We just got a huge lore drop for Deadhaus’ political system. We get to know a little bit more about Deadhaus itself and Ghouls. Spoilers ahead! This ended up a lot longer than expected. I'll mark things that have my own thoughts with colored text (excluding final thoughts). Let me know if it helps. To limit forum posts, if I have any big paragraph ideas I'll just add them as a comment here or in the discord.
Deadhaus is made up of factions (which all have awesome names):
I’m not at all surprised that liches serve as the commanders and means of producing more bodies to fight. I am surprised that their military forces are “spread thin” when there’s bodies everywhere, especially with the slaughter in Thacea. Is there any benefit to choosing one faction, or are we all a part of the horde?
Alaric was supposed to be assassinated by the Enclave when it was suspected that he could see through Amarax’s eyes as well. Amarax has been concealing Alaric for the past two years, and has also concealed that Alaric did in fact see through his eyes.
One thing really stood out to me here, other than finding out the reason for Alaric getting jumped by the wraith in Of Wraiths. When talking about the vision he had through Amarax’s eyes he says “...though this was in a dream, where mortals know truths unremembered in the waking world”.
To me, this sounds like if a house was able to have control of dreams and dreams empowered them maybe Truth would be more accessible…
And I guess wraiths ARE going to be assassins? Or assassins in lore, but have a different role in gameplay? Either way, I know they will be taking out major targets.
This gives us another 100% confirmed vampire form: disguise. There’s no way vampires in the Court could achieve their objectives without disguises. In Blood Omen, Kain can use his human form to hide his monstrous visage. Vampires in DHS can 100% do the same. To me, them causing Thacea to secede from Ustilia is big. The Fetid Prince was ready and knew how to tear apart Empyrean presence on Malorum. Alaric wonders if anything would have changed if Thacea continued El’Sabayoth worship, and I’m betting the Court had something to do with them outlawing him. With lack of worshippers, they had less defenses against other houses.
A faction dedicated to solely creating would easily be taken advantage of, but since they also keep history it's probably much more respected. As much as lore keeping and history sounds like a liche thing, I kind of doubt that they would do the labor. If there were liches within the faction, they may use servitors or lesser undead to do the work.
Quick intermission in the faction talk, this is where Alaric mentions that Deadhaus keeps history in stone, specifically aevitaneum. This is the material that Way Stones are made from. Amarex tells Alaric that Deadhaus doesn’t know where the Way Stones come from. That means that despite being established for the last two hundred years and having a connection to their god through banshees, they haven’t figured it out. This doesn’t mean the other houses don’t know.
It’s established that the Way Stones may bring you to “other celestial spheres”, and some can take you further. The ones that take you past the ninth sphere take you to where the aevitaneum can be harvested. That sounds like you have to leave the system to get the material. Do the undead have to deal with any creatures over there? Or even a civilization? Wow…
Can Way Stones be used to travel to places within Malorum? That would explain how large groups of undead can be moved without opening the gates.
Okay back to Corpus Artificum. They shape the aevitaneum into obelisks and engrave them with history, these are called Lore Stones. From the sounds of it, anybody can create one. However, you need magic to activate one and see the history. We see this when Amarax opens the Lore Stone in Of Nightmares. What I don’t get is why he used the man’s magick instead/as well as his own? Does it take that much energy to activate a lore stone? If so, it sounds like liches will have the least amount of trouble using one.
If N’Gaztak is a king, is this some kind of theocratic monarchy? A religious government where a king or queen is the leader. It works out when you have connections to your god through banshees. Though, i’m not sure who holds more power here. I feel like the Coven is pretty powerful if they can single-handedly affect undead social status. Since the faction is only comprised of 12 banshees, that means its unlikely for players to be able to be a part of them, and can only support them. Unless they can act as lesser members, or take a position as one of the 12. Is Keeva one of the 12? Is she one of the Pentarchs?
If players reach this point, does this give us more power in game? Is this reserved for certain players? If we start as sentients, then in an age I would expect to become sovereign.
