Kayden - Light and Dark Discussion Thread

Game Thread - Sign-Up Thread - Discord Chat

Welcome to the Discussion Thread for Kayden - Light and Dark!

Uhm, yeah. What he said. Anyway, hi. This is the place you come to if you wanna... erm... discuss. So, if you have any questions, (of course you do, this is confusing as all hell) have ideas for worldbuilding, or just want to chat with your fellow players about just what the hell you're getting into, this is the place for you...?

I will also be linking any important posts, such as detailed explanations or accepted ideas and concepts here.

Accepted Concepts:

• Arachnid Reptiles
• Hardlight Leeches
• Green Degeneration
• House Histories
• Council Representatives

House Characteristics: (Main Houses)

• Anok, Seng, and Tume.
• Ymar, Telo and Lxuf.
• Quig and Zyla.

House Characteristics: (Original Houses)

• Tehk, Tejk, and Lorn.

edited 27th Aug '17 2:04:37 AM by Enirboreh

Well, to inaugurate this thread, a major question that I've been wanting to ask:

Do the major houses have set characteristics? Like, traditions, reputation, stereotypes, that kind of thing. Because if they do, it would probably influence character creation. And make them more interesting then a list of names.

Yes. I'll do this in sections for simplicities sake.

• The Anok family are traditionally neutral and withdrawn; militaristic. Because of this, graduating from Aentolin Academy is a high priority to keep their reputation. Their standings in the Council are objective and non-biased, but they seem more focused on fighting the Dark Side than the wellbeing of the general populace.
• The House of Seng, on the other hand, are much more empathetic and humanlike than the Anok family. They are not afraid to openly display emotion, although this sometimes works against them in Council meetings if they are emotionally biased. Strangely, some of the branch families of the House of Seng have seemed to show hints of a cunning and deceptive nature...
• Finally, the House of Tume are, quite frankly, a collection of stuck-ups. They are among the elder Houses, and even though they are technically on equal footings with all the other Houses in the council meetings, they still show immense arrogance, flaunting their extravagant clothing and belongings. However, certain individuals have seemed to have broken this mould, with Akir Tume even being the surprisingly pleasant Headmaster of Aentolin Academy.

Annnd... that's all I got for now. But that's what discussion s for, right?

right?

edited 25th Aug '17 5:28:09 AM by Enirboreh

I have an idea for a couple of NP Cs - a high-ranking bandit leader and their lover/main enforcer. What bandit faction would they best fit into?

I expect the Wave Breakers, as they are the main faction. Blood Rose might be a good choice for a smaller faction too.

It depends on their personality, really. The Wave Breakers are characterized by their loyalty to each other and their leader; despite being bandits, they're very hard to turn against each other or bribe. The Blood Rose are all about drama and theatrically; think highwaymen and Bonnie and Clyde for them. The Spine Snappers are merely very, very vicious. Even when mortally wounded and nearly dead, a SS bandit is likely to try to take you with them.

Got it. Right now I'm leaning towards the Blood Rose.

Also, what does Kayden have in the way of religion and popular culture?

Tournaments and gladiatorial combat are popular on Kayden, consisting of several games involving Hardlight manipulation such as forcing the opponent out of the ring/knocking them out, to capture the flag matches. Lethality is not usually an objective, except perhaps for the more savage factions in the Wildlands.

Implants that alter the colour of a Kaydenite's Hardlight are also available, and are the equivalent of tattoos.

In terms of religion, there are the Hardlight Purists, who believe that Hardlight is actually a manifestation of the deity Xil'k's energy and life force.

Could be. I imagine similar names are a problem on Kayden.

edited 22nd Aug '17 1:10:35 PM by Enirboreh

Huh. Did not notice that House Zyla was a thing when I created House Zyra...

Welp, obviously the best course of action is to make it so that House Zyra is often confused for their more famous brethren. Might even be an offshoot.

House Zyra is now officially a distant offshoot of House Zyla that has carved out their own identity as a family of spies and assassins.

edited 22nd Aug '17 1:08:40 PM by PossiblyQuiteInsane

So, here is one of my many questions.

Can artificial Kaydenties be allowed? He will be from House of Tehk (yeah, I know. Kill me), less-known family of scientists (mad and sane, mostly eccentric).

edited 23rd Aug '17 5:01:00 AM by kaalban

By artificial, I assume you mean robotic? If so, I can see a few possibilities. If you mean genetically altered, that would also be interesting.

K'then. I guess I will create a character sheet soon enough.

Oh, one thing that may have not been very clear - Your Kaydenite's mastered/favourite technique is exactly that, their preferred technique. Not their only technique. All Kaydenites can make any construct they wish during the RP, such as forearm shields, swords, maces etc, but they may have more difficulty using them than their listed technique.

