Order227 Posted October 17, 2012 Report Share Posted October 17, 2012 Hi all, I've a lore-related question: how are Takofanes's zombies created please? Is it: A.) raising a corpse from the dead or B.) like in modern films via an infectious zombie bite? The context is I'm curious in relation to the Blood Moon event. Thanks in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted October 17, 2012 Report Share Posted October 17, 2012 Re: How are Takofanes's zombies created please? By the game-mechanic design of this ability, Takofanes animates corpses of the dead, causing them to rise up out of their graves. That's even been depicted in some artwork for the PnP game. The Archlich can create other, more powerful types of undead too, such as ghosts, vampires, even liches (inferior to himself, of course). The more powerful ones take a little longer to animate, though. He can raise hundreds of them at a time, given enough corpses to work with. It's conceivable that some of his zombies, once created, could have an infectious bite. That hasn't been either confirmed or denied anywhere in the PnP books, although the infection is a more modern concept, not part of "traditional" zombie lore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Order227 Posted October 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 17, 2012 Re: How are Takofanes's zombies created please? Thanks for the fast and helpful reply. The way it's shown is a little ambiguous. As a PnP player myself, I just wanted to know how it was in the source material, and now I see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted October 18, 2012 Report Share Posted October 18, 2012 Re: How are Takofanes's zombies created please? One of the Undying King's most effective but disturbing tactics is to slaughter whole crowds of innocent people, then promptly reanimate them as monsters in his thrall. Instant army. He's notorious for turning his strongest opponents into his unliving slaves, which is extremely unnerving for heroes who must suddenly fight horrorfied versions of their recently-deceased allies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywind Posted October 18, 2012 Report Share Posted October 18, 2012 Re: How are Takofanes's zombies created please? "Sounds like another Blood Moon." "Yeah. You'd think he'd get tired of trying that." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmadanNaBriona Posted October 18, 2012 Report Share Posted October 18, 2012 Re: How are Takofanes's zombies created please? on the traditional lore front, proper Norse Draugr are zombies turned up to 11. The White Walkers from Game of Thrones are a pretty good depiction of Draugr, actually. Infectious as all heck according to some stories, as in "Burn the bodies, kill the vermin escaping the fire and toss them back in, then kill anyone who inhaled the smoke and throw them in" to clear them out. Nasty boogers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted October 18, 2012 Report Share Posted October 18, 2012 Re: How are Takofanes's zombies created please? Did the Draugr infection propagate them? Or were they just virulent disease carriers? I wonder if Takofanes has studied undead folklore from the millennia of his slumber, to discover what new types of monsters had arisen. Broaden his palette, as it were. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmadanNaBriona Posted October 18, 2012 Report Share Posted October 18, 2012 Re: How are Takofanes's zombies created please? Makin' more Draugr, generally, much like zombies. Generally if they wounded you, you were doomed, if they goo-ed on you, you were doomed, if they hung around you too long, you were doomed... Depends on the story, really, but the worst one I can recall was considered almost like a natural disaster rather than a foe, kinda like the orignial folkloric basilisk D&D wights are one of their direct gaming descendants, but dialed way down Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted October 18, 2012 Report Share Posted October 18, 2012 Re: How are Takofanes's zombies created please? "When a mommy zombie and a daddy zombie love each other very much, they get certain urges ..." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Order227 Posted October 19, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 19, 2012 Re: How are Takofanes's zombies created please? Hi guys, yeah, your points here are exactly why I asked the question in the 1st place. Takofanes, immortal and patient as he may be, should be trying something different now. I'm reading up on the Draugr now...I had thought the concept of the way zombies spread was just George Romero's interpretation that become a trope, so I really like how the concept has roots in traditional folklore. My favourite thing right now was the cited example on dealing with them: kill 'em, burn 'em, then kill and burn the guys what done that. So grimdark. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted October 20, 2012 Report Share Posted October 20, 2012 Re: How are Takofanes's zombies created please? Given the trend of this discussion, it's probably a good place and time to plug Steve Long's HERO 6E PDF book, Books Of The Undead, Vol. 2: Zombies, available from the Hero Games website online store: https://www.herogames.com/viewItem.htm?itemID=265531 . Character sheets for thirty-two zombie variants, for a mere $3.00 US. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmadanNaBriona Posted October 20, 2012 Report Share Posted October 20, 2012 Re: How are Takofanes's zombies created please? Hi guys' date=' yeah, your points here are exactly why I asked the question in the 1st place. Takofanes, immortal and patient as he may be, should be trying something different now. I'm reading up on the Draugr now...I had thought the concept of the way zombies spread was just George Romero's interpretation that become a trope, so I really like how the concept has roots in traditional folklore. My favourite thing right now was the cited example on dealing with them: kill 'em, burn 'em, then kill and burn the guys what done that. So grimdark.