M – Mega-Evolutions

A high level of nostalgia means that this year my chosen theme for the 2016 A to Z challenge is Pokemon. Whether you yourself have a similar level of sentimentality or you’ve never really gotten into it, I hope that you enjoy this month of posts as I indulge myself.

Mega evolution is a bit different from evolution which we covered earlier in the month. Whereas evolution is a permanent change of the physical form and stats of a Pokemon, Mega-Evolution is a temporary change, affecting both form and stats (apart from HP), which will last for a battle, or contest if you’re a Contestant Trainer rather than a Champion Trainer.

It occurs when the trainer has obtained an item called a Key Stone, often seen in the game as a fetching bracelet or other piece of wearable jewellery (rings, necklaces, a tiara, even a pair of glasses for one trainer!) and the corresponding Pokemon that you want to mega evolve has it’s appropriate Mega Stone. So for instance Gardevoir needs to be holding Gardevoirite, and I as the trainer need to have obtained the Key Stone. In battle, I can then choose to Mega Transform as a free action, and then attack with a move. Transforming always happens before a move, so you get the effect of the boosted statistics. Mega-Evolved Pokemon are simply identified by adding “Mega” in front of their name, so Gardevoir becomes Mega-Gardevoir. After the battle, or if they faint, then they revert back to their normal form.

 

It’s a relative new event in the Pokemon world, and has only be in the X/Y & Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire games so far, although I fully expect that it will be in Sun/Moon as well. So far there are 46 Pokemon that are capable of Mega Evolution, and 48 different Mega Evolutions (Charizard & Mewtwo have two different forms depending on whether you’re playing X or Y).

In X/Y, The Tower of Mastery plays a critical role in understanding the concept of Mega Evolution. You go there and you learn about Mega Evolution for the first time from an old man called Gurkinn, which is the grandfather of the city’s Gym Leader Korrina. After you win the rival fight there, you go fight the Gym Leader, and you can then use Mega Evolution when she gives you the Key Stone and challenges you to a Mega Battle. They say that Lucario was the first Pokemon known to Mega Evolve, however in Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire, you learn a legend about how Rayquaza was the first Pokemon to Mega Evolve. This might make more sense, especially after you learn that Rayquaza does not need a Mega Stone to Mega Evolve, instead it onlys needs to know a certain move called Dragon Ascent.

As you can imagine, Mega-Evolution is a big power boost in fights, and yes, the trainers you fight can use it as well. Although it tends to be only big NPCs, like Gym Leaders, rivals, bosses of Villainous teams, The current champion, ect. As I have mentioned, Gardevoir can Mega-Evolve, and thus usually has a place on my team. There are quite a few others that do, but the others I use are Lucario and Altaria. Mostly Gardevoir though, because I do play favourite Pokemon.

 

Pokemon of the Day

M is for Mew

A legendary Pokemon that is said to be the origin of life, Mew is a member of the Mew Duo, along with Mewtwo which was created from it, and is the last Pokemon in the Kanto Pokedex. It is a pink, pipedal Pokemon with mammalian features, although rather than walking it uses it’s considerable psychic ability to fly from place to place. It has large hind legs, short front arms, and a long thin tail and is covered in exceedingly fine fur. It is thought to be intelligent, curious and playful, although considering it can make itself invisible at will, it is often thought to be a Mythical Pokemon, since so few have seen it. It is also known for apparently containing the DNA of every other Pokemon, which leads to it’s ability to know any Pokemon move that exists.

I’ve loved Mew ever since the first Pokemon movie where is appears. Obstensibly the movie is about Mewtwo, but since it’s an origin story, you can’t have Mewtwo without Mew, and you get to see this playful, but utterly powerful Pokemon playing around and giggling on top of a wind turbine. Also it’s exceptionally cute, who wouldn’t like that? And, you know, totally powerful psychic Pokemon.

 

 

 

M – Magic

A little magic can take you a long way.

~ Roald Dahl

 What do I love about fantasy the most? That it is only limited by my imagination, and my imagination really, really likes magic. There’s just something about, something about magic. It can be whatever you want, do whatever you want, shape it however you want to shape it, break the laws of the universe, feck around with physics, tap into unknown parts of the mind, whatever you want it to do, as long as you can think of a way of doing it, can be done.

