Jame's cursingext_2501233March 22 2021, 22:23:38 UTC
As for Jame's ability to curse: she did put the "constantly back up" compulsion on Corrudin without even trying.
She also compelled the Randir Tempter (and Rawneth riding her) to not touch her.
If she just bothered to use her literally godlike power, she could simply order the (non-supernatural) horse to stop, and it would. It's actually sort of weird that she never even thinks about this enough to consider it something to avoid doing.
Back to cursing, Jame *set a snowstorm on fire* once.
Re: Jame's cursingtagmethMarch 23 2021, 12:47:13 UTC
The snowstorm fell prey to a master rune. She hasn't used one since that I can remember, probably because she can't control them very well and is apt to do more harm than good.
Granted, she uses a tone of command more often, usually when she loses her temper. These aren't exactly curses. No one thinks of her as a maledight like Brenwyr.
If she had to explain why she doesn't develop or use these talents more often, she would probably say that they bring her closer to That-Which-Destroys, a prospect that scares her, especially given her current lack of control. Will she some day? I don't know.
My own hesitation is that I don't want to make her too powerful. I'd rather have she depend on her wits and intelligence, "human" rather than godlike.
Re: Jame's cursingext_2501233March 23 2021, 13:56:06 UTC
I do get that if Jame becomes too powerful, it makes conflict hard to find.
Didn't she use a Master Rune at Tentir, from memory?
My actual proposal was for her to win by cleverness. :-)
(It was actually inspired by my biology background--Charles Darwin was one of the first English-language writers to describe bolas-hunting in South America. In the course of learning to use the bolas, he managed to accidentally tie all four of his own horse's legs together, while riding it after a rhea on the Argentine pampa. The very agile horse managed to stop neatly without losing its balance or tossing Charlie off.)
I was thinking of Jame blinding Brenwyr, but that was reflecting the maledight's own curse back at her, exactly as Tori did with her clothing-destroying curse.
Is this a melee battle, or a single opponent joust? A wooden lance against an armored knight may unhorse him, but it isn't likely to penetrate, the way that a steel shafted spear or crossbow bolt might. A long lance also isn't very maneuverable and requires a good head of momentum to be effective.
Both, and neither. There are only two opponents, and one (Jame) doesn't have a lance or spear. Her best chance may be to disarm her opponent. I would think that the clumsiness of a lance would disadvantage her adversary, as long as she keeps riding in circles around him. Death's-head will use his horns, which are very hard, but I don't know how much damage he can do against armor. He might be able to knock the other rider out of his saddle, though.
The way this fight is set up, Jame doesn't know what she's facing until she gets to the battlefield. I agree about the value of arrows, although they would have to be very well aimed to deal with this degree of armor on both rider and horse. I started with the premise that Jame doesn't like most edged weapons (the scythe-arms being the exception as extensions of her claws) and it's almost become a running joke that she can't hang on to a sword throughout an entire battle. In retrospect, it's kind of stupid for her not to take more precautions. Now that I've got her in place, though, I'm having fun coming up with ways for her to counteract her ridiculously over armed opponent and make him look like a fool (which he is).
Thinking of a rathorn in combat, I am reminded of the battle-cry of House Knorth. We saw Jame and the other Knorth cadets use this, when pledging to honor Tentir and the Randon tradition, to surprising result. But surely its true use is in actual combat in the field
( ... )
Good point about the rathorn battle cry. Looking back, I can't imagine why I didn't use it when the Karnids attacked Kothifir and Jame charged them. I'll try to work it in to the current conflict, once I figure out where it would be most dramatic.
Have I forgotten something about rathorns? Why were people suggesting the rathorn blood-binding anyone?
Re: Master Runes: in Seeker's Mask, Jame reconstructions a "wind, blow" Master Rune from memory and the Senetha, blowing away most of the Shadow Guild souls in Gothregor. This was perhaps one of her more terrifying moments: she's probably read the Book cover to cover, and doesn't even need it anymore.
I don't recall her using a Rune after that but the Tentir books don't stick in my memory as well.
