PlaneShift

Gameplay => General Discussion => Topic started by: Illysia on October 22, 2014, 05:58:48 am

Title: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Illysia on October 22, 2014, 05:58:48 am: We now know that gems and precious metals are effectively sweets to Kran but what of enchanted gems? What do they taste like? What effect does it have on the eater? Do kran start glowing or get magical sparkles?
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Volki on October 22, 2014, 06:13:33 am: (http://i.imgur.com/mQmEb.gif)
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Illysia on October 22, 2014, 06:19:12 am: That's one option. Might make for a reason to come to Gug too.
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Rigwyn on October 22, 2014, 06:35:56 am: Enchanted gems taste like Skittles.
Skittles make you fat, stupid and unworthy of sparkles.
Any questions?
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Illysia on October 22, 2014, 06:44:02 am: Skittles do not make you stupid. :p However gems are bad for kran health if they are the only thing eaten.
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: lilura on October 22, 2014, 07:01:43 am: I think I asked once and was told that I would explode ...

(he coulda been joking though)
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Illysia on October 22, 2014, 07:40:50 am: *pokes a settings dev*

Hey... we need answers. Inquiring minds need to know. :D
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Rigwyn on October 22, 2014, 08:43:40 am: Enchanted gems taste like Skittles.
There you go. Your subjective experience has been determined for you.
Kindly role play accordingly or risk being booted and shamed on the forums. ;D
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Candy on October 22, 2014, 09:16:26 am: Actually, if the enchantment is Red Way, they taste more like Hot Tamales.
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Illysia on October 22, 2014, 09:18:29 am: And what's blue way? junior mints? ;D

Quote from: Rigwyn on October 22, 2014, 08:43:40 am
Your subjective experience has been determined for you.
Kindly role play accordingly or risk being booted and shamed on the forums. ;D

What if you don't like skittles? :P
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Rigwyn on October 22, 2014, 10:15:22 am: That's what the BIG feeding tube is for. :@#\ :devil:
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: MishkaL1138 on October 22, 2014, 03:42:15 pm: Well... Science mode: ON

You know how gems are essentially crystalline structures of different minerals and compounds. Based on this, and how those minerals are present in the structure and flavor of actual food (iron, for example, zinc, calcium...), and medicines or other substances that we ingest, willing or accidentally, we can have a slight idea of how do gems and enchanted gems taste like. There are other factors that we can take into account, such as: crystallization, hardness, malleability, ductillity...

Let's take the example of iron: iron is present in our blood. Have you ever cut your finger, and instinctively sucked on it to try and close the wound? That metallic taste would be the iron present in your blood cells, or rather the ferrous oxide that transports the oxygen from your lungs to the rest of your body. So, Kran meals with predomination of iron elements would taste, well, like iron. What an iron-y.

Copper, and concretely cuprous oxide, a green patina created on the surface of copper and bronze objects, can be rather dangerous and poisonous. It's hard to tell how it could taste. However, it's demonstrated that soils with cuprous cummulations do feel crumblier than others, as happens with calcium (I think, correct me if I'm wrong). It would be like dry cookie dough, with an earthy taste to it, for Kran.

Any acid would feel (actually "taste") acid. But if you were to chug on a bottle of sulfuric or sulfhidric acid, you'd probably melt away your tongue, pharynge, esophagus... Basically, you'd die. But for a Kran it wouldn't be more uncomfortable than chewing on a lemon. Nitric salts, and other salts, would taste... salty. Surely, one of those salts could melt your stomach, but they'd still be salt. There's a difference between mineral and organic salts: when a mineral acid reacts with a mineral base, it will form a strong salt (like niter, sodium chloride); and when an organic acid reacts with an organic base, it will create a mild salt (tartaric salts, present in wine).

Kran are silicon-based organisms, so they are designed to eat these kind of things, and carbon-based dishes will have no effect on them, since they don't have a way to process it, because they don't need it. Coal-based dishes would taste like wood, or graphite, to them. If you've ever chewed on a small branch (like with natural liquorice root), you'd know, after the main flavor has faded, how wood tastes. Even a popsicle stick can help you. A pencil lead could be useful as well. Zinc is also present in Kran gastronomy. As Nolthrir eat seafood and fish, so can Kran. Only they eat it straight from the source. Zinc would be the seafood of the Kran, even being as soft (in terms of kran strength) as seafood is for us.

