Cores, Potions, & Everything Magical

This idea of connecting core buildings has been floated several times. Synergies have been mentioned and from what I recall they need connecting factors. The more connecting factors the better the Synergy. In my opinion there should be a very strong synergy between the tablets and the table that Bartle and Bee constructed for Ricther. Those items being made from the same individual trees not just the same type of tree should have a natural synergy. The same could be said about weapons sets made from the Spider Queen and her offspring. A weapons set from an individual spider should have a stronger synergy then a set made from the different individual from the same nest spiders. Even though they would still have a synergy albeit some what weaker.

Could Ricther use his tablets and his table to help form a synergy between his core buildings? I think it’s possible if they were all tied to an industrial research facility or perhaps an industrial school of learning.

 

You are quite right about the golem. Of course a golem couldn’t defend an entire village so to speak like a shield. You are also right as Describing a golem as a single combatant. The only issue you I can take with it is the strength and powers of a golem. Unlike an individual sword master that might take on multiple attackers at a time a golem is notable more powerful. A individual would get cut down quickly be several attackers glancing blows. A golem is a bit more oblivious to personal attacks and bent more on destroying the enemy. How many men could a average golem be capable of embattling or drawing away from a main attack? From what we have been told of golems have been known to defeat armies. I know Ricther has enemies all around him. If they all attacked he would be done for but that’s not going to happen. I think it’s already been expressed that the one commander with the secret to seeing in the mist intends to attack only with his forces looking to earn all the glory. The Death Squad seems seems to me more of a threat to the Mist Village.

As awesome as the monocle is for Ricther to craft with would it not be that much more awesome if a dozen people could use it in a core crafting facility?

I believe that the better materials a core building is made of the better items they can make. Most societies have won wars due to their technological base and industrial capabilities. If a core crafting shop was setup like a modern factory in order to produce more higher quality items it should help push the mist village forward. I understand Alerons desire for the perfect world of higher education but I think a vocational school would be by far better then a Library. The industrialization of the Mist Village by the use of core technologies should not only revolutionize his army but all of his allies as well.

What are the chances that Ricthers crafters could craft a normal magical shield powered by his ley lines?

 

Since Ricther has a mana storage schematic and a nexus of power what would a core spell tower offer that he couldn’t build with his current technologies? I am definitely an advocate of Ricther rebuilding his keep. I don’t see why when rebuilt he couldn’t add a mana storage device for each of his ley lines. That would definitely make a difference in the amount of mana his casters would have available for enchanting, summoning, or casting. I really hope that Randy takes it upon himself to rebuild the keep while Ricther is gone. After all the ruler shouldn’t be ruling from the ruins of a once lost empires keep.

 

So anything a core is purposed for becomes a core building/item. Re-chewing some old cud here. If Ricther used his a core on his keep built on his place of power and it rebuilt the structure what type of tower/keep would it be?

Then if he used his core token on it what would leveling it up grant him?

 

Primarily a defensive bonus I’d think. That is what keeps are for after all.
enemy detection bonus
Open certain kinds of units to the village. Combat capable mist constructs?
Training/skill growth bonuses to his militia
Command Room with a rts style top down view of his lands that tracks all known movements and locations. Like a cartographers table. (Exploration bonus)
Loyalty/morale bonus.
new combat settlement spells. (Unlikely in my opinion, but possible)
Local diplomacy bonus (due to the perception that there is a place the surrounding settlements can go)
Diplomatic bonus (foreign powers more likely to take them seriously.)
I’m sure there are more possibilities

 

I wonder if he could use the Core with the Asengi spider egg sac and a barracks building. To make a core spider nest that allows spawning of loyal asengi spider troops like the sepaulcher summons undead

 

Now that’s an interesting thought!!

I’m not sure you would need to do it in a barracks. I agree you would need some sort of structure. The only issue I see is it would be very limited to the number of eggs he has now. I do really like the idea.

