05/06/2011 [DMFA #1216] - Still less so than Korhal IV

[VAE]

So, Cyra essentially nuked a city?
Makes me wonder whether it was during, or after her ascension. The energy required to do this suggests after... but the awesome amounts of energy released....

[Nino]

Hishaan: no throwing stones allowed.

[RandomMetaphysics]

I believe someone mentioned in the thread for the pervious comic page that he/she thought that the city Cyra destroyed was Hishaan. Kudos to whoever predicted that.

So, Cyra essentially nuked a city?
Makes me wonder whether it was during, or after her ascension. The energy required to do this suggests after... but the awesome amounts of energy released....

What Abel said answered one question and put a large stack of them on the table. I'm guessing since there were no survivors, then the only one who can give a (hopefully unbiased) testimony would be Cyra herself.

Hishaan: no throwing stones allowed.

Indeed. If someone were to do that, it would become the "City of Sharp Hazards"

[Viking ZX]

Kudos to Amber for drawing a logical conclusion about a city of glass that no one else would normally consider.

Maybe if one visited it on a cloudy day...

[Nino]

Oh, I just thought of something. Hishaan is called the city of ice, so maybe this is why Cyra's clan is called the clan of winter's touch.

Excellent effect on the last panel too.

[Infranscia]

Kat ninja'd me on the ice/winter's touch thing. X3  I wouldn't have considered a glass/ice comparison, but I guess it makes sense.

I also like the rainbow effect on the Gryphon.

Kudos to Amber for drawing a logical conclusion about a city of glass that no one else would normally consider.

Maybe if one visited it on a cloudy day...

Or during the night... maybe armed with a hat and sunglasses in case the sun rises before they're finished checking it out... or if they relied on echolocation or something instead of sight...

...I wonder how a city of glass would react to lightning strikes?


Also, the 'frozen city' thing reminds me of Pompei.

[Mrs_A_ZeTavia]

If Wildy liked these shinies, she would probably just love Hishaan's shininess!

[Turnsky]

to quote my twitter feed: "You just wanna draw that city to sate your shiny quotient for the next few years, dontcha?"

[RobbieThe1st]

With all the discussion about how much power Cyra must have in order to do this, you guys have overlooked one possible option: Cyra didn't do it. Perhaps the /insanely powerful/ ancient Dragon unleashed a huge amount of power against her, and she managed to turn it back on him, causing the city to turn to glass.
The interesting thing about this theory would be that it would cause the entire dragon-'cubi war to be based on a false premise, as well as, of course, showing that Cyra isn't /quite/ as bad as the history books show.

[Tapewolf]

Okay, that is utterly bizarre.  It would be interesting to know if Cyra remembers what happened and is willing to talk about it.
The question now is whether it is directly related to Cyra's ascension. 

[Sienna Maiu - M T]

Perhaps it turned to iceglass because she took all the life and soul out of it.
Perhaps it really was inadvertent.  Can you imagine though? You go to a city, perhaps looking to acquire some rare item, perhaps just living there and wanting to have a quiet life, maybe you're just a tourist... and you get into a fight with a dragon. Maybe they're protecting that item, maybe it's a bar fight... but it happens. And suddenly you have more power than you've ever expected, everyone's dead, and now you've a bounty on your head, as well as your entire family's and your entire race to boot.


Also, to remember the events of Hishaan, an event which happened 6500 years or so prior... unless you're a demon and maybe friends with demons (in the quiet little neutral territory of Zinvth...), why would they remember the fall of Hishaan so well back then, but have so much memory of it be forgotten in the 320 years since?

[ishidan]

So, Cyra essentially nuked a city?

No...she TURNED IT TO GLASS.  A city sized glass statue, crystalline and perfect in every detail, and thus being a blinding source of reflection and refraction.  Not a molten silica slag pit, which is what you have in mind.

And congrats Amber, as most of us probably made the same wrong interpretation all the way up to the last panel.  Bravo!

[Feather Dancer]

Well, regardless of thoughts turnin g everything into glass INCLUDING the dragon is pretty damn impressive. Still, I hope everything was grounded or at least supported at the time of the big freeze.

[joshofspam]

Though now I'm left to wonder if Cyra or the dragons are worst.

I have to wonder what motivated her to chose that town to destroy? Were dragons being cruel even then to cubi?

[Tapewolf]

I have to wonder what motivated her to chose that town to destroy? Were dragons being cruel even then to cubi?

Well, they say the war would eventually have started anyway, but that aside, it's possible she was trying to take over the city and become its patron instead of M'Chek.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Hishaan: no throwing stones allowed.

I dunno. Two things leap into mind. One, a foot thick of glass is going to be tricky to break (your average brick wall is about this thick; think about bulletproof glass, for example), and two, glass is, at least theoretically, liquid. Over the course of a hundred years, it flows downwards slightly. Over the course of 7000 years? I can see a case for arguing that the higher buildings, well, aren't so high anymore. And eventually, you have a very big, very flat mirror.

Admittedly that will take a very, very long time, but... Cyra isn't going anywhere.


Ooo. Another thought. Wouldn't that be a perfect place to hide out, if you kept your eyes closed? Hrm...

[VAE]

Depends on the hardness of glass, boxy.
The real problem is, that given it's an amorphous solid, it has no plasticity to speak of - any impact makes a straight attempt at breaking the bonds.  Ofc. it's still hard to break *through* but you'd still get massive cracks, most likely even growing due to temperature differences between top of glass , and soil under it , which it touches causing thermal strain.

[MT Hazard]

I'm surprised no one has made the inevitable pun yet.

[Tapewolf]

Hmm, there is a slight problem with Cyra's adopted form during their talk, in that I now keep imagining her invading the city in her Yoda form.

