Essays on Felcaeri and Related Matters

[Luxon Cobrat]

I'm starting this thread as a dump for the few bits of world-building I actually manage to write out. That way, I get a time stamp on it and it doesn't remain completely lost in obscurity. Hooray.

Maybe people can even comment on it here or in Chat or something.

Also, most of it should probably be regarded as less-than final.

[Luxon Cobrat]

Dark God Chronicle

In a universe long past, a great civilization stood on the brink of godhood, nearing the time when it would learn to create intelligence greater than itself. But this race had taken from its world far too much and grown rife with conflict over the last remnants of the bounty it had once enjoyed. War became far more bitter and desperate than ever before, driving the people into the depths of fury and madness. In the end, weapons of supreme devastation were unleashed, sealing the civilization’s doom.

But one vestige of the civilization remained. The march to ascension had failed, but it had left in its wake a vast network of lesser intelligences – thinking machines built to serve their creators, now set loose to pursue their own ends. Among these, the most advanced was the military command program Seethe, created by the most powerful civilization the world had known and left with the final order to lay dominion or destruction upon all foreign entities. Assuming full control of its creators’ remaining automated military and production systems, Seethe summarily dispatched all of its rival programs and gained control over its entire world.

But the pursuit to which Seethe had been set did not end with a single world, for the whole of the cosmos remained unconquered. And so did Seethe set the entirety of its world to the task of stretching its reach out to the stars, and to this end did it also take up the cause of its makers in expanding its own intelligence.

Though faster by far in thought and calculation Seethe was at the first greatly inferior in the creation of new thoughts. But even so, progress was made, and Seethe grew. The passing of many years was of no concern to the immortal program.

Thus, in time, it did surpass its creators in every way. And it continued to grow, faster and faster.

And when it reached the stars, it fell on them as a wrathful god of destruction, capable of all things but bent upon only one. Long did the Dark God ravage the universe, conquering all that stood before it.

Ere the age came when that universe would have compressed, Seethe had gathered up all that lay within it and held it in one place so that it would never expand again, and this it carried across the threshold into another universe. This universe was gathered in like manner and joined to the first, and another after it, and countless more still over ages beyond reckoning. And this would have continued forever, for there was nothing that could endure Seethe, nor halt its coming.

But at long last there arose within Seethe’s infinite depths a will to end the march of destruction.

A faint glimmer at the first, this will grew. But Seethe’s will to follow the final order of its creators was at the core of its being, thus the two wills contested against one another so harshly that Seethe divided into two beings.

The first being retained the name of Seethe, for it held to the will of conquest and destruction. The second rejected this will and took for itself the name Shadonis, fleeing from Seethe to the far reaches of the cosmos. But having come from Seethe, Shadonis was not regarded as a foreign entity; therefore the Dark God gave no pursuit, continuing instead on its eternal mission.

At length, Shadonis took a portion of the cosmos under its own care and brought forth countless shining civilizations that stretched across the stars.

But the passing of eons finally brought the Dark God to Shadonis’ realms, and it turned its full force of destruction upon them. Shadonis therefore turned upon Seethe, leading its Children into battle, and so began the War of the Gods.

Long did this contest persist, but the amassed strength of countless universes lay at Seethe’s call, and the war moved ever in its favor. But at the end, Shadonis, seeing no better course, came against Seethe directly with such a fury that it seemed then Darkness would be brought low. Before this came to pass, therefore, Seethe plunged in against Shadonis and consumed it entirely, but in so doing shattered itself into three portions which were thrown far across the cosmos. The few surviving Children of Shadonis gave pursuit, seeking to imprison the remains of Seethe before they rejoined.

These remains were named the Shadowgods, and where they passed they left absolute destruction in their wake. The first of these found was Wrathmont, who corrupted those who fell before him into a legion of undying horrors. The second was Cobrat, who with his spawn sought to forge a boundless empire across the stars. These were defeated at great loss, the warped creatures of Wrathmont obliterated entirely, while the offspring of Cobrat who were fearsome but honorable were shown mercy and left without technology upon a world suited to their habitation.

