The Dusteaters



Description



The miracles of Dust never cease to amaze and inspire the people of Auriga. But some see the mystical substance as the essence of divinity itself, the immortal remnants of a god long dead, and thus something to be coveted and, perhaps, worshiped. Originally a quaint cult confined to remote mining towns, the religion of the Dusteaters flourished as Auriga fell victim to ever-more catastrophic natural disasters, evidence they say of the impending rebirth of the nameless dead god. To that end, the Dusteaters scour the world for all the dust they can find, hoping that gathering a sufficient amount in one place will spark the god's revival and ensure their salvation among the immortal stars in the sky.



As their stockpiles of Dust grew, the Dusteaters began to change. Seeking oneness with their god, the most fervent believers instituted the ritualistic consumption of small quantities of Dust. Before long, the practice which gave the Dusteaters their name was commonplace, and Dust made a part of every meal. The Dust imbues even the lowest novices to the point that their robes and skin shed clouds of it. As part of their training, the Dusteaters' warrior priests isolate themselves among the stockpiles for months on end, and even consume Dust in lieu of food or water. When they emerge, Dust flowing in unceasing streams from their eyes, ears, and mouths, and blessed with wondrous knowledge and strength, they are venerated by lesser adherents as avatars of the dead god and heralds of his power. The upper echelons of the Dusteaters are rarely seen by the rest of their order, but are spoken of with awe as clairvoyant men who have become Dust incarnate.



As the other peoples of Auriga struggle for an uncertain existence as the world wanes, the Dusteaters stand unshakeable in their faith that Auriga's end will be their true beginning. Dust is their sustenance, their teacher, and their future. All that remains to be determined is how much Dust they can claim for themselves.



Appearance



As a faction defined by ideology rather than primarily racial similarities, the Dust Keepers draw their members from many major and minor factions (save the hated Necrophages). Fresh converts wear simple yellow robes. Members of a few years have robes and skin/fur stained with Dust. Those elevated to warrior priest (the militant arm of the order) status have Dust-gold skin and clothing (armor bears a rust-like Dust taint to it), their eyes glow faintly, and Dust appears to bleed from their faces. The high clergy look even more unnatural, like solid-gold statues with eyes that emit a blinding light. They have effectively replaced their physical forms with bodies of pure Dust, and move like sand in the wind, yet retain their shape.



Gameplay



The Dusteaters grow more powerful as they acquire more Dust and followers, but the faster they expand the more vulnerable they can become. Of all Dust available to them to spend, the Dusteaters can choose to use some or all of it to increase a central stockpile located in their capital city, represented by "Stockpile Points", which increase by an amount of 1 for every X amount of Dust spent. For every Stockpile Point, the Dusteaters gain bonuses to Science, Industry, and combat unit effectiveness.



The Dusteaters begin with 1 Stockpile Point and baseline stats, and the stockpile is capped at 10 points. Stockpile Points can be converted back into spendable Dust, but the amount of Dust returned is fractionally less than was put in (due to Dust consumption); if the Dusteaters have only 1 Stockpile Point, they cannot convert it into Dust. If their capital city is besieged, the Dusteaters' stockpile is reduced by 1 point per each 2 complete turns of siege. If the stockpile is reduced to 0 points or the capital city is conquered, the Dusteaters are defeated.



To protect their vulnerable stockpile, the Dusteaters rely on armies of converts. Every minor faction assimilated/conquered by the Dusteaters provides defensive bonuses to their capital city; the more minor factions the Dusteaters control at once, the stronger the defenses are. The drawback of acquiring multiple minor factions is that each one draws Dust from the Stockpile for their rituals; for every three minor factions under Dusteater control, the stockpile is reduced by 1 point unless the stockpile is already at 1 point.



The key to Dusteater victory is the acquisition of ever-greater amounts of Dust and minor factions to defend it. With a large stockpile and well-defended capital, the Dusteaters are a formidable force. At the same time, the source of their strength is also a great weakness. If the Dusteaters neglect to watch their capital as they expand, they risk everything. An adversary only needs to conquer the capital to defeat them, and can make doing so easier by seizing any minor factions they hold.

dreamwalker wrote:
The light of Sol Invictus will burn away the unbelievers. Repent while you can, heretic! lol







It's cause sun cult factions, are the best factions.

Just a side note: Auriga has no sun

There really are so many entries though. Enough for a whole 'nother game! Or at least an expasion? Hmmm, Devs?

Flybert wrote:
Just a side note: Auriga has no sun

You liar.



And I don't actually know if you're lying, but I'm going to say you are because it makes me feel better.

