First Age Doomsday Weapons

[Master of Malfeasance]

Okay, so the Great Contagion and the Fair Folk have pushed the stalwart defenders of creation to its limits.  A young Dragon Blooded leader and her closest allies climb to the top of the Imperial manse.  They figure out how to activate some dormant defense system, she offs her buddies to power "the device" and................


THEN WHAT!?


The Fair Folk were swept away by first age defenses originating from the Imperial Manse, but WTF actually happened?  Did this mobilize an array of killer satellites over Creation?  If so, are they invited to parties in Yu-Shan?  Was it like the Dominie Dirch from the Sword of Truth series, where the girl hits the ancient bell with a gong that basically liquefies the entire advancing formation?


Maybe it rained cold iron on the Fair Folk, maybe the Imperial Mountain lifted itself off the continent and dropped itself onto Fair Folk formations...


Does anyone know exactly what this meant?  I know at least one sourcebook mentions Doomsday weapons made by the Twilight Exalted, and at least one was deployed to turn all of those squabbling leaders to Amethyst in Outcastes, but what exactly is the Realm's defense?


I'm going to call it the First Age Grid, or I'm uncultured for short.  What did the I'm uncultured do?  How did they turn the I'm uncultured on?  How did they turn the I'm uncultured off?  Was the I'm uncultured damaged?  Will the I'm uncultured ever work again?


Thoughts?

 

[Haku1]

It's a deus ex machina... which means... it can do that and more.


I see it as massive elemental energy control. streams of fire from heaven, check... walking water monstrosities, check... burning wind and such, check... likely something to do with the earth, also check... it's also possible she made it rain iron nails.


Basically, I see it as taking all those NICE dragon lines in creation and then running massive energies along them in specific manners that involves charboiling all unfriendlies in a nasty manner.

 

[Jakk Bey]

There's the Rain of Fire method.  Massive batteries of Essence Cannons. There's more subtle effects--the Bell idea is something that I've used before, and it's always nice. I also like the idea of cannonade that rain down massive shells slam into the earth, twenty feet in diameter, bronze spheres that sit in the earth for a moment, so that the opposing forces can be suitably impressed that the cannonade wasn't that bad, then the things open up and thousands of mystical shuriken fly out, in a whirling dervish of death, spreading from the shells to shred anything within a thousand yards of the shells, cutting down anything that stands over six inches in height for hours. Transformative weapons that transmute any living thing within a miles of a bombard shell into a substance of the artillery commander's choice--say crystal, raw stone, even water.  Waves of crashing sound that crush and disintegrate anything in front of the massive drums--animate or inanimate--for miles. Weapons that shift any living thing in the area of effect Out of the Creation, opening up portals into the Void. How about First Age Weapons that only target things and creatures not of the Creation, opening up cleansing light from the Heavens--igniting their Essence so that the powerful a creature, the more damage it takes, and the effect persists for as long as the portal stays open, driving ghost and demons from the field--creatures of the Primordials not of the Creation? Weapons that scramble mens minds, driving them insane, or even re-writing their patterns, so that they are left mindless husks, empty of thought? How about a weapon that permenantly scrambles their thoughts, each one left to speak a different tongue, known only to themselves, forever unable to communicate with another? A gas that fuses patterns together, so that the targets fuse with the landscape, becoming vegetation in humanoid shapes, or fused with their armor to become metallicized corpses, or masses of flesh and loam? Plagues that strike down anything near the effect, liquifying flesh in agonizing progression, taking several minutes to leave an army a screaming mass, putting fear into the ranks, as the gas, or the light passes towards them? A weapon that reverses loyalty, so that the more firmly entrenced one is to a cause, the worse that they will betray their masters?  A weapon that increases the fecundity of intestinal flora and fauna, ripping open everyone effected from within, each having a moment to feel their guts roil and then watch as their bellies burst?


There are a lot of ways to go with this...

 

[Master of Malfeasance]

You had me at Shuriken spewing bombards...


I like the idea of The essence-that-expunges-everything-not-of-creation thing.  I wonder if that would work on the children of Autocthon...

