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Author Topic: Secret immortality and immortals  (Read 5702 times)

shadenight123

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Re: Secret immortality and immortals
« Reply #15 on: October 04, 2011, 12:41:38 pm »

I'm reasonably sure it's the "Will not age" flavor of immortality, not the "cannot die" flavor. Although I suppose it's possibly the latter will show up at some point.

Personally I love flavors of "cannot die" immortality.  It still hurts for instance.
(My favorite is what the basilisks of Amara had: even if they were atomized, magic would painfully reconstruct them atom by atom.  After agonizingly long existences they had taken to dive bombing planets they went out to visit, with the hope that maybe their immortality would fail and they, would in fact, not come back).

title of the book/game/whatever this is. i must read about it.
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“Well,” he said. “We’re in the Forgotten hunting grounds I take it. Your screams just woke them up early. Congratulations, Lyara.”
“Do something!” she whispered, trying to keep her sight on all of them at once.
Basileus clapped his hands once. The Forgotten took a step forward, attracted by the sound.
“There, I did something. I clapped. I like clapping,” he said. -The Investigator And The Case Of The Missing Brain.

Draco18s

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Re: Secret immortality and immortals
« Reply #16 on: October 04, 2011, 01:10:57 pm »

I'm reasonably sure it's the "Will not age" flavor of immortality, not the "cannot die" flavor. Although I suppose it's possibly the latter will show up at some point.

Personally I love flavors of "cannot die" immortality.  It still hurts for instance.
(My favorite is what the basilisks of Amara had: even if they were atomized, magic would painfully reconstruct them atom by atom.  After agonizingly long existences they had taken to dive bombing planets they went out to visit, with the hope that maybe their immortality would fail and they, would in fact, not come back).

title of the book/game/whatever this is. i must read about it.

It's part of a series, the basilisks show up in book 2.  The first one is Dragoncharm by Graham Edwards.  It's relatively available (24 used copies available on Amazon.com for various prices, 35 at Amazon.co.uk).  Dragonstorm (the second book) is less available (13 copies available on Amazon.co.uk).  And the third (Dragonflame) is the least available (10 copies at Amazon.co.uk).

However, if you're looking for a "happy" ending, then stop at book 2.  Book three is...

Is...

Let's put it this way.  I started keeping a list of "characters that are still alive" as everyone else, in the entire world, was dead.

There's a companion trilogy as well.  Stone & Sky, Stone & Sea, and Stone & Sun.  It takes place on Amara (the basilisks built Amara, and it exists outside of time and space, or something: they were really bored) and isn't known or named in the first series.
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Deimos56

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Re: Secret immortality and immortals
« Reply #17 on: October 04, 2011, 03:10:36 pm »

well, i'll just have to make immortal dodge into ponds.
problem solved.

Gods, vampires, immortals, beware, not even you can face the power of: the pond.

But what if that god/vampire/whatever had the swimming skill?
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I'm curious what the barely conscious ai wrote about.
Well that went better than expected.  He went nuts and punched a rabbit to death, then the dogs and the whole dining hall ripped him to shreds.

UltraValican

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Re: Secret immortality and immortals
« Reply #18 on: October 04, 2011, 03:28:51 pm »

well, i'll just have to make immortal dodge into ponds.
problem solved.

Gods, vampires, immortals, beware, not even you can face the power of: the pond.

But what if that god/vampire/whatever had the swimming skill?
Then we are dead, not even magma would save us at that point.
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shadenight123

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Re: Secret immortality and immortals
« Reply #19 on: October 04, 2011, 04:07:25 pm »

well, i'll just have to make immortal dodge into ponds.
problem solved.

Gods, vampires, immortals, beware, not even you can face the power of: the pond.

But what if that god/vampire/whatever had the swimming skill?
Then we are dead, not even magma would save us at that point.

you just dig the pond a couple Z level deeper, and make sure to have empty Z spaces between water and cliff.
Swimming or not, he won't jump out. nor crawl out
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“Well,” he said. “We’re in the Forgotten hunting grounds I take it. Your screams just woke them up early. Congratulations, Lyara.”
“Do something!” she whispered, trying to keep her sight on all of them at once.
Basileus clapped his hands once. The Forgotten took a step forward, attracted by the sound.
“There, I did something. I clapped. I like clapping,” he said. -The Investigator And The Case Of The Missing Brain.

Sonlirain

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Re: Secret immortality and immortals
« Reply #20 on: October 04, 2011, 05:00:18 pm »

well, i'll just have to make immortal dodge into ponds.
problem solved.

Gods, vampires, immortals, beware, not even you can face the power of: the pond.

But what if that god/vampire/whatever had the swimming skill?
Then we are dead, not even magma would save us at that point.

you just dig the pond a couple Z level deeper, and make sure to have empty Z spaces between water and cliff.
Swimming or not, he won't jump out. nor crawl out
And what about obsidianization?
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Jacob/Lee

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Re: Secret immortality and immortals
« Reply #21 on: October 04, 2011, 06:20:03 pm »

I can understand if humans are the only ones looking for the secrets of life and death. Humans are an ambitious, mortal race. Dying is obviously something we don't want to do, so we search out the secret to living forever like the goblins or elves. The dwarves aren't nearly as ambitious as humans, so they won't look for the secrets and are perfectly okay with dying.

Dakk

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Re: Secret immortality and immortals
« Reply #22 on: October 04, 2011, 07:03:25 pm »

well, i'll just have to make immortal dodge into ponds.
problem solved.

