"What sort of government rules Mongol-chin? I would like to propose my concept of peace to the leader or council but have no idea where he or she or they may be. The Romans and the Azmayincans both worship a pantheon of gods. Do your people also worship gods? I have heard only rumours of your people's culture and am interested to know a bit more before I go there. If you help me, I will do what I can to have you released from here to journey with me on my quest."
Like I did with the Azmayincan language, I write down some Mongol-chin words in english phonetics and write their translations next to them.
"Our history tells us that Kubla Khan, son of the Great Khan, conquered the Chin. He, though, saw the limits of his own people. The Mongols were great warriors, able to take whatever lands they desired; but they were not great at managing those lands. The Chin were brilliant administrators. And so Kubla Khan married (he gives the name), a Chin princess, daughter of the deposed Chin emperor, and gave to her the task of managing the empire. From that day to this, Mongol-Chin has been managed by the Chin women who are married to the Mongol emperors who lead our armies. Of course, in the royal household the blood is so mixed that it cannot be said that they are purely Mongol or Chin; but the tradition has been maintained. The daughters remain in the palace in Beijing and run the affairs of state; the sons join their fathers in the field and rule the country."
"Gods? Bah. The Romans and Azmayincans are deceived. Men are the greatest beings in the universe. We have searched, and found none greater. The Romans have argued that the gods have hidden themselves from us, but if that is so, then why should we bother to seek them? If they do not wish to be known, we do not need to know them, or know of them, or believe in their existence. Why should I believe something for which there is no evidence?"
"I will answer what I can. What do you wish to know?"
--M. J. Young
"First, could you write down in your language these words." I repeat the words that I have written down for my language spell.
"What is the best way to travel to Beijing from Rome? How would the Mongol-chin react if I were to travel in your territory without weapons and no intention of causing trouble?"
He gives you the requested words. He does understand pencils, although the pen intrigues him.
"The best way? Get the Romans to stop suppressing our abilities, and we can teleport there. Since I do not think they will do this for you, we may have to walk to Mongol-chin and then teleport when we are out of range of the Roman suppressors."
"You look like a Roman. They would capture you and hold you as a prisoner of war. I do not know whether you would be able to persuade them of your intentions, or how they would respond. The Kahn is intent on extending the empire, and may not take your suggestions seriously."
--M. J. Young
"Yes, I think the Kahn will be the hardest to convince. I believe the quest for domination by each nation is being manipulated by the gods of each people. The Roman gods told me as much. But if the Mongol-Chin do not worship or even believe in their own gods, my words will not carry much weight at all.
"I wonder why they exist at all? Tell me, are there small cults of Mongol-chin, perhaps living in remote monasteries, that worship the gods? Were the gods worshipped by the people in the distant past?"
"The nations that worshipped gods were all conquered. The worshippers realized their own foolishness--their gods did nothing to save them. The Mongols knew that there were no gods. Gods were irrelevant, stories told to frighten children. No one worships gods now, or if they do, no one knows that they do. No truly rational person believes in fairy tales. I know the Romans and Azmayincans think otherwise, but that just proves the point."
--M. J. Young
"Have you been to Beijing? Can you guide me through the country around it - at least until the point I get captured?"
"I have been to Beijing, but why would you want to pass through the surrounding country? It's just farms, from what I've been told. It's easier to teleport to a recognizable location, such as the city gate--much less chance of winding up somewhere else."
--M. J. Young
"So the majority of the Mongol-chin travel by teleportation?"
That is quite interesting - perhaps I will not need to worry about encountering people outside of villages and urban centres.
"I am somewhat familiar with teleportation and it requires both end points to be familiar to the traveller. Can the Mongol-chin teleport to places they have never been before? Can you explain the process?"
"Well--it's a bit like telekinesis, and a bit like building a force wall, and a bit like pyrogenesis, but a little different from all of these things. I'd project the trick into your mind, but I never had children so I'm not a very good teacher--and anyway, whatever it is that the Romans use to dampen mental powers blocks most of these communications. It was difficult simply to tap into your language center to speak your language.
