Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion

[Frost]

Though it'd be nice to see an RPG where becoming leader of a faction meant actually leading that faction. Not just getting radial quests and maybe calling in backup from them--you actually manage the logistics and personnel of the faction and are more or less "locked in" from joining lots of other factions.

Of course, that's just because I loathe the trend in RPGs for the player to end up leading every single faction. A little reminder on why RPG's center around roving nomads and perhaps a few of their friends would be in order, methinks.

[Whiskey Rebellion]

Though it'd be nice to see an RPG where becoming leader of a faction meant actually leading that faction. Not just getting radial quests and maybe calling in backup from them--you actually manage the logistics and personnel of the faction and are more or less "locked in" from joining lots of other factions.

Of course, that's just because I loathe the trend in RPGs for the player to end up leading every single faction. A little reminder on why RPG's center around roving nomads and perhaps a few of their friends would be in order, methinks.

That reminds me of why I never liked the Dragonborn joining the Legion. With the Stormcloaks, I can understand letting their members wander. But the Legion is a professional military force. DB would get his/her ass handed to him/her if he/she were ever to try that shit in the US Army (the closest modern equivalent to the Roman Legions). It's actually really dumb.

[Scienza]

Though it'd be nice to see an RPG where becoming leader of a faction meant actually leading that faction. Not just getting radial quests and maybe calling in backup from them--you actually manage the logistics and personnel of the faction and are more or less "locked in" from joining lots of other factions.

Of course, that's just because I loathe the trend in RPGs for the player to end up leading every single faction. A little reminder on why RPG's center around roving nomads and perhaps a few of their friends would be in order, methinks.

Inquisition, brah.

[Frost]

It'd also be nice to have speech options built around savagely deconstructing the arguments and self-delusions of your foes, delivering breaking speeches that strip away the confidence, the esteem, the carefully-constructed worlds they've built around themselves......preferably while also delivering bone-breaking blows and humiliating defeats

Again, though. Difficult to code

[SilentCarto]

This, I agree with wholeheartedly--while the creators have made explanations (the men are also, by law, slaves, and the women are used to keep numbers up and do "dishonorable" non-warrior trades) those explanations are still full of holes--the least of which being that, in a toxic wasteland, with distinctly Luddite views of medicine and technology, a lot of women are going to be infertile or otherwise not available for being professional mothers--and there's no reason not to have them, at least, on the frontlines.

That actually opens up a really interesting moral space for female characters that are acknoweledged by the Legion as a powerful asset, but also as viable "breeding stock" that really should be careful with her health.

"I realize that it would cost far too many good legionnaires to force you to stay, but I must beg you not to enter Camp Searchlight..."

I just home that some of the gameplay refinements that have been made (particularly in Skyrim) make it into the game, such as the smoother combat, dual-wielding, a more in-depth improvement/modding (and even limited crafting) system.

Dual-wielding is bullshit unless you're a power-armored cyborg super-soldier. You can ony aim down one set of sights at a time, which means you're only going to hit one target with one gun at a time. The other is just throwing lead downrange.

It's somewhat more excusable in melee combat, insofar as doubling the number of pointy things the other guy has to worry about is useful, but it may be instructive to note that serious, professional warriors the world over have always used exactly one weapon. Dual wielding is almost entirely restricted to styles built around fighters who were legally or socially restricted from carrying a full-sized weapon.

Before anyone says anything about the old west: the popular image of a cowboy with a revolver on each hip came about because early percussion cap revolvers used the same lengthy powder-wadding-bullet-ram-cap reloading technique as muzzle-loading rifles, for each chamber. And even when cartridges appeared, there was no such thing as a moon clip. Carrying a pair of revolvers was equivalent to carrying a spare mag.

Before anyone says anything about samurai: the wakizashi is purely a backup weapon for use in tight quarters where a full-sized katana is inappropriate. Miyamoto Musashi did develop a school that used katana and wakizashi together, but seeing as it didn't blow away all the traditional one-sword schools, I'm prepared to dismiss it as showy but ineffective. (I can go on a whole other rant about samurai in general, but this probably isn't the place.)

