Yak isn't criticizing their well-justified loss. He's just saying it's nice to see them ready to take names.

 

This sounds like foreshadowing, I'm sure we will see Daimen at one point or another in the story...

And all the stuff about creating copies of people is quite interesting, maybe everyone in the time loop except the time travelers is just a copy.

Anyway, I think it's a good chapter. The change of pace is quite unexpected but welcome.

 

I suspect this is the case and if not, there is connection between what Zorian learned and what's happening.

Another really good chapter. Like was mentioned, it's nice to see good guys showing they can be really competent if they aren't completely taken by surprise.

Amusing enough, Zorian finally got to do what he tried to learn many, many loops ago, and levitated Kiri.

Will Daimen turn out to be a full psychic too? And maybe even a better one than Zorian will be when they finally meet, once again making him depressed just how good his brother is. Or maybe it's going to be something proving that both brothers are equals and let them bond over. Unless Daimen is suppose to remain a "villain" or maybe turn out to be the villain.

 

That was great! Feels good to have a change of pace.

I really liked the concept of Zorian's disguise - a looming masked figure that only communicates through an orb of telepathy. That's kinda badass.

 

This is the magical version of two midgets in a trench coat.

 

Anyone else think that Tinami Aope asking Zorian for his family history (and supposedly the rest of the class) has something to do with he just learned from the priest about witch bloodlines? About how witches were fond of inherited magical abilities and tried to preserve them? And how considering that empathy was common throughout all three continents and that, assuming that empathy was in fact the product of some magical ritual, that that would mean that there was a reliable method of turning normal people into psychics circulating around?

We already know that House Aope originated from a witch background and that they specialize in mind magic and soul magic, among other things.

Right now, I feel that Tinami asking Zorian (and allegedly his classmates as well) about his family history (and being even more excited when she found Zorian had a witch in his family), could mean one of two things:

1) She could want to tie their two families by blood to increase the probability of psychic progeny being born from that union.
2) She wants to see if she can find the ritual to turn normal people into psychics (which was once mentioned she wanted to do after meeting Novelty), and suspects she could find it in one of the remaining witch houses, thus asking her classmates (a lot of which are first generation mages, which therefore might have some witch bloodline in them).

 

Or,

3) She likes Zorian or one of his brothers, and wants to find justifications that her family would accept to allow her to marry a merchant's boy.

 

Zorian's Bloodline

Good point. If that's the case, which one do you think it might be? Also, we still don't know who Kirielle is arranged to marry yet, could it be that someone in the Aope house is going to be the one to marry Kirielle? (I personally very much doubt it, since Zorian's family would have made a big deal out of it)

On another (related) note, the whole talk with the priest has really got me thinking about Zorian's witch bloodline background. What I'm thinking is, could Zorian have a dormant ability dealing with soul magic? I know it's a stretch, but I would still like to explore that possibility.

First of all, there is something that has been bothering for a while now (which could be very easily explained another way). Briam's Salamander. Why does it not attack Zorian, and tolerate him so much, when it doesn't get along with any of his other classmates?

Again, it could be any number of things, and I could be completely overthinking it. It's just that when I saw it happening time and time again and be referenced so many times, subtly drawing attention to it, like many of the little clues that the author sometimes leave behind that make more sense as the story progresses, I started thinking.

My first thoughts were, could it be that being someone involved in the time loop somehow draws respect from the Salamander since it is a familiar and thus more sensitive to soul magic? But I discarded that thought since it had been nice to Zorian since before the time loop and there was no guarantee that being a familiar would make you more sensitive to soul magic (though I feel it should)

My second thought was, does Zorian's bloodline have some history with reptiles? Was there some kind of ritual involving reptiles that stayed on after the generations and magical reptile species can sense it? I know, kind of out there.

My doubts got even stronger when we heard that the serpent spirit that the Ghost Serpent Acolytes worship said that Zorian was bad. It brought to mind three things:
1) The serpent spirit can somehow sense that Zorian is somehow involved in a big soul magic ritual/involved in the separation of the material and spiritual planes.
2) Something in Zorian's blood has a deep connection with reptiles (maybe a natural dominating force)
3) Now, after the talk with the priest, I think it could also be due to both the Salamander and the serpent spirit sensing a dormant potential for natural soul magic in Zorian.


Again, it's kind of out there. Give me your thoughts. This salamander has been weighing on my mind for a while.

