NationStates Jolt Archive

Padmasan Field Guide to the Races of NS

Padmasa

31-08-2004, 03:57

This started out as a bit of information for those who would RP with me or just a public work so that everyone has a standard to go by or some such nonsense. But as I stood in the shower (What? I do my best thinking in the shower! No really, I do!) I realized, I could do a greater service to NS, and one that could become part of a sticky, get achieved, or at least would be something that people would use regularly (unlike my storefront) which would be a pretty cool accomplishment to have. So now I’m writing the Padmasan Field Guide to the Races of NS. Love it or hate it I rather like the work I’ve done and it will make roleplaying easier. What I’m trying to do with each guide is give a lot of general and some specific information on the race so that if someone uses this as a nation concept it can be used as a framework that they can expand upon adding more specific information. Of course, I’ll also add some specific information and some completely irrelevant information so that everyone gets and idea of what I’m going on about. If you want to use this as a nation concept you are free to post to get some more specific information, but if you are using it as a nation concept please post about it, I cool with someone wanting to use this for their nation but I don’t want to start my cherished nation of Daemons or White Court Vampires only to find out that someone else has already done it. And it will give the other people around here information, hell this could start a region (Red court vamps as one nation, white court, and black for the other members of the region. Call it the Vampire Kingdom or something… Not a bad idea actually) Just please tell everyone about it first NS doesn’t need five nations of Daemons trying to wage a war on Heaven.

P.S. Got a race I’ve missed (keeping in mind that I am just starting the thread) post about it! I won’t be doing orks or elves… actually I might do elves later but I’m not doing orks, I personally like the WH40K version and I don’t want to try and blend WH40K and middle earth… wouldn’t be pretty. If you want a guide done for the race of your nation, post about it, I’ll be happy to do it once I finish with my normal work.

Races I will not be making a guide for:
Elves: for now, I actually want to make such a guide but need to talk to Lady Siri about elves as I’m not that up on elven lore… or rather I’m not a fan of middle earth so I need some input from someone who is.
Humans: I’m a human, you’re a human, we don’t need a guide to ‘em.
Dragons: Like with the elves I am not doing this now, I have a lot of information on Dragons but there are a lot of versions. (Mine being more European, I like the Asian Dragons but couldn’t write about em.) So it will be some time before we could see a guide to Dragons.
Were-vamps: Sorry, I don’t have enough information. Maybe once I’ve done some other guides and I can get onto some ‘sites to learn more. If anyone could link me to some good informational sites about were-vamps I’d give you a cookie.
Angels: I don’t want to, I think it would make for a really bad nation concept and race, if I get requests I’ll be happy to do it for you… though it will be at the bottom of my work pile.

Races I will be making a guide for:
Werewolves: Werewolves kick ass, actually all were-creatures kick ass. I’ll probably do a guide to all were-beasts instead of just with wolves, we’ll see.
Necrons: I love these guys, I won’t be mentioning the C’tan and how they apply to Necrons except a few vague references. (If you think I mean the nation the C’tan it shows you why I’m making this guide. Although I do plan on asking the nation some questions)
The Undead: Not just vamps, skellies, and zombies! I like the undead and find them to be pretty cool as a concept so look forward to the guide to ‘em.
Illithids/Mind Flayers: Yes I already have a nation of ‘em, but I need to do the guide it’s too cool of a race not to.
Orks (orcs): With the help of Greenskinz and probably High Orcs this guide will be made soon.

Requests are to be posted here and not sent as TGs, my inbox is overflowing as it is, please do not TG me unless I request it or TG you with a question. If you want a guide done of a race that is nation specific (Such as The Navigators, who has made no such request!) or is of your own creation please be prepared to exchange TGs about it or be on AIM, I have no problem making a guide even if it only helps one person but if I’m going to do that I want your support!

Now on to the guide!

Welcome, I’ve been throwing the term Daemon around lately, particularly with Typhus and now with Xammux so I figured all of you could use some background and some knowledge on what I mean. And for the record Demon and Daemon mean the same thing.

First, a Daemon is a (usually) immortal dweller of the lower planes known for control of fire or more properly hellfire. They are supernaturally strong, capable of throwing a tank or ripping an arch-angel apart. Moreover most are covered in scales of a red, black, or yellow-brown colour, though the daemon can change this at will, these scales are hard rivaling dragonscales and Hellplate armour in their strength. A Daemon can be summoned and bound to an object or person, usually a combination of the two, and can use supernatural powers to power weapons, devices, whatever.

The hierarchy of daemons is as follows*
Daemon Prince, Greater
Daemon Prince, Minor
Daemon Overlord
Daemon Lord
Daemon Knight **
Daemon, Greater
Daemon
Daemon, lesser (Also called an Imp)
Hellspawn***

* this is not to be confused with the hierarchy of the lower planes, this applies only to daemons and the overall hierarchy of the lower planes is much more complex as it includes forces that few can even comprehend much less classify.
** Fallen Angels share the same rank as A Daemon Knight, though arch-angels share the rank of Lesser Daemon Princes.
*** The Hellspawn are not true daemons but are mortals of some type that have joined the ranks of hell and through favour of a Daemon Lord (for anyone above a Daemon Lord to associate with a mortal would be scandalous) has gained power within Hell and the ability to exert power of the hordes and the damned souls. Commonly Hellspawn take the form of great mastiffs or steeds.

The Powers of a common daemon are few, strength unmatched by an mortal, immortality, speed, flight, and some minor control of fire. Yet as a Daemon grows in prestige and power so do its innate abilities until it reaches the rank of Daemon Prince who can manifest without being summoned, have complete control of fire and hellfire, can alter their forms in any way that pleases them, can bond with normal items attaching them to themselves, true supernatural strength that surpasses even what is recorded in legends of daemons, immortality, flight, supernatural reflexes and speed, limitless endurances, immunity to death, disease, and most good magicks, the ability to resist being summoned, and an aura of menace and hate that causes extreme reactions in mortals.

The Daemon Princes are nigh demi-gods when in the lower planes and when on the material plane are nearly as powerful. The most powerful champions of heaven are hard pressed to meet them though they have on occasion defeated a Daemon Prince in combat. Most wear armour that they have fused into their flesh adding protection to their scales, and all carry hellforged weapons that supplement their natural powers making them stronger and more deadly. A note on Daemon Princes for balance, for every 100 million or so Daemons you will get one Minor Daemon Prince, and for every billion or so daemons you will get one Greater Daemon Prince. If you win wars and slaughter civvies you will hav more and if you loose wars you will have less, adjust at need.

A Daemon, with the exception of one of the Hellspawn, is not locked into its place in the hierarchy. Powerful dark gods watch the progress of Daemons and as their deeds grow the Daemon is rewarded with increased powers and status. In this way a half-Daemon* mortal (Classified as a Lesser Daemon) could ascend to the rank of Daemon Prince (As in the case of Minor Daemon Prince Typhus Zakingrag Fiendbrand) However in this same way a Daemon could also lose standing.
*Half Daemon is not literal, the mortal in question could have only 15% daemonic blood to be considered a Lesser Daemon and to gain benefits of Daemonhood…

To gain rank however the Daemon must perform great deeds in the service of the dark powers. Examples of deeds follow:
Corruption of a Mortal
Torture of a Mortal
Torture of an Immortal (angels and elves)
Corruption of an Immortal (again, angels and elves)
Death of hundreds (thousands, more) mortals at a single time
Seduction of a priest of the high powers
Defeat of a higher Daemon
Gaining valuable information for the Legions of Hell
Breaking free of a summoning and punishing the summoner
Corruption of a pure innocent (Unicorns are an example, as are virgins, and most heavenly champions)
Torture of a pure innocent (see above)
Death of a pure innocent (see above)
There are more, many more, but these are some of the most common or most noticeable to the Dark Gods.

To lose rank Daemons must make blunders or be defeated, here are some examples of such actions:
Defeat in combat to a mortal champion
Summoned and bound (without a bargain being struck)
Defeat in combat to a lesser Daemon
Failure to anticipate and eliminate a lesser Daemon’s plot against you
Loss in battle to the forces of heaven (With the exception of completely overwhelming odds, though even then punishment is still dealt)
As with ways to gain rank there are many ways to lose it within the lower planes.

Where do Daemons fit into Padmasa, especially considering that The Masters are worshiped as gods? This is simple really, Daemons in general are seen as demi-gods or chosen servants of The Masters. They are worshiped in many cases, having gained a “holy” week devoted to their worship, and are seen as being just below the Immortal Masters. Moreover they can be summoned or prayed to for a specific action. This action is usually revenge and requires a sacrifice no matter what or who is asked.

Summoning is a dangerous process with great rewards for success and punishments for failure that do not bear thinking about. A wizard who summons a Daemon must be sure that his circle is perfect or the answering Daemon will simply step outside of its confines and proceed to punish the wizard, though most wizards who attempt a summoning know enough to summon nothing more powerful than a Greater Daemon and to have a banishment spell ready. A summoned Daemon may be bound to an object creating weapons or armour without compare though the Daemon will try to resist or, if the wizard does not want an option that will see the forces of hell trying for retribution, bargained with to do a task. Daemonic hit-men or bodyguards are not an uncommon sight in the Ivory Tower of the Wizard’s Academy.

However unless the Daemon is summoned with a truename it is possible to gain any Daemon in the lower planes, this has lead to many deaths of inexperienced wizards as Daemon Overlords or even Daemon Princes answered their call and showed the foolish mortals why attempting to summon a Daemon is not done lightly.

Bound Daemons can accomplish things that could be seen as miraculous, in one instance a Greater Daemon Prince was given the life of an angel if he would inhabit and power a starship for a year, in that year it was the Daemon who powered the ship and all of its equipment, who acted as a supernatural sensor that proved better than anything accomplished by technology, and overall made the ship an awesome fighting force that could face much more powerful opponents and come out unscathed. Yet a bound Daemon will constantly try to corrupt those using whatever it is bound to and to escape its bondage, though in most cases if the Daemon was offered a fair or excellent deal it will not escape unless it must or the users are not even trying to keep it bound, in which case it feels that they deserve to have it desert them, particularly during a critical moment.

Daemonic Pacts are another matter though. Some mortals, psions or wizards though occasional normal mortals do make pacts, attempt to gain power quickly by striking a deal with a Daemon. The clichéd offer of the mortal’s soul is never accepted for any reason and is seen as a joke in the lower planes. A mortal seriously offer his soul as the sole payment can expect to be laughed at or killed, though it is unusual for the fool to not receive both. These pacts when made correctly will gain the mortal power and skill but will see him destroyed quickly and the pact will be obeyed to the letter… unwary mortals have often found to their horror that some obscure clause allowed the Daemon simply kill them after the contract was signed and payment delivered.

