Val Ritz

Maybe we just haven't seen any, I don't know. It's a theory.

Soul is kind of hard to define, but given the idea of shades as magical constructs, what if human ghosts, Shaper or otherwise, are the magical power of a given human left behind and given will? Shapers, being crazy powerful, would be more likely to leave them behind. Perhaps magic users with some great purpose or great drive that they had upon their death would produce a shade as their magical power seeks to perform that task. Serviles would thus not produce ghosts because they're specifically engineered not to be able to do magic.

Huuuuge necropost right here, but I got some screenshots on my latest playthrough of G1 of what I was talking about.

The following text was retrieved from a stasis box during the purge of Sucia Isle. It appears to have been written by a historian exploring the connections between the native ruins of the island and present-day Shaper culture. It expresses many dangerous theories and borderline rebellious tendencies. Were the author still alive, this inspector would recommend he not remain so for long. ________________________________________ In the time before the ringing of the bell, there was Sucia Isle. Fertile and plentiful in the south and treacherous but rich in the mountains of the north, the island presented a gleaming opportunity to the simpler folk of its day. The vast forests of the southwest housed their people, and the black, rich soil fed them. It was a bountiful time, one of calm nights and hardworking days. They were a cultured and learned people, but they were shamanistic and spiritual. Writing and art rubbed shoulders with the spirits of their ancestors and the bones of the earth. Interestingly, there were many among them who had some talent for the art we call magic. For most it was simply a tool, another hand they used to till the earth or a community ritual to call the rains. Indeed, their connection to nature was impressive; from it they took the name of the Shaped Folk, as the world around them shaped them into people. Those who would come after would take the name as a bitter penance. As with many cultures, years of prosperity led to conflicts. The wooden halls of the forests became a cradle the Shaped quickly outgrew, reaching outward with grasping fingers for expansion. The black soils that had fed their people were tired, and the woods were thinned. The shamans heard the groaning of the earth and warned that they could not stay. Instead, the Shaped looked northward. The north was drier, more prairie than forest then, but the game was rich and the foothills of the looming mountains provided them with stone for houses. Even now, though, the Shaped paid homage to their roots; their stone halls were as straight and angular as the log dwellings they had built so many years before. Their shamans were still raincallers and crop healers and midwives, but a select few began to ponder how the Shaped themselves had taken the bones of the earth and shaped them in turn. It was not a large change, but a change that fell like a raindrop into an over-full reservoir, stretching and rippling out toward the inevitable. It took one man, as these things often do, to send the water bursting from the dam. The story is not fully clear, but one shaman (who had pondered the stone over the earth perhaps overmuch) grew discontent. Perhaps if he had not been who he was, none of what would later transpire would come to pass. This mage was charismatic, ambitious, and talented. As many know, the confluence of these traits leads to great power- and great sorrow. He gathered followers and supplies, many livestock and seedling plants, and in his great challenge to the earth began to build the great City of Stone in the high peaks of Sucia Isle. The years after his departure were wary, but peaceful. The Shaped grew their crops, learning from the shamans when to let the land lie and how to intermingle the fields to preserve them. Their stone dwellings remained humble, but happy. In the northern City of Stone, the Mage and his followers vaulted themselves into glorious advancement. Tunnels under the mountains unearthed brilliant crystals, glowing with raw energy, and in their depths the Mage saw power. It took many long years, but what had been a rabble of shamans started on the path to unearthing true magic, energy instead of spirits, manipulation instead of existence. Some argue that their efforts marked the first true awakening of man to his potential as an agent of change. Others contend that it was the beginning of the end. In an interesting aside, even now the Stone People hearkened back to their traditions. The wood could not be spared for pyres, and the soil was not deep enough for ground burials, so they took to constructing mausoleums and cairns and tombs, hewn out of the mountains around them. The poorer would be interred in mass halls of the dead, while more affluent individuals might have family tombs. For the leaders of the Stone City, including the Mage himself, the people wrought one of their most lasting works. In a secluded, quiet, shaded valley, they cut with pick and spell the first chambers and sarcophagi of their great necropolis. The legend of this place lived on in memory for millennia: the great halls of Diarazad, meaning “place of rest.” But I digress. Nobody knows when the first living thing was Shaped in the sense we know it today. We are aware of some things. For example, due to their immense refinement, we know that fyora are the far-flung descendants of these Shapings, and we know that even the earliest records make them out to be at least two centuries older then them, but what we don't know is when exactly Shaping was discovered. Many believe it was the cunning of the leaders of the Stone People, or perhaps a bored apprentice, or a bolt of inspiration. “How” and “when” are nebulous, but “what,” what happened after, is a gruesome certainty. The bountiful food and land of the south they had abandoned began to call to the people of the Stone City, with their thin soil and scarce game. More importantly, the power began to call to them, the knowledge that they were superior, that they in all their might could descend from on high to sweep the lesser beings from their holes in the dirt. Their desire grew, hiding behind imagined slights and hateful jokes. And then, one summer evening, it broke loose. They came like a storm from the north. Their delvings had armed them with bronze and iron, and their studies had armed them with something even deadlier- magic. When they descended upon the soft peoples of the plains, the carnage was unimaginable. Within hours their largest settlement was looted, sacked, and burned under lightning and magefire. The atrocities of that day are too terrible even for me to convey. That would have been the end of it if the Shaped Folk had retreated. Unfortunately, that was not to be the case.

