Earth Bond Chapter 14 Discussion (spoilers!)

[ANTIcarrot]

I'm still curious about what happened in China. Ungrateful bugger aren't I?

[afrigeek]

And I am now curious about this earth dragon "breath weapon"....

[SYED]

So clearly the breath weapon needs stone, I wonder if it would be like a blast of sand, so like a mini sand storm, that could do a lot of damage. Lave or moltern earth, but they dont have heat immunity internaly for it. some kind of crytal spitting.
Dragons fly as they have magical inherint, so if ED got the same resistance, and breathe weapon, it makes sense if they can partially fly as well. Also should they not be able to manipulate their own element.
I wonder how 1st CD will react to the dragons having these ultimate foci every where. Will we see dragons growing horns?
The other dragons will want the return of magic, so will force the CD to fix it, even though he thinks its a bunch of lies.
Did CD turn ED violent?
So books are hidden by false names, one of the old storage rooms, likly contains the true history of the dragons.

I wonder if the church has an armory of unearthly metals. What does the loss of magic mmean for those ancient buildings. I can totally see the church robbing the magicians they hunted to used their magical gear to their knights. The knights templar were said to have powers, and a hidden fortune, what if they hid it with magic and they were wizards. once they found the mages, they themselves were wiped out. The time line sorta fits.

[Greymist]

I'm curious about all the clear shankers growing in. Something to do with all the magic flowing through them, but having nowhere to go? *shrug*

Dragons fly as they have magical inherint, so if ED got the same resistance, and breathe weapon, it makes sense if they can partially fly as well.

I think it was implied that flying took an active use of magic by the other dragons, where they basically made themselves lighter. Earth Dragons can't actively use magic for the reasons mentioned in the latest chapter so, no flying (unless they strap jet engines to themselves).

[Mizriath]

Arrrrghhh....

I was hoping Kell will be a unique and exceptional ED who will be able to channel and use magic. He will grow all clear shankers.

Ah.... and will be the only Dragon who will have 3 females going around with him..... but the Sella and the chromatic are related cousins but not Kell.

[Lochar]

I'm curious about all the clear shankers growing in. Something to do with all the magic flowing through them, but having nowhere to go? *shrug*

Quite likely. It's a biological magic process that creates the tail crystals. It would then say that the more magic the earth dragons have available, the better quality crystals they'd grow.

What worries me is first's thought about as long as there is even one earth dragon, there's magic. Since they're on an island and likely don't care about ever leaving in large numbers, a single earth dragon breeding pair radiating all the magic would likely be high on the list of chromatic wants, once they have this bit of lore again.


Additionally, I think the earth dragons becoming less passive like in the Greek times is in large part to blame of the chromatics. I wonder if the amount of ambient magic that flows through the earth dragons has an effect on them. Do they get more antsy with hair triggers the less magic that surrounds them? With all of their magic permeating the world instead of the earth around then... *shrug*


My bet: By the time first gets down there, Kell will have all 17 crystal shankers. Likely, he'll even start budding the crystal horns.

[expedient]

Earth Dragons can't actively use magic for the reasons mentioned in the latest chapter so, no flying (unless they strap jet engines to themselves).

I'm very much looking forward to jet-powered Kell, with prismatic horns, that shoot lasers from them. Well, that and finding out what the breath weapons are.

[ANTIcarrot]

Additionally, I think the earth dragons becoming less passive like in the Greek times is in large part to blame of the chromatics. I wonder if the amount of ambient magic that flows through the earth dragons has an effect on them. Do they get more antsy with hair triggers the less magic that surrounds them? With all of their magic permeating the world instead of the earth around then... *shrug*

Not so sure about that. While it could be enviromental, that could also include diet (Started eating meat? Stopped eating rocks?) or temperature (England is cooler than Greece). It's also possible it's social. Given that they're immune to everything organic due to their size, and immune to normal weapons (Ha! I was right!) why were they shy in the first place? Or it could be both. They were always arrogent and stubborn, but for hundreds of years they were also agorophobic; frightened of large open spaces. When that instinct/meme left them, their true nature became obvious to everyone.

I also note that for the first time a water dragon has pulled the stops out on arrogence. So presumably Fel's going to dump some bad history on their shoulders in the near future.

