User talk:FatherDuke/Aldmeri sandbox

Here's an idea for a monsterous creature Support unit: The Sun Birds of Alinor. They're basically described as being pretty much ordinary, if extreamly large, eagles. That also happen to be made out of searing hot magi-plasma from the sun. The Altmer use them ( or at least have used them) as spaceships to travel through the Waters of Oblivion and reach Aetherius, so it would seem like the High Elves have some sort of control over them (though I suppose it's not impossible that Sun Birds naturally migrate between Atherius and Mundus, what with them being flying pieces of the sun and all, and if so the Altmer could have just merely hitched a ride on one, but that's neither here nor there). They're also the reason why elven gear in Skyrim has all that bird icongraphy on it, but that's much less interesting. On the tabletop and in terms of power I could see them working much like dragons. Sun Birds are just something I would like to see in this army list once someone eventually starts it. --Dagoth Guy 08:45, 7 January 2013 (UTC)

Agreed, sounds pretty sick. I'll bash together a statline for them. --FatherDuke 09:09, 7 January 2013 (UTC)

Oh, also, the altmer enslave all species of Goblin-ken (who are actually native to Summerset Isle and only became common across Tamriel when they high elves decided that they didn't want to bother with bringing them back after some failed aldmeri invasion of the mainland) not only just the goblins themselves, so it would make sense to restrict the Slaves unit to Orcs (who while not actually related to goblins are still considered to be goblin-ken), and also possibly to add Ogres to the list.

Was not aware they originated from the Summerset Isles. Good to know. It would prolly make sense to remove actual men/mer from the slaves unit, although Orcs/Ogres are still part of it. Though they should be included as options for other units as well. More to think on. --FatherDuke 09:28, 7 January 2013 (UTC)

Found a Special Character you can add: Lady Arannelya. She was one of the two generals who lead the Aldmeri war effort durring the great war. She was the one who lead the Dominion's campaign in Hammerfell, conquering the southern coastal cities and crossing the Alik'r desert. More info about her here. --Dagoth Guy 10:27, 7 January 2013 (UTC)

Some ideas for some units: Some sort of sneaky Infiltraitors unit, and a magic focused Magisters unit would both be things I would expect the Thalmor to have. If you could come up with some sort of magic based artillery then that would fit well with the army list's theme. This is supposed to be the most magic focused faction in the game, so we'll probably need to think up several different flavors of wizard. I don't know, I'm just trying to think of some things that could work. --Dagoth Guy 10:45, 7 January 2013 (UTC)

I recall reading of Arannelya and that other general dude, back when I was actively looking up info on the Thalmor. Question is what precisely they should do- other then being general tacticy hero choices. Infiltrators of some sort would be good, as well as several more types of Magisters/magicians. I'd felt before that adding some kind of Magic Artillery would be good, perhaps in the form of a literal fireball spitting cannon, but am not quite sure how accurate to fluff that would be. Excellent ideas once more, though. --FatherDuke 20:03, 7 January 2013 (UTC)

I'm not sure about the cannon part(seems a bit mundane to me) but I definately remember Aldmeri ships being referenced to being able to shoot "pure aetheric fire", so that's something that can be worked with. And while we deffinately should give them some mundane stuff, we can go a lot farther with this. The Aldmeri dominion is known to have some Crazy Shit^TM, so we're entitled to some liberties when we design their artillery. For example, we could give them gaint mnemolic crystals that fire time lasers through Chronocule Ray Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Varliance or some other insane shit like that and it would still be right up the Thalmor's alley. It's a good a opperitunity to come up with some cool stuff. --Dagoth Guy 23:26, 7 January 2013 (UTC)

I never was very good at magickbabble. Agreed on all accounts, though. --FatherDuke 08:19, 8 January 2013 (UTC)

