Duelyst Forums

Life in the six factions

#1

I admit I’m a bit of a background/flavour maniac, and Duelyst has a beautiful and magical setting that seems a lot of fun to explore or speculate about. One thing I’d like to know more about is what life is like in the differetn nations. We know that all citizens in the Vetruvian Imperium are required to undergo the melding to bond with their sand shields at a certain age and that Dervishes are summoned from microdimensions, that the Abyssians inherited the practice of creating wraithlings from the Inxikrah and that the Songhai Empire was built on a "ush and deadly continent full of deadly predators.

But what about the things we don’t know? Do the Vetruvians use summoned Dervishes for manual labour? And if yes, how intelligent are they and how are they treated? How widespread is the ability to mist walk in Songhai, and how do the different kinds of teleportation magic influence life in this nation? Are the Lyonar as righteous and honorable as they seem, or are there hidden hypocrisies or self-righeousness we don’t know about? What is life like in the Abyssian host? And what is the food in the different nations like? What of their taboos, social gaffes and common superstitions?

Those are hjust some of the questions I’d like to discuss here, but feel free to bring up whatever subject you’d like.

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#2

I think Vetruvian would be something akin to either the Borg or Necrons. Very organized, assimilates people, and has evolved well beyond the concept of humanity or the standard needs of biological life.

Abyssian Host, as the name implies makes me think they are not really human at all. They are sort of like the Zerg one big hivemind that possesses people and continues to grow. So again not really much humanity or culture just expansion.

Songhai I think are the good guys. A nomadic monk like society through spiritualism, bio tech enhancements, and Shinobi level training have become powerful mist walking fire ninjas. I suspect their culture and life would be like a futuristic feudal Japan.

Lyonar creeps me out, I do not think they are good guys at all. They are totaly violent crusaders using righteousness and religion as a front and an excuse. I suspect their society is much like a Catholic Church run place during the crusades.

Magmar I think is really well explained. They are just immortal, dragon-dinosaur, apex predators. But due to the whole immortality thing they don’t really need to hunt, and over the centuries have become very calm and neutral. They are a balancing force of the world.

…Vanar…idk both their mechanics and their flavor is sort of weird. I think they are the closest to just normal humans, but they have grown up in a very hostile, supernatural rich land that has blessed them with Ice themed abilities. I suspect they have a very Native American/Eskemo like society with a great deal of respect for nature, and an affinity for taming the calmer beasts of their Arctic wasteland.

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#3

There are virtually no “good” or “bad” guys in this game. It’s all about 6 nations competing for ressources through some sort of tournament.
But worry not, the latest roadmap said we’d get more lore, so, yeah. Maybe we’ll get more info.

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#4

Adding on to what you said, every culture has some form of play. I think the Abyssian are the sadistic, puppy torturing kind of people. SongHai and Lyonar are probably very similar, in their feudal structure, themes of loyalty and honor, like a modern day dark ages society with a FAR higher standard of living.

#5

I know it’s not really supposed to be about good and bad, but I think alignment does play in here.

Songhai, despite its war like culture, are largely the good guys. They are not righteousness or overly kind, but they are very zen. Where as Lyonar are totaly the villains. At first glance they do have a lot of similarities to Songhai, but their holy face is just to cover up their real dark sinister identity.

Magmar are very neutral and all about balance, and restoring the devastated world. Vanar are similar, very neutral and in tune with nature, but growing up in such a hostile environment makes them naturally cold and hostile themselves, they are all about survival. And due to their home lacking on resources they are really forced to compete.

Abyssian I think is less evil and are more like just a single organism who’s only goal is to grow and reproduce. They are sort of like a predatory fungus very similar to the Zerg, but with more of a daemonic possession and dark magic theme.

Vetruvian are neutral, but think their way of life is superior and seek to assimilate all.

Anyways just theory, and I am not overly well versed in the lore, but that’s what I have gleaned.

