Ea R'lyeh Aboleths.

[HoneyBadger]

Yes, I do very much enjoy...let's say the *concept* of the Council Wars series, MaxWilson, and I've actually posted about them on these forums before, since I borrowed or was otherwise inspired by some of his ideas, for the campaign setting I'm working on for Dom3.

It's a fantastic (no pun intended) setting for a fantasy series. But as far as execution...John Ringo isn't a totally awful writer, he tries hard, he's fearless, and he really does come up with some great original ideas, but he desperately needs a good editor. His writing ranges from terrible to so-so, which is a shame. His works aren't even as fun to read as they could be, honestly, because they suffer so much from the poor editing.

The military stuff and the dark bits I don't personally mind, but yes, some of the things he writes about are quite hardcore, and can be *extremely* dark, both in terms of graphic violence and graphic sexuality. That aspect of his writing doesn't seem to offend me as much or make me quite as squirmingly uncomfortable as when it appears in some writers' works, since atleast Ringo is straightforward about it and consistently pretty over the top.

He doesn't try to slip it in and tantalize you with it, or bring it on gradually, so that you feel like you've been either pressured, or tricked, into accepting it. He also doesn't (maybe have the skill to) cast bad things in such a nasty light that you can't manage to read through a scene and go on with your life.

Ringo straight-facedly takes these extremely questionable things, and just keeps whacking you over the head with it, without really trying to make excuses or pretend that it's not jarring. As a result, I don't end up feeling like I need a shower after reading one of his books. Indignation and outrage, and maybe a licensed firearm, but not as though I've been dragged through a sewer.

[HoneyBadger]

Since Aboleths seem to be very psychically attuned-even moreso than Illithids in the game-and I don't want to make this just about giving them new units, does anyone have any ideas for psionic abilities they might possess?

[HoneyBadger]

Kristoffer, when you were designing Aboleths, outside of what's already hardcoded into the game, how did you envision the nation? Did you go any deeper or further with them than is presented in the game? They seem to have a different lifecycle than any real life creatures that I'm aware of, and are weirder in Dom3 than even the D&D versions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aboleth

They do, apparently, have what amounts to an amphibious "secondshape" that allows them to go on land, in D&D, by the way, which I find interesting.

Have you had any thoughts about upgrading/updating them?

[Carcaroth]

I'm certainly not Kristoffer, but I do think the most interesting way to handle it would be a series of holy spells that transform your freespawn from the mothers/that one pretender into more specialized unit. I don't know about the grafting idea, though it would be interesting if it could somehow be integrated as an in-combat secondaryeffect with MR to resist, but the enslavement and multi-phase of life thing makes me think the spells should all create, well, more aboleths.

If one pulls from DnD, particularly the really entertaining Lords of Madness book, there were flying and Stygian varieties of aboleth, and given the good weaponry/stats basis, you could probably do quite well just working with them as a chassis. Even the Abomination could quite reasonably be considered an aboleth variant.

[HoneyBadger]

Well, I've thought about summons that gave you versions of the Mothers which would produce new types of spawn, but to be honest, I was planning on using that particular idea for a middle age Aboleth mod nation. Also, undead Mind Lords.