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[✓] [Magic Lore + Playable CAs] Naztherak


BobBox
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8 hours ago, Olandyr said:

I seriously love this! It's a nice effort on building on old Naz lore and adding a lot more non-combative and freeform stuff. I really enjoy the aesthetic you've got going on. 

I think it might've been nice to see some more non-combative spells, though, to lend some more casual 'flair'. 

I'd argue a large portion of our lore is non-combative as is. Boons & banes, cursed idols, infernal blood-magic & its respective rituals, gatrov creation & adjacent land corruption are all for the most part non-combative, on top of the litany of aesthetic flavor spells we implemented. However, during the rewrite process we did some tweaking with the combative concerns in mind, and actually have less malflame spells than the currently accepted lore (From 11 to 8).

Admittedly it is still a bit too much, and I wish we took the steps to remove a bit more and overall work on cutting down the lore as much as we could without neutering our own RP.  Thanks for the feedback :)

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+1, as someone who has always been curious and interested about dark magic RP since the Aegis Undead, I think what you guys have built out here is something that can be just as special, if not more. 

 

I think what I like the most is the idea of cursed idols and boons / banes, and seeing Naz subvert communities and cause demonic complications in a way that isn't just simple murder / blood sacrifice can go a long way in adding player driven dark elements to the server. The path to ascending 'beyond' T5 and becoming a Zar’akal is a fantastic end-game for a dark magic practitioner as well, and something that I think other magics, both dark or otherwise, are missing.

 

I'd even personally like to see a boon / bane last something like three or four weeks, with purging only effective after one week, so that players afflicted by them have a much longer window to interact with the mechanics of the boon/bane and can't have them simply scrubbed away after a day or two of finding a Paladin. Most of them do not seem so dangerous or crippling toward RP that they can't become part of someone's character journey over a month.

 

The only banes I'd be concerned about with such a change would be blindness/deafness and Stolen Mind, which I don't fully understand - does that inhibit the ability to recall? From how it reads, a block on imagination seems like something out of the movie Memento, which is like an inability to remember faces, places, things, etc if they aren't right in front of you. That seems really strong and I think should be clarified a bit so it is clear exactly what imagination means in this context. What I imagine is that one is just driven to survival instincts unless they see things right in front of them that they can recall.

 

I'd also consider some sort of memory wipe mechanic (a la not remembering the past 30 minutes after a conflict) after a bane is placed, if the Naztherak so wishes to impose. Otherwise curing a bane feels as simple as waking up the next day and emailing some Paladins to purge this affliction that you know you got from a Naz from you, and the gravity of the bane isn't significant.

 

One thing I'm unclear on is how is maleus generated? Does it slowly regenerate over time, or is it exclusively gathered through blood sacrifice/harvesting from mortals? If so, I also think a similar memory wipe mechanic should apply to collecting maleus. You shouldn't need to kill people as much as consume their essence and make them forget their memory, as to spare people from obtuse Cloud Temple mechanics if they don't want to PK.

 

This lets you still spread dread and horror without the awkwardness of killing them over and over again and having them respawn. Naz stalking and milking people for maleus and harvesting them over and over again, without them understanding why they feel so drained and weak the next day is a lot terrifying and interesting roleplay then just murder hoboing for soul juice a bunch. I also think the quality of the harvest should be considered - slurping up a Templar or Paladin's soul to make maleus from should be worth a lot more than a random traveler. Maybe that can be left to RP over OOC mechanics, though.

 

If need be, both harvesting and killing could be mechanics too, where harvesting someone nets a sizable amount of maleus, while killing someone gets a bit more. This encourages players roleplaying Naz to only feel obliged to kill when they feel it is appropriate or when the narrative is good enough that the victim is comfortable with PKing. Not sure if any of this is part of the lore though, and it'd be cool to get clarity.

 

There's a lot of room for story and player engagement as well with the Princes, and I'm excited to see the types of storylines that emerge from Naztherak roleplay if this moves forward. Great job to all involved!

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Hey, thanks for the thorough response. I'll comb through each of your points.
 

20 hours ago, Cracker said:

I think what I like the most is the idea of cursed idols and boons / banes, and seeing Naz subvert communities and cause demonic complications in a way that isn't just simple murder / blood sacrifice can go a long way in adding player driven dark elements to the server.

