Terron civilization [Brainstorming]

I want to spend some of my lifetime and try to create a semi-unique civilization of "modern" people who appeared on Erebus. The theme is inspired by re-reading some of my Lovecraftian books and by playing Arkham Horror game.

The idea behind this will be in second post, don't bother to reply until I post my ideas there. I may probably need some help from modmakers and ideas from community so that's why I create this topic.

Backstory.
It was a warm night. It have been raining for twelve days already in the city of Dunwich. The rain pattered the roof of an old warehouse in city outskirts.
"This is my city, dirty scum! You leave now or pay with your blood!" - a tall man surrounded by his fighters shouted.
"There's no need to spill blood, Don Vinchenzo. We can share areas of influence and live in peace" - answered an aged woman with golden monocle.
"Don't make a fool of me. It was my business for twenty years, and now some newcommers try to "share" with me? This is my last warning, live this city or you will become a bullet-crammed bag of meat!"
Two group of men raised their weapons, pointing at each other.
Suddenly the light went off.
"What was that?"
A scream of a man.
"Aah, I see it!"
A scream of another man, full of terror.
The guns started to pop, covering the floor with cases and blood. The bloodfest began.
...
"Where am I?.. Am I dead?.. Is it hell?.. I am sure I saw a devil himself" - Don Vinchenzo stood up and looked around. It was a morning. A lush grassland was before him, and a dark forest in the distance. He looked around. There were other people rising from the ground, some of them wounded, some unhurt. There was a single feature which united them: a look of horror and incomprehension on their faces.

Concept.
Two teams of gangsters were dragged between worlds by a strange planar creature which lived near the Dunwich city. There was a breach in the compact of Erebus, some anomaly caused by abnormal events, and the people were dropped in this creation instead of being devoured. This concept makes an allowance that there're other creations, not only Erebus, but normally they cannot contact and the link between them is different from the link between "planes" in Erebus.

People who stayed alive are mostly gang warriors so they don't know a way how to make a smithy or to create a medicine, so they start to develop technologies anew.

The idea behind this that we have a "normal" society, however the divine and arcane branches are different from other races of erebus.

The way they were brought here is unnatural and it created a thin corridor between creations which can bring those dimensional "monsters" to Erebus.

Divine line replaces current gods' worship totally. They can adopt any religion but the consequences are different. Each "normal" religion has an "elder being" tied to it. The dimensional monsters cannot normally "enter" the creation, but they can "cling" to a power which is produced by worship. So cultists will be able to drag "appropriate" powers from their masters, so while adopting "Fellowship of Leaves" cultists will be able to use a power of a parazitic "elder being" which uses plant-like minions to harm and infest their foes and to protect your lands, while adopting Octopus Overlords will give you a Cthulhu-like Elder Being's patronage which comes along the line.

I want to revamp the arcane line to make it permanent-summon based. The mages and archmages should be replaced by "mystic" unit which is able to summon elder one's minions (religion based, or some less powerful minions if you have no religions) which can increase a "terror counter".
Your mystics should be able to open a gate which randomly summons weaker monsters. These monsters may "chew on" your cities, causing unhappiness but increasing a special "terror counter". When it's high enough, you will get more powerful monsters which may frighten AI's cities. Also there's a chance for abominations to go on a bloody rampage after they haunt a city (turn barbarian) so you'll need to control this process.

I have a basic idea on unit line which I will post later.

Leaders.
Don Vinchenzo



Aggressive
Adaptive
Financial

Units.

Courier - (Scout)
May conduct a trade mission (minor gold).

Mob - (Warrior)
A mob of angry, almost crazed people lusting for blood. They literally tear their rivals apart.
Starts with Cannibalize promotion
Has a chance to recieve "enraged" upon defeating an enemy.

Gang - (Axeman)
Concept not thinked through yet, however the idea is that if you train this unit directly it has it's own stats, and if you upgrade it from the Mob it recieves Cannibalize promotion and ability to become enraged

this is funny. "terrone" means "redneck" where I live

Reserved for something. Also there're some problems like what to do with good religions... I want this civilization to stay neutral or turn evil, not become good, and I cannot think of a way to tie a good religion to a people-eating dimensional abomination... I will think on it, I am sure the solution is simple .

[to_xp]Gekko;7928586 said:

this is funny. "terrone" means "redneck" where I live

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Which language is it? I just meant to rename "terran" to something not that obvious .

Italian ( 10 chars )

Deon said:

Gang - (Axeman)
Concept not thinked through yet, however the idea is that if you train this unit directly it has it's own stats, and if you upgrade it from the Mob it recieves Cannibalize promotion and ability to become enraged

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If you attach the "become enraged after combat" python code to a promotion that the mob gets, instead of the unit, this will work.

