War, war, war!

[Toenail Returns]

This is my first big poll. If everyone, yes everyone, from the Empire to the goblins started waring each other for no reason what side would you choose to be on?

[Kelandon]

I have a certain fondness for the sliths. This will be explained/demonstrated when my BoA scenario comes out.

[Custer]

Vahnatai are misspelled and there's no option for who would really win the war: the horses. They are completely indestructible, after all.

[Alorael at Large]

Vahnatai always have the option of Resting until everyone else has made a mess of one another, then waking up and delivering an authoritative smackdown Rentar-Ihrno style.

 

—Alorael, who hardly thinks that the Alien Beasts deserve to be their own group. They're good, solid vahnatai creations. Troglodytes are iffier, but one could make a case for them being a subset of the vahnatai army as well. Basically, the vahnatai have the numbers, the weird creatures, and the cool curvy swords on their side. How can they lose?

[Custer]

In a battle between a horse and a Vahnatai Lord, the Vahnatai Lord dies of old age 100% of the time.

[dareva]

Vahnatai, but only because of the Resting thing. Dareva is highly in favor of looooooong naps.

[Custer]

Alec punches people who speak in the third person and doesn't feel badly about it afterwards.

[dareva]

The world is full of Darevas, and I speak for them all! In whatever person comes to mind.

[Omlette]

Why did you use the plural form correctly for every single option except for the Nephil? Is this some special way of showing contempt for them?

 

-E-

[Armada]

Nephil. Not because i think they would win...but because their cat people

[Alorael at Large]

I have only been occasionally punched by Alec, and I speak in the third person at least once per post.

 

—Alorael, who is proud of to be himself. He wouldn't know what to do if he were myself.

[Custer is the worlds biggest noob]

ALIEN BEASTS!!!!!!

 

I mean a horse is quite fast and virtually helpless

 

Alien beasts are just as fast and very deadly...which one would you prefer???

 

ALIEN BEASTS OF COURSE!!!!

 

They will be armored with mithril breastplate

I will have a lance!

 

and I shall kill those Vanahti in their sleep!

[Custer]

An alien beast is faster, perhaps. But have you ever seen one kill a horse?

 

Have you ever seen anything kill a horse? They're completely invincible.

[Alorael at Large]

And they split even better than doomguards. One becomes six in the blink of an eye and a step of a party member onto the horse. But yes, in fact, I have seen a horse (or six) die. Enormous explosions and collapses like that of the Filth Factory or the Woodsy Tower do the job.

 

—Alorael, who does concede that they are effectively immune to everything but overkill. They are, however, quite tough. If they could do damage, they would win the war. But they can't.

[Rupert]

Actually, the first gentleman who sells horses mentions that they are rare, due to the slimes eating them. SO, obviously I would win.

 

EDIT: Wooh, 400!

[Timber-Wolf]

Where are the Dark Wyrms? They would kill every other pityful creature 1 hit, and I will ride one like a horse

[Custer is the worlds biggest noob]

Custer horses aren't invunreable

 

all you need is a dagger in the neck to kill them

 

A vahnatai lord could kill it easily

 

Chance of dieing

Battle=Horse vs Vahnatai lord

 

Horse=100%

Vahnatai lord=0%

 

so take that idiot

[Lilith]

You are the poster child for post-natal abortion.

[Kelandon]

Mr. Lookit My Saxy Body, horses are not "invunreable," but they have never been killed in any Exile or Avernum game. Thus we may deduce that they are invulnerable.

 

Thuryl, must you not only take Alec's name but also sound like him, too? It is becoming increasingly difficult to tell you two apart.

[Lilith]

I'm less general.

 

Bah. I'll change it as soon as I think of something better.

[Sullust]

Even though the horses are invulnerable, they are unable to do any damage. Also, they are magically restricted from walking on certain Terrains, and darkness often frightens them. Their only use would be to make a blockade, but a portal could quickly fix that for the vahnatai.

[Toenail Returns]

Sure horses are almost impossible to kill, but what will you do? Neigh at them to death?

 

I'm also surprised that nobody mentioned the Demons yet.

[Custer is the worlds biggest noob]

ok my alien beasts will live in a cave and they will eat Custer for tea

[Zephyr Tempest]

Eat Custer for tea?

 

I WOULD AMASS MY OWN ARMIES AND COMMAND OTHER ARMIES TO JOIN THE SENSELESS SLAUGHTER UNDER MY BANNER!

 

(Or I would cower and whimper under my bed until the fighting's over.)

 

Fighting them all alone would be the one most similiar to that.

[Ironweed]

The Anama would win. In God they trust.

