These radioplays are getting so so good. The story is so compelling and so rich in information about the world. Like some others have mentioned, the sound effects in this radioplay are amazing. Insects, flesh tearing, groaning Wights. Also, I really appreciate how intelligent Alaric is. He did experiments when he first became a vampire, and he thinks things through. Then, tries to reason about the intentions of the liche and what he should do next. He really does seem deserving of the title grand inquisitor. Or was deserving I suppose.
Apologies to the Apocalypse team about my last post. Someone mentioned that it could come off as demanding or stressful. That wasn’t the intention.
So my understanding is that after the defeat of the Burning One a little over 200 years ago, Thacea broke off from Ustilia. Deadhaus occupies what was once Ustilia. The temples there had golden flames, called the Allfire. The fires were part of El’sabyoth’s (if I got the spelling wrong let me know, going off youtube captions) will. The dead were used as kindling for the fires. But after the fall of Ustilia, the fires were said to be corrupted by necromancy. Since it’s an otherworldly fire, I’m curious what it does now. Does it empower deadhaus?
The fires were used originally to destroy corpses and pass judgment on the dead, but maybe it could be used to destroy the awakened. Also, the image used on the youtube video for the radioplay had some wings on the Allfire when it was being described. Is El’sabyoth the/a deity of angelhaus? I’ll talk about that more later.
We now know some pretty important things about vampires and their relationship with the sun. Firstly, we already know vampires are significantly weaker and unable to change form in sunlight. So in game we will almost definitely be doing quests at night time, unless there’s some kind of mission modifier that has us struggling in sunlight. Then, we find out how the blood freaks out at dawn. It forces Alaric to dig into the ground and bury himself. The liche tells him that the sun cannot destroy him on its own. No burning and no sparkling as far as I can tell. So a fledgling vampire will probably react this way instinctually, and older vampires may be able to fight the fear.
The liche says that the spell put on Alaric had protected him for “things he cannot guess”. So it’s possible that there were more things out to get him than he was aware of. I haven’t a clue either so maybe he’ll reveal more in the future. He also says that he knows how to destroy the awakened. I’m willing to bet some crimson cultist is talking to some poor soul right now saying “come with me, I know how to destroy the undead”.
At some point, the liche calls Alaric “young”. The liche must be much older than him. I would call someone young if they were half my age or younger. So the liche must be 120 years old at the very least, since Alaric is 60. Unless in “Of Nightmares” the liche wasn’t looking back in time, but revisiting a memory. Then he would be atleast 220 years old.
Probably not important, but Bellar or some of the villagers still worshipped El’sabyoth despite it being outlawed. It was probably some of the very few worshippers. Explains why they disliked Thacean Empire.
Unless Alaric is just too green at being a vampire, he can’t discern the smell of normal blood vs awakened blood. Unless the horse did not become awakened until after the dream.
So what causes someone to become infected? Is it through a dream? Or consuming something? The horses can’t decide to become worshippers.
This also opens up opportunities for us to see infected animals, so we might fight a crimson bear. Giant crimson spiders. It would create great opportunities for a mission to go sideways. Halfway through and you get surprise attacked by horses that unwrap themselves.
So after a chunk of his shoulder gets ripped out, his body closes it up good as new. But then he starts feeling weak and stiff. Then he gets hit with a wave of hunger. It could be a coincidence, or healing takes a lot out of the blood. When he gets his hands on the deer and bites it, he notes that the blood seems to flow into his mouth by a force other than suction or gravity. I believe this is the first mention of the exsanguinate ability in the chronicles.
There’s a few celestial bodies mentioned. The one that stood out the most to me is Visania. It’s a crimson star that is an “omen of terrible dreams”. This may represent the awakened faction (dreamhaus?). Alaric says El’sabyoth’s throne is on the sun. So these other bodies may represent the thrones of other deities or hauses.
Now I’m not certain of this, but the map I have on world anvil shows Zaestra within deadhaus territory. Alaric says he needs to go through Zaestra to reach the gate. A couple of things could be happening here. The map could be incorrect because it’s a few years old, and probably needs an update. The map was overlooked when writing the script. Or everything is correct, and the gate is rebuilt after the undead retake the fort, and the map represents the events of the game which take place after Alaric’s chronicles. Honestly, it’s no big deal.
