to the dragons aspect, do they magically breed true, or is lineage purity also a thing for them to form hierarchies over?

[Norgarth]

Hey BA, what do these Dragons look like? Are they humans that just use a lot of dragon symbology? or are they basically Draconians/Dragonborn (roughly human sized reptilians, with maybe wings, breath weapons, etc) or are we talking 20+ foot long _dragons_. and if the latter, how have they not conquered more territory?

[Black Aeronaut]

Valid points abound.  Thanks for helping me patch the holes in this.

Let's start with the dragons themselves.

As I mentioned before, they're able to assume human form... but, conversely, this also means that they are able to assume a full-on draconic form.  However, the ones that do this the most are, surprisingly, the Warrior caste.  The thing is that even just assuming the much larger form means that said dragon is going to be ravenously hungry.  Like, a couple of teams of oxen hungry.  Being full-sized (I'm thinking like about the same size as Draco from the film, Dragonheart) means you have a lot to maintain, so it's restricted only for combat purposes.

A Dragon is easy to spot in their human form.  They will have a tail, wings, head crest (horns), and scales on their back, tail, neck, and outer sides of their arms and legs.  They'll also come in a small variety of colors, which will indicate what caste they belong to.

Here's a couple of images, spoilers because one is mildly NSFW.

Spoiler

Source: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/4m632

   
Source: https://www.redbubble.com/i/sticker/Drag...5875.EJUG5

Only difference is the girl in the upper image would have wings like the one in the lower image.

Now, I know that I've painted a picture of a very daunting enemy to face.  They have natural armor, can breathe fire, and attack from the air, but I'm gonna borrow a simple whammy from Amy Novak's Temeraire series: finely ground black pepper.

By casting clouds of black pepper into the sky, defending armies can render a dragon's breath a moot point as they'll be unable to use it without inhaling the pepper.  And from that point forward, it's merely a matter of knowing how to fight them.

With this, the neighboring nations are able to fight the Dragon Empire on more or less even terms, and mutual defense pacts abound.  The borders do have a tendency to shift, though, so there aren't very many actual towns or farms in the vicinity of said borders.

For their Warriors written language, it will be able to convey just enough details to get the job done.  If there's any official reports needed, those are to be made by the lower-ranking Noble caste - in the even that for some reason all in a command were killed, their replacements will simply question the surviving Warriors, and then make the formal report.

In regards to the Working caste and illiteracy...  This was a thing in China as well, and they got around it by having an extensive system of scribes and accountants working under magistrates in each town and settlement.  In our setting, these will technically be Noble class, but they will be of such low-ranking birth that this will be their demesne.

That said, Working caste can be elevated to being in direct employ of magistrates by working as messengers and other menial tasks in the government that do not require a particular level of literacy - only the ability to read a map and orient themselves.

By and large, the Working caste will use the Warrior's written language, though it will have been added upon.

Lineage purity is not so much a big deal as keeping the castes pure because the Empire will select breeding partners in order to establish favorable traits.  While the males may be slaves, they are held to the same color-to-caste restrictions the females are.  Breeding outside a the colors of a designated cast is a huge no-no.  (Note that this also means that the Working caste is not permitted to breed with -any- dragons at all.  Any other species, though, is permissible.)

In regards to Dragons as a species...

...They exist elsewhere in the world, for certain.  Though they tend to be a minority and prideful beings, they by and large think the people running the Dragon Empire are a bunch of inbred ass-holes.

Dragon-Halves will be a thing.  They can look as much like any other dragon while in their human form, or they could look just like a human, with the only give away being a single draconic trait, such as some scales, crest, a tail, wings, etc.  And of course, depending on how many generations they are down the line, there will be varying degrees between the two extremes.

However, the one clearly defining trait of a Dragon-Half will the complete inability to assume a full-dragon form.

Dragon-kind in general will regard Dragon-Halves as inferior beings, but are otherwise.... tolerated.  Among the rest of more free-thinking societies, Dragon-Halves are generally accepted as any other Beast-Kin is.

Thoughts?

[classicdrogn]

Don't see anything more to quibble about there.

