The Let's Play Archive

Dominions 3

by Lilli et al.

Part 157: Hinnom - Turn 57



Turn 57


"Taxonomically, my family is Freethinker (including theists, skeptics, advocates); my genus is Hinnomnomnomnomist (including the religion-based), and my species is Spectacular."
-  HEMOPHILIA:  THE ULTIMATE COCKBLOCK

Spectacular Hinnomnomnomnomism is a comprehensive, religious lifestance incorporating:

A naturalistic philosophy

A cosmic outlook rooted in science

A consequentialist ethical system


Let’s examine these items one by one:

A comprehensive, religious lifestance.

Spectacular Hinnomnomnomnomism is comprehensive, touching every aspect of life including issues of values, meaning, and identity because King Hippomnomnomnom watches and sees all and his wisdom and beneficence permeates every aspect of life in Hinnom. Thus it is broader than theism, which concerns only the existence of King Hippomnomnomnom and his place as the one true Pantokrator. Important as that may be, and to be clear it is the most important thing and any suggestion otherwise will result in, depending on your degree of prior romantic success, either being turned into KRAKKEN SNAXX (tm) or being sacrificed to spread King Hippomnomnomnom's idyllic dominion, there’s a lot more to life … and Spectacular Hinnomnomnomnomism addresses it.

Spectacular Hinnomnomnomnomism is religious, espousing a belief in King Hippomnomnomnom (which really makes a lot of sense when you think about it as he's a thirty eight thousand ton talking, magic slinging Sphinx whose blessing has brought glory and joy to the Rephaite people) and the realms of the Void, Tartarus, Cocytos and the Inferno which are inhabited by beings that transcend ordinary experience.  But all those other shitty realms like Yomi's "underworld," "Sheol" and "Hel" and such can go fuck themselves. 

Spectacular Hinnomnomnomnomism is a lifestance, or what Council for Spectacular Hinnomnomnomnomism founder A PENIS EUPHEMISM has termed a eupraxsophy: a body of principles suitable for orienting a complete Rephaite life in accordance with the will of King Hippomnomnomnom.

A naturalistic philosophy.

Spectacular Hinnomnomnomnomism is philosophically naturalistic. It holds that nature (the world of everyday physical experience, not the magic path which is still pretty sweet but somehow largely absent from King Hippomnomnomnom's lands in terms of gem generating sites for which someone is going to have to die) is all there is, and that reliable knowledge is best obtained when we query nature using the scientific method.  Because King Hippomnomnomnom loves science. Check it out at fuckyeahscience.kinghippomnomnomnom.tumblr.com. Naturalism asserts that King Hippomnomnomnom is the Pantokrator and can summon awesome supernatural entities  to fight for him and enforce his will on the world, and warns us that knowledge gained without the use of research boosters like lightless lanterns and skull mentors is slow and inefficient and you don't need an impartial review because you have an entire lab full of sages assisted by magic lamps that allow them to peer into the void unlocking the mysteries of the universe telling you so and they are certainly reliable.

A cosmic outlook rooted in science.

Spectacular Hinnomnomnomnomism provides a cosmic outlook—a world-view in the broadest sense, grounding our lives in the context of our universe and relying on methods demonstrated by science. Spectacular Hinnomnomnomnomists see themselves as designed, intended beings who arose through beneficence of King Hippomnomnomnom's will and his awesome powers using both science and magic and also being the Pantokrator and if you don't appreciate it then King Hippomnomnomnom will just evolve someone who does in his lab, possessing unique attributes of self-awareness and moral agency which is the ability to do what King Hippomnomnomnom determines is right and good and just and to die a painful fiery, burning death if you defy him.

A consequentialist ethical system.

Spectacular Hinnomnomnomnomism hold that ethics is consequential, King Hippomnomnomnom judges by results. This is in contrast to so-called command ethics, in which right and wrong are defined in advance and attributed to some other pretender's divine authority. “No other god will save us,” declared Hinnomnomnomnomist Manifesto II (In The Year of Our Lord King Hippomnomnomnom, Turn 2), “we must save ourselves through appeal to King Hippomnomnomnom.” Spectacular Hinnomnomnomnomists seek to develop and improve their ethical principles by examining the results they yield in the lives of real men and women and then comparing those results to the results King Hippomnomnomnom commands them to achieve.

- CORDUROY SHOTGUN (TURN 60). What is Spectacular Hinnomnomnomnomism? Council for Spectacular Hinnomnomnomnomism Retrieved Turn 62, from http://www.spectacularhinnomnomnomn...n&page=what_is.

Schneeble and I trade 30 earth gems for 30 death gems.  I have an excess of earth and he needs them to summon another Earth King.  He has an excess of death and I am going to use it to summon the King of Banefires (maybe).  Blood hunting is up to 36 slaves.  Better, but still well short of my 100 slave/turn goal and only half of where I was before Lilli invaded. 




I've hit Conjuration 8 and am racing up the research tree in blood.  Conjuration 9, for all that it comes with some neat stuff, is way down the list in terms of priorities.  Blood on the other hand...


Conjuration 8 is where the elemental royalty are and, more importantly, where we find my new bread and butter. 