I’m thinking players will start here, as they won’t be able to do anything as servitors.
How does ownership work with undead? I know that liches can raise zombies, but what about the other classes? Can I buy zombies from a liche? And what undead can be servitors? Will we see enslaved vampires? It feels like it would be possible since violating the rituals as a sentient can strip you of your will. It's also supposedly possible to move up from servitor to sentient through great effort. How do you force yourself to become self-aware? Or does someone guide you along?
I also wonder what happens if a player violates the rituals? Can they be reduced to mindless undead? Imagine owning another player.
Amarax remarks that he doesn’t remember who he was in life, and says man and woman are living concepts. But banshees are always female and revenants are always male. Why are revenants always male? Isn’t the main requirement to be wronged and to be really angry?
Regardless of lore, I don't really like when games force you to be a certain sex or race when choosing a class. It takes away from you building your ideal character. Then again, more options means more for a smaller studio to figure out. Can't have it all.
Amarax states that liches don't remember as mortals do, since they have no brain. Instead they use magick to bind memories to his consciousness.
This could possibly be part of gameplay, where you can only remember so many spells at once. I wonder if a liche were to be drained of magick that it would cause them to lose consciousness or memory.
This is where the Pentarchy is mentioned. It's a group of five undead who represent each faction. They decide the path of Deadhaus. This is intriguing because we already have banshees who give laws and instructions, then we have N’gaztak who is the undisputed leader, and now the Pentarchy. Theocratic meritocratic monarchy???
Amarax was offered both a position in the Pentarchy and as the head of a faction and declined both. Meaning it's possible to be a Pentarch without being in a faction if you are important enough.
I also wonder if a player can become a Pentarch and how they may influence the game. “Pentarch Mortis, Eye of the Darklight Enclave” would be a cool title. It would also be super cool if players in the Pentarchy have a greater influence on missions and how Deadhaus as a game goes. The power may go to my head though.
Alaric is going to be sent to get a crystal called a Soul Prism. It's part of a Pillar of Malorum, which is underground. He's going to get a ghoul's help, but he will need to extract it himself as it needs to be a stealth mission.
My theory is that there are extremely dangerous creatures underground, which we will no doubt see. Since we know that undead not within Deadhaus can and will attack. It's possible the hostiles are some bad undead that Alaric is ill-equipped to deal with. I mean he hasn't really fought anything yet. Since Amarax's main (known) goal is to defeat the Awakened, the soul prism is going to be a way to directly hurt them or a way to empower undead.
Alaric then runs into a ghoul called Bo-Ghoul, who has a kind of bone armor growing from his body. I did a post on guessing how we may see ghoul customization and armor. This is something I had in mind. In game this will be our choice, but is this an uncontrollable mutation in lore? Maybe we get to find out later.
Bo-Ghoul refuses to help Alaric even when he mentions Amarax or that he's there to help Deadhaus. It looks like this ghoul mound isn't in support of Deadhaus. Or, only ghouls are allowed, regardless of allegiance.
The ghoul then captures Alaric and drags him through the mound.
There we see a bunch of ghoul behaviors. And as some have noticed, they almost acted like a colony of bees or ants. Some ghouls are vomiting a waxy material on walls and floors. Some ghouls are carrying corpses, limbs, ore and other materials. They then store these body parts in cavities. For what? Storage? The other things are likely to be used to grow the mound.
When Alaric meets up with Faulk-Ghoul, Bo-Ghoul speaks to him in clicks. Faulk asks him to do Slowspeak for Alaric, so the opposite must be Ghoulspeak. They have an actual language. But does that come from the ghouls or from the spirits that inhabit them? Meaning does the spirit give them knowledge of this language, or was it developed by ghouls over time?
The ghouls then put Alaric in a cage made of Deadman's Iron. Super ironic considering this is the situation Faulk-Ghoul was in some time ago. Despite the ghouls knowing Amarax would give them an award for helping Alaric, they are considering eating him, since they haven't tried vampire before. Faulk says “the ghouls must sing” so I'm guessing they have to come to some kind of democratic decision. Either help Amarax or finally get a taste of vamp.
