Update #40: Orlan First Look and Ziets on Pantheon Design

[Osvir]

Awesome update!! Thank you

I also knew it, it could have hardly been anything else (well, could've been a Godtouched~).



* Like Indira said, "Ponytail". In honor to...?
* The Orlan himself, what's his name!?
* If we murder someone within a City, will a Cipher look for us? Or is this merely representing the Character Concept?
* The Fist and the Club, a symbol of Royal Law & Authority? This guy is possible a believer of Woedica. Makes sense, as she is part of the update.
* Is there someone in the window?
* There's something wierd, spherelike, ball-like hanging on the satchel to the side (Or is it something that blends into it from the background?). Is that a "Tool" or merely "attire"?
* What kind of weapons are in the satchel? Knifes? Darts?

* "K" is a signature for which artist? Just curious, great job man!
* It looks like he only has 4 fingers (thumb+3 fingers). Although it might be a racial thing,  it'd be cool if the Fist of Law/Authority (on the sweater) had 4 fingers too. Perhaps the Organization is Orlan governed? It could also make that "Fist" somewhat new, I'm looking at it and thinking "Where have I seen that before?".

Edited January 30, 2013 by Osvir

[Zeer]

A stained psychic leprikon..don't really like him, but who knows maybe the story will make orlans more interesting. 

[Shadenuat]

"Using this blood-stained dagger and my amazing cipher mind skills, I

can deduce the last user of this weapon and thus identify the killer.

Quite elementary my dear chaps."

He's just using PSI probably, aura reading or something.

 

There's something wierd, spherelike, ball-like hanging on the satchel to

the side (Or is it something that blends into it from the background?).

Is that a "Tool" or merely "attire"?

It's a flintlock. The ball is to hit people when you're out of bullets/reloading.

 

A halfling psionic with a gun serving in city police.

Feels like a work of...

 

 

...yeeeah.

Edited January 30, 2013 by Shadenuat

[The Invisible Man]

I love the idea for Woedica, i can imagine hearing supersticous people talking about how she will strangle you if you break your vows and such. I was also wondering if its been mentioned if Project eternity will inlcude alignments. Personally i would love it if there were not any. I don't like 'picking' my characters alignment when i start or the game telling me when iv'e done something 'good' or not and then moving my alingment that way. For example in Baldurs gate my favoruite play through was a chaotic evil fighter. Now he didnt just go around killing everyone he saw and even did some things that would be considered 'good' like helping others. But all he did was to help himself and even help him commit further evils. The game didn't know that, but i did. So i was wondering if thats been mentioned yet.

 

Regardless I loved the update and like the look of Orlans... never liked Hobbits and Halflings and these seem like a good twist on them.

[Lumasini]

Thanks God we got Gods too!

 

Thank you for the nice update!

[Lysen]

"Orlan" means "eagle" in Russian. I wonder if it's a coincidence that the character has bird-like features

 

Orlan is a strange word, it doesn't really sound 'Russian' though it exists in the Russian language and means not "eagle" (oryol) but a different bird of prey, that resembles eagle. Orlan and oryol have the same root (orl) but orlan also has suffix 'an'. It's unusual for Russian and also quite ancient. For example 'bratan' means 'bro', while 'brat' means 'brother'. 'Bratan' is considered informal or even offensive today but it was more widespread in ancient times. 

[zimcub]

Probably not intended but the story of Woedica gave me a feeling of nostalgia as it feels like a scary story that you used to hear as a kid. No complex setting needed just a weird story of an old woman you would hear in a village, that makes you want to investigate furter.

As for Orlans, they remind me of squirrels, too bad they arent as cute.

[gholam]

A great update, though I'm curious about the number of pantheons. Is there going to be only one or is each race going to have it's own like in D&D? Also, are the gods going to separated by rank? What do you guys think?

[simon_templar]

Do we really need "God of something", what is theirs interest in this? Berath God of doors, why? Do they gain some power from helping people (by worshipping them)? It should be in the game rational reason for this. I don't believe that Gods don't have something more interesting to do than for example blessing doors or help their followers. Most of Gods should be selfish.

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My idea for God - Linda  once admired by male gods because of her beautify, intellect and charm, other female gods were jealous that she can seduce every men and sometimes women. Once when she again seduced another God who was in stable relationship it was the end of the line for them. Opponents of her disabled her powers and imprisoned her in human body and have sent to brothel. Where she was detain and forced to take drugs. But one of the hookers helped her to liberate by killing her human body. When Linda was free again she started with killing every man that was in the brothel, and it was a bloodshed because she was very popular there. 

 

She is to weak to make harm her Gods opponents directly but she revel her rage on theirs human followers. Also everyone who is making any prostitute harm, has to expect that she will hear, hers plea for help. She will appear as beautiful women in sexy costume only to cut off the pimps **** with blunt knife.

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Also there should be lots of Gods of fear and terror, because their bored, and this helps them to entertain

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Death - the grim reaper, not a GOD but a thing which helps souls to go to the other world, appears when someone dies. Maybe sometimes we could have little chat with him when someone in team dies and he is asking that if he could take him this time? Grim reaper with good sense of humour it would be great.    

Edited January 30, 2013 by simon_templar

[Gfted1]

Maybe hes "identifying" the dagger with some mental ability.

