Upon Mars.

I have a few other extracts. The problem is it's not a continual story but i'd be happy to provide you with some drafts on this thread. I'm also going to provide an enormous social and intellectual background to this Geneforge revist, with refrences to books found in the geneforge series with cross refrences and passages cut out from famous books such as the origins of speices, the bible, the famous WW2 "Instrument of Surrender" etc... As you might guess some of these documents are going to be revisited. It's going to be very hard work, and it is of course very heavy stuff and very dark in it's self... I even think that the author of the book is a very depressing character, being a nasty, yet very intriging, shopist... By the way, many of the narrator's ideas are in fact opposit to my own. What i intend to do is to critisize a certain way of looking at things in Europe through the blatent fallacies that the narrator tries to push onto people. I expect people to read the "book" with caution. Here's a introduction to Andras' arrival in Pentil through it's beseiged doors: Pentil's PlainsPart 1: It is often said that the fate of nations is intimately bound up with their powers of reproduction*; The careful Shapers often created their servants sterile, in spite of the extreme difficulty it takes for one lone shaper to fashion creations. But with devices instantly creating live creations, it was no more a difficulty. The real problem for the Shapers was the hatred that their arts brought, having created unemployment, their rich temples seemed to be a banquet of opportinities to the poor uncontrollable masses of outsiders. So the Shapers knowing that the non magical outsider's only strength was it's huge numbers, they decided to cut them down, not with war, not with taxes, but contraception. Indeed the Shapers are often criticized for having put a leach to the libido of human beings; with restrictions of all kind regarding child production, people felt it as being "unnatural", "bizarre" and if not pure "folly from a bunch of crazed sex-craven magicians". But these have in effect, "succeeded" in stopping something governments of the past never took notice of: unemployment. Nor did we, outsiders, had such a thing before, as the death toll kept this risk in check. But since of the Shaper's deployment on Terrestia, their heavy pharmaceutical industries having improved the quality of life men, the subsequent replacement of human labor by creations, the printed book, the invention of the "Mind", the widespread of vilsh messagery, the use of essence and "crystal machinery"**, unemployment became more and more something of a concern with a booming population; after the igularian wars, in the country side, people seemed to crawl out from evrey where, jobless, and with each fleeing generations, came more of them fattening the large cities of Terrestia with even more workforce. A higher rate of reproduction, and the risk at any time of being being forced-out of their country by the more competitive Shaper agronomists (Shapers of course owning the land and the seas***), led to a high demand in contraception and a better education for a more specialized employment, such as being mere consumers, to igulerian**** working in optical facilities. But, all in advance, as the song goes, the foreseeing and wise Shapers*****, with all sorts of contraceptive mesures, turned the ship of society away from the rocks of overpopulation and the great problems of unemployment. The birth rate found itself stabilized and the death toll being incredibly low, the application of birth control has in the long run permitted for the Shapers greater political stability. However that didn't change the problem of equality between the overall over-rich and tyrannical "liberal" Shapers, and the very poor, and still strong in numbers, outsiders. All serviles, had always laid in the shadows of the Shapers, but Sucia isle, however was an exception to this rule. Being sentient, they had known of this and despite some of Pentil's religious fanatics, and thanks to a higher death toll, were more and more active on the subject of sex and where by all mean very industrious at it*****, even now in the city of Pentil, babies were born more than what was originally imposed by the Shaper's quota, a proof beyond all doubt that these serviles did not and could not follow the Shaper's rigid wisdom. More deaths related to cold, disease and the occasional rogues ment more serviles had to be bred, and more mouths to feed. And Pentil had already too many mouths to fed. In order to survive, it had to produce more soldiers against the the army of rogues roaming in their fields and woods. So it had seemed that the serviles of Pentil had mobilized their efforts not only in exterminating lone rogues that came to close but also by tempting the impossible task of clearing them out before what was left of food was to run out. But this tactic had not yet bore any fruit, as for the rogues outside Pentil continued being superior in numbers... Drastic mesures being called upon they would fight until every single rogue was crushed. But this was not to happen, at least not without help. This is were Andras comes in. Despite his dreaming and often superficial attitudes, the training of his masters and the knowledge he acquired on the isle battling head forward against it, made him a powerful pawn for the serviles there; being of magical potential, he would soon rush and wipe clean the southern parts of the isle of any immediate danger. But as with any double edge sword Andras had plans of his own. The clearing of Pentil's plains was to serviles a dramatic effect, predictable enough to disrupt the whole so called Obeyer "utopia" before strengthening it even further. To clear the area was to Andras, not only a way to attest of his presence to a higher force than his, that he felt at work on the isle under the form of outsiders and rogues, but also a way to create enough chaos and attention to get into being trusted by the serviles. These valuable assets would help in securing more dangerous parts of the isle. He was therefore eager to break the siege south-west of Pentil, that had sufficient a force of thads and artilas to starve this mighty city. *Karl Binding's: Die Freigabe der Vernichtung Lebensunwerten Lebens chapter 2 paragraph 3. **A complex mechanized, assembly line that molds life out of ready made essence, energy blasted through crystals, set at certain frequencies as to cut and create complex chemicals such as life. ***The seas are valuable asset to any Shaper colony, they provide food, raw materials, and a valuable interface to the outside world, ships loaded with merchandise. ****The term Igulerien refers to all outsiders with innate magicall potential, the term comes from the "Jester" wars, led by Iugelerian coalitions, against the early Shaper tribes and laboratories, had burnt and broken, as you may recall, every stone and paper records of the great Shaper libraries north of Terrestia, before the subsequent creation of the first Council. *****The Shapers were always in fact few in numbers due to their avaricious sense of power, and mostly because the rarity of innate magic potential, only waging war to keep their secrecy and peace intact: they always seem to bully "lesser people" in order to continue their solace. If outsiders hadn't knocked at their forts in the early days and asked them if they could give them food, of which they made in abondance, the Shapers would have never cared for them at all; it is only by false charity and great power over life that the Shapers have assured their predominance over this world. ******Servile sexuality is a poorly documented subject; but in the event of the "Taker's war" against the Shapers, knowledge on their behaviour became more and more complete: like humans, serviles are very playful creatures and engage intercourse in the same variety of fashions that their bodies permits them. Sucia isle, being one of the only isle were serviles could have fully developed to a stance, having occupied an ecological niche left vacant by the Shapers, the environment pushing them to new highs (and to an extent some sorts of regressive behavior), were found to have developed all sorts of erotic depictions and objects: the left-overs of this wide range of such behaviours can be seen all over the isle, from simple clay caricatures with giant phalluses to giant paintings of engaging serviles. According to some accounts, Dreet of Pentil, was to possess more than seven wooden artifacts of erotic content made by his own fellow serviles; all being a collection of utilities such as pipes, spoons and other "essential" house hold accessories. This is however very far from our "sex culture", where homosexuality is not repressed and common place. Both sexes are being more and more treated equally, men tend to be more feminized, women more masculine, transgenderism is common, with transsexuals reproducing through their new sexual identity thanks to the many a wondourous properties of essence.

