Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: [1] 2

Author Topic: What ARE Forgotten Beasts?  (Read 2015 times)

Nyxalinth

  • Bay Watcher
  • [LIKES_FIGHTING]
    • View Profile
    • My facebook page.
What ARE Forgotten Beasts?
« on: February 15, 2011, 12:22:36 pm »

I mean, i know what they are, but I mean, how did they come to exist, in your opinion?

I like to think either some mad god of chaos put them together after the creation of the universe.  Or, they're some sort of Eldritch Abomination from before time.
Logged
Nyxalinth likes the color blue, gaming, writing, art, cats for their aloofness,  Transformers for their sentience and ability to transform, and the Constructicons for their hard work and building skills. Whenever possible, she prefers to consume bacon cheeseburgers and pinot noir. She absolutely detests stupid people.

slink

  • Bay Watcher
  • Crazy Cat Dwarf
    • View Profile
    • Slink's Burrow Online
Re: What ARE Forgotten Beasts?
« Reply #1 on: February 15, 2011, 12:28:14 pm »

I used to know, but I forgot.   ;D

Seriously, I think they are Tarn Adams's way of forcing us to fight monsters that we can't mod into nothingness.  :D

In that sense, I would vote for your "Eldritch Abomination from before time".  Although they are technically created after the creation of each map, I think they existed in Tarn Adams's imagination before the map-making began.  :)
Logged
There is only one cat, and all cats are that cat.
Almost losing is sometimes fun.

Mantonio

  • Bay Watcher
  • Make Science!
    • View Profile
Re: What ARE Forgotten Beasts?
« Reply #2 on: February 15, 2011, 12:28:55 pm »

Both of those are very possible (although I like to think as Year 0 as less the very beginning of the world, and more the beginning of recorded history.

I think they could be the playthings of Clowns, created from man and beast captured by their Goblin servants, and set loose upon the world to bring much fun.
Logged
Who's the greatest warrior ever?
A hero of renown?
Who slayed an evil ocean?
Who cast the Lich King down?
BILLY!

MadJax

  • Bay Watcher
  • Magma Muppet
    • View Profile
Re: What ARE Forgotten Beasts?
« Reply #3 on: February 15, 2011, 12:33:24 pm »

My belief is actually summed up in another thread:

(This also covers titans and clowns)

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=77327.msg1979943#msg1979943
Logged
Dwarven Math:

Dorf + Magma + Insane Project = SCIENCE!

Musashi

  • Bay Watcher
  • cancels Work: distracted by Dwarf Fortress.
    • View Profile
Re: What ARE Forgotten Beasts?
« Reply #4 on: February 15, 2011, 12:35:38 pm »

Yep, eldritch abominations. That are possibly guardians of the HFS.
Logged
I don't mean to alarm you, but it appears that your Dwarves are all in fact elephants.

Loyal

  • Bay Watcher
  • [PREFSTRING:rogueish looks]
    • View Profile
Re: What ARE Forgotten Beasts?
« Reply #5 on: February 15, 2011, 12:38:06 pm »

Genetic leftovers. Too misshapen to reproduce, too tough to die off naturally.
Logged

riznar

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: What ARE Forgotten Beasts?
« Reply #6 on: February 15, 2011, 01:00:46 pm »

They're the equal and opposite of strange moods.

Creatures of chaos born from the world's allergic reaction to a spike of order. A forgotten beast is generated by a moody dwarf creating an object with perfect construction. Like artifacts, they have impossible structure, but unlike artifacts, everything about them is wrong. This also explains the FBs that radiate loving and kindness: They're created by fell and macabre moods.

Logged

MadJax

  • Bay Watcher
  • Magma Muppet
    • View Profile
Re: What ARE Forgotten Beasts?
« Reply #7 on: February 15, 2011, 01:31:32 pm »

See, I see them as more "fallen titans" as in classic mythology, that Armok (or any other force for that matter) sealed beneath the earth to be forgotten for eternity, so Eldritch abominations kind of fit there.
Logged
Dwarven Math:

Dorf + Magma + Insane Project = SCIENCE!

gtmattz

  • Bay Watcher
  • [PREFSTRING:BEARD]
    • View Profile
Re: What ARE Forgotten Beasts?
« Reply #8 on: February 15, 2011, 02:18:40 pm »

I have been reading a lot of Lovecraft lately, and I kind of like to think they are accidents of something akin to the 'elder things', left to roam the underworld aeons ago.
Logged
Quote from: Hyndis
Just try it! Its not like you die IRL if Urist McMiner falls into magma.

MadJax

  • Bay Watcher
  • Magma Muppet
    • View Profile
Re: What ARE Forgotten Beasts?
« Reply #9 on: February 15, 2011, 02:47:28 pm »

I have been reading a lot of Lovecraft lately, and I kind of like to think they are accidents of something akin to the 'elder things', left to roam the underworld aeons ago.
Either way I like to think of it from a dorfs POV:

"Oh cool! Caverns! The space! The water! The trees! Wait...whats that? is that a for.. AAAAH! MY SANITY!"
Logged
Dwarven Math:

Dorf + Magma + Insane Project = SCIENCE!

