Ok, I know there have been a lot of threads about this popping ever since it was announced that you could marry off your children to create alliances, etc, but NTJedi's survey got me thinking; How would sovreigns that have corrupted their appearence through spells, evil, etc have kids? (And no, I don't want *those* answers
)
What I mean is, Elemental is supposed to have extensive channeler customization, correct? I assume that some of this involves possably changing species, etc. I also assume (not that I have any basis for any of this
) that what "path" you take, good, evil, etc will affect your appearence.
So, if you are evil enough, you might turn into something like, to use a LotR example, a giant flaming eye. Now, how would a giant eye, you know, have kids? Since it would obviously be impossible for that to happen in the usual way, I have come up with some alternatives. And even if your appearence hasn't changed, what woman, or man, depending on your gender, would want to marry a evil overlord? Although, since you're already evil, you could just force them, but that might lead to some nasty repercussions
Anyway, here are my ideas:
1. You "create" your children using magic and probably some essence. Both the upside and downside of this is that the child would have pretty much no personality or opinions of their own, other than what you tell them. So you wouldn't have to worry about them leading a revolt against you or anything, but on the other hand, when you're trying to find them a prospective mate, who would want to marry something so boring and souless.
2. Of my two ideas, this is definetly my favorite. Basicly, you forgo the concept of children entirely. To continue the LotR example, you use something like rings to create powerful minions (ie, Ringwraiths) So you create these rings or whatever, then you "give" them to other players, sovreigns, etc, but they don't know that this item will corrupt them. If they equip it, they are slowly (over a number of turns) turned into your minion. Maybe at first, after a while, they are forced to form a permanent alliance with your empire, then they become a vassal state, until eventually their kingdom is under your control.
And obviously, these items would have to provide some sort of bonus, to make the other sovreign want to equip it in the first place. And if they realize what they have soon enough, they can get rid of it, no harm done, but if they wait too long, they can't, and they are slowly turned to your side.
I think this could add some interesting mechanics to the game. When you're paying "tribute" to another player, you slip in your item along with credits, resources, tech, etc that you give them. Maybe there could be a spell that would reveal such items, so you know when you're being tricked. And if you know you're being tricked, you might want to go to war against that player, since they think you're stupid enough to fall for it
Of course, this is all moot if it turns out that you don't have the kind of channeler customization that I envision But other than that, what are your thoughts?