Now, on to some more info on daemons that does not involve how you interact with them. A Daemon is not always immortal, like elves or dragons, they age very slowly until they reach the status of Daemon Knight when they gain true immortality. A Daemon could live to be 30 or 40 thousand years old but he will die of “natural” causes at about that time. Daemons have no set appearance, they can change their form at will after achieving Daemon status. As I mentioned earlier Daemons do have scales that are usually red, black, or yellow/brown, however with the ability to shift their appearance at will those colours and even the appearance of scales is not assured. A Daemon can take on a humanoid appearance (elven, human, vampiric, ect) and Daemon Princes can even take on non-humanoid appearances (plants, dragons, wolves, ect.). Daemons do usually have forked tongues, fangs, and their eyes glow red or neon green with balefire when angry or upset. Some have tails, this varies from Daemon to Daemon and most have wings similar to those of a bat but in the colour of their scales. Daemonic hair is usually black.

Lesser Daemons, commonly called imps, have a set form. They are humanoid with blotchy brown skin (they do not have the protective scales of their older bretheren) and stand about .7 meters tall. They weigh between 18 and 40 kgs. Their eyes are a deep red that does not glow at any time, they have forked tongues and fangs. These are the weakest daemons and are mere servants until they can distinguish themselves and join the ranks of the Daemons and other higher orders. Also, an Imp lacks the supernatural levels of strength that most daemons posess, they are a little stronger than the average human male... however that will not always be the case especially with a Daemon that is demoted down to an imp for some failure.

Daemons are functionally reproductive from the status of Greater Daemon onwards, their children are always lesser daemons or half-daemons depending on their mate. Daemons do have clear and distinct males and females (Although not as imps who are sexless, upon reaching Daemon status they must decide what their sex will be) Daemons give birth to live young but do not produce milk like a regular mammal… they aren’t mammals at all actually.

Now onto some roleplaying elements: I’ve more than stated the strengths of Daemons, but for them to be a viable race in NS they must have weaknesses. So I’ll clear up some misconceptions and tell you all the known weaknesses (I’ve left room for individual nations to decide if they want more or less than the weaknesses I’ve mentioned)

Firstly, a cross on your door will not protect you! If you are a true believer and it is your home the holy symbol (any will do as long as it is of the faith you believe in) will cause the Daemon to lose a great deal of it’s powers (not it’s strength though, just it’s calling of fire and other such!) as it enters your home. The exception is if someone invites it in… then you are fucked. Of course Imps (Lesser Daemons) cannot enter the home of a true believer. Your faith will not protect you on the streets however. All but the greatest daemons cannot enter holy ground however, but if you are facing one of the greater daemons don’t expect holy ground or anything else to help you.

Secondly, when facing an enemy that laughs when a 120mm sabot round hits it in the chest and then keeps coming you have to expect that normal weapons have much less of an effect. And unlike elves cold iron will not kill them, nor will silver for that matter. When fighting an enemy such as a Daemon your only hope is a blessed weapon that can pierce its armour OR an energy weapon. Lasers, masers, and plasma weapons are excellent weapons against Daemons, though if these are unavailable you could substitute blessed rounds and claim those are just as effective.

Thirdly, A Daemon does not die! When it becomes a Daemon Lord it cannot be killed, giving it mortal wounds forces it back into the lower planes for the next hundred years but after that it can come back at will to pick up where it left off, or hunt down your children. In this way the most powerful daemons will continue to show up, however if captured (I don’t know how either) you can force it to agree to a longer sentence.

Fourth, Daemons do not need to sleep, eat, or drink, however they must return to the lower planes periodically and stay for at least a week. If you can hold out long enough (three days for Imps) the army has to retreat. In this way and combined with the above note a war of attrition will kill of the Daemonic forces very well, guerilla warfare is the best way to fight a Daemonic opponent. Daemons have the strength, speed, and maneuverability (flight) to fight quickly. They can strike very hard and very fast, try to be well into hiding and somewhere were flight doesn't help by the time they come rampaging.

Fifth, the alternate form of a Daemon tends to degenerate. A Daemon is a creature of hatred, and with an overabundance of such an emotion it tends to loose control of its humanoid guise very easily, at first people would only see tiny bursts of its true self, a flash of the real eyes, fangs one second, a long forked tongue darting out of its mouth for a moment. Someone paying very close attention would notice easily, while a mage or psion would never be fooled to begin with. But as the signs build up it quickly loses complete control and reverts to its normal self, usually though it is already in a position to do a great deal of harm.

There you have it, more information added as people request information, ask questions, or as I get bored and want to continue on the original guide!

Now, on to vampires. In the next guide I will detail the three vampiric courts the Red, White, and Black… I hope to have it ready by tomorrow, thank you for reading this and I hope you found it either informational or entertaining.

Crimson Sparta

31-08-2004, 05:00

Tagged for later perusal.

Padmasa

31-08-2004, 06:16

Any and all comments welcome! Come on folks, if I don't get any feedback I can't make this work better or more helpful.

Oh, and if you wany pics go onto google and search demon, daemon, or devil. I've got a boat load of pics but I'm not linking to wizards, their mastery of legal mumbo-jumbo is far to great for me to even contemplate that.

Padmasa

01-09-2004, 04:37

Good eve, as promised in this guide we will be discussing Vampires, vamps, and a-few blood suckers. On general principles I will begin the guide by saying that this was originally intended for use by myself only but as with the entire idea of the guide I’m putting it out for anyone to use and to help everyone. Enjoy!

The Padmasan Field Guide to the Races of NS: Vampires

A vampire is an undead creature, killed by sunlight, and is a creature of passion and lust. They feed on blood and are killed by silver, or at least that is how popular holos project them. But most of that is not true, we will go over the vampires and the three courts that make up the vampire world.

The white court, the closest thing to a group of good vampires. White court vampires are succubae and incubi feeding off of a mix of emotion and the life force of their victims. They do not drink blood and are the least stereotypical of all the vampire courts.

A white court vampire looks somewhat like a normal human, pale, but normal. However they are always physically perfect wonderful to look upon and a inspiration of lust. As with all vampires they are immortal, strong, and fast. Yet the white court vampires have an ability that makes them one of the most powerful of the courts: they store up the life energy that they steal inside them selves and this bleeds off slowly as they live. Should they choose to use the given abilities of vampires (The speed, strength, and agility) it bleeds off very quickly but in this way they could feed for hundreds of years never using their abilities and become very powerful for a very long time.

A white court vampire when using the its vampiric gifts seems as though it glows with an unholy radiance and their eyes turn completely white. In this way you can tell them apart from normal humans and from other vampires of the white court.

To feed the vampires of the white court must simply touch their victim. While touching them they can make the person happy or put them into a sort of trance. However the most powerful of the white court vampires can feed with nothing more than a kiss… killing a man and stealing all of his life force with a simple touch of the lips. These feedings usually take place during sex and as such have caused many of the lords of the white court to set themselves up as porn-stars or porn moguls.

White court vampires do not reproduce with a bite… they do not have fangs. They reproduce the same way humans do and give birth to a normal human. However once that very normal human has sex (and during puberty or just after the desire becomes overwhelming, some times they do not even know what they are doing falling into a sort of trance) for the first time their partner is killed and they become a vampire of the white court. At this time they are told what they are by their vampiric parent and are taken into the house and court. Killing their partner is unavoidable and the transformation is likewise unavoidable. Sooner or later the child will have sex and will become undead. Only the lord of each vampiric house may reproduce, a child that does this will be killed as well as the person it mated with. Because of this the white Court is much smaller than the Red Court.

The white court is organized into houses, each house lead by a single vampire that rules over his/her house with absolute control. In turn each house’s leader must swear to obey the strongest of the house lords who is the Lord of the White Court and rules the court with complete power.

The white court could be called the new age court. They are mostly found in North America and Australia. They have taken to the new world easily and with a will, accepting that the old ways are dead and embracing fame and fortune. They are most comfortable in the new world and some are superstars and band members reviling in their fame.

The special bane of the white court is love, they cannot touch a being that is in love at all… doing such is similar to being burned and should they attempt intimacy it will kill the white court vampire. This has led to speculation that should a young white court vampire (who is a virgin and has not yet entered the house) fall in love and loose their virginity to the one they love that they will become a normal human and never become a vampire, this has not been proven.

The Red Court is where most of the vampire myths are from and is the most stereotypical of the vampires. They are the blood suckers and are the most numerous of all the courts.

A red court vampire looks like a normal human, yet any harm will cause the truth to be shown. A court vampire has black rubbery skin, red eyes, a pig-nose, and ears that look like bad wings. They are thin, stooped, and have the trademark fangs. A vampire of the red court is fast, strong, agile, and deadly. They have claws and can easily shred a man. The outer coating of the vampire grows back as they feed more and more, and they must feed often.

The red court vampires feed by drinking blood, their spittle is a highly addictive narcotic as well as being an anti-clotting agent. This allows them to drug victims and then drink at their leisure. The drug relaxes humans and puts them into a stupor, it is not easily to resist the effects and it often puts a human to sleep in minutes. It remains potent for hours allowing it to easily be slipped into a drink or meal to drug people more covertly. The feeding patterns of the Red Court cause them to most often be fronts for charitable organizations like the Red Cross. Unlike with the other courts it is harder for a red court vampire to kill by feeding, they cannot give a Kiss of Death, however they can drink a man dry of blood which will kill him. This is not hard to do but it is more difficult than with the other courts.

Red court vampires reproduce with a bite and a will, they must want the victim to become a vampire. This has caused the Red Court to become the largest of the vampire courts very quickly, and they can easily sustain these numbers by keeping entire villages as cattle. A red court vampling will exist for forty-eight hours as a human as their body changes, and once the sun goes down on the second day they are killers. However a human can resist this process! They will need blood to live but will never become a red court vampire… but this requires constant will to resist and they will gain some of the vampiric strength of their brethren. At this in-between point they are not immortal and undead and can walk in sunlight but again this requires constant will to maintain, they could easily slip and become a full vampire. Also, during this in between state they are pale like normal vampires no matter how much time they spend tanning on the beach.