 

[Kajata]

I think that the I'm uncultured was more like the defences on Stargate SG1; big essence cannons on satellites, devices that control the world itself.  Just anything and everything you can think of that could be helpful in killing an invading army and that would look bloody awesome visually.

 

[riven5]

I believe it was described as a rain of fire and brimstone at some point in the DB book...perhaps where it mentioned the destruction of the Seven Tigers.  Lemme check that book...might find something of worth.


Until then, I roll with "whatever floats your boat"

 

[Spook]

don't forget Manosque's Legions falling into the sky.


everything so far presents the Realm Defense Grid as less a bunch guns and magi-tek cannons, but a more blatent asimov-tech with the forces of nature being turned to the whim of the controller.

 

[Forn Clakes]

everything so far presents the Realm Defense Grid as less a bunch guns and magi-tek cannons, but a more blatent asimov-tech with the forces of nature being turned to the whim of the controller.

Never considered this before, cheers Spook  


I've got a picture in my head of an army being launched into the sky by a sudden autumn forest, bereft of leaves, erupting beneath them, and dying slowly on a mulititde of bare branches, feeding the roots with their blood.


Yeah, thanks Spook, i'll have to use that  :twisted:


~FC.

 

[Persell]

don't forget Manosque's Legions falling into the sky.

I'm not gonna say the Realm's grid can't do that. It can, and should. But in that case, Manosque Viridian had used the Eye of Autochthon to shut down the grid, and later the Eye's power made his army fall into the sky. Just like it turned Ikerre's army to crystal (which yeah, the Grid could also do).


The Grid is cool. The Grid is ftw. Every damn weapon the First Age exalts could wire up to one control chair. It draws on the magic of hundreds of Manses, and can do just about any damn thing in any damn way. A large part of the reason Creation is at the end of an Age is because nobody has their finger on that button. It's entirely plausible for it to fire shuriken-bombards <i>while</i>summoning down a storm of Llama-yu from pure fire-Essence, and then making the enemy fall into the sky through the shuriken storm and into the rain of fire. Any survivors and messy remains could be mopped up by a wall of Solar Essence, slowly moving across the battlefield and purifying the remains. Which turn into crystal and then evaporate into pure air, leaving neat, cauterised scars in the landscape.


Or whatever. If you prefer automaton warrior-towers erupting from the ground every mile in between all the manses in the Realm's control, do it.

 

[Spook]

and later the Eye's power made his army fall into the sky.

Except that the Empress is the one that made his armies fall into the ky, or at least thats what E:tDB says.


yeah its a nitpick, but its right there in the book.  


Massive Shuriken Canons and the like are stylistically a Shogunate type thing, while the First Age Solars was always into the more overt magical effects.  The Fair Folk weren't defeated by Essence powered Prism Cannons, or Virla Bombards, the Sogunate had stuff like that, for all the good it did them.  They were withered and swept away by Colorless Fire from the Hevaens, Typhoons of Bramble Walls, solid giants of water, and flesh tearing wind.

 

[Flagg]

Except that the Empress is the one that made his armies fall into the ky, or at least thats what E:tDB says.

I'm sure that's just propoganda. Why wouldn't the Empress take credit for the mysterious instantaneous defeat of her enemy?


-S

 

[Persell]

Huh, true. EB p 32 does say the Realm's defenses destroyed him and his army. I'm going to call it bad editing. The Storyteller's companion tells the story in more detail on p. 80, and it says the Grid was shut down.

 

[Spook]

the description of Manoques' defeat sound more like getting iced by the RDG, staying in-tune with the "forces of nature at the users whim" what with the blackened sky and falling into it.

 

[Jukashi]

I think a mass of brambles that loosed iron chaff on the wind was mentioned.


Is there anything else in Creation, artifacts or so on, that can match the power of the Grid? Besides the Eye.

 

[Jakk Bey]

For one of my games, there is the fun that will occur when the The Lap stands up and takes a walk around the Threshold, but that is going to require a lot more badness from the Abyssals and other critters before I unveil that one...