Acadian: It is a lot different from the whole mindset of playing a single character, to running a nation. Thankfully the generals all have some personality based on their traits and abilities.

The symbol I used for Amazonia was one of my favorites from the Barbarian Invasion expansion. It was originally the insignia for the Huns, except in black and white. I recolored it to Amaznian Red and White.


mALX: You do get a message when a general dies of old age, or from assassination, or even death in battle. There is even a family tree page you can go to, and see your entire family of generals, all laid on in the standard genealogical format.

You don't get to pick the traits or retinue members your generals receive. Instead every turn there is a chance that they will get some based on things like if they are in a city or not, and if they are in a city what buildings are present. If you are outdoors you might get a Wilderness Prophet retinue member. Or if you are in a city with a Law temple, you might get a legal trait like Even-Handed, with gives bonuses to public order and law. Winning battles with tend to get you good battle traits. Some are specific, like the Butcher trait, which you get form Exterminating the population of cities when you take them over. The Killer comes from using assassins. The Cunning comes from using spies, and so on.

It is hard to see what each individual is doing in a battle. Most of the time you just see the knot of each unit, and if it is shrinking, you know things are not going well. Of course you can mouse over them to get the tooltip saying their morale, numbers, and so on. That is the best way to know if you are losing or winning a particular fight.

Nice kitty...

Demon Joe

Persephone meets Godzilla

Smiting a Hill Giant

Fire Giant

A Catfish Dragon

This one is not friendly!

Persephone is getting hot under the collar

This post has been edited by SubRosa: May 17 2015, 11:36 PM

Are some of those critters friendly? It looks like maybe the tiger and one of the dragons? Wow, demons and giants and dragons, oh my!

Your subtitles here have me in hysterics, especially Persephone getting hot under the collar! Now, is it really a catfish dragon or is that your sense of humor? I saw the whiskers on it and burst out laughing!

That Rome game sounds so interesting!





This post has been edited by mALX: May 18 2015, 01:46 AM

Acadian: A few of those were friendly; the tiger was a summoning from a friendly mage, and the green and gold dragons were amenable to talking. It is the endgame, so the really big guns have come out. The rest were all baddies, lining themselves up to be smoten upon Persephone's Flaming Blade of Justice™.


mALX: I think that was a gold dragon. But it looked more like a catfish to me!



She has been to Skyrim, Baldur's Gate, Nevwerwinter, and the links at Augusta. Now it is time for Persephone to explore Cyrodiil

Who's on the other side of that door?

How about a room for the night?

At the helm

Docksider

Darryl has lost some weight...

That you, Agamir?

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


*mALX's head explodes*


Your textures are so tremendous here that I actually didn't recognize it! For a minute I thought you had started playing ESO, lol.

Agamir, oh no!

These are some great screenshots, and I am very excited you are touring Cyrodiil !!!!








This post has been edited by mALX: May 19 2015, 01:19 AM

Yay, Persephone finally makes it to Cyrodiil! She looks great - every single detail. And very recognizable as the Persephone we know and love fear.

Something tells me Agamir is going to have a bad day. . . .

mALX: I am using Qarls Texture Pack 3, which really turns up the quality on the textures. It really makes it look like a different game.

It is nice to be back in Cyrodiil again, after being away for so long. Tbh, one of the big reasons I am not interested in ESO is that I could not play my favorite characters in it. It is has a class system, and there is no modding. I could not play Persephone because while she is mainly a fighter, she is also a necromancer as well. Conjuring the Darryls is just as much a part of who she is and what she does as swinging a greatsword. Likewise, while Teresa of the Faint Smile is mainly a woodsy archer, conjuring animals is just as much a part of her as using a bow. Of course I'd never be able to do either in ESO.


Acadian: Persephone has been everywhere else, so it is high time she visited Cyrodiil. Who knows, maybe I'll take her for a spin in Morrowind someday, and try out Skywind with her. She has rapidly become my favorite character. I just can't quit the living dead girl.

Agarmir just had a very bad day. Stay tuned.


That you too, Agarmir?

Visiting an old friend

Vilverin

Settin' for a spell

&*^%$#@*&^ Archers!

The sun sets on Nath Dyer

Help the light, find my face...

Looking back

Does ESO not have conjuration? And I thought you could play as necromancers in it? I'll have to re-look that back up. And can you not use a combination of weapons or weapons and magic? I didn't know that either.

Did you just pull the facial textures out and over-write Bab's with them?


Ha! I recognize Agarmir's dead body, lol.

But ... who's grave is that in the second screen? Where is Nath Dyer? Gaaaaah!


