All posts by The Strange Traveler

Advertisement (if you would like me to change anything please say so): Hello! We over at the Edge Chronicles Wiki are hosting an Edge Chronicles fanfiction contest, and everyone is invited to join. Look at the (NAME) blog post on the wiki for the specifics of this contest, but the general idea is this: each participant will write a story of 600 words or less about a minor character that fits the Edgeworld canon. Fanart related to the story is encouraged but not required. All stories are should be sent to edgechronicleswiki@gmail.com and are due by (DATE) at (TIME). At that time the judge will begin judging and the winner should be chosen not too long later. The prize for this contest is having your victory recognized on the main page of the Edge Chronicles Wiki, and, of course, bragging rights and glory. We hope that you will join the fun and write a short story!

(NAME) is a placeholder for a link to the blog post containing all of the rules, and (DATE) and (TIME) are placeholder for the date and exact time of the deadline.

Two more things to resolve, then someone needs to make a blogpost with all of the rules, and then I think that we can finally start. First, can someone submit multiple entries? Second, when exactly will the deadline be?

I’m excited about this contest! It should be a lot of fun, and I already have some ideas for the minor character that I will choose.

I can write up a short advertisement for the contest. I will post it in this thread when I am done.

By minor characters I mean... look to the single-page short stories on DeadlyDirtBlock's blog for examples. The character doesn't need to have even been named, they just have to fit the canon. In my opinion, Goom and Phineal do not fit the definition of minor character at all. We are talking about VERY minor characters, and we know quite a bit about them. Your situations all fit for me! I would be really interested to read about the first one.

There are a few more specific things we need to decide before starting (I think once everything is decided we should have all advertisements link to a blog post containing all of the info, so participants don't have to read all of this discussion to learn what to do). How many words are allowed? The idea is a short story, so I think that there should be a word limit. Can you have multiple entries? How can we clarify what "minor characters" mean in a rule so that all participants can easily understand? I would hate for someone's work to be in vain because they chose a character that didn't fit. Lastly, what are the criteria for judging? What will these stories be judged on? Martingloamg, I think that this last one is mostly for you to decide.

1) Yes, one version of the advertisement across all places would be good.

2) I don't think that it was decided that I would judge, although I did say that I was willing to judge. Martingloamg, you came up with the idea for this contest, so I ask you: Do you want to judge, or do you want me to judge? I am fine with either answer, and I will still write a story either way. I just don't want to come in and take over your idea.

3) Yes, some examples of minor characters that could be chosen should be included in the advertisement. Either find some good minor character articles to be used or improve one so that it is good enough.

4) Yes, characters that are unnamed can be included. The short stories we are modeling this off of include some unnamed characters. (For example, Pule)

Also, Martingloamg, thanks for setting up the email and thanks for the idea in the first place. This should be fun and hopefully we can get some entries!

Gloamglozer, I think that you may have found an inconsistency in the books. I can't think of a slaughterer's skin ever being described as something besides red, even those in cities. However, consider that many of those in cities lived their childhood's in traditional villages before migrating (so their skin was colored as a child), or they worked in traditional occupations in the city (so their skin was colored even in the city).

The inconsistency may come with Keris. It is clearly said in the books that slaughterers got their red skin from redoak smoke exposure, not genetics, so if Keris's skin isn't red from her childhood, then that is a contradiction.

Slaughterers being hated is definitely a similarity to real world history.

Your welcome for the detailed response. Discussing and thinking about the details of the Edge is fun.

I think that it's fine to use this discussion for asking questions and talking about odd things in the Edge Chronicles, not just listing them.

I think that it actually makes sense that the sky-scholars preferred to stay on Sanctaphrax for their studies. Remember, on the Edge all of the weather that the sky-scholars study is created by the Mother Storm and comes in from Open Sky, so all of it has to pass Sanctaphrax when it comes over the Edge. Because Sanctaphrax is floating, the weather passes directly through it and the sky-scholars instruments can get direct measurements without sky-ships. Therefore sending out a sky-ship is unnecessary and also dangerous, because flying in a storm is dangerous. Flying out into Open Sky to the source of the weather would be very useful, but we also know that it is extremely dangerous. Also, according to Wilken Wordspool, sky-scholars kind of have a disdain for Open Sky for some reason.

