The Hi'Kon Files: Operation Moonchild

BenjaminEmbarec

BenjaminEmbarec

Warlord
Joined
Apr 8, 2009
Messages
161
Spoiler :
They appeared from nowhere, these four... beings. The first looked to be no older then sixteen, the enormous white wings contrasting with her waist-length blood red hair that flowed behind her. In her grip was a sword wreathed in flames, yet they did not seem to harm the hand that held it, nor the flowing white gown that covered her form.

The second was even more amazing, three headed canine, easily the size of a city bus, each head a different breed... The one on the right looked like a perverse black collie with a star in the middle of it's forehead, the left looking like a white wolf with veins of silver flowing from it's eyes and down it's neck, and the middle head was that of a german sheppard, it's eyes cold and calculating with an intelligence that the other two heads seemed to lack.

The third, a young woman of undetermined age, was bare from head to toe except for her countless trinkets of gold and saphire, but she was not indecent... Luxurious fox-like fur was spread out over her form, and her tail moved so fast it was hard to tell if there were truely more then one or if it was a trick of the eye. Her head reminded me of a female Anubis, but despite her bestial appearances there was an unearthly beauty about her to the point that I had to force myself to look away.

The final creature seemed to be the leader, her silver hair and enormous white wings seeming to spread out over a city block, giving the illussion of enveloping the city... or protecting it from some great evil. Unlike the first "angel" this one was unarmed, yet none seemed to have the courage to strike... In fact even the police officers that were with me never even bothered to draw their weapons. They just stayed where they were, the two "angels" floating over city hall while the two more bestial beings merely rested in front of the door, the fox motioning for children to approach seemingly at random and allowing them to pet the canine beside her before shooing them off again.

They remained in place for seven days exactly, down to the very second of their appearance according to "Countdown" clock the local news was broadcasting, more then enough time for the military to get involved and for them to draw a large crowd from far and wide. Finally, the leader spoke, her voice echoing across the speechless multitudes below. And she was no angel.

"I am Celest, the Mouth of Embarec. Listen and heed my words... Repent! You say it is your leadership that is corrupt, yet who elected these leaders, who allowed these false prophets to teach your children, who tolerates these twisted rulers? I say unto you, the proflem lies in your own hearts. You blame your gods for these disasters of the every day, yet you do nothing to prevent them. Do not blame Embarec for your polution of thought, your perversions of the heart. Your children dress as harlots, your babies have babies, and you wonder why this is a god-forsaken land? Your own lack of judgement is what is abusing your children. Your sons and daughters spiral into depression, yet you watch and do nothing as they kill themselves, and then ask 'Why?' while the smoking guns of hatred and prejudice and apathy lie burning at your feet. You give them hatred and send them to the wolves, you leave weapons in their reach, and act astonished when your lambs strike back in school. Bring your lambs back to the flock, don't fleece your yonung of their humanity. What have your false prophets, your "New world elite," your "Men of greatness" done, other then poison your minds and pass laws meant to 'protect' a freedom that no longer exists? What do your 'men of the cloth' tell you... Other then that your "gods" need money and sell your secrets to the highest bidder? "Love thy neighbor as thyself" fails when one dispises themselves. Let me hear your voice. Cry out at your oppression. Let the false gods of old hear your outrage. The time has come to take out the old ways and look to a new God... A god who can take you to Paradise."

I don't know what happened after that, but there was a blinding flash and suddenly everyone was running... either towards them and the light, or away. To my shame... I ran away, and when we finally turned around... They were gone. Everyone. Thousands, maybe even a million people, dissapeared all at once. And the ones left behind, like myself, can do nothing but pray for attonement... and hope they come back for us.

Rod Milok, former CIA opperative, from his final debriefing before his resignation.


