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| Thread: Shooshima's contest entry - Bioforge | |
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Zenofex
Responsible
Legendary Hero
Kreegan-atheist
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posted May 12, 2011 10:53 PM |
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Edited by Zenofex at 12:49, 12 Jun 2011.
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Shooshima's contest entry - Bioforge
This is work in progress and it's not likely to be finished very soon because my free time is scarce. Still, here's the first portion of the faction:
BIOFORGE
Story:
Necromancers? Bah! Perverts, deluded pseudo-sorcerers, one-sided ignorants, dangerous fanatics – call them whatever you like, they deserve it all and even more – they deserve nothing. In the end, they are just a bunch of worshippers of a limited deity and one day will die along with it. This world is much more than Asha. It is much more than Urgash. The creator gods are but an engine that put certain events in motion but they are nothing more than a distraction when you try to see the big picture. That’s the basic axiom of our teachings and it sounds very simple indeed but the people who truly understand it are so few that sometimes I doubt that they even exist. Of course I don’t understand it too you idiot – but I have higher rank than you and can punish you if you try to be smarter than your lowly apprentice status allows! Now just write this down… Good.
The Necromancers are a problem as long as they believe in their religious jabber and try to enforce it upon the others. Our researches are not threatened by their truths and beliefs and only by the brute force that they can mobilize against us in a rather old-fashioned form of dispute for which we have our own solid arguments (no doubt you have seen the latest Colossus design, it seems to be a celebrity among the students). Those of us who join their ranks due to some sympathy for their religion are lost anyway – we are not cultivating researchers who prefer to trap their thinking within the walls of fake security offered by parables and slogans, no matter how they are masked. We explore. We gather knowledge. But we are not doing so just to prove some gospel. If you understand at least this much, then there is a chance to become a wizard. One day. One very distant day.
Still, there are certain areas that have to be explored with a high degree of subtlety. You see, we are living in world where many people will cut your head if you say something against their deities – what they think that their deity is to be precise – or if you do something against the prescriptions of some religion. We have quite too many of them around so we can’t just pretend that they don’t exist. Occasionally, we even have to ally ourselves with armies of fanatics and ignorants, because, you see, Urgash is a huge source of knowledge and examining his influence on Ashan is instrumental to reaching a proper conclusion about our immediate reality, but his underlings don’t care about our studies at all. So, in short, we have to “behave” ourselves, to some extent. It could be quite hypocritical at times, but it is necessary nevertheless. And here we are, to the topic of today’s lecture… You there, the slick with the pointy ears – out to the foundry to make Golem limbs until your urge to write poetry in class extinguishes. Now, or I’ll teleport you outside of the levitation field of the city, you hear me, apprentice?!
The rest of you – who knows the history of the Biomancers? So, anyone? That’s what I thought. This kind of lessons is not my specialty though – ask Professor Yarhu to tell you the whole story, with many colourful details – he has a soft spot for the whole drama. What we’ll talk about is more… hm, ideological.
But, well, maybe some historical preface will be needed after all.
The Biomancers are separatists – I guess you know at least that much. They share our interest in the world as it is and not as the religions present it, but there is one quite visible demarcation point – they don’t want to “behave” themselves. Or don’t want to be hypocrites, depends on the point of view. In any case, they lack subtlety. But that doesn’t even begin to describe them.
The original Biomancers were a group of researchers involved in the so-called Re-Genesis experiment, some 350 years ago. The purpose of the whole exercise was quite ambitious – to re-create the conditions that led to the very creation of Ashan, but this time without the factor of the Dragon-Gods which only adds unnecessary variables. Some of these Wizards even went as far as to suggest that the state of the quasi-universe that is thought to predate Asha and Urgash could be re-created as well. The long story short – the experiment failed badly. And not because of technical flaws, security gaps or generally lack of sufficient preparations. It was sabotaged. The official version that you will read in the initial report shortly after these events states roughly that the controlled environment was not really controlled but during the last dew decades new facts keep emerging and the conclusion is already clear – there were people who didn’t want the experiment to succeed. Who are they exactly is still a controversial topic and even our fellow colleagues who are most acquainted with the problem can only speculate at this point.
So, the experiment ends with two corpses and a dozen very confused and angry wizards. They wanted to redo it, but the local Council – initially indecisive at best – suddenly strictly forbid the whole enterprise and even warned all involved parties that future attempts to conduct it will be punished. This created even greater confusion and tension but before something unpleasant could happen, another unpleasant thing happened. A riot led by some sect of Asha followers broke out. Ask Yarhu about the rest.