Actually that was mostly me just throwing terms from Dominion Prism Textract into some text from the wikipedia entry on solid state lasers(apparently you actually can make lasers by shoving extreme amounts of energy into crystals, who knew?), so that didn't really have any meaning. Honestly, I just like to sound esoteric. But yeah, I'll look for for some lore text and try to think of some cool seige engines, and probably other stuff to, I guess. I actually kinda want to see if I could make the mechanics of a laser that shoots time make sense on the tabletop in any coherent way. --Dagoth Guy 09:07, 8 January 2013 (UTC)

Here is what my sleep deprived mind has concocted so far:

• Helioballista: Some sorta fancy, complex, overly elaborate High elven ballista, pointlessly well decorated with fancy ancestor banners and sun bird iconography and what not, just as most of their things are. Fires rods of solidified sunlight that, upon impact, destabilize into pure aetheric fire. Crew would be the same as an ordinary ballista, only execpt adapted from Thalmor Soldiers instead of Legionaires.
• Varla Crystal Constellation Array: No idea what one of these would look like. Basically its sorta like an industial sized magic battery that acts as a power suply for the stuff the needs magic in order to opperate. Starts with a certain amount of "varliance", which is used up over the course of the game by magic based structures. Small stuff will drain varliance relatively slowly, while more powerful stuff might be capable of draining an entire array in a turn or two. Once the varliance is all gone or if the VCCA is destroyed, all the stuff connected to it stop functioning. No idea what the crew on it would look like, nor do I have any idea how it will connect to the stuff that needs power, though there probably should be some way for an enemy to sever the concetion.
• Mnemolic Resonance Crystal: One big irregular crystal obelisk-like thing surrounded by eight, much smaller irregular crystal obelisk-like things. Amplifys chronocule rays by stimulating the emission of varliance, thereby creating some sorta laser made out of time. I have no idea what that actually does, but do know that it is awesome. Requires access to a VCCA in order to opperate. If the main cyrstal is damaged while it is still being powered by a VCCA, it will overload and erace existance within a decent radius around it. Crew consists of 2-3 Mirror Logicians. Needs at least two Mirror Logicians to calibrate, but only one to fire.

--Dagoth Guy 11:06, 8 January 2013 (UTC)

Found a reference to Neonates in the lore: Mages who have yet complete their studies at the Crystal Tower. A Neonates unit type would be a good source for cheep, magic focused cannon fodder, and would at the very least provide one more flavor of wizard, which we definately need more of. Also, lore books seem to indicate that in the summerset isles the title of Magister implies a higher mastery of magic than a that of a Mage, so I would suggest renaming the Mage/Archmage hero unit to Magister/Archmagister, and saving the name Mage for a less powerful unit type. --Dagoth Guy 12:13, 8 January 2013 (UTC)

Note to self: next time I go through insomnia, drink a ton of coffee, and write lore. Think that's how they did it. I've sort of bashed together some ideas for how these particular units might work. Thanks for the ideas so far- I'd missed a few of these lore books on Summerset, so this is not my forte at all. --FatherDuke 20:39, 8 January 2013 (UTC)

>Large blast that has like a 4+ chance to displace people?

Yes. And by yes, I mean through both Space and Time. Might also want to make it so that you can choose to have it make a smaller but stronger blast or something, and probably some other options too, I guess. Well, anyways, it's actually getting kind of hard to type now, so I think I'm going to go lie down for a few minutes. So tired... --Dagoth Guy 03:18, 9 January 2013 (UTC)

Some more ideas:

• Artillery
  • Dark Welkynd Stone: Could work as some sort of automated spellcasting sentry thing.
  • Arc of Matutination: Dunno. I was just trying to come up with names that sounded right, and hoping ideas for what they would do would come to me later.
  • Empyreal Lance: Same as above.
• Artifacts
  • We could do some stuff relating to their revered ancestors, like:
  • Staff of Magnus
  • Auriel's Bow
  • Auriel's Shield
  • Sword of Trinimac
  • Ring of Phynaster
  • Warlock's Ring (Syrabane)
  • ...and probably some other stuff like that
• Enchantments
  • Weapon of Varliance: Maybe a bonus to S and AP?
  • Weapon of Long Variance: Were the only weapons able to pierce the armor of Pelinal, which was otherwise invunerable. +10 AP, or maybe auto-hit or something?

