Professor Vesca
Good News Everyone!
Curse you honk-god!
Last Light of a Dark Age (Warhammer 29K/Disco Elysium)
- Thread starter Cetashwayo
- Start date
- Sci-Fi
somewhatLazy
Serial Procrastinator
- Location
- lurking
Okay, some thoughts on the minor deities which seems to be obviously connected to existing 40k lore...
With how Illuminata is clearly a Necron Tomb World... I'd say that the Saint might be the overlord of the world, one who awoke early, eventually met Father and Mother, and decided to work together with them on their grand project, granting them the knowledge of the blank gene with which they created the Abyssal Nail and thus the enhanced Hylics.
Also, the note about Isha (and only Isha of the Eldar gods!) answering prayers until recently... Isn't that a bit odd, given the Edict of Asuryan separating the Eldar gods from their worshipers? I can see two main theories concerning this. One, I don't understand the real restrictions or even existence of the mythological Edict correctly, and it is in fact okay for the Eldar gods to do this sort of thing. Two, Isha was breaking the Edict again, like she did in the Eldar myth of how she created the Soulstones, and banking on the hope that no one would find out or really care if it was just some weird humans.
The other minor deities seem likely native to Illuminata's history, but who knows for certain? There's a lot of secrets buried in there waiting for us amateur-expert cryptoxenobiologists to nobly uncover and prove ourselves objectively right.
I kind of feel like it's the sort of thing Cetashwayo wouldn't do since it'd make the setting revolve even more around the Primarchs and also the first Bronze King's preexisting knowledge of the Omnissiah implies that he was a member of the Machine Cult somehow sent or exiled here... But "fell from Heaven"!!! I'm still so suspicious it's going to turn out that through Warp-enabled time travel one of the lost Primarchs landed here, built an empire, got stuck in Dark Age of Technology warfare like his dad, and then just fucking died from the nanocancer eating through his plot armor.
Seems like a synthesis of several claimants to the throne of Omnissiah. "A buried drake and a star-glass shard" is quite clearly the Void Dragon, "a golden lord" is the Emperor (Warp-enabled time travel?), and "a black egg" is vague but could be Vashtorr, a minor Chaos God of evil technology.
Okay yeah that's just a fucking Necron right—
With how Illuminata is clearly a Necron Tomb World... I'd say that the Saint might be the overlord of the world, one who awoke early, eventually met Father and Mother, and decided to work together with them on their grand project, granting them the knowledge of the blank gene with which they created the Abyssal Nail and thus the enhanced Hylics.
And then there's just a long list of obvious Eldar gods from whatever cultural exchange there was during the mysterious golden age. Fairly standard worship, though Asuryan appears to have been syncretized with the Silent King, something which would definitely incredibly insult both the Eldar and the Necrons if they ever found out.
Also, the note about Isha (and only Isha of the Eldar gods!) answering prayers until recently... Isn't that a bit odd, given the Edict of Asuryan separating the Eldar gods from their worshipers? I can see two main theories concerning this. One, I don't understand the real restrictions or even existence of the mythological Edict correctly, and it is in fact okay for the Eldar gods to do this sort of thing. Two, Isha was breaking the Edict again, like she did in the Eldar myth of how she created the Soulstones, and banking on the hope that no one would find out or really care if it was just some weird humans.
Also no great insight here but it's just so funny ORK CULT. Gork and Mork making inroads on humie worship! They don't have the waagh but they've got as much spirit as a humie can! They're probably spending just as much time having theological arguments about which one's cleverly cruel and which one's cruelty clever as the Orks do!
The other minor deities seem likely native to Illuminata's history, but who knows for certain? There's a lot of secrets buried in there waiting for us amateur-expert cryptoxenobiologists to nobly uncover and prove ourselves objectively right.
