Round Table of Arkain

[Shar Dundred]

I did not really work on Arkain during the holidays, I intend to release those in January.

 

[Ebanu8]

I did not really work on Arkain during the holidays, I intend to release those in January.

Will be looking forward to it.

 

[Shar Dundred]

I didn't really want to write short stories anytime soon, but I am curious if y'all would be
interested in some short stories that, rather than taking place after the Second Voidwar,
focused on the "new" factions and/or characters from the True Story of Arkain.
Not necessarily on their origin, though that might also be an option for an in-depth story.
This also includes the "old" factions/characters that have already been there but have been made
more important.
This is not limited to faction leaders; characters like Hortnog might also be an option.

No estimate or promise, I'm merely asking for some opinions if there was interest in that kind of stuff.
Without hurting the release schedule of the maps ofc.

 

[LISBOAH]

I didn't really want to write short stories anytime soon, but I am curious if y'all would be
interested in some short stories that, rather than taking place after the Second Voidwar,
focused on the "new" factions and/or characters from the True Story of Arkain.
Not necessarily on their origin, though that might also be an option for an in-depth story.
This also includes the "old" factions/characters that have already been there but have been made
more important.
This is not limited to faction leaders; characters like Hortnog might also be an option.

No estimate or promise, I'm merely asking for some opinions if there was interest in that kind of stuff.
Without hurting the release schedule of the maps ofc.

I, for one, would be very interested, yes.

But then again, you could write a recipe for some kind of Arkain dish and I still would like to read it XD!!

 

[Shar Dundred]

Alright, time to tell you how Trolls serve hotdogs on Arkain!
There is no wolf or dog meat involved. I hope.
Someone please bring Zed to a safe spot, just to be sure.

Next on the list: Wolf Regiment supper & Dark Elf dishes!

 

[Ahman]

There are some additions around Blen Greymoore. Can we stop him from dying or is it his fate?
If he must die, can you let Rath do it? He deserves his revenge.

 

[Tuwnew]

They are not so many heroes who dies in this campaign, to be honest.
Blen is like Ned Stark. Our first main hero. His death has a big impact.

I just hope his death is more epic than in SHB!

 

[Ahman]

They are not so many heroes who dies in this campaign, to be honest.
Blen is like Ned Stark. Our first main hero. His death has a big impact.

I just hope his death is more epic than in SHB!

He's only similar to Ned Stark in appearance. They killed children at Blen's command, but Ned Stark never allows such a thing.

 

[Stalker98]

He's only similar to Ned Stark in appearance. They killed children at Blen's command, but Ned Stark never allows such a thing.

Ned stark didn't fight savage orcs that attacks with no reason and kill children

 

[tottipeter]

can we expect any information soon about the true story?

 

[Shar Dundred]

Sure.

 

[Boriss]

A lore question if I may... what happened to the staff of healing in SOB after the green one died?

 

[Mvicio]

what happened to the staff of healing in SOB after the green one died?

Volarian took It
After our dearest Duke died? Maybe Aedale took It, or the undead, or the entity that took the body.

 

[lekxman22]

Shar could we get some short story soon. kinda bored tho xD

 

[Boriss]

Shar, you teased Selana Woodhunter and her escort, does that mean that Kasrkin is already testing the map with them?

 

[Shar Dundred]

Shar, you teased Selana Woodhunter and her escort, does that mean that Kasrkin is already testing the map with them?

Did you ever hear the tragedy of Selana the Twin? It is not a tale the Elves would tell you.

 

[Kasrkin]

It's a kingdom legend.

 

[Boriss]

Did you ever hear the tragedy of Selana the Twin? It is not a tale the Elves would tell you.

the Twin? wait so there are two? now Larine must have a real dilemma

 

[Shar Dundred]

Hate to interrupt the fan fiction time, but I would like you all to take a look at this:
YOUR OPINION: Favorite True Story Map

 

[merlockqueen]

should we a get a Fanfiction of Arkain thread?

 

[Mvicio]

should we a get a Fanfiction of Arkain thread?

