u/JGhostThing

Why do you consider slavery to always be unethical? It is, in the current day, but it is far from over (unfortunately).

However, there were ancient societies that treated their slaves relatively well. And their attitude towards slavery was very different from the general attitude now. There are a lot of reasons for the change. For one thing, slavery is an inefficient system. It costs a lot to force somebody to work. You need fewer guards when you are protecting yourself from employees rather than slaves. It is cheaper to pay people to do the work rather than having slaves do the work. The studies I've seen on this have all used the US system of slavery, which was particularly brutal.

And no matter how they are treated, I am anti-slavery. I may have it if I'm writing a book set in a time where this was common in the area in which I'm writing. For example in ancient Greece or perhaps Rome. And I will try to be as historically accurate as I can be.

Wasn't there also another coin that was 21 shilling? I always thought that was an odd outlier.

You should read mythology. Many religions existed with multiple gods. The Roman gods, the Greek gods, the Norse gods, the Hindu gods, the Japanese Kami, and the American Indian gods. There are other pantheons, but you'll have to look them up. You should also do a bit of research on the worship. Many people seem to think that worshiping a pantheon is similar to a monotheistic religion with people choosing just a single god. Or worse, assuming that gods of the underworld are the same as gods of death. (Totally different.) Think of the gods of the underworld as the people who run a retirement community, whereas the gods of death help you with dying. This is a gross oversimplification. Please do your own research.

Good luck. One thing is that real pantheons are somewhat messy. Such as gods having multiple domains. For example, Poseidon is the god of the sea, but also of horses. Think of the Romans conquering villages, and folding their gods into the Roman ones. This is one of the reasons that Jupiter has a reputation for cheating on his wife: when they folded their chief god together with Jupiter, it often left him with an extra wife or mistress.

Right now I'm currently rereading Eight Million Gods, which is set in modern day Japan, the main character is a writer with a mental disorder, hypergraphia, where she has times where she *must* write. And in these times, she writes about pretty nasty characters and their pretty nasty deaths. Including one killed with a blender, and she talks about this with her best friend in a public place (some sort of food shop), and gets overheard by a cop, who knows a bit of English. This happened to look like a real murder -- yes, somebody with a similar name who also was killed with a blender. So she has to forgive the cops. And yes, she gets involved with the kami, who are Shinto "spirits", and eight million is a way of saying "a lot." The kami are sort of gods. Studying how the Japanese polytheism works could be interesting.

The resolution that you need is somewhat ridiculous. The only thing I can imagine that affordably has that resolution is a micrometer. Even that would be effected by how tight you squeeze it.

I can't think of any sensor that would be affordable outside of a research lab.

It's been done many times before. Even in Keven O'Donnell's "Mayflies," the brain of the ship muses on the idea of killing everybody on board and then reconstructing the human race from scratch. He's considering this because the passengers are trying to kill him, and he's taking this personally. (He doesn't do it, but the parameters of the mission allow it. He absolutely has to drop off some humans at the target star. Until he's done this, he can't change course.)

I'd have liked to see a sequel to that book. I want to know what happened next.

When you described the tear as having erased things from existence, I was thinking of something magical, not just antimatter.

Though a thread of antimatter wouldn't do it. Remember that while there are a lot of stars, they are still far apart. A thread might not hit anything. And antimatter doesn't erase matter from existence. It annihilates it (converting it to energy). And how do you get that much antimatter, knowing that it is effected by gravity in the same way matter is, all in one huge place. Remember, unless this was designed as a weapon, why would it separate into single system destroying chunks?

Only if it were aimed, designed to hit specific targets at specific times, would this work.

And you should check the distances within the galaxy. If the tear is at the right distance, it might be that the light from the explosions is still visible. If it is 1,000 light years from their home planet, then 1,000 years later they will see the explosion.

Have fun! Personally, I set everything in the Milky Way galaxy. If I need a big rift, I'll figure out how to make one. And I'd calculate the best time the light will reach Earth, depending on the story.

And, in the real world, traveling to another galaxy is pretty much impossible. So other galaxies won't affect the plot.

My sorcery system can do a lot, but not traditional DnD magic. There are absolutely no creation spells, and the only one from metamagic that I allow is a "cancel" spell to prevent a spell from going "off." I think one thematic meaning is that value is given for value. It takes a *long* time to learn sorcery because there is a spoken language that is extremely difficult in that almost every word is irregular. There is also a unique language of thought associated with sorcery that must be discovered for each sorcerer. Magic is fairly weak, except for those descended from demons, like Merlin or his daughter. Basically, if you give your entire life to magic, it can give extreme power. Unfortunately, the "extreme" levels are rarely for humans, because only the Fae (almost immortals) have time to learn it. It is possible that a human can learn enough of it to slow or even stop his aging, and most sorcerers appear old because of this.

