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All Clear, Kinda

Second operation is done and over. I’m still pretty tired but it’s the weekend, so it’s all good.

Pirate Patch

It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them. ~Benjamin Franklin

My vision is considerably clearer than it was before. The downside is that close vision is blurry.

Just use some dollar store reading glasses.

Okay, but I’m reading a computer screen most of the time.

Just use some lower strength reading glasses.

Great. I’ve now got 3x for book reading and 1½x for computer screen reading. Problem solved.

In the sort term, I’ve been wearing an eyepatch to keep the itching and stinging down as my eye recovers from the surgery.

The other benefit of the eyepatch is that it keeps me from itching my eye.

Given that it’s stinging, my natural inclination is to itch it. I’m not supposed to.

So, an ounce of prevention is well worth a pound of cure. Easier to sit around looking like a pirate than reverse the whole point of the surgery.

The added benefit is that it actually proves the alleged point of the pirate patch:

Enhanced night vision

When I take Penny out at night, I switch the patch from left eye to right. It’s like magic. I can see in the dark to ensure Penny gets somewhere safe to do her business.

Oh, Oh, Oh, It’s Magic

Crafting a Believable Magic System – with C.R. Rowenson (The Self Publishing Show, Episode 317)

Was listening to this interview today, and it raised some interesting questions for all of my series.

C. R Rowenson is an engineer who likes to obsess about fictional “magic” systems.

I put the word magic in quotes because his definition refers to anything that doesn’t correspond to current understanding of technology. As Isaac Asimov said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic“.

To be quite fair, most of our current technologies are essentially magic for those who are not intimately familiar with how they work. Motorheads and professional mechanics certainly understand exactly what happens when you turn the key to start a car, but do they really know how a cell phone or even a toaster work?

The average yahoo (myself included) has no idea nor any inclination to really understand how any of these things work. You turn it on and it works. If it doesn’t, you just buy a new one. It’s effectively magic.

As such, “magic systems” for fictional worlds would correspond to the stuff Q gives to James Bond in any given adventure, comic book super powers, any of the countless types of sci-fi super tech and, obviously, actual magic in a fantasy story.

Being that I’m focusing on The Sentinels first, the “magic system” in question pertains to the comic book style superpowers. The thing that Rowenson said that was interesting to me was that he was trying to apply his understanding of science and engineering to these What Ifs.

Rowenson refers to a core notion or “seed crystal” that the “magic” is based on. In the Sentinelsverse, the “seed crystal” is based on the existence of the Chaosians and how they interact with the mundane world that you and I are familiar with.

Rowenson also talks about balancing the “magic system” with some other aspect of the story such as plot or character in order to maintain a credible conflict. He talks of things having a cost.

This reminded me of Blue Banshee’s big surprise.

The thing with super powers in the comic books is that the writers and artists came up with some kind of explanation, such as alien origins, genetic mutation, cosmic radiation, sorcery or gamma radiation. It’s generally a hand-wave because they weren’t as detail-oriented as Rowenson is.

Blue Banshee can generate a charge of energy in her body with a variety of effects. Typical comic book stuff. The cost is something she’ll discover later in the first book of the series. I have a vague idea of what that is, but it needs more development in order to have the impact that I’d like it to have.

Subtle And Quick To Anger

The more refined and subtle our minds, the more vulnerable they are. ~Paul Tournier

As to the Conclave, the majority of them consider themselves refined and subtle. Some of them have been up to no good for centuries. Even the youngest of them is a successor who attained his father’s position in the group about a century ago.

There’s also a cost to apparent immortality. After you’ve lived more than a human lifetime, you have to live in the shadows.

In an epic fantasy, you can have an age-old villain like Sauron whose existence spans vast epochs or the ageless elder elves Elrond, Galadriel and Thranduil ruling for millenia in their fey grace.

In an urban fantasy, having someone who’s been around for centuries either needs to be a god-king or a shadowy crime lord.

The Eternals touched on the notion of characters with extraordinary lifespans. They were “gods” to the primitive culture when they first arrived, but they were living in obscurity ever since. In terms of that movie, they had done their job to stop the Deviants and were supposed to wait for the time when the Celestial, Tiamat, would hatch from the planet Earth like a giant egg.

The Conclave aren’t like the Eternals or Tolkien’s elves. They’re people who have figured out how to maintain a semblance of immortality. More importantly, they’re unscrupulous people who have figured out how to maintain a semblance of immortality at the expense of people they consider expendable.

And so, I continue pondering and researching. I still need to work out what The Conclave has been up to and what their insidious activities have done to the history of the Sentinelsverse.

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I’ve got to get my eyepatch back on and take a nap. I hope you’re having a relaxing weekend, too.