Silenceborn

@anameforobsidian "I would actually be pretty surprised if JE Sawyer hadn't read Manichean texts, given their importance to medieval philosophers." Well it is interesting you mentioned that because I am a PH.D student of philosophy with focus on Eastern schools of thoughts and mostly philosophy of mind. I studied Manichaeism (My real first name is Maani مانی In Persian which is the name of the prophet Mani) and have written three uni papers about different aspects of it. Especially its profound relationship with the early Christianity and Sethian Gnosticism. Manichaeism in general as you know was dominant in Europe and could very well replace Christianity if the church fathers decided not to kill most of them to save the church power centuries ago. Mani could perhaps be called the first syncretic philosopher or prophet and because he has been exiled out of Persia to the Bharata (India) because the supreme high magus of the state Zoroastrian religion became against the Mani and his teachings (In the time of Shapur the Sassanid the second king of Persia). Mani coming from Baghdad in modern day Iraq and Hamadan city (modern day Iran) and from a Sabean religion background, going to the center of the Zoroastrian faith and then goes eastward to India and spent fifteen years in India made him familiar with Jainism and Buddhism and then he went back to Baghdad and Persia again and all the teachings went westward this time... Huge influence on the Christianity and mostly on the Catholicism. Regarding the mythologies, you would be surprised if I tell you that the Persian mythologies which are mostly written in Pahlavi/Avestan language texts and partly even in Sanskrit are incredibly similar to the Norse mythologies. In fact there was a Dannish scholar who did a comparative research about the subject year ago which I can not remeber his name now. What you find in the 'Shahnameh' or the 'epic of the kings' as the main source of the Persian mythologies is in many many parts if not the same but similar to the Norse mythologies. For instance you have Thor in the Norse with his famous hammer, and you have Rostam in Persian with his famous Mace. Rostam passes the seven tests and kills the white daeva (white evil), or the Kaveh another legendary figure put the Zahhak (the representation of the evil) and takes him to the Damavand mountains and put him there until the end of times, just like the Fenrir in the Norse mythologies. I do agree with you about the cultural issues and the possible stereotypes in between and I do agree about the nostalgia feeling when it comes to mostly RPG games. I am one of them myself who played all sorts of RPGs since I was a child and in fact one of the reasons I went studying philosophy, religion and even Jungian psychoanalysys could be the fact that rpg games influenced me so much. About the Persian art, well there are limitations and retrictions indeed, and though I am one hundred percent against the current regime as I was living in there until 8 years ago, but all in all I do believe expression of art and new ideas in Iran in some cases are even more powerful than what we have in the Western society. What global media tries to represent and immitate is simply wrong and far from truth. There is a huge political agenda behind all these news we see and hear in the media, particularly about the so-called Middle East regions. It would seem strange to people who have never been there but the dominant power of Capitalism here somehow unconsciously dictates even some basic concepts in art and music which is relatively much less in the current Iranian culture. Anyway it is a huge topic of course and I thank you for your great responses. Cheers, Maani (Silenceborn)

@anameforobsidian Thanks for the repsonse. I assume by Western you mean Western European culture because the Eastern and south European regions and culture are heavily influenced by their Eastern neighbors and were in thousand of years of relationship with them. The Greek and Roman cultures were both influenced and being influenced by the Persian and Indian cultures and traditions. Neoplatonism for instance which was influential in Europe in both art and music, was directly and indirectly influenced by the Persian Zoroastrianism. The Western European music and theme is of course different or at least seem different on the surface but again by the look of the game I did not really got the feeling that the main theme of the game is based on purely Wetern European cultures. In fact some scenes seem pretty Oriental and Eatern to me. Planescape Torment on the other hand is almost an Eastern game with incredible art design and music which really is beyond any cathegorization. I do agree with you about the representation of mythology in the West though, it seems devs in the West do not usually care about the games being profound with deep philosophical messages and perhaps even some deep moral implications. Mythology is usually depicted as primitive stories for primitive people unfortunately. While in actuality mythologies are mirrors in which we can relatively observe own collective subconscious. I do not expect to see a huge change in the industry though as the dominant theme of the Western society in general is the childish debate of religion vs atheism... Sadly very few people know these childish traps and go beyond these anthropocentric viewpoints... Anyway I got a little off-topic and I apologize for it but again I am really interested to see if the devs or musicians are going to add some Easterns themes into the game or not. That way I could probably share some ideas here which in my opinion could very well fit the theme and game environment. Here are some link which may help give some ideas about the Eastern music which could very well fit into this game: Persian Nay and Daf by the Ahura Music: Indian Fusion with Sitar played by the doughter of Ravi Shankar Anoushka Shankar: Persian Daf ensemble: Another work by Shankar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXtG8o1YrgU North Indian Santoor by the master Shivkumar Sharma: If interested I would be more than happy to suggest the sample libraries with which it would be easy for a trained musician who is partly familiar with the Eastern musical systems to make some very interesting music to fit the game perfectly.

Hi There, I have read this thread partly and sorry if somebody else already asked this question, but can you pleae shed some lights on the 'Stealth' mechanic more? How does it work and how rogues and other classes who rely on stealth use stealth for their benefits? Are there different specs or modes of gameplay which implenet Stealth differently? And how dependant rogues are on their stealth abilities? And are there any 'Stealth Only' abilities which can not be used out of Stealth? I have many more questions regarding the stealthiers but for now I would appreciate if anyone with enough knowledge could clarify these for me. Cheers, Silenceborn

Hi There, I am a musician myself and coming from the Eastern background. Originally Persian but studied Western and Eastern musical systems. I also have studied Indian classical music and its profound raga systems. I was wondering if it is possible to add some Eastern musical themes to the game? At least partly. Like the ancient Persian Santoor or Daf which are some very unique instruments with incredible tones, or the Indian Sitar, Sarod, Tabla and many others... I would happily provide some links with the actual playings if the degisners or musicians are interested. Cheers, Silenceborn

Thanks my friend and sorry for the delay to respond. I am living in Australia and you know there is a huge time difference. Regarding the survey, well I still have no idea what is the reason for them. Sending them to the mods so they could implement them into the actual game? Like how? I probably did not get what you mean and hopefully it all will be more clear in the near future close to time of release. Cheers, Silenceborn

Thanks for the title! It was fast. Can't wait to play this gem and yeah I tried many rpgs in the recent yars. For me almost all of them lacked that must have 'substance'. I'm gonna devour this game just like I did the incredible games such as the Planescape: Torment and BG1 and 2. Cheers, Silenceborn

Hi There, I just did the survey in my profile and I thought it has something to do with the forum. Anyone cares to explain to me what exactly is that survey and where it will be used? I changed my survey unique name to "The Advaita Vedantist of the Obsidian Order" And I want to have the same title on the forums as well. I am a proud backer and have got the pledge with the add-on for the Obsidian Order of Eternity, and as mentioned want to have the name "The Advaita Vedantist of the Obsidian Order" as my forum title. Regards, Silenceborn