And I think I'm going to make the fairly safe bet that the Cromatics aren't going to get their stealth shield back; and that humans (who have so far only been accused of arrogence - mostly falsely by First's research) are going to be a large part of whatever solution finally resolves this crysis. After all, their technology and knowledge is the only thing that can replace magic if push comes to shove. "There are levels of survival we are prepaired to accept," and so forth. Humans are also extremely experienced in drilling through several miles of rock to get at something they want.

On a technical note... NASA records incoming data at the bit level before any processing is done to it. While the EDs coudl fiddle with it afterwards, the primary backups would be very safe. A simple land=>ocean pallet swap is not going to hide the alternation the islands make to pacific cloud patterns. Or ocean currents. Or the way the island influences ground pressure waves rolling across the pacific floor from the myrid micro-earthquakes the ring of fire produces every day. In other words, the Earth Dragons know nothing about metreology, oceanography, or seisemology/geology . So, as with all things dragon, their understanding of human technology is vast, but also extremely specialised.

Finally, there is a simple way to stop the Earth Dragons from getting into human computers. Physically isolate Hawai from the rest of the internet.
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/96 ... ine-cables
And some modern ships don't actually have propellors anymore.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Littoral_combat_ship
Silly dragons...

[Belgarion213]

I would agree with that. Earth Dragon's ARE magic as it points out here, it only makes sense that they get more and more antsy the less magic around them there is, but now they are in the cave, all the magic generated in the entire world is focused around them. That's going to be interesting the effects. However the spirit(Gaia?) seems to point out that Earth Dragon's DO have magic. Yes i know they generate it, but is it possible that they can WIELD magic? They can't do it themselves but well the crystal's are only growing out of them, not an inherent part of their biology.

Earth Dragon's seem like tool users, even from the past, perhaps somehow altering a crystal to make a magical device that preforms a task rather than doing it themselves?

I had some really bizarre theory halfway through that looks like its squashed, that Gaia WAS an Earth Dragon, that sort of became what she is because well.... Since as you mentioned a single pair of Earth Dragon's would be putting out amazing levels of magic, but what if it was simply ONE dragon. That dragon would have so much power flowing out of it.... but this chapter seems to rule that out.


Hmm...I think its interesting the fact that the Water Dragon's knew about the Clear Tail spike things, and he comes across as pretty patronizing here. To be honest the information First found doesn't really bode well to he Earth Dragon's, as if its share they have 'proof' that the Earth Dragon's 'selfish' retreat has pretty much fucked the island (the likelihood of the others admitting they drove the Earth Dragon's there seems pretty small).

We get back to the super computer user Earth Dragon's which is always fun, though to be honest I'm not entirely convinced that the CIA is the only organisation in the world with locked out Satellites but oh well...guess narrative convenience rears its head again.

I Wonder...The cromatic councilor wanted the ED topside and I just had a thought. Its known that somebody bathed in ED blood becomes almost invincible...does that work on other dragon's? A Sky Dragon or Water Dragon with the immunity of anything from the earth could be pretty formidable in chasing away planes or ships.

Another point is ...the secrecy spells have failed...but well while that's the 'oldest' sustained spell we know of, I wonder what other spells there might possibly be out there, ticking away with clear Shankers resting there that are going to fail. Stuff even dragon's might have forgotten that might suddenly appear.

Interesting that the Water Dragon's staying in proximity to the Earth Ones are keeping their magic... that could be very interesting. The Chromatic's 'place' at the top is due to their magic...but they have been cut of, getting harder and harder to cast while some selected water dragon's are just staying the same. That could be REALLY interesting.

As for the pallet swap, Anticarrot, remember it was quiet simply something written in one day as a desperaet measure. They are making a 'better' virus but yes, very specilised but scary powerful in their sphere of influence.

[Fel]

I'm curious about all the clear shankers growing in. Something to do with all the magic flowing through them, but having nowhere to go? *shrug*

Quite likely. It's a biological magic process that creates the tail crystals. It would then say that the more magic the earth dragons have available, the better quality crystals they'd grow.

Sorta. This is close to being right. It's a combination of being isolated from the other dragons and the change in diet.

What worries me is first's thought about as long as there is even one earth dragon, there's magic. Since they're on an island and likely don't care about ever leaving in large numbers, a single earth dragon breeding pair radiating all the magic would likely be high on the list of chromatic wants, once they have this bit of lore again.

OoooOOOOOOOoooooOOOOOOOOOOOO....................[ /scary foreshadowing...maybe. Or maybe I'm just jacking with you. ]

Additionally, I think the earth dragons becoming less passive like in the Greek times is in large part to blame of the chromatics. I wonder if the amount of ambient magic that flows through the earth dragons has an effect on them. Do they get more antsy with hair triggers the less magic that surrounds them? With all of their magic permeating the world instead of the earth around then... *shrug*

That's a rather clever hypothesis. Wrong, but still clever.

