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So a great number of those questions will get answered in Book 4 as all the groups and individuals you mention will be in the Abyss, at least for small parts of time and you will get to see what happens directly. Thus I shall refrain from saying too much here.
Dhampyrs are very expensive, which is why Lord Smerti’ wants his spawn back. There is some very complex wizardry required to create them, and it also requires an incubus (which is also expensive). Keep in mind, of course, that many vampires, or at least very powerful ones are wizards or animages and so can learn to do a lot of the needed wizardry…but then there is still getting one’s hand on an incubus, and in fact this is where they most often need to enlist others.
Knowing the wizardry to create a dhampyr, and having the knowledge, skill, experience to also do the complicated summoning of an incubus, once you know a name is very rare. Now of course, very old vampire wizards live long enough, eventually, to do this, but somewhat younger ones often team up or enlist other specialists.
[cursing] So maybe next time you should get to the battle before it starts so we can go over the score? I’m out there, on my own (other than the band of course), I could probably use some support in my endeavors. I certainly didn’t see you there ready to supply backup vocals, let along getting us sheet music!
[mad]
I don’t know, I’d be careful if I were you Jello Duck…the multiiverse is a harsh mistress.
Nice multiverse…good multiverse…wise and benevolent multiverese…
Unfortunately not, well at least not “fish” as in creatures in the water. We don’t have a lot of water, except in some very high mountain valleys. And not all of those are water, many are acid or alkalai or other liquids. The mercury pools are pretty cool.
I mean, maybe there are some in those, I don’t swim so I haven’t checked. I suppose if I got me some of those concrete galoshes people are always talking about, I could go for a stroll in some of them.
But there are Jelly-Chutes as we call them, they look a lot like a Jelly-Fish but float in the sky and drip a really nasty substance that can dissolve demon flesh pretty easily.
They aren’t fun and I try to avoid them.
T-A-G is still behind schedule….sheesh.
If he would just stop this day job thing and go hungry for 6 plus months, he’d be done already. He did that before, taking 6-9 months off and just not eating and sleeping on the street, but…apparently he doesn’t want to do that anymore. Talk about lazy!
He says he doesn’t like writing in snow drifts during subzero temperatures! Makes his fingers numb on the keyboard. Whine Whine Whine.
Although now that I think about it, he never was on the street, and he never lost any weight. Hmm. Wonder if he’s lying to me? You’d think not eating for 6 to 9 months, as a human, he’d lose some weight. But he’s as fat as ever. Hmmm. I wonder if he’s a demon? He doesn’t smell like buttah. More like garlic….
Well, at least he’s not a vampire…
I will go bug him some more!
You do know I am considerably taller than ‘The Big C’, yes?
Again, many people have seen me with ‘The Big C’
Just not lately.
Hmmm…you sound suspiciously like one of those lawyers trying to nail me for child support.
Tizzy don’t pay that.
[mad]
I wonder if I could stuff it in a computer, but with only AOL access, don’t want him surfing the web too much, just enough to upload the books to Amazon and email to Tantor.
I know for a fact he gets distracted by EvilBook.com and other deleterious sites.
Astlanian, and for that matter all “real orcs” are a bit more complex as there are several very different races of orcs. Which race or races you have tends to depend on what world or region you are in.
The races come from how the different orc tribes descend from the older jotnar races.
Where the multiple races, or “tribes” of orcs have formed Hordes, there is often a lot of cross breeding so you end up with quite a lot of mixes.
In fact, in Astlan and the worlds of it’ local verse you find a great deal of variety.
Physical differences that come from original orc races:
Skin tone from most common to least common: Green (ish), Brown (ish), Grey (ish), Red (ish)
Tusk size: Huge, Large, Medium, Small, nearly non-existent (often with half orcs)
Overall physical size.
In general, most are larger than humans both in height and BMI, they are just beefier.
That being said, there are some that are only a bit taller than humans and less bulky than usual orcs.
Nearly all have very strong bones and pronounced skull features. They have excellent constitutions. Stamina is also quite high.Sort of as a guideline: The greener or browner, the bigger the tusks and overall size, although the reddish ones are often more on the order of the Brownish ones in terms of size. But there can be exceptions for individuals. Greyish orcs tend to be thinner, and sometimes taller. Very much like a Peter Jackson orc.
