Should I tell you..?
Do you really want to know?
...Want to know just how long you will have to wait?
Well... Monster-Blood Tattoo Book 3: Factotum (English language editions) will be released ~
MAY 2010
Please don't be too dismayed or beat up on me; it is a bit of a wait yes, but it will be worth it... he says in faith... =/
In the meantime I found this very cool bit of "fan art" - if I may call it that - by a young soul by the name of ponkkaa. I hope they do not mind me send folks their way.
Also there is the wonderful work of our very own E.N.Reinmuth - both MBT and non; I dig you work very much ma'am! - and yes, I shall attempt to put up just how a vialimn works some day soon (certainly between now and the release of Book 3).
Anyone else got a bit of MBT related (or not) stuff they want to show off?
Last but not least, a new poll, in an oblique response to portal's excellent question. (please be seeing the text to the right)
The Handsome Grackle ... or, Spring is sprung and I missed it!
(Following to be read with some strange accent in mind - I have no idea why, just cause...)
Please being 'Hello!' to my good friend, the Handsome Grackle.
(Cease with accent, please.)
He is what is called nadderer - a sea-nicker, a water-dwelling monster - with neither head nor tail, but both at once, being able to walk on either end when he/she/it ventures on land. A very very robust creature, it recovers quickly from hurts, so much so that he has been swallowed more than once by much larger sea-beasts, travelled the length of their alimentary canals before being "poo-ed" (if I may use that word...) out again, relatively unharmed to get about his/her/its business. Oh what fun...
There have been many excellent questions put to me here over the last couple of posts. Unfortunately I do not have time right now to address many of them - but I hope a couple of answers might suffice for the mo...?
Portals was wondering, "I have questions about lahzars' weapons. Is a fulgar's fuse used as a kind of spear, or more like a lightsaber from Star Wars? Do wits have any kind of weapon that they use? Thanks"
A fuse is used more as a quarterstaff than anything else, a way to extend reach (though with a the wire wrapped about a pole of cane or wood I am actually not so sure a magnetic field would occur as has been suggested elsewhere - sorry whoever posted, I thought the wire needed to be coiled about metal to achieve this - but please correct me if I am wrong, physics at high school was my weakness).
Wits would generally see it as being beneath them to resort to weapons, the control and manipulation of frission is everything to them. Saying that a pure wit would probably look down on a bane, and in turn a bane would probably see a purist wit as lacking versatility.
Another question was regarding the status of the Gottlands, which are in fact not a part of the Haacobin Empire but an empire to itself - a hegemony of kingdoms, duchies and the like allied and treatied to the Sigismundian dynasty that currently rules the Gottskylds. They are protected from the Haacobins by the great big threwdish swamp of the Ichormeer, though battles have been fought between the two giants, with little gain for either side. The Haacobins regard the Sigismunds with sullen respect.
I shall get to the problem of lamps as soon as I might, honest - time is really crimping me now...
A post at last! (Would you believe it?)
So much commenting goodness with the last post! I was going to respond there but thought maybe it might work just as well here... (given I am feeling a tad stuck with post ideas right now because a certain 3rd book has most of my attention).
Amongst all the excellent ideas batted forth and back I wanted to answer two things:
Firstly, to fulgars using swords: well, the idea is feasible - it has certainly crossed my addled thoughts (especially the reverse, ie. the dangers of using a metal weapon against a fulgar). The conclusion I am running with is that most fulgars would regard to use of a sword as some kind of admission of weakness - that their ability with their eclatics is not quite up to rigours of the stouche. It also strikes me that the more sword using pugnators (sagaars, sabrine adepts) might look a little darkly on such a practice - a kind of "demarcation dispute", that's our technique! Get your own! - and in return a fulgar would never stoop to admitting that another profession's technique might be worthy of use... Note that I say most, not all... I am trying not to be painful, but, you know, I have been thinking about how the H-C works for a little while now...
As to wire-swords (barbed or otherwise) well there is a concept though aforementioned demarcation would still be a problem here, and as far as "charged" bullets go, well the nature of electricity is that once the source of the current is no longer present then there is no current = once the ball had left the firelock it would no longer be charged (am I being annoying yet?) Having said that, it certainly is a snazzy idea, though I reckon you've got to allow pistoleers and scourges and the like their own specialty.
This leads rather niftily into my second topic of choice, technicality v fastasticality (is that even a word?). Some rules from our own world are fun to break (we cannot even do with all our technology what the transmogrifers do with lahzars or the masacaars with gudgeons), others I like to adhere to (certain laws of physics, for example). What I think makes for good ideation is not the consistency with our own world but the internal consistency of all the ideas together. Unfortunately I am no genius so I live in a fairly continuous concern that I am not being as internally consistent as I could be with the H-c - but I do try. Probably my main guiding factor is feel - does this idea feel like it could work? Does if feel right? Does it fit the feel of the H-c overall?
