The Clockwork Mansion

Which  faction  would  win  in  a  fight , I think  any  iteration  of  Furrae  would  win  due  to  the presence casual  teleportation .

Bear in mind that Jakob stole much of his military technology from a futuristic Earth...

he managed  to teleport into a military base and rob them blind with zero repercussions . Granted  that  portals  to  Earth  are  in  the  hands  of  several  cubi  in  your  setting  I  would  be  surprised  if no  one  attempted  to  teleport  in  and  kill  a  world  leader  and  take  their  place . Will  you  ever  do  anything  relating  to  how  these  realms  would  interact  or  will  Earth  remain  a  mere  plot device .   

Quote from: meltingface101 on December 25, 2013, 04:55:04 PM
he managed  to teleport into a military base and rob them blind with zero repercussions . Granted  that  portals  to  Earth  are  in  the  hands  of  several  cubi  in  your  setting  I  would  be  surprised  if no  one  attempted  to  teleport  in  and  kill  a  world  leader  and  take  their  place . Will  you  ever  do  anything  relating  to  how  these  realms  would  interact  or  will  Earth  remain  a  mere  plot device .   

Jakob's visits to Earth were more prevalent in the earlier stories.  It's not clear how easy it is for non-fae to do, especially since DMFA itself has evolved during the course of writing.  It's not clear either if it's still going to be possible in the post-DMFA world either, so it doesn't really feature in the later writings.

your  verse  is distinct  from  DMFA  in  that  SAIA  literally  held  regular  field  trips , and  had  artifacts  set  in  place  specifically  for  that  purpose . Also there  was  that  odd  part  in  which  a  human  tech  specialist  is  summoned . They  have  such  a  ridiculously  high  up  hand  that  I  would  be  surprised  if  no  one  jumped  at  it .   

Quote from: meltingface101 on December 25, 2013, 05:17:06 PM
your  verse  is distinct  from  DMFA  in  that  SAIA  literally  held  regular  field  trips , and  had  artifacts  set  in  place  specifically  for  that  purpose . Also there  was  that  odd  part  in  which  a  human  tech  specialist  is  summoned . They  have  such  a  ridiculously  high  up  hand  that  I  would  be  surprised  if  no  one  jumped  at  it .   

Yeah, but like DMFA there are some things in the earliest stories that I look back on as terrible mistakes that I'm not sure are still canon.  There are whole chunks of that I'm tempted to rewrite or otherwise retcon :P

when  do  you  plan  on  doing  this . Will  interdimensional  travel  and  tech  stealing be  ruled out entirely . Using  such  portals  to  go  around  stealing  stuff from  other  people  seems  kind  inefficient  when  you  could  easily  use  it  to  convince  others  to  actively  work  for  you . However  I  always  got  the  vibe  that  Jakob  looked  down  upon  humans  as  little  more  than  a  place  to  be  plundered  for  tech  or  used  as  tools . I  hope  you  can  make  this   come  out  in  a better  light .  I  mean  he  had  the  ability  to  casually  teleport and  potentially  time  travel  and  he  used  it  to  go  around  stealing  millions  in  intellectual  property , mind  wiping  people , abduction , and  murdering  anyone  unlucky  enough to  find  his  portals .  Not  only  that  but  such  power  is  made  available  to  the  thousands  of  other  cubi  which  in  my  opinion  would  make  a  rather  interesting  story .   

Quote from: meltingface101 on December 25, 2013, 06:19:30 PM
when  do  you  plan  on  doing  this . Will  interdimensional  travel  and  tech  stealing be  ruled out entirely

Not sure.  I may never do a rewrite of CJP, at least not until DMFA finishes and the canon is locked.  My current project is a short about Jakob and Keaton's first meeting and I think this is somewhat out of scope.

Interdimensional travel and tech stealing are absolutely canon or I would have written them out of 'Turning a New Page'.  Jakob's faery-sue ability to casually warp between dimensions under his own power has to go, though.  I am going to leave it ambiguous as to whether the gate is still operational or whether Jakob made all his acquisitions prior to the Destania Event (which may conceivably block transplanar travel in order to keep the dragons out of Furrae).

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Using  such  portals  to  go  around  stealing  stuff from  other  people  seems  kind  inefficient  when  you  could  easily  use  it  to  convince  others  to  actively  work  for  you . However  I  always  got  the  vibe  that  Jakob  looked  down  upon  humans  as  little  more  than  a  place  to  be  plundered  for  tech  or  used  as  tools . I  hope  you  can  make  this   come  out  in  a better  light .

