: Here's an idea, capitalizing on Alric's hatred of the
: undead: Make almost all the GOOD guys undead.
[snip interesting concept]
Hrm. I kinda like this, but not quite. I say make them not undead (because the undead have troubles with magic; hence the Fallen aren't undead, but instead bent to Balor's will), but instead immortal, kept alive through extended sourceries and herbal treatments stemming from the Mandrake Roots. This does make them, in some sense, "undead", as they are very not-dead. :-)
However, this is alost secret, and the only immortals are the ruling few, the Emperor and his advisors. A Chancellor handles the everyday affairs like the old Emperors would, while the immortals work behind the scenes to make everything good and nice.
But other concepts I like too. I like Alric coming from across the sea, in the west. The tomb of the first Myrkridian King was in Silvermines, according to TFLb3 (or was it 4?), so it stands to reason that they (and Moagim) came from the west. The Connacht came from the east. Then Balor came from the east. Then Alric came from the west. So Caliban (Leveller-Alric; I like that idea) comes from the west. (I would wager Tireces, before Moagim, came from the west as well, and so on back).
I like the previously stated ideas of big ships and flying units (perhaps dragons and griffons), and nonliving things (elementals, machines, golems). Flying machines, floating machines, walking machines, etc, shooting lasers and missiles and machine guns. Wind elementals shrieking through the air, sea elementals ravaging the shores, earth elementals (golems) wreaking havoc on the land, and fire elementals scorching everything in their paths. Maybe aliens too? (corporeal ones, not Fetch)
As for good guys, we've got the immortals, the quasi-immortal Heron Guard, Imperial Bowmen (including the ranks of the fir'Bolg) with a variety of arrows (paralytic, incendiary, poisoned), the Imperial Soldiers (warriors from around the world, anyone who can swing a sword) who look like Province warriors, Imperial Scouts (fast unarmored units like the Zerks, though not all Northern), the Dwarves with their mortars and rifles, the Warlocks (not all from the Scholomance; just general wizards) with various powers. Maybe the bre'Unor are allies as well, though they just hang out in the forests and be aboriginal). Peasants of course. The TrO with PoWR KiK AcHuN! Forest Giants, who have kissed and made up with the Trow. I like the idea of using Fetch, but Wyrd would smite them. (Though that rather counts out aliens as bad guys, too). The Ghols could have been subjugated by the Dwarves, used as slaves, and spread about the Empire (maybe they switch sides mid-fight?). Mauls are largely unseen, but they ally with the Light when they see Caliban's forces. Did I forget anyone?
So, here's what I'm thinking. Scenario is done in installments, each a number of years apart. The game starts with the investigation of a mysterious series of disappearances at sea, ships never returning to port. So you're at a harbor, an Imperial patrol consisting of a number of warriors and bowmen, when these slimy blue-green creatures covered in barnacles and seaweed crawl onto shore. Only fire can destroy them, we find, as they are invulnerable to physical attacks (and don't pack much of a wollop, either, being water). But they are destroyed eventually, though the docks are burned in the process.
Next couple of levels we meet various other elementals, golems and wind elementals. Golems are basically fast, weak thrall, though they pack a heafty punch. Wind elementals appear toward the end of the installment, and simply make noise and drain the life out of your units, without you being able to fight back. Eventually we get some magicians out there to fight them, releasing clouds of poisonous vapor into the air and killing the elementals. But it's still not enough, so we call on the bre'Unor, who envoke the now-powerful airborn elemental spirit b'Y'laggo, who strikes out at these lesser elementals and drives them from the land (er, air). But then Fire appears, and scorches the Ermine into a pitiful field of ash. To be continued.
The next installment would be many years later. Most of the west is overrun, the elementals having cut off seabound supply lines, blighted fields and forests, poisoned water supplies, and left the land a scorched, blasted wasteland. But still the Empire fights. The elementals have been held from the north and south seaways by the Trow in the north and the Forest Giants in the south. But they are still pushing back toward the heart of the Empire, the fertile lands east of the Cloudspine. In this installment, we are introduced to the first of the new Fallen Lords - The Deceiver. Now an Ancient Evil, he begins turning our own forces against us, and something like a civil war breaks out. In the middle of this war the Deceiver's forces uncover a lost secret, buried under the ground for almost a thousand years - the Head. At the end of this installment, the Dark is held at the Cloudspine and the Deceiver's forces in the Empire overrun, thanks to the questionable help of the Head. But then a worse foe appears, striking clear across the skies and into the dead heart of Muirthemne - flying machines, bending light into rays of firey fury, sending a hail of bullets from the sky. Ships are spotted landing on the far west coast. Walking machines with tracking explosive missiles unload onto shore. And the greatest hero of all time steps ashore in the ruined harbor of his old home.
Third installment, and I'll try to keep it short. We meet Caliban, whose identity we don't know yet. His machines build self-running factories in the west. The Trow and Giants are forced to retreat further inland. We meet other Fallen - Rabican, his souls reanimated in cybernetic bodies, and the Voiceless One, a fragile, pale skeleton of a witch, her body barely held together by Caliban's machines, having been decaying for over a thousand years. Three light Avatara are bound to Caliban as Fallen as well. Through this installment, Caliban's forces beat the Light further and further back toward the heart at Muirthemne. It ends with the forces of the Empire being disbanded after the destruction of Muirthemne.
Final installment. Like Myth TFL. The entire land is owned by the Dark, and only a few cities still stand around the Dwarven lands and the old Trow capital at Rhi'anon. Now things really start to come into play. During an attack by the Deciever on a major Dwarven city, the Head reveals to the Imperial forces that the Deceiver has a weakness in his arrogance, and could easily be fooled into thinking he had betwitched someone when he hadn't, simply assuming he had won. One of the immortals, not being bewitchable (as they're kinda undead), allows himself to be "defeated" by the Deceiver, and while serving at his side against another Dwarven city, turns on the Deceiver and lops off his hand, crushing his scepter with a quick stomp and leaving his army once again awake, and the Deceiver almost powerless. The forces of the Light converge and destroy him. Similar victories follow, killing Robocan (Rabican) and The Voiceless One by destroying the computer control center in the ruins of Covenant. Ruining Caliban's factories. And so on. Finally, the Head somehow manipulates the Immortals into finding out who Caliban is, and knowing his hatred for the undead, they sacrifice themselves in a distraction while the true Emperor, who has been really leading the armies all this time, steals from Caliban's belt a shard of the Tain, and whisks him into it. The Tain shard, and all other known pieces of it, are taken to the Great Devoid, and hurled into it. The three remaining Fallen, now much less poweful, try to stop them, but they, and all the remainder of humanity who went to fight them, are destroyed when the Devoid itself is sucked into the Tain, which is falling through the Devoid, so the two annihilate eachother leaving a big flat hunk of nothing in their place.
The passage from the world of Light to Dark has been closed. The Leveller, left with no one to inhabit, wastes away into eternity. The cycles are over.
The end.
: C'mon, *someone's* got to make a scenario where you're
: rooting for the decaying travesties of humanity!
How about one where everyone dies at the end?
(Pardon me, I'm tired. This'll make no sense in the morning).
