LCD Death Mage

Discussion in 'Latest Chapter Discussion' started by lygarx, May 21, 2017.

  1. DeirdreH

    DeirdreH Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 8, 2019
    Messages:
    287
    Likes Received:
    310
    Reading List:
    Link
    Incidentally this is one of the most under-appreciated exploit points in human psychology. On a forum like this is doesn't really matter because the subjects under discussion are not important, but in other contexts it can change someone's life.

    If you really have it in for someone, tell them a fundamental truth in the most asshole way possible so that their emotions force them to reject it. If you're successful then you've condemned them to a life of making avoidable mistakes because they are forced to reject knowledge originated from an asshole who they hate.
     
    tirirism, DarkZealot and Shaman Ray like this.
  2. Shaman Ray

    Shaman Ray Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 24, 2019
    Messages:
    38
    Likes Received:
    15
    Reading List:
    Link
    I don't think people need to use that "exploit" in the real world, being wrong is hard enough.
     
  3. Feng Tian

    Feng Tian Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 9, 2018
    Messages:
    966
    Likes Received:
    779
    Reading List:
    Link
    Lambda simply doesn't have mass manufacturing. And that without any proper reasoning. The rest is you making stuff up.
     
  4. Startarrot

    Startarrot Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 5, 2019
    Messages:
    143
    Likes Received:
    152
    Reading List:
    Link
    I think people are forgetting the status. In both the magic 1+1=101 and no mass production are explained by the status system. For magic a higher level in affinity and mana control can greatly effect the effect and efficiency of the spell. Allowing them to get so much more out of the mana input. Same happens with production jobs. The higher your skill level the better you'll produce things. To gain levels you need to push what your skills to their limits. Mass production would mean not being able to level and that would mean shoddy work. Even in the empire van really only has material production, food processing and a bit of alchemy(blood potions) automated. All things he can do and can set familiars down that benefit from his skill levels.
     
  5. The Godly Aeolus

    The Godly Aeolus Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 10, 2020
    Messages:
    142
    Likes Received:
    166
    Reading List:
    Link
    There is a perfectly "good" reason as to why Lambda is still in a pre-Industrial state: Bellwood said industrialization was bad because it leads to gunpowder and fission weapons, and Alda agreed because he's an uninventive lackwit. You and I know that this is an unreasonably narrow-minded view of advanced manufacturing, especially since we know that magic can be utilized to make the processes even more efficient and lower-impact on the environment, and nothing about it stops the gods from punishing people who abuse that technology in the ways that they fear, but really? How many commoners are going to argue with a freaking god? Moreover, argue with a god who is known to either impale or send crusaders after those who argue with him? I'd love to know how applying common sense can be seen as "making stuff up". The inhabitants of Lambda aren't so alien to us that our real-world understandings are totally inapplicable to them. Don't hate on conjecture too much; as long as it isn't blatantly stupid, it is welcome in this forum.
    And yet, even that tiny bit of mass-production and industrialization has lead to a level of consistency and quality in his work that is unrivalled elsewhere in Lambda. Hell, automating the production of refined materials so that they can be used by artisans is still enough to improve the quality and consistency of the work of those artisans simply by removing common sources of variance in the products! Let us also not forget that the Status System is highly adaptive; the likely reason that mass production results in shoddier work than hand-crafted products in Lambda is because, until Vandalieu came along, nobody actually pushed mass-production or industrialization to the point where the System felt like creating new Skills or Jobs relating to it. This has changed. Many of Van's Skills and Jobs directly correlate to increased efficiency in mass-production. Within a decade or so, there should be Jobs and Skills available to those south of the Boundary Mountain Range that help them in industrial work.

    In OTHER news: Vandalieu is technically a god now. Does this mean he can finally condense mana to create Orichalcum, seeing as the only limitation to Van creating it seems to have been godhood or the lack thereof?
     