Originally Posted By: Denizen of Terrestia I mean with the ability to make Creations, there is a lot in the world of the Shapers that is left undiscovered.. WARNING: SPOILERS FROM G1. Quote from G1 God ending: "...however the world is young." A game set in the past of the Shapers would be verey interesting; no Battle Alphas, no creation Golems, only proto-ornks, magic shades, serviles, fyoras, big magician empire coalitions that existed before the Shapers, with mabey a Bibilical approch to it, with plagues of frogs, lice, red water, with an artila being Moses' staff, plagues of Grasshoppers turned by the Shapers into the first Glaahks stripping crops from their greenery... Ultimate power int he hands of men and possible come back (as a minor player perhaps)of Heustess ! Also I'm ever so happy that Avadon is going well for Jeff!

I've got many quotes i like, but i have to put them in bold and some of them into context so as you may understand them: "She hated him. That was the terrible truth of the matter. However tenderly phrased her refusal, he could read between the lines of her letter. She thought he was an ugly, scarred, nightmare-ridden grotesque, and she hated him with all her heart. That was the beginning, the middle and the end of the matter." Clive Barker -The Abarat. "After a battle lasting many ages, The Devil won, And he said to God (who had been his Maker): "Lord, We are about to witness the unmaking of Creation By my hand. I would not wish you to think me cruel, So I beg you, take three things From this world before I destroy it. Three things, and then the rest will be wiped away." God thought for a little time. And at last He said: "No, there is nothing." The Devil was surprised. "Not even you, Lord?" he said. And God said: "No. Not even me."" Clive Barker -the Abarat II : days of magic, nights of war. "`But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked. `Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: `we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.' `Well, then,' the Cat went on, `you see, a dog growls when it's angry, and wags its tail when it's pleased. Now I growl when I'm pleased, and wag my tail when I'm angry. Therefore I'm mad.'" Lewis Carrol -Alice in Wonderland. "Imagine their city was standing, absolutely straight. New York is a city that stands." Céline -Voyage au bout de la Nuit/Journey to the End of the Night (1932) "A stone has weight wether you think it has or not." -Geneforge. "He talked with his attendants, as I suppose, upon the strange superficiality and unreasonableness of (man) who lives on the mere surface of a world, a creature of waves and winds, and all the chances of space, who cannot even unite to overcome the beasts that prey upon his kind, and yet who dares to invade another planet." H.G.Wells -The First Men on the moon "Ohhhhh, pédérastres incompréhensibles, ce n'est pas moi qui lancerai des injures à votre grande dégradation, ce n'est pas moi qui viendrait jeter le mépris sur votre anus infundibuliforme." "Voilà que les animaux de la terre se réunissent aux hommes, font entendre leurs bizarres clameurs. Plus de haine réciproque ; les deux haines sont tournées contre l’ennemi commun, moi..." Isisdore du Caste -Chants de Maldoror "But they must be very, very old, and the old are often insanely jealous of the young." Arthur.C.Clarke -The Sentinel "For a few seconds Moon-Watcher stood uncertainly above his new victim, trying to grasp the new and wonderful fact that the dead leopard could kill again! Now he was master of the world, and he was not quite sure what to do next but he would think of something." "Then he [The Star Child] waited, marshaling his thoughts and brooding over his still untested powers. For though he was master of the world, he was not quite sure what to do next. But he would think of something." 2001: A space odyssey -Arthur.C.Clarke

