Results 1 to 12 of 12

Thread: THE GHAUR CAMPAIGN

  1. #1
    Squeaks's Avatar More full of whinging
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Haunting the Abyss
    Posts
    5,508

    Default THE GHAUR CAMPAIGN

    Okay. I will begin to slowly trickle information about the campaign to you now. It's a way away yet, but it's worth beginning to get it in your minds, as it willnot be a 'normal' game of MedII in almost any form. I'll write an arty-farty piece first to set the scene.

    -------------

    It is fourteen years since Kadasandra was finished, it's majestic walls cresting the five isles like spear tips, silver in the twilight, golden in the morn. In the palatial halls of the Dragonthrone, Valerian rests in gloom, his Dragons gone to nest in the highest peaks of the Scald, his massive EMpire won and fortified, peace held tight, at the height of it's majesty and in the birthing of it has come the vestiges of an Ideal that no other could have borne the weight of.

    In the East, Mournweaver still holds the Law, his grip tight, merciless in an unwavering pursuit of his friend's vision; he is fair, compassionate to those that obey the law, and merciless to those that bypass or attempt to control justice for their own needs.

    Lisandra, the Golden Fawn, holds the line in the East, her five grand fortresses marking the edge of the all-important Heartlands. Hers is a merciful, talented and kind demesne, yet she punishes with regret, but a regret that does not stay her hand. To the south of the Heartlands lies Nehemia, the land of the riders of ponies, and the masters of bulls. In the very south is the massive fortress of Hedrin; Valerian's Folly, built on the ephemeracy of a dream-vision - a hulking brute of a city, one that can garrison a third of the Imperial West, yet this has been run down; Valerian's dream left to fallow.

    In the Lands of the Pawn Saints, the Principality of STeel, the forging of the northern clans and the tight feudal south rest, but the scars are there for all to see - time may yet heal it, but the scar is red raw, stitched by the invasion of the coast by CHo Tetsu, who have been sent reeling to their homelands four years into their occupation.

    The Elves still dwell in great numbers here, in the West. The hovering Pyramid cities of the Selediri make little noise as they gracefully strike shadows in the fiery gaze of a radiant sun. Thousands of their warriors train, and the sands are plentiful with bounty; oases, great clusters of crystal, works of wonder - tiny shrines, garrison towers - all is secure and well within their borders, and they remain unbested by any, including the great Emperor himself. Like silk and fire, they dance in waves of beautiful death, unfettered by mortal bonds.

    The water gradens, fountains, lakes and white walled homes of the Ildiri lie behind an obsfucatory mist, a maze that is said to read men's hearts and send those lacking back to where they entered in the first place. Mighty sorceries are at work here, and the waters are literally teeming with life; pure, like liquid silver and clear sweet dew. At the edges of grand lakes are layered gardens, orchards, fields of barley and wheat, all tended by water Avtars, whose very nature boosts the bounty and fertility of the lands they so succour. The Heron King holds Court in the Palace of Dreams, his people safe and secure, possessed of such peace and tranquility that war would offend the very heavens.

    The Khezdrul sit in their mountain Holts, brooding and obsessed, driven by the Hunger, and their main allies press for the works of war, believing they honour the stout dwellers of the Deeping Halls, the craftsmen that transcned the work of the gods themselves, with their Gnomes, the great works of a race that drives itself to death simply to sate a missing piece, some say a piece of their very soul.

    What lies beneath all of this delight? Deep in the ground are walls and halls made of pure gold; there are wonders here, yet all is dark, all is filled by hate, brooding, feral, bound in a silent scream that will turn into a roar as the flood is unleashed upon the world; a tide of terror with one purpose; to wipe all that lives from the face of the world. These are possessed of a keen intellect, and all of that is focused on the world above; eyes burn with passion and there is little hope; yet often can small things build into something - an ideal that rises to challenge all terrors. Even this may not win the day, but it is always enough to try. A simple thing indeed.

