If YOU were in YW...

[estar9821]

If you were in the Young Wizards universe, what role would you play in the series? How would your character interact with the characters already in the book? If you could create a character to add in, what would the character be like? Species, good or evil, wizard or non-wizard, etc.

Sorry if there is already a similar thread out there, I'm not quite sure.

Have fun with this!

[SapphireWizardry]

If I was in the YW series, I think my specialty would be dealing with organic beings, but animals more specifically and mammals even more specifically. Maybe I could act as a liaison between Wizards and sentient species that don't have Wizards of their own. I think I might have a knack for the Speech too, since I enjoy learning new words. I'd be happy to be a consultant for Wizards who need help finding a specific word in the Speech.

[SilveredBlue]

Ooh, good thread, estar!

Well, I'd be a wizard, and my specialty would have something to do with writing and/or music, as well as an intuitive ability. I'm good at grasping higher mathmetical and scientific concepts, so the research would be easy for me, but learning the Speech would be difficult, since I have a hard time with languages. Maybe...something to do with 2-dimensional and multi-dimensional planes (finding/contacting/using the energy in)?

You know how Gigo said in W@W, "plugging conduits into spaces empty of anything but power...we're passing the technology back to the Powers." Something like that, anyway. That's what I'd do, imagining and implementing useful things that haven't been thought of before. (I'm weird in that my thinking processes sometimes go at right angles to 'normal'. I should show you my "if-human-logic-was-a-cone" extrapolation from a couple years ago. Now that was odd.)

I'd probably work with species like Dairine's children, or possibly with the NY gating team. Worldgates seem to require that doubled-back thought process too.

If I could create a character...I'd add in a wizardly mate for S'reee, who possibly would be overshadowed (to create some non-human romance drama). Also, a wizard who KNEW he was overshadowed, and was fighting it. How awful it would be to have to hide your own thoughts when planning to get rid of an active, alive evil Power in your very soul...

Hey, that was fun! Hope it wasn't to awful to read.

[permafry_42]

if i could be in the YW series, i would be an shape shifter; A jack of all trades wizard that becomes different species of animals and try and help out animals by becoming them (similar to how kit and nita became whales, but done with a much larger variety of animals).

I wish DD would have people like that in the series, because being able to become another form is a very (for lack of a better word) powerful power. not to mention that it would take less energy to become an animal then to give animal abilities to humans. for instance, if kit and nita could have learned how to turn themselves into birds, they could have saved a lot of energy by just flying to the world gate rather than having to go through so much just to get on the roof of the building, and then spending energy to make the air solidify for them. I'm sure it would be easier just to become a bird and fly to the world gate were people to spend the time mastering the skill of it. It would take time, but i'm sure older wizards especially would enjoy being able to become different forms so that they could get their jobs done without having to spend so much energy.

[Cait]

I'm kind of a coward, so I'm not sure there'd be a whole lot of room for me anyplace, except I'm generally a pretty good voice of reason, where my friends are concerned. I'm the sane one who asks why they are doing some poorly-thought-out thing that's likely to end in utter disaster, and suggests something else. You know, the ones who stand on the ground and go, "No, jumping out of trees tends to result in broken limbs. If I climb that thing I will be climbing back down, not jumping, thank you. Better yet, I'll just stay here and make sure none of you breaks your head when you fall out of the tree."

But, that said, I think I'd be better on the animal and plant side of things than anything else. I seem to be pretty good at learning languages, so that'd help a ton. And I love growing plants and being around animals of most kinds... but especially horses and dogs and birds.

In other words, I have no idea. I'm of the opinion I'd be pretty useless. :P

[dorotheia]

That's an important skill, Cait. Everyone needs that kind of practicality on a good team. It sounds like (have you read the Feline Wizards series yet?) the "anchor" position on the gating team. You don't take the risks, but you ground the efforts of everyone else in a solid foundation.

I'm good with math in real life, but I really, really dislike it. I make stupid little mistakes all the time. I'd need a partner, or I'd end up doing something disastrous to myself or my environment doing a beam-me-up-scotty spell. Probably dump me somewhere unintended, if I'm lucky. (No, I wouldn't trust dematerialization / materialization.)