I bet those of you who read this is wondering "What the heck?" This is both a call for help... and possibly an announcement for a new mod, hopefully modular seeing as how it's only one civ and a few magic changes. The problem is? I have the text, I have the race created and the lore. What I don't have is the modding knowledge to make it work. So I'm asking, if anyone here is curious and would like to see this made, to either help with the modding itself... Or even just teach me how and I'll do the grunt work since it's my mess in the first place. :p

Similar to how the Kuriotates are "Many races under one banner," so are the Hi'Kon. Among their ranks are beast men similar to Lycanthropes in appearance, but without the Curse, naturally gifted arcanists with a different "view" on how magic works, and a unique Divine line. They have no ranged or seige units, and their navy will be hampered as well. Their racial philosphy is a strength in body and magic, and the majority of their leaders are tallented both with axe and magic.

I'm still trying to figure out what would be best for their palace mana, but at the moment I'm fairly sure I'm either going to have to create all new mana types for them [which I'd rather not do] or simply use Law, Shadow, and Body mana then give them racial promotions, similar to the fall further Scions, so that they get a new "line" for each, a dimensional/shadow hybrid, one that consists of maintenance reducing and happiness increasing city buffs, and the Body wouldn't be changed much, they'd lose Regeneration and instead gain a strength buff at that level, and flesh golem would be removed in exchange for... Well, I can't give out ALL my secrets yet. :mischief:

And no, I WOULDN'T mind if this got "ate" by a bigger mod... In fact I'd be honored, I'm sure they could do a much better job with the coding ect then I could EVER do.

And before anyone says "This isn't in the lore!" Well no kidding! But I doubt there is anything in the lore saying that interdimensional travel is impossible with strong enough magic... Or depending on how you look at it, inter-planar travel [Infernals and Mercurians anyone?]
 
Well, this is certainly interesting. The idea that Erebus and Earth are on parallel planes of existence is a bit of a stretch though. Not only are there plotholes the size of a Calabim Breednig Pit, as the people from our world are significantly more technologically advanced, but there balance of having a Lycanthropic race seems to be... overpowered. Even without the Lycanthrope mechanic, werewolves can be deadly in their own right.

Tolerant might be a good trait for them if you want that "Many Races" idea, but The leader herself would be Org/Cha, or such.

Still, pulling them into Erebus would be a stretch. It took a world shaking ritual to summon Hyborem that re-aligned all the planes, and it took the construction of a massive gate from the underworld to enable Basium to step into Erebus. How do you plan on making the Hi'Kon enter the world?
 
Think less "Lycanthrope" and more beastmen or anthropomorphic creature, sorry for being unclear there. And I do appreciate your comments.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong but I'm fairly certain that a "God" using up enough of his/her power to make themselves mortal should be juuuuust enough power to step into a whole new reality, let alone to Erebus. Besides, I also never said, exactly, that the world they are coming from is Earth now did I? I merely hinted at it, and the level of technology in that world, by using the words "City bus" and "CIA." I'm guessing though that I'll probably need to write down a bit more backstory for the world they came from rather then towards the world they are going. XD

But one final thing.. Why would it be a stretch, if they WERE on the same plane of existence and merely parallel worlds, that Earth was more technologically advanced? Perhaps Earth got it's start sooner... Or more likely, although earth DID have it's own ice age... It ended a much longer time ago, suppossedly, then the Erebus one. And then there's allways the fact that, with magic, there's less "Need" to promote technology since you can allready do most of the things that you'd want technology for. If you happen to play the Orbis mod for example, the Mechanos are a good example... They don't use [much] magic or they use it in different ways, and therefor the compensated with more advanced, comparatively, technological advances. Argueably, humanity on earth had no magic [Let's not argue THAT point shall we?]and therefor concentrated on developing technological wonders rather then developing new magical wonders.
 
Oh, I missunderstood what he meant. Well yes, of course. The majority of the people "taken" back weren't the elite in the first place. It was the ones that failed their will saves to make a dnd refference. ;3 The partials, or the ones that saw through the illussion from the start, were the ones that ran. So they'd probably have to start over except for anything non metalic they were holding at the time.


... I'm going to have to give a bit of backstory on the world that they recruited their human followers from just to hear any more "Earth =/= Erebus!" comments, arn't I? XD I was hoping to skip that small part, the world the human followers/thralls are from is less important then where the Hi'Kon are from... and why they are going to Erebus.