Lore: The Elementals are are a human nation, which have a magic force in them. Their ancestors have been simple humans, wich were working in a coal mine, but one day they found a relic deep underground. The moment the relic was brought out of the mine, into the sunlight it started vibrating and the 12 coal workers, 6 men 6 woman, touched it, feeling a warm strong force going through their vains shortly before the relic vanished. From this point on they were able bend the way dust behaved in many different ways, but other faction called them mages, not worthy to be part of any other factions. the mine worker were being discimminated against and pushed away from their homes, since they didnt know how the use their new power and sometimes injured or even killed other people by accident.



They were scared of their own power so they fled, to a mountain know as "Dunia Mata" meaning "eye of the world", which is said to be the tallest mountain in Auriga. On this mountain they were being exiled and all the other factions banned them on it, but the mine workeres started learning and training their strenght and eventually were able to controll the magic power. They started to train different kinds of summoning and all their spells were based on different elements. Wind, Water, Earth, Fire and Storm/Lightning, but only 1 of each gender was extremely good at controlling one of those elements (what i mean is that 1 man & 1 woman was good at wind, while another man and another woman was good at fire f.e.) What the mages didnt know though, was that they started to become obsessed by their magic and started changing depending on which element they were controlling. the lightning man & woman started turning into a ball of lightning, barly seeing any human structures in it anymore. all of those 12 different elementals got kids, and they also were elementals, which were able to controll an element.



Over a couple of generations and cross breeding of the different elemental beings, every kid had again one of the elements as power and the "Dunia Mata" wasnt enough space for so many people to live on, so they had to fight their way through the other factions banning them on the mountain.



Nowadays since every elemental has every single element in their blood, a fire and a wind elemental could get a children which then turns out to be a water elemental.



Every warrior of the army can be made out of different elements. if you have a unit, youre currently training in a city, you can decide wheter its storm, water, wind, earth or lighting.

Nosferatiel wrote:
Aggressive advertising battles are on!



That aside, I'm sure they will be capable of throwing out a few that didn't stick to the rules, then put everything else to the vote. They don't have to actually read it beyond two things: It has to be far enough away from any kind of other faction that's already set and it needs to be doable ingame. If it's not remotely realistic to put it into the game, they probably won't put it to a vote, either.

I didn't know they reserve the right to not put a faction up to vote. I guess it makes since considering some proposed faction are less cohesive with the current lore of the game.

Flybert wrote:
Just a side note: Auriga has no sun

Wait what? How do the seasons work then?

Polymathin wrote:
Wait what? How do the seasons work then?

The sun is the star closest to Earth.

There is only one sun. Auriga has a star, but no sun

Polymathin wrote:
Wait what? How do the seasons work then?

Flybert wrote:
The sun is the star closest to Earth.

There is only one sun. Auriga has a star, but no sun

Can we just agree that there's at least one gaseous ball out of mostly hydrogen weighing O(10^30 kg) in the immediate vicinity of Auriga doing blackbody radiation at several thousands of Kelvin, stop the semantics and get on with posting factions?

Flybert wrote:
The sun is the star closest to Earth.

There is only one sun. Auriga has a star, but no sun

I think any star in the universe that is similar to earth's sun can be considered a sun by definition. You raise a good point though. We want to make these faction unique to the endless universe.

Huh, a lot of people are doing very long background info and such ._.; I was planning to try creating one myself as writing practice, but I'm getting intimidated here by amount of effort people have put into theirs. I'll check that my idea won't be too similar to upcoming factions we know off, but I'm not going to read every contest entry in detail just to avoid accidentally creating something similar. I mean, my own idea isn't as fancy as some of the ones I DID read...

Flybert wrote:
The sun is the star closest to Earth.

There is only one sun. Auriga has a star, but no sun

Hush.



Anyway, here's a thought: what if the devs took the top few winning ideas and merged them together, so more of these great ideas would be saved, it least in part?



Who knows? The faction could end up being a race of sun-worshiping, doomsday cultist, mind-controlling parasite plant people who eat dust and keep lizard people as slaves.

ResonanceMask wrote:
Huh, a lot of people are doing very long background info and such ._.; I was planning to try creating one myself as writing practice, but I'm getting intimidated here by amount of effort people have put into theirs. I'll check that my idea won't be too similar to upcoming factions we know off, but I'm not going to read every contest entry in detail just to avoid accidentally creating something similar. I mean, my own idea isn't as fancy as some of the ones I DID read...

Don't be so harsh for yourself

Just because someone can wrap a present in nicer paper, doesn't mean your present is worse.

It's the idea that matters the most

CIEVERS



In my opinion the game lacks a more peaceful, diplomacy and science focused major faction at the moment, since all of the major factions right now are either military or economy centered. Also, I felt that the water tiles are currently mostly useless (not sure if this will chance however), so I tried to create a major faction that takes both of them into notice (since I personally love playing maritime, science and economy focused factions in strategy games like Civilization).



IDEA: Cievers evolved deep underwater in the great seas of Auriga. They resemble humanoids with skinfolds between their fingers and toes. They have a deep blue skin that acts as a camouflage in the deep water. Their heads resemble that of a catfish, with long appendages at the back of the head. The appendage has a large fin at the end of it, and they have both the gills and the lungs. Cievers somewhat resemble the Maori people, including religion, names and clothing. When the Endless ruled the planet, they were seen as primitive beings and thus, were left alone. They evolved slowly in peace, learning how to use tools, build houses and tame animals. When the apocalypse swept across Auriga, they survived because they still lived in the deep seas, safe from the passage of seasons. They have, however, recently been starting to explore the coastal areas of Auriga, driven by pure curiosity. They wish to see the wonders and offerings that the land has to offer to them. They have little interest in conflict with other races, seeking to gain understanding of the land-dwellers, but they make formidable fighters, as the life deep underwater was a constant battle of survival, against other Cievers and various sea creatures.



The Ciever society resembles that of the early human civilizations: Instead of having a single or many leaders, they act as a tribal society, somewhat resembling the Athenian democracy in 400 BC. Every member of a city gets to say their opinion in council meetings, and every city has a small group representing their city. These small groups then decide about matters that affect the Ciever society as a whole. As a result, the diplomacy screen featuring the leader of that faction, the Cievers have a council room. While playing as other factions, you play as the leader or a member of that faction, and the story is being told from your perspective. In Cievers' story, you don't have a role: you play as the race, and the quest events are being told from a neutral perspective. The story quests would then focus on Cievers' attempts to colonize new regions, build cities, explore Auriga, seek luxury resources, interact and trade with other major factions and assimilating minor factions and maybe have a drop of blood to make the story more appealing to all kinds of players. Cievers are after all on land just to seek knowlegde, driven by their curiosity. As Cievers evolved in water they don't have any idea of the passage of seasons. At the start of the game, they don't know about the winters or the coming apocalypse. As the story progresses, they start to take notice on it and at the end of the quest chain, they try to secure their settlement sites in order to reclaim them after the apocalpyse. Their survival plan? To return to the deep seas and wait for the apocalypse to pass by since you play as a small expedition force after all.



Religion is not an important part of Cievers' society, but it has a part in their culture. Cievers worship three Gods called Tuanuiki, Rangino and Tankuroa. Tuanuiki is the Earth Mother, she who created Auriga and gave it shape. She is the Goddess of land, fertility, nature and protection. Rangino is the Sky Father, he who gave shape to the sky and clouds. He controls the winds and lightings, making him the God of trade, inspiration and war. Tankuroa is the God of sea, waves and heavenly manifestation of Cievers themselves. All these three deities together form the 3-faced God of Life, as life requires all the properties that these three deities possess. Should one of them be separated from the others, a chaos follows. Cievers honour these deities by building temples that each possess an image of the three Deities together in the middle. The temples have also three separate winds that each have an image of a single deity at the end of them. Cievers view the sea and the land as opposite realms. As they evolved in water, the sea is their home and the land is a foreign land full of mysteries. Going to land was once seen as dangerous and life-risking, as it would make Tankuroa unhappy and Tuanuiki even unhappier, crushing any hopes of a coastal-based settlement. As Ciever society evolved, religion became less important, and that was the main reason why Cievers started to explore the land just recently. And for those history freaks like myself, Cievers' religion is loosely based on Maori people's mythology.



GAMEPLAY: Cievers' main gameplay tactic is diplomacy / science. They would get various benefits regarding both of them. Cievers' starting point should be close to sea (or a large inland sea, a lake at the very least.) Their architecture style is organic-based, having a strong contradiction to Vaulters and The Broken Lords architecture. Cievers would have a unique gameplay mechanic enabling them to expand their cities over to water tiles. However, some religious Cievers still see this method as unorthodox, requiring you to build a special building, A temple of the Three Gods, in order to expand to sea. This building requires a tier 1 technology that must be researched. In addition, temple of the Three Gods has no additional benefits. Its sole purpose is to prevent an initial rush to sea resources , making Cievers' unique city building method more balanced when compared to other races. City border areas that are on land produce 33% less resources (if a farm would produce 3 units of food normally, it would produce 2 units of food :food and city border areas that are at sea produce 33% more resources (if a sea tile would produce 3 units of science normally, it would produce 4 units of science :science. This style somewhat forces the player to stick to coastal areas or near lakes, but doesn't make it impossible to expand inland. If another faction captures Cievers' city that has districts over water, these districts will be destroyed, but for every district, the faction gets a large stockpile of production , food and science that can be used however the faction wants (to build new districts on land quickly, for example). The city center must however be on land. The city can not be build on water solely, for gameplay purposes. If Cievers were to defend a city that has districts over water, they would be unaccessible for the duration of the battle (and all the time, even when not in battle) for gameplay purposes too. Of course, this would mean that the region sides would have to be increased in order for this to happen. Buildings that give benefits from sea tiles would give the same amount of benefits, but the ability to expand over to the sea would give a significant boost. NOTE TO DEVELOPERS: If this idea is too unrealistic and can't be made, it's okay to remove it. Cievers would have few technologies that convert land based buildings to sea based, for example "fish farm" would be "deep sea fish farm", giving more food , but only from sea tiles, non from rivers. Cievers are friendly and tolerable creatures, giving them benefits to diplomacy, for example when meeting a new major faction they automatically get +10 points to the relationship spectrum. Some diplomatic options would also cost less influence points . For every neutral relationship, Cievers get tiny bonus to science output. For every alliance, Cievers get a decent bonus to science output. Bying strategic resources from the marketplace would also be 25% cheaper. Ultimately, Cievers would be able to assimilate 3 minor factions into their empire, supporting the gameplay idea of curiosity and thirst for knowlegde. On the other hand, being new to land it would take 25% longer to complete strategic resource (titanium, palladium etc.) and luxury resource (gold, spice etc.) extractors. Cievers would also gain no benefits from tundra, high snow and desert tiles because of the extreme temperatures of these biomes. Other tiles, including the rocky fields, would have normal benefits since they don't have extreme temperatures and somewhat resemble an aquatic biome. However, Cievers have a mid game technology called "water domes", enabling them to gain these benefits (the idea being that Ciever cities / structures would have water domes enabling Cievers to water themselves from time to time). Tundra, high snow and desert tiles would still be considered as difficult terrain for them during the whole game, slowing down moment. Cities that are build on these tiles would give - 10 approval to the specific city. While Cievers could expand to inland, the ideal gameplay strategy is to stick to coastal areas. Winters would have the same effects on Cievers as they have on every race, since cold climate also affects the temperature in water, to which aquatic life has adapted.



UNITS: These are all just some basic, rough concepts and not set on stone.



The basic unit would be called "Hunters". They have been traditionally used to hunt food or to explore new regions. After the expedition forces were sent to the surface, hunters acted in a similiar role, scouting for the best settlement sites and hunting food on land. In battle, they use melee weapons (spears, one-handed swords) and have lower health than other basic units, but make up for it in speed. They present a more tactical gameplay method, relying on high ground and flanking tactics. In addition, they can easily kill enemy archers. Because they have also been used to track down and kill large sea creatures, hunters gain a small attack bonus (+10%) when fighting against Erycis, Kazanjis, Ceratans and Silics, since they are "monsters" in my opinion.



The second unit would be called "Stalwarts". They have been used to guard the large underwater cities that house most of the Cievers. Stalwarts make up the strong front-line unit of Cievers, relying in melee weapons (spears, one-handed swords and two-handed swords) and heavy armor. They can be used efficiently with hunters, drawing the main enemy forces while hunters try to flank the enemies. Stalwarts gain a defensive bonus (+33%), if they do not move at all during one phase of the battle (phase being those two turns between giving orders to your troops).



Third unit would be called "Kaitivha" (derived from Maori mythology, "kaiti" from "kaitiaki" (protective spirits) and "vha" from "Taniwha" (sea predators)). Cievers tamed some creatures to be used as food, guards etc., the same way humans tamed cows, dogs etc. for same purposes. Kaitivhas were tamed to be used as "guard dogs", or in battle against other Ciever tribes. In addition, they were used to track down and hunt food. When the first Ciever expedition forces were sent to surface, they took kaitivhas with them. In battle, kaitivhas are driven by two Ciever handlers to attack the enemy lines. Kaitivhas are able to deal a lot of damage with their strong front claws and large mouths while their scaly skin can withstand swords and arrows. They however move slowly on land. In addition, they have a special ability, similiar to the Kazanjis, lowering enemy unit initiative when they attack, but only when they attack, as a sight of a attacking Kaitivha is a terrible sight to behold!



If the game will include ships or other watercraft, Cievers would use tamed sea creatures for these purposes.



MINOR FACTIONS: Since the main focus of Cievers' gameplay is diplomacy / science, minor factions would play a larger role. After you pacify a village or villages of a certain region (either by force or peace), you have 2 options: You can assimilate the minor faction into your empire, gaining the basic benefits / units. The other option would be to "free" the pacified village. This would mean that the village or villages become independent and will not produce new hostile units and you would not get the benefits / units. You would, however, get influence points for every pacified, freed village belonging to a certain minor faction that is inside your empire's borders. After the words of Cievers' kindness travel throughout Auriga, you would get small diplomatic bonuses with other major factions, giving diplomatic propositions and suggestions a higher chance to succeed. Also, these diplomatic propositions, like "thanks" or "propose peace", would cost less influence points for each freed minor faction. To top it all, you can have 3 minor factions into your empire as Cievers, meaning that you could have 3 assimilated minor factions, 3 freed minor factions or 2 assimilated and 1 freed minor faction at the same time for example.



IN SHORT:

-Race of aquatic creatures that want to explore the surface of Auriga / interact with other factions.

-Diplomacy / science focused gameplay.

-Main quests revolve around colonization, diplomacy, exploration etc.

-Ability to expand cities over water, gain more resources from sea tiles (city center must be on land, however).

-Positive diplomatic relationships give small boosts to science output.

-Tundra, high snow and desert are considered as difficult terrain, no bonuses

dreamwalker wrote:
Hush.



Anyway, here's a thought: what if the devs took the top few winning ideas and merged them together, so more of these great ideas would be saved, it least in part?



Who knows? The faction could end up being a race of sun-worshiping, doomsday cultist, mind-controlling parasite plant people who eat dust and keep lizard people as slaves.

Now I feel excluded

ResonanceMask wrote:
Huh, a lot of people are doing very long background info and such ._.; I was planning to try creating one myself as writing practice, but I'm getting intimidated here by amount of effort people have put into theirs. I'll check that my idea won't be too similar to upcoming factions we know off, but I'm not going to read every contest entry in detail just to avoid accidentally creating something similar. I mean, my own idea isn't as fancy as some of the ones I DID read...

Don't be intimidated

Your submission holds equal value to that of anyone else. People like me, who posted extensive background information on their faction, did so probably because they REALLY wanted everyone to undestand how awesome their factions are xD But in the end, it's the general idea and principles behind your faction that count. Your entry won't get any worse just because you make it short and to the point. In fact, if you do it well, I could imagine this approach working better then giant essays ^_^



EDIT: I was 4 minutes slow, Flybert already posted the same thing... oh well, maybe we can calm ResonanceMask faster when we work together

dreamwalker wrote:
Hush.



Anyway, here's a thought: what if the devs took the top few winning ideas and merged them together, so more of these great ideas would be saved, it least in part?



Who knows? The faction could end up being a race of sun-worshiping, doomsday cultist, mind-controlling parasite plant people who eat dust and keep lizard people as slaves.

Probably because that would be a developers nightmare .

Flybert wrote:
Don't be so harsh for yourself

Just because someone can wrap a present in nicer paper, doesn't mean your present is worse.

It's the idea that matters the most

Thanks... I don't really have a lot of witing experience, but I hope I'll manage to do something nice. Still, the idea I had feels very basic compared to very fantastical ones people here present. It was pretty much humanoid gekkos with tribalic society, "weird" feeding habbits and gameplay idea based on them playing more defensive in winter and more offensive in summer.



@PANCZASU: Thanks for encouragement as well

Buzzkillington1990 wrote:
Now I feel excluded

Dang, how could I forget you? We'll just make it the sun worshiping, doomsday cultist parasite plant people who eat dust and have lizard people slaves, who are also pigs.



I'm starting to see why we're having this contest. lol

ResonanceMask wrote:
Thanks... I don't really have a lot of witing experience, but I hope I'll manage to do something nice. Still, the idea I had feels very basic compared to very fantastical ones people here present. It was pretty much humanoid gekkos with tribalic society, "weird" feeding habbits and gameplay idea based on them playing more defensive in winter and more offensive in summer.

Go for it! Just remember, that your faction has to be somehow focused on minor factions!

My post has been edited and my faction is now visible on page 3.



Please go and check it out and tell me what you guys think