Blue Core
Character AMA Answers

Art:

Continental map of Orn (Tarnil is at the top right, below the wasteland there)

Spoiler: Spoiler

Shayma Art:

Spoiler: Spoiler

By Crazebot:

By PurpleDungeon

By Alice_r:

Iniri:

Spoiler: Spoiler

By Purpledungeon

By Alice_r

Taelah:

Spoiler: Spoiler

By PurpleDungeon

By Alice_r

Other Commissioned art:

Spoiler: Spoiler

Ansae (not quite what I was envisioning, but oh well)

Keri:

Annit (this one's just about perfect):

And now to the AMA!

“That would explain so much. Also, that is a terrifying idea.”

“Why would I make a lesser form that isn’t drop dead gorgeous?”

“Void Mana cuts everything. Everything. Haven’t run into any Fate Mana defenses to try though, and I sheltered during [The Light of Eschaton]. I wasn’t going to try my luck with that!”

“One of the kids tripped over a stone, got up, kicked the stone, hurt his foot and hopped around, tripping over the stone a second time, tried to dig the stone out and failed, then wandered off. He tripped over the exact same stone yet again like ten minutes later.”

“It’s a good thing I have pretty total control of my body and I’ve shut down my libido, otherwise I’d probably be slobbering all over Blue. Sex is fun and I haven’t had any for centuries. And the things he can do with those breeding stations! Mmh!”

“Yes, I do wonder! I haven’t run across any obvious ones, but I’m sure they’re there.”

“Electricity takes a lot of infrastructure to be useful. A lot a lot. Railguns are on the “potentially” list but I don’t have a good way to aim them. I’d basically be freehanding warship ordnance…”

“Oh absolutely I do! The less I have to worry about hiding the more aboveground I’ll be.”

“My mana and biology saturate the area, so yeah I claim the ground. I...guess I could grow legs and walk, if I weren’t already basically a mountain. That’d require a lot of hydraulics and plumbing made from scratch.”

“He’s a Power. A relatively naive one, but hideously potent. The more he’s on our side, for whatever reason, the better.”

“I don’t float though? I have to be physically connected to everything, since I’m a sort of organism. That said, my absolute lower limit of size with [Customization] is about a half-millimeter, and since I can only make [Reified Manastone] and [Firmament] in fractional-gram increments, it’s going to take a looong time (and more Anvils) for me to make enough for that.”

“I know there are a lot. I’ve been around longer than some species, and most civilizations.”

“He’s kind of overwhelming! That said, he seems nice enough: earnest and honest. I’m going to marry him after all, and I wouldn’t do that if I thought he was fundamentally rotten.”

“Pfft, Shayma’s not a Power. She’s an illusionist. What’s she going to do, scare me to death?”

“No, and besides, it’s not really possible.”

“I’m working on it! I’ve only been at this three and something months! Now that I can at least deal with the less-powerful, getting a reputation will be a defense in and of itself.”

“Blue’s an odd duck. He’s not nearly as paranoid as I would be in his place, but then, I’m not in his place. I don’t know how I would deal with being completely immoble and unable to cast spells, but with all the resources I’d ever need. Probably poorly! At least his Companions have better sense than he does, much of the time.”

“Given that all red core dungeons and Controllers have depletion-based powers and Fields, someone who is entirely immune to them sticks out as a hole in the feedback. When I saw that I knew something unusual was there!”

“I’m not a machine, you know. I’m actually having sex with people and the breeding chamber seems to mandate we both enjoy it. Which has kind of unpleasant, mind-control type implications, aside from the fact that I’m not exactly comfortable with mass orgies.”

“I’m pretty sure I can’t trust Tor Kot. Even if he’s not like Vok Nal was, he’s clearly unbalanced.”

“Most people aren’t comfortable with giving up their bodies and souls. Besides, they aren’t desperate enough to talk to me for a Bargain.”

“I’m twenty-two!”

Sienne: “We met at a port in Haerlish, actually. I was supposed to get some experience with the blade while accompanying one of the caravans his family owned. We were both fourteen-ish and we ended up sneaking out to kill lower-level monsters together and...basically that’s how everything started.”

Giorn: “I guess we ended up kind of running away together. So far as dumbest or funniest, one time when we were down in Ir-”

Sienne: “Not another word!”

“My mom is a Shaman, so I helped her a lot with her various herbal remedies. Alchemy happened to be one of the Skills I got, though it came well after I became an [Herbalist]. I got my class when I was eight, which is pretty young!”

“I’m not completely certain how much is dungeon growth and how much is Power growth. After all, he’s got all that weird knowledge, and unless he’s getting more and more of it he’s not really progressing in a Power way is he?”

