Kalarsys: The After Chronicles: Q & A

[DC_Desperado]

Welcome, welcome, one and all. This thread is one that should have made landfall a long time ago. Here questions can be ask about TAC's form and functionallity.

"What is ____?"

"Why is this like ______?"

"How does_____?"

These are just the outlines of many a question. Hopefully by clearing away the fog. the game can gain some form of understanding. I know there are a lot of questions about the game as a whole. I myself have a few. So if you have questions, ask.

[Child of Flame]

Okay, I'll start with a few easy ones. I hope.

1) what is the difference between Goliaths and Herculians? Besides some minute cultural differences, they seem like distant cousins to each other regarding size and strength.

2) What is Ether, exactly? Why is Ether different between races and even classes? (To help better my understanding:) Would this be akin to certain abilities that Pokemon can get (e.g., Zigzagoon is one of the few Pokemon that can have "Pickup", but it could never learn something like Shed Skin)?

3) Lastly, WHY oh why did the Eidolons become a class instead of staying as a race? Putting aside the fact that this seriously conflicts with the Core book's rules and definition of a Eidolon... (why does this matter? If someone started a game with Eidolons with Core Book rules, and wanted to move towards the AC for future sessions, they couldn't. They'd have to start over), it's...like one of the oldest things about Kalarsys that worked. It's...it's got sentimental value, man!

[DC_Desperado]

All very good questions. Starting with the first one.

On a physical aspect Goliaths have horn(s) protruding from the head area ( the specifics of the horn are left for player creativity). Were as the Herculians have no horn and have an animalistic type tail. Also there skin colour is different. Herculians have a red/crimson colour to their skin where as the goliaths have an earthy brown colour ( not to be confused with tan of the rurousha) The Goliaths are considerably taller than the herculians. I think the tallest goliath is over seven feet tall. The herculians i believe are six foot or less. However given the smaller size, the herculians have more prominent muscle mass. On a cultural aspect, the herculians are like a den of wolves. There is an alphamale and the rest of the pack. They live in more jungle like areas which is what lead to there ability to sense when a predator (danger) is nearby. The Goliaths on the other hand run there land like a household. There are the parents (king and queen) and the rest are like their children. Each person has an assigned job and they complete it for the better of the whole. They also preach that a good defence outlasts any offense. This is evident by their settlements in the mountains. Living in the mountains has also allowed them to adapt to harsher climates and will not be hindered by them.

Next "Ether" is raw life energy. Every living thing in TAC produces this energy. Not much is known of it, but it is this invisible substance that makes the class abilities possible. Ether is Ether, no matter the race or class. However what the title of class represents is that type of understanding in forming your ether.

Ex: An Eidolon has the understanding that Ether is the very bases of nature and wields it as such. They are more prown to let it flow from there bodies as they cast there spells. Were on the other hand the Mages view Ether as a resource that has to be refined and processed to achieve more potent results.

The last one I know for a lot was prolly the hardest to accept. It was for me as well. However when deciding to use a class based system it would not make sense to leave them as such. When you look at the story of what the Eidolons were ( by core book) they were merely Human sepratists that made a pact with the planet (spyre) so that they could cast magic in return for being the guardians of the planet. So when i took a step back and looked at it all as a whole i realized that all Eidolons were, were just human magic casters. Their still the same number of chromosomes so there was no point in keeping them separate. Believe me CoF, I have seen Kalarsys grow from the vary start, I was there when Eidolons were just a blueprint, this was not a decision so easily made. It was with solid conviction and a heavy heart that TAC came to be in exsistance. A lot of the decisions took weeks just to finally say, "Yes, lets do it this way.". I have plenty on Kalarsys characters that were Eidolons (Xander) but when you come to understand TAC more indepth Core book characters translate very smoothly into TAC. It also helps if you have a good TS to translate the differences.

CoF I hope i answered your questions to the fullest extent possible. If you still have further questions i'd be happy to elaborate further.

So, as always, keep those questions coming!

