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[Armok]

The more grotesque the better.

[nighzmarquls]

The more grotesque the better.

Oh forgot to mention in last post that it is already included in the part on servitors (in case you did not check ).

I'll be working on a slightly more involved drawing project next to show some of the variety in color and also to perhaps help get people a bit more of a perspective on the personalities of the 'average' Deep Noble.

This might take a few evenings to finish up however.

[Deadmeat1471]

Keep up the good work! I will try and get one of my old ideas down into wordpad today to post here for the amusement of others

[Armok]

ooh, nice! Was that thing once human, with the thing that looks like a head actually being a head etc.?

[nighzmarquls]

ooh, nice! Was that thing once human, with the thing that looks like a head actually being a head etc.?

Humans have many useful traits, like our toxin tolerance and are generally in plentiful supply and have relatively short gestation and maturation periods.

[Armok]

Umm, humans have among the longest gestation periods, and probably THE longest maturation period. Rats would be a much better choice for all those traits. Or octopi.

[nighzmarquls]

Rats don't live long enough lengths of time to act as the principle donors, Octopi even less so. For servitors the ideal would be donor animals with cells that sustain themselves for significant amounts of time with less alteration. when they are used their functions are usually extremely temporary and highly disposable, such as toys for infants or as snack food. To potentially eternal Deep Nobles an animal whose cells begin to degrade after four years or so and require cajoling to stretch as far as twenty is generally not worth it.

The time scales of human life times and larger mammals is much more manageable. Also for those that practice keeping live stock they find that they can generally use intensive population growth techniques to compress generations significantly, especially with the aide of surgery and supplemental injections to promote cell growth, I won't be illustrating those as I'm pretty sure they would violate the content allowed on this board.

Furthermore the raw materials rats supply (such as muscle tissue, problem solving Kernal/Brains, vascular systems) are much less easily manageable for assembly, their organs, bones and fibers are delicate and tiny, making the building of servitors out of them problematic and requiring greater skill.

Human are already in roughly the same scale as Deep Nobles so they are easy to manipulate, they live longer then Horses or Cows and have a much more varied diet.

Deep Nobles might prefer elephants or whales over humans where those are available, but their dietary requirements can be problematic.

[Armok]

Sounds like pigs would work decently to.

[Wayward Device]

I just finished reading this, excellent thread!

With regards to the possible uses of irradiating large areas with Royal Blood, I can see this being used in warfare to render unusable sacred or otherwise important sights. As a brief example: Humans attack a small Deep Noble settlement and commit atrocities. The Deep Nobles retaliate by RBing the human's Sacred Mound of High Kingship, meaning that anyone trying to unite the human kingdoms for the next ten thousand years gets radiation sickness.

This brings me to a number of questions I want to ask. Firstly, although they can live pretty much anywhere, the Deep Nobles are essentially cavern dwellers; its their preferred living space. Are they the sole sentient, civilized species to claim dominion over these areas or do they have competition? We know that there is some contact with other species, traders come and so forth and its hinted that the art of writing came to them not solely by force. Are Deep Nobles able to form bonds of association (friendship, professional etc) with non Deep Nobles? How do the different Deep Noble cities feel about each other? Are they all one happy family or are the constant squabbles and alliances like, say, the Greek city states?

As an example, would this situation be possible: A young deep Noble, obsessed by clockwork and mechanical devices lives in a small city, its Royal young and barely the size of a large hill. The place is something of a cultural backwater, mainly evolved in the export of exotic animals found nearby on the surface to larger, far off cities until such a time as its own fields of flesh are self sustaining. As a result, there is no learned master who can teach our young Noble the mysteries of mechanisms. However, it does know that occasionally human traders will bring wonderful clocks and contraptions, seemingly willing to swap them for worthless soft metal. Determined to learn as much about machinery as possible, as quickly as possible to sate the burning passion for a particular chosen subject as only a Deep Noble can feel. The Noble sets out to find the human city and begin their apprenticeship.

I only really thought of this basic situation because I was imagining how much fun you could have with the whole "young Deep Noble on an adventure" thing. Imagine the awkwardness when they set a beggar on fire for being blind and deformed and their confusion when they get chased out of town! "Grr, these humans have no sense of good citizenship at all. Anyway, excellent worldbuilding.                 

[nighzmarquls]

I just finished reading this, excellent thread!

With regards to the possible uses of irradiating large areas with Royal Blood, I can see this being used in warfare to render unusable sacred or otherwise important sights. As a brief example: Humans attack a small Deep Noble settlement and commit atrocities. The Deep Nobles retaliate by RBing the human's Sacred Mound of High Kingship, meaning that anyone trying to unite the human kingdoms for the next ten thousand years gets radiation sickness.

