<strong>Location:</strong>Professor Durgan's Workshop<br/><strong>Tagging:</strong>Clio<br/><br/>More than once, Professor Durgan was tempted to respond, until he realized it was all part of the same underlying discussion.  "There's a human nature to try to find the 'best,'" he said as he moved over to the set of drawers again.  "The best weapon, the best crafter, the best method, the best material, the best type of beauty, even the best opening chess move."  This time, he knew exactly where he wanted was, and came back to set it in front of her.  His gesture said that it was a gift for her.<br/><br/><div class="floatright">(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/65/8a/15/658a15bcac0c7a416a39e97bfe6cbb61.jpg)</div>It looked like a perfectly-made golden apple, but Clio had absolutely no difficulty in recognizing that it wasn't real gold.  "This isn't the original.  If you don't know the story, the Trojan War began because Discord threw a golden apple into the scene of a party held by the gods, engraved 'ti kallisti,' to the most beautiful one.  Aphrodite, Athena, and Hera all argued and squabbled over it, each a very different type of beauty.  Perfection cannot be so easily decided."<br/><br/>He gestured around the room at all the various tools and machines of the workshop.  "If there was a perfect tool, I wouldn't need all these.  If there was a perfect weapon, there wouldn't be so many different kinds, from swords, axes, hammers, spears, even ranged weapons.  There's no perfect material, because each has a different use, different strengths and weaknesses."<br/><br/>A raised palm ceded to the point to a small degree.  "Now, to some degree, there are choices to be made between function, beauty, and durability.  The way the Eiffel Tower was so that it could withstand not only gravity but the powerful winds.  With the Venus de Milo, had more care been taken to ensure that her arms would be as steadfast as the rest of the statue, they would not have been lost to time.  The Great Maker could have made himself a beautiful and elaborate throne. but it would never have gotten him from point A to point B.  There are often very solid reasons to choose function over appearance."<br/><br/>Then he raised the other.  "However, were I to attempt a sacrifice to Aphrodite, I would make something where appearance trumped and function lacked. where perfection in beauty required sacrificing any degree of durability.  For one mere instant, the sculpture would stand in breathless glory before collapsing under its own weight, and she would know the sacrifice was to be hers."<br/><br/>Here he got more serious.  "It's also common in Ren Faires to make things that are exceptional in appearance but lack in function, such as swords that would never actually work, because that is often what people want.  What you must<em>never</em>do is deliberately create shoddy products to force people to buy more of them, for which some American car companies have developed a reputation.  A toy designed for play and a weapon for combat are two very different things with two ultimately different goals in mind."<br/><br/>Again he gestured to the apple.  "Now for the second, related lesson.  Just as there is no best tool, there is no best crafter.  Many of the fools who claim to be superior to Hephaestus do so because they look at his old, original works, made with technology from the Bronze Age.  It never occurs to them that he provided the foundation upon which they build, just as Greece is considered the foundation of Western civilization.  Sir Isaac Newton wrote, 'If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants,' because he had so much of the work of Aristotle and others, and could add upon what they'd already learned.  We create a staircase that goes ever higher, each of us building a new level, but only because we could climb the steps made by those who came before.  By the same token, others will come after, forging anew over any marks we make."<br/><br/>With a wave in the replica Bubo's direction - Clio was certain it was a replica, even if Professor Durgan wasn't - he said, "You will not insult Hephaestus by making something better than he<em>once</em>made.  You'll insult him if you claim that you could have done better than he did were you born in the time he was, with the limited options available to you.  You'll insult him if you claim you're better now than he is now, since he's had millennia to refine his craft."<br/><br/>One more gesture to the apple.  "Perfection does not exist.  Humanity continues towards progress, from the stone age ever towards the future, always getting better, providing inspiration for the next generation to put their own hand at creation, but with the old generation looking back and grateful for the lessons they've been given so that they can continue to help moving forward."<br/><br/>He had to think a bit for the question of inspiration and mass produced perfection.  "Regarding sacrifices and the gods, my suggestion for inspired and simple projects would be not to do so more than once a month.  Innovation becomes cheap if given too often.  Painstakingly carving out the flaws and figuring out the perfection of a project will take time, however, and crafters rarely have an exceptional amount to spend on sacrifices when they could be putting together all sorts of other things, but if inspiration is so common that it can be quickly doled out, how truly precious is it?"<br/><br/>Unless it bothered her to have him talk while she worked, he was able to spend the time in going over the various rules and details of sacrifices.<br/><br/><hr/><br/><strong>OOC:</strong>A bit about major and minor sacrifices according to the book.  188-189 Hero has the full set of details.<br/><br/>A sacrifice, major or minor, gives a point of Legend.<br/><br/>Something you can put together in a single scene would just be a minor sacrifice, which you can do once an arc, meaning once a month for my game, and get Legend for it.  I'd equate it to getting incense, flowers, animal offal, and so on.  You're a Crafter, so you can do better.<br/><br/>Now, a major sacrifice, you can give as often as you can get one, but they're a lot more major things.  Human sacrifice is major, so you can get as much Legend as you can from that.<br/><br/>There's also what's called Crafting Time, where you're effectively making stuff between scenes.  Page 77 Origin has a writeup there.  You're going to have to choose as a crafter: are you making new cool items between stories, or are you spending so much time making a perfect sacrifice for the gods that you just don't have time for anything else?<br/><br/>The other easy method is Fatebinding, which I'll discuss with you.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>The hardest part of a sacrifice was the destruction of the object at the end, and Professor Durgan would help her with that if she couldn't bear to do so herself.  You couldn't just make something and keep it yourself; it was a gift given to the gods by destroying its mortal version.<br/><br/>However, it worked: Bubo suddenly flapped his wings, checking around.  Even though it was only clicks and whirring, Clio could somehow instinctively understand the indignance of the awful Clash of the Titans remake.<br/><br/>Professor Durgan chuckled.  "Yeah, it was really bad."  He looked to Clio.  "That's something else to consider: whether it's better to change things and if you're doing so for novelty, innovation, or true functionality.  However, that's a class in and of itself, and honestly, probably better left to art teachers and for you to discover yourself."