: Maybe Muirthemne didn't have an Emperor most of the
: time--only when a big hero would come along. Maybe it
: was a democracy occasionally interupted by a big time
: military autocracy--the way Napoleon interupted the
: French Republic.
It wouldn't be an empire if it didn't have an Emperor. Besides, GURPS talks about what emperors usually do as if there usually is one.
: Nah. That doesn't work at all. We haven't got any reason
: to think that--and it just doesn't fit into the Myth
: geopolitik, anyway. So my question now is, what was
: the line of Emperors? Is this in the GURPS book, and
: if not, why not?
Lots of stuff isn't in the GURPS book. It doesn't even tell us the names of the four unknown nine.
: I need to know who the last Emperor
: of the Cath Bruig was, because I plan on having my
: jmen burying him in one of the levels of my solo
: campaign--gotta use that beautiful dig sequence for
: something. I suppose I could have them burying their
: own dead, or their heron guard armor or something, but
: there's more pathos (and shame) there if it's a guy in
: red scale mail lying on the ground.
You wouldn't actually have to give him a name. If he's dead, he might not be selectable. If you do have to give him a name, he could be Ceiscoran, or you could make something up. The city was burned by Balor, so it's quite likely there wouldn't even be an identifiable body left.
: Hey, is there any indication whether the Spider Cults
: helped betray Muirthemne to the Dark?
I doubt it, as they disappeared when Connacht was still emperor.
: Here's my little
: pet theory on what happened. Just before the sack, the
: HG knew they were in for a fight so they started a
: heavy recruitment campaign (although the numbers in
: their names are dates, not the order of their
: initiation in any given year, I think).
It says in GURPS that the words are dates, and the numbers are their order of initiation on that date, as they'd usually take a few at a time.
: It wouldn't be
: too hard to find people who wanted this--you get to be
: immortal, after all--and so they swelled their ranks.
: Then, when the Dark came, a number of the new HG
: mutinied in hopes of being spared. The old school HG
: could easily have put down this insurrection but it
: just never occured to them that such a thing could
: happen--Heron Guard? Mutiny? Impossible! So they were
: left with their pants down when their newbie
: colleagues threw open the gates in the middle of the
: battle and let some trow in to kick the Ibis Crown off
: the Emperor's head.
It says in GURPS that the Heron have traditionally chosen six or fewer, though they may have to increase this to cover all the casualties. It makes no mention of an earlier huge increase.
: (The Trow, having no use for
: magic--right?--didn't even notice when a loyal HG
: spirited the crown away). This is why the original
: Heron Guard had to take up the tiles--it really was
: their failure, not just an overwhelming enemy force.
No, the ones at the city weren't the ones who took the tiles. They died. The only survivors were one hundred that were fighting elsewhere.
: As to what happened to the mutineers--well, of course
: Balor killed them all and turned them into the Stygian
: Knights. That's why there are so many of the damned
: things in Clovis' mausoleum and guarding the
: Baron--these guys can't be trusted with Balor's (or
: Soulblighter's) real goodies, so he details them to
: guard bits of the light that are currently under his
: command but might change hands at any time.
If Balor had been down there, he would have found the Ibis Crown. Besides, Stygians are about like undead, only they are an animated suit of armor instead of an animated corpse. They didn't used to be people. Chances are, those Stygians were made by the light to guard the site.
: This is, of course, wild speculation, but it's my theory
: and I'm sticking to it.
It doesn't make any sense, but okay.
: Hey, while I have your attention: one of the new units
: I'm developing for my campaign is a jman with a
: missile attack. Because I suck at 3d drawing the way
: I've chosen to do this is to show them attacking as
: normal--but then the head of the shovel flies off and
: hits the enemy at a distance, doing more damage than
: an arrow, less than a lit bottle. It seems a bit silly
: that they have an infinite number of shovel heads...
: but then the dwarves and archers don't seem to care
: where their ammo comes from. What I'd like from you
: folks is to know just how silly you think this sounds.
: I've thought about turning the shovel into a javelin
: like the soulless carry, but it just isn't the same,
: y'know? Any ideas, suggestions, comments are welcome.
Dwarves and archers get away with infinite ammo because they're pulling it out of a hidden area. Journeymen obviously just have one shovel head. You could bring in the imperial bowmen or give a few journeymen magical attacks.