We totaly have

Lawful Good: Songhai
Neutral Good: Magmar
Lawful Neutral: Vetruivan
True Neutral: Vanar
Lawful Evil: Lyonar
Neutral Evil: Abyssian

Yes all war like, and all competing, but I think it’s there.

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#6

Well, there isn’t much to read about Lyonar and Songhai. Right now there’s a lot about Magmar, a bit Vanar and Abyssian and a good bit about Vetruvian so I can’t say.
The Songhai to me are some sort of Feudal Japan/China ( no racism intended, I just can’t tell which one they got inspiration from ) who are discarded across th country according to the map. Some did follow the path of monks, such as the Chakri.
Lyonar, I just really can’t tell. There’s nothing to read about them. Or maybe I missed something.
I am also pretty sure the Abyssian are Inxikree, the female Inxikrah. They’re more peaceful and didn’t agree with the Inxikrah’s way of life. They also were extremely different in their appearance, so I think that’s it. I also read Wraithlings are Inxikree servants, transformed creatures made to be their slaves.
Vanar are the protectors of the “new” tree or whatsoever, I don’t know if that’s good or neutral.
Vetruvians are, well, neutral ? We REALLY need more lore.
Finally, I think we can ALL agree with this, Magmar is neutral. Completely neutral. They hardly need anything, I even wonder they compete to get crystals.

#7

Magmar are neutral for sure, but I lean them toward good because they don’t need anything for them selves. They are old, wise, largely peaceful creatures that are only fighting so that this fractured and chaotic world does not get worse and maybe to fix things.

Yea Vanar are just totaly true neutral ice Druids. The guardians of nature (the tree). They are not good or evil, they simply just survive, and live in tune with nature.

I think neutral evil is right for The Abyssian Females. The males would be chaotic evil.

On a related note I can’t tell if I love or hate the way they do lore. It’s really cool how they just made it one big story, but it’s weird how they almost never directly mention the factions or their units. There is no little section for each faction, just one big blurb. Which makes things mysterious, intriguing and open to interpretation. But it’s also vauge, ambiguous, disorganized, and won’t just be strait forward with us about who is what.

#8

Well we know that Lyonar have a strong sense of duty because in the martyrdom lore, Aragon toke a spiral technique to the face from Kelose, and since there were no healers (they all died in the battle) one of the knights with Aragon had to commit suicide to save him.

#9

Yea there it is…that sketchy stuff in their background. Off on a vilonent murdering crusade, “hmmm I am going to loose this fight. You there! Sacrifice your life force to me so that I may smite our enemy!”

And there we have it…pulls a move strait out of Abyssinian, but instead of sacrificing it to increase over all power, he directly eats/absorbs the guys life to win a fight. Its even creepier, and the fact that they mask over it with “duty” and such stuff makes it worse.

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#10

The Vetruvian remind me a bit of the Phyrexians from MTG, only not as evil. While the Phyrexians fused mechanical elements into themselves under the influence of Yagmoth (the big bad), the Vetruvian did it just to survive and adapt to life in the deserts. Of course, they can be just as evil as the Phyrexians if they double Pax going second…

I feel that Vanar and Abyssian will undergo a role reversal in the lore at some point. So far, the Vanar are a nobel tribe of fallen heroes sworn to protect their mana tree. Unlike the Asterai (main continent/ neutral faction) they did not abuse their mana or use it for conquest. The lore also indicates that the Vanar have some sort of quest that they must complete. On the other hand, the Abyssian evolved from a race of predators that threatened to overtake the surface. They apparently work against the tree’s will. However, according to Keliano’s lore, the tree might be not as benign as first imagined. It is suggested that the tree is directly responsible for the war/ age of dysjunction. As such, the Abyssian may be corrupting the world with creep and such for a noble reason.

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#11

Funnily enough Magmar are like the elves of Mythron. Big, scary, scaly dinosaur elves. They are all about natural balance and immortality which is generally what elves do in the other settings. They also seem a bit arrogant and manipulative at times - also a feature common in fantasy elves.

