Timeline for Why isn't a magical obligate parasite living in a wizard library exterminated?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
11 events
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| Mar 15 at 21:42 | history | edited | DonQuiKong | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Mar 23, 2017 at 17:12 | comment | added | Shane | OTOH, you could make it so that libraries are always built on top of naturally occurring magical wellsprings that constantly leaks magical residue. Then they'd have a food source no matter what. | |
| Mar 23, 2017 at 17:10 | comment | added | Shane | @LeBleu Yeah, that would be the worst case scenario. And it is still would be easily manageable IF the desire to eliminate these creatures was strong enough. IOW, it points more strongly to 'eliminating costs don't outweigh the problem they cause' rather than 'we can't kill them'. | |
| Mar 23, 2017 at 15:06 | comment | added | Agent_L | Pigeons are excellent example. It has been found that the ONLY limiting factor to pigeon population is the food availability. Nothing else can really curb down their numbers, they simply outbreed any loses, just as you've described. | |
| Mar 21, 2017 at 21:41 | comment | added | Dewi Morgan | I was going to suggest this, adding the point that killing them can probably only be accomplished by magic, and any such killing must - inevitably - add magical residue from both the eradication spell and from the death of the residue-eating creature. So you'd be making the situation worse. It'd be like trying to eradicate roaches by simply squishing the ones you can see with a heavy lump of sugar, then leaving their corpse and sugarlump there for other roaches to eat. | |
| Mar 21, 2017 at 20:14 | comment | added | LeBleu | No, it said 2-3 days outside a library, where there is no magical residue. How long does it take the parasite to consume all of the average magical residue in a library? You would need to shutdown the library for that amount of time plus 2-3 days. (and additional time if any accidental scroll activations add magical residue.) Perhaps that could add weeks. Also "found in virtually any wizard library" implies it easily travels to newly built libraries - so now you may be talking about shutting down every wizard library in the nation or world for that entire time, otherwise quickly re-infected | |
| Mar 21, 2017 at 18:50 | comment | added | Shane | All you need to do is close the library for 2-3 days. No mages casting spells means no magical residue to eat. OP said that this is enough to kill them. | |
| Mar 21, 2017 at 8:50 | comment | added | DonQuiKong | @Shane all those chemicals in a library? An extermination spell wandering through magical tomes? I think hadnwaving (or otherwise explaining) why that's simply not possible should be easy. Plus, I provided some reasons in the answer already. But yes of course, pest control is not impossible for us - in a well defined and suitable environment. | |
| Mar 20, 2017 at 16:39 | comment | added | Shane | We will often eradicate pest from single buildings, even if we don't remove them from cities in their entirety. Maybe, if these things die when they are weak (old age, starvation, illness) that's fine, but if they die when they are full of magical energy (you try to exterminate them) they set off a nuke. | |
| Mar 19, 2017 at 19:08 | history | edited | DonQuiKong | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Mar 19, 2017 at 15:52 | history | answered | DonQuiKong | CC BY-SA 3.0 |