So, all Kaydenites can create shields, but for someone like, say, Kyxe, it would take a tremendous amount of effort, too much for it to be practical in a fight. So she would most likely rely on her knives.

On the other hand, A'dni would have no problem with shields, but may show a little more effort in creating other constructs, assuming she hasn't been trained in them before. Obviously not to the extent of Kyxe, who actually has a physical handicap to her Hardlight generation.

Make sense?

Interesting. I quite like that. Should the Dark Side have different, more vicious/stealthy fauna than the Light?

edited 23rd Aug '17 10:01:41 AM by Enirboreh

Makes perfect sense.

Also, I vote to add arachnid-reptiles as the part of Planet's fauna. It could even be Kaydenites's nutrition supply, equivalent to meat. They all come in different flavors (spider-lizard being most common).

edited 23rd Aug '17 9:18:24 AM by kaalban

Alrighty, that's now canon. I love it!

And aye, more vicious creatures was the idea.

Just one question... can I ride one?

Actually... what is the Kaydenite equivalent to a horse?

edited 23rd Aug '17 3:22:52 PM by PossiblyQuiteInsane

I would expect something akin to a wolf with wings.

Hold on a second...

...Cwest, what have you done to me?

Ooh, you know what would be awesome? Riding a giant dragonfly. Or giant butterfly. Or a giant mantis.

Go for giant Japanese Honeybees so you can overheat your foes to death.

I quite like this design.◊ I'd imagine the Light Side variants skin would be of a pale, translucent grey, while the Dark Side variants would have thick black fur.

edited 23rd Aug '17 4:45:07 PM by Enirboreh

So, I think I should do this:

Arachnid-Reptiles:

Here we see a typical arachnid-reptile in its natural habitat...

Ok, this is not National Geographic. This is Kaydenian Bio-Geographic Show.

All of them have eight legs (though what kind of leg depends on a sub-species) that they use to traverse across environments and to attack. Their body is covered with protein called keramin (in basic terms, it's a mix of arachnid's exoskeleton and reptilian scales). Arachnid-reptiles can also live pretty much anywhere, thanks to their skin. And that's about the only similarity all the sub-species have.

Spider-lizards:

Mostly grey-black, The most common sub-species of arachnid-reptile species, they are known to be pretty passive and can be anywhere (even underwater, but those are mutants). Spider-lizards have eight lizard-like legs and particularly soft tail, which is said to be one of the most delicious desserts for Kaydenites (however, some hate its softness). Only their tales can regenerate, as they can cut it themselves. When cut, it gives off a nauseating stench that might kill some animals (something something xenochemistry).

Spider-lizards don't have any bones inside their bodies. Also, they are mostly herbivore. They use spider-mouths (chelicerae) to consume their food. As a bonus fact about their reproduction, all of them are hermaphrodites, so it's considerably easier for Kaydenites to breed them.

That's all for crash course xenobiology. I might add more sub-species later.

Also, I have two diseases in mind that are pretty... disturbing.

edited 23rd Aug '17 8:29:52 PM by kaalban

Very, very intriguing. I like the detail with the defense mechanism. I'll link it as a concept in the first post.

Ooooh, we're doing this? Let me try!

Hardlight Leeches

For our next segment on Kaydenian Bio-Geographic Show, we will be covering hardlight leeches. Native to ponds and marshes throughout the dark side of the planet and in specific parts of the light side, hardlight leeches are usually between 6 inches and a foot in length. Their dark gray coloration helps to camouflage them on the rocks that they cling to while waiting for prey.

Their most distinctive feature, however, is the pair of feeding organs on the underside of their bodies, which resemble sunken-in satellite dishes. These are used to drain the hardlight that several dark side animals (and the occasional light side animal) use for bioluminescence and convert it to nutrition.

While this can be crippling for a Kaydenite soldier who wanders too close to one of these animals in the heat of battle, hardlight leeches have found widespread use in the field of medicine, used to treat several diseases which cause the afflicted to produce harmful excesses of hardlight.

That's very interesting. And slightly terrifying. I did consider the possibility of animals having Hardlight organs previously, but it does make sense for bioluminescence purposes.

Maybe they only have one to two organs, so they cannot form constructs and can only use it for light?

Anyway, this could provide a good explanation for Rok'n's survival without medication in the Wildlands.

Hardlight Leeches are accepted, and linked in the main post.

edited 24th Aug '17 2:03:06 PM by Enirboreh

Some ideas for the as of yet undefined houses:

• Ymar is best known for their technology. Unlike the House of Tekh, they're unambiguously military contractors at best and war profiteers at worst.

• Telo is militaristic, like the House of Anok, but unlike Anok, they're far more sociable - which in this context means they're one of the most aggressive and bloodthirsty houses.

• Lxuf gained most of their power by making politically expedient marriages, to the point where almost three percent of the total population of Kayden can trace their ancestry to the House of Lxuf.