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  1. - Top - End - #31
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    Default Re: Alex Verus #1: Fated

    Congrats :)

    Just a quick Question i tend not to buy books just download them on the ipad, do i have a chance of getting them on there?

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    Default Re: Alex Verus #1: Fated

    Quote Originally Posted by maratek View Post
    Congrats :)

    Just a quick Question i tend not to buy books just download them on the ipad, do i have a chance of getting them on there?
    Yep, all the books are being released in ebook format as well as paper.
    I'm the author of the Alex Verus series of urban fantasy novels. Fated is the first, and the final book in the series, Risen, is out as of December 2021. For updates, check my blog!

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    Default Re: Alex Verus #1: Fated

    Next entry in the Encyclopaedia Arcana is up: Normals, Sensitives, and Adepts.

    In other news, finished the email correspondence with Jim Butcher. It was REALLY fun. :) I've got the emails compiled, but I'm waiting on my US publicist to finish his edited version first.

    I'm off to the SFX Weekender in North Wales tomorrow, so I'll be gone until the end of the weekend.
    I'm the author of the Alex Verus series of urban fantasy novels. Fated is the first, and the final book in the series, Risen, is out as of December 2021. For updates, check my blog!

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    Default Re: Alex Verus #1: Fated

    Interesting, though it raises some questions.

    Assuming your world is roughly equivalent to the real world with the exception of magic, a 10 to 1 ratio feels pretty solid for normal-to-sensitive, but the numbers feel like they fall apart after that. As it stands, you'd end up with over 7 million mages across the globe and 70 million adepts (assuming ~7 billion world population). Unless I've got an incorrect view on the world (I'm comparing it roughly to the Dresden'verse), that seems like an excessive amount of both categories (77 million people capable of utilizing magic to some degree!). From what I've read thus far, I was under the impression that the numbers would be closer to 70,000 mages world wide and 700,000 adepts.

    1 Mage
    10 Adepts
    10,000 Sensitives
    100,000 Normals

    Or only 0.001% of the population are mages.

    On a non-numbers topic, but continuing the Dresden'verse comparisons, would Agent Tilly from Changes be considered a Sensitive or an Adept? What about The Alphas?

    Don't let my nitpicking dissuade you, I'm very much enjoying the updates (and that you're keeping this thread updated), and I can't wait to read the book and the emails with Butcher!

  5. - Top - End - #35
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    Default Re: Alex Verus #1: Fated

    Quote Originally Posted by MammonAzrael View Post
    Assuming your world is roughly equivalent to the real world with the exception of magic, a 10 to 1 ratio feels pretty solid for normal-to-sensitive, but the numbers feel like they fall apart after that. As it stands, you'd end up with over 7 million mages across the globe and 70 million adepts (assuming ~7 billion world population). Unless I've got an incorrect view on the world (I'm comparing it roughly to the Dresden'verse), that seems like an excessive amount of both categories (77 million people capable of utilizing magic to some degree!).
    Bear in mind, though, that a good number of adepts don't really know the nature of their powers. From the Chapter 1 excerpt:

    Spoiler
    Show
    Above the sensitives on the magical pecking order are the adepts. These guys are only one percent or so, but unlike sensitives they can actually channel magic in a subtle way. Often it’s so subtle they don’t even know they’re doing it; they might be ‘lucky’ at cards, or very good at ‘guessing’ what’s on another person’s mind, but it’s mild enough that they just think they’re born lucky or perceptive. But sometimes they figure out what they’re doing and start developing it, and some of these guys can get pretty impressive within their specific field.


    ---

    Okay, so another question for Saph: In the Encyclopaedia, you mention that magic is a reflection of your inner self, and that changing your magic would require changing your entire personality. Is the "changing your personality" thing meant to be mostly sarcastic, or does that happen with the normal passage of time? Say a mage is an idealistic revolutionary at age 23 and a bitter cynic at age 65*. Does he cast entirely different spells at 23 and 65 (leaving aside the differences from practice)? Does the mere potential for change mean that he always has a list of spells that could be interpreted as fitting either personality? Or is there some sort of self-reinforcing loop, where revolutionary idealism makes you an X mage and casting X spells gives you revolutionary idealistic feelings? None of the above?
    Quote Originally Posted by Winterwind View Post
    Mewtarthio, you have scared my brain into hiding, a trembling, broken shadow of a thing, cowering somewhere in the soothing darkness and singing nursery rhymes in the hope of obscuring the Lovecraftian facts you so boldly brought into daylight.

