Profile for Kelandon
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Displayed name | Kelandon |
| Member number | 4045 |
| Title | Off With Their Heads |
| Postcount | 7968 |
| Homepage | http://home.sanbrunocable.com/~tommywatts03/ |
| Registered | Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
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| Sylak Items in Nethergate | |
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Off With Their Heads
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written Saturday, March 13 2004 09:40
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From the link at the top of the page of this forum... Sylak Items ... -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Suicide in General | |
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Off With Their Heads
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written Friday, March 12 2004 09:48
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Chuck, have you been an outsider? Do you know what's it's like? And I don't mean just being teased a few times. I mean being physically beaten on a daily basis every day of school for your entire life. Think about that for a minute or two. And I mean really think about it. This is a board for an RPG company, so I assume that you have some experience with RPG's. Think about roleplaying a character whose every word is subject to ridicule, whose every action becomes mimicked and mocked incessantly, and whose very presence is an affront to a significant group around that character. Now really imagine that tomorrow, when you go to school, you have to be that person. All of the people that you think of as being your friends right now, those people would isolate you and start hitting you, beating you until you were bloody, and you knew that the teachers couldn't or wouldn't do anything about it. Imagine knowing that this wouldn't be the only time that this would happen, but it would happen at least once a month, sometimes once a week, every week, for the forseeable future. This sounds like a wild exaggeration, doesn't it? It sounds like it couldn't be real. But for some people, this is a reality. It is their life. This is what is meant by someone "whose identity and selfassurance are dependant on belonging to the majority," as ef put it. We're not talking about, "I don't wear the same Britney Spears T-shirts as everyone else, boo-hoo." We're talking about daily, hourly abuse from your entire peer group for years on end. Sure, not everyone who's depressed goes through this, but some do. Some have identifiable chemical reasons, and some have circumstantial reasons, and others have other kinds of reasons. None are trivial. And that's the most important thing to keep in mind: respect for others' situations that may be considerably different from what you can even imagine. -------------------- Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!! (The home of BoA's HLPM v1.1!) Rate my scenarios! Northern Kingdom 0: Prologue High Level Party Maker Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Of Damage Caps & Screenshots in Blades of Avernum | |
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Off With Their Heads
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written Thursday, March 11 2004 17:45
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Doesn't that mean that we'll all be doing obscene amounts of damage? I remember maxing out pretty quickly... -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Suicide in General | |
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Off With Their Heads
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written Thursday, March 11 2004 10:40
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Whether chemical imbalances are present in a majority of cases or not is a matter for scientific studies; I don't happen to have figures on hand. However, I suspect that for people with "suicidal tendencies" -- those for whom suicide is an ever-present thought, as opposed to those who get really upset at one point and try it once -- chemical imbalances are present more than you might think. And what, perchance, separates us fundamentally from animals, Chuck? While we do have more complicated brains -- "bigger" is not strictly correct, because a gorilla's brain is larger than a human's, because a gorilla's head is larger, and it's more a matter of what will fit inside the skull, according to what I've read, but "more complicated" works -- doesn't that just imply that the chemistry of our brains is fundamental to understanding human issues, like, say, depression? Huh. Interesting thought. Do mice (or lab rats) suffer from depression? Do their brains make serotonin, and if so, what happens when those amounts drop below normal levels? What about, say, monkeys or apes? We have physicists out there... do we have some biologists, too, who might be able to answer this? -------------------- Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!! (The home of BoA's HLPM, newly updated to v1.1!) Rate my scenarios! Northern Kingdom 0: Prologue High Level Party Maker Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Suicide in General | |
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Off With Their Heads
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written Wednesday, March 10 2004 15:15