[Frost]

We're trained to be able to fire our rifles with one hand if necessary, and reflexive fire (pretty much pointing your weapon in the target's general direction and using experience and instinct to guide it in) is Basic level stuff, and, as a rule of thum, effective out to about fifteen meters. At close range, just about any combination of semiauto weapons fired in rapid, controlled bursts would reasonably fuck people up as well as single weapons. Practical? No. Efficient? No. Accurate? Not particularly, but it's not the "spray and pray" ammo dump most seem to think it is. 

But this is the franchise where one can show up to a gunfight with a golf club and reasonably expect to win. The crazy train uses psychosis as fuel and rides on tracks of surrealism and pseudoscience. 

Frankly, it's rather amusing to hear "it's ridiculous to fire two guns at once, unless you strap on a fusion-powered exoskeleton." We accept scavenging ancient fruit from the newly-dead hands of a rotting, irradiated corpse to fuel our rampage against the Romans to aid an order of Knights, but firing two pistols at once? Ridiculous.

[SilentCarto]

Frankly, it's rather amusing to hear "it's ridiculous to fire two guns at once, unless you strap on a fusion-powered exoskeleton." We accept scavenging ancient fruit from the newly-dead hands of a rotting, irradiated corpse to fuel our rampage against the Romans to aid an order of Knights, but firing two pistols at once? Ridiculous.

It's not really the exoskeleton that's helpful, it's the AI aiming assist that you'd need to be able to hit anything at range while essentially firing from the hip. I'll grant that if you're yelling "shit shit shit" and blazing away for all you're worth at a guy twenty feet away, double the lead is still double the lead. But games never treat it that way. Alongside shotguns with a yards-wide pattern, this is one of my pet peeves with weapons in games.

But katanas actually can cut a tank in half, right?

[Harmony Ltd.]

1. I... uh... well... Oh, I know! It is literally magic! You know those Virulent Underchambers? Well, that pillar thing is an old god, and if you look at it, you'll see it is, in fact, green. What do you see if you sneak while approaching it? Ghouls emerging from nowhere. What are ghouls made by? Radiation.

The pallid green influence spreading all over the city, an utter lack of plant life, 90% of all people are raving psychopathic Raiders, some places are outright toxic to be in....combine that with the other weird shit like the people that think they're vampires, the aliens' particular interest in D.C....yeah, a forgotten deity awakening from an eon-long slumber explains a lot of shit. Hell, if I recall, it did wake up before the bombs fell--and a corrupting, madness-inducing presence in the middle of the Capitol would explain a lot about America's actions during the Resource War

This reminds me of something I read in a fanfic...

[Frost]

Reflexive fire is not done from the hip. The only reason you'd ever fire a weapon from the hip is if, for some weird reason, you needed to fire an M240 (or, if you're old-school, an M60) on the move, because they are nearly physically impossible to shoulder-fire while not emplaced. Reflexive fire with any weapon is done while the weapon is shouldered (or the arms extended, in the case of a pistol) and is done in short, controlled bursts. The weapon being shouldered is also why it's possible to fire a rifle or shotgun, if necessary, with one hand. If you need to engage past fifteen meters, it's virtually guaranteed you are not taking a volume of fire that would necessitate using multiple weapons to gain fire superiority--or, at the least, you are obviously in terrain open enough to employ heavier weaponry. Again, it's not the most practical solution, but it's cool, and therefore good enough for Fallout.

[O. Hinds]

It'd also be nice to have speech options built around savagely deconstructing the arguments and self-delusions of your foes, delivering breaking speeches that strip away the confidence, the esteem, the carefully-constructed worlds they've built around themselves......preferably while also delivering bone-breaking blows and humiliating defeats

Again, though. Difficult to code

I imagined my current New Vegas character at least thinking that sort of thing at Caesar (actually saying it would be tricky due to her desire to pretend to be on his side right up until she finished her business at the Fort as was able to lodge some bullets in his face).
"So, for longevity and strength, you built your new society with a lot of Roman inspirations. Rome. The civilization famous for falling either under its own weight or to invasions of barbarians. For longevity and strength. Riiiight…"

That actually opens up a really interesting moral space for female characters that are acknoweledged by the Legion as a powerful asset, but also as viable "breeding stock" that really should be careful with her health.