There are very few human sorcerers in the world today. This book is set in what appears to be very similar to the real world. Magic and magical creatures are hidden. Much like our world, very few people believe in magic. So spending twenty years learning to speak a magical language makes little sense. There are people who do study enough to do this, but it's much easier to get rich quickly with a business degree. Learning the language of sorcery doesn't do anything useful for you without the thoughts behind it. Only when you're truly fluent in both the spoken and the thought language so that you can speak one while thinking the other, can you do magic.

To be honest, magic isn't that powerful. If a sorcerer wants to protect himself, a handgun is more useful than spells. Most people develop magic systems starting with combat. I then removed most combat spells. So there are only a few domains of magic: Luck, Mind, Illusion, Astral (Dr. Strange from the comics magic), Healing, and Elemental (symbolic only). There is no way to cast a fireball in my system. It could be changed to do that, but I'd rather not. Sorcerers need to be thoughtful in how they use magic. For example, direct damage can be done with Luck, Mind, Astral (not much use against people without magic), Healing. Against a normal person, Luck or Mind are your best bets to hurt them, but there are clever uses which are more efficient. There is a Luck spell I call "Mirror," which causes them to hurt themselves if they try to hurt the protected person(s); this seems to just be bad luck, like they tripped and hurt themselves with their own knife (taken from the book, Sorceress of Ambermere).

The Elemental (symbolic) magics involve only the symbolic meanings of the four elements. I did this specifically to make magic less prone to be used in a fight. Though there are enough dangerous spells. For example, imagine casting Luck on somebody so that everything that can go wrong on him does in a single instant. Probably won't kill them, but it will almost always put them down for a count. Using Mind, it might be possible to get them to hurt themselves.

IMHO, you don't have writer's block. You're not a writer yet.

However, all you need is to write. I suspect that you are subconsciously procastinating.

I would like to suggest you reread Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. There is no transformation. There is only Dr. J.

In my world I use the traditional four elements: earth, water, air, and fire. However, I only use their symbolic meanings. There is no way to create physical objects in my magic, nor is there any magic that can cast a spell.

1. Earth: strength, protection, stillness
2. Water: Healing, Refreshment, coolness
3. Air: Intelligence, Transportation, Movement
4. Fire: Passion, Warmth

I have to go through these with my reference materials, because I've forgotten many of the symbols.

I'd also be interested in your's.

Building a constructed language (r/conlang) is a difficult and painful thing. It could easily take over a year, and will have a small vocabulary. I suggest checking out existing conlang's and paying the creator to add your words to his vocabulary. By checking out existing ones, you can choose one that feel right for you.

And the rules for block scope work very similarly in all c-like languages. C, Java, C++, Rust, etc.

In the past, many of the laws we think of as immutable, aren't covered under the laws that existed then. If these races are covered under the law, and aren't in separate kingdoms or whatever, then the laws would be written to cover the citizens as needed. I don't know when the first drinking laws were created, but in village taverns, I think that it's the owner's rules.

To be perfectly honest, most people will be fairly sensible if they have the right information. Unfortunately, drinking is one of those things that people aren't sensible about. Well, some people are and some aren't. The age of consent thing is too culturally based. Depending on when and where, the lowest age I've seen is seven! Yes, a girl could consent to sex my state at seven! I think that it's much more standardized now across the US. I don't know what it is for my state, because I'm 68 years old, and I wouldn't consider dating any woman who isn't at least half my age.

Military service was very much informal. Officers often bought their rank. Training was almost non-existent. Besides mercenaries, there were few professional soldiers. No uniforms. Uniforms are needed by a modern army to prevent desertion. When even a civilian could know somebody is a soldier, it becomes more difficult to desert properly.

So, laws are written for the place and time. If there are other races, then laws will be written with race in mind. However, it might not be sensible to our modern day minds. For example, if elves are physically grown at 12, even though they aren't considered adults (by the elves) until they are 250 years old, they might be draftable at 12 if humans make the laws. If young elves are known to be psychopathic under the effects of alcohol, maybe there will be a drinking age for them. After all, who wants a bunch of armed (in the army) drunken psychopathic elves running around town. :)

Part of this depends on the technology. FTL just means faster than light, it doesn't mean that you can cross the galaxy in days. 1.0001 c is FTL, just as 1,000 c is. The RPG Traveller has an interesting set of assumptions that encourages a feudal imperium. A jump can go up to 6 parsecs (max is set by fuel and the engine number). Each jump takes a week. It doesn't matter the length. There is no FTL communication, so knowledge only goes the speed of jump. On the mail routes, the x-boats, special jump-4 ships, travel at an average of 2.7 parsecs per week (the routes are not optimal).

Their Imperium is huge. To get from Capital to the Spinward Marches takes over a year, even with a fast ship. This was done deliberately, so the players can be set to do something, and the suits back home aren't looking over their shoulders or micromanaging them.

The same applies to government. Even if something happens fairly close, it will still take at least one week for the information to get there. There was even a war that happened and was ended before Capital got word of it.

A JIT (just in time) compiler decides to interpret or compile java byte code into native machine code. It does this if it estimates that the program will run faster once compiled, fast enough to justify the time cost of compilation.

You can think about it as just an interpreter if you wish. Most of the time it gives you better performance than a traditional interpreter.