Yes, we should. If not this hidden gems and Selana history will be forgotten between the amount of information of The Round Table.

 

[merlockqueen]

Oh whos ready for a WILD THEROY POWER RANKING EDTION ?/4

BIG SPOILERS FOR THE SHORT STORIES HEIRS OF ZYANOIR, go read those first if you have not

Spoiler

Let us being by ranking the children least to most deadly.

the fourth place is given to Hotar the Solider
while impressive his slaying of a drake at a young age and of no doubt being a deeply capable warrior especially with Laura at his side who thanok comments is about his equal as a warrior.

The third place, Velina the Archer/Grave Warden
Why is she more deadly than Hotar while her story shows off how unlike Hotar all she is and has is her Grave Warden Training additional the combination of personal combat poweress and necromancy both would help her surpassing most enemies.

tied for second place is Garan, the Stagiest and Zurae the Magician,
While Garan is not as powerful himself as the other he has unsurpassed tactical brilliance that allows him to use armies or even small forces extreme lethal effect. Now I put him Tied with Zurae is that i see their power is somewhat comparable if you would tell either to destroy an army unlike Velina, or Hotar they could do so with relative ease. Zurae is situationally more powerful than Garan and vice versa but on the whole i think they are about equal in capability.

First place for the most deadly Heir is none other than Parlea,
now what the stories dont show her directly being powerful or even capable of standing up for herself at first. in the second story It is my theory that more than some psychological pleasure she receives magical energy from this torture and absurd cruelty. Now Parlea's magic learned from the teaching and the magic of Lord Briam is based in shadows domination and the darkest aspects of magic far more than necromancy. Its without a doubt she could steal ones minds destroy them from the inside out and than use them as a weapon as well. Not only would Parlea destroy the enemy army she would flay alive her own forces as well to empower herself This By far in my eyes makes her the most deadly of the heirs.

 

[Shar Dundred]

Non-Arkain-related thread:
New Hive appears to have some issues. I suggest taking the weekend "off" of Hive until everything works again.
This includes but is not limited to the Arkain sub-forum.
Don't worry, I will of course still continue to work on Arkain.
Have a nice weekend!

 

[lloyd2422]

Can you add another second or two for the screen time on this dialogue?
Have to screenshot it to fully read the dialogue.

 

[Boriss]

I mean Larine is from the kingdoms and she was a general of sort, Even though now that I remember with exception of Scarlet the wacko Redhead and the Larine the exiled Redhead I havent seen any more female leaders hailing from the kingdoms...Oh yes the bandit Lady as well, the one who is holding hostage one of the villages, Maybe the Imperials are more lenient with whom they let to lead their armies (After all the regiments leadership seems to be inheritable most of the times), There's Vail too, but there seem to be much more elven and imperial female commanders/generals than in the Kingdoms.

Larine was more of a foreign advisor to the king, plus she was an elf. Vail saved the prince, for which she was rewarded by a position as his personal guard. Scarlett was her brother's lapdog, and she wasn't really treated as if her opinion mattered. All the rulers from the kingdoms we know of so far are all king this and king that. And as far as I remember (might be wrong, my knowledge of the previous books is not absolute) Vail, Larine and Scarlett only commanded armies after they were put under Gardon who redistributed them to lead the forces they know best how to work with (within the limits of the forces available to Gardon at that time). That is what makes me think of the kingdoms as patriarchal societies. Not the elves or imperials, just the kingdoms. And the chauvinistic orcs.

 

[DD Mikasa]

Larine was more of a foreign advisor to the king, plus she was an elf. Vail saved the prince, for which she was rewarded by a position as his personal guard. Scarlett was her brother's lapdog, and she wasn't really treated as if her opinion mattered. All the rulers from the kingdoms we know of so far are all king this and king that. And as far as I remember (might be wrong, my knowledge of the previous books is not absolute) Vail, Larine and Scarlett only commanded armies after they were put under Gardon who redistributed them to lead the forces they know best how to work with (within the limits of the forces available to Gardon at that time). That is what makes me think of the kingdoms as patriarchal societies. Not the elves or imperials, just the kingdoms. And the chauvinistic orcs.

