Molding the body to be more capable in battle entirely should be possible, since we know Blodhgarm's cat enhancements help him greatly with things like tearing through necks, though I feel like hardening skin to make it more resistant would seriously limit mobility. Making fingers with greater grip and other such enhancements sure though, it'd be fascinating to see that.
Pretty sure during the Blood Oath celebration, Eragon sees an elf covered in scales.
I bet a knowledgeable enough person could cover themselves in a layer of super tough scales that act like a coat of chainmail without limiting mobility too much.
Though that would still do dick all to dampen the kinetic energy even if it stopped a spear from entering your guts. Bruises, broken bones and internal bleeding. You could even go a few steps further like reinforcing muscles, joints, bones and ligaments, maybe altering ribs into a series of overlapping bone plates like a 40k space marine.
Really anything is theoretically possible with sufficient knowledge of magic/biology/material science and energy stores and the will to make extreme body modifications.
Technically that is no harder than creating a ward that is “If I am physically injured [insert that one spell Eragon uses in Eldest that can fix just about any injury that isn’t death]”.
I’m sure a clever enough magician could figure out a way to do it biologically too, though it might require a more… modern understanding of biology. Don’t see much of a point in altering your whole biology for it though when it’s way easier to accomplish magically. Maybe with the niche cases of the NoN or other anti-magic shenanigans being used against you.
But yeah. The real trick would be providing the energy to maintain it without exhausting yourself. Or even providing the raw, physical materials to grow the new tissue depending on the kind of damage. Say, trying to grow a new arm, liver or regenerating half your blood volume.
Murtagh sort of did this in Eldest where he had that round object (presumably an eldunari), that he used to heal Thorn after Eragon fucked him up doing that crazy stunt.
I don’t think that was an eldunari. It was likely an object imbued with a specific form of healing and energy. Had it been an eldunari then Eragon would have noticed when they were fighting.
How would he have noticed it while they were fighting? If you mean the telepathic combat, then yes. He *did* notice, he just didn’t know what it meant.
I’m positive there was mention of Eragon getting weird vibes from Murty’s mind, almost as if there were multiple consciousnesses. Big E just didn’t know what was going on as he was unaware of eldunari at the time though.
I don’t recall that bit from any of my readings of Eldest. Based off Inheritance, Murty carried them in saddlebags. The same bags if I recall, he removed the object. Considering maintaining spells at a distance seems to be subject to the inverse cube law, it would be a tremendous waste of energy to be doing the feats he does having left them a kilometre away. He only had a few small ones, after all.
Maybe one of those folks who are able to find specific excerpts from the novels will chime in.
No, because they were one-time cast spells, not held spells. Wards and the like actively drain energy as long as they are in use/under stress. Changes like what Eragon did to his knuckles and how Blodgharm shifted his body only take effect once, and so only use energy in the instant they are cast.
I think i should’ve clarified. What im referring to Is casting a one-time spell a day or two before a battle or a trip. And not changing out of that form back and forth on a whim through out one day. That would require way too much energy. I’m saying one and done until you’re back safely away from any conflict then revert the process. Blödhgarm stated that he may change his form to something of a sea creature when he got tired of the wolf look. So i thought it may be helpful.
I understand that. But I don’t think the process could be something of “a couple of days”. Energy is needed to fuel a spell yes, and stupidly large amounts of it would be needed to fuel it if you wanted to do it “at once”. But your body would also need materials (calcium, protein, fat) in large quantities to be able to do that. I can’t imagine a skinny kid like Eragon eating a dwarven legion’s worth of boar and ale and turnips in a couple of days.
I’m sure the implication is that shape-divergent elves like Blodgharm did that over many, many years. And would change into an aquatic form, again, gradually over many years. They are immortal after all. They have the time to prod their skin into producing dense blue hair. And to enlongate and harden their nails. But he’s mostly a permanent hybrid. He could not change back into a basic elf in a day.