Hello evrey one! It's been a heck of a time since the last time pasted a topic on Spiderweb's forum, let alone writen a post, so i've decided to submit a project of mine based on the Geneforge 1 game; i've decided to write some sort of non-canon journalistic account of the events of the second Sucia isle incident through the eyes of a learned Magician and It would be nice if any you could reveiw, correct and ameliorate some of my various works. (As a note i have only posted the prologue of the book, as the rest may come very soon.) PS: Would it have been more proper if i had posted this on the Geneforge Forum? Should i make new posts for the rest of my work? Thank you very much. Here's the Prologue of the book: "5,000,000 sunsets later from now, all that will remain of our fatally flawed species, which introduced the concept of tragedy to the local cosmos, will be an intriguing architectural motif and an unusual second and third layers of black crust which now cover so much of the surface of our planet... ...How strange were we!" Jim Woodring's Divinorum or life after Man; Shaper artist and researcher of Sucia isle. "The fool has said in his heart, “They are not Gods.” There is none amongst them who does good, they have done abominable works, they are corrupt." Psalm 14:1 Introduction to The World of the Shapers : Who are Shapers? The Shapers are the oldest, most respected, most secretive, and most powerful of all the magical sects: They have the power to magically create life. The Shapers can make new life forms from nothing but raw materials and pure magic. They have held this secret for many centuries but, thanks to many periods of war and chaos, the origins of their powers have been forgotten. Despite this, they are now the masters of the world, the supreme and undisputed sovereigns of the mainland Terrestia, and the various coast lines and seas that border it. Being undisputed, they have subjugated all of the mainland magicians, the Iugulare, with taxes and laws, while the vast majority of the mainland's people, non magical humans, are kept to the cities as means of control. But most of all, the Shaper achieve all this through the medium of creations they mold. This life is used to serve their purpose, be it light housework or major warfare. Creations being at the plow of our fields and at the wheel of industry, Shapers have the leisure to be a research-minded people, and have always been so; many of them spend the bulk of their lives in musty laboratories, trying to unravel the secrets of the universe : What is magic? What makes something alive? What defines how a creature grows? How can they make an animal stronger? Or smarter? Or faster ? Or more obedient? The Shapers guard the secrets of their powers very closely, to learn their techniques without permission is to court a speedy death, at the sword of a Guardian in the day or an at the hands of an Agent at night. Being the masters of the world, the Shapers are feared by normal humans. And quietly resented. But not by every one. After years of work, study and testing, out of a sea of many, Andras was finally accepted into the Shapers. Andras would then spend his entire life advancing their will and delving into their powers and secrets. But first, he was to complete his apprenticeship, by spending five years of his life out in a Shaper colony on a remote isle, watching their work and aiding in their research. Only then would he have mastery over the lesser wonders that the Shapers pulped and sieved in their great temples of knowledge, only then he would bathe in all of the joys of an earthily heaven; the Shapers test their members very heavily, as the power over life is not a free one. After a brief welcoming ceremony and a last night's celebration, a courageous Andras was sent to these remote islands on a two week long journey, through rough seas on the back of a living craft. And yet, a week from destination, he was to change his and the world's to a remote chain of islands, on the northern tip of Terrestia... Nothing since the first agricultural or "green" revolution, the tampering of minerals, the invention of the print, the use of crystal machinery, the discovery and use of essence, the breeding of thorns bushes and living tools, the use of bioengineered of diseases, the development of generic drugs from healing pools, the subsequent replacement of human labor by creations, the invention of the "cylinder"*, the Shaper contraceptive policy, the construction of pyramid ships, the rising of vast caryatid legions, the first and second Iugulairian wars, the elaboration of the theory of evolution through natural selection, the development of Vlish telepathic messagery, the Drayk's genocide, did create such a dawn of awarness other than