I believe we have all talked about doing something similar in the dungeon. Honestly, Roswans egg Genesis chamber should evolve into something far greater then scrambled eggs.
I have advocated for lots of things in this story I doubt Aleron has paid any of our discussions much attention at all. I also don’t understand how he wouldn’t start building village structures and integrating them with the dungeon. Everyone knows my heavy desire for Ricther to build a slaughter house and integrate it into the dungeon.

Another structure that should make good sense would be a training stable. As long as the twins have the time to train a beast using the dungeon to speed up their growth would be excellent. Instead of gaining Calvary in two years they might have mounts in six months.

The only issue with raising anything in the dungeon is it’s food. As long as they bring food into the dungeon for the livestock they shouldn’t have much of a problem with them becoming dungeon dependent. Even if only their breeding and sleeping quarters were in the dungeon it should make a big difference.

 

Ricther really needs to sit down with Randy and question Futen. Randy would need to be there only for the clarity of questioning. Ricther often only hears what he wants and I don’t think he been known to ask the best of questions. Learning the history of the village and the local area Ricther should definitely be better equipped at rebuilding not only his keep but his base of power. Futen should know of many possible sights of power and ancient locations. If Futen only had a finger for that darn explorers ring. With the powers of the Ricthers nexus all awakened Futen should recall even more now.

 

Alternatively you could use it somewher insight is critical. In a research facility it could grant more insights, faster study of unknown objects, faster advancement with regards to materials technologies and theoretical magic as well as grant the researchers access to advanced sight.

 

Well Aleron needs a reason for there to be so relatively many core buildings on the peninsula - seven magical forges from what Krom knows plus who knows how many other types of core buildings - but no banks. Only 6 on a planet with a hundred times the surface area of the earth.

Besides the banks passively have an influence area that covers approximately a sixth of the planet, providing price control for billions of people while also automatically monitoring drops in hundreds if not thousands of Dungeons thousands of miles apart.

The forge by comparison passively improves weapons slightly with a small chance of an extra effect or a quality upgrade.

 

Not all that difficult to explain. Banks could require a divine artifact from a commerce god as a component. We know divine artifacts can be used as components. Let limit it even further by saying it’s a type or class of artifact the come from a commerce god. Maybe even a god of greed, can’t imagine a lot of powerful artifacts out there from a tight fisted god.

another possibility is that bank requires an artifact built by the original creators of the magic core, bit farther down there tech tree so far rarer or only built in a limited number.

besides my comment was a paraphrase of Randy’s comments on the subject.

 

Honestly, for me I don’t need an excuse for there being so many cores in the river peninsula. As I see it the river peninsula was once the seat of a great empire. That Empire at one time thought it was powerful enough to take on the rest of the world with the banks supporting their enemies. So they had to have some major holdings in order to think they could win. Secondly we also know that the Tefinim empire at one time had ruled the same area or at least part of it. That tells me there has been at least to major hitters playing ball on the peninsula. Not to mention that the Tefinim just opened a gate and walked off to another place leaving everything behind.

The question I have now is why wouldn’t any attacking forces take the cores for themselves. After all we have been told of magic cores rarity, value, and power. If these cores had been purposed for anything obvious someone would have taken them. Also knowing how powerful the magic cores are how is it the skeleton Mages altar sucked so bad?

 

We know that the Tefonin were betrayed and there empire fell. We don’t know anything about the forces attacking them. For all we know they could have been an undead army and the necros decided to put the cores to other uses or the tefonin put into place a fail safe of some kind that wiped out the invaders after the portals closed for the final time.

another possibility is that they did take all of the cores that they found and left. For all we know the tefonin could have had the means of building them.

who sets up richters dungeons in the first place? Did they dismantle derelict core structures and repurpose the cores? Did the land itself repurpose those cores? The place of power? They are alive in a way no one would understand after all. According to futen. Did futen set up those dungeons?

