lashtal Posted June 20, 2012 Report Posted June 20, 2012 [size=4][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Since today it's my first MD birthday (!!!), here's a little paradoxical quest for all of you to enjoy.[/font][/size] [size=4][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Ideal to be pondered under the umbrella, ideal for killing time, this quest will last around a month.[/font][/size] [center][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][size=5][color=#4b0082]The Sundial Quest[/color][/size][/font][/center] [size=4][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Describe the functioning of a sundial in relation to Principles.[/font][/size] [size=4][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Write an original, MD-related motto for a Sundial.[/font][/size] [size=4][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Discuss whether a sundial could work in MD and, in case, where.[/font][/size] [size=4][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]The best submission will be rewarded with a sword shade.[/font][/size] [size=4][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif](If the bright side feels like sponsoring brighter rewards, Time will be more accurate... [/font][/size] [size=4][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif] )[/font][/size] [size=4][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]All submissions should be sent to me via PM or forum PM by July, the 31st.[/font][/size] [size=4][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Have fun![/font][/size] Ivorak, Plix Plox, Tarquinus and 5 others 8
lashtal Posted June 21, 2012 Author Report Posted June 21, 2012 (edited) Maebius kindly sponsored an Angien's Egg for this quest. Thank you! Edited August 1, 2012 by lashtal
lashtal Posted July 22, 2012 Author Report Posted July 22, 2012 I'll be away until July 31st, but the quest goes on! So far I received one interesting submission and a couple of "if I find time will do it". If enough interest is shown I will consider extending the deadline, just let me know. Please keep sending your thoughts either via PM or forum PM. See you folks!
lashtal Posted July 31, 2012 Author Report Posted July 31, 2012 Thank you for your interest!! The deadline is postponed by one month, August the 31st.
lashtal Posted August 11, 2012 Author Report Posted August 11, 2012 (edited) 20 days left and only three submissions received! Come on you beach folks, aren't you tanned enough yet? Edited August 26, 2012 by lashtal
Seigheart Posted August 13, 2012 Report Posted August 13, 2012 I'll sponsor this with a heavily aged Blood Pact Archer Esmaralda and The Warrior 1 1
lashtal Posted September 1, 2012 Author Report Posted September 1, 2012 The time is over, thank you very much to those who participated!! Results will be published SOON!!
lashtal Posted September 4, 2012 Author Report Posted September 4, 2012 (edited) Dear sirs dear ladies, Time has come for some clarification and for results to be published. The whole quest was admittedly paradoxical. How to use a sundial in a realm where it's not clear what/where the Sun is? Some of you would remember from the story mode that the Sun is almost motionless, some of you noticed places within the realm which seem to suggest multiple light sources; then we have the Soldiers of the Inner Sun… So, what is this all about? Aleyster Crowley, Mur and other heretics out there seem to suggest to "behold within and not above", for within each of us there's "one star in sight". If we consider a star as the central source of light, life… (once transposed within, even ideas), if we consider it a purpose, a direction we're aimed to, I think we may try to scratch the surface of what's all about. If everybody holds a Sun within, if everybody "casts a Shade"... We could consider Time as something entirely subjective, an expression of our own consciousness. How to measure it, anyway, is a completely different matter, of which I have honestly no idea... Of course, that's why I created this quest! Unluckily I didn't receive that many submissions, but all of them were really interesting thus very difficult to judge. For this reason, they've been rated with the help of two persons, whose names I won't disclose. Thank you very much, you know who you are. So, here are the winners!! 1st place - Tom Pouce (motto: "in MD yur always at yur same lucky time") 2nd place - Plix Plox (motto: "A shade’s shadow and an elemental’s glow are the primary basis for time to be told") 3rd place - Maebius (motto: "There is time enough for all of it, and all of you.") 4th place - ignnus (motto: "An aramor with a sundial is better than a morp with a broomstick.") 