Q&A Volume 3 Questions answered!

Hey all, sorry this was meant to go out the beginning of my break, not the end, but I ended up enjoying my week off from writing to play some games and relax, so, whoops! In return, expect very in depth answers where I can!

What now really sets the Founder bird apart from any other beast of high tier?

As a general rule,

there

are three categories of monsters, Natural, Spawned, and Enlightened.

*A natural monster would be a monster born like a regular animal or through magical means, basically not E.O.N or World Spirit generated. Eia would have been considered a natural monster had she been born under the care of the Khan of Blue Lightning.

*A Spawned monster is as referenced above, a monster that was basically plopped into existence à la a video monster spawn. Spawned monsters have a soft cap on how strong they can grow, though their exists ways to effectively "remove" said cap. The Khan of Blue Lightning would fit this category as a spawned monster, who is now seeking the means of breaking his limitation.

*An Enlightened monster requires understanding what Enlightenment refers to first. The natural instinct of all monsters is to attempt to grow as much as possible. Incorporated into this instinct, therefore, is the instinct to attack enlightened beings (Humans/Osferians/etc) as they provide more "fuel" for their growth then other monsters, as well as containing sparks enlightenment. Enlightenment is itself a general term for the ability to act outside the base instincts (simplified). Generally speaking monsters, be they natural or spawned, have low level of base enlightenment, but sometimes their exists those who have a higher capacity. Enlightened monsters can also gain Vocations under the right circumstances.

Examples:

-The Khan of Blue Lightning while not an Enlightened Monster, has a high base level of enlightenment and an affinity that lends itself to being more then capable of working cooperatively with humans, and all kin of the Khan inherit those traits. Upon clearing its Spawned Monster cap, it would become a proper Enlightened Monster and be free to act entirely of its own volition (such as leaving the Maw)

-Eia. Eia is an Enlightened Monster due to being raised as an equal with other enlightened beings. Had she been raised more akin to a pet or a tamed monster, she would have simply been a natural monster with an extremely high base level of enlightenment, reaching proper enlightenment comparatively early on.

And finally, to answer the original question, the Bird.

-What specifically sets the Bird apart, is the bird started as a spawned monster that had a higher then average level of enlightenment. Combined with being an apex monster of its territory and then killing a Founder, it was enough to foster its base capacity of enlightenment into becoming a full fledged Enlightened Monster with a Vocation. Unlike even Eia, that means that the Bird has full control over how to distribute attributes, what skills to select, etc.

Tl;DR -> Intelligence and proper free will, and the ability to interact with systems that normally monsters can't such as the Settlement system.

What does being part of the Precursor line of vocations mean?

A good question, and another one that actually has a lot more to it then might be suspected!

The original vocations given out were mostly test beds by E.O.N/The System (as it was known at the time) and thus originally they actually weren't that special aside from being generally pertinent to the character of those involved (I.E The Spear being a hot head and a combative person matched her with a vocation that was combat centric)

In the future though, that has changed drastically (and not even the far future either, by the point of Volume three its already started to occur)

Now, I'll reference the Spear specifically because its the main/only example of multiple Precursor class Vocations existing of the same title (as of the current point).

-Spear of the Precursor's main requirement (aside from being someone of a combat aligned personalty) is a transcendental will. In the "modern" setting of Universe's End, of all of the T50s and other beings, the Spear has the strongest will by a long shot. It's this requirement that makes the Spear of the Precursor class vocation so rare amongst its class of vocation. You saw this first hand from the fact that L’yante Dosor, when offered a weapon crafted by Rory himself, brushed it aside with a simple explanation that some of his benefits are from not taking external aid.

While not something that may have seemed major, a bit of Word of God lore is that a personalized weapon crafted from the Architect of the Precursor's is something that T40s would wage extinction level wars against other T40 factions for the privileged of. The ability to barely be tempted by such an offer is an example of that indomitable will requirement (though an indomitable will doesn't always look exactly the same person to person)

Finally, speaking of the main benefit of the Precursor class vocation, is that we have to revisit the philosophy that in Universe's End, vocations themselves are like 85% status symbol, 15% tangible benefit. The main benefit of a vocation is upon a tier up, you will be offered skills relating to said vocation for free, whereas typically a skill is only offered when you've got history with said activity (Rory and his blood skills early on are a great example where he kept getting offered blood related things). With that understanding, the main benefit of skills offered from the Precursor vocation is they have much higher proclivity to having additional esoteric style benefits.

Tl;dr -> Being part of a precursor/special vocation line just means you have an exceptional quality that stands out from others of that vocation archetype, with offered skills having higher odds of containing small, bonus aspects attached.

Also, of the Founders, precursors are the only type of class that's meant for a group, so does/will that have any sort of group effect, rather than just a naming group?

In short, no, no group effect. The OG Precursor tag was given out essentially at random by the proto-E.O.N. It's only in the future where those special tags become, well, special.

What will be Rory's future and real fighting style ? Will he get any skill that offset the one that prevents him of having one ?

This is an interesting question because it's one I've put a lot of thought into while developing my view of what I want Universe's End to be. An issue I've taken to many other stories (specifically other LitRPGGs/Progression fantasy) is that the MC will have a specific role or caveat, be it that they are crafters, monsters, etc, and then.... that shortcoming is immediately erased and they still end up the very best swordsman/mage/etc.

With respects to that, to answer the question, I would refer to Rory as a "multi-class Conjurer." A great example, and one I've actually alluded to a decent few times, is Archer Emiya from Fate/Stay Night. He can basically conjure a ton of different weapons and change how he fights very easily, but he is never necessarily the best at any of them.

Now if you fast forward to T50 Rory, by simple nature of him being around longer then just about anyone else, yeah at that point from raw skill level he's basically top 5 for any given thing, but he would never beat someone like The Spear in a straight up martial battle.

Finally, will he ever get a skill that offsets Scholar's Retreat? My current thoughts are no, as I enjoy that it forces Rory to consider how to use freefrom magic or otherwise capitalize on his non-combat skills in ways that could be used in a fight (Seams Unseen being the most prominent example currently) Now will he ever develop combat skills anyway? Yes, but when you live for billions of years, that's sort of inevitable.

Tl;dr-> His fighting style is similar to an Emiya Archer/Gilgamesh from Fate/Stay Night with a sprinkle of Minaga from Primal Hunter. There are no plans for skills that outright offset Scholar's Retreat, but combat skills themselves WILL eventually be obtained, just extremely rarely.

What kind of bird is the Bird who killed the alchemist founder based on?

T1 he was based upon a Fiery-Throated Hummingbird and a Toucan. His current T7/T8 iteration is aesthetically meant to invoke Ra and Quetzalcoatl imagery but otherwise body type is somewhere between a Harpy Eagle and Ferruginous Hawk

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And there we have it! I considered taking some question left on RR, but when I saw how long some of these answers turned out, I figured this would be fine. The next Q&A will be at the conclusion of volume four, so stay tuned!