But to give a bit of bassic, no it's not Earth. It is a world primarily populated by humans, with active but steadily declining minor gods. Just because people used technology doesn't mean they knew how... the majority of the people with the knowledge to duplicate the technology were a part of the religious classes, primarily for their god of knowledge and secrets. Which is exactly why Embarec picked this world... He knew he'd only have one shot at this, dragging his core troops and his new "followers" into Erebus.
 
I had a thought similiar to this which explained why Earth was more technologically advanced then Erebus, why Earth is still similiar to Erebus (corruption wise), and more. I need to dig through my notes to find it, so you guys will just need to wait. By the way, which god descended herself to open a gate way to Erebus?

Edit: whoops, just noticed that you said that it wasn't Earth, which is good because it just eliminated a ton of plotholes in my term
 
It's a god from outside of Erebus. In his world, his "spheres" were "Change" [Chaos, but neither for good or evil], illussion and dimensional [read: summoning] magic, and nature... Although that part was twisted by the other two towards the darker points of nature. He quite litterally "Got bored" with his world, decided to set up his successor early and go on a little trip. He used his diviners to find both Erebus and the world that he took his followers from, then bassically "wasted" all his power to drag himself and, after a brief sending of his minions such as Celest to that world, to Erebus. Unfortunately, not everyone made it there at the same time... which is why this civ's heroes will require arcane rituals to drag into the world. They have a slightly higher normal of "Heros" but they arn't as powerful as other civ's versions, and only one of them has the hero promotion itself... an Immortal styled mage that's not available until either Omnicience, Divine Essence, or I'm considering making it need both and just boosting his power in some way. He would be no Auric of course. ;3

Any more then that though about backstory you'll merely have to wait to see the pedia entry. I've got to keep some secrets after all. ;3
 
The real question is, is the One still his/her Creator? I once had an idea of infinite universes created by the One, and that the One was not so perfect after all, and that the gods of Erebus were nothing but frogs who knows nothing beyond its own well. There is still Evil in the most perfect world The One creates because there is someone opposite of One. Gods of Erebus are merely the low ranking, but somewhat powerful angel administrators.

The opposite of One, since I don't have any name bank with me, let's just call him anti-One, is the First fallen Angel, he was the strongest of angels, first to be created by the One and even more powerful then the One had forseen. He even enjoyed the previlidge of getting to sit beside his throne. However, he and many of the other angels rebel against the One and exiles themselves to, for the lack of better term, Hell. It's not the hell you think it is, where the souls go, but the living space of all Angels (with more then thousands of them being more powerful then Agares, although their power is diminished when entering another world, for a reason I won't tell you yet ;))

There are No doubt that this fallen angels are evil, or are they? There were only good on the world. The Celestial force, rather One likes it or not, demands that the Celestial Equation is balanced. If not, the meaning of Good will be meaningless, as there would be no evil to compare it to. So the Anti-One is the Universe's attempt of balancing the Equation. Interesting thing is that, rather they like it or not, the Equation has been balancing out the Good and Evil from within the One and Anti One as well, which makes one more evil and Anti One more good.

Well, that's what I got so far, :p
 
Interresting. As far at he knows, he created himself.. But that is more of a denial as to the actual events of his transcendance. In truth he was created by "a" One, but whether or not it is THE "One" remains to be seen. :D
 
*shows up, randomly rolling his eyes and flipping his lips up and down with his finger while making a "pblpbl" noise.*:eek:

Ok now that I got my freaking out over with, looks like I CAN handle the bassics, although I think I'll have trouble with some of the magic changes I want later on and know for a FACT I'll have issues on the graphics. :/ Bloody GIMP doesn't work on my machine... either that or every single dl I've tried in the past 48 hours from various different sources is completely corrupted, which is what my computer insists. :rolleyes: Depending on if I have a bunch of work come up or not between now and then, I SHOULD have a beta up to test in approximately a week although it will be fairly skeletal and would be a "Bug test only" sort of thing. I warn..... I rarely worry about ballance until I can get the bugs out of something. [And god I wish this was as easy as mapmaking on starcraft was. XD]
 
Blurg, could you show us some more of the mechanics you plan to make in your mod, it may draw some attention then...
 