I love these shots of the sun on Persephone's face, gorgeous! Is that a pose mod? That has to be the best sqatting sit I've seen yet!


Awesome shots!

These are fabulous shots and it is so nice to see Persephone in Oblivion. Although Teresa will probably always be my fave of your characters, Persephone has been around long enough to have quite grown on me as well. Her timeless melancholy, not to mention the possibilities provided by death/immortality, does indeed lend her an enduring quality.

It always pulls at the heartstrings when she ponders the identity of a skeleton – perhaps one of her friends from forever ago?

MALX, I also use and endorse QTP3 as an Oblivion graphics mod.

mALX: I did some reading up on ESO after we PM'ed a few weeks ago. They do have conjuring, but it is only Daedric. So far as I can tell there is no way to summon or reanimate undead. It also has a class system that is pretty rigid. Only the Sorcerer class can conjure anything. Now the skills are universal, and a character of any class can take any of the skills. So I could create a Sorcerer and use a two-handed sword, or a bow. But you will be missing out on all the abilities that a regular 'fighter' would get from the Dragonknight or Templar classes. So unlike Skyrim or Oblivion, you cannot really create any kind of character and still have them be useful.

I did just pull out the face textures from Roberts. I made a standalone texture replacer mod just from them. Bab doesn't come with any face textures, so that was no problem at all.

That grave is from the very end of Vilverin, where the necromancer Jalbert is.

Nath Dyer is just under the water in that pic. It just west of Fort Nikel. His body got stuck under the water. In my other games it always floats to the surface. But he has an arm clipping into the side of the lake, and that must be holding him under.

That pic of the sun on Persephone's face made it into my desktop rotation. It came out wonderful. I use two pose mods for Oblivion. Actors in Charge allows you to use any of the game's built-in animations, and NaRae Pose 01 & NaRae Pose02. I guess that is three mods, but in my mind the NaRae's only count as one. That pic was taken with NaRae, I think the 01. What is nice about the NaRae's is that they stick books in your inventory with pics of all the poses.


Acadian: One of those things about Persephone that really sets her apart from my other characters is her immortality. Everyone she has known has died, and turned to dust, before her eyes. Every time she meets someone she knows that will be their fate as well. That is why she can have a short fuse, and kill half the Thieves Guild within 30 seconds of walking in Riften. They are all dust to her, and how much value can you place on dust? Yet at the same time she can recognize that the fleeting nature of life is what makes it precious. What makes flowers smell sweeter for them, the sun's rays warmer, the summer breeze's more comforting, etc... She just wishes she could grasp those feelings again.




Most of the following landscape has been added by Unique Landscapes: Cloudtop Mountains.

After 4,000 years, Persephone has returned to the place of her birth: Lipsand Tarn

"Long have I desired to look upon the kings of old, my kin."

Taking a break at Hammerfell Pass

Colovian Sunset

Night falls on Rislav the Righteous

Persephone stands lookout in the Cloudtop Mountains

The summit of Colovia Horn, where Persephone has built a new lair

The first ring has a desk for writing, alchemy station, some bookcases waiting to be filled, and chairs and benches to relax upon

Down in the pit is a living space with bed, kitchen table, pantry, and some storage (in case she has a guest who actually eats or sleeps)

This post has been edited by SubRosa: May 21 2015, 11:17 PM

Letting the sun hit Persephone's face was my favorite in that last set, it was spectacular!


I think I have downloaded Actors in Charge on my old PC game, but had issues with "Personality Idles" and ended up having to reset the idles somehow each time I used a pose - I can't remember now, it was a long time ago.

Anyway, I just re-downloaded/downloaded them all, lol. Thank you so much! I would love to get some good screenshots of poses, it is always so impressive to see your screens, everything looks so natural as if it just happened and you caught the moment on film.

I have had tremendous issues trying to catch action in screens - like in FO3 when everything is blowing up and I want a screen of it - by the time I hit a key to freeze action or take a screenshot; the moment has passed and all I have is a screen of smoking vehicles, lol.

Oh, I LOVE the idea of the pose book, how helpful that has to be!



Persephone was born in Lipsand Tarn? Oh how I would love to hear that story!


Uh...I don't recognize some of these, (Like Hammerfell Pass and the statues, and the statue of Rislav - the only one I've seen is inside the city of Skingrad I think - I might be remembering wrong).

All these screens are beautiful! That tower mod you made is awesome! I like the deck stairs added, would not have thought of doing that!

Most of the places in this last round were added by Unique Landscapes - Cloudtop Mountains


btw, does anyone know where the quote "Long have I desired to look upon the kings of old, my kin." is from?




