OOTS #1267 - The Discussion Thread

[Xirdus]

So, uh, what is the capital of Anywhere?

From what I could find in Google, between $10,000 and $10,000,000. (Source)

[Windscion]

So, uh, what is the capital of Anywhere?

Clearly the answer is "A".

[Xirdus]

{scrubbed}

[Laurentio III]

Didn't you hear Xykon? He said it was 'No clue at all'!

That's how he pronunce it. So... Nocwatol? Can't be, it's even!

[Resileaf]

That's how he pronunce it. So... Nocwatol? Can't be, it's even!

Considering the naming conventions of this setting's countries, would you really be surprised if the name of the capital of Anywhere was literally 'No clue at all'?

[urbanwolf]

MITD should try using homophones.
Words that sound alike but have different spellings. I feel a good meta joke could spawn from that.

[Laurentio III]

MITD should try using homophones.
Words that sound alike but have different spellings. I feel a good meta joke could spawn from that.

"No, you are an homophone!"

[Quizatzhaderac]

I can't think of any examples of Spanish diminutives changing a word's gender after thinking some 25 seconds about it, ....

Spanish diminutives all come in gendered pairs.

Also in Spanish: positive, factual gender overrides grammatical gender, unlike German, which is what people find most shocking about Mädchen. The speaker knows a Mädchen has a real gender, what it is, and it's possibly relevant; they just go ahead and call it neuter anyways.

But why would a diminutive change the noun's gender in the first place?

So you can tell the gender from the way the word's end.

American English has yet to decide when a noun is a noun and not a verb. Or the opposite.

Honestly, we've mostly decided that we're going to merge the two categories, we just haven't all admitted it yet.

[bunsen_h]

Wow. That's...really bold of MiTD. O-chul would be proud. Might already be proud, if blackwing is relaying this to the group.

O-chul wasn't subject to the Telepathy spell, but it's possible that someone in the Order is relaying Blackwing's reports to the paladins, Serini, and Sunny.

American English has yet to decide when a noun is a noun and not a verb. Or the opposite.

"Verbing weirds language." -- Calvin and Hobbes

[Vikenlugaid]

"Roy" has an odd number of letters, as does "Greenhilt". I like the idea that Xykon's inability to remember Roy's name will cause him to screw up.

Last time he just said "you are that guy!". So I don't see any problem.

[Lysbeth]

I doubt that the capital city actually is "No clue at all". That's more likely to be the capital of Nowhere, just because why not. If only because the MitD is trying to trip Xykon up (and void the agreement with the Quinton, or delay the ordeal, or tire him out...) so a capital that actually scans to an odd number of letters at the end doesn't fit the pattern.

My guesses are: Xykon is bad at geography and knows it (he has no clue at all); or Xykon is bad at geography and does not know it (he thinks he knows, but this is the capital of Someplace Else- er, some place else).

[Laurentio III]

Honestly, we've mostly decided that we're going to merge the two categories, we just haven't all admitted it yet.

You didn't yetted, yet?

My guesses are: Xykon is bad at geography and knows it (he has no clue at all); or Xykon is bad at geography and does not know it (he thinks he knows, but this is the capital of Someplace Else- er, some place else).

I'm more surprised by the fact that MitD, apparently, knows.

[mashlagoo1982]

In start of darkness we got to see Xykon at basically every life stage and he never had one.

I strongly suspect this is a characterization choice on the Giant's part.

MitD ends up being revealed as Xykon's familiar.

[Thermophille]

MitD ends up being revealed as Xykon's familiar.

Turns out all of MitD's feats were being used to hype Xykon, since he's never used more than 1% of his power. In order to defeat him, Roy is going to have to channel the power of the Gates to go Super Saiyan Snarl, where they'll have an epic anime showdown.

[DaOldeWolf]

You will love Spanish language. There aren't gender neutral words in Spanish, so everything has a grammatical gender, and sometimes the grammatical gender is the opposite to the biological one...

Puñal (dagger) is male, daga (dagger) is female.
Ave (bird) is female, pájaro (bird) is male.
Ser humano (human being) is male, persona (person) is female.
Animal (animal) is male, bestia (beast) is female.
Alma (soul) is female, espíritu (spirit) is male.
Pecho (breast) is male, teta (boob) is female.
Sombrero (hat) is male, gorra (cap) is female.
Vaso (drinking glass) is male, taza (cup) is female.
Caldero (cauldron) is male, marmita (cauldron or pot) is female.
Pene (penis) is male, polla (penis) is female.
Vagina (vagina) is female, coño (vagina) is male.



La Real Academia de la Lengua for Spanish.



True.

Over here, we say "el ave" y "el alma" which would make them male. Strange. Maybe, its a regional thing?

[mashlagoo1982]

Turns out all of MitD's feats were being used to hype Xykon, since he's never used more than 1% of his power. In order to defeat him, Roy is going to have to channel the power of the Gates to go Super Saiyan Snarl, where they'll have an epic anime showdown.

After the defeat of Xykon, MitD is freed and Roy has the Snarl sealed inside of him.

After years of observing humanity through Roy's eyes, the Snarl loses its desire for destruction and slowly befriends Roy.

MitD befriends and lends his power to some yet-to-be-determined rival of Roy.

They end up clashing, having more epic anime battles.

[Robots]

Turns out all of MitD's feats were being used to hype Xykon, since he's never used more than 1% of his power. In order to defeat him, Roy is going to have to channel the power of the Gates to go Super Saiyan Snarl, where they'll have an epic anime showdown.