 

Or alternatively the undead. You can't overestimate the fear of the enemy, when they encounter someone using his teeth as a weapon. Also, when all the others have slaughtered each other, everyone becomes undead. It's the perfect non-violent strategy! They're like Gandhi, though a lot paler!

[Alorael at Large]

Most corpses don't end up undead, just dead. Spirits seem to appear only when people die very angry, very upset, or otherwise emotionally engaged. Vampires and liches are never really explained, but going by common explanations they probably come from contagious biting (though perhaps vampirism is only shared when the biter wants to) and from mages who just don't want to die, respectively. Random shambling undead are almost exclusively mindless shambling bodies raised by one of the previous categories of undead or a mage with too much spare time.

 

That was rather tangential, but my point was that the undead won't win. There are actually relatively few undead capable of perpetuating the "species," although if they could get to a battlefield right after everyone dies they could make recruiters weep with envy.

 

—Alorael, who also thinks that goblins deserve some consideration. They are much like roaches and ants: no matter what happens and how many die as a result, there will always be goblins left in the rubble.

[Toenail Returns]

I though the undead were mindlessly created by mages for guards but they couldn't control them. What was the real story for the undead?

[RamBear]

Isn't Anama part of the Empire?

[Ironweed]

Pfft. I'd say the chances are quite big for soldiers dying "very angry, very upset, or otherwise emotionally engaged". Ever heard of haunted battlefields? They're the frickin' playgrounds for all sorts of transparent lifeforms!

 

Ha. I win.

 

EDIT: Touche! 1-0 to me! In your face! Booyah! Go me! Go me!

[Omlette]

Calm down, Weedy, calm down.

 

-E-

[Ruth]

I don't think I would be on the side of the strongest at all.

In "real world" ethics, it's usually not the strongest that I think are right and behave as they should, if anyone.

In game-related terms only, it'll be much more fun to defeat the strongest and make someone weaker win.

[Toenail Returns]

So are you saying you'd rather be on the bandit's side than the demon's?

 

Congrats for me. It's my 250th post.

[Ruth]

Well, yes. I suppose I'd be on anyone's side rather than the demons'. Though the bandits are bad guys too, aren't they?

Wouldn't it be a good thing to unite all humans, sliths, nephilim, spiders, dragons and all other intelligent species against demons and undead?

 

By the way, how do you tell if a hostile creature is intelligent? OK, the spiders are definitely not very intelligent, though they can talk, as we know because there are friendly ones. The sliths and nephilims definitely build towns. But what about lizards and drakes? They sometimes seem to have money.

[aquadraconus]

Yeah... for everyone of us they kill, that person/thing will come back as an undead and aid them in the endless war.

 

after a few major wars, the undead will obviously win. Their numbers have been too great.

 

Look at me! I'm back from the dark place from which I've dwelt.

[Rupert]

I would join the undead, but I am allergic to dieing.

[Alorael at Large]

If soldiers in battle feel the kinds or levels of emotions that lead to shambling zombies or wailing spirits, there would be more undead hanging around Ermarian's battlefields than there are. In fact, there would be no need for the military to dig graves.

 

Normal dedication to a cause doesn't cut it. Soldierly esprit de corps, patriotism, and the rest don't either. Anger over being betrayed (or becoming lunch to a bunch of really ugly demons) is more likely. But really, only a fraction of a percent of people don't stay dead.

 

—Alorael, who also suspects that steps would be taken by opposing armies to prevent the undead ranks from swelling constantly. Surely priests could come up with a good way to keep their dead dead.

[aquadraconus]

Yeah, I guess you got a point there... never thought about it that way.

 

Something that was on my mind:

 

Just imagine a Haakai crossbreeding with a Mug Demon... the possibilities for such a creature would be endless... the would first steal your MP and then blast you into ashes.

[Bloodhearte]

Oh, come on people...

 

We all know the Dragons would win, as soon as Athron's (?) sprogs were fully grown. If they produced enough in number, they could decimate anyone or anything in their path.

 

AND they're superintelligent. Would anybody like a Khoth with that burger?

[Custer is the worlds biggest noob]

no thx

 

ALIEN BEASTS would obviously win....I mean they're more than a load of angry,mutated wolf..They're smarter than you think...

 

so there

[Toenail Returns]

Come to think of it wouldn't the demons kill the dragons? Aren't they much more powerful?

[Cryomancer]

Vahnatai would win. No ifs, ands, or buts. They are the superior fighters and mages and priests in the world. Second in line I think would be the sliths, then the nephilim. To be honest, humans stink. Vahnatai have the supreme intelligence and spellcasting ability, sliths have the brute force and biggest weapons, and nephilim are the fastest and most skilled with ranged weapons. They could take down a company of humans before the humans knew they were there.