The red court is a rigid system ruled by a vampire king, given the title of Drakul… the original Drakul still holds this title and is arguably the most powerful vampire in the world.
Under Drakul vampires are given the following ranks:
Count
Viscount
Duke
Baron
Knight
Vampire
Child
Each rank is granted by Drakul and is something to be celebrated, and should the holder of that rank fall one of the vampires under him will assume temporary command until Drakul decides what is to be done, usually no other vampire will earn the right to take a higher rank for some time and Drakul will disperse the vampire followers except for a few chosen guards to hold the stronghold until a new vampire earns the right to take the place of the fallen at which point he will have to assemble a court for himself and begin to rule the area.

While the Red Court is held together by a medieval system, and they have not adapted much to modern times they no longer hold much territory in Europe. Only a few isolated strongholds and the Red Palace that is the home of Drakul. Most of the Red court has spread throughout South America, Asia, and Africa. They tend to set themselves up in mansions or outright castles to rule small villages in third world countries. They must stay in places where there are many people and few ways to be hurt… third world countries are perfect for this.

The special bane of the Red Court is Faith. A man of complete faith in God(s) cannot even be touched by a member of the red court causing the hand that touched the man of faith to burst into flames until snatched back. A symbol of faith that the holder has belief in will drive Red Court vampires back AND hurt them, shedding them of their mortal form and revealing the creature that they really are. While all vampires a driven back by faith they are not harmed very much if at all, the Red’s vulnerability means that holy warriors (Knights Templar and the like) are the best and easiest way to kill them as they are untouchable and their weapons as well as faith are deadly.

The Black Court is the least human of the courts and also the most powerful individually.

A black court vampire looks like an even more twisted and evil version of a Red Court Vampire. They can only adopt a human guise for a limited time and even then their eyes are still black and pupil-less. These are the vampires that are most feared, for they are the strongest of their kind and could easily kill any other vampire or a mortal. A black court vampire is supernaturally strong, fast, agile, and reflexive. Moreover they have a limited shape-shifting ability, able to become bats and as they age this increases until they can become wolves and even dragons. They are not capable of true flight but as bats they can escape.

A black court vampire feeds by killing its victim and gorging itself on the mortal’s flesh and soul at the same time. The black court vampire rips the victim apart and feasts upon them almost ritually consuming flesh, blood, and soul. This is a very bloody and noticeable affair forcing the black court vampires to find secret and concealed locations for this, dungeons and catacombs being common although modern sewers are almost as good. Black court vampires have no special way of getting their victims such as narcotic drool or limited mind control but with their dark gifts this usually does not matter.

A black court vampire reproduces by attaching a sort of slug to their victim, this slug is black and slimy and once it attaches itself to the potential vampire it cuts him open and moves about in his body destroying his form and transforming him into a vampire. This takes about a week in total and the victim must be at full strength before this begins or he will assuredly die during the transformation. Once the transformation has begun only the death of the potential vampire can stop it, and even that may not work in the final hours of transformation. A black court vampire can only create one of these slugs five times during its lifespan causing the black court to be the smallest of the courts which is perhaps a blessing on mortals.

The Black Court is more a network of individuals than anything else. It is led by a council of the oldest black court vampires but there is no real power structure, at any time on of the elders could be killed and the killer replacing it, though if the others feel that the replacement is unworthy they will see to it that it does not survive the first council meeting. Each member of the Black Court has a small cult (cult is the formal term for this gathering) that aids them and acts as their followers. These include hired killers and mercs, fledgling vampires (after three years of service they may go out on their own but most stay longer and attempt to kill their parent to gain its cult.) and mortals who wish to become vampires. A cult may actually grow to include hundreds but most vampires only allow theirs to grow to be about twenty strong for fear of discovery.

The black court has never adapted to the new world and except for three or four individuals and their cults have never left Europe. They control most of the land and allow the red court to keep their strongholds in the area with the understanding that should the red court ever try to expand all the strongholds would be destroyed. They are old world vampires and want nothing to do with the new world or anything else.

The weakness of the black court does not exist. They have no special weakness for mortal hunters to prey upon and given their small numbers this is a blessing for them.

All vampires have some weaknesses and can be killed in one way or another.

First, all vampires are driven from a symbol of faith that the user believes in completely. This does not mean that they cannot kill the man or approach him but it does mean that it takes great effort to do such! The exception to this is the Red Court as noted above.

Secondly, sunlight kills. Period. Any exposure to sunlight will burnt he vampire horribly, though most can survive a few seconds exposure to a small percentage of their body.

Third, they must be invited into a home. Your home is sacred and if a vampire tries to enter it without being invited it will lose all of it’s powers and will be so weak it will take effort to survive and move much less attack a person. An ancient vampire might be able to violate this and maintain some of its strength but this is unlikely. If you do business out of your house or are in a public place (except on blessed and holy ground) then a vampire can just walk over and kill you but in a true home they become almost powerless.

Fourth, garlic will not help you, nor will trying to take pictures or looking in a mirror. With the exception of black court vampires all vampires show up in mirrors. Moreover all vampires show up in video and pictures. Finally garlic is viewed as an insult and does no harm.

Fifth, leave the silver at home. Silver weapons do not harm vampires any more than a normal weapon would. A blessed sword or blessed silver sword might do some extra hurt to the blood suckers but most would probably laugh at you.

Sixth, wood and beheading are the only ways to kill a vampire. Wood through the heart and a beheading kill the vampire nothing else. Additionally the mouth is usually stuffed with holy wafers but this is not necessary and is more adding insult to injury than anything else.

Seventh, holy water helps. Holy water hurts vampires and can shred the mortal guise of Red and Black court vampires. It doesn’t hurt white court vampires much but it does hurt. Holy-water balloons are an acceptable and effective weapon.

Eight, don’t run. A vampire is very fast, running will not help you. Your only chance is to fight the creature and that is not much of a chance.

Nine, there are no coffins. A vampire does not need to rest in a coffin though most do just as a joke or for effect.

Ten, they do not turn into mist when dealt mortal wounds, they regenerate. The story of mist is something they do not understand but can use against humans on occasion.

There you have it, Vampires. Ask anything you like of me and I will do my best to answer you.

For my next guide, werewolves and all were-beasts by association. Though I am not doing a guide to were-vamps as I noted in the original post.

Weyr

01-09-2004, 04:49

Nice. This looks like an interesting read (and reference for RPs).

I wanted to do something similar for Weyreans, but the project became horribly mired in technicalities like why Weyreans had a longer life span than humans, the biological reasons for of pink/green/blue/azure/whatever hair color, and of the benefits of long ears.....rambles on, and on, and on...........sustained by the necromatic arts, he probably could go on forever..........

Padmasa

01-09-2004, 05:26

Thank you. Of course most of these races won't be showing up in Padmasa this is just a public works project. If I ever run out of guides to make I'd be happy to try and make a guide for your people...

Greenskinz

01-09-2004, 05:43

Padmasa

01-09-2004, 05:51

Well, I can contribue a bio on my variation of Orks. I'm the space-type roughly based on those found in WH40K and BFG. We don't seem to be at all similar to Melkor and the High Orcs, who are much more civilized by the looks of it.

Thank you very much. I'll consider it, though I know quite a bit on the WH40K orks (though I'm a Chaos Space Marine man myself) and the Warcraft orcs so that I could do a guide but Middle Earth is far too common in this game for me to ignore the infleunce of it. I may TG you later asking some questions if I should get around to doing a guide on orcs. Though for now I have enough on my plate as it is, thanks again.

Folks I thank those of you volunteering to help the guide deeply but please reply here that you are willing to help not with TGs. I don't mind getting TGs, actually I rather like it, but please reply here so I can keep everything orderly and can figure out who will help with what with naught but a glance. Thank you all again and I hope you've enjoyed what I've done so far.

Neo-Wu

01-09-2004, 15:55

tag to referal

High Orcs

01-09-2004, 15:56

Ahh Vampires. What a topic, what a topic to be discussed. Surprised am I that it hasn't, being as varied and complex as the creatures are! Needless to say, I wouldn't start to communicate about a subject unless I was sure I have the proper research and the proper information on, sources backed up securely. I have been in several discussions, arguements, conflicts, and debates about Vampires, and most times, I am happy to say (though desiring to be unboastful), that I usually come out on top. For the most thorough information available, I persuade any interested to check out "The Vampire Encyclopedia: Edition II: ReVamped" for the most complete listening of information about these Undead Lords. Also, typical Paper & Pencil RolePlaying Games can be rather eccentric, but rather ethnical sources of information, such as RIFTS Worldbook 1: The Vampire Kingdoms, or Vampire: The Masquerade. But alas! Each man seems to have his own story about the strengths, weaknesses, and powers they possess. I could even give my own opinion, but it would spark so many disagreements and rather emotional arguments that I wonder as I sit, typing here, if it is even worth speaking about. Perhaps it will be interesting to see each person's reactions though.

In accordance, every civilization ever existing by man seems to have their own disctint type of Vampire, some more obtuse than others. The so-called "modern" vampire is very much the creation of Bram Stoker, a wildly imaginitive man. His stories about Vlad Dracul the Impaler, a Romanian Prince whom was killed by his own Brother, trained by the Prussian Empire whom was attacking the Ottomans at the time, is obviously flagrant to historical bounds, though Vlad was quite the interesting subject anyway. It brought forth the ideas of Vampires' abilities to transform into wolves, bats, and vermin. It also brought the idea that decapitation and fire were great weapons against the undead, as are symbols of Goodness (Crosses, etc.). The Coffin was introduced, as was the idea that Vampires are linked to the elements of Earth, a major idea in the powers and weaknesses of Vampires that I, personally, believe, hence why Dracula must sleep on his Native Soil. It also presented the "Slow Kill" method of vampirism. Let's not forget that Mind Control and Hyponotic Suggestion!

The First Vampire movie, the famed "Nosferatu" Black & White version, introduced Harker I do believe. It accosted the idea that to destroy a vampire is to destroy it's coffin, get into the sun, &c. The Sun was the doomsday to the Undead in that movie, a popular belief even now.

An 80's flick with Keifer Sutherland, and Corey Feldman titled "The Lost Boys" gave further evidence of special herbs that Vampires consider rather distateful. Namely: Garlic & WolfBay. For those not knowledgeable in holistic measures and herbal treatments, those two plants are tied to the earth element, another sign to the Vampires link to the Earth Elemental. It would also reinstate the "slow kill."

We can't meantion vampires, without giving accolade to the lovely Miss Anne Rice, the infamous writer of the almost legendary Lestat de Lioncourt. These novels have an almost eerie cult following and even a Movie and a Cable Miniseries to Miss Rice's name. This reimbursed the idea of Sunlight to deliver a direct kill to a vampire, and the "slow Kill" method. Also, the coffins were still linked to the vampire in several ways.

