- May 3, 2018
- 200
- 324
Oooh, boy.I wish to inform the community here that I'll be making some changes in the lore, specially in the name/denomination of some races/characters.
I think this might be the right decision. Part of the contention you have currently is that a lot of your lore is influenced by Greek figures, both fictional and historical. It's hard to intertwine multiple cultures into a singular narrative without having a "dividing line" a la national borders or whichever. In this case, your biggest problem is having a mostly Greek influence spread across multiple nations(?) which runs against the concept of primarily-Christian forces affecting the world.SC lore has evolved a lot since the start of the development and I wish to move away from the concept of demons and angels.
Traditionally, succubi fed off emotional energy and were careful to not cause a victim to expire too quickly. We'll get to that part after this.I wish, for example, succubi to be seen more as 'magical cosmic parasites' than "demons".
One of the things that I saw some of your critics point out was that the narrative at the beginning of the game makes no sense. What highly-advanced civilization would have been pushed to the brink of extinction against the succubi? One of the main contradictions comes near the end of chapter 3, wherein a dwarven construct basically one-shots a succubus. Disregarding how much damage it actually did, the fact that succubi magic has zero influence on constructs basically undermines the entirety of the threat. If a construct is just better-suited for combat against succubi, why even have people fight them? Wouldn't an engineering guild operating on a global scale be better qualified overall?
The next issue is the logistics of the succubi as a whole. Even in nature, parasites aren't keen on letting a host expire too quickly. Their own survival relies heavily on the longevity of their host. If a host perishes too quickly, the parasite is at risk of expiration, too. That's why, in terms of logistics and survivability, it makes zero sense for the succubi to be so ruthless and blood-thirsty. I could even see it as, the lower ranks are more aggressive, yes, but only so blood-thirsty because they're so low in the pecking order. The higher ranks are clearly where they are for a reason.
Also, the succubi population would inevitably hit a critical mass given how they operate. Re-forming in Hell means no succubi ever truly "perish" and thusly there is never a power vacuum for the non-cosmic beings to exploit. This also means that, since succubi don't truly die, the heat-death of the universe will occur that much quicker. See: Halo for what happens when a parasite has no food source. Inevitably, that parasite has to either risk expiration, or go into a state of non-functioning akin to hibernation in order to continue existing.
"Monster girl" and "vampire" would also be applicable here. Or "evil female executive" for our Pixiv-savvy populace."Demons" was a generic term I used in the beginning of the production since almost everyone would easily associated it with enemies due to the overwhelming number of games with them as primary antagonists.
See, Abrahamic lore has been way too diluted by "Christian" morality. "Demons" and "Devils" were by and large more focused on turning people away from God than collecting points and full-blown corruption. A lot of Abrahamic lore has to do more with a power struggle on a cosmic scale more than anything."Demons" don't represent the succubi in SC since they don't care about sins, corruption of mortals, or taking you to hell, which is what demons do. They just want to feed on your fluids.
I'm not a fan of "magical cosmic" anything. I think the issue is your disconnect from the larger narrative when it comes to your two opposing forces. We're presented the notion of science triumphs over "magic," yet largely told that "also, magic triumphs over magic." Power Rangers (the Zordon era, mainly) can get away with it because they still fall back on a meta-narrative of science vs magic, with science often winning. I don't need an in-depth lore read about how the morphing grid operates. I just need to understand how Rita makes monsters and how the technology the power rangers employ can be used to defeat said monsters.The same will apply to the angels, and they are more like "magical cosmic saviors/benefactors" so to speak
Even then, PR has a weird relationship with technology on both sides. A lot Rita's monsters were the combination of bio-engineering and what we can only assume was mid-tier "magic" which could easily be explained as "her staff emits a signal specific to each monster to cause a rapid expansion of their biological mass," among other things. Again, I think "magic vs science" is fine as long as you can resolve the inconsistencies that such a narrative presents.
I would rather a narrative more focused on explaining the issues of logistics, arriving at critical mass in terms of succubi population, how some of the "magic" we've seen would actually operate on a more logical scale, etc. I feel like the narrative has a lot of potential, but has also been hampered by a lack of focus.I don't know if I'll do that in this first game already, considering the amount of work, but you can expect that from the second game forward for sure.
See, those are all really neat names for races rather than trying to play the more "magical" aspect up. I would say keep the idea of "magic" going forward until we get to a more modern era, and have it transition more towards "actually, the angel-women and demon-women are just aliens engaging in a galaxies-wide power struggle." Again, I point towards Halo for lore as to how several thousand years of conflict is feasible for two highly advanced races.Here are some of the major changes for the terms:
Sayna (means parasite in the common tongue) - Succubi
Droth - general term for "Demon"
Ky'nar Edon (means Dimension That Burns)- Scorching Hell
Azurin (means From Cold Lands) - Angels
Azuranir (means Soaring Cold Land) - Heaven