Lightning: Of course I can’t s-say his name, b-but I’m sure you can find him . . . He teaches Near Eastern history and archaeology. At the university in Heidelberg.
He consults with museums, too . . . if you call the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, I bet they can put you in contact . . . And he’s written books! I helped! I fact-check and remember things about that time period. As much as I can. I’m very important to him!
Just be careful . . . Don’t let the Leopard or its Master know you’re trying to help me. And they had help! Don’t trust the —
Argh! Okay, someone please try and help me understand this whole name thing? Because as much as I’m a fan of the Dresden Files, I still don’t get this sympathetic name crap.
Knowing someone’s true name gives you magical power over them is a standard troupe for magic. See Rumpelstiltskin. Some cultures wouldn’t even give a true name to a child until christening or adulthood rites to keep them safe from magical creatures and evil magic users.
If the theory that Being’s nature was altered into this form is true, it doesn’t surprise me that the ability to say a Master’s true name was stripped from them. The whole point of the hack was so Beings had no powers over humans.
But if this being magic, as you said, is affected by names, why can’t other humans use it on each other? Clearly Miranda and Cohen know this magic, so couldn’t they use this on other people?
Yes, but only if they know how, and so far, all magic has been either Being, or Being-user specific, and that’s mainly come from recent research, as far as I can tell. That may be another part of the research either group is looking into, but, that hasn’t been shown yet.
Ahhhhh, very interesting! I can see why Walker would target this fella for abduction – experimenting on him and incapacitating his Master’s research would be killing two birds with one stone.
I have to say… with the name “Lightning” and his young, vaguely punk-esque trendy look (sleeveless vest with a ruff, feathered hair, what looks like facepaint – I know it’s partly just vulture motifs but I feel like I should see this dude at a music festival), I wouldn’t expect his master to be a graybeard professor. Well, academia does host some radicals, and maybe Lightning’s changed his look for some reason.
Can’t rule out that that’s meant to be the Dog, but we’ve never seen Patrick look like that. I think it’s supposed to be the Wolf. I remember Anne or Karen name-dropped the Wolf a while back when talking about arranging battles. I figured at the time it was just to keep from referencing the main characters too often, as a reminder that we haven’t seen most Beings yet. Hmmmm, maybe I was wrong.
I wonder what the heck Blake and Walker are going to say to stop Jany. Will they try to get her on their side, try to convince her not to help Lightning, or just sabotage anything she might do to help?
oh haha I just checked the character tags – so it’s definitely the Wolf. Also – holy crap, I thought about saying “The German professor with the big white beard reminds me of Kohler from He Says He’s An Experimental Theologian” but I worried it would be obnoxious to go off topic BUT IT TOTALLY IS, IT’S LITERALLY DR. KOHLER. Dying.
Nicely spotted! And yeah, no point going to all the trouble of making up new OCs when you have a bunch of existing ones just sitting around not appearing in this universe =)
Wait, what’s that? ><
Kohler is one of my favorite characters in Experimental Theologian, so this pleases me. (Of course, that’s assuming that Lightning is being truthful.)
So, it’s not the Tiger, but the Leopard?
I think “big cat that’s not a lion” thing would include a leopard so Leopard and Tiger might be the same being.
This is a heartbreaking storyline, but I was just completely diverted from this when I realized the bearded vulture doesn’t have a beard.
:(
I was about to say ‘A professor from Heidelberg? Is this Köhler from RoHCR or something?’ and then I checked the tags. Well played. (Not complaining – he’s a great character in both universes! Hopefully we’ll see more of him.)