the void ?

As the title says what are your thoughts on its origins ?

 

The closest I was to thinking about it was in that thread...

 

Perhaps the Void is a world between worlds, like Todash in the stories of Stephen King?

 

Yes but what do you think about technology there?

 

I'm torn on this one.

On one hand the design of the portal devices in the Void seems to suggest that they are technological. If that were the case, it would make their creators more advanced technologically than any known civilisation that has existed in Arcanum's past or present.

On the other hand, Kerghan found a way to control the devices. A mage controlling a machine would be highly unlikely, plus one of the two rings used to do so is of magickal nature. This would suggest that the devices themselves are magickal as well. Other than the devices, there isn't really any sign that the ancient civilisation from the Void had any technology whatsoever.

The Living One calls the teleports "portal stones". A stone that teleports sounds like a magickal thing, a device is something rather technological. I think the true culprit behind the inconsistencies is the fact that the game was rushed and mistakes were made. Perhaps the devs considered both a magickal and a technological explanation behind the Void portals and in the commotion traces of both versions ended up in the final game.

 

But the realm itself is strange , it seems unbelivable that a civilization would develop in a torn realm what do you think?

 

But neither explanation excludes the other. There might be a technological way as well as a magical way of transporting matter to and from the void. The civilisation there, if it indeed is a civilisation and not just fragments of one in another world, could have been both magical and technological like the one in Arcanum.

I'm warming to my own idea of a border world, sort of like Xen in Half Life; the Void is a place between worlds, and people from different worlds and dimensions have figured out different ways to send their stuff there. This could explain the strange mix of creatures as well as the strange rock formations and buildings.

 

The way stone portals were put in, seem to imply something else . it seems that there existed a civilization there and used to travel through these portals.

 

I always assumed the Arya to be the intelligent natives of the void. They are inscrutably alien but clearly have some kind of complex hierarchy, (eg, Shocking, Floating, Slave) probably using telepathy, dontchaknow, and they seem to be congregating around that wicked sword of doom in the void, and I figure that makes them the dominant species, wot?

I've based this purely on the literal definition of the word arya, 'nobility'.

They probably tolerate Kerghan because he's only been flitting around for a couple thousand years out of eons.

 

I always believed the void to be the space between worlds, this would mean that the rules in Arcanum wouldn't necessarily apply to the void. Magic and technology may in fact be strengthened by each other!

 

Oh wait, it's 'araya' isn't it?

I guess that blows my theory out of the water.

My point remains, however, that I know Sanskrit, bitches.

 

mmm, a valid point you have .the way the realm is based seemed to me like there was something out there that far outmatched the araya with all this technology what do you think?

 

Maybe the elves created the Void when they first banished somewhere (as in it didn't exist before that point), as such it might just be a cruel reflection of the regular Arcanum world.

 

I think everything was sent there at some point. The landmass, the tech, the araya - everything. It's just such a strange variety of stuff there that I think the most probable explanation is it being alien to that plane.

 

I wonder how the sky in the Void looks like. When I witnessed the place for the first time, I imagined it being a constant starless night. However, changes of global lighting depending on daytime suggests the plane does have a "sun" or a similar periodically appearing and disappearing lightsource.

 

or it suggests that developers didnt put enough time into thinking such details.

The strange beings in Void which are completely alien to Arcanum suggests that they are;

a) banished into void from somewhere else other than Arcanum; and Void is the trash bin of all planes when something reaches at banishment from anywhere. Magical-Tech in Void came from somewhere or was built from scraps that arrived by the banished beings.

b) the natives of that plane, and Void is just another plane of which inhabitants of Arcanum found a way to create a one way portal. Remember that no one from Arcanum actually knows what is in Void, or what happens to people banished. Banishment was probably experimented and found, with no real knowledge of the place it leads, but only that this is *likely* to be one way and thus named as "Void".

c) from Arcanum, but from a different time (much much older). We already know that time does not flow same as Arcanum in Void. What we see in Void might be things that were cast away from Arcanum through out the time (maybe even during the magical storm created giants and elves). Who knows that there was not a time in the history of Arcanum that is long forgotten, that employed techo-magical portals.

What we know is that; these portals were not built by anyone banished by the Elven Council. While Kerghan possessed electrical knowledge to build the technological raise dead devices, he obviously lacks further knowledge to develop such portals; otherwise he wouldn't need the dwarves in the first place. These portals were built either by the Black Mountain Clan, or a third party. This third party can not be the creatures of Void, as none of them are tool users.

And we know that Void can "leak" into Arcanum like it did in Liam's workshop. Maybe at one time some TA people ventured into void from such a "leak" and built those devices before being killed and disposed by banished or the native creatures of void.

 

I always thought that the "leak" at Liams workshop was caused by Stennar Rock Cutter when he escaped the Void to warn Bates about what was going to happen.

 

Creating a terrain with static lighting is the first step (and the last step for places such as caves or castle interiors). Scripting the terrain to have dynamic lightning depending on daytime, however, is the optional second step which takes time and effort. It is possible to forget to do something by accident. Accidentally wasting time and scripting the Void's lighting when it wasn't intended? Unlikely.

No need for that probably/likely up there. Nasrudin himself stated the Council didn't know anything about the Void.

He did not. The procedure of creating the undead described in his journal used exclusively magickal methods. It was Erland Iron Heart who researched Kerghan's journals, deduced a was to reproduce what he had done through magick by using scientific principles and thus created schematics for the tech necromizer.

Kerghan himself stated the portals are a relic from an ancient civilisation who was already long gone when he was sent to the Void. No BMC work here.

 

Indeed muro, thats what Im telling , i remember reading that the the familiar was creature bestowed on a mage by halcyon. could this be the place from which all familiars come? notice how the sword in the altar uses the same colors of the familiars ? hell even kerghan transforms into a familiar like creature.

 

Stennar came from Roseborough, thus the matchbox and getting on blimp.

Portal near Liam's Workshop had an interesting look, maybe it was something crafted as well.

@Muro: you are right at all points, completely forgot about the talk of that ancient civilization relics. What about that castle/factory like place in Void? is it BMC or from portal makers?