Here’s some Lore for you while I keep chugging along with the next script! Some day hopefully I’ll get to tell the story of Merial and Greg’s turnings!
Here’s some Lore for you while I keep chugging along with the next script! Some day hopefully I’ll get to tell the story of Merial and Greg’s turnings!
24 Comments
What does the medallion do for Sam Hain if he’s stuck as a Human? Does he keep it for less practical, more sentimental reasons?
I believe the implication is that he can’t get turned by other gryphon medallions. That’s what “stuck to his medallion” means if this is the case, no other would work. Makes sense, he hadn’t tried any other medallion already? Gryphon medallions shouldn’t be rare, there’s a whole family of them as the main cast, in fact, he could have just asked them to let him touch any, but he is still a human.
Reverse gryphon. Tge Finns wouldn’t be able to loan him a medallion (nor want to, probably, since if it worked it would be permanently bonded to Sam).
That said we don’t know if he didn’t go to Madam U and try other medallions before deciding his was broken. It does raise the question of WHY they think he might just be human, though. If the medallion bonded to him but failed to Turn him then obviously he’s a reverse gryphon and his medallions magic was just weak, else it wouldn’t have bonded at all.
And how would anyone know that the medallion has bonded to him if its presence does not actually do anything that cannot be explained by assuming him fully human … ?
I think the only way to tell if it’s bonded to him or not would be to try and see if it triggers someone else’s turning. Which, I can see why he wouldn’t want to try that since it would mean he should/has to give up his medallion, and also removes all possibility of hope of him turning
Wait, so does that mean that if you’re, say, falling to death and you’re a forgotten line of unturned gryphons, does that mean you could turn in the air so am attempt to save yourself could be made?
This gave me a horrible thought, because the answer probably depends on how “smart” the magic is. It wouldn’t let Merial turn just because she was swimming; she had to be drowning. So 1) imminent risk of death and 2) something turning would automagically fix.
So if an unturned gryphon jumps off something high enough to possibly hurt but not kill, presumably they wouldn’t turn. Does the magic know how high they are? Can it tell when they’ve hit terminal velocity? Would it work fast enough for them to react and start flying before they hit the ground? If they turned but couldn’t react in time, what are the odds someone in the know finds them before some random human? Am I overthinking this?
I know the answer to exactly one of these questions!
I’d like to point out that unturned Nemeans are said to be noticeably harder to injure than actual humans, so the medallions can “let some of the true form leak” in cases other than imminent mortal danger, too.
In Nemeans’ case it might be that their durability is just greater than what a masking spell can “fix”.
The spell in general is all kinds of amazing, but “only one can do thing” and the spell just goes “lol, hold my beer” is kinda bonks borken.
Imagine weaponizing something like that against these critters.
Maybe the spell reacts to adrenaline (or whatever brain juice when you are panicking).
So say, two unturned Nemean Lions. One are aware of the car currently slamming into them, another have headphone on and didn’t noticed. The first might have the spell broken due to rush of fear while the second one die or just injured, maybe the spell would break then to keep the lion alive?
There’s also Michael Jocasta, who died of brain aneurysm, something he could see it coming. Though that depends on if being a sphinx could have prevented him dying.
Idk, this is just speculating.
I think it’s the first time we’ve actually had confirmation that Sam’s medallion did bond to him, which it wouldn’t to do a regular human.Up to now it was always up in the air whether he had some actual reason to believe it was the medallion malfunctioning and not just wishful thinking his part.
I came down here thinking just the same thing! I was reading the comments to see if anyone else had commented on it, and was confused about the fact that none of the comments above this one had! Even when they were already talking about Sam’s medallion.
huh, i always assumed the “traumatic” part was about her turning with no idea what was happening or why, and no way to undo it.
…that was probably pretty traumatic as well, though, sooo… double trauma, yay!
Merial was drowning when she turned? Geezus…. But wait, if she got her medallion AFTER she turned… who’d she get it from? I’m smelling a story here!
I was just thinking the same thing! It’s not like she could just… go to the shops as a Nixie.
I’m guessing that she had a relative that knew of their family’s nixie connection, and who could arrange to have a medallion brought to her. Possibly said relative was a turned nixie themselves.
Or something else. All I think we knew before this was that her family kept her locked in the bathroom for weeks.
It could be that one of her parents started going around to all of the New-Agey shops, hoping that one of them was the real deal.
Parents might have found somebody to explain while they were looking for answers. I recall they brought her home and threw her in the bathtub while they tried to figure things out.
I’ve speculated before about an heirloom medallion being mixed in with “costume jewelry”. If it didn’t trigger her Turning, it could still provide her medallion /after/ her Turning. (And, of course , I could still be totally off the mark.)
So we FINALLY get a explanation for why Merial’s turning was weird.
Very reassuring to know that the disguise spells will stop inhibiting life-saving inherent traits of wearers in emergencies.
According to the folklore I’ve seen, nixies are found in fresh water and mermaids in seawater. Merial’s Turning apparently happened in San Francisco Bay, which is brackish at best, or at a nearby beach. Unless nixies are more anadramous than the legends credit, she likely experienced tissue dehydration that could leave her feeling as if she were hung over without having been drunk.
I mean it doesn’t happen particularly fast, most freshwater fish can survive saltwater for 6-12 hours. A couple minutes to swim back to shore probably wouldn’t do anything to her, especially given how much larger a human is compared to most freshwater fish.
I’m torn between being happy a question I asked got answered on a Reader Questions page and mortified that she copy/pasted my entire train-of-thought rambling paragraph of a question XDDDD