Need for mage-spawn?

[Elvish Pillager]

(largefoot movement costs, though.)

yup, there's mountain movement.

[emdot]

No, it isn't. This is a new unit and I can use the name 'chimaera' for whatever I please. The original Chimaera doesn't fly, breathes fire, and doesn't have any teleportation powers, either. I always thought the name 'chimaera' would be more suited to a cute little bird-thingy.

You are ruining game for at least literate users, who now what 'chimaera' is and are expecting something. If you are creating new creature, create new name.

[Elvish Pillager]

You are ruining game for at least literate users, who now what 'chimaera' is and are expecting something. If you are creating new creature, create new name.

Cockatrice is the same way... as is 'dragon' and 'drake'... and even 'elf' and 'orc'. Who cares if our Chimaera is different from some other Chimaera someone has heard of?

[jp30]

You are ruining game for at least literate users, who now what 'chimaera' is and are expecting something. If you are creating new creature, create new name.

Cockatrice is the same way... as is 'dragon' and 'drake'... and even 'elf' and 'orc'. Who cares if our Chimaera is different from some other Chimaera someone has heard of?

I'm with emdot on this one. It's really central to the concept of the chimera in classical mythology that it's a bizarre and implausible mixture of parts of different animals. No-one has ever used "chimera" except in that sense, or one derived from it.

I really like the idea of your creature, though - teleportation needs to be better used in wesnoth. Having criticised the name, I feel obliged to make a positive proposal: your creature is rather reminiscent of nethack's tengu. Maybe we could call it a tengu?

This sort of debate happenned before over the drakes, back when they were called the "draconians", and I think the right thing resulted then. If we think hard enough we can think of a name that sounds great and isn't a crime against etymology.

[Burnsaber]

I also hate mages recruiting "normal" units, golems would be nice.
This Chimerae/whatever thing would take out their need for scout, i presume?
Golems could be the "tank/fighter" unit.
Now the guestion is should they have a third unit? (maybe ranged?), two seems kinda small number.

[Elvish Pillager]

I really like the idea of your creature, though - teleportation needs to be better used in wesnoth. Having criticised the name, I feel obliged to make a positive proposal: your creature is rather reminiscent of nethack's tengu. Maybe we could call it a tengu?

As well as introducing another unit with Teleport, it constitutes the third backstabbing unit, which also has the third and last unit ability which works well with Backstab.

And, well, a Tengu is a sort of demon... except that it's not an entry in my dictionary. Tengu it is! (until it changes )

[turin]

maybe he can also recruit other mages, to fill in need for ranged unit...


Oh, and i like the name tengu.

[scott]

That's like saying a Pegasus in BFW is a 5-legged lizard just because you want to do it that way. It's weird, which is reason enough not to do so.

[Elvish Pillager]

That's like saying a Pegasus in BFW is a 5-legged lizard just because you want to do it that way. It's weird, which is reason enough not to do so.

No, there's a difference. The difference being that Pegasus is the name of an individual. Bellerophon rides Pegasus and kills the Chimera, as opposed to riding the Pegasus and killing Chimera.

[scott]

ok, a bear then.
The point is that people know what a chimaera is. Also, THE chimaera was a specific monster, fittingly enough slain by Bellerophron.

Fire-breathing monster slain by the hero Bellerophon; related to Cerberus and the Hydra. The Chimaera was part lion, part goat and part snake, although accounts differed as to how these parts were assembled. King Iobates of Lycia sent Bellerophon after the beast in the expectation that the hero would never return. But with the help of the gods and the flying horse Pegasus, Bellerophon rid Lycia of its multiple monster.

Edit:
... which you apparently know already

[Jetrel]

You are ruining game for at least literate users, who now what 'chimaera' is and are expecting something. If you are creating new creature, create new name.

Cockatrice is the same way... as is 'dragon' and 'drake'... and even 'elf' and 'orc'. Who cares if our Chimaera is different from some other Chimaera someone has heard of?