Girlinhat

  • Bay Watcher
  • [PREFSTRING:large ears]
    • View Profile
Re: What ARE Forgotten Beasts?
« Reply #10 on: February 15, 2011, 04:29:11 pm »

According to my favorite creation myth so far, the world existed as a creation of demon, a ball of slade in the void of space.  Armok, inspired by their planetoid, decided to make his own, but every attempt left the planet cold and lifeless.  So her turned to the demons, who's eternal heat kept their slade world alight.  He wrapped them in a shell then, casting earth around them and imprisoning them.  As the demons fight to escape, their beating on the underside of the shell heats it up, creating the semi-molten rock and the magma sea, which keeps the world warm.  That's right, the world is kept alive by demons' spite.  However, in the process of this setup, the SMR was fractured, and cracks made, through which demons escaped.  They scoured the land, taking Armok's first living beings, eternal creatures as a 'prototype' for mortals, and perverting and distorting them, turning them into Forgotten Beasts underground, while the Titans that lived above ground were untouched by demons.

http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Adamantine#Origins_of_Adamantine_and_Slade
This is a fascinating read, and details the rest of the story better.

Deadly Lamarr

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: What ARE Forgotten Beasts?
« Reply #11 on: February 15, 2011, 04:40:33 pm »

See, I see them as more "fallen titans" as in classic mythology, that Armok (or any other force for that matter) sealed beneath the earth to be forgotten for eternity, so Eldritch abominations kind of fit there.

As an old fan of Greek mythology, I'm inclined to agree here, but not just in reference to Greek Titans but, if I recall correctly, a number of monsters like the hecatoncheires the Earth birthed which were buried away by Uranus. Lovecraft was a fan of Greek mythology too, so similarities are probably not coincidental.

I think I recall there being a mythology or invented cosmology in which there was a time before the world was ordered into what we know it to be now and that there are monstrous remnants of that time still existing. Maybe I'm thinking of Lovecraft -- Star Spawn and Elder Things certainly sound like that -- but I think it might have been something else ... Exalted? Not sure.
Logged
Sometimes you succeed in your goals and sometimes you and everyone around you is murdered by a gigantic spider.

C'est la vie

I'm walking crawling across the continent looking for a crutch. Story shortened, horse ate my foot.

Girlinhat

  • Bay Watcher
  • [PREFSTRING:large ears]
    • View Profile
Re: What ARE Forgotten Beasts?
« Reply #12 on: February 15, 2011, 04:43:40 pm »

Greek mythology is partially based on this "time before the world" with the Titans who were struck down by the Gods.

MadJax

  • Bay Watcher
  • Magma Muppet
    • View Profile
Re: What ARE Forgotten Beasts?
« Reply #13 on: February 15, 2011, 04:44:50 pm »

See, I see them as more "fallen titans" as in classic mythology, that Armok (or any other force for that matter) sealed beneath the earth to be forgotten for eternity, so Eldritch abominations kind of fit there.

As an old fan of Greek mythology, I'm inclined to agree here, but not just in reference to Greek Titans but, if I recall correctly, a number of monsters like the hecatoncheires the Earth birthed which were buried away by Uranus. Lovecraft was a fan of Greek mythology too, so similarities are probably not coincidental.

I think I recall there being a mythology or invented cosmology in which there was a time before the world was ordered into what we know it to be now and that there are monstrous remnants of that time still existing. Maybe I'm thinking of Lovecraft -- Star Spawn and Elder Things certainly sound like that -- but I think it might have been something else ... Exalted? Not sure.

Stop reading my mind with witchcraft!

Seriously though, Greek mythology was my chief inspiration behind my theory, that and it actually makes sense within the game universe, as well as having Lovecraftian connections :)
Logged
Dwarven Math:

Dorf + Magma + Insane Project = SCIENCE!

Deadly Lamarr

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: What ARE Forgotten Beasts?
« Reply #14 on: February 15, 2011, 04:56:15 pm »

See, I see them as more "fallen titans" as in classic mythology, that Armok (or any other force for that matter) sealed beneath the earth to be forgotten for eternity, so Eldritch abominations kind of fit there.

As an old fan of Greek mythology, I'm inclined to agree here, but not just in reference to Greek Titans but, if I recall correctly, a number of monsters like the hecatoncheires the Earth birthed which were buried away by Uranus. Lovecraft was a fan of Greek mythology too, so similarities are probably not coincidental.

I think I recall there being a mythology or invented cosmology in which there was a time before the world was ordered into what we know it to be now and that there are monstrous remnants of that time still existing. Maybe I'm thinking of Lovecraft -- Star Spawn and Elder Things certainly sound like that -- but I think it might have been something else ... Exalted? Not sure.

Stop reading my mind with witchcraft!

Neverrrrrr!

Seriously though, Greek mythology was my chief inspiration behind my theory, that and it actually makes sense within the game universe, as well as having Lovecraftian connections :)

I'm glad that both Greek mythology and Lovecraft are alive and well in the Bay 12 community, myself. :)
Logged
Sometimes you succeed in your goals and sometimes you and everyone around you is murdered by a gigantic spider.

C'est la vie

I'm walking crawling across the continent looking for a crutch. Story shortened, horse ate my foot.
Pages: [1] 2