Ask Benji Wild

Well! Right now we are on a--I guess you’d call in a Quest of sorts! I mean with the given definition of a quest... you know, a sort of... journey with a purpose? Although I guess we’d need clearer specifics on that purpose. I’m sure we’ll get them along the way, it’s just that right now it’s sort of foggy and I think it might have started with some plants dying in weird ways, but I’m not entirely sure that’s where it’s heading now because--

What was the question? Oh, right. Sleeping arrangements.

There’s a few towns that are okay with liori staying in their hotels, but there’s a lot more that aren’t. :< So it’s kind of hit or miss where I’m going to be able to sleep any given night. Although Luka got a tent, so if it’s really an emergency and I can’t stay in whatever city or town we’re closest to, we can always camp! We’ve had to do that a few times.

You know, I’m not sure. Let me check, and I’ll get back to you.

I really, really wish I didn’t shed. :<

If you know a spell or anything that can make it stop, please let me know. For now, I just brush. A lot. :< :< :<

As for changing season to season, it doesn’t seem to? But Erit’s seasons are pretty... um. Random? Due to the tilt of the planet and magic. But my wings are really good at dispelling heat if it gets too hot! I noticed that in the Fade Desert!

Oh! Oh! I love when that tail sheds! Because all the quills fall out! It’s really nice ‘cuz for like two spans (that’s weeks for you earthers) I don’t have to worry about it at all.

Oh, I love this question! It’s so well-studied and researched that there are so many theories! But... unfortunately the best I can give you is that there’s no clear answer!

Um... don’t think that means we don’t know anything. There’s just so many theories and parts of them all have substantive segments to them with really good ideas! But unlike our fossil record, there’s just not a lot of proof? I guess? The Defeated (also called the old gods) didn’t just write stuff down for us to see!

But I can tell you that before The Defeated were destroyed, there was no magic in the world at all that could be used by the mortal races. Elves, humans (although at that time, humans were in their infancy as a species) fauns, gnolls... No one could use it. Elves keep very good records, and they were one of the most dominant species next to fauns all those thousands of years ago. The elves say they destroyed the Old Gods because the Old Gods were planning to wipe out life on Erit, but most other species just think that the elves were jealous of their magic and wanted it for themselves. Speaking as a former elf, the latter is almost certainly true.

As to how elves first harvested magic for use, my favorite theory is that magic itself is a permeable, chaotic force. At that point, it would be like sticking a sponge in a bucket of water. Only... Pretend you’re an elf, and you stick yourself in a bucket of... magic--you know what, it’s not a perfect analogy.

It’s also theorized that magic itself was an infection that started to destroy those who were exposed to it.

Or that the Old Gods weren’t gods at all, but wells or “storage tanks” where magic stored itself? I don’t think that one’s true, but it has its proponents, and it makes some good points.

See? like I told you, there’s no clear answer for why the gods had it, or where it came from, or what it even is. I’m sure this has an answer (author note: it does, but it’s a major spoiler :D), but we just can’t find the threads of history to follow.

We’re also not completely sure about how the New Gods rose. There’s no account of this at all. Most people believe that the free magic formed itself into gods, since magic can and does operate on its own sometimes. Which is why if you’re inventing a spell, you really need to take it slowly and make sure you’re covering every possible outcome.

At least these gods didn’t hoard the magic for themselves. I guess at that point it would have been impossible, though? It’s already saturated the planet. We were able to record a scoped picture of it from one of our moons, and it runs through Erit like tiny rivers. We call them ley lines and they look like fractures, just under the surface. We build our cities and energy siphons on them, and convert the wild magic to a usable form.

Ah... to be fair it’s REALLY easy to build something on a ley line. There’s some major ones, right? Those are hundreds of miles wide. But these all split off into little... ley-line tributaries I guess.

I have drawn this handy guide. :3

Please excuse the amateurishness of it. I’m still learning to draw with my telis. It’s not as easy as some would think!

