calibration

[marycatelli]

How do you calibrate a magical item?

If it does something like weigh stuff, you can do it like any other mundane item, measure it against the standard.  however, why would you bother?

It's the belt that's supposed to fasten only about a faithful wife's waist, a cup that only the honest can drink from, a sword that is for the finest knight, that are tricky.  If it were so easy to find a test case by mundane means, you wouldn't have devised a magic test.  And even if you could have two, a success and a failure, perhaps that was coincidence.  Tales seem to assume by the definition a wizard always makes what he intends.

Here's a plot bunny free to a good home:  they use a magical stone, carved with a mouth that pronounces "True" or "False," except one day, some mischievous soul asks if it always tells the truth, and it answers "False."  Uproar ensues.

Comments

[harvey-rrit.livejournal.com]

I was reminded of this:

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0327.html

Back on topic, it seems to me such an item would need to be both intelligent and telepathic as hell.

[marycatelli]

And in that case, could you trust it not to have an agenda of its own?

[harvey-rrit.livejournal.com]

:D

Have you ever read Avram Davidson's THE HOUSE SURGIS SWORD?

The short answer is "No".

[marycatelli]

Well, it depends on the writer.

Mind you, the powerful and intelligent ones without an agenda never seem plausible.

[harvey-rrit.livejournal.com]

Without ever asking it in so many words, Davidson answered the question, "Don't these ancient intelligent magical items ever get bored?"

[marycatelli]

I did a short story on that principle once, where the heroine helped her magical sword by altering its magic so that it could see even she had it sheathed.

Never managed to sell it. (didn't say it was a GOOD story.)

[harvey-rrit.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a great detail for a character in a novel. She's done the sword a huge favor, but its intelligence is nonhuman and doesn't give a crap about tact.

Line:

"Don't waste your time with this guy, his codpiece is padded."

[marycatelli]

well, if that's the sort of character you want to write, go ahead.

[harvey-rrit.livejournal.com]

I would if I had a story for it. Geez, thinka all the annoyances! A sword is for stabbing or cutting, after all. Nothing indirect. Straight to the point.

She'd end up with no friends beyond the most casual... until she met someone who had an enchanted mace.

Always blunt.

They won't run out of stories to swap for years.

Damn, damn, damn, I am always doing this! This doesn't make a story, but it's a really good detail.

[marycatelli]

That muse.

[harvey-rrit.livejournal.com]

She's a dreadful tease.

[marycatelli]

:)