Mod: Nova Deus II v1.22 (w/ New Content)

[HoneyBadger]

I'm not really thinking the "original" Abyssian being a direct evolutionary forerunner so much as a chaotic primal magma "spring" from which the Abyssian Race "flows", kindof vaguely in the same vein as the Aboleth Polypal Mother, but male instead of female. While originally an Abyssian like the rest, the Prime Abyssian instead chose to remain in the Smouldercone and become it's heart. Now that I think about it some more, the Prime Abyssian could be the "father" of the Magma Children, and might produce them or something similar. This wouldn't be Rhuax, though, the Prime Abyssian would be Abyssian only with the idea that it/he (emphasis on "it" though) lives inside the Smouldercone, functioning as the classic "Volcano God". The Prime Abyssian might also backgroundwise explain why Abyssians can blood-sacrifice, since they'd toss their virgin captives into the Smouldercone to feed the Prime.

[Endoperez]

HoneyBadger said:
The Prime Abyssian might also backgroundwise explain why Abyssians can blood-sacrifice, since they'd toss their virgin captives into the Smouldercone to feed the Prime.

Actually, they blood-sacrifice due to a certain Malphas the Corruptor and his machinations in the Early Age. They are such a tragic nation.

[Valandil]

Malphas is awesome. Not to mention being one of the few abysians that is NOT dying of old age (4500 years...).

[HoneyBadger]

I thought of that, but Malphas may not show up right away in EA. It can be assumed that he is the one who started all the bloodletting, or one could assume that he only started in with bloodmagic and that sort of corrupting demonic influence, when and if he actually shows up in EA. By Middle Era we can assume that Malphas has corrupted Abyssia, but in EA, before he actually makes his presence known, I like to think that Abyssia is still on the right track, as it were. That said, I doubt, even "uncorrupted" that they'd have a lot of moral anguish over chucking a couple of plump humans over the side of the Smouldercone on Abyssian Christmas Day.

By the way, did anyone notice Malphas having 3 forms rather than 2 in 3.0? I seem to remember he did, but he doesn't anymore.

[Foodstamp]

HoneyBadger, I disagree with your interpretation of the Great Mother a little bit. I think this is supposed to be the living embodiment of her to a certain extent. I draw this from the fact that she is not an immobile pretender.

[zepath]

I'm still working on it, but just wanted to post an update of the progress. The following is so far completed for Nova Deus II:

-revamped Prince of Death
-revamped Moloch
-revamped Freak Lord
-revamped Vampire Queen
-revamped Crone
-revamped Sphinx
-new Risen Emperor pretender for LA Ermor
-new White and Black Dragon pretenders for select nations (Black: LA Man, I haven't assigned the White yet; I've updated the graphics for these from the original Nova Deus as well as their "human" forms -- the Dirgesinger and White Wizard)
-new Watcher pretender for a few nations (def. Agartha and LA R'lyeh)
-new Heavenly Messenger pretender (I'm thinking MA Marignon and perhaps a few others)
-new Colossus pretender (port from my Teutanion mod, prob. for Ulm)
-new World Tree pretender (port from my Sylvania mod, def. Pangaea and Marverni)
-new Lord of Destruction pretender (from my Ruinous Powers mod)
-new Lord of Pleasure pretender (from my Ruinous Powers mod)
-new Changer of Ways pretender (from my Ruinous Powers mod, with changes)
-new Lord of Decay pretender (from my Ruinous Powers mod)
-new Pythian Iconoclast priest commander for Pythium

I still plan to work on at least the Earth Mother and Phoenix before posting a v1.0 release, but I've got all your suggestions in mind. Of course, I'd like to get this out pretty soon so some of the more adventurous ideas will have to wait for future versions.

One thing that's pissing me off is the #restrictedgod command. I would like to make these pretenders available to a great many nations, but with so many new gods it would demand that I make an unacceptable number of new monsters. So until we see greater flexibility with pretender modding expect the new gods to be available to only a few nations each and perhaps only one each. If you want to tweak the .dm file afterward and change the nations I assign them too, that's cool. Just keep in mind the compatibility issue that might raise in MP games. (I assume people will be using this in MP as well as SP games because of the generic graphical improvements.) Also, if you have suggestions on which nations these new gods should go to, offer 'em up!

Edit: Ragnarok-X, I'd be happy to incorporate your gods into Nova Deus II with your permission. I will probably be creating a new Phoenix myself, however. Anything I haven't touched is fair game. At this point the mod is becoming a bit larger than I original anticipated and combining many or all of the pretender mods out there might not be a bad idea. Let me know if you're willing and I'll put your work in with full credits.

On that note... Endoperez, I could also incorporate your Anansi pretender mod if you think that's alright.

[Endoperez]

Ooh, Anansi Incorporated! Fine by me.

[zepath]

Awesome! I'm guessing the latest version is still the one posted in the original "Anansi [v1.00]" thread?

[upstreamedge]

this mod makes my game crash, I can not start a new game.

[Shovah32]

Are you running any other mods that may conflict with it(probably one adding new pretender/s)