 

Could just be that Salamanders have a natural tendency towards empathy and it was able to sense that trait in Zorian. We know that familiars have a soul bond with their masters, so I'd posit that if Zorian took a familiar it would join him in the time loop, though it would likely just be a spiritual connection so he'd have to go find it at the start of every loop.
One As for your suggestion, I'm thinking that there's likely a link between Zorian and the Dragon Below. The only thing I could think of that would be powerful enough to create this kind of time loop (given that the Gods and Angels are silent at the moment) would be that thing. It makes a kind of narrative sense for Zorian to be special in some big way, something that would mark him as the protagonist of the story beyond being the viewpoint character. As it is, Zack is arguably the protagonist given that this whole thing seems to revolve around him.

 

I knew it! Damien really reminded of something. He's just like Eddy's brother from Ed, Edd n Eddy. That shadow always looming. Hmmm.

 

Briam's family breeds fire drakes, not salamanders. The only salamander Zorian has met tried to eat him.

I have a few questions:

1.) It has been mentioned that Tesen is a seventh circle mage. Are these rankings official? Do mages have to pass a test to be recognised as a X circle mage, or do they reach the circle the moment they learn even a single spell of that circle?

2.) Is there a connection between Zorian's low Magnitude and Empathy? Both of his brothers are hinted to have much larger mana reserves and this disparity would be neatly explained if Empathy required a constant stream of mana to function.

3.) Is Eldemar a magocracy? All three named Noble Houses (Boranova, Aope and Noveda) are mages...

 

I don't know about your last two questions, but Nobody103 has given an answer to your first question on his Patreon page for Ch 49.

link


There are plenty of other author responses in the Patreon comments that are equally as intriguing...the chapter 50 response about Zorian's potential end game power level!

 

To quote it in spoiler since some may not want to even know what is theoretically possible for him to learn.

Spoiler

"Theoretically he could defeat high end enemies like dragons, grey hunters and crystal oozes in full frontal battle where he relies on brute force only, no items and allies. He could make multiple simulacrums of himself and do several things at once. Make his own pocket dimension (though probably very small one). He could scatter magical sensors for miles around him and spy on a huge area at once. Totally rewrite someone's mind into something he finds more useful to his goals. Make a personal shield strong enough withstand several massed artillery volleys. Get so good at telekinesis that it becomes more precise than using his own hands.

Will he be actually able to do stuff like that by the end of the story? You'll have to wait to find out..."

That's really, really impressive, even if he will not be able to do all these things. But the best part, for me, will be watching him slowly and patiently grown into a mage capable of doing it.

Really earned power-ups are way cooler than deus ex machina upgrades or time skip advancements.

 

1. Already answered by previous poster. Circles are assigned by the state, and do not necessarily correspond to actual power. They just mean that a particular mage is formally authorized to learn more powerful spells and that other mages can't get in trouble just for teaching them stuff.

2. I'm not sure how important this is so I'm keeping quiet about this for now.

3. Theoretically, no. Eldemar is an aristocracy, and there is no rule saying Houses must be proficient in magic. In practice, though, they all are. If they weren't at the time they became a House, they'll become a mage House soon. Because... well, why not? Barring special disabilities, anyone can become a mage. And being even a weak mage makes many things easier and brings prestige. Why would nobility not send their children to be educated into mages?

 

A question. We know the conventional wisdom in story, is their is no real way to increase your reserves once they plateau without fucking up your control.

But what about unconventional wisdom? Because it seems to me, that people like Xim and others would know things that others do not.

"There is a mana shaping exercise for everything".

But what about mana-reserve growth?

 

Depending on who you asked, rules were either made for a reason, or made to be broken. Either way, I don't expect Zorian to easily be able to find a way around this mana plateau problem. I feel like the premise of the story is based upon Zorian's ability to work around such problems, which is why I agree with Cheddar that he'll work around it somehow. Although I don't think it'll happen, reading about Zorian taking part in some sort of soul ritual for increased mana reserves would be pretty cool. Even if it ruins the story.

 

Ooh boy. Things are about to get exciting.

Very interested to see how the dynamic of the story changes after this meeting.

I am a bit disappointed in the massive info dump that just occurred, but the arc did feel like it was dragging on.

 

New chapter: https://www.fictionpress.com/s/2961893/52/Mother-of-Learning

You just know with a title of 'Things Fall Apart' its going to be interesting