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Post by StyxD on Apr 8, 2017 21:19:29 GMT
In case you wondered, the reason vellastrom is a bit random in what it contains is that Harkovast was originally JUST Vellastrom. So it's exactly like Warcraft, where the world was originally named "Azeroth", but then it turned out that "Azeroth" is just a relatively small region of one of the continents, much less the whole world? I always thought that your original ideas for races were just much less refined. Like "bunch of Eath cultures (sometimes terribly vague, like "Europeans" or "Native Americans") as anthro animals battle each other". You only later started making cultures stylized after real-life ones, instead of transplanted without much care for surroundings. Come to think of it, Jaydia considering Vellastrom to be a bunch of barbarians suddenly makes a lot of sense. They're a bunch of hermetic cultures having a non-stop war. If you REALLY want to play one...well the heroes in the rpg are meant to be exceptional examples, so you never know. Yeah, but to be fair, I was taught that requesting "snowflake'y" races is bad form in RPGs. Like everyone's playing a party of humans, elves and dwarves in D&D, but one player just has to be a vampiric Yuan-Ti. It's doable, but... at which point you're bending the world and the party around that one whim? And it's hardly the only "locked" race of Harkovast (like, everything from the West is as well).
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Post by Harkovast on Apr 8, 2017 23:18:40 GMT
I am okay with whacky snow flakes as long as EVERYONE doesn't want one. You need normal to contrast strange.
Its like on star trek.
Spock, Data, Worf, Seven of 9, Quark etc were the coolest characters. Much better than Ensigns I-don't-give-a-shit and Doctor who-cares? But you can have too much of a good thing. If EVERYONE on the ship was one of those cool whacky characters...the show would be INSANE! It would be so strange and dysfunctional it would be impossible to understand of relate to.
That's why in the RPG I said one "off race" character and one half caste max.
I want the weirder characters to see weird, rather than a great blizzard of special snowflakes being weird and incomprehensible.
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Post by Harkovast on Apr 9, 2017 0:55:12 GMT
Here is what I came up with.
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Post by Harkovast on Apr 9, 2017 0:55:49 GMT
There should be a name for their elite great sword soldiers, and they should have some magic powers.
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Post by Harkovast on Apr 9, 2017 0:57:07 GMT
In response to Tempest, the Komus can have drinking chocolate or an equivalent, that's cool. I don't want the Hezgard to having anything really great that are known for other than their soldiers, because part of their deal is that nothing they have interests the Eslum at all.
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Post by Harkovast on Apr 9, 2017 0:58:43 GMT
Oh yeah, I should mention, I decided not to give the Hezgard wings. They don't have the air element, so they wouldnt be much use for gliding anyway. Do they have winged ones in their homeland that are important like the brorg-dao? If they do they aren't telling!
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Post by Horsie on Apr 9, 2017 2:03:00 GMT
Armour? Check. Funny hat? Check. Codpiece? Check. Looks like the bases have been covered
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Post by Harkovast on Apr 9, 2017 2:06:31 GMT
All the essentials.
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Post by TempestFennac on Apr 9, 2017 4:50:38 GMT
I like the drawing. I never worried about that sort of thing, Styx (the way I see it, being able to play what you want to play as is a major part of these games as long as they fit within the system; the vampire Yuan-Ti would be better than someone wanting to play as a cyborg ninja or a computer hacker in that sort of setting).
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Post by Canuovea on Apr 9, 2017 5:50:43 GMT
My girlfriend insists that they get better hats. At least for some of them. Bombasted sleeves too. Clearly some of them need to get their hats from the Eslum.
So they're Demi-gryphs, eh?
Well... Harkovast has the Swiss now.
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Post by Harkovast on Apr 9, 2017 13:51:56 GMT
Hahah Hezgard fashions are not up to your high standards!
Harkovast is established to the point that a new big empire being added in is unlikely.
So new races now are more likely to be minor factions, like nomads or people living in a small area of territory. Its kind of fun fitting them into the gaps between larger factions.
Feel free to shout out ideas for ice and stone related magic power and also a name for elite Hezgard soldiers like the one in the picture.
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Post by Canuovea on Apr 9, 2017 20:30:30 GMT
Bombasted SLEEEEEEVES!
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Post by StyxD on Apr 11, 2017 7:20:27 GMT
I like the serrated beaks. Griffins having teeth is also an idea to set them apart from birds.
Do Hezgard make their own funny outfits or do they import them from Eslum? Either way, there has to be a lot of trade going on, since they don't look like isolated mountain barbarians.
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Post by Canuovea on Apr 15, 2017 8:51:29 GMT
Well you asked for ideas...
Pikes and Halberds could use stone magic to make them hard to move. They plant their feet and no matter the press of the foe, they can hold their ground. It would make them excellent defensive fighters and suit their current lore as warriors who often fight to the last and being so very disciplined. Ice is easier, as it seems to be a rather offensive magic. Weapons that glitter like ice and whose wounds inflict biting cold that chills foes to the bone, even against Eslum, would be useful. Especially useful in contests of endurance, yes? The use of this on pikes and halberds is clear, but it would be useful for greatswords as well.
Finally, how about something for religion?
This song is very very Scottish, and so you may think it more suited to the Onrapa, but I disagree. Dig a little bit and it turns out it refers to an old Scottish (mercenary) belief that those who die outside of Scotland return through the Earth to below Scotland (taking the 'low road' as opposed to the 'high road' home). The story of the song is that one of two brothers, who are mercenaries, are condemned to die, but are given the choice of which one of the two will be executed. The Elder brother elects to take it, for his younger brother has a family, but even so he leaves his "true love" behind. So he takes the low road home, but will never see his love again, despite reaching Scotland faster.
As I said, very Scottish, as Scotland's major export at a later period in its history was mercenaries. Yet it seems like it would fit the Hezgard pretty well. That connection to their homeland, but also to the magic of Earth. It also explains why they are not afraid to die, for in doing so they return home regardless of where in the world they are.
This raises a few questions, of course, if their spirits return home to the land beneath, do they wait there? For what? Is it a cycle of rebirth? Or do they wait there, ready to be called up from the stone of their homeland to defend it? Forever a ghostly (or more golemly) force that protects them? Not that they'd really know, since living Hezgard have proven perfectly apt in defending their land so far.
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Post by Harkovast on Apr 16, 2017 17:57:00 GMT
I like the idea of using their magic to make their formations unmoving and impossible to push back or break up. I was thinking I would give these guys ice fortresses in their mountains that they repair wiht their magic when they are attacked, making them very difficult to over come even with advanced siege weapons.
This is of a low and high road home is interesting (I just learned something! Well done, me!) The eslum consider their homeislands to be their sacred property given to them by the goddess, so would probably get pissed off at the idea that the Hezgard believe it holds the spirits of their dead under the mountains. Perhaps Felzio became aware of this blasphemy and that is why he hates them.
The Mariner just didn't like them personally. He though they were uncultured, obnoxious, greedy interlopers that denied Eslum authority. Other than the expense of doing it, he could see no down side to getting rid of them.
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