I think you'll find it's more a case of Jakob being circumspect about it, and for a great many reasons.  Stealing data and a few artifacts is far more discreet than employing a large number of people to build things for him.
After all, if Jakob was more open about his goals:
*The humans might try to kill him as a potential threat/so they can dissect him/for religious or cultural reasons
*The existence of him, of magic and the wider cosmos would disrupt our present civilisation in ways we cannot predict but which would probably be worse
*It would tip the dragons off that he is meddling in the multiverse and they would destroy him
*It's unclear how long Jakob would be able to remain in our plane anyway, since it may not have sufficient magic to sustain his metabolism properly

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I  mean  he  had  the  ability  to  casually  teleport and  potentially  time  travel  and  he  used  it  to  go  around  stealing  millions  in  intellectual  property , mind  wiping  people , abduction , and  murdering  anyone  unlucky  enough to  find  his  portals .  Not  only  that  but  such  power  is  made  available  to  the  thousands  of  other  cubi  which  in  my  opinion  would  make  a  rather  interesting  story .   

The way I see it these days, the transplanar gate is technology bought from the Fae by Page (see TANP).  It's a secret known only to a few.  Jakob and Azrael are trying to improve the lot of their home universe.  FWIW they did usually pay for their 'plunder' by selling gold to metals dealers (a trick I borrowed from a time-travel novel my father has been working on for many years).  In CJP Jakob did threaten a number of people who found the portal, but AFAIK he never killed anyone from a different plane.

The panthers and the aircraft was a special case, since Jakob was searching for an AI technology which results in a soul like organic life does.  The rarity of that technology may potentially have driven him to desperate measures in order to obtain it, though that did not ultimately happen.  In that particular case he felt that they were being abused and enslaved by their masters  and that by taking them back to his own plane he was helping them escape.

At one point he  handed  over a bunch of humans  to  other  cubi  so  that  they  could see  what  human  souls  taste  like  shortly  after  the  IT  guy  attempted  to  leave . Given  how  he moves  between  realms  is  reliable  enough  to  give  everyone a  field  trip . Even  if  this  is  ruled  out  there  is  still  the  matter  that  he  managed  to  take  large  volumes  of  info  with  regards  to  human  civilization that  would  give  their  race  such  a  ridiculous  edge  over  humans  that  its  difficult  to  ignore .   

Quote from: meltingface101 on December 25, 2013, 07:22:01 PM
At one point he  handed  over a bunch of humans  to  other  cubi  so  that  they  could see  what  human  souls  taste  like  shortly  after  the  IT  guy  attempted  to  leave .

Nah, Jakob would never have actually done that.  If you re-read it, you'll see it was a somewhat transparent threat to 'encourage' the belligerent licensing agent to leave.

QuoteGiven  how  he moves  between  realms  is  reliable  enough  to  give  everyone a  field  trip . Even  if  this  is  ruled  out  there  is  still  the  matter  that  he  managed  to  take  large  volumes  of  info  with  regards  to  human  civilization that  would  give  their  race  such  a  ridiculous  edge  over  humans  that  its  difficult  to  ignore .   

Not quite sure where you're going with the 'field trips' - the only thing I remember like that was the fact that Petter was allowed out of SAIA to help test his ability to mingle with Beings as part of one of the courses.

But yes, the way I see it, Project Future Jakob literally has the best of both worlds - magical powers and abilities from Furrae along with futuristic military tech 'borrowed' from other planes as well.

Also  you  portray  tech  development  as  being  driven  by  a  few  people , with most  creatures  obsessed  with  finding  a  place  where  beings  won't  stab  them  while  they  sleep . Furrae  overall  has  to  many  social  problems  to  stand  even  the  remotest  chance  of  winning  in  open  warfare . Indeed  there  are  individuals  capable  of  teleportation and  astral  projection in  Furrae  but  on  Earth  there  are  nations  with  thousands  of  armed  drones .   

Quote from: meltingface101 on December 25, 2013, 10:02:08 PM
Also  you  portray  tech  development  as  being  driven  by  a  few  people , with most  creatures  obsessed  with  finding  a  place  where  beings  won't  stab  them  while  they  sleep . Furrae  overall  has  to  many  social  problems  to  stand  even  the  remotest  chance  of  winning  in  open  warfare . Indeed  there  are  individuals  capable  of  teleportation and  astral  projection in  Furrae  but  on  Earth  there  are  nations  with  thousands  of  armed  drones .   

I think a lot depends on who's invading who.  You are liable to get different results depending on the situation.

I wouldn't really be able to guess accurately.

Looking at our world today and thinking along the lines of getting everyone to work together to take up such a task, it seems like they would have similar problems getting together to take such an action of attacking the other world.

While defending, the defender would have a more easier time getting everyone together for a defense from such on obvious threat to their world.

