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Jensal has a lot of work to do. Her house is going to collapse; nobody had better be inside when it does. She is briskly bundling adult miracles into groups who have at least one decent job between them, she is writing to agencies that handle adoption for the ultimate disposition of kids who don't get picked up because she's reasonably sure that they will not all get picked up, and when parents do drop by to collect their little ones she is signing papers for every set of them with slightly gritted teeth. Lots to do. Her hand is cramping from paperwork and she doesn't care.
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nonbird
"Because left to its own devices, dragon magic sorts the children of dragons and non-dragons into parunias and thudias depending on how much of it is available at the time," he says, "and I don't see any reason to argue with it about that when I have so many better things to argue with it about, and it's easier to design the miracle that creates third-siahrs to work around the way dragon magic naturally deals with things than to try to make dragon magic acknowledge third-siahrs as a special case. I see magic. I know these things."
"This seems like if, say, a third-siahr and a dragon of the same color had children, most of those children would be third-siahrs of that color able to shapeshift into ten things of their choice at age twenty and then able to turn into smaller versions of themselves somewhere between forty and sixty," says the obsidian. "There is nothing strictly intolerable about this but it seems, ah..."
"Silly," says the emerald representative.
"Silly," says the emerald representative.
nonbird
"I agree that it is silly. But I would rather let it be silly than try to anticipate in advance what dragon magic will do if we forbid it to be silly in that way," says Lazarus. "I don't know what it would do. It might do nothing and be perfectly fine. It might come up with yet another way to kill or torment innocent children for no reason. Silliness seems preferable."
nonbird
"Miracle magic as a whole is extraordinarily bad at producing information unless you are reasonably clever and already have a pretty good idea of what you want to know, and it can't predict the future in any way that would apply to this situation," says Lazarus. "I can see magic and get all sorts of helpful information that way, including things I didn't know I needed to look for, but I do need to be near a particular magic in order to see it, which means that I am not very good at figuring out ways in which a type of magic I don't fully understand yet might interact with a thing that doesn't exist yet at all."
"The - 'silly' case - reminds me of a question. If thudias, or for that matter vampires, who can already shift, get to be third-siahrs how does that apply to the forms we already have?" Korulen asks. "I look like an elf, not like a dragon who's turned into an elf, and it's not all the hair, and even more trivially, my other form has some stuff tucked."
nonbird
"Well, if you're going to be turned into a third-siahr you'll do it by asking a miracle worker, who will be able to customize those details for you," says Lazarus. "You could be a third-siahr with the elf form you have now, or with a siahr version of your elf form, and you could be a jade third-siahr with no extra thudia silliness or a jade third-siahr who was also a jade thudia, or a third-siahr of some other colour if you liked, with or without also being a jade thudia on top of that. People being turned into third-siahrs have lots of options."
"Is everybody going to get that much customization?" asks Kaylo. "Does that not make it more complicated and labor intensive or do you have to explicitly dictate those parameters every time anyway? It can't be that, at least not in all cases of miracles, you fixed the shrens too fast - unless there's dozens of you? How does this all work?"
nonbird
"Miracles need a certain specificity of design in order to work at all, but the designs can be copied very easily by subsequent miracles," says Lazarus. "Turning a shren into a dragon doesn't vary at all between one case and the next, because the things that need changing are the same. Turning someone of an arbitrary species, who might or might not have multiple existing forms that might or might not have items tucked, into a third-siahr needs all those trivial questions answered somehow or other, and since this is very very likely to be the first thudia turned into a third-siahr, there will not be any previous cases to copy and so she might as well have everything just how she likes it."
shrennaki
Mial smiles. "Okay. Thanks, Lazarus."
He changes the Reproductive traits? point to Third-siahr/dragon kids are parunias or third-siahr thudias; third-siahr/other kids are third-siahrs, and adds under it Third-siahr parents can choose when and what gender to have kids. He does not explicitly write anything down about cross-fertility, but at least this way third-siahrs aren't going to go around creating whole new sapient species even if they do certain things the dragon council forbids. They will just have third-siahr children with extremely awkward parenting situations.
"Anything else?"