  6. - Top - End - #36
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    Default Re: Alex Verus #1: Fated

    Quote Originally Posted by Mewtarthio View Post
    Bear in mind, though, that a good number of adepts don't really know the nature of their powers. From the Chapter 1 excerpt:
    Fair enough, at least on the Adept level. But 7 million mages in the world still feels like an awfully high number, given how they've been portrayed thus far. Admittedly this portrayal could be slightly skewed by the fact that Alex happens to be one of the rarest types of mages out there.

  7. - Top - End - #37
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    Default Re: Alex Verus #1: Fated

    Whew, just got back from the SFX Weekender convention. Was fun!

    Quote Originally Posted by MammonAzrael View Post
    Interesting, though it raises some questions.

    Assuming your world is roughly equivalent to the real world with the exception of magic, a 10 to 1 ratio feels pretty solid for normal-to-sensitive, but the numbers feel like they fall apart after that. As it stands, you'd end up with over 7 million mages across the globe and 70 million adepts (assuming ~7 billion world population). Unless I've got an incorrect view on the world (I'm comparing it roughly to the Dresden'verse), that seems like an excessive amount of both categories (77 million people capable of utilizing magic to some degree!). From what I've read thus far, I was under the impression that the numbers would be closer to 70,000 mages world wide and 700,000 adepts.

    1 Mage
    10 Adepts
    10,000 Sensitives
    100,000 Normals

    Or only 0.001% of the population are mages.
    Now that's interesting. So you think a more appropriate number would be a 1000-fold dropoff between the sensitive/adept layer, rather than 10-fold? Why do you think that would work better?

    Quote Originally Posted by MammonAzrael View Post
    On a non-numbers topic, but continuing the Dresden'verse comparisons, would Agent Tilly from Changes be considered a Sensitive or an Adept? What about The Alphas?
    They're both pretty much perfect examples of adepts - at least from my memory of them. If I remember right, Tilly's particular trick was being able to tell if someone was lying to him, which is exactly the sort of thing I had in mind for adepts in general.

    Quote Originally Posted by MammonAzrael View Post
    Don't let my nitpicking dissuade you, I'm very much enjoying the updates (and that you're keeping this thread updated), and I can't wait to read the book and the emails with Butcher!
    No problem! I never know how many people are reading these Encyclopaedia entries, so it's really nice to get thoughtful responses.

    Quote Originally Posted by Mewtarthio View Post
    Okay, so another question for Saph: In the Encyclopaedia, you mention that magic is a reflection of your inner self, and that changing your magic would require changing your entire personality. Is the "changing your personality" thing meant to be mostly sarcastic, or does that happen with the normal passage of time? Say a mage is an idealistic revolutionary at age 23 and a bitter cynic at age 65*. Does he cast entirely different spells at 23 and 65 (leaving aside the differences from practice)? Does the mere potential for change mean that he always has a list of spells that could be interpreted as fitting either personality? Or is there some sort of self-reinforcing loop, where revolutionary idealism makes you an X mage and casting X spells gives you revolutionary idealistic feelings? None of the above?
    The second one is closest. It isn't something I've written down yet, but the idea is that magic has positive feedback on the user's personality in pretty much the way you describe, so mages tend to stabilize at a certain point on the spectrum.

    Magic does change over time to match the user's personality, but there's a difference between a natural evolution and a complete personality overhaul. Your example of idealist to cynic is more of an evolution - you'd still use the same general type of magic, you'd just lean towards different aspects of it. Actually changing your personality on a fundamental enough level to use a different type of magic would mean changing yourself so much that other people would have difficulty recognising you as the same person.
    Last edited by Saph; 2012-02-05 at 12:49 PM.
    I'm the author of the Alex Verus series of urban fantasy novels. Fated is the first, and the final book in the series, Risen, is out as of December 2021. For updates, check my blog!

