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Nonek

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  1. Nonek
    Yes those are among my favourites as well, but most crpg's and AD&D don't venture anywhere near the territory they explore to their detriment, I would especially like the manic inventiveness of Moorc*ck to influence more developers. When comparing most crpgs to any author the massive lack of ambition is very telling, they are (and I hate to say this) far too gamey at the expense of creating a consistent and relatable world. Personally I would like the depth and detail of Tolkien, the inventiveness of Moorc*ck or Howard, the horror of Lovecraft, the exploration of a theme that LeGuin pursues throughout Ged's journeys to best himself, wrapped up in a world like Ultima 7 with the combat system of Severance. Simple tastes what? I always thought that Tolkien's dislike of the German iteration of the Sigurdsaga was (like many Norse scholars) because of its castration and alteration by Saxo Grammaticus, changing it from the original lone myth to encompass Ragnarok and other unrelated matters, and demean the Aesir? Edit: Must dash, fascinating and enlightening discussion Sir.
  2. Nonek
    Nice post Sir, I agree that the world had not moved on, though I do think that it was at the end of his books on the cusp of doing so and was a reaction to his disgust with the modern worlds technological obsession. I'll have to read a few more of his tomes as currently i've only perused the three common books (Hobbit, LotR and Silmarillion) and obviously his translation of Beowulf, which is still the best. However i'd say my point still stands, most high fantasy worlds have no grounding elements within them, magic has no real effect on anything nor do magical items, and characters show no signs of humanity or frailty. In the Lord of the Rings that is not so, it is far more grounded than the usual high fantasy worlds where people do not eat, drink, tire, sicken or do much of anything other than summon fireballs and fight hordes of opponents. I'd say the ring cycle has more to do with the epic saga it is inspired by than the high fantasy most people claim it is. I agree though with being bored of traditional fantasy and its usual iterations, and am looking forward to Poe for the same reasons you list above.
  3. Nonek
    I'm not sure that's true, to me the world was merely going through its Dark Ages, their Rome had fallen in the west with the Dunedain, while the great city bridging east and west still stood as a counterpart to Byzantium. Yes that culture was failing and departing along with the more fantastical elements, but clear acknowledgement was given to the barbarian peoples arising, with the Rohirrim probably portraying Alan's in this scenario. Whose horse mastery might well have inspired chivalry, and thus symbolised what is to come. Elves = Greeks?
  4. Nonek
    One thing that keeps occurring to me about experiments in Animancy is this, what if the recipient changes their mind, like the chap near the Mortuary in Torment. Those great trees with Souls bound into them that Mr Sawyer mentions, what if they want to end their long lives as trees? Is the Soul bound to the tree, will it be bound even when the tree rots and returns to the earth, is it eternally cast out of the cycle, what happens to the Soul then, does it haunt the forest it "lived" in? A situation birthing a hundred questions, very pleasing. Edit: The ignorance and experimentation of the Animancer may be catastrophic, does any harm he commits count against him then, innocent and trying to merely be helpful as he is? Horrible examples such as Thalidomyde and DDT spring to mind.
  5. Nonek
    One of my players was against this because he said that playing a mortal (companion?) was merely a "resource" for the Magi, whom possessed the real agency and interesting role in the game world, and he was rather an anti-magic chap. In the end we never bought the rulebooks because of this, i'm not sure if he was correct or not, or whether he really couldn't play a Dwarf as was his wont. Personally I would have been thrilled to create unusual encounters and situations, something other than dungeons and combat, where the player partially makes the story as happens in most good campaigns.
  6. Nonek
    Yes i'm eager to see Twin Elms myself and beard the Poe equivalent of an Ent.
  7. Nonek
    I suggested a campaign of Ars Magica to my Friday nighters after completing Darklands, as I was a little enraptured with that game and the similarities were obvious, interesting plots just sprang into being for any student of history, politics and mythology. However my group were not prepared to start up a new campaign, and preferred the more and less fantastical setting which we were using at that time, a real wasted opportunity I think.
