#this is also a heavy simplification of their lore!!! there is so much more i could say!!!!!

[draconic-absurdism]

INTRO TO XORRYADDANS

Xorryaddans, or Xors, are a group of 5 sub-species of alien who evolved as apex predators in various niches on their home-planet. In order: diggers (vok'unek), fighters (ro'riku), gliders (vi'ivivek), jumpers (zi'ijikek), and runners (vaveer)*. Also pictured is a cityscape on their current planet, New Xorrya.

Their ocular organ is set inside their skull above their mouths. Their bones and skin function as one-way glass. This allows them to see almost 360 degrees without moving their heads. When bright light hits their head right, you can vaguely see the outline of their skull and "eye" inside their skin.

*The terms are approximate translations; their language is made up of an incredibly complex set of clicks, chirps, teeth clacks, and other sounds that can be made without a tongue. Humans would not be able to properly pronounce words from their language!

Story under the readmore:

Xorryaddan society quickly industrialized and formed into classes, and capitalist societies drove much of the wildlife to extinction within a few hundred years. Ads lined the streets, and corporations plastered their logos over the night sky. Work was hard, and pay was little. They had to quickly evolve to subsist off of ionizing radiation from nuclear waste, rather than consuming solid food. The greed of the wealthy eventually led to the total collapse of the ecosystem, and eventually, the end of the world.

Hundreds of thousands of workers hijacked billionaires' airships, locating a safe new planet with plenty of radiation to feed on: they called it New Xorrya (pictured), a planet so radioactive that the only other thing living on it were various types of radiotrophic fungi.

New Xorrya is the closest planet to the sun in the same solar system as Daeji and Pyrexia. It's a rotation-locked planet, unbearably hot on the sun-facing side and unbearably cold on the other, so Xors settled on the strip of perpetual twilight. New Xorrya provided an unexpected opportunity to restart and create a new, better society.

Xors continued to develop their technology, but this time without a profit motive. Quick and accessible public transportation between walkable cities. The ability to vote on local issues on secure mobile devices, built to be convenient rather than addictive and ad-filled. Massive housing complexes that are both communal and provide ample private spaces. In-depth storytelling and history lessons told through video games, virtual reality, and technically impressive performances with practical effects.

But they still mourn for their lost world. When called upon, they will assist other worlds in overcoming a capitalist ruling class and saving their ecosystems. They spread the message: we were a rare exception, most of you will not get a second chance. You must protect your planet. All power to the people.

[thetoxicgamer]

