Triumph

Faction: Lord of the Ashen Isles Located: the Ashen Isles History: The Ashen Isles have been largely forgotten since then of the Great War. Even during the war, Gull Island soon became ignored. Once the war ended, and the drakons had secured the Terrestia, the Geneforge in Benerii-Eo was removed and transported to a move convenient mainland location. With the isles no longer serving as a secure strategic base, they were ignored...and in the past century they developed their own peculiar culture. Among other things, despite the general ban on magic use by non-drakons, groups of serviles and humans in the far-off Ashen Isles slipped through the tightly clenched claws of the mainland drakons. An usual degree of peace and equality amongst humans and creations prevails in the Ashen Isles. The immense underground fortress of Benerii-Eo, on the Isle of Spears, remains, but (as one of most frigid places in all Terrestia) the fortress and island are now predominantly a colony for cold-loving cryodrayks. Since the beginning of the war, Gull Island has been home to a thriving population of drayks and serviles (and a few humans), all getting along and otherwise enjoying being left alone. A statue at the Stonespire Servile Magic School honors the shaper traitor and rebel general Greta who originally helped mediate peace between serviles and drayks. The human rebels of Harmony, gifted with magic by the rebellion, have thrived, continuing to farm the swamps, and always ready to defend themselves with the magic that has been passed down. With the destruction of Dhonal's Keep, the immediate demand for crystals the mines on Greenwood Isle declined, but since peace was restored that island has become a thriving mixture of farmers and miners, still mostly humans (though overseen by a drakon). Once the war moved beyond the Ashen Isles, the island instead became a center of research. When the legendary Akhari-Blaze destroyed Dhonal's Keep, thoughtful (and book-hungry) drayks took care to save as much of the vast Shaper library as they could. From the secured caverns guarded by the Creator-creature at the west end of the island, and in the old Darkstone mine, drakons, and magically trained serviles, conduct magic and shaping research. Given their distance from all centers of power and civilization, only eccentric drakons seek to live in or rule the Ashen Isles. Consequently, the Isles' administrators have, by self-selection, tended not to be the most arrogant or ambitious of drakons - they are more often like famous rogue drakon Orois Blaze, possessing other interests. This has facilitated the peace that exists between the various groups of creations and humans living in the Ashen Isles. One of the more wealth-focus drakon administrators actually helped open a quiet, unofficial, small, yet thriving trade with strange seafarers called the Sholai. Leader: The current leader of the Ashen Isles is Puross-Blaze. Like other drakons who seek to live in the isles, he is slightly eccentric. Unusually philosophical for a drakon, he grew sick of the endless scheming that dominated drakon politics (and tired of having people either try to assassinate him, or expecting him to try to assassinate them). He rules the isles from the old Shaper Fort Wilton (the only large port facility left on the isles after Dhonal's Keep was razed), aided by a council of four, a representative from each of the other isles. Given the strong fortifications placed on every island during the war, the colony of cryodrayks, the drayks, the magic using serviles of Gull, the magic using humans of Harmony, and the various drakons scattered around, the islands have been peaceful for the past century, and Puross has been free to spend much of his time collecting knowledge and writing down his thoughts on problems with drakon culture. Agenda: mainly peace, and not getting killed by all the lunatics on the mainland.

I don't know if I can do this, but this looks sort fun. Can I try to join and participate even though the game has started?

The two entry bracelets are found, one in the Beneri labs (in the destroyed area with the loose golem), and one in the Beneri vats (dropped by one of the security golems, I believe). In the MoT, itself...well, there a dude called...um...Tolleran, I think, who will shape you for boocoos huge amounts of money (5000 or 6000 a stat, I think), to boost several stats. Other than that, you just go through the place, advancing slowly and carefully so as to avoid drawing to large of a mob around you, and wipe out everything. Leave to heal when necessary. In the MoT caves, I recommend taking a couple times just to run around in combat mode, not fighting but just looking around and getting a sense of what monsters are where. Most importantly, find the machine that spawns new creations (go west, then north, along the east side of the pools of water, and you should find it). When you are prepared to take on the caves for real, you'll want to have (from base stats and/or from items) 20 mechanics. Enter combat as soon as you get inside, pump yourself as much as possible, and race to the monster generating machine (rough NW of where you start). With 20 mechanics, you can deactivate it and stop it from spawning more monsters (and the monsters it makes don't give experience, so they're pretty useless except to annoy you). Then, at your leisure, work your way through the place slaughtering everything, again being careful to advance slowly, try to take on one enemy or cluster of enemies at a time. Once you've wiped out everything else, in the far NW corner of the caves you'll find the super boss creator monster thingy. Whack it lots of times and you get a boocoos good Omni Charm. And of course there's other really nifty loot throughout the cave. That's all I can think of.

I seem to recall someone saying that if you played Astoria's faction, and killed Greta at the end of the game, rather than letting her escape, then Rawal would not become head of the council. I'm not 100% sure of that, but pretty sure. It must be some bizarre manifestation of the "butterfly effect" or something.

If I want to order one of these games, is it worthwhile for me to order the CD or the hintbook? Have you (whoever you are who's reading this) ever had trouble where you found it valuable to have the CD, or that made you wish you had gotten the CD? What about the hintbook? If got you it, how valuable was it to you, and if you didn't get it, did you ever have trouble such that you needed? What kind of information is in it - is it just a walkthrough, or does it explain game mechanics, etc? Thank you.

I've only played G3, but I DID find the Ornk canister. :-) Oddly enough it doesn't seem to be mentioned in any walkthroughs or lists I could find. In Khor's Deeps, in the northwest corner (the narrow path between the cave wall and the mansion wall, which ends at the water's edge), walk closely along the cave wall, and eventually a hidden passage will appear.

I'm sure this topic has been answered before, but I couldn't find one, so I'm just asking myself. I'm trying to move stuff from my old iBook to my new MacBook. This includes Geneforge 3. The game becomes unregistered when I do so. What's the trick? Thank you.

While I'm asking questions... Does the "Day" counter on the map screen in Geneforge 3 MEAN anything? I've never noticed anything that indicated the passage of time affected gameplay...yet it would seem peculiar that it was thrown in for purely cosmetic purposes.

Ooh, interesting. Thank you much for this information, Mr. Slarty, et al.

Aloha! I've seen several references around these boards to 10 as stopping point for raising stats - that the returns dimish after that point. Is this true of all Geneforge games, and specifically of G3? How does the diminishing work? A single steady drop? Gradually continuing to decline? Is it true of the effects of ALL stats, or only some (as in, are the some stats worth raising higher than ten?)? I couldn't find anything that clearly explained the mechanics of stats...but I apologize if I missed something. Thanks.

Doesn't the G5 PC seem to recognize the Geneforge when he sees it? And seems to know how to use it (realizes to go over and touch it)? This means the PC is someone familiar with the G4 era Geneforge - which was the first Geneforge to be operated by touch with a bare hand. The G1 forge needed special gloves, as did the G2 forge that the Drakons made in imitation. The G3 forge required immersion by a Drakon. The G4 forge, for humans and serviles, was the first Geneforge that one used by touching it with a bare hand. This might be reading too much significance into the G5 PC's apparent familiarity with this kind of forge, but it seems to support to me to support the idea that the PC is someone one who had been shaped by the rebel G4 forge, and thus very possibly the G4 PC. It would at least rule out anyone who hadn't ever encountered the fourth-generation Geneforge. Unless I'm missing something really obvious.