I think that Sanctaphrax by the time of the books has definitely declined from what it once was. The academics were more interested in plotting, what was "fashionable", and the social hierarchy than learning. On the other hand, in early Sanctaphrax the academics figured out many useful things. For example: all of the knowledge in the Great Library, some good construction techniques, the "theories of sky-flight" (whatever that means), how to harvest flight rocks, and sourmist particles.

About the earth-scholars: I don't think that the books give us enough information to be sure, but I think that there are a few different explanations for this. The reason that they were on Sanctaphrax originally was because living in the Deepwoods wasn't safe due to slavers. It is possible that when they were expelled the Deepwood were still too unsafe to set up a large settlement (it is somewhat safe to do temporary missions for studying if you know what you are doing, but large settlements would attract slavers). And maybe the Leagues wouldn't let them stay in Undertown because they want to stay on good terms with the sky-scholars so they can have flight-rocks. So the earth-scholars simply had to disperse. Another explanation it that the purges were violent. It's a dark explanation, but it is possible that many earth-scholars were killed by the treasury guard during the purges, and there weren't enough of them left to set up a large settlement anywhere.

I decided to reply in another post rather than clutter up the previous one with both the questions and the answers.

1. I think that we should have an easily visible sign on the wiki's main page announcing the contest, with a link to a blog post containing the details (to be created after everything is decided). Other than that, I can't think of anywhere else to publicize this.

2. I think that this should be judged by one person (one of us) who volunteers to have their work not be judged in the contest. I think that judgement should not just be based on the judge's subjective opinion, but that there should be some kind of rubric for them to base their judgement on (though their opinion would obviously still be important)

3. I think that entries should be submitted via email to an email address that the judge sets up for this purpose. However, posting the story on a wiki blog post or on fanfiction.net as well is encouraged.

4. I'm still not sure on this one. It depends on how soon we get everything together and publicize this. I suggest that the contest lasts 1-2 months, and is timed so that it ends at a time that is convenient for the judge to judge quickly after the contest is over. (if the contest ends when the judge is in the middle of final exams, or something, and it takes them half a month to judge, then why didn't we just extend the time limit half a month?)

Lastly, I suggest that there is some sort of prize for this. We are not going to be able to send out signed book copies or anything like that, so the only thing I can think of is a special badge on the wiki and a mention that you won on the main wiki page.

So this chat time we decided to try to run a competition! From what I remember, we have already decided the following (but if you disagree with any of this, sorry from me for mis-remembering and feel free to say that you disagree):

1. The competition will be publicized on Reddit (I will make a post there) and Facebook (someone will send an email to the Edge Chronicles Facebook people asking them to make a post about it)

2. Submissions will consist of a very short story in the same format as the short stories found in DeadlyDirtBlock's blog post, featuring a minor character from any book. Art is encouraged but optional.

From what I remember, we brought up these points but weren't sure how to do them and needed to talk about it more (if I forgot any, please mention them):

1. Are there any other places or methods we could use to publicize this?

2. How will this be judged? Who will judge?

3. How will entries be submitted?

4. What is the due date?

Sorry DDB, but I have looked around some more and haven't found anything with a sooner date than what I said. It looks like they are in fact doing this to us. :(

Thanks for getting a better quality image.

On second thought, I think that the cover does have a few relevant details. If you look at the phraxcraft, it has a little jet of phraxfire coming out of it, which seems to confirm the idea that the phraxchamber supplies propulsion while the wood gives lift.

Also, the weird creature in the top right looks similar to an Edge wraith but it isn't, which seems to confirm that there are other lifeforms down below the Edge.

If Celestia is on the official cover in descent equipment, then I think that we can be sure that she is going on the expedition (no guarantees that she lives though)

I have good news and bad news.

Good news: Apparently the before now unrevealed Descenders hardback cover is revealed! I have tried to attach it to this post, but if it doesn't work then you can see it on amazon or penguin. It looks awesome, but I don't think that it reveals anything new.

Bad news: The Descenders may not be coming out as soon as we thought. Both amazon and penguin say it is to be released March 7, 2019, and Goodreads says September 20, 2018. I don't see a source that says July 2018 anymore.