  2. #2

    Default Re: THE GHAUR CAMPAIGN

    I like what you write! =)
    What do you mean by not a normal game by the way?

  3. #3
    Squeaks's Avatar More full of whinging
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Haunting the Abyss
    Posts
    5,508

    Default Re: THE GHAUR CAMPAIGN

    Quote Originally Posted by Malanthor View Post
    I like what you write! =)
    What do you mean by not a normal game by the way?
    Thanks. By not a normal game, it's not so much of a sandbox conquest game but a living board game of stories, rpg elements and swift strategy....it has diplomatic amalgamations of multiple factions, magic, possible events that require a trigger you know about (but may choose another road), just so much that is not 'normal' to a total war game.

    There is no upgrading of city sizes, the game takes place over 5 years only, there are 'off-board' activities, trade makes an impact beyond the norm, there are LOADS of unique units to this mod (won't be in the MAIN mod), a unique faction that is not in the main mod, you can generate reinforcements say by choosing one road, whilst the other fork may lead to a completely different stroy path.

    It's not heavy in unavaoidable events, or spawning events, but rather allows you to make choices (some are significant military, some not - some will just give you a new character/general, others may cause a comet to smash through the atmosphere to destroy a target)
    .

    You will begin the game in it's main form as either the VOID TEMPLE, or as THE GHAURCHLAI. The Void Temple starts with an array of characters, each with bodyguards, and you have to counter the initial moves of the Ghaur whilst gathering allies, who you then CONTROL as emergent kingdoms in SOME cases. All the time, you are swiftly reacting to events, and you are given choices both moral and military...everything; some happy, some sad. You can gather the scions of Solace under your banner, bring the EMpire to the war controlled by you, bring the Principality of Steel to your side, or see them smash sideways into the Empire in full revolt - the stupidity of man is endless!

    The Ghaurchlai will not be discussed and no units shown now until the mod is released, so I won't mention them at all, I'm afraid!

    I'll discuss the VOID TEMPLE faction though.

    Here's the map of the 'board' we're talking about:



    With the Void Temple (look at the Diakin, border of kingdom of swans), you begin the game with the Void Temple itself, and embassies of Void Knights and various characters. For intents and purposes of movement, you are unrestricted within the lands of known 'friends', even if the friendliness isn't that super.

    I'll describe a couple of characters - there will be about 8 void knight characters, unless we find a need for more; they 'exist' as such, but they're not necessarily hugely important.

    ADEN - Located just within the borders of Nehemia, fresh from the harried retreat from the Opening Ghaur Nest at Saden, Aden and the only other survivor of his Cell are fleeing north to the haven of the massive fortress of Hedrin. 2 characters together at this point, their bodyguard units will be 'interesting' for a while. Their paths will seperate fairly quickly, and two HUGE story lines are spawned....

    MARIENNE - A Void Seal, marienne is based in the Fifth of Lisandra's Follies - a chain of fortresses that forms a defensive line across the southern parts of the Western Empire and the Heartlands, where much of the food for the entire empire is grown. She acts as an advisor to Lisandra, the Warden of the Western EMpire, but the troubles have begun with dreams of eyes in the dark, a searching light and then three of the 'Eyes of the Only' arrived....agents of the God himself. With their arrival, her clarity begins to recede.

    PHAILTHRA - One of the Void Temple Seals, the leaders of the Temple itself, Phailthra is charged with the defence of the Temple itself. The Unread Libraries are mere miles away, but she is charged with the direct defence of the walls and grounds. When the Ghaur attack comes, it comes swiftly, and her choices will affect the future role of the Temple in the war as a fighting force, amongst other outcomes.

    -------------------

    ONE example of the way events can twist things or generate reactions;

    Ceryn Halfdark is a man taunted for the 'Haunting' in his eyes - the promise of the Fey; desire, deceit, glamour, foolery, yet he is held by gentle hands as Lord Stormwall protects this half-child of the Lindiri as if he were his own. When Caria begins to resound from the striking terrors of the Ghaurchlai advance, he is led to a possible destiny; COULD he listen to the dreams, find his tormentors and visit the nightmarish forest he held in such terror when young? Is his adoptive father's need so great?

    If Ceryn travels to the 'X' forest, then he can trigger a series of events - should they go one way, he could embrace his darker parts and Lindiri may walk under a new banner in the West; or he may die before this, or even attack the Lindiri who gather like shadows to greet him with smouldering eyes and a limpet Hope; would the Lindiri blame the Lords of Caria for this and arrive from the East to dire redress, or would they bring troops from the East to punish the killers?

    SO, the first move would be to send Ceryn to the X Forest, then make choices based on what YOU would like to happen....from this one event can the game be altered in small ways, and each time you play, if you decide to change your earlier choices, it may yet find a new way to surprise you.....

    I will give a ton more info on it, for sure. That'll have to be a bit later though....run out of time etc.

  4. #4

    Default Re: THE GHAUR CAMPAIGN

    I understand what you mean now, you are going to implement some heavy scripting with triggers, different paths etc.
    Problem with heay scripting is that it often just turns into a static game, more adventure game than rpg, but it seems you dont intend that at all, so this will be very interesting to see.
    Thanks for the explanation by the way, it was very detailed and nice.

  5. #5
    Squeaks's Avatar More full of whinging
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Haunting the Abyss
    Posts
    5,508

    Default Re: THE GHAUR CAMPAIGN

    Hiya.

    The OTHER problem with scripting is that it can really mess up things, so it will have to be a balance between enhancing gameplay/doing the mod the way I want and trying not to slow it or mess things up irrepareably. At the end of the day, getting in as much as possible and it working well is a true plus - with all the littlest stuff it'd still defo be DB, not another setting or mod, so that's good at least

    I DO wonder at times whether this is what people will want, but that's kind of why we have the 2 campaign idea; so that the main and biggest one is PRECISELY what peeps want - empire galore, and the first is showing essentially the setting in all it's dubious glory.

    In the Ghaur campaign, you'll get a sweet little taste, and you'll get the campaign from the empire, ghaur and Han Dinen points of view, all of which are remarkably different....this is the plan. Basically, a free for all just wouldn't work here; the Ghaur plan is genocide, not conquest, and it wouldn't fit at all. I think there'll be enough choices, enough cnahces to play differently, to make it interesting for several re-plays of each viewpoint. If you've had a bad day, just play the Ghaurchlai.

  6. #6

    Default Re: THE GHAUR CAMPAIGN

    Hehe, aye. From your viewpoint, i think thats the biggest issue with scripting.
    I never play evil factions, so no ghaurs for me i think. I feel dirty when having anything whatsoever to do with evil stuff. Couldent even manage to play evil in rpg sessions for more than 30 minutes. Now a zealous paladin wiping out the stain of darkness on the other hand...
    But im really looking forward to this, it really stands out from much of the other stuff in here in that it is very unique, Its not just the modeling of a well known fantasy world, its something unique, and also it seems to me you have your own flavour of dooing things, from modeling to background material.
    So keep it up!

  7. #7
    Squeaks's Avatar More full of whinging
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Haunting the Abyss
    Posts
    5,508

    Default Re: THE GHAUR CAMPAIGN

    Quote Originally Posted by Malanthor View Post
    Hehe, aye. From your viewpoint, i think thats the biggest issue with scripting.
    I never play evil factions, so no ghaurs for me i think. I feel dirty when having anything whatsoever to do with evil stuff. Couldent even manage to play evil in rpg sessions for more than 30 minutes. Now a zealous paladin wiping out the stain of darkness on the other hand...
    But im really looking forward to this, it really stands out from much of the other stuff in here in that it is very unique, Its not just the modeling of a well known fantasy world, its something unique, and also it seems to me you have your own flavour of dooing things, from modeling to background material.
    So keep it up!
    I hate playing evil guys too...that's a big issue, or was, because then modelling them is quite hard, but I seem to have broken that ostacle now - took a LOT of effort and perserverance though. I have never played a bad guy ever...no rpg nothin'.

