Ask Novil questions about Gaia
└ posted on Monday, 4 May 2015, by Novil
Last year, I posted a news entry which I asked our readers to ask me general questions about Gaia. It was a pretty popular format with lots of questions being asked, so I decided to give it another try.
Do you have any questions about Gaia? Then add them to the comment section of this post. I will try to answer all questions which I don’t consider to be spoilers for the plot.
Dialog from SD-66:
Is it safe now to tell us what she was about to say?
@ PMark:
I see now, and I’m guessing that might be each character at various stages, e.g. Viv and Ilias as a recent example, yes? Please don’t hate me Novil
Novil wrote:
Citing the “setting” page:
“All living beings on Gaia contain a tiny part of the spirit of Gaia, their “soul”. All spirits are connected to the Source, a mythical place somewhere inside Gaia, through the Spiritstream. If a creature dies, its spirit “returns to Gaia” and melts once again with the Source. Additional to the Spiritstream, there is also the Bluestream. The Bluestream is fuelled by Gaia’s raw energy and is the main source of magic on Gaia. The Bluestream does not only flow in every creature, it is basically everywhere.”
I’m confused. So, the “spiritstream” is made up of souls/their “energy” and if a being dies it enters the “spiritstream”? Or is a soul made up of “spiritstream”? And in the “physical world”, including their body, flows the “bluestream”, that is separate from souls/spirits but can still be manipulated by them at will (Mages?)?
When Eldor “dumped” the one politician into the “pit of hell” in front of his guards, I got the impression it was a kind of “planar gate” to a separate plane or dimension. So it was just a simple teleport to another place in the same world, for example “inside” gaia?
PMark wrote:
It was something about her feelings for him.
Arent wrote:
The Spiritstream does not consist of souls. It’s more like ether that connects souls with the Spirit Source.
Bluestream spells usually do not affect the soul of a creature, but the matter that the creature consists of.
Novil wrote:
Ok, thanks for the clarification. I was somehow inspired by final fantasy 7 & thought souls or “lifeforce” assemble to form the lifestream 😉 Which, of course, leads to the natural question where all the other streams come from 😛
Novil wrote:
So, she was having strong feelings for him way back then, huh. Wow!
I am guessing that she made him the liaison because she thought he was cute. (That great picture of her smiling at him in the first panel of SD-60 when she was waiting for him to wake up from the teleport potion comes to mind.) Then her feelings for him grew during the subsequent two hour interview at Shadowkeep. Afterwards she took the time and effort necessary to change into an attractive dress with matching accessories, and then went with him to meet Alissa.
On the way the way there, they hold the conversation mentioned above, and when they and Alissa were talking, Janos walks up. She then introduces herself as Ilias’s fiancée.
Yup, she fell for him rather quickly, didn’t she.
Since it came up, can we confirm that the event 1,478 years ago was, in fact, the finding of the Tear of Gaia?
Lucid wrote:
Yes.
How big a deal is it that Lilith created her own Black Pearl spell? Like, do ordinarywizards routinely create their own spells and/or spell variations and then only the really good ones stand the test of time, or does creating a new spell require a fairly skilled wizard in the first place, with nearly every recorded spell getting passed on?
For that matter, what is creating/casting a spell like? It looks awfully scientific sometimes.
Novil wrote:
Nice! Thanks for the clarification. 🙂
Neceros wrote:
Creating an entirely new spell is significantly harder than using an established one. But you can also take many established spells and adjust them to your needs.
Only skilled wizards can create entirely new spells, but there are a lot of established spells that you can learn by becoming an apprentice and reading spellbooks. Plus, a good number of them can be adjusted to your needs.
It’s a bit like applied math. A powerful spell is like a complicated formula that you have to memorize. Plus, you need that special connection to nature.
Is “Isaac” and his “Journey” inspired by Escaflowne?
You have introduced the idea of numbered spell levels. The geek in me wants to know how the various spells are assigned to levels. How are they measured, and are the levels linear or logarithmic?
Does the book “Breaking All Barriers” contain the instructions on cracking an Asymmetrical Spirit Lock; the spell that sealed the Baras’ little box for so long? Or did Lilith uncover new magic in figuring out how to open it?
Arent wrote:
No.
PMark wrote:
Spells are assigned their level by mutual agreement among wizards who are able to cast these spells or spells that are at last similar in nature. It’s similar to how climbing grades for rock climbing are determined in real life.
The levels are irregular exponential. Maybe something like this:
1 -> 1
2 -> 2
3 -> 4
4 -> 8
5 -> 16
6 -> 32
7 -> 64
8 -> 256
9 -> 2048
10 -> 32768
PMark wrote:
I do not want to answer this question to retain my storytelling options, but I currently consider it irrelevant.