Re: CHAT: Introduction

On Tue, May 13, 2003 at 10:19:06PM +0200, Christophe Grandsire wrote:
> En réponse à Mark J. Reed :
>
> >I just sort of jumped in here and started posting to the list
> >recently without introducing myself, so I thought I'd correct
> >that bit of rudeness on my part.
>
> Welcome to the list! (have I forgotten some post or am I the first one to
> officially welcome you?
No, you are the first.  (Tu es le premier?)  Thanks!

> Interesting origin for a language, and interesting way of generating
> vocabulary :))) . I have a bit of that in my producing vocabulary for my
> conlang Maggel, but not on a productive basis (it would be too easy, and
> Maggel is the contrary of productivity ;))) ).
What is it about Maggel that makes it so anti-productive?

> Interesting idea. What were the characteristics of this superhero? (I ask
> that because I myself have created a group of superheroes when I was young,
> which included an alien one - a creature made of pure energy :) -)
Nothing so exotic.  Actually, the people on this character's planet
Dankar ['d&nkA`r] are visually indistinguishable from Terrans.
(Hey, I wanted him to be able to have a secret identity without
shapeshifting.  Gimme a break!).  Of course, it will eventually
turn out that this is no coincidence, but so far it's something
of a mystery.

Nor do his powers come from his alienness.  Dankarans are normally no
more "super" than humans, whether at home or on Earth.  His ability
- to control gravity - comes from a crystal he carries, made of a
mineral native to Dankar.  However, his family seems to be
unique in their ability to harness this power directly - an ability
they used long ago to conquer most of the planet.  Most Dankarans
consider the old stories of magic rocks used to establish a dynasty
to be nothing but fairy tales.  Dankaran science has observed that
the crystals can occasionally trigger minor gravitic fluctuations
in their area, and assume the legends to have been inspired by this
property, but have not discovered any way to do anything useful
with it.  Yet.  In the future, Dankaran "hypercrystals" will be
the basis of FTL travel for a galaxy-spanning civilization, using
technology to do what the ancient family did naturally - but
that's the future.

Anyway. :)

-Mark

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