The more the lore expands the more I come to think that this planet was of such monumental importance long ago that every galactic power decided that this planet should be one of the crown jewels in their empire's crown and proceeded into a perpetual one-upmanship contest, that this was some sort of space UN turned Escape From New York, or my darkest theory that this entire planet is one giant Gu pot designed to breed the badest/deadliest Gu in history and each race has overtime dropped some of its Gu into the pot and no single Gu has been bad enough to eat all the other Gu.
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- Location
- Dreiländereck
I think the description could fit Malcador also, depending on his relationship with Big E at this time.
somewhatLazy
Serial Procrastinator
- Location
- lurking
FUCK I failed to realize that the Tetrasi are worshipping fucking Cegorach! (And that Lilith got syncretized with fucking Trazyn the Infinite of all people... Maybe Trazyn was the Unsouled Saint trying to do some serious project for once?) Well, this settles it. I've got to vote for the Tetrasi. Let the honking begin!
[X] Bond with Gen over its grief. The staple is upset, and afraid. It has failed in its fundamental purpose, and it is lashing out. The two of you have to share a head - maybe you should also try and share some of the weight that it's been carrying, and learn more about your other self. INTERLACE CHECK - 13 (CHALLENGING)
[X] Tetrasi Thousandfist. The giant gestalt devas of Tetras' largest cult-communes, composed of hundreds of fused souls in an enormous amalgamated warform, are gods of the battlefield. With Five hundred arms and legs, five hundred faces, five hundred swords - they are a nightmare. However, you could use less of the dippy sermons, and gore-soaked pleas for supreme peace and love.
Plus, more seriously, I think the fact that they're descended from former Stranger-serfs of the Progeny would make them incredibly fascinating to interact with for an increasingly unhappy Kora of the Progeny.
[X] Bond with Gen over its grief. The staple is upset, and afraid. It has failed in its fundamental purpose, and it is lashing out. The two of you have to share a head - maybe you should also try and share some of the weight that it's been carrying, and learn more about your other self. INTERLACE CHECK - 13 (CHALLENGING)
[X] Tetrasi Thousandfist. The giant gestalt devas of Tetras' largest cult-communes, composed of hundreds of fused souls in an enormous amalgamated warform, are gods of the battlefield. With Five hundred arms and legs, five hundred faces, five hundred swords - they are a nightmare. However, you could use less of the dippy sermons, and gore-soaked pleas for supreme peace and love.
Plus, more seriously, I think the fact that they're descended from former Stranger-serfs of the Progeny would make them incredibly fascinating to interact with for an increasingly unhappy Kora of the Progeny.
DualFront
Perhaps, this is Hell
So, based on the ordering of the suns, we are standing at the dawn of the Red Sun, with presumably many more wars to follow after this one ends. The White Sun appears to refer to Dreamspace eventually breaking containment and polygonifying everything, with a fifth, Hylic Sun eventually overcoming the Dreamspace?
Sounds like a Magos with lots of mechadendrites and occular implants.
Do their legends also tell of the coming of the Nisan Al-Gab?
Is this the same labyrinth beneath Dis? If so, it would presumably be some kind of Necron construct.
Strange9
hdellaverson@gmail.com
- Location
- Los Angeles, CA
In the same way that, "A buried drake and a star-glass shard" are two descriptors that both describe the Void Dragon, I think, "to be a golden lord and a black-egg" makes the most sense as a descriptor of The Emperor -- describing him both as the crusading figure he is and the egg for the Dark King (the fifth Chaos God), as detailed in the Horus Heresy series.
This planet we are on does however seem rather deserving of the term black egg.
Strange9
hdellaverson@gmail.com
- Location
- Los Angeles, CA
To take a quick stab at some guesses/ interpretations:
Father/Mother/Cloth&WireVarietals/Icons -- quest originals. The shards & various literal remnants (e.g. lapsarian lung) have some interesting mysteries associated (I think traditionally in 40k men of iron were pretty small, leaning harder into the terminator aesthetic). It's also particular that we've never seen (as far as I can remember) any men of stone analogues
Demiurge -- I mean they're called out as the deceiver. Almost certainly a ctan shard that got further sharded. Probably used supercharged omniphage swarms to get rid of organic life during the Fall
Hydra -- Chaos, now including the new Slaanesh flavor!
