(C&C) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

[alynnidalar]

Doesn't transform, though! Same reason I didn't put Myrtenaster in there, even though it's basically my favorite weapon in the show. (and sorta has a pistol bit!)

I was gonna use Magnhild instead of Coco's minigun, too, but couldn't find a good gif of it transforming.

[Adarain]

Can I just point out how ridiculous the weapons in rwby are named?

[Ahzoh]

Can I just point out how ridiculous the weapons in rwby are named?

No.

[Dezinaa]

I've been trying to work on the tectonic plates for my conworld. I don't know if they're entirely realistic, so I was wondering if anyone knowledgable about this could point out any mistakes. I'm a little worried about the many small interconnected seas running through all the continents. How would that affect climate? Would circulating currents still exist in the seas, or would they flow straight through them?

Image (Large): http://i.imgur.com/z9I1nQJ.png (Just a rough sketch still)
Black outlines are plate boundaries. Brown areas are the exposed parts of terrestrial plates, and blue plates are oceanic.
The large arrows represent absolute motion, and the small arrows represent motion relative to other plates.

[Ahzoh]

Suppose a world-wide event occurred ~2000 years from the current timeline of a conworld and this event was the initial appearance of terrifying and aggressive creatures that were sufficiently powerful enough to pose a threat to humans but not completely eradicate them. They are never on the planet for very long; they usually return from whence they came after 10-20 years, or sooner if humans manage to drive them back. Now every 100-200 years they appear in the conworld trying to kill all life every time.

How might these events alter the course of humanity (technology, culture, their relationship with other humans)?

[gestaltist]

Suppose a world-wide event occurred ~2000 years from the current timeline of a conworld and this event was the initial appearance of terrifying and aggressive creatures that were sufficiently powerful enough to pose a threat to humans but not completely eradicate them. They are never on the planet for very long; they usually return from whence they came after 10-20 years, or sooner if humans manage to drive them back. Now every 100-200 years they appear in the conworld trying to kill all life every time.

How might these events alter the course of humanity (technology, culture, their relationship with other humans)?

A very interesting question.

If they come back every 100-200 years, it's a few generations - they will typically come back long after the last people who knew them have died. Knowing human nature, the latter generations would quickly start doubting the seriousness of the threat and whether it would come back, and/or would use the lore to their own ends. I imagine cynical priests claiming to be keeping the things back for remuneration on one end, and normal human politics and infighting on the other.

Once the creatures come back, nothing would change at first. Take a look at ASOIAF, and how nobody believes the Others have returned (although the timeline is much longer there, so people would be quicker to believe in your scenario.) I believe the monsters would have to swallow a kingdom or two before humans even "wake up." Remember: for the people in power, those monsters are something their grandpa claimed to be fighting when he was young - and surely must've been exaggerating. He's grampa after all, and not that much heroic, is he. And that only if the previous wave was pretty recent.

With time, people would probably unite to fight the threat, although I am certain it wouldn't be to the extent you might be expecting. There would be numerous groups trying to use the situation to further their own agenda. From small "let's take over this castle of a knight who went out to fight the monsters and never came back" to large-scale invasions from the back, while a kingdom's armies fight the monsters. If you believe humans would realize the threat and do something about it, think about our history. Do people really do something about climate change? Many deny it's even a thing. Did Christians unite with Muslims to fight the Mongol Horde? No, they rejoiced that their enemy was getting beaten up and invented a narrative about a Christian king of the east.

Finally, some humans would try to ally with the monsters and/or worship them. How that would work out in your scenario, I don't know.

I think only a generation born under the constant monster threat would have a chance at true unification. But since your monsters disappear after 10-20 years, that would never really happen. Maybe people would even come to believe that the monsters are a temporary event to be dealt with like an El Nino event or something. "Great, the monsters are here and are beating my enemies up. So far, they have apparently always disappeared before overrunning my kingdom. Gods be praised."

In short: human shortsightedness and self-serving tendencies should never be underestimated.

[Ahzoh]

In short: human shortsightedness and self-serving tendencies should never be underestimated.

Heh, you're right, it has not even been 100 years since nazis rose to power and we see many similar things happening now.

Anyways, humans in my conworld tend to live about 10-20 years longer, so it's possible for a son to experience what their father has experienced. And there's usually faint warning signs before their approach.