"Yes, you do need to know where you are going, in order to create an image in your mind of the place. Most places I have gone I went with someone else the first time--my parents, mostly, who carried me as they teleported, and later with friends who pulled me through. When that's not possible, the best technique is usually to travel clairvoyantly, following the land routes and rivers and other landmarks to get to the place where you can see it, and then using the clairvoyant image as the basis for the teleportation. This is not as certain as having seen it yourself, although it does guarantee a current view of the landing point, and many people who are less certain about their teleportive abilities will use a clairvoyant view to check the target before doing so.
"Of course, you can always fly places, or ride a flight platform. That has the advantage that you can rest during the trip and rely on professional flyers to carry you there."
--M. J. Young
"It's a wonder your people even have arms and legs any more! Such things you can do with just your mind!"
I try not to let on that it creeps me out to no end.
"Do you freely mingle your thoughts with all others around you? How do you manage any privacy at all? Or does that even have meaning for you?"
"Why would we not have arms or legs? We are still human, after all."
"Oh, no, it's not like that. I can read your mind, you can read mine. I can send my thoughts to you, open a link between our minds to communicate between us--not here, the Roman's damper field prevents it--and we can bring as many people into contact as we want, but it's only temporary. I can put up shields to keep people out of my mind if I want, and then if they want to talk to me they have to speak. Really, you talk to people, and by doing so you send your thoughts to them. You look at people and can guess what they're thinking or feeling, and so you've invaded their privacy almost as much as if you had read their minds. It's not really different in kind; it's different in degree."
--M. J. Young
I suppose I could ask him questions all day. Since I'm planning on heading to Azmayinca first and probably will never make it out those questions can probably wait.
"Thank you very much for your cooperation. I'm going to talk to the authorities about having you released to my custody."
Before leaving the prison, I'm going to stop back in with the Azmayincan and have him imprint some words on my paper so I'll have something to copy for my language potions later.
With that I'll have my helper send the request for the 3 prisoners, Roman, Azmayincan, and Mongol-chin, to be released to me for the purpose of travelling with me on my mission.
The word that comes back is that you may take one prisoner with you at this time. You may have your pick. The given reason is that these are dangerous and desperate men, and one man cannot watch more than one prisoner, and even with your assistant (who is not certain they are going to allow him to leave Roma or even whether he's all that eager to do so) you could easily lose even the one.
--M. J. Young
Well that raises some good points. I will make a new request:
I would like a walled house somewhere in which to imprison my three subjects as well as Pixie and myself. If possible, it would be nice to have Hephalump as well in the back garden. The house would be walled and guarded to prevent escape. Andronicus will provide the means to relay information in and out of the compound, and of course there will be telephone, etc.
My intention is to have representatives of the 3 cultures (and myself) live side-by-side for some time to learn about each other. Hopefully they will begin to see the folly of the wars, especially with me there constantly trying to get them to see my point of view. If we can learn each others' languages I can reduce the dependency on my language potions. If we can prove we share similar ideals, etc. then maybe the Roman government will allow us to venture forth as a group.
It will be a shame that the Azmayincan and the Mongol-chin will be at a disadvantage from being within Rome but as time goes on I might be able to do something about that.
I consider it to be within the realm of (distant) possibility that the walls of the compound may eventually be recognized by the gods as place separate from Rome - being guarded much the same way as the border to the other lands - and thus new rules may gradually begin to apply. And if not, I may be able to coax it along somehow.
The Department of War does not want the problems associated with such a prison. However, they are willing to give you a section of the current prison, allowing you and your monkey to share a cell, and sectioning off four cells such that each prisoner would have his own but they would be connected. You would also have the authority to determine when those cells would be locked or open to each other, and you would be free to come and go.
Your mutant elephant would have to be housed outside, but they will build a suitable shelter for her on the side of the building visible through the small windows of the cells.
Is that satisfactory?
--M. J. Young
Not ideal, but I guess it will have to do for now. I'll just let Heph stay with the current caretaker.
I'll proceed with the experiment and see how it goes.
It takes about a week for the facilities to be put right, and for Heph to be delivered. A number of points emerge over the course of the next few weeks.
First, Heph and Pixie are both points of interest. The Azmayincan has seen many kinds of monkeys, but nothing like yours; the Roman has seen monkeys in the zoo, but not paid enough attention to them to know. The Mongolchin recognizes Pixie quite specifically as a creature from the southern areas of his empire. As to Heph, the Azmayincan is completely amazed at such a creature, which only resembles mythical beings. The Roman says it looks like a sick elephant, but the Mongolchin says that she looks perfectly healthy as far as he can see, and he has seen such creatures often.