I'm not sure if you are thinking of a different building in that image, but the one directly to the left of the "iii." symbol is the Hall of Whispers. Maybe it was converted into the Palace of Phrax, but they don't look that similar to me.

But you bring up an interesting question: When does Quove Lentis take over? I would say that he had been taking over quietly for a long time, but the final takeover occurred at the beginning of The Nameless One. At that time he purged out all of his enemies, or forced them to flee. It is hard to say exactly how that went because our narrator, Cade, was just a kid and wasn't very aware of politics. Also, he fled at the very start of the purge and hasn't returned or even heard news of what happened. However, I think that we can be sure that the final takeover has happened by the time of Doombringer. At one point, Tillman Spoke is describing Hive's government to Cade and he remarks "If only Great Glade had followed their example, perhaps it wouldn't now be in thrall to the academics and their merchant cronies!"

In any case, it is very sad to see how bad things have become since the time of the Free Glades.

How long was the First Age of Flight? I doubt that there is an exact date given, but was it a few thousand years? A few hundred? About how many years long was it?

I also really like ImageMaps, especially this colored one, so I definitely want it to stay on the page. I have thought about it more, and I think that it should stay at the top, beneath the intro. History, Economy, etc. can go down beneath it. I guess once everything is one the page we can see how it looks.

I suggest the following structure:

Intro

History

-Before Stone-Sickness

-After Stone-Sickness

Economy

-Before Stone-Sickness

-After Stone-Sickness

Technology

-(Probably some subheadings here but I'm not sure what they would be)

Fashion

I'm not sure where the ImageMap should go relative to everything else. Probably either at the top, right below the intro, or at the bottom. I don't think there should be the usual "Role in the Edge Chronicles" part, because all we could say was "Whatever Book took place in the First Age of Flight", and I already said that in the intro. If everyone likes this structure then I will put in the headings with "Under Construction" signs in the article. Then different people can contribute different paragraphs when they have time.

I'm glad you understood what I was trying to explain; I was worried that I wouldn't be able to explain my thoughts clearly on this. Gloamglozer, you make a good point about what happens if two people are editing at the same time. I always write out my edits in a word document before I put them on the wiki, but I will still try to edit First Age of Flight later in the day (in my timezone) so all of you are asleep and there isn't a risk of getting in each other's way.

Two very good ideas have been proposed in this discussion: to have a "featured article of the month" and to have a "monthly communal edit." However, I don't think that they should necessarily be the same thing, although they will likely overlap.

I think that the "featured article of the month" should be an article, different each month, from the featured category that fits all the criteria Gloamglozer proposed. The purpose of it is to have wiki visitors see one of the best articles we have immediately when they arrive. Precedence will be given to more recent articles, but otherwise we can just follow a list in order.

I think that the "monthly communal edit" should simply be a different article we choose at the start of every month to improve together by the end of the month. It might end up being good enough to be a featured article, but if it doesn't that is fine, and not every single one should be a featured article. One, because I doubt that we will be able to produce a top-quality featured article every single month, and two, because if we continue at this for a while we will soon have many featured articles, which defeats the point of the featured articles being the few, elite articles of the wiki. Individual people could also end up creating an article that is good enough to be featured on their own.

As for the vote... I don't see a reason to wait, although all of this would be a good chat time topic. I vote for the First Age of Flight, because it is currently not very good and it would be good to focus our efforts on something that really needs to be improved. (Third Great Migration is already very good)

I agree that it is a very good idea, Martingloamg! I would suggest starting with either one of the ages of flight or the Third Great Migration (after rereading that page, it is very good but could use some improvements before being promoted to featured). A one month time period seems like a good amount of time, and that way it matches up with how long the poll lasts too.

Response to Gloamglozer's response...

4: I think you are completely right in your prediction. I forgot about it before, but the synopsis says that Cade must flee to New Sanctaphrax because of Quove Lentis, so clearly it is for his protection. For the reason he is on the expedition, I think your explanation is the most plausible. Cade is exactly the kind of person who would refuse to be left behind, and I think that smuggling Tug onto the ship would be really hard because he is so big.