Vampire: The Masquerade is probably the single most-adored vampire game ever made, attracting thousands upon thousands of geeks, goths, and people who actually believe (and partly make) themselves vampires. It presented probably one of the most religious backgrounds for vampirism to date. The myth that vampires were the Blood of the First Sinner of Mankind, Caine, the son on Adam, who killed his brother Abel, was cursed by God and was forced to feast upon the blood of his own kind. Caine had 13 children, who spawned a third generation from Caine. These 3rd Generation Vampires are known as the Antedeluvians, who spawned the 13 Tribes of Vampires: Brujah, Toreador, Ventrue, Tzimitzie, Gangrel, Cappadocians (which became Giovanni), Assimite, Ravnos, Nosferatu, Followers of Set, and others. According to legend, in the midst of the Spanish Inquisition, they had to form a legion to blend into the human race, to hide its power and live amongst them, yet staying parasitic. This began to be known as the Masquerade. A second sect known as the Sabbat, which embraced the Beast of it's vampirical nature, soon rose in power and fights a war of the undead against the Camarilla, masters of the Masquerade, in a mellinium-long battle that mankind has never known. V:TM organizes the vampires weaknesses as very traditional, it also outlines simples rules against vampire vs. vampire battles. Staking would not kill a vampire, but put them into a state of suspended animation. The sun would kill a vampire, as would water. Both have the element of healing, and can have adverse effects upon the Earth Elemental which vampires are linked to. V:TM also formerly introduced the idea of *Torpor*. The centuries-long sleep that vampires take to regenerate their bodies, minds, powers, health, and still be *alive*, per se.

RIFTS by Palladium Games, is not a altogether known source for vampirism, more known for it's post-apocolyptic setting with massive guns, fascist evil governments, and complex magical and psionic abilities mixed together in a vortex of oblivion. Yet, the RIFTS WorldBook 1: Vampire Kingdoms, is quite a source. It lists the weaknesses as wood, garlic & wolfbay, sun, running water, symbols of goodness, and desecrating the soil of the homeland; all of which we've discussed. RIFTS also adds Silver to the list. Silver, most known as a potent weapon against were-beasts and demons, seems almost out of place until you figure that vampires are considered supernatural creatures of evil in RIFTS, and are thus, vulnerable to silver as a weapon against the evil. RIFTS also continues to lists the powers of metamorphosis until wolves, bats, and the ethereal mist, the summoning of canine, vermin, and insect creatues, psionic powers of mind control and hyponotic suggestion, along with their sheer immunity to nearly anything that does not effectively kill them.

With the information given, it is simple why no one can ever create a generalization of the modern vampire. There are just so many rules in disarray among experts. Then again, how can one be an expert of something which does not exist? Whether for games, for movies, or for literations, it's clear that vampires will always be an anomoly of the ideal, but never flickering from the mind. The Undead Lords shall forever serve as our classic anti-heroes, the unwilling protagonist, or the omnipotent villain. If that is what they're best played, then all that should ever be asked, is that the creator play them well.

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

Well, one has to admit, that Bram Stoker's story of Vlad Tepes A.K.A Dracula did not do much for explanation of the origin of vampirism, or at least where did that idea come from.

Let us put it this way: It is possible that "The Book of Enoch", besides explaining the origins of magic, also refers to Vampires and similar creatures.
Probably the best comment I have heard on this aspect of the book of Enoch was: "Well, for those who believe in Vampires, Werewolves and similar - this is so far the most interesting and most complete explanation of their origin."
Let us briefly explain some details.

"The Book of Enoch" is a so-called APOCRYPHA. As we previously explained on our pages, Christian bible was never written, it was compiled from different writings by different prophets. Books that were deliberately left out from the bible are called APOCRYPHA. Only chosen priesthood and initiates had access to it. The "Book of Enoch" was declared apocryphal, and like the Book of Seth, and other ancient manuscripts, was denied entrance into the "approved" version of the original Bible by the Nicene Council of 325 A.D. In this book Enoch, son of Jared, speaks of the angels called "Watchers" appointed to protect human kind.

However, while watching over human beings, they fell in love with earthly women, and decided to abandon haven, and join them on Earth and live with them. From this love they had children. Angels taught their wives and children magic and other skills, previously unknown to humans. But...These children were not exactly human...as you can see in these quotes from "The Book of Enoch" .

Chapter 7

13 When they turned themselves against men, in order to devour them;

14 And began to injure birds, beasts, reptiles, and fishes, to eat their flesh one after another, and to drink their blood.

Chapter 10

13 To Gabriel also the Lord said, Go to the biters, to the reprobates, to the
children of fornication; and destroy the children of fornication, the offspring of the Watchers, from among men; bring them forth, and excite them one against another. Let them perish by mutual slaughter; for length of days shall not be theirs.

Chapter 15

10 They shall cause lamentation. No food shall they eat; and they shall be thirsty; they shall be concealed, and shall rise up against the sons of men, and against women; for they come forth during the days of slaughter and destruction.

Chapter 16

1 And as to the death of the giants, wheresoever their spirits depart from their bodies, let their flesh, that which is perishable, be without judgment. *

(27) Thus shall they perish, until the day of the great consummation of the great world. A destruction shall take place of the Watchers and the impious.

*(27) Let their flesh be without judgment. Or, "their flesh shall be destroyed before the judgment" (Knibb, p. 102).

* GIANTS - for detailed explanation what is meant with this word, please visit our page Nephilim

At that time words like "Vampire" and "Werewolf" did not exist, but in these quotes we find all the characteristics of Vampires and Werewolves : Drinking Blood (Vampires), eating human flesh and flesh of animals (werewolves), CH 10, 13 refers to "Biters", CH 15, 10 says "No food shall they eat; and they shall be thirsty, they shall be concealed" Thirsty ? For Blood? Concealed? From what? Light? And CH 16, 1 seems to be refering to their bodies perishing unlike human bodies.

One has to admit that it is at least worth of attention

----

EDIT:

Where the hell did you get this "Court" shit from? Let's see some citations, because if you're just pulling it out of your ass, that's no reason to follow it.

Also, Succubi/Incubi are generally considered to be demonic minions of Hell, whom steal the souls from their victims through copulation. I wouldn't consider them Vampires in any sort.

Neo-Wu

01-09-2004, 15:58

tag for referal

High Orcs

01-09-2004, 16:08

Also, I advise if you're going to use "demons," stick to the dumb D&D stuff and stay off of the Western Religion Demons, as you'll either need a LOT of research (including some really hard-to-find books, such as the Lesser Key of Solomon and the Psudomonarchia Daemonum) to do it right.

D&D doesn't have Angels, but it does have Spirits of Light. Yet again, lay off the real religious stuff unless you can do the tough research to know. Else, you'll have my ass on you.

THough it's simple to ask Melkor about Orcs. The fact of the matter is that he rarely, if ever, plays them, save en masse to get slaughtered. Not to boast, but I've personally always run the better Orc nations in NS History (I was the Orcish Horde, and helped direct Orc nations such as Planet Draenor, and the Frost Wolf Clan), so I probably know a bit more than most about how an Orc goes about business.

Also note that Tolkien's novels never featured an Orc. This is kind of controversial until you read the Silmarillion, and you find out that what is generally referred to as an "orc" is actually a Breed of Elf. Most orcs from other genres, if mixed, will completely dismiss these as their kin with the utmost prejudice. They are NOT to be included in the racial pantheon of Orcdom.

Fodmodmadtol

01-09-2004, 16:16

Yay for information! So what's your policy on modified or original races? I just want to make sure before I say anything.

Padmasa

01-09-2004, 18:35

Yay for information! So what's your policy on modified or original races? I just want to make sure before I say anything.

I have no policy, honestly. I want this stuff to be made to fit nations, just as I made it to be, and I am making this as a guide if you want to edit it do so, or if you want to just leave things out do so, I don't care. Original races are very good after all didn't most of these start out that way? I wonder who the first nation to start off with vampires was, and who was first to pick up on elves... Everything was original for the game at one time, and thusly I'm working with what I have.

Now, High Orcs, not to mix real life with NS, note that this is FOR NS. In no way am I working on anything meant for the real life and I am loosely basing it off of real life. I am more than aware of the differences and actually I've had a copy of the vamp encyclopedia for some years. The court system was made by Jim Butcher for his novels (The Dresden Files, excellent series) and as this is NS I decided to use a version of it because I found it to be an interesting system. For the most part I stayed true to the source material but he never really went into depth so I was left to gather information myself. If you want to do a long and admittedly not that worthwhile research project that's fine but I'm just making material for my nation and anyone who wants to use it... if I'm not using parts from the more common version of vamps or not bothering with a great deal of things that's fine as this is never meant to be used as a source for real life info.

No one could make a diffinitive guide or really diffinitive anything on the subject, as I've seen and read long before I began this. So, pick your legend use it for as long as you like, and then switch to something else at need. It's the same with almost everything I'm doing, a lot of this (and this applies more to when I do a guide to illithids) has not been said and no one is an authority. So yeah, I'm using all the odds and ends that I've gathered as I've read novels or works of "experts" and packing it together into something I'd want to use for a nation. Am I making stuff up? Certainly! When you go on about things that we believe not to exist (I remain undecided as to vampires existing in real life or not it doesn't really matter one way or the other to me) you have to make things up! What do you think people did orginally? They made shit up, and as that became common knowledge and was soon accepted as fact when there are no real facts at all.

This guide isn't for everyone, obviously, and I am just making it for myself, those who roleplay with me, and anyone who wants to use it. High Orcs had a point with here being a great many variations to the vampire myths and legends so I was forced to pick what I felt fit and what I wanted. People have completely different views and I'm glad for it, diversity is a good thing however much I discourage this IC. Use what you like, believe what you like, this is a game so play as you like. I'm not forcing this on anyone it's a free resource for any to use or not use as it were.

Ghout

01-09-2004, 19:03

Tag

Akaton

02-09-2004, 01:12

Yay, I'd always hoped someone would make a thread like this!

To High Orcs: Giants is a rather incorrect translation of Nephilim. Perhaps a few millenia ago it was fine, but now many people think of giants as the one from Norse mythology. For lack of a better term in this language, Nephilim are more like fallen angels minus the demonic elements.

High Orcs

02-09-2004, 03:07

It's not a translation of "Nephilim," it's a translation of this:

Eldanor

02-09-2004, 03:21

High Orc, I have to disagree about orcs being a breed of elf. Melkor created them in MOCKERY of elves. They are not elves.

Or maybe they were corrupted by Melkor. I'll go dig up the Silmarillion. That might take a while.