This episode had a lot of important information and finding out about factions is exciting for me. The new art direction is really cool. It reminds me of another game I love. Speaking of art, the AI seems like it's doing better. Less mistakes. Still some obvious ones like the figure standing in the middle of the mound.
Seeing the factions, I already know I like the Darklight Enclave a lot. I hope I get to lead a small army as a liche in the Shambling Hordes. I have no idea how the faction system or the missions will work so I can't say which I will support more.
I really like how much character the ghouls have. They can be really unintentionally funny. Alaric asked if he could walk and Bo just says “vampire can slide”. And Bo’s voice actor, Damon Alums, is AMAZING. I genuinely believe he is the best choice for Bo-Ghoul. It's so so cool hearing the ghouls talk to one another. Also if ghouls are behaving like they're in a colony, maybe there's a queen. And that would be nuts. What does a ghoul queen look like??
Dennis made the soul prism sound extremely important. If it's such a big deal, why have Alaric, who is a fledgling vampire, go after it himself? I'm thinking that Amarax is doing something that is frowned upon, or he's testing him. If this ties into gameplay at all, it'll be neat knowing Alaric also had to do the same fetch quest. If Alaric tries to fit into Deadhaus, I don't know if he would fit into any faction. So im curious if he'll go there or hide out with Amarax. Totally forgot to mention, Faulk-Ghoul says "so you finally know your name" in response to Alaric embracing Alaric the Damned. Is this an example of a true name? Was he somehow already aware of who he would become? Really odd... Alaric was right, one does not simply underestimate a ghoul.
My prediction for the next episode is that a ghoul is going to try to take a bite out of Alaric and find out the hard way why it's against the rules to eat vampire. That, or he'll transform as part of his blood's reaction to getting attacked and defend himself. I don't think Amarax will intervene unless it really gets out of hand. The ghouls and Alaric might start their trip after the scuffle. I mean Alaric is being honest with him and Amarax will be angry if he dies.
Factions
Deadhaus is made up of factions (which all have awesome names):
- The Shambling Hordes
I’m not at all surprised that liches serve as the commanders and means of producing more bodies to fight. I am surprised that their military forces are “spread thin” when there’s bodies everywhere, especially with the slaughter in Thacea. Is there any benefit to choosing one faction, or are we all a part of the horde?
- The Darklight Enclave
Alaric was supposed to be assassinated by the Enclave when it was suspected that he could see through Amarax’s eyes as well. Amarax has been concealing Alaric for the past two years, and has also concealed that Alaric did in fact see through his eyes.
One thing really stood out to me here, other than finding out the reason for Alaric getting jumped by the wraith in Of Wraiths. When talking about the vision he had through Amarax’s eyes he says “...though this was in a dream, where mortals know truths unremembered in the waking world”.
To me, this sounds like if a house was able to have control of dreams and dreams empowered them maybe Truth would be more accessible…
And I guess wraiths ARE going to be assassins? Or assassins in lore, but have a different role in gameplay? Either way, I know they will be taking out major targets.
- The Faceless Court
This gives us another 100% confirmed vampire form: disguise. There’s no way vampires in the Court could achieve their objectives without disguises. In Blood Omen, Kain can use his human form to hide his monstrous visage. Vampires in DHS can 100% do the same. To me, them causing Thacea to secede from Ustilia is big. The Fetid Prince was ready and knew how to tear apart Empyrean presence on Malorum. Alaric wonders if anything would have changed if Thacea continued El’Sabayoth worship, and I’m betting the Court had something to do with them outlawing him. With lack of worshippers, they had less defenses against other houses.
- Corpus Artificum
A faction dedicated to solely creating would easily be taken advantage of, but since they also keep history it's probably much more respected. As much as lore keeping and history sounds like a liche thing, I kind of doubt that they would do the labor. If there were liches within the faction, they may use servitors or lesser undead to do the work.