--Dagoth Guy 15:30, 4 February 2013 (UTC)

This is pretty awesome. All this magic-related stuff. Seems great for an ancient civilization hellbent on unmaking the space-time continuum, determined to change the past so that they become gods and mankind never existed.

I'm sure they'd have regular ballistas, being elves, as well as ones that shoot fireballs. So maybe the Helioballista is an upgrade to a basic ballista that is just a more precise variant on the Imperial Legion version?

The Monolith obelisk seems cool, but maybe it should invoke a minor form of the forgotten tower-magic? Some sort of minor reality shifting, perhaps?

The Mnemolic Resonance Crystal... do you roll for the entire unit, or do you roll once against the unit for each model hit? Because if it removes entire formations of infantry with a single dice roll, well, that's just crazy... I think it's awesome, by the way. Potential cheese to be abused? Perhaps. But awesome nonetheless.--Lolpwnt 22:53, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

Perhaps the Slaves and Durzogs could all be merged into the Goblin unit? They seem to all be similar concepts, and pretty much the same thing in lore(the Durzogs are the warhounds for the Goblin slave army). Perhaps Ogres could be an elite choice?--Lolpwnt 04:36, 15 February 2013 (UTC)

MRC- each model hit. I'm glad Dagoth Guy mentioned the things, these alone make the codex absolutely nuts. I've kind of retooled the Durzogs and Slaves unit- the slaves are now entirely made up of Ogres, and the Durzogs are kind of scouts. It's mentioned in the Tribunal that durzogs are sent ahead (of even the goblins), so I've changed them to scouts who fragment into individual mudpuppies and attack. Needs some work, but it makes the unit slightly more distinctive. Also threw in the Varliance weapons, ditto for their costs. Gonna change Ballistaes next. Might be worth it to convert the things into tables. --FatherDuke 01:03, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

I'd hold off a bit on giving them mundane ballistaes. The thing about the High Elves is that nothing that they have is completely "mundane" or "ordinary"; Everthing that they do has been "perfected" in some way or another, has been made into a work of art, and is in some way magical. That's the entire reason why they think they're so superior to everyone else. For example here's the description of the typical Aldmeri war ship (which is where I got the idea for the Helioballista in the first place).

"Made of crystal and solidified sunlight, with wings though they do not fly, and prows that elongate into swirling Sun-Birds, and gem-encrusted mini-trebuchets fit for sailing which fire pure aetheric fire, and banners, banners, banners, listing their ancestors all the way back to the Dawn.

This is Old Mary at Water."

This is their average ship. They have entire fleets of these things. When we work on the Almeri Dominion, the fantastic should be the standard.

Well anyways that's just my oppinion on the matter. You'd be better off asking Alpharius on exactly how magical the Dominion should be. Oh, and also, I notice that there's no longer any place for orc slaves in the army list. Maybe we could incorporate the Goblin Warpary and Ogre Slaves into one, diverse core unit called "Goblin-ken Slaves" that would give you the option to take one type of Gblin-ken per unit. That might be a good way to handle Orcs, Goblins, Ogres, and Trolls all at the same time. --Dagoth Guy 15:19, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

Hey, I forgot to sleep last night, so I thought I'd jot down some ideas for those other artillery pieces while I was still sleep deprived.

• Empyreal Lance: Strips the very souls from several slaves (or like, maybe Altmer volenteers or something, I dunno) and renders them down into raw quintessence, which it then shapes in to some sorta big, magical, glowing spear thingy which it launches at the enemy with extreme force. I guess basically it would be like some sorta railgun that fires giant fletchets made out of immortal souls of the downtrodden. Or something. Would probably need some wizardy guys for the crew.
• Arc of Matutination: Causes the next several turns (or maybe just phases) to all take place at the same point in time. Ideally, if you could figure out a way to do it, then it should probably work backwards as well as forwards, with the phase (or possiblely turn) in which the Arc is activated being in the middle. No, I have no idea how that would work. Yes, I know that would be ridiculously complicated, that's actually half the point. Would probably need some wizardy guys for the crew.
• "ordinary" ballistaes: you could make it so that they cost more than thier Imperial counterparts, but each one has it's own enchantment. That might be a way of handling it that could diversify artilery and still be inline with the army list's "holy shit everything is crazy magic" theme (if that is one of the themes you're going for, that is).

