Burning Contest - Ironworkers: Fill & Download for Free

BY O’BRIEN BROWNEFor five centuries the Roman and Celtic armies and cultures clashed, pitting the most highly organised state of the ancient world against fierce individualists.War horns brayed eerily, swords thudded against shields with a dull menace, and a jeering, terrifying howl went up from the roughly 12,000 Celtic warriors arrayed along the Allia River less than a dozen miles north of Rome. Their oblong shields were painted in reds, greens and other bright colours and decorated with boars, dragons and various designs. Facing them were approximately 24,000 Roman troops, the sun glinting off their bronze helmets and spear tips as they locked shields and braced for an attack. A lone Celt stepped from the line, sword held high. He yelled for a Roman champion to duel with him and sneered when none accepted. He then let out a piercing war cry, and the Celts surged forward, hurling their javelins before crashing into the Roman line. It was July 18, 390 BC, and the Celts and Romans were rushing headlong into a confrontation that would span several centuries.The seasoned Roman army, most likely in a tightly packed phalanx formation, was unprepared for the might and fury of the Celtic charge. Physically bigger than the Romans, the Celts wielded long double-edged iron swords for slashing and sheltered behind body-length shields fitted with pointed metal bosses, which they punched into the enemy. Many wore chain mail. Led by the warrior chieftain Brennus, the Celts hacked through their opponents, driving them toward the river, decimating the Roman centre and sending the survivors fleeing for Rome. Within days the victorious Celts entered, burned and pillaged the capital. The Celtic army occupied Rome for seven months until paid 1,000 pounds in gold to leave. According to legend, when a Roman tribune complained that the Celts’ scales were rigged, Brennus threw his sword and belt atop the counterweights, thus increasing the Roman ransom, and thundered, “Vae victis!” (“Woe to the vanquished!”). Brennus’ taunt, wrote the classical historian Livy, was “intolerable to Roman ears,” and thereafter the Romans harboured a bitter hatred of the Celts, whom they called Gauls. The Romans ultimately enclosed their capital within a massive wall to protect it from future “barbarian” raids.The dramatic encounter along the Allia was among the first between two great European peoples who over the next five centuries or so would clash and interact in a complex intercultural weave of warfare, alliances and trade. Their interaction marked a collision of differing political systems—that of free-ranging tribes versus a highly regimented state bent on territorial and economic aggrandisement—and proved a mighty contest between the Celtic and Mediterranean ways of life. Ultimately, both civilisations would contribute significantly to the formation of the modern European identity.The Celtic people comprised hundreds of tribes, some as small as 20,000 members and others boasting more than a quarter-million men, women and children. There wasn’t a uniform Celtic nation or state; what linked them was their Indo-European language, ethnicity and certain shared cultural characteristics and artistic styles. The Greeks called these diverse people the Keltoi, which is perhaps how the Celts referred to themselves. Probably due to population pressures and a desire for independence, the Celts were great migrators; the areas they inhabited stretched from Ireland and Scotland into Spain and France and farther east into parts of Germany, northern Italy, Greece, Eastern Europe and Turkey.Celtic social structure radiated outward from the family to the extended family, clan, tribe and tribal alliances. “In Gaul,” Julius Caesar wrote in his Commentaries on the Gallic War, “there are factions, not only in every state and every village and district but practically in each individual household as well.” The Celts were talented farmers, skilled craftsmen and superb artisans, especially in metalwork and gold. Although Roman chroniclers often characterised them as brutish and primitive, the Celts constructed towns, roads and powerful hill forts. They mined salt and controlled the lucrative trade that resulted. They were masters at ironwork when the Romans were still using bronze. Celtic women enjoyed broad rights and status, some becoming military commanders, others queens. The Celts did not own slaves in any great numbers but readily sold captured enemies to the slaveholding Romans.The Celts’ greatest shortcoming was that they left virtually no written records. Thus we are forced to rely on accounts from such Roman writers as Strabo, Caesar, Polybius and others who were predictably biased and oftentimes misinterpreted Celtic ways. Thanks to these Roman chroniclers, though, we have a somewhat accurate contemporary picture of the Celts.Caesar, who fought the Celts for eight years in Gaul, noted there were “two types of men of distinction…the first is made up of the druids, and the other of the knights.” The druids were the intellectual and spiritual elite of Celtic society and served an apprenticeship of up to 20 years, becoming experts in philosophy and history and passing down knowledge and wisdom through oral traditions. Intimately in tune with the rhythms of nature, the druids held their ceremonies in oak groves. “Young men flock to them in large numbers to gain instruction,” Caesar wrote, “and they hold the druids in great esteem. For they decide almost all disputes, both public and private.” The druids also presided over animal and human sacrifices.By “knights” Caesar was referring to the fighting class in what was an honour-based warrior society. “The whole race,” Strabo noted, “is madly fond of war, high-spirited and quick to battle but otherwise straightforward and not of evil character.” They excelled in raiding other tribes for revenge and rustling horses and cattle. Warfare was low intensity and conducted more for ritualised displays of individual prowess, skill and courage than to destroy or subjugate an enemy. Indeed, a specialised warrior society, the Gaesatae, fought naked except for arms and a shield. These elite troops had, Polybius wrote, “proud confidence in themselves” and seemingly fought in a state of divine power and purity. Sometimes warring tribes would square off only for the contest to be decided by two opposing champions who fought to the death, with the losing side retreating from the field. Celts were fond of boasting about their deeds and, according to Strabo, had a “love of decoration. They wear ornaments of gold, torques on their necks and bracelets on their arms and wrists, while people of high rank wear dyed garments besprinkled with gold.” After battle they held a grand feast of roasted boar with much drinking of beer and wine while highly respected bards sang of heroic deeds.