[Lt. Pwnage]

My turn:

Shields... How do they work and is there Block a stat for shields or is it Str plus shield modifier vs. Acc?
(Yes I looked in the book and I did not get a clear answer)

Bows... how is pulled determined and does the wood that the bow is made out of make durability different?
(ex.) Elm=tier 2 Oak= tier 3 something like that

This mostly towards DC WHY CAN'T TALESPIN FOR ONCE?!!!!!! =P
Edit for Q3: I haz a session now XP

[DC_Desperado]

I'm sorry form the lack of information on shields and bows... I know Lurid explained the bows to me but the explination eludes me at the moment.

However... I started a personal Q & A file on my computer for questions I thought to ask myself and Answers that i came to... The questions are more related to the story of the Chronicles... not so much about calculations and systems.



Q and A

Q: What is the Chronicles?

A: The Chronicles is a war that involved all the races of Spyre.

Q: How long did this war last?

A: Anywhere from 50 to 80 years.

Q: Why did the war last so long?

A: Difficulties gaining an upper hand on either side. Well fortified cities. periods of time were there was no fighting. ect.

Q: Who won?

A: There was no clear cut winner in the war. The Chronicles took a lot of lives and resources from all nations. However, the Goliath nation was able to recover the fastest. The phidiasans were able to relocate and settle new lands for themselves, with the help and funding of the Human nation. The Humans didn't gain or lose anything in the war except the allegance of the Phidiasan people. The Herculians, to which were involved the least could only gain from their involvment... even if it was a small gain. The Rurousha, only gained via business with all nations, having kept themselves completely neutral. The Shades were hit the hardest, having been the nation to start the war, they were held responsible and were charged with funding the other nations for their loses. This crippled the Shade's econemy.

Q: The Shades started the Chronicles? How?

A: Yes! The Shade Empire was suffering a sevier series of drouts and the people were dying do to lack of food and water. People were even robbing and killing each other for those resources. Their target, the Phidiasans, lived in swamp-ish wetlands and deltas at the mouths of mighty rivers. To save his people, the ruler of the shade empire attacked the phidiasans to claim those much needed resouces for his desperate people. They fleeing phidiasans pleaded their case with the humans and gained their assistance. The Humans demanded that the Shades return the land and fund their rebuild. This would have been a death sentence to the Shade people. The Shades refused and struck at the human villages in the area. The humans took this as a sign of war... and it sort of escalated from there.

Q: Did anyone know of the Shade's desperation?

A: No.

Q: were there any hardships for the other races?

A: Nothing to sevier. The Humans were about average. The phidisan were actually at the top of the academic world and were second to Goliaths in ways of economics. The Herculians were in the midst of their own wars with herculian tribes... they had no economy to speak of at this time. The Goliaths were at peace for MANY years, Being well fortified and a resource to all nations, left it a powerful political juggernaut. The Rurousha's however were not on the greatest terms with the Human's for the Humans in there last kingdom expanding venture took a great deal of Rurousha land. However the Human nation allowed them to stay on there land and live their lives as normal, so no violence was taken in this event.

Q:What were the total casualties of the Chronicles.

A: Humans: 2713 Dead. 4112 Injured. 324 MIA.
Phidiasan: 4201 Dead. 1232 Injured. 519 MIA.
Goliaths: 1045 Dead. 2306 Injured. 25 MIA.
Rurousha: 340 Dead. 1582 Injured. 40 MIA.
Herculian: 835 Dead. 720 Injured. 16 MIA.
Shade: 5695 Dead. 4522 Injured 1020 MIA.

Q: What was the known population at the beginning of the war?

A: Humans: 12,000 people
Phidiasan: 10,500 people
Goliaths: 15,000 people
Rurousha: 7,000 people
Herculian: 9,000 People
Shade: 14,000 People

Q:...well.... what were the populations After?... do take people being born into consideration.

A: Humans: 6,750 people.
Phidiasan: 7,000 people.
Goliaths: 14,040 people.
Rurousha: 6,840 people.
Herculian: 8,030 people.
Shade: 5,046 people.

Q: how were international relations after the Chronicles.

A: Following the Chronicles was an event known as the 20 years of silence. In this time period each nation secluded itself from one another. They used the time to rebuild, regrow and repopulate.

[Lt. Pwnage]

That is really helpful, the current TAC book didn't really explain much and too much was left to imagination. Thanks for the info and is there more to come D_C