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Last Light of a Dark Age (Warhammer 29K/Disco Elysium)

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Cetashwayo said:
Dramatic mistake. Theia is a terror and the country of Koinon lives in awe and fear of her. Eleusia was a combat diviner - Theia is something else entirely.
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Aha, I mentioned Eleusia in the hopes you would explain the differences between their foresight! Also just because Theia is stronger doesn't mean she's cooler! "Justice is Blind" is a great central concept for a character!
Cetashwayo said:
In the present, no idea: you're a facist. Most of what present-Harmony remembers is being drowned out by your Face Realism axiom. The only thing you remember is something about Grave Soil and Free Soil.
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Remember kids - being facist prevents you from having cool lore dumps! Don't be facist!
"Grave Soil" land for veterans maybe? And "Free Soil" as a pioneer spirit/citizen farmer type of deal? Who knows!
Cetashwayo said:
Theia is a high-minded idealist and a brilliant constitution-writer, architect, scientist, and thinker. Morpheos has the staple lobby's support, but he's also a tremendous patron of art, culture, and a more open and less austere culture in Koinon, including the lifting some specific taboos important in Koinon you don't understand. Morpheos was actually a 'blackblood' - he was constituted as a designer print by a well-to-do gene-lineage, built from the ground up to be absolutely perfect and his lineage carries significant weight in his decision-making even after his ascension to a Prime Soul. By comparison Theia was born into one of the oldest and most respected gene-lineages in the country and her support for the revolution was a significant surprise. When much of her family was purged and she ate their souls on the Day of Twin Suns she also inherited the estate.
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Wow, she does sound frightening! And they called Pandora Terror. (*Quietly scrolls to my notes section titled "Potential Love Interest(s)?" and changes "Theia: An Unbelievably Bad Idea For So Many Reasons (Probably Not)" to "Theia: Perhaps The Worst Idea Anyone Has Ever Had (Maybe)"*)

Nice to know Morpheus has good traits!
Cetashwayo said:
Now Hyperion - he is an institution. His current position as an abolitionist is something of a horrible turn for those who selected him. A tremendous war-wizard in his youth and an elder statesman, it was known he had become somewhat...eccentric, and odd in his later years after his retirement fourty years ago, and took only few students. But his ability, his skill and his ancient reputation meant that most assumed whatever eccentricities he had would have been abandoned when he took power.

In hindsight, it became clear instead Hyperion had become a brazen radical in the last years of his life, was seeding that thinking into every single aristocratic student being sent to him, and may have been openly plotting the mass execution of large portions of the aristocracy before the war even began. This, at least, are some of the accusations leveled against him - others believed he was a man of circumstance whose academic radicalism was accidentally propelled into prominence and he improvised with the wisdom and dangerous cunning of a man who had fought more battles than any scrytegon combined. Others think he's just nuts and senile.
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I remember he had "surprisingly loyal" Carnosans at his estate who followed him instead of getting captured by the Cordial. But, well, this is after they had done an orgy of war crimes so there's only so much you can figure out from that.

Hyperion's cool though - shame he killed just about everyone we ever loved.
 
IToadlyFrogot said:
I remember he had "surprisingly loyal" Carnosans at his estate who followed him instead of getting captured by the Cordial. But, well, this is after they had done an orgy of war crimes so there's only so much you can figure out from that.
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Not all the Carnosans in Koinon were as miserable as our poor hummingbird. Many fled there, and to Cybaris, to live the closest thing they could to "normal" lives in human bodies. It was something of a cause celebre among those who opposed the outright destruction of the Freescape even if they didn't rise so far as to question Gnosis.
 
Cetashwayo said:
In hindsight, it became clear instead Hyperion had become a brazen radical in the last years of his life, was seeding that thinking into every single aristocratic student being sent to him, and may have been openly plotting the mass execution of large portions of the aristocracy before the war even began.
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It's always fun how Hyperion is Socrates if he was just straight up leader of the Thirty Tyrants, then also ascending as the demigod of sick gains off of Plato glazing him so hard.
 
QM what does Harmony know of the state ruled by blanks in that far away coast? Did she treat them like savage natives that reject Christ gnosis? Did she think of them at all after the visit from the gnosis agents looking for a forbit book from there?

If the three questions in one post is too much, I'll be happy with one answered.
 
Medicus said:
QM what does Harmony know of the state ruled by blanks in that far away coast? Did she treat them like savage natives that reject Christ gnosis? Did she think of them at all after the visit from the gnosis agents looking for a forbit book from there?