Pretty much every book that I write has magic, and all of them have different systems. Because why limit myself? Different worlds, different series, will have different methods.

Look at Harry Potter. That’s one of the more classical version of magic, with robes, wands, latin-esque spells, and a whole school, ministry and secret society of wizards. You have to be chosen, and then you study how magic works, and gradually build up your knowledge of magic, until your graduate from the school.

Over to Discworld and you again have the school and the learning of magic at the Unseen University, but the wizards here are more haphazard. Oh they have wizards sticks (always with a knob on the end) and robes, but they don’t really understand how magic works, they just make it happen by telling reality what they want it to do, but don’t tell anyone it’s actually that easy.

Think about more systems where you have to study it. In Eragon magic was entirely linked to the ancient language of power. You needed to know the word in order to use magic of that variety, so learning more about the language, and practising was how he grew in magic.

Quite often the ones where you can to learn how to use magic involved a new languages, words, or phrases that you have to learn in order to master magic. Spells from spellbooks are common, Harry Potter uses words and wand movements. Anything with a concept of a true name is using words that are intrinsically linked to the soul of a person to cast magic over them.

Then you have the opposite to learning – people who are born with magic as an innate talents. They don’t need to study, but they often need to practise and learn about their power, often without the help of a teacher, because in these systems there isn’t a structure like a school where they can go. Think of telepaths, mediums, pyrokinetics, and a good portion of the X Men, who were born as ‘mutants’ fall into this category.

A fun one that I am playing around with at the moment is Magic which comes to the character by bestowment. Make a deal with the devil for power? You get it, but it comes from the devil. Or spirits, of whatever you made the pact with. flipping this around, it also applies to summoners and controller, people who can tame spirits, demons or other creatures to their will, but then use their powers to accomplish their goals. An example that comes to mind is Lucy, from the anime Fairy Tale. She uses keys to summon spirits from the celestial realm, and they then act on her behalf.

Excalibur, Seven League Boots, The One Ring. Got an idea for the next category? That’s right, magical items. Since the power is held in the item, anyone can pick it up and use it’s magic, and people often fight over the more powerful objects, but at some point these items were made, and whether by gods or enchanted they have the power that continues to the day of the story. Quite often these will be central plot points. Personally I like the ones that are sentient, and talk back to their ‘owners’.

Related to items are places. Nexus, leylines, ritual sites, like items they are areas of the land which hold innate magical power, which can either be harnessed to enhance magic that already exists, or used to cast magic where no other exists.

Going away from how you come to possess the magic, think about types of magic. I’m fond of elemental magic, controlled fire, earth, wind, water, lighting, and all the rest of it. I’ve got one book with a daughter of chaos, whose magic isn’t really understood by the rest of the magic community, because that’s not how they do things, which makes it interesting.

But of course there are more than that. Think back to the school of magic. Harry Potter has classes in charms, transfiguration, and defence against the dark arts. Archmage, my novel, has evocation, transmutation, divination, illusion, and other schools of magic that the mages use.

The classical fights between white magic and dark magic often have two completely different sets of spells, even though the system of magic doesn’t change.

Black Dawn, a book I am finally revisiting after three years had Angels and Demons that have bred with humans, creating Nephilim and Cambions. Magic associated with races is fun, since you get to play around with archetypes and decide which bits to keep, which bits to throw away, and which to change to suit my whims as an author.

Mechanica Awakening works with spirits and lots of innate abilities, and the system for all of them is the same, even if the powers vary by a mile.

In Eidetic magic has died out from the world, and all that is left are the things that the old race left behind, namely labyrinths (technically mazes because they are dead ends and turns and stuff, but everyone calls them labyrinths in the books because they are a little uneducated) filled with traps, magical creatures, and lots of magical items, which people of course try to plunder the labyrinths for, but usually end up dead or gravely injured. It’s a new one for me, and it does mean I have to come up with huge list of items and what they do, but fitting them into the plot and things they can do is fun.

Other novels I have planned include shapeshifters (innate), casting magic (with wands and magic circles) and elemental controls.

