Birthday!

Happy birthday, obsessivewoman !  I want to take this chance to say again how wondeful it is to know you and have you as a friend.  

May your day be filled with good tidings, cheer, and very large fluffy cats!

Behuld zee pooer ooff THOR!

What if Thor in Marvel Comics didn't talk like a bad medieval recreationist, but sounded like an actual norse god? Well, thanks to this translator, we can find out, using actual Thor quotes!

GO THOR!



"I sey zeee-a ney!"

"Thuoo ert meeghty, beest...meeghty inuoogh tu sley a gud! Boot I em zee Oodeensun...deffender ooff Esgerd...und mester ooff Mjulnur! I em Thur...gud ooff thoonder...und ooff leeghtning!"

"Trecheruoos Dug! Dut teke-a mure-a thun a seengle-a, pezeeteec, cooerdly bloo tu hoomble-a nuble-a Thur!"

"Zeey etteck boot strengzeens my veell...feeds my resulfe-a...stukes zee fure-a"

"I em THOR! Sun ooff Oodeen, gud ooff thoonder, vhu cummunds zee leeghtning und zee sturm! I em THOR! Und I...veesh...tu leefe-a. Tu leefe-a...und breezee...und feeght...egeeen."

In zee neme-a ooff joosteece-a, I shell Treeoomph!

"Ultrun. Ve-a vuoold hefe-a vurds veet zeee-a. Bork Bork Bork!"

Some Additional Magic Notes

Most of this appeared in a reply I posted, but for organizational and access purposes I'm making this a full post.


Magic is largely invisible, though the effects aren't. That is, using magic to summon flame will result in a visible flame, but no magic aura or sparklies (I always hated the requirement in Champions that all powers be visible to three sense groups). Purely mind-affecting powers may or may not be detectable by the recipient, based on subtlety and awareness. I haven't decided whether anyone with magic can detect magic in use, or whether that will require a specific power. Most likely the former.

And oh yes, an inspirational picture:





I am deliberately leaving the source of magic undefined, though various hints will be dropped here and there. Honestly, defining the source of magic too rigorously would be counterproductive to the "hard sword and sorcery" element of the setting. (Though I have to admit to the amusement value of having at least one group calling their powers "Dottexes". "Do the first-aid dottexe, quick! )


Some random notes and ideas on limits. Bear in mind, a lot of the Andre Norton influence is going to be showing through here:

Magic basically moves matter, energy, and information around. It cannot create something from nothing (though it may appear to do so in some cases), and it definitely can't create intelligence. It's limited by visual information, or how well one can visualize the target or process. It also cannot transmute elements.

Lifeshaping breaks those rules a bit: simple healing and encouraging metaboloic processes is fairly easy, curing diseases harder and more time consuming, and regenerating limbs or reshaping the most difficult and time consuming of all. Giving a creature new features quickly runs the risk of serious (and icky) side effects. Genetic manipulation is the slowest of all, mainly works on plants, and is little more than a sped-up version of selective breeding.

I will have to do quie a bit more on Lifeshaping, and the engineered plants that are common in UTGM. The flora is going to have a lot to do with giving UTGM it's alien feel.

Most Puzzling.

I feel like a homeowner, who looks out the window to find his garden is covered in squirrels. Dozens upon dozens of squirrels. Dozens of cute, fuzzy, perky, bushy tailed squirrels, dancing, chttering in chorus, running around in rings, balancing on the end of the bean poles, and juggling nuts between them.

The question is not so much "What should I do", as "Why?"

Who will watch the totally kawaii Watchmen?

Those strange and strangely enthusiastic  Japanese fans have done it again. In this case, it's the cast of Watchman, turned into Bishoujo-style girls. It's evidently a page describing the background of characters in anticipation of the upcoming movie, and is all part of the grand japanese fan tradition of taking serious concepts, and making them cute by turning them into girls.

At least we're not talking about making tanks or aircraft cute by turning them into girls.  This time.




Hmmm...I wonder if I could turn this into an icon....