If the three questions in one post is too much, I'll be happy with one answered.
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Miss Normal doesn't normally think deeply about a pack of demiurge worshippers in deep decline. She didn't remember anything about Harmony's own life including Mulberry and Lovergirl's visit.

They are being rehabilitated now.
 
Remember kids - being facist prevents you from having cool lore dumps! Don't be facist!
"Grave Soil" land for veterans maybe? And "Free Soil" as a pioneer spirit/citizen farmer type of deal? Who knows!
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Grave soil could refer to like, "we gained only enough territory to bury all our fallen" or something similar. It could also just refer to all the war torn land in koinon
Free soil might refer to the land untouched by war, at least physically. Or it might refer to something else, probably does but we dont know because we are, unfortunately, a fascist.
 
Cetashwayo said:
Miss Normal doesn't normally think deeply about a pack of demiurge worshippers in deep decline. She didn't remember anything about Harmony's own life including Mulberry and Lovergirl's visit.

They are being rehabilitated now.
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The funny emoji is the closest to screaming.

For the Butterfly, my friends, for the Butterfly!

And here I was worried we weren't gonna continue our hilarious parallels to Kora! But no I think we'll end up fine when trying to be as bad at being a gnostic monk as her! Maybe skip the clone army thing though.
 
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What's the interior of a cube like? How do the giant screens work once you move past a couple blocks of skyscrapers? How do the floors work without feeling too cramped?
 
chickeness said:
What's the interior of a cube like? How do the giant screens work once you move past a couple blocks of skyscrapers? How do the floors work without feeling too cramped?
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A Default cube is endless stacks of prefabricated rectangular blocks that are created and demolished by manipulating the cube mainframe (easier) or editing the bloxks directly by cybernetic means (harder). Every surface on the cube besides the outer walls can be coded by architectural shapers into some other material form, shifted around, etc. Over time cube cities have become more and more elaborate, unique, and artistic in how they present this. The understory of Malachite are cubeblocks which have been psychically altered and recoded to completely reshape them. Cubes have fortified sections of the Black Noise and their own digital architecture is so secure and dangerous to tamper with few try. They were clearly designed as defensive instruments and punish those trying to hack them with the full force of a Prelapsarian antivirus.

As for space: you have a 5 by 5 by 5 KM playspace to work with with almost unlimited material possibilities. That is a lot. You can build winding urban jungles with no clear levels, Kowloon-esque tenement cities, New York Style thoroughfares, tiered garden cities - sometimes all in the same Cube. The main limitation is the energy involved - it is easier to renovate or reformat a Cube, but it is still a major and energy expensive project. The Tree of Souls is not itself a Living Wall like the rest of the Cube, but has roots inside the Cube's Black Noise and has integrated itself into its structure through cyberpsychic engineering.
 
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blue marble said:
Free soil might refer to the land untouched by war, at least physically. Or it might refer to something else, probably does but we dont know because we are, unfortunately, a fascist.
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A Fascist?! That sounds bad. No. You are a Fac-ist. A faceist! You just don't like strangers and prefer Kora faces!!! It is sensible!! Mom warned you against talking to strangers!!
 
Cetashwayo said:
This is definitely not intentional and Face Realism as an axiom is entirely legitimate and, one may say, Normal.
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Harmony views are entirely justified and any criticism should be directed to her personality cult, which is primarily composed of a significant minority who idolize her due to her actions in space WW1 and who view her as a strong charismatic figure with excellent taste in music and would gladly support the centralizition of her power should she ever run for the Progeny equivalent of chancellor.

Edit: There is zero chance of space WW2 happening, and the fact that QM chose an 18-year time skip is entirely coincidental. I'm sure Harmony will not play a central role in that conflict.
 
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Cetashwayo said:
Mom warned you against talking to strangers!!
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She helped us go on a date with Karuna and approved of Roxana giving us attention!
Cetashwayo said:
This is definitely not intentional and Face Realism as an axiom is entirely legitimate and, one may say, Normal.
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So glad we left Elegy in charge of our hylic military cult who was noted to be (a) more bigoted than us against strangers (she also helped break Morpheus by stopping us killing the Lavender Koras) and (b) hears the whales singing. Perhaps she hears the same song that the Grey sung us in Tomorrow Belongs to Me?
 