[nevwyn]

Hishaan: no throwing stones allowed.

Awwww, but I have my sunglasses and my bag of bricks all ready to go. I was gonna  road trip it, get some pizza, maybe take in a movie. At the very least bring a girl home to mother, I mean she has seriously been looking for something to spruce up the backyard.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Depends on the hardness of glass, boxy.
The real problem is, that given it's an amorphous solid, it has no plasticity to speak of - any impact makes a straight attempt at breaking the bonds.  Ofc. it's still hard to break *through* but you'd still get massive cracks, most likely even growing due to temperature differences between top of glass , and soil under it , which it touches causing thermal strain.

True, and I wasn't suggesting that a glass brick wall would have anything like the same tenacity as a bulletproof window; I'm aware that BP glass is made of multiple layers, and has plastic in it as well. My point was simply that a brick might well bounce off a glass object, if the object was thick enough.

And if not, chances are there would be a lot of very big, very sharp splinters flying about, and that's much more dangerous...

Good point about the thermal strain. I wonder if a nice sunny day would cause parts of the city to shatter?

[Sienna Maiu - M T]

Still, I hope everything was grounded or at least supported at the time of the big freeze.

*crash!*
*tinkletinkle*

And eventually, you have a very big, very flat mirror.

Admittedly that will take a very, very long time, but... Cyra isn't going anywhere.

So, she started an entire war purely due to vanity?

Ooo. Another thought. Wouldn't that be a perfect place to hide out, if you kept your eyes closed? Hrm...

Well now... there's a thought.

[Anker Steadfast]

I see Dan still haven't put on a shirt ... or a robe.
Heck, last time we saw him in the robe was when he sparred with Wildy I think ?

Ah well, all the girl readers are probably quite pleased.

[Shachza]

With all the discussion about how much power Cyra must have in order to do this, you guys have overlooked one possible option: Cyra didn't do it. Perhaps the /insanely powerful/ ancient Dragon unleashed a huge amount of power against her, and she managed to turn it back on him, causing the city to turn to glass.
The interesting thing about this theory would be that it would cause the entire dragon-'cubi war to be based on a false premise, as well as, of course, showing that Cyra isn't /quite/ as bad as the history books show.

Eh...  Given her conversation with Dan I suspect that at the time she knew pretty well what she was doing, though the outcome surprised and dismayed her.  Even if the whole glass thing is backlash from something that M'chek was targeting Cyra with, that means Cyra was doing something bad enough that M'chek was targeting her with enough power to level (or glass-ify) an entire city.  You don't get that kind of response from normal, everyday interaction.

"Hey Bob."
"Yo."
"You forgot to refill the coffee machine earlier when you took the last cup."
"That's not MY job, get your secretary to do it."
"That's the last straw Bob!"
*Nuclear Launch Detected!*

[FairWage22]

Well, something that hasn't been stated is that an entire city of glass, durable or not, but reasonably solid--it'd be rather hard to support a biosphere in that sort of environment, especially if the glass were maintained in that state by some sort of residual magic.

Easy to see why Zinvth (sp) was so on-edge about cubi (in Abel's Story Pt. 2) and why cubi have such a bad reputation.

If Cyra was the only survivor, and she gained her power from the combined 'soul-power' of the metropolis, then all those individual component pieces may have induced a horrific level of remorse in her in addition to her Clan being slaughtered.  May have even been her going around telling everyone how horrible 'Cubi were, sort of like some wandering bard or the like. 

Separate thought:  Abel's Story (Pt. 2 pg 102), Destania goes to town on Abel.  Was she transferring all the abuse/anger/frustration/etc she may have felt (or had done unto her) to him, in an effort to dull her own pain?

[Alondro]

I'm surprised no one has made the inevitable pun yet.

You mean about 'those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones'?  Yeah, I think we were trying to avoid it.  ;3

*Charline schemes*  Elemental transmutation on a massive scale!  And clearly directed as all the matter became a single type of substance!  It's a combination of both fusion and fission, carefully controlled otherwise it'd have explosive results!  The power required is... is... unfathomable!  *greedy expression*  I must know how Cyra did it! 

Maybe the populace didn't need to be involved, but M'chek got what he deserved!  *mumbles angrily about being 'turned down cuz I wasn't his type'*  Arrogant bastard... 

[joshofspam]

Separate thought:  Abel's Story (Pt. 2 pg 102), Destania goes to town on Abel.  Was she transferring all the abuse/anger/frustration/etc she may have felt (or had done unto her) to him, in an effort to dull her own pain?

Well considering how the Phoenix describe her old self dying and her reaction to Abel talking back to her. It wouldn't be a far stretch that the deeds done by Cyra and the things done to her clan were more traumatic to clan Cyra then some people might think.

Remember that Abel said about Cubi and there emotions to Dan. It wouldn't be surprising that if Cyra gained tri-wing statis there, she might be quite all giggles and laugh from the power surge the first few minutes. But after that she would start to notice all the death around her.

It was something that I've been puzzling about quite a bit. Is the ascension for Cubi more of a bitter sweet thing when you obtain that status?

[VAE]

It was something that I've been puzzling about quite a bit. Is the ascension for Cubi more of a bitter sweet thing when you obtain that status?

Yeah... it's sweet for you and bitter for your enemies... and assorted lookenspeepers several miles around.

[MT Hazard]

I'm surprised no one has made the inevitable pun yet.

You mean about 'those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones'?  Yeah, I think we were trying to avoid it.  ;3

Not the one I was thinking of.

[Cogidubnus]

Butterfly in the sky~ I can go twice as high! Take a look, it's in a Book, a Reading Rainbow!