originally posted by Diann Coonfield
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
Arithon to Dakar "Davien's notes were explict. He explained iyats as raw energy granted the willful drive to exist. They sustain as parasites, feeding off borrowed charge, but lacking the self-aware memory of an entity able to grow and evolve." MM edition Page 260
Question for Janny (if it doesn't expose later plot development) Since an iyat is trapped inside the Waystone,will interaction with the Waystone provide a memory to allow growth? Since one of the goals if the Fellowship is to redeem drake spawn, is this a way that the iyats can be redeemed?
(Message edited by admin on June 24, 2005)
Hi Diann - You asked - hmmmm, now, how is this question NOT going to spoil future plot??? (grin) I think you'll have to wait this one out, as it's not history, or backdrop but active storyline.
originally posted by R’is’n
Nice idea!
originally posted by Hunter
SPOILERS… SPOILERS…
I'm more interested in how the Great Waystone is going to be changed by this iyat… If I remember correctly, Selidie was going to have to "realign" the Great Waystone prior to being able to use it again. Just what this means - and whether Selidie can actually do this - is a whole different question.
originally posted by Auna
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
There was a paragraph in PG where Selidie was fighting the waystone that implied the stone itself desired to gain new memories to grow itself. Also, iyats absorb negative energy and there's a ton of that in the waystone. So… this is definitely going to cause some changes to either iyat, stone, or both. I can't wait!
(Message edited by admin on June 24, 2005)
originally posted by Hunter
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
I'm waiting to see if and when the Koriani stones can, or allowed to, free themselves from Koriani domination. We saw that with Elaira's personal crystal expressing it's clear preference in PG.
The Fellowship have very clearly not interfered with the Great Waystone and Skyron for example because they are off-Atheran origin, therefore outside of the Compact.
Elaira's knowledge of crystals and the Koriani enforced usage of crystal from her time in Ath's hostel in the Skyshiels will make it interesting when and if she's brought back into the Koriani fold.
(Message edited by admin on June 24, 2005)
originally posted by Neil
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
Hmm, yes, perhaps she can draw on resources - with permission - that the senior koriani would not even recognise as consciousness or she'll finally ask the F7 / Arithon (Does Arithon not see the possbility of freeing Elaira?) for help.
I wonder whether she'll ever meet Sulfin Erend or Kevor/Kevor's mother. There might be some interesting conversations to be had.
(Message edited by admin on June 24, 2005)
originally posted by Hunter
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
Where Sulfin Evend will end up after returning the Biedar knife is anyone's guess. Given everyone seems to be heading in the general direction of Alestron, anything's possible!
(Message edited by admin on June 24, 2005)
originally posted by Trys
Please be careful that you posts don't reveal anything in the first line of text as white space (carriage returns, spaces) don't move the text out of what appears in a list of messages that are displayed from a search. I've not been hard core about requiring the SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS (note THREE OF 'EM) at the top of the posts but I'd appreciate it if you would all try to remember to do this.
Trys
originally posted by Auna
spoiler spoiler spoiler
Not exactly a spoiler but aligning a crystal brings up an interesting sidetrack into physics on the properties of crystals that I dredged up from age old memory of a class I took long ago.
Crystals are composed of regular lattices of molecules arranged in planes. In our world, we use xrays to uncover the structure of crystals, since xray wavelengths are teeny enough to be refracted/reflected off the crystal planes. You rotate a crystal around and shoot a beam and it projects an image to work from. You can use this to discover the axes of rotation that make up the planes of a crystal which you could then technically 'align' with the magnetics of the earth field if that was important (it is in Athera).
In Athera, they use sound (and magic) instead of xyrays to do this determination of the crystal's resonant frequency and axes of alignment. The waystone now has cracks and a different material fused in it due to overheating. The different material will have a different resonant frequency and axes of rotation due to the different molecular structure. The fractures will also alter the resonant frequencies. The combination of both ought to give Prime Selidie a nice headache not to mention the addition of an iyat.
originally posted by neilw
Yep I think that electromagnetism forms part of the Athera infrastructure.
Frequency and wave length is something the F7 and Arithon would understand. Whilst Arithon may have used sound waves whilst without mage sight, he like the fellowship, I suppose, can see and understand electromagnetic wavelengths beyond the naked human eye.
Sethvir has books on celestial mechanics and I suspect Moriel has enough stored info. to understand navigation in space…perhaps part of her responsibility is to remember where the Atheran humans came from (or even where they are in the "galaxy"). I guess that this sort of historical info has been lost by the towns in 500 years?
originally posted by Auna
Most likely the original refugees willingly tossing all dangerous knowledge of the old ways that might have been written down and agreed in the compact not to perpetuate it through oral tradition. Daily struggle to survive would further reduce any knowledge until it wound up being more of a 'we came from a scary bad place' type of knowledge.
originally posted by Wendy Collett
Look at how people reacted to the sun's reappearance and didn't believe in it beforehand, it was just for tales - that was only 500 years or so.
Still, I can imagine that not everyone 'knew' celestial mechanics in the first place - perhaps not even the original Koriani, it should have been a specialised field of knowledge, which the F7 as scientists knew from their time. Koriani are listed as 'advisors to leaders', from using their powers for merciful good or whatever, not necessarily as celstial scientists.
originally posted by Auna
That's a good point. I wonder just how detailed the knowledge is that is stored in the waystone. I always imagined it would be like tossing each of us on a new planet and saying here, record your sum total of knowledge to pass down in case we want to resurrect it later.