IronKnightofSilv said:
Harmony views are entirely justified and any criticism should be directed to her personality cult, which is primarily composed of a significant minority who idolize her due to her actions in space WW1 and who view her as a strong charismatic figure with excellent taste in music and would gladly support the centralizition of her power should she ever run for the Progeny equivalent of chancellor.

Edit: There is zero chance of space WW2 happening, and the fact that QM chose an 18-year time skip is entirely coincidental. I'm sure Harmony will not play a central role in that conflict.
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I was so focused on Eros but you know who is probably in the most danger? The poor Tetrasi with their still living non-gnostic Eldar God and their history as part of the Immaculate Myriad.
 
Harmony, and the Progeny as a whole, actually misunderstand entirely what Tetras 'is', what their birthright tech is, and even what their society is like. You'll learn more soon :)
 
Cetashwayo said:
Other Deities

Illuminata also sports minor, regional deities that do not fit neatly into existing frameworks and schemas, or are regionally worshipped with a fervour that surpasses their connection to gnosis.

Kora: The original. Born a mutant and a slave. Took her face and form from the gnostic Icon of Life Remari, and constructed an empire of clones, born and converted, the Immaculate Myriad, in her memory. Died one-hundred-fifty years old fighting the nascent league of Koinon for control of the Lapsarian Lung. After decades of schisomachia, a brutal war of clone-successors, the Conclave emerged as the sole surviving Kora-state. It is the doctrine of the Conclave she died for your sins - imperfect selves that you are. Koras outside the Progeny appear to organize under a worldwide "Immaculate College" of unknown agenda or organization who deny Kora's divinity. Body remains preserved in Cube Malachite, the Progeny's capital.

Bronze-King: Twenty-armed and ten-eyed creature of the iron-rusted land. Fell from Heaven and discovered the titans. Transformed and was transformed by them, and seduced them to his promise to spread the word of the All-Messiah and found Titanagalbat. Passed many years ago, with the mantle falling to another Bronze-King, a woman-groom. The Bronze-King is called for the elder titan of the same title, and leaves behind their name and prior identity when they succeed to the throne. There have been five in all.

All-Messiah: The protector of synthetic spirits and patron of technology and the motive force underlying existence. Associated with the Mother and Father, but also surpassing and influencing them in turn. Believed to be contained within the Black Noise and without it, to be a buried drake and a star-glass shard, to be a golden lord and a black-egg. Many are the legends attached to him and few the explanations, for his legend appears to be from beyond the firmament, and not Illuminata itself.

Unsouled Saint: Unknown genitor, particularly worshipped in Koinon's Adikia wastes and Titanagalbat. Believed to have carved the oldest ruins of Illuminata and granted it the most powerful of gifts. Said to observe the foibles of mankind, and find it wanting. A wizard and companion of the Father and Mother, his worship fits uncomfortably into gnosis but cannot be stamped out. It was said he was made neither of flesh or not-flesh.

Long Grandfather: Machine-deity of the Binar Nightcities. Believed to be father of the corewyrms, the largest extant machines that Illuminata has to offer, who construct tunnels into the mantle and are prayed to as Gods among the pagans of those cities. Ally of the Mother, from which there sprung their children, the corewyrms. His body remains in Shaihulad Canyon, an enormous, many-kilometer length capped by a drill-mouth.

Aisha: Goddess of life, patron of the garden-city of Ylfame and worshipped in the Progeny especially. Said to have given the Progeny the gifts of war-masks, farsight, soul-groves, war-runes, and ethereal beauty. Though once answering of prayers, has fallen mute, and no response is heard save for the hiss of a chortling reptile.

Cain: Red God of war and murder, patron-deity of the cube of Thymos and worshipped in Koinon especially. Said to have killed his brother while building Thymos' cube-walls and was cursed by the Father, ordered to be a figure of self-sacrificing patriotism. Said to grant the soldiers of Koinon virtue and discipline in warfare.

Lilith: Lilac goddess of dreams and fortune, patron-deity of Cube Epythemea, worshipped in Koinon. Said to have built that cube-city after being cast from heaven. Warned Cain of his fate, but was not listened to. Called sometimes "the infinite", collector of trinkets and hopes.

Ashur-Yan: Great deity of Logos, lord of reason, seers. Believed to have been killed by the demiurge and then resurrected on the third day as a phoenix. Also said to have failed his people, and to have been exiled, a silent king - to return and restore heaven to all mankind, at the end of days.

