Hello Georgia

Well I'm trying to blog on the road again.

We just finished a marathon fourteen hour car ride and are here in Savannah Georgia. I'd tell you how it was but I can't see straight enough to look. :^) We're staying in Best Western again but this time it's ridiculously nice. The rooms are all suites as far as I know. Sadly we won't get to check out the pool as we're on to Orlando tomorrow morning. From what I could see though it's not a terribly big pool but decent enough.

In the course of today I've seen both ends of I-77 and frankly I like this end better. :) The drive through West Virginia is a bit harrowing at times but also beautiful. The two tunnels as you leave WV are the icing on the cake. But the geek in me couldn't help but think of North Pass out of Dun Morogh into Loch Modan in World of Warcraft. I'm such a geek.

Tomorrow we're on to Orlando and some big ol' rental house which should be fun. There's a whole family group meeting up there so good times should abound. Wifi is supposed to be available in the house as well so hopefully this will not be my last post for the week. I hope to get some plotting done on DuskHaven and get rolling on it again.

Speaking of writing I have finished another short story called Magic of the Highways which I will post if I ever get the permanent website finished here. I hope to draft my wife to help with grammar checking as mine is pretty appalling. I think my ideas are decent but my writing leaves something to be desired.

Till next time Rolard out.

Fire Magic and some tweaking to Light Magic

After reviewing my post on light magic I think it will stand on its own other then one addendum.  Knights cannot create food and water from nothing.  There needs to be a source.  In Rolards case he has a small number of travelers biscuits and a water skin.  He breaks off a bit of the biscuit and pours a dash of water.  He can then copy that food into a decent sized portion for one person.  He cannot copy the copy of the food as it simply will not work.  So he is cheating the laws of thermodynamics but not completely destroying them.

On to Fire.

Fire magic is far less understood then the Magic of Light or the power of the EarthSeers.  Mostly this is because there is no formal school of magic surrounding it.  There were a few books written by the more powerful practitioners but many of those were lost in the fall of DuskHaven.  While Fire magic runs in family trees it is far more likely to skip generations then the other magics.  It is also more likely to "pop" up in a child when no one in the family recalls another with the Spark.  Because it has such a scattered history and is so rare it is often misunderstood and to many a Spark is almost as evil as one who works with the Magic of Darkness.

Rule 1:  A Spark can control temperatures both up and down though they have difficulty taking temperatures below freezing.  They can do this to an object they are directly touching.

Rule 2: A Spark can set an object on fire.  Once they release the object the fire created this way will burn them as well.  So a Spark could create fire in their hands using cloth or paper.  But after lighting a fire and stepping back they are vulnerable to the flame as well.

Mechanics: Changes in temperature are done much like a heat pump moving heat around from one object to another.  Setting an object on fire is done internally the fire is drawn from the user and can have unintended consequences.  Lighting a small fire a torch or campfire for example will have no noticeable effect but trying to light a large fire at once such as setting a bonfire into flame in one go rather then using kindling can drain the caster immensely.  It drains the spirit and will of the caster, this effect is usually temporary though some Sparks have been known to use their powers so irresponsibly that their very nature was changed.  It is from Sparks like this that fire mages gained much of their bad reputation.

Drawbacks:  The loss of spirit and will is usually enough to keep Sparks in line.  There are very few Sparks in existence now.  Besides Gretta there are perhaps half a dozen known scattered through the Border and Inner Kingdoms.