Space Marine 2 is Gears of War on steroids, and a treat for 40k fans

40k Warhammer Space Marine 2 is primarily a third-person shooter and just secondarily a Warhammer 40k game. That's not to suggest that a sequel to the tale of Titus, a former Firstborn Captain of the Ultramarines Space Marine Chapter, won't be given to ardent aficionados of the universe, but if, like me, it means little to you, Space Marine 2 won't lose you in the minutiae of its lore. After playing an hour of Space Marine 2’s second level and having a chat with Saber Interactive creative director Oliver Hollis-Leick at Gamescom 2023, it became very clear to me that the team is aiming to strike a balance between doing right by longtime fans and people like me when the Space Marine 2 release date rolls around later this year. Hollis-Leick played Dawn of War 2 when it came out and has read so many Warhammer 40k books and novels that I imagine he has whole shelves dedicated to the series, but that doesn’t mean he’s not thinking about new fans. “How do we make it feel accessible to someone who’s got no familiarity with whatsoever?” Hollis-Leick ponders. “We worked with Games Workshop to relax some of the terminology where possible, to use more common terms to make this a little bit easier to understand. Also, I wanted to avoid massive exposition dumps at the start of the game about what Aterian is, what a Rubicon Primaris is, and all that stuff. So it was a combination of simplification and drip-feeding as much visual storytelling as possible.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzucEQ-VhHQ That visual storytelling is immediately evident too, with a massive mud-drenched battlefield opening up the second level while soldiers bark orders at one another and fight the Tyranids – Warhammer 40k’s aliens that are reminiscent of the bugs in Starship Troopers – as they come running at you in droves. There’s so much in the character design and world itself that isn’t outright explained, and yet Space Marine 2 absolutely feels part of a larger universe that easily welcomes you into its mechanics. Warhammer 40k fans will not be left wanting, I’m sure of it, even if the presentation isn’t immediately lore-heavy. While Space Marine 2 is not a cover shooter, instead opting for a blend of ranged and melee combat against hordes of enemies that you can tackle in up to three-player co-op, it will definitely appeal to fans of that genre. If you thought the jacked dudes, screaming, and gore of Gears of War was intense, Space Marine 2 dials that up to 11 while offering you a smooth blend of ranged and melee combat. Because Saber Interactive is leveraging its tech from 2019’s World War Z, Space Marine 2 will see you fending off hordes of enemies as they scramble over each other to reach your position, and when they do you’ll need to dodge roll, melee attack, and parry your way around the battlefield. Space Marine 2 is a delicate dance of off-the-cuff judgments, where your choice comes down to point-blank executions or chainsaws through the chest. “We felt that the story of a Space Marine cannot be told without that epic scale,” Hollis-Leick adds. “So there is a lot of sort of programming wizardry that goes into it, we have to be very efficient with graphics.” You’ll see swarms of Tyranids from hundreds of meters away bearing down on you like a flock of birds, only for them to push right up to your position and charge you without a second thought. Space Marine 2 is a successful exercise in over-the-top game design. You’re controlling an eight-foot-tall immortal man who likely weighs over 1,000kgs in armor, and you’re somehow gliding around the battlefield like an Olympic figure skater. While that might sound like it shouldn’t work on screen, it really does. The movement and gunplay are top-tier, and this is what makes it appeal to anyone who doesn’t know their Space Marines. The core experience of Space Marine 2 is so good that newbies won’t feel lost, but while big fans will definitely still get what they want. If you’re also a fantasy gamer, we’ve got all the best Warhammer games you’ll ever need as well, alongside some brilliant co-op games to keep your squad busy in the meantime. Read the full article

[thedinanshiral]

Magic, mages and more

If you’ve played the Dragon Age series you’ve probably noticed some differences here and there. Origins was heavy on tactics, something Inquisition lacks considerably, and Dragon Age 2 allowed for blood magic, which Origins had little of and Inquisition barely mentions. All lore aside, we can experience magic in Thedas more closely through our mage companions in each game ( or your character if you chose the mage class).

First, i’ll discuss briefly how magic spells have changed throughout the games, then i’ll analyse a mage pattern and how it broke. And finally i’ll entertain some future over the top possibilities.  

Origins and DA2 were designed primarily to be played on PC, and we see this more clearly on Origins through its tactics-heavy gameplay. Spells in Origins are more suitable to a carefully planned combat strategy, with passive and status-inducing spells presented in a variety that didn’t survive into the following games. DA2 also allows for tactics but the combat system is more dynamic, it’s not necessary to pause/unpause 5 times per second, one can do battles in real time and as a result spells were considerably reduced, prioritizing active/offensive spells, and almost entirely eliminating status-inducing and supportive spells.

Unlike its predecessors, Inquisition was way more console-friendly and all but eliminated the tactics system from Origins; now combat was fast, direct, with a tactical screen capable of basic commands and overall limited, and spell trees were reduced to the bare minimum, with elemental attacks, and very few defensive spells, having completely eliminated healing.

So, in short, summonings disappeared after Origins, as did most of the Creation, Spirit and Entropy trees. By Inquisition, none of the glyphs or hexes survived. Some spells icons from DA2 reappear in Inquisition, but most from Origins never made it past it, and some spells changed name or spell tree between games. There’s a gradual simplification of spell trees from one game to the next, adjusting combat to a more straightforward style, with less support or status-inducing spells and an increasing concentration of active spells with enhancing passive ones. On the other hand, Healing all but disappeared from Inquisition spells, “spirit healer” not even surviving as a specialization, with the only healing spell available being Revival which as the name implies you can only use on an already fallen party member. Surprisingly, Dispel made it through all three games staying in the same spell tree, Spirit, and elemental spells remained the same across all games, with minor changes.

Now let’s take a look at all our main mage companions.

In Origins we have Morrigan (apostate, shapeshifter), and Wynne (circle mage, spirit healer, vessel for spirit of Faith). In DA2 we have Merrill (dalish, blood mage), and Anders (former circle mage turned apostate, healer, vessel for spirit of Justice/Vengeance). In inquisition however we get three mages: Dorian (Tevinter pariah, pyromancer, necromancer), Vivienne (circle loyalist, icemancer, knight-enchanter) and Solas (apostate, electromancer,rift mage).