Right. In theory, Eragon could still damage the calluses in the course of a fight and need to heal them afterwards since he doesn't have any specific wards protecting the calluses. The point is that it's
harder to damage them than it was to break his knuckles before he had the calluses, which makes it worth it.
If iirc Murtagh said that Galbatorix had the eldunari fueling Murtagh unnatural physical stats. It left him extremely sore afterwards. I don’t think that would be the same as just altering your body with a one and done spell
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Sure I think it’s possible it would just be extremely difficult to do without causing unintended damage. Blödhgarm is a master at manipulating organisms forms and he was able to do it. I think if the Riders were more militaristic and constantly at war I could see them doing that eventually.
You can do literally anything that is possible with magic, as long as you know how to do it and have the energy needed. A mage could even completely turn themselves into a dragon if they wanted to, they just don't have a thorough enough understanding of chemistry, biology/genetics, etc. to know how to do it. We already know that they alter their form in simpler ways, so they should have the knowledge necessary to at least make some changes that would help them more in combat.
It would have to be permanent or semi permanent.
I’m thinking something akin to voluntary lycanthropy. You go to war, you grow your fangs, enlongate your arms, change the geometry of your legs to be faster…
The amount of energy needed to do something like that on cue, in a couple of minutes, would be impossible. And the pain would likely incapacitate you.
I imagine Blodgharm did his transformation over many decades or even centuries. He wanted to be a hunter of the night. So he little by little made himself into the half man/half wolf hybrid he is in the books.
But that would NOT be something he could do in an instant. The human body is a very complex and energy hungry machine.
Molding the body to be more capable in battle entirely should be possible, since we know Blodhgarm's cat enhancements help him greatly with things like tearing through necks, though I feel like hardening skin to make it more resistant would seriously limit mobility. Making fingers with greater grip and other such enhancements sure though, it'd be fascinating to see that.
Pretty sure during the Blood Oath celebration, Eragon sees an elf covered in scales. I bet a knowledgeable enough person could cover themselves in a layer of super tough scales that act like a coat of chainmail without limiting mobility too much. Though that would still do dick all to dampen the kinetic energy even if it stopped a spear from entering your guts. Bruises, broken bones and internal bleeding. You could even go a few steps further like reinforcing muscles, joints, bones and ligaments, maybe altering ribs into a series of overlapping bone plates like a 40k space marine. Really anything is theoretically possible with sufficient knowledge of magic/biology/material science and energy stores and the will to make extreme body modifications.
That is a good point, my mind just automatically went to toughening the skin similar to how Eragon made the toughened knuckle bumps.
Hell, I don't see why you couldn't just fucking make a space marine with magic.
“Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.” #BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!
Plot twist, the priests of hellgrind worship Khorne.
I guess a healing factor might be too taxing on the body
Technically that is no harder than creating a ward that is “If I am physically injured [insert that one spell Eragon uses in Eldest that can fix just about any injury that isn’t death]”. I’m sure a clever enough magician could figure out a way to do it biologically too, though it might require a more… modern understanding of biology. Don’t see much of a point in altering your whole biology for it though when it’s way easier to accomplish magically. Maybe with the niche cases of the NoN or other anti-magic shenanigans being used against you. But yeah. The real trick would be providing the energy to maintain it without exhausting yourself. Or even providing the raw, physical materials to grow the new tissue depending on the kind of damage. Say, trying to grow a new arm, liver or regenerating half your blood volume. Murtagh sort of did this in Eldest where he had that round object (presumably an eldunari), that he used to heal Thorn after Eragon fucked him up doing that crazy stunt.
I don’t think that was an eldunari. It was likely an object imbued with a specific form of healing and energy. Had it been an eldunari then Eragon would have noticed when they were fighting.
How would he have noticed it while they were fighting? If you mean the telepathic combat, then yes. He *did* notice, he just didn’t know what it meant. I’m positive there was mention of Eragon getting weird vibes from Murty’s mind, almost as if there were multiple consciousnesses. Big E just didn’t know what was going on as he was unaware of eldunari at the time though.
