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Mystery Crumble
2f5a7c
First, I need to apologise for some certain writing errors in the previous update. I was a bit…sleepy, so my proofreading was not really up to par and I really wanted to update.
Second, next several posts from me will probably be just clarifications and answers to your questions until I’m certain that voting is done.
>How viable is Necromancy in this world? Could one simply staff a mine with skeletons, or build a castle with the labour of zombies?
>Or do such creatures require the conscious control of their master to not simply crumble?
SHEPHERD: “I hoped you wouldn’t ask. Necromancy is…the ultimate expression of disdain for life. Down that path, one will lose what little empathy one possessed beforehand and that path ends in lichdom if one survives long enough.
Standard undead are semi-autonomous magical constructs that do not really have skills beyond repetitive tasks. They wouldn’t suddenly fall apart if the one who created them died, but they do require constant supervision for anything more complicated than extinguishing life and standing around. This can be remedied by creating intelligent undead who can assert their own will on the mindless automatons, but that requires ripping a part of someone’s soul in the afterlife. As I said, the ultimate expression of disdain for life, where even life after death is in danger and not even the dead can know peace from such Evil. It’s an iffy subject even for me.
The major downside of it is that one might anger a god enough for him to conveniently forget that he’s not allowed to directly smite specific mortals.”
>I need to know more about the relationship between the True Cult zealotry feature, respect and fear, and their synergy/clash with the Ender of Days morale features.
SHEPHERD: “Zealotry is closely related to acts that inspire great Respect and/or Fear. For a greatly exaggerated example, if Lucifer killed a dragon with his bare hands on his own, aside from making him more respected and feared, such an action would be a confirmation of his own divinity – because there’s no inexplicable phenomenon so bizarre that you couldn’t find some group of people, somewhere in the world, worshipping the damn thing. And when someone asks you if you are a god, you better always answer yes. On the other hand, if Lucifer was shamefully defeated by halflings, all three gauges would suffer, with Zealotry taking the greatest hit as people’s expectations of him would be betrayed.
Further explanation on Respect and Fear and how they can affect each other requires another practical example. Imagine a siege of a city. Doing it normally would slightly raise these stats because Lucifer, as a Villain, showed that he is a competent commander and a legitimate threat. If he allowed the non-combatants to evacuate the city, Lucifer would be respected more as an honourable foe, but he would be feared less due to his mercy. However, if he promised safe passage to non-combatants and then backed out on his word, Lucifer would become more feared as someone unpredictable, but people’s respect for him would suffer thanks to his dishonourable action.
If combined with Ender of Days, Zealotry would start producing aggressive death cults that would further terrorise the world in Lucifer’s name and his own warriors would become zealots bent on destruction. When it comes to morale of the enemy, normally, Fear would reduce their morale and make them easier to route, with the exception of dwarves and Light zealots. With Ender of Days, even they would require brown pants when facing Lucifer without Heroes leading them.”
>Do these 'religious structures' supernaturally develop instantaneous complete enmity towarrds Lucifer, and if not how does this opposition originate and progress differently than normal?
SHEPHERD: “The opposition would stem from the fact that Lucifer would start stealing the faithful from other cults. No one likes competition. In normal circumstances, evil cults might try to ally themselves with Lucifer, but with True Cult, they’d be more likely to see him as a rival to their own beliefs. In another case, a peaceful religion would start to very actively badmouth Lucifer as a false deity and whatnot once they learn of the cult of personality centred around him.”
>Can we select both, "Silver-tongued Devil," and, "Mind and Matter," simultaneously or would that stretch the allowance too far?
SHEPHERD: “They are two very powerful Traits that would allow Lucifer to breeze through his life and thus require two slots each. No dice on that.”
>think combo of Outrageously Boisterous, Benevolent Tyrant, as well as Mind and Matter is good
>We should take Outrageously Boisterous, Silver-tongued Devil, and Benevolent Tyrant.
