Shielding Question

[Vizayas]

Sorry for yet another thread, but this is something I'm particularly curious about.

Shielding can 'NEVER' be used to harm, and by the capital letters this implies an absolute. But harm that arrives as a possible consequence of a shield cast is within the realm of reason, considering the example of someone rebounding off a shield and hurting themselves.

Would the following scenarios be possible with Shielding?

Suffocation: Creating a shield tasked against air around someone's head. The individual would be unable to breathe.

Starvation: Creating a shield tasked against biologicals around someone's head. The individual would be unable to place anything into their mouth.

Restraints: Creating a shield tasked against biologicals wrapped around someone and then anchored to a fixed point. I am aware this can also be done by creating 'walls' around an individual, but this would be simpler and less taxing.

[Clyde Sullins]

Well for the second one, of starvation, I find it a bit unlikely, since you'd need to make a shield tasked to block each possible food material. Considering the multitude of food items and sources of foods, I think this would be silly to try for anyone but a master who has more or less unlimited tasking. Perhaps it could make it so a person can't eat a specific thing, perhaps for health reasons, or perhaps in the case of an allergy. Like say if I know I have a peanut allergy, tasking a shield to keep peanuts out of my mouth. Of course, if the peanuts have been mixed into something else, it likely wouldn't work, it would likely only work for the specifically tasked peanut blocking, and so wouldn't work on another meal with crushed peanuts mixed in, or other such mixtures. I derive this from when Goss once said that with metals alloys and such would not be blocked, even if you blocked aspects of it, or all of the aspects, that the specific alloy is its own tasking. So while you could block copper, or bronze weapons would still get through even though copper is in bronze. With that reasoning, I think you'd need to specifically task each food, which makes said food tasking more or less impossible, or close to it for most purposes. --- Restraints- Pretty sure you can't chain someone to something via shielding. You could seal someone into a room by biologically tasking shields that block that said person from passing through doorways and windows, but since shielding requires a base to work on, or a frame in the instance of sealing over an opening or doorframe/window frame, I don't think you should form a shield between things such as that, and thus force said person to be unable to move away from that spot. So yes to sealing in possibly, no I believe to shielding someone too something. Though you could probably shield actual physical chains to stop certain persons from tampering with it, which might be of use, but not what you asked. Also with sealing someone into a room, you'd need to make the shields after they entered, or else you wouldn't be able to get them in, since they would be blocked from passing through. Which means they'd likely already at that point be captured and subdued. --- Of course if you were being particularly vindictive, you could perhaps combo these two, and shield someone into a room, and then only offer them certain food items which you know they are shielded from eating, and then force them to starve with food right before them... If Clyde ever gets good at shielding, he is totally going to do that at some point...

[Vizayas]

Listening to your musings on the subject, I learned a lot. Thanks, Clyde! Mental torture will indeed be the way to go it seems. I think this also settles the suffocation dilemma. Unless I shielded the inside of their lungs to prevent air from being absorbed, there is no way to 'hold' a mouth shut or create a wall with shielding with shielding unless I had an object to place the wall upon.

[Clyde Sullins]

Well if you use the person themselves as the object and frame, and shielded upon them a shield that blocks air specifically, I could perhaps seeing it work. Then air would be incapable of passing through the shield and perhaps they would suffocate. You can after all shield a person, though this is usually done for protection of said person. Although I'm not totally sure if you can task a shield to block something that is a gas, and not a solid object or thing. As with the other instances though, it'd take time for you to form the shield around them, likely also requiring them to either be knocked unconscious or subdued in some other fashion. Alternatively you could perhaps shield a room and make it block the passage of air in or out, and once they ran out of air, no more could get in, and perhaps they could suffocate that way. Also assuming that air can be tasked/blocked.

[Nal'reim Qyan]

In regards to Clyde wondering if gas can be shielded. I will leave this here to aid the discussion and then return to the background.

During the Valterrian, many shielders found their art forms completely necessary since at the more advanced stages they were able to task shields to block dangerous gasses found beneath the surface of Mizahar and allow only fresh clean air into spaces people occupied.