The power of going Super Saiyan will make his hair grow back, I assume.

[Thermophille]

After the defeat of Xykon, MitD is freed and Roy has the Snarl sealed inside of him.

After years of observing humanity through Roy's eyes, the Snarl loses its desire for destruction and slowly befriends Roy.

MitD befriends and lends his power to some yet-to-be-determined rival of Roy.

They end up clashing, having more epic anime battles.

No, Roy becomes the Fourth Hokage and seals the Snarl inside his son. His son is the one who teaches the Snarl to get along with humanity, but there's some stuff about Roy befriending the other half of the Snarl while he was dead that most fans are going to ignore.

The power of going Super Saiyan will make his hair grow back, I assume.

Yes, because we need to sell more toys.

[Eric the White]

In start of darkness we got to see Xykon at basically every life stage and he never had one.

I strongly suspect this is a characterization choice on the Giant's part.

I never played 3.5 but in 2.0 If your familiar was killed you permanently lost hit points. That wouldn't be a risk Xykon would want to take, and frankly he's probably aware that he doesn't want anything around that he simply can't kill if it irritates him too much.

[Clistenes]

Over here, we say "el ave" y "el alma" which would make them male. Strange. Maybe, its a regional thing?

In order to know the grammatical gender you have to look at the adjetives: "el alma pura"; "el ave bonita".

"Pura" and "bonita" are female, so the associated nouns are too...

Or look at the plural: "las aves"; "las almas".

[mashlagoo1982]

No, Roy becomes the Fourth Hokage and seals the Snarl inside his son. His son is the one who teaches the Snarl to get along with humanity, but there's some stuff about Roy befriending the other half of the Snarl while he was dead that most fans are going to ignore.



Yes, because we need to sell more toys.

MitD becomes Eugene's familiar.

[Aaron L]

Also sprach das Marut!
(Are we sure modrons aren't somehow EVIL in this 'verse?)
\

I doubt that Mr. Burlew would alter such a fundamental element of D&D's Outer Planar Alignment structure as to change the Alignment of Modrons, the native inhabitants of "Nirvana of absolute (neutral) lawfuls," to quote my AD&D 1st Edition Player's Handbook (or its later retcon/Planescape name "Mechanus," ugh. The afterlife realm of... Mechanus? Yuck, so tacky.)

I always detested Planescape's paradigm of portraying the alternate Planes of Existence, especially the various Outer Planes, as basically just like alien planets that could be physically traveled to, and with the native inhabitants as alien sci-fi creatures, rather than as the literal afterlife/afterlives {scrubbed} filled with their associated mythological creatures. {scrubbed}

Also, the Monster really does seem to be more with-it lately, as others have pointed out; he's either quickly maturing, or just getting sick of Team Evil's shenanigans (or both.)

[Ruck]

I want to say there's a map of the northern continent in one of the books, which might give us the actual answer as to the capital of Anywhere, but I forget which one and I was only willing to spend so much time looking.

[Peelee]

I want to say there's a map of the northern continent in one of the books, which might give us the actual answer as to the capital of Anywhere, but I forget which one and I was only willing to spend so much time looking.

I remember a map of the Southern Continent but not the Northern one.

[hamishspence]

I want to say there's a map of the northern continent in one of the books, which might give us the actual answer as to the capital of Anywhere, but I forget which one and I was only willing to spend so much time looking.

You're right - it's in Utterly Dwarfed, right before Chapter 7.

Anywhere does not have any settlements specifically marked.

Nowhere does have one, however - it's called "Middle".

[Doug Lampert]

I remember a map of the Southern Continent but not the Northern one.

There's a partial map, containing dwarven lands and the pole, here. But I see no sign of Anywhere on it.

[DaOldeWolf]

In order to know the grammatical gender you have to look at the adjetives: "el alma pura"; "el ave bonita".

"Pura" and "bonita" are female, so the associated nouns are too...

Or look at the plural: "las aves"; "las almas".

Right. I forgot about that. Sorry.

Spanish can get very complicated.

[Lysbeth]

Obviously Xykon is MitD's familiar

[WanderingMist]

Bold of English speakers with their "he" and their "she" and their "his" and their "her" and their compounds in "-man" to look down on other languages with grammatical gender.

That's what happens when the word "man" is originally used to mean "person". Used to be "wer-man" for "male human" and "wif-man" for "female human". Eventually, "wer" got dropped and "wif" developed into "wo". This is where English got the word "werewolf" by the way, literally "man-wolf". And if I'm remembering correctly, "he" and "she" are derivatives of the Old English words for "the" and "that".

[Reboot]

I never played 3.5 but in 2.0 If your familiar was killed you permanently lost hit points. That wouldn't be a risk Xykon would want to take, and frankly he's probably aware that he doesn't want anything around that he simply can't kill if it irritates him too much.

It's not that bad, just some XP loss:

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/so...rcererFamiliar
If the familiar dies or is dismissed by the sorcerer, the sorcerer must attempt a DC 15 Fortitude saving throw. Failure means he loses 200 experience points per sorcerer level; success reduces the loss to one-half that amount. However, a sorcerer’s experience point total can never go below 0 as the result of a familiar’s demise or dismissal. A slain or dismissed familiar cannot be replaced for a year and day. A slain familiar can be raised from the dead just as a character can be, and it does not lose a level or a Constitution point when this happy event occurs.

(V references the XP loss in #1021, FTR.)