Ashes of Erebus Civilopedia Update Project

[Calavente]

Sorry for the long break. I've finished second year now, so I've a bit more free time available to get back to this lot.


That's actually bloody useful there. Thanks.

I've just done entries for all the technologies that don't have them. They're a little bit of a mishmash, but they should be good to go in:

Alchemy
The true power of alchemy is in the fact that, once a fireball has been bottled into a suitable receptacle, anybody can use it. It’s that democratisation of magic, I believe, which is why so few nations support the study of the field.
Felix Askanier, Scholar

Bronze Working
What’s so often forgotten about bronze is that, when cast properly, armour made from it is stronger than armour made from iron. But finding both copper and tin in the same vicinity happens far less frequently than people would prefer, and the difference when it comes to weapons is splitting hairs at best.
Felix Askanier, Scholar

Steam Power
The greatest invention of the Mechanos is not the musket. It’s the realisation that with enough hot air you can achieve anything.
Felix Askanier, Scholar

sorry to criticize things I had no participation in but I'd like to make a few comments:
- in FFH, alchemy doesn't really enable to launch fireballs.. so I'm not sure it's suitable : however a slight change may correct it :
Alchemy
The true power of alchemy is in the fact that, once a fireball has been bottled in a suitable way, even Mud Golem can use it. It’s that democratisation of magic, I believe, which is why so few nations support the study of the field.
Felix Askanier, Scholar
(indeed, IIRC, the workshop giving fireballs to golems was at alchemy. If I'm wrong for RifE, the quote might need to be changed again)

- Bronze working: it is strange that the quote about bronze working makes reference to IRON which is only usable 2 tech laters (and not yet discovered).
- Steam Power : Muskets are already available to most at the gunpowder technology IIRC ; it seems strange to link it to mechanos. Maybe instead of muskets it could be "unrefined mana" ??? (or however it is called) : something like :

Steam Power
The greatest invention of the Mechanos is not using unrefined mana. It’s the realisation that with enough hot air you can achieve anything even without mana.
Felix Askanier, Scholar

Thanks for reading without taking offense

 

[TheIO]

sorry to criticize things I had no participation in but I'd like to make a few comments:
- in FFH, alchemy doesn't really enable to launch fireballs.. so I'm not sure it's suitable : however a slight change may correct it :
Alchemy
The true power of alchemy is in the fact that, once a fireball has been bottled in a suitable way, even Mud Golem can use it. It’s that democratisation of magic, I believe, which is why so few nations support the study of the field.
Felix Askanier, Scholar
(indeed, IIRC, the workshop giving fireballs to golems was at alchemy. If I'm wrong for RifE, the quote might need to be changed again)

- Bronze working: it is strange that the quote about bronze working makes reference to IRON which is only usable 2 tech laters (and not yet discovered).
- Steam Power : Muskets are already available to most at the gunpowder technology IIRC ; it seems strange to link it to mechanos. Maybe instead of muskets it could be "unrefined mana" ??? (or however it is called) : something like :

Steam Power
The greatest invention of the Mechanos is not using unrefined mana. It’s the realisation that with enough hot air you can achieve anything even without mana.
Felix Askanier, Scholar

Thanks for reading without taking offense

Nah, that's entirely reasonable - I was cribbing from stuff that wasn't quite FFH, so naturally there'd have been some slight discrepancies. I'll put the edited versions up in a bit.

 

[TheIO]

List updated. And I know that crossbows are unlocked at Machinery rather than Engineering, but I wasn't about to waste a good pun. And as for Steam Power - I just wanted to keep the pun.

Alchemy
The true power of alchemy is in the fact that, once a fireball has been produced and bottled, even a mud golem can use it. It’s that democratisation of magic, I believe, which is why so few nations support the study of the field.
Felix Askanier, Scholar

Bronze Working
Copper and tin are rarely found together, but the clear superiority of bronze weapons over rocks meant that the difficulty of transportation was justified.
Felix Askanier, Scholar

Engineering
The crossbow is one of the marvels of the Age of Rebirth, being able to stop a charging knight at a hundred paces. The name “crossbow”, of course, derives from how said knights felt about the weapon.
Felix Askanier, Scholar

Fishing
There is a great advantage for the common man by fishing instead of hunting – a king might fence off a forest, but no king has yet found a way to fence off the sea.
Felix Askanier, Scholar

Steam Power
The greatest invention of the Mechanos is not the refining of mana. It’s the realisation that with enough hot air you don’t need mana at all.
Felix Askanier, Scholar

The Gift
Any in-depth study of the Scions of Patria must naturally begin with the caveat that all of them are dead. Any study done by any living person must also end with said caveat. They don’t like researchers over there.
Felix Askanier, Scholar.