  8. - Top - End - #38
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    Default Re: Alex Verus #1: Fated

    Quote Originally Posted by Saph View Post
    Now that's interesting. So you think a more appropriate number would be a 1000-fold dropoff between the sensitive/adept layer, rather than 10-fold? Why do you think that would work better?
    Despite Alex stating that mages aren't as rare as you might think, having ~7 million of them on the planet seems like an awful lot. And then 70 million people on top of that capable of magic (even if they don't realize they're doing it) makes it seems like it'd be difficult for the world at large to not grasp that something wonky is going on. Particularly sense most adepts would likely rise to prominent positions in their fields given their unique advantages (think of the Hollywood exposure!). If 1 in every hundred people were capable of magic, it just feels to me like it'd be a lot more noticeable, especially since 1 in 10 people (at least) would notice it and not dismiss it. And since magic stems from personality, there is very little chance that adepts wouldn't tap into their magical ability in their daily life, much less have it go completely undiscovered.

    Then numbers I posted above were a complete eyeball, based on what just felt like a better chance of being rare and remaining hidden. I can completely see 1 in 10 people being sensitive or open to magical forces. I could even see 1 in 5. But the step from being open to magic to actually being capable of it...it seems like there should be a large gap between the two for magic to remain hidden from humanity at large.

    I don't know what ratios you're working with, but the impression I got was something like:

    60-75% elemental mages
    24-30% living mages
    1-10% universal mages

    Alex lists off 3 other diviners close enough to London for the Council to tap (and being cut off, I would assume the full list is between 6-12 people total). It seems like Brittan would be a natural congregation point for mages, given it's history and it housing the Council. So if there is 1 diviner in say every 200 mages, and given the size of Alex's list there would be maybe several hundred diviners in the world. Say 300 diviners total, multiplied by 200 for a total of 60,000 mages worldwide.

    Obviously these ratios are just from the impressions I got, but this is essentially an in depth thinking-through of my gut reaction to why the ratios presented in Arcana #4 seemed off.

    Now ratios can be tweaked and changed (and the ones presented above are obviously just my own general guess-work based off initial impressions and a single chapter), and ultimately it may not even matter very much, if at all, to the story. But when it's boiled down, 1 in 1,000 people just didn't seem all that spectacularly rare to me. With 1 in 100 being magic-capable, it feels pretty unlikely that the world wouldn't be generally aware of it's reality, as the sensitives would have too much evidence for the normals to convince them magic isn't real.

    I'd be happy to talk about this more if you want, but hopefully that was clear enough to give you an idea of where I was coming from!

    Quote Originally Posted by Saph View Post
    They're both pretty much perfect examples of adepts - at least from my memory of them. If I remember right, Tilly's particular trick was being able to tell if someone was lying to him, which is exactly the sort of thing I had in mind for adepts in general.
    Yes, Tilly's trick was being a lie detector. The reason I asked about the two was because I could see them both being adepts (with Tilly obviously being in the not-aware-of-what-I'm-doing camp), but the complexity of the two magics seems very different (telling lies from turning into a werewolf). So it sounds like adepts can have a singular magic, and that magic can range from fairly simple to complex, as long as it's a singular spell.

  9. - Top - End - #39
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    Default Re: Alex Verus #1: Fated

    Quote Originally Posted by MammonAzrael View Post
    Obviously these ratios are just from the impressions I got, but this is essentially an in depth thinking-through of my gut reaction to why the ratios presented in Arcana #4 seemed off.
    Huh. That's a very impressive analysis.

    I'm going to have to think about this, but my initial reaction is that you're right and that the ratio I was using is too high.

    Since you've done such a thorough job on it, I hope you don't mind if I enlist your help in coming up with a better figure. Here's some extra information which I haven't written down up to this point.