Part of that feel is the sense (I hope) of plausibility within the construct of the H-c itself. After years and years of laying down layers on layer of ideas I have begun to develop a kind of "box" of rules, a space - a vibe - in which it becomes easier to fashion ideas that fit well within the whole. This I reckon is the best thing to aim for (if world building is your thing of course) to take your time and let your ideas collect and meld and create their own distinct feel that is your own.
Amongst all the excellent ideas batted forth and back I wanted to answer two things:
Firstly, to fulgars using swords: well, the idea is feasible - it has certainly crossed my addled thoughts (especially the reverse, ie. the dangers of using a metal weapon against a fulgar). The conclusion I am running with is that most fulgars would regard to use of a sword as some kind of admission of weakness - that their ability with their eclatics is not quite up to rigours of the stouche. It also strikes me that the more sword using pugnators (sagaars, sabrine adepts) might look a little darkly on such a practice - a kind of "demarcation dispute", that's our technique! Get your own! - and in return a fulgar would never stoop to admitting that another profession's technique might be worthy of use... Note that I say most, not all... I am trying not to be painful, but, you know, I have been thinking about how the H-C works for a little while now...
As to wire-swords (barbed or otherwise) well there is a concept though aforementioned demarcation would still be a problem here, and as far as "charged" bullets go, well the nature of electricity is that once the source of the current is no longer present then there is no current = once the ball had left the firelock it would no longer be charged (am I being annoying yet?) Having said that, it certainly is a snazzy idea, though I reckon you've got to allow pistoleers and scourges and the like their own specialty.
This leads rather niftily into my second topic of choice, technicality v fastasticality (is that even a word?). Some rules from our own world are fun to break (we cannot even do with all our technology what the transmogrifers do with lahzars or the masacaars with gudgeons), others I like to adhere to (certain laws of physics, for example). What I think makes for good ideation is not the consistency with our own world but the internal consistency of all the ideas together. Unfortunately I am no genius so I live in a fairly continuous concern that I am not being as internally consistent as I could be with the H-c - but I do try. Probably my main guiding factor is feel - does this idea feel like it could work? Does if feel right? Does it fit the feel of the H-c overall?
Part of that feel is the sense (I hope) of plausibility within the construct of the H-c itself. After years and years of laying down layers on layer of ideas I have begun to develop a kind of "box" of rules, a space - a vibe - in which it becomes easier to fashion ideas that fit well within the whole. This I reckon is the best thing to aim for (if world building is your thing of course) to take your time and let your ideas collect and meld and create their own distinct feel that is your own.
FREE RICE - A worthy undertaking, surely.
Here is something worthy that Will has brought to my attention: Free Rice - a vocabulary guessing game where every word you get correct has the organisers donating 20 - yes 20! - grains of rice to the hungry and disadvantaged. Better still I suppose, is to help folks fend for themselves but they still need to eat in the meantime.
20 rice grains does not sound like much but it all adds up if you get into it, I found the challenge to my vocab very stimulating indeed and they give you a VOCAB LEVEL (a stat!) which for old role players who like numerical levels like me is a great incentive to keep getting words right (as if helping others was not...)
Does anyone here dare post up their best Vocab Level?
I hope folks can forgive me for going off topic in this way... and cheers very much to you all for the very stimulating discussions regarding the social status of teratologists.
20 rice grains does not sound like much but it all adds up if you get into it, I found the challenge to my vocab very stimulating indeed and they give you a VOCAB LEVEL (a stat!) which for old role players who like numerical levels like me is a great incentive to keep getting words right (as if helping others was not...)
Does anyone here dare post up their best Vocab Level?
I hope folks can forgive me for going off topic in this way... and cheers very much to you all for the very stimulating discussions regarding the social status of teratologists.
Poor, Down-trodden Teratologists
Taylor - by email - asked this recently:
"I have a question that has been rankling at me for a bit as I've become immersed in Monster Blood Tattoo, and it is this: In a world as monster-ridden and monster-phobic as the Half-Continent, why do people tend to have a negative view of lazhars, skolds, scourges, and any kinds of terotologists? I realize people might be a bit afraid of them due to their powers, but, for example, why does Felicitine refuse to allow Europe to stay at the Harefoot Dig? Or why, when Europe comes to see Rossamund at Winstermill, do most people "habitually disapprove of her trade"? It always seems that people are disdainful of those who have altered themselves for the protection of the Half-Continent, and in a land where showing the slightest bit of sympathy for monsters gets a person exiled or worse, this seems a bit narrow-minded of the population. What do you think?"
To which I responded:
I think you have hit the nail firmly on the head - people are inconsistent, and no less so in the Half-Continent. I found this very tension an excellent vehicle to quietly explore this inconsistency, which is essentially: people do not want the problem but neither are they happy about the solution.
What-is-more, while we certainly have Madam Felicitine being snobbish, Master Billetus is not; Madam Oubliette has established an entire wayhouse for the patronage and support of the teratologist (albeit because they are generally not wanted in the towns). There I go again: Why are they not wanted in the towns when they do such a service? Teratologists with their much-needed yet dangerous powers are seen as the "necessary evil", like a rat catcher or a garbage collector. They kill the monsters but have to have contact with them in order to do so, placing them in a kind of half-way status.