 

In response to dragons winning, that would be possible, if there were more. There's only 5 to begin with, 6 if you count Pythras, and be Exile 3 we only have 3. Also it took Athron MANY years before she is as powerful as she is...by the time all of her brood would be full grown dragons, the other races would probably be extinct (because they killed each other) and of course, who would be surprised to find that some of her brood are killed before reaching maturity? (i.e.- Exile 1, Athron's Lair-slaughtered all her precious drake babies) In response to Straw Man's post about vampires and liches: vampirism is spread through biting, but liches were once powerful human necromancers who, at a certain level of power, underwent a complicated and vile ritual to turn tem into undead so they can live forever, having an eternity to hone their magical skills.

[Alorael at Large]

As I said, that's the common explanation. There's no reason that it has to be the same in the world of Exile. From Diplomacy with the Dead (not techincally Exile, but Avernum is the same world) we know that not all vampire bites cause vampirism. And until I see a necromancer turn into a lich, I'll reserve judgement. Maybe they're just zombies with less decayed brains who had centuries to work on learning magic post mortem.

 

Humans have a huge numerical advantage over the nephilim, who were all but wiped out by purges on the surface. They also do not have any powerful mages or priests to match against those of the other races, and their warriors tend to be less powerful. They have no central organization. In short, they would be easy pickings for any other belligerent race.

 

The full numbers of sliths are not known, as most of them live in their kingdom beneath Exile (again, extrapolating from Avernum); in fact, the only ones seen by humans were cast out as barbaric heathens. Unless the civilized sliths are just as warlike and more organized than the known sliths, and unless they discovered the fine art of making armor and bows (javelins really aren't great ranged weapons), they would probably fall to hordes of human archers behind heavily armored soldiers.

 

Vahnatai numbers aren't known, but there probably aren't as many vahnati as humans. They have the most skilled fighters and mages, the most powerful weapons and spells, and the ability to manufacture more troops on demand (slimes, roaches, troglodytes, giants, alien beasts, and especially golems). They function as clans with no unifying authority, but if the Crystal Souls could agree to kill other races, the vahnatai would quickly fall into line. The only thing they don't have is armor, but you don't need it when you can order walking statues to kill things for you.

 

—Alorael, whose money is on the vahnatai as well. Heck, they created the other sapient species. They probably created horses as well!

[Lilith]

I believe in one of the series Exiles, somewhere in Interchangeable Undead Crypt #36, you can talk to a spirit who saw someone change into a lich via a ritual.

[Toenail Returns]

But then who created the Dragons? Were they just popped into existance by no means at all?

[Cryomancer]

I thought I heard somewhere that Dragons were one of the first races on Ermarian, along with the Vahnatai, but I also have heard that the Vahnatai created all races...but that just doesn't seem possible, I mean a dragon could take out quite a few vahnatai before it went down, so why would the vahnatai create something that's more powerful than they are?

[Alorael at Large]

The dragons were Ermarian's first intelligent race, although gazers, eyebeasts, maybe gremlins, and other oddball species could have evolved on their own (though gremlins are humanoid, suggesting vahnatai origin). The vahnatai arrived from another world. No, they didn't deliberately create competitors. They just had to deal with the ones already firmly entrenched.

 

—Alorael, who sees enough minor similarities between dragons and sliths for there to be some connection. Perhaps the vahnatai and dragons collaborated on that race, or perhaps the vahnatai gave them to the dragons as a gift. There's even less in the games to back that up than there is for the vahnatai creationism theory, though, so he'll leave the sub-theory alone.

[Enraged Slith]

If the bandits banded together they would win. First all supply routes would be cut off, due to the danger of traveling roads. Then the bandits would slowly pillage each town and demoralize the opposing forces. Then, with sufficient towns and reinforcements, they would kill off all the dragons and such with superior numbers.

 

They can also steal the horses.

 

Edit: Come to think of it, haven't bandits always won? Think of Rome, arguably the most poweful empire to ever exist. Bandits/Raiders were one of the biggest contributions to its decline.

[Toenail Returns]

naw, the bandits would get smushed by the demons.

[Eldibs]

The humans would win. Think about it. What resource the the humans use that none of the other races use... Horses. One human would be riding along on his horse, and a Nephil would shoot a bow at him, a slith would try to spear him, etc, etc, an they would miss and hit the horse. The horse, being indestructible, would not be injured, and the human would escape. He would then tell all the armorers to start making horse-hide armor and equip all the soldiers with it, and voila! Indestructible human soldiers.

 

They could even make horse-hide robes for the mages!

[The Paladin Izzannor]

What about the GIFTS?!?!?!?