devout-of-dragons

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So far, post ideas:

making a replica of Baumren's Bell to help with astral travel by riding a Great Sabrecat

the Godbird's Soulstone for spirit flight

Lightning Storm the attack to summon a real lightning storm

translating Evac into a spell for a quick escape from the Otherworld

Sandman's Arrow to hex someone to be eepy

Divine Intervention to make a person more susceptible to magic

Sarcastic Snigger to forcefully lower yours or another persons Tension

Helm Splitter to lower someones magical defenses

Nose for Treasure for locating goodies or otherwise alerting you that they're there

And eventually more! I will make them at a later date or between these Kipper grand tableaus I gotta do for my sanity. Bring back sanity by writing posts on other things!

I keep thinking of posts I wanna make... but then if I keep thinking of new posts, I'm never gonna get anything done... and today I'm supposed to be doing a reading too! And yet my mind! full of post ideas!

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I keep thinking of posts I wanna make... but then if I keep thinking of new posts, I'm never gonna get anything done... and today I'm supposed to be doing a reading too! And yet my mind! full of post ideas!

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This is still one of my favorite videos on the internet. So I'm sharing it. Enjoy

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Another song ground into my very soul is the overworld theme from DQVIII.

Back to Nature was my first ever video game, and the Spring theme (including from the Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town remake) never fails to invoke such high emotions in me. The original is eternally ground into my soul

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Zoom for Astral Fast Travel

Zoom is a recurrent spell as seen in Dragon Quest. It is used to travel to any location you've been to before, namely towns, dungeons, and town-adjacent places (ex. The Holy Isle of Neos in DQVIII) in game.

Astral travel can be a pain in the ass. It can be slow, and often you have to travel purposefully instead of teleporting. Yes, astral travel moves quicker than physical travel, but wouldn't it just be better if you could, well, Zoom?

One thing to note is that Zoom only works outside - You'll hit your head on the ceiling if you try it inside. Mechanically for the games, this is to keep you from Zooming out of dungeons or houses, which might be a game functioning or fun thing. But in pop culture magic, I am maintaining this function because it's funny that the heroes bonk their skulls.

Okay, Khajiit, how do we do this?

Glad you asked!

The only necessary item is a feather. As in game, chimaera wings can be used when you're low on MP or don't know Zoom yet for the same purpose - but we don't all have a wing, much less from a chimaera we can use.

You need to know where you're going, and need to have been there before for Zoom to work.

"But Khajiit, the place I want to go is so far, and I wanted to use Zoom to get there quickly!"

Either put in the time to commit that astral travel, use a spell to increase astral speed, or ask a deity or other spirit to help you get there somehow. Can't help ya otherwise. Zoom has its limitations!

Yeah yeah, how do we actually do the Zoom?

Hold the feather in your physical hand. Real feathers are preferred, but fake feathers work in a pinch, including digital or envisioned feathers, it just make take more tries and a bit more oomph behind yourself.*¹

Begin your astral travel, and meditate on where you want to end up. Make sure you head outside to the open sky. Whisper to the feather where you want to go.

It's that simple! If you did it correctly, you'll lift yourself high up into sky, and find yourself moving at a high speed towards your goal, before the Zoom gently sets you down on your feet on the ground.

Speaking of those limitations...

The Zoom uses up the feather. Chimaera Wings get consumed on every usage, so they're no good after that, and as such Zoom also has this limitation. Hence why I said non-physical feathers even work, but it may be much more taxing on yourself than if you used a physical feather. I'd keep the feather to use in other spells or offerings though, as to not waste it.

You also can't Zoom indoors. You need the open sky above you. So it's not great for things like a quick escape. You want Evac for that.

Can we go anywhere?

Theoretically, yes. If you've been there before, you can go anywhere. This can include otherworlds, and places not of our own. You just have to have been there before.

Conclusion...

And that's Zoom! I'll likely make a post on Evac eventually. Best of luck and happy casting!

*¹ You could also make use of the "tension" mechanic to put more oomph behind you in performing without a feather. See my tension post here.

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The Tension Mechanic As Part of Magic

The Tension Mechanic within Dragon Quest is, well, a mechanic. Lore-wise, the characters tense their bodies and likely their minds as well to build up Tension, which then makes physical attacks and magic stronger. It also affects beneficial magic, specifically healing, but in my practice, it oomphs all magic.

Tension in-game comes with four levels, five if you count 0: 5, 20, 50, 100. It's a 1/3 chance that it actually goes to 100, otherwise staying at 50. It cannot be built any higher than 100, which is the state of Super High Tension, in which the person glows a purple color and does the max possible damage/healing.

(It's important to note that for game mechanic reasons, each character has to reach 50 tension 10 times before they're even capable of reaching 100 tension. Translated into magic, this could indicate that it's a learned skill... but I wouldn't worry too much about that.)

Tension also provides protection from attacks and reduces damage from monsters in-game.

Tension is used up and goes away after the attack is performed. As such, as a magical aid, you should feel your tension wash away once your spell is completed.

There's no right or wrong way to use Tension, but I'm going to get into my methods below.

How does one build tension?

