Some questions about Arcanum universe (maybe i'm just overthinking)

Discussion in 'Arcanum Discussion' started by m'ayen, Feb 8, 2021.

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  1. m'ayen

    m'ayen New Member

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    I played arcanum back in 2011, then played it again for 2021 (lol to commemorate the 10th year of playing it maybe? xD)

    So i have some lore questions that anyone can answer to stimulate your knowledge about it's story writing perhaps:

    1. Vendigrothian people - it's written that they're "humanoids" so what does it mean? half-human aliens? Or just some gook-ass super high IQ humans? Why are they evil btw?

    2. Civilization inside the Void - has anyone already had information about them? Are they humans? Are they related to the Vendigroths?

    3. Half-ogre Island descendant - there's too many half-ogres around but which of them are descendants of the island mothers? Chukka? That security guard from Island of Despair?

    4. Tulla Necros - why did they banished Kerghan if the necro college will eventually become a well established magical college? Isn't that kind of retarded for Nasrudin?

    5. Magnus era Iron Clan - has anyone discussed whether Magnus (or Malcolm) re-establish the Iron Clan? It's pretty dope but unfortunately I haven't encountered any endings telling the clan's fate. Only Wheel clan where Loghair lived 800 yrs blah blah..

    6. Void backstreet boys - Even if it's not written, what do you think will happen if Krak, Bane, and Gorgoth get straight outta Void? Didn't recruit them but there's an ending wherein you will deal w/ them getting outta void. Will they just re-destroy the world? Isn't that a bit retarded for them?

    7. Raven loves Living One - is there an ending where Quintarra will be mentioned and the lovers will be settle there or something? I acutally wish I could have a love afair w/ Z'an instead.

    That's it I guess I hope I could get your opinions here folks just keeping this forum alive n' kickin after 20 yrs hehe.

    Shoutout to Dark Elf, Drog, Muro they used to be active here back in 2011.. and another Lizard guy who told me to slap my sister xD cheers
     
  2. Barabbah

    Barabbah Member

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    4) I believe Kerghan developed a branch of Necromancy so extreme it justified his banishment

    5) One alone can't build a clan out of nowhere

    6) There's an ending where if you gave a particular sword to the Bane of Kree you will be responsible for his return to Arcanum and the massacre he'll bring
     
  3. Muro

    Muro Well-Known Member

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    I haven't played the game in a good few years, so my memory can be a bit fuzzy on the details!

    That said, my two cents:
    There's a pagan god+altar for every sentient humanoid race - with no god of an extinct race, so it's safe to assume Vendigrothians were of a race that still exists in the present.
    Personally I always assumed they were humans, or for all intents and purposes human-like.
    They had a knack for technology, the burried statue outside the entrance to the Ruins looks quite human-like, as do their homes, tech and streets.
    Then we have the newspapers - an invention only humans seem to have entartained in the world of Arcanum + the sections within just make one think of Tarant but maybe a century or two later.

    Also, "evil"? I don't think they were ever established as such?
    Arronax wiped them off the face of Arcanum, but that was less about their vile acts and more about being technologists and (likely) human - both things Arronax was extremely prejudiced against at the time.

    Probably not related to Vendigrothians. What little we see of the Void civilisation's architecture isn't similar to Vendigroth.
    Also Arronax was banished shortly after Vendigroth's destruction, and when he arrived in the Void, that civilisation was already long gone.
    One could maybe theorize that whatever they were, they devolved/mutated into the void lizards/arrayas, but eh. I feels like that's a stretch, and they might have very well disappeared for whatever other reason.

    Chukka - no. He's a fullblood ogre.
    The half-ogre from the Isle of Despair - most likely!
    He ponder how there were more half-ogres in the orphanage than one could expect.
    In-game the conversation serves as the first clue and foreshadowing for the eventual conspiracy plot/quest.

    Half-ogres are are usually the result of a male ogre raping a human female, where the latter tends to not survive the ordeal - either due to the act itself being too straining, or the ogre killing and devouring her afterwards. Hence it's safe to assume most """natural""" half-ogre conceptions don't even have a chance to result in a pregnancy. AND even if one of them would, the resulting half-ogre baby would simply be too big for the human female to give birth to.

    Considering all that, while rare exceptions aren't entirely impossible, it's safe to assume that just about ALL encountered half-ogres originate from the Island.

    Well, hindsight's 20/20, eh? However, a few things to point out:

    - Nasrudin and the Tulla mages don't necessarily share the same values, and among them - thoughts on black necromancy.

    - It could be argued that practice of black necromancy (once it's already here) is tolerated (although not necessarily accepted), but the act itself of bringing black necromancy into the world (and inspiring a lot of questionable mages for millenia to come) is a greater scope crime.

    - It could have been shock at the time - the mage community might have gotten used to black necromancy over time, but the first reaction to it might have been extreme repulsion, judgement and fear. For an analogy we can look how just about every everyday technology we irl use today was at some point considered a threat, abomination and an insult to the natural order of things.

    - Nasrudin himself admits that back in the Age of Legends, as unreasonable as it was, they had a tendency to banish to the Void first - and consider whether it was necessary later.

    - Lastly, while officially Karghan was banished for discovering black necromancy, in the end it was more because Arronax hated him for being a human on the otherwise entirely elven council, and waited for the first decent excuse to get rid of him.

    As Barabbah said, there's not really anything to re-establish the Clan from. Even if Magnus finds himself a wife, I don't quite see him going Adam and Eve about it.
    The Iron Clan is his past and present, but after he's gone, there isn't much of a future for it.

    Whether it's smart or not, that do be their nature yo!
    And considering time works differently (and weirdly in the Void), it doesn't necessarily FEEL for them like two thousand years passed since the banishment. It would appear that for the most part, these three retained the mindset and attitude they had the day they arrived in the Void.

    When (and if) released from it, they'd likely continue to be what they were before the banishment: a cowardly but sly and decently dangerous monster (Kraka-Tur), a largely mindless beast with an insatiable appetite (Gorgoth), and a ruthless and conquest-hungry warlord fully capable of waging another war on Arcanum, if given enough time to organize an army and/or find an appropriate personal weapon (the Bane).

    There's no Quintarra ending one way of another, I'm afraid. Gonna have to leave the lovers's fate to imagination.
    As for Quintarra itself, compared to human settlements it's a much more stable place, and our actions didn't really affect it either way. It's safe to assume that just like it's roughly the same as a century before, it won't change a whole lot in the following century either.

     
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