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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Dunzenkell invented the crossbows according to the lore. Now what?
Thoghli Ramheart
Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
Below are the lore examples mentioning crossbows from the lightpact info on the wiki. I would personally rather not have any lore released just so the wiki team is not going back and cleaning up any changes that Intrepid may make.
Week 3
Entry 2 - An Evolution of Power
The Dünzenkell are known to be masters of engineering. Their best artisans meld magic and metal seamlessly, and the best of those are lionized above everyone, even kings and queens. It was one such artisan, Kaelmuir, who invented what would later be known as the crossbow. His design was based on the great ballistae often used in sieges, but cleverly miniaturized with a mixture of exacting fabrication and the gentle touch of essence. Kaelmuir's likeness can be found near the hearths of many a Dünzenkell.
Week 10
Entry 3 - The Feud
"Shh, there there Mary my dear. Just a few steps more love," the stubborn old ram refused the frustrated and equally old dwarf. Back and forth, from Crystal Canyon to Brighthold, Dilgus had expanded his humble stone empire with relative ease. This trip however, was different. With weary eyes set upon the setting sun, Dilgus swung an infirm leg to the ground and dismounted. With a curse and a cry, he picked up his boot to inspect the shards that pierced it. A red crystal of some kind? And more, on the path ahead of him. He scrambled to the top of the hill, and on the other side those red crystals stretched for as far as the eye could see. Some were as big as a dwarf! Bigger, even! He was awestruck - never had he seen such beauty in all his years, and he fancied himself an expert on the matter. Hesitantly, he touched one of the bigger stones, and a ripple pulsed through his skin in response. It felt wrong in all the wrong ways, and he backed away from them, as they seemed to beat with life. As he was weighing his purse against his well being, he heard a click, and then a voice, "Come for me trade again ya stout bastard?" Dilgus spun around, looking for voice's owner, and then found it, with a crossbow pointed at his head
week 11
Entry 2 - A Fond Farewell
"You stubborn old goat, why didn't you listen.." Dilgus cradled the corpse of Angus. For the first time in decades, the folds of the old dwarfs face were wet with grief. A frustrated scream of anger bubbled in his throat. Dilgus stood, unsheathed his hammer and swung at the red crystals that started this fight. As they shattered into a thousand reflective shards, he winced. He pressed his hand upon his side; Blood. Angus' crossbow bolt had ripped a hole in his side - it looked bad, and felt so much worse. "... Damn fool, damn crystals..." He laughed, in helplessness, as he felt his life ebbing away. He stumbled like a drunk sailor towards his place of rest at the side of Mary, while the wails of his loyal ram filled the canyons. The dwarf stared in wonder as the crystals he had shattered slowly regrew, and were then made whole. Disappointment and consternation were the last things Dilgus Derrybew felt before the twinkle in his eye went out
What do you think? Would you rather not have lore released on dev streams and charity events or have something that is "just a placeholder"? Let us see what the community thinks. To lore or not to lore leak?
Week 3
Entry 2 - An Evolution of Power
The Dünzenkell are known to be masters of engineering. Their best artisans meld magic and metal seamlessly, and the best of those are lionized above everyone, even kings and queens. It was one such artisan, Kaelmuir, who invented what would later be known as the crossbow. His design was based on the great ballistae often used in sieges, but cleverly miniaturized with a mixture of exacting fabrication and the gentle touch of essence. Kaelmuir's likeness can be found near the hearths of many a Dünzenkell.
Week 10
Entry 3 - The Feud
"Shh, there there Mary my dear. Just a few steps more love," the stubborn old ram refused the frustrated and equally old dwarf. Back and forth, from Crystal Canyon to Brighthold, Dilgus had expanded his humble stone empire with relative ease. This trip however, was different. With weary eyes set upon the setting sun, Dilgus swung an infirm leg to the ground and dismounted. With a curse and a cry, he picked up his boot to inspect the shards that pierced it. A red crystal of some kind? And more, on the path ahead of him. He scrambled to the top of the hill, and on the other side those red crystals stretched for as far as the eye could see. Some were as big as a dwarf! Bigger, even! He was awestruck - never had he seen such beauty in all his years, and he fancied himself an expert on the matter. Hesitantly, he touched one of the bigger stones, and a ripple pulsed through his skin in response. It felt wrong in all the wrong ways, and he backed away from them, as they seemed to beat with life. As he was weighing his purse against his well being, he heard a click, and then a voice, "Come for me trade again ya stout bastard?" Dilgus spun around, looking for voice's owner, and then found it, with a crossbow pointed at his head
week 11
Entry 2 - A Fond Farewell
"You stubborn old goat, why didn't you listen.." Dilgus cradled the corpse of Angus. For the first time in decades, the folds of the old dwarfs face were wet with grief. A frustrated scream of anger bubbled in his throat. Dilgus stood, unsheathed his hammer and swung at the red crystals that started this fight. As they shattered into a thousand reflective shards, he winced. He pressed his hand upon his side; Blood. Angus' crossbow bolt had ripped a hole in his side - it looked bad, and felt so much worse. "... Damn fool, damn crystals..." He laughed, in helplessness, as he felt his life ebbing away. He stumbled like a drunk sailor towards his place of rest at the side of Mary, while the wails of his loyal ram filled the canyons. The dwarf stared in wonder as the crystals he had shattered slowly regrew, and were then made whole. Disappointment and consternation were the last things Dilgus Derrybew felt before the twinkle in his eye went out
What do you think? Would you rather not have lore released on dev streams and charity events or have something that is "just a placeholder"? Let us see what the community thinks. To lore or not to lore leak?
