> Crazyone47, post: 82807831, member: 422818 Wrote: Did Josh's brother Chris lose his powers?

He still has them, but he was a different kind of Madness user. He basically had the Rube Goldberg Field X10 and where it would always work in his favor. (He had a few other powers but his 'Rule of Cool' was the one he was famous for.)

> Crazyone47, post: 82807831, member: 422818 Wrote: Josh's powers are permanent right?

Yep, even should he die his powers won't let him go.

> Crazyone47, post: 82807831, member: 422818 Wrote: Are the Wonderland's other Dreams capable of being destroyed or have they faded enough that the "core" of the wonderland doesn't remember them? Will we just have to find out?

As long as Josh keeps feeding Madness into the cabaret nothing will be permanently destroyed or lost, and Josh could reawaken the dormant parts of the Cabaret though who knows what he'll find when he does.

> ReaperofInterest, post: 82819264, member: 309377 Wrote: Interesting. Are Madness and Insanity the only two major shades of Madness, or are there other ones that just haven't been relevant enough to mention yet?

Madness and Insanity are the two big ones, sort of a Yin and Yang type of deal with them. That said, just because Madness and Insanity are the two shades doesn't mean that Madness doesn't have a number of other secrets hidden within. (It's honestly the one that likes secrets the most.)

> ReaperofInterest, post: 82859731, member: 309377 Wrote: So, given what we know about Affinities, is there anything special about starting with two related Affinities? Like Sun and Light, or Ocean and Water, Concrete and Earth, etc. Or is that just a sign of someone with focused interests?

It's more a sign of focused interest than anything else, at most due to the fact that they have two affinities in the same general spell tree they'll unlock stuff in it a little faster in that direction than others though they'd be specializing a little more than others with 2 spell trees rather than everyone else's 3.

> Crazyone47, post: 82860082, member: 422818 Wrote: What about opposing affinities?

> Such as fire and water or Stone and Air? or Sun and moon and Life and Death?

> Do they interact or kill?

Alright, this one is actually a bit interesting because it's both.

You see, usually if you try to use an opposing attribute from one of your affinities your progress would be slowed/weakened, but if you have opposing affinities this both works for and against you since most opposing affinities do have some kind of overlap. Meaning that where they have a hard difference they might work against each other, but where this overlap lies they'll make twice as much progress. And since this is all conceptual as well as practical some of their overlaps are surprising.

(I.E. Fire + Ice = Heat and Energy, Stone + Air = Force and Barrier, Sun + Moon = Light and Mind, Life + Death = Spirit and Healing)

Side Note: You probably notice I swapped Ice and Water, that's because on the actual Arcane table they are opposites while Water is a secondary element you derive from Fire and Ice. And even if they oppose a little on the conceptual level, Fire and Water would be good at making Steam/Mists/Fogs and their overlapping style would be [Formless Constructs]. (I.E. Fire/Water Whips, Fire/Water Elementals, Fire/Water spears, and basically just making things out of an element that doesn't really work as a building material.)

> ReaperofInterest, post: 82891906, member: 309377 Wrote: I'm curious about something. Has anyone figured out some sort of translation spell? After all, between the number of languages of humanity alone and natural laziness, I assume someone has at least taken a whack at the concept. The various nonhumans and dimensional portals only increase the odds.

Oh yeah, translators are real common for Travelers to have, whether it be an actual spell, machine, or enchanted object that does the translating. In fact the Nexus technically has an auto-translator built into all of its contracting, allowing any two species to talk or at the very least understand each other's speech.

That said, there are usually some limiting factors on translation that requires someone who already knows the language to give their input. For instance despite having a universal translator the Nexus actually only translates for species who have added a translation of their language to one of the languages already known by the Nexus. (Which is why Pix and Wolf aren't translated to Jon, but Jon is half way translated to them.)

At which point a lot of people are very lucky that once it has a foundation the Nexus auto-updates to prevent mistranslations in the long run. (Especially given how many translation spells piggyback off its database.)

> Crazyone47, post: 82901008, member: 422818 Wrote: What is Will Craft?