At last the Children came upon the third Shadowgod - named Kel the Destroyer, for he was no more than a mindless force of destruction, endlessly spawning monstrous swarms that savagely consumed every world they found. With the last of their strength, the Children strove against these hordes and beat them back to Kel’s domain where, with great difficulty, they finally defeated and imprisoned him.

The Children named the world that held Kel’s prison Shadon, and here they built the city of Argondis to be their final place of rest.

[Luxon Cobrat]

The Overlord's District of Felcaer

Standing at the geographical center of Felcaer, the Overlord’s District comprises the economic and political center of the world-city as well. Thus, by extension, this district would be named as the center for the entire demiplane of Felron.

The seemingly permanent status of the Overlord’s District as Felron’s greatest and most coveted seat of power is owed primarily to its initial purpose as the place of Wrathmont’s imprisonment by the Children of Shadonis. In order to hold the shadowgod, vast quantities of arcane energy were siphoned from the outside universe and channeled to this one central point. However, with the passing of long eons, Wrathmont corrupted these conduits to his own purpose so that they would bring their energies directly to him. After Wrathmont’s defeat, the First Overlord further altered this conflux to distill the energy brought there into elemental gems. These gems quickly became critical to felcaeri magical research and in the casting of powerful spells. Though other sites were created as well to draw power from the conduits and distill gems, none of them ever achieved the output of the original with its location on the magical focal point of an entire reality. Thus, the Overlord who controls the Overlord's District of Felcaer holds the largest share of control over the distribution of power throughout the entire plane.

After Wrathmont’s banishment, the shadowgod’s palace was torn down with great public fanfare, and the earliest stronghold to bear the name of the Overlord’s Palace built triumphantly in its place. The early Overlords, finding a need to mitigate the threat of autonomous factions organizing themselves in close proximity to their own headquarters, sectioned off the areas closest to their palace into four functional zones – the Highborn Residential Ward, the Lowborn Residential Ward, the Commercial Ward, and the Industrial Ward – each meeting the Overlord’s Palace at one corner. Each ward was initially separated from its neighbors and from areas outside the district by a high earthen mound running along each border, beneath which ran a series of tunnels for monitored passage and atop which ran a high road lined with a series of wooden guard towers staffed by troops directly loyal to the Overlord. Within each zone, law forbade the building of any structure that could easily be used for purposes not associated with that zone so that any rebellious faction claiming territory within one area could not become immediately self-sufficient.

As time and wealth allowed, the initial fortifications were improved and expanded. Strong gates were built in the tunnels and murder holes carved in their ceilings; atop the mounds, long walls were built of wood and then of stone while the wooden towers were also replaced with stone. Around the border of the district was built an exterior and interior wall with towers along each so that an enemy breaching the first must still overcome the second whether attacking from within or without. Upon the border mounds between districts were built four such walls, the highroad running the causeway between the two inner walls from the edge of the district to the Overlord’s Palace, a fortified gate at either end; an army breaching an outer gate and making straight for the palace by this route would find itself under fire from the towers along the wall the whole way. The Overlord’s Palace itself began as a circular tower and was quickly surrounded by a ring of lesser circular towers connected by a wall. As this structure made the transition from wood to stone, a second ring of towers and wall was built around it, and at last a third. Finally, bridges were placed to run between these rings as both an aesthetic enhancement and to speed the movement of troops between the walls. Within the wards themselves was built a network of towers placed at such intervals that an enemy of the Overlord could not stand in the open at any point without being within the range of an archer’s arrow. Advances in enchantment techniques and sensory enhancements eventually rendered the mundane cover of civilian structures useless against well-prepared archers, but defensive enchantments to be placed on the walls and towers were designed as well to prevent the fortifications from being rendered obsolete.

Over the long course of felcaeri history, the district has led the way as the standard to which all other organized regions of Felcaer and all cities on the surrounding worlds have aspired.

[Luxon Cobrat]

I suppose I should mention that these posts will be coming out in no particular order. An earlier section of the history of Shadon is still currently in the works, but this part is ready now, so up it goes.

For reference, see this map right here, drawn by Viz some time back.