"I realize that it would cost far too many good legionnaires to force you to stay, but I must beg you not to enter Camp Searchlight..."

Huh. That would be interesting. We seem to be coming up with a much more nuanced and interesting version of the Legion here.

[SilentCarto]

Reflexive fire is not done from the hip.

Fine, I didn't know the official terminology for shooting at someone without looking down the sights. But that's what I'm talking about.

[Frost]

It'd also be nice to have speech options built around savagely deconstructing the arguments and self-delusions of your foes, delivering breaking speeches that strip away the confidence, the esteem, the carefully-constructed worlds they've built around themselves......preferably while also delivering bone-breaking blows and humiliating defeats

Again, though. Difficult to code

I imagined my current New Vegas character at least thinking that sort of thing at Caesar (actually saying it would be tricky due to her desire to pretend to be on his side right up until she finished her business at the Fort as was able to lodge some bullets in his face).
"So, for longevity and strength, you built your new society with a lot of Roman inspirations.  Rome.  The civilization famous for falling either under its own weight or to invasions of barbarians.  For longevity and strength.  Riiiight…"

It is rather amusing that not dialogue exists to break down the world of delusions that Caesar's cult of personality have built about themselves, but, with certain perks, you can threaten to wear a man's face like a hat.

[Frost]

I don't comment much on this thread, but I hope I'm not disrupting too much.

If this is how you're going to disrupt, do it as much as you want.

The army is something of a paradox in that way. It runs into the conflict that (for your liberals, at least) its purpose is in part to defend the system that allows that diversity, but in order to do so, there are arguably benefits to (locally) minimizing it so that each part is as reliable and predictable as possible in the field. But it's just one of those cases where what is right depends on the situation; and on which note, even (most of) those who want "all notions of individuality left at the door" (I hope) see at least some room for flexibility when the uniform is off and you're not on duty or on call.

This topic is a bit old by this point, but I re-encountered this video earlier, and it more eloquently (and/or crudely) sums up the point(s) I tried to make in my rant:

[Vinylshadow]

It'd also be nice to have speech options built around savagely deconstructing the arguments and self-delusions of your foes, delivering breaking speeches that strip away the confidence, the esteem, the carefully-constructed worlds they've built around themselves......preferably while also delivering bone-breaking blows and humiliating defeats

Again, though. Difficult to code

I imagined my current New Vegas character at least thinking that sort of thing at Caesar (actually saying it would be tricky due to her desire to pretend to be on his side right up until she finished her business at the Fort as was able to lodge some bullets in his face).
"So, for longevity and strength, you built your new society with a lot of Roman inspirations.  Rome.  The civilization famous for falling either under its own weight or to invasions of barbarians.  For longevity and strength.  Riiiight…"

It is rather amusing that not dialogue exists to break down the world of delusions that Caesar's cult of personality have built about themselves, but, with certain perks, you can threaten to wear a man's face like a hat.

Bethesda probably thought that was close enough to the whole 'savagely deconstructing the arguments and self-delusions of your foes, delivering breaking speeches that strip away the confidence, the esteem, the carefully-constructed worlds they've built around themselves......preferably while also delivering bone-breaking blows and humiliating defeats' mindset

[Icy Shake]

Well, Hinds, as it turns out I wouldn't have been able to post anything until tonight anyway. Also, I don't have the energy for a decent transition. Unless . . . yep, too big.

Which brings us to my Chapter Sixty Two Part One liveblog post, part one.

Chapter Sixty Two Part One Running Thoughts:

[Icy Shake]

And now, IS's FoEPHCh62P1LBPP2:

Chapter Sixty Two Part Two Overall Thoughts:

Chapter Sixty Two Part One Editing:

[O. Hinds]

@Icy Shake:
Ah, thank you very much as always.  Sorry that you seem to have been busy.
No other chapter editing today?  It's not a problem (it's a benefit, actually; even though I may not be on the road and thus unable to process it, the move isn't finished yet and I'm doing this from a folding chair and table), but I wanted to make sure I wasn't just missing it.