What would be even worse is if a nation was fighting another nation and the creatures decide to pop-up and attack.

[Salmoneus]

Suppose a world-wide event occurred ~2000 years from the current timeline of a conworld and this event was the initial appearance of terrifying and aggressive creatures that were sufficiently powerful enough to pose a threat to humans but not completely eradicate them. They are never on the planet for very long; they usually return from whence they came after 10-20 years, or sooner if humans manage to drive them back. Now every 100-200 years they appear in the conworld trying to kill all life every time.

How might these events alter the course of humanity (technology, culture, their relationship with other humans)?

The most famous example of exactly this scenario is the Pern novels. Except that there the monsters are more frightening (not monsters, just a haemoclysmic rain of all-assimilating space-fungus).

What happens in the Pern books is that humanity regresses drastically, technologically and sociologically, turning more to self-reliance. The infrastructure required to fight the space-fungus is sustained through ritualisation and institutionalisation. Eventually the 'Thread' seems to go away (miss a few cycles) and people believe it's not coming back, or that it was only ever a myth, and the institutions erode.

So something like, say, a religion based on sustaining legions of holy knights to fight the demons might well emerge on your world.

But of course it depends on how it happens and what can be done about it. Two key factors on Pern are that Thread can fall anywhere and that it can be fought with dragons. Because it falls everywhere, that forces self-reliance: settlements develop in ways that are maximally protected from Thread (i.e. in or near caves, mostly), and there can't be too much reliance on your neighbours in case they get wiped out - so instead you have highly autonomous 'Holds', little local Holders looking to protection and support from the biggest cave-fortress nearby, the Lord Holder, and then guilds of craftsmen with representatives in each Hold. If, on the other hand, the demons only attack certain areas, or if they can attack any area but only attack one each time, or if they appear as one army and gradually march along in a way that lets people prepare to fight/fly before they get there, then there is less need for that sort of "isolated outposts" sort of a society.
And because Thread can be fought with dragons, there arises a dragon-riding class, training with dragons, and permitted to make demands of everyone else to support their dragons. Likewise, if spiritual training or magic lances can fight demons, then you're likely to have a dedicated warrior class arising to do the fighting. If any fool with a cudgel has as much chance as anyone else of killing demons, then there's much less call for such a thing to develop.

[Ahzoh]

The most famous example of exactly this scenario is the Pern novels. Except that there the monsters are more frightening (not monsters, just a haemoclysmic rain of all-assimilating space-fungus).

Parasitic fungi man, they're damn frightening.

But of course it depends on how it happens and what can be done about it. Two key factors on Pern are that Thread can fall anywhere and that it can be fought with dragons. Because it falls everywhere, that forces self-reliance: settlements develop in ways that are maximally protected from Thread (i.e. in or near caves, mostly), and there can't be too much reliance on your neighbours in case they get wiped out - so instead you have highly autonomous 'Holds', little local Holders looking to protection and support from the biggest cave-fortress nearby, the Lord Holder, and then guilds of craftsmen with representatives in each Hold. If, on the other hand, the demons only attack certain areas, or if they can attack any area but only attack one each time, or if they appear as one army and gradually march along in a way that lets people prepare to fight/fly before they get there, then there is less need for that sort of "isolated outposts" sort of a society.
And because Thread can be fought with dragons, there arises a dragon-riding class, training with dragons, and permitted to make demands of everyone else to support their dragons. Likewise, if spiritual training or magic lances can fight demons, then you're likely to have a dedicated warrior class arising to do the fighting. If any fool with a cudgel has as much chance as anyone else of killing demons, then there's much less call for such a thing to develop.

Well, originally the creatures were unkillable; normal objects cannot harm them. However, people find other ways of killing them. Water from a magical lake, or the fluids from special plants, etc. A principle weakness among all of the creatures is fire; they're very flammable. The light of day also weakens the creatures, making them less aggressive, however some of them can possess living or dead things in order to overcome their weakness to light.
There are also magi, who can kill large numbers of them, but they are often controversial and there are very little of them in the world.

As for their appearance, it is spontaneous, because they appear from invisible "holes" in the world that lead to the creature's own world. But they do not cover every single area. The nature of the "holes" is such that there are parts of the world where very few of them exist and parts of the world where huge densities of them exist.