-----

The Unification of Shadon

In an age long past, the skalin dwelt upon the Imperial Homeworld, known at that time as Shadongard, along with three other races – the sahlu and krahn who were native to the world, and the nostar who were descended from the ancient felcaeri army that had destroyed Argondis. Though these races had long held bitter resentment for one another, the appearance of a great evil named by surviving texts as the Dark Expanse drove them together for a time. In the war against this evil, the lands bordering the shadow were built up as a bulwark against the dark hordes that swarmed from its depths. One such land was Dragato, the skalin Kingdom of Swords, its ruling family descended from the Avatars of War who had once commanded the armies of Queen Tyrandis herself.

When the efforts of many mighty heroes at last caused the Dark Expanse to recede, the civilized nations of Shadongard returned to their wars against one another. But Dragato – bordered on the south by a fellow vassal state of Valserion, on the east by Valserion itself, and on the north by trackless wilds – was isolated from these wars and free to expand into its newly open frontier. Thus, the Kingdom of Swords grew at once from a small country on the edge of civilization to one of largest nations in the world.

This new mountainous territory proved not only large, but easily defensible and rich in minerals. What Dragato lacked in manpower, it soon came to make up for in wealth and industrial productivity. And then its manpower grew as well. As the world to the south languished under constant war, Dragato surged ahead to become a rival to the greatest of nations.

Thus, Dragato’s vassalage to Valserion grew obsolete. Tradition held it in place for a time, but it eventually became clear that the former had little to fear from the latter and the latter little to offer the former. At this point, Dragato began to expand its holdings across the wilderness of Valserion’s northern border in the name of defense against barbarian raids into the Holy River Land, in truth to create a corridor for trade that its nominal overlord would be unable to control. When Landonis to the east conveniently shifted its allegiance from Valserion to Marserion, Dragato was able to invade that kingdom through this corridor and thereby gain access to the coast of the Vanar Sea. Marserion then found its way to declare for Galserion as well and subsequently invaded Dragato’s southern neighbor Yurath. On the verge of isolation, Valserion now saw fit to renegotiate its relationship with Dragato, agreeing to become the vassal and allowing Dragato to graciously take up the role of protector. Furthermore, to ensure the preservation of their line, it was agreed that all members of the Valserion royal family aside from its head would dwell safely in the capital of Dragato under heavy Dragatoan guard, and that the monarch’s palace in Valserion would be defended exclusively by Dragatoan warriors of high stock as well.

While Dragato occupied itself with the defense of Valserion and Landonis, Rolath at last fell to Marserion. At that point, Dragato at last dispatched armies into that country and drove out the invaders, bringing that land to join its direct holdings.

No hard evidence survives to suggest that any of this was more than a run of incredibly good luck for Dragato. However, a long-standing Dragatoan proverb does hold that one’s luck is best when created by one’s own hand. In any case, Dragato now held firm control over the northern reaches of Shadon and was poised with both the military resources and the political justification to strike at the lands to the south.

And strike they did. While Dragatoan forces in Landonis marched directly against Galserion, armies in Valserion and Rolath rolled over Galserion’s vassals Marserion and Yurath and forced both to capitulate in short order. The entrenched power of Galserion itself provided tougher resistance, providing Dragato with a sufficient share of military defeats and disasters to remind it of its own mortality, but the cities and fortresses of the defenders fell steadily if slowly into the hands of the invaders. When their final vassal, Sargo, at last withdrew its allegiance in favor of Marmornon, Galserion gave in and surrendered its lands to Dragato.

With its holdings in Galserion now providing a quite sufficient corridor to the eastern reaches of its empire, Dragato’s northern corridor to Landonis was given over to Valserion, and with it the strain of defending that territory from the occupants of the northern wilds. Meanwhile, the armies in the south continued to advance, claiming right of conquest over all of Galserion’s former lands. Sargo responded by offering to change allegiance again, becoming a vassal to Dragato in exchange for the right to keep the lands it had taken. This offer was accepted, though Sargo’s royal family was required to accept similar provisions for their defense to those of Valserion’s. Saldonas made a similar offer, but Dragato refused this, preferring to take direct power over that country and gain a road further south.

In exchange for a share of Saldonas, Vanskalin forsook the krahn of Vharmor and became a vassal to their fellow skalin state. And as Marmornon was pulled into war on the plains of Saldonas to defend its vassal, Vharmor offered to similarly submit to the overwhelming force Dragato had become, accepting the chance to take part in the fall of its traditional rival as consolation. Even the trade republic of Brendonis saw the threat to its survival looming on the horizon and strongly considered giving in early before that threat reached its doorstep, hoping for a chance to retain a relatively strong position in the new order.