Is someone else stuck in S.A.T.S.? How would Blackjack know? Should that just be "I felt like I was stuck in S.A.T.S."?

Hm…  Ah, yes, that is confusing!  Though the problem is elsewhere.  As I read the insufficiently-clear wording, it's actually the cyberpony in S.A.T.S.

if you're going in order, maybe switch skull and brain

Why?

Okay, I think that I've fixed the cyberpony number issue.  Thanks!

[Meleagridis]

I lapsed into S.A.T.S. as Dawn dove to the side, the magic only turning her streak into a slow creep instead of a freeze, a sign of just how fast she moved.

I think that the part after the last comma is kind of superfluous.

Maybe I'm just slow, but that helped me catch up with the sentence faster than I could on my own. Helped with the flow for me.

I looked at Hoarfrost, and her eyes widened. She reached down to the beam pistol in her front holster with her mouth. I could have killed her four different ways. I could have levitated up the sword and sliced her head off. Duty and Sacrifice were nearby, too, though I wasn’t sure if they were loaded. I could have managed at least one magic bullet to her face. Or simply smashed her with my hooves.
Instead, my horn glowed, and a door instantly poofed into existence right in front of her. Then it slammed shut in her face with a resounding bang. I opened it again, saw her swaying with a mildly concussed expression, her gun held limply in her mouth, telekinetically pulled her head forward, and slammed the door closed a second time. Hoarfrost thumped to the ground behind it.
I was wrong. That was a useful spell of Twilight’s.

See, it's things like this that make it clear (and I'm not even just talking about how it's Twilight's spell) the world of the show is still there under everything, that there are still traces even in tone of the show made to sell toys to little girls.

I love the unconventional hybrid FO:E makes, and these scenes are always favourites for me. A part of me dearly hopes that this door comes back some day.

3. Actually, that wouldn't really make much sense to me considering Vault 86. Why is the radiation level from a single detonation still so high there while the radiation from multiple concentrated detonations has all but cleared?

A little off topic, but there are barrels outside the entrance right? Perhaps the Super Mutants cultivate it since it doesn't affect them, bringing radioactive barrels and actively maintaining a barrier of lethal radiation.

[Epsilon]

A little off topic, but there are barrels outside the entrance right? Perhaps the Super Mutants cultivate it since it doesn't affect them, bringing radioactive barrels and actively maintaining a barrier of lethal radiation.

Doesn't look like it. Oh well. It's probably not worth nitpicking over every inconsistency in Fallout 3, or we'd be here all night!

[Silver136]

I find it funny that the ground zero at the Whitehouse is significantly less radioactive than Vault 86. In fact, the Whitehouse is at near survivable radiation levels. Some Rad-x and a rad suit and you'd be good for a long time at the Whitehouse.

[Meleagridis]

Doesn't look like it. Oh well. It's probably not worth nitpicking over every inconsistency in Fallout 3, or we'd be here all night!

Well dang. And I'll have you know that nitpicking is a perfectly sensible way to pass the time.

[Icy Shake]

@Icy Shake:
Ah, thank you very much as always.  Sorry that you seem to have been busy.

Just business travel. Thank you for the sympathy, but I'm happy enough I only need to deal with it a few times a year.

No other chapter editing today?  It's not a problem (it's a benefit, actually; even though I may not be on the road and thus unable to process it, the move isn't finished yet and I'm doing this from a folding chair and table), but I wanted to make sure I wasn't just missing it.

Nowithstanding what I just said . . . too busy. I got a start on it, but just couldn't follow through.

if you're going in order, maybe switch skull and brain

Why?

He didn’t even get half a second before I plunged the sword through his hoof, his eye, his skull, and his brain.

Well, the hoof was brought up to protect the face, so it would be struck before the rest. Next comes the eye, possibly simultaneous with the skull depending on where the blade fell. However, bearing in mind that we're dealing with eyes the size of saucers ( ), there's even a better chance than your normal extra-violent story that it's clean through the eye. In any case, the brain comes after the eye, and the sword has to go through the skull (again, if it hit on entry) to exit the head.