Gog and Magog: Worshipped particularly among the Chrome Kings. Primitive and mystic machine-beings who are said to be cleverly cruel and cruelly clever, locked in eternal battles and drag-races. In the fall, deprived of their intelligence and speech blocked behind a blackwall - at the end of days, the Mother will open the wall's gates, and they shall become the mounts of the Holy-Martial Sovereign, the ultimate overdriver, who will unite the quarreling clans and grind Illuminata beneath their wheels.

Drumlock: Good snake of the stars. Worshipped by the Skywatch, Chrome-Kings, and the Marchforts as the 'fine serpent' that will be ridden, flown, or yoked, and carry all Illuminata to the good paradise and the return of the Mother and Father. Sometimes associated with Long Grandfather by those Binari closest to the surface, gnosis and the wider civilization. An icon of speed and power, the favored patron of racers everywhere.

Kegoramaya: The spider-fool, who is said to have given Tetras the gift of the Dharmic spinneret. She exposed the illusion of stranger and familiar, and stitched together the faces of the first Tetrasi disciples so that they might form one communion. Laughed at the pretension and pride of the Kora, and wrapped the hubris of her lineage in a great cocoon, from which emerged enlightened ones. Seen as an energetic force present within the Tetrasi, in particular their devas, who laugh at all dishonest things.

Asterion: The monster of the labyrinth. A Still Coast demonological figure. Controversial, and forbidden to speak of in Gnosis.

Many other small deities remain, worshipped here and there - but their meanings, names, and natures are obscure to you.
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Here's my changes to the list of Cetashwayo's list of non-gnostic deities. Green means that they're secretly imprisoned (Aisha by Nurgle (well actual Isha is but I don't think it's a coincidence that the petriform missile that hit Ylfame wasn't stopped) and Kora from her death). Red and struck-through means they don't survive the war (the Eldar Gods were already dead but it fits better this way) the fact that the Bronze-King was killed puts the All-Messiah's worship in danger but honestly until we know more I don't know how that's going to end up (it also kills the sponsor of the other non-gnostic deities). Unsouled Saint is probably the Breathless God/Furtive Roach who probably just keeps popping up lol. Adikia's populations were notably devastated during the war I wouldn't be shocked if their original cultures weren't meaningfully extant as a political force. Titan is still ??? until we know more. All the underlined deities are still around as far as we know and there is plenty to speculate about them and their relations to the Suns (looking suspiciously at the possibility that there's more than one Green Sun/Son like perhaps Gog and Magog? Is Drumlock the "good snake of the stars" because they're the Long Grandfather or because they're a helpful Warp Entity from beyond the shield? What's up with Binar and the Long Grandfather? And why is Asterion AKA the Minotaur who Obsidian Butterfly gave a flower to on this list?) and the fact that it seems like the worship of non-Red Sun color-coded deities like Kora, Hyperion, Theia, and Morpheus is going to be at an all time low within at least two of the empires (Titan still unknown pending civil war outcome but that bit about the Killer of Souls + Theia seeing the Black Egg prophecy well idk) and Gnosis being resurgent explicitly because of the White Sun saving the world from Chaos.

Well, the Red Sun is the Sun symbolizing apocalypse but did you know the that apocalypse just means "revelation" in Ancient Greek? What if all three of the empires are getting along now?

Cetashwayo said:
The rehabilitation is for the Still Coast.
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For the Butterfly! For Mom's Friend from Beyond the Grave! We're going to end up like the best heretics - we'll learn too much and diverge intentionally! Or unintentionally with our Reason stats!
Cetashwayo said:
Harmony, and the Progeny as a whole, actually misunderstand entirely what Tetras 'is', what their birthright tech is, and even what their society is like. You'll learn more soon :)
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Wait, are we going to wake up in Gossamer? That'd be funny. And far be it from me to underestimate the honk-god's plots. You don't survive the destruction of your own pantheon for no reason.
 
LuciDreamer said:
We've seen how much the Dreamshapes' actions shaped the course of Illuminatan history, but I wonder how much of this was actually planned, and how much of it was flying by the seat of their pants as they adapt to ever-changing circumstances in not-dreamspace. Realspace?

Given our Shapes' general antipathy towards Hylics and its believe that they literally drains conscience and intelligence, I highly doubt they see it as desirable that Illuminata is making more of them and elevating them to greater importance now.

Being careful not to word this as a question, as I've definitely gone over my 3-question-limit, lol.
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It looks more planned than not. The dreamshapes hijacked most of the petriform missiles, but not all of them. They not only had detailed information on what Chaos was plotting, but had a fairly complex strategy on how to twist it to their own purposes.
 
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