You aren't making sense buddy, Larine was in charge of the Royalists and helped Gardon fight off the and kill both Retka and the Golden Guard during the siege on Toran (or whatever its name was). Her being an elf in charge of royalists means nothing, Vanessa is an Human yet she led orcs into battle, Thanok is a Dragon yet he leads the humans of Iron fist.

Vail was clearly in charge of a detachment of Royalists while investigating what happened to the Order of Flame and if need be the king would give her a full army under her leadership, I mean I remember she was among other generals when Salana was asking for help and got turned down.

Aight at the Scarlet part I give it to you, she was put in charge on orders of her brothers.

Now how they got to be on charge of the armies doesn't matter all that it matters is that they are. As I mentioned the only reason why it seems that the empire has more female Generals, than the kingdoms its partly due to how the leadership is passed on into the regiments, its inheritable (for the most part at least). The wolf regiment lady inherited from her father if my memory serves me right. I haven't seen neither the Grey guard or the Iron fist posses female commanders/captains (excluding Claire), iron fist posses female soldiers at least as its shown in one of their stories,

As a matter of fact the only faction other than the elves, that I have seen with an equal amount of female commanders to their male counterpart its the Golden Guard. So I don't know why you seem so worked up about the Kingdoms being a patriarchal society when the Empire is one rotting nepotistic mess where you get promoted based on whose relative you are. We all know why Greymore was hailed and respected by most people of the empire, He was one of them not part of the Elite which shared titles and posts among them selfs.


I mean...Its a fantasy game, what's all this patriarchal, chauvinistic talk has to do with it in the end of the day. I'd rather have those things not spill into things I use to unwind an enjoy, sure as hell we have em all around the tv and social media.

 

[Boriss]

You aren't making sense buddy, Larine was in charge of the Royalists and helped Gardon fight off the and kill both Retka and the Golden Guard during the siege on Toran (or whatever its name was). Her being an elf in charge of royalists means nothing, Vanessa is an Human yet she led orcs into battle, Thanok is a Dragon yet he leads the humans of Iron fist.

Vail was clearly in charge of a detachment of Royalists while investigating what happened to the Order of Flame and if need be the king would give her a full army under her leadership, I mean I remember she was among other generals when Salana was asking for help and got turned down.

Aight at the Scarlet part I give it to you, she was put in charge on orders of her brothers.

Now how they got to be on charge of the armies doesn't matter all that it matters is that they are. As I mentioned the only reason why it seems that the empire has more female Generals, than the kingdoms its partly due to how the leadership is passed on into the regiments, its inheritable (for the most part at least). The wolf regiment lady inherited from her father if my memory serves me right. I haven't seen neither the Grey guard or the Iron fist posses female commanders/captains (excluding Claire), iron fist posses female soldiers at least as its shown in one of their stories,

As a matter of fact the only faction other than the elves, that I have seen with an equal amount of female commanders to their male counterpart its the Golden Guard. So I don't know why you seem so worked up about the Kingdoms being a patriarchal society when the Empire is one rotting nepotistic mess where you get promoted based on whose relative you are. We all know why Greymore was hailed and respected by most people of the empire, He was one of them not part of the Elite which shared titles and posts among them selfs.


I mean...Its a fantasy game, what's all this patriarchal, chauvinistic talk has to do with it in the end of the day. I'd rather have those things not spill into things I use to unwind an enjoy, sure as hell we have em all around the tv and social media.