Oh I can’t answer all of these in detail, but I can say that Erit’s had its share of extinction events. Some smaller, some larger. I suppose it would be the same on any geologically active world exposed to space!As far as we can tell, it’s not going to be much of a problem anymore. That’s the hope, anyway. Hundreds of years ago, there were the hints of a mass extinction event starting in some areas of the world due to sentient expansion, but we’ve mitigated those problems by regrowing habitats and taking our expansion to our moons. Ammit has its own atmosphere and is well colonized, and we’re terraforming our other moon, Viyl. It’s currently colonized by science types and their families. But that leaves huge areas of wilderness on every continent of Erit where wildlife and plantlife can thrive!I do want to talk about one species, though. A sapient species which died outbetween the time the Old Gods were killed and the New Gods rose.Necromancers of Antirrhopus have been able to re-animate some of the bones,filling in the empty spaces in their history. I mean, we had quite a goodhistory of them before, but like gnolls, the kobla were secretive and keptmostly to themselves. The coolest thing about the kobla–and the mosttragic–is their population began to bottleneck and a genetic disease began toovertake the entire species.There’s this speech written down by the Cenozir (the leader) of what translates to the Tribe of Tribes about how they could die gracefully, or die in madness. They had to act now, or their legacy would be tarnished for all time.So all the leaders of the remaining tribes got together and decided they’d stopreproducing. They said that the gods had selected them for extinction, andthey’d go quietly into the dark. At that time there were only about a thousandkobla left anyway, and nothing they could do could stop the genetic illnessthat affected up to two-thirds of their children.Apparently genetic experimentation and stuff in their past had rendered them what we call an inert species. That is, they literally had nowhere to go. So they went extinct in our recent past! Well, relatively recent. It was stillthousands of years ago. And they are my favorite!oh and since you mentioned Luka, she wanted to contribute, so she drew one for you.

Erithas six moons, each with unique properties and compositions. The nearest moonis Ammit, and while its atmosphere is not as hospitable as that of Erit, thereare several colonies set up on it, and it has vast stretches of water-ice oceans and is in theprocess of being terraformed!Along with Ammit, the next closest moon, Helo, affects the tides on theplanet.  Helo is a geologically active rock and is considered a volcanicworld. It's impossible to land there due to the extreme heat and pressure, butit's been well-mapped and documented.The other moons are Akk'kkh, Viyl, Mios-ila, and Xale. Xale is more of a... I'dsay "satellite" than an actual moon. It's the farthest out and seemsto be an irregularly-shaped asteroid caught in Erit's orbit!Erit is actually the first planet in the solar system, though there is a thinasteroid belt between Erit and our single sun. The asteroid belt is postulatedto be a planet eventually torn apart by the gravity pulling on it from both thestar and our own world.

(Author Interruption: Duarrow is my world’s term for “dwarf.” I don’t like creating a species out of a word that’s used in real life for an actual genetic condition. As far as I know, it’s not considered offensive to do so, but it personally bothers me, and I’d rather err on the side of caution.I figure in their own language, they wouldn’t call themselves ‘dwarves’ anyway, since that’s the English word referring to Achondroplasia. My version is also slightly different, and like Elder Scrolls did, I decided it was best if I went for a completely new word! I have drawn one before, when I was drawing the gods. I’ll re-paste her below.)

HULLO! YES I AM THE EXPERT ON THIS THANK YOU FOR ASKING! :3 :3 :3!!!!um, yes, sorry. A couple of our moons are colonized and we do have some spacefaring capabilities! Unfortunately, due to the nature of the UNIVERSE, we haven’t met any extra-eritians yet, but we’ve gotten some deep space signals that are promising! I wrote a song about one of the colony missions. It failed. >_> but it’s just really something you can write a song about! Here it is:

All RedOr The Ballad of the Colony Mission DisasterBenjamin Wild

A hundred years ago it's toldThey left the atmosphere For Ammit in the sky so boldAway t'ward new frontiers

And there were upon that ship a thousand soulsAll brave and proud, and primed to meet their goalsThey had the education, they had the inclinationThey had a captain worthy of control

But it was not to be, for it is said:The first mate screamed: "Across the board, all red!"But not a volunteer among them criedThey vowed as one to save themselves instead

"All red," said Captain YanShe calmly parsed her fearThen raised a hand and said to all"We're getting out of here."

As the ship around them died, she radioed ground"All red," she said, our ship's become unsoundAnd in their darkest hour, when they'd all but lost their powerThey set a course to run the ship aground.

But first with warning broadcast to the massesThey suited up, intent to save their asses...They blew the hatch and at a steady paceThey one-by-one stepped out into darkest space

Free-floating as they were they saw their shipAcross its side, and asteroid-addled ripIt listed to one side and then it shearedIt bounced across old Ammit's atmosphere

And rescue came too late for someIn the cold and dark and dreadBut had they stayed aboard their shipAll thousand would be dead.