  6. Feng Tian

    Feng Tian Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 9, 2018
    Messages:
    966
    Likes Received:
    779
    Reading List:
    Link
    Nobody pushed for mass production for exactly no reason. Its a feudal crapsack world as far we know, and NOTHING indicates that mass production is worse. The author simply goofed up the world building by using a ridiculous timeframe. If we were talking about 3k years? Maybe. But 100k is just flat out beyond stupid.
     
    Shaman Ray likes this.
  7. Arha

    Arha Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 9, 2019
    Messages:
    753
    Likes Received:
    375
    Reading List:
    Link
    Even if you assume Alda really has the time and inclination to stop people from inventing soccer, which I very much doubt because board games and such do exist, why are Zanalpadna and the Dark Elf nation so backward?
     
    Shaman Ray likes this.
  8. Shaman Ray

    Shaman Ray Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 24, 2019
    Messages:
    38
    Likes Received:
    15
    Reading List:
    Link
    I think I know the answer to my own question but it's funnier to ask. @Arha Why are you so obsessed about the soccer angle. No one was talking about Alda suppressing ball related games especially the most simple or at least likely to come about first, soccer
     
    Last edited: May 23, 2021
  9. Arha

    Arha Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 9, 2019
    Messages:
    753
    Likes Received:
    375
    Reading List:
    Link
    Soccer is clearly the pinnacle of culture.

    ...Because it's quicker to type out than board games or ball games, it's a more concrete example and because it amuses me to keep bringing it up. Lambda hasn't just failed to develop technology in a hundred thousand years, it has somehow failed to develop any kind of real entertainment and not through lack of demand. Alda doesn't suppress cultural development or that game they were talking about when Van introduced Othello wouldn't exist. So there isn't really an excuse with that kind of absurd time frame.

    Yes, no one was really talking about Alda suppressing culture, sports and entertainment. My point is that they probably should be because it's the point where there really is no defense for the timescale here.
     
    Shaman Ray likes this.
  10. DarkZealot

    DarkZealot Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 10, 2017
    Messages:
    72
    Likes Received:
    63
    Reading List:
    Link
    Something all of you seem to be forgetting is the sheer weight of social practice. If an act or object has been around and normalized for long enough, it can take an EXTREME amount of effort to change it. Think of how hard it is to change person habits you've had for years. Now multiply that by society and you can get a glimpse of what is going on. If something is that way for 100 years, the ratio is anywhere between 220-1000+ years to break it, and that is for a single group. Add a retard god on top and all hope goes spiraling out of control.
     
    LWolf likes this.
  11. Feng Tian

    Feng Tian Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 9, 2018
    Messages:
    966
    Likes Received:
    779
    Reading List:
    Link
    Thats part of why this is so badly written. Vida and her gods are clearly of a different opinion and doing the opposite of Alda. The stagnation should never be this bad for Aldas territory (10k years ago we had little to no civilization at all, for reference), and be irrelevant on Vida turf. Which means Vidas races should be dominating right now.
     
    Baldingere likes this.
  12. Arbelbyss

    Arbelbyss 『Abyss Scion』『Epiphron』『Tempestarius』

    Joined:
    Jan 21, 2017
    Messages:
    2,126
    Likes Received:
    10,398
    Reading List:
    Link
    We've existed for 200,000 years, Civilization has only lasted 6,000, Industrialization only started 200 years ago. I don't see how you guys have a dissonance about the story in how the Alda faith has managed things and how the Vida Races have managed things.

    We have to realize Alda has reared up so many follower gods in these 100,000 years and in consideration of this, would it not be fit that before they became gods they were all mass slaughterers of Vida races and those of innovation and industry? Shoot the God of Records (Alda's Book) would be able to keep track of such things and basically help Alda paint targets to be eliminated by the follower gods before they became gods. Especially if they have the Alda faith rallying behind them and using their political power to have kingdoms follow them. Familiar spirit descent is a thing, Alda could have simply had a chosen one use this and this has stemmed for 100,000 years as Alda would have had plenty of chosen ones.
     
  13. CountryMage

    CountryMage [XSanguine8] not my blood...