Weyr

02-09-2004, 03:39

Orcs, or at least their forbearers, were elves who were captured by Melkor/Morgoth and tortured/corrupted/twisted/whatever into what becomes known as Orcs.

Eldanor

02-09-2004, 03:44

All right, I checked and I was partially wrong. Although they are elves, they were bred in mockery of elves.

High Orcs

02-09-2004, 03:52

Eldanor

02-09-2004, 03:53

And ultimately killed.

Greenskinz

02-09-2004, 04:58

They were Bred from Elves, and genetically belong within the same GENUS of the Tolkienite Elf. They are but a different species.

Orcs are in another Order (then again, this is at the genetic level).

Tolkienite Orcs are nothing but elves. To be loathed and dispised.

I'm curious High Orcs, to how you think Orcs should be classified. WH40K Orks are practically fungus as indicated by their spore reproduction method, while in Warcraft they are more akin to mammals in their life cycles. I suppose my version of Orks are closer to those found in WC on the genetic level, though more like WH Orks in their behavior.

Eldanor

02-09-2004, 05:01

Orcs are Orcs. Period. They are a different race of creature, even if their ancestors were elves.

Greenskinz

02-09-2004, 05:05

Orcs are Orcs. Period. They are a different race of creature, even if their ancestors were elves.

Just as ants are ants, and dogs dogs. However, these creatures can still be classified as insect or mammal, respectively. Unless Orcs have radically differnt physiology (I hope I'm using that word right) they're going to fall into one category or another.

Eldanor

02-09-2004, 05:09

Just as ants are ants, and dogs dogs. However, these creatures can still be classified as insect or mammal, respectively. Unless Orcs have radically differnt physiology (I hope I'm using that word right) they're going to fall into one category or another.

We'd have to know what elves are in that respect, and Tolkien never said.

Greenskinz

02-09-2004, 05:13

Aaha, I think I see the problem here. I didn't make it very clear, but I was referring to the non-Tolkenite version of Orcs, and asking High Orcs what his opinion was on those races.

Off the cuff though, I would classify elves as mammals (and by association orcs as well).

Eldanor

02-09-2004, 05:17

Ah, I see. I'm strictly Tolkien, you see.

You're probably right about the elves and the orcs, but orcs look slimy. Very slimy.

Greenskinz

02-09-2004, 05:21

Ah, I see. I'm strictly Tolkien, you see.

You're probably right about the elves and the orcs, but orcs look slimy. Very slimy.

As do snakes, despite their incredibely dry skin. Of course, snakes are reptiles and not mammals, but I haven't heard of any Tolkenite orcs being hatched out of eggs. I don't know if the books ever really describe where baby orcs (if there is such a thing) come from.

High Orcs

02-09-2004, 16:58

I'm curious High Orcs, to how you think Orcs should be classified. WH40K Orks are practically fungus as indicated by their spore reproduction method, while in Warcraft they are more akin to mammals in their life cycles. I suppose my version of Orks are closer to those found in WC on the genetic level, though more like WH Orks in their behavior.

Actually, the WarCraft Orc (or as I call them the "Draenei Strain" due to their homeplanet origin), are more alike Pigmen then anything else. If you recall, the base unit of food was known as the Pig Farm. The Draenei Strain also exhibited physical features alike a pig. The most general characteristics, physically, that bind most natural orcs are much like that of Pigs (which is why Orcs are seen in such a harsh light, due to centuries of religious dogma explaining how filthy the hooved animal is. Since when have you known of a Kosher Orc?). Otherworldly creatures are usually a hybrid humanoid. Elves are casually human-faerie hybrids. Orcs are casually human-Pig Hybrids. The Draenei Orcs are physically built, but can maintain a strong Clan leadership order, a culture followed by 90% of all cross-genre Orcs.

The "Orks" from the Space of WarHammer, however, are plant-like in nature. This, of course, puts them in a whole other Kingdom of Plantae, and so they have nothing in common on the genetic level with actual Orcs. Much like Treants, these are just walking, talking trees....only that mass produce like rabbits and carry rocket launchers around.

Between Orcs and Tolkienite Elves, there is a radically different physiology. Tolkienite Elves are Unaging, where as Orcs have shown to have quite a lifespan. Even when dealing with Palladium-Based (Or Gygax-based), Orcs have a lifespan at most 1/10th of an Elf's. This is an advantage, for though most will think that an Orc's intellect is below an elf's, history has taught us that evolution and natural selection go as fast as the rate of death. Orc genetics evolve at a much higher rate than Elves. They are able to differentiate their DNA at a much much higher ratio. This allows them to differentiate genetically, further enhancing their clan infrastructure (clans begin to part ways and become entire co-dependant nations, each having their own special breed of the same basic race, thus specializing in their fields at a much better focus than Elves). This also means that Orcs can make much better use of modern technology (though if left to their own designs, will architect something much more bizarre), not worrying about understanding how, but knowing what, and taking the most advantage of it ("If I pull the trigger, it goes boom and things explode"). Though both will share a common infravision trait, then genetic basis is nowhere close.

Take, for instance, muscle atrophy. Orcs have high resistance to muscle atrophy, allowing them to become incredibly strong at a young age (Reaching the strength of a full grown man just before puberty, and then they can just get stronger through exercise). Elves have always shown to exercise the most in agility, so their muscle mass is much leaner, and less bulky (though this can be said is a difference in the hormonal levels at the pituatary gland, and thus, can be manipulated through drugs that can control the release of such hormones).

However, many species of Orc (Uruk-Hai are Tolkien's closest thing to a base Orc, and are seen by most cross-genre species as equals.) have shown to have limited abilities of physical regeneration and a dulled sense of pain. This has allowed them to survive adverse injuries that would easily kill any Elf or human (including fighting through multiple stabwounds or several shots from firearms or arrows). However, with this comes an inherent backlash in that being dulled to pain lessens the effect of the wound, so they are more prone to sepsis (blood poisoning from open wounds).

High Orcs

02-09-2004, 17:09

Orcs are Orcs. Period. They are a different race of creature, even if their ancestors were elves.

Not according to Orcs they're not.

I believe Orcs have the final say in what are, or are not Orcs.

You don't have the birds saying what are, or are not, humans, do you?

No, humans say what are, and are not, humans.

Orcs say that Tolkienite "Orcs" are a farce of their race and unacceptible to the standard that is displayed. They've found this not only at the physical level (tolkienite Orcs aren't very strong, their physical capacity is weak for damage. They have a hard time understanding tactics. They can't be taught skilled techniques with weaponry. They do not show honor to the Clans unless forced. They only understand fear as motivation.), but when diced open, they've found it out at the genetic as well by analyzing their DNA and comparing it to their own. They are inferior creatures.

Padmasa

02-09-2004, 20:41

Wow, you leave for a night and a debate on all of orkdom starts up... I suppose this is more the reason I wasn't going to do a guide for them, and is the reason I have to. (Keeping in mind that I was probably going to do what Greenskinz did and mix WC and WH40K) Basically I'm getting a feeling of Bugger Tolkien... good!

Greenskinz as your nation is pretty much made up of the creatures this guide is going to be about I'm going to TG you some questions. Thanks.

Oh, and no the guide to Orks is not for a while. I am currently working on the guide to were-beasts and then on the guide to illithids. Once those are done I will begin a guide to Orks. Thank you all and I hope to have the were-beast guide posted to-morrow.

Greenskinz

02-09-2004, 20:50

High Orcs

02-09-2004, 22:46

While I'm honoured to be your... "specimen" shall we say, I don't think you should totally disregard the High Orcs. He's the more powerful and respected country/RPer, and our two varities of Orks are drastically different on the cultural level (from what I've seen).

Disregarding me would be disregarding 90% of the Orcish history in NationStates Roleplaying. In fact, I've actually warred against the WH40K Orks while I played the Orcish Horde (they were completely demolished) because they insulted the WarChief Orgrim Doomhammer. Doomhammer took no slaves, and upon their defeat, he amassed the Horde and went back to Azeroth.

The only person who knows more about orcs than I, would be the player who runs Kalessin (that I've talked to. He's a bit more obsessive than I and collects figurines). Unfortunately, he'll be out the entirity of this month, so I just need to brush up a bit on my WH40K dogma (I have Gygaxian Orcs, Norrathian Orcs, Draenei Orcs, Palladium Orcs (Lesser and High), Tolkienite Orcs, and Lineage Orcs pretty much memorized) and my catalogue will be pretty complete.

I know little things about them, like the simularities in culture, Divine Manifestation, religious beliefs, social order and behavior, political agendas, racial prejudices, and habitats. It's easy to play them en masse, but to describe the little nuances can really make the picture come alive.

Eldanor

02-09-2004, 22:49

I don't know that much about Orcs. I know about Elves, though.

The Ctan

02-09-2004, 23:05

Necrons: I love these guys, I won’t be mentioning the C’tan and how they apply to Necrons except a few vague references. (If you think I mean the nation the C’tan it shows you why I’m making this guide. Although I do plan on asking the nation some questions)

Well... errr... Someone else has a reasonable excuse for necrons (not Necrontyr mind) in their nation?
:D

Aelosia

02-09-2004, 23:15

"Manus Enheilras has spoken truth in one thing. Only Orcs can say what exactly the orcs are, although several of my investigations point to the fact that the usual orcs, and I mean those who are under the iron fist rule of Morgoth, for example, are just a degeneration of the Elvenkin. But also I found the so called High Orcs really interesting, as they didn't look like the descriptions we had of the Orckin. However, as they seem to come from a different plane of existance where the elves are really a degeneration of their own kin, (May the Valar save me from ever finding one of those twisted and degenerated elves), I prefered to recognize them as a totally different species, although they also call themselves Orcs. However, this has happened before, as I had the chance to study several notes of a former farseer that inhabited this Craftworld regarding the Orks, spacefaring fungus that also call themselves by the same name and identify themselves under the same premises. I'll accept the word of Manus Enheilras about the origin of his Orckin, as long as he recognizes himself able to accept mine about the origins of my Elvenkin"

Marquise Cúthalion, Main Scholar of the Sindarin Empire of Aelosia, after reading some of the Enheilras' statements...

High Orcs

02-09-2004, 23:21

Hey Aliria honey...this is more or less an OOC thread. Well, it is to me anyway. Since it's a "guide" and all.

Anyway. Palladium Elves really have nothing in Common With Palladium Orcs, save their intertwined History involving the Palladium Elf-Dwarf War that Eclipsed the Palladium Second Age. The Elves used the Orcs as their foot soldiers, but other than that, dismissed them once they had won the war (the real story is much more complex, involving horrendous bio-wizardry, demonic intelligences, ritual portals, and a near Awakening of the Old Ones, the Force that controlled the First Age, and upon their defeat by the---...I digress).