I note that people who try to harm Jame generally come to a bad way, often "coincidentally". Ask Bortis! (Vs. Tori, who just 'dodges', and Kindrie, who has to suck it up and heal.) It would not be out of line with the earlier books if her opponent's horse stepped in a gopher hole and broke its leg, or a wasp flew into the enemy's helmet. With Jame going "Er, sorry?" afterwards.
Pertinent to this is how big and fast her opponent's horse is -- probably larger and slower than Death's Head, but possibly not that much larger and slower. The horse may be more intelligent than his rider, also, and certainly is trained for war. Just because the rider is stupid doesn't mean the horse is. And if he's trained for battle, he may not be trained to deal with a rathorn, but he's trained to deal with noise, chaos, and the smell of blood
( ... )
I did know this, but fell into the trap of false stereotypes. Another good source are the you-tube videos produced by Modern History: Knight, where the presenter has a stable full of war-horses in training and rides them while wearing various kinds of authentic armor and wielding various weapons. They are fair sized horses but hardly draft. On the other hand, my first horse was about 14 hh and I looked over-sized riding her.)
Bottom line: plot-wise I need this particular war-horse to be slower than Death's-head and less maneuverable, perhaps because he's so decked out in armor and his rider has such a huge, clumsy lance. So, rider error/hubris?
Re: War horsesext_2501233March 28 2021, 18:55:37 UTC
It's worth mentioning that those small-seeming medieval horses were carrying people that by and large would also seem small to us. Average human sizes have also increased. I have no idea how tall the peoples of Rathilien are compared to modern Americans.
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She also compelled the Randir Tempter (and Rawneth riding her) to not touch her.
If she just bothered to use her literally godlike power, she could simply order the (non-supernatural) horse to stop, and it would. It's actually sort of weird that she never even thinks about this enough to consider it something to avoid doing.
Back to cursing, Jame *set a snowstorm on fire* once.
Reply
Granted, she uses a tone of command more often, usually when she loses her temper. These aren't exactly curses. No one thinks of her as a maledight like Brenwyr.
If she had to explain why she doesn't develop or use these talents more often, she would probably say that they bring her closer to That-Which-Destroys, a prospect that scares her, especially given her current lack of control. Will she some day? I don't know.
My own hesitation is that I don't want to make her too powerful. I'd rather have she depend on her wits and intelligence, "human" rather than godlike.
Reply
Didn't she use a Master Rune at Tentir, from memory?
My actual proposal was for her to win by cleverness. :-)
(It was actually inspired by my biology background--Charles Darwin was one of the first English-language writers to describe bolas-hunting in South America. In the course of learning to use the bolas, he managed to accidentally tie all four of his own horse's legs together, while riding it after a rhea on the Argentine pampa. The very agile horse managed to stop neatly without losing its balance or tossing Charlie off.)
I was thinking of Jame blinding Brenwyr, but that was reflecting the maledight's own curse back at her, exactly as Tori did with her clothing-destroying curse.
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Have I forgotten something about rathorns? Why were people suggesting the rathorn blood-binding anyone?
Re: Master Runes: in Seeker's Mask, Jame reconstructions a "wind, blow" Master Rune from memory and the Senetha, blowing away most of the Shadow Guild souls in Gothregor. This was perhaps one of her more terrifying moments: she's probably read the Book cover to cover, and doesn't even need it anymore.
I don't recall her using a Rune after that but the Tentir books don't stick in my memory as well.
I note that people who try to harm Jame generally come to a bad way, often "coincidentally". Ask Bortis! (Vs. Tori, who just 'dodges', and Kindrie, who has to suck it up and heal.) It would not be out of line with the earlier books if her opponent's horse stepped in a gopher hole and broke its leg, or a wasp flew into the enemy's helmet. With Jame going "Er, sorry?" afterwards.
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Bottom line: plot-wise I need this particular war-horse to be slower than Death's-head and less maneuverable, perhaps because he's so decked out in armor and his rider has such a huge, clumsy lance. So, rider error/hubris?
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Food supply and disease varied over time.
And the sort of person who can afford a warhorse is more likely to have had a reliable and meaty diet.
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