Prophecy: We're now grabbing at least partly from mesoamerican mythology, but it remains to be seen if it's more heavily drawing on the idea of a cyclic creation and destruction or more particular ideas about what each sun means
Yellow sun -- Golden age! Opens a mystery about who abducted the Yellow Sun and whether that predates the release of the ctan shard or was caused by it. Color-wise, corresponds unnervingly well to the Emperor/King in Yellow, which could point to them as the child of the Father/Mother. Mesoamerican wise, we've only got half a sun in this era, and if we were stretching we'd have the Yellow Sun (Black Tezca) as a sibling to the ctan shard (Quetz). Probably a stretch.
Green sun -- Color corresponds very well to Necron gauss weaponry. Spooky! Makes sense though, given the deceiver. Bit spooky that it's awaiting the return of its creators! Since the red sun is immediately imminent in the story. Mesoamerican wise we don't necessarily have a great fit, with Quetz (deciever shard?) acting as the sun while humans become gradually corrupted, and Tezca turning everyone to monkeys. I think this kind of literal mapping across the myth is probably off the mark, so probably not worth pursuing
Red sun -- Chaos sun. Bad news, and news that will soon be delivered in-story. Associated with the Crimson King and His second coming (probably not Magnus this time, absent some shenanigans)
White sun -- Associated heavily with psykers. If I had to guess, this is what Koinon will end up creating -- Koinon (in one of the votes in 8) is called, "a country ruled by pneumatics, and in their academies and alchemical workshops." As they gradually embrace the power of the Hydra out of wartime necessity, they'll create a tremendous ritual -- "a geometric arrangement of a million carcasses placed neatly around."
Fifth sun -- If the White sun is the last, this must necessarily be a blackstar: a sun that burns off of suffering rather than fusion. Associated with blanks and defiant jazz. If this world is to have a future, it's going to involve a lot of people fighting for the things they care about after the speculated ritual. As Harmony said, sunrise parabellum.
Kora -- "she died for your sins" oh no they're all psychic clones of jesus.
Bronze King -- given that the first Bronze-King brought the word of the All-Messiah (Omnissiah, even!) it seems very clear that the first one was a Mechanicus warlord. Did pretty well for themselves, given all the Titans.
Unsouled Saint -- Not a clue on this one. It needs to be a figure that has observed humans for an extremely long time, and participated in Illuminata's founding, that is neither of flesh or not-flesh (Necron living metal?). Could definitely be a Necron that stayed active (someone like Orikan) and participated in a few projects
Long Grandfather -- Funky mechanivore??
Aisha/Cain/Lilith/Ashur-Yan -- Aeldari gods. Looks like they had a lot more of an influence here than I'd thought. Ashur-Yan also has some Christian & Necron syncretism bleeding in through the resurrection and Silent King bits. Lilith also grabs some of that, except with Trazyn. If Cetash was feeling very tongue in cheek, Cain being, "ordered to be a figure of self-sacrificing patriotism" actually fits pretty well with Ciaphas Cain, particularly in the context of a propaganda figure.
Gog and Magog -- Gork and Mork? The deprivation of intelligence fits in with their relationship to the Krork, though a prophecy of returning to that state is quite spooky. Also has abrahamic associations with the Apocalypse, ofc.
Drumlock -- ???
Kegoramaya -- Cegorach, who seems to have been particularly involved in Illumina's history. Perhaps drawn to involvement by the Deciever shard? Must have played a role in the aftermath, since the Dharmic Spinneret is Tetras' birthright technology, which would place some involvement very recently in the timeline.
Asterion -- Dis is associated with a labyrinth that had the Deceiver locked inside of it. Perhaps a necron guardian?