Let's move on to gems. Most, if not all of them, would feel crumbly, hard, crunchy, and salty. They are crystallized minerals and oxides, and their taste would be based on what elements do they have in them. Currently we have the following minerals: Diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, opals, amethysts, amber (albeit amber being from organic procedence, it's considered a gem in terms of jewelry), turquoise, and onyx, and I think I didn't forget any. Some of them you can't find easily, if it isn't through a quest, but the first four (diamond, ruby, emerald, sapphire) are the ones that are used in Kran cuisine.

Questionability of crumbling diamond to powder in a mortar aside, diamond is a carbon-based gem. If you've ever chewed on a pencil, and got to the lead, you'd know how it could taste: diamond is simply graphite, with a layered structure reorganisated into crystals, by means of pressure and temperature. The red color in rubies is due to the presence of aluminium (lumium) and cromium in them. Go chew on tin foil: that's what a ruby would taste like, maybe have a slight hint of iron oxide. Sapphires, being from the same family, would taste the same. Emeralds are a silicate: they'd have a sandy, earthy taste to them, as well as a hint of ruby or sapphire (since they also have aluminium-lumium in them).

As for the precious metals, you know, gold, platinum, silver, yadda yadda... It's hard to know what does gold taste like, even though some people who have eaten gold foil -those lucky patrons of the high-end restaurants where the Hollywood jet-set goes- claim it doesn't taste like anything special. They possibly have the best taste of all for Kran, though, given how scarce and rarely found they (supposedly) are.

I'm surely leaving out some other elements, but I think you get the idea clear. Investigate on your own! It's the best way to learn about the world surrounding you.
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: tman on October 22, 2014, 04:56:14 pm: Quote from: MishkaL1138 on October 22, 2014, 03:42:15 pm
Questionability of crumbling diamond to powder in a mortar aside...

Actually diamonds, while the hardest material ever encountered, are very brittle. Much like glass, you could shatter one with a relatively light hit of a hammer. The damage it would do to your mortar and pestle, however...

With regards to the rest of the conversation, perception of taste is governed entirely by the nervous system. If we assume the Kran sensory neurons and taste centers of the brain are similar to real life humans, then Mishka's answers all make sense. But there are literally infinite other possibilities.
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: BoevenF on October 22, 2014, 05:03:51 pm: Quote from: MishkaL1138 on October 22, 2014, 03:42:15 pm
As for the precious metals, you know, gold, platinum, silver, [...] They possibly have the best taste of all for Kran, though, given how scarce and rarely found they (supposedly) are.

So I could infer that Northern white rhinoceros (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_white_rhinoceros) meat taste like heaven. ;D
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: MishkaL1138 on October 22, 2014, 05:23:14 pm: Quote from: BoevenF on October 22, 2014, 05:03:51 pm
Quote from: MishkaL1138 on October 22, 2014, 03:42:15 pm
As for the precious metals, you know, gold, platinum, silver, [...] They possibly have the best taste of all for Kran, though, given how scarce and rarely found they (supposedly) are.

So I could infer that Northern white rhinoceros (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_white_rhinoceros) meat taste like heaven. ;D

You'd be surprised. The most strange meats can have the most gentle of flavors. Like Klyros meat...
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: bilbous on October 22, 2014, 05:45:56 pm: You are assuming that kran even have taste buds, or that the silicon based taste buds they might have would react similarly to the carbon based ones people have. This is a topic that can only be decided arbitrarily.
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: MishkaL1138 on October 22, 2014, 05:50:12 pm: Quote from: bilbous on October 22, 2014, 05:45:56 pm
You are assuming that kran even have taste buds, or that the silicon based taste buds they might have would react similarly to the carbon based ones people have. This is a topic that can only be decided arbitrarily.

"Kran are sad individuals that have gastronomy only to emulate their cohabitants, and because they look so stupid sitting on the ground eating sand"

Would you rather I had said that?
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: LigH on October 22, 2014, 07:16:08 pm: Quote from: MishkaL1138 on October 22, 2014, 05:23:14 pm
You'd be surprised. The most strange meats can have the most gentle of flavors. Like Klyros meat...

