Beta 0 Released
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Wrong use of “final”. I mean, Talarius has to make a decision about what to do before he can begin the next arc of his life.
Edit: Going after Melissance is the next arc. The current arc is about determining his goal in life. He old goal was kill all evil per church doctrine. [b][u]That defined who he is.[/u][/b]
– Who is he now?
– What is is purpose in life?You done so much building up to the answers to these two questions in this book.
Hi,
I have released Beta 0, tonight, Beta 1 is probably tomorrow night.
What is the difference?
The final scenes/chapter, and Lacuna’s 1 and 2 (of course they are missing by definition–but I am withholding them for now)
I’ve purposefully cut Lacuna 1 and 2 which are really hooks for going forward for the moment.
But Optional Beta 0 is not Beta 1 because it is missing the last part(s) of the last chapter (or two)
The big thing is the battle is being extended/improved. It’s a tricky sort of new thing we will want to discuss, but I can’t do justice to the last scenes/chapter by my self imposed deadline tonight. So, working on it tomorrow, hope to have it tomorrow night, worst case Tuesday night.
The big point is that I have to ensure it is a satisfying climax, so to speak. I think you will understand when you read what is there.
I thus call this an optional Beta in case you want to wait for real Beta 1. in 24 to 48 hours.
We are about at 260K words. Beta 1, I think will be 265K or so, before you guys tell me to add/chop. Of which i expect we will be doing.
T-A-G
PS I have bolded and REDed the super index of the PDF and have comments. I have actually included some changes that happened earlier in bold red that people may have missed.
[quote=Iume;5215]What would happen if another localverse link was the lowest cost alternative, but the lowest cost exceeded what would be automatically handled by the fail over protocols?Would Orcus just lose his link period until manually reestablished?Seems like a design flaw.[/quote]
Not completely following here.
The link is between Orcus and a Doomalogue. The link follows the lowest energy path by default (I.e. shortest possible line/path). The link will try to find a different path if the normal shortest is broken, but there is a limit to how much mana the link has in it to follow a path. At some point, the originator of the link would need to add more power to the link to get it to try higher cost paths. Like cranking up the wattage on a radio station.
About the only way this would happen in the Etterdam situation would be if one of the other localverse planets where there was a doomalogue was in the same star system. Even then, it might not be the lowest cost, in fact would not be than the astral plane, but it might be of sufficiently low cost that it could have failed over.
He would really just have to have built a second Doomalogue on Etterdam or moon(s) or other nearby planet.
However, none of the other worlds were in the same star system.
[quote=Burien;5216][quote=The Author Guy;5208][quote=Burien;5166]I was thinking that when Tiernon heres from Beragamos and sends in reinforcements, that this battle would be an excellent field test of the reversed Excrathadorus Mortis. He wanted to find out its capabilities, i cant imagine a situation that calls for an unlife slaying dagger more. Plus the potential for awkward moments this would cause could be so much fun[/quote]
I know. I thought the same.
Unfortunately, Iskerus somehow managed to ‘lose it’
Tiernon stole it from Iskerus.[/quote]
Thats why I was thinking just send it with the reinforcements. Iskerus losing it and then seeing an avatar waving it around would be just one of the awkward moments i thought of.[/quote]
That would be amusing….
[quote=Iume;5302]Arg-nargoloth is currently on Etterdam.[/quote]
That was a one nighter at that point. I think. Did he stay there training people?
He will be there when they get ambushed by the alvar, but that was postponed when they decided to stop and train.
He would have been summoned back for this though. He’s a member of the Tartarvardenennead and recall his conversation with Tizzy, they would be needing to have all hands on deck for such adventures in the future.
I need to check and maybe specifically have him recalled.
Storm lords start with the advantage, but Tom comes to the rescue too early atm because of their long setup, not pushing the advantage fast enough. Right now it seems like the SL stop to have a picnic while Tom is checking the mirror and having his moment.
If i was the SL I would start the Interdiction during the initial assault, after the fodder heads in, but before the heavy hitters, leaving little to no reaction time; zombie shock and awe. Right now its the forces from Doom that kick the battle off, seizing the initiative almost immediateley, when the battlefield should already be in chaos when they arrive thanks to the delay.
When the forces of Doom arrive and Proceed to give lessons on how shock and awe should be done(love the Doomboxes), it should be too late for the SL to bring in reinforcements/heavy equipment. The only recourse i see for the SL at this point would be more dirty tricks, already the key to their strategy. For example this version of the interdiction is based off of Lenamere’s wards, just like Freehold. Imagine all those avatars, demons, and d’orcs facing an expulsion, it could bring more drama to the battle while also providing a clue as to how the interdiction was set up, with both Hilda and Tom knowing the source of the expulsive effects.[quote=fallen_one_84;5162]
“Indeed.” Darg-Krallnom said. “However, we need the bodies to
fully man Doom and bring mana levels up to where we can open the
Doomalogues.”