6: You bring up an interesting point about Lucius Verginix. Here is my reasoning for why he has a ship named after him. The authors like to reference previous books if they can, and naming ships after previous characters is a good way to do that. It would make more sense for a ship to be named after a famous dead person from the Third Age, maybe a phrax academic who made a great breakthrough, but we don't know any of them, and the authors prefer references to previous books over making sense. The reason that the ship isn't named after a famous former character, for example Quintinius Verginix, is because the authors would like to use such a name for a glorious, important ship, not just a random ship mentioned in one sentence. I wouldn't be surprised if the New Sanctaphrax fleet flagship is named Quintinius Verginix, for example.

2: Like you, I'm not quite sure how Cade's father's blueprints and the New Sanctaphrax ships relate. They might be discovered separately, or the Sanctaphrax ships might be made from Cade's father's blueprints. If the ships are made from the blueprints though, The Descenders might cover a timeline of a long time. It would take a while to figure out his blueprints and then to build the ships. Maybe New Sanctaphrax already has Fourth Age ships, then Cade brings the blueprints, and then they use them to make a really good prototype ship for descending? I don't know. I think we may have reached the end of what we can guess and just have to wait for The Descenders to find out.

Alright, I’m a bit late to the discussion but I’m finally going to make my contribution about the nightship and other topics.

1. Celestia is not listed as part of the crew, which is odd because she is pictured in full descent gear with the others in the color picture. Maybe this is a mistake, or maybe she stayed behind on the surface for some reason. Maybe she had to heal someone? I don’t think that someone like Celestia would accept being left behind from danger unless there was a very good reason.

2. The scale of the ship is very odd in comparison to all other types of flying vehicles we have seen so far. The phraxchamber is huge in comparison to the rest of the ship. I think this probably has something to do with the vessel being for descending the cliff, because the other Fourth Age ships we have seen have normal scale phraxchambers. Maybe it has to go so far up and down that it needs extra power from a larger phraxchamber, or maybe the winds are so fierce down there that it needs extra power?

3. I think that DDB’s guess about the glister chamber makes sense, though it might not be right. They probably take rock samples full of glisters to study and use the chamber to store them safely. Gloamglozer, the reason that the chamber is right in the middle of the hammocks might be that the nightship is like a space ship or submarine, every inch of space is very valuable and must be used. Or maybe the glister chamber is so protective that it is isn’t dangerous.

4. We might be able to glean some information from the crewmembers’ fields of study (seen in other images). Demora is part of the School of Stone Studies, which makes sense if they take rock samples. Fenda is a botanist, which makes sense if there are weird organisms to study down there. Grent is from the Loftus Observatory (we don’t know what field of study exactly), so he probably studies weather, which makes sense if there is weird weather like glister storms to study down there. Lastly, Sentafruice is a Raintaster (also just noticed, a BLUE waif, a new kind!). I’m not sure why a Raintaster would come with them down the cliff. I’m also not sure why Cade and Tug would come along other than that they are the main characters. Maybe because they need physical strength on the expedition and Tug is very strong, and he wouldn’t want to go anywhere without Cade?

5. DDB I think your explanation for why Nate has so few descender knots is a good one (I agree that it is probably an old Nate, I was just throwing out potential ideas). The fact that he was down there so long seems to be proof that there are some organisms down there, because otherwise how could Nate have survived? He couldn’t have packed provisions for fourteen years, could he?

6. The tradition of naming things after people from earlier ages continues! I wonder if all New Sanctaphrax vehicles are named after people from Old Sanctaphrax? On that note, I wonder what kind of names the Academy of Flight ships have?

7. I’m interested in what (probably) Nate is holding. It looks kind of like a blueprint but I’m not sure. It might be Cade’s father’s blueprint, if Cade brought them with him to New Sanctaphrax.

So in conclusion I have a lot of questions and no certain answers, and every image we find seems to come up with more questions and no answers.

Unfortunately, I don’t think there is an answer to your question Tnuy. I don’t think that the speeds of sky ships, sky craft, or phraxships are ever mentioned in the books in units of measurement that we know in the real world. Also, the maps that we could use to calculate the with have already proved to be inconsistent, and the amounts of time given for travel in the books are usually vague. “A few weeks” could mean quite a few different times. The only things we can really be sure of is that the Deepwoods is much larger than all the other regions of the Edge, and it is probably very large in comparison to real world areas as well. Your estimate might be right but we can’t be sure.