I would argue that physical characteristics go hand in hand with that same guideline, the bigger, the stronger, more endurance etc.
And to some extent, the same might be said of intelligence and wisdom, particularly wisdom. Shamans are not typically the largest/strongest orcs. Intelligence is culturally based. D&D measures it in human and elven terms so it’s naturally biased against orcs. So the question is how much of this is biological and how much is cultural or occupational?
The biggest orcs are often the most aggressive warriors, and often perceived as the dumbest. They are also the orcs most other races see as these guys are most likely carrying out routine R&P operations on the other races. But this is a stereotype for humans as well.
But, I do think that Grishnakh, Thargus and others on the Skull Crusher would say that “ogres are pretty stupid” and those orc races closer to ogres tend to be stupid, burly orcs as well.
So that’s probably not a huge amount of help, but the sheer variety of the race (and yes this comes from excessive R&P operations) makes it hard to pin down.
T-A-G did a quick search to find Orc characteristics in “Animus” the RPG he co-wrote, which takes place in Astlan, a very long time ago but was unable to quickly find the orc character traits (stuff is scattered in lots of files many of which are in extinct word processing formats)
As far as D’Orcs: All of the first generation D’Orcs are at least Greater Demons. later generations, particularly children may only be Major Demons.
The D’Orc regiment commanders are archdemons. Book III is the first time we start to see the D’Orcs actually using their more demonic like powers, but there is a lot more coming as we get to know them and see them in action.
D’Orcs all speak “Universal” so can communicate with anyone anywhere.
Orcs speak trade (or common for where the live), almost all speak Doom Orcish or some variant, if they were ever part of the Doompire (some may not have been). Many (particularly leaders and shamans) speak variants of Jotunish, including various ogrish dialects. It is not uncommon for them to speak gnoll, gnome, koboldish, or some Dok Alfar tongues.
The whole sunlight thing is libelous propaganda. Yes, there may be some more underground races that have that issue, but a huge number of orcs are nomadic and roam plains following game herds, etc. Think Dothraki.
Actually, I think the greyish ones tend to be more underground, they may be a little bit sensitive. Haven’t deal with them a lot.
Oh, yeah, and the Visterothi do have some issues, but that’s a side affect of their unlife immunity.
And, yes, Visterothi tend to be very tall, and thinner than the average orc. Again, side affect of genetic manipulation. They started out much like the other orc races and evolved.
Tizzy
The Abyss is not polarized at all in terms of Animus/Antimus.
When a creature that is antimus based is bound to animatter, or vice versa animus bound to antimatter (not exact word) and go to the Abyss, the polarization is lost and all the wacky bindings they use don’t work right because they depend on the opposing polarization between the animus-based matter and the antimus based spirit.
The polarization gets lost/surpressed in the Abyss and the creature’s metabolism is thrown off balance, it returns when they return to their “original plane”
So what this means is that:
Ghouls get cured, they are just people infected with the other polarization.
Zombies are reanimated flesh of one polarization bound to a spirit with the wrong polarization (this happens because of the way necromantic spells work–even if the spirit was positive to begin with, the necromancy requires them to be reverse polarized in order to bind to their dead flesh–it’s a way of cheating natural death–very long story in terms of details)
If they stay long enough, they are goners, otherwise they just get very sick.
Vampires are similar, but better integrated. They will get very sick and weak, but won’t die.
Dhampires, being half normal mortal and half vampire are even better integrated. They don’t seem to have any problem that I can see. At least my dhampire buddy hasn’t complained. Or, at least, not about that.
Liches are more like zombies, but their core spirit is usually somewhere else, e.g. back on on their home plane in a phylactery, so their possessed body gets very sick, but their core spirit is OK.
Etc.
I used to make it harder on purpose, but I have given up.
He is so insanely behind that even immortals are getting impatient.
By which, of course, I mean me.
He is hoping to get OOA and Book IV our this year yet. But that depends on a lot of external factors, day job and his father’s health.
He’s been slow the last two weeks again, but he has promised me tomorrow and Sunday so I am holding him to that…
:-k
You may be correct.
Many people have noted a feeling of being filled with Awe in my presence. Lots of people, mostly ladies, [love] in fact, have told me that I am absolutely awe full!
