Ideas from the Explorers Guild story

This idea came out while thinking about the "Explorers Guild of Negav" story, I'm going to post the specifics of every idea here while the story goes on.

Steam Golems

Psi-isol magiocrats, and likely, all the VIP in Negav ain't alwais overpowered mages that can deny an assassination plot by just snapping fingers and banishing the attackers from existence.
Many, indeed, surely fell into paranoia and hired as more bodyguards as possible. But being the very mercenaries or guards alike possible agents sent secretly to kill them, they invested some of their resources into tecno-magic research to create an artificial being that could substitute their not-so-trusted human fellows.

The answer to this urge were Steam Golems.
Machines developed from the ancient remains of a broken prototype found half-buried in the Miragia Forest zone, and brought to Negav at the cost of many human lives. The extradimensional provenience of the prototype (named "Wyrd") is certain.

The reverse engineering on "Wyrd" has discovered just a few of his secrets, and now seems to have come to a dead end, but just with that little data it was possible to craft the first Steam Golems.

How they work:
Steam Golems are armors propelled by a complex system of pistons, small steam engines and magic conductors alimented by an internal Furnace placed in the torso. They have the advantage of a strenght far superior than a common human, a good action speed and response to outer imputs, absolute obedience and a thick steel armor.
The "brain" of Steam Golems is nothing but a familiar chosen by he owner, bound to be connected to the binary magic frame system of the armor permanently. Until death and so, substitution.

The misadvantages of these wonderful machines are:
- The humongous cost and reperability of materials.
- Altough it's kinda hard to pierce the thick metal plates, many of his weak spots, needed for the proper functioning, are exposed.
- They are not perfectly protected from shocks that could destabilize or kill the familiar.
- The furnace has to be recharged daily by injecting fire magic directly in it. And so the water tank on the back.
- They're heavy.
- Combat mode halvens the durability of their daily recharge, but they're not meant to fight all-day long anyways.

I think if it was made of Ascarlin, it would be worth a hundred planets and everyone would be wanting to steal it.

Edit: Also Ascarlin is a gem, not a metal.

I really like their design ^_^
very cool idea here

This reminds me indirectly of the Vapyres I thought up for the elemental section on the wiki. Thats a scary thought, having one of them controlling a Steam Golem. It would never need recharging...

that armor reminds me heavily of that of "fable" if anyone here remembers that.

i think that a steam elemental/automatic armor for use as a soldier or guard would be cool, just as long as there aren't too many of them. either that, or have it an on-going project by the mages, or a mechanic's guild or whatever.

I need to know what you people think about this new character related to the story...

Let me introduce to you one of the ex-members of the Explorers Guild of Negav, who will appear in the next chapters:

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--Tiriath Shattenseite--

A creepy little girl who came in contact in her early years with the essence of a Demechrelle's minion through a dream, becoming bound to it.
Maybe for case, maybe for magic, the reason for this link is still unknown.

Being her body and mind in resonance with the minion, (which is still inside Demechrelle) she finds daylight uncomfortable, and kept living and wandering in dark, in the dangerous lands of Felarya, from since she has been abandoned by her parents, who actually live in Negav.

She survived protected just by the materialization of the beings in her dreams, as they can take form from any shadow in the surroundings.

She joined the Explorers Guild of Negav after Soren found her in the zone of Kjol cliffs, and saved her from committing a fatal, suicidal jump down.
As brought back to Negav, she met her parents and coldly slaughtered them with a cooking knife, with Soren still there.
She lived at the Headquarters of the guild for a while, until, being still a child she started to long for a real family again.

Seeing Tiriath become colder and eat less every day, Ladimus came in contact with a neko couple he knew back in Nekomura, two mages who accepted to adopt and watch over her.
Tiriath, enlightened by this perspective, left the guild with a smile on her face and started a new life in Nekomura, with parents that could understand her.
Once in a while the couple sends letters to Ladimus to inform him about Tiriath's conditions and everything they were able to find out analyzing the shadow materialization phenomena.

Five months have passed since the last letter came to Negav.


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question 1: do you guys think that a connection with Demechrelle's insides or minions could be possible, or did I dare too much?

question 2: I'm still doubtful about some design issues... like, she would at least need a cloak, to hide from sun rays. But this would hide a friggin' lot of loliness. I dunno. Ideas?

question 3: random impressions?

answer for all: yeah, I've been inspired by the friggin' lots of minions drawn by Karbo in his Demechrelle illustration

Well, if you wanted her to be protected from sunlight, but still... unclothed, you could possibly have her circumvent this via magic. Like there is a dark cloud constantly over her, no matter where she's walking.

Jætte_Troll wrote:

Well, if you wanted her to be protected from sunlight, but still... unclothed, you could possibly have her circumvent this via magic. Like there is a dark cloud constantly over her, no matter where she's walking.

mmmh... the mask that I've drawn on her head could be of use for this purpose, like, when she wears it, she's cloaked by a shadow vest (goth-loli - goth-loli) but being the minion's powers already concentrated on her against the sunlight, the monsters can't materialize as usual...

here's the design for Daylight Tiriath



form codename: eclypse

Once weared, The mask melts and reforms behind the head ( it's in another drawing, though )
The shadows spiral up on her body and materialize in form of a living vest. Yeah. she's wearing a monster.
To reach 100% coverage and protection from light, even the face, shoulders, legs and arms get covered with a black, thin layer.

(I really hope she doesn't have transpiration problems...)

conditions and rules of this form:

- sunlight needed. it forms automatically to prevent the banishing of the user. This, and the monsters, can't be evoked at will.

- the monsters materialization can't happen until the user is completely in the shade again (like... in a closing mouth)

- if the vest or the black layer are damaged, it won't regenerate, and the part of the user exposed to the light starts to burn.
The vest and layer will not reform until the eclypse condition is set off, and cast again. At the next evocation it will be complete again, without any damage.

abilities:

- can shoot a few materialized shadow needles to nail down other shadows, immobilizing the target for a couple of seconds.

- chest living plate and skirt grant armor-like protection but their weigt is far lower.

Wow that second form look just ominous ! especially those eyes ^^
I think her backstory is an interesting one and the link to the shadow minion offer a lot of possibilities ( since they are basicially part of Demechrelle herself )

Karbo wrote:

Wow that second form look just ominous ! especially those eyes ^^
I think her backstory is an interesting one and the link to the shadow minion offer a lot of possibilities ( since they are basicially part of Demechrelle herself )

I've started thinking about the link between this character's abilities and Déméchrelle... since the adventurers crazy enough to try a dungeon crawl into the Tenebra maze are surely a very slight number, and they appear just once in a while, are a ridiculous amount of food for Déméchrelle, even if she is in a letargic condition. Not even to menction how much the minions should eat, if they do.

I'll turn the character into a proper derivation of human race: let's call them... uuuh... Skuroi?

There could be a few humans around Felarya who, like Tiriath, came in contact with a minion like that. Like... the monsters that appear from the shadows around them, in addition to protect the "user" from immediate danger, once in a while eat a few living beings that, once gobbled, instead of suffering digestion in the monster's stomach, they find themselves in the Tenebra maze, thrown into nightmare and ready to become precious nutrition for Déméchrelle & buddies.

Plus, the users have absolutely no idea to be the feeders of the Tenebra maze. They just believe that they are suffering of an odd curse and they wander through all Felarya to find a cure, just bringing more fresh preys to the maze as they travel.

How's that?

Kinda scary, but then again, you excel in that department. Nice job.

It's really interesting I think. There is definitely something to do with that concept