Basically I like it - great joke - for its' basic function it would be worth a 4
However, as Agar suggested, the fact that it cannot be cut makes it a little too powerful - one indestructible shield coming up - for this reason it gets downgraded to 3
"What is unknown to the librarians however, is that if any question is asked to this orb, the orb will respond..."
Hmmm.... now, wouldn't someone sooner or later try to ask a different question, just for fun or by mistake? If it is there for hundreds of years, that is bound to happen. Another reason why it is kept secure by the librarians. Go to Comment
I never saw Corvus as civic minded. He is about as civic minded as your average adventurer, that is to say... not much. But who knows... maybe when he was sane.
The only problem with said orb is that it has to be publically known, so it will be a target for light fingered adventurers, Evils in need, or politicals who would limit who would have access to it. If it is tucked in the reference librarian's office, you could ask the librarian... he toddles off to his office... toddles back ten minutes later with an appropriate riddle.
Just thoughts... It is your fan fic after all. Go to Comment
One of the little flaws in this sub. Perhaps if The Library is associated with the The Royal Geographical Order and some Tinkers' Order, these things can be tested.
It does the organizational aspects the same way monks and scholars did since Greek times, Logic. As for fact and lore, until scientific rigor became the vogue, there was just sources of various qualities - some more respected than others.
Remember, this is on a pre-industrial age world (like most fantasies are), thus we can not apply Industrial, Modern, and Post-Modern filters to them.
As for your question, whom in the 12th or 13th century would ask that? Now if the world was that sophisticated, its data and sources would be better. Go to Comment
Actually no. It avoids deconstructionist implications (technically a modern ideal).
That aside, consider the globes as having "the sum of all socities' knowledge". This includes knowledge from "lost civilizations" and civilizations in other parts of the world unknown to the local peoples (getting knowledge from the Orbs that have been Vooped See Warmer aka Garnar'hklorrrathhhh ). It will not know the specifics of most peoples lives (Did Joanie marry Chachi?), but it will know a great deal about everything. (It might know where to find the marriage records for that town and time though,) Now if you are trying to use it to extend beyond the boundries of knowledge, it won't have the answer.
It might have a good guess. However, that is not its style.
I do know that the person who asked said question will have a burning desire to find the answer. (I.E. the orb will tweak their mind slightly and/ or tweak someone who will work for them, to find the answers.) Go to Comment
Actually in this case, I can write definitively on the thoughts of the Author. I talked with him often. He wanted to do a "fan piece" off one of my subs, which he didn't need my permission to do but that is another issue. He did this submission after checking a number of things with me. Otherwise I would not of posted in such an authorative way. If you want to post a question to his PM, he still shows up once every few months. Go to Comment
We really need to take the philosophical conversation offline, into PM or something. We are cluttering the poor post and not much adding to it. Go to Comment
Good thoughts :) I had thought that to the public, the orb was just like an index book which people can publically access to find books. Actually I like the idea of asking the librarian. How about looking at it from a different perspective:
A sage is reknowned for giving riddles which will always give the correct answer to a question asked to the sage. You must pay the sage, then leave the room for ten minutes while he 'speaks to the spirits'. Ten minutes later, he comes back, magically knowing an answer. But what if a thief is in your party who just happens to snoop around the sages office? "Oooh, whats this ball?"
With the lightfingered thieves - the ball is fused to the library and the stand - it would take powerful magic to defuse it. And as I now see I neglected to mention: like the glow-orbs, it is completely useless outside the walls of the library - it stops answering anything. Go to Comment
I like this one, it is clear, well written and would be central to any number of plots. However it does require you to accept the conceit that nobody in the library has found its true nature yet. The more I read of the Corvus setting the more I enjoy it. It has as very classic style to it. But again there are questions. This Orb is just a knowledge sponge, not a scientist. If it tests not knowledge and performs no empirical studies of things how does it organize and rank the knowledge? How does it seperate fact from lore etc?
So if I ask the Orb "Does prolactin passed through the breast milk effect thymus development in young males?" How will it answer. Go to Comment
weren't you asking that we seek meaning or at least find our standard for meaning and thus reality in a contextual light (i.e. within a fantasy setting)?
can you answer question about his post definitively even though you didn't write and thus may not understand the vision of its creator?
Can you explain how Derrida would have approached the question of what it means to know something, and would his definition be different if the subject he was describing existed in different periods of popular thought (he actually dealt with I believe)?
at any rate, i dig that the it is just a ball of limited knowledge, not a ball of truth. Go to Comment
Items (Books and Scrolls) (Magical)