Trade
Patria of old had the benefits of both well-maintained methods of communication and a single market without internal barriers. The latter have been replaced with external barriers between the nations. The former were only recently re-established.
Felix Askanier, Scholar

White Hand
The Age of Ice was when Erebus had 400 years of winter. It’s a damning indictment of the Age of Rebirth that there’s people who have it bad enough to think that things were better back then.
Felix Askanier, Scholar

 

[black_imperator]

Welcome back !

I added most of those to next commit but i'm not fond of the The Gift and Trade ones. The Gift because it doesn't really represent the scions. They are very happy to invite other people in and show them how their undeath is better than living. The Trade one just sounds off to me somehow.

 

[zmflavius]

Hi, I just found this thread, and I have to say the idea of updating/completing the civilopedia sounds really awesome to me! I'm right now playing AoE 14.11 (this is the latest AoE version right?), is there a way I can update my copy of AoE's civilopedia to the latest version/contribute in any way to this project?

 

[black_imperator]

Hi, I just found this thread, and I have to say the idea of updating/completing the civilopedia sounds really awesome to me! I'm right now playing AoE 14.11 (this is the latest AoE version right?), is there a way I can update my copy of AoE's civilopedia to the latest version/contribute in any way to this project?

14.11 is the latest version with an installer. Progress is still going on on the svn beta version. As for contributing to the project, the first post has a list of missing entries that's mostly valid for the latest version too. Any help in filling out those entries is very appreciated

 

[TheIO]

Welcome back !

I added most of those to next commit but i'm not fond of the The Gift and Trade ones. The Gift because it doesn't really represent the scions. They are very happy to invite other people in and show them how their undeath is better than living. The Trade one just sounds off to me somehow.

That's understandable. I'll work out some better entries for them.

Hi, I just found this thread, and I have to say the idea of updating/completing the civilopedia sounds really awesome to me! I'm right now playing AoE 14.11 (this is the latest AoE version right?), is there a way I can update my copy of AoE's civilopedia to the latest version/contribute in any way to this project?

14.11 is the latest version with an installer. Progress is still going on on the svn beta version. As for contributing to the project, the first post has a list of missing entries that's mostly valid for the latest version too. Any help in filling out those entries is very appreciated

Of course, that ain't the complete list. Basically, if you see any blank Civilopedia entries, come up with something - anything - shove it in here and then the devs can proofread them, decide what needs changing, put them in once they're happy with them.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

In case anyone was wondering right at the time of my last post in this thread I suffered what can only be described as massive creative burnout.
Don't know why I am posting this only now but like I am.

Also if we are going to be making long entries for techs might I suggest that bronze working having a reference to iron is completely fine. Remember, these are civilizations rediscovering what is lost and not really coming out of a proper stone age. They know all about iron and steel, they just can't work it yet.

 

[black_imperator]

Was going through the lore forum when i stumbled upon this little letter that would be great as pedia for the cow resource :

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/grand-unified-story-thread.350954/page-3#post-12493783

Any opinion?

 

[PPQ_Purple]

Personally I love it.

 

[TheIO]

Was going through the lore forum when i stumbled upon this little letter that would be great as pedia for the cow resource :

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/grand-unified-story-thread.350954/page-3#post-12493783

Any opinion?

I'm not an authority on this sort of thing but I approve.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

Here is my proposal for history text for the Mechanos artillery units:

Spoiler Organ Gun :

Our enemies outnumber us greatly. Their armies are well equipped and trained. Their commanders are veterans of many wars. And above all they are willing, to the last man, to die for their faith. All this does not matter however because we have the organ gun and they don't.

- Techpriest Maxim addressing the faithful

History:
Contrary to popular belief the "secret" of gunpowder was not unknown to most races in the age of rebirth. They simply saw no real use in it. As anyone who has seen a carnival can attest it takes little skill to construct simple fireworks or rudimentary explosives. But actually making a functional firearm is another thing entirely.

Constructing a barrel for either cannon or muskets that would be both strong enough to withstand the pressures of firing and yet light enough to pulled by merely several elephants requires great metallurgical skill. And there was very little room to preserve these during the Age of Ice. And this is where most sensible civilizations stopped and turned to the magic fireball.