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EDIT: Chuck, for crying out loud, at least spell my name right.  Milu, "illness" is exactly the right word in English. Depression falls under the heading of "mental illnesses," which, for those who haven't ever thought about that term before, directs attention to the similarities between physical illnesses and mental illnesses. Anyone can catch a cold, and while certain environmental factors may put one person more at risk than another person, anyone can still get one. Likewise, anyone can become a victim of depression. (Think about that other common phrase. We don't blame victims of murder for their own murder, but we blame victims of depression for their own depression.) And while certain environmental factors may make a person more likely to suffer from depression, anyone can still have it. Also, Alorael's right about the strange double standard between physical problems and mental problems. And moreover, as neuroscience and psychiatry improve, we're starting to discover that mental problems ARE physical problems... this is why medication can help. Taking Prozac (for example) isn't like drinking alcohol; it actually rebalances chemicals that normally are balanced, rather than dulling the mind and senses for a brief period of elation like most illegal drugs. Taking medications isn't shameful. The reason that antidepressants work is that certain chemicals in the brain of a depressed person, such as serotonin, are not at the same levels as in other people's brains. Should we really call someone "weak" or "a coward" because their brain doesn't make enough serotonin? [ Wednesday, March 10, 2004 15:19: Message edited by: Kelandon ] -------------------- Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!! (The home of BoA's HLPM, newly updated to v1.1!) Rate my scenarios! Northern Kingdom 0: Prologue High Level Party Maker Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| When will it come out? in Blades of Avernum | |
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Off With Their Heads
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written Wednesday, March 10 2004 07:44
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When I e-mailed Jeff, I received a response one week ago today that said it "should" be out within two weeks. So look for it in about a week. -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Slith Homeland in Blades of Avernum | |
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Off With Their Heads
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written Wednesday, March 10 2004 07:42
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Yes, Drakefyre, I am well aware that there are other clans of vahnatai. quote:by which I meant our familiar clan. -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Suicide in General | |
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Off With Their Heads
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written Wednesday, March 10 2004 07:36
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Chuck, I don't think I'm going to read your post too closely, because if I did, I might get angry. People get dragged down by society because they have no backbone? I believe it is that kind of thinking that makes suicidal people feel as though they can't talk with anyone about what they're feeling, because they'd be judged as "weak" or "spineless" or "crazy." And not being able to talk with others about their problems is one of the major reasons that people commit suicide. How many times do we hear, "He never showed any signs of being depressed. We all thought he was just a happy, cheerful person. And then he killed himself. Someone might've been able to do something, if only anyone had known." You know why he didn't tell anyone? Because he thought he would be judged. Now, I'm not saying that you, Chuck, are specifically responsible for anyone's suicide. I'm just asking you to read up a little on the psychological texts before you start judging people. To Timber-Wolf: do you have anyone you can talk to? Anyone you can tell about how much it bothers you when people torment you? It doesn't sound like it helps just to talk about it -- in fact it sounds pretty stupid until you try it -- but sometimes it really does help. I know school counselors are a pain and highly impersonal sometimes... if not one of them, then your parents, maybe, or a friend, or someone on this board, or something? Anyone that you trust will do. yap's advice is also good, too. [ Wednesday, March 10, 2004 15:00: Message edited by: Kelandon ] -------------------- Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!! (The home of BoA's HLPM, newly updated to v1.1!) Rate my scenarios! Northern Kingdom 0: Prologue High Level Party Maker Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Slith Homeland in Blades of Avernum | |
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Off With Their Heads
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written Tuesday, March 9 2004 12:10
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That's true... they could be giants in the fresco. But still, I think it's clear that Jeff at least wanted us to think that they were humans, and that's good enough for me. I guess that means that we have room to interpret on what exactly the significance of the Ancient Crypt is. Bah, I was going to ask, and then I thought better of it. When the sliths came out of the tunnel from their homeland, they can't have found the vahnatai, or at least Rentar-Ihrno's vahnatai, because Elohi-Bok in Olgai in A2 says, "The caves now are very different from what they were when we began our last Resting. There are humans now, and nephilim and nepharim, and the sliths," which implies that the sliths weren't there before the Resting. So they would've found in Avernum... Motrax. Probably demons. Anything else? [ Sunday, March 14, 2004 12:40: Message edited by: Kelandon ] -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Of Damage Caps & Screenshots in Blades of Avernum | |
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Off With Their Heads
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written Monday, March 8 2004 20:49
