Hectonkhyres

Its fine until a rabid corgie goes and gives you a bloody anatomy lesson. Ouch.

Nethergate has style. I put it above both Avernum and Geneforge in that sense.

Why not? I have six with yahoo. Everyone outside of a third world country has email.

So the shaper has friends? Even more reason to be as nice as possible. One shaper is bad enough but its even worse to be tortured by committee.

If its a shaper, I would get on one knee and offer whatever services he might need. I favor my life.

As for the whole vestigial wing thingie, the very early versions of the fyora might have had wings. There is little doubt that they have been modified at least several dozen times from their archetypal progenitor. The wings might have been removed intentionally after the drayks rebelled. The shapers probably figured that, since fyoras go rogue at a drop of a hat, you don't want them to go fly away. You want them easy to hunt down and slay.

No ethics are impinged upon for a loyalist. Anyone not willing to give you their supplies is a traitor and should be executed on the spot anyway.

A few more of the dirty little secrets that the shapers have been hiding... of have just plain forgotten. Things that were put in motion with the very founding of the science of shaping. In the course of the plot, you should find instructions on how to manufacture forgotten things. Creations which were left as footnotes on somebody's recordbook but either dropped out of everyday use, were banned, or never left prototype stage.

The shaper council seem to live practically forever. My question is: who died to allow such policy change and why?

Its the price of being a god.

This probably wouldn't work, but I really want some input in any case. Any comment at all. I would like to see a nonshaped creation. Imagine a neglected geneforge left in some secluded spot for centuries. The shapers wiped out the heritics and all their creations, leaving nobody to use it. Only automated machinery and some machine golems are left to take care of it. Over time, its strange energies mutate local plant and animal life in semi-random and unpredictable ways. Most that was touched died... but some lived on. Darwinism kicks in at an accelerated rate. Thick mats of fiberous green algae coat rocks. Strange, but eerily beautiful plants decorate the landscape. Animals and fish that have never been seen by human eyes abound in truely alien forms. But things change too fast for there to be any real balance of nature. It is a violent and dangerous landscape. Consuming the abandoned heretic citadel, and the geneforge itself, is the strangest lifeform of all. Evolved out of simple fungi and bacteria that grew too close to the forge (symbiotic life forms that make up essence pools), it is like a massive coral reef. Gradually, it gained an alien type of sapience and learned to shape new organisms... but not in the same way as the shapers. It produces essence bearers. Delicate, glassine creatures with a transparant bulb or cup shaped organ on their backs. These transport the essence necessary to keep its component creations alive. Some are modified to carry acid, making them dangerous enemies. It produces dopplegangers. These are stupid creatures made in human form. Decent spies or deadly assassins. In battle, they are anything but human. It produces brutes. These are thaal or battle alpha analogues. They do the heavy lifting as well as being shock troops. These muscled giants are pale and have an unformed appearance, not even having eyelids, noses, or mouths. It has a thousand other things it can make... and it will only learn from watching shapers in action. Shapers find this area and decide to study it... just as it studies them. They do not know its origins, having forgotten the battle that once took place here. Several parties eventually come to play against each other. Survivors of the heretics, modern rebels, some of the smarter rogues, the shapers themselves, this creature... and you.

Guardian. You say they suck ass? You are correct. That is the reason I like them. While playing one of these bricks, you have to be careful and plan your actions ahead of time. You have to watch every step, make sure to conserve items, and actually play the game. Agents and shapers just go on genocidal rampages without thought to what they are doing.

I don't know why... but I just have a thing about Vlish. I simply think they are the neatest flying squiggs in the world. I only wish the playable ones came in a greater variety. For real use, however, I have to give it to the Rots. They just last forever while being pummled by everything under the sun.

Speaking of this sort of thing... What sort of equipment, forged or otherwise, would you suggest for someone taking the hard and magic-free path of Guardian? By this I mean what you have a reasonable chance of acquiring well before the endgame. I am trying to find an optimal mix to just keep my guy alive without going to the insane measures some have taken. Steel spines would certainly help in a pinch.

If you stay with the Empire, you perform some duties that can be seen as very nasty. When you attack an enemy stronghold, you kill most of their fighters except for one that is to be used for information. You can either slaughter the noncombatants, haul them away as slaves, or leave them with this bitter lesson of what treachery brings. Other missions might include securing natural (and unnatural) resources for the empire. Clear out mines along with their inhabitants, report discoveries, and clear trade routes of brigands. Your iron fist will also be used to insure the loyalty of your own citizens as there may by a coup underfoot. Teach the traitors what happens when you mess with the crown or replace your superiors who are obviously weak. After sufficent loyalty is shown, an official of some sort will present you with a higher rank. This will give you ever increasing privledges and opens up new parts of the game. As a rebel, you still have to do nasty things. Its just that they will be different nasty things. While walking largely undetected through much of empire lands, you try your best to break their tyrannical back. Assasinate, poison a fortress water supply, get whatever they want first, and eventually take on armies. With a little help from several rebel groups, of course. There should be a way to play the game 'clean' while working for either the Empire or a rebel group. It should not be easy, however. It may mean ursurping your own leaders and putting a good guy in his shoes.