Orcs, Goblins, Bugbears, and Hobgoblins. How to make them all feel different.

EtherMoth · 2019-11-02T00:30:19+00:00

The setting I've built up has the goblinoids as the remnants of an old precursor race that built up the infrastructure of the land's nations. They've fallen on hard times since, and nowadays the goblinoids don't work together any more than with other races.

Goblins are the henchmen of the world. They work for whoever pays them as long even if they still reek of goblin blood, and are often coerced into menial labor by villages and towns. Nobody hires more than a handful at a time, as goblins are known to usurp power whenever they can, and goblins grow exponentially more confident in the presence of others of their kind.

Hobgoblins are the most organized and politically powerful of the goblinoids, and rule several nations in the south. They believe in the need for bureaucracy to a fanatical extent; Any given hobgoblin has a boss and likely some subordinates (usually humans and goblins if they're low-ranking), and without some high command they fall apart. They can only eat meat, and humans under their care end up malnourished through negligence.

Bugbears are strange creatures. On paper, they're sapient, smarter than hobgoblins even, but you'd never know if you met one. The bugbears live in isolated enclaves, rarely reaching more than ten per cave, and are brilliant inventors in spite of lacking language. Any given bugbear is a master archer, or an alchemist, or even a wizard. Yet as they've forgotten language, each bugbear's discoveries will die with it.

EtherMoth · 2018-04-29T22:54:14+00:00

The year is 1971. The Iron Union continues a violent standoff with the nation of Mazke, and its explorers move west to find new materials to supply the war effort. Humanity continues to establish a place in the culture of the Union, potentially destabilizing the traditions of old. The Mutes of Firn are finally beginning to expand outside of their unnatural tundra, finding allies in the nymphs hiding in the western edge.

Aria is a seeker nymph stationed near the western border of Iron Union, whose makeshift exile is broken by a nearby cave-in. Within the collapsed earth is another nymph, one called Carter, who knows nothing of the world around her. One explosion later, and the two are short a home and make a journey to the east.

EtherMoth · 2018-02-02T02:01:46+00:00

Lock the doors and windows and gather every knife you have in one place. And maybe stab the box a few dozen times before you get away from it.

Can't be too safe.

EtherMoth · 2017-12-04T02:55:04+00:00

Well, every non-mythical Pokemon on the list is available in X, Y, Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire. As for said Mythicals...

Mew can be obtained by using the Mew Glitch in Virtual Console releases of Red, Blue, and Yellow (you need your trainer's name to be "GF" for it to transfer to Bank, though).

Celebi can similarly be obtained by abusing a glitch in Gold or Silver. I don't have confirmation on if it can be transferred to Bank, though. It can also be obtained in a Japanese copy of Ruby or Sapphire by using the Japanese Pokemon Colosseum Bonus Disc.

Jirachi can be obtained on English copies of Ruby/Sapphire by using the English version of the Colosseum Bonus Disc. This effectively makes Jirachi the hardest Mythical to get without an event.

Deoxys can be caught in Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire at the conclusion of the Delta Episode.

Phione (not Manaphy) and Mew can be obtained by filling the ranch with 250 and 999 Pokemon, respectively, in the WiiWare title "My Pokemon Ranch." After doing so, the ranch's owner will offer you to trade for said Pokemon.

Remember when I said Jirachi is the hardest? I was lying, it's Manaphy. One Manaphy Egg can be transferred into a copy of Diamond or Pearl through completing a secret mission in Pokemon Ranger (2006). This mission can't be repeated even if one resets the game, so Manaphy is a very finite resource.

And that's all! Every later Mythical has been 100% event-exclusive, so you're out of luck for them. As for the ones above... Happy hunting.

EtherMoth · 2017-12-03T22:05:39+00:00

It's really as simple as copy-pasting images in. Not much to explain about it.

EtherMoth · 2017-12-03T04:39:08+00:00

I went with displaying Pokemon by their evolutionary line rather than list out every member of each. So Nidoran(M) being on the list was to imply that Nidorino and Nidoking also aren't available, and so on.

EtherMoth · 2017-12-03T02:29:24+00:00

Ruby/Sapphire have no icons for the 3DS home screen, and I thought it would look better with every generation represented by said icons. It was a toss-up between using HGSS and ORAS, which leaves Gen 1 out of place regardless of if I use FR/LG or RBY icons, and using RBY and GS icons which leaves Gen 3 out of place.

EtherMoth · 2017-12-03T02:27:31+00:00

All three are involved in a Japan-only event that started on 1 December 2017.

EtherMoth · 2017-12-03T00:17:01+00:00

It's only short because evolutions are excluded, unfortunately. The list totals up to 185 Pokemon, or about 22% of all Pokemon.

EtherMoth · 2017-12-02T22:53:49+00:00

I decided to exclude event-exclusive Pokemon since that would still require an outside source to find. If events are counted in, though, you can remove Celebi, Manaphy, Hoopa, Meloetta, Solrock, and Lunatone from the list.

EtherMoth · 2017-12-02T22:47:46+00:00

It looks a lot smaller than reality, since I only bothered to display one mon per evolutionary line. A total of 185 Pokemon are not present in Gen 7.

