ArcoBlood Mod Finished

[Saber Cherry]

Evil Dave said:
I assume you're joking around, but that rings a distant bell... Didn't the Aztecs have some prophesy of light-skinned people coming from far away?

There's a prophecy for anything that's happened, and a million more for things that didn't. But one would be wise to consult prophecies before performing blood sacrifice.

[BigDaddy]

Evil Dave said:

I assume you're joking around, but that rings a distant bell... Didn't the Aztecs have some prophesy of light-skinned people coming from far away?

You could of just typed "aztec human sacrifice" into your browser . . . I was surprised at the number!

"When the Spaniards under Hernan Cortez gazed upon the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán in Mexico in 1519,they were amazed by the scene before them. There, in the middle of a wide lake was a shimmering city with bright white walls of vast buildings sitting on an island in the middle of a large lake with causeways linked to it. The astonishment of those first Spanish visitors soon turned to horror when they saw the vast scale of ritual sacrifices made by the Aztecs.


Even today, it is hard to comprehend the extent or rationale for this ritual sacrifice. It is estimated that approximately 20,000 people per year were sacrificed by the Aztec royalty. Captives were taken to the top of pyramids where, upon a ritual flat stone table, they had their chests cut upon and their hearts ripped out. Then the bodies of the victims were tossed down the steps of the pyramids. The scene to both the Spaniards of that time and to us today is truly gruesome. But it was not mere thirst for blood that motivated the Aztecs to engage in this mass ritual sacrifice.

Critical to understanding the motivation behind the ritual sacrifices is the concept of ”tonalli,” which means “animating spirit.” The tonalli in humans was believed to be located in the blood, which concentrates in the heart when one becomes frightened. This explains the gods’ hunger for the heart. Without this sacrifice, all motion stops, even the movement of the sun. So when the Aztecs made their sacrifices, as far as they were concerned, they were keeping the sun from halting in its orbit.

...

There was another reason for these ritual sacrifices---cannibalism. After the hearts were removed and the bodies tossed down the temple steps, the limbs were removed and later cooked. As repugnant as cannibalism is to us today, back then to the Aztecs, cooked human bodies were looked upon as great delicacies which explains why only Aztec royalty, not the common people, were allowed to engage in cannibalism. The favorite parts for the Aztecs to munch on were the hands and thighs. The Aztec emperor, Moctezuma, was reported to have been partial to cooked thighs served with tomatoes and chili pepper sauce.

..."

HAPPY EASTER!

[PDF]

Arryn said:
Good point. All Blood nations should be Unholy. That they currently aren't seems (to me) more than a bit unthematic.

Huh ? Why that ? In Dom2 Unholy is for necromancing nations (it gives reanimation powers), and has nothing to do with Blood (Demonic) magic. Granted, for us judeo-christians Westerners all this fall under "Evil" but this is no reason to confuse everything

[Verjigorm]

Most of what I've seen in this thread (believe me, I didn't read the whole thing), seems to be a boiler-plate argument between the Freddie N's and the JC's. If, of course, you ascribe to the merits of "Relativism" you can wash away milleia worth of Dogma and logical thought and claim that everyone is correct, and no one group or faction can be more or less right than any other

As for the rules of Holy/Unholy magic.... Raising the dead is not necessarily a nefarious act. It is quite possible that the dead want to come back and serve a/the god. Obviously, those who raise the dead will want their followers to believe it righteous and those who do not will desire their followers to believe it blasphemous (Relativism raises it's ugly head oncemore). It is best to simply consider them empirically rather than using the connotation of their naming. We shall call "Holy" magic "Living" magic and Unholy, "Dead". Races that lean toward "Living" sacred units will be more thematically suited to "Holy" magic while those who tend toward "Dead" units or who require additional (low-rank) troops to flesh out their ranks will be benefitted more by "Unholy" magic.

If we examine the traits of blood magic, we find that it includes no sacred units, 3 types of undead units, and most of it's units have high morale, but are generally lower in population than say...Nature. Thusly, Blood magic finds its niche with "Unholy" because of a) little need for Courage magic, b) no need for Blessings on non-undead units, c) a need for rank-and-file troops (not, really, but one could make an argument), and d) an interest in using the general undead "buff" spells for vampires/bone fiends.

Thus, Blood magic is both empirically and thematically suited for Unholy

[quantum_mechani]

Verjigorm said:
Most of what I've seen in this thread (believe me, I didn't read the whole thing), seems to be a boiler-plate argument between the Freddie N's and the JC's. If, of course, you ascribe to the merits of "Relativism" you can wash away milleia worth of Dogma and logical thought and claim that everyone is correct, and no one group or faction can be more or less right than any other

As for the rules of Holy/Unholy magic.... Raising the dead is not necessarily a nefarious act. It is quite possible that the dead want to come back and serve a/the god. Obviously, those who raise the dead will want their followers to believe it righteous and those who do not will desire their followers to believe it blasphemous (Relativism raises it's ugly head oncemore). It is best to simply consider them empirically rather than using the connotation of their naming. We shall call "Holy" magic "Living" magic and Unholy, "Dead". Races that lean toward "Living" sacred units will be more thematically suited to "Holy" magic while those who tend toward "Dead" units or who require additional (low-rank) troops to flesh out their ranks will be benefitted more by "Unholy" magic.

If we examine the traits of blood magic, we find that it includes no sacred units, 3 types of undead units, and most of it's units have high morale, but are generally lower in population than say...Nature. Thusly, Blood magic finds its niche with "Unholy" because of a) little need for Courage magic, b) no need for Blessings on non-undead units, c) a need for rank-and-file troops (not, really, but one could make an argument), and d) an interest in using the general undead "buff" spells for vampires/bone fiends.

Thus, Blood magic is both empirically and thematically suited for Unholy

It is all fine and good if some nations have unholy and blood magic. But I don't think they should be linked together any more than say, astral and holy. You argument could just as well be used to say that nations with blood magic should all have earth magic, since they work so well together.

[Verjigorm]

Indeed, but I wansn't stating that the two should be inextricably linked. Simply that nations favoring blood should prefer Unholy to Holy.

[Verjigorm]

Take, thematically, the nation of Marignon in it's blood aspect. The veneration of demons yields a certain "sacred" air to blood magic resulting in a thematic preference to "Holy" which ignores the empirical evidence suggesting that Blood and Holy be disjoint. A sacred demonic unit would help to solidify this relationship...

[BigDaddy]

You could give a nation Blood and Unholy, but it may "unbalance" the nation. Unholy adds fodder to the punch of demonic units, so Unholy "fits" better with Demons.

[Saber Cherry]

Unholy also allows leadership of demons, while holy does not, strongly indicating a positive relationship.

[Verjigorm]

Ah yes. I missed that point. By the way... (Back on topic after 11 pages of tangents) I thought the mod was interesting, but a little vaporous--I'd like to see more stuff. Maybe a different National spell or something to replace the Heart Companions....