We don’t really have very friendly relationships with the faction that was formed after these events but we certainly do know a few things about them and we are certainly not in war with them... at least not all the time and not recently. Their aims remain pretty much unchanged. The “lesser” objective is the creation of the Reversed Demiurge, the instrument for reproducing the picture of the world when it came to be. The grand plan however is to achieve the state before The First Motion as we know it – the birth of Asha and Urgash – and to see what the universe around us really is. As far as we know they have tried to perform the experiment at least six times during these 350 years but so far they either have no results, or are hiding them exceptionally well from all kinds of spies – including magical scanning and so on. This, however, does not mean that they don’t have other results. Some of them are quite practical, if I might add, especially given that they are operating in a hostile environment.
Having their ultimate aim in mind and the actual nature of their studies, the designation “Biomancers” is quite incorrect. They don’t call themselves anything like that either; especially the seniors who still consider themselves wizards (11 of the original 12 participants in the first experiment still live). This name was given to them when they actually started to build their defenses against the numerous attacks from outside. As they didn’t have access to the resources available to the Silver Cities, they took alternative approach which now defines them for most of the world. You should bear in mind that only laics think of them in such an incorrect way and I don’t want to believe that I’m reading lectures to such people. I’m going to use this sobriquet just because this is the only name that you know them by for the time being. Understood? Moving on then.
Initially the Biomancers relied on standard transmutation to supply themselves with guardians – mutating and enhancing the characteristics of animals, plants and when available – sentient species as well. As far as we can tell, they were pretty good at that too. The purpose seemed to be purely defensive – the 12 rogue wizards had numerous enemies, especially amongst the devoted Dragon-God cult followers who considered them dangerous lunatics and even abominations who threaten the very existence of the world with their experiment. Their skills in the transmutation magic provided them with enough pseudo-soldiers so they could withstand the initial attacks. It seems that the idea to dig deeper into the mysteries of the physical, organic life, occurred to them later. We don’t know who introduced it. We suspect however that he or she managed to convince the others that the Reversed Demiurge can not be created if the life itself is not thoroughly examined first – and eventually even re-created –because the Engine Consciousness that manifested itself in the form of the Primordial Twins seems to have much to do with the life force – as a broad notion of course and certainly not how most of the Necromancers understand it.
We have reasons to suspect that the so-called Bioforges are being built for about 280 years, give or take 10. In essence, these are huge, fortified labs and factories which serve two interconnected purposes – to shield their founders from the outside world and to help them continue with their researches in a technically more adequate environment. To date, we know of four main Forges and some outposts. There are rumors of a fifth Forge somewhere underground which has its roots in the disappearance of several Dark Elf patrols without a trace in caverns where the mutants of the Biomancers have previously been spotted. The problem with this supposition is that the areas where the patrols vanished are quite distant from each other and that it has no other evidences to support it. The primary settlements are well-equipped with devices to conduct various researches and experiments – more than half of which have been stolen from us via raids or simple thefts – while the rest are mostly part of the defensive grid, supplied with smaller production facilities but not capable of completing complex assignments.
Each Bioforge appears to have a specific task assigned to it as a part of some bigger project, presumably the creation of life in the same manner as the Dragon-Gods managed to do it (and maybe then they will create their own puppet Dragon-God). Forge 1, the de facto capitol, emits considerably more anomalous signals than the rest and the activity there appears to be greater than anywhere else but on the other hand we are detecting the most unusual patterns from Chimera. All this does not mean that the rest of the Forges are dormant. Uroborus in particular is almost certainly the lab most heavily engaged in “military” researches and development of the already considerable fighting capacity of the Biomancers’ army. From what we know, Vorz Habat buys slaves – a lot of them – but we have no clue what they are doing with them and I’ll advise you to disregard the many speculations on the matter, which are as unbacked with facts as they are colourful. Whatever happens with these humans, elves, dwarves, orcs and beastmen, they are covering it very well.