Something I keep forgetting to mention. Alaric keeps blacking out and moving away from distress at incredible speeds. I think this is also the first mention of shapeshifting in the chronicles. I think Alaric is inadvertently transforming into something that gets him out of harm’s way. Just a theory.
Okay last few parts are most exciting for me. So Alaric comes up to the fort, and says “hey it's me” and the wights let him in. Then he walks in and finds the guard’s corpses in the courtyard. Some are awakened, some seem normal. They’re mangled and arranged in a spiral form. Suddenly an entity of wings and eyes appears above him, shining light onto him.The blood panics. The entity forces him to kneel. I have some thoughts about this. So earlier I mentioned that El’sabyoth may be the deity of angelhaus (if any of this is clearly mentioned before, please tell me lol). I think this supports it because the creature was like a seraphim from the Abrahimic beliefs, an angel. This angel was shining light down on Alaric, which caused his blood to freak out like it was reacting to sunlight. So when the angel forced him to kneel, what obeyed? The blood of the damned, or the Follower of El’sabyoth?
I’m also curious about how powerful the angels are. Is this one of the higher tier angels, or one of the weaker ones? Just a weak one can take over a fort and take down a fledgling vampire with no trouble. If players have to fight angels in game, I have no idea how vampires will cope.
So Alaric blacks out again and is conscious a few hours later. He’s still kneeling, except the angel is gone and his wights are gone save for their cores. The cores were added to the spiral but the crucible’s power was gone from them.
George had mentioned that the spirals may be portals. No other creature was there besides Alaric and the angel. The cores hold considerable power. My theory is that the angel destroyed the wights, took the cores and added them to the spiral. The cores were used to summon something, or open to a portal to allow something through. And either Alaric was spared because he was obedient or because it was crucial for him to be there and to live.
When asked about the spiral, the liche says that spiral is something that shouldn’t be there. Meaning it's not possible, unexpected, or unwelcomed.
Not possible: the angels shouldn’t be able to enter this area or Malorum right now.
Unexpected: the angels aren’t expected to be engaging in any conflict at the moment.
Unwelcomed: the fight is between the undead and the awakened, and the angels are interfering.
Or if el’sabyoth is the angelhaus deity, and worship of him has been outlawed, then they have lost the war / game, and are cheating. Then again, the rules can be rewritten…
My prediction for the next episode is Alaric ventures past the deadhaus gates, and officially meets N’gaztak after meeting with the liche.
Apologies to the Apocalypse team about my last post. Someone mentioned that it could come off as demanding or stressful. That wasn’t the intention.
So my understanding is that after the defeat of the Burning One a little over 200 years ago, Thacea broke off from Ustilia. Deadhaus occupies what was once Ustilia. The temples there had golden flames, called the Allfire. The fires were part of El’sabyoth’s (if I got the spelling wrong let me know, going off youtube captions) will. The dead were used as kindling for the fires. But after the fall of Ustilia, the fires were said to be corrupted by necromancy. Since it’s an otherworldly fire, I’m curious what it does now. Does it empower deadhaus?
The fires were used originally to destroy corpses and pass judgment on the dead, but maybe it could be used to destroy the awakened. Also, the image used on the youtube video for the radioplay had some wings on the Allfire when it was being described. Is El’sabyoth the/a deity of angelhaus? I’ll talk about that more later.
We now know some pretty important things about vampires and their relationship with the sun. Firstly, we already know vampires are significantly weaker and unable to change form in sunlight. So in game we will almost definitely be doing quests at night time, unless there’s some kind of mission modifier that has us struggling in sunlight. Then, we find out how the blood freaks out at dawn. It forces Alaric to dig into the ground and bury himself. The liche tells him that the sun cannot destroy him on its own. No burning and no sparkling as far as I can tell. So a fledgling vampire will probably react this way instinctually, and older vampires may be able to fight the fear.
The liche says that the spell put on Alaric had protected him for “things he cannot guess”. So it’s possible that there were more things out to get him than he was aware of. I haven’t a clue either so maybe he’ll reveal more in the future. He also says that he knows how to destroy the awakened. I’m willing to bet some crimson cultist is talking to some poor soul right now saying “come with me, I know how to destroy the undead”.
At some point, the liche calls Alaric “young”. The liche must be much older than him. I would call someone young if they were half my age or younger. So the liche must be 120 years old at the very least, since Alaric is 60. Unless in “Of Nightmares” the liche wasn’t looking back in time, but revisiting a memory. Then he would be atleast 220 years old.
Probably not important, but Bellar or some of the villagers still worshipped El’sabyoth despite it being outlawed. It was probably some of the very few worshippers. Explains why they disliked Thacean Empire.
Unless Alaric is just too green at being a vampire, he can’t discern the smell of normal blood vs awakened blood. Unless the horse did not become awakened until after the dream.
So what causes someone to become infected? Is it through a dream? Or consuming something? The horses can’t decide to become worshippers.
This also opens up opportunities for us to see infected animals, so we might fight a crimson bear. Giant crimson spiders. It would create great opportunities for a mission to go sideways. Halfway through and you get surprise attacked by horses that unwrap themselves.
So after a chunk of his shoulder gets ripped out, his body closes it up good as new. But then he starts feeling weak and stiff. Then he gets hit with a wave of hunger. It could be a coincidence, or healing takes a lot out of the blood. When he gets his hands on the deer and bites it, he notes that the blood seems to flow into his mouth by a force other than suction or gravity. I believe this is the first mention of the exsanguinate ability in the chronicles.
There’s a few celestial bodies mentioned. The one that stood out the most to me is Visania. It’s a crimson star that is an “omen of terrible dreams”. This may represent the awakened faction (dreamhaus?). Alaric says El’sabyoth’s throne is on the sun. So these other bodies may represent the thrones of other deities or hauses.
Now I’m not certain of this, but the map I have on world anvil shows Zaestra within deadhaus territory. Alaric says he needs to go through Zaestra to reach the gate. A couple of things could be happening here. The map could be incorrect because it’s a few years old, and probably needs an update. The map was overlooked when writing the script. Or everything is correct, and the gate is rebuilt after the undead retake the fort, and the map represents the events of the game which take place after Alaric’s chronicles. Honestly, it’s no big deal.
Something I keep forgetting to mention. Alaric keeps blacking out and moving away from distress at incredible speeds. I think this is also the first mention of shapeshifting in the chronicles. I think Alaric is inadvertently transforming into something that gets him out of harm’s way. Just a theory.
Okay last few parts are most exciting for me. So Alaric comes up to the fort, and says “hey it's me” and the wights let him in. Then he walks in and finds the guard’s corpses in the courtyard. Some are awakened, some seem normal. They’re mangled and arranged in a spiral form. Suddenly an entity of wings and eyes appears above him, shining light onto him.The blood panics. The entity forces him to kneel. I have some thoughts about this. So earlier I mentioned that El’sabyoth may be the deity of angelhaus (if any of this is clearly mentioned before, please tell me lol). I think this supports it because the creature was like a seraphim from the Abrahimic beliefs, an angel. This angel was shining light down on Alaric, which caused his blood to freak out like it was reacting to sunlight. So when the angel forced him to kneel, what obeyed? The blood of the damned, or the Follower of El’sabyoth?
I’m also curious about how powerful the angels are. Is this one of the higher tier angels, or one of the weaker ones? Just a weak one can take over a fort and take down a fledgling vampire with no trouble. If players have to fight angels in game, I have no idea how vampires will cope.
So Alaric blacks out again and is conscious a few hours later. He’s still kneeling, except the angel is gone and his wights are gone save for their cores. The cores were added to the spiral but the crucible’s power was gone from them.
George had mentioned that the spirals may be portals. No other creature was there besides Alaric and the angel. The cores hold considerable power. My theory is that the angel destroyed the wights, took the cores and added them to the spiral. The cores were used to summon something, or open to a portal to allow something through. And either Alaric was spared because he was obedient or because it was crucial for him to be there and to live.
When asked about the spiral, the liche says that spiral is something that shouldn’t be there. Meaning it's not possible, unexpected, or unwelcomed.
Not possible: the angels shouldn’t be able to enter this area or Malorum right now.
Unexpected: the angels aren’t expected to be engaging in any conflict at the moment.
Unwelcomed: the fight is between the undead and the awakened, and the angels are interfering.
Or if el’sabyoth is the angelhaus deity, and worship of him has been outlawed, then they have lost the war / game, and are cheating. Then again, the rules can be rewritten…
My prediction for the next episode is Alaric ventures past the deadhaus gates, and officially meets N’gaztak after meeting with the liche.
