- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
That's probably how we do it at high city magnitudes.Can we research non-Euclidean geometry and expand Itza in extra dimensions, thereby raising the pop cap?
Respect Your Elders v2 - Galactic Boogaloo [Warhammer Lizardmen Quest]
And then my autist brain took that seriously.That's probably how we do it at high city magnitudes.
We'll need to start looking into extra-dimensional spaces that living things can viably live in.
The sheer usefulness of potential applications of such technologies cannot be understated.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
I mean, there is absolutely no reason you shouldn't take that seriously. It's considerably less bullshit than some of the other shenanigans Xantalos has already told us we're going to be able to pull at higher magitech levels.
Such as having the slann decide to spend a few decades being temporarily dead because the atemporal perspective makes it easier to work on their passion project. Or such as having our soldiers commit ritual suicide so they can chase the daemons into Hell and pummel them to death there, then regroup back here in the world of the living.
Extradimensional broom closets are tame by comparison.
It's just that the sheer amount of magic required to do useful extradimensional construction in a city for anything other than things like the living quarters of the slann themselves (who already do this) probably makes this prohibitively difficult for the time being. For now, it's more practical to build sideways than up, and more practical to build up than in some direction at right angles to both sideways and up.
For now.
- Pronouns
- He/His/etc
Instead of fitting in more people, how about fitting in more time? By harnessing the harmonious power of the four-sided time cube pyramid we make it so that each day outside the city is four simultaneous days inside the city. Every lizard can work on four seperate things, then as the sun sets the pyramid turns on its axis and recombines the four days into one.
oh no.
You had to remind us that's a thing.
we could totally do it too, but AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
There is no escape from the TIME CUBE.
Time Cube - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For some reason, I have been bit by a brain bug for this. Namely, a biomimic vessel using associative magics (ie "this thing happens elsewhere so it happens here") to have four or six fins operate as the main, tactical, propulsion with considerably more effect than they should. A main armament of a quartet of Omen Mortars are installed on the ventral surface and tuned to passing through water rather than air to benefit from the protection of the water as well as efficiently engage sea monsters. The bow is hardened as a combination ram and boarding ramp in what is explicitly a holdover from a lack of actual combat experience. A secondary armament of a pair of Monument Cannons and a number of Bolt Throwers protects against airborne threats and wards away foes too small to be effectively or efficiently engaged by the inverted Omen Mortars/torpedoes.
In general appearance, think a fusion of an Industrial light warship and sea predator. Cost... Probably on the more expensive side of destroyers to get the mobility desired. Despite that, I wouldn't call it a priority in any sense. Perhaps to counter altered or possessed wildlife in the next arc.
Xantalos
Turtle-Speed Writing
This is also gonna be a thing - well, sorta. Some aspect of 'your structures are now hyperbolic time chambers' gets incorporated later on, both as a means of passively protecting against certain forms of reality violation and a way to speed up the aging process of your lizardmen (which is particularly useful because the age categories/thresholds take increasingly longer to reach the higher up you go).
…hmm! That's certainly an evocative image. I'll keep it in mind.
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Unlocking hyperspace geometry infrastructure is probably something we need to research T4 or T5 infrastructure to do, since both are probably gateway techs in their own right.
Sinsystems
Patron Librarian
Onevthing that should always be kept in mind when thinking about our cities vs hive cities is how much of the population is actually doing anything useful.
In a hive city lot of space and people aren't being used, with abandoned and forgotten underhives and gangs. Meanwhile we use 100% of our population.
So I'd imagine that our population needs to only be 10% of a hive to match its production.
In a hive city lot of space and people aren't being used, with abandoned and forgotten underhives and gangs. Meanwhile we use 100% of our population.
So I'd imagine that our population needs to only be 10% of a hive to match its production.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Thinking about it, the tau work very similarly with the lizardmen, except they have no magic and let other species into their empire.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Not just that, but also:
1) We have a clear understanding of how our technology works, so we're not constantly using inefficient methods.
2) Barring a relatively small minority of maimed war veterans and accident victims, our entire civilization consists of able-bodied adults. Hive cities often have high mortality and birth rates, so there's a lot of turnover and much of the population is unable to work productively due to extreme youth or age. Many of them are pressed into work anyway, but they're just not going to be as productive.
