thinking about adding a new ancient juncture

So in the current bundle of holding there's this game called Nefertiti Overdrive, that made my girlfriend's eye shine (she's a huge ancient Egypt nerd). it's basically Wuxia with Pharaoes.

I bought the bundle and read the game, and it's not for me. The author says that the game pretty much evolved from his idea of the first scene of the included adventure, and I found that limitating (the choice of characters feel like a very incomplete version of Feng Shui archetypes). But I must say that it motivated me to think about adding a juncture to Feng Shui. I had already though about adding an ancient mesopotamia juncture (if my girlfriend is an egypt nut, mythic mesopotamia is my own obsession) but decided against it. My affinities for ancient mesopotamia are strictly sword and sandals and I just couldn't think about it it terms of HK action flicks.

But I don't know, did you ever come across something that did a similar idea to something you once rejected, and were influenced by it like "oh yeah, in fact, it's possible and I actually see how to do it now" ? Because that's what happened.

So yeah I'm going to write a new juncture in ancient Egypt, with a new faction, and I'll introduce it when I detonate the Chi Bomb and put the group in a five years temporal statis. It'll be one of the other effects of the bomb and will feel natural. It will unbalance the traditional setup of 4 junctions and 5 enemy factions but hey, whatever. It'll probably be "the Antiquity Juncture" or something.

Did anyone do something like that in their game ? (for example, adapting factions from shadowfist, which I heard have some factions we never heard about in the RPG continuity)

That sounds really cool! Do you have an idea of introducing a new faction that would be native to the Antiquity Juncture?

For me, the existing junctures fall pretty much squarely in the sweet spot of the history that I love--Qing Dynasty and Tang Dynasty--so I haven't been tempted but it sounds like an awesome thing to do!

Yes, yes I do.

I'm still debating (with myself) whether to do it in Ancient Egypt (which I don't really know/care about) or in Babylon (which is my Ancient culture personal obsession).

Whichever I choose, the new Faction will be a secret society of sorcerous priests who follow a cabal of very, very old (think lovecraftian) gods (more ancient than the "official" ones. If it's set in Egypt they won't follow Osiris, Set, Sobek etc. If set in mesopotamia, they won't follow Ninurta, Ishtar, Marduk, etc.) Of course they masquerade as priests from the official Gods, but they perverted the rites so that they in fact honour their own Gods (something like a process of syncretism, if you want to know).

Once in the Secret War (I don't know yet if they'll already be in it when I introduce them, but probably, so they'll have a head-start on the Dragons) they'll probably see it as an opportunity to make their Gods come back. In their Juncture, their dominion is very limited to only one geographical area of the whole planet, but in the future junctures, where the world is "smaller" thanks to technology, they may find something to do on a larger scale, activating secret pangean artefacts that they couldn't reach in the Antiquity Juncture because of their limited means of travel, that kind of thing (the VERY ANCIENT artifacts would have been scattered across the whole world when the continents rearranged themselves to their current configuration, and in the Antiquity Juncutre they just didn't have the means to get at them)

So it makes a new evil sorcerous faction (the Eaters were the only ones up until now, not counting the Monarchs of course) which won't please the Ascended. AND they're even further in time (i'm thinking 3000-1000 BC), so that's quite a problem for everyone :smiley:

First let me salute a fellow fan of Mesopotamia.

Its great to see good old Mesopotamia get some love and since I've had ideas about an ancient juncture I thought that maybe I should share some ideas, and give the thread a bumb, for that matter as the matter is something that I would love to discuss more.

The idea of priests to Lovecraftian gods sounds pretty cool to me and it would differentiate the new faction from the Lotus Eaters although you might want to ensure they don't end up to close to the Monarchs, of course. I would suggest that these guys are perhaps given some sort of signature way of operation as well. I recall that the Lotus Easters are focused, or at least that's what I've seen, on summoned magical creatures and political intrigue to throw some mix of cheaper human mooks at the players, with the enuchs normally try to keep to the sidelines, in contrast to the high-tech geared out soldiers of the Simian Army, Jammers and pawns of the Ascendents.

One suggestion on how to develop them could be that they operate in a more direct way than the Chinese enuchs and if you want to draw them closer to the Assyrians, than instead of intrigue, for which I believe enuchs are rather famous, they operate with fear, extortion and blackmail and lots and lots of violence to break people in the desire direction.

Interesting that you made them sorcerers. That makes two sorcerous factions. Given the standard book style of 'each faction does their own thing' and the Lovecraft tie in, my first thought would've been to go with a bunch of priests who gained creature powers over time.

