Gath, dev diary or something

[Kristoffer O]

WraithLord said:
KO, your post/diary is very enlightening.

Have you considered adding specific pretenders/summons based on the gods, daemons, worshiped at this era (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor...e_Hebrew_Bible), prominent among them:
1. "Ashtoret", aka Astarte, Goddess of fertility (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astarte) was associated with the deamon Astaroth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astaroth)

2. Ba'al Zeb�b, the lord of flies, a deamon prince/god worshiped by the Philistine

3. Dagon, already here

4. Moloch, A fertility god to which humans were sacrificed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moloch)

5. Angel orders, for which I'm sure you know much more than myself. I just want to point to this nice site the supposedly has a complete list of the angel and daemon orders according to Christianity, http://www.heart7.net/spirit/top.html.


In any case I'm *sure* the nations will come out great and I'm really looking forward to the next patch

I have not considered pretender gods at this stage. Most gods of the time were fertility gods. Many gods are named something along the line of M'l'q and Ba'al (king/lord etc). EA Hinnom will get Melqarts and Ba'als as home only commanders. They will be the direct descendants of the Nephilim and approximately on the same power level as Niefel Jarls.

Dagon was actually a fertility god as well (probably dying and rebirthing, as most are), and not a fish god. I'm not sure when he became a fish, but I think it was sometime during antiquity. Nowdays he is more of a lovecraftian monster than a god

According to some tales it was Goliath who captured the Ark and placed it in the temple of Dagon.

I will use some of the angelic order stuff, but I want the angelic beings to be more otherworldy and unfathomable, like the visions of the merkavah mysticism and Ezekiel. So I will focus on the bizzare order angels like wheels and thrones (Ophanim and Merkavah, if I'm not mistaken) and leave the rest for Marignon. How I will draw them is beyond me atm, but I hope my imagination can take the step off the cliff of sanity

---

Work is proceeding splendidly. I started to work on Gath, because I found them fun and easy to imagine. I also felt a bit ovewhelmed by the earlier eras. I had no idea on how I wanted the Repahim to look.

When Gath was finished I felt a bit saddened that the earlier eras would not feel as cool. The Kohen Gadol of Gath was remarkably impressive.

Then I started on Ashdod, and I became surprised that they turned out even cooler than Gath. Pity, though I, that the Early age would be the most boring of the three.

So I started with Hinnom. And now I stare in disbelief at my creation . They are a bit short on regular units, so I will have to work a bit more, but I'm quite happy with their commanders.

Since the Giants are big, I have been able to add more details than I usually do. It has been quite rewarding, but time consuming. I've spent more than 12 hour on 9 units today. Some of them are similar with variations, so most of my time went into three units and reworking of their descriptions.

[Saulot]

Hm... you're certainly building up expectations.

I have to say my interested is piqued, and I think I speak for everyone when I say that this dev diary is a good idea.

[WraithLord]

seconded, the diary is awesome and expectations are at all time high

[Endoperez]

Bah! This isn't the first Dev Diary. I still have copies of the ones that told us the first things about a whole era of Niefelheim-type nations and huge mage-thugs. I still remember reading about the old age mechanics, and being in awe.

I also remember the times after this forum was up, but before there was a demo or even the preordered games had been shipped. Oh, the weird threads we had... I also had a fun time updating a "screenies" thread showing many things like common, everyday units, and giving the other Seraph when someone asked how Caelum was changed, etc etc.

This is rather nice, but nowhere near that level. I mean, what's another awesome nation after so many OTHER awesome nations?

[Kristoffer O]

Bah! on you

Other nations are not Biblical. This is a nation of Biblical proportions. Thus Grand, thus more expectations. Tremble before the Rephaim!

Seriously though, I'm satisfied with the nation. Generally I like my later nations more. I think I'm steering towards culture more and more. I didn't do much research when I begun dom-ppp, since there was no particular need. I knew enough to make a somewhat generic roman nation, but later on got annoyed that Pythium didn't have diverse legionnaries, so they were remade into hastatii, principes etc. The later nations are more historically grounded, for good or bad (perhaps not Agartha ).

Personally I like the oldest nations least. Man, Pytium, Ulm and Marignon have been with me for over a decade, and I do percieve them as a bit generic. I like LA Pythium far better than MA, and I Like LA Ulm better then MA (the new MA stuff helps though).

[capnq]

Kristoffer O said: Dagon was actually a fertility god as well (probably dying and rebirthing, as most are), and not a fish god. I'm not sure when he became a fish, but I think it was sometime during antiquity.

According to this site, Dagon was depicted in the form of a merman.

[Kristoffer O]

Dagon is likely a distortion of the west-semitic god Dagan, a fertility diety, and in several texts father of Ba'al. Etymologically Dagan means grain. The fact that dag means fish is probably the reason he later on become considered a fish god. Since there are few sources on dagan, and none which states his function it is up to us to speculate.

The first fish-man of the paintings could be any divinity associated with water including a possible fish-dagon. The latter of the two is from Nineveh, and by all accounts not the philistine Dagon.

[lch]

Endoperez said:
Bah! This isn't the first Dev Diary. I still have copies of the ones that told us the first things about a whole era of Niefelheim-type nations and huge mage-thugs. I still remember reading about the old age mechanics, and being in awe.

... now quit jumping around and feed me my soup, for chrissakes!

[VedalkenBear]

Just as a consideration, KO...

Have you considered doing a Carthaginian nation?

[Kristoffer O]

Thought about it, but not in any meaningful manner.