Sketh
Chthonian horrors

Leaders:
The Blind Worm
Kathagga
Barubary
Savatur

Heroes:
Infiltrator Ctei
Durogon the Butcher
Mahadir the Carnifex
The Blind Worm

Race:
Skethian

Alignment:
Evil / Neutral

Patron God:
The Outsider (Methuggos)

Emblematic Mana:
Megamagic

Totem Animal:
Worm

Enemies:
Khazad

World Spell:
Metamorphosis

Civics:
Worm Cult

Unique Qualities:
All units (Except Naval) start with Mutation, receives +1 :hammers: from Mines, +1 :health: from Mushrooms.

Can sacrifice population to mutate units.

Powerful, extremely customizable monstrous units (Evolve them via mutations / splicing) but very slow to build and in limited amounts (MAX 1-4 PER TYPE).



The Blind Worm
http://i36.tinypic.com/2ymycqs.jpg

Major Leader
Evil (-250)

• Feral
• Barbarian
• Aggressive
• Agnostic

The Blind Worm is the avatar of dread Methuggos on Erebus.

It is the De Facto leader of the servitor race known by the name of Sketh. For untold aeons, the great Blind One lay dormant in the most achetonian depths of the world, until it one day heard the calling of its dark Father across creation. Biding its time until it localized a willing host, it struck out and enthralled a lost tribe of humanoids. Over the centuries and millenia, it shaped and sculpted the malleable creatures into the horrors they are today.

The Blind Worm functions as both a Leader and Hero unit (If the player decides to play as the great Blind One), and spreads terror when it is let loose on the world.

Savatur
http://i34.tinypic.com/52dpoo.jpg

Emergent Leader
Evil (-150)

• Treacherous
• Slaver
• Insane

Savatur believes himself to be the Blind Worm's most favored creation, and does indeed function as its personal weapon of terror on the surface of Erebus.

Savatur is a deranged and bloodthirsty creature, who lusts for the destruction of the world in any way, shape or form. He is ravenous and suffers from delusions of grandeur, believing that he alone will be chosen when the end of days come and the Outsider is summoned by the Worm.

Mahadir
http://i34.tinypic.com/29w8y0i.jpg

The Carnifex
Unit class: Melee
Strength: 6
Movement: 3
Cost: 300 :hammers:
Requires: Savatur as leader, unknown

Special abilities
• Immune to First Strikes.
• 1-2 First Strikes.
• 30% chance to Withdraw from combat.
• Ignores terrain movement cost.
• Hidden Nationality.
• 15% to Enslave after successful combat.
• Starts with Adventurer, Hero, Mobility I, Mobility II
• Can use Bronze, Iron and Mithril weapons.

Mahadir the Carnifex is the personal executioner of Savatur. He employs hit and run tactics and enslaves some of those he defeats in combat, offering them to the great Blind One in return for more power.


Current ideas

- Units within the border of the Sketh nation may receive temporary negative mutations (-5% Healing, -10% Defense et cetera), though not sure how feasible and viable this would be.

- Monstrous units - Alternative heroe's ALA Grigori, but with a twist. You evolve and grow them, this requires both time and experience (Experience gained via sacrificing population, at certain intervals (Special events perhaps?)).

- Arcane units specialize not so much in the regular schools of magic, but in Metamagic (Shaping), which would result in permanent bonuses to other units (While they are themselves weak and perhaps immune to shaping abilities? To not make them unbalanced).

- Unique buildings like: Underground network, Monster Breeding Grounds, Halls of the Shapers (Arcane units) (More ideas please!).

- Unique units: Spawnling > Youth > Mature > Adult > Great > Ancient (Sub-category for age and suffix for monstrous units; a Spawnling can perhaps only access low tier evolutions, while an Ancient monster can access high tier stuff (Examples needed here)).

- The Sketh race needs statistics fleshed out (Double movement anywhere? Magic resistance to what? +1 Strength, -1 Defense? Unique abilities? They all start with a Mutation).

- Cult of the Worm: Unique civic for the Sketh (Needs fleshing out, advice?).

- World Spell - Metamorphosis - Transforms the basic Sketh population into something stronger (Requires what? Gives them what bonuses? "Transcendance", the older the units are, the more powerful they become? Need advice on this one).

I just wanted to say this looks like an awesome idea and I really want to see this in game.

I don't have much in the way of ideas, but if you can flesh some out and provide the art work I can help with the coding. This looks like a great idea. Sort of like what evils lie in the depths of the earth that these darn dwarves are uncovering. A bit LOTR, but still fun.

I don't have much in the way of ideas, but if you can flesh some out and provide the art work I can help with the coding. This looks like a great idea. Sort of like what evils lie in the depths of the earth that these darn dwarves are uncovering. A bit LOTR, but still fun.

Yep.

