Murphy's Law 8: College? What About It?

[Hiro Protagonest]

"He who destroys a good book kills reason itself"

(Not sure who said that)

Emphasis on the word "good".

[Lix Lorn]

The destruction of knowledge is abhorrent.

The comic was cool! I liked the storytelling style, and I don't trust rust as far as I could throw tinder.

[Drowlord]

This is a great webcomic. I don't know why I haven't posted before, just lurked.
Newest comic: Hmm. I like the comic well. Don't know if we can blow off Rust quite yet.
Also, Tinder in human or dragon form? Difference there.

[Marnath]

The destruction of knowledge is abhorrent.

The comic was cool! I liked the storytelling style, and I don't trust rust as far as I could throw tinder.

It depends on the knowledge. If there was a dummies guide to torture techniques, without which the knowledge would be lost, you can bet I'd burn it.

[Mutant Sheep]

It depends on the knowledge. If there was a dummies guide to torture techniques, without which the knowledge would be lost, you can bet I'd burn it.

I really need to shut up and let the coherent speakers take over more often.

[Lix Lorn]

It depends on the knowledge. If there was a dummies guide to torture techniques, without which the knowledge would be lost, you can bet I'd burn it.

See, I wouldn't. I'd lock it away.

[Elemental]

It depends on the knowledge. If there was a dummies guide to torture techniques, without which the knowledge would be lost, you can bet I'd burn it.

I would personally be very conflicted.
Do I destroy the book on torture and thus condone the destruction of knowledge, or do I keep the book secure, thus enabling its knowledge to be used against torturers?

[Worlok]

"Where they burn books, they will burn people in the end." ("Dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen." - Heinrich Heine)

Don't interfere with the existence of knowledge, strive to educate the people to make use of it sensibly - So there's the Budding Sadist's Guide to Overtly Creative Information Gathering, and it's the last of its kind? Buy it, put it under glass, let people research it where necessary (History of Law Enforcement springs to mind), and otherwise keep it away from the folks that drown small animals for entertainment. Done. Would be my thoughts on the matter. Also, thanks to the folks in this thread that finally let me find out what a tablet is. And congratulations to having one now, Coffs.

[Mutant Sheep]

"Where they burn books, they will burn people in the end." ("Dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen." - Heinrich Heine)

Don't interfere with the existence of knowledge, strive to educate the people to make use of it sensibly - So there's the Budding Sadist's Guide to Overtly Creative Information Gathering, and it's the last of its kind? Buy it, put it under glass, let people research it where necessary (History of Law Enforcement springs to mind), and otherwise keep it away from the folks that drown small animals for entertainment. Done. Would be my thoughts on the matter. Also, thanks to the folks in this thread that finally let me find out what a tablet is. And congratulations to having one now, Coffs.

I work with the assumption of the books being in this fantasy world, where knowledge is very hard to actually destroy, as evidenced by the whole "have a chat with dead people" thing that can happen. In a magic world, I would definitely have few qualms about destroying a book. Whoever wrote it is likely able to be contacted, and if its an evil artifact or something... those things have a pretty bad record with being kept locked up.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Of course, then the next question is: Why would Isarus and Don, the deities of magic, travel, and knowledge, whose clerics are sometimes called "history keepers" destroy knowledge of this war and what caused it?

[Elemental]

Of course, then the next question is: Why would Isarus and Don, the deities of magic, travel, and knowledge, whose clerics are sometimes called "history keepers" destroy knowledge of this war and what caused it?

Good point. It furthers a theory I've been formulating that the War started before Salblaze died, and that that wasn't the cause.

If we assume that it's an undeniable truth that Rockwell killed Salblaze.
Taking into account that the Plavaan are hardly evil and their gods are unlikely to be as well...
Then we must assume that there was a force capable of turning Salblaze to evil such that Rockwell was forced to slay him to defend himself or his people.
Perhaps Astrid mistakenly woke this force, whatever it was, when she descended to the Mortal World?

[Alagaesian]

In this strip, I find that panels two and five are particularly well-drawn. Panel two does a great job of translating that elf's posture and motion, especially with his cape. You can imagine him walking along, trying to cast a spell, then halting abruptly in surprise as it fizzles before he can even finish.

Panel five also gives this impression of motion, but the slanted perspective is a really nice touch. It makes this valiant charge of so many powerful magicians and (pre?)gods seem that much more epic.

My current theory about this war is that someone/thing has the ability to drain or block the magic in the world. Hence, spells fail when affected by this power. Dragons, whose life forces literally come from magic, are killed. Perhaps there is a loophole in this power that allows its creator/manifester/whatever to still use magic - perhaps it only drains arcana as opposed to divine magic, or maybe it steals all the magic and gives it to the person causing the effect?

Anyways, I think this item/person/effect was initiated by the killing of Salblaze in some way. Maybe the spell/artifact/whatever required the sacrifice of a god to initiate. Rockwell might have accidentally killed Salblaze due to the trickery of whoever masterminded this nonmagic effect, thereby unintentionally allowing this person/thing to start taking over the world and removing all of its magic.

Isarus, Don, and co were able to eventually bring down whoever was running this scheme (it easily could have been Rust, you never know) and tried to burn all knowledge of it to prevent anyone from ever attempting to do it ever again. Unfortunately, the tower stayed behind, keeping a bit of its magic-inhibiting effects.

Rust obviously remembers the war and wants in on the power this ability/spell/object/thingy grants. Maybe he's planning to engulf the continent in war with the intent of causing so much destruction that one of the gods will be forced to come down to Aequar to fix things, manifesting in a vulnerable state. That's when he would spring phase two of his plan - namely, somehow killing this god in their semi-nullified state, initiating his new power.

Obviously, those last few paragraphs are a bunch of wild guesses whose roots are somewhere in the 350mg of caffeine I've consumed tonight. We'll need more concrete information before we can come up with anything other than cool story ideas that don't happen to conflict with the given information.

The real question here is this - where was Astrid during this war? Being a god of good, you'd expect her to be fighting the Big Bad with the rest of Team Good. While I see Isarus and Don there, I don't see Astrid at all. This could very well have taken place when I&D were still mortals, but I'm still extremely curious to know what Astrid was doing at the time. Did she wait to ascend until after the Big Bad was defeated, and if not, did she come back to Aequar to fight at any point? (To quote: "Please Astrid, help us!")

[HalfTangible]

Emphasis on the word "good".

It depends on the knowledge. If there was a dummies guide to torture techniques, without which the knowledge would be lost, you can bet I'd burn it.

This is a VERY dangerous and/or precarious position to adopt. What is 'good' knowledge? Would the be mentally sound but immoral knowledge or moral but stupid knowledge? Would either be good? If you decide to destroy knowledge that only SOUNDS absurd, is that bad? Is a book on proper self-defense bad because it teaches one how to kill, or good because it teaches one how to protect oneself WITHOUT killing?

The thing about the torture book is that torture done poorly is not only ineffective at information gathering, but more damaging to the individual. Destroying a book on torture isn't going to stop torture, and then people will just do it badly. Which just makes torture worse than torture done well because it requires more pain to even have a chance at working and there's no conceivable point where it would end. So the book on proper torture techniques could very well be considered a good thing.

On the other hand, a book on democratic societal organization would be a very bad thing for a stable absolute monarchy because it could cause a country-wide revolt in the name of freedom. Should that book then be burned to prevent widespread anarchy?

I don't give a damn what knowledge you're burning, you DON'T!!!

Of course, then the next question is: Why would Isarus and Don, the deities of magic, travel, and knowledge, whose clerics are sometimes called "history keepers" destroy knowledge of this war and what caused it?

The same reason the goddess of good and light promotes mass genocide through lack of mass paladins falls? IE, gods are flawed too?

[Elemental]

The same reason the goddess of good and light promotes mass genocide through lack of mass paladins falls? IE, gods are flawed too?

Or she's just turned from the world completely and her clerics, etcetera, only worship her ideals...

Also, an example of why I am not a divine being: I would overthrow Kago, destroy all their monuments and temples and sentence their leadership to an eternity in a hellish dimension, where the torture they experience can not be described on these forums.
But, I'd probably end up giving them a reprieve after I've stopped being angry with them.

[Mutant Sheep]

On the other hand, a book on democratic societal organization would be a very bad thing for a stable absolute monarchy because it could cause a country-wide revolt in the name of freedom. Should that book then be burned to prevent widespread anarchy?

I don't give a damn what knowledge you're burning, you DON'T!!!

To use Harry Potter, if all knowledge on Horcruxes was in a series of books, what on earth is the benefit to keeping that book? Why KEEP the evil ancient magic lying around?

[t209]

I think we need to stop putting politics and religion when you are discussing the morality of history records destruction by isarus and don.
P.S- What race is don? Dwarf, Gnome, Mul or a very short human. I know that he is probably dashing swordsman or rogue class.

[HalfTangible]

To use Harry Potter, if all knowledge on Horcruxes was in a series of books, what on earth is the benefit to keeping that book? Why KEEP the evil ancient magic lying around?

1) This is a terrible example because Horcruxes don't actually exist and don't make a whole lot of sense anyway. I mean, for starters, Voldemort is obviously a psychopath, why would killing people tear his soul apart?

2) This is going to sound familiar, but if you get rid of knowledge on Horcruxes only the bad guys who MAKE them will know anything about them. While it's conceivable that, yes, a dark wizard could learn how to create a horcrux from the book, it's EQUALLY conceivable that an ordinary wizard could learn how to destroy a horcrux from the book. Remeber: you couldn't just, say, chuck a horcrux off of a balcony. You needed to pierce it with Basilisk venom or kill the living vessel or something.

Or she's just turned from the world completely and her clerics, etcetera, only worship her ideals...