[Naurgalen]

Question: By non "human" gods you mean elvish/dwarven/whatever or REAL "non human" / otherworldly gods like cthulhu?

[Segev]

you really ought to have a Cthulhu mythos deity somewhere. This is a free to use and rich intelectual property. Think about an ancient god of chaos, nearly forgotten by society but still worshipped by monstrous creatures from the deep, waiting to the day it will finally return and destroy this sick world. A god that is never seen but only hinted, with unspeakable power but complete lack of interest in human matters. It was adopted by many writers, from sherlock holmes scenario to the sunken god in song of ice and fire.

[Nonek]

How would one pronounce "Woedica?" Looking at the name my mind immediately leapt to the native British queen of the Iceni "Boudicca," but with it being revealed as an old english like name i'm left wondering whether it may be pronounced "Vodissa" or "Vodyka."

[SophosTheWise]

How would one pronounce "Woedica?" (...)" or "Vodyka."

There, we have it. Woedica is also goddess of alcohol!

[Keyrock]

The Orlan is so...  furry, so very furry.  Me likey.

 

Leaning toward Priest of Berath for my first character right now.  Obviously very subject to change.

[Keyrock]

How would one pronounce "Woedica?" 

When I look at it I think "Woo-dissa".

Edited January 30, 2013 by Keyrock

[Heresiarch]

Using this blood-stained dagger and my amazing cipher mind skills, I can deduce the last user of this weapon and thus identify the killer. Quite elementary my dear chaps."

I Hope to God this isn't a dagger he's holding.

 

On a sidenote, I love the detailed approach to the Pantheon. It really gives a nice feel to the game, when gods and religion are neatly defined before the actual stroyline, not added-on later as an extra gimmick.

[Macs]

The first thing I thought about when I saw the emblem on his chest was this

 

On deities: I'm really excited about the world building updates, as they are a bit more exciting at this early stage. The gods "power level" and where they get their powers from are interesting apsects. Do they gain their powers by the worship of their followers and consequently get weaker and die if there are no worshippers any more or are they natural (in the sense of being inherent to the world) manifestations? Are they essentially immortal or can they be killed, and if so, how?

 

I can't wait for future updates.

[remur]

* It looks like he only has 4 fingers (thumb+3 fingers). Although it might be a racial thing,  it'd be cool if the Fist of Law/Authority (on the sweater) had 4 fingers too. Perhaps the Organization is Orlan governed? It could also make that "Fist" somewhat new, I'm looking at it and thinking "Where have I seen that before?".

It's a common symbol of resistance, check google image search.

Though this particular one (white fist) sadly looks pretty much like the aryan white fist

http://www.getsome88.com/shop/image/cache/data/p117-500x500.gif

[PrimeJunta]

Social democratic Scots leprechaun Sherlock cipher with a pistol. YEEEAH!

[Sacred_Path]

Her Aedyran name is Woedica, which evokes the “Old English” feel of the Aedyran language. (Maintaining a distinct sense of national/ethnic language and culture is important to us – more about that in a later update.)

So you are going for some realistic reference point in the language. When I looked up the companion's names there was a tendency for them to reflect Irish/ Scottish family names, but only so slightly that I though it a coincidence. You'll definitely want to make this more prominent.

[Gumbercules]

Great update, if rather short. That orlan looks much better than the aumaua, although that may be partly due to being a color painting rather than some grayscale drawings. I think you could make orlans even more non-human looking, but I'm satisfied with the current design.

 

Like others, I'm also curious whether there's a single pantheon of gods, or if there are multiple (perhaps somewhat overlapping?) pantheons depending on culture and location. Also, since it looks like the gods will be reasonably active and known to exist, a way to preserve some mystery and ambiguity would be to make them all slightly insane in their thinking, at least by human standards. And since atheism would probably be impractical in this type of world, you could instead have people who acknowledge the gods but don't respect or worship them, and who either openly defy them or try to slip through life and death without drawing their attention.

[Wirdjos]

I got a definite Ravel tingle off of 'The Strangler' manifestation. I am really liking the idea that the enforcer of oaths is a withered (and possibly half crazied) hag. I am also pleased with the whole manifestation approach. Perhaps the gods appear different to other gods and/or perhaps each god would have many forms.

Three cheers for (more) official Orlan art as well!

 

All in all, an excellent update. Bravo for maintaining quality alongside so much quantity!

[J.E. Sawyer]

How would one pronounce "Woedica?" Looking at the name my mind immediately leapt to the native British queen of the Iceni "Boudicca," but with it being revealed as an old english like name i'm left wondering whether it may be pronounced "Vodissa" or "Vodyka."

 

Boudica was one of the name-inspirations due to Woedica's bitter fall and exile.

 

Old English has the /w/ sound, represented in the early post-futhorc Latin-based alphabets as ƿ and eventually as w.  OE diphthongs are notoriously confusing and difficult to pronounce, so for simplicity's sake, the oe should be pronounced like the Danish ø or German ö.  The d is standard Germanic, the i is short, hard c, long a.  So it's pretty much pronounced how it looks, with the exception that the "oe" sounds like the "i" in "bird".

 

We probably won't be using ligatures, macrons, or special characters like thorns and eths in-game.

[IndiraLightfoot]

So, that would be "word-icka", then?