forgotten spells???

I see , could it be that his transformation is simimler to these evil creatures?

Ah, it would be cool to have these spells in the game but how? also what about the banishment spell? are there any stats belonging to it in the game files?

Also if we imagine it in the lore , in what college, can we find these spells in your opinion?

 

Yes and no. On one hand the description of a holy defiler matches Kerghan quite well, yet on the other holy defilers are undead, whereas Kerghan is alive.

Buying scrolls and/or starting with a character having them in his inventory would be one way, at least for Kerghan's Death spell.

There are a few mods altering magick colleges around, so perhaps a theoretical dedicated modder could substitute some existing spells with the ones we're talking about.

As far as the game's mechanics go, banishment is basically a transportation script triggered by a dialogue line or a NPC's death. It has less to do with wizards and more with Ship Captains and Conductors who do the same trick, minus the fancy light effect.

These, as in the spells Kerghan casts during battle?

Since Kerghan's Death ≈ Quench Life, I'd say it belongs to the Black Necromancy college.

Since Kerghan's Attack ≈ Unseen Force, I'd say it belongs to the Conveyance college.

Personally, I consider them variants of the mentioned already known spells rather than unknown/ancient/forgotten spells.

 

I see, thank you muro for sharing this information. It's intresting to have these spells in the game, as to the lore you made me remember a few things:
- do you remember when first meet kerghan after the Isle quest? I wonder what spell he uses and which college does this spell belongs?

- Also in nasrudin's flashback, he and two wizards teleport to arronax with yellow flashes . I wonder in lore what are these spells.

- In the official website it says that Elves, Halflings, orcs and ogres are humans transformed :???: I wonder what spell is that.

 

That's a pretty good question. Those races are affected by magickal vibrations in very different ways. It could simply be the magickal vibrations took effect differently depending on how those races lived in their environments. Or groups of people could've been hit with different versions of a permanent polymorph spell and went their own ways.

 

I'd wager it was a higher level Conveyance spell, allowing a caster to transport his soul/essence beyond the reach of a normal Teleport spell, that is to other dimensions/planes of existence. I once theorised he used the same spell to travel to the endless sea of gray mirrored glass and back to the Void.

This can be explained and rationalised in various ways, and I'll choose possibly the most uninteresting one. I think it's simply a Spatial Distortion or Teleport spell and the fact that the flashes were yellow rather than purple was simple the way the crew working on the cinematics felt to portray those spells.

Could be also that the cinematics were created earlier than eyecandy for the game and when it was decided to associate purple effects with conveyance spells, it was too late/not worth the time and effort to change it in the cinematic.

I'd say that orcs, members of a fairly young race said to come into existence over a short period of time, were intentionally created with the same hybrid spell that brought Kraka-Tur and Kerghan (but with different ingredients used) by a mage who was in a need for a fierce and brutal army.

Humans, dwarves and gnomes are said to be the effect of natural selection, unaffected by magick.

The evolution of elves and halflings is said to be influence by magick. Personally I think that rather than a single intentionally cast spell like with orcs, it was the background magickal field of the world (much stronger in Arcanum's prehistoric times, especially in the places the ancestors of those races lived) gradually influencing the way life behaved and changed and as a result speeding up evolution.

Ogres are descended from giants and giants are said to have come into being as a result of a great magickal discharge of sort, nearly a million years before the events of the game. Could have been a similar story like with the orcs, but personal theory is that it wasn't anything intentional as much as it was a time when incredibly powerful magicks were cast all the time and new species coming into existence were a day-to-day event.

Another personal theory of mine similar to the one above is that the origin of arachnids in Vendigroth is pretty much the same - they were created from other life forms as a side effect of extremely powerful magick taking place, where the magick in question was Arronax' Vendigroth-destroying spell, and the mentioned life forms were the few residents of Vendigroth that had the luck (?) to survive the massacre underground, although significantly altered.

 

Yes a very well organised theory muro and I support it , but why did you seperate the orcs from the other races?

could it be that the mage who wrote the book ( The Nature And History of Magic ) have discovered that these races were from human origins and thats why the rest of the text was missing intentionally ?