“I find there’s little point in non-sapient monsters. If you want them to be powerful you have to invest almost the same amount of time and effort, and the intelligent sorts are far more flexible. Now, sapient monsters are generally not as free-willed as humans, but they are capable of rational thought so you have to handle them a little more carefully. But I think the results speak for themselves. And if you can’t understand my Pale Mantises, well, that’s not my problem.

Independent reproduction is entirely possible but requires even more investment and new, expanding dungeons can’t afford it. Back home most Controllers with mature dungeons have made that investment. It’s less of a drain on a population that, let us be honest, is already weighed down with carefully managed Depletion.”

Blue: “Oh god, spare me. I don’t want crazies.”

Ansae: “They certainly exist, and they have their uses. But like any sort of fanatics they’re a particularly blunt instrument. You can take advantage of them for helping you set up infrastructure, but let them grow too much and they’ll start to try and dictate terms for you. That generally doesn’t end well.”

“Nope. A lot of the time I have to worry about whether decisions are influenced by dungeon instincts. I’m just glad I seem to have independent thought, considering the matrix my intellect appears to be stuck in.”

“Uh...it is one of my priorities. But not dying is a slightly higher priority!”

“I’m pretty sure I never mentioned anything about this?”

“I could put up a fight, but actually defeat her? I’d need a plan, since I can’t free-fly like she can and my toughness is limited to how much mana Blue has. Illusions only go so far with someone who doesn’t seem to care about anything outside herself.”

“If we’re not under constant threat and danger! I’d want time to actually raise a kid.”

“It’d make my job a lot easier! Plus then I could focus on more fun things!”

“Pretty much all of it. Though I wouldn’t exactly call it a plan and more of an aspiration.”

“I’m pretty sure I never mentioned anything to make anyone think this either!”

“I miss actually feeling good. Depletion hasn’t affected my Skills as much as it has for others - especially since my Primal Magic Skill integrated almost all my other magic skills - but without regeneration...well. It’s awful to just sleep and sleep and sleep and never get any less tired. Or more healthy.”

“But the dungeon is my body? I’m not sure what you mean here.”

“Honestly I’m mostly fine with Shayma being my herald. Simple responses might be useful in a crisis but then I’d worry about running into the communications block.”

“So, Lineage Skills can come from either parent, and are always inherited. However, they’re only passed onto the next generation if they can be woken from their seed form, which is a more difficult thing. Take [Shield of Tarnil] - unless you have a Light Affinity and have reached the third tier, it won’t be available as a Skill or be passed down to your children.

There are ways to encourage certain Affinities, and it’s common to have the same Affinity as your parent but it’s not guaranteed. So royal lines tend to follow inheritance based on who manages to wake the Lineage Skill first. Sometimes that’s the firstborn, but not always.

That doesn’t mean inheritance fights don’t happen, and sometimes they can be pretty nasty. But it does take a certain amount of work ethic to get your Lineage Seed to awaken, which is why kingdoms with Linages from a fifth-tier last longer than others. It doesn’t hurt that Linage skills are effectively fifth-tier Skills that are usable at third tier!”

Ansae: “I don’t know what the mage-kings know, but Blue’s core is an active Artifact. That means it’s soooort of like a Power, in that it has the ability to break the usual rules governing magical items. For example, the dungeon crystal matrix seems to be able to handle nigh-infinite amounts of mana flux, and it has spatial and maybe even temporal workings integrated into every part of the matrix.

The dungeon flesh is an extension of that artifact, and I mean that literally. It grows outward from the top and bottom, operating as a channel into the world. That means he’s got a lot more direct control than most, even without spellcasting. On the other paw, not having spellcasting is a pretty big negative. Now, he hasn’t exhibited some of the things that the Great Dungeons have, but he is a very young dungeon.”

“I mean, I guess I’m going to be polygamous...ish? I’m kind of in a unique situation here.”

“Of course not! Blue’s amazing and other people ought to have the chance to experience that themselves. I wouldn’t mind a wedding ceremony at some point, but it might be a little, um, late. It’ll have to wait until after the current crisis. I don’t think he really needs a human form but I wouldn’t mind a less, um, sex oriented way of interacting. Also, a kid would be great...again, after the current crisis.”

“I can feel it a little bit, but that’s all. Which is just as well, I’d hate to try and fight while being fully pregnant!”

“I’m working on them! The mana wave is pretty interesting, and I’d like to be able to channel it better.”