 

I don’t recall them being betrayed. I know they had a true hate for the crypt mistress. It seemed as if her alignment made her automatically attack the crypt mistress. For some reason I understood the Tefonin (I’m a listener so I’m following your spelling here) to have moved on as a group. As if they had chosen to move to a higher plain of existence. I do believe they had to be extremely advanced. First of all we know their artworks such as Jewelry were very advanced and much sought after even now. They had also achieved a very high level i portal technologies. I also believe that they had the ability to make cores. That’s really an inclination I had because they had used one in the construction of their Tomb. If it was an all powerful item to them and not just something else they could build wouldn’t they have taken it as you suggested? I believe that they had constructed the core pillar as a method to keep their tomb from being defiled by such creatures as the crypt mistress. Of course I often read a lot into things. I don’t think whoever built the cores had placed that much value in them. As the Golden pillar nor the skeletons Mages altar were very powerful. To me they served more of an everyday purpose to them. Either that or some very dimwitted being made the altar. Unless the Skeletons Mages altar held some higher purpose Ricther didn’t discover. That Altar could have worked as a key keeping something else permanently locked away. Or perhaps it was a weak mana storage device and a summoning stone that actually held summoning spells because the skeleton didn’t have the Brains to remember his spells!

 

As I understood it they were in the region now called the wilds, a large empire that dared to stand up to the banking alliance. This is something that happened in recent history, as in after the last cataclysm.

I think its quite likely that rather than declare war the empire may well have tried to default on their debts to the bank and the bank sent in their forces to retrieve anything of value as reimbursement. Cores, treasures, unique creatures of wonder, tens of millions of slaves, anything they could auction off to other powers. Having done that there would only be the remnants left, ruined cities with the occasional overlooked treasure.

From a meta view, I imagine this is a dinosaur infested tropical jungle region with old ruins scattered all over the place. The inhabitants will be a smattering of descendants of the few survivors (reptilians riding dinos?) and other factions that have moved into the wilderness. Richter will probably go there by book 20-30.

 

I've considered this before. The first core they found was in an out of the way temple AND it was in an Alter. Even if the invaders found the temple they would have been wary of offending the god by desecrating it.

The second was hidden in the old ruins, what I think of as proving grounds for the new mist lord. An area that may well have gone undisturbed since the time of the Tefonim.

 

As far as we actually know the tefonin and the bank destroyed empire in the wilds are not the same group. Of course we don’t know they aren’t either.

It was mentioned in book 3? During the meeting with the queen when the last stand at the gates was talked about.
Edit- book 2

 

I did not mean to imply they were. I think the Tefonim were pre-apocalypse, thereas the banking alliance was created afterwards, meaning their enemies must also have existed afterwards.

 

We don’t know what age the Tefonin were around, it could have been before the age of banished gods. As the cores also predate the age of banished gods (possibly the cores are divine) I think it’s a good probability the Tefonin also are this ancient.

The old Mist Empire and the Empire which occupied the Wilds are from the Age of Banished Gods. There is too much information about them for them to have been older than 20,000 years. They both occupy the river peninsula, using the magic cores left over from the age and empires before them. Because of how powerful these cores are, I think it is strange there are so many in this forgotten corner of the world. This could be an indication that the wider world doesn’t think the cores are all that powerful, the cores are only so valuable in this part of the world because the absence of other technologies. It could be because the ancient empires had an abundance of cores, using them almost trivially, and indeed most of the cores have already been stolen away from the area.

Anyway, is it possible to remove a core from a building without destroying the building? Could a core shield or Golum be built and then, after the army has been fortified, be destroyed, freeing the core for another use?

I don’t know the perks of a library. I also dislike the idea of a core library over a core crafting table using the monocule. I think it is a great long game strategy to educate and level the villagers so there are many more professionals, mages, etc, as modeled off of Earth. This would in the end create a very powerful nation. But the catch is first the knowledge has to be known in order for it to be shared. In the meanwhile the village needs rings, items, what ever else crafting create. New spells. More defenses.

 

Just one of the issues we have with the land. No clear time line of events. It doesn’t effect the story in anyway, but it sure gets in the way of speculation.

‘do to futen’s comments early on I think we can be reasonably sure that mist village has risen and fallen several times since his creation. I personally think that the tefonin were one of those iterations. It would explain why the queen was buried in richter back yard.