Begin by relaxing a little bit. Take a big deep breath, meditate, or do whatever would help you.

Now, tense your entire body. Avoid doing so by stretching, as such is a relaxing activity, at least to me.

Tense your mind. Think about why you're doing the spell you're doing, in less than friendly terms. Are you doing a protection spell? Think about why. Is it against a weird coworker? Think about what this coworker does that makes you feel odd and wanting to do this spell.

There's also other methods using items and food. These can be used when you don't want to physically build tension and instead build tension more metaphysically.

In-game, the Timbrel of Tension is a literal tambourine that builds tension. In DQVIII, you can feed Munchie Highly-Strung Cheese which increases the whole parties tension.

So, translating that, you could enchant a bell or other instrument to increase tension when rung or played. You could buy fancy cheeses, such as a spicy one, and when you eat that cheese, it builds tension.

Whether you elect to physically and mentally build tension, or use a tool or food to build tension, you can use the tension in spellwork.

The end goal is to feel tense and kind of angry (or some other powerful emotion). You're supposed to feel that way. So if you feel tense physically and kind of angry, you're doing it right.

Can one use tension that they naturally have instead of building tension purposefully?

Absolutely. Tension is tension, but I'd suggest still purposefully building tension. For the sake of intention and all that.

The reason also includes that your tension should be focused - Just because you're tense doesn't mean it's focused properly onto your spellwork.

What's next?

Time to cast your spell! Try and maintain tension during the actual casting itself. You don't want to lose the tension too early.

Casting the spell doesn't require anything special to it to incorporate the tension - By having tension, you're naturally working it into the spell and providing it a further oomph.

After your spell is complete, your tension should hopefully be fully released, but...

I've still got tension even after casting my spell!

I've had that happen too! You didn't do something wrong, just sometimes I build excess tension myself too, and need to release the rest of my tension. It could also mean that while you used the tension in your spell properly, your body is holding onto it for some reason or another, as bodies are prone to do.

While how you choose to release the rest of your tension is up to you, here's some advice from me on releasing the rest of the tension:

Take some time to stretch your body. Take deep breaths while doing so.

Go do another activity that might release some more tension, such as going for a walk or doing some other form of exercise.

Perform another spell!

As well, we can look at the in-game things that break tension:

Take a nap.

Lay down for a while while tensing your body before physically releasing it.

Stop and take a laugh for a bit.

Sit down and breathe.

Conclusion...

And that's Tension! If you do try and use Tension as a "mechanic" for your spells, I hope it goes well for you!

I've used Tension in my spells for a while, and I've definitely noticed results in it making my spells stronger.

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I did spend some time actually reaching out and connecting with one of my planned Monster Teams, building my Slime-based team: Slime, Cureslime, and Metal Slime Knight

It's gone well! We're getting along well and I've tasked them with keeping haunting spirits at bay in return for some food. I don't actually expect that much of them (and they know this) because they're not... super strong... because Slime family isn't typically powerful except for the King Slime. and I won't be able to get a King Slime until I get stronger teams, because the whole "you have to beat them to earn their respect" (and I just relied on my hired daedra to get me these guys but that feels like cheating lmao)

But yeah, they've been working hard and I make sure they take breaks and rest and switch out with the hired daedra who also do a similar job. It's not really a necessary job, but I've not much else for them to do as of current.

Their names, or at least what they've self-identified as to me which is good enough, Slimey, Curey, and Knighty. Y...yep. that's all I've been given. So I'm calling them that for now. Whether or not that's their actual names is up in the air, but also have you seen the official DQVIII recruitable monster names? This is within the realm of normality.

That's about all for now. I might talk more about this soon but I'll cut this post here.

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mooncalves

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instagram

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The Holy Mother

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I wonder if, deep down, I’m still soft, 2024

Mixed media on canvas

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I am falling in love with you more and more 💕

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Naked

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Now I've got two posts being prepped, one for Anima as a Hero of Victims and one about using the spell Zoom from Dragon Quest for astral fast travel (hehe zoom go brrrr [ hits my head on the ceiling ])

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Also, I'd love to translate the Tension system from Dragon Quest into a magical aid.

For those who don't know, you can spend your turns in battle building tension, which means your attacks (physical, spells, abilities, etc) will hit harder depending on your tension level before it returns to normal. It also returns to normal if you have certain status affects casted on you (sleep, paralyzed, etc) or fall.

The idea is that by making yourself tensed up and actively tensing yourself purposefully, you can translate that into spells before relaxing your entire self to, well, release that tension.

I'm a naturally tense person, so it'd help me a lot, lol.

I need to make a list of in-game spells/abilities I wanna translate to our world spells, alongside Zoom for the rest.

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To celebrate the new blog, I'm gonna work harder on my Zoom translation while hoping to make a deal with some monsters to make a monster team

I've got a list of the teams I want to build, and I think I'll focus on the slime-centric team first because they're generally weak monsters that my dragon guardian and dragon aids will likely be willing to help beat, because monsters only help you if they respect you, which I'd assume is easiest to achieve by beating them in combat.

I plan on using my monster teams to slowly gain more monsters for the other monster teams though. Slooooowly ramp up into it kinda thing