"Gravity... which is a word for the way things fall down," he says, slowly.

"Indeed! Well, it's - more complicated than that when you get into it, but isn't everything. So with a properly calibrated Mass Effect field, I can make things fall up, or simply float in the air like it's water. In this case I made the boars weigh almost nothing."

"Very handy." He looks at the bigger boar wistfully. "It's a shame its head got that hole. That would make for a great trophy. —for you, not for me, of course."

"...I'm not sure I understand the appeal, to be honest. I killed it for food, not for - clout."

"I suppose it doesn't work as well when you can kill something that big with one shot," he admits.

"Yes - perhaps if I had to kill it with nothing but a spear and my physical prowess, I would feel differently. And it's not as if your own trophies mean less for my being here, since you did take them down with your physical prowess."

"I favour the bow and the axe," he says, gesturing at the weapons Tintin made him. "But yeah, I think that is more or less it. More hunting trophies mean you are a better hunter. ...at least if they aren't just ten score shaleback heads, anyway."

"Yes, that does sound a bit monomaniacal. And with my technological advantage, any hunting trophies at all would seem... gauche. You wouldn't take a trophy from a rabbit hunt."

"No, probably not," he admits. "Well, maybe a demon's, I would not be surprised if you had more trouble with demons."

"...that seems a distinct possibility, yes. Tell me more about demons?"

"Uh... like what? They're like animals but some of them are like people? They're usually pretty hardy and have magical defenses and sometimes offenses—I had to kill a bat demon a few weeks ago, it was... maybe half again as tall as me, pretty damn hardy, nearly killed me and my pet shaleback."

"Huh. That's new to me. If they have magical defenses I don't know how that'd stack up against my abilities... you'll have to bring me with you next time you're expecting one, I'll make an experiment of it."

"Sure. Actually I wonder how you would do against undead, too, the whole reason I wanted to move up here to the highlands was to be closer to where the undead Priestking and his son are meant to be."

"Undead? ...corporeal or incorporeal? - we have myths about undead but no actual examples, I'm trying to get a feel for the terrain."

"I think I have only found one actual ghost. There are some memories etched into places that look like ghosts but they are not... there. I believe the Priestking and his son are not ghosts, though."

"Well. We will have to see how they respond to biotics and bullets."

"I do not know what it is about the Exiled Lands. I had only heard stories of the undead, before I came here, and demons were definitely not that common either."

"I could theorize, but it's useless without evidence."

"I don't have anything better to do with this walk than listen to you."

"Some kind of enchantment on the land itself, left over from a war. Some kind of enchantment resulting from the decay of other magic, like radioactive waste. Higher rate of sorcery per capita resulting in ambient waste magic looking for things to do. Lower rate of sorcery per capita resulting in ambient unused magic looking for things to do. Protective enchantments on the rest of the world that aren't being maintained here. This being a place where people are sent to die has actual magic effects, because magic is fundamentally narrative. Natural ecological pressures resulting from climate and prey availability have driven the demons to the Exiled Lands. I really don't have enough information to rule out any of these."

"I think I might," he says, making a humming noise.

"Oh?"

"This is where the giant-kings used to live, and they were a small enough kingdom to mostly stay here," he explains. "I'm not entirely sure where all of the survivors of the Fall of Atlantis went, but I do know that the Witch Queen, who was meant to be one of the most powerful ones, did end up coming here, and they had a war. Maybe those things together are all there is to it. So, your first option, basically. Maybe the second one, too, I don't know how magic behaves after a long time."

"Oh! That would explain all those cyclopean ruins, wouldn't it - perhaps literally cyclopean, at that. I was basically just combining theories I'd come up with if this were a fantasy story with theories I'd be coming up with in my own world for a region of land that was acting strangely, and my first guess in either case would be 'what if someone used a weapon that had extremely long-lasting effects'."

"The giants aren't even that tall! They are only about twice as tall as me, or at least the two I've met were, I suppose they could have been unusually short. But no, I think they just really really liked building big things."