I did have my own avatar image catch my attention in this context, and thought that something like that must be the hell-project magi have nightmares over - all the trouble of a twelve-intersection cruciform array (though that alone is still easier than the 15 intersections for a pentacle, assuming the points of the star are also counted) compounded by the spacing and "song that never ends" requirements of a circular array, plus the poorly-if-at-all understood factor of intentionally warping the circles into ellipses and somehow keeping them from exploding just from the irregularity that introduces. If MC has a computer with some kind of physical output device along in Truck-kun, plotting something like that out (after sufficient magical analysis to get the theory) would go a long way to gaining the respect of some mage or spellcrafter for a plot point, thereby combining the strengths of circle and cruciform arrays for whatever purpose. Even without a printer, the angles, distances, and whatever the two anchor points of an ellipse are called that's escaping me right now can be calculated for construction with straightedge, divider, two anchor pins and a thread loop.

I suppose it could also be done as a 3D array with otherwise normal circular arrays attached to each other to form a skeletal sphere, but I don't even have an ideas for how that would go right, let alone how it might go wrong.

[Black Aeronaut]

Here we go at last.  For those wondering about my other projects, this really didn't take much away from those.  I've been working on this one for quite a while, and I only just had to clean it up to account for changes and clarifications I've made thus far.

---

It was all so sudden.  A wooden buggy came flying over the next rise, trailing dust from its wheels, and then slamming back down to the earth with a tremendous clatter.  It somehow remained intact, but don't ask me how.  But that wasn't the only thing to get my attention.

Chocoboes.

Two of them.

Pulling the wagon.

And a pink haired woman in the driver's seat.  But for some strange reason she didn’t seem to have any legs - but I just told myself that I would figure it out later.

I rolled down the window and pulled to the side.  Fortunately, she pulled up and stopped right next to me.  I was taken aback because she had red eyes that glittered like jewels.

"What's going on?" I asked, trying to keep cool even though I was simply floored by how beautiful this girl was.

"There is a great thunderstorm coming!" she said breathlessly.  "We must seek high-ground, quickly!"  She then blinked and looked at my truck.  "What in the great maker's name is this?"

"Worry about that later!" I replied.  "You know a safe place?"

"Yes,” she replied, all business once more.  “Can you follow in this thing?"

"Yeah, it's self-propelled."

"Truly?"

"Yup."

She blinked as she processed that, then seemed to shelve the topic for later.

"Very well then.  Let us make haste!"

With a snap of the reigns and a cry of "YE-AAAHHH!" she was off, leaving me to turn my rig around and go after her.  We followed the road until we turned off on a path that I hadn't noticed coming in, and then began to zig-zag through switch-backs, making our way up the hill until we reached the top.

Looking around, I saw an old farmhouse and barn.  The place seemed like it had been deserted for years.  I followed the wagon into the barn and shut the engine off.

"This place yours?" I asked.

"Tis not.  This place has been abandoned for years,” she said as she got out of the wagon.

But that action of hers made my heart stop for a moment as I saw how she got out.

She flowed.

And following after her was a long serpentine body with the most brilliant pearl-white scales I’d ever seen, offset with ruby-red scales in symmetrical patterns reminiscent of an Indian King Cobra’s hood markings, flowing along her entire length.

She had to be at least twenty feet long.

“The elderly couple that lived here went to live with their children in Saint Antonius,” she said, knocking me out of my reverie.  She hadn’t noticed my distraction because she had immediately set to securing her birds.  “They left this place standing in case someone like us needed it.  My Dodo's should be fine here for the moment.  Let us go to the house - there should be a water pump inside the kitchen and we can refresh ourselves."

##

The house was a nice one, with plasterboard walls and wood trimming everywhere.  However, it was completely empty.  Only dust and cobwebs occupied the place.

The Lamia-woman had stopped only to get a pair of wooden drinking cups from her carriage.  Once inside, she worked the pump in the kitchen, which was indeed an old fashioned hand-operated well pump, and filled both glasses with cool, clean water.

“Thank you,” I said as I accepted the cup and drank from it.  As I had expected, it was that clean and pure water that the Edwards Aquifer was known for.  Once I had taken a few drinks, though, the Lamia-woman leveled a piercing gaze at me.

“Who are you and what manner of contraption is your conveyance?”

“Do I even get to know your name first?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

She sighed at that, mildly annoyed, and said, “You may call me Tsukiko.  Now, will you please answer my question.”