5th place - Shadowseeker (motto: "The sundial only works as well as the one who reads it.") And the rewards!! [s]A Swordshade[/s] (picked by Tom Pouce) [s]An Angien's egg[/s] (picked by Plix Plox) [s]A heavily aged Blood Pact Archer (sponsored by TKs)[/s] (picked by Shadowseeker) 2 BMMO enchanted stones (Toadspeak and Attacklock) [s]2 Protector's enchanted stones (Movelock and Freeze)[/s] (picked by ignnus) Based on the place in the graduatory, winners can choose the reward they prefer. Tom Pouce picks first, then Plix Plox, then Maebius and so on. Just state here what you wish or send me a message, I'll keep this topic up to date. Thanks a lot to all who participated!!! Edit: My bad, I forgot to mention a wonderful hand made drawing by Maebius... You're AWESOME! Edited September 6, 2012 by lashtal ignnus 1
Maebius Posted September 4, 2012 Report Posted September 4, 2012 (edited) Congrats to everybody!! I'd LOVE to see what others came up with, more for curiosity of the ideas than who won which place. Would anyone mind sharing their submissions? Also, I'll skip any rewards, and just keep my sponsored Angien Egg for whomever picks that. [log='Here is mine....'] [size=4][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Describe the functioning of a sundial in relation to Principles.[/font][/size] [size=4][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Write an original, MD-related motto for a Sundial.[/font][/size] [size=4][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Discuss whether a sundial could work in MD and, in case, where.[/font][/size] Since for me the Sun never moves, though I have noticed that other Stories have it shifting in the sky and even finding Night, I have decided to use the general "idea" of a sundial as a time-keeper rather than a physical shadow-caster. I'll try to explain my horrible drawing below too. If you have any questions please ask!! (I'm not even sure this could exist "for real" outside of MD as it's a bit of a philosophical construct more than a physical one.) Picture a tall thin support, formed of shifting ephemeral ever-changing colours and design. Imagination holds up the structure you see, for without it, no Sundail could ever have existed physically in any realm. The dream and idea of it is the foundation. Above the structure is a sort of spiral horn-like shape (think rams horns that curve downward to a point). Above THAT, almost out of the image, is the ever-burning Light (I didn't say Sun exactly). Instead of a shadow tracing across a marked circle to tell the time, however, the "horns" are pushed by the Light and grow outwards and downward from the "force" of the light over time. The horns are marked into segments, and as they curve, they eventually re-connect into the support structure, as if they will re-start where they first protruded. (so the horns are actually spiral rings, in a sense.) The tips, and narrowest section of each horn is rules by Darkness. One side ebony and one side jet. Wood and Stone, and represent the first moments of our time in Magic duel. So many questions, so few choices that first step, thus, the narrow point, but quickly growing in thickness and possibility as Light pushes/illuminates/teaches and Time passes. The spiral nature of the sides is obviously where Time is represented. Their essentially circular nature reflects well on how Time is a moving thing in the small-scale but taken as a whole, is One. The circle-horns turn to track moments, but never truly "Move" beyond their spinning, but describe the local Time by looking at which fragment of the horn-circles is on "top", emerging from the support structure itself. As the darkness starts to be brightened by the Light, representing how each visitor to MD grows in thickness of knowledge and details of the realm, the horn-circles shift from black materials to something lighter. Syntropy, and Elements now share equal places on top of the sundial, formed of glittering fine-grained Eucalyptus wood (which changes colour over time to a dark brown, and thus provides a somewhat even transition with the nearby ebony). Opposite the syntropic wood is the elemental section, with a core of heavy rock, wet sandstone around that, and light pumice exterior material. The main and "longest" segment of the horn circles represents Cyclicity and Transposition. While the cycle is represented throughout by the spiraling horn-circles, this is ever more apparent as they grow in girth. The materials on the Cyclicity side change to blood-red