3) A significant fraction of our population has very superhuman abilities- not just a kroxigor's strength, for instance, but their craftsmanship and ability to pay extended attention to trivial physical details surpasses all but the most skillful humans.
- Pronouns
- He/His/etc
I was thinking of parallel processing rather than serial - you don't experience more time, you experience time more times.
Turn 15 Preliminary Results
Xantalos
Turtle-Speed Writing
Lizards Can Into Space
[X] Plan Lizards Can Into Space
-[X] Focuses
--[X] 1. Expand the Web (Wide)
--[X] 2. Astral Ponderings (Awanabil'tat, Tiktaq'to)
--[X] 3. Scaled Deeps (Teninhuan)
--[X] 4. Burdens of the Young
--[X] 5. Increase Fortifications (Chakax)
--[X] 6. Scaled March (Kroq-Gar)
--[X] 7. To Expand the Flock (Krom'tli)
-[X] Turn 15 Slannpower
--[X] Ayacmanik Tutelage (1 5th Generation slann)
--[X] Isendral Knowledge Trade (1 5th Generation slann)
--[X] Scry and Spy, Northern Remnants (5 5th Generation slann)
--[X] Excavate the Ship (1 4th and 26 5th Generation slann)
--[X] Loquatl Spawning (1 5th Generation slann, 1 Isendral Petal)
--[X] Geomantic Anomalies (15 5th and 75 4th Generation slann, sounds important for Mag 4-5 web)
--[X] Unbind the Thorns (10 4th Generation slann, Isendral involved)
--[X] Huantzitli Spawning (1 4th and 10 5th Generation slann)
--[X] Iron Limbs (75 5th Generation slann)
--[X] A Template Completed (Mazdamundi, 26 3rd and and 42 4th and 49 5th Generation slann, 3 Isendral Petals, should do the trick, hope any Isendral-induced rollover goes somewhere good)
--[X] Theory of Engine (40 4th and 100 5th Generation slann, can't complete this AND Qhyash skinks but can make a dent)
[X] Plan Lizards Can Into Space
-[X] Focuses
--[X] 1. Expand the Web (Wide)
--[X] 2. Astral Ponderings (Awanabil'tat, Tiktaq'to)
--[X] 3. Scaled Deeps (Teninhuan)
--[X] 4. Burdens of the Young
--[X] 5. Increase Fortifications (Chakax)
--[X] 6. Scaled March (Kroq-Gar)
--[X] 7. To Expand the Flock (Krom'tli)
-[X] Turn 15 Slannpower
--[X] Ayacmanik Tutelage (1 5th Generation slann)
--[X] Isendral Knowledge Trade (1 5th Generation slann)
--[X] Scry and Spy, Northern Remnants (5 5th Generation slann)
--[X] Excavate the Ship (1 4th and 26 5th Generation slann)
--[X] Loquatl Spawning (1 5th Generation slann, 1 Isendral Petal)
--[X] Geomantic Anomalies (15 5th and 75 4th Generation slann, sounds important for Mag 4-5 web)
--[X] Unbind the Thorns (10 4th Generation slann, Isendral involved)
--[X] Huantzitli Spawning (1 4th and 10 5th Generation slann)
--[X] Iron Limbs (75 5th Generation slann)
--[X] A Template Completed (Mazdamundi, 26 3rd and and 42 4th and 49 5th Generation slann, 3 Isendral Petals, should do the trick, hope any Isendral-induced rollover goes somewhere good)
--[X] Theory of Engine (40 4th and 100 5th Generation slann, can't complete this AND Qhyash skinks but can make a dent)
Time marches on, and with the major obstacles standing in the way of global expansion removed, the lizardmen have entered into a period of unprecedented growth and progress! The network of temple-cities expands across the jungle continent of Mochantia like a tiled mosaic, each metropolis a shining jewel in the endless sea of green. On and on do the lizardmen labor, their work as ceaseless and untiring as the planet itself, and for the moment there seems to be nothing to interrupt it.