I would highly recommend the Baldur's Gate series (1 and 2, plus the expansions), in that it provides a number of truly evil options. Many of the quests do not require you to be good: on the contrary, being evil can have better rewards, and can certainly be more fun. Also, Baldur's Gate has a system by which one character is created by the player, while the rest of the party is joinable preset characters with their own personalities. This is somewhat like Mass Effect or Dragon Age...only Baldur's Gate has a number of evil potential party members. Also, BG has no protection of friendly civilian NPCs from being attacked, burned, frozen, electrocuted, etc.If you want a taste of the kind of evil deeds you can do, check out: I'm a Naughty Boy! and I'm STILL a Naughty Boy! (Note: All credit for this work of mastery quoted below goes to SixOfSpades of the Ironworks Forum (profile visible from the link)). Word of warning: many of the items contained in the links can spoil game plot details. Here are some non-spoiler highlights (with a few words blotted out to remove spoilers):From the 1st:Stopped by a few taverns just long enough to cast Cloudkill . Taking the ---- Dagger to ---'s, politely handing it to the Cultists, and immeditely leaving. Used Algernon's Cloak to get big groups of Commoners all huddled together, to make a Fireball MUCH more satisfying- Killed thirty-NINE children, all of them with ----'s Frostbrand, and most of them by Backstab- Went house-to-house in BG city, Backstabbing Commoners in their sleep with the Dagger of VenomWent to the ---- map and talked to ----, the woman who wants you to save her son from the Worgs. Shar-Teel convinced me that a real woman would do it herself, so one Charm later, ---- is my Tank against the Worgs. Kid got a front-row seat as he watched his mother torn apart by wolves (literally: They chunked her). And then I left without even killing the Worgs.From 2nd:Whiled away the idle time between quests by Backstabbing Good-aligned people that don't cost you Rep. for killing them (the Temple of Lathander was fun)... ----- and company were NOT prepared for Edwin casting Time Stop/Dragon's Breath* Summoned a Pit Fiend in a tavern here and there, just for the hell of it (wasn't as much fun as I’d been hoping for). Me, Korgan, Montaron, Viconia, Edwin. That's only 5 members. What about that empty 6th slot, you say? Ahhhhh. The open slot was used to take in each of the Good and Neutral NPCs, and one by one, absolutely destroy their lives. (The first thing I did with each one was dress them in pink and yellow.) Read on....Mazzy: The manual says that if you get killed by a Shade, you become a Shade yourself. I tried that, but nothing special happened. I thought maybe they had to kill you by draining your STR, so I had her use a Cursed Scroll of Weakness. Still nothing. So I settled for having her die at the hands of Shadow Patrick and the Shade Lord.Valygar: Turned him in to ----, alive. Actual quote from Valygar when I handed him over:"No! Please! SOMEBODY HELP ME!" That just made me feel giggly all over.Keldorn: I have this great screenshot of Keldorn using his Detect Evil. Fenris Melkior- Evil. Viconia- Evil. Montaron- Evil. Edwin- Evil. Korgan- Evil. We're all glowing red. You'd think he would have suspected something was up. Sucker.Aerie: Ah, Aerie. Sweet, naive, innocent little Aerie. First we tied her to a chair and made her watch as we collectively drank three cases of Red Bull(note, Aerie is a winged elf who lost her wings:Think about what Red Bull gives you.)(damned Korgan won the drinking contest), and then we gave her the Rod of Terror and had her LITERALLY beat herself to death with an Ugly Stick. In front of Quayle, of course.In short, while Eve Online definitely wins as far as the sheer amount of evil you can do to other players (being built primarily to enable accountants to maximize Video Game Cruelty Potential - TV Tropes), Baldur's Gate takes the cake for evil acts towards NPCs and companions. And yes, the designers thought of all of these options, and coded them all in.