R'lyeh: Endless Night

[Sombre]

Have you been able to play dom3k badger?

[Aezeal]

Honey hasn't been able to play anything for a long time so I guess no. Have you been able to play it Sombre?

[HoneyBadger]

Ofcourse I haven't, Sombre, but you knew that already. I do feel, however, that Aezeal's put a lot of effort and enthusiasm into this project, and that he deserves some support. Considering that I'm one of the people who came up with the idea in the first place, I feel I'm in a position to offer that support, and even to envision my own contributions to the effort, in a format of my choosing.

I feel, in a word, responsible. No Dr Frankenstein am I.

As to whether my particular "vision" is "canon", I don't feel all that attached to it. It's Aezeal's baby, as far as I'm concerned. So he can decide what's what, and if he wants me to change something to make a better fit, I will attempt to do so without ill feeling. But like with your Warhammer mods, you have the right to interpret them as you see fit, irregardless of the opinions of others. They belong to you--but at the same time, you can't claim that they fall under the Warhammer company aegis.

[Aezeal]

Well there isn't that much need for canon There are races that somehow ended up in space, they mostly developed independant of eachother so there are no attachments

I'll just try to help balancing them against eachother, whatever you do with your nation is really up to you

[Darkwind]

Well, you asked me to help you un-uninspire yourself, here I am.

I might as well start with what I think the mindset of the Aboleths might be. My thinking is that, after so long (presumably) in a black hole, the Aboleths would themselves be altered at least mentally. They, once planning to dominate 'lesser' species (and perhaps ally with their 'equals'), would now be more destructive in nature (like a black hole). Basically, everything an Aboleth finds that isn't also an Aboleth (or sepulchre, or whatever), it wants to kill or convert (or something along those lines). One could think of the Aboleth homeplanet as a great big "black hole", with the Aboleths (playing the role of horrible, crushing, warping gravity) spreading outwards far in every direction to bring everything under control of the Aboleths. I'm not sure how that would be represented in-game, though (small death dominion? lots of unrest from undead, mindraping, betentacled beasts roaming around (so you'd have to patrol heavily to keep up your income, resulting in fewer people or less income)?).

I'll post more when I have time (I don't right now, you see).

[HoneyBadger]

Thanks Darkwind-keep it coming!

[Darkwind]

I guess I'll do one 'theme' per post. So, this post's 'theme' is Sepulchres. Keep in mind this is just my interpretation, and any thematic/semithematic/pretty much any suggestions I have can be used or not used at your (or Aezeal's I guess) leisure.

I think of the Sepulchres as a cross between a cathedral and a Zerg hatchery. They are living beings (perhaps those Aboleths whose bodies could not be recovered, but whose minds persevered--or perhaps holy men caught by the holes) whose minds, already warped by suffering in a black hole, have been forced into an immobile receptacle. Sepulchres, if not simply insane, would be warped just as much (if not more) than the average Aboleth, and would be practically the opposite of what they were before. Going by the names, I think the 'holy men' theory fits best--the Sepulchres are more unholy than holy. Although, the Sepulchres don't have Holyor Unholy as the case may be). But I'll continue in my train of thought despite that (and perhaps convince you to give them some Holy).

A Sepulchre's role in Aboleth society would still be roughly the same, though, I think. A Sepulchre is an Aboleth version of, say, Notre Dame--a masterful combination of life and architecture, perverting the holy and sacred in artful and aesthetic ways (to an Aboleth). They pass out advice and guide Aboleths in their endless quest to corrupt or destroy what they once sought to hold in an iron mental grip. The Sepulchres are still only 'local' priests, however, and are not the top of the society (probably due also in part to their constructed nature), so in game-terms they'd probably get holy-2 (probably at the cost of some other magic). Considering their magic, Sepulchres would also probably act as sort of 'magic centers'. They would help draw matter from black holes (likely a sacred task), if not do the bulk of it. Different Sepulchres would specialize in different combinations of magic--possibly depending on their tendencies before.

To sum up (and add a bit more): Sepulchres are, in my mind, beings of priestly authority warped and placed in a living structure to help feed the growing 'Event Horizon' of the Aboleths. I think they would go well with either 1 or 2 Holy (depending on the Sepulchre perhaps) at the cost of reduced magic. They'll probably end up being the main summoners, due to their non-capital-only nature and immobility. Perhaps add a national spell (if only for thematic reasons if the spells aren't that useful) for each of the Sepulchres?

I hope this is enough to get your brain-juices flowing, because I practically wrote a book on the Sepulchres. I guess that's just how cool they are.

[Aezeal]

The sepulchers sound like a nice idea.. you could have them domsummon, summon or ust make creatures. Basicly they are a broken version of the more powerfull aboleths

About the post before that: I'm not quite sure how to implement that best in the game

What is the plan with the graphs btw? I can't wait to see this in action.

[HoneyBadger]

Bump: These guys are starting to come together nicely. Sepulchres are going to be very strong but immobile, non-SC-able mages.

[Darkwind]

If those last four sprites are for the Sepulchres, it looks like I went in a completely wrong direction (or mostly wrong anyways), not only about the whole priest-thing (which was a bit off what you posted to begin with) but about them being buildings. They look awesome, though, including the non-Sepulchre sprites

I noticed you made a couple other changes, though. It seems the Voice is Ethereal and Immobile now, with H2.