    The first mistake (which I'm going to have to correct) is that the numbers I was using shouldn't be referring to the active population: they should be referring to ability at birth (or, if not birth, the point at which magical ability develops, which is the subject of another article later). So out of the fraction of potential mages, the majority get whittled down by:

    Death: This is something that I haven't openly stated but which is kind of implied in the books - mages and adepts have a much higher rate of violent death and/or insanity than normal people. In particular, many die young due to being preyed upon by older mages or apprentices.

    Quitting: Largely as a result of this, a lot of potential mages and apprentices make a conscious decision to abandon their talents and shut themselves off from the magical world. Less chance of madness and a higher life expectancy.

    Quiet Lives: Mages who don't want to take the previous option but don't want to be at risk of the first option usually choose to lead low-profile lifestyles. They don't get involved in magical politics or conflicts, avoid drawing attention to themselves, and generally make it hard for people to identify that they're mages at all.

    I haven't worked out exactly what fraction of potential mages fall at one of those hurdles, but my first guess is that it's around 10:1. So the ratio of potential mages to normals would have to be higher than 1:100,000 to support the death/dropout/quitting rate.

    The ratio of diviners to other mages . . . hmm. I haven't decided on it for sure, but your guess of 0.5% isn't a bad one. I'd say somewhere between 0.1% and 1%.
    I'm the author of the Alex Verus series of urban fantasy novels. Fated is the first, and the final book in the series, Risen, is out as of December 2021. For updates, check my blog!

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    Default Re: Alex Verus #1: Fated

    I'm more than happy to help. Here are some thoughts I've got thus far:

    • Death: So perhaps 1 in 10-15 mages die/go insane as babies/when their talent manifests/etc. This would be high enough to be a serious concern and allow you to increase the commonality of mages by an order of magnitude. This would probably have a fairly well-defined time span (modified by exposure to magic and if the mage has help or is discovering magic solo), after which it is generally assumed that mages have enough control/maturity to not kill themselves or go nuts. Mages that go insane from other things (mundane to harrowing experiences) do not fall into this category.
    • Quitting: Given that magic is tied directly to the personality of mages, I would assume that early death and madness is a far higher likelihood than cutting themselves off from their magic, for your universe in particular. I would think the most rare of reasons. Unlike the Dresden'verse where magic is more accessible (think of Charity) magic in Verus'verse is much more personal - what you're capable of supports and reinforces who you are. Quitting that wholesale is probably a very unusual event. In fact it may represent such a personality shift that their magical abilities shift to reinforce their desire to be cut off from magic, say by dampening other magics.
    • Quiet Lives: I would guess that most mages fall into this category. Most just want to live their lives, not get mixed up in international magic politics or devote themselves to magic enough to become prominent experts. Instead they likely live like normal people, using their gifts to augment their normal living. From the neighborhood mom who works as a nurse to the highly successful pimp downtown, they live like pretty normal people, just exceptional. These are bread and butter mages, not who a story would focus on. I would estimate that 50-90% of mages fall into this to some degree.


    Adepts are, for the most part, not going to suffer these effects, as their extreme focus should seem very normal to them as it only reinforces who they are (and has likely helped define them). So to keep a logical balance between adepts and mages, adepts should likely be about two orders of magnitude more common than mages after the above issues are weeded out. Pretty sure that's just wrong math there.

    The way I see people like Alex is that they're the experts, the professionals. So say they played sports instead of casting magic. Alex, Lyle and so on all play in the pro league. There are Micheal Jordans out there, but everyone is good enough to make it their life. People leading the "quiet life" are people who've played sports, but just aren't dedicated to it like pros.

    It seems like the divisions between the three families of magic is a lot more sharply defined that the divisions inside those families. So the ratios of specific magi is probably something that can remain fairly vague (given that no two diviners will be capable of the same things, despite sharing the same general classification).

    I could keep going on with random thoughts, but I suspect more directions would probably be better. I've typed 5 different questions but none of them have seemed right! Hmm...things to figure out:

    • Ratio of normals-sensitives-adepts-mages
    • Mortality rate of developing mages
    • Percent of mages that take an active part in the magical world (aka pro sportsmen)
    • Ratio of the three magic families


    Let's work with the population of London at ~7.8 million people. For the sake of establishing ratios, for now lets ignore the fact that large metropolitan areas, and London in particular, likely have a higher concentration of magic-users due to history and government.