the Second Sucian incident, at a time where the only hope of social ascension was only with either being born with prodigious magical skill or being highly learnt, whether it be in the disciplines of war, tongues, psychiatry, mathematics, physics, alchemistry, biology, paleontology or archeology. Of the Outsiders that abducted Andras and of their remote colder worlds, a handfull survived only to shatter our day to day preconceptions; the world has now turned round, and as with all desert storms, new markets flourished almost overnight; with servile workforce proving still too repulsive for the Sholai and the benefits of essence and shaping still unknown to these barren lands, outsiders brave enough are given well paid jobs and an instruction, with what is a war-like haste in development of infrastructures and interfaces with the new Sholai empire. Of the rediscovery of the Geneforge, of the canisters of power and of Andras's fantastic augmentation, many wish to rise as guardian, to mold as Shaper, or breathe as an agent, and still fail to violate the arts of the Shapers, as their axe like laws come crashing down on to their heads, or as an unwary usurper spells dissolve his body into red pools and cancerous sponges. Of the spirited cities, of the great Shaping halls and of all the jewelry sealed in basalt plates found all across Sucia isle, has flowered a detonation to bring a false dawn of hope to a unsuspecting sleeping world, as illegal parties hypnotized by it's glittering light, were to be lost to Sucia, the island having the same ravenous appetite of that of some abyssal leviathan or that of a hollowed Shade**. Of the radiant Heustess***, of the intelligent creations on Sucia and of their alarming developments, only survives certain scattered Servile clans dreaming of independence and equality. It is in these dire times****, that the need for humanity has been at it's greatest: the very night of the publication of this book, an outsider woman had her back seared with acid, when protesting against the Shapers: outsider commoners, deprived of any form of magic or of the Shaper's ostentatious wealth, are obliged to sell their bodies or children for a living, being forced out of work by creations: it is said that the ash from human corpses serve as excellent fertilizer *****. Even the Iugulare of which caste i was born from, if better treated, are only kept alive as to "entertain them"******, or as intelligent maintenance crew, forced to outdo the other, underpaid, terminated here and there, being of course not Shapers. Worst of all, the recipe of "essence", a wondrous magically charged clay of immense properties, without which the Shaping arts are all too dangerous and all non-basic spells******* are impossible to conjure up, is kept out of bounds, while being the economical pillar of today's magicians; in effect the Iugulare must pay the very Shapers that employ them, insuring a debt like system. As for their creations, they are neither thanked nor payed for their services; despite being capable of reason, of profound complex sentiments and most importantly of feeling pain, they are still slaves. And to boot, the Shaper council, having lost Andras,a young shaper of great power,tighten their grip upon terestia as it's slips aways from it's fingers as if they were prepearing to some attack********. But now, despite of their crushing at Sucia of the outsiders usurpers bearly a month ago, of being able to implant ideas with machinery across short distances into people's minds, of being undivided in their rule and in the will of their matters, of the subsequent blooming of their various businesses, and with an well servile-administered empire that stretches from the dry pine wooded northern tip of Terrestia to the Lattice seas, with aqua-farms eating more underwater lands than all of Terrestia's cities combined, the Shapers are at their weakest, something is threatening the integrity of their dominion over matter. As with all men, i am currently torn between mounting fear and overwhelming desire; this book although just an introduction to our world, it is also my testimony, for even as i write, armed men, thorn batons erected, their threatening shadows projected against the interior of some poor commoner's house as they search for what they call rebels are escorted by the much dreaded clawbugs and vlish. Bearing no longer these constant interruptions into my private life, I am to depart from Terrestia with the lone company of my various works, as an exile, a refugee, filling bags with what Shaper appliances i own, off to some remote location. Although i have never broken any Shaper during the course of my entire life, i fear that that i will be taken before trail before outsider crowd hungering