Second, there is an odd technology issue. The Roman is quite comfortable with all the technology present, including the communications systems. The Mongolchin finds many of these strange and difficult, but struggles to learn to understand their operation. The Azmayincan is hopelessly behind, not understanding the most basic concepts of how doors work.
On the other hand, the Azmayincan is using magic for all kinds of things that the others would just do by technology. The Roman also knows a bit of magic, but does not rely on it. The Mongol-chin, though, thinks that the Azmayincan is doing something else--using technology that he is hiding, perhaps, or overcoming the blocks that prevent him from using his mind powers.
Those mind powers are extremely limited, apparently. The Mongolchin can read your mind, bump things around, do a few tricks, but in the main seems very frustrated that he is so limited. The Azmayincan also does many of the same mental tricks, but not all of them, and also complains that what he calls the "powers within" do not respond so well as the "powers without". The Roman does not understand this distinction at all (nor does the Mongolchin), and assumes that the Azmayincan and the Mongolchin are using magic he doesn't know (not surprising, as he knows there's a lot more magic than he knows), but that they're arguing about something that doesn't make any sense at all.
You also get them talking about their various empires. They are reluctant to discuss anything that is connected to the military, but you discover that each empire has its own space program--and each approaches it very differently. While the Roman program predictably relies on technology, much of it already familiar to you, the others cannot imagine using such techniques to reach outer space. The Mongolchin, who thinks that shooting bottle rockets to the stars is nonsense, speaks of exploratory teams who work together to fly platforms inside force fields into space. The Azmayincan, who does not understand machines at all, seems to think that select individuals among his people simply take walks through the heavens. They also disagree concerning what use it is to make such journeys, but these are more the arguments of amateurs.
--M. J. Young
This is interesting. Do the magic users ever give me the sense that they are using "divine" magic. So far I've been fairly surprised that they don't (besides those in the temples), considering the fact that the gods of this world are working feverishly behind the scenes.
Also, are the people learning the unfamiliar systems, or do they seem incapable of picking up the other's skills?
The Azmayincan seems to blend divine and arcane magic in his repertoire. He uses magic the way most of us use machines, to do pretty much everything that is beyond the simple functions of his body. The Roman does a bit of magic, but thinks of magic as unimportant and unreliable, that it's easier to do things with technology. The Mongolchin, as mentioned, does not believe in magic at all, and thinks the others are being deceptive in what they claim they are doing. He has picked up a few of the Azmayincan's psionic skills, apparently by spying on him when he is doing these, but on the one hand he knows far more psionics than the Azmayincan already, and on the other what he's really trying to learn is how the magic tricks work, based on his assumption that they do not work by magic. The Roman has no idea about the psionic powers, and is looking for the machine or the ritual that makes those things happen.
So they aren't really learning from each other on that level, although the Roman has shown the Mongolchin how to use some of the gadgets around the place, like light switches. The Azmayincan is afraid of the light switches.
--M. J. Young
It occurs to me that I may be limited in my ability to talk to the three of them at once. Obviously, I am making an effort to learn each of their languages the old fashioned way. I also have my language potions. But the language magic I was using before to communicate with them was placed on me by His Swiftness. It seemed like a pretty good spell, but even under that spell while I was talking to one person the other two would not understand. Unless, of course, all 4 of us were under the effects of the spell.
The Mongol-chin seems to be able to tap into any language, so he won't be a problem, and maybe I should simply rely on him to psionically simultaneously translate everything that everyone says. I wonder if the Romans have a translation technological device? I'll ask for one.
However, I think it will be a useful spell in the future and so I will attempt to create one - or rather a two-step spell:
The effect of the spell will be for anyone touching the spell component, all others also touching the spell component will be able to read, write, and understand all the languages of all participants. The activation of the spell will simply be to touch the spell component (and continue to touch the spell component) and will the spell to be cast. The spell will last for 1 hour after that (or the spell is ended early by releasing the spell component). Anyone touching the spell component after the spell has begun is merely subject to the effects and do not need to 'cast' the spell.