- I am not worked up, I simply deduced such from observation, its deduction and theory, not a judgment
-Vail was in charge of a detachment, not an army, ie not a general and definitely not a queen, patriarchal doesnt mean women not allowed, just that their career ladder 'happens' to be a bit shorter and harder to climb, there is always exception to the rule, and some kings can be more enlightened on the topic than others, but the overabundance of male leaders in the kingdoms does give the impression they are a patriarchal society
-as for Larine, do we know that king Dorten was the one who put her in charge of the royalist troops sent to support Gardon?
-Vanessa was not really accepted by orcs and last I remember she was used to spy on the kingdoms until the orcs got their butt kicked at the end of First Orc Book, and the orc tradition of exiling women for disobedience or ambition on the battlefield speaks for itself, it really inclines more towards the chauvinistic
-the regiments and Ironfist are imperial forces, nepotistic, but they do have more females in charge, but considering how wast their presence is I cant decide if its the exception to the rule, if they are also patriarchal, or not
- elves, on the other hand, seem to be the opposite, a matriarchal society, considering that all the known rulers are queens
although in this case we only know of 2, and since Renova doesnt seem to have any siblings it might simply be that she was the only butt to put on the throne, thus one would probably judge from the distribution of other high ranking positions in their culture, which seem to be more or less distributed equally, a possible meritocracy here

• no female dwarves detected so far, that one is definitely patriarchal
• demons are largely an unknown, it seems that succubi are female-only subspecies, while the muscle male-only subspecies
• the rest we really know nothing about to make a guess at this point, but it is intriguing to see how these cultures are similar to real human cultures

 

[DD Mikasa]

-as for Larine, do we know that king Dorten was the one who put her in charge of the royalist troops sent to support Gardon?

Are you for real now? If memory serves right It was him who build this new Royalist force/ united front after the failure of the imperials during the first book, WHO ELSE COULD POSSIBLY have that authority besides him or his son?

-Vanessa was not really accepted by orcs and last I remember she was used to spy on the kingdoms until the orcs got their butt kicked at the end of First Orc Book, and the orc tradition of exiling women for disobedience or ambition on the battlefield speaks for itself, it really inclines more towards the chauvinistic

Fair enough, my point about vanessa wasn't that orcs accepted her or that they were a progressive bunch, my point on that matter to counter your argument that Larine was an advisor and elf, so her being on charge doesn't count, henc why i mentioned Thanok as well on that example.

-Vail was in charge of a detachment, not an army, ie not a general and definitely not a queen, patriarchal doesnt mean women not allowed, just that their career ladder 'happens' to be a bit shorter and harder to climb, there is always exception to the rule, and some kings can be more enlightened on the topic than others, but the overabundance of male leaders in the kingdoms does give the impression they are a patriarchal society

That what would a lowly detachment commander such as Vail be doing on the presence of other Generals of the kingdoms and the empire on that one cinematic where Salana's request for help was denied?

-the regiments and Ironfist are imperial forces, nepotistic, but they do have more females in charge, but considering how wast their presence is I cant decide if its the exception to the rule, if they are also patriarchal, or not

Iron fist aren't nepotistic they were created to counter the nepotism among the imperial ranks.

elves, on the other hand, seem to be the opposite, a matriarchal society, considering that all the known rulers are queens
although in this case we only know of 2, and since Renova doesnt seem to have any siblings it might simply be that she was the only butt to put on the throne, thus one would probably judge from the distribution of other high ranking positions in their culture, which seem to be more or less distributed equally, a possible meritocracy here

How would a meritocracy be in such a dire situation as the one the elven kingdom is during the events of both the first and second books (and i will assume even during the true story) they dont seem like a matriarchal society as well, if you look at their court before larantos was wacked it had 3 males and 1 female.

 

[Boriss]

Are you for real now? If memory serves right It was him who build this new Royalist force/ united front after the failure of the imperials during the first book, WHO ELSE COULD POSSIBLY have that authority besides him or his son?

Well, Gardon is sent to deal with some demon gates, so he obviously had authority and respect. More respect than Lerrig. Meanwhile we never saw Larine interact with the troops. There is thus the possibility that the King put Larine in command or that it was Gardon who put her in charge.

Fair enough, my point about vanessa wasn't that orcs accepted her or that they were a progressive bunch, my point on that matter to counter your argument that Larine was an advisor and elf, so her being on charge doesn't count, henc why i mentioned Thanok as well on that example.

We never saw Larine command troops, especially the royals, before she was sent to go with Gardon, so it is not really clear if Dorten put her in charge, or Gardon did. Either way Gardon is still above her I believe.