SHEPHERD: “This could work, but only if Outrageously Boisterous is more popular than Mind and Matter or Solver-tongued Devil, else these Traits will eat up the last remaining slot.
However, if you give me the right incentive, as a Spirit Shepherd, I could throw in a vote that could ensure such a combination. After all, I am connected to every Dark One in this world.”
>who's voting beastlord?
SHEPHERD: “Don’t discount mastery over beasts, humanoid or otherwise. As a Beast Lord, Lucifer could achieve things with beastfolk he normally wouldn’t be able to, like actually disciplining them, and just imagine what he could do with rats and other vermin during a siege. His intellect won’t be reduced…it’s just that his mind won’t be as quick as it would normally be at a moment’s notice.
>MAGICALLY POWERED RAIL CANNONS
SHEPHERD: “What are…cannons? If you mean canon, I don’t know why you are so happy about a bunch of religious books. Or why they would hang from rails.”
>We've seen weirder than cube planets.
SHEPHERD: “I don’t know how you could have since this is the first time I awakened you, but...okay?”
>As for Abaddon, maybe he just got sick of everything that he had become. Watching his own children tear apart their own lives just to kill him; an act of stupidity, hatred, envy, and outright humiliation. I think that it's quite possible that he survived with injuries, but has no intention to return to politics.
SHEPHERD: “Actually, he probably has never been prouder of his bastard sons and daughters, even though he’d behead them all if he had won. And that would be more of a punishment for failure than retribution for betrayal. It’s not that uncommon for Villains to be usurped by their own offspring. And without his orb of darkness to escape in, Abaddon’s tale is sadly finished for good.”
>Also, I vote we break the damn bubble. If we can make some childhood friends, it might help restore the kid's sanity.
SHEPHERD: “This is a terrible idea for the following reasons.
First, how are you to break the orb? You have no agency in this world outside of Lucifer and the child is in a state of deep slumber. At this time, you can’t do anything but help forging this Darkling into an instrument of Evil from within.
Second, the orb of darkness cannot be broken in a conventional way. It is the ultimate defense of a Villain that needs to escape from the jaws of defeat. Heroes would have if they could. The only way that an orb of darkness could be destroyed would be if it collided with an orb of light at great speed. And that is extremely stupid as both orbs would disintegrate themselves and their content, not to mention that such collision would bring about a magical cataclysm. It happened ONCE before and no one dared repeat it in the last three millennia.
Third, Lucifer’s sanity is fine. For a Dark One, I mean. Sure, he had a traumatic experience, but this child witnessed blood eagles and impalements his whole life. There’s nothing to fix about him. The problem would arise if he started to regard you, spirits, as his friends due to isolation at this young age. And he’s about to enter that period of rebellion and poor impulse control with all those hormones involved…Do you really want to deal with that? I certainly wouldn’t. ”
>It is better to be loved and respected than to be feared and respected.
SHEPHERD: “Is it? If others do not fear Lucifer, do you think that being loved by the common folk will stop a party of murderhobos from waltzing into his citadel to plunder or from attacking him? No, it won’t. Being respected does not mean that others take you seriously. Many inventors, artists, poets, courtesans and so many other people were respected and well-loved in their communities, but they were still robbed or even killed as no one feared retribution. That’s why there’s always a group of idiotic highwaymen who will attempt to rob the Heroes – no one is afraid of them.
Fear does not necessarily require oppression of others, but every ruler needs to make an example of those who dare make a mockery out of their authority. Even a world of justice and rainbows needs gallows for certain non-desirables. And it’s always good to have a very particular set of skills that allows you to find them and kill them.”
>looking at the poll, it's already fallen apart. top ranked traits are severely incompatible. people are voting on full builds, the vote is taking traits individually. so we have a mess.
SHEPHERD: “I know, right? Democracy at its finest. Sometimes spirits need a crash course in it to get that. Fortunately for you, dealing with Lucifer will be more like enlightened dictatorship or the likes of it.”
Still the same strawpoll.
http://strawpoll.me/5958650
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