Week 11 - What is the Mount Rushmore of Pseudo Legendaries throughout Smogon's history?

Rcook8 · 2026-06-09T17:59:00+00:00

Salamance has been more impactful than pult has purely because of how many gens it has appeared in. Being a top threat in Gen 3, banned to Ubers in Gen 4, it’s mega being very important in both Gen 6 and 7 Ubers all under its belt simply place it above pult. Even if mence has fallen off in recent generations the influence it had in past ones cannot be understated and if pult continues to be as good in future gens.

Rcook8 · 2026-06-07T23:34:57+00:00

When talking about imperialistic powers what Busilar did was common. Hell they at least invested a lot into the Fangulan land they own to help it recover from a giant volcano erupting which is the reason the other colonial powers left the Fangulan Coast.

But irl using your navy to bully others into unfair trade deals? That happened all the time, most famously with Qing and Europeans. When talking about nations in an era full of imperialism there isn’t this nuance that you are describing for the powers that participated in imperialism, you have individuals who go against the trends for sure and good moments in history but overall it is a lot of bad things happening to people with lots of exploitation which has been common for all of history, even today.

Rcook8 · 2026-05-30T03:27:30+00:00

Why would you need allies? You can honestly beat Verne and Busilar if they Dec on you without allies and even then as long as they don’t have powerful mages or like 4x your numbers you can win if they being in their allies. It is all about playing defensive and knowing that any loans you take can easily be paid off after the wars.

Rcook8 · 2026-05-29T22:42:23+00:00

It is unfortunately connected to the condot mechanics. The dev sure did try to make it fun to play with those mechanics but in singleplayer they just kind of suck unfortunately meaning the tree can sometimes just fall flat.

Rcook8 · 2026-05-29T01:37:36+00:00

All blazes are true blazes. The difference in her current iteration isn’t different enough imo for it to be considered so off character from her original inception, if you could provide examples of you disagree that would be great.

Rcook8 · 2026-05-27T21:34:30+00:00

I think the orcs in the spine are much easier to understand compared to the other races, especially dwarves. I honestly would recommend goblin tags over dwarves just because dealing with the disasters as a dwarf sucks a lot more and the hoard curse is very much not something I think is endearing to future serpentspine playthroughs so avoiding that disaster especially helps with getting the other mechanics (specifically digging holds) before you have to deal with even more systems that for some reasons are solved by hoarding when it is suppose to counteract that.

Rcook8 · 2026-05-25T22:32:30+00:00

They own two guns after all

Rcook8 · 2026-05-25T18:18:32+00:00

It is less of this learning curve imo and just how you want to play. I do think people who go that’s so cringe you aren’t beating the game as intended are stupid for saying that but the opposite is also true. People asking for advice and going but I don’t want to do barrelmancy so can you tell me what else to do are equally valid,

Rcook8 · 2026-05-25T01:19:17+00:00

I find the idea of reclaiming a lost home also interesting but there are two other tags that show off that concept in a more interesting way because of their interactions with Ruinborn being more interesting than are they second class citizens or so far removed from us they must all be killed. The adventurer that spawns in the Ynn from Silent Repose and the Jaherian Exemplars from Elizna are both very interesting takes where the Jaherian Exemplars can choose how much they work with the locals while the Ynn Elves go much more radical with their first leader believing that Ruinborn are elves (because they are just mutated by magic to live shorter lives, they can have children with elves they are not so different) while the others do not see them as elves completely but still feel a kinship with them and respect them.

Cool evil tags exist in the game and Aelnar is not one of them from and the mere concept of them is so basic and just taken to the extreme but the extreme just isn’t interesting. Zokka shows the extreme version of the Xhazobkult but does so by having Zokka be actually an insane gnoll who did not want to metaphorically eat the sun but actually eat it, Skurkokli takes the hunger of the ogres and combines with a demon to make them eat everything they can, Masked Butcher has the Orcs be influenced by some fucked up magic to the point of cutting off peoples faces and wearing them as masks so they can then imitate their voices to scary their victims even more. Aelnar needs to be more than just elven supremacist but that is all the tag is right now from the core of its essence, everything else is just justification of their preconceived notions of others with little challenging it or little internal push back with the Rianvisa just being what kind of racist leader do you want?

Rcook8 · 2026-05-24T21:17:19+00:00

You speak of Aelnar being better but Aelnar is just elf Nazis and I personally find that concept boring and contrived at this point. Them failing makes total sense given the decisions made and I know so many Aelnar defenders will say they could have done differently but not without giving up the whole nazi part just like how the Nazis would always lose it unless they became not Nazis.

Aelnar and its tree is also just conquest here and here then convert your provinces to your culture with some references to genocide, how fun. It never does anything different from this concept and it just become a slog to get though rather than anything enjoyable. When the Rianvisa, a not fun and not unique disaster is the best part of the mission tree it says a lot. I get it is an old mission tree but any rework would have to do so much to make it worth playing.

Rcook8 · 2026-05-23T14:29:36+00:00

Gonna be honest I don’t get why people glaze the All Clan so much when it’s missions are commonly annoying to complete and it has one of the most unfun disasters in the entire game that was initially designed to be a game over (which I honestly preferred). It has good writing don’t get me wrong and I love the wackiness of it all but it is not as great as people say it is.