It seemed to be about mafia men in erebus, and then descended into mystics and summons and I just went "wat"

What do dimensional monsters have to do with italian mafia?

This is very confusing.

If the inspiration was arkham horror (which is a really nice game), thats not a really big leap of thoughts.
The whole setting of the game is rather dark, because... you know, cthulu and stuff. Ritual Sacrifices. Insanity.
Most of the characters in the game are rather shady guys, and if im not wrong there are at least two characters which are clearly associated with the mafia.
And they all deal with the arcane in some form.

Deon said:

Reserved for something. Also there're some problems like what to do with good religions... I want this civilization to stay neutral or turn evil, not become good, and I cannot think of a way to tie a good religion to a people-eating dimensional abomination... I will think on it, I am sure the solution is simple .

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I'm not sure how to prevent an actual alignment change (that's a coding issue), but the religions themselves are simple: Since your concept is that they simple use the basic energy of prayer to channel elder beings, create beings that use the basic tenets of the good religions for more sinister purposes. Order, for example, could channel a being of such overwhelming perfection that it overwhelms and controls the minds of mortal beings. Empyrean, with the emphasis on free knowledge, could give the Terrons access to strange alien technology. For Runes, just go with a subterranean creature that has lots of offspring.

I think the idea of a special "terror counter" may be far more work than it's worth, and would suggest you simplify those mechanics. If you can make it work, though, more power to you.

Don Vinchenzo is perfect, both in picture and in traits. Something about him just makes the whole idea for the civ feel more natural. He's the best use of the Adaptive trait I've ever seen, because it makes perfect sense for him to start Financial but be willing to change later.

I like the concepts for the Mob and the Gang, and would further suggest that you change the later Melee line as well. Better ideas for names will probably be forthcoming from others, but just off the top of my head: Champion to Enforcers, Berserkers to Bouncers, Phalanx to Cleaners, and Immortals to Bodyguards.

Your ideas for the arcane and divine line changes are well suited to the civ. I like them. One word of warning though, which I picked up from playing the Mechanos in earlier versions of the Orbis mod - make sure you give them access to an alternative form of terrain alteration (Spring, Scorch, Vitalize, etc.). I'd suggest you look up the Mechanos if you're not familiar with them, as they're a pretty good example of a way to balance a civ without the standard arcane and divine units.

Out of curiosity, do you already have fairly detailed concepts for what the religions and religious units will be like, or should I start sharing some ideas?

Don Vinchenzo is Vito Corleone

For Runes, just go with a subterranean creature that has lots of offspring.

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I was thinking of a creature like Eihort. The main idea is the same: underground broodlings and total contamination, however I want to come up with a bit more scarier concept than "a ball with tentacles" .

It seemed to be about mafia men in erebus, and then descended into mystics and summons and I just went "wat"

What do dimensional monsters have to do with italian mafia?

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http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite_sec.asp?eidm=6&esem=1
It's a game I play at least once a week and we already use a huge set of custom rules. Also I am a long-term Lovecraft-lover (no pun intended), so the whole thing is about terror, monster from another dimension and surviving people. I could use "usual" people in the role of the victims, but you know, they lack charisma. Nothing is as charismatic as a good ol' godfather. Also I wanted to take a challenge and to try to port the feeling of "mafia" and "dark rainy cities of 30's" without guns but, you know, with swords and crossbows... I am sure this is possible with some clever naming, skinning and applying of some special game rules.

Don Vinchenzo is Vito Corleone

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This is right, the image is from a man I know which painted this as a concept for a "godfather" and his main character idea came from Vito Corleone .

If the inspiration was arkham horror (which is a really nice game), thats not a really big leap of thoughts.
The whole setting of the game is rather dark, because... you know, cthulu and stuff. Ritual Sacrifices. Insanity.
Most of the characters in the game are rather shady guys, and if im not wrong there are at least two characters which are clearly associated with the mafia.
And they all deal with the arcane in some form.

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There're a few reasons I choose mafia as a civilization prototype. The main one is because I like the theme and I think it's possible to adopt to fit the dark fantasy with some proper implementation of the background/features. Another one is because I wanted the leader to be somewhat unique and charismatic (charismatic trait would fit but I think 4 traits is too much balance-wise, and they should have adaptive due to the fact that they should get used to the new environment to survive).
Ritual Sacrifices. Insanity. - divine tech line. If you go this way, you get priests of the Elder Beings of some sort which allow you to use "godly" powers directly through some macabre rituals.