He changes the Reproductive traits? point to Third-siahr/dragon kids are parunias or third-siahr thudias; third-siahr/other kids are third-siahrs, and adds under it Third-siahr parents can choose when and what gender to have kids. He does not explicitly write anything down about cross-fertility, but at least this way third-siahrs aren't going to go around creating whole new sapient species even if they do certain things the dragon council forbids. They will just have third-siahr children with extremely awkward parenting situations.
"Anything else?"
"Oh! I thought of something," says the blue opal. "I have a halfling aunt! She had parunia twins, and not the soft-shelled kind! It was kind of a big problem! As long as you're fixing things fix that."
"Search me," says the blue opal.
"I mean, I'm kinda proof you can get into serious trouble even if you are human, there is only one egg, and it is the soft shelled kind," says the nameless spelter, "but I don't know what to do about it either."
"I mean, I'm kinda proof you can get into serious trouble even if you are human, there is only one egg, and it is the soft shelled kind," says the nameless spelter, "but I don't know what to do about it either."
shrennaki
"Okay. But, I don't know, it's not exactly a magical problem, which means a magical solution is going to have to be somewhat cleverer than 'instead of this magic we don't like, do this other magic that we like more'. Never let it be said that I let so trivial an obstacle stop me, however. What exactly was the serious trouble with you, nameless spelter girl, if you don't mind my asking?"
"My widowed mother tried to lay my egg when nobody was so much as aware that she was pregnant, alone. In my lake. Not sure if it was blood loss or if she passed out and drowned," says Nameless Spelter Girl.
"My aunt is fine but there were trained lights involved," says the blue opal.
"My aunt is fine but there were trained lights involved," says the blue opal.
shrennaki
"Okay. These problems clearly need solving. I am going to think about how. Suggestions very much welcome," says Mial.
"What happens if somebody gets a fairy or something pregnant with a parunia...?" wonders Aurin idly.
"The fairy ladies I'm acquainted with are all way too scared to try it," says Sashpark.
"Never results in a surviving parunia," says the emerald representative, "so it's considered better to have it fail to result in a surviving parunia quickly enough to save the mother."
"...Ah," says Aurin.
"The fairy ladies I'm acquainted with are all way too scared to try it," says Sashpark.
"Never results in a surviving parunia," says the emerald representative, "so it's considered better to have it fail to result in a surviving parunia quickly enough to save the mother."
"...Ah," says Aurin.
shrennaki
"We are definitely going to solve this problem," says Mial. "But I think our efforts to find a solution may - much as I hate to say this - be suffering from a lack of details. Members of the dragon council present? Do you know where to find an expert on parunia gestation who might be willing to attend this meeting, and would you be so kind as to locate one? I'm wary of inventing a miraculous solution without knowing exactly what I am trying to change. It's a lot like inventing spells in that way. If we come up with one that's good enough I see no reason it wouldn't be possible to apply it to existing dragons as a whole, with, of course, appropriate permission."
shrennaki
"While we're waiting for that, other suggestions, related or unrelated?"
He turns around and looks at the list again, in case it makes him think of something. It's getting to be a long list. The chalkboard was definitely a wise idea.
He turns around and looks at the list again, in case it makes him think of something. It's getting to be a long list. The chalkboard was definitely a wise idea.
- Third-siahrs speak Reform Draconic (Draconic optional)
- No esu
- No spontaneous death
- No dragon magic
- No name expiration
- Ten forms for everyone
- Black-group dragon senses for everyone
- Same chance for lights, sorcerers, mages as non-siahr Elcenians
- Everyone Is Unusual, red- and white-group onset at age ninety-five
- Names can gain syllables even if that person has previously given that syllable to someone else
- (Names can gain at most two syllables from the same person)
- Personal names can have arbitrary length
- Location of natural colour in assumed forms can be intentionally varied (rust/patina/tarnish versions available for relevant metals)
- Namesong available at four syllables (same as dragons)
- Language and firebreathing kick in at about a month, shifting at about twenty years (same as dragons)
- Line names can be assigned by same-gender ancestor using two consecutive syllables (or one repeated in case of extreme scarcity)
- Third-siahr/dragon kids are parunias or third-siahr thudias; third-siahr/other kids are third-siahrs
- Third-siahr parents can choose when and what gender to have kids (same as dragons)