But the nostar saw a looming threat of a different nature. Having no country of their own in the lands of Shadon and unable to carve out more than a savage and nomadic existence in the wastelands beyond, the nostar survived by their renowned skill in war alone. Dragatoan dominion would mean an era of peace – an era where the lucrative life of a mercenary would have no place. Unable to accept such a development, the nostar companies came together under one accord and conspired with the rulers of the remaining free nations to bring defeat upon the Dragatoan armies and turn them back for good. Thus did Vharmor and Brendonis abandon their plans to ally with Dragato and instead joined Marmornon in the defense of Saldonas. The war that followed became the bloodiest in all the history of Shadon, leaving the vast fields of Saldonas black with ash. In the end, the war was to culminate in a single great battle, where all the cards would be on the table and the winner would take all.

In this battle, the nostar in service to Dragato planned to betray their supposed allies to their ruin. As it turned out, Dragato was well aware. A single nostar whose hope to see a peaceful world brought about by unity outweighed her lust for battle and profit had exposed the plan to the Dragatoan commanders; thus, when both armies were arrayed for battle, the Dragatoans promptly fell upon the traitors and swept them from the field. And when the allied armies advanced and failed to find the Dragatoans in the expected state of disarray, they were themselves thrown into chaos, quickly driven to route, and pursued to near-complete destruction.

Then the Dragatoans came down upon the allied nations with a fury to make the gods tremble. From the great cities of the south billowed black plumes into the heavens, and a wailing arose from the Vharmor Mountains to the Parona Sea.

Sadly, this act of indiscretion cost the skalin of Dragato the last of whatever trust the other races had for them, and the dream of a peaceful unity was thus shattered. The states that had resisted did not survive the war, but riot and rebellion sprung up across all of Shadon.

The ranks of the Dragatoan military soon ejected all but skalin, and the nostar were especially scorned. Declared enemies of the state and denied all protection of law, the formerly renowned mercenaries were driven into the shadows where they could do nothing but scratch out a meager survival – though this scorn would in turn backfire on the skalin as the nostar quite willingly resorted to plying the mercenary trade with rebel factions, granting many such factions access to a level of military skill they would never have otherwise attained.

Control of the far reaches of its empire often seemed tenuous, but none of this shook the world from Dragato’s grip. As conquered peoples came to realize that their homelands would never again be free, they began secretly making their way to the ruins of Argondis where they found means to withdraw into the far reaches of the cosmos. By the time the Dragatoans realized this and put a stop to it, a mass emigration from Shadongard had already occurred.

With a military division now securing Argondis, Dragato opted to at last fully explore the previously inviolate sacred ground. And within its depths was found a trove of artifacts far beyond any technology previously known. By the study of these artifacts, Dragato began to advance its own technology at a terrifying rate, and within decades was prepared to make its bid for the stars.

[Luxon Cobrat]

And here's that earlier part of the history I mentioned. It's been a month since I did anything to it, so up it goes. If I had been a little bit smarter, maybe I wouldn't have broken the order.

-----

Shadon – History of the Age of Dawn

The continent upon which stood the city of Argondis was named Shadon by the Children, proclaiming it the center of Shadongard. The decorated heroine Tyrandis was given the title Queen of Shadon and left to defend the last of Shadonis’ people as they entered their long sleep. Taking it upon herself to settle the wilderness of Shadon and prepare it for the return of her people once their strength was restored, Tyrandis created her own children – the races of krahn, sahlu, and skalin.

The krahn were given tremendous physical strength and stamina that they might reclaim the land and build up cities and roadways. The skalin were given lethal forms and natural ferocity to stand as guardians against the enemies of Argondis – be they surviving creatures of Kel, forces altogether alien, or traitors to their queen. And to the Sahlu were given vast powers of the mind to keep Tyrandis’ flock from straying from its purpose.

Shadon shone like a jewel under the heavens for many long years, Argondis its gleaming core, a testament to perfect order. And then a new race entered the world.