Father/Mother/Cloth&WireVarietals/Icons -- quest originals. The shards & various literal remnants (e.g. lapsarian lung) have some interesting mysteries associated (I think traditionally in 40k men of iron were pretty small, leaning harder into the terminator aesthetic). It's also particular that we've never seen (as far as I can remember) any men of stone analogues
Demiurge -- I mean they're called out as the deceiver. Almost certainly a ctan shard that got further sharded. Probably used supercharged omniphage swarms to get rid of organic life during the Fall
Hydra -- Chaos, now including the new Slaanesh flavor!
Prophecy: We're now grabbing at least partly from mesoamerican mythology, but it remains to be seen if it's more heavily drawing on the idea of a cyclic creation and destruction or more particular ideas about what each sun means
Yellow sun -- Golden age! Opens a mystery about who abducted the Yellow Sun and whether that predates the release of the ctan shard or was caused by it. Color-wise, corresponds unnervingly well to the Emperor/King in Yellow, which could point to them as the child of the Father/Mother. Mesoamerican wise, we've only got half a sun in this era, and if we were stretching we'd have the Yellow Sun (Black Tezca) as a sibling to the ctan shard (Quetz). Probably a stretch.
Green sun -- Color corresponds very well to Necron gauss weaponry. Spooky! Makes sense though, given the deceiver. Bit spooky that it's awaiting the return of its creators! Since the red sun is immediately imminent in the story. Mesoamerican wise we don't necessarily have a great fit, with Quetz (deciever shard?) acting as the sun while humans become gradually corrupted, and Tezca turning everyone to monkeys. I think this kind of literal mapping across the myth is probably off the mark, so probably not worth pursuing
Red sun -- Chaos sun. Bad news, and news that will soon be delivered in-story. Associated with the Crimson King and His second coming (probably not Magnus this time, absent some shenanigans)
White sun -- Associated heavily with psykers. If I had to guess, this is what Koinon will end up creating -- Koinon (in one of the votes in 8) is called, "a country ruled by pneumatics, and in their academies and alchemical workshops." As they gradually embrace the power of the Hydra out of wartime necessity, they'll create a tremendous ritual -- "a geometric arrangement of a million carcasses placed neatly around."
Fifth sun -- If the White sun is the last, this must necessarily be a blackstar: a sun that burns off of suffering rather than fusion. Associated with blanks and defiant jazz. If this world is to have a future, it's going to involve a lot of people fighting for the things they care about after the speculated ritual. As Harmony said, sunrise parabellum.
Kora -- "she died for your sins" oh no they're all psychic clones of jesus.
Bronze King -- given that the first Bronze-King brought the word of the All-Messiah (Omnissiah, even!) it seems very clear that the first one was a Mechanicus warlord. Did pretty well for themselves, given all the Titans.
Unsouled Saint -- Not a clue on this one. It needs to be a figure that has observed humans for an extremely long time, and participated in Illuminata's founding, that is neither of flesh or not-flesh (Necron living metal?). Could definitely be a Necron that stayed active (someone like Orikan) and participated in a few projects
Long Grandfather -- Funky mechanivore??
Aisha/Cain/Lilith/Ashur-Yan -- Aeldari gods. Looks like they had a lot more of an influence here than I'd thought. Ashur-Yan also has some Christian & Necron syncretism bleeding in through the resurrection and Silent King bits. Lilith also grabs some of that, except with Trazyn. If Cetash was feeling very tongue in cheek, Cain being, "ordered to be a figure of self-sacrificing patriotism" actually fits pretty well with Ciaphas Cain, particularly in the context of a propaganda figure.
Gog and Magog -- Gork and Mork? The deprivation of intelligence fits in with their relationship to the Krork, though a prophecy of returning to that state is quite spooky. Also has abrahamic associations with the Apocalypse, ofc.
Drumlock -- ???
Kegoramaya -- Cegorach, who seems to have been particularly involved in Illumina's history. Perhaps drawn to involvement by the Deciever shard? Must have played a role in the aftermath, since the Dharmic Spinneret is Tetras' birthright technology, which would place some involvement very recently in the timeline.
