I'm for 'it's a grand idea, but just does not prove to be very practical'
They figure it out, they build it, and they fly it... perhaps fulfilling the
grand adventure, perhaps not. Either way it does turn out to be something
between The Odyssey, Gulliver's Travels, and Sinbad's travels; a fantastic and
Fantastic story but in the end little more.
The materials are rare, fragile, and prohibitively expensive - if not downright
dangerous - to procure in the required quantities.The structural design has
many minor flaws that are only apparent during protracted use... appearing
weeks into the journey.The vessel that returns is so markedly different from
the one that set out that everyone admits it just would not work on a large
scale.
But it discovers a good bit, it opens dialogue with distant lands, it creates
at least a couple of small but credible enemies for whatever reason (anti
magic, xenophobic, territorial with the vessel violating their borders - or
whatever) who are so far away their danger is minimal... unless someone from
Metamor encounters them (shipping, most likely). It brings back new and
strange things and ideas, some of which take hold and flourish (recipes, herbs,
disease, medical practices).
Me; I say go for it, even with my misgivings.
Ryx.
On Tuesday, November 21, 2017, 1:20:10 AM EST, Rimme the Weasel
<[email protected]> wrote:
I acknowledge the fear that adding balloon travel to the world of Metamor Keep
might break a few people's idea of a fantasy medieval world. I think the best
way to allay those fears would be to make this a truly exceptional journey.
That is, there is a unique set of circumstances that enables Lodo and Yurik to
build a balloon strong enough to hold several passengers and supplies, fly them
around the world, and return safely. An event that can't or won't be replicated
again, for any of various reasons:
* There is some drawback to flying a balloon in this universe, possibly how
easily it attracts hostile flying creatures, or perhaps the balloon's mechanism
has an undiscovered flaw;
* There is a lot of luck involved in the expedition (special favors the crewmen
call in, freak weather events, coincidental political events, etc.), too much
to make such journeys commonplace;* They have to use a special material for
their balloon that is too rare to make them commonplace;* The special materials
themselves have drawbacks that make them impractical for widespread use (the
spidersilk Forgecoldiron mentioned could be super expensive, or the lattice
beams could fall apart from too much twisting or compression under heat or
moisture, which might force them to find a substitute halfway through... which
ties into my next idea);* The balloon goes through so many changes that by
journey's end, neither Lodo or Turik can figure out how to mass produce it (and
if that isn't enough...);* The balloon gets destroyed at the end, and Lodo
decides against building another one;* Lodo or Turik ends up so shaken by the
journey's end (for story reasons), they refuse to allow anyone to replicate
their balloon;* A major investor in this expedition is so upset at the end that
they pull their funding and suppress as much knowledge of the expedition as
possible.
I'm not just thinking about the mechanics of the balloon, but of the story
itself. Personally, I think there's plenty of stuff that could happen along
their journey as well, enough to make this story more than just an MK
travelogue. It's just a matter of collaborating as a team to keep the story
consistent with itself and with the world, and that the story-writing process
runs smoothly.
On Mon, Nov 20, 2017 at 10:03 PM, Indagare . <[email protected]> wrote:
>Okay, the basic idea for the plot is sound.It could also become a 'lost'
>discovery - considering the current Metamor cycle is 1400 years in the past
>when something as simple as an iron plowshare (should) be all but imaginary..
>So someone using an odd collection of materials to float about the world could
>feasibly happen, and work well for a century or two, but eventually fall out
>of favor and fade away, becoming eventually lost and a myth (since the
>materials would all decay). Or perhaps so prohibitively difficult to work
>with that after the initial expedition it's found unfeasible and shelved.So,
>with that in mind, a rather profound anachronism could be touched upon,
>explored, but not prove disruptive to the overall world setting.I kaiboshed
>railroads for that same reason - too disruptive and a thousand years out of
>time. It cost us a decent writer, unfortunately.
Perhaps it could become the MK equivilent of the Antikythera mechanism? At some
point it goes into storage and around the time the magic and curse returns it's
unearthed again? I never intended it to disrupt the overall world setting, just
give people a reasonable way to explore far shores and maybe introduce some
places that have only been sketched out. I know there's been some things in
Irombi, and I figured this could help with revisiting there as well as Fan
Shoar and other areas. It'd be a bit of a whirlwind trip around the Central
Sea, but it could be fun.
>Forgecoldiron had a few valid points
Yeah, I've read all that, which made me ask about where the limits on this sort
of thing were. Perhaps it might be better as a fictional story than as a real
one - a story that some Keeper is writing about an imaginary trip around the
Central Sea...something like Johnathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels but with less
satire.
>Another important thing to consider; things *fly* in this worldsetting. Some
>of those flying things are very large, and not altogether friendly - dragons,
>gryphons, roks, enchanted ballista/catapult shot. How would they deal with
>the first two; intelligent. Or the semi-intelligent (flying predators). Or
>just obstinate (being shot at from the ground or by mounted flying attackers)?
Assuming the first two could be reasoned with? Probably treat with them. The
latter would be more of an issue and given the logistical problems coming up
with just having to bring maybe three Keepers and their equipment on board it's
probably not a good idea to imagine them trying to place a ballista/catapult on
board as well. They could presumably fly over ground shooters.. Mounted flying
attackers would be a definite problem.
-Indy
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