[/quote'] Yeah, traditional northern folktales largely tend towards the grimdark (I blame the LONG nights midwinter) and I like how the heroes (like Grettir) who face draugr are more or less considered crazy to do so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted October 20, 2012 Report Share Posted October 20, 2012 Re: How are Takofanes's zombies created please? "Well, I don't mind the blood, but I can't find my liver" is a punchline. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Epiphanis Posted October 22, 2012 Report Share Posted October 22, 2012 Re: How are Takofanes's zombies created please? The Blood Moon event as it plays out in the MMORPG doesn't conform to the tabletop mechanics of tabletop Takofanes, although this can be no-prized away by the special magical nature of the Blood Moon event itself. During the Blood Moon, a variety of zombie-like undead creatures from the Turakian Age spill out of maagical fissures in the ground. These do not appear to be the reanimated dead of contemporary times at all but that isn't 100% clear. Also appearing are the zombielike undead corpses of the relatively modern superheroes who died at the Battle of Detroit. But these are unlikely to be simple reanimations either as several of those heroes' remains (including those of the most powerful one, Vanguard) had been completely disintegrated or incinerated during the Battle. It is more likely that these undead superheroes are fully-reconstituted but undead bodies than simple reanimated corpses. This is an in-game reason why PCs must descend into the sepulchres and free the heroes' bound spirits, else Takofanes could repeatedly reconstitute these powerful minions no matter how often or thoroughly they are destroyed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted October 23, 2012 Report Share Posted October 23, 2012 Re: How are Takofanes's zombies created please? Champions Online takes a number of small-to-medium liberties, and a very few large ones, with the continuity of the PnP game universe, to adapt it to the purposes of an MMORPG. The PnP game does the same with what was established for the MMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted October 24, 2012 Report Share Posted October 24, 2012 Re: How are Takofanes's zombies created please? Also appearing are the zombielike undead corpses of the relatively modern superheroes who died at the Battle of Detroit. But these are unlikely to be simple reanimations either as several of those heroes' remains (including those of the most powerful one' date=' Vanguard) had been completely disintegrated or incinerated during the Battle.[/quote'] Does the Blood Moon event still use Vanguard's name for that zombie archer, or have they modified that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Order227 Posted October 25, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2012 Re: How are Takofanes's zombies created please? During the Blood Moon' date=' a variety of zombie-like undead creatures from the Turakian Age spill out of magical fissures in the ground. These do not appear to be the reanimated dead of contemporary times at all but that isn't 100% clear.[/quote'] I think you're right that it isn't 100% clear, that in fact the Champions Online developers deliberately left it open to interpretation. The zombies names are "Reanimated Turakian," (i.e. from the Turakian Age,) but they just happen to rise at the same spot as dying civilians. To PnP veterans like you, that could be seen as coincidence or somehow the death of a civilian magically triggered a portal. To those unfamiliar with the PnP continuity, they'll probably see them as infectious zombies because that's what they're more familiar with from film. IMHO, it's a clever compromise, letting each player choose based on his knowledge of Champions lore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Order227 Posted October 25, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2012 Re: How are Takofanes's zombies created please? Does the Blood Moon event still use Vanguard's name for that zombie archer' date=' or have they modified that?[/quote'] I believe they still have Vanguard using the bow and yes, I hear what you guys are saying. Yeah, it's a little weird even for someone like me, who never played the Champions PnP and know a little about it based on its excellent reputation (my understanding back then was that it had the most freeform character creation process at the time, unlike most PnP, which restricted players to classes/races.) I remember Vanguard was the best shining example of heroes from the previous generation. It would have been cool if Vanguard was the big boss fight of the Thrash of the Lich King, like his Chosen One, instead of the comparatively generic Turakian Deathlord, but I believe the devs had their reasons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted October 25, 2012 Report Share Posted October 25, 2012 Re: How are Takofanes's zombies created please? IIRC from past remarks on the CO forums, the animators for the Blood Moon received a list of names for the reanimated heroes, but few details about who was what, so they filled in their own blanks. A boss fight with zombie Vanguard would have been epic, though. Who wouldn't crow about beating an undead Superman? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pattern Ghost Posted October 30, 2012 Report Share Posted October 30, 2012 Re: How are Takofanes's zombies created please? IIRC from past remarks on the CO forums' date=' the animators for the Blood Moon received a list of names for the reanimated heroes, but few details about who was what, so they filled in their own blanks.[/quote'] Kind of a waste of an IP, IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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