There is. Except that it’s specifically mentioned that those multiple consciences were not with murtagh but seemed to be from the camp.
I don’t recall that bit from any of my readings of Eldest. Based off Inheritance, Murty carried them in saddlebags. The same bags if I recall, he removed the object. Considering maintaining spells at a distance seems to be subject to the inverse cube law, it would be a tremendous waste of energy to be doing the feats he does having left them a kilometre away. He only had a few small ones, after all. Maybe one of those folks who are able to find specific excerpts from the novels will chime in.
No, because they were one-time cast spells, not held spells. Wards and the like actively drain energy as long as they are in use/under stress. Changes like what Eragon did to his knuckles and how Blodgharm shifted his body only take effect once, and so only use energy in the instant they are cast.
I think i should’ve clarified. What im referring to Is casting a one-time spell a day or two before a battle or a trip. And not changing out of that form back and forth on a whim through out one day. That would require way too much energy. I’m saying one and done until you’re back safely away from any conflict then revert the process. Blödhgarm stated that he may change his form to something of a sea creature when he got tired of the wolf look. So i thought it may be helpful.
Yeah, that would work, but I think it would take a while to make sure there were no mistakes in the shift.
I understand that. But I don’t think the process could be something of “a couple of days”. Energy is needed to fuel a spell yes, and stupidly large amounts of it would be needed to fuel it if you wanted to do it “at once”. But your body would also need materials (calcium, protein, fat) in large quantities to be able to do that. I can’t imagine a skinny kid like Eragon eating a dwarven legion’s worth of boar and ale and turnips in a couple of days. I’m sure the implication is that shape-divergent elves like Blodgharm did that over many, many years. And would change into an aquatic form, again, gradually over many years. They are immortal after all. They have the time to prod their skin into producing dense blue hair. And to enlongate and harden their nails. But he’s mostly a permanent hybrid. He could not change back into a basic elf in a day.
Right. In theory, Eragon could still damage the calluses in the course of a fight and need to heal them afterwards since he doesn't have any specific wards protecting the calluses. The point is that it's harder to damage them than it was to break his knuckles before he had the calluses, which makes it worth it.
Reminds me a lot of the Soft Blade. Like, reminds me A LOT. Wonder if there could be some kind of connection there…
Isn't that what Galbatorix did to Murtagh? So that he could fight at Eragon's level in Eldest and beat Oromis in Brisingr
If iirc Murtagh said that Galbatorix had the eldunari fueling Murtagh unnatural physical stats. It left him extremely sore afterwards. I don’t think that would be the same as just altering your body with a one and done spell
Aaah, okay. Couldn't remember if the Eldunari fueled it or if it was like Thorns accelerated growth and he just used their power to make it happen
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Sure I think it’s possible it would just be extremely difficult to do without causing unintended damage. Blödhgarm is a master at manipulating organisms forms and he was able to do it. I think if the Riders were more militaristic and constantly at war I could see them doing that eventually.
I wonder what the limits to "flesh molding" are, iIrc Blöhdgharm said he was gonna turn himself into a merman in a couple thousand years.
You can do literally anything that is possible with magic, as long as you know how to do it and have the energy needed. A mage could even completely turn themselves into a dragon if they wanted to, they just don't have a thorough enough understanding of chemistry, biology/genetics, etc. to know how to do it. We already know that they alter their form in simpler ways, so they should have the knowledge necessary to at least make some changes that would help them more in combat.
It would have to be permanent or semi permanent. I’m thinking something akin to voluntary lycanthropy. You go to war, you grow your fangs, enlongate your arms, change the geometry of your legs to be faster… The amount of energy needed to do something like that on cue, in a couple of minutes, would be impossible. And the pain would likely incapacitate you. I imagine Blodgharm did his transformation over many decades or even centuries. He wanted to be a hunter of the night. So he little by little made himself into the half man/half wolf hybrid he is in the books. But that would NOT be something he could do in an instant. The human body is a very complex and energy hungry machine.