Oh, funny, that reminds me on my first selfmade PlaneShift joke (http://www.hydlaaplaza.com/smf/index.php?topic=22602.msg248279#msg248279) ... :whistling:

P.S.: Sorry for the bad grammar, I was still a newcomer in these days.
__

I believe it is fair to assume that most kinds of lifeforms have basic abilities to detect and avoid threats to their health and life; if not, according to Darwin, they would probably go extinct. Successful evolution is a matter of telling apart hostile and hospitable environments. Taste is one possible indicator for further developed lifeforms to detect nutrious or poisonous food.
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Illysia on October 22, 2014, 08:55:51 pm: Well, that was interesting.

One, Kran have taste something or another because the books say they can taste. On the Silicon based thing, I think that it is becoming an increasingly less important aspect as kran settings are developed. The silicon thing is older than the settings for kran composition though. As to their taste being like humans, well... that might be a rather large stretch considering that Kran really aren't like the other races. But until the settings team makes a stand it is all open.

However, the official settings books in the Stonehead, *Nudge* Have the information on Kran diet and physiology. So they can derive nutrition from coal but not from other people foods presumably due to low concentrations of needed minerals. And magical gems would probably have effects on their health, like medicines have on ours. After all, Kran still have a residual amount of the magic Talad used to create them. So maybe like medicine they can be used to treat non stand kran ailments by balancing the magic in them. Hmm... Care to treat the humors anyone?
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Rigwyn on October 22, 2014, 11:03:56 pm: Regardless of chemistry and physiology, the kran's interpretation of the crystal's taste would add another layer to this. Further, it is difficult to describe things like taste and smell to someone without refering to a familiar experience. Since there is little familiar experience between a kran and ylian or enki, describing taste poses an interesting challenge.

It reminds me of the basic question, "does the blue that you see like like the blue that I see?" The perception of the tasting experience, and the words used to try to describe that experience

You can tell a kran that your wine tastes nutty, but if kra has no expereince of a nutty taste, the the description means little.

I think you are onto something, Illysia, though I still argue that magic gems taste like skittles and that Skittles make you fat and stupid. :p
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Illysia on October 22, 2014, 11:55:39 pm: They do not make you stupid! :P

However, taste has been somewhat tackled in regards to precious metals and crystals with a general pattern of association that relates taste more to perception of a food rather than a one to one correlation. Hence, gems and precious metals are to kran as sweets are to us. It is not so much that these things are sweet but they fit that niche in the Kran diet.

In one of the books I wrote for the Stonehead reading shelf, I have proposed my own such system of organizing what Kran eat:

Crystals
Acid - Metal
Sand - Coal - Stone

So sand (silica), coal (carbon), and stone(various mixed minerals) are the staple foods while acid and metal introduce further needed "nutrients" such as pure elements and acid which is needed to keep their stomach acid replenished. At the top are crystals which aren't necessary but taste "good" and provide aesthetic appeal, see the kran books on that last part.

However, adding magic throws in an extra loop that has not been addressed. However, deciding what is what would actually be helped along by understanding gem enchanting better than I do. I'm not even sure what the different kinds of enchanted gems are.
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: bilbous on October 23, 2014, 01:10:44 am: Enchanted gems differ as to base gem used and particular way and glyph used. Rubies are the easiest to enchant, diamonds the hardest. Only specific glyphs can be used to enchant any particular gem and there may be some glyphs that cannot be used at all, although I am not positive about that.

What does magic taste like? Can you eat a glyph? Did the drink that npc have that weakened him due to being prepared in the presence of the dark way glyph taste any different? He did not seem to notice. Perhaps magic has no taste. Perhaps it is so subtle that only an advanced practitioner could detect it.
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Illysia on October 23, 2014, 01:26:26 am: So maybe we need dweomer taste detection now? ;D
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Rigwyn on October 23, 2014, 03:20:02 am: That or some creative folks to rolls some krans and join you for a magic gem tasting event. o.O
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Illysia on October 23, 2014, 04:06:09 am: Or rather a scientific inquiry event. Inquiring minds must know what certain things taste like. :detective:
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Eonwind on October 23, 2014, 10:40:44 am: Enchanted gems can be eaten by Krans with no risk of explosion :)
There are not even short term beneficial effects (in fact you don't get any extra bonus for that) however there could be long term effects like when using "doping" effects on ordinary food :)
e.g. faster growth, allergies, headaches, feeling more active (like when drinking a good coffee), ...
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: MishkaL1138 on October 23, 2014, 02:38:42 pm: Actually, silica, calcium, iron and organiccompounds make up the structure of wine... so it's possible for a Kran to taste a wine.