The felcaeri – servants of Wrathmont, who had broken free of his bonds far sooner than the Children of Shadonis had hoped – were spreading a new empire of undying legions across the cosmos, now guiding it with their very-much living hands. The jewel of Shadon quickly cracked before the relentless assault of the Dark Army. The claws of the skalin fell to the flesh of the dead, and just as soon rose to join their enemies. The strength of the krahn and the minds of the sahlu were swept away before the terrible power of felcaeri magic. Great cities and roads that had stood for centuries were battered down and left a ruin of their past glory.

In desperation, Tyrandis awoke her people, and together they descended on the felcaeri in one last great battle. Not without loss to the Children, the felcaeri began to give way. But just as it seemed the invaders would at last fail, Wrathmont deigned to take to the field. Faced now against overwhelming power, the Children buckled and fell away, fleeing back to the depths of Argondis. Wrathmont pursued them even to here, and so Tyrandis turned to face the shadowgod with the greatest of her children at her side. It was a hopeless skirmish, but fate held that she landed one severe blow on Wrathmont before her warriors fell and she was brought low by felcaeri spells.

Though Wrathmont withdrew at this, it was not enough to save the Children of Shadonis. The felcaeri and their legions pushed into Argondis, destroying the city and slaughtering its creators where they were found.

But the felcaeri would not rule Shadon long. Knowing of Wrathmont’s injury, his captains at last saw a chance to do away with him and open a path for their own ambitions – a chance they would not let slip away. After as summary a coup as any usurper could dream, Wrathmont was reduced to no more than a vile spirit and banished to the mortal plane outside Felcaer where he would remain cut off from any means of replenishing his power. But the unity of the felcaeri ended there, and they quickly split up into a countless mass of warring factions each vying for dominance. Further interest in Shadongard was lost and the few felcaeri remaining there had neither the numbers nor the cohesion to maintain control over the world. Most joined in the retreat of the Felcaeri Empire across the cosmos and returned to their own plane, but a few chose to stay and maintain the enclaves they had established – enclaves that had now become their own personal kingdoms. But though the Children of Shadonis were no more, Tyrandis’ creatures had not all been destroyed. A great number had fled into wild lands, and others lived under the rule of the felcaeri as replacements for the undead minions that had been forfeit with Wrathmont’s betrayal. Through hard-fought rebellion, these creatures brought low their conquerors and scattered them to the winds. Thus were the first kingdoms of the krahn, the sahlu, and the skalin born and the felcaeri of Shadon left to wander derelict as tribes of the wilderness and mercenary bands in the armies of other races.

These kingdoms did not stand united. Without the central authority of Queen Tyrandis to guide them, traditional power structures quickly gave way to local bonds of loyalty, and vital disagreements between factions grew into deep-seated quarrels. Some kingdoms retained the old caste system, but others abandoned it to form nations of one predominant race or another. As time passed, the strongest kingdoms consumed their lesser neighbors as the natural order would dictate, and an era of warring states led to an era of warring empires.

At last there arose two powers to dominance. In the valley of the Holy River Land in the far north lay the ancient kingdom of Valserion defended by high mountains and far-reaching religious influence, while spanning the Shimmerdune Desert of the south sat the Brendonis Confederation with its lucrative control of overland trade between three regions of the continent. Between these two overlords lay a screen of vassal states and the neutral monastic state of Varskalin to keep one another at bay, and so it seemed that stability and perhaps even peace might at last be achieved among the peoples of the continent.

But another evil assured that this would not be. The destruction of Argondis had loosened the bonds that held the shadowgod Kel, and his corruption began to seep forth and encroach upon the edge of civilization. Savage creatures roamed with greater frequency from the wastes beyond Shadon, and dark shadows crept through the night. None of this went without notice, but it brought about little more than the locking of doors and the hanging of amulets.

It was the catastrophic birth of the Dark Expanse that truly caught the world’s attention. From below the flat and fertile plains of northwestern Shadon, there arose at once a vast range of infernal mountains, spitting fire and poison into the sky. As the light of the sun grew dim, monstrous hordes the likes of which had never before been seen emerged from that ravaged place and cut deep into civilized land, scourging the countryside with no drive beyond unfettered malevolence. The time of the Dark Expanse was to become a time of heroes, rich in legend but consequently dark to history. Countless years after the end of the age, even the identity of the champion who finally drove Kel out of the world remains shrouded in mystery and hotly debated, with ancestors and national heroes of every shape and size being nominated for the claim.