In theory however, the stone could be used like holographic storage with the near infinite harmonics that make up the magic. That would still require a ton of people to encompass the sheer scope of a complex scientifically advanced civilization.
I swooned when Sethvir whipped out the chalk and worked out the celestial navigation coordinates to Marak as fast as he did to light up that homing beacon, like some quickie back of the envelope calculation. Wish we could nab him for NASA work! I could have used him as my personal Cray computer when I was in school, hehe! 
originally posted by Wendy Collett
How about this: Suppose the Waystone has been around for about 5,000 years or give or take, as was already in existence for some time before it came to Athera.
On a couple of points - I'm trying to think just what kind of knowledge that was recorded 5,000 years ago on Earth that I really want to use in daily life (relevancy), but also without the cultural and knowledge basis contexts and other contexts, would the data make sense even if I could access it?
Now - add on top of that this stone is already glitched like a really nasty AI that has holograms and visions (before the iyat).
Lots of different women (actually I'm assuming here that the Korani order was only ever women, don't recall seeing anything to say it was both male/female) have been using the 'computer' tool/waystone for lots of different causes/uses.
It's been learning all that while, but many different 'operators' have been inputting data in different ways. Not only that, but failure to use to specified standards has caused computer error to suck life (soul?) from faulty users, so that they become part of the constantly learning AI/computer matrix.
This faulty computer is ALIVE, because as we found out PG, crystals have preferences etc, and the waystone has been 'dominated', not 'used'.
One faulty (mad) crystal just had new data input added (the iyat) - much, much different from any other previous failed operator, or enforced domination.
Presumably the waystone (unlike a human necessarily) can draw on the information stored in it in proper context, and as it is living (but only dominated when used), and has a live 'being' (the iyat) inside of it, well…
I'll have to read the sections again, but there are some interesting possibilities here, especially if the iyat ever got out. Could it take/contain part/all of the waystone (consciousness) with it?
originally posted by Blue
Spoiler
Spoiler
Spoiler
I think Morriel/Selidie needs to contact Norton or McAfee and get herself one heck of a virus scan/removal program ASAP. Considering the mischievous nature of Iyats, she might also want to get spyware removal as well as a spam blocker.
Could you imagine that Iyat subjecting the Koriani to SPAM? What better way to frustrate/aggravate Morriel/Selidie than to have a constant barrage of ads for viagra, bogus lotteries, spy cameras, and all the other crappola that comes through our e mail? With the frustration of the average computer user on the internet, let alone someone as old and spiteful as Morriel/Selidie, that Iyat would never be hungry again.
originally posted by Hunter
SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER
Wendy - we know the Great Waystone has been on Athera since Third Age Year 1 - we're now in Third Age Year 5670 so it's at least that old.
In Grand Conspiracy, Morriel is trying to upset the lane flux and break the Fellowship's compact to restore humanity's former spacefaring civilization. So there is all sorts of information contained *somewhere* in the Koriani archives - may not be the Great Waystone. It is definitely something only known by the current Prime. It's possibly the Great Waystone as mastering the Great Waystone is part of the right of succession to the become the new Prime.
The Great Waystone had prior to coming to Athera, been regularly cleansed (not sure what this means) but has not been on Athera - hence the build up of cantankerous failed Primes and the brooding malice of the abused stone. It could not be cleared otherwise precious and irreplacable information would be lost. Perhaps on previous worlds the Koriani had the technology to clear and store data - such technology either did not come with the Koriani, was destroyed as worlds were destroyed or, quite possibly, were proscribed by the Compact and had to be left behind.
The Fellowship use crystals for imprinting information (as Sethvir does when he's not sure he'll survive for Asandir's return) so it's entirely possible the Koriani have done the same - albeit via very different methods.
On a side note, has anyone else noted that the origin of iyats was changed in the glossary to TK from what was previously an energy sprite "native to Athera" to an energy sprite "and minor drakespawn"… prsumably non-native?
originally posted by Wendy Collett
Blue - couldn't happen to a more deserving person! IYAT SPAM, hehehe fun for all who really deserve it …
Really, sounds like the Waystone needs a good defrag, a reindex, and a hard reboot to clear the RAM, to help get the 'bug' - read 'iyat' out of the system. i know, bad pun, but seemed appropriate lol 
Ah well, we know that Arithon can 'hear' crystals and find their vibration from when he played to Lirenda's captured crystal. If the K actually manage to capture him (as per original forecasting by K back in Fourthmark), they better ensure he isn't within miles of the thing or he will hear it, and work on both it AND the iyat…
Oh yeah, getting back to that forecast - Morriel was supposed to be mapping out the lessons to Lirenda to make sure it all did not come to pass. Has anyone else noticed that no matter what she has tried, it's happened anyway? It has become as immutable as one of Dakar's unremembered prophecies…
Hunter - weren't the drakes native to Athera anyway, so anything they created on that planet were also native, ergo?
originally posted by Hunter
Wendy - the drakes are native. The issues is that the drakes created the drakespawn - rather than by Ath Creator. I would think they are therefore outside of "sanctioned" creation and therefore bad.
Whether the Drakes are native to Athera is a good question. Probably a reasonable assumption but not necessarily correct. We just don't know enough at this time.
originally posted by neilw
"bad" ?!? This is iffy word for someone so familiar with Athera