    Ratio of normals-sensitives-adepts-mages
    • The normals is a pretty obvious number, no work needed there.
    • 10% of the population being sensitive to magic seems just fine - plenty of people believe in magic as it stands, so this wouldn't affect the "normal" part of Verus'verse all that much.
    • How many people in London would likely be adepts? Using my ratios above, there would be 1 in 10,000, or ~780 adepts in London. This would mean that you'd have a decent chance of having met at least 1 adept, but it wouldn't be uncommon for you to not know any. Moving it to 1 in 1,000 means there would be a solid-to-good chance that you know at least one person that is an adept. Using your initial figures of 100 to 1 pretty much guarantees that you (as a random normal) know multiple adepts, as London would be populated with 78 thousand adepts.
    • How many people in London would likely be mages? Starting with your initial ratios and figuring in the estimated 10% loss, there would be roughly 7,000 mages living in London (including children and elderly). So roughly 1 in 1100 people is a mage, meaning John Smith is likely to have met at least one. Stepping up in rarity to the middle ground of 700 mages in all of London means that you may have met a mage, but the chances of knowing one is on the lower side of things. Personally I could see 700 mages living in London but only if the location is factored in (though it still feels high). Reducing to my initial ratio theory, we'd get ~70 mages in all of London, making the chances of knowing one pretty low.


    Mortality rate of developing mages
    Your initial suggestion is 10% of mages don't make it into adulthood. This seems like a solid jumping off point. It's certainly dangerous, but not enough to majorly affect things. You could exagerate this significantly if you wanted unguided maglings to have a lower chance of survival. It could even be something like a +50% mortality rate for solo maglings, particularly if the normal-to-mage ratio is high enough.

    Percent of mages that take an active part in the magical world (aka pro sportsmen)
    Presumably a low number, 5-20%. Most people are just going to want to live their lives. And the cream of the crop needs to rest of the crop to be a large majority to really stand out anyways.

    Ratio of the three magic families
    Totally up to you, and by far the easiest for you to just decide.
    Last edited by MammonAzrael; 2012-02-05 at 07:28 PM.

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    Default Re: Alex Verus #1: Fated

    Okay, had a chance to think about it some.

    Looking at the numbers you're putting out, my initial inclination is to put the rarity of adepts and mages at about one order of magnitude higher than the initial numbers: so 1 mage to 10 adepts to 1,000 sensitives to 10,000 normals.

    However, these numbers for adepts and mages represent potential rather than the actual fraction of the population. For mages, my current thoughts are that out of every 10, somewhere between 8 and 9 die prematurely (mostly at the hands of other mages), quit, or live quiet lives (which makes them functionally indistinguishable from non-mages unless you go digging into it).

    So going with the population of London as 8 million (rounding up) that gives roughly 80 practising, active, and involved mages and 8,000 adepts. The adept number seems too high at first glance, but that does include ones who have weak/useless abilities or who never particularly develop their powers. Haven't decided on those ratios, as most of the series so far has focused on mages rather than adepts (though the new book I'm planning at the moment is going to deal with them a bit more).

    With regard to the ratio of the magic families, I was thinking somewhere in the neighborhood of 55%-60% elemental, 30% living, and either 10% or 15% universal.
    I'm the author of the Alex Verus series of urban fantasy novels. Fated is the first, and the final book in the series, Risen, is out as of December 2021. For updates, check my blog!

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    Default Re: Alex Verus #1: Fated

    Those numbers feel a lot better. Particularly once you factor in the fact that only 10% of mages are involved and active members of the magical community.

    I'd suggest figuring out how many of those 9 out of 10 mages actually died instead of just leading "normal" lives, as that could certainly be relevant at some point.

    What percentage of adepts actually focus and hone their gift? For simplicities sake I would guess roughly the same percentage as active mages, with even less realizing their gift is actually magic.

    The number of adepts you have doesn't seem too large at all, considering that a lot of them probably never discover their singular ability. I mean, someone could be very good at calming rage and anger, and they happen to have the magical ability to consume fire like food - when would they ever discover that?