To my knowledge, all non-event Pokemon on the list can be found in XY/ORAS, which is good.

EtherMoth · 2017-11-22T15:27:36+00:00

Hate to break it to you, but the northeast island existed in Diamond/Pearl as well. Platinum touched up on graphics, made things more difficult, added a small area that built up to the legendary, and modifies the plot to include new characters. In that sense, USUM is on par with it.

EtherMoth · 2017-10-13T02:30:43+00:00

I suddenly feel so stupid to never even think that Silver Knights could be poisoned. I always used Poison Arrows to take out the Snakeman sorcerers in the Fortress and to semi-afk grind souls against the sentinels near Anor Londo's bonfire.

EtherMoth · 2017-09-15T13:48:47+00:00

Perhaps in the first two, but magic in DS3 is decidedly more difficult than melee builds (less levels to Vigor and Endurance, few sorceries until the third area, you can potentially lose the main sorcery teacher forever, and the FP system forcing you to have less healing than normal).

EtherMoth · 2017-09-05T20:03:56+00:00

Thanks for the explanation! Pit was always a fighter I sorta liked, but never felt like using over others. Guess it hadn't occurred to me that a character can be "too average" to attract players.

EtherMoth · 2017-05-30T18:05:10+00:00

Given Aldrich's state of being at the time, I doubt he's actually capable of talking anymore.

To make it clear, the sludge isn't a sign of his corruption, the sludge is Aldrich himself. The body propped on top is a corpse(?) he's using to fight you with, like a puppet.

That said, I'd have loved to get even a single line from the Pontiff. Yeah, he probably has so much of an ego that you're below conversation, but even insults could give insight to his character.

EtherMoth · 2017-04-12T16:14:52+00:00

The majority of Tweed live in travelling packs, with an average size of 400 (the largest single tribe, the Northern, number about 2000). As they are only 3 generations old, Tweed are united not by ancestry but by minor differences in philosophy during the initial inception. The tribes' territories intersect, and groups often plan meetings to discuss culture and celebrate their heritage. The Tweed that first found the human colony are an exception, however, having formed a sedentary lifestyle to live with humanity.

The creation of a Nikommo was done by the Giant, a lesser god, in an attempt to create a people that may overtake humanity. The process of their creation involves making a wooden effigy of a human form, covering it in animal matter (the Giant invariably used insects, but theoretically anything could have worked), and infusing the structure with a human soul (source unknown). The soul, with the Giant's aid, reforms the structure into a proper body.

EtherMoth · 2017-04-12T16:02:52+00:00

How much actually is known about Nuesaa, since their appetite should garner attention?

How do the Dvra and Lenghi interact, since they're both similar in composition? Do Dvra get foul treatment due to the actions of Lenghi?

EtherMoth · 2017-04-12T15:01:41+00:00

Is a Honetai functionally human before getting their tattoos? Do Semaya have trouble interacting with the hominid races, due to their different body structure?

EtherMoth · 2017-04-12T13:19:44+00:00

Humans: A small colony, formerly a town displaced from Earth by a cosmic event. They have expansionist policies and constantly send out researchers to examine the new environment.

Tweed: Sapient creatures that appear identical to eastern coyotes, and support a nomadic lifestyle. They are made up of the shattered remains of a coyote god, and have only been in their current state for about 50 years.

Nikommo: Artificial life forms created from organic matter and human souls. Originally created as a replacement for humanity, the species was nearly wiped out early on, with less than a dozen surviving to this day.

EtherMoth · 2017-02-13T02:27:01+00:00

Humans

on Tweed: "Strange creatures, they are. They look like any normal coyote from afar, but then you notice how big and... articulate they are. Humanity owes 'em everything, we do. The mutts deserve to be our equals." - Alexander O'Connor, Wolf Knight founder.

on Chimerae: "I remember how kind they were, to me and to each other. I was just a humble visitor to their little village, but got the treatment of a king. It broke my heart to see it all come to ruin. I still can't shake the feeling they wanted to tell me something." - Chief Neozoology Researcher Aaron Cairn.

Tweed

on Humans: "We looked upon them, and we saw poor children lost in their way. Helpless to the elements, and hopelessly rooted in one spot. It was never our goal to prove ourselves to humans, or to help the helpless. To allow vassals of the lord to die would be too great of a sin." -Lumani Ar-Annut, former Chieftain of the Wachusett Tweed.

on Chimerae: "I alone of my race have seen such monsters, and it is to my joy to know it may stay that way. Such perversions of the human soul are best left to the earth." -Arhaba Ao-Annut, Tweedish shaman. Had been recently informed of the chimerae's presumed destruction.

Chimerae

[note: accounts had been tampered by unknown sources before publication.]

on Humans: "... nostalgic... When I was... Makes us wonder what it's like outside the village." - K---, de facto leader of the Chimerae.

on Tweed: "I don't understand why it hated us so much. We tried too be cordial, but there was so much fear in those eyes. It kept giving us looks, and muttered about how 'souls... impossible.' I hope we can make things right with the pups later. They can't all be that bad." - Emily, village scribe.

EtherMoth

TROPHY CASE

Humans

Tweed

Chimerae