I'm with emdot on this one. It's really central to the concept of the chimera in classical mythology that it's a bizarre and implausible mixture of parts of different animals. No-one has ever used "chimera" except in that sense, or one derived from it.

I really like the idea of your creature, though - teleportation needs to be better used in wesnoth. Having criticised the name, I feel obliged to make a positive proposal: your creature is rather reminiscent of nethack's tengu. Maybe we could call it a tengu?

Tengu were intelligent, speaking creatures who even wore clothes. They feature in at least one japanese legend, wherein they are many in number, and have their own names, and identities, and skills. This also looks nothing like a tengu. They had a very specific look, with these strange masks they would wear over their faces.

This sort of debate happenned before over the drakes, back when they were called the "draconians", and I think the right thing resulted then. If we think hard enough we can think of a name that sounds great and isn't a crime against etymology.

I disagree wholeheartedly. We're stealing back this word, in the same way that tolkien stole back the word elf, and cleanly separated it from what it was usually used to describe. Most of what people used to call elves are now known as gnomes, or goblins, or faeries.

I agree with respecting traditional uses of a slightly obscure word when it describes a cool idea, however, the chimera was another retarded, "slap a bunch of parts together and call it a mythical beast". I see no reason to respect that - yet another abomination of this stupid fricken greek mythology. Moreover, it was (again, impossibly enough) a single creature, the only one of its kind.


Chimera has been used in many places to describe strange and unusual creatures. In warcraft III, it was used very well to describe the two-headed, lighting breathing dragons that inhabited Ashenvale.

In Cythera, it was used to describe a creature wholly dissociate from reality, and not bound by physical form. It is interesting to note that in Cythera, the default name for the main character was Bellepheron.

-------

One of the other things to consider is that many mythological creatures were spawned from strange encounters with real animals, or encounters with the corpses of real animals.

Just as the skulls of elephants spawned the mythos of the Cyclops, perhaps we should speculate upon what would spawn the mythos of the chimera?

I would find the teleportation ability appropriate to a chimera, however the backstab would seem more appropriate to something like a harpy. Hell, we could call it a harpy. Make it indistinct enough that one cannot be sure if it quite looks like one, and it would be appropriate to the part. It's a much better fit than calling it the Tengu.

[turin]

I did a search for "tengu" on google and they appear to be a lot like EP's picture... they are birdlike, have strange magical powers, and would probably be summonable by a mage...

however, harpy does seem better, even though its "stealing" another "human+{X}=mythical monster" greek construct...

[Jetrel]

In any event, EP, if you could kindly come up with another nice teleportation animation for this fellow, we can include it in the game.

[Caçada Selvagem]

yet another abomination of this stupid fricken greek mythology

And what makes more sense to you? Dwarves spawing from verms? The earth on the top of a giant turtle?
Altought I have to say that that one of the giant wolf that the lower mouth reach the ground and the upper mouth reach the skies do seem to make more sense.
Everyone thinks dragons are normal, but they don't realize that they are giant lizards with wings and spit fire. Someone even took that more far, made them look like humanoids, but no one seems to mind, it is even an faction in official multiplayer games.
Not that the greek mithology and the chimera makes any sense, but it is hipocrisy to say you don't like something for one reason, but like others for the same reasom.

[Elvish Pillager]

I agree with respecting traditional uses of a slightly obscure word when it describes a cool idea, however, the chimera was another retarded, "slap a bunch of parts together and call it a mythical beast". I see no reason to respect that -

Actually, Chimera is not only the creature, but it has also become a general usage word for any creature that is patched together from other creatures.

Everyone thinks dragons are normal, but they don't realize that they are giant lizards with wings and spit fire.

They're not lizards, they're snakes. They don't have wings. They don't breathe fire. You can't say ANYTHING about dragons in general, because there are always dragons for which it is false. Such is the variety of dragons.