The other step is to create the spell component. It will be a separate spell, which I will attempt to be permanent. The component required is a rope that has been braided, knotted, or otherwise woven by a fluent speaker of the language I want imprinted into the spell component. While knotting, the person will continuously talk in their native language. For multiple languages to be included into the spell component, additional speakers will braid their own section of the rope. The rope will be placed on written samples of all the languages in the form of a circle. In the centre, I will place lit candles, one for each language represented. Around the rope I will draw two concentric cirles in chalk and between them write the alphabet in english and greek capital and lower-case letters. I will walk around the circle clockwise 52 times, then back counter-clockwise 48 times. The time of the ritual (not including the time to make the rope component) will be 1 hour.
The warden has such a device, and he orders another one and gives you his. It is hand-held and programmed with more than just the basics of each language. He doesn't use it often. Its rechargeable batteries last about a week of moderate use, and it can recognize and process both Mongol-chin and Azmayincan at the same time. The spoken words read out on the screen in Latin, and if it is reversed it provides a (Latin) phonetic spelling of the words needed to express an idea in the other language. It is only slightly better than Babelfish, though, as it is not programmed with even all Latin idioms, and so renders most statements literally.
The Azmayincan is unable to braid, knot, weave, or otherwise use a rope. He does not understand why you do not simply command a vine to secure itself in the appropriate fashion.
The Mongol-chin does not understand the purpose of creating this rope object, but he has no trouble doing it as you direct.
I am unclear as to what the spell does which is used to "create" the spell component. You don't seem to want to create a magic item, but you are using magic to make something which appears to be completely formed without the magic--a braided rope object made by multiple participants who speak different languages, who were speaking in their own languages at the time they braided their portion of the object. Yet you are doing quite a bit to imbue this with magic, and I do not quite get what it is the magic is doing.
--M. J. Young
Hm, reading my post again I see your point that the spell lacks in any result. My purpose was to put all the time into the spell component ritual so I wouldn't have to spend the time each time I cast the translation spell. I guess the spell component ritual add potency to the spell component - maybe a bonus to my translation spell?
Can I teach the Azmayincan to knot and braid? Can he command the rope to knot and braid? That would be acceptable to my spell since he would be talking in his native language.
I will spend time with the technological translator, getting familiar with its limitations.
The problem is that if you are imbuing the object with magic that will last past the casting of the spell, it becomes a device creation spell. The reason that doesn't happen with your "potions" and "bones" is because you use them once. They are "consumed" in the casting (you pour out the potions and break the bones, so they can't be re-used), but even if they were not, you would have to "recharge" the objects to use them again. So if you're making the time spent on the weave part of the spell, the completion of the spell discharges the magic in the weave; but if you're not discharging the magic in the weave, then it's a magic device creation situation, even if it's only a focus (which would not give you too much bonus).
About as close as you can get is to attempt to make the weave itself as irreplaceable/non-transferable as possible. By making the stipulations strict enough you could probably get this up to maybe a seven or eight point material component value. That's nowhere near what you want from it.
I don't think there is any reason why you cannot create a magic device. I do not know whether you can create it here in Roma (because I'd have to check the mag bias, and since you have no idea whether you can do it here in Roma there's no reason for me to do so). You certainly could create such a device in Azmayinca, if you were there, although it is a bit of a challenge in terms of difficulty teaching yourself such a skill (you have a 12@9 bias, and this is above that).
You can teach the Azmayincan to knot and braid. It is a very strange concept to him, and would be difficult for him to learn, but it is not impossible for him to grasp technological concepts like rope use if properly shown. On the other hand, he can probably do it with magic easily enough. It's your call on that.
--M. J. Young
Ok, what I'll do then is just do the translation spell as written and ignore the spell component spell. The translation spell will use the rope as a spell component that is not destroyed by the spell.
I will teach the Azmayincan to knot/braid but I will let him do it using magic for the purposes of the spell component.
This may sound weird, but you do not actually have braiding (which I take to be in the same category as weaving, knitting, and crocheting) as a skill on your character sheet. You do have a 1@10 SAL at T2@1 rope use, which would include knots but not braids.
I certainly will believe that you know how to braid if you say so; what's the SAL? (You can't really teach what you don't know, and that's a T2@2 skill.)
