Mythrin: From the Ashes MOD Idea

Well, I'm not going to lie to anyone here and state that i'm any sort of experienced modder or worldbuilder, but i do have over 5 years of MUDding experience, several of those years as a builder and storyline immortal, and i think that they are greatly applicable to making a WC3 campaign, as storyline is extremely important.

In any case, my basic concept is as follows (this is not based in the WC world)

The world of Mythrin lies in ruin, and it all started with one child, a child who had been created as a contingency plan by the king of the gods (Aerik), a child that was found by the evil wizard Tanim the Black and twisted to his own purposes, taught to loathe the gods, and imbued by Aerik with powers far beyond any creature of the earth in the beginning of all existence.

This child, upon reaching maturity turned into the godslayer, a gigantic demon-type creature (the powers of this child as designed by Aerik were to maintain the balance of good and evil, but Tanim changed all of this), and this godslayer flew throughout the planes, slaying each god in turn, its power growing as the essence of each divinity faded from the world. As this happened, crops begin to fail, great floods wracked the world (and many many other disasters), as a byproduct of the violent releases of energy, and then, finally in the sky above the Kyldaran Plaza (Kyldara being the capital city of "the world"), the godslayer and his creator, Aerik the Lightbringer faced off in an epic battle, Aerik sacrificing himself to destroy the godslayer, knowing that if the godslayer were to succeed the world would fall into even greater ruin.

The resulting explosion of light and god-essence was seen far below by the citizens who had gathered to watch the strange lights in the sky, and they took it as a portent that all of the disasters that had wracked them would soon be over, but unfortunately this was not the case.

The powers of the priests and the wizards began to falter as the weave unraveled, and then the great dragons rose from their slumber in an attempt to take over the world, their fires burned to the very core of the settlements of all of the races, until finally a great clan emerged from the northern mountains to cast the great wyrms down from the sky. At their head was a man who seemed to be invulnerable (this is where the campaign would start, with this mortal being infused with some of the scattered essence of the gods, then beginning the hunt for the dragons)

But even with the dragons cast down, the world is not at peace, Tanim still scours the surface of the earth, looking for individuals who contain even the slightest amount of god-essence and bringing them under his sway, using their powers to seed evil and dissent in the lands.

Only the leader of the aforementioned clan (no names yet, i'm very picky), has a chance to stand against Tanim and his forces, and only by bringing together the other races of the realm, and those exceptional individuals he is able to bring to the side of light, can he hope to succeed.

But unbeknowest to all (at the start of the campaign), the vast majority of god essence is being drawn towards a massive crystal in the center of the great ocean, and the heat that its combination causes will give rise to a new wave of disasters, if the battles waged by each side of the war to reach the crystal don't destroy the world first

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This would be a *highly* cinematic and involved campaign, and as such i'd need a great team to help me with it, and to teach me how to do any sort of modding once the storyline and dialogue sequences were completed.

In any case, if this sounds interesting to you and you aren't too daunted by the fact that i'm a modding newbie, email me at [email protected]

Part 1- History/Storyline Cinematics
A) Cinematic of the creation of the godslayer
B)Cinematic of Tanim Finding the Godslayer
C) Corruption of the Godslayer
D) Godslayer starts hunting, short battle clips against various gods
E)The final battle between the godslayer and his creator
F) The Rise of the dragons
G) The godessence infusing the clan leader

Part 2- The Rise of the northern clan
Mission 1- (Single Player Mission) Rally the forces of your clan
Mission 2- (Single Player Mission) Unite the scattered Northern Clans under one banner
Mission 3- (Single Player Mission) Find the Lost Dwarves for help forging dragonslaying weapons
Mission 4- The Journey to Kyldara
Mission 5- The March of the Northern Tribes
Mission 6 (single player mission)- The Face-off with the dragon lord
Cinematic- The Fall of the Dragons

Part 3- Tanim the Black (Single Player Missions)
Cinematic- Tanim's Observations of the Northern Clans
Cinematic- Tanim Locating other Infused Beings
Mission 1- The search for Cherul (Dark-Elf Infused Being)
Mission 2- The Search for Orlock ( Infused Orc Chieftain)
Mission 3- The Search for Krix (Infused Dwarf)
Mission 4- (played as Orlock) The corruption of the tribe
Mission 5 (Played as Krix) The Shadow Gem (corruption of dwarvish clan)
Cinematic- The Black Tide of Death (the various groups joining)


At this point the player would either choose between playing as good or evil, with both sides pretty evenly matched

I know this is quite an ambitious idea, and would require a great deal of work, but i think the storyline is far more involved than many of the campaigns I have seen, and as such, i believe it would be a worthy endeavour.

