#aow

like my head is completely blocked up and my throat is fucking KILLING me

With the new Rise from Ruins expansion for AoW4, I suddenly have three very different, yet permanently improving, factions across three different games.

And, right now and with Stellaris Invicta being in mind, along with wanting to get back into the habit of tossing things into this tumblr, I want to write about these three factions that have some weird 'togetherness' going on.

Stellaris - Consumate Consumer Consumerate

"We don't trade in healthcare, we trade in potential."

A mono-sector evolutionary predator megacorp that is 'megacorp genocidal' in that they want to be the only megacorp, but otherwise are amicable with everyone else in the galaxy. The are the forefront of genetics and medical technologies, in several rare instances (a rare few games that I am merging together for the purposes of their 'lore') they even have minor cybernetics and psionics going on.

They are an unusual empire, bodies of more energy than flesh, clothes made of lithoids, buildings cultivated from plantoids, technology and weapons of living metal, ships bred from organics. They are 'unusual' aesthetically to put it lightly.

They are friendly when outside of their borders, but inside of their borders, unless you are an ambassador or tourist, you are food for the Grand Evolution. A cognitive disconnect from sapience within and without.

Endless Space 2 - Umbral Union

"Join us together for eternity."

Horatio mechanics on Umbral Choir skins.

A hivemind that forms cloud-like beings. They lack sapience, true sapience. Sort of Frieren Demony in that they sort of learned technology and speech without truly understanding it. This cloud of micro-organisms originated on a world where numerous sapients arose in parallel. The Union, then, was like an aerated slime mold, capable of adapting to the environment and living as a cloud. Eventually, they learned how to break down organic matter to use the adaptations presented within that organic matter. The sapients stood no chance during the days of the 'Black Plague', where they were broken down into something that became more efficient at surviving, finding the others, and breaking them down.

Each game starts with them at the last sapient race on their homeworld, the combined intellect of the other five species granting the Union space travel.

They market it as a sort of 'religious ceremony' eternalizing the genome of the victim species in a similar vein to the digital endless and how they were eternalized.

Age of Wonders 4 - Hunger of the End

"The Godir and Mortals alike must be removed, they are the chaos tearing asunder the universe.'

Scavenger Nomads that are Perfected Artisans and Prophesied Destroyers, they travel from realm to realm, consuming all that there is, the souls, the land, the magic, and leave behind deserts, an empty husk of a realm.

Their race is Ancients; Desert Adaptation, Empowered by Magic, and...the one that lets them heal faster on world map turns, forgot what it was called.

Pieters’ Daglicht over Denkdingen Er zijn van die weken waarin het land collectief besluit zich druk te maken. Over AOW-leeftijden bijvoorbeeld. Of we een jaartje later moeten stoppen met werken. Of twee. Of misschien gewoon helemaal niet meer stoppen, maar werkend ter aarde besteld worden, met een Excel-sheet in de hand en een pensioenoverzicht onder het hoofdkussen. En terwijl Den Haag…

Een samenleving met hartslag, niet met rekenmachine  Pieters’ Daglicht over Denkdingen Ik weet niet hoe het met u zit, maar sinds de nieuwe coalitie van D66, CDA en VVD het lumineuze idee lanceerde om de AOW-leeftijd nóg een tikje op te rekken, word ik digitaal belaagd. Mijn telefoon spuugt filmpjes uit van kromlopende mannetjes die eruitzien alsof ze rechtstreeks uit een natuurdocumentaire…