01-29-2025, 02:01 AM
(This post was last modified: 01-29-2025, 02:04 AM by FernGilly.
Edit Reason: typos
)
Applicable BYOND Key
FernGilly
Request Type
Invention / Magic
Character Name
Fel Bourbon
Request Details
To accelerate the rate of fermentation using magic.
Specific Request
To apply existing spells in the Korvara skill list to the process of fermentation, accelerating the growth of bacteria and fungi considerably without a firm understanding of germ theory, only that the magic works and should therefore be applied to make fermentation faster. (Example: rainwater being used to make bread in ancient times over river water, because rain contained yeast. Nobody knew the rain contained yeast, only that bread was fluffier when rain was used. Thanks for that rad knowledge, Witchi.)
Reason Why You Are Making This Request
House Bourbon is Geladyne's foremost player-character led noble house when it comes to brewing. We have the facilities, our lore has been approved and more than that, we're on a deadline to make money. Fel Bourbon, a smart child and an inventor, wants to find more ways to lower or modify the production costs of related goods, like cheese and wine. This is not a process which generates money, as fermentation magic would be explicitly more expensive than letting it ferment or age naturally, but it would justify applying regalia of wines and cheeses to a variety of accessories for gifts to other players. (Example: Fel made a Life-Saving Charm for Pippin that's themed as a wheel of enchanted cheese.)
Inspiration For The Invention
How would a lazy, impatient person use magic? They'd try to use magic to solve every problem they had, much like the Sorcerer's Apprentice. Fel wouldn't want to wait eight weeks for feta to properly age and ferment, so she'd seek out any method she could to make the cheese grow faster, drenching it in focus. Obviously, time travel magic doesn't exist, but as a druid who's learned how to tend to chimera, she assumes that all organic things are as malleable as magic mud and would, in an attempt to make cheese faster, try gleamweaving it.
This isn't incredibly out of left field; she's seen baking rulers use sweet-based pawns by filling them with magic, and she's been taught how to accelerate seed growth and uses seeds in her druidry. As druidic magic was rare before now, it's unlikely that anyone has attempted this before… hence why this is the first proposal of its kind. Laziness wins again.
How The Invention Works
Fungi (and potentially bacteria) inside of a substrate have growth applied to them utilizing magical rituals and they work through cheese, alcohol, soy sauce, bread and other materials more quickly than they would otherwise, hastening the speed of fermentation in a substance, potentially dramatically if there was a fungi or bacteria that was considered a Druid Plant.
Limitations
This would be a form of gleamweaving, and is therefore very intensive on its user. Gleamweaving has been described to me as a very physically draining process which only expert mages (mostly PCs) are able to reliably engage with; healing injuries is itself a process of knitting muscle fibers together and that would require much of the same magic outlined in this document; feeding muscle cells with focus so they can replicate and fill in old wounds? Sounds a lot like multiplying bacteria inside of a substrate so they ferment it quickly. It is unlikely the average citizen of Korvara could use fermentation magic, let alone civilians without a close connection to nature. More than likely, this art would be most prominent in Duyuei until it was better understood.
Existing Technology
Well, we can prove fermentation exists as a process because bread, cheeses and beer exist in-universe. As for existing spells which replicate the effects of this magic— druids have access to Druid Plants and Druidic Tending. Druid Plants in their description explain that druids know special natural magic rituals that accelerate the growth of plants. The number of plants which can have their growth accelerated are unknown, but most plants are possible to interact with using Druid spells to some extent.
It is worth noting that in an earlier thread previously, the developer did say that gleamweaving would not affect bacteria 'much', but also that it 'depends'. It is likely that the degree to which gleamweaving improves bacterial growth is up for debate, but fungal growth… well… Shroomhead (the accessory) notes that mushrooms are considered plants. Having 5+ levels of Fungusbark makes you (and your surrounding tiles) the Plant race, so fungi would likely synergize with the above magic skills, meaning yogurt, cheese, molasses, corn flakes, food additives, citric acid, soy sauce and some pharmaceuticals (eg. penicillin) are likely on the list of easily fermented substances. Bacteria would be on a case by case basis, but worth considering since the effect is possible without magic, this magic would only shorten the length of the fermentation reaction.
Development Time
Several decades if not centuries. The hard truth is that Fel has no idea why fermentation increased, only that, when these spells were applied, fermentation occurred more quickly. Cheeses hardened hours before they were supposed to, and likely applying fermentation magic to wine, bread, yogurts and soy sauce would not immediately result in the finished product, but a shorter time-span than expected. Until and if someone else produces a working germ theory, which is unlikely given the roleplay constraints on such a thing and the lack of plagues in Korvara, this process is sure to be iterative, with better spells figured out, more accurate and efficient usage of focus and more intense processes with larger vats.
As for what development already exists, the tools are already in the pockets of players to do everything described here, especially with the Druid update. The question is whether or not the application of these fermentation techniques is limited to rare Druid-Rune Mage hybrids with a lot of focus to throw around or an accessible spell anyone can use, and as designed fermentation magic would require a lot more training before it was accessible to the layman mage.