“So are we the first?” Targh asked.
Darg-Krallnom nodded. “As planned.”since targh said are we the first i woulsd assume tthat there are other mount doom’s with d’orcs.
reason they didn’t return? standing orders to guard the Doomalogues.
[/quote]
That’s basically what I am thinking happened.[quote=fallen_one_84;5162]
definition 2 of standing order.
2.
a military order or ruling that is retained irrespective of changing conditions.like orcus dying. it would explain why the nysegard d’orcs did not return to mount doom.
Were some of the D’orc souls shoved in one of those Vergian Time Stasis traps or anima jars.
[/quote][SPOILER]That is what I’ve been thinking for the ones on Etterdam, killing all of them would take an incredible amount of time and resources. [/SPOILER]
[quote=fallen_one_84;5162]
do the elven gods have less mana over all since elves tend to have a lower birth rate.it would explain why they tend to use undead. they capture the souls of humans and convert them to mana.
with the undeads help. it would be a reason to capture the d’orc’s souls so the elves would use them as a mana source.
this way would allow you to bring some of Orcus’ former followers back.
its said in the body politic that Elves do not believe in souls in the human sense.
[/quote]It’s not so much that they don’t believe in souls, but after living for 5 to 10 thousand years, depending on sub-race, most have no desire to spend any time in an afterlife, so they release their animus to nature after death. This is also how many shamanistic groups do (e.g. orcs)
It’s not the elves using the undead, so much as an alliance of people who had/have similar goals, stopping Orcus.
[quote=fallen_one_84;5162]
they wouldn’t care for capturing the souls of their enemies and using them as fuel.
have them be at the etterdam doom which would make tiernon see what the elves doing as an abomination.
and this time not interfere in the forces of doom vs. El’adasir war.also why did some of the D’orcs not just not fly away.
[/quote]
D’Orcs don’t leave comrades on the battle field.However we still don’t know the complete story of what happened.
[quote=fallen_one_84;5162]
was the bubble just one way?
[/quote]
Nope, two way.
[quote=fallen_one_84;5162]
did the elven gods supply the mana to keep up the bubble?
[/quote]
Not clear yet, they very much knew about it, used it, as did Sentir Fallon.What the logistics were have yet to be revealed
[quote=fallen_one_84;5162]
and finally was Melissance a follower of sentir fallon.
it would explain why she got cut off from tierhallon so fast.
sentir being paranoid.
also at this time he would have given talarius the dagger.and she would hate sentir fallon.
also tentacle play =d>
[/quote]She would not have been a particular follower of hers.
The cut off was done by the people around her, mortal priests, her Diocate or Arch-Diocate could have excommunicated her. Very likely Iskerus.
All of whom where under the influence of EM.
one more thing what happened to orcus’s former demon followers. he must have had some.
sorry for the long ass post. fellow beta demons/readers.
its because of the speak up post.
[/quote][quote=The Author Guy;5320]
Tiernon will not be handing Sentir Fallon over to Tom. Judges (hopefully) don’t turn criminals bound and gagged over to the victims.[/quote]
Although, Tom does have a handy prison that Tiernon has used before
See, as I read it, everone was worried that doom would not get there in time. Then suddenly a gate appears and out comes orcus. It is possible I read it wrong and there was a gate to doom in a court yard all along and that i just missed it. It is possible that the gate was offline because doom was offline, and that reconnecting doom turned things back on, and that nobody simply noticed a great big glowing reactivated gate.
As for the moat, you have people worried that things fallining into it might effect the purity. Well my concern is, what happens if you simply march undead cannon fodder in with no other purpose than to die and pollute the water. If you aren’t sure about a lich, what about 50,000 skeletons?
It really isn’t blood and guts I’m after, it is the emotions. The feeling like the home team is on the verge of losing, and then out of nowhere help comes from an unexpected quarter. Heroism and sacrifice.
I mean take Hilda. For the last Hundred years she has had all the mana she could want, has a direct link to her god, snd suddenly that is taken away from her? And there is no panic? She has no interest in wading out and smashing a few zombie heads? None of the other Avatars do either! A few priests say “Why have you abandoned me”. And that’s about it. When at that point litterally everyone psychologically should be wetting themselves. Hell even the berger meister has had a direct connection to tiernon for millenia and yet he acts unflappable.