  8. Nonek
    Yes i'd generally agree, too often we get a modern world with a weak renaissance fayre flavour, and of course the traditional nonsensical plot about a demon led army or corrupting McGuffin. When a world is researched that has depth and internal consistency, then crises naturally arise that are human, relatable and interesting rather than adolescent power fantasies. Of course that's just my opinion and preference. Edit: What is strange is that i've always held that Tolkien created quite a detailed and internally consistent world, where different cultures clashed, languages were spoken, characters knew hunger and thirst, wanderers grew exhausted and a magical item was indeed rare and potent rather than yet another in a long list of items to sell. In a way though many people state that Tolkien's Middle Earth was the most fantastical of settings, it wasn't, even it's magic system seems to be equal parts technological trickery and psychic battles not the fireball frenzy we see in AD&D.
  9. Nonek
    Well Mr Sawyer stated that some Dyrwoodan's wished for Animancy to be more heavily monitored or outlawed, so certainly there seems to be a certain antipathy towards the profession. But as I said earlier i'm unwilling personally to assign blame for that feeling until we know whether there is any reason for it, other than religions and conservatives disliking this new area of research, that impinges on previously held and probably cherished world views. Indeed we do not even know if the Undead creation of Update #73 is a known variable to anybody, or whether it has yet to be performed successfully, thus my hesitancy. That and Mr Sawyer states that the powermongers are still backing the research, suggesting to me that they have not yet suffered any particular harm from it. One can see an Animancer who has suffered at the hands of backwards conservatives embracing a victim mentality, and thus imparting a sense of self righteous justice to his actions, it would be a very human reaction to moral castigation from ones peers. I do believe Mr Mor and Gromnir touch on a salient point with their examples of the early uses of electricity to revivify corpses however, the fuel that probably fed Mrs Shelley's own creation in part at least, which was very much a passtime of the aristocratic and learned of society. There's such obvious potential implicit in that idea.
  10. Nonek
    One would have thought that a pioneer city at the heart of a bustling and independent rather young nation would not have an abundance of law and order on its streets, whether through crime, press gangs, plague, work opportunities or simple relocation etcetera, would the disappearance of citizens not be a rather common occurence. I'm not familiar with cities of the period, but the mining towns of the American gold rush were if I remember correctly hotbeds of crime and such, they seem rather analogous.
  11. Nonek
    It raises interesting possibilities, but also similar moral quandries, if human Souls are being used at least. Condemned criminals? A form of execution?
  12. Nonek
    One has to ask what is the day to day research and practice of an Animancer, we have the obviously rather unusual (so one assumes) case outlined in Update #73, but what of his more mundane role? Obviously the name hints at this, the Anima refers to life force, personality and the Soul, as was used in Aristotle's famous work, so what does he do outside of the morally dubious known example? Is the Animancer a Physician's counterpart, it may seem ridiculous to us but in the world of Poe mayhap such things are needed, with steampunk gadgets, strange Frankenstein-like apparatus, smoke and mirrors maybe an Animancer can cure what ails the Soul, or recommend some course of action that would be beneficial. Past lives still haunting the Psyche that require some form of resolution, cracks and weaknesses in the architecture of the metaphysical, the removal of curses and hauntings that a Soul has accrued through fair deeds or foul, can he cure or mitigate these and others? It would be nice to see another side to the practice rather than just that outlined in the Undeath example, to gain a more rounded view of the profession, then again there is the thrill of discovery upon release to argue for, and the reveal of one of the games more interesting aspects.
  13. Nonek
    Though I did like the typical party hiking across the Swordcoast in BG I think you're right that this may clash with the scripted interactions, thus i'd prefer to see concept art of the pertinent area from a different angle, it might make a nice change from the isometric perspective it's usually presented in. Edit: That said i'm fine with fairly much anything, unlike the majority I do not have a pathological hatred of loading screens, in fact I quite like the respite. Perhaps impressionistic watercolours of the areas we are seeing might be nice, they were quite evocative in the first Witcher.
  14. Nonek
    1. Tut and carry on. 2. Tut and carry on. 3. Tut and carry on.
  15. Nonek
    If you drank tea then you would conquer that island.
  16. Nonek
    The Dyrford theme really grows on you, excellent update thank you ladies and gentlemen.
