Dominions history?

[Duncanish]

Just out of curiousity, is there anything written about Dominions history and cosmology? Like what exactly Ermor was attempting? The stories behind Bogus and his troop? Who or what is Kurgi? I assume he's either an old Doom Horror or a once-great Astral mage that ended up enslaved (in one artifact description it calls him the "slave of Unreason").

[Jurri]

I certainly hope not! Part of the allure is that so many things are left for the ol' imagination.

[Gandalf Parker]

I think the closest thing we have to a "history" is that Kristoffers daytime job involves teaching religions and (sociology?). He does most of the theme work and artist stuff.

There is an interesting note about Bogus though since that was the name of the company before it became Illwinter.

[Chazar]

That Kurgi has kept me guessing: I oddly assort it to a fictional deity named "Kirgi", a rat god in some RPG-pantheon book (Palladium), but I do not think that Illwinter would just use a made-up name from other fictional work...

It is quite interesting though to ask wikipedia.org about the names of the seven IceDevils. I was not previously aware that those prominent names were not just made up by Illwinter. The above mentioned RPG also (ab)used names from mythology, so I assume that there might be a common source for Kirgi/Kurgi, but a quick glance at wikipedia and google did not reveal anything...

EDIT: "(ab)use" was solely meant in funny way - in the sense that the names are attached to slightly different things than usual. Nevertheless I agree that this adds quite some flavour...

[SurvivalistMerc]

Using names from mythology to form the basis of a fictional game about magic and user-operated demigods doesn't seem like "(ab)use" to me. It seems like what I would expect and desire in a classic strategy game based on the ancient myths of humankind.

Kudos to the devs if they have done more work on this game than even I suspected (and I suspected a lot, especially for thematic balance reasons).

[archaeolept]

to me I associate kurgi w/ the hindu goddess kali/durga; especially as there seems some thematic link between "kurgi" and the "time of violence" of the kali yuga, and w/ certain of the darker aspects of Kali the destroyer.

[johan osterman]

Kurgi is a name I made up for an unspecified entity originally used for the oathrod description. I intentionaly left the nature of Kurgi unspecified when I wrote it, and was actually a little peeved when Kristoffer made a scenario with a Harvester of Sorrows named Kurgi for dom1.

Most but not all names for demons and Abysians are names dug up from various second hand sources on demonology. If you look around you should be able to dig them up. The attributes of the named devils in dominions correspond to some but not to a great degree to the traits attributed to them. The texts are for the most part not terribly informative on the nature relations or interests of the devils. Often they just state something like "Blah Blah Blah is a great prince that commands 30 legions. He appears as a red peacock or a furious one legged King bearing a crown and riding a serpent. Blah Blag Blah has the power to cure or cause syphilis and is the patron of lewd music and licentious women." Most of it is dull, ridiculous and stupid. Unsuprisingly most of the devils can be called upon to inspire passion in women, I imagine they were the penis enlargment pills of their day.

[Chazar]

johan osterman said:
Unsuprisingly most of the devils can be called upon to inspire passion in women, I imagine they were the penis enlargment pills of their day.

Somehow I cannot resist imagining some mediavel lord being haunted by dozens of mail-pigeons bringing small parchments offering cheap demon summoning recipes...