Why don't the Kuriotates get much lore love?

[sunbeam]

What it says I guess.

These guys are my favorite civ to play (mainly because the micromanagement is minimized, and they tech up pretty well).

But they sure don't seem to have inspired a lot of interest by people contributing lore and stories.

Is there something inherently boring about them? Personally I always found the Bannor not to be too interesting, nor ever understood all the interest in the Lanun.

 

[BobCW]

I'd venture a few reasons:


* You don't get to play as them in any of the official scenarios, but you do get to beat the stuffing out of them a couple times. Thus they come across in the established lore as two-dimensional, and something akin to Erebus's whipping boy.


* Similar to the above point, the AI is generally awful as them, which makes it difficult for players to organically create an interesting narrative for them as regular single player games unfold.


* They at least superficially have more in common with children's fantasy (think C.S. Lewis) then the more "mature" dark fantasy the majority of other civs follow. Therefore they don't fit particularly well into the already established lore.


* The Kurios have very little thematic coherence between their units, unique buildings and specialized mechanics. A quick glance at a mid-game Calabim empire will tell you almost everything you need to know about the values and culture of their civ- farms everywhere, huge & unhealthy cities, vampires backed by slave legions. Same with the Hippus and their mounted armies. The Kurios by comparison have a bizarre, incoherent mix of Centaurs, bipedal vermin, what look to be late-Medieval period French infantry, flying boats, cities that are only either huge or tiny... you have to go out of your way to find meaning in any of it.

 

[sunbeam]

* The Kurios have very little thematic coherence between their units, unique buildings and specialized mechanics. A quick glance at a mid-game Calabim empire will tell you almost everything you need to know about the values and culture of their civ- farms everywhere, huge & unhealthy cities, vampires backed by slave legions. Same with the Hippus and their mounted armies. The Kurios by comparison have a bizarre, incoherent mix of Centaurs, bipedal vermin, what look to be late-Medieval period French infantry, flying boats, cities that are only either huge or tiny... you have to go out of your way to find meaning in any of it.

I think that makes a lot of sense. I've been looking at stories and links in this forum, and I don't think I have seen a single reference in anything to either a ratman (they are actually "Mustevals?"), nor a lamia.

You are right about the incoherence. When I play them them I almost always wind up playing them with a heavy centaur emphasis. Centaur Archers and Lancers. I almost never build any other kind of unit other than siege weapons, a few priests, and adepts/mages.

Never figured out why they were supposed to have flying boats, at least lorewise. I guess it makes sense gamewise if you are somehow landlocked. At least you can use them in some situations to park on mountains to do different things reasonably safely.

And to be blunt, if you were a human in that empire, why would you stay if you were at all ambitious? You couldn't be a mage or anything. You'd be stuck in the little box Cardith Lorda wanted you in.

Lot more fun I guess to be Grigori.

 

[Diavolo Rosso]

Yeah it looks like the Kurios are lacking in the lore department, but the stuff we do have is pretty telling. A boy-king with the intellect of a dragon genius playing the ultimate machiavellian prince in a caste system where each caste is an entirely different species. I think the story here would focus on the internal politics in keeping such an empire not only functioning and staving off constant threat of civil war and rebellion, but in masterful political maneuvers which make such an empire thrive. If it were a novel or tv show I think it would draw on classic romance literature like the Three Musketeers and the sweeping nation building of Aasimov's Foundation trilogy, plus all the serious historical dramas you see these days on hbo and showtime. This is the setting of my campaign called Glorious Bastards, which I've just started to document on my youtube channel (check the bottom of my blog).

 

[talonschild]

There's also the fact that the Kuriotates are a new empire (befitting their patron Amathaon), which means that they have nothing in the way of pre-Rebirth history.

FWIW, I never understood the species castes to be inflexible cells so much as depressions where centaurs, lamiae, etc., tend to pool.

Maybe that's because they have several disparate elements but no predefined overarching lore structure. Very Creation, again.

 

[Randomness]

There's also the fact that the Kuriotates are a new empire (befitting their patron Amathaon), which means that they have nothing in the way of pre-Rebirth history.

FWIW, I never understood the species castes to be inflexible cells so much as depressions where centaurs, lamiae, etc., tend to pool.

Maybe that's because they have several disparate elements but no predefined overarching lore structure. Very Creation, again.

I think strict castes make a great deal of sense in the Kuriotate empire. It seems to me that Cardith Lorda is the embodiment of the Enlightend Monarch/Dictator. Basically, he is benevolent and truely tries to do what is best for his people, but he knows what the people need more than they do. So, while the Kuriotate people may enjoy a much higher quality of life than in other nations, they aren't any more free.

 

[TC01]

There's also a lack of lore about Amathaon himself. He doesn't have a significant religion as discussed here by MC, just kind of randomly patronizes craftsmen, artists, and inventors.

There's a bit in the bestiary about some of his creatures.

(Perhaps this calls for some stories and/or pedia entries to be written).

I will say that this thread made me metaphorically dust off a copy of FFH2 and start a Kuriotates game.

 

[The Crying Man]

perhaps the nation stays together because of the lack of interclan communication, whom they all seem to hate each other, and the clans speak only directly to the king. perhaps the clans/races are really snubbing the others and keeping them outside of their set of vocations out of superiority. an empire with all of this going on would have efficiency problems when faced with threats that would have to be dealt with quickly from all of the work the king has to do, not to mention his downtime with chess.

edit: plus, the king would not only have to deal with nobility not conversing with one another, but also clan feuds and grabs for power. ( where does this boy get time to play chess)