Quick intermission in the faction talk, this is where Alaric mentions that Deadhaus keeps history in stone, specifically aevitaneum. This is the material that Way Stones are made from. Amarex tells Alaric that Deadhaus doesn’t know where the Way Stones come from. That means that despite being established for the last two hundred years and having a connection to their god through banshees, they haven’t figured it out. This doesn’t mean the other houses don’t know.
It’s established that the Way Stones may bring you to “other celestial spheres”, and some can take you further. The ones that take you past the ninth sphere take you to where the aevitaneum can be harvested. That sounds like you have to leave the system to get the material. Do the undead have to deal with any creatures over there? Or even a civilization? Wow…
Can Way Stones be used to travel to places within Malorum? That would explain how large groups of undead can be moved without opening the gates.
Okay back to Corpus Artificum. They shape the aevitaneum into obelisks and engrave them with history, these are called Lore Stones. From the sounds of it, anybody can create one. However, you need magic to activate one and see the history. We see this when Amarax opens the Lore Stone in Of Nightmares. What I don’t get is why he used the man’s magick instead/as well as his own? Does it take that much energy to activate a lore stone? If so, it sounds like liches will have the least amount of trouble using one.
- Death’s Head Coven
If N’Gaztak is a king, is this some kind of theocratic monarchy? A religious government where a king or queen is the leader. It works out when you have connections to your god through banshees. Though, i’m not sure who holds more power here. I feel like the Coven is pretty powerful if they can single-handedly affect undead social status. Since the faction is only comprised of 12 banshees, that means its unlikely for players to be able to be a part of them, and can only support them. Unless they can act as lesser members, or take a position as one of the 12. Is Keeva one of the 12? Is she one of the Pentarchs?
The Caste System
- The Sovereign
If players reach this point, does this give us more power in game? Is this reserved for certain players? If we start as sentients, then in an age I would expect to become sovereign.
- The Sentient
I’m thinking players will start here, as they won’t be able to do anything as servitors.
- The Sevitors
How does ownership work with undead? I know that liches can raise zombies, but what about the other classes? Can I buy zombies from a liche? And what undead can be servitors? Will we see enslaved vampires? It feels like it would be possible since violating the rituals as a sentient can strip you of your will. It's also supposedly possible to move up from servitor to sentient through great effort. How do you force yourself to become self-aware? Or does someone guide you along?
I also wonder what happens if a player violates the rituals? Can they be reduced to mindless undead? Imagine owning another player.
Amarax remarks that he doesn’t remember who he was in life, and says man and woman are living concepts. But banshees are always female and revenants are always male. Why are revenants always male? Isn’t the main requirement to be wronged and to be really angry?
Regardless of lore, I don't really like when games force you to be a certain sex or race when choosing a class. It takes away from you building your ideal character. Then again, more options means more for a smaller studio to figure out. Can't have it all.
Amarax states that liches don't remember as mortals do, since they have no brain. Instead they use magick to bind memories to his consciousness.
This could possibly be part of gameplay, where you can only remember so many spells at once. I wonder if a liche were to be drained of magick that it would cause them to lose consciousness or memory.
This is where the Pentarchy is mentioned. It's a group of five undead who represent each faction. They decide the path of Deadhaus. This is intriguing because we already have banshees who give laws and instructions, then we have N’gaztak who is the undisputed leader, and now the Pentarchy. Theocratic meritocratic monarchy???
Amarax was offered both a position in the Pentarchy and as the head of a faction and declined both. Meaning it's possible to be a Pentarch without being in a faction if you are important enough.
I also wonder if a player can become a Pentarch and how they may influence the game. “Pentarch Mortis, Eye of the Darklight Enclave” would be a cool title. It would also be super cool if players in the Pentarchy have a greater influence on missions and how Deadhaus as a game goes. The power may go to my head though.
Alaric's Task
Alaric is going to be sent to get a crystal called a Soul Prism. It's part of a Pillar of Malorum, which is underground. He's going to get a ghoul's help, but he will need to extract it himself as it needs to be a stealth mission.
