Very very excellent question/topic. Kudos.
The elephant in the room issue is that we all essentially knowing nothing (like so much Jon Snow) unless we are a dev or involved some other way in the game's production. This means that specific lore interpretation must be firmly placed in the category of "things that are subjective," at least until we have a great big tome/document that tells us how all Hydaelyn's bits, bobs, and boops work. The lore currently provides only a loose frame work of things that we sorta understand by interpreting the tid bits we find in game. The exception to this is when devs talk about lore bits in interviews. That stuff is basically "Word of God" and even it is subject to interpretation because most devs are smart enough to leave stuff open ended so as to not have junk written into a corner like so much "Lost." Long and short, not everyone necessarily agrees 100% with one particular interpretation of the game's lore, and that is okay because that is the nature of the beast we live under. It is also worth mentioning that no to characters are necessarily going to believe 100% in the same interpretation of the game's lore. No one is right, they only have the belief that they are right.Â
With that said, there is a collective understanding of the loose framework/guidelines that the lore provides. Ideally everyone is pulling story ideas from that framework to form the foundation of their concepts for stories and characters. All things in the lore are effectively "bent" the second any of us start creating our own stuff in that framework. So yeah, go nuts and be creative with that framework. No one here has any authority to tell you that you are wrong from a lore stand point (for the most part), and no one here has the right to tell anyone that you have to cleave to their own (completely subjective) interpretation of the lore bits we have access to. Nothing is true, everything is permitted.Â
With that note, here is some of the stuff that I have come up with and within the happy dancing framework for story bits.
- A Thuggee like order of Assassin's that hold a unique belief in their worship of Nald'Thal. They believe that they are given holy mandate to serve the Twins as merchants of death, accepting proper payment to kill anyone, and believing that by doing so they are engaging in a holy sacrament to Nald'Thal.
- Use of training similar to Monks to draw forth mass amounts of aether from places of conflict and apply to some later large scale end.
- Applying different martial arts styles other than the one Coeurl fist style employed by Monks in hand to hand combat. Example - Yssen fights like zee snake, not so much like punchy macgee.
- Adaptation of a "One is all, All is one" philosophy/approach when it comes to magic and aether manipulation.
- Various mystic ritual hoobjazzery designed to cure spiritual and psychological afflictions.
- Introduction of a corrupting tincture/potion that slowly but surely affects an individual spiritually, psychologically, and physically in exchange for power. It is also now been made somewhat infectious and weaponized. <.<
- Processes and junk to bind and enslave Elementals for later use as an aether source.
- Other blood contracts created by the use of Thaumaturgy with various terms and usages beyond the known Vengeance Order employed by the THM Guild.
- The notion that one can train in one of the magical arts (Thaumaturgy, Conjury, Arcanistry) with out joining/serving one of the established guilds. Â
There are others, but they to list them would be a wee bit spoilery for some of the stuff I have going on. Thus I have declined to list them at this time. I hope this has been helpful. Yar. ^ ^
The elephant in the room issue is that we all essentially knowing nothing (like so much Jon Snow) unless we are a dev or involved some other way in the game's production. This means that specific lore interpretation must be firmly placed in the category of "things that are subjective," at least until we have a great big tome/document that tells us how all Hydaelyn's bits, bobs, and boops work. The lore currently provides only a loose frame work of things that we sorta understand by interpreting the tid bits we find in game. The exception to this is when devs talk about lore bits in interviews. That stuff is basically "Word of God" and even it is subject to interpretation because most devs are smart enough to leave stuff open ended so as to not have junk written into a corner like so much "Lost." Long and short, not everyone necessarily agrees 100% with one particular interpretation of the game's lore, and that is okay because that is the nature of the beast we live under. It is also worth mentioning that no to characters are necessarily going to believe 100% in the same interpretation of the game's lore. No one is right, they only have the belief that they are right.Â
With that said, there is a collective understanding of the loose framework/guidelines that the lore provides. Ideally everyone is pulling story ideas from that framework to form the foundation of their concepts for stories and characters. All things in the lore are effectively "bent" the second any of us start creating our own stuff in that framework. So yeah, go nuts and be creative with that framework. No one here has any authority to tell you that you are wrong from a lore stand point (for the most part), and no one here has the right to tell anyone that you have to cleave to their own (completely subjective) interpretation of the lore bits we have access to. Nothing is true, everything is permitted.Â
With that note, here is some of the stuff that I have come up with and within the happy dancing framework for story bits.
- A Thuggee like order of Assassin's that hold a unique belief in their worship of Nald'Thal. They believe that they are given holy mandate to serve the Twins as merchants of death, accepting proper payment to kill anyone, and believing that by doing so they are engaging in a holy sacrament to Nald'Thal.
- Use of training similar to Monks to draw forth mass amounts of aether from places of conflict and apply to some later large scale end.
- Applying different martial arts styles other than the one Coeurl fist style employed by Monks in hand to hand combat. Example - Yssen fights like zee snake, not so much like punchy macgee.
- Adaptation of a "One is all, All is one" philosophy/approach when it comes to magic and aether manipulation.
- Various mystic ritual hoobjazzery designed to cure spiritual and psychological afflictions.
- Introduction of a corrupting tincture/potion that slowly but surely affects an individual spiritually, psychologically, and physically in exchange for power. It is also now been made somewhat infectious and weaponized. <.<
- Processes and junk to bind and enslave Elementals for later use as an aether source.
- Other blood contracts created by the use of Thaumaturgy with various terms and usages beyond the known Vengeance Order employed by the THM Guild.
- The notion that one can train in one of the magical arts (Thaumaturgy, Conjury, Arcanistry) with out joining/serving one of the established guilds. Â
There are others, but they to list them would be a wee bit spoilery for some of the stuff I have going on. Thus I have declined to list them at this time. I hope this has been helpful. Yar. ^ ^