Just in case the pattern isn’t clear enough..In both games we get an apostate and formally educated and trained mage, a mage who lived in the wild and a mage who lived in cities, a mage who dwells in obscure or forbidden magic used for offense and a mage dedicated primarily to healing and support, a mage who deals in dangerous magic but remains their own and a mage who despite dealing in safer magic harbours a spirit within (by Chantry dogma, an abomination).

This pattern is broken in Inquisition; while we still get an apostate and a circle mage, we also get a mage that while not from the circle still isn’s technically an apostate (Dorian), we also get no healer but we do get a mage that specializes in obscure magic (necromancy), and we don’t really get a mage that has lived in the wild but one who’s lived outside of Thedosian society (Solas, being who he is and having recently woken up from the longest nap ever). And instead of getting a mage sharing their body with a spirit of the Fade, we get an ancient elf who secretely is an elvhen god and the creator of the Veil. Solas breaks the pattern (as well as everything else, apparently).  

I’ll focus on Inquisition from now on and leave Solas for last. 

Auto-level evidences the default element of choice of each mage. Solas is an electromancer, Dorian is a pyromancer, and Vivienne is an icemancer. Dorian preferring fire makes sense as a Tevinter who constantly complains the South is cold, implying his homeland has a warmer weather he sorely misses. Vivienne choosing cold spells goes perfectly with her personality, presenting herself as an ice queen.

Here is where it begins to get a bit tricky: Specializations.

Dorian’s is Necromancy, which would make a lot of sense...if he was Nevarran. Being a Tevinter it’d make more sense for him to be a Blood Mage. But Origins and particularly DA2 already exposed blood magic, painted it in all its evil colours, made it pretty clear it’s the wrong kind of magic to use for all the dangers it entails. By the time we get Inquisition, we face an actual Magister Siderial and Tevinter is painted as this degenerate empire full of evil blood mages, so getting a blood mage specialization was out of the table. Therefore our Tevinter ally got the next most questionable line of magic, necromancy. Because nothing says “almost evil” as raising up the death to fight for you and draining lifeforce from your enemies.

Next we have Vivienne who specialises as a Knight-Enchanter (KE). She’s a Circle mage, a Loyalist at that, and KE is a path reserved for Circle mages allowed to engage in combat when requested. But we learn from Solas that the powers used by Knight-Enchanters have their origin in the Arcane Warriors of the ancient elves. Vivienne has no known connection to anything elven, so her being able to become a KE is just another example of the cultural appropriation of elven elements and knowledge done by humans and the Chantry. 

None of the specializations are entirely new, as already stated KE takes from Arcane Warriors, much of the Necromancer tree comes from the previous games’ Entropy trees, and the Primal and Force trees lend some spells to the supposedly brand new Rift tree. 

Then there’s Solas, who is the default Rift Mage once specializations become available. The Rift spell tree is a post-Breach occurrence, as it was developed by mages studying the Breach and resulting rifts that appeared all over Thedas. It should have unique spells yet it recycles old ones: Stonefist no longer deals physical damage as it did in Origins and DA2 when it was in the Primal tree and meant hurling rocks at the enemy, but spirit damage as it now involves summoning a boulder directly from the Fade. Similarly, DA2’s Force spell Fist of the Maker and subsequent upgrades, Maker’s Hammer and Maker’s Fury, described as “slamming enemies into the ground” with some invisible force became Veilstrike in the Rift tree of Inquisition, there described as “smashing nearby foes to the ground” by “recreating your own fist from from the essence of the Fade”.

Knowing what we know about Solas, his specialization makes sense, he’s responsible for the Veil’s existence so of course he’d know how to manipulate its properties. He’s Fen’Harel, after all. 

Still with me? Good, because this ride is about to get bumpy.

