“Gran’pa? Do yous think maybe Gran’ma might be a little less scared if yous stopped calling its that?”
“When you’re old, you take your small amusements where you find them.”
“THEO!”
At this point, if I were secret agents involved with hiding this, I would be developing an app that is basically a filter that does the eye glowing and talking effects. Maybe release a game beforehand that involves that for a rationale behind why the filter exists. That at least adds some plausible deniability to any recordings of echo abilities.
Good idea, it’s just that the best time for doing that would have been several years ago. Setting that kind of meme campaign up /now/ would be too blatant, most likely.
A short story I wrote had a government agency set up a movie studio. They made films about an alien race they were secretly in contact with. That way, if there were any leaks, everyone would assume it was a preview of an upcoming film in the franchise.
I think there’s been some theorizing in universe that Amanda’s long-term proximity to Selkie’s suppressor might have attuned her, but that could have been commenter speculation and me misremembering. Then thinks that human stories of witches are about human Echoes, but why it would occur is still unknown – whether it’s a naturally-occurring subset of human populations, or if all Echoes need to be “attuned” to the source of their powers and sarnothi are closest to it, or if that’s exclusive to human Echoes.
Then seems to think that Amanda’s a sign that Echo powers can be acquired rather than genetic, for what it’s worth, and he seems interested in the prospect.
Honestly, if we are going into that concept then we need only look to the source of the comic’s name. The selkie. Namely that Druids, the fae, and the Tuatha De Danaan of Irish folklore were born of contact with those the Irish called Selkies which could simply be the Gaelige word for Sarnothi. Looking at the structure of Sarnothi names this could work.
From what I recall, Dave revealed that early drafts of this tale had *Todd* getting powers, and it was specced around a four-element deal a la Avatar: The Last Airbender, so Todd was the first human to get empowered in however many generations. or something.
I’m liking the “humans can acquire powers through close contact with Sarnothi echoes” thing; not sure how I feel about the possibility of humans having some inherent power, but it would fit with some of the early drafts, at least.
A Sarnothi oriented concept of “Cardinal Elements” would probably be Blood, Currents, Soil, and Light.
Blood is life, and the hunt that sustains.
Currents are the movement of the waters which cradle and protect.
Soil gives stone and kelp to shelter and treat wounds.
Light hangs distantly above, but reaches out through the Echoes who spread it’s guidance.
This is not their belief system, fyi. But if they did have a Cardinal Elements concept it would be close to this.
Yeah I ditched that idea pretty much solely because it was too heavily ripped off from ATLA, but it provided a good starting point.
For those curious, since I can’t remember where I mentioned it previously: very early drafts of the story centered around the Sarnothi being one of three races living in secret, with appropriate element-themed abilities. Sarnothi were water controllers. A race of subterranean reptilians that congregated inside volcanoes were fire. An avian race in a hidden cloud city were controllers of air. And Todd would eventually rediscover humanity’s lost ability to control rock and soil.
As I said, I scrapped that concept for being entirely too derivative, so don’t expect to see the reptilian and avian peoples… ever, really.
I wonder if someone experienced using Resonance around her would help. Her only exposure to “eldritch hellfire” being a couple of kids who want death lasers, might be skewing her perception 😛
Probably not your best idea, Sel.
Eldritch hellfire. LOL
But also, poor Grandma. I can understand how that’d take some getting used to.
“Gran’pa? Do yous think maybe Gran’ma might be a little less scared if yous stopped calling its that?”
“When you’re old, you take your small amusements where you find them.”
“THEO!”
LOL
A possibility I hadn’t considered but definitely in character!
Thanks for the laugh. 🙂
They might want to settle on only using Echo powers in the workshop and the like.
At this point, if I were secret agents involved with hiding this, I would be developing an app that is basically a filter that does the eye glowing and talking effects. Maybe release a game beforehand that involves that for a rationale behind why the filter exists. That at least adds some plausible deniability to any recordings of echo abilities.
Good idea, it’s just that the best time for doing that would have been several years ago. Setting that kind of meme campaign up /now/ would be too blatant, most likely.
A short story I wrote had a government agency set up a movie studio. They made films about an alien race they were secretly in contact with. That way, if there were any leaks, everyone would assume it was a preview of an upcoming film in the franchise.
*considers writing a Selkie/El Goonish Shive crossover purely to put Tedd’s dad in charge of covering up the Sarnothi presence prior to their reveal*
Dewit
i would read it
I don’t remember the reason why Amanda also has super powers. Can somebody remind me?
We don’t know for sure we just know that she has powers apparently humans had powers at some point. Maybe?
I think there’s been some theorizing in universe that Amanda’s long-term proximity to Selkie’s suppressor might have attuned her, but that could have been commenter speculation and me misremembering. Then thinks that human stories of witches are about human Echoes, but why it would occur is still unknown – whether it’s a naturally-occurring subset of human populations, or if all Echoes need to be “attuned” to the source of their powers and sarnothi are closest to it, or if that’s exclusive to human Echoes.
Then seems to think that Amanda’s a sign that Echo powers can be acquired rather than genetic, for what it’s worth, and he seems interested in the prospect.
Honestly, if we are going into that concept then we need only look to the source of the comic’s name. The selkie. Namely that Druids, the fae, and the Tuatha De Danaan of Irish folklore were born of contact with those the Irish called Selkies which could simply be the Gaelige word for Sarnothi. Looking at the structure of Sarnothi names this could work.
From what I recall, Dave revealed that early drafts of this tale had *Todd* getting powers, and it was specced around a four-element deal a la Avatar: The Last Airbender, so Todd was the first human to get empowered in however many generations. or something.
I’m liking the “humans can acquire powers through close contact with Sarnothi echoes” thing; not sure how I feel about the possibility of humans having some inherent power, but it would fit with some of the early drafts, at least.
What kind of four-(or-some-other-number)-element system would a culture that lives underwater come up with, anyway?
They interact with air far less often than we interact with water, and they wouldn’t be familiar with the concept of fire at all.
A Sarnothi oriented concept of “Cardinal Elements” would probably be Blood, Currents, Soil, and Light.
Blood is life, and the hunt that sustains.
Currents are the movement of the waters which cradle and protect.
Soil gives stone and kelp to shelter and treat wounds.
Light hangs distantly above, but reaches out through the Echoes who spread it’s guidance.
This is not their belief system, fyi. But if they did have a Cardinal Elements concept it would be close to this.
Yeah I ditched that idea pretty much solely because it was too heavily ripped off from ATLA, but it provided a good starting point.
For those curious, since I can’t remember where I mentioned it previously: very early drafts of the story centered around the Sarnothi being one of three races living in secret, with appropriate element-themed abilities. Sarnothi were water controllers. A race of subterranean reptilians that congregated inside volcanoes were fire. An avian race in a hidden cloud city were controllers of air. And Todd would eventually rediscover humanity’s lost ability to control rock and soil.
As I said, I scrapped that concept for being entirely too derivative, so don’t expect to see the reptilian and avian peoples… ever, really.
It’s now implied that humans once had Echo powers, and that the stories of witches were based on that.
I wonder if someone experienced using Resonance around her would help. Her only exposure to “eldritch hellfire” being a couple of kids who want death lasers, might be skewing her perception 😛