Kristoffer's encouragement thread

[MaxWilson]

RE: New nation themes.

I'm currently re-reading Steven Erikson's Malazan novels, and cool ideas there include:

1.) T'lan Imass: Humanity's predecessors (think Neanderthals) turned themselves into undead to prosecute a genocidal war against their tyrannical oppressors, the Jaghut. 300,000-year-old Neanderthal zombies obsessed with fighting tyranny. They use Tellann, once the Warren (magic-source, kind of) of Fire but now the Warren of Ash. They've outlived their own gods and most of their purpose and pretty much want to declare victory and fall into dust. Very tragic. Their shamans are called Bonecasters and each have a totem animal they can transform into--think giant undead gorillas, panthers twelve feet long, etc.--in addition to being fierce spellcasters. Oh, and T'lan Imass (before the undead Ritual of Tellann they were just called the Imass, and the glottal stop in T'ellan seems to mean "broken") can also turn into dust (which they should have been long ago, were it not for the Ritual) and travel quickly on the winds that way. They fight with giant flint swords and occasionally giant undead prehistoric wolves called T'lan Ay as allies.

2.) The Jaghut are few, powerful and solitary, but respond to blood ties and reunite when a family member comes under attack. They mostly use Omtose Phellack, the Warren of Ice. They're also all dead except for a handful in hiding, and a number of half-breeds called Jhag. They average 7 feet tall or so and have tusks and green skin.

3.) Teblor are giant barbarian horse-warriors with slow regeneration and four lungs (and perhaps other differences from humanity), who reach maturity at 80+ and live for hundreds of years. They live by raiding each other but are starting to discover the world beyond their borders. Early on when you first meet them they're talking about their desire to kill hundreds of children; turns out that's their term for humans, because of their relative size. Also turns out they're the remnants of a fallen civilization called the Thelomen Toblakai, and were originally contemporaries with the Imass 300,000 years ago. Pureblood Thelomen Toblakai were bigger, though, 18+ feet tall instead of 8-9. Corruption of the bloodlines is a big theme for them.

4.) Tiste Andii, Tiste Edur, and Tiste Liosaan are three branches of long-lived beings who've fled here from a civil war on their own world. They represent Darkness, Shadow, and Light respectively. The civil war has something to do with the Andii feeling betrayed that Mother Dark created Light and Shadow. The three branches don't get along. Tiste Andii are fatalistic and uncaring, Tiste Liosaan are arrogant and inflexible, Tiste Edur are primitive and bloodthirsty. Tiste Andii have a reputation as deadly assassin/mages, and are skilled at magics of darkness and destruction, but don't go in for reanimating undead or anything.

5.) The Malazans are a recently-risen human empire which ideologically kind of resembles the Communist revolution in China (purges of the bourgeois nobility are still ongoing) and militarily resembles the Roman Empire (esp. in attitude, either offering friendship to a beaten foe and removing the causes of strife, or else destroying it utterly: no better friend and no worse enemy). Kind of light on the mage artillery, but with very professional troops.

There are several other races/factions in the Malazan story, too. Anyway, at the very least it would make a very cool mod, and might stir the creative juices. The actual powers of e.g. the T'lan Imass aren't anything especially novel (well okay, frozen ice zombies are more common than fire zombies), but their motivations for becoming undead ARE novel and that's what makes a good story. Or Dominions theme, as the case may be, with e.g. the war between the Vanir and the Niefel giants.

-Max