As the default Rift mage he can use Veilstrike, recreating his “own fist from the essence of the Fade”,  but Veilstrike is actually a rename of Fist of the Maker…So what Solas is really doing whenever he casts Veilstrike is casting the Fist of the Maker. By recreating his own fist..It’s all in the name. Fist of the Maker pre-dates Rift magic, but its rebranding as Veilstrike is post-Breach and named after the Veil and not the Maker, possibly because the one who introduces us to this particular spell now is not Andrastian but the ancient elvhen god and creator of the Veil.  Technically speaking  we could say Solas, having created the Veil ages ago and therefore being the one responsible for the present reality of Thedas, is then, in a way, its maker. It’s a wild idea, I know, and there are some bits of lore scattered around that could support it, but i’m not jumping into that abyss yet-

In addition, let’s go back to his auto-leveled spells. At first sight there’s no basis for Solas being an electromancer. But like his Rift specialization, his magic preferences are lore/plot oriented. To consider:

Solas prefers the Storm tree. Skyhold is, by its very name, the place from where the Veil was installed. Some codices found at Skyhold mention electricity being used in unknown rituals at Skyhold’s location. Solas was responsible for creating the Veil.

With this in mind it can be concluded that Solas has always been an electromancer, and even used his electric powers in some way to help put up the Veil in the past.

tl;dr Solas was originally an electromancer and is a Rift Mage because he created the Veil and knows it better than anyone else. Also, he may be the Maker. (loljk or am i)

Now what would you say if I told you Solas possibly also does blood magic? Too much of a stretch? Maaaybe..Except maybe not. He’s not against it, thinks of it as simply a means to an end, and doesn’t disapprove of it unless it’s done in excess for all the wrong reasons (as they do in Tevinter) or is used to limit freedom like when used to bind unwilling spirits or control people’s minds. It’s just an idea, but there must be an explanation why blood magic and lyrium (titan blood, so, still blood magic) can be used to tear the Veil open. The Magisters did it before, and a second time when Corypheus sacrificed Divine Justinia in a ritual that also involved...Solas’ Foci. That is, Fen’ Harel’s Foci.

From Tevinter Nights we learn Solas is after the red lyrium idol (again, titan blood) which he claims belongs to him and is a necessary element for the ritual he must perform to take down the Veil. A ritual for which he’s willing to destroy Thedas as we know it, regrettably causing the dead of thousands. For all we know, those deaths are a necessary sacrifice because they are part of a massive blood magic ritual, Solas’ own death may also be part of it. If the blood of a Divine could be used to open the Breach, what could the blood of Fen’Harel be used for?? Solas’ new powers as Fen’Harel are, frankly, terrifying*, and he’s decided to do whatever it takes to see his mission through, sadly.

And all this leads me to future possibilities..we can imagine with Solas actively trying to take down the Veil there will be places where the Veil gets super thin or begins to disappear. Pockets of space where reality no longer respects natural laws of physics or logic. The Fade is fluid, ever changing, with the right power it can be reshaped at will and i imagine some of that may begin to leak into the physical world, so we may get mage (or spirit! )companions with skills capable of taking advantage of that. 

Lastly, i may add, right now and as far as we can see, Solas is OP as fuck*. He can kill you in your sleep from within your dreams. He can turn you into stone with just thinking of it, which means in a way he can bend the laws of nature of the physical world like he can do in the Fade, If in the future we get close to him,if we get our hands on artifacts or intel.. it won’t because we gathered the right people and resources, it won’t be because of clever tactics and espionage, it won’t be at all because we did anything right. It’ll be because he allows it, because he let us get that far. 

If we stop him at all it’ll be because he wants to be stopped.   

(Apologies in advance if some of this is poorly written, i revised it so many times words no longer look like words. Also half of this is just wild speculation on my part and nobody has to agree with me, after 5 years i may be connecting imaginary dots but hey, it’s fun! If you read this far...i am so sorry, thanks)

[theveryworstthing]

hey guys, do you want ANOTHER Downtrodden lore post tonight? because i got part two to the gods thing. a basic rundown (i say basic but dang that’s a lot of words) of Pando, the most well known god, and Katah, the most forgotten.  please enjoy.

Pando: the simplified version of the old Lango word for stain. Also a god. Generally kind, often depicted as a buck but sometimes depicted as a doe because who really knows? Very interested in where this whole ‘rabbits as a sapient species’ thing is going. Honestly on the edge of their seat to see what happens next. There have been some real batshit twists so far.