Asterion -- Dis is associated with a labyrinth that had the Deceiver locked inside of it. Perhaps a necron guardian?
Cetashwayo
Lord of Ten Thousand Years
- Location
- Across the Horizon
Ciaphas Cain is actually both Father, Mother, Demiurge and Fifth Sun. He had a really crazy gap year after graduating from the Schola Progenium. Not something he likes talking about.
[X] Tell it to get its shit together. Something is capital-U up with this staple. You need it to get through its processors that it's been manipulated and fucked with. Someone else is pulling the strings - Lethe, probably. You have a common enemy, if only you could convince it of that. INCANDESCENCE CHECK - 15 (HEROIC)
I got faith in INCANDESENCE.
[X] Tetrasi Thousandfist. The giant gestalt devas of Tetras' largest cult-communes, composed of hundreds of fused souls in an enormous amalgamated warform, are gods of the battlefield. With Five hundred arms and legs, five hundred faces, five hundred swords - they are a nightmare. However, you could use less of the dippy sermons, and gore-soaked pleas for supreme peace and love.
Neat, more people pushing for a kinder world while soaking in the blood of all those they're tearing to shreds.
I got faith in INCANDESENCE.
[X] Tetrasi Thousandfist. The giant gestalt devas of Tetras' largest cult-communes, composed of hundreds of fused souls in an enormous amalgamated warform, are gods of the battlefield. With Five hundred arms and legs, five hundred faces, five hundred swords - they are a nightmare. However, you could use less of the dippy sermons, and gore-soaked pleas for supreme peace and love.
Neat, more people pushing for a kinder world while soaking in the blood of all those they're tearing to shreds.
Since it's impossible to guess who the Crimson King would be it could be fun to theorize up to the reveal. Who could it be? We have seen Nurgle and Slanesh in small amounts, but we have yet to see Khorne. Given Cetashwayo's interest in unexplored lore, references to ancient humanity, and how devastating this war is going to be, I'm hoping we will get an appearance of Doombreed AKA demon prince Genghis Khan, aka the strongest of all blood thirsters.
Also, new crack theory: There was a primarch long ago, we're in the path of the Great Crusade, the Emperor is coming, nothing will be permitted but yellow, yada yada yada.
All of it already happened long ago.
Big E rocked up, looked at whatever fresh hell was going on in the planet's history, and said "fuck that" yoinked the primarch then left. /s
- Location
- an unseen void
- Pronouns
- Any
hegelian huh
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I've been trying to figure out who the above voice is since I read it and only just realised it seems to be the same voice from Chapter 2 that appeared with Rhythms.
- Location
- France
So we clearly have the Deceiver shard, and of course the Void Dragon has been conflated a bit into the All-Messiah, but I wonder if other major C'tan show up or have some of their traits included in Illuminata's cosmology too. Such as Aza'Gorod "terrorized life in the galaxy so badly that many civilizations have a grim reaper figure based on him as a trauma response" the Nightbringer. And I'm wondering the Outsider, the only C'tan that may still be whole and that exiled itself in a planetoid or dyson sphere, could fit into the five four Suns mythos somehow.
Sympathy when Harmony comes back in juggalo makeup: Oh my Kora, noooooooo!
The fact that not only do they worship Eldar deities, but that the deities, notably Isha, actually cared enough to respond in turn is very interesting. Considering the very high concentration of psychic ability and skill, plus all the Eldar influences, I wonder if the ancient humans might have been experimenting with the character of the human soul printed. Making something something more akin to Eldar.
Also everyone hate Nurgle, stupid Hydra, locking Aisha away. Harmony could have had a Warp mom.
Also everyone hate Nurgle, stupid Hydra, locking Aisha away. Harmony could have had a Warp mom.
Coyote Niff
the most transbian obligate scavenger on the 'net!
- Location
- Misery!