[O. Hinds]

Isn't the back of the eye socket part of the skull?

[Icy Shake]

. . .
Seems like yes.
Never mind.
This has been another installment of me not knowing anatomy.

[O. Hinds]

:)

[Somber]

Sigh... why do I write this instead of 72?



Setting, I suppose.

            The world’s like… ugh.  I hate this analogy, but it’s like an onion.  Damn it, couldn’t there be some other easily understood layered sphere we could use?  Pearls?  I don’t know… anyway.  It’s an onion.  Your universe, your world, is at the center of it.  Don’t get clever.  Every world is the center of it.  It’s funny, that way.  Helps if you try not to think too hard about that aspect.  Embrace your inner dark age peon: Earth is the center of the universe and everything orbits around it.  This world is one of those fundamental pins holding the universe together.  It matters.  You can go a lot of different places and not come across anything remotely like earth.  This universe, that’s a lot of places.
            So this world’s reality is a little bit squishy.  Has to do with humanity fixing things.  That’s what humans do.  We name things.  Define them.  Limit them.  Discover what they are and what they’re not.  Measure, weigh, and evaluate.  We give substance to reality.  Without it, there’s no difference between the earth and anywhere else in the universe.  Oh sure, the amounts of elements would be a little different than star system Waythefuckoutthere B, but pretty much the same.  And yeah, when your astronomers see that star system, they make it more real.  A billion light years away, and yet you reinforce its existence.
            But at the same time, humans are constantly abstracting and making shit up that can’t be defined.  We come up with things that aren’t real, but we treat them as real.  Like Truth.  You can’t weigh it.  Can’t hold it.  In fact, there’s some that say it doesn’t exist at all.  You can say two plus two equals four, but that’s only because you’re using another abstract.  Numbers.  But the numbers help us reinforce reality.  So, yeah.  Any wonder why supernaturals are twisted as fuck with how to deal with us?
            If you go a step outward from our world, you enter the Wyrd… the Dreamtime… the Twilight Zone.  Whatever.  It’s a place where reality isn’t as nailed down as it should be.  Things are blurred.  Sometimes, it’s so far away that you can’t even imagine it, even if you want to.  Sometimes, the fucking place mugs you in the middle of the night just because it can.  It’s the border between finite and infinite.  The place where not all the rules work.  But at the same time it’s earth.  It bumps up and touches all kinds of places.  It’s why monsters are real.  Monsters are the result of human fears and abstractions made possible.
            Weird shit.  That’s the Wyrd.  You know it when you’re in it, even if you don’t have a clue.  The monkey instinct starts chittering away, warning you to find a tree to climb or shit some ammunition because something’s bad.  And the Wyrd doesn’t like you.  Oh, it’s not intelligent… unless it is… but that kind of shit gives me nightmares… so it’s not intelligent.  It still doesn’t like you.  Humans reinforce reality by trying to understand it.  The Wyrd doesn’t like being understood.  It might change the rules to fuck with you.  It might send something nasty to munch you.  So no.  It’s not intelligent… unless it wants to be.
            Past the Wyrd is the Maelstrom.  This is the world of ideas.  It’s where your mind brushes when it dreams.  It’s where you find inspiration in your gods and religions.  It’s where metaphor works and rules.  Physics don’t work in the maelstrom.  The things that live there could exist one minute, or linger for eons.  Literal gods from mythology exist as personifications, some mighty, a few merciful, and a few bugfuck crazy.  Beasts from stories roam.  The landscape doesn’t just shift, it oozes.  And as you change it, the Maelstrom changes you.  Infinite possibility sounds great till you realize that its possible for your penis to transform into a potato, that sings, and flirts with your toes.  Yeah.
            But the Maelstrom isn’t the end.  Past that lies the Nihil.  As in Annihilation.  As in, nothingness.  If the Maelstrom is infinite possibility, then the Nihil is non-possibility.  Oh, there’s some existence out there.  Rotten, festering, spiteful things floating around in that vasty badness.  But if you reach the Nihil, you’ve either got a death wish or the worst luck ever.  Or both.  The scary thing is that the Nihil isn’t just out there.  You can find it in the Maelstrom, Wyrd, and even creeping into the world, from time to time.  Snaking cracks creeping through existence, breaking it down and eroding it bit by bit.  It wants to turn infinite possibility into non-possiblity.  And if that tweaks your definition of infinite, then you’re starting to understand why supernatural people are so damned cranky.
            Supernaturals are what happens when normal people live in areas where the wyrd has bled through.  Maybe someone does something, or goes somewhere, or is in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Something happens.  And from that point on, nothing is quite the same.  The weakest ones are sensitives.  They can perceive hints of the Wyrd.  Of course mundane doctors just chalk it up to schizophrenia or something.  Mental illness is so much easier to tackle than a reality that breaks its own rules.  And to be fair, lots of people are just crazy.  Not everything is supernatural.
            Next are the mad scientists.  Freaks.  Crackpots.  Dot Com ‘geniuses’ who become billionaires and no one is exactly sure how.  They either get marginalized, or hit it huge.  Some of them can redefine the rules.  Others get thrown in asylums or end up homeless.  Lots get medicated.  Take Orville and William Wright.  They were mad scientists.  Making a wing that could carry a person through the air?  Rediculous.  Preposterous.  Impossible!  Till it was possible.  Those two took a little bit of the Maelstrom, brought it into our world, and changed everything.  Most don’t make it into the history books.  Some do.  Fucking Tesla and Edison… biggest mad scientist pissing match of the twentieth century…
