Ah, if only a few of my characters were REAL.

I imagine a world in which my Jasmine Tashae and her partner, Nyx Deathweb, actually existed. Jaz is an immortal mage, perhaps one of the most powerful, and Nyx is a talented mage in her own right. Jaz's thing is protection of innocents, while Nyx is dedicated to fighting abuse of power. Jaz is of Egyptian descent, Nyx is Latina. They are partners in every conceivable sense.

I like to imagine what they'd do in this current environment. It wouldn't be pretty, that's for sure. I wonder sometimes what they'd consider the most important issues of our times. The war, certainly. Too many innocents dying over there. I could see Jaz and Nyx in the streets of Baghdad, taking on U.S. troops and insurgents alike to protect those who would suffer needlessly in the conflict. Then on to Darfur, where they'd destroy those trying to engage in genocide without even bothering to stop to take a breath. Then they'd be off to China, to locate and free those who were held in virtual slave labor camps.

Then they'd hop back to the U.S., smack Fred Phelps and his band of loony losers around for a while, and head off to help Sea Shepherd stop the illegal whaling operation by the corporate Japanese fleet.

They probably wouldn't get involved in the political scene here. Both are forged for direct conflict, the gray areas of political campaigning would mean nothing to them. I could see either or both of them taking on the issue of racism directly, and setting up a system to defend people from any abuse from the Minutemen and their ilk.

To solve the problem, they'd probably head into Mexico, and take on the oligarchy there and its corporate American sponsors and collaborators. They'd play "kingmaker" for a day and find someone truly dedicated to the well-being of the Mexican people and put him or her in power before leaving once again.

Then they'd fly up to Alaska and start disabling the aircraft of those hunting wolves from the air, perhaps drawing on the skills of the vampire Raven, whose allies are the wolves themselves. Then off to Montana to prevent the same thing from happening there.

Of course, none of these people are real. They're mere figments of my imagination. There are no superheroes, only mortal beings with the will and the heart to do what must be done. People like you and me with the heart, the compassion, and the will to stand up for what's right, and to engage those who would do harm in the interests of all the generations to come.

As I say in my latest novel. Humanity abides.

for the world to calm down and become sane again.

Jas and Nyx exist in your mind, which means they DO exist. Would you do what Jas and Nyx would do?

That's the question.

but those issues are all important to me, which is why I mention them. If I had the power, I would definitely do SOMETHING.

You don't have to be an archmage or immortal to shake your world. In a very real way, those are just props.

How hard is it to kill someone? Defend someone? Inspire someone? Invent something?

You are only limited by your will to do something and your willingness to open your mind to solutions.

Just think- 100 years ago, nuclear bombs and dark matter were unthinkable. Just imagine what we'll know tomorrow.

I think about that stuff too. Of course I do. I try to inspire with my writing, by lending MY talent to the fray. And hopefully that does some good. I try not to preach too much in my fiction, though this latest work touches on the evils of racism and authoritarianism. Not that the latter is all that uncommon a theme in my writing. :D

As I said in the last paragraph--people like Jaz and Nyx don't really exist. It's all in OUR hands.

YOU are Jaz and Nyx. You are advocating on behalf of them, even as you doubt their reality.

As Superman said in one of the Justice League episodes:

"The world didn't need a super man, just a brave one."

:evilgrin:

I SO wish I was a visual artist too. I'd draw a great poster saying precisely that. It would be fun.

I have a (near-)immortal who eats pain and another who makes rapists and child-molesters eat their own entrails before she skins them alive. If I could call on my goddesses in real life, there'd be some serious whup-ass goin' on in the government, just for starters. But I can't even get mine published where their voices can be heard. :(

(Wait; I thought it was The Dude who abides. ;) )

is "trolling for rapists."

She's not a nice woman.

Her "gravedigger" spell is probably the nastiest piece of work in her arsenal. It throws the target up to a mile underground in a split second. No mortal can survive it and even more powerful beings can be trapped for a long time.

Sorry to hear about your troubles getting published. I lucked out in some respects. If I want to keep my current publisher, I have to retain strong romantic storylines in my novels, since they're dropping everything but "romance" and its sub-genres for a while. It's a good thing my stuff can fit in that category with a little effort, even though that's REALLY not what it is.

On edit: Well, yes, the "Dude" does abide.


"Humanity Abides" is my new 23rd Century catchphrase. It basically says that even the most powerful segments of the altered human race--magi, lycanthropes, and vampires, for example, are still human at their core. They're still people, often decent, but flawed. Thus, "Humanity Abides."

or advanced spell turning.

But she probably hunts the dimwits, right?

-------------
On edit:

Yes, humanity does abide...but what part of it? We are a rather savage species, after all.

Weak wards can be overwhelmed by a more powerful spell composed of a greater number of mana threads--the more talented the mage, the more threads s/he can weave. The "gravedigger" spell is actually a misnomer, since it's actually a mana effect rather than a spell in that it's commonly composed of only a single strand.

Vampires and lycanthropes can often shrug off magic, having an inherent resistence to it. Some are also mages themselves. Like Raven.