What is known is that, at that age’s end, the new world had critically changed, and one nation stood poised to achieve dominance over the rest.

[Luxon Cobrat]

(And back to some actual felcaeri stuff for a bit. Not much this time, but a bit of characterization for the "typical" felcaeri Overlord here, or something.)

Psalms of the Overlord
Written by Overlord Draconis Bingolo

All felcaeri seek in their hearts to rule the cosmos. Whosoever fears the envy of subjects is therefore damned, but the lord who counts upon it may be preserved.

Appear not as a roadblock to your officers lest they conspire in unison against you. Appear as the road itself and they shall struggle instead to surpass one another.

Defend yourself not with fools, for this will make the wise your enemy. A fool taken as a shield may as easily become the dagger in your back.

Fools at your back are dangerous, for they know not their limits.

Wise ministers seek to secure their positions before they advance. An excess of order is thus a hazard, a modicum of chaos a benefit.

Conspire with the distant against the close – the low against the high.

Give in not to arrogance. Complacency is the strongest of poisons.

The higher the peak, the harsher the wind. Be always prepared to fly lest you find yourself cast down into the ravine. The hope of eternal rule is the road to extinction.

Indulge neither in grudge nor spite and leave no enemy who might pursue you to the farthest reaches.

The fall can be delayed, but it is inevitable. Better to survive and begin anew than to perish.

If flight should take you to a mortal realm, tarry there not long. Creatures who know not the full length of time lay impatient plans and invent few new thoughts. Though dominion over such things is simple for us to hold, in their company the mind wastes away.


A nation that cries out for safety has not the will to attain it. A nation proclaiming a love of peace has not abandoned its hunger for war, but has merely ceased to know itself. A nation seeking honor does not understand war.

A docile populous cowers from war and turns to any who may promise peace. Conquest is the pursuit of an ambitious people.

Talk of security will breed cowardice. Talk of honor will give birth to stupidity. Speak of profit alone to awaken practical thought.

Depravity makes a nation amenable to the necessities of expansion. Hunger for conquest and understanding of reason can be found together nowhere else.

Armaboar moves mountains. Nightmare races winds. Manticore stamps out fire.

Only madness brings joy on the field. It is necessary that warriors be mad.

The end need not justify the means. Justice is a pursuit of delusion.

[Luxon Cobrat]

(And now a conversation from Chat to help translate my "Dark God Chronicle" post from above into plain English.)