And they all deal with the arcane in some form. - arcane tech line. "Mystics" which take the place of mages have a limited ability to open/seal portals which can bring some minions of the gods. However these minions are hardly controllable and require terror or blood food so you'll have to make some vile things with them with your/rival cities in order to control them or they go barbarian. Also mystics serve the role of mages but more universal than combat oriented.

Mostly I wanted to go and make a "not your standard demon" concept of dimensional monsters; some weird abominations which are weird even for demons of Erebus.

thats not a really big leap of thoughts.

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What does it mean? Do you mean the idea is unoriginal or I haven't done a lot yet?
If the latter, I've made this thread to get more ideas as I start to develop the civilization. For a possibility that some better ones may replace my current ones. My current "job" is to think the concepts through before I start to implement things (which is not too hard, I just have to learn how to implement and show a "terror counter" and not to bug the game; I know some basic python and there're examples so it's possible) and also I try to find some appropriate models and I've started to skin basic ones (since I am ok at modelling without animations yet; at the beginning I will make a reskins if I get no needed model; maybe later I'll get to animation part ).

Out of curiosity, do you already have fairly detailed concepts for what the religions and religious units will be like, or should I start sharing some ideas?

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Well, I've got some models/reskins/ideas for OO, FoL and RoK. OO is quite intuitive, ocean monsters are quite popular these days; FoL goes with terrain contamination and forest crawling vines and RoK with undergrown broodlings. You're free to share any ideas and I'd like it because there may be really cool ones I'll use . This is the main point of this thread. I am not sure what to use for "good"-oriented religions yet; I think some kind of egyptian god-style elder for Empyrean and for order some Elder Being which pretends to be "rightful" and "strait" but in fact is just an ambitions mind-controller. And with Esus, I think something close to the King in Yellow would go.
So

Order, for example, could channel a being of such overwhelming perfection that it overwhelms and controls the minds of mortal beings. Empyrean, with the emphasis on free knowledge, could give the Terrons access to strange alien technology.

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is quite close to my interpretation . Egyptians were considered "aliens" by some strange people because of their unique culture.

I'd suggest you look up the Mechanos if you're not familiar with them, as they're a pretty good example of a way to balance a civ without the standard arcane and divine units.

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Yes, I am familiar with Mechanos and I like them. Even tried to mod some chemical weapons for them .

Deon said:

This is right, the image is from a man I know which painted this as a concept for a "godfather" and his main character idea came from Vito Corleone .

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No, not painted, the word you're looking for is Traced.
Seriously, it's a complete clone of Marlon Brando.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, But don't try to pass it off as something it isn't. It's Vito Corleone in Erebus

thats not a really big leap of thoughts.

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This was in response to what someone else said, and had nothing to do with you whatsoever. It was in response to the person questioning the leap of logic.

Rather than an Egyption 'god', you could go with the All-Seeing eye mounted on a pyramid....

A hidden mason here?

This was in response to what someone else said

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Oh I thought you were referring to me .

No, not painted, the word you're looking for is Traced.

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This is just a paintbrush in photoshop, not even drawn over the image, just from image.

It's Vito Corleone in Erebus

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And great image for a leaderhead .

Yeah, that was as an answer to WarKirby.
I find the Idea about a Cthulu/Mafia Civ rather nice and I'm interested to what it leads.

I think you should somehow tie the concept of insanity through use of spells to the mage class, since it is such an integral part of arkham horror. Every summoned extra dimensional being chips away one little part of your mind.
I have no idea how to do it, but it sure would be nice.

Also: The Hero has to have a Tommygun. Propably should be the last one which could be salvaged from the ones that got transported with them to Erebus. I don't know how hard it would be to make ammo for that, but if they found some dwarfs and showed them some of their ammo, i'm sure they could make some.

Also: The Hero has to have a Tommygun. Propably should be the last one which could be salvaged from the ones that got transported with them to Erebus. I don't know how hard it would be to make ammo for that, but if they found some dwarfs and showed them some of their ammo, i'm sure they could make some.

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This is a concept I feel very doubtful about... I'd like to make it, but at the same time I want to break with "earth" stereotypes and meta-fantasy elements. So I was going to make a unit which replaces arquebus and had rifles instead, but before that I think I am not going to rape the "lore" THAT much. A hero at Blasting Powder may be cool, since, you know, you need not a tommy gun only, you also need a huge supply of AMMO for it to crash armies so some saltpeter is needed .

P.S. http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=12036
Uploaded: mar 28 . Now I want to ask him to make some parts for standard "warriors" and maybe I'll make appropriate clubs .

P.P.S. I was thinking of using the units like these like early melee/ranged fighters (by Refar) with more fantasy elements as tech develops: