Review of Dominions 3 at Gameology

[the Vanishag]

Hi, I'm a doctoral candidate at the University of Florida, studying Visual Culture. I mostly do Comics/Graphic Novels and Computer Games. As a gamer, I love Dom 3. As an academic, I just finished a lengthy paper about Hinnom/Ashdod/Gath. It's on-line at Gameology, a kind of blog+ for Games Studies.

In case anyone is interested, the title is The Kohen Gadol has Horns: the Fates of the Giants in Dominions 3, and the direct link is: http://www.gameology.org/node/1642

In brief, it traces some of the important themes, names and images in the nations of the Giants all the way to the Dead Sea Scrolls (which might - or might not - be a surprise to the designers of Hinnom, Ashdod and Gath).

Thank you all,
Tof

P.S. - I also posted a piece of fan art I drew (ink & watercolor) for Agartha's "Ageless Olm" Pretender on deviantART. Direct link: http://vanishag.deviantart.com/art/Ageless-Olm-120342326

[Trumanator]

Very interesting! The mythology behind those nations has always interested me. Are there any parallels to the Abysian invasion that drives back the giants, and ultimately destroys the twin cities of Ashdod?

[chrispedersen]

Talk about mythology.. the abysians destroying the giants is *definitely* wishful thinking.....

[P3D]

Talk about mythology.. the abysians destroying the giants is *definitely* wishful thinking.....

Fire resistant Giants, to make it more interesting.

[Illuminated One]

Great stuff.

It always amazes me how much freaky stuff is still lingering in christian/jewish theology.
Heck, about Canabilism and Blood magic ... "This is my body ... This is my blood". :D

[Kristoffer O]

Nice text!

There was some additional inspiration from the rephaim texts and canaanite religion. R'p'm and the ditanu were deified dead kings and were associated with the dead. Thus Ashdod is more of a mythological mix than the others. The concept of r'p'm giants is quite prevalent in middle eastern mythology. Some even wants to equate the ennunaki of sumerian myth with the biblical and canaanite giants. I couldn't resist the sumerian setting entirtely, so the archers and chariots of Hinnom are sumerian/assyrian in design.

[the Vanishag]

There was some additional inspiration from the rephaim texts and canaanite religion. R'p'm and the ditanu were deified dead kings and were associated with the dead. Thus Ashdod is more of a mythological mix than the others. The concept of r'p'm giants is quite prevalent in middle eastern mythology. Some even wants to equate the ennunaki of sumerian myth with the biblical and canaanite giants. I couldn't resist the sumerian setting entirtely, so the archers and chariots of Hinnom are sumerian/assyrian in design.

Thanks, Kristoffer. I the deeper I got into my research, the more I realized how pervasive these myths were: it used to be that (some) scholars thought the Biblical Giants were imported from Greek myth (Kronos and the other Titans), but it's actually a really complex interconnected mesh of myths that go WAY back.

I even ran across the website of a ultraconservative talk radio host who has constructed a conspiracy theory by syncretizing all the different giant myths! If he'd shed the paranoia, he might almost be able to make something of it. (If you're curious, here's the link:http://www.stevequayle.com/Giants/index2.html).

In response to Trumanator's post, I don't know of any historical or mythological connection between Ashdod and Abyssia, though there may be some link through the ancient Near- and Middle-Eastern nations that influence both of these groups. Kristoffer?

[PsiSoldier]

I once did a persuasive speech for a speech class I was taking on the Nephilim and how Demons had had sex with human women to give birth to Giants. Its a funny thing to argue with people and tends to blow most Christians minds especially when you start quoting scripture.

The best argument Ive heard against it is the Bible verse that says people will be like the Angels and will not take husbands or wives once in heaven. Which most people take to mean that there will be no Male or Female but it could just mean exactly what it says which doesn't actually state that there will be no male or female and simply says they will not have husbands or wives. Which means that the Fallen angels could indeed have been Male. And they tend to argue that Son's of God simply means Men. But yet that doesn't explain at all why their offspring would have been giants...

Anyways if your ever bored its a fun conversation to strike up :D

[Edi]

Abysia is an original creation of Illwinter and is tied to Hinnom, Ashdod and Gath in the internal Dom3 world history. Abysians burn the city of the Talmai to the ground, depriving Ashdod of its most powerful knowledge and later escaped Abysian humanbred slaves are accepted as refugees by the Gadite tribe of Gath and interbreeding leaves the Gadites with 40% fire resistance instead of them being normal humans.

[JimMorrison]

Abysia is an original creation of Illwinter and is tied to Hinnom, Ashdod and Gath in the internal Dom3 world history.

Woah woah woah!

Are you trying to tell me that the Bible doesn't have references to a race of fire/magma beings that engage in human sacrifice, and become crossbred with demons in a misbegotten bid at world domination?

So disappointed, I was going to go buy it just for that.

[DonCorazon]

I seem to recall a post that sketched out Dominions history. Anyone have the link?

