Mmmm...Libris Mortis.

[mythusmage]

Evening Glory is a pretty interesting deity. She's the deity of eternal love, basically, believing that "desire and the desire for the love of another should never fall throug the depredations of age." She's the patron of those who seek undeath to keep love eternal, those whose love transcends life itself.

Most of her worshippers are undead or become undead soon after taking up worship of her.

So in effect they're pledging their undying love.

 

[Arnwyn]

Meh.

Guess I'm a dissenter, here, and not one of the "rah rah LM is so great" people. 'Cause it's not.

This book fits the "mediocre" label, for me. It isn't even close to Draconomicon, and (IMO) if this is the way the monster books are going to go after Draconomicon, then the future doesn't bode well for the Aberrations book.

A few spotty mechanics (as discussed earlier in this thread) and a lack of decent information re: undead and their consequences that has been often brought up in discussions (at ENWorld at least) drags this book down. I was especially disappointed that I didn't find any discussion as to why animating mindless undead (e.g. zombies and skeletons) is considered an "evil" spell with the [Evil] descriptor. What's the difference between that and constructs? The negative energy? If so, then why, for pete's sake? Tell me.

And the "Necropolitan" is the dumbest ass monster I've seen in a long time. What's next? The Necrosexual? "Necrophilia in the City"? Whatever.

I'll get some use out of this book, to be sure - but it's no Draconomicon. Not even close.

 

[Klaus]

Anyone know the size of these critters:
Angel of Decay
Atropal Scion
Blaspheme
Bleakborn
Blood Amniote
Blood Mote Cloud
Bone Rat Swarm
Boneyard
Brain in a Jar
Carcass Eater
Cinderspawn
Corpse Rat Swarm
Crypt Chanter
Deathlock
Dessicator
Dire Maggot
Dream Vestige
Entomber
Entropic Reaver
Evolved Undead
Forsaken Shell
Grave Dirt Golem
Hulking Corpse
Murk
Necromental
Necropolitan
Plague Blight
Quell
Raiment
Skin Kite
Skirr
Skulking Cyst
Slaughter Wight
Slaymate
Spectral Lyrist
Swarm-Shifter
Tomb Mote
Visage
Voidwraith
Wheep

 

[Incenjucar]

If a single atom is moving at all, it has heat. Other particles are only involved if you want to transfer that heat.

Ah. Good point. Drat.

 

[Zoatebix]

Very very very Off Topic

And then, you can crank up the temperature even higher, and get nucleus to break as well, and finally to dissolve everything into quarks.

... and Gluons. Yay Quark-Gluon plasma! Does anyone have a link to any news from the RIHCS (I think that's the acronymns) particle accelerator? I think they were planning to mash gold nuclei into each other at relativistic velocities to study quark-gluon plasma, but I never heard about the results of the experiements...

I'm banking on there being physics students or professionals reading this thread so I don't have to mess around with google trying to find an answer...
-George

 

[Henry]

Does anyone have a link to any news from the RIHCS (I think that's the acronymns) particle accelerator? I think they were planning to mash gold nuclei into each other at relativistic velocities to study quark-gluon plasma, but I never heard about the results of the experiements...

Yeah, in fact I heard they were trying it right nowFFFFFZZZAPPPPP!

(universe dissolves into sub-atomic particles...)



Actually, all the articles I can find are dated from experiments carried out in the first half of 2003.

 

[Samurai]

Anyone know the size of these critters:
Angel of Decay L
Atropal Scion M
Blaspheme M
Bleakborn M
Blood Amniote H
Blood Mote Cloud F
Bone Rat Swarm T
Boneyard H
Brain in a Jar T
Carcass Eater S
Cinderspawn L
Corpse Rat Swarm T
Crypt Chanter M
Deathlock M
Dessicator S
Dire Maggot S
Dream Vestige H
Entomber M
Entropic Reaver M
Evolved Undead TEMPLATE
Forsaken Shell M
Grave Dirt Golem L
Hulking Corpse L
Murk M
Necromental TEMPLATE
Necropolitan TEMPLATE
Plague Blight M
Quell M
Raiment S
Skin Kite S
Skirr H
Skulking Cyst S
Slaughter Wight M
Slaymate S
Spectral Lyrist M
Swarm-Shifter TEMPLATE
Tomb Mote T
Visage M
Voidwraith M
Wheep M

See above, T = tiny, S = small, etc.

 

[Klaus]

And my new best friend is Samurai!

Thanks!

 

[PeterDonis]

<snipped references>

The above doesn't mention the movement of quarks and electrons (other than electrons being in their lowest ground state) ... so those subatomic particles are still moving in some way (for example, even in their lowest energy state, electrons are still moving at the speed of light), thus, energy. Theoretically, you could extract that energy (though in the real world we don't know how to do that) and thus make that material "colder," even if it's at absolute zero, but not in a sense meaningful to the use of the word "temperature."

OK, now I see where you were coming from. My degree is in Nuclear Engineering, so I spent a lot more time looking at subatomic particles than at whole atoms and molecules; that's probably why I came at this from a different slant. Here's how I would interpret the references you cited:

The references didn't mention the motions of subatomic particles because in almost all real-world cases they're not relevant--since, as you point out, we don't know any way of extracting whatever "extra" energy is still in them. However, if there is any way of extracting such energy from *any* particles in the system, whether it's nucleons in the nucleus or electrons orbiting the nucleus (I don't think they're moving at the speed of light in their lowest energy state to begin with--photons, yes, electrons no--but in any case if they're in their lowest energy state within the atom then by definition you can't extract any more energy from them), then the system isn't truly at absolute zero. The definition of absolute zero is that *no* further energy can be extracted at all, from any part of the system, by any process whatever.

If we don't yet know of a process to extract more energy from some system, we may *think* it's at absolute zero; but if we discover such a process in the future, that doesn't show that we can now cool something below absolute zero; it just shows we were wrong in thinking the system was at absolute zero before.

Edit: The following article in the Usenet Physics FAQ goes into more detail about the viewpoint I'm taking here; it gives a more general definition of temperature than "average kinetic energy of particles", which is the one you used, and explains how negative temperatures work.

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/ParticleAndNuclear/neg_temperature.html

P. S.: Saw the press release for your new gaming company. Good luck! I look forward to taking a look at your products; if they're anything like the stuff already on your website I'll probably be a customer.

 

[Knight Otu]

I was especially disappointed that I didn't find any discussion as to why animating mindless undead (e.g. zombies and skeletons) is considered an "evil" spell with the [Evil] descriptor. What's the difference between that and constructs? The negative energy? If so, then why, for pete's sake? Tell me.

In my opinion, casting a negative energy spell would be similar to sticking a needle into someone's skin and flesh. For spells like harm and the inflict, the needle goes in, and is removed again. Animating undead, the needle not only remains, but is hard to remove (and possibly infected). Effectively, you're creating a semi-permanent font of negative energy, antithesis to life, allowing it to seep into a plane filled with life, slowly eroding the natural order.
It's not the negative energy/needle alone. Placement and duration may augment or reduce the damage done.
Doesn't work for everyone, but it works for me.