for culprits; for even though we do not any longer feed shades with the blood of magicians, we still hold fiery holocausts in order to keep undead masses of commoners from rising up from our tombs. All i hope is that my contribution to our world may not trouble you too much, and would advise to keep this book from any evil hooded specters, that may still lurk in broad day light, a guardian claymore in hand. Plain as the rotten scent of a decaying empire, The Shapers seal doom and felicity onto all their subjects and successors, both devices and opponents in spirit till the bitter end. The Shapers, having fathered this earth in their image, shape the very course of our lives; as ironic it may seem, i live counting myself amongst the dead and i die fleeing from the choking embrace of the Shapers, when upholding their laws and sacred truths, horrid they may be. - *Metal cylinders, used to bombard cities with soldiers or bombs, are the exclusive property of Buriyat people, which are in turn the Shapers' exclusive property. **The term Shade, Spirit or Ghost refers to any ethereal presence of more or less magical potency: the more solid it is, the more powerful the Shade. If a Shade haunts your house, please try to contact immediately the nearest Shaper garrison and leave the premises immediately; shade study and violent exorcism are both century-old refined Shaper arts. If you cannot contact a Guardian or an Agent, please try not probe it's solidity with a non magical weapon, as you may find yourself with a limb short or your head in a place were it does not belong to. Shades can be creatures of absolute perversion and most are sadomasochists. *** "Will a society built on cumulative technical progress, with self-centered values, rather than humane, ever know peace?" - sir Alain Karl Hegel in Today's machinist. ****The so called Andras' report and the strange powerful magical signature and the analysis of couriously shaped shades in Sentinels still leads us to no further clues about Heustess' existence; Historians still debate with great enthusiasm, as you may recall the infamous "Monkey incident" coined and satyrised by the fiber-crystal Magazine Puck by artist Bernhard Gillam in his "Change about-The Monkey The Master", which parodies a Shaper historian tried to disprove Heustess' existence; the latter was regrettably physically assaulted by a fellow and friend Igulare archeologist after a rude remark. As a note Heustess was supposed to be shinning black. *****According to neurologist Doctor Ziaus, a human body, if broken down by either chemical reactions or by enormous quantities of magic, contains enough chemical components to feed entire fields of hungry plants. Dead serviles and non-magical humans are used by the Shapers as manure, whereas the corpses of magician are carefully sealed in well guarded ziggurats and mausoleums; a least a third of today's magicians have enough magical energy to generate let alone one or even two shades when dead or (worse) when dying; attaching themselves to the place the source of their creation before moving on for needs of sustenance, creating disaster in their wake, and this is precisely why they aren't used as fertilizer; who would like to plow a field only to be plagued by the angry ghost of a magician's subconscious? ******The term "juggler" or Iugulare refers in general to all magicians, as the saying goes, "we are all apes performing acts before the Shapers". But even more so, do we during the entire course of our lives, juggle between the different professions we are offered: pylon crafting, theatrical arts, optics, enchanting items, magical artifact designing, archeology, providing support for the various troops we accompany on the battle field, showering friends with Blessing spells (the healing arts being under the strict control of the Shapers being a form of self-Shaping), and foes with fire-bolts and mental spells; all of these professions are the means to a magician's lot in life. *******The term "basic spells" refers to all spells that needn't essence to work with; the wide majority of enchantments and the spell fire-bolt do not use up essence, whereas the Shaping arts and blessing spells have for base essence. As a note mental spells have been created before without the use of essence. ********The nature of the threat is not yet well defined, some reports suggest an army of augmented Sholai having mastered Shaper arts, an other pointing to the invision of terrestia by a single Shaper with god like abilities, while more reasoned assumptions point to internal conflicts within the Shaper political body after learning that the Geneforge was at arms' length from an alien threat, but, thanks to the young Shaper codenamed Andras, was very much averted.

