this is a thread to attract SE4 forumers to the first Dungeon Oddessy roleplay thread

[narf poit chez BOOM]

you do realize now where going to have to do a financial revelution as well as a magical one, don't you?

[Jack Simth]

Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:
you do realize now where going to have to do a financial revelution as well as a magical one, don't you?

The transition could be smoother than you might think; at first, the only a few things happen: lead suddenly beocomes very valuable to mages, mages become more powerful, and mages get a new supply of gold. However, it is a destructive use of the lead, so over time there is progressively less lead and more gold in the system, making lead rare and gold common. Moreover, as people catch on that mages, especially the power hungry variety, are willing to pay well for lead (the process would return 95% of the weight of the lead in gold, so they would have much gold available for buying lead) lead is going to go up in value overall as people begin to charge more, and gold down in the same as it becomes more common. This would accelerate as magic becomes more commonly known, and after a while you'd get a gold/lead standard debate similar to the gold/silver standard debate that happened in the US a long while back. However, the above factors would continue to press the issue, and sooner or later people would start switching currencies, although there would likely be a transitional period where both made for perfectly acceptable currency. It could readily be a slow change, rather than a sudden revolution.

Besides, it may not affect MOTMA much; if only a few know the technique, it would cause no more impact than a few productive gold mines. The value of gold and lead would change locally, but globally things would stay about the same for a long, long time, unless the technique spreads.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

a bunch of power-hungry mages won't want to get there hands on a new power source? gonna have to keep it a secret in that case.

[ August 31, 2003, 00:58: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Jack Simth]

Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:
a bunch of power-hungry mages won't want to get there hands on a new power source? gonna have to keep it a secret in that case.

Oh, they will, but there are some catches - if there are only a small handful of mages that can, the value of lead stays down and the value of gold stays up, both of which are very good financial incentives for that small handful to maintain the knoweledge as a secret. Moreover, if only a small handful know how, that handful can dominate those mages that don't reasonably easily, which grants the mages who know how power over their fellows who don't. There is as strong of incentive for the power-hungry mages to maintain it as a sectet as there is for other power-hungry mages to discover that secret - but the ones in the know have the advantage, as they have a lot more energy to play around with; unless the mindset of cooperation and information sharing is already present or becomes present, the situation would reach equilibrium with a very small number of mages knowing how to burn lead. Most likely, the knoweledge would die with that handful.

Also, there is another catch Jack hasn't mentioned, as it isn't important to him: even if the process is 99.9% efficient, there is still the matter of a waste energy release of the rough equivalent of burning 12,500 gallons of kerosene for every pound of lead converted, or the energy of about 430 pounds of TNT. Jack's immortal - he can just jump in a large body of water, do the conVersion there, and repair the burns that would normally be fatal (the water would absorb much of the energy, but the resultant steam would push away the rest for a bit; anything nearby would still be sorely burned). Those without really good healing skills and the ability to deal with a lack of air or without invulnerability to heat and radiation are going to be at a severe disadvantage when converting lead, as almost nothing could survive the inferno intact. This will sharply limit the energy most could gain by the process.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

a magical nueclear reaction chamber...but still, most mages wouldn't have the power or ability to make one.

[Jack Simth]

A magical nuclear reaction, anyway. The spell that does the conVersion includes the energy harvest, but it can't catch all the energy. The energy that escapes rules out most mages as surviving burning the lead, unless Jack's medium or advanced immortality techniques are known by the mage. It also rules out doing it remotely by enchantment, as the medium the spell is on wouldn't survive. The caster must be present, and must remain throughout, so the ability to ghost is pretty much required. To get good use out of the process, one needs to be able to return from ghost form to living form..

[narf poit chez BOOM]

no, i mean an actual magical nuclear reaction chamber, built like a nuclear reacter.