Shaping a Servile

[Horse in a man costume]

Can you create a servile in GF4?

[Delicious Vlish]

No.

 

Next question.

[Alorael at Large]

It would be awkward to play as a servile and shape another one. What if that one also wants to shape a servile?

 

—Alorael, who wonders what would happen if you put enough points into whatever crafting makes serviles to make a servile stronger than you. That could be even more awkward.

[Archaeolagent]

It would be tough noogies for that one. It's not going to be able to shape without a Geneforge.

[Emperor Tullegolar]

Quote:

Originally written by Aloraschwel:
—Alorael, who wonders what would happen if you put enough points into whatever crafting makes serviles to make a servile stronger than you. That could be even more awkward.

It wouldn't be awkward. It was the primary stratagy of the rebellion. There wouldn't even be a Ghaldring if it weren't for creations shaping stronger creations that can shape even stronger creations. This is exactly why you should be able to shape a servile. Oh, wait, I keep forgetting that the rebels have a double standard when it comes to creation rights... nevermind.

[Khoth]

It does often strike me as odd that I can shape a drakon, effortlessly make it obey my every command, and absorb it without fuss when I'm bored of it.

[Upon Mars.]

it isnt awkard if there is no word to describe that a hard working servile can shape his own kind, because drakys did it and they won't forget it.

 

Still writing away and it's no childs play.

[Alorael at Large]

I'm taking someone else's explanation here, but there seems to be a difference between independently stable creations and creations tied to the shaper's essence. What you shape ad hoc doesn't really have much in the way of an independent mind, will, or even physical form. Sure, it can briefly run away in terror or go rogue, but there's no real permanent volition there.

 

Since most shapers need to make more creations than they have essence, they spend more time with all those vats and crystals making creations the hard way. They're fully separate beings who don't depend on their creators for thoughts or essence. The benefits are numbers and sometimes intelligence. The downsides are resources spent and, sometimes, intelligence.

 

—Alorael, who guesses the lack of a geneforge would impede serviles breeding and/or shaping like bunnies. Right in the beginning, though, if you could get enough training in before the geneforge is dismantled...

[Student of Trinity]

Yeah, I (and perhaps others) have speculated before about the range of durabilities of creations. From the Thahd Shades in G1 to the unstable Vlish and Mystithus in G4, there have been pretty tenuous creatures that happen to be in the same shape as other things. And in several games there have been temporary forms that have only lasted a short while. And on the other extreme are creations like Ghaldring, who grew for months at least in a sealed vault, rather than being created in a flash.

 

It seems clear that the 15+ basic shapes of creation are forms that can be filled with varying kinds of substance. The PC, and numerous NPCs in G4, have the ability to make fairly durable creations extemporaneously. NPCs also have the ability to use slower processes, which evidently need vats, to make creations which can operate independently and indefinitely. A shaper can apparently make many more than seven such creations, and experiment with giving them special abilities as well. It is not clear whether PCs lack the training to use vats, or only lack the time.

 

Anyway, yeah, I figure the creations that are made with a 'poof!' are really somewhere between animals and shades, and lack the independent volition of vat-grown (let alone born) creations. They can go rogue, but I see this as more like a software glitch than mutiny.

 

The fact that the 'crackle-poof!' creations happen to have the same forms as the vat-grown array evidently implies something about the nature of shaping as a magical art / technology. But the games aren't explicit enough to say just what this point is, and I guess that's just as well.

[Fort]

My take on it is pretty simple. The capacity for magical essence is encoded in the genes. Any mage can use magic to manipulate objects and materials; however, it would be impossible to create life by manually inscribing each and every letter of the DNA.

 

Essence contains the essence of life; it naturally helps to guide shapers so they do not have to deal with the specifics of the DNA itself. The permanent, independent creations must have their forms chemically solidified with no magic so that they can persist even without any of its creator's essence.

 

Having your creatures intrinsically tied to you is extremely important when you're adventuring, though.

[Upon Mars.]

The geneforge was the ultimate anwser to the shapers prayer and whys? that to how they did it they transformed it, how the twist it.

[Emperor Tullegolar]

I'm sorry I didn't quite catch that last part.