Empire Focuses:
Expand the Web (Wide)
The expanse of the lizardmen's empire exploded outwards like a hatchling coming out of the shell. The first twitches had been feeble, hesitant things, a century and a half past as the scattered temple-cities were reunited after the Deliverance. The Geomantic Web, removed from the constant strain and slow withering it had been subjected to on the World-That-Was, healed, then grew, first reaching and then surpassing its former strength even as the fires of war blazed anew. Now, with the last threat to unhindered expansion fallen away, it surged forth with the swift urgency of a tidal wave. The lizardmen sent their legions out to build, and new cities cropped up so quickly they practically appeared overnight. No mighty strongholds were these, but outposts, built just large enough to be self-sufficient and to house the all-important nodes of the Web. The road network of the lizardmen spiderwebbed across the continent like a slime mold growing between food sources, sprouting vast arterial highways that ferried unending streams of material into the more tertiary reaches of the lizardmen's domain.
The work continued, feverishly, unendingly, until at last the jungle continent was encircled fully by a band of interlinked cities. The lizardmen's domain had expanded to twice its size in a fraction of the time it had taken to reach its former breadth. Such a frenzied surge of activity was unprecedented, but well worth it - the eldest skink administrators, after speaking with the slann, determined that another such surge would see the Geomantic Web reach its next stage of energetic density - a feat that had not been accomplished even under the auspices of the Old Ones themselves.
26 new cities founded, all of which are Level 1 outposts set to fully mature during Turn 16. 20 cities remaining until Magnitude 4 Web achieved.
Astral Ponderings (Awanabil'tat, Tiktaq'to) - See upcoming section: The Spire
Scaled Deeps (Teninhuan)
With the words of his god ringing in his ears, compelling him to continue to enact holy genocide upon the Uax that remained upon Mochantia, Teninhuan took to the harbor cities of the lizardmen upon the northern coast. There, he enacted a vast campaign of proselytizing among the inhabitants of those cities, exhorting those worshipers of the Serpent God therein to expand the shipyards by any means possible. Great throngs of chanting Sotek cultists shortly thronged every harbor the lizardmen had, forcing the skink chieftains in charge to spend much time organizing the eager disciples into work teams. This was easier said than done, for a steady stream of Sotek worshipers continued to arrive throughout the decade from more southern cities, drawn by divine guidance and the word of their prophet. With the Serpent Cult providing the labor, new vessels flowed out of harbor manufacturers like drops of blood from a fresh wound, saturating the waves with freshly-forged Parraxuda and Turtle vessels. The majority of these accompanied Teninhuan on a voyage across the sea, bringing a large influx of Sotek-blessed warriors to the crusade against the Uax.
Every city on the northern shore (including those freshly founded) has been equipped with a harbor and a complement of ships to patrol the local waters. Teninhuan was able to ferry forces north to assist in Kroq-Gar's extermination of the Uax.
Burdens of the Young - See upcoming section: First Lessons
Increase Fortifications (Chakax)
As the lizardmen empire expanded like a blooming flower, special thought was given to preserving the core of their holdings. The newly-claimed ground was only lightly held, and little had yet been invested in their growth. The iron center of the temple-cities, however, had been there for centuries, millennia in some cases, and much more would be lost should they ever be compromised. Unique artifacts, storage facilities that housed the all-important Tablets of the Plan, and the dwelling spaces of the majority of the slann still resided in the oldest and strongest temple-cities. Chakax saw this, and commanded in his unflinching manner that these holdings be secured. In truth, he demanded more - were his preferences indulged, each temple-city that even held the possibility of hosting a slann would be fortified to at least Xlanhuapec's degree of security, with humming shields, Sacred Sites, and vast armies between the slann and any possible threat to their person.
Material realities, however, infringed upon the ancient Eternity Warden's designs, and so it was that only the cities directly adjacent to the Ancient Four, those cities that came from the World-That-Was, were brought up to the standard that Chakax demanded. Metropolis Preservation Barriers flickered into life as teams of kroxigor installed arcing stone rings at the base of obsinite walls, and a tithe of material was diverted to Ocelotl and Mekhinyx'kal, gorging them until they stood equal to any other metropolis in the Empire.
Every city adjacent to Itza, Hexoatl, Xlanhuapec, and Tlaxtlan has been set up with Preservation Barriers. Ocelotl and Mekhinyx'kal have both been upgraded to Level 3 and given Sacred Sites.
