What is Flux anyway?

[chrisbecke]

The relationship between primal aspects and flux seems rather odd. Flux is represented as Vitium in the aura which is represented as a compound aspect which is made from potentia - itself made from ignis + ordo, and perdito.

Which implies that flux itself then is composed of ignis, ordo and perdito - why would there be no aqua, aer and terra components to flux/vitium then?

Surely vitium needs to be elevated to be a primal aspect - otherwise why are other compound aspects not appearing in the aura, or coalescing into crystals?

The relationship of ignis and perdito is also confusing as they seem to represent the same thermodynamic principal of entropy or heat. And Ordo then seems redundant is it represents the absence of (ignis / perdito / entropy / heat).

[Fortanono]

I had an interesting idea for an "Aural Centrifuge" that turned Vitium into Ordo, Ignis and Perditio as a mthod of cleaning it up, but it requires the three other primal aspects: Terra, Aqua and Aer.

And you have a good point about Ignis and Perditio. We should make Perditio represent chaos, maybe?

[chrisbecke]

So here is a proposal - combined with the proposal for the aura to be untyped, or white, vis, then "flux" can be reverted to its TC3 meaning - In TC3 the usable aura was untyped, but "flux" would build up in the aura, as specific aspects. These aspects would then, discharge, in specific ways.

So, a hybrid TC3 / TC5 system would

• have nodes produce "white" vis with no aspect.
• Magical devices would filter out the aspect they needed, and dump the unused aspects back into the aura as their specific primal aspects. (well, really magical devices would consume white vis, and produce flux pollution in the form of primal aspect vis - A furnace would produce Ignis typed flux for example)
• Vitium, as "the" aspect that represents flux, would be deprecated. There is no single physical manifestation of flux -The flux level of a chunk IS the combined total of the specific waste aspects.
• These waste aspects in the aura would then discharge in specific ways.
• A potential way to perform Flux management could be devices that could be fed aspects that are missing from the local aura, and would "mix" white vis, restoring the aura in the process.

[Fortanono]

That is actually a pretty cool idea, but it would involve big changes. Who cares though, I have proposed a lot of big changes (cough #8 cough) so I do kinda like it. Maybe the taint would be different depending on the aspects built up?

[carso150]

I also kind of miss all the thaumometer mechanics of tc4