The only rules about magic are the ones you make up about it. And there generally are rules about them, because magic without constraint wins everything and then there’s no conflict, and that’s a bit boring. But those rules are up to the user. Do they need words? Wands? Gestures? Do they need none of that but only have a daily supply? Are there just some things that magic can’t do? For example in archmage, magic can do a lot, but it cannot affect living things. There’s a plot reason for that, which I shan’t spoil, but there’s no healing magic, no manipulating people’s minds, no shapeshifting, because magic doesn’t work on the living.

What magic systems do you have in your novels? I really would love to hear about them.

M – Myths

I know that I’m a bit late! I’ve been playing in london with my mum, having such a good day at the British Museum and just catching up and things. But I’m digressing. Today in the A to Z of dragons, we’ll be talking about Myths.

Of course there are lots of dragon myths out there, so I’m just going to give you a couple of my favourites.

We’ve already talked about one Myth, that of Saint George and the Dragon. Check out my F post for details on this particular myth, as I go into great detail about it there.

Beowulf and the Firedrake: Dragons are renowned for knowing every inch of their hoard, so when a Firedrake awoke one day, and found some of his treasure missing, the smell and human and the human footprints immediately told him what had become of his precious treasure. Enraged, the Firedrake began terrorizing the countryside to punish the human for their trespass. Envoys were sent to kind Beowulf to slay the fierce beast, and he agreed to come and slay the beast. A terrible battler was fought between King and Firedrake, with sword, shield, tooth, claws and flaming breath. In the midst of the battle, Beowulf’s famed sword, Naegling, broke, and the King was bitten by the Firedrake. with the help of Wiglaf, a relative of his, he managed to slay the dragon in the end, but the bite had done the damage and Beowulf died soon after.

Jormungander, the Midgard Serpent: The giant sea dragon, spawn of the god Loki and the size of worlds, was thrown into ocean by Odin, where she wrapped herself around the world and bit her own tail, where she would stay until Ragnarok, the end of days. Twice she met with the head of the Norse gods. First, in the guise of a cat, which the King of the Giants challenged Thor to lift, and he could not. Second, was when Thor had gone fishing in the ocean, and Jormungander let loose her tail and bit his bait instead. The two struggled for an age, but the great dragon tired before Thor, but just as he was about to perform the deathblow, his friend who had come fishing with him, cut the line and she slipped back into the sea. Thier third and final encounter came on the day of Ragnarok, where Thor armed himself with his mighty hammer Miolnir and the two fought and fought in an epic battle. Finally, Thor landed a blow on the dragon’s head that could be heard around the world, but he could not celebrate his victory. As she lay dying, Jormungander breathed her deadly breath all over him, poisoning him so badly that in his weakened state he could not resist death, and toppled alongside the dragon.

The Dragon Pearl: Long ago, a poor boy lived with his mother along the banks of the river Min. They did what they could to survive, but the summer was long and harsh, and everything had dried up with the lack of rain. The boy went up the river to try and find food for the cattle, and was delighted when he found sweet green grass to bring back home. Again and again he went to that patch of green grass, until one day he dug up a pearl. Ecstatic, he took the prize home to his mother, and they stored it in the rice jar for safekeeping. They considered selling it for the money, until the next morning they went to fetch the pearl and found the rice jar overflowing with rice. So they put the pearl in the money jar, and the next day, the money jar was overflowing with coins. though they told no one about the pearl, it was obvious that they had come into some money, so robber tried to steal some of the wealth that they thought was hidden there. In order to protect the pearl, the boy swallowed it, and his insides started to burn, as if he had swalled acid instead of a cool pearl. He guzzled down water to try and quench the fire, but it did not help, so he ran to the river to get to the water there. As he reached the water, his body changed. He became longer and larger and scaled erupted over his body. His face elongated into a whiskered muzzle with horns on top of his head and wings from his back – the boy had turned into a dragon! As the new dragon dove into the river that was to be his new home, the heavens opened and the rain started to pour, ending the drought.

So there are three Dragon Myths for you. I could do more, but I want to post this on the actual M day, and I only have eight minutes left!

Halfway through the challenge! How are you doing? I am having so much fun, I love all my readers and want to thank everyone who has commented/followed me. I have doubled my followers through this challenge and I am loving it!