I don't speak of the Palladium Elves very much, but know that, besides only having a lifespan of 600 years (10x an Orc, but 1/10th of a Dragon), they share many many commonalities with the rest of the General Elves, not the Palladium Orcs, or any other Kind. They're different species, they're different races, and have little in common with each other, even on the genetic level.

Warhaven

02-09-2004, 23:21

Hey Padmasa, Are you going to eventually do a guide to the BORG? I mean they are what my country is composed of, and they CAN be of ANY species to begin with...

Aelosia

03-09-2004, 00:08

Greenskinz

03-09-2004, 00:42

Disregarding me would be disregarding 90% of the Orcish history in NationStates Roleplaying. In fact, I've actually warred against the WH40K Orks while I played the Orcish Horde (they were completely demolished) because they insulted the WarChief Orgrim Doomhammer. Doomhammer took no slaves, and upon their defeat, he amassed the Horde and went back to Azeroth.

The only person who knows more about orcs than I, would be the player who runs Kalessin (that I've talked to. He's a bit more obsessive than I and collects figurines). Unfortunately, he'll be out the entirity of this month, so I just need to brush up a bit on my WH40K dogma (I have Gygaxian Orcs, Norrathian Orcs, Draenei Orcs, Palladium Orcs (Lesser and High), Tolkienite Orcs, and Lineage Orcs pretty much memorized) and my catalogue will be pretty complete.

I know little things about them, like the simularities in culture, Divine Manifestation, religious beliefs, social order and behavior, political agendas, racial prejudices, and habitats. It's easy to play them en masse, but to describe the little nuances can really make the picture come alive.

The best thing to do would just interview us both, but thats not really practical. I say use High Orc's version in your guide Padmasa, he is after all the more widely known. Besides, I don't know if any real racial connection could be made between our two orcs, since mine originated (so it appears) in the Gantris IV system 20,000 LYs or so away from Earth.

Akaton

03-09-2004, 00:43

I've got a useless suggestion. Perhaps a guide to Orks could be established in the same form as the vampire guide, with several versions of Ork. There could be WH40K orks, Tolkein orcs, and Warcraft Orks.

The Ctan

03-09-2004, 10:01

There has been much speculation on how Morgoth, and Sauron, his lieutenant, who had as much or greater part in the creation of orcs; though they loathe and fear both, blaming them for their twisted lives ((Silmarillion; “And in their dark hearts the Orcs loathed the Master whom they served in fear, the maker only of their misery.”)); created them. Though it is held to be true by the elves that the orcs were made of their kind, and it may indeed be possible that some fraction of elves taken into the pits of (the true) Angband were perverted into monstrous creatures, it is also held by those learned in such things, that it is far beyond the divine power given to morgoth to corrupt an entire race of people and make their state heritable. ((“It also seems clear (see 'Finrod and Andreth') that though Melkor could utterly corrupt and ruin individuals, it is not possible to contemplate his absolute perversion of a whole people, or group of peoples, and his making that state heritable.(2) [Added later: This latter must (if a fact) be an act of Eru.] In that case Elves, as a source, are very unlikely.” History of Middle Earth,” History of Middle Earth, X)) Thus, when discussing the creation of the orcs of Morgoth, one can presumably write the idea that the orcs were once elves off as fiction perpetrated by his agents, in order to make his mockery of them seem the more bitter. In other places there is evidence to suggest that maia spirits, of the kin of Sauron, or the mighty Valaraukar, the Balrogs, became chieftains and progenitors amongst the orcs. Boldog is a name that has been associated with such creatures. Tales also tell of such a creature being slain by Aragorn, King of Gondor and Arnor in the mines of Kazad-dûm; “But even as the orc flung down the truncheon and swept out his scimitar, Andúril came down upon his helm. There was a flash like flame and the helm burst asunder.” This display could of course, be an effect of the sword, but it could also be similar to the pyrotechnics recorded at the “death” of maia, such as Sauron or Saruman. There is also the suggestion that orcs were bred from men, but given the chronology involved, this seems unlikely, although we cannot discount it. Finally, that leaves the idea that orcs were among the many beasts Morgoth corrupted, with interbreeding with maia spirits and others, they would become more and more humanoid…

In summary however, the idea that orcs are elves, cannot be truly verified, and it does indeed seem most unlikely.

- Dr Edwin Provost, On Orcs, The Institute of Cultural Studies, Tephet-Sheta.

Padmasa

03-09-2004, 11:11

Hey Padmasa, Are you going to eventually do a guide to the BORG? I mean they are what my country is composed of, and they CAN be of ANY species to begin with...

Thank you! I'll admit that I know nothing of the Borg and will need links and help with this as well as a lot of time. But because you have asked I will try and because I have to try there will be something resebling a guide made... eventually.

Everyone, wow. The support, debate, everything is just amazing. This is just blowing me away, thank you all.

I've got a useless suggestion. Perhaps a guide to Orks could be established in the same form as the vampire guide, with several versions of Ork. There could be WH40K orks, Tolkein orcs, and Warcraft Orks

Not useless and probably the only way to do it, of course I could do the more sensible thing turn to Greenskinz and High Orcs and ask them to each make a sort of guide to the version they are making, then make edits and combine it all listing them as co-authors. But when in the hell have I been known to do the sensible thing? So then all that remains for me to say is thanks for the suggestion and as it turns out the Vamp guide is probably going to be the form that most guides take now. As it turns out that won't work for several creatures, but those are going to the more simple and fun guides. (Like the guide to illithids. Do you all get that I love Mind Flayers? I've worked them into almost every post here!)

Actually, if I let this debate continue much longer I won't need to make a guide to orks all but the most basic information (life-span ect. I've had the pleasure of working with two immortal races so far but that will change) will be up for anyone to read. Ghads, if only it were that simple. Folks keep talking I can't do more than skim over everything right now but this is awsome.

Padmasa

03-09-2004, 11:23

The best thing to do would just interview us both, but thats not really practical. I say use High Orc's version in your guide Padmasa, he is after all the more widely known. Besides, I don't know if any real racial connection could be made between our two orcs, since mine originated (so it appears) in the Gantris IV system 20,000 LYs or so away from Earth.

First off, yes he is more known, and he probably has more information (no offense) but for the love of god if that is one of your reasons you should be slapped. You will become more widely known (hell, just look at this thread!) I'm not that widely known but stuff like this tends to get you a name fast and just being around gets you noticed. Unless you plan on letting your nation die off soon having more people know about him doesn't matter.

Racial connection? I am more than capable of yelling "Dark Portal" and then yelling "Radiation" or something... and because of the context and the fact that most people would realize I was reaching people would laugh and accept it. But, that's not the point. I don't claim to have the wisdom or any of that to do this right, fuck with all that's being said about orks right now I'm going to offend someone, I'm going to get yelled at, and I'm going to have people tell me that they are never reading the guide again. BUT, it all comes down to this: The guide is the basic work, it is the framework from which your race is based, or it is just background info. Each nation must change it to fit their needs, desires, and plans. So with that knowledge I could say anything and people would shift that and change it and they could still say they had a nation of black court vamps according to the guide (with a short list of revisions. Because if you are using the guide as your basis and you make changes you should tell people where you changed things so that they know, it's just polite) even if their people fed like the red court and didn't shapeshift ever.

You really don't realize how unpractical the entire idea of this is do you? It works when you have only one nation but when you make something for everyone to use you have a lot more people asking for things, you have a lot of people you are going to alienate, and you get a much bigger workload as you have to look into variants and look into things that don't apply directly to you. Interviewing two people with conflicting (sorta) views is nothing compared to the very idea of this whole thing... that being said. I wouldn't have it any other way, this keeps me on my toes.

There, I've done my rant. Thank you all for bearing with me and I'll get back to work on were-beasts. Hopefully be tonight it will be done.

Warhaven

03-09-2004, 16:25

Padmasa, Check out www.startrek.com The BORG originated from the Star-Trek universe and seem impossible to beat even though you have to keep varying your attacks to beat them. The website is an exellent source to start with but I modified the BORG in my country a bit so you would need to Telegram me in Nationstates when your ready, and I will tell you of the modifications I made to my BORG. Like I said the BORG can assimilate ANY species into the collective, so, I would suggest you put them at the end of your guide.
The Collective of Warhaven

Warhaven

03-09-2004, 16:39

I forgot to mention, you have to go to the Library on that website i gave you, they have unique ships as well, so, I would suggest you look at the ships. Their are many links with the BORG, including a link to species 8472 and their bioships, That is neccessary as well because they are the only thing the BORG are weak against, except, I assimilated them, It is possible because the only thing species 8472 is weak against, is, modified BORG probes, which, Is how come I control the BORG and species 8472 and their BIOships. If you do a section on BORG ships, you should also visit http://www.st-intelligence.com/begin.html
The BORG ships are their own seperate link, with the Bioships of species 8472 being under ships of the Galaxy.

The Ctan

03-09-2004, 16:43

OOC: Immortality and Tolkien's orcs. Another problem there... I'll save myself the excersise in recasting, fun though it was, I'll just give you a link. (http://forums.tolkienonline.com/viewtopic.php?t=50513)

Eldanor

03-09-2004, 17:55

The Ctan

03-09-2004, 17:59

Orcs ARE elves, in a way. They were derived from elves. And I quote:

"...that all those of the Quendi who came into the hands of Melkor, ere Utumno was broken, were put there in prison, and by slow arts or cruelty were corrupted and enslaved; and thus did Melkor breed the hideous race of Orcs in envy and mockery of the Elves..."
- Silmarillion, page 50

That that was all taken from either LotR, The Silmarillion, or History of Middle Earth books. Suffice to say, through his life, Tolkien changed his position on the origin of the orcs many times. Especially later on, it was his opinion that they were not derived from elves.

Eldanor

03-09-2004, 18:03

Technically, these were his notes and they were organised by his son into the written volume of the Silmarillion, so, therefor, unless you can show me any proof that they were not derived from elves, it is my opinion that they were.

The Ctan

03-09-2004, 19:25

It is discussed at length here. (http://forums.tolkienonline.com/viewtopic.php?t=72521)

High Orcs

03-09-2004, 20:33

"They could be slain, and they were subject to disease; but apart from these ills they died and were not immortal, even according to the manner of the Quendi; indeed they appear to have been by nature short-lived compared with the span of Men of higher race, such as the Edain."

Seems it contradicts your little immortality argument and supports my own in accordance to lifespan.

The Ctan

03-09-2004, 21:16

Eeerrr? What argument?

The mortality of Tolkien's orcs is another thing about them he changed his opinion on several times. I did not claim that they were immortal, merely that there is debate on the matter.

Padmasa

06-09-2004, 02:41

Greetings my friends, it is my pleasure to begin another guide, the third and probably least impressive. I really enjoyed the subject matter but as I sit to write about it, it seems more like work and less like the pleasure of NS. But alas, I have pledged to write it and so I do. Oh, never listen to Aqua for extended periods of time when writing something serious… it will drive you mad. *twisted maniacal laughter can be heard in the background*

The Padmasan Field Guide to the Races of NS: Werebeasts

Werewolves, slavering beasts that attack during the full moon. Half-human half-beast, feral creatures that dwell in the woods and prey on civilization. Wounded by silver, and made by the bite of another of their kind, these are truly monsters. Or at least that is how they appear.

The cursed: These are the only truly evil (using the term loosely) creatures and are some of the most dangerous. On the night of the full moon they arise no longer humans but beasts that are nearly immune to harm, given the gift of regeneration, and a superhuman strength that allows them to deal out vast amounts of punishment. They can rip apart almost any means of restraining them and must kill. They are fast, running is usually not an option. They emerge and rampage about the area, more than able to kill everyone for miles in the course of a night.

The cursed are what the name implies: Cursed. The cursed are almost exclusively were-wolves, though there have been several cases of were-tigers in Asia. They are created when a being of immense power curses them to become a beast during the full moon. The curse is hereditary and will be passed to one of each generation. The only way to stop the curse is for the bloodline to be destroyed, though another bloodline could be so cursed just as easily if whatever near-divine source wished it.

The cursed are mortal and only dangerous during the full moon, at any other time they are just a normal human (elf, dwarf, ork, whatever) and can be killed like a normal mortal. However the cursed are where the myth of lethal silver emerged. During the full moon the cursed are only vulnerable to inherited silver weapons, wounds caused by such weapons would not regenerate and while the could be shrugged off it would not be with ease.

In most cases one of the cursed would be very guilty and would try to get away from the rest of humanity before the full moon, yet some revel in the slaughter and in times such as these it is sometimes unavoidable that they would be near other humans. Also, in these days of space travel the cursed still change on the lunar clock of earth, specifically the last place they were on earth.

The only thing that remains to be said on the cursed is that they are extremely deadly and just as rare.

HexenWulfen: The spell wolves, the addicted and deadly. A spell wolf is a normal mortal that has made a deal with a higher power, mage, or Daemon to become a wolf (or other creature) when they will it. They become a larger more feral version of their chosen creature when they will it. However they keep their human mind and must wear a token to change their shape. This token contains a Spirit of Rage that drives the mortal to kill, maim, and keep wearing the charm. The power of it is addicting and most men cannot stop once they have begun.

The Hexenwulfen are created when a mortal takes up a token of another Hexenwulfen or makes a deal with a higher (and usually malignant) power. The knowledge of whom to contact is well hidden in most cases and the token is usually a gift. Most of the creatures that would want a Hexenwulfen created would use their power to create them just for the sheer havoc they create.

The Hexenwulfen are strong and fast, though not nearly to the extreme that the Cursed are. And they are compelled to murder. They are like normal men but easily set off and very willing to resort to violence. In their wolf form they are larger than a normal wolf but can be hurt and killed like any mortal creature moreover they have an additional weakness. The token comes with them during the transformation, if it can be removed they will immediately resume their human shape. In human form they are the same as normal humans in all respects except those noted above.

Hexenwulfen do not usually know what they are getting into when they first become Hexenwulfen and begin to channel a Spirit of Rage. But they quickly come to love the power of their new shape or just as quickly destroy their token.

Werewolves: The kinder gentler side of evil. These are mortal beings that are not in the sway of any power and are not channels for rage. They are almost normal mortals that acting under their own natural power can take the shape of an animal. This animal is usually dependant on the culture. (Werewolves, werelions, weretigers, werebuffalo, werejackals, it depends on where you are) They are mortal in all sense and are not especially fast or strong, they are just as powerful as a normal creature of their kind.

However werebeasts have one critical disadvantage. They are human(elven, whatever) and as such are sight-based bipeds and when they take a new shape they are still sight based bipeds. It takes them years to adapt to becoming sound and smell based quadrupeds. The other shapeshifters have a Spirit of Rage helping them and making them clean and precise… the werebeasts do not have any help and have to learn it all on their own.

They are mortals with a gift and all of their actions are their own. They an be a force for good or bad, and do as they like. They suffer no special burdens and no need to go off on killing sprees. Likewise they have no special protections and can be killed like any other wolf, tiger, bear, whatever. Without special protections they have no special weaknesses. They are nothing but men and women with a slight gift.

I'll finish this up later, after the guide to illithids. I can't bring myself to write more on were-beasts right now. Sorry, please bear with me on this. Thank you all and I the next guide will be that guide to Illithids! *Starts looking for party hats because anything involving Illithids is reason to party.

Padmasa

12-09-2004, 05:18

Greetings today I don’t have a rant or even a mild introduction so let’s just jump into the guide. (I hope to find the links to what some guy though Illithid muzak would be like, it’s great stuff, kinda, and I was listening to it while writing this. Actually I forgot I had it until about half-way through.)

The Padmasan Field Guide to the Races of NS: Illithids.

The Illithid, a mauve skinned, tentacled, bi-bed that lives to eat your brain and enslave all lesser races (basically all other races). Actually the stereotypes are pretty much dead on on this one. Scary I know, but let us proceed.

The Illithid is an amphibian that lives underground and has grown more suited to living in caves than anything else. They stand between six and seven feet tall and are bipedal of humanoid shape. Each has webbed feet, and clawed hands, though this is all almost unnoticed compared to the most distinctive feature of Illithids: they have four tentacles hanging from their face, each between one and three feet in length which surround a gaping maw. The mouth of an Illithid is easily compared to that of a lamprey and is constantly dripped a slimy drool. The eyes of an Illithid are great and bulbous, they are large and are completely white (no iris). Moreover the head of an Illithid is unusually large.

An Illithid is physically weak in almost all cases. They are narrow shouldered and are better suited to research than to combat. Yet this physical weakness hides the true power of an Illithid: its mind! An Illithid is naturally telepathic and with some study they can increase these powers. During the course of their life (up to three hundred years) they can become amazingly powerful psions, capable of enslaving another being utterly, and having that being enjoy it!

An Illithid eats brains. They enjoy the brains of sentient beings the most but any brains will do. An Illithid hunts by lashing out with its mind creating a cone of “will” that stuns most beings. The Illithid will then drag off the unconscious beings to be used as slaves or food. To eat the Illithid attaches at least three of it’s tentacles to the head of the unfortunate being and then sucks their brain out.

An Illithid reproduces similarly to a frog, and with the same result. The eggs hatch in the pool of the Eldermind (more on that later) into small tadpoles, though instead of one tail the tadpole has four. These swim about in the pool eating each other and other unfortunate things for ten years when they emerge fully grown Illithids. An Illithid can only reproduce several times during its life and there are no families within an Illithid community.

The brain is almost sacred to Illithids as it is their food and their leader. When an Illithid dies its brain is placed in the pool of the Eldermind. The Eldermind is the collection of knowledge of every Illithid who died in the community and had its brain placed in the pool. The Eldermind leads the community and determines the size of the community. The Eldermind has awesome psionic powers and it unites every Illithid in the community in a web. The reach of this web is determined by the power of the Eldermind and thus the community never grows beyond the reach of the Eldermind.

The Eldermind is the center of the community and is well cared for. Slaves are continually rubbing the brains under the “water”. It is what keeps the community alive and is very heavily guarded. It is always at the very center of the community behind all the guards that the community has. Moreover the Eldermind can sense any being within the range of its sway. Thus it proves to be its own best defense as it knows about anything approaching and can call for guards or send out Illithids to ambush the travelers for a snack or as more slaves.

An Illithid talks in a watery dripping voice that is hard to understand when it speaks anything but its native tongue. They prefer to speak psionically, sending their thoughts directly into the mind of the being they are speaking to. As an Illithid talks it usually lashes the air and gestures with its tentacles. This is usually and idle gesture that is constant unless the Illithid is actually doing something and has to take notice or use its tentacles. An Illithid can commune with another at almost any distance and can hold multiple conversations at once but this takes training and effort, unless they are within the reach of the eldermind.

Slavery is a major part of the Illithid existence and is inseparable from them. For each Illithid there are between three and ten slaves, as a general rule and many more for the older more powerful Illithids. An Illithid has terrible mental powers yet it does little, making slaves do everything for it. This is fact and will not change, there are no “good” anti-slavery Illithids, it simply does not happen. Illithids greatly enjoy arenas and whatever other entertainments their thralls can provide.

Slaves cannot easily rebel because they have had their minds shattered and the Illithids can make them do anything with a thought. Though the more willful slaves can try to resist this will not break the mental bond, nothing short of the death of the Illithid or the desire of the Illithid will ever see the slave freed. Moreover the Illithids can very easily mindrape an individual. A painful experience that will make them beg for death! The Illithid will learn everything they knew and every though they had, in this way Illithids can master anything their slaves can do, although most would not stoop to doing such labours.

The mental powers of the Illithids as well as their natural intelligence makes them excellent commanders. Moreover their ability to scan the minds of those entering a place can make them invaluable security officers and judges. Of course, they would also make an excellent deterrent as they would eat anyone who was guilty or trying to sneak in.

An Illithid can duplicate almost any psionic power. They easily gain telekinesis, pyrokinesis, and other abilities and use them along with their telepathy and ability to mentally assault and dominate an individual. If you can dream it up and old and powerful Illithid can probably do it, but try to remember people can yell “GODMODDER!” a lot more easily than you can come up with powers.

Now, on to balance issues and some notes:

There are no “good” Illithids, deal with it. All Illithids are raised as slavers and merciless killers. Moreover they do not eat the brains of animals by choice, ever. It is vaguely possible that a rouge Illithid (one who was banished for one crime or another) would be an abolitionist, however it would probably only apply to the slaves of its former brothers and would be more vengeful than righteous.