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Maybe I'm just lame, but I actually really liked the combat system in A3, doubling the damage cap and tripling the power of basic healing... I think other spells were stronger, too, but it's been too long since I've played for me to remember. Suddenly my insanely strong party did a properly insane amount of damage... I liked it. Besides, with a high enough gymnastics skill, I hardly ever entered combat mode anyway. -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Slith Homeland in Blades of Avernum | |
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written Monday, March 8 2004 15:01
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Gah, let me phrase that a little more carefully. I'm trying to assert that sliths have been in Avernum since well before the First Expedition, which was "about fifty" years before A1. What exactly the significance of the Ancient Crypt is, well, that's another topic (although one worthy of discussion, too). So is it fair to say that sliths have been in Avernum since before the First Expedition? And, while we're at it, is it fair to say that demons were present in Avernum at the time of the First Expedition? I gather that Demonslayer was brought down by the members of the FE from how Linda in A1 lists it among the artifacts that they brought. (And now I'm trying to remember exactly when and how it was broken....) What I'm trying to get a handle on is what the situation would have been that would have greeted the exiled sliths when they came through Lost Bahssikava. Motrax was in Avernum already. He's been there for centuries, according to his own story. Was Grah-Hoth there? Were other demons, even if he specifically wasn't? And for that matter (and I could go look this up, and I probably will, but I wonder if anyone knows specifically where to look for this info), when did the vahnatai start their Resting? EDIT: Oh, and Drakey? On the humanoid vs. human issue, the message says, "The frescoes on the walls are clearly of humans." The A1 heroes may not be archeologists or experts on the species of Avernum, but I think they could tell the difference between lizard men (as they describe in the Spiral Crypt, who turn out to be sliths), oddly-shaped, thin weird little things (like the skeletons in... I think it was the Crypt of Drath, ne corner, that clearly indicated vahnatai), cat-men (nephilim), or other distinctly non-human humanoids. These are frescoes, ie visual depictions. I could buy the argument that their judgment of its age is not necessarily correct, but not that their analysis of its contents is wrong. [ Monday, March 08, 2004 15:21: Message edited by: Kelandon ] -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Slith Homeland in Blades of Avernum | |
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written Monday, March 8 2004 07:43
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Well, then, we're not far off from each other. Good to know we basically agree now, although... quote:and quote:we clearly didn't before. But if the First Expedition was about 70 years before E3, then it was about 54 years before E1, which means the "about fifty years" description is accurate, and I pretty much agree (within five years or so) with everything in your timeline. Well, except maybe when the hostilities between the sliths and humans started in earnest, but that's debatable anyway. EDIT: So back the original question, now. Have I established well enough that sliths have been in Avernum since before humans? Because that's a pretty fundamental assumption to my scenario for BoA. [ Monday, March 08, 2004 12:30: Message edited by: Kelandon ] -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Slith Homeland in Blades of Avernum | |
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written Sunday, March 7 2004 08:15
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Erm, so what's your timeline? 70 years before A1: First Expedition 50: first exilings 40: cities begin to form; Micah assumes leadership 20: archmagi arrive, defeat Grah-Hoth, make Micah a "real" king Right? (This I gather from a previous post.) So what's the deal with the Skarragath book, then? Why are all the deaths "to defeat Grah-Hoth" forty years before A1 if the archmagi didn't arrive and beat him down until twenty years ago? -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Slith Homeland in Blades of Avernum | |
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written Sunday, March 7 2004 00:24
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So I just went back and talked to Erika in A1, A2, and A3. In A1, she does indeed say, "It was his [King Hawthorne's] father who sent me down here." So I have no doubt of that. And also, Drakey, you're absolutely right about Erika saying that Micah was there first. In A3, she says, "We found Avernum to be a string of filthy caves.... One of the warriors, named Micah, was trying to bring order, but not having much luck." However, I found some other odd things while talking with her in A3. First of all, she says about Micah, "He's the king now, and has been for over twenty years." Over twenty years? Yes, double that, according to a history book in Patrick's Tower in A1, which I would think would be a fairly authoritative source. Also, this is the part of A3 where the area is called "Northeastern Upper Exile," where everything else is called Upper Avernum. My suspicion is that this area was only hastily converted into Avernum format, and most of this stuff is left over from Exile. However, it does not directly contradict anything that I've found so far -- except maybe Micah's statement that he was impressed with "the land the people who had come down here before me had created." So, bottom line: sure, I'm willing to say that the