“Alright.  My name Bradly Busby and that is an automobile.”

“An... automobile?” she said, trying the word on her tongue.  “What is that even supposed to mean?”

“It's an automatic machine that is mobile,” I stated.  “Automobile.”

“A machine?” she said in obvious surprise.  “Such things are rare and considered things of simple utility or whimsy.  How on earth is a machine such as yours possible?”

“Well...” I said slowly, trying to think.  “Do you have steam engines?”

“I wouldn't even know what that means,” she said in befuddlement.

“Hrm....”  That left me stuck.  If they didn’t even have steam engines, then it was going to be very difficult for me to explain things.  I decided to see how easily she would catch on.  She seemed smart enough.  “Have you ever noticed how a lid on a pot of boiling water will bounce and jiggle?”

“Yes?” she said in askance to continue.

“Well, that's because the steam being created by the boiling water is moving it.”

“But why would that be important?” she asked, still a bit confused.

“Because, you can use that to exert physical force.  And force can be utilized in a machine - a self-propelled machine.”

She blinked at that.  It wasn’t exactly a light-goes-on-in-the-attic moment, but more like the sort of epiphany where you say, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Tell me more,” she said in a tone that clearly indicated that I had her complete and undivided attention.

With that, I sketched out the basic schematic of a steam engine, showing her how steam, when contained, will pressurize and can be used to move cylinders, which in turn rotate wheels.  I showed her that with such a thing, you could build a machine called a tractor - a machine so strong and powerful that it can do the work of a twenty-mule team in minutes.

“This could be phenomenal!” she cried out as the implications began to sink in.  “Such a device would drastically reduce need for mana in many aspects of farm work!  Just a simple water heating spell would be all you need!  And with just that, you could pump water and irrigate entire tracts with something like this!  Or even haul entire harvests!”

“That's the idea,” I said with a smile.

Her face then become thoughtful once more.

“But how do you know of such things?  Who's family are you a part of?  I cannot imagine that a man of your intellect would be permitted to wander so freely!  Surely you must be the first-son of a Deca-family!  But if so, where on earth are all your guards at!?”

I blinked as she went on and on, but finally I was able to get a word in edge-wise.

"I'm not from this world."

“What!?” she cried out, whirling on me with serpentine speed.  “Surely you jest!”

“No.  One of your gods took me from my original world and brought me here.  He wanted me to...  stir things up, I guess.”

“A god?” she asked narrowing her eyes at me.  “And what God did this?”

“He never gave me his name.  He only said that he was a god of commerce and trade.”

“Is that so?  Excuse me for a moment.”

She then took off, her coiling body quickly propelling her down a hall and into another room.  A bit unsure of what to do with myself, I followed at a discreet distance, stopping at the doorway.  Inside was a small, cozy room with what looked like an altar of some sort - the only bit of furniture in the entire house.  Before it, she had lowered herself, bowing her head.  I could faintly hear her voice, but not what she was saying.  Suddenly, there was a soft, warm glow within the room centered over the alter.  After a moment, the glow faded and she raised herself up, turning to face me with a shellshocked look on her face.

“So,” she said quietly.  “You were not lying.”

I shrugged, feeling a bit helpless as to what to do for her.  “I'm a brutally honest man.”

She scoffed at that.  “Quite.  So, what now?

“How about you tell me about this Deca-family business?” I asked.

“You do not have ranked families where you are from?”

“No.  Where I'm from, social status is determined purely by monetary wealth.”

“Strange,” she said as she considered that.  “But what about the number of wives one takes?”

“In most places back home, we're monogamous.”

“Monogamous!?” she cried out in horror.  “How!?”

“What do you mean how?” I asked without any heat.  “One woman to one man, and that's pretty much it.”

“And what of all the other women?”

“Other women?  They just have to find their own man.”

She looked at me in confusion for a moment.  “Either there is something fundamentally different about your world, or you're being intentionally dense.  And you do not strike me as the latter.  What is the ratio of men to women?”

I shrugged.  “About one man to every one-point-two women.  It varies from one place to another.  In a country called China it's especially skewed toward the male side because they instituted a one child per family law.  It backfired on them because they never counted on the fact that families will prefer a male child over a female child, and abort the pregnancy if they discovered it was to be a female.”