    Joined:
    Nov 10, 2015
    Messages:
    3,632
    Likes Received:
    1,994
    Reading List:
    Link
    90,000 years of the Vida side being injured, or laying low to build up some strength, while being cut off from mainstream worship. Only Alda's side has been active, and recruiting.
     
  14. daxrocket

    daxrocket Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 9, 2019
    Messages:
    68
    Likes Received:
    49
    Reading List:
    Link
    That's still 10,000 years of advancement that Vida's side should have over Alda's side.
     
    Shaman Ray likes this.
  15. Feng Tian

    Feng Tian Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 9, 2018
    Messages:
    966
    Likes Received:
    779
    Reading List:
    Link
    Especially since the boundary mountain range effectively cuts off aldas influence. Sure, the vida gods didn't help much, but at least they didn't actively mess things up. We may argue that Alda hard delayed advancement of society on his turf by a factor of more than 100 (and even that is complete bs), but Vidas side should not have that problem at all. Funny how some people casually forget that just to fit their broken argumentation.
     
    Shaman Ray likes this.
  16. Arha

    Arha Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 9, 2019
    Messages:
    753
    Likes Received:
    375
    Reading List:
    Link
    The boundary range nations have been separated from the human ones for almost the entire hundred thousand years, actually. Their current political model alone has survived half of that.
     
  17. tirirism

    tirirism He who dealt it

    Joined:
    Jul 7, 2017
    Messages:
    573
    Likes Received:
    576
    Reading List:
    Link
    This meaningless argument with all its new posts is giving me false hopes. Don't give me hope, false or otherwise. That'll mess up my Mental Corruption Level 9
     
    Yomiel Metathronos likes this.
  18. Overlord2019

    Overlord2019 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Dec 18, 2019
    Messages:
    196
    Likes Received:
    204
    Reading List:
    Link
    Because the vast majority of the population is more worried that the nearest "human" village will send out one or more mass-killers that will come along, kill everyone and everything in sight and then go back home to a "hero's welcome." We saw this when Van's grandparents were emigrating to Talosheim.

    And you've forgotten that most of them have either been in comas or maintaining the boundary barrier to keep Alda's side from just swarming the place and magi-nuking them into oblivion, and that still doesn't do enough to dissuade sufficiently motivated and determined armies, as Talosheim can easily attest.

    It's like complaining that someone who's been bed-ridden for a decade should be far richer than the guy working minimum wage down the street over that time because they're "smarter." Especially if that minimum wage guy is working that minimum wage job because that's all they could get after putting the first in the hospital to begin with. This is your argument that flies the least.

    Even then, both Alda's and Vida's gods still have to keep an eye out for the truly evil gods, like old Hihi who made a pyramid scheme cult where the only way to advance is to find people weaker to trample down, or the evil god of minotaurs, or the evil god of murder, and so on.

    It can be very, very hard to be creative and invent new things when a ravening army of crazed fanatical luddites is constantly storming your gates, and you also have to watch out for sadistic murder-happy yahoos who just kill because they like it. And both groups can even be found working together, as shown in the start of the story when Hihi's group and Alda's happened to get together to go after the dark-elf mother of a certain infant dhampir.
     
  19. Arha

    Arha Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 9, 2019
    Messages:
    753
    Likes Received:
    375
    Reading List:
    Link
    Uh, no one goes down to Zanalpadna from Amid. Why would they be scared of them? And it's noted that the Oni nation alone would be very dangerous for Amid even if they couldn't win. Tie in all the other nations and they have little to fear.

    Also, desperation drives innovation. Coming up with clever new ideas is most important when it's a matter of life and death.
     
    Shaman Ray and Feng Tian like this.
  20. Feng Tian

    Feng Tian Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 9, 2018
    Messages:
    966
    Likes Received:
    779
    Reading List:
    Link
    Another bullshit argument. Progress is the natural state of things. Your side needs a reason why it isn't. You provide none. The gods being asleep doesn't mean jack. On the other side of the mountain range human/alda influence is minimal to a non-factor. Most of these nations were portrayed as stable, prosperous even. Why the flying fuck would they not advance for 100k years? Right. No excuse for bad writing.