archmagi were exiled shortly after Micah arrived, instead of shortly before. The reason that I believe that they have to have been exiled around the same time as Micah is the quote from the Skarragath book, which indicates that the war against Grah-Hoth mainly took place about forty years ago, and the fact that everyone (Rone, Erika, Micah, etc.) indicate that the archmagi were involved in defeating him, and that the history book in Patrick's Tower says that Micah has ruled for forty years. All of these events seem to have been clustered together, about forty years before A1, and the First Expedition was described in the message upon entrance to the Ancient Crypt as having been fifty years before A1. What this all means to me is that the archmagi came down shortly after Micah instead of shortly before, presumably in the late 770's. I still can't come up with anything to indicate that "Erika et al were not exiled until 25/30 years after the First Expedition," as Drakefyre has said. It seems more like 10-15 years. Do you have further evidence? -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Slith Homeland in Blades of Avernum | |
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written Saturday, March 6 2004 10:43
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Ooh, this could be a lively historical debate! Cite some evidence, Drakey, and let's see if we can fix my timeline so that everything that people say makes sense (including maybe that some of them are wrong). It is possible, I guess, that Mr. Vogel changed his mind between Exile and Avernum about a few things, so we may not be able to reconcile everything in both trilogies completely, but it would be fun to try. -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Slith Homeland in Blades of Avernum | |
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written Friday, March 5 2004 14:43
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Okay, after EXTENSIVE checking, this is what i've come up with. Smelly Ogre is correct in saying that there is a message in the Ancient Crypt that says the First Expedition was fifty years ago. Specifically, when you walk in a few steps for the first time, a message pops up saying, in part, "It was thought that the First Expedition from the Empire about fifty years ago was the first group of humans to explore these caves." The First Expedition was about fifty years ago. I can't find any other source to put a number on it, so without further evidence, I'm sticking with this figure. However, I can't for the life of me find anything to validate what Shiryu says about Micah's reign. In A1, I can't get Micah to say anything about how long he's been in power, and I've come to him with a fresh party interacting with him for the first time, with a party that just slew Sss-Thsss, and with a party that had defeated Grah-Hoth, and under none of these circumstances do any of the dialogue choices make him respond with the duration of his rule. However, a history book in the sw corner of the central library in Patrick's Tower says that Micah has ruled for forty years. Micah also says that when he came down, he was impressed with "the land the people who had come down here before me had created," meaning that he was sent down after some exiles had already begun trying to scrape together an existence. Anji, in the ne library in Patrick's Tower, says that when the First Expedition was eradicated, "The Empire decided that it was lethal down here. That's when it started exiling people to these caves," so presumably the exiling started shortly after the First Expedition, and Micah was sent down some time after that. Avernum wasn't particularly livable until the first Triad (mentioned by Patrick, consisting of Erika, Solberg, and himself) made some genetic alterations to already-existing plants and fungi, as described in the Tower of Magi. It seems likely that the three archmages (who were sent down together or shortly apart, by Rone's account in his memoirs in the Castle, for being "at the wrong end of a political struggle in the Mages' Guild") showed up before Micah. However, by the aforementioned history book, Micah was king when the humans fought Grah-Hoth and imprisoned him. One final point. The beginning of A1 is in the year 817, according to the date in the game. A2 begins in the same year, which is clearly wrong, because a number of people in A2 refer to events in A1 as happening "years ago." A3 begins in 833, which is plausible. I would like to use a calendar system that assumes that the beginning of A1 is in the year 817 and A3 is in 833, and that A2 falls somewhere in between. Therefore, I present the following tentative partial timeline: c. 765: The First Expedition comes down to Avernum and is slaughtered to a man (how and why is the subject of another essay). It may or may not have been the first time that humans set foot in Avernum. Early 770's: First, the exilings begin. Then, within a few years, the archmages are exiled, and they begin to make Avernum more livable. c. 775: Micah is exiled, is impressed with his surroundings, and becomes king. He leads the war against Grah-Hoth. Some time later, possibly years, possibly less, Micah, Rone, Erika, Patrick, and "a large band of warriors and a small cadre of mage apprentices" defeat Grah-Hoth in his fortress at Akhronath and trap him in a bottle (according to the account in Rone's memoirs). Now we can define other events (such as the arrival of the sliths) with respect to these. If the sliths showed up through Lost Bahssikava decades before the humans arrived, and if my timeline is right, then it doesn't matter if they were talking about the First Expedition or the first exiles, because those groups arrived in Avernum relatively close to each other in time. Either way, the sliths showed