FernGilly
Request Type
Invention / Magic
Character Name
Fel Bourbon
Request Details
To accelerate the rate of fermentation using magic.
Specific Request
To apply existing spells in the Korvara skill list to the process of fermentation, accelerating the growth of bacteria and fungi considerably without a firm understanding of germ theory, only that the magic works and should therefore be applied to make fermentation faster. (Example: rainwater being used to make bread in ancient times over river water, because rain contained yeast. Nobody knew the rain contained yeast, only that bread was fluffier when rain was used. Thanks for that rad knowledge, Witchi.)
Reason Why You Are Making This Request
House Bourbon is Geladyne's foremost player-character led noble house when it comes to brewing. We have the facilities, our lore has been approved and more than that, we're on a deadline to make money. Fel Bourbon, a smart child and an inventor, wants to find more ways to lower or modify the production costs of related goods, like cheese and wine. This is not a process which generates money, as fermentation magic would be explicitly more expensive than letting it ferment or age naturally, but it would justify applying regalia of wines and cheeses to a variety of accessories for gifts to other players. (Example: Fel made a Life-Saving Charm for Pippin that's themed as a wheel of enchanted cheese.)
Inspiration For The Invention
How would a lazy, impatient person use magic? They'd try to use magic to solve every problem they had, much like the Sorcerer's Apprentice. Fel wouldn't want to wait eight weeks for feta to properly age and ferment, so she'd seek out any method she could to make the cheese grow faster, drenching it in focus. Obviously, time travel magic doesn't exist, but as a druid who's learned how to tend to chimera, she assumes that all organic things are as malleable as magic mud and would, in an attempt to make cheese faster, try gleamweaving it.
This isn't incredibly out of left field; she's seen baking rulers use sweet-based pawns by filling them with magic, and she's been taught how to accelerate seed growth and uses seeds in her druidry. As druidic magic was rare before now, it's unlikely that anyone has attempted this before… hence why this is the first proposal of its kind. Laziness wins again.
How The Invention Works
Fungi (and potentially bacteria) inside of a substrate have growth applied to them utilizing magical rituals and they work through cheese, alcohol, soy sauce, bread and other materials more quickly than they would otherwise, hastening the speed of fermentation in a substance, potentially dramatically if there was a fungi or bacteria that was considered a Druid Plant.
Limitations
This would be a form of gleamweaving, and is therefore very intensive on its user. Gleamweaving has been described to me as a very physically draining process which only expert mages (mostly PCs) are able to reliably engage with; healing injuries is itself a process of knitting muscle fibers together and that would require much of the same magic outlined in this document; feeding muscle cells with focus so they can replicate and fill in old wounds? Sounds a lot like multiplying bacteria inside of a substrate so they ferment it quickly. It is unlikely the average citizen of Korvara could use fermentation magic, let alone civilians without a close connection to nature. More than likely, this art would be most prominent in Duyuei until it was better understood.
Existing Technology
Well, we can prove fermentation exists as a process because bread, cheeses and beer exist in-universe. As for existing spells which replicate the effects of this magic— druids have access to Druid Plants and Druidic Tending. Druid Plants in their description explain that druids know special natural magic rituals that accelerate the growth of plants. The number of plants which can have their growth accelerated are unknown, but most plants are possible to interact with using Druid spells to some extent.
It is worth noting that in an earlier thread previously, the developer did say that gleamweaving would not affect bacteria 'much', but also that it 'depends'. It is likely that the degree to which gleamweaving improves bacterial growth is up for debate, but fungal growth… well… Shroomhead (the accessory) notes that mushrooms are considered plants. Having 5+ levels of Fungusbark makes you (and your surrounding tiles) the Plant race, so fungi would likely synergize with the above magic skills, meaning yogurt, cheese, molasses, corn flakes, food additives, citric acid, soy sauce and some pharmaceuticals (eg. penicillin) are likely on the list of easily fermented substances. Bacteria would be on a case by case basis, but worth considering since the effect is possible without magic, this magic would only shorten the length of the fermentation reaction.
Development Time
Several decades if not centuries. The hard truth is that Fel has no idea why fermentation increased, only that, when these spells were applied, fermentation occurred more quickly. Cheeses hardened hours before they were supposed to, and likely applying fermentation magic to wine, bread, yogurts and soy sauce would not immediately result in the finished product, but a shorter time-span than expected. Until and if someone else produces a working germ theory, which is unlikely given the roleplay constraints on such a thing and the lack of plagues in Korvara, this process is sure to be iterative, with better spells figured out, more accurate and efficient usage of focus and more intense processes with larger vats.
As for what development already exists, the tools are already in the pockets of players to do everything described here, especially with the Druid update. The question is whether or not the application of these fermentation techniques is limited to rare Druid-Rune Mage hybrids with a lot of focus to throw around or an accessible spell anyone can use, and as designed fermentation magic would require a lot more training before it was accessible to the layman mage.
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