Already have a basic skin set up for Tanim

Skin for the creator god
Model and Skin for the Godslayer (would just use reskinned child before corruption)
Skins or Models for Various Gods Killed
New Dragon Models and Skins for the Dragonwars
Model and Skin for the main good guy
Skins for the lost dwarves
SKins and/or models for the northern tribesmen
Model and Skin for the Dragon Lord
Model and SKin for a Dwarvish Hero
Model and Skin for an Elvish Hero
Model and Skin for Draconian Hero
Model and SKin for Dark Elf Hero
Model and Skin for Dark-Dwarf Hero
Model and SKin for Orc Hero
Dark dwarf skins

that is all for now

im a major noob when it comes to cinematics (so no help from me there :() , but i could do some skins for you. I cant model though. If u need another skinner i would be happy to join u.

i have been skinning since i registered here, so dont expect a noob skinner ;)

that i did not say :ggani: .
u have a point there and i have been here since May or so this year, and i have been skinning that long ive been here. I didnt say u were noob just because u are relatively new. I like ur skins to be honest :)
dont use my skins posted here as a reference to my skill, they are ancient.

I dont know if u have skinned before u got here (which i could imagine judging by ur skins):D

i am sorry, i first spotted the insult now :( it wasnt my idea to say something about u at all.

ok lets just say we are past this. I agree with u on ur opinion towards quality vs time skinned.

Sidenote: did u make that sig ? if u did, can i have it 2 (since we are in the same project) ?

Yup, just made it, from the tanim and <insert name> skins I'm working on.

Feel free to use it.

k ty, i think ill start working on a God of Order for the Godslayer (cool name btw) to kill, if its ok with u Muktar.

Well, some changes have been made to this story to better fit the idea of a good vs evil campaign (ie tanim doesn't die), but this is the basic story, which should give you a pretty good idea of where the entire story is heading

The tale as it is told here involves the final accumulation of the god essence (Morib lucis) infusing cherul directly, for our campaign it will be modified to fit in with the tanim side of the storyline (basically insert tanim instead of morib lucis, and have him tell her about the powers rather than infuse her himself.

After the destruction of many of the great drow cities, Cherul Llithlandalor, matron mother of a lowly house was said to have performed a great magic rite to infuse herself with the essence of all the drow who had perished during the great floods. Calling upon this great store of power, she created the last refuge of the drow, a great city called Llithlandalor, which she named in her own honor. Drow from flooded and crumbled cities throughout the Underdark flocked to her great city. Naming herself matron mother of the first house, Cherul then gave drowish matrons that she deemed worthy their own house, and soon, drowish culture began to thrive once again.

Morib first saw Cherul in a vision of spiders spewing from the open mouth of an elven skull, which faded to a scene of Cherul sitting upon her throne in the great domed chapel of her house, still looking regal as even after nearly a thousand years of life, hundreds of drow bowing before her and listening to her incant a spell as she began to slay her third born son, offering him up for sacrifice.

A collective gasp passed over the room as the matron disappeared in a swirl of shadows, along with the altar that held her crying child.

Acting on pure instinct she tucked the crying child into the folds of her voluminous robe and slowly opened here eyes, only to clasp her hands back over them quickly, the heat of the inside of the volcano burning her terribly while she looked in the heat spectrum.

A dark and brooding voice greeted her, and she changed her eyes into the normal visual spectrum, glancing up to see a frail form with flowing black hair and eyes as black as night staring at her.

“Today, you will be honored….� The voice droned.

Suddenly she felt the sensation of spiders crawling across her skin as the gaunt figure before her opened its mouth as if to scream, but screamed only a jet of pure black essence.

She raised her hands instinctively, but the bolt struck her square in the chest, its power flowing through her, spreading like the venom of a poisonous spider through her veins until she felt she couldn't hold anymore… and then the figure closed his mouth.

“You will be the spider queen, the voice and protector of your people,� said the voice.

Cherul was astonished, but suddenly filled with purpose, she cast off her robes into the fiery depths of the volcano and willed a transformation upon her form, crimson red spiders seeming to crawl out of her skin and cover her back and chest in a tight fitting robe. And then she returned to her chapel in Llithlandalor to greet her people.

The voice floated into her head once again as she arrived.

“Do not overstep the bounds of your power; you can be destroyed as easily as you were created.�

Cherul could do nothing but chuckle to herself, a rarity among the drow that was greeted with many looks of disapproval… looks that seemed to linger in the air long before the bodies of those who had cast them fell to dust in their seats.