            After that are the mystics.  Witches.  Wizards.  These people are trouble because their existence just doesn’t fit with the real world.  So to make their shit work, they take a little bit of possibility from the Maelstrom and smuggle it through.  The world rejects it, so a lot of the effects don’t last, but they can piss lightning and shoot fireballs out their asses.  Most people see it and just rationalize it away afterwards.  Fallen powerline and he had a missile launcher or something.  Sensitives remember… then get locked up.
            Once you pass the mystics, you end up with the supernaturals.  The things.  People changed by the wyrd into things that people persist in believing exist.  Things like vampires, werewolves, and faeries.  It doesn’t matter how much science says they’re impossible, people continue to believe.  Angels and Demons of all kinds also fall into this group, and oddly enough all of them have human origins.  They can’t change back, and some of them can’t cross the Wyrd because they’re too unworldly.  Others can’t stay in our world because they don’t understand humanity.  A few, like vampires and werewolves, have bred true enough to be called a race.
            Vampires… fuck.  These guys have got a million different stories about where they come from.  Some say they’ve been around forever.  Others that they’re only as old as Bram Stoker’s Dracula.  Regardless, there have always been stories of people as monsters.  Vampires have one thing in common: blood.  They need it to stay real.  Without it, they get drawn further and further into the Maelstrom till they become something else.  Past that, lots of vampires have… well… I guess you can call them “allergies.”  Sunlight is a common one.  Garlic too.  Crosses and holy symbols occasionally.  You become a vampire when one of them sucks you dry, then spits a little bit of their wyrd blood into your body.  Then one of three things happen: nothing, and you’re a corpse, rejection and you become a mindless animal quickly put down one way or another, or you’re in.  A very few vampires have the ability to reproduce biologically, but as I understand it, most regard that like we think of bestiality.
            Speaking of bestiality!  Werewolves!  Like Vampires, there’s always been stories of shapeshifters.  Werewolves are similar to vampires in there was some poor schmuck who was minding their own business when, wham, an animal spirit from the maelstrom got stuck inside him.  From then on it’s a wrestling match between two worlds and two psyches.  A second way is a were beastie bites you and transfers some of the spirit to you.  Usually, nothing happens.  A scratch isn’t enough to overcome the world saying werewolves don’t exist.  But if you’re in a wilderness area where the rules are a little softer than usual… yeah.  It can happen.  You usually go crazy, of course.  The craziest fuckers though go into the maelstrom to bump uglies and breed a werewolf.  It’s one of the most reliable way for psychopaths to proprogate… though the mortal parent usually doesn’t survive the ‘birth’.  Oh, and yeah, there are actually lots of different kinds of shifters.  Werewolves just get the most press.  Technically, it’s therinthrope. 
            Fae are… sad.  They’re mortals caught in dreams and nightmares.  They dream and get sucked into the Wyrd.  Or maybe the wyrd gets syphoned into them.  I dunno.  Some of the greatest artists have been fae.  Plenty of them are also basket cases.  I’m looking at you, Van Gogh and Poe!  Fae usually group together as a club, and they reinforce each other.  A fae on their own is either easy pickings, or so strong they don’t need to worry.  But you get twenty or thirty fae playing court and they can start projecting the wyrd on reality.  Nice ones just want to be left alone.  Bad ones want to turn mortals into more fae… and usually just end up driving them crazy.
            Servants are supernaturals touched by ‘gods’.  Angels and Demons, for you Abrahamic Tradition folks, but really there’s dozens.  Hundreds even.  How it happens is… strange.  Some mortals get lost in the Wyrd and are drawn to a god… or stumble on them by accident… poor fuckers.  Some are born from a mortal who did the deed with something that can’t enter our world.  Those are rarely pretty.  Servants can have powerful effects though.  Religion defined reality until fairly recently.  Jesus was one.  Jehova only knows what happened to Mary.  Regardless, these guys are like vampires, only stronger.  Some can’t even make it past the Wyrd.  Others are no different from mortals. 
            Anything past Supernaturals are Mythics.  These things are so out there they can’t survive in the modern world… or they’re so vast and powerful that if they did come, it’d break reality.  Many of these are singular beings, like Medusa.  Nice lady.  Great in the sack.  Loves SnM, but whatever you do don’t take the hood off till you’re done.  She can’t leave the Wyrd, though.  Our world just doesn’t let her.  Bigfoot is almost a Mythic… or maybe they are now.  Now sure…  Lots of ‘native’ myths have ended up mythics.  Gods are generally mythics too.  They might claim to be able to enter reality, but more often they’ll scoop up a mortal and bring them to the Maelstrom.
            Now, last bit.  There’s supernaturals that scoff at this, but I’ll tell you because reality is right fucked up.  Nulls.  They say that sometimes mortals end up in the Nihil, and come out.  They don’t seem any different, but they carry with them the stench of oblivion on them.  Magic doesn’t work on them.  Bullets don’t work on them.  Hell, gravity doesn’t work on them if they don’t want it to.  And they obliterate anything and everything they come in contact with.  And worse of all, somehow, they’re supposed to be intelligent.  Nothing I know can explain why or how, but they happen.  If you see a person and things get quiet and dim… run.  Run for your life.  Weak ones will only kill you.  Strong ones kill gods.  The strongest?  Well… some hypothesize that they unmake reality, so that not only do you not exist, but you never existed.
            Hope that keeps you alive past next week.  Good luck!

