I read this coming off a 13 hour shift in -34*C weather and my muddled brain only really registered "bird of prey", "Talons after death", and "primal serum". I was interested so I put on a pot of coffee and the thought dawned on me while trying to download episode 9 of Granblue Fantasy (second season) that why not just combine them all into one?KingCorn wrote:Hey, I'm tossing around some Falkovnian Superscience/Magic programs and want you opinion on them.
First and my favorite is Project Vedrfolnir: While the many Bloodhawks and Raptors of Falkovnia are fierce and lethal, none are of large enough size to be truely useful beyond messanger birds and pets. So Vjorn Horstman was tasked with making them bigger. While the first few results where disappointing, a sudden breakthrough has resulted in a new bread of birds of prey, large enough to bear and mans weight and take flight! While only a few flights have been bred/mutated so far, the cream of the crop has been given to Drakov as a gift. The Falkfurher is very fond of his new pet, and during his recent dinners has forgone having prisoners impaled, instead feading them to his beloved pet.
---Kinda want to name either the new bird race or Drakov's pet Sargonnas after the condor god of Kyrnn, but since he's the condor (vulture) god it feels less right for the race, and for the pet bird that would imply its male, and I want Drakov's new pet to be female (cause when an evil sadist has a pet he feds people too, they're always female. Its tradition!)
Next is Project Flamme der Soldaten (flame of soldiers), an attempt to fight the problem of replacing Talons when they tend to die. Talons are not easily replaceable, taking years to train, and so to combat the death rate, the ministries of Science and Arcane respectively were tasked wiht combating this issue. The ministry of arcane came up with a novel solution, though very controversial: Pyre Undead. By enacting specific rituals upon dead Talons, all fueled by a captured Pyre Elemental, they would return from the grave as spirits of blue fire, loyal to Drakov even after death. While many in the know see it as using the ways of the Darkon enemy, many in the ministry are confidant that this will be the first step in finally combating the problem of both replenishing losses, and ensuring there own dead do not turn on them.
--Admitidly I got the image for this idea from this guy: https://daemonsanddeathrays.wordpress.com/
--Basically its based on a Darklord idea he had with knights templar who turned into pyre undead. Just wanted to give him credit where its due
Another contender for combating Talon deaths is Project Zehn in Eins (Ten in One), a project the ministry of science has been toying with for some time between Horstmen's lycanthropy research. Taking the choicest parts from dead Talons, as well as extra parts kindly donated by the Central Prison, the project has to build super soldiers out of the remains of the dead, keeping with them all the experience they once had. Using experts from Lamordia, as well as equipment and research notes purchased from Dr. Mordenheim himself (at considerable price), they had stitched together these giants and modified them with all sorts of alchemical substances and metal reinforcements.
--I know it would be OP to give Falkovnia just a bunch of Dread Golems, so there are only a few and very likely to go berserk against there own handlers.
--Really want them to be kinda mindless. Both them and the Pyre Undead are kinda based around the Mountain from GoT after he was brought back from the dead.
A blooded, guts hanging out Talon who, upon facing the Long Dark, pops a pill/slams back a vile vial/chomps down on a faux tooth/etc of the newest version of Horstman's primal serum that turns the inner beast outward and transforms him into a monstrous bird of prey:
- 0c5ee7d5b1044db7238716695639a1a1--game--poster-art.jpg (64.6 KiB) Viewed 3921 times
I don't know the artist or anything about this game, so don't ask. It was a picture I had saved in my big folder of Fantasy Visual Aides and I back-tracked it through Google.
Thing is this specially-brewed serum, available exclusively to Talons, doesn't last an hour, but the length of the mission assigned to the Talon who consumes it. Combined with the rigorous MKUltra-like programme the newest generation of Talons go through, this black ops version of the serum manipulates the body through mental sequences implanted in the soldier. Perhaps it's based off of data "acquired" from the not so-good Dr. Heinfroth. Of course, not all batches are made the same, so some transformations may be shorter, longer, or even permanent.
The beauty/horror of it is (depending on which side of the war you're on) that should the Talon survive his mission and the uber-lycanthropy runs its course as designed, then the regenerative qualities that come with it restores the soldier to full health (or a portion thereof), enabling him to answer roll call for the next mission. The mental and emotional strain on the Talon in question would no doubt be a very real factor/potential side effect, and more than likely completely ignored by his superiors.
Todesfalke (Death Hawk), Todeskralle (Deathclaw), Todesschwinge (Deathwing)...
Just a few thoughts