“I have, in the past, but not for very long. Of course, for me, decades is ‘not very long.’ I haven’t been beyond the atmosphere - that’s just silly! And I haven’t made any long term plans yet”

“Three or four eventually...they don’t need to be special, just healthy!”

Keri: “We’ve been together for about five years now. I met Annit when she was working on one of my family’s boats and she stole me away. It was so romantic!”

Annit: “Actually I thought it was just awful what she had to deal with as a noble. I thought they had it easy but I didn’t realize they didn’t have any freedom at all. We got to talking and...I honestly don’t know how it managed to happen, but we skipped out of Nivir entirely together.”

“What? I just want more of those primal stones! Just gotta figure out where in the dungeon they came from.”

“Why not both!? Ought to be easy enough.”

“I just think about what sounds official and a little bit scary.”

“There’s only so much space I can make without compromising the integrity of the mountain. That said I’m absolutely working on increasing my infrastructure.”

“Yeah, it’s on the list...I have a really really long list.”

“I can manipulate any Affinity, yes. I prefer suiting them for purpose but I admit I have a soft spot for Fire, simply because of my draconic nature.”

“Alas, the fact that I have a Primal Affinity means that there aren’t many male dragons around who have a potent enough magic for me to have children. I’ve had lovers over the years but not an actual mate.”

The Hurricane: “Being able to fly from place to place is the best thing ever. Walking is for losers!”

“Shayma doesn’t seem to really question how Blue knows things, even out of idle curiosity. I find that pretty suspicious. Same goes for some of his weird turns of phrase or occasionally using words I’ve never heard of. Maybe he told her before I started listening in, but I doubt it.”

“That’s a state secret, actually.”

“It’s a Class that is pretty difficult to happen into. I was one of the agents for the previous [Spymaster] when I was young, and considering my Affinity and the Skills I was acquiring, it made sense to groom me as a replacement.”

“Not very eventful really! I mostly lived at the shop except when we took trips outside the city. Mom and Dad had enough money that I could go be educated a bit with other not-quite-noble kids, but a lot of my youth was spent just hanging around the shop.”

“Mom and Dad were on a trip when Tor Kot invaded, but I’d heard enough adventurer stuff to know that I couldn’t fight any of the monsters. They were high level! So I just kept my ear to the ground and followed people who weren’t being captured and so on.”

“Well, I mean, obviously.”

Sienne: “It was a cozy little two-story place. Top was where we lived, bottom was the shop itself. We mostly had items and supplies we found while adventuring, though we offered some specialty services. Mostly my [Curse-Breaker] Skill. Getting rid of bad affinities or effects on items or resources was very useful.”

Giorn: “We were one of those shops you never hear about that only adventurers go to. We never got incredibly rich but we never had to worry too much about money either. Admittedly, part of that was because I invested in my family’s caravans. It gave us time to go out adventuring now and then too, to restock and keep our Skills up.”

Shayma: “I was kind of the shop mascot. It’s a little embarrassing in retrospect I guess, but I hung out and was a cute Classers’ kid. So I learned about adventuring and adventurers and money stuff too.”

“I’m not missing out on any Skills. There’s just no recursive skill gain. Or rather, one iteration is enough for “nothing new arises.” Not only that, but only a tiny subset of my Skills will map to theirs. It looks like there needs to be a genuine new Skill gain or evolution for it to be valid for transcription.”

“Ugh. It was get up, early, spend hours fighting through the fourth or fifth floor generally, then take a break. You have to understand, Great Dungeons are absolutely immense. Miles and miles, and I’m pretty sure they use spatial magic like Blue does. It’s possible to clear out levels of one, and the first and second levels are basically completely tame, but as you go deeper and the mana density goes up, things start maturing faster and getting larger. Sometimes they even come up from lower levels.

If nobody was hurt we’d stay camped in the Dungeon, otherwise, we’d make our way back out, but either way at night I had to study. Runes, history, statecraft, all that. Basically no free time, but I needed to get to that third tier and be prepared for it. I didn’t expect to inherit the throne as soon as I did, but even if I hadn’t, I would have been given a position and expected to work at it.”

“Ohhh boy, we haven’t had any real choices have we? I think she’s really lucky we weren’t all killed, regardless of what she did. It’s been really awful and I probably would have given up a long time ago. Just gotten out of Tarnil.”

“Attil weed! You can use it as a spice, for medicine, for alchemy, or to make soup stock, depending on which part of the plant you’re using.”

“[Dancing Defender]. Seeing them in action just makes me laugh and I wouldn’t consider the Class to be a good defensive Class, but it doe work.”

“Not an actual requirement. It’s similar to Classers the world over, about eighty percent male and twenty percent female.”