Scaled March (Kroq-Gar)
When the lizardmen first discovered the orks on Mochantia, the mere expedition the greenskins had sent down to the jungle continent could have posed a serious risk to their empire. Even after decades of ceaseless preparation, sabotage and delay, the resurgent might of the lizardmen still nearly broke when they met the Uax in true battle. A mere tithe of the fungoid soldiers sallied against them, and a tenth of the lizardmen's entire population was killed. Such was the need that the slann themselves came down from their temples and into the fray in their hundreds, and five of the venerable mages died - the first to do so on Mochantia. With each successive clash, however, the lizardmen learned more, and suffered less, until just three decades after they met the Uax face-to-face, they scoured the fungal pestilence off the face of the continent.
Now only tattered remnants remained of the once-mighty armies of the greenskins, and the boot was on the other foot. Hualtecalaquiani, while a small outpost by the standards of the greater lizardmen empire, was still home to a vast array of Saurus legions, each encased in obsinite armor that glowed at the seams with iridescent light, each bearing a mirror-sharp shield and a spiked rifle with a barrel shaped like the maw of a serpent. These were not the underequipped armies of yesteryear, fighting their enemies with rock and bone. These were killers each capable of sawing through dozens of orks, and they were led by the most ancient and ferocious of their kind - Kroq-Gar had come across the sea to lead this final campaign of extermination, and teach his younger kin the ways of war.
They marched, and death followed them. There was no resisting it.
The orks of the northern continent have been wiped out.
To Expand the Flock (Krom'tli)
Ayotzl was a patient god. This was in tune with his nature, both as a turtle and a deity of death. Rushed outcomes were for those who could not perceive the full scope of eternity. With each plodding, implacable step forwards, the turtle god ensured the achievement of its goals was inevitable. Thus the Pale Prophet Krom'tli did not raise any clamor for resources or plan any grand ceremonies. Ayotzl's clergy was expanding and continued to expand, some from fresh converts, some from worshipers of Sotek who had put aside their war-selves for the time being. This growth was slow, but it was steady, and over the long term that was all that mattered.
Religious expansion continues apace. Currently just under half of all lizardmen adhere to a god, split evenly between Ayotzl and Sotek.
Allocated Slann Projects:
Completed: Basic Prosthetics
The most laborious aspect of this project was mapping out the different configurations of the lizardmen nervous system so that the prosthetics could be applied across any caste. For any lizardman's work, precision in labor was considered a matter of utmost importance, and so any prosthetic that made fulfilling any task more instead of less laborious was sure to be rejected. After a lengthy series of prototypes, cross-references, and live tests, however, the slann were able to design artificial limbs that functioned with remarkable similarity to the real thing. Many saurus who had been relegated to guard duty for centuries after taking irreparable wounds to the lower limbs were able to return to more far-ranging assignments, and lizardmen who had been laboring with missing appendages for great lengths of time suddenly found themselves called in to the forge districts for fittings.
Basic lizardmen prosthetics designed! While incapable of transmitting sensation, their mild integration into the nervous system of the wearer allows for a surprising degree of dexterity. Unlocks: Powered Prosthetics, -5 research cost for Hand of the Gods.
Completed: Huantzitli Spawning
With the bounty of information that Isendral provided on their biological makeup, it was a trivial matter for the slann to include the metaphysical code of the Huantzitli into the matrices of the lizardmen's spawning pools. Before long, every city had a healthy roster of the slimy creatures, and Chameleon Skink ambushes became that much deadlier as the assassins integrated the warbeasts into their combat tactics.
Huanztitli successfully integrated into lizardmen army roster!
Completed: Loquatl Spawning
The eldest captured Loquatl specimens, which had been on the verge of dying for almost a decade and kept alive only by the dedicated attentions of paired Ghyran and Ghur skink priests, found themselves freed from the weight of age as the slann finally deigned to complete their long-delayed integration into the spawning pools. In truth, even this had only happened due to Isendral agreeing to share what she knew of the creatures with them, sparing the bulk of their thought processes away from having to catalogue the Loquatl's genetic data. Soon the titanic beasts were rising above the skies of every temple-city, and the air corps of the lizardmen experienced an uncharacteristic influx of growth as both skink and saurus riders were trained to crew the Loquatl. Fortunate that it happened now, for the first voyages into new skies were just beginning…
Loquatl successfully integrated into lizardmen army roster!
