Luminarium and Obscurité

[Flameslash]

I have postponed historic era due to art prolems and i am going to practise art with the era, Elves of Light and Dark, through editing frankys. I cannot do this with Historic because of the units i am making and existing ones.

It is set in a land different to Wesnoth.

Luminarium
When a kingdom was on the edge of defeat in a vicious war with Barbarians, the king took up a sword of immense power. But inside the sword was a Demons soul and when the war was over, it possessed the King. He set new laws against Light and The Kingdom Religion. But some men stuck to their belifes and escaped the forest, these men called themselves Luminarium.

Obscurité
When a kingdom was on the edge of defeat in a vicious war with Barbarians, the king took up a sword of immense power. But inside the sword was a Demons soul and when the war was over, it possessed the King. He set new laws against Light and The Kingdom Religion. Many men were forced to follow these laws by magic, and others did so willingly. They allied with the Barbarians enemy and The Undead. From then on they were Obscurité.

Unit Tree
Luminarium

Human Priest - Human Disicple - Human Saint
-------------Human Healer
Elven Shineblade - Elven Holyblade - Elven Lightkeeper
Shinebow - Lightbow - Holyshot (Human)
White Rider - Holy Rider - Holy Shinespeed (Elven)
Blue Auqa - Holy Auqa (Elven)
Free Spirit - Vengeful Spirit (Ghost)


Obscurité

Doom's fighter -Doomblade - Doombringer (Human)
Dark Priest - Acolyte - High Acolyte (Human)
Death Archer - Doom Ranger - Coruptshot (Elven)
------------ Doom Marsksman - Corupt Trueshot (Elven)
Chaos Scout - Chaos Rider - Corupt Rider (Human)
Black Auqa - Dark Auqa (Elven)
Undead Slave -Undead Minon - Undead Warrior (Skeleton)

[Orcish Shyde]

Why Elves of Light & Darkness? You could replace elves with humans and have the same backstory and the same units, with the added bonus of not making yet another copy/paste elvish faction (and avoiding confusion with the Dark Elves of EE).

Elves of Light -> Lightbearers

Elves of Darkness -> Bauglirim / Dark Kingdom (take your pick)

[Flameslash]

Elves fit better than Humans. They are naturally magical and live a long time. They are just better for this job.

[Turuk]

Elves fit better than Humans. They are naturally magical and live a long time. They are just better for this job.

Right, but Orcish Shyde's point is that you could at least attempt to come up with an original name.

[thespaceinvader]

Indeed. Every time ANYONE wants to make a faction, the first thing they do is put a descriptor in front of, or after, 'Elves', recolour a few sprites, maybe, just maybe, add a unique unit or two and decide that that's enough.

Some imagination would be nice. Take the idea and run with it. Make them truly unique. Make them your own, not just recoloured mainline elves. Give them more than just light and dark to define them.

[cretin]

like the sidhe, sidhe are elves, but they have a way cooler name than lightning elves, and frosty elves, and magical sword elves. if i sound rude its because i have seen almost every type of elves possible.

[JW]

like the sidhe, sidhe are elves (right?) but they have a way cooler name than lightning elves, and frosty elves, and magical sword elves. if i sound rude its because i have seen almost every type of elves possible.

Exactly. I was just having this conversation on the server the other day. The factions in the EoM are called:
the Warg - not dog elves
Vampires - not blood-sucking elves
Windsong - not girl elves
Therian - not shapeshifting elves
Elementals - not fire/water/wind/earth elves
Celestials - not holy elves
and Devlings - not tiny demon elves.

Be original!

[Flameslash]

OK Humans and Elves in the same kingdom.

[lu_zero]

OK Humans and Elves in the same kingdom.

Maybe put an orc here and there and a fairy (possibly with dark fairies and holy orcs!)

lu

(and maybe try to think a neutral faction)

[turin]

I find light-dark oppositions like this interesting, occasionally, but they don't work well plugged into larger fantasy worlds. I think, if you want this era to work aesthetically, you need to simplify, simplify, simplify -

1) Forget about having them in the same world as Wesnoth. Have them in their own world, and have them be the only civilizations in existence in that world. If your world is about light v. darkness, your world is about light v. darkness - not about light v. darkness v. loyalists v. knalgans v. drakes v. northerners v. rebels v. undead.

2) Don't even talk about different fantasy races. Don't have them be elves, humans, orcs, dwarves, or anything. Just have the one species of rational bipeds that you call "men". If you want them to be immortal, fine, but they're still "men", because they're the only rational beings in this world.

3) Obviously the backstory would have to be changed to accommodate this (the stuff with the demonic sword, for example - it could work, I guess, but you can probably think of something better), but honestly, I don't think this is a big deal - it seems clear to me that the only thing you're really set on here is light v. darkness, and the rest of that backstory is just a not-that-well-written excuse to set up that dichotomy. So, you need to come up with a new backstory - an explanation of how the dichotomy came about, or just no backstory and have it assumed that there are these two sides, light and darkness, that are eternally fighting.

Feel free to ignore this advice, but honestly, if you ignore it, it's very doubtful your era will ever turn into something interesting, while if you follow it, there's a chance (though small) that something decent might come out of it... I'm just telling you this for your own good so you don't waste your time on something worthless. I apologize if this offends you.

[Flameslash]

After reading the comments i quit this.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

A shame since it was actually become somewhat interesting.

Instead of quitting because everyone doesn't fall down before the greatness of your ideas, take the advice and make it better. That's what the real professionals do. You concept is getting better and better, so keep working on it until it really is fabulous.

[Flameslash]

OK