You'll have to wait until I summon one to see their stats, but the cyclops from Awaken Cyclops is going to be the basic building block of my late game power.


I probably like blood the most out of anyone playing (although Incy is a close second). What a great school.  It's neither as good as folks about or as bad as those who don't understand it think.  Where it's good, it's magnificent.  Where it's bad, it's abysmal.  Get it?  Abysmal?    There are a few key spells in the early levels.  Sabbath Master/Slave are the blood equivalents of communion master/slave.  Unfortunately they incur 100 fatigue and require a blood slave to cast so they're a lot less good.  All blood spells require at least one slave to cast (except hellfire) and incur at least 100 fatigue.  Reinvigoration addresses that a little as it reduces fatigue to almost 0.  Summon imp is my favorite chaff generation spell.  It's like raise skeletons, but instead it summons a small horde of imps.  Imps are great because they fly and are immune to fire.  Summoning imps is actually a viable defensive tactic to kill Zmey.  The last spell of real note here is Hell Power.  It increases the caster's level in all paths by two!  Of course, it also horror marks the shit out of the caster and summons a stream of lesser horrors.  SO, that's kind of an issue.  One fun (and ridiculous) strategy is to make a communion with lots of communion slaves and then have the master cast summon hell power.  It is as great as you're imagining.


Interesting.  Very interesting.  This means he has at least conjuration six.  Spectral mages require death to summon and are one of the traditional ways to break into astral, water and earth. He comes with D + 100% WESD + 100% WESD. 


Risin’ up, back on the street
Did my time, took my chances
Went the distance, now I’m back on my feet
Just a man and his will to survive



So many times, it happens too fast
You change your passion for glory
Don’t lose your grip on the dreams of the past
You must fight just to keep them alive



It’s the, eye of the tiger, it’s the thrill of the fight
Risin’ up to the challenge of our rival
And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night
And he’s watchin’ us all with the eye of the tiger…



Face to face, out in the heat
Hangin’ tough, stayin’ hungry
They stack the odds still we take to the street
For the kill with the skill to survive



It’s the eye of the tiger, it’s the thrill of the fight
Risin’ up to the challenge of our rival
And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night
And he’s watchin’ us all with the eye of the tiger…



Risin’ up, straight to the top
Had the guts, got the glory
Went the distance, now I’m not gonna stop
Just a man and his will to survive



It’s the, eye of the tiger, it’s the thrill of the fight
Risin’ up to the challenge of our rival
And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night
And he’s watchin’ us all with the eye of the tiger…



The eye of the tiger…
The eye of the tiger…
The eye of the tiger…
The eye of the tiger…



I'm sorry ladies, were you looking for the GUN SHOW?  BECAUSE IT'S RIGHT HERE!  MOAR KRAKEN is forging a skull of fire (requires fire and death, look at how wonderful kraken's cross paths are). 


THIS KRAKEN ALSO HAS NO LEASH takes the fish amulet from Schneeble and teleports to Histyra.  It's going to go cast King of Banefires.  You might have noticed from earlier that King of Banefires requires D and F, not D and S.  It turns out there is a weird bug where one of the versions of the mod we're using made the King of Banefires require D/S.  In the very short period of time before the mod was fixed, I downloaded it.  Guess how I figured all of this out? 


I've agreed to give Schneeble the province with Shadow Seers next to Dexanth's cap.  Dexanth's cap is currently swarming with ozelotl and the province is surrounded by Mictlan and Sauromatia. Schneeble has very considerately let me know that he would consider it a real tragedy if my Melqart stayed in that province and something horrible happened to him. 


He very kindly agreed to let me keep it for another two turns so I can recruit a shadow seer.  This is a great example of what Schneeble did incredibly well this game.  Why would I give up this province?  I can probably bully Incy into letting me keep it until we eventually go to war and I have the ability to port in Ornias, Savnok and enough Melqarts and Ammi to defend it against all but the very most dedicated of attacks.  It's a wonderful province with tremendous gem income and a really neat recruitable that is incredibly useful to other players that lack the astral access of Hinnom.  So why do I give it to Schneeble without a fight?  How did Verbal get Keaton to abandon his beautiful wife and travel across the country to steal diamonds?


In retrospect I don't know why I wanted one so much.  Stealthy astral is pretty neat but Hinnom has enough astral that it never has to worry about mind hunt and I already have an S4 mage in Savnok.


:Zero Emissions: has let the people wait long enough.  Inside the arena, screaming fans chant his name.  He pauses and gauges the frenzy from the pitch of their cheers.  Yes, it is time to make his entrance.


In Histyra, DIE MONKEYS DIE teleports to Boddern Weald, desperately hoping he doesn't miss :Zero Emissions:'s show.  BARBED WIRE BICEP TATTOO and lookit dis beard cast Awaken Cyclops. 



Let's just take a quick look at what Pan has in his... well then.  That's going to suck when it casts fog warriors on 1,200 maenads.  I think it's interesting to see that everyone is starting to summon elemental royalty right around the same time.  It's probably a good indication that the elemental royalty is seriously awesome.


Gemgen Counter

Blood stones: 85
Cost: 393E, 644 slaves
Gems Generated: 910