I'm still working on the lore / characters / graphics, since that's about the extent of what I can do when it comes to creating stuff; I can't code and I'm not asking anybody to do it for me - I'll just provide what I can, and leave it up to whoever wants to take what they want for themselves.

The idea behind the Sketh, is that they're something unnatural, even on Erebus. Something Lovecraftian in nature, another big theme I'm writing about and fleshing out is that they don't have a whole lot of "regular" units, but insteall rely on breeding terrifying monsters.

So if you play the Sketh, you're basically the scourge of Erebus (Unless you're playing one particular leader of their civilization, in which case you can build a couple of different heroes (Ambassadors namingly)).

Anyhoo - Sleep time for me!

What is Methuggos? An angel of one of the evil gods?

I could see this as an interesting new civ, maybe, but I'd be leery about a 'godless' uberevil. Lovecraftian horror is already the Overlords domain, and even they have a basis in the gods actions. If your mutated freaks are of something uncreated by the Gods, well...

Are they here to eat Erebus? Conquer it for the masters? Conquer it for themselves? Destroy it and/or remake it? Is there any reason they're evil, besides being grotesquely ugly?

One background change you might want to make is that the willing humanoid tribe was lost in the age of ice, and the Worm is how they survived.

Is Methuggos like one of the Octopus Overlords gone bad? This seems like it would be ideal for the OO religion, or almost totally opposed to it, like a very focused Cassiel. Maybe they have a huge diplomatic penalty with the Grigori, Infernals, and Mercurians. Or I may be reading too much in.

As much stuff as gets borrowed in these mods, I'd like to see something like those things from Aliens as kind of the popcorn troop. Facehuggers would have a strength comparable with the arcane line (Strength 2 early, before adepts become available?) but be really cheap (actually, I can see them never improving, just Strength 2 the whole game). If they defeat a unit (which should be unlikely unless the target is fairly damaged), they are lost even in victory, but get to do the coma -> chestbursty thing and provide a unit of the same unitclass as the original target. Facehuggers and their end products would also get the acid blood promotion which, when the unit is destroyed, inflicts another 1-10% health (max of half remaining health) to a unit which kills them.

I might even have the facehuggers spawn naturally at the cities rather than building them. Like the Archos, but much faster and in each city, or maybe each one with an early structure. And just to be clear, the result of the chestbursting thing would be on the low end of each unit class, so a warrior and a champion would both produce a unit with say Strength 3 and maybe +10% vs. melee. The adult units would also have a chance to convert their victims (only some of the time, unlike facehuggers), but not be destroyed in the process.

Oh, and maybe give the post chestbursters, something they can upgrade to at level 6 and nationally limited Queens at level 10 or so (limit 1 maybe?).

Ideas

Palace: Body, Chaos, Earth. +1 :yuck: in all cities, .12 uncapped training for Monstrous units (I use Flat XP - that's the normal rate for wonders and Holy Cities, translate as necessary) and 5% chance to gain Slaves from any successful combat.

Magic: Does Metamagic cover biological stuff? Wouldn't this be under Body? In any case, Twistlings/Warplings/Debasers are wretched half-human mages driven to blasphemy by unspeakable knowledge.

They are blocked from spells outside of the Body, Chaos, Earth, Mind, and Nature spheres. They have the Outsider Taint (25% spell and Death resistance, 50% Unholy resistance, heals -20% in friendly/neutral/enemy territory) promotion. Nature spells are replaced by Twisting spells.

Twistlings can cast (innately) the Flense Soul spell, which gives other units in the stack Magic Resistance but has a 5% chance to turn them barbarian. The Twisting spell at Channeling 1 is Devolve, which removes 1 experience for every +5 Spell Damage of the Twistling and leaves the unit Estranged.

Warplings can cast the Guardgrowths (+10% Defensive Strength, +20% resistance to Collateral Damage, Diseased promotion) and Ripper's Cruciation (+10% Attack Strength, +10% healing after combat, Withered promotion) spells. The Twisting spell at Channeling 2 is Rot Heart (Removes Courage and Loyalty, gives Heartless [-10% spell resistance, -20% strength, -100% experience gain, has a 25% chance to wear off each turn]).

Debasers can cast Force Evolution (unit gains a random promotion from a list, then loses a random promotion from a list - weighted slightly in player favor [higher chance of positive gains and negative losses] so that over time this is an extremely powerful spell). The Twisting spell at Channeling 3 is Cancer (gives Weak and Plagued).

World Spell: Grants experience to non-Ancient units, based on tech level and Chaos Mana (each Chaos Mana lowers the minimum possible experience by 1 and increases the maximum possible experience by 3). Grants Ancient units a unique promotion, Elder Thing (Magic Immune, +25% chance to Enslave, includes a duplicate Fear effect that as part of this promotion will bypass Fear immunity, counts as an alternate prerequisite for Command IV).