Albeit quantitatively.
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Illysia on October 23, 2014, 09:03:25 pm: Well, there are minerals in just about everything, I would imagine, but how much are we talking here? It's not that Kran can't eat organic people food, it's just that they can't derive nutrition from it. I've long though that there is a way of making squishy people food that krans can manage and kran food that squishy people can manage. Not quite sure yet how to do it though. :)
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Donari Tyndale on October 23, 2014, 09:14:41 pm: Quote from: BoevenF on October 22, 2014, 05:03:51 pm
Quote from: MishkaL1138 on October 22, 2014, 03:42:15 pm
As for the precious metals, you know, gold, platinum, silver, [...] They possibly have the best taste of all for Kran, though, given how scarce and rarely found they (supposedly) are.

So I could infer that Northern white rhinoceros (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_white_rhinoceros) meat taste like heaven. ;D

That, and it actually makes your you-know-what grow.
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Eonwind on October 24, 2014, 12:41:09 pm: Quote from: MishkaL1138 on October 23, 2014, 02:38:42 pm
Actually, silica, calcium, iron and organiccompounds make up the structure of wine... so it's possible for a Kran to taste a wine.

Albeit quantitatively.

That is yet to be determined, and it will be fully developed at the time brewery will be released (currently under development).
I remind everyone that kran biology (and in general most of the species biologies) is fictional, so scientific information about silicon based biologies may not apply; I also remind that while researches RPs are always welcome the settings mostly lacks the necessary instrument to fully develop modern biology, even for "ordinary" races. On top of it there is magic which is also a key element in Yliakum world and is supposed to work not in a scientific way (but this doesn't mean the way magic interact with the world is random or unpredictable at all).
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Illysia on October 24, 2014, 10:25:11 pm: Ok, so that means we do it like we did Enki manes. Everyone pick the side they want to support and everyone do their own thing until Settings finally puts their foot down about it... that is until there is more info released. ;D
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Rigwyn on October 25, 2014, 08:22:23 am: One thing that I've learned is that you can't just wait for someone else to lay down all the settings info. At some point you need to fill in some of those gaps yourself, and if settings are written in later on that contradict what you have already role played, then so be it.

There needs to be room for creativity on the part of players, and a willingness to be wrong about it at some point. If you don't take this risk, you end up with dull RP that's dictated by someone else. I'm not saying to write in aliens abducting krans or anything, but to go ahead and color in your rp with your own ideas and colors. The world will not end if you are somehow wrong or are in conflict.

This thing about needing a settings person to tell you what a goddamn gem should taste like is a bit too conservative for me.

Like I said, they taste like Skittles and make you fat and dumb. ::)
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Illysia on October 25, 2014, 08:27:10 am: Well, most players won't bother to come up with their own ideas on it. You know a lot of people don't care what krans do so that is why I ask and would draw attention to the answer. But since there is no official stance then I will come up with my own answer.

And they do not make you dumb! :P
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Rigwyn on October 25, 2014, 08:37:51 am: The innerwebz says they do.. so there. :P ;D

http://tizzykids.com/2014/05/19/skittles-the-iq-lowering-treat/
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Illysia on October 25, 2014, 08:44:27 am: Yes... we must take the panic about the affects of some of the ingredients with a grain of salt. ;)

Quote
hydrochloric acid (a corrosive used to remove rust),

Nobody tell this lady that your stomach is full of the stuff... she will freak out.
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: tman on October 25, 2014, 11:47:58 pm: Quote from: Rigwyn on October 25, 2014, 08:22:23 am
This thing about needing a settings person to tell you what a goddamn gem should taste like is a bit too conservative for me.

Well the thing is, Kran probably don't often eat "people food" and when they do they probably have a much different experience than the carbon races. So saying something like "Sapphires taste like blueberries" doesn't mean anything since carbon races can't know what sapphires taste like and Kran don't know what blueberries taste like.