Their government system is unique – a form of advanced meritocracy. The placement of each individual in the hierarchy depends solely on his contribution to the common good (you should remember however that the Biomancers have their own definition for common good). The most important decisions are taken by the Prime Council which consists of 23 elders, 11 of which are the wizards who founded the entire faction. Originally 12 seats were reserved for them but since the death of Jafar the Shifter, it is given to an elected member. Apart from the Founders, all of which have proven that they deserve a life-long right to be part of the Council, only the brightest, most skillful and useful for their society creatures can join it. I use “creatures” deliberately because currently only 15 of all 23 members are humans or humanoids and the race plays no part in the election. The same rule applies to the movement inside the caste-like system. Each individual is restricted to his own level and service until he proves that he’s worthy to become part of another level and to be assigned different tasks. Birthright helps nobody to advance in this society if he’s stupid, lazy and unmotivated – unfortunately the same can not be said for the rest of the world and even our own otherwise enlightened community. I hope Mr. Broklanus who is currently doing his best not to fall asleep understands the last sentence and will rethink his behaviour during his one week sojourn in the kitchen where he’ll make be making gallons of fine soup, starting from right now!
All right, I think that’s enough for now. There is much more to say but you’ll need some time to assimilate even this much information, given its overall complexity. We’ll have an exam covering this topic in one month. Professor Obrotha will have a lecture next week regarding the military organization of the Biomancers which you should really attend because there will be question from this quite interesting topic in the exam. Now, dismissed!
Capitol: Forge 1
Religion: None
Alignment: Neutral
Social system: Caste-based meritocracy
Ruler: The Prime Council
Allies: None, but the relations with the Wizards and the Demons are a little better than neutral (just a little though)
Enemies: The Necromancers, cold relations with both kinds of Elves and the Humans
Heroes:
Might – War Breed Omicron
Magic – Biomancer
Racial skill: Transmutation
Creatures:
Core: Surrogate, Pteromorph, Predator
Elite: Colony, Pseudo-Demon, War Breed Beta
Champion: Re-assembler
Might Hero description:
Forge Uroborus has long been treated as the most important military target for any major campaign against the Biomancers. The enormous fortified facility serves as the primary development centre for the “combat models” of most of the creatures which the renegade Wizard faction tends to use on the battlefield. As it turned out about six decades ago though, its real capabilities had previously been underestimated.
Most of Ashan already knew the result of the War Breed program and two particular armies were still in the process of recovering from the results of their first encounters with the Biomancers’ first purely warfare-oriented project when the prototype Omicron general appeared on the battlefield. The same day entered into history as the first and so far the only time when a high-ranking, fully sentient and intelligent undead commander has been shocked and panicked. According to the story, which has since turned into a legend, the surprise that a creature neither created, nor foreseen by Asha or Urgash is capable of controlling a large and incredibly mixed force of mutants and artificial organisms with vastly varying levels of intelligence like the pieces on a chess-board almost brought back to life the elder vampire Mokacha, who was supposed to mount a siege against Uroborus. The defeat of the undead army was so decisive that the Necromancers began to fear that if the Biomancers counter-attack, they would be fully capable to wipe out their cult from the face of Ashan. Nothing like that happened, the reason being a major flaw in the prototype Omicron specimen which needed to be fixed, although nobody outside the Biomancer elite ever learned about this problem.
War Breed Omicron is the peak and – as the selected few know – the intended purpose of the War Breed series. Like the majority of the Bioforge projects, its objective is twofold – to provide the renegade faction with capable servants and to test the Biomancers’ ability to create complex life forms. In both regards it is an extremely successful design. The level of self-consciousness of a complete Omicron specimen matches that of the sentient species in Ashan and it has a fully developed personality. Physically it is similar to the Gamma series with slightly improved reflexes and mobility but intellectually it is far superior to its “lesser” relative. Special attention has been paid to its capabilities to learn and adapt, as well as to synchronize the information from the past experience with the theory of the warfare and the currently available data. As a result, the Biomancers pride themselves to have created the first “born general” in history. The intellectual capabilities of an Omicron specimen however are so great that it could progress as far as a member of the Prime Council and an advisor not only on the military matters. There are four such recorded cases.
The importance of the project was so significant that it was kept in total secrecy. Almost all of the researchers working on it had no idea what they are dealing with and were led to believe that purpose is an enhanced version of many of the existing mutants and protoforms. Only the Founders and three other members of the Prime Council – who are responsible for assembling the pieces developed by the researches – were fully aware of the actual purpose. To this day some of the living participants in the development have no idea what they have done. As for the rest of the world – from this point on it started to become fully aware of what exactly it is facing when engaging the Biomancers.
