Get thee to Pax Tharkas, Rabit.
I can’t count that high either.
Gully Dwarves are kind of cute...but kender are the best :D.
And I find Gnomes amusing too :).
I wonder…can the Staff itself summon Ra in a similar fashion to how Ra summons the Staff?
Might Atlantis have been an original home for The Host?
I think the staff head for NewRa is slightly different to OldRa's. It might not be the same staff at all...
In the game he just needs to play another card.
In reality, he need to go out and find an acceptable tree/branch to carve into his new staff. It takes a little while.
Fun Fact: the wood from the staff historically is made from the limbs of AkashButa
Every time I see this thread pop up, I think it’s about a religious gaming con.
The god of fire needs to find a suitable piece of wood from which to manually carve his staff? Ah, well, there's the problem, then ;).
It's got Dresden written all over it.
Take a look at the staff of Ra as it appears on the kickstarter.
The headpiece of the staff is a bird holding a ruby between its wings. Now, take a look at the staff of Ra as it appears in the SoTM deck. the headpiece of THAT staff is a disc with the ruby in the center.
I did some research, and the disc design (with or without something in the center) is associated with Ra, specifically as the Disc of the sun. Its one of the most common symbols that crops up around him. Now, the bird design, specifically a falcon is associated with Horus. Given the overally bird imagery of Tactics Ra, my guess is that his trials in the desert have caused him to fully transition into the Horus aspect of Ra. this could also explain the personality shift.
Ra was a god, among a pantheon of gods. While the pharoahs associated themselves with the divine, they were sons of Ra. Manifestations of his power, not Ra himself. Horus, on the other hand, was much closer to the mortal world. Some Pharoahs (while they were alive) actually took the name Horus, and were considered to be divine beings.
In terms of mythology, Horus was a much more active God than Ra. he was a god of action and war as well as sun and life. So its entirely in keeping that Horus (Ra) would be more engaged and willing to dive in.
Ra appears.
Ennead appear. Beat Ra.
Ra disappears.
Horus appears. Beats Ennead.
Horus disappears.
Horus re-appears?
Braith, I totally feel you on everything you wrote. I made very similar observations on Horus during my Footenotes post on the topic (though that was before the Tactics KS stuff). In mythology Ra symbolises the rising and setting sun as an alagory for the cycle of life to death back to life. Makes sense. Ra seems to go away then come back a whole lot. You touched on the fact that Ra was connected with many creator-like gods, Horus being one of them. While Horus-Ra is a very common one, the combination of Atum-Ra was also very popular.
The bird imagry is certainly Horus. But he also wears a Scarab necklace. That scarab necklace he is wearing looks identical to the one Atum (Roderick Ward) wears on his forehead. Recall that Atum takes the Scarab as a predominate symbol in the art for SotM (yes I realise the scarab is a very common egyptian symbol, but its a visual core for Atum). The skin tone + facial hair bear more than a passing resemblance to Roderick Ward as well.
Roderick Ward may not be connected here. But I guess what I'm trying to get at is that this incarnation of Ra could be a little more involved than just the Horus aspect taking over fully. That aspect of Ra seems to have already taken over (at least by my reading of the Ra bio on the >G website).
I wonder if Dark Watch Nightmist's has any bearing on Ra's story. Her eyes do bear the Eye of Horus markings (which were symbols of prodection and god-like power).
regarding Dark Watch Nightmist...
Well, there's no particular reason why the host body has to be the same gender as the hero-body, is there? We're dealing with power and magic on a ridiculous scale, that has associations with change and transformation.
Also, Egypt had a couple of female pharoahs, like Hatshepsut, Nefertari, Cleopatra...
Totally. But is that what we are really seeing on Nightmist? Are those indeed the markings of Horus on her face? If they are, what does that mean?
I think that the regression darts (from Vengeance) played a major part in this. The art depicts her reverting to "normal" after being hit. Perhaps she started looking for alternative sources of power? Egyptian relics are pervasive in lovecraftian stories, so its certainly in keeping with her aesthetic.
Or maybe the original source of the curse was egyptian in origin, and gained in strength after the darts wore off. So the curse's heritage is starting to show.
This is a very interesting point. I wonder when Vengeance takes place in relation to the formation of the Dark Watch and the Skinwalker.
As for the origin of her curse, I do not believe it to be egyptian at all. Her bio talks of the "Chinese Master", and I am at the moment very strongly of the opinion that this master is either Zhu Long or a old mentor of his. Her curse is that a part of her is trapped within the mists of the Realm of Discord, just as a part of the mists is trapped within her. I'v always thought the little glowing orb Gloomweaver holds is that part of Nightmists soul, or something to that effect.
The earliest form of the "Eye of Horus" was actually the Wedjat Eye, associated with, not a masculine god-figure, but actually the goddess Wadjet, a snake-headed protector figure.
Take this for what you will. It may be meaningless.
I'm just going to point out the flavor text on the Rod of Anubis.
Gods damn it, Ronway, you beautiful genius!
Someone wanna share? I don't have access to my decks right now.