2
Comments
I agree it can be! What an astute observation.
now you can use your crossbow skin on your bow and be happy (:
Right! So excited!!!
We will most likely get crossbows just not at launch
you know what they could even have a world quest that unlocks crossbows if completed in X way or a different weapon if it the quest went a different way (crafter world event).
i think that would be a cool way to add new weapons and things into the game.
Who knows, maybe crossbows could make a comeback in an expansion
To explain their absence in the game, why not make fiction follow reality? We've (purposefully) heard very little on religion and the churches-to-be; Maybe the in-game churches could also find them *too* deadly of a weapon, and ban them by decree?
The IRL decrees didn't stop a lot of medieval armies from using them - but then again, they also didn't live in a world where the gods were communicable beings whom endowed their followers with special abilities....
i think that would be a cool way to add new weapons and things into the game.[/quote]
This sounds like a great way to start guild wars, in fighting, and absolute anarchy as we fight over crossbows or potion launchers.
Thing is, they'd have to already program both into the game before the questline is done, or else it's "wait 6mo for it ok guys?" Which would be... Undesirable.
Crossbows themselves were banned, cos they were too easy to use!
That'd just be a cause for war for the Dwarves.
And them to ally with the Tulnar to tell the Gods they're shit.
An ally you say?
Well, I think you just gave them a lore based reason to say no to crossbows at launch.
Sanctus was a realm with zero essence. They may well not have been able to replicate what their ancestors had done during the generations of exile.
Tulnar would still have crossbows.
Not necessarily, the Tulnar are the mutated decendents of the refugees that fled to the underealm while fighting the Ancients for survival.
These were unlikely to be the best and the brightest (who would have likely been evacuated to Sanctus), and attempting to fight and survive in an environment wholly alien to what they had experience with, while also competing with all the other remaining races for what limited resources remained.
I fully expect the various people fleeing the Ancients were a ragtag and disorganized group of people, whose societies likely experienced a regression for a large portion of the time they struggled to survive in the small and alien underealm.
It's entirely reasonable to assume they lost many technologies and capabilities in that period which they were never able to fully replace/replicate.
According to the lore Tulnar are among the best and brightest.
Now, sure, but they certainly weren't like that throughout the whole post-apocalypse period, especially given the timescale involved:
From the wiki:
Taking into consideration that even the best and brightest that made it through the gateways suffered a significant dark age, losing, then rediscovering much of their tech:
It only makes sense that the embattled minority that stayed behind would have suffered a similar (or even worse) fate than those that escaped, given that they appear to be at similar technology levels post-return.
So, there is ample lore to allow for any amount of technology to have been lost on either side.
Right! Because once they'd been driven into the Underealm, they ate the weak and the stupid. It would've taken quite some time to adapt to different food sources and the rigors of living underground.
Can't blame any of them for turning to cannibalism - nor certain other acts, given that it's visibly evident that Tulnar have both people and animal DNA....
Why would Tulnar lose their magic? If anything they maintained it.
They’re more likely to be proper Alchemists and Artificers.
Tulnar are only composed of sentient races, though you can certainly make a case for the range of sentience given all of their ancestry.
If anything they have ample psilocybin down there would be intellectually expansive.
Never said they lost it, just that they almost certainly experienced a similar technological regression as their cousins on Sanctus. While they still likely maintained some access to essence, the ability to apply it systematically to make anything (weapons, enchants, alchemy, etc) would have been drastically impacted.
There is no logical path for them not being significantly more advance than their Sanctus cousins from a technological standpoint if they didn't suffer similar societal and technological regression during the thousands of years in hiding.
There is no way assume that. We know that the resources in the underealm are different than found in the overworld. There is no reason to assume that the leftover, embattled races of Verra would have excelled in mastering this new alien environment any better than the last, without significant time and effort applied in adopting their remaining technologies to work with the strange new resources they had access to.
And this is all ignoring an almost assured regression in technological capabilities during a large portion of their exile.
Technology on Verra almost all include magic, so it’s more likely they adapted their knowledge to the Underrealm.
Seeing as tech in Verra seems to require magic.
But back to the point, there’s no reason for Dwarves to lose their horizontal pew pew.
Stop handwaving things away. Having access to a resource doesn't imply you have the means to use it to its full capacity.
Sure, if you ignore all lore and logic pertaining to the situation...
No one escapes disaster and magically has amnesia. Whether it been the Dwarves that made it to Sanctus or the Dwarves who would genetically contribute to who would later become the Tulnar.
Someone has a crossbow, the knowledge to create schematics to create a crossbow. People are going to try to preserve their culture.
There is nothing magical about societal collapse and millenia long dark ages. Knowledge and technology is lost because the people/resources/records required to produce and pass along the technology have been lost.
And where are you getting this "genetic transference" bit?