    Oh yes, I have my own way of doing things, but I think it's going to be Marmite - you either love it or HATE it. Hopefully, the majority will like it.

    Actually, cos it's nice, I'll post a bit of lore from the Ghaur campaign here....it's about the City of Solace and some generals/characters you will gain control of....if you're the good guy...of course, you can kill them if you're bad....

    ------------

    SOLACE

    Perhaps the oddest around, save for the Painted Man and Moonbiter/Moonthrax, Solace is a possible game changer in some ways; certainly it provokes the biggest choice of how to use it tactically/strategically, poss morally too.

    The idea of SOlace itself is that some people suffer so much doubt, pain or are just broken by life, and they need rescuing; and nothing they have or will find will ever do this. Solace is the manifestation of the development of emotion in the dragon's psyche, and is drawn to suffering and emotion, especially in a noble form, or in a form that is devoid of anger, or utter negativity - the suffering has to be directed inwards rather than projected outwards, if that makes sense?

    Note: Negative emotive states are what draw the CThonae in.

    When drawn to Solace it is said that the person is shown what could be and given a choice to make in a 'dream'; whther this is a moral choice and the city judges them is not entirely known, as few remember anything save that they had a dream. Once the person accepts or follows what is shown, they awaken to find the Gatekeeper with them. He leads them into a mist, from which they emerge to see the borders of the city, and are walked into it's arms.

    When entering Solace, there is a sudden sense of peace and release. It is not a place that MAKES people happy; it gives them the peace they need to repair themselves. Some choose to stay forever; some stay long enough to 'mend'; people do not age in Solace.

    Part of what Solace does is teachvarious things to organise and pewrfect people. There is a heavy leaning towards martial traditions, as these exercise body, spirit and mind, and they also give self control and a sense of massive achievement. The by-product is that the city has superlative defenders if attacked.

    They reach their physical, mental and spiritual perfection. Many are preternatural in their abilities.

    WHat IS known is that those that leave of free will are often never to return. This makes sure that anything that makes them leave is of greater import to them than the city, which means they will perform a higher role, and often perish doing so. It is the perfect death.

    In the Ghaurchlai Campaign, Solace IS going to be a city that can be the Void Temple's to control at some point, and the Han Dinen if played get the city.

    The use of the city in the mod is to provide a small group of 'characters', in the form of generals...they can offer massives choices....they can initiate and follow a VERY important story-line, split to do so, ignore it, wahtever, but there will be 6 generals of enormous power that can achieve much, but are split so many ways.

    The city itself offers a huge target to the Ghaur and a clever player can make them throw TONS of troops at it, and watch them get minced...or take the city. The garrison will not move out, but they are very strong, and irreplaceable. All will be general led.

    THE six characters are:

    THE DAWNRAZOR - walker between moon and sun, the Dawnrazor is an immensely powerful guy. He's the son of two gods, and wields blades that can cut through any material - they sever the ties between molecules rather than strike the actual substance itself. He is a surgeon of death; he is a precise, emotionless killer, feeling no anger or hate, just a prowess that is of a demi god. He has powers too, of course.

    ANASTASIS, THE RADIANT DAWN - The son of the Selediri King, he left the Kingdom to seek a challenge that would see him bested. He seeks to find something that can kill him, if such exists. He is the finest of the Dragon Bloods, an athletic warrior with preternatural celerity of action. In his own kingdom, something transpired that saw him seek this; something that made him want to test himself until death claimed him. He found solace because the city held such a man - his equal, and he and that man are brothers to the end; the Dawnrazor is his only equal. Solace has not healed him, but halted his obsession. The only thing to make him leave is the decision of The Dawn Razor to do so. He finds that he seeks to die with his brother for some higher purpose rather than seek death out in whatever form it might take.