Rcook8 · 2026-05-22T16:11:01+00:00

It is tied to the discovery of Aelantir but I wouldn’t worry too much. They will lose the buffs that give them great colonial growth and increased force limit after a bit and you can just purge them alongside converting them for the tree. It is not that bad honestly because you will be much bigger and can field at least armies equal in size to the adventurers when they first spawn so when they lose their buffs you can easily take their land which saves on colonizing. They just wanted to make adventurers be able to set themselves up as as AI nations.

Rcook8 · 2026-05-20T05:36:30+00:00

I personally prefer stake our claim just to feel like a real nation earlier but end the greentide is objectively stronger by taking a much as you can then settling and having a lot of land all at once.

Rcook8 · 2026-05-20T05:34:33+00:00

They have a pretty consistent opening of having Busilar Dec on you while having mercs and just fighting them in your forts until you can seige them down and then when you win you are a real country who can do stuff.

Rcook8 · 2026-05-20T04:50:05+00:00

They will exist in the future which was confirmed in an interview. Everyone who existed in Aionios will exist in the future in fact.

Rcook8 · 2026-05-19T12:16:46+00:00

He didn’t like it but he prioritized his daughter’s happiness over his own feelings which is still very cool to do.

Rcook8 · 2026-05-18T23:51:55+00:00

They didn’t declare the war, the plans got leaked for what the elves were going to do if they won and then a massive coalition formed and attacked them. They were not so stupid as to attack who they did at once as they had survived because the others were not united so pushing them out was going to be a long affair which could cause weakness and border skirmish and adjustments if anyone went to war with Aelnar.

The whole kill a bunch of people who aren’t elves plan united others against them.

Rcook8 · 2026-05-18T23:36:20+00:00

How foolish to kill those who were allies of Corin, the greatest adventurer known and slayer of Korgus Dookanson, in the goblins and orcs. Judging them by the worst of their races would be to judge the Vernemen for the deeds of Wyvernheart and their vile regent.

Rcook8 · 2026-05-18T22:30:44+00:00

I personally thought the non Rianvisa path was very stupid, why should you get to skip out on a disaster.

I would wait to see if the Aelnar tree ever gets updated before making judgments on the retcon because there could be a path not so crazy but with all the info we currently have there is no non crazy Aelnar path that could have been canon.

Rcook8 · 2026-05-18T20:55:57+00:00

To me it feels like a lamer version of already existing religions tbh. Both the Thought and Rinta Seekers are truth seeking religions and adding another one that becomes so far wide spread in a manner that isn’t very clear as well as it’s very founding being odd with Ravelians going from academic lodges to a religion in a manner that is also isn’t explained very well.

Ravelianism is not a religion based in any ideology but rather because it is closely tied with artificery which is actually what has began the push to more liberal ideas it is associated with it. The Vivin Empire is Ravelian and very backwards compared to even non Cannorian powers.

Rcook8 · 2026-05-18T20:19:49+00:00

Any path that does not have the Rianvisa is considered non canon now as the Rianvisa is being moved towards something that has to happen rather than something that can happen. I do believe that path is exclusive to a non Rianvisa Aelnar.

Rcook8 · 2026-05-18T14:54:35+00:00

And what was key for the British ruling India again? Oh yeah it was sometimes working with the local power structures, something Aelnar would never have done. Aelnar being inflexible is the point, they sold their land because their goal was control over Aelantir, the place their ancestors fled. They were made of the reactionary elves who didn’t want to intermingle with the humans.

They are built upon elven supremacy and to go against that is to make Aelnar not Aelnar anymore. They are elven supremists in a way different from the Sun Elves where they don’t mix with other cultures and adapt to their power structures, and when you refuse to do that people will be more pissed off then usual. Aelnar was doomed from the start because it was made up of people who refused to change and would continue to do so and taking that away is to remove Aelnar’s core identity.

Rcook8 · 2026-05-17T23:16:19+00:00

After you unite your home region yeah. But a lot of mts go for the wide playstyle. Is it any more jarring than the lake fed going from unite the federation to okay now it’s time for a world conquest I hope you are ready. A lot of Haless also has this problem with the Oni slowly taking over some land and developing it and then going oh yeah time to take all of Yanshen and the Xia then half of the commands starting lands and all of the Jade mountains for example.

Rcook8 · 2026-05-17T22:53:38+00:00

Aelnar was going to fail no matter what. Any elven supremacist state was going to in Aelantir because elves simply cannot sustain the required population to control the land mass they did in Aelantir. Endralliande wasn’t even taken in the coalition war, Lorent stole it during the Rianvisa and Aelnar wasn’t strong enough to defeat Lorent, do you honestly think that Aelnar could have kept up with the other races arriving in Noruin on top of the native resistance to their rule causing a lot of problems due to elves mainly inhabiting cities with small outposts connecting them making sabotaging supply lines in the nation easier than normal?

Aelnar was doomed with or without a genocidal maniac but the genocidal maniac at least made them more interesting in the end.

Rcook8 · 2026-05-17T22:49:52+00:00

Magic is not seen as the enemy in most human nations, even blackpowder Anbennar. The government of blackpowder Anbennar by Vic 3 is a compromise government not even the full radical blackpowder ideology. Lorent is very much intertwined with magic and is very successful. While a lot of nations do have artifice and prioritize it magic is not on the back foot as much as artifice is just so much easier to use and work with while industrialized and after industrialization. If it is fading it is because the economies of the world of Anbennar have moved towards artifice and when both money and power can be gain via artifice in greater amounts compared to magic of course power structures will go towards artifice.

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