Confirm for me, then, that this is the spell you have in view:
The spell will enable those affected to read, write, speak, and understand all the languages for which the spell is attuned. The attuning requires a specially prepared rope, woven by a person who speaks the language or in sections by people who speak the languages to be included, speaking continuously in the language while braiding; any means of braiding may be used, then placed on a ring of written samples of each of the languages to be included, with one candle in the center of the ring for each such language, two concentric circles drawn around it and all the letters, upper and lower case, of both the English and Greek alphabets written between the lines of these two circles, and the preparer walking around the circle fifty-two times clockwise and forty-eight times counterclockwise. This special component may be reused for the same spell, as long as the same languages are to be included. The caster must touch or grasp the rope and will the spell to be cast. Thereafter anyone touching the rope will be able to understand all communication in any of the languages included in the preparation for as long as both he and the caster are touching the rope or a maximum of one hour. When the caster releases the rope, the spell ends.
--M. J. Young
I figure my braiding skill is probably 1@8 or so. And yes, that spell looks good.
The good news is that your magic translation rope works. The Mongol-chin doesn't believe that it works by magic, and thinks you're trying to trick him somehow, but he doesn't see the trick. The Azmayincan has failed to learn to braid during this time.
--M. J. Young
Now that I can communicate with them all at once, I'll gather them together around the talking-rope.
"Shortly after I arrived on this world, I received a message from the Roman gods. I was told that the gods of the Roman Empire are at war with the gods of Azmayincania and with the gods of Mongolchina. This is why your nations fight for dominance - because the gods want to prove amongst themselves who is mightier. Why should mortals - human beings like yourselves - fight a war, unknowingly and unwillingly, on behalf of their gods? Should you not decide your own fates? The Mongolchin do not even believe their mysterious gods exist! So why should they be compelled to carry out their wishes? This is why I have chosen my mission to forge a peace between your nations. I believe that if your nations stop putting all your resources into destroying each other and try to work together, you will be able to accomplish so very much more by cooperating with each other. The Roman emperor is willing to try this bold experiment and with your help I hope to convince the leaders of the other nations to stop the war.
"I need you to all understand one important thing. The gods of each nation have set different rules of the nature of reality. The principles of how things work change dramatically from one nation to the other as you have been noticing recently. For the most part the Romans do not use magic to write their words and the Azmayincans use magic where the Romans would use mechanical tools. The Mongolchin use the power of their mind in place of both magic and science. These powers are completely separate and work on completely different principles. I recognize these differences because I come from a place separate from all three nations. I need everyone to try and accept the fact that things may work completely differently from what they know from home. It is possible that the Mongolchin cannot ever perform magic, such as how I am speaking to you all now, but I need everyone to believe that these things are possible.
"I want you to learn from each other how these things are done in other lands. Let us start with an example - the light in this room. In the Roman Empire the lights are technological devices. A phenomenon known as electricity is created by using a tool known as a generator. The electricity flows, much like water flows in a stream, through metal wires. The wires are within the walls of this house and are connected to the light bulb. When electricity passes through the bulb, it glows with light. The light switch controls whether electricity flows, much like if a tree or stone fell into the stream and stopped the water, and you change it from one setting to the other with your fingers. This light is not magical and is not generated from the mind. It is created through the fundamental physics of the world through the use of mechanical tools.
"Now, please show us how this is done in Azmayincania and Mongolchina and we will all try to learn each other's ways."
Your first attempt to get everyone into the spell fails; but you leave it and come back an hour later and manage to get a strong success.
For most lighting, the Mongolchin use oil lamps and candles; the wealthy have modern gas lamps, with pressurized gas in cylinders. There is talk of running gas lines through the cities to provide street lights and eventually to light homes. Most adult Mongolchin can produce light simply by thought; it is a skill that is not taught to novices, though, as it is very difficult. He has not been able to do it in Roma, and does not understand why not.
The Azmayincan is impressed that the Mongolchin can create light by thought. His people can do many things by thought, but he has never heard of anyone using thought to create light. Usually magic is used, and there are hundreds of variant spells for how people create light by magic--making sticks or walls glow, creating light in the air, having it emanate from a hand or finger. None of these have worked for him in Roma.
The Mongolchin is fascinated by the notion of lightning being captured to power lamps.