In that case, why wouldn't paladins fall? If the thing Lloyd is worshipping is the ideal of Astrid, he would have fallen because most people who worship Astrid believe that reading books on other religions is blasphemy, that abandoning Kago's campaign is treason, etc etc? If he was worshipping HIS ideal of astrid, why wouldn't he have fallen upon realizing 'hey, Plavaan bleed red too'

Also, an example of why I am not a divine being: I would overthrow Kago, destroy all their monuments and temples and sentence their leadership to an eternity in a hellish dimension, where the torture they experience can not be described on these forums.
But, I'd probably end up giving them a reprieve after I've stopped being angry with them.

You'd make a terrible god >.> I'd have all of their paladins fall when they, oh, i don't know, DO CRAP PALADINS ARE SUPPOSED TO FALL FOR!! If I was feeling particularly vindictive I'd stop answering clerical prayers for anything but healing spells.

[Mutant Sheep]

1) This is a terrible example because Horcruxes don't actually exist and don't make a whole lot of sense anyway. I mean, for starters, Voldemort is obviously a psychopath, why would killing people tear his soul apart?

2) This is going to sound familiar, but if you get rid of knowledge on Horcruxes only the bad guys who MAKE them will know anything about them. While it's conceivable that, yes, a dark wizard could learn how to create a horcrux from the book, it's EQUALLY conceivable that an ordinary wizard could learn how to destroy a horcrux from the book. Remeber: you couldn't just, say, chuck a horcrux off of a balcony. You needed to pierce it with Basilisk venom or kill the living vessel or something.

Yeah, using Harry Potter was a pretty poor idea. Mostly because well.. portraits. They'd know too. And that's (probably, portraits are just plain CREEPY once you think about them)murder, unless they flee. And then refugee paintings running around...

You'd make a terrible god >.> I'd have all of their paladins fall when they, oh, i don't know, DO CRAP PALADINS ARE SUPPOSED TO FALL FOR!! If I was feeling particularly vindictive I'd stop answering clerical prayers for anything but healing spells.

I'd try to just manifest and maybe go all Batman for a bit.

...What? A god needs to have some fun too. I'd probably punch a few more people in the face than Batman ever has, but still.

[Elemental]

In that case, why wouldn't paladins fall? If the thing Lloyd is worshipping is the ideal of Astrid, he would have fallen because most people who worship Astrid believe that reading books on other religions is blasphemy, that abandoning Kago's campaign is treason, etc etc? If he was worshipping HIS ideal of astrid, why wouldn't he have fallen upon realizing 'hey, Plavaan bleed red too'

Well, when he was attacking them, he believed he was following the path of righteousness. But then he realised his mistake and changed to be a better person.
Paladins are people too, and as such, they're not expected to be perfect.

You'd make a terrible god >.> I'd have all of their paladins fall when they, oh, i don't know, DO CRAP PALADINS ARE SUPPOSED TO FALL FOR!! If I was feeling particularly vindictive I'd stop answering clerical prayers for anything but healing spells.

Yes. Yes I would. But anyway... Even if they didn't have paladins, they'd just send out ordinary soldiers. Who get extra feats. Which they don't lose when they do evil.
Damn fighters and their lack of alignment restriction...

[t209]

The same reason the goddess of good and light promotes mass genocide through lack of mass paladins falls? IE, gods are flawed too?

or leaving the paldins to do chaotic good things (like Llyod's Desertion from Kago's army)

[super dark33]

I have a theory about the tower of blackness:

See my signature?
there is a pony there.
on its right buttcheek, there is a mark.
it is this star-thing.

This is the symbol of the dark masters, all of theyr personal symbols connect to form the star.
I think, that whatever is in the tower, its an acolyte of the masters, or one of the five masters.

you probably never heard of them.

[t209]

Just asking, how many of yours (Your Homebrew world) or Other D&D Universe had half hobgoblins? Traditionally, you can't get Half Hobgoblins and other universe (especially YAFGC) shows that Hobgoblin and Human only produce Hobgoblin (No genetically Half).

[CoffeeIncluded]

I'm working on the comic now, it should be up by tomorrow, Monday at the latest. Then production should speed up a touch.

(In case anyone's curious, I listen to video game soundtracks on long loops while working on the comic. For this one I'm listening to the Tales of Vesperia soundtrack.)

[CoffeeIncluded]

Comic time, guys!

#188: Who Won't?

[Lix Lorn]

Oh god. That can't be good. xD

[Mutant Sheep]

What is this? A comic BEFORE your "probably tomorrow"? THE END IS HERE, MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS! COFFEE'S TABLET BRINGS FORTH DOOM!
And nice touch with the bunch of quaking magicians and (seemingly KO'd or dead") main character. (I'm talking about the cat, not Serrin. GOSH. Follow the STORY!:P)

[t209]

Loling at the "No arcane can make elf as a pointy eared people" reference on Serini though. But still sorry serini, your mixed heritage will suck even more without magic.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Oh god. That can't be good. xD

Elaborate please.

[t209]

Elaborate please.

I think he meant it as Rust manage to fool The Kagoan into invading Laria and will probably tap into the power of the ruin (He already contacted with a person who had two things he need, probably the two orphans in Laria).

[Marnath]

He's totally planning to turn it on himself when the Kagoan's are right next to it.