Persephone's story came together for me a while back. She was born a slave of the Ayleids, and took part in Alessia's Revolution. She was killed in the battle to take the Imperial City, which is where he life took a turn for the weird.

A necromancer named Haides - who would never call himself a necromancer - got ahold of her body. He was seeking to defeat death itself, by creating eternal life. He was a Pre-Modern Prometheus. Haides even has a theme song. He replaced Persephone's heart with varla stone crystal, and essentially wired up her body with more of the crystal, like veins. He transformed her, so that she would subsist off of magicka, rather than food, water, and air. Her heart gathers in magicka from the sky just as the Ayleid wells do, and then redistributes it through her body, like a giant battery. Of course he had to cut out her real heart to do this, and reanimate her. It worked, and she came back. But not alive of course. She is as undead as any Lich or Wraith.

Persephone was only the prototype. Haides planned to make many more like her. He went to Alessia to sell the idea to her. He could make her an entire army of undead warriors, who didn't need to eat, or drink, or sleep, or feel. But she turned him down. He was a necromancer after all. Then she ordered him to be arrested. But Haides escaped with Persephone. He fled to Skyrim, since it was the only other human-ruled place in Tamriel. He tried to make more like Persephone, but failed every time. He did not realize it, but he had made her within White Gold Tower, and its own natural magic had been a part in her creation.

In time, Haides fell in with a group of necromancers. Then he fell out with them. Naturally a lot of killing was involved. It ended with the ruins they were laired in collapsing, and Haides being run through with a broken support beam. Dying, Haides gave Persephone her freedom (He had created her heart in two pieces, the big part in her chest, and a smaller piece on a ring he wore. But both were connected, and functioned as one). He took the crystal from his ring and put it in her chest, fusing it with the rest of her heart. Now finally free, Persephone strangled him. She still does not know if it was an act of revenge, or mercy.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: May 23 2015, 08:32 PM

Lord of the Rings.


This mod is fantastic! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOT !!!! Downloaded, and Thank You !!!!! WOO HOO, I LOVE it !!!!


I am still reading about Persephone, thank you for posting this for me. This is fascinating!





This post has been edited by mALX: May 22 2015, 01:05 AM

Gaaaah! I missed responding to what you said here, and I did see it! I'm sorry.

* I got a kick out of the fact that Persephone found the suicidal unrequited lover behind Fort Nikel, and Maxical found the one under the bridge on the East, lol.

* Oh, now I remember that altar! I knew Persephone entered Vilverin, why didn't I figure that out? (DOH!) I guess I had a brain fart or something, lol. Sorry about that!

* That is so interesting that you have made your own standalone! I found a vid with instructions on how to do it on YouTube and tried really hard, but the NPC looked worse when I got through with him, lol. Persephone is gorgeous, you did an Awesome job with yours!

* Gaaah, that doesn't sound good on ESO! It seems like that would kind of force you to rely on a group attack that combined the efforts of pure skilled individuals. Urgh.

Hmmm, I read something that said "Yes, you can play solo; but don't forget the game was designed to be an MMO"

Well, If one of us was all mage, another all archery, and the other all stealth/melee - maybe we as a threesome could handle anything that came up?

I don't know how the fighting is there, but my skills have varied per game. In Oblivion I could not cast or shoot a bow - anything but the sword and i was in trouble.

In Fallout 3 I was great with baseball bats, unarmed, and guns - really bad with swords unless they were enchanted and perks to make them deadly on hit.

In Skyrim and Morrowind both I could cast great, and use the sword - still no bow though.

So I'd really have to play the game to see where my skills will lie in it.

And another thing - I have seen screenshots of gameplay that are stunning - like Kobby's on here and Don's on the other site - but when I get on Youtube the vids of it look very World of Warcraftish. Makes me wonder what in the world I'm going to find on the game.

My son is wanting to try it, so what I planned to do is buy it for him and let him give me reviews on it. Once he gets on it for long enough to make determinations, I 'll start asking some of these concerns.

I might even be able to use his account when I play, because you can start new games with different characters and go back to old saves later, etc. The people I know that play have a Character in each of the Alliances.

*

Oh, and from what I heard the only place it goes into Player vs Player is in Cyrodiil; and they have massive battles there. (I believe I'll steer clear of Cyrodiil, lol).





This post has been edited by mALX: May 22 2015, 04:20 AM

Just a dead girl in search of. . . feelings.

The shot of Persephone at Lipsand Tarn is wonderful. The poignancy of it is nicely set off by showing us what a very nice butt she has.

And Colovian Sunset is downright wallpaper-worthy. Wow.

Aww, King Rislav. Did Persephone learn the Call of Corsair power?

