Difference between revisions of "Thunderstone"

Revision as of 19:56, 26 March 2008

In the years following Under the Burning Suns and Invasion from the Unknown, the remnants of civilization have come in contact with high technology. Over a hundred years of mostly peace has allowed rapid advancements in a rebuilding world. In this age of mixed magic and science, the first powerful spacecraft have been developed and the elves, dwarves, humans, and orcs of the world of Irdya have ended their isolation from the galaxy at large...

Thunderstone is the far future of Wesnoth, a post-post-apocalyptic world where fantasy and science fiction collide. The core of the mod will be an era, consisting of six all-new factions - Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Shaxthals (Biomechanicals from IftU), and Velirssh (aliens featured in UtBS and IftU). The mod will also include a new space terrain for spaceships (although expect to see spaceships as often as you see ships in standard Wesnoth), as well as extra units and terrains necessary to be the core for scenarios and campaigns based in the far future of the world Wesnoth.

Elves are still in touch with nature and they have developed their magical skills. Elves focus heavily on magic, rejecting technologies which they find disharmonious, and excel at biology and medicine. Much of their technology is magically-enhanced. Tactically, elves focus on mobility and precision fire.

Humans

Humans are still the jack-of-all-trades race. Balancing magic and science, humans are generalists who adapt to novelty more effectively than the other races of Irdya. Their technical strength area is computers and miniaturization. They, more than the other speaking peoples, tend to win by luring opponents into fatal mistakes.

Dwarves

The dwarves are the master technologists and builders of Irdya, especially in the areas of power, weapons, propulsion, and large-scale engineering. They remain intensely conservative, and their technology is ultra-reliable even if it lacks the finesse and efficiency of human or elven work.

Orcs

Orcs have stolen most of what they have from the more civilized species, but focus mostly on war. Their technology tends towards the crude, overpowered hack, and is notoriously (and sometimes comically) unreliable. The flip side of this is that in any environment that doesn't outright kill them, orcs are less helpless without their tech than the other speaking peoples.

Shaxthals (Biomechs)

Long before the arrival of humans, the ancient civilzation of the Argazars dominated Irdya. Losing a war with the planet Rythé, and found themselves close to complete oblivion. But with their great knowledge of biology, genetics, technology and even magic, they were able to create the ultimate weapon: the biomechanicals, known in their ancient tongue as "Shaxthals". These invincible legionnaries combined the toughest and most lethal attributes of every creature known by their creators. They served as protectors to the Argazars, but could not guard them against Rythénian strategic weapons. The Rythé desolated the lands of Irdya, destroyed the cities, and buried the works of the Argazars.

A remnant of the Argazars, buried deep in the very underground base where shaxthal production was centered. The Rythénians thought their race was gone, so they ceased attacking the planet. No one knows what events took place on the surface during centuries and millennia that followed, as the shattered ecology of Irdya reknit itself. But what is known, is that the Argazars lost control over their creations -- or, rather, their creations ceased recognizing them as masters. Whether this was due to a mutation in the shaxthal or the remnant Argazars themselves is not known.

Without the direction oof the Argazars, the instincts of the shaxthals prevailed. Their drives were a strange and predatory mixture of those of their biological ancestors and the warfare programming of their artificial bodies. Those instincts eventually drove them them to consume the remainins of the Argazar civilization. Eventually they took the Argazars' bodies and integrated them into their own buiomechanical plan. For they had been designed with an assimilation system that allowed them to integrate into new environments, or adapt the environments themselves to suit their needs, including any living organisms that might inhabit them.

The Shaxthals kept most of the technology of the Argazars, losing magic and the advanced forms of biomanipulation with which they had been created. Reduced to barely a fww dozen, the Argazars figured out a biological weakness of theire creations, a way to destroy most of the Shaxthals en masse. All but a few of the stringest shaxthals perished. Fatefully, the Argazars decided to keep them in cryogenic pods instead of destroying them forever, as they thought there might be a last hope of using reprogrammed shaxthals to rebuild their civilization at some point in the future. That foolish thought was almost condemned the Great Continent to an armageddon millennia later.

Long after the Fall of Wesnoth, the self-proclaimed Emperor of Chaos figured out a way to resurrect the creatures, and reproduce their technology by artificial means. The chaos mages of the Empire even enabled them to them able to reproduce by natural, asexual means. Thus modified, they became the principal and most dreaded weapon of the Chaos Empire. After the defeat of Argan the Shadow Master, the Shaxthals were freed from their imprisonment in the dark hives of the Heart, and adapted to the time-renewed ecology of the surface world. They then began to prey on the speaking peoples of Irdya.

Velirssh

Coordination

IRC Channel

#thunderstone (freenode.net)

Forum Thread

Coming soon!