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Tell it to get its shit together. Something is capital-U up with this staple. You need it to get through its processors that it's been manipulated and fucked with. Someone else is pulling the strings - Lethe, probably. You have a common enemy, if only you could convince it of that. INCANDESCENCE CHECK - 15 (HEROIC)
VOLUMETRICALLY COMPRESS YOUR DAMAGE, GEN-GIRL. WE GOT HOSTILES.
[X] Dakaran Phase-Drop. The Dakaran phase-drop relic tech makes their drop-troops the most feared of any state on Illuminata. The copse, used to jumping from clouds, will now teleport as one unit from an ark - right on top of Koinon's trench-lines, and into the fire. Though, frankly, you could have less of their grunt-talk, 'milspeak' slang, and 'sacred, holy, marine bravado'.
Wizard to Hotdog, Wizard to Hotdog. Skate, Skate, Skate.
Last chalk inside the DZ buys every print-jack of us a round of prome. Quiaff??
VOLUMETRICALLY COMPRESS YOUR DAMAGE, GEN-GIRL. WE GOT HOSTILES.
[X] Dakaran Phase-Drop. The Dakaran phase-drop relic tech makes their drop-troops the most feared of any state on Illuminata. The copse, used to jumping from clouds, will now teleport as one unit from an ark - right on top of Koinon's trench-lines, and into the fire. Though, frankly, you could have less of their grunt-talk, 'milspeak' slang, and 'sacred, holy, marine bravado'.
Wizard to Hotdog, Wizard to Hotdog. Skate, Skate, Skate.
Last chalk inside the DZ buys every print-jack of us a round of prome. Quiaff??
Solarion
For Light and Life
Wild theory with absolutely no concrete evidence: The Father is Szarekh. There's some novel where he's described as having a golden mask, I'm forgetting which one.
The Mother and Aisha are both Isha, acting through a psychomaton.
Illuminata was a collaborative project between the Silent King and Isha to reverse biotransference in exchange for Szarekh doing something to help Isha prevent the Fall of the Eldar. But something went wrong, Szarekh abandoned the project to go back to the galactic void, while Isha's psychomaton vessel was destroyed. She kept answering prayers by skirting around the Edict to whatever extent she could but then the Fall happened and now she's Nurgle's prisoner.
The Mother and Aisha are both Isha, acting through a psychomaton.
Illuminata was a collaborative project between the Silent King and Isha to reverse biotransference in exchange for Szarekh doing something to help Isha prevent the Fall of the Eldar. But something went wrong, Szarekh abandoned the project to go back to the galactic void, while Isha's psychomaton vessel was destroyed. She kept answering prayers by skirting around the Edict to whatever extent she could but then the Fall happened and now she's Nurgle's prisoner.
Okay, so caught up with the latest chapter. It's full of great stuff as always.
The Noise reminds me so much of Eclipse Phase's internet. I can't recall the exact term for it, but basically every human had an implant that acted as a wifi hotspot, among other things. Advanced machines also hooked up to it. Even after the massive AI war killed earth, billions of wifi hotspots remained, linked up to everything and everyone. Hell, cutting communications from Earth to other planets is a massive part of security operations for the inner planets because Earth is non-stop broadcasting endless noise filled with basilisk hacks and rogue AIs.
It also reminds me of Cyberpunk's old net too, and a little bit of Rimworld too. The animal like machines roaming the world well after the fact, still connected to old networks nobody has access to anymore describe the mechanites to a tee. In this post-human hellscape full of printed humans and feral machines, everything's hooked up to the web. The once curated and organized network has become a cacophony of chaos, dangers, and ultimately descended into noise.
Psychocomputers is a fun word. I love my not thinking machine. I love it when my computer taps into the warp to run Doom faster. It also raises some questions I have. Cloud computing, despite the name, does not in fact use clouds. It requires physical hardware to operate. We know this planet is backed to the brim with deep earth shit, like spiral reactors and boreholes down through the mantle. The sheer size of computer networks and servers running this shit must be insane. Psychocomputers raises a further question if the operations are actually running pn physical hardware or if it's taking place in the warp itself. Psi-tech is weird and fucky like that.