Well sure, but unfortunately I'm still not 100% sure what I'll be able to figure out how to do or not, and remember I am mainly focussing on the Hi'Kon at first, although since I've allready learned I won't be able to make the changes that I allready want to make them work modular, I'll probably end up making various minor changes to other civs as well.

First of all, in the beta bug-testing, I plan on giving a Hi'Kon worker uu, just to test if the coding behind it works, that will be removed later. It will be capable of casting various terraforming spells, including a group that will raise/lower terrain from mountain down to coast and back up again, as well as your classic bloom, scorch, spring, and vitalize clones. IF I can get the coding to work, it will be removed as a worker replacement and instead become an expensive worker upgrade for ALL civs, available at either strength of will or omni, undecided, that doesn't obsolete workers. Upgradeable only, and expensive. Probably starting around 2-500gold and working down or up depending on how ballance works, with a national limit of 6 since it's such a useful and versatile tool.

Another change that will deffinitely be Hi'Kon only is a system similar to the Scion's "Body" replacement magic type, Corpus. It's going to have a few unique city buff spells in the mix, no special direct attack spells [So if I decide to replace all mana types, they won't have access to wither, or wonder, or... I think you get the idea], and a clone of the "Illussion" mechanic for summons.

I'll tell more later, but the Hi'Kon themselves will have more "Named units" [Aka heros] then some of the other nations, but like Lucien most of them will not have the hero promotion itself. The only one that will at all is their "Main" hero, available very late game that will start with a "Blood of the pheonix" styled immortality promotion, a one-shot ressurect in other words. They do NOT have access to the normal ressurection life spell either, I've decided that allready, although I'm going to look into making a unique version that requires a number of sacrifices, pluss sacrificing the caster itself, dependant on the level of the unit when it died... and if that's not possible, merely a number of sacrifices depending on WHICH "hero" it was. That would probably be better and would allow you to decide on which hero you are ressurecting based on the number of sacrifices in the tile with you.

There are several "Races" within the Hi'Kon itself as well, the Jackals who would handle their recon and religious lines, the Wolves who are their bassic soldiers, various humanoid races [mainly humans] who handle the ranged lines and engineering aspects of the nation [both seige and naval], and finally the tigers which are the highest-end melee and arcane units, such as immortals. They do not have access to paladins, druids, or eidos, although I will be giving them a unique divine line that will have access to a few pre-set arcane spells and the medic promotions, and I'm CONSIDERING a unique neutral "paladin" clone uu for them that would make sense flavor wise although I feel that ballance wise it will probably end up being written out eventually.

I'll put in more depending on what I can figure out how to work into the mod, or edit out anything I find out that can't be done.
 
Jackals as in the Covenant? :D? Soo... they are half-animal folks?
 
Yes and no. I hate giving away this much of their lore this early, but the "Hi'Kon" are the descendants of lycanthropes from their world, later mutated by magic. Their version was a genetic species rather then a curse such is the lycanthropy in Erebus and most other mythologies, the arcane tinkering done by the "founder" of their race actually stabilizing them into one non-shapeshifting species that, despite their varried looks, CAN inter-breed with one another. The child will, 99% of the time, result in being the breed of the mother with, at most, marking similarities from the father. Jackals are the smallest at average humanish height, wolves are somewhat larger/taller then humans, and tigers are taller still then the wolves. There are a very few other breeds, but they will more then likely not be showing up in this mod, only the three core species.

And before you ask, no they can not inter-breed with non Hi'kon species, so there will not be a half Hi'Kon half Elf race at any point in the future unless DIRECT arcane intervention is involved in their creation. And it ain't gonna be by me. :p
 
Hey, two questions. How many people enjoy using the improved alignment system where more then JUST religion affects it...

And two would it be possible to create a spell series to add or replace a series of two promotions that either increase or decrease your alignment, depending on which one is on the unit?
 
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