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 ====Shaxthals (Biomechs)====
-An ancient civilization inhabited the planet; those were the Argazars. Long time ago, they were losing a war with the planet Rythé, and found themselves close to complete oblivion, until with their great knowledge of biology, genetics, technology and even magic, they were able to create the ultimate weapon: the biomechanicals, known in their ancient tongue as "Shaxthals", invincible legionnaries. They were made of the best characteristics of every creature known by their creators. They served as protectors to the Argazars in the beginning, but one fateful day, a great cataclysm desolated the lands, destroyed the cities, and buried them down into the ground.
+Long before the arrival of humans, the ancient civilzation of the Argazars dominated Irdya. Losing a war with the planet Rythé, and found themselves close to complete oblivion. But with their great knowledge of biology, genetics, technology and even magic, they were able to create the ultimate weapon: the biomechanicals, known in their ancient tongue as "Shaxthals". These invincible legionnaries combined the toughest and most lethal attributes of every creature known by their creators. They served as protectors to the Argazars, but could not guard them against Rythénian strategic weapons.  The Rythé desolated the lands of Irdya, destroyed the cities, and buried the works of the Argazars.
-Most Argazars were not able to survive the devastation, but a few ones struggled to sustain their lives in a underground base, where the shaxthal production was started. The Rythénians thought their race was gone, so they stopped attacking the planet. No one knows what events took place in the surface during centuries, millenia, eons. But what is known, is that the Argazards lost control over their creations, because of a small detail that slipped through the original design.
+A remnant of the Argazars, buried deep in the very underground base where shaxthal production was centered. The Rythénians thought their race was gone, so they ceased attacking the planet. No one knows what events took place on the surface during centuries and millennia that followed, as the shattered ecology of Irdya reknit itself. But what is known, is that the Argazars lost control over their creations -- or, rather, their creations ceased recognizing them as masters.  Whether this was due to a mutation in the shaxthal or the remnant Argazars themselves is not known.
-Their instincts prevailed, a strange mixture of those of the original mangled beings they were in the past, and those that were programmed into their artificial bodies. Those instincts commanded them to start consuming the remainings of the Argazar civilization. They took the argazan bodies and integrated them into their own lifeform. For they had an advanced assimilation system that allowed them to integrate into new environments, or adapt the environment themselves to suit their needs, including any living organism that inhabit them.
+Without the direction oof the Argazars, the instincts of the shaxthals prevailed.  Their drives were a strange and predatory mixture of those of their biological ancestors and the warfare programming of their artificial bodies. Those instincts eventually drove them them to consume the remainins of the Argazar civilization. Eventually they took the Argazars' bodies and integrated them into their own buiomechanical plan. For they had been designed with an assimilation system that allowed them to integrate into new environments, or adapt the environments themselves to suit their needs, including any living organisms that might inhabit them.
-The Shaxthals had the same knowledge of technology of the Argazars, just not that of genetics or magic. With barely a few dozen of men left, the Argazars figured out a way to destroy the Shaxthals. The strongest ones, few though, survived. Thus, the loremasters decided to keep them in cryogenic pods instead of destructing them forever, as they thought they could still be a last hope of survival at some point in the future. That foolish thought was what almost condemned the Great Continent to its armageddon.
+The Shaxthals kept most of the technology of the Argazars, losing magic and the advanced forms of biomanipulation with which they had been created. Reduced to barely a fww dozen, the Argazars figured out a biological weakness of theire creations, a way to destroy most of the Shaxthals en masse.  All but a few of the stringest shaxthals perished.  Fatefully, the Argazars decided to keep them in cryogenic pods instead of destroying them forever, as they thought there might be a last hope of using reprogrammed shaxthals to rebuild their civilization at some point in the future. That foolish thought was almost condemned the Great Continent to an armageddon millennia later.
-Long after the Fall of Wesnoth, the self-proclaimed Emperor of Chaos figured out a way to resurrect the creatures, and reproduce their technology by artificial means, and even figured out a way to make them able to reproduce by natural, asexual means. They were converted then into the main weapon of the Chaos Empire. After the defeat of Argan the Shadow Master, the Shaxthals were freed from their imprisonment in the dark hives of the Heart, and managed to integrate to existing environments in the outsides, and even adapt the environments to suit their own needs. Their intelligence continued evolving, to a point that
+Long after the Fall of Wesnoth, the self-proclaimed Emperor of Chaos figured out a way to resurrect the creatures, and reproduce their technology by artificial means. The chaos mages of the Empire even enabled them to them able to reproduce by natural, asexual means. Thus modified, they became the principal and most dreaded weapon of the Chaos Empire. After the defeat of Argan the Shadow Master, the Shaxthals were freed from their imprisonment in the dark hives of the Heart, and adapted to the time-renewed ecology of the surface world. They then began to prey on the speaking peoples of Irdya.
-some privileged ones became self-sentient, and started to inflict destruction and strife in the existing races, which managed to keep the situation under control thanks to their technological advance, until
-the shaxthal's own advance got to a point above the former.
 ====Velirssh====