That what would a lowly detachment commander such as Vail be doing on the presence of other Generals of the kingdoms and the empire on that one cinematic where Salana's request for help was denied?

Vail was the personal guard of a prince from kingdom that seriously distrusts the Empire.

Iron fist aren't nepotistic they were created to counter the nepotism among the imperial ranks.

Really? Because it sure sounds like Gardon got his command first because he is the emperors half brother and then distinguished himself.

How would a meritocracy be in such a dire situation as the one the elven kingdom is during the events of both the first and second books (and i will assume even during the true story) they dont seem like a matriarchal society as well, if you look at their court before larantos was wacked it had 3 males and 1 female.

You saying that meritocracy is such a perfect type of society it can never get into dire straits? Remember that they are still a monarchy. The cultural standard that rank is earned doesnt mean it can overrule the monarch.
As for it not being matriarchy, didnt I say the same thing?

 

[Shar Dundred]

Larine was in charge of the forces of the Royal Army that accompanied Gardon.
She was not put under his command. She followed Gardon's call because she chose to, not because she had to.
Matter settled.

Gardon got his rank because he earned it, not because he was related to the Emperor (which hardly anyone knew anyway).

 

[Tryce09]

Speaking of female character, we will see the daughter of king dorten in the true story? because she never show up neither metion her in the second book. How many years has passed between end of second books and the chronology(post) 20 years? Was too young?

I ask this because she is one of the few who oppose Gardon.

 

[Shar Dundred]

Speaking of female character, we will see the daughter of king dorten in the true story? because she never show up neither metion her in the second book. How many years has passed between end of second books and the chronology(post) 20 years? Was too young?

I ask this because she is one of the few who oppose Gardon.

She will probably appear for a line of dialogue or two but remain in the background. She was not heir to the throne before her older brother disappeared.
Like her father, she did not oppose Gardon before he reinstated Zyainor.
In fact, Dorten considered a political marriage between his daughter and Gardon before the whole Vail and Zyainor thing happened.

 

[Am.F]

Larine was in charge of the forces of the Royal Army that accompanied Gardon.
She was not put under his command. She followed Gardon's call because she chose to, not because she had to.
Matter settled.

Gardon got his rank because he earned it, not because he was related to the Emperor (which hardly anyone knew anyway).

Speaking of Gordon's allies, will we see Taray the guardian of lighting and his order in the future parts of the true story, because we only saw him once [SPOILER ALERT] in the 2nd orc book and we were playing against him and at the end he joined gardon's forces to rebuild his order and that just about it and we don't know anything about him besides that 90 percent of his order has been wiped out and no one wanted them and that's it, specially that there's no information about him in Character Sheet, I hope that you add his lore there, and I hope that we see more of him because his model is a nice one too....I mean his actor looks good, specially it's portrait and very nice armors for blood drinker legion dreadlords in TTSoA, specifically Ornasion, and as always keep up THE GREAT WORK

 

[Mvicio]

Taray the guardian of lighting and his order in the future parts of the true story, because we only saw him only once.

We know that Taray's order was rebuild under Zyainor command. Also i suppose Taray and Birran became companions.

we don't know anything about him besides that 90 percent of his order has been wiped out and no one wanted them and that's it, specially that there's no information about him in Character Sheet,

Actually. That would be the second best known order. We know something about the order of flame, a little about the order of lightning and pretty much nothing about the rest.

 

[Tryce09]

Actually. That would be the second best known order. We know something about the order of flame, a little about the order of lightning and pretty much nothing about the rest.

There any other order in the first place?
The toran's order was destroyed by undeads(and has a lot of lightning revenants), pyrru used hidromancer and kernel too, but nothing about "Tidal order?"

 

[LISBOAH]

Regarding the Faction vs Character Boni

I agree with Shar that Character Boni would make it more interesting.

For example, during certain parts, we will be forced to play as certain factions for several chapters, such as the Ironfist, the Royal Army and others, so these specific Factions Boni would be used several times in a row.
But there are far more characters to play than factions, which makes sense as there are plenty of characters all working for the same faction. So having Character Boni rather than Faction Boni would make it far more diverse and interesting.