metal on the outside of the spirals, and pure white on the interior, representing the training combat and rest periods of most people, and the outer Stats, and inner Enlightenment as they look deeper into the realm. The Transposition side abruptly switches to an opposing spiral, and the movement of the overall "horn" slightly pauses so it falls slightly out of sync with the opposite "Cyclicity" side, it's movement becomes slightly random, so that it is alternately longer or shorter than the opposite "horn" over time, but the random speed tends to keep them -almost- even. (this may be an effect of the opposing spiral reacting to the Light pressure which drives the whole apparatus) It is made of stuff similar to the Imagination support, but much more solid. If the imagination is primarily pink gas at a particular moment, the Transposition is rose coloured glass for example. If imagination is flowery or fiery, the coil takes itself to appear like hard-packed pollen and petals, or glowing orange metal for that moment. The Transposition segment also slowly becomes layers of materials, reflecting the Imagination support at each moment, and as it "turns" a small sliver of it is locked as that material. The overall effect is a shimmering vaguely striped spiral in a myriad of metallic rainbow hues. As Time progresses, and the horns flatten out and the "spiral" cut in them becomes much shallower and the materials on both sides gradually fade to a not-quite-pure white ivory (if it were a screw, the threads get smaller trending towards a simple cylinder.) Balance is restored as in the movement of each side as the pointed Dark tips curl upwards and approach the shimmering support column of Imagination. The spiral is still reversed on the side that represented Transposition, but is now moving at the same rate as the Cyclicity side. Balance is once more restored and the the horn segments on top now glow faintly from reflected and absorbed Light. The spiral 'cuts' begin to fade away as they get more and more shallow, as combat training and other Roles even out over time, with diminishing returns. Periodic dark and light veins in the ivory symbolize the events of the realm that slightly interrupt the overall smoothness of the ivory(and our daily roles here that fall into a routine), or flashes of new learning. Eventually, the pointed horns 'grow' into the support structure, and the horns themselves get less and less solid. Our time in MD has either reached it's end, or we've become (like chewett and some other older vets) so established in our roles and learning that our personal growth ..... not really stops, for it never stops, but reaches a zenith of sorts. Time ticks once more and the faded past of the horns is now curled and half suspended below the top of the support structure. One day has passed. Dark points begin to appear from our imagination again, as a new day starts. The cycle repeats. "There is time enough for all of it, and all of you." As for a location of this strange little sundial, I almost think that either inside Sage's Keep, with it's varied Light-sources, or perhaps the Paper Cabin Roof, being above where the imagination support really starts here in this realm. However, overall, I think a Sundial in general runs a bit counter to the overall "timing" for this realm. It would be an interesting thing to ponder, but doesn't exactly "fit" here as I understand Sundials. Enjoy! [img]http://everthorn.net/Misc/images/Sundial2.png[/img][/log] Edited September 4, 2012 by Maebius Ackshan Bemunah, lashtal and nadrolski 3
lashtal Posted September 5, 2012 Author Report Posted September 5, 2012 Tom Pouce picked the Swordshade, Plix Plox is the next one!
Tom Pouce Posted September 5, 2012 Report Posted September 5, 2012 my thanks to lashtal for making that quest and the wonderfull prizes
lashtal Posted September 6, 2012 Author Report Posted September 6, 2012 Plix Plox picked the Angien's Egg, Maebius skipped any rewards, time for ignnus to pick!
lashtal Posted September 6, 2012 Author Report Posted September 6, 2012 ignnus picked the Prot. stones. Shadowseeker? Up to you.
lashtal Posted September 6, 2012 Author Report Posted September 6, 2012 Shadowseeker picked the BP archer. Can the Treasure Keepers send him the CTC?
lashtal Posted September 6, 2012 Author Report Posted September 6, 2012 All the rewards have been sent. Thanks again to the sponsors and the judges!
lashtal Posted November 17, 2012 Author Report Posted November 17, 2012 Ups, almost forgot about this. This topic can be closed, thank you.
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