"Shadow" schedule

[Lloyien]

Originally Posted by Hoedus

I liked the idea of The Council of Esus a lot, but Esus is too close to Jesus in my opinion. Maybe you can reconsider to change it.

I'd much rather he didn't, honestly. Having played the mod since Light, it'd be rather odd for the Council of Esus to just change at the last moment. I'm sure most people feel likewise.

And out of curiosity, why the past tense? What caused you to dislike it?

[Silmeran]

Council of Esus will be added in Shadow, right? So how it refers to the Light? Maybe I'm missing something.

Originally Posted by Lloyien

And out of curiosity, why the past tense?

because my english if awful . I still like it.

Originally Posted by Kael

"Shadow" is the last real phase FfH2 ("Ice" is just scenarios and tweaking, no major features). The team and I are really eager to get these last features in and working. At that point the playtesting and troubleshooting becomes even more important because it reflects the final game. We are almost there.

Strange thing, but this makes me sad. It was so great to see how this mod grows up and to read changenotes with eager to find out how many new cool features was added. I hope Kael and the team won't quit modding after the FfH2 release.

[Lloyien]

The Council of Esus was originally a wonder that could be built after researching Deception.

[TravellingHat]

@Hoedus: I think you're getting this mixed up. The Council of Esus is an evil religion based on deception, and the origin (I believe) of the Undercouncil, an international conspiracy (kind of like an anti-UN). The Council of Esus replaces the existing wonder (currently under the Deception tech), I believe you're thinking of the Overcouncil, which is an international council (like the UN), that originates with the Empyrean religion (I think), which is good.

So...
Council of Esus and Undercouncil evil (or at least, not good)
Empyrean and Overcouncil good (or at least not evil)

Both are being introduced in Shadow.

[Calavente]

no, he is speaking phonetically...

and strangely, I never ever made any such connection before...
...

[Bob Morane]

Originally Posted by Hoedus

I liked the idea of The Council of Esus a lot, but Esus is too close to Jesus in my opinion. Maybe you can reconsider to change it.

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

Esus or Hesus ("lord" or "master") was a Gaulish god known from two monumental statues and a line in Lucan's Bellum civile.

A well-known section in Lucan's Bellum civile talks about the gory sacrificial offerings proffered to a triad of Celtic deities: Teutates, Hesus (sic), and Taranis. Among a pair of later commentators on Lucan's work, one identifies Teutates with Mercury and Esus with Mars. According to the Berne Commentary on Lucan, human victims were sacrificed to Esus by being tied to a tree and flailed.[1] These Commentaries come from the 9th Century AD, though, and their source is in doubt.

The given name Esunertus (‘strength of Esus’) occurs at least once as an epithet of Mercury on a dedicatory inscription.[2]

It is possible that the Esuvii of Gaul, in the area of present-day Normandy, took their name from this deity.[3]

The 18th-century Druidic revivalist Iolo Morgannwg identified Esus with Jesus on the strength of the similarity of their names. He also linked them both with Hu Gadarn, writing:

"Both Hu and HUON were no doubt originally identical with the HEUS of Lactantius, and the HESUS of Lucan, described as gods of the Gauls. The similarity of the last name to IESU [Welsh: Jesus] is obvious and striking."[4]

This identification is still made in certain Neo-Druidic circles. Modern scholars consider the resemblance between the names Esus and Jesus to be coincidental.

You are not the first to notice the phonetic similarities, but as you can understand by the article above, this is most probably a pure coincidence, as Esus would be, by our point of view, an evil god worshiped through human sacrifices.

[Silmeran]

Bob Morane
thanks for the info!

[Kael]

The name Esus is taken from celtic mythology (as are most of the god names in FfH) and wasn't selected for its similarity to Jesus. In fact I didn't even notice the connection until someone in the "signs you play to much FfH" thread joked about it.

There is plenty of examples of blasphemy in FfH, this isn't one of them.

[Wintermist]

"2. Vicar’s, priests who act as the eyes and ears of their superiors. Vicar’s have access to the Whitefire spell which does extra damage to vampires."

Is there some sort of equivalent for those races that have vampires as their speciality? Wouldn't be much point being able to fight their own units better.

Couldn't there be perhaps a Good, Neutral and Evil Vicar perhaps, depending on what you are yourself?

Or have I misunderstood a lot and perhaps vampires can not research Honor at all?

[Grey Fox]

Originally Posted by Wintermist

"2. Vicar’s, priests who act as the eyes and ears of their superiors. Vicar’s have access to the Whitefire spell which does extra damage to vampires."

Is there some sort of equivalent for those races that have vampires as their speciality? Wouldn't be much point being able to fight their own units better.

Its just Extra damage against vampires (+20% I think if I remember the screenshots correctly), it still does damage to everything else.