Also Im wondering about that fire spell that kerghan used when he greets you in his first meeting.

 

Mental 6th spell "Drain Fatique" or Necromantic Black "Drain Life Essence", since the purpose of this spell is to disable any living being.

 

They are said to be a very young race, ten thousand year old at most, created as an effect of a single event involving great magickal power.

It is of course open to interpretation whether the event in question and its effect was intentional or not. Personally, based on the how strong, aggressive, prone to battle, willing to obey a more powerful leader and quick to mature orcs are, I think it is very likely that they are warriors whose creation was deliberately planned, supervised and exploited.

The way I see it, orcs, and the later 2.0 orcs aka Zalakar's Black Legion are kinda like Sauron's Uruk-hai.

Don't think so, personally. I reckon whatever is written in the game's manual is common knowledge among the more educated folk of Arcanum and there would be therefore no need to hide such information. I think whatever is missing from the book is much more mindblowing and deals with - and even possibly negates - something considered an universal truth.

I think it is quite likely that the more skilled mages in Tulla know what's missing from the book, too. Notice how it isn't said that there are torn off pages or anything like that. The text just abruptly ends and "the rest appear to be missing". My guess is that the rest of the text is magickally hidden the same way everything but the title is hidden in "Divinations and Magicks for the Adept", to restrict the info within only to the more powerful mages and hide it from students and/or outsiders.

 

Interesting, though how does that explain the presence of arachnids on the Isle of Despair? Or do you think they can... *gulps* swim?

 

The mutation of Giants, Humans and Dwarves into Ogres, Elves, Orcs, Gnomes and Halflings is called Unnatural Selection and is attributed to the gods of Arcanum. Since the gods each have a pet species as well as distinct magical blessings, this theory holds water. Also, if you play a gnome, the elves at the entrance to Qintarra mention a shared magickal origin between the two races.

This theory may suggest that arachnids are Velorian's chosen people.

Or wait, "the most amazing discovery is that... the eight gods of Arcanum were once mages who ascended through use of advanced magicks!"

 

Well there is old Vendigrothian "submarine" on the beach, so it is possible that arachnids once were the crew.

 

Shit man, you loons are trying to make sense of a shoddy setting that was put together in like a year.

Don't you have better things to do?

 

Still this would mean they mutated after crashing, which doesn't make too much sense given that areas a similar distance away aren't affected. Unless...

The Isle of Despair was originally part of the Vendigroth Wastes, the ship crash landed actually quite close to home, and Arronax's magick caused part of the province to splinter off.

No unfortunately we can't all be serial sex pests like you.

 

I think you are right , still this discovery was supposed to in modern times. and that book was written before like 200 years of the game , what do you think?

 

Discussing a computer game on a computer game forum truly is preposterous. Blogging bout imaginary sexual adventures on it, not so.

 

Just to clear out, the manual suggests the appearance of gnomes and ogres is the effect of natural selection, just like that of humans and dwarves.

By the way, I wonder whether Shakar is ten thousand years old or did he simply had to wait the longest of all gods for his slice of the cake.

Since Velorien is the creator of all other gods and Arcanum itself, it could mean that at best exclusively Velorien is a former mage, originating from another world. But since the power of gods appear to be independent from/above magick and technology, I don't think that's true.

What you say is a valid point. Still, I stand by my earlier opinion that the missing text is about something different and objectively more significant.

Gets my vote.

 

Maybe he was the god of a now extinct race before the orcs came on the scene. I'd opt for the morlocks.

 

Just to be clear, the manual presents all lore from in-game point-of-view, doesn't it? They're all just theories of npcs, aren't they?

All of the lore is written from a limited perspective which I like, because the players are free to form their own opinions.

Anyway, I reserve the right to speculate wildly, and accept being shot down 99% of the time as the cost of independent thought.

 

Then what do you think it is? you seem to have slight theory in your mind and I would love to hear it.

 

BTW we can ask drog about the scrolls you mentioned them guys what do you think?