Corruption Themes

[Rezanta 373]

Heya folks! Rez here with something of interest I want to bring to the table. (Interesting or not, it's a table, that's it. Hope you all enjoy-

 

Anyway! When it comes to my game, Scalvose: Demons and Dragons, you end up fighting and pairing up with demons (along with the usual heroes of Scalvose). While this seems fine in its own regard, I also had the idea of having demon blood easily altered. I'll list some examples below. (You may open the spoilers if you want to, but they do technically spoil this aspect of the game.)

 

 

Migrol, a lightning demon and current leader, has a spirit, named Nemur, that lives inside of him. As the story goes on, he slowly takes on Nemur's lion-like form, until he gets a mane that wraps around his neck and one arm turns into a lion's leg. (he still retains his hand, but he eventually covers it with a metal-clawed gauntlet.) He's the first target of the heroes that are fighting off the demons that follow his view.

 

 

Rilumia is the queen of the demons... Well, she was until she fell in love with a dragon scale that turned her into an anthropomorphic dragon. She has mixed thoughts on what happened to her body as she traverses Scalvose, trying to find the owner of the scale as she also is very fragile to the world around her. A sensitive array of scales, armor that's too snug on her body, and wing and tail tips filled with potent venom, and even neck scales that lift up and allow moisture in and out of her body; her life problems are unique to the way she lives in a cave until a couple of the main characters run into her.

 

 

Anicor, another lightning demon and the demon of intellect, has a hard time coping with Rilumia's dethronement as she ends up running into the thunderbirds of Scalvose, known as Shinirus. She eventually kills one as a meal, and while her assistant spirit, Allimi, warns her of the possibilities of the blood tainting hers, she ends up eating one of the birds to stay alive. Afterward, she wakes up one day to find her body has become one of the birds and sets off to find Rilumia before Migrol or Anidre does.

 

Lastly,

 

Anidre, a water demon of gluttony, turns into a large, aquatic serpent after he meets his demise against Thyrois. While he's also slightly similar to Migrol in view, he would prefer destroying the galaxy to make himself the ruler. The classic villain he is, he acts as if he's the sly, cool man of the story (Or at least tries) while the faction that supports Migrol fights his side.

 

While corruption isn't really run this way, I thought of taking this kind of spin on things. Sure, creativity can be hard in these regards, but what do you guys think? Should corruption be a theme or central idea? Regardless of your answers, what do you feel corruption is and how it should be used?

[Kayzee 4,032]

Champions aren't involved in this corruption are they? Maybe a target of it? That would fit with the idea of body alteration a lot... I think I know what alterations lust demons would have then! <3 *giggles*

 

But yeah, demons and weird mutations are things that tend to go with each other hand in hand. Though I think a common consequence is that particularly old and powerful demons will end up as more lovecraftain monstrosities then anything resembling humans unless there is some counterbalance to keep them from not  just mutating and mutating.

[Rezanta 373]

Champions aren't involved in this corruption are they? Maybe a target of it? That would fit with the idea of body alteration a lot... I think I know what alterations lust demons would have then! <3 *giggles*

 

But yeah, demons and weird mutations are things that tend to go with each other hand in hand. Though I think a common consequence is that particularly old and powerful demons will end up as more lovecraftain monstrosities then anything resembling humans unless there is some counterbalance to keep them from not  just mutating and mutating.

Basically, when it comes to the heroes, if you count the alterations of their life, they were changed depending on who we talk about. Demons are, admittedly, an easy target due to the variations, but the mutations I decided to go for are things that kind of work for/against them.

 

Let's say you're a demon, for the sake of an example, and you come in contact with cardinal blood. Slowly, but surely, you'll turn into at least half cardinal. It does depend on the length of exposure, too, so there's also that limitation.

 

As for the monstrosities, technically there is no counterbalance to keep them from completely changing, excluding the fact that their original DNA that could be changed gets overwritten.

[lonequeso 1,921]

So demons can change their from just by touching blood? I can see an demon going Apocalypse with that to gain powers from various species. I'm assuming you already have a main antagonist and story for him, but you could always use it for a side story or one of i's minions. Can mages control demons? If so, I can see someone making a chimera of sorts with that trick. 

 

Are any playable characters demons at least in part? It would be a cool way for the player to customize a character or even as a set method of progression. 

 

Should corruption be a theme or a central idea? Either would work. It's just a matter of how in-depth that aspect of your world goes. If you have a lot of examples like above in your game, it may be a good idea to make it a core. If it's more of a sub story, leave it as a theme.

[Kayzee 4,032]

My my, corruption, champions, and mutagenic bodily fluids? I think I was on the mark after all. *giggles uncontrollably* Though it makes me wonder if demon blood is mutagenic to other life forms too...

 

Anyway, the really important question for me is, how is this going to effect gameplay?

[Rezanta 373]

Anyway, the really important question for me is, how is this going to effect gameplay?

Well, you have three demons that help you on your journey, so there's that. Rilumia and Anicor are already influenced, and the same goes for the third. (It basically influences the elements they use.)

 

As for the other characters, Crystal's already a dragon, she just uses water vapor to hide as a human, while Wane is half-dragon. While doesn't show any physical characteristics, besides enough physical prowess to catch a meteor and throw it, the plant that lives on his body shows the mark of his curse (The same curse that caused him to become half-dragon). Will, being the god of fire, can turn into a phoenix due to some interesting events between him and Pyrazumes. This means that the game will have you utilize both forms of Will and Wane (if you want hero mode, then don't use 'em, your choice XD) and also using the 13 party members wisely, as I do have skills/spells/specials that can harm your other party members, excluding the user in most cases.

[lonequeso 1,921]

So you got demonic and dragonic corruption going on. It sounds like there's enough of it to where you can easily make a core element of the story, the gameplay or both. It'd be cool as a method of character customization especially if their forms change based on your play style. If you focus on skills for Wane on his dragon side, those skills become more powerful and/or more are unlocked, and he begins to show physical signs of his dragonic blood. 

Will seems more like his would be a transformation skill in battle that wold completely changes his a attributes and skills, but I suppose you could also build him like Wane. Both methods can create some interesting strategies and some really unique characters. How many playable characters can go through some sort of corruption? The more there are, the more it seems making the concept a core idea makes sense. Then, of course, you have the enemies to consider as well.

[Rezanta 373]

 

How many playable characters can go through some sort of corruption?

Truly only two go through their corruption while they're with you. Rilumia is already corrupted when Will and Anicor stumble upon her. Wane and Will's transformations don't technically work the same as corruption, but it still holds the same play-style as the others. I'll use Anicor again as a small example.

 

Anicor is mostly changed when she first runs into Will, but using her assistant, she hides most of the changes. (This excludes her wings and eye color.) She ends up quitting the fight they enter as her body rejects the cloaking ability, in turn revealing the corruption she went through. The only changes left that could technically happen are internal, and they're all dealing with organ function near the end. Also, the last phenotype/physical change that can be seen is that her eye structure eventually become much like a red tailed hawk's eye structure.

[lonequeso 1,921]

If there's only a couple character like that then I'd say theme unless it's important enough in the story to make it a core concept. Then again if it's that important to story, it should be reflected more in the gameplay,