Aysle Preview #6 - Threats

[TorgHacker]

Any chance of having good guy Dragons again? Personally I always loved how the Dragons were tied to the elemental forces. Seemed to make then distinctive from other settings

Sure. Even if not officially, but there's no reason you can't stick them in your own game. We don't say that there are zero good guy dragons.

There just aren't going to be large groups of them.

[TorgHacker]

The Great Dragon looks quite Kaiju!

If dragons are creatures of concentrated Darkness, does this mean there aren't really good varieties?

Any chance of having good guy Dragons again? Personally I always loved how the Dragons were tied to the elemental forces. Seemed to make then distinctive from other settings

I'm rather curious about the difference between Dragons and Drakes, since there is Elven DrakeRider Perk Tree.
(And the Carredon, often referred as "dragonlike" but not as true Dragon. Is it a more greater Dragon now, or a different kind of "creature of concentrated Darkness", or actually a Giant Reptilian Flying Orroshan Horror?)

Drakes are basically young/small dragons.

As for the Carredon, I don't want to talk about it just yet.

And, does just one Perk(Necromancer, for this example) works as "a strong enough connection to Darkness", the prerequiste for Lyche?
(The text says lyches retain their minds, memories, and spells, but doesn't specifically say about thier pesonalities and moralities, so there may be a chance that unlike Mummies, all lyches become GameMaster Characters regardless of how many Darkness Perks they have, however.)

Currently we don't have actual mechanics for a Storm Knight becoming a Lyche. But Necromancer is actually a Darkness Perk.

[Spatula]

Any chance of having good guy Dragons again? Personally I always loved how the Dragons were tied to the elemental forces. Seemed to make then distinctive from other settings

Bwah? D&D dragons (the elephant in the room here) are all elemental themed. Red = fire, black = water, white = snow, green = nature, etc.

[pkitty]

So I"m just curious, why is lich spelled "lyche"? Is there a need to distinguish Asyle liches from others?

[TorgHacker]

So I"m just curious, why is lich spelled "lyche"? Is there a need to distinguish Asyle liches from others?

I don't know. Probably artistic reasons.

[Sword of Spirit]

Any chance of having good guy Dragons again? Personally I always loved how the Dragons were tied to the elemental forces. Seemed to make then distinctive from other settings

Sure. Even if not officially, but there's no reason you can't stick them in your own game. We don't say that there are zero good guy dragons.

There just aren't going to be large groups of them.

It does make sense that most of the dragons that have come to earth are going to be evil. Good dragons wouldn't be interested in invading.

I guess what I'm concerned about is the "concentrated Darkness" wording and the metaphysics it implies. While a couple Darkness Perks doesn't make someone evil, that phrasing implies to me that dragons have evil in their very nature, and a good dragon would be fighting it the whole time, which just seems like a pretty strong departure from the inclusive sort of fantasy that Aysle could represent.

[Atama]

And again, does anyone know about beings called Cherybs? I've heard of Cherubs or Charybdis, but not Cherybs.

I think it’s an undead Cher.

[GeniusCodeMonkey]

I'm still waiting for Uthorion to try possessing a dragon, then the dragon fighting back for control of the body.

[fougerec]

I guess what I'm concerned about is the "concentrated Darkness" wording and the metaphysics it implies. While a couple Darkness Perks doesn't make someone evil, that phrasing implies to me that dragons have evil in their very nature, and a good dragon would be fighting it the whole time, which just seems like a pretty strong departure from the inclusive sort of fantasy that Aysle could represent.

I've got an ongoing subplot in our game where one of the PCs played a Romance card on a dragon so she wouldn't attack them. Now he's betrothed to her and knows that her father is a very, very bad dragon. She isn't evil...yet. I'm playing it as she's holding out against the darkness consuming her but if she ever gives in then it takes over. Sort of like the stories were Vampires retain their humanity as long as they don't kill etc.

[utsukushi]

I actually quite like the idea that Dragons are inherently Dark -- *that* sets them apart from other fantasy worlds we've seen, and that's awesome. And rather than just saying, "Also, there are Light dragons," it brings out the question, "So how does concentrated Light manifest?" Which I find a much more interesting way to go, especially as something to explore as the game moves into Year Two...

But it does say worrying things about Elven Drake Riders, if drakes are indeed bouncing baby bundles of Darkness. Which I admit, I personally am actually happy with, but it seems like a possibly unintended departure by the dev team - so far they have really avoided moral ambiguity on the PC side of things. If it is intended, though, it's interesting to think of some alternate paths it could take, with a Rider who has Light Perks perhaps having a route to better control their Drake, while a Rider who has some Darkness Perks might have a route to better connect with and support their Drake.

If Great Dragons really are "Concentrated Darkness", I would say that if you actually convert one to Light, they would fade away. Probably with beautiful hazy rainbow effects or something.