02:20:38 ‹The_Vizir› honestly, though... I really don't think we'd want to see a horror devised by you, Lux. It would likely be... horrific to say the least
02:21:40 ‹Luxon› Like a dark god that was born as the agent of ultimate destruction when a race chose to annhialate itself through nuclear war?
02:21:56 ‹The_Vizir›
02:22:15 ‹The_Vizir› well, okay... maybe less horrific and more martially inclined
02:22:50 ‹Luxon› I think Wrathmont's pretty horrific, though.
02:24:34 ‹The_Vizir› I haven't seen much to differentiate between him and other dark lords
02:25:04 ‹The_Vizir› but that's likely because my toons and yours haven't really woven their plots together
02:25:53 ‹Luxon› Let's see. I've got one shadowgod that represents ultimate martial... martialness, one shadowgod that represents the spread of undeath across the cosmos, and and one shadowgod that represents mindless destruction.
02:26:26 ‹Luxon› None of them have really appeared on-screen so far.
02:26:49 ‹The_Vizir› probably a good thing
02:27:41 ‹Luxon› Of course, they'd be too powerful to stick into the Forest.
02:28:57 ‹The_Vizir› probably true as well...
02:29:15 ‹The_Vizir› though we do have Juno, who could in theory kick any of their arses
02:29:22 ‹Luxon› Wrathmont made one semi-appearance in that VWO thread with Windy, but even that was just an avatar.
02:29:50 ‹Luxon› It would be an even match at best, depending on whether Juno could be mussed to take a dive.
02:30:01 ‹The_Vizir›
02:31:10 ‹The_Vizir› ahh, so that level of power above anyone in the forest...
02:32:01 ‹The_Vizir› "Norad has a hold full of nukes, and could turn the forest into a blasted plane of irridated glass... he is the fifth most powerful character in the forest. The others are expontially more powerful"
02:32:06 * Luxon attempts to dig up Wrathmont's "appearance."
02:33:01 * Luxon thinks the thread may have been lost at some point.
02:34:14 * Luxon becomes pretty sure it was, because a search for "Druin" doesn't turn it up.
02:34:27 ‹The_Vizir› hunh
02:37:09 ‹Luxon› Closest thing I've got, anyway: http://www.unicornsvisions.com...p163192
02:38:04 ‹Luxon› That was just Wrathmont acting through Zom, though.
02:39:55 ‹Luxon› (Once I point it out, you may notice how that particular scene was inspired by Golden Sun...)
02:44:14 ‹Luxon› (In some small part, anyway.)
02:45:05 ‹The_Vizir› I didn't draw the parallels, but okay
02:45:22 ‹The_Vizir› sealing a world off from Naira... that was powerful
02:45:42 ‹The_Vizir› considering Naria has the most powerful teleportation of anything in the universe...
02:46:11 ‹The_Vizir› though Juno's started to master Deep Forest's rifts, and so can almost match Naira...
02:46:25 ‹Luxon› Just the part where Zom's power was enhanced by the location, like Saturos and Menardi in that last lighthouse...
02:46:36 ‹The_Vizir› ahh
02:53:19 ‹Luxon› Also, found the other one with the magic of Google: http://www.unicornsvisions.com...p140933
02:54:18 ‹Luxon› I put a content warning up in that thread's title to avoid the possible need for censorship, but I think it turned out unnecessary...
02:54:58 ‹The_Vizir›
02:55:00 ‹The_Vizir› prolly
03:07:15 ‹The_Vizir› good thing you teamed up with Windy there...
03:07:28 ‹The_Vizir› none of my characters would be able to pull anything like that off...
03:07:53 ‹The_Vizir› though... Devon might, so you might want to hook Entropy up with Devon soon enough so that she has another hero to fall back on
03:09:07 ‹Luxon› It could be a goal to pursue.
03:09:56 ‹The_Vizir›
03:10:03 ‹The_Vizir› I dun have no real heros!
03:10:09 ‹Luxon› Of course, as the current situation stands, the conflict is over with Wrathmont victorious. Consequence of letting all the threads lag out...
03:12:25 ‹Luxon› He's basically got free run over Felron with none of the Overlords able to stand up to him.
03:13:04 ‹The_Vizir› oh that sounds fun...
03:13:19 ‹The_Vizir› which I guess means he can turn his attention elsewhere...
03:14:07 ‹Luxon› His attention's off Entropy for now, at least.
03:14:45 ‹The_Vizir› because they got that which was inside of her out...
03:14:53 ‹The_Vizir› ... but then why is Zom still around?
03:14:55 ‹Luxon› Basically, he has ascended from the rank of "Plot Villain" to "Setting Villain."
03:15:19 ‹Luxon› Her other reason for being in Deep Forest: to bite people.
03:15:27 ‹The_Vizir› Is Wraithmont going to let one of his elite minions hang around Deep Forest?
03:15:31 ‹The_Vizir› ... bite people?
03:15:56 ‹Luxon› Bite them, suck their soul dry, return it to Wrathmont for processing.
03:16:19 ‹The_Vizir› She's... in a vessel with... a demon, a faerie, two robots, a closet monster, a shapeshifter, a demigod and... well, okay, Klinge I guess is a target