Her eyes continued to widen as I went on.

“Dear heavens!  You really do not know!?”

I blinked as I considered the conversation up to this point.  “The male to female ratio is really skewed here, isn't it?”

“Here there are five women to every man!” she said.

I took a moment to absorb that tidbit before I reacted.  “Augh, that  bastard!  I knew he was hiding something when he mentioned that the women here would be to my liking!”

“He said that!?” cried out Tsukiko in shock.  And then she seemed to reconsider before saying, “Well, I suppose he would say that.  He is probably not wrong.”  She then got a worried look on her face.  “But this would be very bad for you.”

“How so?” I asked, a bit puzzled.

“You are a completely unattached male without the backing of any family.  You have no protection in a world where men are precious beyond measure!”

I was getting a very bad feeling about the way she worded that.

“Uhm...  How bad?” I asked, fearing the answer.

“You could be shackled into a most unfavorable union.  Without a family to advocate for you, any couplet or single woman could claim you as a husband so long as they can prove to the magistrate that they have the greatest ability to care for you.”

I grimaced at that.  “So basically I'd go to whoever the highest bidder is?”

“In a sense, yes,” she said in agreement.  “And if there is even the slightest hint of your intellect...  All of the most wealthy couplets and singles will beat a path to Saint Antonius to claim you!”

I groaned as I rubbed a hand over my face.  “Ai-yi-yi.... How the hell is it that things are like this!?” I asked.

The lamia sighed.  “It is an old tale.  The oldest that we have in our history.  Thousands of years ago, there was a great empire led by a mage who had the ear of many of our gods and goddesses.  He was a loved and cherished ruler, fair and just to all.

“But that changed one day.  The woman he loved deceived him.  She pretended to love him, but in truth only sought his wealth.  What was even worse was that when she betrayed him, she intentionally spited him, gloating over how she deceived the great mage-king.

“And so, he went to the Gods to seek out a curse.  Something that would force all women of our world to cherish their men.

“Most of the gods told him he was not in his right mind.  But one of them, the God of War and Destruction, gifted him with a horrible curse.

“It only lasted for a single night, but in that night, all around the world, two-thirds of all males perished - struck dead wherever they were.  And many of them were males in ruling families.  Such was the disturbance that many empires collapsed into dust and ruins.  The few that survived had lost all of their knowledge and were very nearly reduced to living as savages.

“It took scholars many centuries to puzzle out what had happened that night, but now we are certain.  All males who had a tendency to sire just as many or more sons than daughters had perished.  And from this point forward, most childbirths were female, with only a few rare and treasured males born each generation.

“Since then, this has been a Woman's world.  Though we are tied together by a small number of men, we hold the reins of power in this world.

“Indeed, men are treasured... but they are often treated more as precious things rather than people.  Like prized breeding studs.  It is better here than in most other countries.  We're quite progressive in ensuring the rights and protections of men.  But I would not wager on your odds had you arrived in any other country.

“Even so, you would be in grave peril.  Your only hope would be that the women that win their bid for your hand are women of fine and upstanding character.”

I had listened to her story raptly, sadly disappointed at the bizarre turn of events in history that had caused this to happen and how it had culminated in the current society.  One might think that nominally men would be ruling like kings, but instead the roles had been reversed.  Men are the chattel here.

I decided then to take a shot in the dark.  Tsukiko was beautiful and highly intelligent.  There was also a certain sharpness in her character that appealed to me.

“What about you?” I asked.

“ME!?” she cried out, her cheeks reddening.  “Ah...  I'm flattered, but I would have no chance at all!  I am but a mere trader!”

Only a trader?  There was something I was missing here.

“But...  Forgive me for being presumptuous, but you have the appearance of a princess to me - those patterns in your scales are gorgeous!”

“Hawa-awaw-awaw!” she sputtered, covering her face with her hands and flushing brilliantly under the praise.  It seemed that I had really hit the sweet spot for complementing a Lamia.  She slowly began to regain some of her composure, she lowered her hands from her face, only to suddenly look...

...Sullen.

“It is true,” she said quietly.  “I am of an incredibly powerful family.  But it is in a far off, distant island nation, clear on the other side of the Great Ocean of Tranquility.  There, the rules are different.  While here in Freeland, there is a limit to the number of women that may wed a man.  But not in my homeland.  There, men are little better than slaves.  Kept locked away.  All they are permitted to do is breed.  The only real freedom they’re allowed is to dabble in the arts, and no further.