<<Surveys indicate highly concentrated artificial compounds, and the atmosphere contains contaminants consistent with industrial society, though not one with advanced terraforming techniques. The planetary composition includes large quantities of oxygen, hydrogen, and silicon. A good deal of the trace elements have been brought to the surface and processed, including high concentrations of complex hydrocarbon compounds->> "Computer, cease report. Repeat last sentence." <<A good deal of the trace elements have been brought to the surface and processed, including high concentrations of complex hydrocarbon compounds derived from metamorphosed biomass." "...Access Imperial legal records regarding the use of subterranean hydrocarbon compounds." <<Imperial Magisterium Ruling 2992384 designated subterranean hydrocarbon drilling and refining as banned in the petition of->> "Skip to relevant data pertaining to use of already extant hydrocarbons." <<-conceded that already extant hydrocarbon derivatives would be allowed to persist and be recycled, excluding native or "crude" fossil oils.>> "Calculate current market value of this planet's processed fossil oils. In Imperial terms." <<Calculating... At current market value, taking into account estimates of trends in the time required for this vessel to harvest these materials and providing an average yield upon sale of all available hydrocarbons, value falls between one and six quadrillion Imperial credits.>> "...Repeat last six words." <<One and six quadrillion Imperial credits.>> "Prepare matter transporters and take us in over their largest body of water, I'm reading a vast amount of material in an aquatic gyre in that location. After that, start plotting an assimilation route to most expeditiously harvest all available hydrocarbon derivatives on the planet. When you're finished, cloak the ship and proceed. Oh, and pour a glass of the Siisaakhi. Tonight we celebrate my coming into an inheritance." Bhel had never been a rich man. But then, he had never discovered a pre-stellar society holding enough fossil oil derivative to construct an entire new ship out of it if he so chose. The life of a salvage trader suddenly held considerably more appeal for him.

Not exactly, no. Hair would actually keep the reptile cold, similar to how a cooler keeps drinks cold instead of warming them up. If they could take off their hair and warm up, maybe, but that's about it.

What horrors hath magical science wrought?

Makes sense. I was referring to something more akin to a fan project than an official thing, though.

I'm just spitballing here cause I don't know the format for the game, but since it's a tile-based map, wouldn't it be possible to design sort of texture packs for it a la Minecraft? It would have to be more in-depth what with the huge amount of resources, but I'm just wondering.

THE ORNK LORD COMETH. MIGHTY ARE HIS MOOINGS, THOSE UTTERANCES WHICH FELLED THE MIGHTIEST DRAYKS AND LOWLIEST FYORAS. AND STEVE, BECAUSE HE WAS INSOLENT. TERRIBLE ARE HIS HOOVES THAT TRAMPLE THE BONES OF THE FALLEN INTO DUST AND THE STONES OF THE SHAPERS INTO SOMEWHAT GRAYER DUST. TITANIC IS HIS TAIL, THE GLEAMING STANDARD OF THE REBELLION, INSPIRATION TO ALL ORNKKIND THAT FOLLOW IT. ALSO IT'S GREAT FOR SMACKING THINGS.

It all depends on how you want to play. Personally as far as Avadon goes I only use Sevilin's bow when he's not in range of something to spear it yet. As far as the shadowwalker goes, having a melee weapon is more of a backup than anything else, for if you're pinned against a wall with your shadow step on cooldown. Or, you know, if you want Kill Bill instead of House of Flying Daggers. The way the magical classes were designed means that the Shaman is probably better at being closer up, while the Sorceress is better suited to being further away. The classes are all hybrids, with a specific leaning that says "this way would probably be best, but go crazy." Overall this discussion is just a matter of personal taste. Are ranged characters the easiest way to use the world map as a napkin? Probably. Can you still do the same thing using melee or magic? Absolutely.

This is, I have to say, epic. The tiered skill system is intriguing to say the least, though if these Shaper colonists are so far removed as you say, could their creations be marginally different too? Say, different coloring in skin, altered structure, a sort of artificial evolution?

So on G1, in the Underground River map, I don't know if I just have an older CD, but there's a place right as you enter from the southern entrance where you can walk across the water without a bridge that leads to a tiny cave with a couple inert pots and a sign reading "Scree Storage." Any help as to what the fyora this is?