I prefer to have a single power system, if you're doing supers. To me, it doesn't seem to matter if a character is a mutant or has a powered suit. Let's say that Superman and Spider-man decide to rob the bank. They both dress up in iron man suits with only the jet packs working.

What do people think? Superman is a powered individual, and Spider-man is a mutant? All the public sees is two men in what appear to be powered suits. Heck, give them wands. They can wave them around and pretend to do spells.

In other words, if they want, people can easily hide their source of power.

In my favorite superhero novel series, Wearing the Cape, there is only one power system, and the author doesn't define it, until later he does. Unfortunately, he chooses the midachlorian option, it would have been better left unknown. His power levels include everybody from just invulnerability to a goldfish with world shaping powers. I very much like his talk about the rock-paper-scissors feel of powers. Every power has weaknesses. For example, Hope has the powers similar to Superman, but not so extreme. In her first book, she is easily beaten by a speedster and an energy blaster. If she can't hit them, it doesn't matter how strong she is.

There is also a character that truly believes herself to be Princess Ozma of Oz, complete with the alternate world of Oz. And yes, she has the power of magic. She's one of a handful of characters that don't remember their human life before they became empowered. It may even be true that she is and always has been Ozma, somehow transported to this version of earth.

I can't help it, I have a thing for Oz.

If I were writing this, I would consider the use of magic items to be lazy. Basically, your second magic system should not need the use of magic artifacts just to be competitive.

I have two different systems. One is inborn and is the magic of the fae. The fae only get one domain of magic. For example, the Sidhe have glamour (personal illusions). The Kitsune have Illusion or Luck. In addition, many types of fae can shapeshift into a specific animal form as well as a human form. The human magic is called sorcery. It is the magic of word and thought. It is highly difficult to learn. It also takes several seconds for a quick spell, and so isn't great for combat. Also, the range is typically short. And sorcery is normally weaker than fae magic.

Most sorcerers could make a magic item, but it requires all their total magical ability to do so. In other words, maximum one item per sorcerer. Magic items can be powerful, and are almost always unique and named. Some even have groups, such as the six crystal weapons of Atlantis.

In my world, every magic item has been made for a very specific purpose. Even the leophobia, which scares away lions. Not that useful in the modern day, but it would still scare mountain lions, which are still around today. But when it was made, they were more common. Likewise, with newer technology, many magic items never get made. A wand which produces a beam of force is probably less useful than a pistol. Or at least, as useful. A sword with an enchantment for accuracy is not that useful today, because there isn't a lot of sword fighting. Our metallurgy is much better today, and we can make beautiful swords that are very difficult to break and have great balance. Such a sword given to a primitive king might have started the legend of Excalibur.

You should never need magic items. They can be useful to characters, but only if they help to tell the story. If you're including them because one of your magic systems is too weak, then enhance the system. This is just my point of view. You're the writer, disregard my opinions.

I would like to suggest that you learn to read the official documentation and doc sheets. These usually are more readable than tutorials.

Why do your characters need two to three magical artifacts? In the real world, nobody ever had even one and we did just fine. In the Pelman books, there was only one artifact, though it split into three parts so people thought of it as three items. It was made for one purpose, and that was to kill the two-headed dragon. I don't think there was any other artifacts in the world, and yet is was a high fantasy trilogy.

I think the series started with Pelman the Powershaper. Each book tended to concern itself with one of the three lands, and Pelman was unique because he was whatever was magical in that land. He was Pelman the Prophet in the religious land, and Pelman the Player (actor) in the non-magical land. The land was divided by the dragon. Once the dragon was defeated, the powers all (well, almost all) left the newly reunited land.

Thank you. But even in computers, I haven't had to use a non-base 10 number system in decades. This is because I haven't done much in the way of raw embedded code. I use helper libraries that handle all the bit field calculations for me.

And yes, there are things on computers that are easiest visualized with binary, or octal, or hexadecimal. I used to be fluent in all three of them, and could convert them to each other or base 10 with ease. Now I have to think about it.

I didn't answer a question about why we DON'T use base 12 (or any other base). I was just answering why we use base 10. There is nothing magic about it, we have ten fingers so base ten is fairly logical for humans.

Some cultures have used different bases. I think that the Aztec calendar is built around base 60, but I could be wrong. Maybe base 12?

But for people, the obvious ones are 10 and 12. 10 fingers on our hands, and 12 months in a year. However, we did develop the base system for numerals, and I still state that they are only a display thing. The number 10 base 10, is the same number as A base 12. Nothing is special about base 10. No magic. We're used to it because nowadays, almost all cultures use base 10 for counting. Even our clocks are in base 10, though they've been retrofitted to do so. After 9 O'Clock, the hours are numbered 10, 11, and 12, whereas under base 12, they'd be A, B, 10. Well, A and B might be displayed using different characters, but they are usually represented by A, B, C,...

What are you actually trying to do with this? What do you want the motor to move?

I suggest researching hobby servo motors, often called r/c servos, because they are used a lot in radio control models.