This is a style of RP we've been encouraging within the community — interactions that prioritizes furthering a narrative and long-term RP rather than short, one-off encounters such as impromptu attacks or random village burnings (which, lets be honest, no one likes CRP). However, it's a style of RP not everyone tends to appreciate of dark mages. There's a handfull of players on the server who believe the impromptu attacks and random village burnings are the way to go. To each their own, but myself and other players are of the belief that what we pursue now is more likely to ignite a long-term narrative and create mutual enjoyment from both parties involved. It's why boons/banes and cursed idols are a favorite within our community. They're subtle but neat gadgets that perpetuate interaction.
 

20 hours ago, Cracker said:

I'd even personally like to see a boon / bane last something like three or four weeks, with purging only effective after one week, so that players afflicted by them have a much longer window to interact with the mechanics of the boon/bane and can't have them simply scrubbed away after a day or two of finding a Paladin. Most of them do not seem so dangerous or crippling toward RP that they can't become part of someone's character journey over a month.

In the early-mid stages of the rewrite, I had written a fleshed-out ritual for what was essentially voodoo doll creation (entirely OOC-consent based), something the server hasn't seen since soul puppetry many years ago. The intention was that it would accomplish what cursed idols and boons and banes lacked — something that would perpetuate personal character growth rather than surface-level insanity or cripple RP. I decided to remove it last minute in an attempt to remedy what was already an exceedingly long lorepiece, and I didn't feel like we were ready to introduce such a tentative element of RP at that point.

Boons & banes are tricky because they aren't RP tools that are best used for personal character development and growth. Personally, I perceive boons & banes not meant to be testaments to character growth and journey, but accessories of RP and interaction. We made the attempt to dramaticise them just a little by adding "greater boons," but at the end of the day I think they're better left as sneaky, deceiving gifts.

 

21 hours ago, Cracker said:

The only banes I'd be concerned about with such a change would be blindness/deafness and Stolen Mind, which I don't fully understand - does that inhibit the ability to recall? From how it reads, a block on imagination seems like something out of the movie Memento, which is like an inability to remember faces, places, things, etc if they aren't right in front of you. That seems really strong and I think should be clarified a bit so it is clear exactly what imagination means in this context. What I imagine is that one is just driven to survival instincts unless they see things right in front of them that they can recall.

For the Taken Sense bane, I added that adding both blindness/deafness combined requires OOC consent, while adding one without the other does not (adding just blindness but not deafness = no OOC consent, but adding blindness AND deafness = OOC consent). I also went ahead and added an extra redline/clarification, as well as some more specific example details and thorough descriptions to Stolen Mind. Do these help? 

 

21 hours ago, Cracker said:

One thing I'm unclear on is how is maleus generated? Does it slowly regenerate over time, or is it exclusively gathered through blood sacrifice/harvesting from mortals? If so, I also think a similar memory wipe mechanic should apply to collecting maleus. You shouldn't need to kill people as much as consume their essence and make them forget their memory, as to spare people from obtuse Cloud Temple mechanics if they don't want to PK.

Maleus passively regenerates over 12 OOC hours, but may additionally be harvested through harvesting from soul-bearing mortals. Malflame has never been capable of killing a character. At most, it incapacitates them from the pain. I've taken the efforts not to encourage murderhobo or needless-killing RP, as I'm of the belief that the killing of characers who don't need to die is not conductive to fueling interaction, and does little more than stonewall one player from pursuing potential RP.  However, I understand the concerns.

The topic of adding a memory-wipe spell is something Bobbox and I butted-heads on a lot in our discussion chat. I have a strong distaste for memory-wipe spells, because I've only ever seen them used as a total cusion for RP consequence, a tool that completely bars further interaction and the potential for a story to unfurl for the fear of consequence. If you attempt to recall the encounter in-RP in any way, you're metagaming. I attempted to create a balance with the changes I made to the Stolen Mind bane, wherein a Naztherak may pursue villainy using this bane as a caveat of hiding their identity, but a long-term story may be pursued if the victim desires. 

 

21 hours ago, Cracker said:

I also think the quality of the harvest should be considered - slurping up a Templar or Paladin's soul to make maleus from should be worth a lot more than a random traveler.

I'm unsure if this would be able to be navigated within the realm of maleus harvesting, but I'm always a fan of unique lore interactions. I'm sure this can be considered for future MArts or lore pieces!

All in all we really appreciate the feedback, and it actually did help us clarify things we might have missed or gaps in the lore that should've been addressed. Hopefully I helped clarify some stuff and met the concerns :) 

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Oh hey, this is cool. I like what you did with Boons & Banes.

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This Lore has been accepted. Moved to Implemented Lore, it will be sorted to it's appropriate category soon. Please note that if this is playable lore, such as a magic or CA, you will need to write a guide for this piece. You will be contacted regarding the guide (or implementation if it isn’t needed) shortly.

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