Fun Facts: Pando is the only god with a consistent outward appearance and the only god considered omnipresent. Pando’s godly love is more like extreme interest in the fact that you are a thing that exists. Because wow. Look how far this got! Its very unlikely that he can save you from much since he’s just a record keeper and he’s seen too many dead rabbits to really be affected by it anymore, but he’ll help if he can since he likes talking to people so much.

The Beginning: In the beginning there was the world. There had to be a world already, or there wouldn’t be anywhere for rabbits to exist. And at the time, rabbits didn’t exist. Rabbits came later, when the world probably wasn’t paying attention very hard. So one evening on the island, in the shade of a large tree, in a nest of someone not quite a rabbit, the first rabbits happened.  And the moment there were the first rabbits there was Pando. And Pando looked out from their nest of siblings at the world with eyes and ears impossibly open. And the moment after the moment there were the first rabbits, there was memory.

Thus was born the first rabbit god.

What Happened Because They Happened: Commonly known as the god of recorded life/memory, Pando observes and remembers all of rabbit history and is slated to live forever/up until all this mess is done with. The mythology surrounding them is vast, linking them to the first concepts of survival and love. Survival, because remembering what’s good to eat and what wants to eat you is basic stay alive protocol. And love, because they often spoke of the ability to remember as proof that a love of life and all its wonders was so completely baked into the existence of rabbits from the start. I mean, rabbits couldn’t help but unconsciously absorb even the worst of it on a spiritual level. This sounds like some real celestial so and so but necromancy proves that yeah, you keep those memories even after you misplace all your guts. So while rabbits know that memory problems can be caused by disease or encounters with misjudged doorway heights, most also see it as a spiritual thing and treat it as such.

Pando has a soft spot for the forgotten, whether that be places, stories, or people, and will sometimes grant knowledge of these things by way of dreams. The hope is that some piece of the forgotten be found, re-created, or retold by the dreamer, allowing the memory to live on. They also tweak the conditions in certain areas to help preserve abandoned places or remains, help people restore lost memories, help people decode memories (memory isn’t perfect and despite all the ‘unconscious act of love’ stuff Pando also acknowledges that rabbits do a lot of unconscious acts of editing for info that actually matters/conscious blocking of brain poison), and take memories too painful for the carrier to bear into themselves for sealing away. This power marks them with slowly expanding patches of tangled black fur, each strand made from intertwining lives and events. They can warp their voice into any sound they’ve ever heard, and when they speak, the patches of black fur flow over their body and form scenes from the past. Some stories say they look less like a rabbit, and more like a rabbit-shaped void of white that flickers with dancing black shadows.

Pando, being the first and most well known of the gods, is regarded as the reason that Rabbits have such good ties with their history. Even though much slips through the cracks just by merit of the universe being how it is, rabbits know way more about their past than other cultures. Of course rabbit-kind’s flair for necromancy is a huge reason for this too, but Pando helps.

And lastly, the rage. Because even in a literal nerdlord like Pando there is rage. That’s just how rabbits are. And in rare tales of this rage its said that they can make enemies forget. Forget how to move, forget how to speak, forget who they are. Their curses don’t stop the cursed from re-learning, as erasing memory isn’t their style, but still.

After the first handful, they’ve never really had many enemies.

Katah: simplification of the old lango word for necessity. Also a god. Intimidating and cunning but chill, always depicted as a doe. Loves puzzles and watching her enemies drown in their own blood. Distrusts non-rabbit gods. Kind of Intense.

Fun Facts: Is said to control nearby water/blood. Usually for problem visualization purposes but sometimes for the aforementioned blood drowning. Iconography of her is present at all Frost Tasting festivals since they were originally started by devout followers of hers. Strangely, though Frost Tasting’s meaning has never significantly changed, her connection to it has been lost on some parts of the island due to her lore being heavily edited long ago. These days images of her monstrous form are used as just another spooky tradition instead of the symbol of strength and pure rabbit cussedness that they used to be.

The Beginning: There is no god that created all rabbits, but there were the Mothers. When the mothers gave birth to the rabbits they knew their children were different. They were smaller and weaker, exchanging brute strength for strange powers and quickness. This was before burrows and warrens, and long time enemies of the Mother’s kind would pick their children off as they roamed above ground, killing litter after litter, leaving few kits to survive to adulthood no matter how ferociously they were defended. And The Mothers despaired because their gods wouldn’t help their children, saying they couldn’t have created such strangeness and so they were not responsible for them. And the Mothers were angry about this because what the hell? They and their Mothers before them and before them and before them had always done the heavy lifting vis-à-vis creation anyway, why would the gods start ignoring their children now? And the angriest mother lost so many litters before she gave birth to Katah.