That said, I'd be pretty good with the Speech as a language. I would probably use the Speech in a more conversational style, rather than overt spells, where I could. I don't think I would have many overt talents, but perhaps a "seeing" talent like Arhu's or Nita's. Lately I've been having a lot of deja vu for no particular reason (maybe sensitivity to patterns?) I'm probably the more abstract and laid-back type of wizard, yet I'd be thrust into sticky situations. With abstract skills, but a highly practical outlook, I'm not sure where I'd fit in. Still, I'd prefer being behind the scenes researching, naming things (actually, I have a talent for that; it was mentioned in AWAb), and generally being artistic. I wonder if art has a deliberate function in the YW series, if it is part of the fight against entropy? So that's what I'd add. Art.

[estar9821]

Awesome, I'm glad you like this thread, everybody!

If I were in YW, I would love to work at the Crossings. It'd be great to meet creatures from all across the galaxy, and other galaxies. Hmm...well, that'd be fun, but maybe I'm not cut out for it. I have no problem memorizing other languages, but I have issues with pronunciation.

My skills would probably be with the earth. Not necessarily with plants, but the Earth itself. I could sense things deep underground, and on other planets as well. So I could see myself being the kind of wizard who interprets the world around them, instead of one of the techie-type wizards.

[Wizardprincess]

I would be either a wizard who has a talent with plants or a non wizard who finds out about wizards and learns the speech kinda like kits sister but help other wizards with plants instead of talk in chat rooms

[SilveredBlue]

In other words, I have no idea. I'm of the opinion I'd be pretty useless. :P

No! Cait, that's not useless! It doesn't take courage to be a wizard- remember the wizard who averted a catastrophe by inviting the LP to dinner? A huge part of wizardry is talking people out of harmful ways of being into better ones.

Dorothea: Yes, that's what I was wondering too. Music is the thing I love the best- but I don't know how that would defeat the LP. It has to have SOME function though.

[Cait]

Dorothea: Yes, that's what I was wondering too. Music is the thing I love the best- but I don't know how that would defeat the LP. It has to have SOME function though.

But music can do so many things with emotion, can you imagine a song with words in the Speech? It'd be like a whole new kind of magic- you could affect things on so many levels with that. Even if it wasn't a piece with words, I bet you could do things with it. That'd be awesome~

I guess I wouldn't be completely useless, but I would definitely need to be part of a team. Dorothoeia is right, it does sound like the anchor of a worldgate team! Or maybe just the voice of sanity in a team that was perhaps more prone to doing things without thinking them fully through.

SilveredBlue: Coincidentally, I /love/ talking, when I have something to say. :P Otherwise, I listen.

[96bookworms]

Just saw this: SilveredBlue- if you ever read the Chrestomanci books by diana wynne jones, the Magians of Caprona do ALL of their work by singing.....if that's possible, maybe you could invent a keyboard-like instrument for the letters in the Speech......hello could be played as a song.....RandomIdeaBy96bookworms (copyright-now!)

[SilveredBlue]

Oh! I had forgotten about that book! And great ideas, Cait and 96! (Calling you 96 feels weird. Vaguely bad sci-fi-ish. I think I'll type your whole name from now on. )

Okay, so definitely put me down for musician-wizard. I can bring my violin in a claudication, and as for piano...um...either I'll need a really BIG claudication- no wait! I can make a piano out of wizardry, maybe, or one that folds up! Hah, I wish I could sing. The problem with a piano is that the better it is, the bigger it is.

Yay! Music rocks! And I'm slightly sugar-crazed at the moment!

[estar9821]

Blue -- ask a certain white hole we all know and love to hold the piano for you. It'll come back glow in the dark!

[dorotheia]

More reminisces on art and music in the Speech

I have likewise come to the conclusion that art is also included in the YW universe. The spells themselves are graceful, certainly. A lot of a wizard's satisfaction seems to come not only from a spell working right, but a spell well-crafted and beautiful. What makes me wonder is that the art seems to be part of the Speech itself, and then I wonder how much is conscious on the part of the wizard. I guess, like music, art could be the medium through which the Speech or some other ritual in conducted? Even the goal of the wizardry, like the whales' Song? A better example of this type might be the Alaalu wizardry which recorded their history.

Also, I'd like to explore Ponch's other universes. Especially the places where the dark is let be, like where Kit found the glede. That was fascinating; what would it be like to just walk between them? Maybe I'd go and give the theorists currently pulling out their hair more data, and then I'd astound them all with my theories. Shortly after which, they'd go back to hair-pulling.

Forget the number, we'll call you Bookworms. Plural. Because one of the endearing things about youngsters is they haven't mastered their plurals yet.

[SilveredBlue]

hah. Thanks, estar, I will.

And dorotheia: Gotta say it. GREAT use of one of my favorite quotes. Touche!

*mutter* where's the accent for the e? *mutter*