up at least seventy or eighty years before A1. This makes sense, because Motrax describes the First Expedition as having been obliterated mainly by the sliths, who must have been pretty well-established by that point to have done as much damage to an outfit as powerful and well-equipped as the First Expedition. Btw, I've never played the Exile games but only the Avernum ones. It may say something quite different in E1 and E2 than in A1 and A2. That may account for the discrepancies between my timeline and the generally accepted one in the BoE community. EDIT: to add to the evidence, I just went to Skarragath, and when you read a book there, a message pops up saying, "The book lists 'Those who died to defeat Grah-Hoth.'" It mentions, "They all died around forty years ago, roughly the time of the founding of Avernum." Exactly what event is "the founding of Avernum" -- the first exiles showing up, the archmagi making new plants and stuff, Micah taking over as leader, the defeat of Grah-Hoth -- is up for debate, but my suggestion is that they all happened within a few years of each other, in the early- to- mid-770's. [ Friday, March 05, 2004 16:27: Message edited by: Kelandon ] -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
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written Thursday, March 4 2004 10:44
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Where does the 70-80 year figure come from, anyway? And do we have a date for when the first exiles started coming down? (I'm pretty sure that was in the games somewhere, but I haven't gone back to check.) For that matter, is there a timeline posted anywhere of, say, when the the war with Grah-Hoth happened, when he was bottled up, etc.? That might be really useful for scenario designers, especially if sources were listed (ie "We think that A2 happens [X] years after A1 because [Person Q] in the games says [blah]"). If such a thing does not exist, I shall make my own. -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
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written Wednesday, March 3 2004 15:31
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Okay, new thought. I just went back to Gnass in A1 and talked with some folks. Sss-Schai, the chief, says "[The Darklings] were expelled, in the mercy of the leaders, and came here, threatened by death should they return. Then the humans arrived. As the war started, decades after we arrived, some of us finally rejected Sss-Thsss." War between the humans and sliths started "decades after" the sliths arrived. How long ago did humans show up? 70 years before A1? So sliths have been around Avernum for a century, give or take. Eath, the nanny of the little sliths, corroborates this view. "A century ago it was that we came, forced through Lost Bahssikava, forced through the tunnel for our dark deeds, our dark thoughts, our lust for blood." Strangely enough, though, Sss-Tass in Lost Bahssikava says, "Our small band has lived here for two hundred years," even though this is clearly the Lost Bahssikava that the sliths of Gnass were talking about. Since the sliths of Gnass have forgotten the location of Lost Bahssikava and only broke away from Sss-Thsss right before the war with humans -- as opposed to the story told by Sss-Hass in Lost Bahssikava, which seems to indicate that the sliths of Lost Bahssikava broke away as soon as they arrived in Avernum -- it seems very possible that the sliths of Gnass don't know what they're talking about. Ooooorrr... since Eath's "a century" comes from a song, maybe the song is an old one, and Sss-Schai is talking about the original humans to arrive in Avernum, the ones responsible for the Ancient Crypt up north of Formello, which indicates that humans have been in Avernum since long before the First Expedition. (First Visitation? Sounds like space aliens. :) ) However... how the heck could it have been Sss-Thsss's grandfather, in that case? How long do sliths live, anyway? My issue here is that the sliths of Lost Bahssikava seem to be much more up on their history than the ones of Gnass, having been warlike and crazed for less time and also knowing the location of the tunnel back into the slith homeland, but they say two hundred years, which doesn't seem very realistic. (In A2, Toth-Thsss, the new chief of Gnass, seems to continue the trend of Gnass sliths forgetting their history, because he just says they were exiled "many years" ago.) Actually, I suppose it's just Sss-Tass who says two hundred years, and he admittedly is not one of the elders, but still, it's kind of strange. In answer to another of my own questions, evidently there are still Darklings around (from Eth-Ath in Gnass in A2, who says, "Many sliths are evil and bent"), but not a lot. Toth-Thsss speaks about the war in the past tense, and says of the two species, "Now, we are becoming fassst friends, united in hating the Empire." Apologies for the gigantic post. It's just an area of interest for me. [ Wednesday, March 03, 2004 15:35: Message edited by: Kelandon ] -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Naming Creations in Geneforge Series | |
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written Tuesday, March 2 2004 19:54
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I always alliterate my creations' names with their species... and since the first time through G1 I kept the same creations all the way -- nothing died, nothing reabsorbed -- I became very fond of Fred the Fyora, Fud the Fyora, Dax the Drayk, and Chris the Clawbug. -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Naming Creations in Geneforge | |
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Off With Their Heads
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written Tuesday, March 2 2004 19:54