Katah the false. Born with teeth bared. Key for many locks. God of Fucking Doing Something About The Problem.

What Happened Because They Happened: Katah had teeth like diamonds and a body that she could shift in size with the swiftness and fluidity of ocean waves. Her voice was like a storm, ranging from howling winds that carried signals to her people, to cracks of terrifying thunder that set her enemies running. She also had a normal speaking voice when she was rabbit sized but that wasn’t much less terrifying. She was just… generally terrifying.

Anyway.

She did indeed end up doing something about the problem. As soon as she was old enough, she began ripping the throats out of the problem. Back and forth she roamed over her family’s widening territory, pushing back threats and even finding rabbits who shared shades of her frightful magics (her mother was not the only angry mother). Some of these rabbits chose to fight by her side but they were not gods. No matter how ferocious they were, Katah knew the clock was ticking as she watched them fall in battle one by one. So she searched for another way, since Fucking Doing Something About The Problem ideally means creatively working towards fixing it, not just hammering away with one unsustainable solution until you crash and burn. But she needed inspiration, and soon she found some. Half drowned in a cave by the sea.

Bur was not a god, they weren’t even particularly magically gifted, but Bur had noticed that even the god who was trying to manage this mess was having a rough time of it. So they sought their own solution to The Problem by hiding from it in the sea caves. Long story short, high tides are a thing and cunning does not grant one extra buoyancy. Luckily, Katah happened upon them just in time, and while their plan had some obvious busted bits, the whole ‘living somewhere the bloodthirsty predators have a hard time getting to so you don’t have to constantly sacrifice people fighting them off’ thing really struck a cord with her. After bouncing engineering ideas around in between bouts of rending the flesh of those who would challenge her, she and Bur got some rabbits together and those rabbits got to digging. And thus, burrows (originally Bur-Holes but the name never really stuck since everybody hated it except Bur)were created.

Katah’s origin makes rabbits associate her with protection, refusal to accept mistreatment, and fighting in the face of overwhelmingly shitty odds. This makes her the go to god for the abused and oppressed and the first god to be conveniently edited whenever assholes came to power. A LOT of Katah lore has been lost. Even her title has been changed, as she is most commonly known as the God Of Puzzles these days.

Some of her new lore paints her more as an intellectual pushed to her limits and forced to fight rather than a bloody avenger who loved the thrill of battle. Theologists argue which is the truth all the time since some of her old lore occasionally turns up (thanks Pando) but jokes on them, she was smart AND she loved crushing skulls.

One of the reasons that it was so easy to turn the focus of her lore from skull crushing is that many of her exploits have her linked to nurturing creativity, problem solving (of course), and innovation. These attributes are what she’s best known for these days, and many of her blessings involve helping people find answers to life’s many problems. This includes everyone from researchers trying to cure deadly diseases to camouflage minded fashion designers to engineers trying to build better toilets. Sometimes it even includes that one guy who won’t stop trying to make everything he touches shoot flames, but people like that guy are seen as more cursed than blessed(what problem is he even trying to solve????).

Most of her godly duties are consultation based. She comes to those crying into stacks of blueprints or screaming into the night sky about wanting to physically fight cancer with their actual fists and offers up all the info she’s gained over her very long existence (you can’t solve such a variety of problems over thousands of years without learning a bunch along the way). Sometimes she’ll just sit and listen though. Having the opportunity to explain their vision to someone who understands their passion helps a lot of people, and staring down a diamond-toothed god really gets your brain working overtime. No one is sure if that last bit is divine power or just regular fear. What works, works though yeah?

And speaking of fear.

For those with more difficult puzzles, the ones who call to her with bruised throats, the ones who remember her old stories passed down from some random relative, the ones who don’t even know her name but are tired of being broken over and over and reach out for anyone...

The hunted.

The ones who need a problem solved for them.

She’s there with her diamond teeth. She’s there and she doesn’t care if the predator she’s after is in the shape of a rabbit.

There’s a reason some old warren kings made people forget how to ask her to bite.