Its great potential notwithstanding, an Omicron general is a rarity. The reason for this is unknown for the outsiders but their suspicions that it’s hard and very expensive to produce are pretty close to the truth although the details are neither simple, nor easy to stomach by most people.
Advantages: possesses the Synchronization ability which allows the hero to make his underlings co-operate with each other in order to increase their combat performance. The particular effect varies, depending on which creatures are selected to “work together”.
Disadvantages: weak control of the Transmutation racial ability – the latter is almost unusable during the first few levels and far less effective compared to the same used by the Magic hero later.
Magic Hero description:
There is next to no difference between a Biomancer and a Wizard – this should be clear. The training, the magical capabilities and very often even the reasoning of these two groups of magicians are similar. The only thing that draws the line of separation between them is the renegade status of the Biomancer faction earned through stubborn dedication to the Re-Genesis project and subsequent (partially self-imposed) exile. Even if the studies of the “regular” Wizards and the Biomancers could seem different from the outside, essentially they are almost the same. One could say that the latter are a bit more specialized but this never led them to believe that they are something special as opposed to their colleagues from the Silver Cities.
The typical Biomancer – just like the typical Wizard – is obsessed with obtaining knowledge, no matter the cost or the restrictions, and then using it as he or she sees fit. The results of such pursuits are not always positive and quite often tend to be unhealthy for the main character and the people in his immediate surroundings - or the entire region or world – but the numerous recorded incident cases are no match for the forces of curiosity. But even though every Biomancer is far more dedicated to creation than to destruction, some would say that the difference is only in the semantics. Truth be told, the ordinary human, elf or dwarf find the sorcerers who –from a safe distance – conjure fiery storms that incinerate entire armies more charismatic than mages who create new and sometimes quite repulsive life forms which tend to become very hostile when their creators are endangered – the logic behind this reasoning is yet to be discovered.
The monster breeders, as they are usually called, however care little about the monster breeding as such. The studies of most Biomancers are directly linked to the Re-Genesis experiment and everything else is considered just the means to achieve the ultimate aim. Only a small group, belonging to the Guardian caste, is exclusively employed in researching new ways to improve the defensive capacities of the faction, which usually means designing deadlier armies. Almost all Biomancers ever seen on the battlefield belong to this stratum although an outsider is very unlikely to detect the nuance.
The Guardian Biomancers are mainly concerned with supervising the performance of their creations during the battle and making “corrections” where necessary. In this regard they are – by far – not as efficient as the War Breed Omicron series but this does not make them incompetent commanders. The typical Guardian is trained to master the school of Transmutation more effectively than the rest of the wizards from the faction and in this regard is greatly superior to even the most perfected Omicron general. Being a magician himself, such a Biomancer is capable of performing no worse than the sorceres from the Silver Cities in terms of aiding his or her own army or weakening the enemy with spells. Thus the lack of purely military training is compensated – and sometimes more than compensated – by the ability to literally shape the battle.
Advantages: the Transmutation racial ability is significantly enhanced, offers more options and is easier to use as opposed to the Might hero. Also this hero has access to all magic schools.
Disadvantages: about half of the Might-oriented skills are inaccessible and the hero does not accumulate a lot of offensive and defensive power.
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MrDragon
Supreme Hero
Eats people with Ketchup
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posted May 12, 2011 11:12 PM |
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Giant block of text is unreadable, please add some empty lines between the paragraphs.
Also, do I detect a hint of HoMMIII's original but not included Forge faction?
Seeing as it's from you, I wouldn't be surprised if you filled it with loads of subtle throwbacks in addition to many obvious ones.
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Zenofex
Responsible
Legendary Hero
Kreegan-atheist
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posted May 12, 2011 11:29 PM |
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Damn, it was properly formated in the Word file, I guess the copy-paste messed it up. It's fine now.
No, it has very little to do with the AB Forge, although it's not 100% alien to its concept. It is not a sci-fi faction anyway, at least not in the traditional sense.
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Warlord
Famous Hero
Lord of Image Spam
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posted May 15, 2011 02:18 PM |
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I like it! Keep going!
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admira
Promising
Famous Hero
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posted May 16, 2011 05:31 AM |
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I really enjoy the read! Keep it up!
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Zenofex
Responsible
Legendary Hero
Kreegan-atheist
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posted June 12, 2011 12:50 PM |
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Added the Might and Magic hero descriptions. The racial skill and the creatures to follow during the next... weeks most likely.
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