The Mechanos however did not have this luxury and the solution they came up with is elegant in its simplicity. Make a bunch of muskets, as thick and heavy as they need be and mount them on top of a cart. The end result is a weapon with the firepower of a musket line and the battlefield mobility of a catapult. And whilst the later is admittedly not fantastic that offers little consolation to those unfortunate enough to be caught in front of it.

Spoiler Howitzer :

The humble fireball, elegant in its simplicity is a spell that like no other has caught the imagination of poets and generals alike. Ballads have been written in its favor, and tracts upon tracts about its use. And yet its greatest praise comes from none other than its staunchest detractors. I am of course talking about the Mechanos.

Deprived willingly of all magic the Mechanos have invested an almost unreasonable amount of effort into finding its replacement. And look at what they came up with. First the organ gun, blasting apart formations with its wall of lead. Next the grenades giving ordinary men the power to cast explosions. Than flamethrowers, a weapon whose name barely hints at the horrors of its use. And now even the howitzer.

If these don't make you appreciate the fireball nothing will.

 

[Calavente]

I'm in favor of all 3 : Organ Gun, Howitzer and cowing.

 

[zmflavius]

Dunno if this has been seen already, but on FFH reddit, Kael has mentioned that he renamed Council of Esus "the Aphotic Throne" and wrote a nice bit of lore.

https://www.reddit.com/r/fallfromheaven/comments/5r35z2/erebus_religions_structure/dd4d9mu/

 

[black_imperator]

yeah i plan to add that once i tweak the religion a bit ^^

 

[Nate Cummings]

I dunno if this is the place for this, but I have a background in copy-editing and I'd like to help out with the pedia update. I've always been a fan of this universe, and I think I have something decent to offer. I also have an exorbitant amount of time on my hands, so that may be helpful as well. I'd like to know the best and most expeditious way I can contribute. Thanks!

 

[TheIO]

I dunno if this is the place for this, but I have a background in copy-editing and I'd like to help out with the pedia update. I've always been a fan of this universe, and I think I have something decent to offer. I also have an exorbitant amount of time on my hands, so that may be helpful as well. I'd like to know the best and most expeditious way I can contribute. Thanks!

Not a dev, but I set up the thread, so yes please.

As for where to start - Trade's the only tech missing a description, so I'd do that first (as in, give it a suitable quote), then likely the civ leaders need a bit of love.

 

[black_imperator]

I dunno if this is the place for this, but I have a background in copy-editing and I'd like to help out with the pedia update. I've always been a fan of this universe, and I think I have something decent to offer. I also have an exorbitant amount of time on my hands, so that may be helpful as well. I'd like to know the best and most expeditious way I can contribute. Thanks!

Welcome, any help with the pedia is welcome. @TheIanOakley gave you a couple of examples, but basically any missing pedia entry is somewhere you can start with if you're inspired by it.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

Doesn't trade have a text in vanilla FFH that we can use?

 

[TheIO]

Have put together a pedia entry for Raitlor using prompts from here as well as cribbing heavily from the Gettysburg Address. Likely needs touching up, but it's something.

"Once you had been the greatest of scholars and priests, tributes were paid to you by all nations. You think those days are past, you dream of the return of your lord and I tell you, he will not come. I am your lord now, forget what you have lost, and think only on what can be gained; follow me and I will return your glory. This world will be yours again."

"Many years ago, Auric said those very same words to us, and brought forth in Erebus, a new nation, and dedicated to the proposition that we were the chosen ones, accorded the glory of ascending alongside our God.

"Now we were engaged in a great struggle, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and dedicated, could long endure. We are met on the final battlefield of that war, in this fair city that has seen much bloodshed. We have come to begin anew ourselves, and dedicate this Winter Assembly in memory of all those who fell in service of our people, our cause, our God.

"But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate-we can not consecrate-we can not hallow-this ground. I may be, by your choosing, Aurikvyarn (High Priestess of Auric), but it was not I who did; for Auric himself, He who Ascended, He alone consecrates this place, far above our own power. He has not abandoned us; He has always been here, watching over us. And it is for us, by His grace, to be dedicated to the great task before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which our fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under our God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that our people, our realm, our faith, under Auric, shall not perish from this world."

Raitlor's Address To The Winter Assembly