Quote : Who needs graphics? I thought that the graphics in avernum or even in exile were good. Heck i even prefer the older Age of empires I graphics to World of Warcraft. I'd say that the style of playing has simply changed. People want to see more CGI than reel. It's like spilling out for them a world they don't want to imagine or even create.

I was wondering... in all the different Geneforge Games we learn that the Shaper's arts are based on the splitting and recombining of DNA or macromolecules stored in essence; magic would cut through material and make certain substances react so as to produce the desired effect: tampering steel or making living beings. I have three questions. -Question one: What is magic? How is it made? Any speculation? _Question two: Is there any description in the game that describes how essence works? -Question three: We all know that essence is the current equivalent of the primordial ooze from which we all descended. Knowing that essence reacts to air like the primordial soup did to a oxygen "rich" atmosphere, how come essence doesn't burn when tampered with? Thank you for your time.

Originally Posted By: Warmaster Kahrikkis why skipped? And why anyone is with G1? After all is really old and the graphics aren't so good as the G3-G5 series. And not so much creatures,less spells,and not sure,i've played only the demo... Simple is good... graphics that stick out in the environment, a better colour line... think of it like a Aka 47 or a sugar bomb, still in use, easy to make, reliable... You can even draw a parallel with more conventional weaponry, like a rock or a sharp stick, find them every where, they are pointy, you can mend, bend it, polish it... not like G4 where you aimlessly wander asking yourself "what should i do, it's too big, i'm so lost...", it's like being on an lake of despair, reliant on other water masses, stuck between the heavens of Jeff's intellect and the profound ocean, that is G1. G1 is like a brother grimm story, where the player is really the narrator, with a Gyges moral to it, symbolic story telling, cynicism and more... you can't unring a bell. Although i have one complaint about it, if not now two: Lack of accessible sound and graphic files, and a lack of Phil Foligo; i like Andrew Hunter's art, but hate the serviles graphs at the end... would have preferred having them drawn... caricatured. As for the fyoras, basic attack graphic changed in G2... as for G3 little modification, so tiny i'd need a microscope to study it and at last in G4, well stranger pics...

Heustess in G1, location the sentinels, refers to work buddy.

As you all remember there are two wolves in the crone's dwelling, one hostile enough to happily disembowel you and leave you there to die, and the wolf chained by a small locket... now how in the world are we supposed to open the lock, and more importantly with what?

My god it's painful! Even so, there is no possibility some sort of crystal transportation, is there?

Originally Posted By: Cryolemon This probably isn't the best thread, but what advantages and disadvantages would you suggest for Vahnatai PC's? Presumably some form of natural "Magically Apt" as an advantage, and maybe less HP / not as strong as disadvantages? Maybe creating a new anti-Vahnatai spell? or some-kind of weakness in front of fire and other elements... susceptible to acids, ice, anti-Vahnatai blades?

(Opening eyes as if someone spoke to him) Hum... what are you saying?!? Tell me, what are you referring to? Is this a game of don't you really hate it when...? If it is say so...

Great Work.

Originally Posted By: Dikiyoba Dragons are rare, proud, and extremely likely to make off with the party's loot. They are hardly good candidates for cart-pulling. Also, if you did manage to get a dragon on your side, it would make far more sense to send the dragon out to attack enemies while the party remains behind to pull the cart. Dikiyoba. I remember in A2 talking to a farmer about using dragons, or taming them, he showed his gnawed by a lizard stump for an arm instead... don't now where he is... strangely enough his NPC was two handed... No one needs carts, when they have the all mighty flight orb! Die mortal monsters, die! De burnt by divine smite and roaring celestial fire! muhhhahahahahah!!!! Oh, yes, murhh, about the orb, is it possible to mass commercialise it, or is it still some sort of strange arcane magical artefact, never to be made again...

Originally Posted By: FUD Purum —Alorael, who also is unsure whether it would be appropriate to stat the sort of things that lurk in development hell lasting longer than a world war. Well, i know what you mean, it's like waiting for Half-life 2 E3... i'll have kids before that's even released...

Well pay them... why not? plenty of people do it don't they? Jeff is like any good old artist; isn't he? I mean, more than a couple of hundreds dollars, if not a thousand may be a good way to start with, hek, i'll even donate in euros... it's possible you know; you for example decide not gain any profits from the game and no more legal mess, a simple clear contract with donation money on the other side... A little far fetched but simple to the least...

Originally Posted By: Dikiyoba Zombies are definitely not vampires. They're both undead, but not at all the same things. Dikiyoba. They can be very similar... this I am legend cover proves it, by transforming cannibalistic zombies into nasty bloodsuckers; Zombies and vampires both convey their plague though saliva or/and blood... ghouls, although alive, are not far from it... it depends only if you consider vampires as a distinct species that don't reproduce through blood sucking infections or supernaturally speaking... then yes they are different... it's a question of looking at things... And about giving the suckers a break, i'd say of course, when taken into sunlight, i'd take a kitkat... and : together when we burn There'll be no need to stand and wait your turn, When it's time for the fallout, And Saint Peter calls us all out, We'll just drop our agendas and adjourn, You will all go directly to your respective Valhallas, Go directly, do not pass Go, do not collect two hundred dollards"

What i like most in Geneforge, more than the shades, more that the Shaper crypts with their crescent stones, more than the batons and the living tools, more than the holding, the tombs, than Kantre's realm, or the winding road, more than the most daft ornk, is the first canister you get in G1, iconic...

Well they can always work for you...

I AM LEGEND by Richard Matheson. Epic.

Of course it's Good, it's lyrical, it's a corner stone in spiderweb's cultural development, it's high in references, a highly cultural game... Pure literature like Geneforge.

Perhaps not, but knowing how far they went with the music, in Diablo and in star craft, the budget they had on the art direction in Diablo 2... I guess they dug pretty deep...

Well, i don't know... i think it would be possible... Films like Shinning can take on many an interpretation because of it's subtlety... But on the other hand, it may be not so, with the unconscious recording all in all...

2-True, but it does use some interesting memes, the butcher for example is akin to the public image of an ogre, it's great clever similar to great Hercules' club, spell guardian, is close to the russian Zmey, also keeper of treasures... -Paradise lost and Dante's inferno had little to play with the change in description of demons, unlike Barlowe's God's demon of course... i suggest that a more recent view of the Bible may have done it, with of course the tales of the Shedim and Sher'im...

An image is absolute as it full of details, it is eternal, "plus fort que les airains" (Théophile Gautier), universal, without boundaries, except those of imagination. The utilitarian aspect is however also a part of it, for nothing can escape the clutches of necessity; an idea can rise from mist. Publicity for example is utilitarian, buy this and you will favor women... It is absolute until the halls of the blind...