Gods, vampires, immortals, beware, not even you can face the power of: the pond.

until toady enables a Dig action like in fortress mode for adventures, but even then, they should have a pick.
or claws maybe.
Or until toady lets them, you know, climb up the edge :P
Also, note to self: Test if immortals survive flashfreezing/obsidianization.
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Niveras

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Re: Secret immortality and immortals
« Reply #23 on: October 04, 2011, 07:59:26 pm »

A deathless being is something kinda hard to do by df logic, unless it has a special tag. It would basically have to be a soul that could keep commanding a body regardless of damage done to it, or a body that instantly regrew anything it lost.

Or destroy the body, but the soul retreats and creates a new body after a time. That especially seems like an idea for handling gods, where their physical forms are only "avatars" but the force of the god is unassailable.
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Oliolli

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Re: Secret immortality and immortals
« Reply #24 on: October 05, 2011, 07:35:40 am »

The dwarves aren't nearly as ambitious as humans, so they won't look for the secrets and are perfectly okay with dying.

Dwarves realize the odds are against them: even if they found immortality (NOT invulnerability/invincibility/something like that) they would still probably end up having a traumatic end to their lives.
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Dae

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Re: Secret immortality and immortals
« Reply #25 on: October 05, 2011, 12:34:21 pm »

Other flavors include :
- immortality by possession. Normal body, but upon death the soul takes the closest suitable alive being.
- immortality by reincarnation. Normal body, but the soul will inhabit the next suitable baby that is born. Bonus points include a specific place or a ritual.
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shadenight123

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Re: Secret immortality and immortals
« Reply #26 on: October 05, 2011, 12:38:59 pm »

Other flavors include :
- immortality by possession. Normal body, but upon death the soul takes the closest suitable alive being.
- immortality by reincarnation. Normal body, but the soul will inhabit the next suitable baby that is born. Bonus points include a specific place or a ritual.

"push, push, PUSH!"
"ueeeeeeeee"
"it's a healthy boy! congratulation UristA axedwarf!"
"oh yeah, now back to pract..."
"alarm! a vile force of darkness has arrived"
"oh no, i don't have an axe...but wait a minute, you can be useful baby!"
*baby stops crying and goes all "no no" with the head*
*couple hours later, baby dead, spirits mutters
"i should have put MORE POINTS ON THIS!"
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“Well,” he said. “We’re in the Forgotten hunting grounds I take it. Your screams just woke them up early. Congratulations, Lyara.”
“Do something!” she whispered, trying to keep her sight on all of them at once.
Basileus clapped his hands once. The Forgotten took a step forward, attracted by the sound.
“There, I did something. I clapped. I like clapping,” he said. -The Investigator And The Case Of The Missing Brain.

Draco18s

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Re: Secret immortality and immortals
« Reply #27 on: October 05, 2011, 12:48:06 pm »

Other flavors include :
- immortality by possession. Normal body, but upon death the soul takes the closest suitable alive being.
- immortality by reincarnation. Normal body, but the soul will inhabit the next suitable baby that is born. Bonus points include a specific place or a ritual.

"push, push, PUSH!"
"ueeeeeeeee"
"it's a healthy boy! congratulation UristA axedwarf!"
"oh yeah, now back to pract..."
"alarm! a vile force of darkness has arrived"
"oh no, i don't have an axe...but wait a minute, you can be useful baby!"
*baby stops crying and goes all "no no" with the head*
*couple hours later, baby dead, spirits mutters
"i should have put MORE POINTS ON THIS!"

But it was a ☼Dwarf Baby☼!
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Deimos56

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Re: Secret immortality and immortals
« Reply #28 on: October 07, 2011, 12:03:19 am »

The dwarves aren't nearly as ambitious as humans, so they won't look for the secrets and are perfectly okay with dying.

Dwarves realize the odds are against them: even if they found immortality (NOT invulnerability/invincibility/something like that) they would still probably end up having a traumatic end to their lives.
Old age is rarely ever the thing that kills a dwarf, really...
Only the rare individual lives that long, and I'm reasonably sure they're also the ones with the most interesting stories in Legends mode.
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I'm curious what the barely conscious ai wrote about.
Well that went better than expected.  He went nuts and punched a rabbit to death, then the dogs and the whole dining hall ripped him to shreds.

Box

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Re: Secret immortality and immortals
« Reply #29 on: October 19, 2011, 01:44:33 pm »

All this talk of deathless/immortal creatures keeps making me entertain thoughts of a Mr. X/Terminator types of stalking creatures or humanoid forbidden beasts that go after famous adventurers as a way of making adventure mode more "fun".  They don't die (by conventional means), they come in all sorts of personality flavors, but most of them seek combat, as way of entertainment, a way of seeking release from life, etc.

After completing enough quests, the more aggressive ones begin to seek you out because of your deeds to test themselves against you.  You can maim them and some may stop after a few defeats but other determinator-personality ones never stop chasing you until you fulfill some condition that makes them stop, either by trapping them or finding a way to kill them.


Maybe I'm just a sucker for games with those kind of aspects.  Just the nerve-wracking aspect of something alive and sentient being somewhere out there, coming for you, though I could see it becoming quite bothersome at times.


Though, I would imagine ticking off a necromancer at some point could end up being up like this.
« Last Edit: October 19, 2011, 02:02:22 pm by Box »
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