Magic controlled through raw thought/willpower.

> Crazyone47, post: 82901008, member: 422818 Wrote: Has Jon unlocked it?

Not on his skill list, but he can unlock it.

> Crazyone47, post: 82901008, member: 422818 Wrote: What is Sign Craft?

Magic using hand signs to control the flow of magic.

> Crazyone47, post: 82901008, member: 422818 Wrote: Joshua could use Cartoon Cabaret to create a corrupted right?

Yes, actually have a couple candidates should we pursue future routes.

> Crazyone47, post: 82901008, member: 422818 Wrote: What kind of Madness user was Josh's brother?

He's a minor Deviancy called a Stylist, someone who is basically projecting themselves onto the world around them by bending the physics of the world around him. Examples would be: Being able to actually run on walls, bounce on things he shouldn't be able to, having highly improbable things happen in his favor, having special effects occur around him, etc.

(One of the inspirations for this Deviancy was Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. (As much the comics as the movie.))

> Crazyone47, post: 82901008, member: 422818 Wrote: And this might be Huntsman related but what happened to Desade's daughter Jill that necessitated Jon save her instead of Desade and Desades cult?

Uh, that is wrong on several points.

-Jill was a female camp counselor that had been at the camp longer than Jon.

-DeSade's daughter's name was Rosalind.

-Rosalind was kidnapped off the streets and Jon witnessed it allowing him to solve it around the time DeSade found out.

--DeSade considers the fact that Jon saved her before him a massive honor debt.

> Crazyone47, post: 82901008, member: 422818 Wrote: Is Jon registered as Desades and Blackwells apprentice?

Jon is not actually registered as DeSade and Miss Edna's apprentice (Blackwell is the town they live in.) because Miss Edna rebels against the system and DeSade didn't want him as an apprentice (more a custom bullet for the beast) but due to reputation issues and witnesses he was forced to make Jon his honorary apprentice.

Fun Fact: DeSade wanted to make Jon his official apprentice after Jon killed the Beast of Blackwell, (in part to add the feat to his own reputation) but Miss Edna put her foot down and refused claiming she had as much of a right (because she's known him since he was like eight) and they are currently in what could be considered a custody battle for Jon's apprenticeship. (He has no idea.)

> Crazyone47, post: 82901008, member: 422818 Wrote: How does the Nexus react to Madness touched Anima users?

It tends to give them access to creatures with a little more Madness than it would normally allow people without some kind of special summoning. (A couple of Jon's potential Confidant Contracts are not things people can summon without preparation and risk.)

> Crazyone47, post: 82901008, member: 422818 Wrote: Is the Nexus like a supercomputer or is it naturally appearing framework?

Basically a magical supercomputer, though it's also technically the server containing the entirety of the magical internet.

> Crazyone47, post: 82905499, member: 422818 Wrote: Oh that is f******** awesome, hilarious and any other word that means good. Comedy wise.....

They'd probably disagree.

> Crazyone47, post: 82905499, member: 422818 Wrote: Why can't they just both take him as an apprentice?

They could, but they're both too prideful to and disagree with the other's views/philosophies on magic. (Miss Edna thinks DeSade will turn Jon into a jaded cynic, while DeSade thinks Miss Edna will coddle Jon wasting his potential.)

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Ironically enough, as long as their dispute is going on they're technically stuck splitting his apprenticeship anyway. (And occasionally one upping each other as his teachers.)

> Crazyone47, post: 82905499, member: 422818 Wrote: Genuine question how much does a reputation matter to a Dark Lord?

Greatly, since to get the title they have to earn it which takes years of work in a dangerous field of study, all while there are a bunch of posers pretending they have the title. Then they're also technically crime lords meaning that their reputations also keep people from stepping too close to their territory. And said reputation is the only thing keeping Sanctuary from thinking they're an easy target, but they have to keep that reputation just helpful enough that they don't get slapped with a kill warrant either.

> Crazyone47, post: 82905499, member: 422818 Wrote: Desade is a full blown arcane right?