And strategically the undead turn off the connection to the higher relms and then give them hours and hours to find a solution instead of striking when and where the loss would cause the most damage?
As for the battle itself, you have the perspective of the liches & raymond the damn! plus exciter. You have the bergermeister and tiernon talking about the battle, you have talarion chatting with his sword. But it is all indirect. Again, no triumph and defeat. No shield members puling of a martyrdom in front of an archon and the feeling of loss by that archon about an inability to go against Fallon’s dictates, or conversly sainting that martyr despite fallon.
Excellent idea. I knew something felt off in that transition.
On the same note/idea, does Talarius seem too “recovered” from the prior revelations when and Tom are in the Shrine and talking about going into battle?
That was where I had been focusing, but you are right. Tom needs a better transition as well.
No, it means that I forgot that I’d listed him as a God of the Grove.
Thanks for catching that. Going to have to rethink/reevaluate the Dis Pater thing (the name only, not Rupert’s story). It makes the Grove situation trickier. The simple answer is that Dis Pater has been AWOL for some time.
Because so many ancients often conflated Orcus and Dis Pater, I felt that Dis Pater being a mini-clone of Orcus (Rupert) made sense.
The actual choice to use name Dis Pater as the previous name for Rupert came later while writing book 2; the listing of the gods of the grove took place between books 1 and 2 and I chose Dis Pater as an earthen god. I then promptly forgot that I had done that.
Interestingly, I kept most of the others in mind, due to their linkage with Hephaestus, but Dis Pater I simply spaced.
[quote=Burien;5166]I was thinking that when Tiernon heres from Beragamos and sends in reinforcements, that this battle would be an excellent field test of the reversed Excrathadorus Mortis. He wanted to find out its capabilities, i cant imagine a situation that calls for an unlife slaying dagger more. Plus the potential for awkward moments this would cause could be so much fun[/quote]
I know. I thought the same.
Unfortunately, Iskerus somehow managed to ‘lose it’
Tiernon stole it from Iskerus.
Tiernon’s choice is about Orcus. How Tiernon deals with Sentir Fallon will be part of his choice on how to handle Orcus. He *could* just hand Sentir over.
Not very much drama in this release. Had I written it, I might have done:
The forces of the citadel of light see the hoards of unlife marching towards them. They perform some sorties to do guerilla tactics and maybe lessen the force.
The Avatars show up in the castle. Politics ensue.
The avatars help with the sorties against the FoD, who are coming closer and closer? With the help of the Saints and Avatars, the FoD are killed but their numbers seem uncountable, and they get even closer to the castle.
In desperation, the Citadel sends a message to Orcus. Help us. It is too far away. though, and the FoD will be at the Citadel in hours.
Though thousands of vile unlife have been killed by the saints and men of the citadel the FoD reach the moat and surrounds the citadel. The general in charge of the FoD makes a completely unnecessary and cliched speech regarding death and vengeance. Evil overlord kind of stuff. When he is done, the Saints and Avatars are cut off from their Gods, and the true battle begins.
Tens of thousands of zombies and skeletons simply walk to their deaths in the moats, polluting it. Balls of necrotic energy are hurled at the walls and gate. A completely superfluous Saint tries to rally the FoG and is killed, the Avatars who are there feel his death and can do nothing to save him.
A part of the wall is taking a lot of damage and soon might fail. Divisions of Skeletons are diverted to that area and driven into the moat. A bridge of bones starts to form. Liches and Vampires gather on one side of the moat, the FoG gather on the other side of the wall, waiting for a breach hoping to drive the evil back, but knowing it is futile. The Bergermeister takes an arrow in the shoulder.
Suddenly the Runic gate that is already there — because if it hadn’t been why aren’t the liches and necromancers building runic gates into the citadel instead of trying to breach the walls — opens. D’Orcs pour out. Tom steps through. Minor FoG vs FoDemons confrontation, where Saints try to attack the Demons, but stop when they realize that the normal FoG of the citadel are cheering.
Quick discussion between Tom and the Bergermister. Far quicker and frantic than the leisurely discussion you had. Outside Necrotic energy pounds the walls. Tom basically says to the Burgermeister “get your ass to my mountain and relay your mana through there. You are wounded and take the other wounded.”
Tom and Co, wait by the wall, as the liches pour in, the combined FoG attach back, driving them backward over the moat. Talarion from all the revelations is angry, and in his depression seems to have a death wish. He attacks where the FoE are thickest, and Orcus fights by his side, which drives his anger and confusion further.
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