    LAETHE WYTCHSPEAR - The twin sister of Ithil, Princess of the Ildiri, she left the kingdom of Herons after their mother died, torn apart by this. Found to be barren, she left to find purpose in her diminishing heart, before it froze over completely. She wields the Wytchspear; a spear of ice that kills savagely, and her natural Water powers have become those of ice - she is a killer....demented and tortured, she wears a broken mask to hide her beauty and trains obsessively with her battle skills. Solace barely controls her - she knows HOW her mother died truly, and cannot abide by it. SHe was seeking a way to damn herself to eternal punishment, but sees a higher purpose after agreeing to quest with the others.

    THE HOUND OF SORROW - This sad figure is often seen wandering the gardens of SOlace, surrounded by birds and butterflies. Possessed of a truly gentle nature, he cannot escape the natural rage and desire to kill hat wraps him in a terrible embrace. He is of the same ilk as the Wolfweirds, yet massive, and more wild. However, he changed and got stuck, trapped with the knowledge of a human emotive system, but in the body of a slavering beast.

    He sires the line of hounds known as Baerhounds that the Hand Dinen take to Badabaska when they leave.

    WHISPER - The being known as Whisper or Mistwalker is but a memory of a man. He has lost who he is, and was fading before the city took him. In SOlace, he was rebuilt physically, and now walks in a veil of mist, cloaked in a grey shroud, his cowl drawn down, cloth across his face. He bears the sigil of a moth, and he can walk half in the real world, half in the Farstream. He is drawn to the quest to retake the Moon, and faces the possibilty he will fade again when he leaves Solace. His domain is the twilight, and he can be unseen and unheard. He can obsfucate objects and people, bypass physical objects (such as walls) and can draw living beings into the Farstream, to wander and die. However, this backed up by a great ability with knives; he main killing wepaon being a Taichondran Long Knife...over a foot long.

    THE KNIGHT PARIAH - The Pariah, once a knight of great majesty, beheld a great disease take his people, saw them die one by one, whilst he suffered not from any ailment. As they died, it broke his heart, and he prayed that the gods would take the plague from his people and give it all to him. Sadly, they did so. Riven by plague upon plague, his form became dessicated and puritic, and his people and family drove him away upon pain of death. He wept from open sores, his face became horribly marred and he began to lose fingers and toes from rot. Solace took him, and healed him of all disease, but he was horrific to look upon, so he came to wear rags that covered him from head to toe, hid him from all but himself. He had lost four toes and three fingers, but could yet fight and run, and SOlace built him back into a chivalrous knight of stories, but he was named 'Pariah'.

    --------------

    Bear with any game notes; this is pasted 'as is'

  8. #8

    Default Re: THE GHAUR CAMPAIGN

    Very nice reading there. Love the lore you have created.

  9. #9
    Christonikos's Avatar Centenarius
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    Nafpaktos, Greece
    Posts
    812

    Default Re: THE GHAUR CAMPAIGN

    So the Ghaur Campaign is about the western Island. Will there be a campaign about East too, or other regional campaigns in general?

  10. #10

    Default Re: THE GHAUR CAMPAIGN

    Quote Originally Posted by Christonikos View Post
    So the Ghaur Campaign is about the western Island. Will there be a campaign about East too, or other regional campaigns in general?
    I'm not too sure if there will be any other regional campaigns, but the Grand Campaign will use both continents.

