Bay 12 Games Forum

Just had the most unexpectedly poignant moment I've experienced in a video game in... years, probably. Completely unintentional on the part of the game's designers, but... still. Story is I accidentally picked up a tiny toy boat right at the start of the game -- it's worth nothing, can't be sold, can't be broke down, etc., etc., it's just useless prop-junk, so far as I've been able to tell (in fact, the moment in question is what pretty much verified that) -- that I had been carrying around mostly just 'cause, but partially thinking it was a unique item that held some kind of later import.

Anyway, hours, a few bosses, several dozen things murdered, towns looted, etc., etc., later I'm ransacking a temple full of miscellaneous junk, that probably had everyone in it murdered at some point but is currently empty, and I come across a room. In the room is nothing particularly valuable -- light source I'm not bothering to steal, some beer that's not worth carrying, a mug -- but in the corner... is another tiny toy boat. I look at it, think for a moment, and then set the other toy boat I've been carrying down on the table in the room and then... just kinda' stop for a minute. Looking at it.

Here's this group of inadvertent adventurers, ripped along with the land around them out of their homeland into a floating conglomerate of death, filled with things that want to kill them and a rare few non-hostile people, most of them not even able to speak the same language. The nominal leader, a literally faceless warrior that's been wading through blood and devastation for the last (by their perspective) few weeks, has been carrying this tiny toy boat, trinket, comfort, memory of what was lost... who really knows. But he's been carrying it for weeks, through what's probably the most trying time of his life.

And he sees another, leftover affection in some dead person's office, probably the first sign of actual happiness he's seen since his and his friends lives were thrust into hell. And just, I'unno, stops. Hurting? Whatever counts for crying for his species? Is he happy? Laughing? A small bit of lifted spirit at another -- the only other one he's yet seen -- memory of better times? Who knows.

But he stops, his teammates silent, watching. Reaches into his pack. Takes out the toy boat -- you can see it. Whatever's happening to him, his hands are shaking, posture somewhere between reverent and broken. He sets the boat down. Stares. Looks from boat to boat. This is the closest he's came to just stopping this entire damned struggle, almost finally brought down by a simple toy boat in the corner of some room in an empty, massacred temple.*

And then he reaches back down, hands firm once more. Picks up the little toy, sets it back in his pack, readies his axe, and walks out the room, friends trailing behind.

*

Saints act as intermediaries, basically, s'far as I'm aware. Saints themselves don't really have any power except that they're closer to god and presumably know the right things to say to bring appropriate attention to subjects sent towards them. Kinda' (though only kinda') like calling the IT department instead of the CEO when your computer breaks -- it's still the CEO that's employing and letting the IT department work, but the IT department has a better idea how to phrase things to the boss to make sure the appropriate resources are brought to bear.

... also the catholic bible is the bible. Like... very, very literally, considering it's the catholic church that set the original canon. Presumably you're talking about the other bits of catholic canon, which... there's a word for I'm forgetting. Eh.

Not even remotely true.

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Nothing like kingmaking by jamming yourself into someone's craw as they kill you. Never give up, never surrender, spread bane venom charms everywhere! Pillage the lands before the barbarians take them, if we can't have them no one can! Stubbornness in dominions is a virtue, but your stubbornness is often someone else's virtue

Which is pretty great.

So become a kuroosexual instead?

Reliability's actually probably one of the better minor aspects of a disciples game, heh. If someone's having trouble, they have a ready-made individual (or two, or...) that has their best interests in mind and a fairly good idea what the general strategy is, already there, able to keep things moving. Staling issues are still a problem, but it is (/can be) somewhat less of one than it is for a non-disciples round.

... what that means definitely has.

E: S'also a helluva' lot more core tenants to christianity that that one (and which ones have been the primary focus has most definitely shifted over the years), and more things beyond that that involve the whole memetic evolution concept. Christianity as a whole (nevermind how splintered it is) has changed pretty radically over the years.