Accidental thematics

Sometimes happenstance is a wonderful thing.

While developing the Stonegraves I came to realise I had a solid connection with my Desolation Sorceror concept I'd done a first draft of long ago, themed around drawing the life of their surroundings when casting, similar to spellcasting in Dark Sun, but with a hint of radiation for flavour. The Stonegraves are intended to be analagous to the concept of Hostile Architecture to keep radioactive dumping sites from being raided, a thoroughly interesting element of anthropology I love reading and hearing about. Making that connection seemed incredibly obvious in retrospect and only required a single sentence change to hint toward their connection.

Today, in conversation with Richard about the interplay of the factions I'm loosely referring to as the Forgers, Connected and Shapers I made the connection in my head that each of these groups represent, in order, Soul, Mind and Body, with each specialising in the creation or alteration of their related theme. One of the earliest puzzle pieces in play was the co-operation of the Forgers and Connected in the creation of the Warforged as an attempt to chill hostilities slowly building between the two diametrically opposed forces, basically a creation of Soul and Mind with an artificial Body. Similarly I've been considering whether the Connected used Progenitor Strain elements to create elements for the Mantles, a creation of Mind and Body with an artificial Soul. I now can't help but ponder what the co-operative creation of the Forgers and Shapers would be, having Soul and Body but an artificial Mind. Perhaps some kind of biological automatons with pre-programmed actions. The hack answer is something something zombie plague but I'll set that aside for the moment.

And finally, to a lesser degree, when discussing the interplay of each of these factions I couldn't help but make a connection between Exen, She of Nothing, and all this. I'd said my personal feelings were that her exile was almost certainly connected to the appearance of the Old Blood in that cave all those centuries ago. Meanwhile the Connected's society had grown completely reliant of the fledgling god their civilization had brought into being. It seemed only natural that the godling could also be tied to Exen's Fall, with her being forced to walk the earth for hundreds of years disconnected not only from her supposed crimes but from her literal and metaphorical children too.