“As for my family... We are of the Great Serpentine Empress - She who is descended of the Goddess of the Moon.  I have many, many sisters, and I am among the youngest.  I did have an inheritance, but it was a mere pittance.  Rather than be trampled upon by my elder sisters and denied the opportunity to ever have a child, I took what little I had and used it to come here.”

I was silent for a moment after that, thinking about how difficult things must have been for her - coming here to this strange nation, having to learn our language and all of its peculiarities, and having to deal with the homesickness she must have felt.

“That had to have been hard on you,” I said in an effort to comfort her.  “I’m sorry for bringing it up.”

“You meant no harm,” she said, looking to me with a wan smile.  That faded, though, as she turned her mind back towards the present.  “But that is beside the matter at hand.  What is it that you desire?”

I thought about that for a brief moment before I answered.

“I wish to visit the stars and beat a pathway there for my progeny to follow.”

This is true.  I would have loved nothing more than to become an astronaut and visit the other planets in our solar system.

“To the stars?” she said, perplexed.  “Whyever for?”

I held a finger up in a wait one gesture as I pulled my messenger bag over and pulled my laptop out.

“This is a bit of advanced technology from where I come from.  If it helps, just think of it as an incredibly complex matrix of multiple spells made to carry out multiple purposes.”

“Alright, but I don’t understand what could possibly be.... so....  ....special?”

Her voice hung as she watched the boot up process and the computer’s cheerful greeting as the facial recognition granted me access.  She stayed silent as I then pulled up a video file and let it play.

Right away, the message appeared on the screen: “All locations depicted in this short film are recreations of actual places in our solar system.”

“What is this?” she asked in wonder.

“The reason why I want to go there,” I said, just before the late Carl Sagan’s voice played over the speakers over the gentle sound of digeridoos and brass instruments.  Depicted were a group of people, steadily making their way along a trail under a brilliant night sky where the Planets of the Solar System were visible.

“For all it’s material advantages,” said Sagan’s voice, “the sedentary life has left us... edgy.  Unfulfilled.  Even after four-hundred generations in villages and cities, we haven’t forgotten.  The open road still softly calls, like a nearly forgotten song of childhood.
After the title, “WANDERERS” appeared and faded out again, a depiction of Earth from low Earth orbit came up.  In the middle of the picture, a craft with two spinning rings was gently rocketing up out of orbit.

“What...  What is this?” she asked again in a whisper.

“Our home,” I replied reverently.  “Seen from many miles up in the sky.  This is what our first skywalkers saw as they floated high above the world.”

The video cut to a dark room that was suddenly lit as massive doors opened behind a transparent wall.  A man is seen floating inside the space as the Great Red Spot of Jupiter was revealed.  From that point forward, Tsukiko had no more words as she was enraptured by the incredible and beautiful images of the alien worlds that lay in our own back yard.

Carl Sagan’s inimitable voice came once again.  “We invest far off places with a certain... romance.”

The video cut again to show the frozen surface of Europa, where a space ship similar to the one seen before hovers over the day-night terminator.  Seen through the light on the day side, water jetted from geysers the size of volcanoes, turning to hazy ice crystals, softening the light all around.

“The appeal, I suspect, has been meticulously crafted by natural selection as an essential element in our survival.”

Another cut, this time to a view from within the ice rings of Saturn where an astronaut drifted gently above them.

“Long summers.  Mild winters.  Rich harvests.  Plentiful beam.  None of them lasts forever.”

Cut again, this time to an orbital tether with Deimos in the background as an orbital elevator plummets smoothly downward towards a city on the surface of Mars, softly glowing in the night.

“Your own life, or your band’s, or even your species might be owed to a restless few, drawn by a craving they can hardly articulate or understand, to undiscovered lands and new worlds.”

It cuts then to the surface of Mars.  At the edge of a plateau, airships with wide, flat gas bags slowly approach a mesa where Mariners await them.

It then cuts once more to another view on Mars: a rocky ridge where Mariners observe the distant sun, either rising or setting at the horizon.

“Herman Melville in Moby Dick spoke for wanderers in all epochs and meridians.”