The vision in the fire gives me... well, old ass mythology vibes, they're great, but also c'tan vibes. Consume the stars, but everything lives on inside it, totally.
These Titans are straight up Eva units. Jesus Christ. I love the little note that while the titan clearly has a 'soul'/machine spirit, it can not speak for itself for that would be a sin. It's a very amusing edge case. They're literally married to the machine and drink its tears as ecstasy, but gnosis forbid that titan utters a single word from its speakers that the pilot did not say. The titans organs must be derived from human genetics because its the only way it'd survive the nanocancer, making the Eva vibes even stronger.
[X] Tell it to get its shit together. Something is capital-U up with this staple. You need it to get through its processors that it's been manipulated and fucked with. Someone else is pulling the strings - Lethe, probably. You have a common enemy, if only you could convince it of that. INCANDESCENCE CHECK - 15 (HEROIC)
[X] Chrome Underminer. Badger-machines seem less impressive compared to Chrome saurians and megasynth mounts, but outside the Binar Nightcities there are no more effective tunnelers, and when their mouths open the drill-incisors are as monstrous as any other machine. But the riders are, frankly, completely and utterly unhinged, even before their own drugs kick in.
In a D&D campaign years ago, I was playing a druid. Through circumstances and hijinks, the party worked with a group of escaped slaves to dig a tunnel under a giant magical tower fortress city. It was held up by thousands of immovable rods, so high it was practically a space elevator. I summoned a dire badger as an animal companion and wild shaped into one so we could dig a tunnel miles long, starting outside scrying distance, shielded by lead hats to protected us from scrying. It was a fun task, since by that point my druid could spend like 14+ hours in animal form and had multiple wild shape charges. We worked around the clock digging this tunnel, the other two PCs wearing amulets of speak with animal to keep talking with my druid as they and the escaped slaves reinforced the tunnel with wooden beams.
When we reached the base of the tower, we dug down into the slave pits beneath the magical fortress that supplied the guild with endless quantities of blood and experience points for their arcane forges. We freed thousands of slaves and as we planted bombs at the immovable rods that held up the great tower, legions of guards poured out to stop us. We fought the guards in the pitch black tunnels, because we all had dark vision or scent to navigate the darkness, tearing them apart and staining the dirt with their blood. They were ripped to shreds by the party and stood no chance.
The bombs were filled with anti-magic materials and literal tons of blackpowder, hauled down the tunnels by teams of dire badgers commanded by my druid. When they were set ablaze the earth itself quaked from the force of the explosion as this thousand mile tall tower collapsed in on its foundations and tore from its once immovable support rods. It took minutes for the entire tower to fall to the ground and the very top if landed well outside of its own country, the arch mage died during atmospheric re-entry and hitting the ground with the force of a small nuclear bomb.
We also did other stuff between planting bomb and blowing up the fort, but didn't want to bog down the story.
So, I've got to vote for the mecha badgers. I have literally done this before. This is shit as fuck. This option was made for me.
The Noise reminds me so much of Eclipse Phase's internet. I can't recall the exact term for it, but basically every human had an implant that acted as a wifi hotspot, among other things. Advanced machines also hooked up to it. Even after the massive AI war killed earth, billions of wifi hotspots remained, linked up to everything and everyone. Hell, cutting communications from Earth to other planets is a massive part of security operations for the inner planets because Earth is non-stop broadcasting endless noise filled with basilisk hacks and rogue AIs.
It also reminds me of Cyberpunk's old net too, and a little bit of Rimworld too. The animal like machines roaming the world well after the fact, still connected to old networks nobody has access to anymore describe the mechanites to a tee. In this post-human hellscape full of printed humans and feral machines, everything's hooked up to the web. The once curated and organized network has become a cacophony of chaos, dangers, and ultimately descended into noise.
