Weapon Idea: Your thoughts

As an amateur writer, I'm constantly scribbling down ideas and concepts for my stories, and I hit upon one that I particularly like, but realise other people may think it is not as good as I thought. So, to see the general reaction, here's the idea:

In the story I'm writing, humanity has been evolved to access Aether, (essentially magic), and civilian and military applications for the users are abundant. Aetheric abilities are primarily driven by emotions, so intense emotions generate stronger abilities.

Following on from this idea, I thought of Empathic Reaction Weapons, a weapon that can alter it's shape, form etc. depending on the wielder's emotional state, with more intense or driven emotions creating more powerful weapons. So I made a bizarre mix of Morph weapons and Empathic Weapons.

What are everyone's thoughts?

This sounds like a very powerful weapon, so many people would try to find ways to counter it. I'd personally make it so that if a certain type of emotion, like heartbreak to be cliche, went through the weapon, it would either blow up or freak out and become something insane. Like a 40 foot tall fire chain, or whatever.

Also, and this is a bit more dependent on how magic/aether works, maybe make it so that if someone with minimal or no emotions and proper training came across the weapon, they could negate it somewhat. Like a monk with extreme meditation training.

Cool idea though. Magictek is always cool.

I did plan to include people who could manipulate emotions and such, which would make suitable counters for the users of these weapons. There are also magitek limiters and amplifiers in the series. Magitek has always been my favourite fictional device.

Certain emotions make the weapon less effective. Blind rage (where the user is unable to think straight), sorrow or apathy can really screw with the weapon. Empaths have a good deal of difficulty using them, since they are constantly feeling the emotions from other people. Certain emotions simply make the weapon useless: Example: Nihilistic angst and such actually destroy the weapon. Depression can damage the weapon greatly. Which makes keeping the morale of the users up of great importance.

They are powerful, but do require a decent amount of training to use effectly. Insane users are quite dangerous, warping the weapon into freakish and horrific states. And any emotion brought on by drugs or stimulants etc, produce damaging feedback effects on the user, as the weapon actively rejects the 'artificial' emotion.

That sounds awesome... just... awesome.

Now write it up before someone pinches it!... not that anyone here would ever do that. Right?

edited 6th Oct '10 2:57:59 PM by GameChainsaw

^^I was somewhat concerned until that post, thinking, Is this going to turn into "RRRRRGH! I CAN BE ANGRIER THAN YOU! HA HA HA!" Because that would suck. But because you've got these incredibly scary consequences, I think it'll be awesome. A good user of these weapons would probably be a more sage-like, balanced, and healthy person.

That would be an amusing fight, wouldn't it.

The antagonist of the story actually spends a lot of time trying to rile up the protagonist, trying to make him useless. The protagonist is quite good at controlling his emotion, until his berserk button is found.

And the villain finds out that making An Ice Person very wrathful is a bad, bad idea.

It would also be now that I mention the debilitating effect Aether has on the untrained human body and mind, degrading eventually to Body Horror and The Corruption. Which is why Limiters are the most commonplace piece of equipment for Aether users, and why the armour they wear acts as a way of 'venting' and controlling it, like a heat sink. But for an eldritch magic substance instead of heat.

edited 6th Oct '10 9:45:41 PM by CountDaxam

Can't imagine what fighting with it would be like, but ways to counter it are numerous. Drugs for one.

!! (Already has magic weapon that depends on emotion in his story)

Nah, that's fine though. I wouldn't care if the idea was exactly the same, but it's different enough anyways.

Could you ever break up with people capable of using these weapons in this setting? Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "till death do us part."

Seriously though, this idea sounds like it has a lot of potential, i.e. lots of possible directions it could go in and many avenues to explore. Not much more you can ask for from a starting idea/concept.

Personally I just keep all my ideas around, in case they ever find a home in my writing somewhere. I mean, why not? Even if they don't end up directly in writing they could always trigger another idea that does.

edited 7th Oct '10 4:34:08 PM by deathjavu

To be honest, I think concepts that have lots of potential was what I was fully going for. I might even make concept sketches for different emotions.

It would certainly be awkward, to say the least, to try and break up with a person who's power is drawn from his emotions. Very Awkward.

One thing I thought about was Reactive Armour. Starts off as a skin suit, then can bulk out into layered battle plate. What about that as well?

edited 8th Oct '10 12:42:30 PM by CountDaxam