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Giving them Creature Powers does sound like something that would fit in with the Lovecraftian theme of it and would certainly differentiate them from the other sorcerous faction. Its an idea that certainly deserves more thought in my opinion.

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First, I'm sorry for the silence, I didn't see the thread update. These forums are so quiet, I forgot to check them for months, especially since my campaign was on hold.

I'm glad to meet another fan of mesopotamia ! Do you know about the game "Puerta de Ishtar" ? If not, have a look to this english language review ! Too bad it's still only in Spanish...

So, easl, the suggestion about Creature Powers, and the fact that every faction is supposed to do its own thing... This is totally BRILLIANT. There isn't any faction who uses creature powers ! And I can totally see dark priests that don't have magic powers, but creature ones because of a pact with lovecraftian entities. It works well AND it's more original.

I also agree with you, First to Fall, about making their style more violent than the Eaters. That would increase their difference.

As far as the background is concerned, I'm wondering whether it should be only Mesopotamia, or both Mesopotamia and Egypt (that way I would satisfy myself AND my girlfriend) ; it would be like, a secret order of corrupt dark priests in both civilisations, working together for the same Gods and pretending to be of the mainstream religions of Egypt and Mesopotamia. With netherworld portals opening both in Egypt and in Mesopotamia.

Do you think that would be interesting, or would it be too bloated ? If we do the two, there could be internal struggle between them, adding to their relative complexity as a faction.

The factions in FS are bent on global, timeline-spanning domination, so I see no problem with having your priests be the secret puppet masters of multiple civilizations. Heck, you could have them be the secret masters of the entire western hemisphere and all its ancient civilizations through both ancient junctures (the regular one and your new one) if you wanted. I don't think that would mess with the FS base material; the Eaters are China-based.

This is what I've got for now. Work in progress (even if I'm quite happy with it right now).

The Cult of the Void controls the Antiquity Juncture. It’s a secret order spanning from Mesopotamia to Egypt, that has infiltrated their religious casts.
Under the guise of honoring the “official” gods, they worship those they call the “Void Gods” : Okkosthu, Lloshath, Ushar-Nyott, and others. Their secret practices are decadent and revulsing, and would get them executed publicly if they ever were discovered. Which can’t happen, since they control the Feng Shui sites of their geographic area and are the only Secret Warriors around in their Juncture.

Their long-term goal is to enslave humanity as a gift for their Gods when they shall return. When the netherworld portals opened, the Cultists were shocked to discovered that all their efforts had been in vain. The Void Gods had never returned. There was no trace of their Faith in any future junctures, save for some forbidden tomes gathering dust in university libraries or private collections, and a few degenerate cults relying on rituals corrupted by time.

Some among the most vehement wanted to rush their plan and sacrifice humanity en masse in the Antiquity Juncture, in the hope of luring their Gods back. But the most moderate managed to reason with them. Instead of destroying their own present and all future eras, which wasn’t garanteed to bring back the Gods, it was much more preferable to take control of these future times. Surely, owning those future Feng Shui site will be the required trigger for the return of the Void Gods.

The worship of these eldritch entities gives the Cult of the Void monstrous abilities, making them formidable foes in direct confrontation. Tentacles grow out their back, dozens of eyes suddenly open all over their face, their arms turn into giant disgusting worms with sharp fangs… Far from the intrigues of the temporal opponents closest to them, the Eaters of the Lotus, the Cultists favor violent, direct attacks, as well as corrupting by force the mind and body of their foes and innocent victims alike.

Sweet! I'm ka-chinking my shotgun just reading it. :slight_smile: Please stop by again and tell us how it goes.

Good stuff!

I really liked how you presented it, and I don't think that its a problem that they are in both Egypt and Mesopotamia. I'll be looking forward for more. :slight_smile:

EDITED: And I didn't know about "Puerta de Ishtar". I wish I knew Spanish. :cry:

Woohoo! Mesopotamia needs more gaming love like hella! There's just not enough about it.

Did you ever write up anything more about the antique juncture? May I suggest, for its timing, that it be in 609 BCE? That's the Battle of Megiddo between Egypt/Neo-Assyria and Neo-Babylon, which allows you to play with the word "armageddon" (derived from Megiddo) and continues the tradition of 69 CE and 609 CE as junctures.

Also, have you thought about bringing Enkidu and/or Humbaba and/or Gugalanna and/or the 7 waves of 50 different monsters Enki sent to retrieve the me from Inanna into the Cult of the Void?

The new primos ones look pretty good too. I have a cheap foam jake and hen, but Im thinking about adding another hen to them and probably going to get a primos. I cant justify spending the money on avian or dsd unless they are on sale.