Obviously this also provides a basic outline of what she would look like

Sweat beaded down his muscular frame as he pounded at the lump of unformed metal on his anvil. He sighed and wiped the sweat from his brow, then looked around the room, his stern visage reflected back to him one hundred times over by the assortment of shining armor and blades that hung on the walls. He was a great smith… yet excellent had eluded him thus far.

He had vowed as a child that he would become the greatest and would master the art, bringing it back to a level that surpassed even the dwarven smiths of old… and thus far, he had failed.

But today was his day, he could feel it in his blood as he looked down at the red hot mithril lump on the anvil.

Oh yes, the mithril had cost him dearly… thirty full sets of steel armor that had taken him months to make… but it would be worth it if he could pull this off, if he could recreate the dreaded Orcslayer, the great axe that had served the entire line of dwarven kings until it was lost to the raging fury of the floods.

He shuffled back over to the anvil and clasped his hammer firmly in his hand, then went back to work, the corded muscles of his shoulder and arm rippling as he pounded on the metal unrelentingly, the blade of the axe beginning to take shape.

He knew he had to hurry, the order of the stone would arrive soon to intone the dweomers needed to enchant the axe with its legendary orc-slaying powers. This was not the type of thing that could be rushed.

He thought about contacting the head priest of the order and telling them that he needed more time, but remembered that the dweomers had to be intoned while the mithril was still cooling… the priests would have to wait outside until he was ready.

He had been there when the first axe had been lost, along with King Durin IX. He had seen the king fall down the chute, unable to haul himself up from the lower depths. The king had reached out, reached up to him and screamed as he fell, and even as his struggling form had splashed into the water far below, Aramin had still felt as if he could hear the screams, and see his struggling king.

There was no way the king had survived such a long fall, and even if he had, he would have been weighted down too heavily by his regal plate mail to have even had a chance at survival.

It had been a routine trip to the lowest depths of the mines, the king had only gone down to survey the latest vein of gold his laborers had found. And what a vein of gold it was, it would have made the entire clan…no, the entire kingdom very rich. Every dwarf in the mines had felt the first rumblings of the stone, but had ignored them, not wanting to admit they had quarried too far. Finally when the wall began to crumble in places and gouts of water began to pour through they knew their folly in full. A full one hundred dwarves died that day, including the king and several of his counselors, many falling to the depths just feet from the top of the shaft, but some dying in the initial bursts, shattered rocks shredding them to pieces.

The screams would never fade… Aramin would remember them always.

He shook his head quickly from side to side and looked back down. The blade was beginning to take shape quite well.

Suddenly he felt a sharp tingling sensation run up and down his spine. He felt renewed and invigorated, all signs of fatigue gone from his rippling muscles.

The moment seemed to stop as he looked down at the blade, bending his will as his great hammer rang off of it, beads of sweat dripping off of his hunched frame and hissing away to steam on the anvil. The walls around him began to swirl into nothingness, and suddenly he felt as if he was looking down on himself from high up in the air. He heard a knock far below him… the priests were here… and the axe was done, its surface shimmering with inner radiance. It was perfect, and he could hardly take his gaze from it.

When he finally took his gaze form the anvil below him and set down his hammer the view startled him. He was no longer in his forge… he was everywhere and anywhere, the entire realm sprawled out before him, thousands of scenes being shown to him at once.

He gasped and pinched himself hard, thinking perhaps he had passed out from exhaustion and this was all just a dream. But no relief could be found from the visions around him.

Suddenly he knew… he had ascended and was seeing the world through the eyes of a god. He would no longer walk in the stone halls of the dwarves as a mortal, but he had a final gift for his people…

The priests were tired of waiting for Aramin to answer, so finally they opened the door and entered slowly. The room was eerily cold for a forge, and the fire had long since gone out. Aramin's anvil and all of his tools were gone, but in the center of the room was a magnificent axe of the purest mithril.

The entire group of priests looked around the room dumbfounded, but no trace of Aramin or his missing forge could be seen. It was not until the high priest picked up the axe and saw a new dwarven rune engraved upon its surface that he suspected what had happened.

The dweomers were performed perfectly, and as the ritual was completed, Aramin's rune flared with golden light, his lifelong goal fulfilled at last. \
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For the basic description of aramin i'm thinking something along the lines of a topless and muscular dwarf with a black beard, no helm, and pretty much no armor. His weapon could either be a blacksmiths hammer, or the axe Orcslayer that he forged in the story.