My bet: By the time first gets down there, Kell will have all 17 crystal shankers. Likely, he'll even start budding the crystal horns.

And that's a cookie for you...but not just him.

ALL the earth dragons are "regressing" back to their original subterranean appearance, because, well, they're living underground. And they're not just crystal, they're pure diamond. The horns they have now are what you'd call carbon fiber, composed of nothing but pure carbon, but one of the hardest things on the face of the earth.

[Fel]

I'm very much looking forward to jet-powered Kell, with prismatic horns, that shoot lasers from them. Well, that and finding out what the breath weapons are.

Boy, you don't ask for much, do you?

Hate to burst your bubble, but you're not getting anything like that.

But, you are right that they have breath weapons, as in more than one. To be precise, they have two.

I was going to explain this in the next chapter, but this IS a spoiler section, so....

Spoiler

Show

Like the water dragons, earth dragon breath weapons aren't based on pure energy. Water dragons absorb water from the ocean and store it, and use it as a component along with their bio-magic to produce their breath weapons; either a blast of superheated steam, or a scalding jet of boiling water. The reason they don't fly very well is because of this aspect of their being; even though they can store a volume of water far beyond their own size (gotta love magic), the magic that does it can't entirely counter the mass they're carrying around. It makes the weight-negating magic that allows dragons to fly just BARELY give them enough "oomph" to get off the ground, since most of that magic is tied up in countering the weight of the water they're carting around with them.

Since the earth dragons have reverted back to eating stone, like they did WAYYY back when, it's fueling the breath weapons they've forgotten that they have. That's where that "phantom mass" Kell is trying to find is going, stored inside their bodies and ready to be loosed. Like I said up there, they have two breath weapons.

Firstly, they can breathe out a jet of liquefied rock, a blast of pure lava. Not only is it like 800 degrees centigrade (around 1800 degrees Farhenheit, if I did the conversion correctly), it also has all that physical mass, so anything it hits is going to be like it was hit by a truck.

Secondly, they can breathe out a cone of superheated sand, dust, and fine particulate matter, like a pyroclastic flow, and if you've ever seen an industrial sandblaster in action, well...imagine what would happen if something like that was used against flesh and blood. If the heat doesn't instantly kill the unlucky slob, the abrasive blast will scour the flesh right off his bones, and leave those bones nice and polished, ready to be used as decorative lawn ornaments.

Yes, you may shudder now.

Both dragon races gain two forms of breath weapon in exchange for them having to fuel those weapons with an external source. Water dragons have to absorb water, earth dragons have to eat stone.

[expedient]

Hate to burst your bubble, but you're not getting anything like that.

Sounds exciting enough for the power junkies. Their special power could have just been to become unmovable when standing on rock...

Now I wondering how an earth dragon's lifespan will be affected by being within Gaia's Embrace.

[SYED]

The ED can glide, would sand blasting help them at all.

So all the ED have are passive magics, or bio-thaumology. Manipulation of elements and the flight are active magics. I wonder if they have other tricks they have forgotten over the years. For one, breathing is a big issue for underground creatures, so they either absorb it from the material around them, or from the consumtion of the approprit material.
If ED are doing passive magic all the time, providing magic, would they not bolster spells if involved in the casting. It took all the CD for the those portals, if an ED was involved would less be needed.

[Belgarion213]

In effect they WERE, if only through the spell focus's. Fel said that things that spend time around Earth Dragon's pick up a charge, a Clear Crystal Tail Spike if it was kept for a long time (and instead of being immediately discarded) would probably come away with the jackpot of all magic.

[ANTIcarrot]

I think their first weapon would be more useful than the second. It'd act as really sticky and really hot napalm. It'd easily cause mobility kills on most ground vehicles, and plug up their engines ports, or gumming up the wheels/tracks. More importantly, the immense thermal capacity of liquid rock would quickly cook anything inside any level of armor. Second one, not so much. 747s have flown in comparable situations for several minutes without harm.

Do you mean laminated diamond Fel? Crystal diamond shatters easily, and also burns horribly once it gets going. At roughly the melting point of rock come to mention it. Nano-tube chainmail and whisker-iron are also ridiculously tough theoretical materials made from very common elements if you need them.