Psychocomputers is a fun word. I love my not thinking machine. I love it when my computer taps into the warp to run Doom faster. It also raises some questions I have. Cloud computing, despite the name, does not in fact use clouds. It requires physical hardware to operate. We know this planet is backed to the brim with deep earth shit, like spiral reactors and boreholes down through the mantle. The sheer size of computer networks and servers running this shit must be insane. Psychocomputers raises a further question if the operations are actually running pn physical hardware or if it's taking place in the warp itself. Psi-tech is weird and fucky like that.
The vision in the fire gives me... well, old ass mythology vibes, they're great, but also c'tan vibes. Consume the stars, but everything lives on inside it, totally.
These Titans are straight up Eva units. Jesus Christ. I love the little note that while the titan clearly has a 'soul'/machine spirit, it can not speak for itself for that would be a sin. It's a very amusing edge case. They're literally married to the machine and drink its tears as ecstasy, but gnosis forbid that titan utters a single word from its speakers that the pilot did not say. The titans organs must be derived from human genetics because its the only way it'd survive the nanocancer, making the Eva vibes even stronger.
[X] Tell it to get its shit together. Something is capital-U up with this staple. You need it to get through its processors that it's been manipulated and fucked with. Someone else is pulling the strings - Lethe, probably. You have a common enemy, if only you could convince it of that. INCANDESCENCE CHECK - 15 (HEROIC)
[X] Chrome Underminer. Badger-machines seem less impressive compared to Chrome saurians and megasynth mounts, but outside the Binar Nightcities there are no more effective tunnelers, and when their mouths open the drill-incisors are as monstrous as any other machine. But the riders are, frankly, completely and utterly unhinged, even before their own drugs kick in.
In a D&D campaign years ago, I was playing a druid. Through circumstances and hijinks, the party worked with a group of escaped slaves to dig a tunnel under a giant magical tower fortress city. It was held up by thousands of immovable rods, so high it was practically a space elevator. I summoned a dire badger as an animal companion and wild shaped into one so we could dig a tunnel miles long, starting outside scrying distance, shielded by lead hats to protected us from scrying. It was a fun task, since by that point my druid could spend like 14+ hours in animal form and had multiple wild shape charges. We worked around the clock digging this tunnel, the other two PCs wearing amulets of speak with animal to keep talking with my druid as they and the escaped slaves reinforced the tunnel with wooden beams.
When we reached the base of the tower, we dug down into the slave pits beneath the magical fortress that supplied the guild with endless quantities of blood and experience points for their arcane forges. We freed thousands of slaves and as we planted bombs at the immovable rods that held up the great tower, legions of guards poured out to stop us. We fought the guards in the pitch black tunnels, because we all had dark vision or scent to navigate the darkness, tearing them apart and staining the dirt with their blood. They were ripped to shreds by the party and stood no chance.
The bombs were filled with anti-magic materials and literal tons of blackpowder, hauled down the tunnels by teams of dire badgers commanded by my druid. When they were set ablaze the earth itself quaked from the force of the explosion as this thousand mile tall tower collapsed in on its foundations and tore from its once immovable support rods. It took minutes for the entire tower to fall to the ground and the very top if landed well outside of its own country, the arch mage died during atmospheric re-entry and hitting the ground with the force of a small nuclear bomb.
We also did other stuff between planting bomb and blowing up the fort, but didn't want to bog down the story.
So, I've got to vote for the mecha badgers. I have literally done this before. This is shit as fuck. This option was made for me.
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Cetashwayo
Lord of Ten Thousand Years
- Location
- Across the Horizon
I have set a longer timer for the vote. I will have a busy few days so I don't expect to release the next update for a bit (though I know how most of it will look like.) I will give people this time to reread, vote, discuss, catch up
I am also open to any setting questions people have!
I am also open to any setting questions people have!
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Cornuthaum
Be kind to each other.
- Location
- Austria
- Pronouns
- He/Him
What did the pre-war primary meals of the Great Powers normally look like?I have set a longer timer for the vote. I will have a busy few days so I don't expect to release the next update for a bit (though I know how most of it will look like.) I will give people this time to reread, vote, discuss, catch up
I am also open to any setting questions people have!