Ravenswing

generally, I like, and have seen every last one of these suggested back in the old EU Ideas and Suggestions section, where they were quietly ignored, of course. Some comments...

Personally, I consider it an achievement to reach 50 in a couple of months. First one took 15, second one took about 3-ish. Doing it in a couple of weeks seems kind of... too fast. In days seems kind of pointless, but if that's what floats your boat...

I... really don't care. Seriously, what's the point in the definition?

Why wouldn't it be?

We haven't shot anyone in... minutes.

Guessing here, but I heavily suspect I know roughtly how to implement this in game since the clothing mechanism in CoH bares fair similarity to the system in Neverwinter Nights.

On that basis, getting robes to work correctly with all animations would be verging on the impossible.

Comparing player models to things like the CoT mages is not going to get anyone anywhere except frustrated. They are totally different models. The mages are one, solid lump with a skeleton embedded in it. Player models are component parts clipped together and robes would need a structurally different mechanism bolting on to get them to work. (Which is what they did in NwN. A robe was actually a seperate, solid body form with its skeleton bound to the PC model beneath. At times, you could see the player body move before the robe did.)

For those new to the idea, Future Imperfect was a small series of stories about Annette/Nitoichi finding an artefact which appeared to show her visions of possible futures, usually pretty bad ones, but sometimes really positive ones. It came from a concept Zortel came up with to give credit where it's due.

Here I've decided to expand it a little and show what might become of another of my characters, especially if they keep getting influenced by small, nymphomaniac fairies.

Future Imperfect: The Queen of Air and Darkness
The Grim Vale, Salamanca, March 2017.
Brigit looked about herself with satisfaction. Her throne was perched atop a dais which allowed her a good view of the revelries going on around her. This particular instance of the celebrations for her rise to power had been going on for around six weeks now and the revellers were beginning to look a little tired. Not that they would stop. Not until they died of exhaustion, anyway. Then she would just take new supplicants from the town and begin again.
One man, naked from the waist up and obviously much the worse for drink, crawled up the steps toward her. To her right, she heard Jacob growl slightly. He was always jealous of potential new suitors. Brigit smiled down at the boy, ignoring Jacob, and beckoned him forward. He crawled, grovelling, to her slippered feet, and began to kiss them, working his way up her shins until she reached down and lifted his chin, looking into his eyes with a beatific smile on her face.
"I live only to bring pleasure to my Queen," he whispered, mesmerised by the soft glow in her eyes.
"I know," Brigit replied and, bending forward slightly, she kissed him briefly on the lips.
The young man stumbled backward, blinking, his hand going to his mouth. When he lowered it, there was blood trickling from his nose. He gasped at the sight of it on his fingers and stumbled, rolling back down the steps. By now, his ears were bleeding, and Brigit continued to smile as more blood began to stream from his tear ducts. He screamed, clawing at his chest and leaving deep, red scratches on the skin, and then fell backward in the snow, staring upward at the cloudy sky, but no longer seeing anything.
Around him, the orgy continued, the other revellers ignoring the man's plight. It could, so easily, be their own. Brigit sat back on her throne and looked out at the vast expanse of snow which covered Salamanca beyond her party glade... and saw the spot of black moving among the white. Rising to her feet, she lifted into the air and glided out, over the heads of the people below, and swept out toward it.
"Nitoichi," Brigit said as she closed on her quarry, "I had thought I would have to leave the otherworld to come find you. All the gateways here are closed off from the other side, or so I thought."
"No," the swordswoman replied, "you did a good job. I had to come in through a gateway in Ireland and take a ship across the Atlantic."
"That is considerable effort to go to to meet your end, Keeper," Brigit said, smiling once more, this time in anticipation.
"This has to stop, Brigit," Ni told her. "I'm giving you one chance. Put things back as they were, free the town."
"Why?" Brigit seemed genuinely perplexed at the suggestion.
"Magic is not meant to rule," Ni said. "I thought Jason taught you better than this. I thought Annette taught you better than this. We helped you free your people, we helped you free Salamanca from the grip of the Redcaps, and you turn around and do this."
"And now," Brigit said, "I shall use you to unlock the doors to the Barrington Club, and use the power there to spread my rule across the world."
Nitoichi drew her katana, allowing it to hang in her grip, and shook her head. "Oh, Brigit, you really should have done your homework better."
Brigit just laughed and raised her hands. Fire roared forth from her palms, enveloping Ni in a writhing tornado of blue-white flame. The snow around her vaporised instantly, a nearby tree burst into flame, and Brigit laughed.
Ni leapt out of the fire tornado with no warning, her katana raised over her head. She was untouched by the flames and Brigit had a brief second to not understand how before the blade swept down, aiming for her neck.

Vigilance Tower, Skyway City, September 2009.
Brigit sat bolt upright in bed, screaming. Her spun-gold hair was glued to her face by sweat and her sheets were damp from the same cause. The nightmare still hung in her mind as she heard the sound of BODICEA's voice.
"Leannan, are you all right?" The AI's tone indicated concern. "I am detecting elevated heart rate and breathing irregularity."
Brigit struggled to control her breathing before she could respond. "I'm... I'm okay. Just a nightmare."
"Perhaps you should discuss it with Dinah," BODICEA suggested. "I understand that dreams can have significance regarding your psychological state."
"Uh, yeah," Brigit responded, starting to pull the sheets off her bed, "I might do that." She would need a shower before she tried to sleep again. The scent of sweat and fear was too strong on her body.

I'm sold. I can cut out half those annoying FX on my Natural DB/WP.

I've read the first of those books. Hamilton got the name from a TH White character and, though Wikipedia failed me on this, I'm pretty sure it's one of the traditional titles of a Queen of the Seelie (or Unseelie) Fae. It was also the name of a D&D deity.

I used it because Leannan is Illusion/Weather and 'Air and Darkness' kind of fits that.


Oh, and, yes, her arms are swept back. Suichiro gives a very good explanation of the effect. Maybe I should have increased the camera angle to give more of a looming effect.

The queen of Air and Darkness

So what is it that Leannan could eventually become? The character concept was that she was one of the few Sidhe to escape the Redcaps when they transformed them into monsters and imprisoned them in Salamanca. Her destiny is to reverse the process, but what then? Would her Fae nature overcome her? Would she rule the Otherworld of Salamanca as the capricious Queen of Air and Darkness?

Thank you, I try.

Leannan

My character Leannan in rendered form.

If I'm feeling insane one day, I may try to replicate her actual in-game costume more. The thought of doing the transparency maps is making me wince, never mind the textures.

Nitoichi in Cimerora

3D art featuring my character, Nitoichi, and a big, hulking, muscle-bound, romanesque warrior type. The big guy doesn't stand a chance.

*Throws Rotten a rope*

(It's not tied off to anything, but it's the thought that counts, right?)

*Wanders past*

We really should put a rope around that thing.

*Keeps wandering*

I am suitably amused.

My current main is supposed to be a Rhode Island girl, Galaxy City native. After I realised that Family Man is set in RI, I decided she had lost a lot of her accent.