Thank you! and that would indeed be something they might use as retaliation against adversaries.
Although Deep Noble Leadership that held particular respect for their enemies would probably instead isolate every single living leader in the offending country and find some way to drive him to suicide, out of respect for his accomplishments.

This brings me to a number of questions I want to ask. Firstly, although they can live pretty much anywhere, the Deep Nobles are essentially cavern dwellers; its their preferred living space. Are they the sole sentient, civilized species to claim dominion over these areas or do they have competition?

Deep Nobles could quite readily co-habitat underground if there was a robust enough underground ecology for other civilizations they probably would utilize them much as they utilize the surface creatures, after all just because you are underground does not make you any less of a none-deep noble, just means your easier to get to and exploit.

I'd say in sufficiently extensive underground worlds the surface dwellers might never even realize Deep Nobles and the Royals even exist.

We know that there is some contact with other species, traders come and so forth and its hinted that the art of writing came to them not solely by force. Are Deep Nobles able to form bonds of association (friendship, professional etc) with non Deep Nobles? How do the different Deep Noble cities feel about each other? Are they all one happy family or are the constant squabbles and alliances like, say, the Greek city states?

Your questions have incited a response, I have added Politics and Diplomacy to the Main Post Enjoy... Also for those of you wanting a bit more of a personal perspective I give you your first direct quotes of Deep Nobles.

As an example, would this situation be possible: A young deep Noble, obsessed by clockwork and mechanical devices lives in a small city, its Royal young and barely the size of a large hill. The place is something of a cultural backwater, mainly evolved in the export of exotic animals found nearby on the surface to larger, far off cities until such a time as its own fields of flesh are self sustaining. As a result, there is no learned master who can teach our young Noble the mysteries of mechanisms. However, it does know that occasionally human traders will bring wonderful clocks and contraptions, seemingly willing to swap them for worthless soft metal. Determined to learn as much about machinery as possible, as quickly as possible to sate the burning passion for a particular chosen subject as only a Deep Noble can feel. The Noble sets out to find the human city and begin their apprenticeship.

Interesting  ... since I am intending to make the Deep Nobles a Creative Commons once I feel there is enough material for others to accurately utilize them I hear by give you my blessing to try writing out just such a story and will offer whatever answers you need in order to accomplish such a task.

I only really thought of this basic situation because I was imagining how much fun you could have with the whole "young Deep Noble on an adventure" thing. Imagine the awkwardness when they set a beggar on fire for being blind and deformed and their confusion when they get chased out of town! "Grr, these humans have no sense of good citizenship at all. Anyway, excellent worldbuilding.               

I am greatly pleased that you've found the kernel of one of the ideas that actually started me off on the process of making the Deep Nobles what you now see, I've since lost the original text to hard-drive migrations but it is delightful to see the essence of possibilities shining through for others.

[nighzmarquls]

Sounds like pigs would work decently to.

For brute labor yes now that I think of it . Although any tasks requiring dexterity would need supplemental parts, its a lot of work to turn a trotter into a hand.

[Sheb]

I think I'll use those in my next Call of Cthuhulu campaign. If I don't send shivers down my players' spines with those pics, I swear I'll neved GM anything else than D&D ever!

[Wayward Device]

Well now I'm just going to have to write that story! Quick question (or rather request): Some naming conventions. Even if they're simple (Lots of sibilants and apostrophes! Lots of Z's and X's! etc) , this will be incredibly useful, especially for maintaining cohesion if lots of people write stories. City namimg conventions would also be useful.

One of the ideas I was toying with was that as well as your everyday given names (whatever they may be) certain Nobles who have risen to (what they themselves consider) the pinnacle of their chosen art would give themselves titles (perhaps having had your title for so long as to have forgotten your real name could be a cultural trope concerning wisdom?). As an example, a character I was thinking of using as a exposition framing device and mentor for our young Noble would "The Archivist", a Noble of great age and learning whose obsession is the history of the Deep Noble people had driven him from his home city and fetched him up in the provincial backwater our protagonist comes from. I can see a whole backstory where some other Noble claimed the title and the constant trouble and feuding. This would mainly be for an opening scene where our protagonist (thanks to their obsession with mechanisms) is helping The Archivist with the design and construction of a servitor printing press for the manufacture of Russian-Doll-like copper sphere books. For the device, the basic components would be whale jaws and the heavily treated arteries of heat resistant creatures filled with noble blood, controllable under nerve impulse to form shapes and incise the words into the copper. Perhaps also a symbiotic creature formed of the brain-kernels of three human scribes and a half-hundred eagle eyes that only see into the machines "mouth", to act as a spellcheck/factcheck mechanism?     