Also, another idea for weapon a weapon upgrade:

• Weapon of Chrysoluminescence: Weapons made out of solid light or something. No idea what it would do. Maybe give it magic and fire damage, and some thing else? I dunno. Might want to restrict it to ranged weapons, in which case they'ed be bows that shoot energy-arrows or something like that.

--Dagoth Guy (talk) 14:09, 18 March 2013 (UTC)

Empyreal Lance: Ballista-abomination that fires bolts that pierce ranks, with the combined STR/effects based off of slaughtered slaves? Could see something like-

• No slaves: S6, flame damage
• 1 slave: S7, flame damage
• 2 slaves: S8, magick damage
• 3 slaves: S9, drains magicka (2), magick damage
• 5 slaves: S10, drains magicka (total), magick damage

Arc of Matutination: When activated, allows you to select (four?) of your units and run through each of the phases with one unit at a time (move/shoot/assault). Once done the rest of your non-nominated units go through the turn phase as normal. Maybe something like that. We could write up a hazard/critical failure page like the Mnemolic Resonance Crystal. It would probably be amusing. All sorts of nice defects could be given to the selected units as they fight time-based mishaps.

Weapon of Chrysoluminescence: Ignores resistances, does nothing to mortals, strikes at +1S and instant-death for undead and daedra? Would be suitably expensive.

I sorta prefer the Goblin Warparty and Ogres to be separate- they perform slightly different functions, not to mention I have no idea how the two would get along. Goblins are numerous and cheap cannon fodder, ogres are heavy strike infantry. Not sure if they'd be better as one entry/unit or not. --FatherDuke (talk) 20:39, 18 March 2013 (UTC)

Empyreal Lance: I'd make it so that it requires a scaling amount of magicka from a VCCA inorder to work, depending on the number of slaves you sacrifice. Some other changes that I'd make would be: A) the lance itself does not come with any "ammo". B) Any infrantry model under your control can be sacrificed as ammo (exept for the lance opperators themselves, of course). Also, the souls of the sacrifices themselves are what the Lance is firing, so I'd make it so that the lance can not be used without some sort of sacrifice. You might also want to up the sacrifice numbers too.

Arc of Matutination: That sounds like it could work. To be honest, this idea didn't make really make much sense in the first place. I was just trying to come up with something that could work with "matutination" (wich is just a fancy way of saying "becoming dawn"). Feel free to throw it out if you think it needs to be.

Weapon of Chrysoluminescence: I'd make it so that it just had no additional affect to mortals instead of not harming them. Not too sure about instant-death either. You might want to change that so that it just has some sort of large bonus agains all non-mortals.

Goblin-ken: Yeah , you're probably right in keeping them seperate. If you wanted to do it that way, you could get four different units: Goblin Warparty, Orc Slaves, Ogres, and Tamed Trolls. --Dagoth Guy (talk) 15:41, 19 March 2013 (UTC)

Some suggestions for things to add, some of which I've already mentioned:

• Core
  • Mages (Yes, Aldmeri Dominion can take dedicated spellcasters as Core units. That's just how they role.)
  • Spellswords (Basically weaker Battle Mages. A bit redundant, yes, but still worth considering.)
• Elite
  • Elite Mages (Yes, even more spellcasters. As I've said before, it would be disappointing if this army list didn't have at least 5 different flavors of wizard.)
  • Thalmor Infiltrators (heavy focus on illusion magic)

--Dagoth Guy (talk) 11:14, 10 December 2013 (UTC)