So, beyond "good" and "bad" or maybe "sweet" vs "savory" (if Kran can experience those sensations) you can't really draw comparisons between the two kinds of food.
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: iridia on October 26, 2014, 08:17:13 pm: As were speaking of gems and metals being consumed their taste might be more based on purity and carats?
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Illysia on October 26, 2014, 08:38:07 pm: Probably. If nothing else, in real gems color is often a matter of trapped impurities. If Sapphires taste different than Rubies then the only difference would be the impurities that color it.
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Rigwyn on October 26, 2014, 09:45:32 pm: Good and bad are judgments. Sweet would mean sugary, which would be meaningless to a kran.

Why not create your own vocabulary based on the elements?

Ie.

"Ferrous"
"Diamondy"
"Limestone-ish"
"Calcified"
"Porous"
"Sulfurous"
"Veiny" ( as in the veins in rocks)
Magmic
Dusty
Sandy
Petrified

Etc..
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Illysia on October 26, 2014, 10:29:55 pm: /me Sticks acidic on that list

That would be doable and would likely be applicable, to an extent, to squishy people food. And so lemon juice would be lemony and sour to a squishy person and lemony and acidic to a kran.
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: MishkaL1138 on October 26, 2014, 10:31:42 pm: Quote from: Illysia on October 26, 2014, 10:29:55 pm
/me sticks acidic on that list

Yep, no wonder you would ;D
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Illysia on October 26, 2014, 10:38:45 pm: While we are on that topic, we need some sort of acidic fruit, vegetable, or leaf to provide squishy people sources of acid.
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: lilura on October 26, 2014, 11:04:51 pm: Quote from: Illysia on October 26, 2014, 10:38:45 pm
While we are on that topic, we need some sort of acidic fruit, vegetable, or leaf to provide squishy people sources of acid.
you and your salads
Quote from: Rigwyn on October 26, 2014, 09:45:32 pm
Petrified
Etc..

/me side eyes the petrified kran
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Illysia on October 26, 2014, 11:29:55 pm: Cannibal! :P
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Rigwyn on October 26, 2014, 11:56:04 pm: Mind readers!
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Eonwind on October 27, 2014, 12:36:33 am: Quote from: tman on October 25, 2014, 11:47:58 pm
Well the thing is, Kran probably don't often eat "people food" and when they do they probably have a much different experience than the carbon races.

When they do they get an indigestion. ;)
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: tman on October 27, 2014, 01:09:00 am: Quote from: Rigwyn on October 26, 2014, 09:45:32 pm
Good and bad are judgments.

Yeah, but so is everything when you're talking about food taste. Unless you're saying "this meat tastes meaty" which is a tautology.

Quote
Sweet would mean sugary, which would be meaningless to a kran.

Actually no. People experience "sweet" taste because of special neurons on the tongue which respond to certain "sweet-tasting" chemicals. Sugar is just one. There are many many more (which is part of why there are so many diet sodas. They use different sweet-tasting chemicals to replace the sugar, making a zero calorie sweet beverage.)

It's possible Kran have sweet and savory receptors on their tongue, but they respond to different things. Gems might activate "sweet" receptors, metals might activate savory receptors, etc.

Of course there's no way to know this unless someone in Settings tells us.
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Rigwyn on October 27, 2014, 01:27:26 am: Ok, I should have said "might not mean anything to a Kran." *If* the Kran cannot taste/sense sugar or "sweetness", then using "sweet" as a description would mean little. Here, I'm assuming that because the kran's physiology is so radically different, they would not share similar taste experiences. I'll stop with that assumption as this is an unknown.
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: bilbous on October 27, 2014, 02:18:19 am: If a kran polymorphs into a carbon based lifeform what does kra eat? a kran could possibly know what sweet tastes like but it might be what a groffel thinks is sweet. Would someone like to write up a comparative inter-species taste sensation catalog to enlighten us? I have only been able to polymorph into a groffel so it would be somewhat limited if I tried.
Title: Re: What Do Enchanted Gems Taste Like?
Post by: Eonwind on October 27, 2014, 11:14:06 am: As a general and common sense guideline, the taste purpose is to guide the "being" to eat what their body need to work properly, therefore we can suppose that whatever gives the Kran a good source of energy (like crystals if you take a look at the released recipes while ores are more "like" meat crystals are more like salts, sugars, bread, ...) can make them feel a good taste maybe not too different from what we feel like when eating sugar.

Feel free to expand your RP with varied flavour, tastes etc.