--M. J. Young
"Okay, creating light wasn't the best example but you see my point. It is not Roman technology that is preventing your spells and psionics from working. It is the Roman gods that have decided that this nation will be ruled by technology and put much less emphasis on magic and even less on psionics. The gods of the Mongolchin have deemed psionics to be most important and in Azmayincania magic is dominant. Can you see now that if this war between the gods can be stopped, through peace between mortals - the medium by which the gods fight - then a whole new world can be realized? The Mongolchin could harness lightning for light, or use simple magic to make the walls glow. Do you see the possibilities?"
They look at each other.
The Roman says, "Weird."
The Mongol-chin says, "So, you are using machines to fly in space?"
"You're not?" the Roman answers.
"We never thought machines could fly; they are too heavy and do not rise of their own. We levitate platforms."
The Azmayincan says, "What is a machine? And why do you have to fly to explore space? Can you not just walk?"
"Walk?" the Roman says. "How would you walk in space?"
"With magic, of course. Explore the planets by teleportation."
"But if you teleport to the planets," the Mongolchin says, "there is no air there."
"If you teleport to the planets, you create the air you need as part of the magic."
"Again with the magic. What is this magic?"
"Magic," the Roman says, "is power from realms of the gods. Machines," he says, turning to the Azmayincan, "use the laws that make the world work--gravity, fire, levers--to work for us. As to teleporting, the energy required to teleport to another planet without losing pattern is supposed to be prohibitive. How do you do it?"
The Mongolchin answers. "You think it, and walk through the thought world to materialize elsewhere."
"Think it?" the Azmayincan says. "It takes the power of the gods to travel such distances."
"What are these gods?" the Mongolchin responds.
The others seem at a loss to explain gods to someone who does not understand them.
--M. J. Young
"I guess you could describe gods as otherworldly beings that control the reality of the domains they rule over."
This isn't going that well, but hopefully they will come to accept these things with time. I will meet with them every day for a discussion around the translation rope to try to get them contemplating the others' realities. The rest of the time I will play with the roman translator device and see if I can program in some of its language deficiencies. It will be good practice for learning the languages.
Actually programming this artificially intelligent device is beyond you, but it does interact with you, and learns language from that interaction. It takes a few weeks for you to get it to speak English. It came with some rudimentary Azmayincan and Mongolchin, and of course fluent Latin. Your interaction with it helps, and the Mongolchin is glad to converse with it to help it. He understands the concept of machines, just thinks that this machine is far beyond anything he would have thought possible--to do something like that in Mongolchin, you would create an object of psionically responsive matter and align the internal structure to operate telepathically between two persons so that each would understand the other's words. Such devices are rarely used, being mostly in use for the handicapped, since everyone in Mongolchin speaks Mongolchin, and telepathy overcomes most language barrier problems anyway.
They are gradually accepting that their worlds are very different. Each has concepts in one area--magic for the Azmayincan, psionics for the Mongolchin, and technology for the Roman--which the others find incredible. Each understands some things in a second area--psionics for the Azmayincan, technology for the Mongolchin, magic for the Roman--which enable them to grasp the notions of far greater concepts in those areas that are beyond their or their people's understanding. Each has one area in which they are completely unaware, even to the point of incredulity at the simplest of concept within it--technology for the Azmayincan, magic for the Mongolchin, psionics for the Roman. Yet through these discussions they are beginning to understand that these things do exist outside their realms.
After about half a year, everyone has developed some facility in each other's languages, including yours.
--M. J. Young
I'd like to get a sense of the limitations of the secondary area. What are things that the Mongolchin can do with psionics that the Azmayincan deems impossible, and similarily for the limitations on technology for the Mongolchin, and magic for the Romans.
Also, can the Mongolchin learn magic? If not, does he refuse to believe or is he simply incapable? Similarly for the Azmayincan with respect to technology.
I'm beginning to think that I should have brought the Druid into this mix. The gods of nature may not be limited by the boundaries of the three nations. I'll think about this some more.
Also, did one of these guys say something that Antarctica had not been claimed by any of the three nations?
The easy answer: I believe that you read in the historic materials about this world that Antarctica is unclaimed; I don't think one of these people said that (because it's probably not something they would really know), but that is a true statement about this world. Antarctica is is not settled, and does not belong to any of the empires.
Druidism exists exclusively in the Roman province. As to how their gods relate to the other gods, that would not be something anyone presently with you could answer.
