Kethuru is the source of the taint, amirite?

And yes, I read it. It basically said blablablah, and Illithoids have nothing that would resemble tendrils.
To which I say, look at the racial pic and at the guys head. Stubs. Who says they can't grow longer?

Daganev, don't even bother arguing if you aren't going to discuss what we are. You always attempt to change the point around which we argue, which has been proven by that statement. I will not stand for that. We are discussing genetics and birth defects at the moment, not teleportation or planar magic. Neither teleportation nor planar magic are relevant to genetics or birth defects, in Lusternia.



THE RACIAL PICTURE IS NOT WHAT ILLITHOIDS LOOK LIKE. That was the whole point of this thread.

EDIT: Lulz, said illithids.

...Something you seemed to have missed while writing out this well-thought post:

We's playing a GAME full of MAGIC, tell me where you can find non-vegas magic (or an Aslaran) IRL and I'll get rid of some random fleshy-hair-tentacles

Judging from the most recent Elder book, all the soulless had the effect of Tainting. But notice that during the Taint wars, the mutagenic effects disappeared the moment Kethuru's presence was shunted outtathere. Illith could, of cours,e been tainting the inside of the seal for years, however, her consciousness as a single soulless-godess entity disappeared the moment she splintered because, well, she wasn't a single soulless-godess entity anymore. Therefore, it's tainted, sure, but not mutagenic. The illithoids have only been there 10 years.

...you argue official pictures of a race? :|

You lost that argument before you started, bud.

Already explained the magic part of that, and aslarans have the same genetic structure (more or less) as people IRL. reed b4 post plz



See: Non-hairy Igasho, Kephera with breasts and built-in high heels, first post.

We win that argument, Ash. Go back to forging/bashing!

Okay, so, um, what's to say then that the Soulless didn't somehow effect their shards with that changeability? We haven't had any splinters of soulless gods before, so..anything might go for Illithoids.


Look, I am just arguing that minor mutations are okay in the game. I don't see a problem with them. You can't target hair at all.
For example, if you scalp a guy without hair, the scalp will still have hair.
If you cut off legs of people, the leg won't have any scars or tattoos of the wearer.


Are we all supposed to have hair and completely unharmed legs now, just because that stuff looks like that?

That is called mechanics, and it is a painful necessity which has raped RP too many times to count now. Bringing that up in your argument is incredibly lame.

No, it proves my point. You are judging by descriptions of mobs. I bring up descriptions of items. What's wrong with that?

You must realize that they would have to check the race of a player each time a player was scalped, and change the description of the scalp with the for each race that doesn't have hair. Since that wasn't implemented from the start, that would be an unecessary addition to the coding that would just be a waste of time, because they have better things to do than please nit-pickers about things that the players can't change. Each person's description, however, is up to them, and it should follow what mechanics allow and what racial/NPC descriptions allow. In this instance, the mechanics contradict the racial/NPC descriptions of hundreds if not thousands of mobs and players, and we just ignore it because it was overlooked.

The same thing applies to the removed arms and legs. Where's the armor on the arms and legs, or the weapons in the hands? For that matter, how can you scalp someone or remove their ears through a helm, without some metal coming off and the helm being rendered useless?

Suspension of disbelief. Good in some cases, bad in others. Suspension of disbelief in description-mechanics contradictions is a good thing. Suspension of disbelief in what's possible for a player's description when it is contradicted by hundreds of other descriptions and things written by the admins (in some cases), however, is a bad thing. The same goes for the racial pictures: if hundreds of NPC descriptions contradict the racial picture(s), we can safely assume the racial picture(s) is wrong.




This whole post has been edited a lot because I wasn't refreshing the page.

Is that your "We'll make you look stupid on the forums now" attempt? Kind of weak. Each desc is up to the individual player, yes. The admins put in the descs of the mobs, yes. However, they also approved the racial pic (Which you try to argue) and wrote nothing about "no tendrils, zomg no" in the racial desc.
So, uh, you are arguing all off of ingame descriptions, so it's clear I can do the same. And scalps says they have hair! People ALL have to have hair now.

I would debate the truth of that statement, Ashteru. My research, based on what I've read of the histories, which are first hand accounts of the effects of the "Taint", and observations of the Undervault and the Great Illithoid Prison, seem to indicate that the "Taint" is simply the essence or power or might or whatever of any Soulless God. This would explain the prevalence of natural tainted environments within the Illwater Lake and the Great Illithoid Prison.

Ytrasomething already said that, thanks for clearing it up though. ^^

Curse me for not reading the whole thread before posting.

You are basically saying the official, admin approved pic doesn't count. I hope you realize how baseless this makes your arguments.

I hope you realize that I'm right...and that the hundreds of descriptions may or may not have been placed with the "admin approved pic" in mind, and that the artist quite possibly may have used "artistic license". Regardless, though, the descriptions win by default, due to sheer quantity.

So, builder written descs beat Admin approved pics?

Yes, because the admins presumably approved the area before it was released. I'm sure they woudn't let hundreds of mobs that are the only example of their race wander around contradicting the racial pic unless there was something wrong with the racial pic.

EDIT: Question mark instead of period.

I'm sorry, but "wow magic" is a non-explanation. Let me be clear to you.

Fantasy games (Like Lusternia!) often include fantasy elements like magic or hyperadvanced technology.

However, they are still very much grounded in reality; things still fall down, when they're not being levitated by a wizard, air is still made of oxygen and nitrogen, etc. etc.

We have to assume the game world is like the real world - except when it explicitly isn't. In the real world, babies of one species - be they humans, ocelots or what-have-you - don't grow entirely new appendages overnight. People have zits on their face; that doesn't mean it's normal or justifiable for someone to suddenly have a very long, thin zit hanging from his face, and he would be justifiable regarded as a freak.

Hence, unless there is something in the game world that makes it possible - people of one race don't just pop up with totally uncharacteristic traits because "nubs might've grown into tendrils". In the same vein, the sky in Lusternia is blue, if you throw stuff up it'll fall down, if you could get sulphur, saltpetre and charcoal you could make gunpowder, and staying underwater for too long will cause you to asphyxiate.

Unless there's a Taint cloud hovering overhead, a magic levitation spell at work, or you have gills. Note the unless. Magic is the exception to normal reality, not the norm.

In the real world, we have computers and advanced technology. However, were this Lusternia and were we playing a game of Malls & Muggers through the Aether, I would still criticise you if you made a character who was born with wires coming out of his brain because "technology wow."

DUDE. MALLS AND MUGGERS. That would be awesome!