My theory is that there are extremely dangerous creatures underground, which we will no doubt see. Since we know that undead not within Deadhaus can and will attack. It's possible the hostiles are some bad undead that Alaric is ill-equipped to deal with. I mean he hasn't really fought anything yet. Since Amarax's main (known) goal is to defeat the Awakened, the soul prism is going to be a way to directly hurt them or a way to empower undead.
Alaric then runs into a ghoul called Bo-Ghoul, who has a kind of bone armor growing from his body. I did a post on guessing how we may see ghoul customization and armor. This is something I had in mind. In game this will be our choice, but is this an uncontrollable mutation in lore? Maybe we get to find out later.
Bo-Ghoul refuses to help Alaric even when he mentions Amarax or that he's there to help Deadhaus. It looks like this ghoul mound isn't in support of Deadhaus. Or, only ghouls are allowed, regardless of allegiance.
The ghoul then captures Alaric and drags him through the mound.
There we see a bunch of ghoul behaviors. And as some have noticed, they almost acted like a colony of bees or ants. Some ghouls are vomiting a waxy material on walls and floors. Some ghouls are carrying corpses, limbs, ore and other materials. They then store these body parts in cavities. For what? Storage? The other things are likely to be used to grow the mound.
When Alaric meets up with Faulk-Ghoul, Bo-Ghoul speaks to him in clicks. Faulk asks him to do Slowspeak for Alaric, so the opposite must be Ghoulspeak. They have an actual language. But does that come from the ghouls or from the spirits that inhabit them? Meaning does the spirit give them knowledge of this language, or was it developed by ghouls over time?
The ghouls then put Alaric in a cage made of Deadman's Iron. Super ironic considering this is the situation Faulk-Ghoul was in some time ago. Despite the ghouls knowing Amarax would give them an award for helping Alaric, they are considering eating him, since they haven't tried vampire before. Faulk says “the ghouls must sing” so I'm guessing they have to come to some kind of democratic decision. Either help Amarax or finally get a taste of vamp.
Final Thoughts
This episode had a lot of important information and finding out about factions is exciting for me. The new art direction is really cool. It reminds me of another game I love. Speaking of art, the AI seems like it's doing better. Less mistakes. Still some obvious ones like the figure standing in the middle of the mound.
Seeing the factions, I already know I like the Darklight Enclave a lot. I hope I get to lead a small army as a liche in the Shambling Hordes. I have no idea how the faction system or the missions will work so I can't say which I will support more.
I really like how much character the ghouls have. They can be really unintentionally funny. Alaric asked if he could walk and Bo just says “vampire can slide”. And Bo’s voice actor, Damon Alums, is AMAZING. I genuinely believe he is the best choice for Bo-Ghoul. It's so so cool hearing the ghouls talk to one another. Also if ghouls are behaving like they're in a colony, maybe there's a queen. And that would be nuts. What does a ghoul queen look like??
Dennis made the soul prism sound extremely important. If it's such a big deal, why have Alaric, who is a fledgling vampire, go after it himself? I'm thinking that Amarax is doing something that is frowned upon, or he's testing him. If this ties into gameplay at all, it'll be neat knowing Alaric also had to do the same fetch quest. If Alaric tries to fit into Deadhaus, I don't know if he would fit into any faction. So im curious if he'll go there or hide out with Amarax. Totally forgot to mention, Faulk-Ghoul says "so you finally know your name" in response to Alaric embracing Alaric the Damned. Is this an example of a true name? Was he somehow already aware of who he would become? Really odd... Alaric was right, one does not simply underestimate a ghoul.
My prediction for the next episode is that a ghoul is going to try to take a bite out of Alaric and find out the hard way why it's against the rules to eat vampire. That, or he'll transform as part of his blood's reaction to getting attacked and defend himself. I don't think Amarax will intervene unless it really gets out of hand. The ghouls and Alaric might start their trip after the scuffle. I mean Alaric is being honest with him and Amarax will be angry if he dies.
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