The Ark can kill your pretender?

[Alneyan]

Silly me; I have bodyguards to use after all. Fifty hired swords should have jumped to save my hide from these unwanted complications. Alas, I seem to recall something about "unpaid wages" due to having to save up for hiring that plane. I would have expected more lenience in such petty requests; so I haven't paid in one year, but I would have eventually done so.

So, a quick reality check:
* There are currently two known schemes to ensure a swift demise should I attempt something foolish. Nothing tells me there are not other similar threats, unbeknown to me.
* A courier has already been sent, and her abilities are a mystery. But even if she is not just a magically enlarged dragonfly, the other threats aforementioned are enough to... erh... convince me.
* Arryn herself may be waiting somewhere, for example right in my back. Never underestimate the power of a Teleport spell.
* Even the paper dictating the conditions of the surrender may carry a poison of some sort. I should tread carefully here. What is this odd fragrance I am smelling?

Thus I can conclude I have little choice. Where is the paper I have to sign? Hopefully, with such vague terms of "unconditional surrender" et al, you will not even have to add in invisible clauses. I might want to do so though... Did I speak that thought aloud? Oops.

[Vicious Love]

Not to diverge too sharply from the topic at hand(Something about elephants and waterplanes?), but it seems the Ark does NOT affect friendlu unholy troops. I happen to concur with this, thematically, but a good case can easily be made for the alternative.
Either way, thought that was something people might want to know, game mechanic-wise.

And it doesn't get much apter, than the Jesus analogy. Awww, yeah. Holy water purifies; it washes your sins/the devil out of you(Let's assume the two are interchangeable. Free will and original sin are no less self- and other- contradictory than anything else in the Good Book). If you['re more devil than man(Or woman, but the bible tends to kinda gloss over those), the process kills you.
As any good Christian'll tell you, the devil is any and all thoughts save "praise God". Ergo, all non-sacred troops have a bit o' ol' Scratch in them. The principle of Universal Christian Guilt dictates all sacred troops also possess some measure of sin, and are therefore just as damned to Hell as non-sacreds, but we shall assume, for the purpose of this thought experiment, that it is too miniscule a quantity of evil to visibly react to holy water, and requires a more rigorous form of testing, such as snake-handling or an inquisitorial pyre.
Wherein lies the crux(Our Father, pardon the pun) of the analogy: Degree of sanctity. After all, only truly wicked babies die in their sleep after merely being baptized, and only the possessed actually respond with epileptic seizures. Furthermore, only demons, vampires, and Muslims actually BURN, when exposed to the stuff. The aforementioned pyre, on the other hand, will burn the sin right out of anyone and anything. The process is the same, but intensities vary. Such is the Ark.

While I'm willing to grant that your pretender is more evangelist than saint, that hardly counts for anything in light of the fact that he wrote the Book. Honestly, a simple escape clause for divine atheists is all it would take.

[Vicious Love]

It's just come to my attention that members of the National Socialist party have been known to liquefy when in visual contact with the Ark. Has any effort been made to correlate this with the Oberfuhrer Hypothesis?

Methinks a conspiracy is at hand.

[Vicious Love]

This just in, juggernauts are every bit as susceptible to the ark as pretty much everything else. On the one hand, I respect the powerfully Christian notion of EVERYONE except the tiniest, most insignificant portion of the population being doomed to Hell.
On the other, methinks giant icons on wheels should be exempt from damnation. Unless that damn artifact has issues with idolatry, as well. That box just won't compromise.

Honestly, why aren't juggernauts sacred? Is there some sort of game balance issue I'm oblivious to? What's the worst that could happen, 150% speed tramplers with reinvigoration? Nasty, but not much nastier than an unmodified juggernaut. The defense boost is meaningless. And the defense bonus is meaningless. Only soulless and their ilk can't hit a juggernaut, and such cannon fodder can rarely penetrate protection 20?
Fire-9? Flaming fists that rarely miss targets of juggernaut size or above. If there is a size above juggernaut size. Add Blood-9, and I'd still rather have the thing trample.
Air? Only good against arbalests, lightning(Not worth it), and possibly flaming arrows. I mean, protection 20. Solid.Protection I suppose the astral MR boost would be the ideal blessing, but I still can't see how that would be overpowered.
Death? Worthwhile if it turned into some kind of Soulless Juggernaut when killed. That'd be sweet.
Nature? Worth it if only to see one of those things go berserk.

Thoughts?

[Taqwus]

Hmmm, I don't see a huge issue with sacred Juggernauts, nor with the Ark sparing its owning pretender,considering that both are holy enough to spread the owner's dominion just like the Ark.

(And, being basically large heavy icon platforms, they don't have minds, right? Mindless units should probably be non-berserkable if they aren't already.)

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Vicious Love said:
Honestly, why aren't juggernauts sacred?

I thought they were?

[archaeolept]

zen's SCQR 1.0 has them as sacred...

have they been changed?

[johan osterman]

Taqwus said:
... Mindless units should probably be non-berserkable if they aren't already.)

Well, Golems go berserk all the time, it is basically what being a Golem is all about.

[Cainehill]

Johan, given that the ark already can tell the difference between one sacred flag and another (ie, it kills enemy sacred troops but not friendly) is there really any reason why it couldn't do the same for the pretender flag on a unit?

The juggernaut isn't a huge issue, but the pretender getting blinded and diseased is.

[Vicious Love]

My mistake, turns out juggernauts ARE sacred, unless created by an unholy nation(In which case they get neither the "holy" nor the "unholy" flag). Sorry about the misinformation.
Mind you, I do believe this latter case still warrants a fix. I mean, an unholy temple on wheels should at least be unholy. And a temple. On wheels.