[Ahzoh]

Do these weapons look plausable? They are used to be against leather armour, scale/lamellar armour, and chainmail, as well as some other purposes I might not be aware of.

Spoiler:

[elemtilas]

Do these weapons look plausable? They are used to be against leather armour, scale/lamellar armour, and chainmail, as well as some other purposes I might not be aware of.

Spoiler:

Totally. This is a pretty good take on the sovnya, an old Russian polearm.

[Ahzoh]

Totally. This is a pretty good take on the sovnya, an old Russian polearm.

And the swords?

[elemtilas]

Totally. This is a pretty good take on the sovnya, an old Russian polearm.

And the swords?

Sorry Ahzoh! Didn't even realise I was supposed to shift right to see more!

Yeah, those are fine too. Can't tell from your drawing where the sharpened edge(s) is/are. A good rendition, if not so curvy, of the Ethiopian shotel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VprBg8GiHqU

[Ahzoh]

Yeah, those are fine too. Can't tell from your drawing where the sharpened edge(s) is/are. A good rendition, if not so curvy, of the Ethiopian shotel:

Those Ethiopians beat me to it to a unique weapon design.
The sharpened edges would be on the convex side, unlike the shotel, although maybe the concave would be better. The middle one could have the blade on the concave and the right one could have the blade on the convex.

[Ahzoh]

Regarding weapons again: what's the average length of a handle/hilt for one-handed blades? For a hand-and-half-sword? Is 16cm too long for a one-handed sword? And is 4.5cm diameter too wide for a handle of a sword?

[LinguoFranco]

I need some guidance with worldbuilding. I've been developing a conlang for awhile low and finally decided that it was time to create a conculture to speak it, but I'm always stumped when it comes to worldbuilding.

The culture I have in mind is tribal and animistic or maybe an Bronze or Iron Age civilization.

For the main region of focus, it will either be an isthmus that is similar to Panama in climate and geography or a world with only lakes instead of oceans. How would these places affect the development of culture?

[elemtilas]

Regarding weapons again: what's the average length of a handle/hilt for one-handed blades? For a hand-and-half-sword? Is 16cm too long for a one-handed sword? And is 4.5cm diameter too wide for a handle of a sword?

What's the size of their hands?

Seriously.

I have an old Ottoman army sword (probably mid-late 19th century) and a similarly aged North African sword. Small handles indeed. Same goes for a copy of a bronze age sword. People in general are a lot taller and just bigger anymore.

[elemtilas]

I need some guidance with worldbuilding. I've been developing a conlang for awhile low and finally decided that it was time to create a conculture to speak it, but I'm always stumped when it comes to worldbuilding.

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=5618

The culture I have in mind is tribal and animistic or maybe an Bronze or Iron Age civilization.

Good places to start.

For the main region of focus, it will either be an isthmus that is similar to Panama in climate and geography or a world with only lakes instead of oceans. How would these places affect the development of culture?

I can't imagine a lake world would be very pleasant --- oceans drive the weather and climate systems. Probably such a world would be relatively arid and possibly dying. That could be interesting in and of itself, though I'm not sure if that's where you want to head!

[LinguoFranco]

I need some guidance with worldbuilding. I've been developing a conlang for awhile low and finally decided that it was time to create a conculture to speak it, but I'm always stumped when it comes to worldbuilding.

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=5618

The culture I have in mind is tribal and animistic or maybe an Bronze or Iron Age civilization.

Good places to start.

For the main region of focus, it will either be an isthmus that is similar to Panama in climate and geography or a world with only lakes instead of oceans. How would these places affect the development of culture?

I can't imagine a lake world would be very pleasant --- oceans drive the weather and climate systems. Probably such a world would be relatively arid and possibly dying. That could be interesting in and of itself, though I'm not sure if that's where you want to head!

Well, I was thinking the lake world would be arid, but could support some plants and animals. Since the world would be arid, there could be oases and maybe some rivers as the centers of agriculture and settlements.

[elemtilas]

Well, I was thinking the lake world would be arid, but could support some plants and animals. Since the world would be arid, there could be oases and maybe some rivers as the centers of agriculture and settlements.

I think that makes sense.