[BeefontheBone]

"2. Vicar’s, priests who act as the eyes and ears of their superiors. Vicar’s have access to the Whitefire spell which does extra damage to vampires."

FWIW, those apostrophes shouldn't be there.

*doesn't even wait for the release, let alone a cosmetic issues thread *

[Kael]

Originally Posted by BeefontheBone

FWIW, those apostrophes shouldn't be there.

*doesn't even wait for the release, let alone a cosmetic issues thread *

Fixed (and I added more specifics on what information will be released in the next 12 days).

[Grillick]

The Day of Outrage...

Is that where we all get pissed off that our selection didn't win the desing contest?

[MagisterCultuum]

Originally Posted by Wintermist

"2. Vicar’s, priests who act as the eyes and ears of their superiors. Vicar’s have access to the Whitefire spell which does extra damage to vampires."

Is there some sort of equivalent for those races that have vampires as their speciality? Wouldn't be much point being able to fight their own units better.

Couldn't there be perhaps a Good, Neutral and Evil Vicar perhaps, depending on what you are yourself?

Or have I misunderstood a lot and perhaps vampires can not research Honor at all?

Vicars are the Priests of the Empyrean, followers of the good god Lugus. (In the game, it is unlikely that you ca be evil while following him, possibly not neutral either.) Honestly, I don't thing the vampires should be worshiping the Sun god who cursed them, thus they shouldn't have Vicars. When I suggested a while back that The Empyrean behave like a harmful cult (like the cult of the Dragon, but worse) in Calabim lands, and that the Calabim never be able to adopt it, Kael responded with a "", which he latter changed to "I think you're going to like Shadow." This may imply that the Empyrean and Calabim don't mix.

[Sureshot]

no spotlight on changes to balseraphs or malakim?

i only ask in hopes that they get a spotlight day so we get spotlights every day sooner heh (could do one on the 8th and one on the 9th lol)

[Kael]

Originally Posted by MagisterCultuum

Vicars are the Priests of the Empyrean, followers of the good Sun god. Honestly, I don't thing the vampires should be worshiping the Sun god, nor should they have Vicars. When I suggested a while back that The Empyrean behave like a harmful cult in Calabim lands, and that the Calabim never be able to adopt it, Kael responded with a "", which he latter changed to "I think you're going to like Shadow." This may imply that the Empyrean and Calabim don't mix.

I think there was something else in your post that matched up really well with something in Shadow. The Calabim can worship Lugus if they want. It not particuarly effective of them to spread a religion that gives bonuses against vampires (and the ai calabim leaders hate it). But if a human player wants to do it he is welcome too.

[MagisterCultuum]

Originally Posted by Hoedus

I liked the idea of The Council of Esus a lot, but Esus is too close to Jesus in my opinion. Maybe you can reconsider to change it.

I didn't notice the similarity until the the clues you're playing too much FfH thread either (and it still took be a while then). I tend to read Esus phonetically like in Latin, but Jesus in the usual english pronunciation (unless spelled Iesus), so I didn't notice the similarity. Often I also (especially early on) misread Esus as Eusus (with a Greek diphthong eu, meaning good or true, which isn't exactly appropriate for the god of deception now but might have made sense for his name before he fell), so they sound even less alike.

I don't see any reason to change because of a coincidental spelling similarly to the Latinized form of the name. Now, if an evil religion were called the Council of Yeshua or of YHWH it would warrant change. Having a civ (Elohim) bear a name of God is probably worse, but at least they are portrayed as the purest, most good civ in the game.

[xienwolf]

Any word you select will be close to some other word. And Jesus isn't even the proper spelling to begin with if you want to get technical about things, so change that back to Yahweh, or the orginal hebrew, which was something like "Iasus" if I recall correctly.

I am also going to assume you don't live in central or southern america where it is still a relatively common name for a male child.

EDIT: I have to remember to look for a new page before I reply. I"m WAY late :P

[MagisterCultuum]

No, Yeshua would be the proper transliteration of the name of Jesus (it is the same as the name Joshua, but changed to Greek, then Latin, then English, instead of straight to English). I don't think there as any Hebrew names ending in "us". Iasus, Iosus, etc, are Latinized forms of Greek forms of other Hebrew names, iirc.

Also, no one knows the vowels in YHWH, which is why I didn't say Yahweh. Hebrew at the time didn't have written vowels, and the name was never spoken for fear of taking it in vain. The name Jehovah comes from the later custom to write the name YHWH with the vowels of Adonai (not a name, but the title "Lord"), to remind the reader to say Adonai instead, least he speak the name disrespectfully.

[TheJopa]

Originally Posted by Kael

I think there was something else in your post that matched up really well with something in Shadow.

Wouldn't be much point being able to fight their own units better.

Civil Wars ?