The Creator God
Floating form of light with a roughly humanoid shape, few visible facial features except for very large steel grey eyes and whisps of light that could be seen as hair, wields no weapons

Godslayer
Before meeting Tanim
A child in tattered grey rags, no facial expression, very gaunt, bright blue eyes

After meeting Tanim
A child in loose black robes, evil smirk on his face, bright blue eyes with a flicker of red in the pupils and a very faint red or grey glow around the hands

After his transformation (this would almost definatley need a new model)
A huge grey/black demon with curving crimson horns and crimson claws, webbing between arms and legs for flight. Chest and most of body looks like armor but is composed of an extremely thick carapace which is studded with crimson nubs of bone. A very confident smile on a reptilian looking face with only a few traces of gory fangs visible.

Dragon Lord (needs to be able to land and go in a sitting position, so i imagine a new model would be needed)
Huge black dragon... i'll leave this one up to the imagination

Elvish Hero- Sarewyn Leafblade (would prefer a new model for this, but this may be because i dont' know the extent of what is out there)

An elvish maiden dressed in green tights and leathers, sarewyn has the power to shape the surrounding terrain to meet her needs (calling elementals etc), leave other specifics up to you guys for appearance. Her weapon is a bladed fan of leaves (can attack up close or be thrown like moon glaive)

Dracos the Ancient (draconian hero)
Dracos the ancient is the good half of the soul of the most ancient dragon, taken humanoid form (more on this when i write a full story), basically very humanoid looking, slightly reptilian face (ie reptilian eyes, maybe some scales) and stumps on the shoulders where wings would be growing. Attacks with one arm that is still dragonlike and has a clawed hand.

Orc Hero (Orlock Spineripper)
An excessively large and hairy orc wearing skins and bone armor, fights with a massive two handed battleaxe. (best to reskin beastmaster i'd guess)

Drar Shadowaxe- Dark Dwarf Hero (One of Tanim's Finds)

Grey skinned dwarf with a light grey beard, wearing all blackened armor with two small hatchet style axes as weapons. Red runes on armor possibly with a glow, and a "bully" facial expression
(previous mentions of krix are now Drar Shadowaxe, i like the name better)

i havent started yet, waited for green light for u (incase u wanted a specific set of gods)

so ill try to skin the Dark dwarven hero.

Just a little story (think outline for a cinematic) for the creation of the godslayer-

Kalahn the Lightbearer, looked down at the world he had created, marvelled at its perfection, dense forests breaking out into lush valleys and those same valleys climbing to become towering mountains, with streams of life sustaining water flowing throughout

Yes... he thought, looking down at the small settlement of primitive humans below him, this world was perfect, the greatest of his creations to date, but it needed something more.

Kalahn knew that he must create entities to rule over these men, dwarves, elves, even the barbaric trolls must have someone to guide them, and so Kalahn decided to reduce his own power to make the gods, to give up portions of his own essence to further the cause of the balance on his latest creation.

Kalahn's mind scrolled through the powers he would give to each god at an unmatched speed, but suddenly his focus wavered and he realized that even if his creations were near perfect in their purposes, he would have to create checks and balances, he would have to create something to deal with the other gods if the balance shifted too far towards good or evil.

Like the contraints placed on the growth of a tree in limited soil, Kalahn knew that he could not let the powers of any one of his gods become too great, could not let any singular entity pull the balance in either direction, for if the balance was lost his most perfect creation would fall to ruin.

Kalahn knew that even if it were neccesary for him to give up much of his power, he would make a being that would be capable of eliminating any problems should the fueding of his gods get out of hand, and so he crossed his legs and sat meditatively, hovering in the air above the vast oceans of Mythrin, he held his hands in front of himself, palm up and began to chant, his rumbling voice echoing out over the water as liquid pools of energy began to form in each of his hands, one black and one white.

Some of the light began to fade form Kalahn's eyes as the pools increased in size, his milky white skin dulling to yellow and wrinkling the slightest amount as he poured his energy into his creation.

Finally, with great effort Kalahn brought his hands together, the pure essence of black evil meeting the essence of good with a crack such as the peal of thunder off of the mountains.

Kalahn looked down to the creation, a gem with sides of black and white, then vision faded from his eyes as the expenditure of his godly energies overtook him and he slumped forward, knowing that he'd have to regain his energy if he was to create the gods to rule this land. and as his concentration lapsed the gem containing the essence of the godslayer fell down with a plop into the ocean, never to be seen for thousands of years.

i can do terrain if you need it