Here's an odd question -- are lifeless ever walked up inside structures during construction? Like, you need someone to hold something in place while these things are constructed around it, and there's no way out afterward.
Do they get a little plaque? Are they just forgotten? Does someone come by and dispel undead at the ribbon cutting ceremony just to make sure?
Getting the most out of your back-woods priests means designing to make use of the dumbest possible lifeless (which you will have in greatest quantity).
One really dumb lifeless would be one that, unless a stop sign is in front of its face, drags a wagon from point A to point B and back, over and over, forever.
Combine with dumb stevedores, and one living person can run a hub of a transport network with vast potential throughout (if very poor speed).
Roads, for instance, could be built on a constant stream of new incoming materials.
The whole thing gets pretty scary when you design for lifeless to be force-multipliers expanding the capacity of a small number of living artisans. How fast can you build a road if (a) you never run short of materials, (b) pointing with your left hand will cause ground to be cleared and leveled, and (c) pointing with your right hand will cause a stone block to be placed?
I feel like the lifeless might be programmed to respond to (e.g.) special gloves ... so you can take the gloves off when you don't want to be building roads.
I immediately imagined a team of road building lifeless whose master met an unfortunate accident but the team kept working, building that plumline-straight road directly east-northeast, sending runners back to the city for more raw materials, building building building towards the horizon.
Lifeless don't need to breathe, but most fish are carnivores.
So aquaculture could be revolutionized, if you're just using skeletons.
Alternately, if lifeless require some flesh on the bones, you could grab a page from divers in the shark infested chunks of the amazon, and each had a garland of red hot peppers to drive predators off.
How technically adept is the Caliphate otherwise? Cause one of the biggest problems in, say, indoor plumbing is getting the water source under pressure, and that's trivial with Lifeless. But the extensive network of carefully-laid pipes (and the metallurgy required to make them) might be beyond them.
Josh Roby If Rome had it, I'm cool with the Caliphate having it. Hence the insulae at several floors. If Europe had it before, say, 1500 CE, I'm pretty cool with it.
as advisors (the Library of Whispers uses medium-librarians who allow themselves to be possessed by the spirits of past librarians, using automatic writing to produce documents on demand. Each city mayor carries a phalactory with at least one attached ancestor -- either of the may or the city -- who serves to consult)
As messengers and sentries (if the outer wall is breached, it's guardian phantoms flit to the head guard, the mayor, and the three nearest cities. Ghosts relay message through solid stone to the living overseers of mining operations, keeping them in sych with their supervisors above. Messenger Wights memorize greeting from loved ones and Cary them from city to city)
As punishments (for grievous crimes against the caliphate, you will be stripped of your priestly powers. Let the level drain commence!)
As anything a portrait would be used for in Harry Potter.
Notably, I don't think lifeless are cheap -- this isn't the excuse to do things by destroying large numbers of sub-sentient zombies. Lifeless are an infrastructure investment.
Here's an odd question -- are lifeless ever walked up inside structures during construction? Like, you need someone to hold something in place while these things are constructed around it, and there's no way out afterward.
ReplyDeleteDo they get a little plaque? Are they just forgotten? Does someone come by and dispel undead at the ribbon cutting ceremony just to make sure?
Getting the most out of your back-woods priests means designing to make use of the dumbest possible lifeless (which you will have in greatest quantity).
ReplyDeleteOne really dumb lifeless would be one that, unless a stop sign is in front of its face, drags a wagon from point A to point B and back, over and over, forever.
Combine with dumb stevedores, and one living person can run a hub of a transport network with vast potential throughout (if very poor speed).
Roads, for instance, could be built on a constant stream of new incoming materials.
The whole thing gets pretty scary when you design for lifeless to be force-multipliers expanding the capacity of a small number of living artisans. How fast can you build a road if (a) you never run short of materials, (b) pointing with your left hand will cause ground to be cleared and leveled, and (c) pointing with your right hand will cause a stone block to be placed?
I feel like the lifeless might be programmed to respond to (e.g.) special gloves ... so you can take the gloves off when you don't want to be building roads.
I immediately imagined a team of road building lifeless whose master met an unfortunate accident but the team kept working, building that plumline-straight road directly east-northeast, sending runners back to the city for more raw materials, building building building towards the horizon.
ReplyDeleteHell, get enough lifeless together in a building-sized box and allow them to signal each other in preprogrammed ways, and you've got computing power.
ReplyDeleteAnd this is why, if I ever put all this into the same spot, you all have to be co-writers.
ReplyDeleteBecause of course there are roads that span to the horizon, rivers pushed a foot a year for decades, quarries dug forever.
Buildings with lifeless as keystones, pushing up up up until they falter and the building settles.
shudder.
William Nichols: I never got the impression that lifeless would be smart enough to stop building the building higher, just because it has fallen down.
ReplyDeleteLifeless don't need to breathe, but most fish are carnivores.
ReplyDeleteSo aquaculture could be revolutionized, if you're just using skeletons.
Alternately, if lifeless require some flesh on the bones, you could grab a page from divers in the shark infested chunks of the amazon, and each had a garland of red hot peppers to drive predators off.
How technically adept is the Caliphate otherwise? Cause one of the biggest problems in, say, indoor plumbing is getting the water source under pressure, and that's trivial with Lifeless. But the extensive network of carefully-laid pipes (and the metallurgy required to make them) might be beyond them.
ReplyDeleteJosh Roby If Rome had it, I'm cool with the Caliphate having it. Hence the insulae at several floors. If Europe had it before, say, 1500 CE, I'm pretty cool with it.
ReplyDeleteWhatcha got in mind, and when did we invent it?
Jesse Cox I adore the idea of Lifeless with hot peppers embedded in their flesh. Because why just put it on them when you can put it inside them?
ReplyDeleteLifeless marinating urns.
ReplyDeleteOh man anything that just needs to turn over regularly.
ReplyDeleteCompost.
Cooking spits.
Dye racks.
There's been a strong focus on the labor use of lifeless, and fairly little on the use of ghosts.
ReplyDeleteJesse Cox What use do you put intelligent non corporeal entities?
ReplyDelete[ As an aside, you're right this is kinda cyberpunk. ]
Well, the most obvious uses are
ReplyDeleteas advisors (the Library of Whispers uses medium-librarians who allow themselves to be possessed by the spirits of past librarians, using automatic writing to produce documents on demand. Each city mayor carries a phalactory with at least one attached ancestor -- either of the may or the city -- who serves to consult)
As messengers and sentries (if the outer wall is breached, it's guardian phantoms flit to the head guard, the mayor, and the three nearest cities. Ghosts relay message through solid stone to the living overseers of mining operations, keeping them in sych with their supervisors above. Messenger Wights memorize greeting from loved ones and Cary them from city to city)
As punishments (for grievous crimes against the caliphate, you will be stripped of your priestly powers. Let the level drain commence!)
As anything a portrait would be used for in Harry Potter.
Notably, I don't think lifeless are cheap -- this isn't the excuse to do things by destroying large numbers of sub-sentient zombies. Lifeless are an infrastructure investment.
ReplyDeleteOoh! Ooh! Ooh!
ReplyDeleteProfessionals and high-rank individuals make their lives easier by carrying a PDA -- Personal Dead Assistant.
Jesse Cox And don't forget The Prophet and the Ancients reside as skulls in the Hall of the Faithful.
ReplyDelete