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I always alliterate my creations' names with their species... and since the first time through G1 I kept the same creations all the way -- nothing died, nothing reabsorbed -- I became very fond of Fred the Fyora, Fud the Fyora, Dax the Drayk, and Chris the Clawbug. -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Slith Homeland in Blades of Avernum | |
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Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
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written Tuesday, March 2 2004 15:12
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So let me see if I've got the timeline here worked out right: The sliths were living happily in their slithy homeland. (Is there even a term for it? I like The Slith Homeland myself.) They were in Lower Avernum, and at some point they had contact with the vahnatai, specifically the vahnatai of A2 and A3 (which is why those vahnatai had books that mentioned them, as Drakefyre shockedly notes in his theory of Vahnatai Creationism). This remains the situation since some time in the ancient past. Then, for whatever reason, two slith generations ago (how long is that?), Sss-Thoss gets it into his head to start worshipping a dark god, presumably Grah-Hoth, and he and his followers get banished through really freaking long tunnels that lead from the slith homeland to Lost Bahssikava. They show up in Avernum and are all dark and evil and violent and bad. The sliths who go off to found villages in Gnass and Lost Bahssikava break away from this tradition and become nice and gentle again, unlike their cousins, the Darklings. Then the Darklings get their butts kicked by the heroes of A1, and even worse by the Empire as they come in and sack and take over all the slith island fortresses. Is this about right? How long are two slith generations (ie how long have they been in Avernum)? Are there still Darklings around after being decimated by the Empire? If so, where? -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
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Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
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written Sunday, February 29 2004 15:02
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Drakey, that's an accomplishment to be 6 years old and to have been a Spiderwebber since '94. Only the most avid fans were fans prior to being conceived. And what is this? We have teenage females and twentysomething males? Destroys my whole teenage males and one or two twentysomething females hypothesis. Let's see some more results! I know the fortysomething Japanese lesbians are out there somewhere! Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Slith Homeland in Blades of Avernum | |
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Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
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written Sunday, February 29 2004 14:45
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I have heard a great deal about the Empire's history, and somewhat less about the vahnatai, but I was wondering if anyone had defined a history for the sliths. Is there a conventional explanation for, say, the location of the slith homeland (more specifically than just through the doors below Lost Bahssikava)? Why Lost Bahssikava ceased to exist between Avernums 1 and 2? How long the tunnel is between Lost Bahssikava and the slith homeland? What things are like back in the homeland now? Anything else along these lines? Once BoA comes out, my first scenario for it will be based on an attempt to rediscover the slith homeland, so I'm just curious to know what's out there already. (If there's nothing, that's better, because it gives me more freedom to invent.) -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Languages of the World in Blades of Avernum | |
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Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
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written Sunday, February 29 2004 11:39
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Drakefyre, you kick serious butt. First person to understand/answer my question. And yeah, it would be really nice to separate canon from Alec/Djur's inventions in some way. The Arena? Interesting. I'm going to look around for this now, but can someone post a link? And are there other intricate long story arcs going that I should know about? And now that Drakey's reminded me of it, TTIVAG, I think in Gale or somewhere pretty far to the north in A3, someone says that Blackcrag is in fact on the southern end of an isthmus. EDIT: and for those who are paying attention... the link to the Arena is in Drakey's signature. [ Sunday, February 29, 2004 12:49: Message edited by: Kelandon ] -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Census of Spiderweb community in General | |
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Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
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written Saturday, February 28 2004 21:19
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Ahem. According to Merriam-Webster Online, septagenarian is not a word, but septuagenarian is. http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=septagenarian&x=0&y=0 Microsoft Word spellcheck agrees. EDIT: Although I admit this makes no sense, because the Greek root is in fact "septa." And don't feel bad, Dead Sexy Wise Man; the interviewer mispelled the word, too. EDIT 2: And I'm very happy that DSWA figured out the proper abbreviation of my name, which is Kel. [ Saturday, February 28, 2004 21:37: Message edited by: Kelandon ] Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |