Messages

Congratulations Mandle!

Sinitrenia? That sounds particularly awful I refer to these stories in my head as the Stories from the Connected Continents (which doesn't make any sense to you because this geographical feature wasn't mentioned yet - oh well ), or as the Lomin-series, because Lomin is the link between all the stories (he shows up in all of them or is mentioned, although he's not always named or named something different - have fun re-reading and looking for him )

Your Lomin Series is pretty great, have you ever thought about having the stories published as some kind of anthology book?

1st: Klatuu
2nd: Tabata
3rd: arj0n

I just finished my entry, though I could only do my concept justice in GIF form:

[Mandle]

I do hope I'm not too late to vote!

Best Character: Mandle
Best Spectacle: Funnyboy
Best Writing: Sinitrena
Most Thought Provoking: Mandle

Sinitrena: The writing and world building was top-notch, and it was fun to see more of the world from your previous stories.

Mandle: It was such an unusual take on the theme, and the ending cracked me up.

Funnyboy: The story was pretty fun, but the slapstick would have worked better if the candles and firecrackers had been foreshadowed, as it was now the ending felt a little too random and abrupt for my taste.

Blondbraid: I can see why you're not entirely satisfied with your story. I think you were going for more mystery then you actually ended up with. The reader is supposed to be surprised by the reveal that it's not the chief's triumph we're witnessing. Generally, I liked your descriptions and your soothsayer, who reminded me of the Oracle of Delphi, who, among other cryptic prophesies, told Croesus that a mighty empire would fall, if he attacked the Perisans. (The empire that fell was, of course, his own.)

You are right, I was inspired by the story about Croesus and the prophesy.

I currently don't have any job, I'm studying video game development with a graphics orientation at university.

@Blondbraid. I think devs would be happy to consider your complaints. Animating long hair must be a ball-ache, so any excuse not to have to do it would be welcome.

That's true, and most video game characters actually do have practical haircuts, but you'd think real-life actresses would also prefer doing action scenes without getting hair caught in their eyes.

To expand on my own rant:
Typically in popular culture, bows are considered the weapon of choice for the lean, agile types, and predominantly women. In reality, a bow of the kind used in medieval warfaring could have a draw weight of 150 pounds and upwards, and drawing them looks like this:
https://youtu.be/33LNnyqiQcs?t=120
... meaning, you pretty much draw and immediately release while rupturing your spleen or something. Back then, you wouldn't have any weight-reducing pulley/cam system, and also you didn't have the razor-blade heads seen on modern arrows, that can kill much easier.

I think the scriptwriter originally wrote a lengthy scene where Ygritte points a gun against Jon, but then someone mentioned that they don't have guns in medieval fantasy settings,
so instead they just switched the gun for a bow, because they are basically the same thing amirite?

I actually saw a pretty good video on what sort of weapons would be suited for smaller and thinner persons:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSy9GLi2H44
Most movies show women and elves use bows as you mentioned, while in reality polearms and two-handed swords would be a much better way for a small person to compensate for their size. I think halberds are sadly underappreciated weapons in movies and video games, only the evil guards at the villain's castle are allowed to use them. I don't know how true it is, but I once read an analysis that claimed that the reason fiction portrays swords and bows as heroic weapons and halberds and crossbows as the go-to weapons for evil medieval henchmen is that swords and bows were the weapons of the nobility, and knights spent years learning to use them, while crossbows could be used by anyone with a little training, mostly low-born and peasants. The halberd was a weapon that allowed foot people to effectively fight riders on horseback, making it a weapon often used against knights and cavalry.

While I'm at this train of thought, as a non-native English speaker I find it interesting that words like chivalrous and noble are describing good traits, while the word villain originally meant farmhand, which tells a lot on how medieval writers saw the world and society.

One thing that bothers me with fantasy is the over-reliance on blood ties, nearly all fantasy heroes are secretly of royal blood or the heir of someone important. In some cases it's almost ridiculous how many of the characters in a story are secretly a princess, a lost king, the last member of a noble line etcetera. It's actually hard for me to come up with a fantasy story where the protagonist isn't secretly a crown prince! (ok, Frodo and Sam isn't royalty but pretty much everyone else who travels with them is.)

It's a fair point, but history is long and the "Western world" is packed with different peoples and traditions, so I'm strongly inclined to believe that there has been considerable variation in this matter. Can you say with absolute confidence that it applies universally, in every place, every tribe, every time (until relatively recently), for Christian, Jew and pagan, at every level of society?

While there have been some exceptions, most cultures have either worn their hair short or tied back, in the Islamic world many of the women wear veils or headscarves, viking women are depicted wearing their hair in knotted buns, with cloth tied around their hair outdoors, most images of Chinese and Japanese women have them wear different combinations of braids and buns, and many native american women and men wear their long hair in braids so the idea isn't exclusive for medieval Europe. And medieval Jews were often even required by law to wear special hats that marked them as Jews, and as far as I know orthodox Jews have very strict rules about what to wear, and that includes women not showing off their hair. Wearing an elaborate hairstyle have also been a universal sign of wealth for a long time, just like wearing fancy clothes and jewelry.

Now, there have been exceptions, but they have been relatively rare, and many of the historical pictures that show women with long loose hair are showing them in a situation where they aren't concerned with appearance or practicality, such as resting or lounging in their home or garden. In some pictures it was a way of showing that they were in mourning or otherwise had neglected grooming themselves, akin to showing a man with a five'o clock shadow.

Now, while fantasy does take place in it's own world with it's own rules, most of it is very closely based on medieval Europe, so therefore it's jarring to me to see characters wear costumes that look very medieval, but hairstyles that wouldn't have been accepted in the middle ages. And TV-shows and Movies that are actually set in a real historical time period has no excuse. Then there are also the practicality reasons I mentioned before, having the hair tied back and hidden under some headwear is a great way of keeping it clean and protecting it from the elements, and it's hard to clean your hair without access to modern showers and shampoo.

So I found this image of Cate Blanchett playing queen Elisabeth, a writer commented that her hairpiece looked like a taco;

So I knew I had to Photoshop it!

  how everyone is clean, how hardly anyone is ridden with skin diseases or rotting teeth, how people survive with wounds instead of dying from sepsis, and so on, and so forth...

While it is true that they didn't have sinks and showers or deodorant during the middle ages, I think many historical movies take it too far in the opposite direction,
where people look like they have been literally rolling in filth. Even if cleanliness standards were lower than today, I'm pretty sure medieval people wouldn't pick dung
off the ground and smear in their faces, yet several actors look like they have done exactly that before they started filming.

If anyone is interested, here is a link with descriptions on how people actually managed their hygiene in history.

how nobody is always cold during winter

How could I forgot, this is something I get easily triggered about (and loose immersion instantly). Maybe because I live in relatively cold climate .
...
Hah, and in one of the latest episodes of the Game of Thrones when John Snow goes off with his team to catch a zombie (dumb idea on its own), these guys go into the blizzard, and no one is covering their frigging head! Some of them were even bald, so no natural protection either. They would come back with their noses and ears frozen off (in best case, lol).

I also think many movies and video games get it wrong, like when Jon Snow falls into icy water and just gets up and keeps going, in real life he would have to take of his wet clothes and start a fire immediately or risk hypothermia.

I came to think about another big thing which breaks my immersion, and that is when a story that takes place in a historical/fantasy setting have female characters walking around in public with long hair past their shoulders. Until very recently, an adult person walking around with their head uncovered wouldn't be considered fully clothed, and everyone in the western world, with the exception of young children and sometimes unmarried virgins, would have some form of veil or hat covering their head outdoors and in public, and women would have their hair tied up in a bun or braided. To a medieval person, a grown woman walking around with her hair out would be the equivalent of someone in modern times walking around in their pyjamas.

However, this wasn't done simply for modesty reasons, as someone who has long hair I can tell from experience that if I don't tie it back, it's virtually impossible to do any physical work or exercise without risking my hair getting caught on something or getting in my eyes. If you also take into account that before electricity was a thing, people relied on candles and torches, long hair flowing free would be a real security risk, so every time I see a movie or fantasy illustration of a woman running around with long hair hanging down, it breaks my immersion.

Wow, that is truly impressive water, and so smooth animation too!

Cool intro Slasher! Is the bone floating in space a reference to 2001?

It's random each time you play the game. Do you mean that you just happened to get Judas as the guilty one on the first game?

Yes, that's exactly what happened!

[The triumphal procession]

Here is my entry, I'm not really satisfied with how it turned out, but here it is:

The triumphal procession

To walk along the petal-strewn streets of Rome to the sounding horns of triumph, surrounded by cheering and chanting crowds had been the chieftains dream for a long time, yet it had always been an abstract idea, as simple and stylized as the figures adorning the drinking cups and jewelry back in his homeland. Now he was there, the roaring crowds as real as they would ever be, yet the he did not share their joy and the swelling pride he had longed to feel over walking onto these streets made a bitterly notable absence. The irony of the situation had come to be as painful as the deafening screams and hollering among the people who had gathered to catch a glimpse of the golden chariot making its way down the middle of the street.

He thought back to what had led him on this path to begin with, the promises and prophesies. The day he had taken up his fathers mantle the head soothsayer, a silver haired man with a face marked of great wisdom and age alike, had said that the new cheiftain would be the one who would live where his predecessor had died, and the gods had decreed that should he lead an army against the empire, he would be marching in the streets of Rome within a year.

Some of the other chiefs had dismissed this, arguing that others had said exactly the same things about his late father, who had gotten himself killed after a series of crushing defeats in his campaign against the romans. Yet even more chiefs had eagerly goaded him on in the hopes of taking on the hated enemy, and then, as the ultimate triumph one of their own would parade around in the very heart of the roman empire. The thought that they themselves would be standing right beside him sharing the riches and glory might also have helped them reach their decision to pledge their support. That was the beginning of the short, yet brutal campaign that was sure to be remembered for years to come.

Within a year he would be walking in Rome surrounded by triumph and celebrations, those were the words of the soothsayer. The chieftain cursed that scraggly-haired, senile old fool of a soothsayer as the Caesar in the chariot in front of him yanked the chain to his shackles, causing the crowd to cheer at Caesar and holler at the prisoner who was paraded in front of them like an exotic animal. The chieftain muttered and growled at his own stupidity. That soothsayer coot never said who's triumph the people would be celebrating!

[Noah's Quest]

So I just played through all the games and I've voted.

Noah's Quest
Now, I don't want to come off as rude, but the graphics made my eyes hurt, everything was far too saturated and every sprite was in a different art-style and resolution.
But otherwise it's not a bad game, the puzzles for collecting the animals were quite good and the music was very beautiful.

The Last Supper, A Whodunnit
Well, I already knew who did it when I started the game, but it was a fun idea in it's simplicity.

10 Ways From Sunday
It was a fun game, and the voice acting was great, but I did not like the cursor, it had a rather unintuitive shape that made it
needlessly difficult to know where you were clicking, I would have preferred to play with a regular, arrow-shaped cursor.
But otherwise, it 's a charming game and I chose to vote for it.

It helped, thanks!

I'm stuck

Spoiler

How do you break the second commandment? I've tried using the paper and marker together, but nothing happens.

[close]

It sounds like a fun theme, I'm already toying with an idea of making an entry:

Basically, a mercenary/grave robber type character travels to a war-torn country in order to use the chaos to steal and plunder it's riches,
but accidentally activates an artifact that has the power to manipulate past events, and ends up altering key moments in the history of the region.
(I'm thinking of something similar to the memory remix puzzles in Remember Me.)
I've thought about using this idea to explore why some countries are laden with political and religious instability and corruption,
and how factors like colonialism and tension between different ethnic and religious groups as well as a wide class divide contributes.
However, while I want to tackle serious themes, I intend to use a fictional world with cyberpunk/steampunk theme for the setting.

However, me and Creamy are still polishing our last MAGS entry, but it would be fun to work on a new project again in case anyone finds my idea interesting.

Oh it's all so adorable!!!

Now that's totally chadical! It's good to see you moving away a little bit from your usual style to such success.

Well, I did have some inspiration...

Spoiler

[close]

Also, the other entries look pretty cool too so far!