Darklords of the New Age: Comments thread

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Definitely a creepy NPC. I was not at all sold on the people into books idea until reading this terrifying description of the result. Trouble is, if you skimp on the detail and just say "he got turned into a living book" it sounds silly again. (to me.) Certainly different, but I dunno... doesn't really scream darklord to me.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Nothing about Humbert really does it for me, to be honest. The idea of turning people into books is a bit icky, but it's not clear how that's as bad as, say, Jacqueline Montarri with her cellar full of screaming heads. Just how badly are these "living books" suffering, and how is Humbert's way of acquiring information any more worthy of darklordship than any two-bit torturer's?

Plus, it's unclear why turning people into books would satisfy this guy's desire for knowledge: yes, you can access what a given person knew, but there isn't any guarantee that what they knew is worth collecting. Unless he's specifically luring the most brilliant scholars of the age to his library -- in which case, someone would surely have noticed what's been going on, if he's done this 200 times -- he's going to wind up with shelves full of dubious "information" he could glean just as readily by asking some random schmoe in the pub. And even if he can attract lots of great scholars to be transformed, he's still missing out on the vast amounts of knowledge that exist in the writings of people already deceased. So he's still going to have to replace most of his torched book collection the old-fashioned way, by simply tracking down and buying replacements for everything written by previous generations of scholars.

Now, if he's discovered that "living books" offer fringe benefits -- say, the opportunity to indulge in sick voyeurism, erotic or sadistic, when he roots through the minds and memories of his "collection" -- then that may be more darklord-worthy than a simple craving to learn stuff. But if all he wants is to hoard knowledge, IMO it'd be more interesting if he was using necromancy to capture and interrogate the souls of great thinkers of the past, a la, Lovecraft's The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward. That'd be more in keeping with the mode of thinking of a Medieval-to-Renaissance scholar -- that nearly everything worth knowing can be found in the works of geniuses long dead -- as well as avoiding yet another situation where guests of Mr. X keep vanishing and nobody notices a thing.

[Yaoi Huntress Earth]

I think you should also count on the DL providing his negative opinion about such attempts...or positive, if he thinks you could give a 'contribution' to the library .

Could the books be destroyed though?

[Checco]

Plus, it's unclear why turning people into books would satisfy this guy's desire for knowledge: yes, you can access what a given person knew, but there isn't any guarantee that what they knew is worth collecting.

Iirc it's because of his desire to 'complete' the library, especially because he was the one who destroyed a big part of it in the first place.

Could the books be destroyed though?

Yes, they are just constructs, similar to flesh golems.

[Yaoi Huntress Earth]

So would the soul be free if their book is destroyed?

[Sorti]

So would the soul be free if their book is destroyed?

Well yeah, it think it'd work, it works for undead after all. I'll ask the author and give you his answer

[Checco]

Who is the next entry?

[Igor the Henchman]

Judging by WolfKook's silence, I'm guessing he might be on the busy side right now.

TO THE AUTHOR OF ENDEMIA: the next darklord in the alphabetical order would be Lord Isaac Burney. Would you either post the entry yourself in the main thread (just don't forget to format it like WolfKook did and dismiss the signature) or privately send it to me at agouzov(at)gmail.com? Thanks.

There. If nothing happens by the middle of tomorrow, I'll post Kravo Sardelli instead.

[Igor the Henchman]

No response as of yet, so here's Kravo Sardelli, the shadow ruler of Zumbera.

If we get no news by tomorrow, I'll post Mother-Veaer.

[Checco]

I was expecting this entry to tell how much I like it.

The idea of the DL being a magical illusion is rather original, and same goes for the domain. Nice work!

[Yaoi Huntress Earth]

And it's neat to see a Shadow Mage being encorporated into the Land of the Mists since it's so fitting.

[A G Thing]

I was expecting this entry to tell how much I like it.

The idea of the DL being a magical illusion is rather original, and same goes for the domain. Nice work!

I guess it is an original take, but let us not forget dear old Puncheron... He started as a sort of illusion but this is more personal and has a lot more depth I think in some ways.

Still Kravo and Astylos are my favorites so far!

[A G Thing]

Shoot... Double post... Sorry!

[Manofevil]

I like this one. This one works. I liked the fact that he doesn't start out as an illusion, which was the impression I had from the earlier entries. I like the idea that he's spends every moment concentrating on his existance. Talk about eternal torment. This is way cool.

[Yaoi Huntress Earth]

The new one's not bad. I'm curious how she'll react to learning about Valachan and how they worship her old love. Though I could have the name wrong because I let one of my friends borrow the Gazetter with Valacha in it.