[PsiSoldier]

Woah woah woah!

Are you trying to tell me that the Bible doesn't have references to a race of fire/magma beings that engage in human sacrifice, and become crossbred with demons in a misbegotten bid at world domination?

So disappointed, I was going to go buy it just for that.

Well if it makes you feel better there is the theory out there that The Demons crossbred with humans in an attempt at world domination to wipe out the potential blood line of Jesus and so thats what actually led to the flood. So its kinda the same thing :D

[Redeyes]

Jesus who, I know of no Jesus (in Dominions) :smirk:

[PsiSoldier]

Thats just because you havent named your pretender that yet.. :D

Someone oughta mod a pretender for him haha He could have the same heal effect as the Chalice and could have an ability to Raise the Dead (Maybe the mummification spell) and smite demons like the cleansing bell. :D:D I guess he'd have to be immortal too since he comes back from the dead.

[JimMorrison]

Woah woah woah!

Are you trying to tell me that the Bible doesn't have references to a race of fire/magma beings that engage in human sacrifice, and become crossbred with demons in a misbegotten bid at world domination?

So disappointed, I was going to go buy it just for that.

Well if it makes you feel better there is the theory out there that The Demons crossbred with humans in an attempt at world domination to wipe out the potential blood line of Jesus and so thats what actually led to the flood. So its kinda the same thing :D


I dunno..... Jesus fiction is the entire reason I was avoiding the Bible in the first place. :o

[MaxWilson]

Abysia is an original creation of Illwinter and is tied to Hinnom, Ashdod and Gath in the internal Dom3 world history. Abysians burn the city of the Talmai to the ground, depriving Ashdod of its most powerful knowledge and later escaped Abysian humanbred slaves are accepted as refugees by the Gadite tribe of Gath and interbreeding leaves the Gadites with 40% fire resistance instead of them being normal humans.

And yet, weirdly, Ashdod comes out of the flames even MORE awesome than Hinnom was before Abysia burned it. :)

I enjoyed the article. Good catch on the Monolith--it explains why it has Astral magic built in. I never saw the 2001/Uplift connection before.

-Max

[MaxWilson]

Jesus who, I know of no Jesus (in Dominions) :smirk:

Isn't EA Ermor's "Prophet of the White Shroud" a Jesus equivalent?

-Max

[the Vanishag]

Jesus who, I know of no Jesus (in Dominions) :smirk:

Isn't EA Ermor's "Prophet of the White Shroud" a Jesus equivalent?

-Max

I said something like that in my paper - though he's even more of a Lazarus figure (with a touch of John the Baptist thrown in), as he's not the god, he's the prophet of the coming god, that is, your pretender.

In formal, academic terms:
"The aforementioned nation of Ermor starts off as a Romanesque nation recently converted to a monotheistic mystery cult that promises eternal life. The game describes it thus “Old syncretistic faiths and spirit worship were banned by a Prophet dressed in white shrouds.”(21) The similarity of this Prophet and his holy shroud to Lazarus and the Shroud of Turin, respectively, are further parallels between Ermor's “New Faith” (Early Era Ermor) and the Christianization of Rome."

Tof

[PsiSoldier]

Makes sense. If I were to pick a nation that would have ties to all of that it would be Ermor with its Roman influence. I didnt know anything about the Prophet of the White Shroud though so that kind of makes sense.

[MaxWilson]

I said something like that in my paper - though he's even more of a Lazarus figure (with a touch of John the Baptist thrown in), as he's not the god, he's the prophet of the coming god, that is, your pretender.

Yeah, I saw that, although I don't see a Lazarus parallel since Lazarus wasn't any kind of spokesman at all (even though he was an effective piece of evidence). You could view Jesus as his Father's prophet, if you wanted to put things in Dom3 terms, or as his own prophet when he foretells of his own future coming in glory (Luke 9:26 (http://scriptures.lds.org/en/luke/9/26#26), or 3 Nephi 28:7-8 (http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/28/7-8#7)).

-Max

[the Vanishag]

Update: I got the go-ahead to review Dom 3 for <a href="www.playthisthing.com">Play This Thing</a> . I'll post again when that goes on-line. If anyone wants to give me input, post or email me: vanishag@gmail.com

...I suppose this should just go into the "reviews and press" sticky.

Tof

[Edi]

I seem to recall a post that sketched out Dominions history. Anyone have the link?

Ask, and ye shall receive:

Game History thread (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=36538)
Halt Heretic thread (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=37906)
Kristoffer on the same subject in the Gath Dev Diary thread (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?p=588944#post588944)

So that's the unofficial history that has some official support behind the scenes even if going back and changing it is not practically doable in a patch.

[the Vanishag]

It lives! My review is up on <a href="http://playthisthing.com">Play This Thing!</a>

<a href="http://playthisthing.com/dominions-3-awakening">Permalink to Dom 3 review.</a>

:banana:

And this time, I remembered to post to the Reviews and Press sticky.

[DonCorazon]

Excellent review.