Vetruvian are actually more like fremen from the Dune series than any other option suggested above. I mean, they are literally fused with stilsuits. Their appearance also seems to be insipired by egyptian mythology, so maybe we’ll see traces of that in their lore, but it’s hard to tell for now. They do love cats though, so that’s a pretty egyptian thing.

Lyonar seem to be kinda generic “order” faction, not sure what to make of them yet. Hopefully there is some twist to them, they seem really boring for now.

#12

I just want to make a quick point about the Abyssian: a lot of people seem to think that they are the inxikrah, but I don’t fully believe that. In the short bit of text accompanying Lilithe’s Mk2 skin, it mentions that she was a ‘sister’ of the vetruvians or something to that effect (I’ll find the quote later). This indicates that she, and by extension all the Abyssian rulers, are descended from the Aestari, along with the other races. I imagine that there is a ruling caste of Aestari magi who rule over a far larger array of semi-sentient inxikrah and subservient inxikree.

God these names are awkward.

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#13

yeah, cassyva was once leader of the akram fan blades. akram is deep in vetruvian territory. both abyssian generals were once vetruvian, so i think the entity that controls the abyssian host is arcane in nature rather than a creature or person.

#14

So you’re suggesting that some guy’s demon-waifu isn’t actually the true ruler? Tread carefully, for you are on thin ice, my friend.

Pssst

It was the Serpentis all along

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#15

I hope this doesn’t count as gravedigging or thread necromancy yet, but I’d like to say that it’s interesting that many people seem to peg the Lyonar as evil. While I’m not sure if I’d agree, i agree that there seems to be a heavy focus on duty and loyalty in their culture. That said, spells like Martyrdom can also be used on your opponent’s minions, so does the spell actually trigger the thought to become a martyr for one’s leader before transferring their lifeforce to their commanding officer? The implications would be interesting, to say the least.

#16

Oh man adding in sucidal mondcontrol! I had not thought of that one. For those that have seen Venture Bros, think God Gas (the stuff they used on the mice.) fits the scifi bill, using an airborne chemical like that to influence and rule their population, even weaponizing it to make their enemies act irrational.

#17

Unlike most people here, I don’t think the Vetruvians wish to “assimilate” anyone

What we know about their goals is that Zirix wants to make sure Aestaria never touches Vetruvian soil again (one of his profile pictures). We also know that Emperor Sargos needed more crystals to build his Monolith and end the crisis his land was undergoing, and that he deposited far too much trust in the military leader Rasha, whose tomb now lies deep in Vetruvian soil.

My guess? Rasha had the stupid idea of invading the Vetruvian Imperium to steal their star-crystals, and did a big amount of damage before eventually dying. Now Zirix (Who is probably their emperor, as he shares his surname with their founder) wants to take the Monolith for himself.

Other factions were probably involved in the invasion, since Argeon found Zi’ran in Akram and Kaleos was given a sandshield by Starhorn.

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#18

Something I actually wonder about is, why would Vetruvian want to take control of the Monolith ? They don’t actually need it, they already got their own crystals that, iirc, are pretty much infinite ?

#19

Even if they don’t need it, they might still want to seize it to deny Sargos access to that kind of power. The monolith is both a potent symbol for Sargos and his empire and a great source of power to those who control it via the crystals created by the weeping tree inside. After being overtaxed and invaded by Sargos’ forces the Vetruvian emperor may have decided that Sargos needed a lesson in humility.

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#20

That’s my big reason for thinking they are the assimilation type. Similar to Magmar they don’t actually need anything, therefore their motivations must be something else.

However as @eternamemoria pointed out they do seem to actually work with other people and gift them their technology rather then forcing it upon people.

An alternative simpler theory is that they are just the empire expanding type. Much like their Egyptian theme suggests, they think their Pharaoh should rule the lands and taking the monolith would help assert their position. But they are neither foolish nor particularly bloodthirsty, so they are perfectly willing to work with others and show gratitude if it is logical. Just a simple, methodical, lawful culture, more machine then man, thus the focus on logic.

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