 

[Mvicio]

I´m not sure if i read correctly. The character boni would make, for example, that if we play with the deathbreeze faction it would be different from Oneeye, Rangul and Sasrogarn? But since the ravaging fire clan only have Zairmak it would be just Zairmak Faction Boni.

That would mean that every major faction would be scattered between the heroes and make it more "personal". I like this idea if Shar thinks it can work as intented.

 

[Shar Dundred]

I´m not sure if i read correctly. The character boni would make, for example, that if we play with the deathbreeze faction it would be different from Oneeye, Rangul and Sasrogarn? But since the ravaging fire clan only have Zairmak it would be just Zairmak Faction Boni.

Yes.

 

[Ebanu8]

Character boni does sound very interesting to explore, but I personally prefer faction boni. Adds a lot more flavour and depth to commanding every faction.

 

[Ahman]

How long will the True Story of Arkain be? Act II ended, and I don't feel like we even started touching on the second books' content still. 6 acts maybe?

 

[Kasrkin]

How long will the True Story of Arkain be? Act II ended, and I don't feel like we even started touching on the second books' content still. 6 acts maybe?

We're gonna be here a while, we'll be getting to the end of the first books soonish but it'll still be a bit. There won't be a lot of new chapters, all my exaggerations aside, but it's gonna take a while especially with the many missions of the second book era.

 

[Am.F]

This is what I imagined the throne of Shadows for Lord of Shadows and the Maze of Shadows where his Shadows roam in there(and sry for the crappy drawing I know it's not good but I wanted to share it with you)

(and yet again sry for the bad llighting of my camera)

 

[Ebanu8]

This is what I imagined the throne of Shadows for Lord of Shadows and the Maze of Shadows where his Shadows roam in there(and sry for the crappy drawing I know it's not good but I wanted to share it with you)
View attachment 380063
View attachment 380066
(and yet again sry for the bad llighting of my camera)

Actually, I would find this a surprisingly accurate depiction of the Shadow Realm. Suits Brian very much.

 

[FOEHN]

Shar, just one question.

Will we have the surprise benefits we got like in SHB C7 for other races or we will lose that too?(since you spoiled that we might not benefit from it)

 

[Shar Dundred]

I am not entirely removing the choice system.
Mild spoiler ahead.
The decision to hire the Goldaxe Clan in the Clash in the Forest mission is saved & will have an impact later.
The game will also remember if you killed Lera or not.
I am however not implementing them at the same scale as before.
The True Story is meant to establish a canon storyline, choices like Aedale's decision to
take the shard or not cannot remain due to the impact they have.

 

[FOEHN]

I am not entirely removing the choice system.
Mild spoiler ahead.
The decision to hire the Goldaxe Clan in the Clash in the Forest mission is saved & will have an impact later.
The game will also remember if you killed Lera or not.
I am however not implementing them at the same scale as before.
The True Story is meant to establish a canon storyline, choices like Aedale's decision to
take the shard or not cannot remain due to the impact they have.

Really thanks for the reply. Even though I had my own preferations I do accept all your decisions. I was just too worried about the joy that we had. Though I didn't expect 'that' to have impact.

btw, I seem to have a problem of seeing some spoilers... I didn't see yours till I clicked reply.

 

[Shar Dundred]

btw, I seem to have a problem of seeing some spoilers... I didn't see yours till I clicked reply.

You have to click on it (the blurred text) in new Hive to see it properly.

 

[FOEHN]

You have to click on it (the blurred text) in new Hive to see it properly.

nah, nevermind. I did see blurs after I refreshed the page. I just had problems with myself using spoiler feature that I got frustrated. Thanks for the reply again!

 

[Shar Dundred]

Thanks to my best footman @Footman16, Harmos and his firemages have a new look (only applies to Firemages that are part of the Order ofc)

 

[Ebanu8]

Thanks to my best footman @Footman16, Harmos and his firemages have a new look (only applies to Firemages that are part of the Order ofc)

Nice to see they have a matching colour scheme.