    As for the magic families, I'd go with ~55-30-15%, or in factions 3/6, 2/6, and 1/6.

    On a different note, are the articles in the Encyclopedia Arcana being presented by someone in-universe, or are being presented from your omniscient author point of view? Because if these articles are being presented from in-universe (say by a legendary book or scholarly mage) then you've got some wiggle room as they could be slightly misinformed about how things work. But if you're presenting these articles yourself, then the information presented is 100% certifiably correct.

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    Default Re: Alex Verus #1: Fated

    Quote Originally Posted by MammonAzrael View Post
    Those numbers feel a lot better. Particularly once you factor in the fact that only 10% of mages are involved and active members of the magical community.

    I'd suggest figuring out how many of those 9 out of 10 mages actually died instead of just leading "normal" lives, as that could certainly be relevant at some point.
    True. I'll think on it.

    Quote Originally Posted by MammonAzrael View Post
    On a different note, are the articles in the Encyclopedia Arcana being presented by someone in-universe, or are being presented from your omniscient author point of view? Because if these articles are being presented from in-universe (say by a legendary book or scholarly mage) then you've got some wiggle room as they could be slightly misinformed about how things work. But if you're presenting these articles yourself, then the information presented is 100% certifiably correct.
    Sort of a mix between the two. It's intended as info I present myself, but it takes its name from a reference book in the universe. I think in this case I'll just edit the article once I've finalised the numbers.
    I'm the author of the Alex Verus series of urban fantasy novels. Fated is the first, and the final book in the series, Risen, is out as of December 2021. For updates, check my blog!

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    Default Re: Alex Verus #1: Fated

    Encyclopaedia Arcana #5 is up, with an introduction to the main power bloc in mage society, the Light mages.

    Edited version of the conversation with Jim Butcher is finished! It's looking at the moment as though it'll be hosted by Barnes & Noble rather than Amazon, so we're just waiting for them to post it. I'll put up a link as soon as they do.
    I'm the author of the Alex Verus series of urban fantasy novels. Fated is the first, and the final book in the series, Risen, is out as of December 2021. For updates, check my blog!

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    Default Re: Alex Verus #1: Fated

    Firstly on entry 4, the numbers look a lot better now. I notice you tuned things down even at the sensitive level; with only 1% of the population being sensitive, it's very feasible that magic hasn't been unveiled by humanity at large, even with our current level of connectivity.

    As for entry 5, I don't have much to say, It's a solid, informative piece. it might be worth making a note that the Light Mages are the one who invented the terminology of Light and Dark, and while the labels aren't equivalent to good/evil, Light Mages (and the Council particularly) is quite willing to push the implication that Light=good and Dark=bad anyways. Yay politics!

    Perhaps the largest question I have is "Why is the Council located in Britain?" It's not a question that needs to (or even should) be answered by this entry, but it's certainly something that should have a significant historical answer.

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    Default Re: Alex Verus #1: Fated

    Yep, the sensitive fraction was suggested by a friend for pretty much that exact reason - it made things more plausible.

    Regarding the Council, it's in Britain because that's what it rules. :) This is one area where I've done things differently from the Dresden Files - mage government is mostly done on a national rather than an international level.
    I'm the author of the Alex Verus series of urban fantasy novels. Fated is the first, and the final book in the series, Risen, is out as of December 2021. For updates, check my blog!

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    Default Re: Alex Verus #1: Fated

    Quote Originally Posted by Saph View Post
    Yep, the sensitive fraction was suggested by a friend for pretty much that exact reason - it made things more plausible.

    Regarding the Council, it's in Britain because that's what it rules. :) This is one area where I've done things differently from the Dresden Files - mage government is mostly done on a national rather than an international level.
    Ahh. Well that makes perfect sense then. The only thing I'd suggest is making that more obvious then, as it doesn't come across, at least in the entry. I assumed it was a world-wide governing body, not one nationally bound. Does that mean that Light/Dark terminology is generally exclusive to Brittish/Western mages, or are they universal terms?