[Frost]

My only question to all that:

How the fuck are you not published yet, exactly?

[tylertoon2]

My only question to all that:

How the fuck are you not published yet, exactly?

I think somber is going to have to write some satire. Something he tries so bad to be awful, full of plot holes, cliche's and terrible writing. Completely so unimaginative that it would be utterly boring and wrong for us. Full of blatent fan service characters a truck load of mary and marty-stus. 

Then watch as it sells like hot cakes and people take it completely seriously. Somber's name is in more households and teenage bedrooms than Stephane Myer.

Then we can enjoy all the fantastic fantasy and syfy works he puts out for free on the internet as they are put out faster than ever since Somber will have mungo dollars and won't have to worry about real life issues.

[Valikdu]

I've found another great track that would fit into PH.

[SilentCarto]

Take Orville and William Wright.  They were mad scientists.  Making a wing that could carry a person through the air?  Ridiculous.  Preposterous.  Impossible!  Till it was possible.

Erm, sorry, aviation geek here... gliders had been around long before the Wright brothers. People have designed them since at least Da Vinci, though they wern't good enough to carry a human until Otto Lilienthal in 1891 -- over 10 years before the Wrights made the first powered flight. The Wright Flyer was an evolutionary (rather than revolutionary) development whose main obstacle was finding a power source that was light and powerful enough to carry aloft.

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