That the Taint can still be harmful, whether it's Kethuru'd or not. That Fae girl wasn't a demon, or she'd have stayed in Nil and been an imp. She was Tainted.

...

Um, I skipped the last five posts.

Anyway, the fae themselves weren't affected by the Taint (maybe at that point, Kethuru had left the Taint already or the fae were somewhat "immune" to the effects of the Taint). The fae themselves were killed by Rowena, it was she who affected the Taint.

On the races of Glomdoring, take a look at Rowena. Rowena is elfen, so elfen could just might as well be the race specialization in Glomdoring, but let's hope it is a new kind of elfen (macabre elfen?). Or even maybe the Mugwumps could occupy the slot.

Regarding undead, the process of making the undead is unnatural. This is because it is manipulated by Magic, not nature's own intervention or whatever. Though, once the undead is made the dead tissue that composes the undead is still organic and subject to the process of decomposition. Therefore anatomically they are natural, the ways they were created wasn't.

Oh, and whoever said that changing wallpapers and painting the facade would be the equivalent of demesne... Not in my opinion. Demesne Glomdoring, imo, would be the same as toppling a glass of water over the floor. You see the puddle there, you dry it. Nothing drastic. While wallpaper and all is more drastic and long term.

Also, the thing with the Taint is the following... Both Taint and Light would/are able to manipulate things, which in the point of view of Nature is just unnatural. Though Glomdoring, it is one of the few cases of where Nature was able to survive and adjust to it. It may not be a very acceptable change, but it is one were Nature ended adapting to it as best as it could. But the Taint that the Magnagoran's spew, that is completely unnatural. Just as whatever the Celestians do. Still Glomdoring is the same forest as Gloriana, so it's the same entity just underwent readjustment to a drastic change (thanks to Marylinth it manage to adjust or else the Taint would've destroyed the forest completely).

Either the light is just as bad as the Taint or the light is just as good as the taint or the light is just is neutral as the taint. Anything the modern taint can do, the light can do.. just in a different direction with different end results.

Every skill in necromancy appears to have an equal and oppsite skill in sacraments.

In my opinion both Light/Taint are just as bad. Glomdoring, though had nothing more than to have to deal with the Taint resulting on what is now. Though it obviously was a painful transition. Magnagora on the other hand, the Taint it spreads should be viewed just the same as some sort of Agent Orange... probably less lethal. The same should apply to Water/Light. Of course this is only my opinion.

On a purely game mechanics level, I totally agree with you. Light/Taint are equivalent specializations for cities, and most quests are balanced equally between them.

On a conceptual level, however, I don't. We must assume that the the Celestine empire followed derivations of the light for however long it was in existence, and the communes had no problems with it other than their original dislike of cities.

There is no mention in the histories of any time that Nature was dying or being hurt/destroyed because of the Light, unless we take the jaded stance of the communes and blame them entirely for the Taint.

Yes, Fae can be perverted (Elryn's view) into Cherubs, and vice versa. But the struggle isn't one of survival, it is instead a power conflict.

Read that first paragraph from the histories very closely. The poison of the imprisoned soulless gods was killing the spirits of nature. Sound familiar? And that is why the communes were formed.

(Incidentally, I would be curious to investigate whether 'nature becoming fragmented' refers to the origin of the fae, but I doubt it.)

A commune that is tainted ceases to follow the nature that sustains the rest of the basin, and instead they must follow a new doctrine entirely. They may have tainted trees and tainted animals that resemble their originals, but they are no longer part of nature.

Probably the same would be true if a commune decided to convert to the philosophy of the Light because of the game conflict between the supernals/avatars, but there is no precedent to say that it is entirely impossible.

Taint is simply irreconcilible with Nature.

Now, I will wait for the end of this event to prove me wrong.

You say the view of serenwilde in history is jaded, I say its 100% accurate.

If the Light was not a problem for nature, why were the communes so insitant on not joining the empire?

Your arguments for the taint being harmfull to nature is based purely on the soulless being harmfull. However, the taint is not the soulless. Thats like saying, we should not have nuclear power plants because its used to make atomic weapons.

Maybe, if we want to blame the Supernals for the Taint, we could. It -is- jaded, because it was a mistake of ignorance rather than malevolence, and they have both paid dearly for it since, and worked to redeem themselves.

Because they were cities, who didn't follow the Spirits. I doubt Serenwilde gave a damn about the Light and its teachings. They disliked the cities for being greedy and being cities.

No, because that paragraph doesn't say the soulless were out there killing fae. It says AFTER the Soulless were imprisoned, their poison was killing the fae. The modern day taint isn't inhabited by Kethuru's consciousness, but it is still poison that lingers after he has been imprisoned.

The soulless were imprisioned into the very earth itself. So they poisioned their cell.

You don't have to become a city to join an empire. Villages stay villagges but they are still part of the Magnagoran empire. The communes wanted political independance and wished to not support the empire.

the 'mistake out of ignorance' wasn't so ignorant. Yes, they did not know they would release Kethuru, but the last plans they tried destroyed a swamp, and the communes warned them not to do what they were trying. They assumed they knew better, I'm sure they asked thier supernals for advice before going on with it also.

Aye, they were imprisoned in the earth, much like Kethuru on astral. Unfortunately, poor Astral didn't have communes/cities to clean things up and keep the poison back. Now that poison has been spread down through the planes thanks to mortal meddling. Any wonder why all three communes were panicked about it? They'd been forged on healing lesser variaties of it.

Not sure what your point is with villages.

Fine, blame the Light for releasing the Taint. That doesn't change the fact that Taint is antithetical to Nature.


Edit: Ooo, just had a thought... I know there are Soulless trapped in Serenwilde, I wonder if the fact that Glomdoring is just tainted means there aren't any trapped in that forest? Otherwise it would have given them a vehicle of control... hmm.

Well apparently, the Taint may change the outside appearance, but they don't change memory all that well.

There's a Soulless trapped in the Seren? o.O

Wait, where's that?

Y'see, everyone's all "WHOAMG KETHURU IS BREAKIN' OUT", but I'd like to see some small-scale Soulless make an appearance.

Crazen, for example, or Muud. Or Illith.

Yay Illith!

I KNOW THAT. I meant where in the Serenwilde.

Or just a small manifestation of a Soulless God (like in the form of a Garden snake), one who talks big like the Kethuru possessed Viravain, that we can all go newbie kick to death.

Maybe not that small.

Oh, I feel like making a Guido-esque log!

...wait, no I don't.

Ooh, I do.

No no... the soulless is well tucked away. No repeats of Astralathon!

Haven't you guys been standing at the Moonhart when you see something like...

The ground here vibrates, as if something living was buried underneath.

I always assumed that refers to one of the Soulless that were trapped under the earth. Probably the one whose aftereffects were poisoning the fae, since Serenwilde is where they were contacted.