As to the Royal Blood in war thing, after further thought and reading of replies I have come to the following conclusions. The "soldiers" of any given DN city-state must be composed of those who enjoy combat. Not just killing itself, as Noble life provides ample opportunity whatever your station to satisfy that urge, but the actual act of conflict against a worthy foe. As a result the "Army" of any given city might, ironically, be the strongest supporters of any local civilization. After all, if all the nearby humans are wiped out, they are going to have to go much further afield for their fun. I can also see the "army" actually being pleased by a severe attack on their home city. Finally opponents worthy of their great skills! Back on track, here is a situation where they would chose to punish rather than honor a foe:

The humans, after suffering many centuries of cruelty at the adeptly articulated tentacles of the Deep Nobles, unite together to scour them from the...underface of the the Earth. They succeed, destroy the local city (which in their ignorance they think is the whole DN civilization), slaughter all the inhabitants and leave. They do not burn burn the countless caste-offs resulting from the battle. Upon hearing this hideous "atrocity" the Nearby DN cities decide that a suitable punishment must be devised...     

[nighzmarquls]

I think I'll use those in my next Call of Cthuhulu campaign. If I don't send shivers down my players' spines with those pics, I swear I'll neved GM anything else than D&D ever!

Let me know how that turns out

Also this post is the ultimate answer, to life the universe and everything!

edit: Ninja'd 

edit: edit: Actually that is some great questions Wayward! alas I need to go to work right now, answers incoming though

[nighzmarquls]

Well now I'm just going to have to write that story! Quick question (or rather request): Some naming conventions. Even if they're simple (Lots of sibilants and apostrophes! Lots of Z's and X's! etc) , this will be incredibly useful, especially for maintaining cohesion if lots of people write stories. City namimg conventions would also be useful.

Updated the City Segment and Added a Section on Language to explain this one, they actually have a bit of an aversion to most consonants and heavily lip oriented sounds.

One of the ideas I was toying with was that as well as your everyday given names (whatever they may be) certain Nobles who have risen to (what they themselves consider) the pinnacle of their chosen art would give themselves titles (perhaps having had your title for so long as to have forgotten your real name could be a cultural trope concerning wisdom?). As an example, a character I was thinking of using as a exposition framing device and mentor for our young Noble would "The Archivist", a Noble of great age and learning whose obsession is the history of the Deep Noble people had driven him from his home city and fetched him up in the provincial backwater our protagonist comes from.

That would be interesting, although there is not as much of a cultural basis of losing your real name... although taking up new names or having many of them could be viewed as something comparable to this and have proponents arguing over the true basis of wisdom in the camps of 'more names' or 'fewer names'.

It would probably be considered especially sad if a Deep Noble was so isolated from others that there was not a single soul on the world permitted to use their given name.

I can see a whole backstory where some other Noble claimed the title and the constant trouble and feuding. This would mainly be for an opening scene where our protagonist (thanks to their obsession with mechanisms) is helping The Archivist with the design and construction of a servitor printing press for the manufacture of Russian-Doll-like copper sphere books. For the device, the basic components would be whale jaws and the heavily treated arteries of heat resistant creatures filled with noble blood, controllable under nerve impulse to form shapes and incise the words into the copper. Perhaps also a symbiotic creature formed of the brain-kernels of three human scribes and a half-hundred eagle eyes that only see into the machines "mouth", to act as a spellcheck/factcheck mechanism?     

Hmmm if it was proper real Whale Jaw that would be a piece worth a mighty fortune by Noble Standards as large cave complexes and Oceans don't tend to over lap very readily, they also are not prone (perhaps ironically for those who think they resemble squid) to sail very often as they don't particularly like weather.

The same would also apply to eagle eyes (perhaps more so as live eagles are not the easiest thing to catch for a culture that lives primarily underground).

This would make the device quite the treasure by their view a masterwork of perhaps gaudy opulence.

As to the Royal Blood in war thing, after further thought and reading of replies I have come to the following conclusions...

YES! Exactly, to be fair Deep Nobles are not particularly prolific as a culture due to how much population control they impose on themselves. So this tends to work with their extreme individualism towards making military more like very small teams of dedicated war enthusiasts then standing rank and file soldiers.

Back on track, here is a situation where they would chose to punish rather than honor a foe...

That would fit correctly in their culture I'm so glad that these ideas are getting across clearly .