In that sense the attacker might have the first advantage, but it would eventually fall over to the defenders side because they would all know the score of losing while the attacker wouldn't have the unified force to close the war to it's conclusion.

Furrae  is  largely  medieval  in  terms  of  organization  and  comprised  of largely  independent  city  states .

Our  world  is  a  heavily  networked  place .
If  something  happened  that  affected  the  industrial  output  of  China other  nations  would  be  concerned .

Either  way  Furrae  has  little  to  no  weapons  for  large  scale  combat  outside  of  a  small  amount  of  high  level  spell  casters like  the  Fae  and  Dragons who  don't  feel  obliged  to  help  anyone  unless  it  amuses  them . They  won't do  anything  until  it's  to  late / gets  interesting .

Lets  not  forget  that  Aliph  is  what  is  considered  a  high  end  mage .
He  was  defeated  by  Dan  several  times  without  any  magic .

True enough.

But I also think the scenario you mention might change things enough that the limitations of Furrae might be less reliable to use as a factor to count them out. The very act of our world invading Furrae might make the dragons and Fae interested enough to get involved.

Not to mention we have no idea yet if the tools used to kill DP weren't enchanted to help them be more effective against his demon hard skin. To perfectly honest we don't even know what forces armed from our side would be effective against Furrae's side.

Even then, you'd probably would also have to take into account the limitations and methods to send over such a force. It sounds like only dragons and Fae's make travel between the universes a casual thing. So there's no guaranty that the invading force would be able to bring over the numbers in the first place to stand a chance at all.

It  all  depends  on  who  has  control  over  portals  . If  we  have  control  over  them  we  might  not  even  send  people  through  due  to  the  number  of  unknowns, drones  will  be  sent . This  may  make  it  difficult  for  anyone  to  trace  back  to  us .

If  Furrae  has  control  of  the  portals  they  might  send  over  a  magic  capable  person , due  to  their  versatility . However  if  Earth  is  a  magically  dead  plane  they  will  be  limited  to  sending  out  Mythos with  powerful  natural  abilities , or barring  that  a  standard  team  of  adventurers  . If  our  world  is  a  magically  active  plane  then  all  they  need  to  do  is  set  up  a  pocket  dimension  lair  like  Falina  and  it's  all  over . Cubi  are  considered  the  weakest  magical  race , only  slightly  more  powerful  than  beings. However  such  magical  creatures  have  flaws like  overwhelming  arrogance , impulsiveness , and the  tendency  to  act  like  cartoon  villans . Other  wise  beings  would  have  practically  disappeared . 

That  may  result  in  them  openly  revealing  themselves  due  being  orders of  magnitude  above  the  most  powerful  human  soldier . They  have  no  concept  of  mechanized  warfare or  artillery  leaving  them  and  their  team vulnerable .

I  wonder  what  a  Bag  of  holding  would  look  like to  satellites  capable  of  visualizing  gravity ?  

Quote from: Amber Williams on December 26, 2013, 06:37:23 PM
I can't really give an answer because it would contain too many spoilers and would be cheating.  But I can at least say the canonical answer would be not what folks would expect...but that's mainly because there is a major factor which hasn't been shown thus not factored into things.

Don't look now, Tape, but it looks like Amber may have a monkey wrench in store for your interdimensional travel schtick.  :U

Quote from: Raxuno on December 27, 2013, 10:58:16 PMDon't look now, Tape, but it looks like Amber may have a monkey wrench in store for your interdimensional travel schtick.  :U

Don't remind me...

...But  casual  interdimensional  travel and  teleport  is  PF's  shtick  :U .
without  it  they're  just  people  with  delusions  of  grandeur  slightly  backed  up  by  easily  countered  magical  powers .

Quote from: Tapewolf on December 28, 2013, 03:29:21 AM

Quote from: Raxuno on December 27, 2013, 10:58:16 PMDon't look now, Tape, but it looks like Amber may have a monkey wrench in store for your interdimensional travel schtick.  :U

Don't remind me...

Ah, I wouldn't sweat it. Your stories stand pretty dang well by themselves, IMHO.

But if one society is a group of centrally controlled nation states, with efficient military systems based around rigid rank and intense coordination between the states a common occurrence, and the other is a series of small squabbling feudal states or despotisms who rely on high priced, disloyal mercenary special forces to do anything big.. it stands to reason that one side will face a lot more problems in mobilization of forces and loyalty of troops than the other.

However  most  of  the  capable  spell  caster  are  long  lived  who  might  solo  Earth  even  if  its  magically  dead  by  playing  the  long  game and  manipulating  politicians . Though  there  is  such  a  thorough  divide  between  the  people of  Earth  along  with  its  mechanisms (no  status-quo )  and  those  of  Furrae that  they  may  have  difficulty  finding  a  place  to  start .