Re: A sense of wonder

From: jorganos <joe_at_YKOuoGuV1NGdPPL0UfOZ1e1RkFt0A4QZBV1tPkchNdmNeJG6sf_a64UCER38mbWeJwiLZDTl>
Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2011 15:00:00 -0000

Jeff:
> I wrote Shingallion and it was never my intention he be more than one of a kind. I was not even sure he was truly mechanical (there's more than one way to be largely "machine") - but whatever he was, it was not "mechamagical" or the start of a race of cyborgs.

Ok.

My use of "mechamagic" wasn't restricted to artificial limbs or organs, anyway.

We already have a race of cyborgs, the mostali. Diamond dwarfs may have tool limbs.

What exactly do Gloranthans expect from the term "Machine", anyway? Apart from mostali, few are ever exposed to more complicated mechanisms than siege engines, mill gears or oil presses. One of the earliest Zistorite achievements were scissors.

We know that the Clanking City emanated the noise of metalworks, presumably similar to the sounds you hear near a modern shipyard where steel plates are moved. I would expect stinking exhausts from ore refineries as well as alchemical vats, and vast amounts of soot.

The term "Flesh Machine" creates an imagery of huge, possibly deformed muscles on metal gears and levers. Given the task of computing, I expect both clockwork providing digital progress and analogous calculating devices. Someone being "part machine" rather brings the walled-up mystic parallel to me... only a few limbs and maybe half the face still protruding from the pulsating organs providing the interface to the calculations.

I do like the concept of the Enslaved, but there should be flesh rather than bones... Skeletons are no big deal when you are facing amoral sorcerers.