Secondary area limitations, in brief:
- Magic: the Romans can do blessings, have tales of people using magic devices, have magical curatives, can manipulate and reshape and redirect objects and energies, create force shields and moving forces, and have some information and detect skills, such as the translations. The Azmayincans can do more of everything, and also can do illusions, the creation of energy and matter, enchantments and controls, summonings, telekinetics, teleportives, animations, necromantics, time manipulation, and have created their own magic devices. Some of their top priests are working with a wonderful new silvery liquid material which they hope has the potential to unlock new secrets of the supernatural realms.
- Psionics: The Azmayincans can read minds in various ways and communicate telepathically as well as implant suggestions and illusions; they have mental defenses aganist all such things. They have used naturally-occuring psionic devices mostly to focus energies. They are able to extend their senses and detect various things, move objects, control body functions, heal, and manipulate some physics such as creating or countering heat. The Mongolchin have more skills in all these areas, and also have mind-to-mind attack forms, the ability to manipulate chemical structures and to create and mold psionically active materials into devices, generate physical forces, view the past and the future, teleport, alter reality and meddle with time, and create material objects from nothing. Their top mentalists are working with a silvery substance which they think may be useful in bending reality to their wills.
- Technology: The Mongolchin can use fire, including chemical fires under water. They have leatherwork and pottery, the basic tools (wheel, lever, wedge) in many configurations, woodworking, cloth and rope, inclines, stonework, pulleys and gears, metallurgy, water power, lathes, lenses, precision tools, explosives, guns, and some steam and pressure systems. The Romans are better at all these areas, and also have motors and motor fuels, electricity and electronics, synthetics, computers, technological space travel (the others also travel in space, but not using technology), robotics, fission, fusion, and antimatter power systems, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, mind/machine interface, energy fields, star drives, matter transmission, some time control, and were working with scriff technology until you intervened.
The Azmayincan can be taught technology, but it will be a slow process, since he does not know even so much as how to contain a fire without magic. Although his clothes appear to be made of animal hide, it seems rather that they were magicked from the animals rather than cut and sewn. A club is an extremely complex device from his perspective.
The Mongolchin is strongly skeptical about claims of a supernatural world, and this prevents him from performing magic. He is still trying to figure out how some of your tricks "work", but since he is also confronted by technology well beyond his comprehension, and he has been conditioned to believe that all things have a natural (including psionic) explanation, it is difficult for him to grasp that, for example, your rope is not really a highly advanced technological translation device or a psionically attuned telepathic device. There is no inherent reason why he could not perform magic, as far as you can ascertain, but that he still does not believe that a supernatural realm exists.
--M. J. Young
Time travel!? Really. That blows my mind. But what really worries me is this weird silvery liquid that the Mongolchin and Azmayincans have been working with. The scriff the Romans were working with was golden but could it be the same? This steps up the urgency for our mission a fair bit.
I ask the Mongolchin and the Azmayincan if they have anything else at all they can tell me about the silvery liquid. Can it, for example, make people disappear forever?
I am going to send a letter to the druid I spoke with before and ask him to visit me as I would like to hire him as my long-term assistant.
Boy have I been out of it. It was shiny golden/brass, not silvery. I apologize. Yes, it sounds exactly like the scriff.
Your companions only know the rumors; these are rather secret projects which it is hoped will give their peoples an edge over the other empires.
Tell me more about this letter: what are you asking, what are you offering? Also, are you going to attempt to send it electronically, or are you going to write a letter on paper?
--M. J. Young
I'll write to him on paper. He didn't seem so technologically savvy.
"Dear Getafix,
Please, if you can, visit me at my current residence in Rome. I would like to be a patron of your services on a long-term basis. My mission to save this world from destruction will take me across the borders of Rome. You powers stem not from the gods of Rome, Azmayincania, or Mongolchina, but from the powers of Nature herself. Surely, these powers do not recognize the political boundaries of this world.
Send word with my servant.
Sincerely,
The Messenger"
It takes a day to get a reply.
"My dear Messenger,
"I would be pleased to be of service in any way that I can. However, we Druids have been called upon in the past to penetrate the Mongolchin lands, and our powers are no greater there than are those of the Roman priests--nor of the various mystery religions. Mongolchin is a godless land, feared by all Romans. The people have mysterious inexplicable powers within themselves, but the powers of the gods are stifled and estopped.
"If you still believe I might be of assistance, I will certainly come.
"Getafix"
--M. J. Young