“I WANT TO FREE THE SLAVES!!!shiftoneshiftoneoneone!!1111!” Good for you, idiot. Now, let’s see why this is impractical: 1, Those slaves you want to free, will all be trying to kill you as you try to do battle with the Illithids who will wander off rather than fight you. 2, As I explained earlier you would have to kill the Illithids to free the slaves, and lets face it killing an entire species isn’t something you would do. 3, What’s to prevent your men from being enslaved and turning on you? Or being bribed for that matter, Illithids are usually rich hoarders (like dragons) 4, Do I really have to say anything else?

I want an Illithid spec ops team. That would be a good use for ‘em but they are physically weak and will need help. Moreover it would be your job to keep them fed, unless you want to send a lot more men with them than the mission will actually need. Their mental abilities would make this very effective and quite useful.

You are no better than Vampires! Actually, we almost never come above ground so we never really bother your people. Of course if you insist on going deep below ground we will grab a-few of your people but…

Illithids should have taken over the world by now. Actually, they did. But unfortunately a race slowly grew resistant to their mental powers and then overthrew the empire. Annoying I know, but it was bound to happen sooner or later.

High Orcs

12-09-2004, 08:37

High Orcs

12-09-2004, 09:04

OOC:

I know this is OOC, dearie, yet I thought my post could be more interesting if I put my opinion regarding that as a IC statement of letter than just pouring words out of my clumsy fingers.

I just wanted to say that I accept all your claims depicting your orcs as really different to any other kind of orc we have seen before, yet as long as you're able to recognize the rest of the elven nations as different from the elves that your people have met before, mostly when, like in my case, we're talking about Tolkienite elves. Most elven nations here in NS use the Tolkienite pattern for their elvenkin, although I'm well aware of several exceptions.

See you around, I suppose it's a pleasure to have you back, despite our obvious differences.

I never got to reply to this. Whooooops!

While it's true I may speak badly about Elves, especially the Palladium Elves, the Tristine Chroncles, a great book that is much like the Bible of Palladium, giving history, prophecy, and revelation to the Palladium world, expresses that Elves were a very heroic race in the annals.

What was known is that Elves were indeed one of the earliest races created by the Old Ones (The first being the Dragons), after the Angels, Demons, and Great Titans. They could be thought of as the very first humanoid-sized race, and were almost addicted to Magic (note that the Chronicles profess that the Old Ones were also the creators of All Magic, and from them exists the original source that still burns to this day). Thus the entire race was much like infants who would suck from the teet of the Old Ones, with every spell increasing the Old Ones power over them (but they were absolute, so it wasn't like they *didn't* already dominate everything anyway).

However, just before the Time of 1000 Magicks, the Elf-Mage, Lictalon, rose to great power over his people. Lictalon was an incredible wizard, and formed a pact with the Angel Lokum and Dragon Kym-Nark-Mar. Together, these three lead the rebellion against the Old Ones. In their betreyal, thousands of RACES were destroyed in genocide. Trillions died. Countless races that never would know light again were banished in the War.

However, it was to the credit of the Elf Lictalon once more that the three created the ultimate spell that put all the Great Old Ones in an eternal sleep. They were then supposedly buried under the Mountains of the New Kingdom (Now called the Old Kingdom) that was built when the Age of 1000 Magicks (around 60,000 years ago, predates the Age of the Elves) began.

Lictalon has since been canonized as one of history's greatest heroes. Kym-Nark-Mar is a Dragon-God, and the Angel Lokum is the head of celestial champions. (Note that in Palladium terms, Angels are actual spirits of Light and have nothing to do with the western monotheistic 'Angel' in any way, shape, or form. These are incredible beings of supernatural power that are bound to the prime elements that seek to do good in the world)

You may think they are degenerated all you want Aliria honey. The truth be told, they're not. Brothers from a another mother, as the term goes.

MINOR EDIT / UPDATE:

In recent research, I've discovered that Lictalon (whom was granted Immortality), took it upon himself to conquer one of the two Daemonic Realms by himself (those two being connected to Palladium: Entire worlds hosted by Demons that spill into Palladium in an effort to subjugate it {Much like China, Calgary, and Southern Germany in Rifts Earth}. They are named Hades and Dyval. Hades is much worse than Dyval, and hosts to Ba'al-Rogs (Not Balrogs. These things are worse), Magots (not Maggots), and perhaps supernatural intelligences unknown. It's unknown to what progress Lictalon is making in which realm he has chosen (most likely Dyval. It's covered with forests and the demonic hordes are a bit less severe), but he will most likely complete his goal.

Padmasa

12-09-2004, 20:41

Yo Pads, I will begin getting my notes about Orcs together after this week and begin combining them into a proper collection. However, when balanced to my 19 credit hours this semester, this may be a very long process.

It may take about a month... Sorry about this in advance.

Take as long as you want, I have a lot to do before I want to start in on orks. No reason to be sorry for not being able to spend far too much time playing the game.

High Orcs

13-10-2004, 20:23

Scientific Classifications:

Orkum Tolkienae = Middle Earth's Orcs
Orkum Gygaxi = Faerun's Orcs
Orkum Siembadae = Palladium's 'Lesser Orcs'
Orkum Siembadae Supremum = Palladium's 'High Orcs'
Orkum Draenei = WarCraft Orcs
Orkum Fungae = WH40K Orks

Orcs:

Orcs are the most common of the sub-human races ((Hob-)goblins and/or trolls being the second most common, depending on origin). THey have a reputation forbeing dull-witted, muscle-bound brutes with a wicked disposition. Most people regard orcs as stupid, greedy creatures with delicate egos that make them vulnerable to all manner of deception and trickery. Furthermore, they are easily startled by sudden unexpected displays of magic or superhuman powers. Likewise, orcs are outrageously haughty and brazen fighters when in large numbers and/or facing an obviously weaker opponent, but they are easily unnerved and down-right cowardly when clearly outmatched or facing magical or supernatural opponents. Many a warrior has bluffed and bullied his way out of dilemmas with orcs where the barbaric creatures had the definite upper hand but were conned into believing otherwise. However, many a bold warrior has lost his life by overplaying his hand or mistaking all orcs to be nervous cowards. An orc will remember who has wronged or tricked him and extract a cruel vengeance when the scales tip in his favor. Worse, the anger of an orc knows no bounds. When truly outraged, a single orc will attack ten opponents without hesitation, be they human or devils straight from Hell! Such madmen will often fight to the death. And the man who thinks all orcs are shiftless cowards had but one foot in the grave and is just waiting for an orc to put him in his final resting place. Orcs are born predators who genuinely enjoy combat.

In the right group, orcs can be as fiercely loyal, heroic and courageous as a Paladin. Orcs of good or aberrant alignment will never bretray a friend of ally, or desert him at a moment of need. They get this reputation because orcs are dull-witted, easily startled (not easily frightened) and tend to have a "herd mentality," that is to say that they follow the crowd. Thus, is the majority of their group is scared and retreats (like lily-livered goblins) the orcs in the party become scared and run away too. On the other hand, an Orc will face down a god or demon lord if the rest of his group convincingly pretends not to be afraid. Orcs also look to strong, charismatic leaders or powerful warriors in the group, from whom they take their lead --- orcs respect physical strength, agility and combat skills above all else. They fear magic and the supernatural because they don't understand them and because these things represent superhuman power (something they can understand and respect). The problem with utilizing orcs in an army or any large group, is that there are too many distractions and people to look at for their cues. Consequently, large groups of orcs tend to be unorganized, unfocused, and easily confused. A small group of 6-20 with a strong leader can be devastating, something ogres, trolls, and evil sorcerers take advantage of frequently.

Orcs, goblins, and hob-goblins are constantly found living together, often functioning as mermbers of the same tribe. Orcs are even found living with goblins in their subterranean tunnels. This had led some people to believe that these creatures are all related in some way, but the Orc is a completely different species than his goblin friends (Tolkien Note: The Tolkienite Goblin is actually a sub-species of the Tolkienite Orc {which is in turn popularly thought of as a sub-species of the Tolkienite Elf}, that went through natural selection and isolated evolution within the darkened pits of the Insides of mountains. Their passive nightvision (noted by their extremely large eyes), small stature, ability to scale walls and increased agility are remarkable changes in Orcish physiology). They associate together mainly because they are very similiar in intellect, temperment and society. Like Orcs, goblins function on the philosophies of "Might Makes Right," and "The Weak Exist only to Serve the strong" (It's noted that these philosophies are mere lasting remanents of the 'Orcish Doctrine' created by the High Orc clans before their destruction and serve as unknown reminders of their past).

A typical small band of Orcs will range from 20 to 60 with either a warrior chief or powerful magic-user or priest. Frequently the leader of the tribe is of a different race. Ogres, Trolls, Giants and even humans frequently command groups of Orcs --- they tend to be everybody's minions because they are so easily impressed by brute strength and raw power. Large tribes may consist of as many as two or six thousand, with another several hundred (sometimes thousands) goblin and hob-goblin allies or fellow tribesmen. The larger tribes usually have a powerful tribal king or queen who is an extraoprdinary warrior or practitioner of magic (clergy included), or a supernatural monster like a greater demon, dragon, or Godling. A War Chief is the second in command and a string of war lords, lieutenants and advisors subdivide the tribe into more easily manageable groups. However, such large groups are usually chaos in motion, with splinter groups and rabble rousers causing confusion, disobeying orders, misinterpreting orders, and so on.

Male and female orcs are surprisingly caring nurturing parents and very protecting of their young. Orc parents will fight to the death to defend their mate and their children. Raiders who slay or kidnap an orc child will be hunted down by the parents, and sometimes other family members and friends, and brutally slain. Orcs have been known to spend years, if necessary, to avenge the slaughter of their offspring. For this reason, many slavers and plunderers will leave orc children behind and untouched, even if they are reasonably certain all the adults have been captured or killed. Most surviving adults will stay with the orphaned children to protect and raise them even if their mate has been killed. Even orcs not related to the abandoned child will usually take care of it as if it were his/her own. Only a diabolical orc will leave an orcish child to fend for itself (this paragraph may not be inclusive to Orkum Tolkienae, as they are much more savage and barbaric than the other Orcish races).

While many orcs have been corrupted to the ways of evil by goblins, trolls and others, many are neutral and good sentient beings. Since Orcs are everybody's cannon fodder and dupes, as well as slaves and servants, nobody thinks twice about one or more orcs in a mixed group, or that Orcs might associate with any race from humans to dragons. One thing those whom use them should be prepared for is people treating them like an ignorant savage or vile brute. Most people talk down to orcs (if they address them at all) and seldom show respect to even the most noble, heroic or generous orc the slightest courtesy or respect. This can also work to their advantage because most people greatly underestimate them and some will talk right in front of them as if they weren't even present.

Note: More to come about society, culture, art & education.