Actually no, he's from a long line of practitioners a couple hundred years old, and uses several of his family's old talismans/artifacts. (He actually has a small vault and trades them out whenever one starts to run low or he needs a specific magical advantage.)

Miss Edna though is an Arcane, she's just studied the practitioner stuff as a proper educational interest since she was around when the Association was first founded as a school for Arcane and was even a teacher there until the Rift Riots.

> ReaperofInterest, post: 82907806, member: 309377 Wrote: So what exactly was the Beast of Blackwell, anyway? Was it a Madness user who somehow gained a lot of power and went Insane somehow, was it some sort of...Elemental or Demon of Insanity, or something else?

Going to be honest, I kind of want to say and kind of don't because this is a big part of the Demonology secrets and I have hinted at it several times. (I think I might have even flat out mentioned it at one point in a blink and you'll miss it comment from Jon.) But no one has put it together yet so... If you really want to know PM me, or if you want to find out in story try to get Demonology a couple votes in for more hints. (With the Scarecrow thing you have justification.)

As a consolation for not immediately answering I will offer this: The answer is a big part of the reason so many people are passively scared of Jon.

> Crazyone47, post: 82911880, member: 422818 Wrote: How did Edna end up starting a summer camp inDesade's territory anyway? I dont think thatbis common.

The DeSade thing is coincidental since Blackwell is her hometown. That said, she founded camp Bet as bet with her sister involving childcare and eventually grew to love the place. (She actually decided to keep it after winning the bet, the same year Jon joined the camp.)

> Crazyone47, post: 82911880, member: 422818 Wrote: Is there any relation between Madness and Rifts?

Yes, and no. Because some rifts are connected to places the Madness has a hand in, though entities of Madness typically don't bother with Rifts or Bleeds unless they're trying to make a scene. (They can slip through the in-between of everything much easier.)

> Crazyone47, post: 82911880, member: 422818 Wrote: What energy is responsible for M.A.D. again?

In setting people are split on Madness and Psionics, since they can access a sort of database through the 'whispers' that has a bunch of information and skills that people normally don't know without training.

> ReaperofInterest, post: 82914637, member: 309377 Wrote: Oh, another thing. Part of Jon's deal with Wolf is that he'll help her grow stronger. If a person's contracted summon becomes strong enough to advance in rank, does that have an impact on their summoner's contract capacity, or is the summon still treated as the rank they were when the deal was first made?

The rank thing is a little different for Summons than it is for the context of 'power'. As far as the Nexus is concerned a Summons rank is actually a reference to the amount of power it takes to summon it, which happens to have a correlation with a creature's base power. It's just people (in-setting) tend to mix the definition of the terms given their similarities.

What this means for Jon and Wolf is that Wolf will always be her current Rank to summon even if she becomes the strongest of her [Nexus Classification] unless she goes through some kind of Ascension where she no longer counts as that. (Examples would be a human turning into a Deadman. They're still human, but they're also a little stronger on the magical existence than a standard human.)

There's also technically this secondary relativity thing that most people don't know about because it's so rare for a person to go that far, but at a certain power level all other power levels become less due to the weight of one's existence increasing by a notable amount. And neither Jon nor Wolf's are going to go much higher over the course of the year this quest is covering.

> ReaperofInterest, post: 82925335, member: 309377 Wrote: Huh. How much of the name of the camp was a result of the camp owing its existence to a bet?

She named it that specifically to rub it in her sister's face that she was going through with it and why.

> Crazyone47, post: 82927510, member: 422818 Wrote: Is Desade technically something like the Mayor adjacent? Like does he get a salary and get some taxes for being a Dark Lord or some authority?

Eh, yes and no? His family legally owns the entirety of the land Blackwell is built on and everyone just rents it or makes land payments to him, but that's a carry over from a couple hundred years ago rather than the Dark Lord thing. This is actually where most of his political power comes from.

> Crazyone47, post: 82927510, member: 422818 Wrote: How old is Jill? Started Arcane Studies yet?

20-21. (Roughly 3 maybe 4 years older than Jon.) And while she's not an Arcane or learning magic, she is starting her nursing degree while the Huntsman's Quest is going on.

> Crazyone47, post: 82927510, member: 422818 Wrote: Is Desade married or is this a continue the clan without blood ties thing?

He's married and has a daughter, but his relationship with his wife is complicated.

> Crazyone47, post: 82927510, member: 422818 Wrote: Would it be spoilers to talk about Edna's sister?

Mild, but as long as I don't mention her name we should be good.

> Crazyone47, post: 82927510, member: 422818 Wrote: Or about how Drsagons fit into this word? For example would serpents possibly be dragons? What is the distinction between Asian Long or Ryu worshipped as weather deities and good luck and Western dragons who run the gamut from berserk animals (usually) to greedy sapients?

Dragons of all kinds exist, in part due to the fact that the Nexus spans across worlds. Which is actually how most of the creatures from myth got here. Though there are the rare earthborne creatures such as Pix which are here because either an old Arcane bred them and they got loose or a pack of them migrated through a rift and in either case they somehow survived long enough to settle in their new home.

Now as for the classifications and abilities of each different type of dragon that would depend on what kind of world/enviornment they came from, though for most people a dragon is defined as 'An intelligent magical reptile' while wyverns, wyrm, or just lizard are used for the non-intelligent kind. (All of these of course have their own species names, these are just the generalized names.)

All of that said there aren't too many wild dragons on earth due to the fact that they're usually a more solitary species, with so many different species fitting the term, if they travel through a rift they're usually stuck here by themselves without a means to reproduce. And if an Arcane gets a hold of them a good one will help them return home while a bad one will... poach them essentially.

> Crazyone47, post: 82927510, member: 422818 Wrote: For that matter are mystical species handled by the departments, eligible for endangered species status, and/ or get a few preserves?

Due to the whole 'mystical species' not being native to earth thing, they aren't really considered endangered species though they are given a few more protection rights than normal animals if just due to their unique biology/abilities. That said the more intelligent they appear to be the more protection rights they are given.

> Gaminoru, post: 82975738, member: 512803 Wrote: are there arcane that have concepts like, internet or social media?

Sort of, due to the age of the Nexus, while it does accept new affinities it takes a while to divvy them up properly. Meaning currently those would fall under [Data Network] for Internet and a mix of [Media] and [Social Network] for Social Media.

> Gaminoru, post: 82975738, member: 512803 Wrote: and could a madness user with the right tools tap into the internet? since something like it is full of emotion and thought.

Fun one, because yes a Madness user could tap into the internet, but it would have to be because their Wonderland involves cyberspace.

(This would basically give you a mix of Tron and Digimon.)

> ReaperofInterest, post: 82995301, member: 309377 Wrote: So are the tattoos the only way a Summoning Contract can manifest, or have some Arcane figured out a way of just making some form of token they need to hold onto? I imagine someone would attempt to make a subtler way of sealing a contract, or at least a way of getting one without the tattoos considering how some.people view them.

You could create summoning tokens that allow you to summon without a contract, though those can usually be used by anyone who fits the criteria

-(Which varies depending on the type of token.)- including people you don't want to use them. (Remember the statues that Val has around her apartment? Those are summoning tokens for in case something happens to her family.)

In fact technically speaking if a summoner is good enough they can summon creatures without even contracting them, which is a fairly common practice when summoning random magical creatures or mercenaries in the middle of a fight/duel.

Admittedly both of these methods possess a weaker bond than an actual contract, which is part of why the contract forms as a tattoo because it's meant to be a visibly permanent mark due to being a magically binding oath, meaning that a lot of the perks and powers of making a full contract will be negated. (Note: Since Val is contracted to The Scarecrow, her tokens only work for those she authorizes, and she can still pay the magic cost herself.)

All of that said, certain summons do possess Traits that allow their contract mark to be hidden, and that's of course negating the fact that people with an understanding of illusions, or the occult and stealth, may be able to find their own ways of hiding the marks. Though these marks would only be hidden, and should push come to shove or some powerful Truth/Revealing magic be used then the marks would be visible once more.