Another cut.  On a rocky moonlet, domed cities are visible, along with a yang-yang painted in one crater.  As the shot pans up, revealing more domed cities linked by a glowing highway along the mountainous ridge, Saturn suddenly appears in the sky, distant but glowing with more brilliance than our own moon.

“He said: ‘I am tormented by an everlasting itch for things remote.  I love to sail forbidden seas...’”

Another cut.  An asteroid spinning along its long axis, demarcated by a glowing portal.  A line of space ships lie in wait, perfectly lined up to enter the rock.  It cuts again to show how this looks from the ship in the lead, and then again to show the interior: a massive tubular space - a landscape that curled up, over, and around itself as aircraft jet along it’s surface, leaving contrails behind them.  The space is lit by a massive light source of some kind, simulating the light of the sun, and suspended by a long trusswork running through the center of the space.

Another cut, now to space-suited men trudging along the icy surface of Europa, seen as if from a train, while the marbled surface of Jupiter provided a colorful tapestry and Io hung in the distance.

Then it was Titan, with its murky methane atmosphere that was so dense that people made sport of flying like birds with wings attached to their arms.

On yet another rocky moon, people in space suits drift downward gracefully as they basejumped from a high and sharp precipice.  It cuts again to show the view from below, as the men drift, limbs spread wide, silhouetted against the blue orb of Neptune.

And finally, the skies of Saturn from an airship.  In the distance, another airship is silhouetted against Saturn’s magnificent rings.

“Maybe it’s a little early.  Maybe the time is not quite yet.  But those are the worlds promising untold opportunities, beckon.”

As the camera pulls back, a deck is revealed where someone in a parka stands behind the railing.

“Silently, they orbit the sun...”

Her face is shown, close up, filling the screen as she gazes in wonder at the world around her.  Her mouth cannot be seen because it is covered by the breathing apparatus of the mask she wears, but it can be seen in her eyes: she is smiling with joy.

“...waiting!” finished Sagan’s voice, just before the screen cut to black.

As the credits began to roll, I looked to her and I was not surprised to see that her eyes had welled up with tears.

“That...  That’s real?”

“That’s what waits for us out there,” I told her gently.  “Your God of Trade?  He wants us to explore those places and seek new opportunities.  And I think there are other gods that feel the same way as well.  Do you understand now why I want to go there so much?”

“Yes!” she cried out.  “A thousand times yes!  But how could we achieve such a feat?  Even the most powerful of magics couldn’t possibly loft us to such places... unless...”  Her eyes lit up and she looked to me.  “Your devices!”

I smiled.  “Exactly.  I can give your people the push they need.  And it will not take long afterward for us to get there.”

She then shot upright and slithered in circles, clearly agitated.

“Oh, cursed spirits!  With this storm we shall not be able to make our way back into the city for two days!  Any sooner and we risk being mired!”  Her pace then slowed as she then became more thoughtful.  “But... We can use this time.  You can teach me the essentials.  And we can plan on how we are to get you into the city unnoticed.”

“Okay,” I said.  “I get that me being a male makes me a prime target, but would I really stand out that much?”

“Oh, for certain!” she replied.  “Males are not permitted to travel without a minder of some sort.  And before you ask, that person cannot be me.  I am known to the guards and they will question why I am returning with a male.”

“Gotcha.  I can see how that would be troubling.”

“Indeed.  But at any rate...”  She then settled down once more and pleaded, “Kindly, may I please see that... thing again?”

I smiled in return.  She was beautiful.  And if I had read her reaction right, a dreamer like me.  It may not happen at all.  It certainly won’t happen right away.  But even so, I felt that the spark was there.

“As you wish.”

And so I played the video several times over, this time answering the myriad of questions that she peppered me with.

I did think it was strange, though.  That I would just happen to find this beautiful Lamia who had that very same itch I did, and so soon at that.  But from what I’d been told about this world’s circumstance by Tsukiko, it now came as no surprise to me.  My family on both sides had a pretty even distribution of boys to girls.

The gods want that gene to be present once again.

I didn’t mind, though.  So long as I was being given the opportunity to achieve my life-long dream, then I’d be more than happy enough to help make as many babies as reasonably possible.

Now I just wondered if it was actually at all possible between a Human and a Lamia.