Skolds will receive the best reception (indeed in some parts of the H-c they are truly revered), then pistolleers, laggards, lurksmen, peltrymen, tractors - your more unaltered types; followed by scourges (who, while appreciated for their efforts are mistrusted for the deadly power of their chemistry and that they look so odd wrapped so completely in their fascins) and then falsemen (no one likes to think that the person they are talking to knows what they are thinking).
Of lahzars, the disapproval goes much deeper, for there continues a rigourous debate as to what exactly they are - some hold that through the surgeries they have become a kind of gudgeon - and no one likes gudgeons - something other, whose capacities make them hard to control, place them outside the existing caste system, therefore upsetting the status quo, and very few in the H-c appreciate this (especially those of the higher situations, or with aspirations of social climbing).
So what we find in the Half-Continent is a lot of ignorance riddled with rumour; add to this "classists" snobbery - like Felicitine with her airs and graces - and the fact that a large proportion of the population are naivines (ie: never seen a monster) - and I reckon such inconsistency is valid (and a bit fun too - for me at least).
And never fear, there are those who are indeed fans of the lahzars - the obsequines, some of whom you might meet in Book 3.
Thank you Taylor!
... to this I might add (more in response to the query from Ben Bryddia) that the strange status lahzars have - the position of needful and powerful outsider - is an excellent mechanism for women to improve their lot in the commonly more patriarchal H-c / Haacobin society; hence there being a greater proportion of girl-lahzars. Never-the-less there are still plenty of boy ones too (the black-eyed wit, the Boanerges, the Knave of Diamonds - all in Book 2), it is just that they have not become the focus of my tale yet.
A question to the lady readers (if I may): how would you feel about changing your eyes by becoming a leer?
Breakfast = Vita Brits [TM] with Milo [TM] sprinkled on it and a cup of free-trade tea.
"I have a question that has been rankling at me for a bit as I've become immersed in Monster Blood Tattoo, and it is this: In a world as monster-ridden and monster-phobic as the Half-Continent, why do people tend to have a negative view of lazhars, skolds, scourges, and any kinds of terotologists? I realize people might be a bit afraid of them due to their powers, but, for example, why does Felicitine refuse to allow Europe to stay at the Harefoot Dig? Or why, when Europe comes to see Rossamund at Winstermill, do most people "habitually disapprove of her trade"? It always seems that people are disdainful of those who have altered themselves for the protection of the Half-Continent, and in a land where showing the slightest bit of sympathy for monsters gets a person exiled or worse, this seems a bit narrow-minded of the population. What do you think?"
To which I responded:
I think you have hit the nail firmly on the head - people are inconsistent, and no less so in the Half-Continent. I found this very tension an excellent vehicle to quietly explore this inconsistency, which is essentially: people do not want the problem but neither are they happy about the solution.
What-is-more, while we certainly have Madam Felicitine being snobbish, Master Billetus is not; Madam Oubliette has established an entire wayhouse for the patronage and support of the teratologist (albeit because they are generally not wanted in the towns). There I go again: Why are they not wanted in the towns when they do such a service? Teratologists with their much-needed yet dangerous powers are seen as the "necessary evil", like a rat catcher or a garbage collector. They kill the monsters but have to have contact with them in order to do so, placing them in a kind of half-way status.
Skolds will receive the best reception (indeed in some parts of the H-c they are truly revered), then pistolleers, laggards, lurksmen, peltrymen, tractors - your more unaltered types; followed by scourges (who, while appreciated for their efforts are mistrusted for the deadly power of their chemistry and that they look so odd wrapped so completely in their fascins) and then falsemen (no one likes to think that the person they are talking to knows what they are thinking).
Of lahzars, the disapproval goes much deeper, for there continues a rigourous debate as to what exactly they are - some hold that through the surgeries they have become a kind of gudgeon - and no one likes gudgeons - something other, whose capacities make them hard to control, place them outside the existing caste system, therefore upsetting the status quo, and very few in the H-c appreciate this (especially those of the higher situations, or with aspirations of social climbing).
So what we find in the Half-Continent is a lot of ignorance riddled with rumour; add to this "classists" snobbery - like Felicitine with her airs and graces - and the fact that a large proportion of the population are naivines (ie: never seen a monster) - and I reckon such inconsistency is valid (and a bit fun too - for me at least).
And never fear, there are those who are indeed fans of the lahzars - the obsequines, some of whom you might meet in Book 3.
Thank you Taylor!
... to this I might add (more in response to the query from Ben Bryddia) that the strange status lahzars have - the position of needful and powerful outsider - is an excellent mechanism for women to improve their lot in the commonly more patriarchal H-c / Haacobin society; hence there being a greater proportion of girl-lahzars. Never-the-less there are still plenty of boy ones too (the black-eyed wit, the Boanerges, the Knave of Diamonds - all in Book 2), it is just that they have not become the focus of my tale yet.
A question to the lady readers (if I may): how would you feel about changing your eyes by becoming a leer?
Breakfast = Vita Brits [TM] with Milo [TM] sprinkled on it and a cup of free-trade tea.
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