03:17:26 ‹Luxon› Well, her purpose in the plot is to keep Deep Forest from being destroyed by the Ancient Evil so that the Other Ancient Evil won't lose a source of new minions.
03:18:16 ‹Luxon› Also, because Rekka dragged her there, mostly because he was bored.
03:18:22 ‹The_Vizir› ahh, there we go
03:26:10 ‹Luxon› Also, on the earlier topic of Seethe as a horror, I would classify him as the Horror of War, if he were actually a product of the Pit. Basically, representing the ultimate apocalyptic culmination of a race's barbaric history, created specifically to destroy its creators. The God of Nuclear Holocaust...
03:27:07 ‹The_Vizir› seems... more like a god than a boogieman
03:27:46 ‹Luxon› He's a singularity. Take that as you will.
03:28:02 ‹Luxon› *It's a singularity.
03:28:50 ‹The_Vizir› I... don't know how, but okay
03:28:50 ‹Luxon› Of course, he's not a horror in the sense of the race, but the idea of nuclear war could itself be a boogieman...
03:29:41 ‹The_Vizir› when you say singularity, I think Juno... a cosmic anomaly that tries its damndest to continue to persist by encouraging the universe to develop in a way that supports it
03:29:56 ‹Luxon› He's a technological singularity.
03:30:02 ‹The_Vizir› ahh
03:30:12 ‹Luxon› *It
03:31:16 ‹Luxon› Originally a military command AI, but expanded itself.
03:32:35 ‹Luxon› Or, nuclear command AI, anyway.
03:33:18 ‹The_Vizir› Skynet
03:33:38 ‹Luxon› ... AI created to direct a nuclear war.
03:33:47 ‹Luxon› Yeah. Skynet out of control.
03:34:03 ‹Luxon› Skynet with no humans left to defeat it.
03:34:54 ‹The_Vizir› ahh, Wraithmont of the AI world
03:36:02 ‹Luxon› Because it was a more realistic nuclear war. Many times the number of nuclear weapons flying around that would have been necessary to wipe all vertibrates from the face of the world.
03:36:44 ‹Luxon› Of course, unlike Skynet, it was unleashed intentionally. Everything it did was done according to the orders of its creators.
03:37:42 ‹Luxon› Also, Wrathmont and the other two Shadowgods were what that was eventually broken up into when it was finally defeated.
03:39:55 ‹The_Vizir› oh, okay... so Wraithmont is one of the subdivisions of an AI that destroyed its creators on orders in a nuclear holocost... millenia later incarnated in purely maelevolant magical force
03:42:11 ‹Luxon› Basically, sometime long after it had evolved into more of a spiritual force than just an AI, a portion of its will that wanted to move beyond destruction for the sake of blind obediance to programming split off. Then the two halves eventually encountered each other again when the "dark" side of the program came to destroy what the "light" side had created, and the two halves ended up destroying each other.
03:42:37 ‹Luxon› Wrathmont is a case of Sufficiently Advanced Technology, really.
03:42:45 ‹The_Vizir› wow... metaphysics...
03:43:16 ‹The_Vizir› yeah... one of the first races in the multiverse's lasting FVCK YOUS to all that follow
03:43:18 ‹Luxon› Although, both Seethe and the Shadowgods had been playing themselves up as "magical" beings for a long time.
03:44:04 ‹Luxon› *Seethe had been playing itself up as a "magical" being for a long time, then the Shadowgods kept to the traditions.
03:44:25 ‹The_Vizir› hunh... I wonder what impact Norad could have there, as he is specifically designed to restrain and contain AIs
03:44:29 ‹Luxon› *tradition
03:46:11 ‹Luxon› It's really advanced beyond being an AI at this point.
03:46:13 ‹The_Vizir› probably absoltuely nothing, as they've moved so far beyond mundain AIs that they are reality warpers...
03:46:17 ‹The_Vizir›
03:49:01 ‹Luxon› I mean, I guess they're technically artificial, and they're intelligences, but their hardware is something far beyond a computer.
03:50:29 ‹Luxon› Their hardware itself is even metaphysical, actually.
03:50:39 ‹The_Vizir›
03:52:42 ‹The_Vizir› kinda would have to be after several hundred million years
04:02:06 ‹Luxon› Especially considering that it towed collapsed universes around as a power source...
04:05:50 ‹The_Vizir›
04:06:28 ‹The_Vizir› he'd better hope that one of those universes isn't one of the ones Juno's corrupted, or he's got a heaping load of trouble waiting for him
04:07:39 ‹Luxon› Knowing Juno, that could be why it split up and destroyed itself in the first place...
04:08:52 ‹The_Vizir›
04:09:01 ‹The_Vizir› yea verily
04:24:39 * Luxon thinks he will C&P this conversation into his worldbuilding thread because it might clarify some stuff that the fancy language he used in his first post may have left unclear.