But, yeah...she generally hunts dimwits. And in the future world, such criminals are rather rare. The Confed's justice system bears little resemblance to the one we have. Paranormal or Preternatural criminals fall under the jurisdiction of the Adjuster's Office and its agents are serious badasses. Between forensic necromancy and psychic interrogation, it's terribly difficult to pull off a crime and get away with it. The future's version of defense attorneys don't try to prove innocence, they negotiate sentencing. Those believed to be capable of rehabilitation are often assigned to the Survey Service and sent into the frontier in service to the Confed. Those who are not are sent to edicted penal colonies or the "toilet," a massive undersea prison complex in the North Atlantic.

You can't create a dead magic zone(draining the threads, as it were) or a reverse force set of threads? That must make it so easy for offensive casters.

For instance, "Reaper's hand"- fire, cold, air and death threads, number based on caster level + optional sacrifice of health. Failure to resist results in instant incineration and scattering of ashes. Failure to resist the secondary effect does the same to your soul. Have a nice day!

See? the tighter the reins, the more dangerous the criminals who are still walking around :evilgrin:

and I'm actually working something like that into my current project. There's a vampire whose power is herding threads, though he (or she--I haven't determined that yet) is not a mage. In an ordinary world, mana threads are more or less everywhere, though they're far more common where sentient beings can be found.

Mana threads are the manifestation of unrecognized probability--energy left over from intentions that have never come to pass, in effect, the energy of dreams unfulfilled and universes unborn. They're generic--having no ultimate purpose or alignment in and of themselves (fire, water, death, etc...) Spells are represented as sigils formed out of mana threads, similar in appearance to Celtic knotwork, that float around a mage and visible only to magesight, a special kind of vision accessible to mages and few others.

Each thread woven into a spell is given a specific purpose in the overall spell, a single attribute that represents a desired effect. A powerful offensive spell might have the "gravedigger" effect at its base, but several threads designated as "ward-busters," simply there to eliminate the various threads woven into a defensive ward.

In general the only limitation there is to a mage's power is his/her knowledge and imagination. A mage-physician can use the threads to perform surgery, kill diseases, or even alter body and brain chemistry. A mage-engineer can use the threads to alter the way a machine works, or even bind mana to chips in computer equipment to add magical effects to the technological purpose of the machine in question.

:)

Antimagic Shell could simply be a "dampening" of possibility in the area...or a mage's ability to grab all the threads in the area and control them the way a spider tweaks her web.

I felt like toying with your archmage because one of my favorite created anti-heros is a demon name Damius that amuses himself by hunting down creatures of powerful magic(Archmages, Archdemons, powerful fey, etc) and souldrinking them to increase his potential energy. His motto is "Your magic is pretty, but without it, you're just dinner." He is powerfully antimagical- up to 500 feet around him snuffs magic out like a candle when he desires it, and each creature he kills makes the range even higher, while giving him more magical power if he doesn't need to use the aura.

Damius really inspired me- there is no such thing as "unbeatable." He started out as an imp, and became one of the most feared demon lords in my stories.

Large things can come from "small" beings.

Quickfingers. Created by Jaz herself. "Spirits" like Quickfingers and the djinn Dylan (who's featured in Tales from the Magitech Lounge and this current novel) are little more than very complex spells with the power to infinitely renew themselves. Imps are impervious to physical damage, for the most part. They can teleport or turn ethereal at will. It's theorized that if you dropped one in a vat of acid, it would destroy it, but that's a heck of a lot harder to manage than it sounds.

The body of the imp is formed of several hundred mana threads gathered around a very complicated core spell that is, in effect, its ego or soul. The djinn is composed of even MORE threads and was once a human being.

Jaz is a lethal fighter as well. Deprived of her magic, she still has use of her swords, particularly the twin blades Passion and Storm--high crystal katanas sharper and harder than any metal known that can disrupt the cellular regrowth of even immortals and thus as lethal to them as to any mortal.

She also wears a symsuit, living armor capable of accessing power on a higher plane than even magic. Nyx's sym allows her to create and weave webs of force like a spider, but Jaz's sym--well, I'm not sure WHAT it does. :D

Raven, the vampire mage, has the power to be totally and completely invisible. Very few beings can sense him if he doesn't want to be noticed. He's immune to psychic awareness, impossible to track magically, and pretty much untouchable. He's also the Lord of Dogs and sometimes partnered with Cerberus, a canine modified by Loki into what he calls a "foo dog." No one's quite sure what the limits of HIS powers are either.

My vamps are different than most. Their bodies are composed of a colony of mutable, cooperative cells that can mimic the function of any other cell in the body. That's why they heal from most damage almost immediately. Their single weakness is the brain and brainstem. Destroy those and you destroy the vamp. Lycanthropes, created by a modified version of the same metavirus, are extremely dense--powerful and quick with the same basic weakness. Vamps all have different powers that seem to vary based on their own personalities, and often adopt a connection to whatever animal they feed from upon first being turned.

My immortals are similar in a way to the vamps, in that their bodies are composed of cooperative cells, but each cell contains the information necessary to regrow the whole body if necessary. Their weakness is crystal weapons. Well, all but Deryk Shea and his son Justice Breed (also known as ArchAngel). Deryk may be unkillable and ArchAngel--well, he's an energy being currently residing in a super high-tech android body.