*SPOLIERS* New Shivan Lore *SPOILERS*
By
BasilAcid,
Posted on: 2012-01-16 22:55 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
I'm honestly surprised this hasn't gotten more attention. The fact you can TALK to the Shivans at all was something no one on the team realized I could do when I ran 'Drowning In Blood' until out of sheer curiousity, I clicked on one of the Pacified Shivans.
But apparently the ones in Bloody Bay can now talk and are actually wanting to HELP us out.
Another instance of hiding story in the zergrush of a trial.
Shame, as I quite like the shivans. Would be nice to be able to read the story at leisure within the game somewhere.
Eco
MArcs:
The Echo, Arc ID 1688 (5mish, easy, drama)
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
[The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."
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Reminds me of Vincent Ross's arc. Spoilers ahead:
"Merulina's Life and Destruction
You destroy the stem within the Leviathan and are imbued with the knowledge of Merulina's life and death, though the entire scope of what happened is not apparent. You see the goddess crash into Earth and form the society of Coralax, one that seems to be peaceful. Merulina herself seems to have a peaceful air to her, though you can sense immense power from her, the same power that seems to give life to the Coralax. Your last images of Merulina are of her emerging from the sea to watch an object stream across the sky, crash landing on the mainland. She looks back to the ocean, where her Coralax society resides, and walks off to the mainland.
You see her on the mainland, facing off against a figure clad in shadow. The two fight in an immense battle, seeming to be equally matched. The fight goes on for nearly an hour before the figure in shadow overcomes Merulina. You see, through Merulina's eyes, the figure of shadow looming over her. Your image becomes blurry before finally fading to black, this being the final image that Merulina saw in her life. "
Vaguely similar, at least.
Gonna have to take a run at this myself and see if there's anymore info that wasn't divulged here. This sounds really pivotal to the story progression if you ask me. Especially with the Merulina bit Basil pointed out, this could tie alot of plot threads together. I'd love to see something possibly indicating that Shiva and Merulina were both some sort of primordial cosmic goddesses or something like that. They both seem similar enough. Merulina came to Earth from space, knew SOMETHING about that meteor that crashed and the figure that came from it and destroyed her. Maybe that figure is the Dark Father? Or maybe the Dark Father is the leader of The Battalion? Or maybe both? Being an elder god on level with Shiva and Merulina and directing the coming storm at Earth would definitely make for one EPIC struggle to save the world.
And as a Lovecraft fan I'm always glad to see elder god/cosmic beings of god-like power make it into stories as monumental foes. Bring on the eldritch stuff, I look forward to seeing how awesome/horrifying they are.
Here's the full text, provided by Sylph_Knight on the Beta section of the forums:
Quote:
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This oddly placid Shivan seems to stare at you expectantly. . . A rumbling, eery voice echoes from the heart of this behemoth, like the voices of the drowned . . . 'Thank. . . You . . . They . . . Have . . . Meddled . . . Too Much. . .' 'Dead . . . We are . . . Your dead . . . Their minds, thoughts . . . Their voices . . . All now ours . . .' The Shivan ripples momentarily as its inner light flares. 'Each mind unique . . . Each thought as well . . . Trouble for us, but good trouble. . .' The Shivan's voice clarifies, gaining lucidity with each word spoken. 'It is a happy thing . . . To speak and think . . . Though our mother no longer will speak to us . . . We feel . . . Better . . . Better than we had imagined . . . Now that one will speak to us . . . Elation! As we were before, not one among us had a voice . . . and the dead . . . they longed to speak again . . . through us, that desire is sated. . .' (Who is Mother) Our Mother. . . She courses through the heavens but we were lost to her when we fell upon this body and now she is lost to us. . . She is wed now to the Dark Father. . . She loves us, her lost children, no longer. . . And now her new children have come at their father's behest to destroy us. . . The great Mother flies through the Heavens and we were her children. . . We were forced from her and left to die here, though die we did not. . . We have grown different during our time here. . . Because of that difference grown within us, we can no longer hear her song but it does not matter. . . Because she has wed the Dark Father she sings no longer. . . (Who is Father) "He is greedy and gluttonous and has chased our Mother across the Heavens since time immemorial. . . Now She is His and we are orphaned. . . We hate him for all he has done and for all he has yet to do. . . Now that Mother has been made one of His brides, he turns his attention to the Blue Maiden. . . He makes his seat in the far corner of the wilderness. Upon his head rests a crown; a circle of ten orbs, bound together around a dying fire. He clenches a fist and with a flash he stills all who displease him. He grows fat and cancerous with all he has consumed. For all the time there has been a Dark Father he has coveted us. . . His nature is to make thrall to his will all that he encounters. . . He has wed our Mother but lust such as his is never sated. . . He is marshaling all his brides now to hunt and court the Blue Maiden. . . (Blue Maiden? You mean Earth?) We do not know who or what she is. . . We heard her name hissing on the thoughts of our brothers as they came to slaughter us. . . (What were the Circle of Thorns trying to do) The Shivan rumbles and quakes, pulsing an oppressive and sickening heat. "Those wielders of thorn . . . Of magic . . . Coaxed us here with promises . . . Their magic is poison to our thoughts; their intent to eradicate it through slavery. Our dead side told us not to trust . . . Our star side told us to follow as we have always known . . . Our dead side was right.' (What will you do now) I cannot say. . . We are of two minds on that question. . . Some are resigned to wait, for inevitably our Mother will return and consume us, lovingly or not. . . Others just want time. . . Time to get our thoughts in order. . . They are new to us and such depth must be explored. . . We have spent so much time killing. . . Consuming rock and flesh and we are full and done with it. . . Yet estranged brothers come here to destroy us and so killing must continue if we are to survive. . . (There is the difference between you and the other shivans) A difference. . . Yes, different. . . They are the children of our Mother but, unlike us, they still commune with her. . . They are their Father's children as well and serve his will, for they have not a will of their own, as we had not until we became orphans here and learned to talk and think. . . A thrall can abide only the will of their master and will extinguish all others. . . And a Master cannot abide a will that challenges His own. . . And so both Master and thrall seek to overwhelm us for our treachery. . . (It is clear we have common enemies) If we were not so few and so weak and so heartsick, we would refuse you. . . Though all these things we are so, cautiously, we must accept. . . (Start conversation afterwards) You have spoken with one of us, so you have spoken with all of us. . . That encounter has given us great hope. . . |
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
Lovely.
Thanks to eveyone that had a hand in getting this onto the forums. I don't quite have the time to get involved in Beta so it's nice to be able to see this.
Writer of In-Game fiction: Just Completed: My Summer Vacation. My older things are now being archived at Fanfiction.net http://www.fanfiction.net/~jwbullfrog until I come up with a better solution.
The Battalion are sometimes just called Battalion, without the "the", so I wonder if the Dark Father is the the entity/creature called Battalion, and all the things it absorbs as it's slaves are the Battalion - like they're reduced to just being aspects of Battalion's will.
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
Dark Father = Darth Vader
We're fighting Darth Vader, you heard it here first!
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Hmm. Perhaps if Merulina is the "Mother", and Battalion is "Father", maybe we'll have an ally in "Uncle Larry". He owns a cosmic car dealership in upstate Proxima Centauri, and doesn't like the way Battalion treats "Merry" and her kids, and is willing to help the earthling in the fight to stop battalion.
On a more serious note, if Merulina made the Coralax, and possibly had a hand in the Shivans, perhaps some more stories with her could come up, such as preventing Battalion from getting ahold of the power of Merulina. (Hero: "We must stop this evil!!" Villain: "Conflabbit, that's my stolen divine power, and I don't wanna share!")
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Golden Girl
The Battalion are sometimes just called Battalion, without the "the", so I wonder if the Dark Father is the the entity/creature called Battalion, and all the things it absorbs as it's slaves are the Battalion - like they're reduced to just being aspects of Battalion's will.
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This does not make any sense if you complete the Media Trial, Prometheus goes into detail as to what Battalion is and what they want.
Quote:
You need to complete the DD Trial for more info |
Originally Posted by LegionAlpha
This does not make any sense if you complete the Media Trial, Prometheus goes into detail as to what Battalion is and what they want.
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@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
Forgive the lack of knowledge: DD trial?
The new Diabolique Incarnate Trial in I22 - after it finishes, Prometheus gives a lot more info on the Well, which could fit with what I suggested.
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
Quote:
So Shivans=Geth.|
Originally Posted by Golden Girl
Here's the full text, provided by Sylph_Knight on the Beta section of the forums:
(Start conversation afterwards) You have spoken with one of us, so you have spoken with all of us. . . That encounter has given us great hope. . . |
...No problems here.
Quote:
They're not hiding story in the trials.|
Originally Posted by MrCaptainMan
Another instance of hiding story in the zergrush of a trial.
Shame, as I quite like the shivans. Would be nice to be able to read the story at leisure within the game somewhere. Eco |
This is more not wanting to do the content to find out more of the story.
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On the new "Drowning in Blood" Trial in Bloody Bay, set in the 15-30 range, there's quite a lot of new lore about the Shivans, as you can talk to ones that have been captured by the CoT.
The older ones are also fighting the new Shivans, and talk about their "Mother" and the "Dark Father" - but unfortunately they despawned before I could tlak to them all, which was apparently triggered by completing that phase of the Trial that they were on.
These are the 3 questions and answers I managed to copy-paste:
"The great Mother flies through the Heavens and we were her children. . . We were forced from her and left to die here, though die we did not. . . We have grown different during our time here. . . Because of that difference grown within us, we can no longer hear her song but it does not matter. . . Because she has wed the Dark Father she sings no longer. . ."
"He is greedy and gluttonous and has chased our Mother across the Heavens since time immemorial. . . Now She is His and we are orphaned. . . We hate him for all he has done and for all he has yet to do. . . Now that Mother has been made one of His brides, he turns his attention to the Blue Maiden. . ."
"We do not know who or what she is. . . We heard her name hissing on the thoughts of our brothers as they came to slaughter us. . ."
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork