VIDEO -> TEXT. UN: DAGNY.

[dagnyology]

[ Dagny's face appears on the network. Behind her are snowy plains, where small gnomes are jumping and playing. Her face is flushed from the cold, but she smiles. ]

Hello! I hope you're all doing well! The Timeline has finally computed your mission objective — sorry it took so long! Sometimes he gets a little slow. Now, I know he may seem— different, but he's always been correct! Just... ah, be careful when talking to him? He's a learning machine, and all he really knows is about missions, so sometimes he says some strange things when he goes off topic. But don't worry! He tries his best. I'll connect you to him now.

TIMELINE.EXE IS PROGRAMMED TO RELEASE MISSION PARAMETERS. MISSION OBSERVATION IS COMPLETE AND RESULTS FOR MISSION: Nalawi ARE AS FOLLOWS:

Hello World ( ﾟ▽ﾟ)/ Take the hassle and confusion out of the
Mission,
Try this One Weird Trick!

To help NALAWI, you will need to DEFEAT the GODDESS NALANNI so the energy can return to the world.* In doing so, the people of NALAWI will LOSE THEIR POWERS but the world will continue on. If this objective is not reached, NALAWI will BURN OUT PREMATURELY.

*NOTE FROM TIMELINE.EXE: Giant squid of the Sea, too
2 or 0 Not 1! Thank you

[OOC NOTE: This will serve as an IC discussion post. The OOC discussion post is here!]

Comments

[grunehexe]

It is fine- you are not taking me from other duties.

[Not like she can do anything to take down a god. And she was the last one to be able to speak against curiosity.]

I am from what is now Germany. But my village had not had contact with anyone outside of our forest for generations... I had thought the region still a princedom until recently. The women of my village worshipped the Goddess primarily, but acknowledge others.

[It almost sounds like truth every time she says it.]

[evantuality]

Just the women of your village? Were the men all atheists?

[It's a rather opaque attempt at a joke, in true Evan form.]

[grunehexe]

There were no men in my village save for the Green Witch's manservant. That was our way.

[evantuality]

[There's a pause in between his texts as Evan tries to work that one out.

Ultimately he can't.]

I hope this isn't too indelicate to ask, but how has your village managed to stay out of touch for generations, then?

[He's got some theories but they're rather indelicate themselves.]

[grunehexe]

Well, we occasionally catch the odd traveling merchant or hunter... They are simply not permitted to stay in the village. The Green Witch's manservant serves if the forest does not provide...

[evantuality]

....well, I can't say it's not clever to keep a backup on hand.

Dare I ask what gets done with male infants?

[grunehexe]

They simply are not born. Witches begat witches, through use of spell- though most of the women's bloodlines have diluted to this point that they cannot do magic themselves.

[evantuality]

Now there's a piece of lore about witches that I had not heard before.

[And it set the wheels of his brain to turning. Some sort of gender-specific abortifacient? Legitimate magic? Neither was outside the realm of possibility, though he wasn't entirely sure Sieglinde would have the answer]

Well you have to admit that's not surprising. It would be difficult to keep a bloodline any sort of, er, pure, with only one of the sexes contributing. So being a witch is a heritable condition on your world? Is there a male equivalent of a witch?

[grunehexe]

There is a lot to us the general populace is ignorant of- I am sure you understand why.

Heritable in the sense that some possess more innate ability than others, which can be bred in or out... but just possessing the bloodline will not amount to anything without proper instruction.

Warlocks, yes, of course.

[evantuality]

And where do warlocks live? Is it necessary to interbreed with them from time to time to keep magic in bloodlines?

Forgive the interrogation; this is fascinating. On my world monikers like 'witch' and 'warlock' are self-identifiers rather than innate descriptions having to do with heritage. Although now you've set me to wondering if the modern usage on my world is simply an appropriation of an older term by contemporary practitioners.

[grunehexe]

They are quite a bit more rare, I understand. I had never met one. But without an occasional influx of magical blood, warlock or otherwise [otherwise???] the blood thins with each generation. Like my villagers.

It is alright- I do not often have the chance to speak of it. You must tell me of your own world in turn sometime.

[evantuality]

More rare? Now, could that possibly be because all the witches are deciding to beget witches? Would witches give birth to warlocks?

Oh, by all means! Ahh, although I'm sure you must have heard a bit about Earth in my era from the dozen other people who somehow happen to be from more or less the same time frame. I'm ten or fifteen years ahead of most of them, but it's the same basic era.