Why am I not surprised that her lair is so isolated?

mALX: It is weird that both Maxical and Peresphone went off in opposite directions and each found a suicide victim!


Acadian: It might be a good thing that Persephone cannot feel what it feels like to feel. After all, being dead probably would not feel very good. I imagine that what she feels the most is cold, all the time.

Sadly, Persephone has neither horse nor phantom, so the Call of the Corsair is lost upon her. She still remembers when that young lad Rislav learned it however...

Her new lair is in part for the isolation that Persephone needs in order to "let her hair down" and be herself, without worrying about what mortals will do if they discover she is undead. The other part is that the Colovian Highlands are her homeland. While she was born and raised in an Ayleid city, places like Colovian Horn are human made. They are among the oldest places to belong to her race, not her masters. So there is a powerful dose of nostalgia, from those heady early days of freedom, before death and Haides took her.


It seems the orcs of this era have no need for shirts...

Marching back to Chorrol with the Odill family, their farm now safe from goblin attack

Persephone tries to remember what the blessings of the Divines felt like

Some light reading

Home sweet home

Still reading

This is probably the sixth or seventh major revision of Persephone's face. Hopefully the last.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: May 23 2015, 06:12 AM

*


Is that the Chorrol Fighters Guild? Lol, you must have an Orc enhancing mod; he looks nothing like the Chorrol Fighters Guild Orc in my game,


Urk, the Odill boys. I HATE that quest! It is like the Bruma Great Gate battle or the Farwell quest, I have to redo it hundreds of times to leave there with both boys intact!

This Wayshrine is at the end of the road west of Chorrol, isn't it? I love that area. Will Persephone have the Fighters Stronghold DLC Battlehorn Castle down there? There is a necromancer that lives in the dungeon below it, which may tie into her storyline.

Ooh, she is reading the two books you told me about! And I love the sad cat climbing on her back!!!!! It looks like he is kneading her back with his paws, my cat used to do that, lol.


Home Sweet Home - I am floored by this circle of landings you made around the tower; your landscaping job here was spectacular!

I picture a small table and chairs on one of them to watch the sun rise or set, the sky is just gorgeous and being on top of the mountain it would reap every ray of light in every day. (and shooting stars at night too - I've seen them in game in the mountains!).

I used to go up to the mountains here to watch the shooting stars - they seem so much closer there; it feels like you can reach out and touch them!

I absolutely love her face in this last shot - I can't tell what was tweaked because she has been wearing a hood a lot and her face was not angled this way in other shots - but she looks very cute in that screen!

Her face shape is wonderful, I really like it a lot!


Awesome update!



*

The orc with no shirt is doubtless trying to compensate for his lack of tusks.

Aww, helping the Odills.

Blessing of the Divines = Dat Butt!

Light reading – Adorable. And a kitty!

Persephone’s home is a bit run down the location and view more than compensate.

You’ve done a wonderful job with her face and she looks great!

I've been following PursePhone's adventures, though I've been remiss in commenting on them.

Anyway I have to call out the adorable kitty in that "reading" pic. Love its expression - and the pose is classic. "You're momentarily still - I'm going to make myself comfortable on you and keep you in your place."

mALX: I basically replaced the orc head meshes with the human ones. So now they don't look like pigs. I notice Bethesda did the same in Skyrim too...

I only had to reload once during the Odill farm quest, so I count myself lucky. The stupid boys run off to battle without any armor at all, and carrying iron longswords. The goblins had better weapons. I got lucky though, and an Imperial horseman came over the second time to help fight the goblins.

No Battlehorn castle for me. I don't like how it adds all the people who suddenly become your servants. I know that is all the rage in games these days. It seems everyone wants to have a castle with an army of retainers. But not me.

I didn't do any landscaping at the tower, or make those landings. Those were all from the original mod. I just swapped out one of the sections to the tower and replaced it with another that had an opening, so you could walk inside. Then I just added furniture.


Acadian: Maybe that is the secret to Lum's shirtlessness. I thought he was just too sexy for his shirt!

I noticed when you are that close, you can see her panty lines though that leather...

One of the nice things about Persephone's lair is that she gets both amazing sunrises and sunsets.


haute ecole rider: What Persephone needs is an undead cat. Maybe all bones, or a zombie kitty.


I did some more work on the lair, adding catwalks up to the upper stories

I turned the hole in one wall into a proper observation post

I added a second bed, and moved it and the original one into an alcove in the wall

I am still not sure what to do with the upper two floors though

Living on the edge

Persephone came to Hackdirt

She saw

She conquered

This post has been edited by SubRosa: May 25 2015, 10:31 PM