  17. Nonek
    If the prize is so great and so beneficial to all humanity as godhood and all that entails, then what morality will stay your hand while pursuing it? The Animancer looking down on all humanity watches wars and plagues sweep over them, and the endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth grind even the strongest personalities into dust, what matters a few more Souls? Not even ripples in the ocean, ants scurrying all unknowing about their lives as Orson Welles would point out from his Ferris wheel in the Third Man, would a single ant being removed from the schedule really affect anything. You can see where such dark thoughts might lead an intelligent Animancer, and why he might think that he is the good man in the long run. Edit: with the gods silent on the matter perhaps they do not even know the answers, about themselves or anything else, perhaps they simply exist and have influence and that along with continued worship is all they desire. To survive like the rest of us.
  18. Nonek
    The Grandam swore by Nettle tea, developed a taste for it during the wars when rationing was in effect, tastes foul to me personally.
  19. Nonek
    Twining's Earl Grey, the original blend, not that revolting new mix they "pioneered" a few years ago. Keeps ones upper lip stiff, ones mustache sprightly and ones little finger pointing to heaven as it should while imbibing.
  20. Nonek
    A possibility but why then would it be a leading light in the study of Animancy as I believe Mr Sawyer stated somewhere? And why are they not simply perpetuating the prohibition found in Aedyr?
  21. Nonek
    I'm not sure if it's legal as much as "no law exists against it yet". I feels like its unregulated more than set in stone legal. A fair point but until some form of legal provision is made for Animancy, then barring certain cultural precedents and acts that interfere with another law, it must be judged as lawful. Though in reality a rulers decision will probably be the deciding factor, which once again reinforces the point of Animancy not being regulated in the Dyrwood and the implicit suggestion that carries. In other words why has the art been overlooked when it is prohibited elsewhere? There is a dissonance there, what is the reason for that, and has the Dyrwood attracted Animancers from other nations due to oversight or intent?
  22. Nonek
    Personally i'm in favour of devolving the EU back into an economic commonwealth, we are as nations very old, individualistic and independent, that is not a bad thing as many regard it to be. There are some EU directives I would embrace and some I would abandon, but i'm not a rabid right winger who believes that Europe is the most pressing issue in my home country, there are systemic failures and oversights in my own nation that have nothing to do with the EU, and will still be there when the current whipping boy is no longer of such importance. One thing that does unduly worry me about Europe is the steadily escalating animosity towards America, though some of that is rather warranted with the clumsy handling of matters the USA has engaged in lately. Large power blocks with rather antagonistic feelings between them is a very similar situation to any student of history.
  23. Nonek
    That is also a valid point re: life expectancy of known animancers One supposes that this is dependant on what the previous attitudes were towards Animancers and what rumours and facts have emerged about their profession, the example we have in Update #73, is this a new technique only now emerging in the Dyrwood which seems to be the pioneer of modern day Animancy? Have there been previous abuses by foreign or domestic practitioners? What is the established attitude towards the profession in the Dyrwood? What was the previous extent of research before the pioneers of the Dyrwood moved the craft forward? Why is Animancy outlawed in other states? Until we have answers to a few of these questions i'm personally unsure of how the art would be recieved in the Dyrwood, beyond noting that it is legal at the moment, and the conclusions that fact raises. It would be very interesting to see these themes explored in the game, perhaps in literature. The excellent books on the subject of Magic and Technology in Tarant's great library in Arcanum spring to mind, especially the treatise on soot. Most illuminating.
  24. Nonek
    Well I remember when we entered the EEC back in the early 70's, there was no suggestion at that time that we would be ruled from Brussel's or that the organisation would be much more than the Commonwealth. The unvoted for changes that have made Europe a single state were never voted on, and frankly it's about time that the matter was clarified. Obviously politicians do not want that as being an MP in Europe is a legitimate recourse and cash cushion if they fail to get elected at home, and we all know that there is a lot of loose money in the EU budget, but these individuals will at some point have to face facts and the electorate whom they are supposed to represent.
  25. Nonek
    Ah here it is: "One good life. An extraordinary life. What levy must be paid for such a thing?" "If the gods won't answer, it is for us to decide."
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