    On the note of national government, I would think that given the population most governing bodies would include more than a single country. For Britain it makes sense, given the history of the country and its connections to magic and myth, but particularly as you moved eastward I would assume that various ruling bodies would follow older boarders, rather than current ones.

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    Default Re: Alex Verus #1: Fated

    Encyclopaedia Arcana #6 is posted, introducing the Dark mages.

    I also did a guest blog for a review website called the Qwillery on the subject of the limits magic should have in a story (as opposed to balance-wise in a game!)

    Finally, I'm going to be signing copies of Fated in an early release on Thursday Feb 23rd at Forbidden Planet, 6pm-7pm. If you're in London at the time, drop by!
    I'm the author of the Alex Verus series of urban fantasy novels. Fated is the first, and the final book in the series, Risen, is out as of December 2021. For updates, check my blog!

  19. - Top - End - #49
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    Default Re: Alex Verus #1: Fated

    Like entry 5, entry 6 is a solid piece of of information. Perhaps the best tidbit of knowledge I gleaned was the part detailing the average size of Dark households and cabals.

    It does raise my interest in the Great Rune War. While it happened decades ago and thus you probably aren't planning on dedicating a book (or even a significant chuck of time) to it, it seems like a great part of history to receive an Arcana entry. Was the GRW tied to a modern war, like WW1 or 2 (or a smaller war), or was it independent, fought largely without the general populace's knowledge? Was it confined to Britain, or did it encompass multiple countries?

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    Default Re: Alex Verus #1: Fated

    It's a good question, and so far I only have a vague set of answers.

    I designed the world of the Alex Verus setting with an "inside out" approach - I started with Alex and what he could do and the people and creatures he was in contact with, and built outwards. So the degree to which I've developed each elements of the world is directly proportional to how close they are to the events of the story.

    One of the reasons for the Encyclopaedia entries is to give me a structure for building up the world myself. In some of these cases I'm writing down stuff I've had planned for a long time, but as the articles go on I'm likely to be making up new material more and more often.
    I'm the author of the Alex Verus series of urban fantasy novels. Fated is the first, and the final book in the series, Risen, is out as of December 2021. For updates, check my blog!

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    Default Re: Alex Verus #1: Fated

    Next Arcana article is up, this one the first of a two-parter: Divination magic.

    Did an early release and signing at Forbidden Planet (the big London genre/fantasy/SF shop) yesterday. It was lots of fun, and I ended up selling a surprising amount of copies, which cheered me up a lot. :)

    Fated is coming out in a few days! US release date is the 28th February, and UK release date is 1st March.
    I'm the author of the Alex Verus series of urban fantasy novels. Fated is the first, and the final book in the series, Risen, is out as of December 2021. For updates, check my blog!

  22. - Top - End - #52
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    Default Re: Alex Verus #1: Fated

    The big local book shop should be getting Fated in next week. Will try to pick up a copy.

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    Default Re: Alex Verus #1: Fated

    Oooh, I'm a big fan of the Dresden Files; I'll definitely take a look.

    Actually, I have a question, seeing as you're a published author and all: I recently read all of the Dresden Files books to date by taking them out of the library (like, legitimately walked to a brick-and-mortar building, checked them out on my library card, read them, returned them), and I was wondering: how does that sort of thing affect authors? I mean, obviously libraries are 'legit' compared to illegal downloading or something (which I would not do), but the effect ends up being the same, no?

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    Default Re: Alex Verus #1: Fated

    So couldn't sleep, and started reading the encyclopaedia entries. Now I am very interested in your book :smallsmile.

    A note, however: You mention in part 2 that:
    That said, their way of solving that problem is unlikely to be subtle. Elemental magic is usually very obvious and attracts a lot of attention. Keep getting straight flushes in a poker game and you’ll get some funny looks, but most people won’t think you’re using magic – they’ll think you’re cheating. Go flying down the high street and you’ll get quite a different reaction.
    However in part 4 you mention the following about normals:
    and if they see a mage using their powers they’ll assume it’s a trick
    So if a mage flies down the street, will it just look like a trick (as suggested in part 4), or will most people think you are using magic (as suggested in part 2)?

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    Default Re: Alex Verus #1: Fated

    Quote Originally Posted by Gralamin View Post
    So if a mage flies down the street, will it just look like a trick (as suggested in part 4), or will most people think you are using magic (as suggested in part 2)?
    Not quite contradictory, but more of a question of timing. If you saw someone randomly flying down the street, what would your thoughts be? You might have an initial reaction of thinking "What the hell?!" and magic, but unless that flight and further magical events are shoved in your face, aren't you more likely to eventually dismiss it as some weird fluke or trick? We, and all normals in the Verus'verse, know that magic doesn't actually exist. Take the loup-garou incident in Fool Moon (I'm assuming you've read the Dresden Files) - even though it was recorded on cameras in a police station, it was dismissed as a hoax.

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    Default Re: Alex Verus #1: Fated

    Quote Originally Posted by Gralamin View Post
    So if a mage flies down the street, will it just look like a trick (as suggested in part 4), or will most people think you are using magic (as suggested in part 2)?
    Mostly, the first, but the small minority who are the second are the ones who are going to cause trouble for you. There are quite a few reasons why being subtle is an advantage for mages, and they're scheduled to go up on the Encyclopaedia Arcana articles over the next few weeks.

    Glad you're interested in the books, by the way!
    I'm the author of the Alex Verus series of urban fantasy novels. Fated is the first, and the final book in the series, Risen, is out as of December 2021. For updates, check my blog!

  27. - Top - End - #57
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    Default Re: Alex Verus #1: Fated

    Quote Originally Posted by Saph View Post
    Mostly, the first, but the small minority who are the second are the ones who are going to cause trouble for you. There are quite a few reasons why being subtle is an advantage for mages, and they're scheduled to go up on the Encyclopaedia Arcana articles over the next few weeks.

    Glad you're interested in the books, by the way!
    Ah, so it is both. That is what I suspected, but its good to be hear.


    Quote Originally Posted by MammonAzrael View Post
    (I'm assuming you've read the Dresden Files)
    I actually have not yet. Its on my rather long to read list (This happens when I re-read all of discworld...). So I probably will have in ~2 to 3 months. Which means I will probably end up reading Saph's book in like, September, but hey, it happens.

  28. - Top - End - #58
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    Default Re: Alex Verus #1: Fated

    Fated is released in the US today!

    Here's the cover (which I think is awesome):

    Spoiler
    Show

    I started writing Fated in 2008. In 2009 I started getting interest from Orbit, in 2010 I rewrote it and got it signed by Orbit and then Ace, in 2011 I was talking about titles here on this forum, and now in 2012 it's finally out. It's been a long trip!

    Thanks to everyone who's helped out along the way - whether it's been to buy a copy, to read and give feedback, or just to take the time to say a few kind words (it all helps). And for those on this side of the Atlantic, the UK release is in two days time!
    I'm the author of the Alex Verus series of urban fantasy novels. Fated is the first, and the final book in the series, Risen, is out as of December 2021. For updates, check my blog!

  29. - Top - End - #59
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    Default Re: Alex Verus #1: Fated

    Just got the e-mail saying my eBook is ready for download.
    Quote Originally Posted by Winterwind View Post
    Mewtarthio, you have scared my brain into hiding, a trembling, broken shadow of a thing, cowering somewhere in the soothing darkness and singing nursery rhymes in the hope of obscuring the Lovecraftian facts you so boldly brought into daylight.

  30. - Top - End - #60
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    Default Re: Alex Verus #1: Fated

    A bunch of reviews have been coming in over the last few weeks:

    Publisher's Weekly (the most influential one)
    SFSite (the most fun one)
    BookThing!, Candace's Blog, Whatchamacallit (all ones I'm less familiar with, but still nice to read!)

    I've also been told that the Jim Butcher exchange is due to (at last!) go online on the B&N website this Friday, which is going to be great when it does.

    And finally, the UK release of Fated comes out tomorrow!
    I'm the author of the Alex Verus series of urban fantasy novels. Fated is the first, and the final book in the series, Risen, is out as of December 2021. For updates, check my blog!

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