  11. #11
    Squeaks's Avatar More full of whinging
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Haunting the Abyss
    Posts
    5,508

    Default Re: THE GHAUR CAMPAIGN

    Ah right. Well, there is room for many campaigns:

    The Ghaurchlai Genocide/Wars (what we're doing...west continent version only, although it does involve the East to a lesser degree - we're taking the West, as it's more exciting)

    The Main 'Modern' Campiagn - 23 factions; the one we're doing after the Ghaurchlai one.....this'll be a bag of worms, where you'll be able to play every faction, and will have the time to build and play like an ordinary campaign in many ways.

    We could easily do the conquest/formation of the EMpire

    We could do the CHo Tetsu invasion of the Princiaplity's main era

    The Federation era where they finally assault the east, allied with Bandit Kings, Wolfborn, Ashapur and others

    We COULD do a more 'future'-based one, where the Cthonae would be the main protagonists, which would be fun, but you'd have a hard time of it.

    The original Elf/Dwarf/Infected wars - that would have lots of magic, Cthonae everywhere, and a lot of weird stuff, as the world was young, and the Federation hadn't been exterminating the Avatars and any non-human 'aberration', the Haldin wouldn't be there, or any humans, but the factions would be GREAT!

    There are many historical campaigns that would be good to make and play - some wouldn't require THAT much work.

    THEN

    there are the other parts of the world that would require a completely new thing entirely, although several factions would be present in some form or other...2 types of Selediri, the Jungle Lindiri (who found out it was bad to awaken plants), Khezdruli Dwarves by the bucket, Ildiri, Deepwater Ildiri, the Aetheri, Naugiri, a LARGE Rhysthari faction, and a hell of a lot of other stuff (pretty cool human factions too), but this would be as big as our main campaign we are doing, if not a lot bigger. Sadly, the full world together is simply impossible (SO many cultures, and maybe 60+ factions at the very least I would think).

  12. #12
    Squeaks's Avatar More full of whinging
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Haunting the Abyss
    Posts
    5,508

    Default Re: THE GHAUR CAMPAIGN

    I'll explain one thing here too - the nature of the factions in play;

    BECAUSE we have fewer factions, we're able to go to town on them, so each is vastly different from the others in so many ways. The Ghaurchlai, for instance, do not recruit or build or anything like that - they get to recruit ONLY by taking and destroying settlememnts - not a case of they take a settlement and get x troops.....they can use the population as currency to buy units and then they use the money from destroying buildings to do stuff with too - they get no income, just the populace they take and the scavenging of destroyed buildings.

    Whatever else happens with event/scripts etc, there will be iconic moments where the nature of the campaign changes completely in certain areas or for certain factions.

    It's highly likely we'll use this method of play; the Han Dinen would have to be a weird campaign, heavily scripted to maintain itself properly. This may make a provincial campaign best for them.

    The 'good' player will likely be absorbing factions, gaining use of them as the game progresses - giving him the unique position of playing all of the good factions eventually...in theory (they may of course, be wiped out), but this will have to be more linear that we would have liked, but will still be pretty good fun.

    Ghaurchlai play....uhm, not sure yet. Would it be boring just to have to pulverise everything? Maybe just once, but is that enough for the work involved? THAT we're still deciding.

    Basically, the good and Han Dinen Campaigns would be fun, and the Good campaign would be playable many many times, with little bits that can change each game and things that you can do that may give enough choices and even moral decisions that would certainly keep it from...turn 1 do this, turn 5 do this, build this building here for sure etc etc. Say the Selediri are under assault, you COULD send aid to them, weakening your frontiers, but they may go under if not, or be so weak when you get to play them that they're worthless, AND the Ghaurchlai have got stronger because they have taken most of their cities...it'll be like that, but not stupidly so, or too difficult because of it. If you've seen the Void Knights in action, then just imagine hundreds of them - if you can play the mod to make it so you maximise them; otherwise you might be looking at virtually none at all. The SLaughterstars are vulnerable to them, but they're not NECESSARY to win...just a selection of choices that changes how you play the campaign.



    These are decisions that are really hard to make, but the groundwork is heavily done....I don't like to say that bits are x% done really, but it's doing well.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •