Post/Author/DateTime	Post
nick012000 07-03-03, 06:55 AM	i got this idea from a rather good RPG for X-box, Morrowind. what about a technological race that did mind boggling things with steam power, which remain indeciferable to mages, and at one point the had settlements all over the world. they were the inventors of heavy armor, and their armor and weapons, all of which were non-blackpowder, are worth far more than their weight in gold, which is saying a lot, because they are really heavy. they were masters at making steam powered golems, and many of their creations survive to this day. the armor, in most cases, is simply the outer shells of such golems with the innards stripped away. they often lived underground but not like underdark level, just excavated spaces in the ground, which were then lined with metal that remains uncorroded to this day. they are related to the dwarves, perhaps a subrace. no-one knows what happened to them, they simply disappeared of the face of the planet. Some say that in their diggings and research, they discovered how to transcend the mortal plane. possibly make all their stuff adamantine, and the only place where you find adamantine stuff? what do you guys think?
Bandido 07-03-03, 10:11 AM	Maybe they could be the people who made the guides and guardians Iyala sugested in the underdark thread.
WizO_Iyala 07-03-03, 05:35 PM	I don't want to be overly negative on this because I think we need dead races. Personaly I don't like messing around with technology though. It makes it too easy to solve any problem with a mystic relic, plus I just prefer low-tech stuff. There's another problem that I'm a little hesitant to bring up. The idea of a dead high tech race which has left ehind many of their mysteries is the principle that underpins virtually all of the current MTG storyline. It effectively began with the Thran, just such a race, and everything that has happened since has been related back to them in various ways.
nick012000 07-03-03, 07:14 PM	anything that is high tech, is either so big and bulky it is unmovable, plus it is bolted to the ground, or it is a hostile monster. no firearms, they used axes, spears, swords, etc. most of their ruins have been thouroughly looted by generations of looters, though some sealed parts remain unlooted, and that is where their steam powered creations still live. that is what is left of them, just a bunch of ruins left all over the planet.
WizO_Iyala 07-04-03, 05:25 PM	I like the idea of just ruins being left, the problem is that there's always going to be that mystical suit of armor or stronger than any other weapon sword or instant fix through a previously undiscovered relic. I also think that spreading them all around the world might be a bit much, I think they'd be really interesting if their ruins were located in isolated hard to explore places. I'm imagining something along the line of inca settlements.
nick012000 07-04-03, 10:08 PM	yes, but because they only reached a certain technological and magical level before they dissapeared (steam power and typical magic), the weapons are only as powerful as any other powerful magic weapon. the way i'm thinking of it is, making all their stuff made out of a metal called adamantine, which provides the effects of a magical enhancement, non-magically. so if there was a really powerful magic sword made bt them, it would be no more powerful than any other really powerful magic sword, except in an anti-magic field. similarly, they had reaced a level of technology approxate to the mid-1800's (minus firearms), so there are no uber-powerful tech devices.
nick012000 07-22-03, 06:23 AM	is my idea really that ad? maybe make them an extict sub-set of gnomes.
Leaves 07-22-03, 05:42 PM	Hmm, there's a thought. Perhaps a sub-group of gnomish society, even a religious group. Even an EVIL group of gnomes, following an evil god of technology. They made all these fantastical technologic achievements, but their technology destroyed them somehow. I want the gnomish inclination to be always in balance with their environment to be a very strong trait, and this could be the reason why; the gnomes are determined not to repeat the errors of their past. There could even still be isolated groups of these gnome cultists, living in the underdark or in wastelands, trying to recover their lost technology from their ruins and regain their former glory. The civilized gnomes, the burrow and mariner gnomes, might have formed a knighthood dedicated to defending the ruins and keeping them hidden, and tracking down their evil cousins (though then they start to sound like gnomish drow). OR the lost technological race might have been another race that bought their technology from the gnomes, and misused it. That would be more of an explanation why the gnomes don't like sharing with outsiders. http://www.geocities.com/leaves_or/leafchange.txt
WizO_Iyala 07-22-03, 06:34 PM	I have to say I prefer the idea of the extinct race passing on technology to the gnomes, after al that just leaves more space forcreativity in the extinct race and way more mystery about them. I do not know how religious gnomes might be (I have a short memory ago and races were two chapters ago from where I am) but in such a situation would it make sense for cults of gnomes to worship, or at the very least revere the extinct race? They'd be very protective of the derelict sites which would make a lot of sense.
Leaves 07-22-03, 08:03 PM	I meant that the extinct race got their technology from the gnomes, and the gnomes' guilt was for giving the tech to people who used it badly. But your way works, too. Heck, it might even work better. Scenario: the gnomes were adopted by the extinct technological race (ETR). The ETRs became corrupt and decadent, their civilization collapsed on itself. The gnomes inherit some of the ETR technology. Nowadays they have a very superior sense of themselves: they are the heirs to the most advanced race the world has ever known, and what's more, they have a superior social concious. No gnome is ever going to act so poorly as their forebears. Of course, the gnomes make sure nobody ever finds out about their crazy cousins, who worship the ETRs out in the wilds... http://www.geocities.com/leaves_or/leafsmile.txt
nick012000 07-22-03, 08:36 PM	anybody have any names for this race? i'm not that good with making up names.
WizO_Iyala 07-23-03, 07:48 PM	Originally posted by Leaves I meant that the extinct race got their technology from the gnomes, and the gnomes' guilt was for giving the tech to people who used it badly. Ahhhh... see I thought of it the other way because I imagined them being arund before cause they're exticnt. No reason why I should think that, I just did :) Just had the mental picture that the race that was still around would be the younger and the one to inherit the technology from the dead race. Either way works I guess :) If I try to name the race they'll end up with a name like the Shalendae, I only think lyrical stuff, normally with ys. My suggestion would be something like the Erukhora. Just beacuse they're the first sound that comes into my head :)
Leaves 07-24-03, 03:50 AM	Erukhora? Hmmmm. To make it less "lyrical" I'd say just take off a vowel: either Rukhora, or Erukhorr, or just Rukhor. Rukhorr. Ruekhor. Hmmmm.
Carefree Butterfly* 07-24-03, 01:37 PM	Dead races are neat, but almost every setting has some sort of reference to a dead race. I've seen the "vanished technological race" in many places. For example... -The Chozo of the Metroid series. -Machina cities of FFX. -A couple fantasy novels I don't feel like digging out right now. To keep the idea fresh, I'd like to see this more fleshed out. The aforementioned examples I had given were either wiped out by some decadent or apocalyptic event or they migrated. I like the idea that the gnomes had recieved their technology from the ruins. Perhaps it goes deeper than just ancestral gnomes...perhaps the race just hasn't died and still walks among them. Maybe previous generations had abandoned their machines and responsibility to the ruins for whatever reason and keeps lore and history to a select few elders. Don't add another entry to the stereotypical "extinct technological race" is what I'm saying.
Leaves 07-28-03, 03:23 PM	I agree, "vanished technological races" are certainly a cliche. They probably have been ever since Plato wrote about Atlantis. I like the idea of the descendants of the race still walking around. I see two intriguing possibilities: A. There are still a few small communities of ETR descendants left. They have lost all the technology and scientific skills they once had, they now scratch out a living (a) as subsistence farmers, or (b) taking what work they can living in poor ghettos in other races' cities. Maybe, all the ETR descendants are inbred and sickly. They are despised and pitied by members of other races, who have no idea of their past glory (There are legends about the ETRs, but nobody connects them to the impoverished ETR descendants because the have a different name (Rukora instread of Erukhor?)). B. The ETRs survive in disguise among the gnomes or among others. The disguised might be magical, or just plain hooded cloak, sneaking around at night stuff. There are all sorts of rumors that the ETRs are actually secretly guiding the course of civilization for their own purposes. (These rumors may or may not be true. Actually, the continued existence of the ETRs may or may not be true, but the rumors could exist anyway.) None of this rules out the possibilty of individual ETRs surviving from ancient times. I already have an idea for a D&D adventure featuring an ETR lich . . .
WizO_Iyala 07-28-03, 05:00 PM	c) very small, incredibly isolated groups of the ETR still exist. They have been driven back into undiscovered bolt-holes hidden away from what they see as younger races spreading like a plague across the world. They have largely been seperated from their technological ways through their isolation, they maintain a few of their machines as best they can but see death and starvation as preferable to interacting with the outside world. After one of these colonies is discovered it tends to self destruct after a few generations as the ETR lose the will to live, seeing theselves as being sucked up into the inferior world outside. Basicly they could survive one or two visitors, maybe a small party every decade or so (they'd be treated with hatred, resentment and contempt) but any more and they would probably die out. This would be a problem as the ETRs would probably be the subject of great fascination by others who wished to study them as an intelectual curiosity, learn from them or - worst of all - worship them. The gnomes might turn out to be their greatest enemy, they'd rather kill a gnome on sight than risk word spreading back to others of a lost colony, and the consequent parties of pilgrims that would follow. This would not exclude the possiblilty of individual members living in more normal parts of the world, probably either passing themselves off as another race by illusions or telling stories of a magical transformation gone wrong. But on the whole such outcasts would be rare and might even be seen as enemies by their communities of origin if those groups had remained undiscovered. All this pretty much comes from the idea of inca settlement, imagining communites that could survive in such isolation, becoming bitter and utterly self centerd.