The Rest of the World

[Kurshok]

What is going on in the rest of the Dark Mod world at the moment? We know that the Horselords are preparing to sack the Empire, Menoa is trying to colonize the new world, what are the far eastern nations dealing with at the moment? Or the African equivalents, or native new worlders? Is there a magical australia equivalent?

[Petike the Taffer]

I would be partial to an FM in an North African style locale. We have some flora and architecture for it, as well as the Moorish NPCs. I think FM builders could find a good outlet there, if they haven't already.

[chakkman]

I can only repeat myself. I'd love to have some missions involving pagans. I know there's a lot of stuff missing in that regards, but, before we venture to even further parts of the world, i'd think it would make sense to explore what's there already.

Pagans were one of the most interesting factions in the original Thiefs for me, especially because of the mystery and cult surrounding them. 

Edited October 22, 2019 by chakkman

[Destined]

I agree. I had a mission (or rather a short campaign) plannes, in which the main character would be a pagan that was forced to live in the city. Unfortunately, I lost all progress due to a hard disc crash and insufficient back ups, so I am currently not really motivated to start that again. But maybe some time in the future I will actually take the idea up again.

[Kurshok]

Is there an equivalent to India in the Dark Mod world? Is this world like Warhammer Fantasy was, a low-fantasy take on our own world's history, albeit this one doesn't have Elves or Dwarves or Orcs or Halflings?

[Petike the Taffer]

On 10/22/2019 at 6:10 PM, chakkman said:

I can only repeat myself. I'd love to have some missions involving pagans. I know there's a lot of stuff missing in that regards, but, before we venture to even further parts of the world, i'd think it would make sense to explore what's there already.

Pagans were one of the most interesting factions in the original Thiefs for me, especially because of the mystery and cult surrounding them. 

I still have plans to record a vocal set that would serve as the voice for a male Pagan tribe member, whose still living out in the wilderness in some camp or hamlet, and wandered into a local town or city. The sort that keeps to himself, but does trade with the more civilised folk whenever he needs some specialist goods (isolated tribes tend to be pragmatic about new tech and goods, even when they prefer a more traditional lifestyle). Another vocal set idea I had was for a foreign or semi-foreign trader, from another "European" state outside of the Empire, or some further region of the Empire, where people have different accents than in Bridgeport et al.

I don't have an anglophone accent when I speak in English, so my accent could pass for either a person from a more distant region of the Empire (some citizen/trader) or for a stereotypical "barbarian" tribe member that thematically falls under the Pagans (as a faction). Unlike Thief's Pagans, our versions are meant to represent pre-Romanised or pre-Christianised Germanic, Celtic, Baltic, Slavic and other tribes and nationalities, so having one or two "foreign-accented" vocal sets for the Pagan males (at least) would be useful. For my vocal set, I certainly won't be saying everything in diminutives like Thief's Pagan faction members used to do. That would just be super-silly, given the different, more historically plausible tone we're going for with TDM's version.

On 10/22/2019 at 10:26 PM, Kurshok said:

Is there an equivalent to India in the Dark Mod world? Is this world like Warhammer Fantasy was, a low-fantasy take on our own world's history, albeit this one doesn't have Elves or Dwarves or Orcs or Halflings?

Well, that's the general idea. It's like a low-fantasy alternate Earth, with some history paralleling some of our developments, and some of it quite divergent. It's a fantastical alternate Earth, since we not only have an earlier industrial revolution, but also some functional magic, monsters, etc. To slightly paraphrase Reg Pikedevant, "Historical fantasy is a good explanation / Blend antique reality with imagination.". The article on the historical fantasy subgenre I link to even notes that common settings for the subgenre include "fantasy steampunk", "medieval fantasy" and "gunpowder fantasy". We might not openly show any gunpowder in TDM, but a gunpowder fantasy setting usually implies an equivalent of the early modern era, and we have a lot of stylistically Renaissance and Barocque stuff in the game, in addition to late-medieval and Gothic things.

Edited November 2, 2019 by Petike the Taffer