Theory of Engine: 300 slannpower
This had been percolating in the mindspace of the Sublime Communion for some time, and many of the slann were eager to get to grips with the problem. The toad-mages locked themselves into long, deep sessions of contemplation, and began to unspool the issue with whatever spare time they could manage. Full of eagerness, they tore through the preliminary layers of theory like flame through dry brush, generating vast swathes of speculative ideas that floated around themselves in the astral plane.
What was an engine? At its heart, nothing more than an automated process of transfiguration. The rattling machines of the Uax intook squig oil and explosive compounds, and with the assistance of psychic energy, transformed these into motion. The more that the slann contemplated, the more they found this concept appearing everywhere that they looked. Both the lizardmen and the Uax's guns operated under engine-driven principles, turning dormant stone and powder into energy that was then used to create motion. Expanding further, the millions of spells cast every day in every temple-city could be seen as short-lived engines, each tuned to intake willpower of a specific shape and energy of a certain frequency in order to produce its output. The lizardmen themselves were engines, the food they consumed simply the fuel for the highly calibrated machines that were their bodies. The Geomantic Web itself, the slann realized, was nothing save for a highly efficient engine, one that took in energy of one kind and spat it out as another. There was a foundational principle underlying each of these examples, and though the slann found themselves unable to fully articulate it as of yet, the murky shape of it became clearer every day.
Work continues! Current progress: 300/650, pre-Qhyash Skinks discount.
Unbind The Thorns: 50 slannpower - See upcoming section: Matriarch's Mysteries
Completed: A Template Completed - See upcoming section: The Dazzling Wheel
Completed: Geomantic Anomalies Pt. 2 - See upcoming section: What Lurks In The Deep
Completed: Ayacmanik Tutelage - See upcoming section: First Lessons
Completed: Isendral Knowledge Trade - See upcoming section: Matriarch's Mysteries
Completed: Excavate The Ship - See upcoming section: Buried Secrets
A/N: You might notice that this is significantly shorter than the last several turns I've put out! This is because I've discovered a monumental new concept called "don't chronically overload yourself on every last detail". Each of the upcoming interludes constitute a separate scene, like I've been doing up until now, and I'll let myself get a bit fancy there, but this here is more just an overview because I'm too limited on writing time to go fully overboard like I'd prefer to and still give y'all results in a reasonable manner.
Discord and Patreon are here if you wanna check them out - I've been doing character expositions on my patreon lately, both OCs and Warhammer ones, so I might drop the slann-related ones here at some point but for the moment they're there - check them out, at least one's available for free members and I'm gonna keep trickling them out as I write more!
Last note: I'm partway through writing The Spire, detailing y'all's space elevator shenanigans, but do feel free to express which of the segments you'd like to see sooner and I can adjust my writing schedule accordingly. Right, that's all - enjoy and let me know if there's any comments or critique you have!
- Pronouns
- He/Him
It's certainly good to have these foundations taken care of.
I am a little sad that we don't have the slann budget to do a small Ritual to make an inherently perfect base and anchor point for the Spire.
BungieONI
Seven gremlins in a trench coat
- Location
- Lickwidget
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Ooooo Space-evator! Hope it looks a bit like a Sauropod or great serpentine dragon.
- Location
- Anchorage, Alaska
oh boy, we just need another push to get mag 4, and then reinforce that stuff. which case we end up with enough spawnings (4x a turn) to start populating them, which case we can then end up with a slow and steady spiral. the north and the middle ring would be extent enough to build them i see.
K von Carstein
Likes to go for a walk
- Location
- Belgium
- Pronouns
- He
How we have grown that the extermination of Orks on one continent is worthy of only two paragraphs.
What are those again?
Gods are expensive though, and we have a lot of research we Need to get done.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yep, I believe with energies from Uax, we can create God focusing on building and craftsmanship...and his form would be Kroxigor whose form looks like it was made like a city that is constantly operated by mini-skinks and mini-kroxigors, repairing, expanding and upgrading his body constantly.
- Location
- Canada
A decent idea, i'm personally partial to the idea of our gods remaining as Animals or Dinos, so a Big Croc God of Construction would be pretty neat.
- Location
- Canada
I can totally get behind a Kroxigor god of building and craftsmanship.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I think it will be obvious he will have a connection to Chamon, which btw, is kinda ironic with Kroxigor as his form...now I imagine him speaking clearly in very deep voice.