Gimodon@sonic.net on 28/8/2010 at 16:53
1. Why do the haunts make that chain rattling noise?
2. Why do they say all that weird stuff? Does it mean anything or is it just supposed to be nonsensical but disturbing phrases?
Tomi on 28/8/2010 at 18:03
The strange noises and disturbing phrases are meant to confuse you, so that the haunts can whack you with a hammer (or a sword) while you're wondering what their meaning is.
cast on 28/8/2010 at 18:09
What confuses me in haunts is this: why do they use swords at all? If they're dead Hammerites brought back to life for one reason or another, they should either have no weaponry or (due to possibly being buried together with their gear) wield hammers only.
Ah, if you think what haunts say is nonsensical, listen to apparitions.
By the way, I have a feeling that there's more and more troll threads showing up recently, and yet people here ignore the trolliness and turn these threads into regular discussions. Marvelous. :cool:
nicked on 28/8/2010 at 18:32
Can't remember for the haunts, but a lot of the apparition speech is actually Viktoria played backwards and distorted.
Also, haunts only carry swords in Thief 1. Since all the haunts in Thief 1 are very old (the cathedral haunts are 50+ years old, the one in the Bonehoard probably similar or older, considering how deeply buried in the bomehoard it is), we could speculate that Hammers actually carried swords in the old days, and only more recently upgraded to hammer from ceremonial purposes to an actual day-to-day weapon. The haunts in Thief 2 carry hammers, and wear the more modern Hammerite armour and clothing, because they are "fresh" haunts caused by the Mechanists defiling their gravesites.
At least that's my take on the matter.
Solabusca on 28/8/2010 at 18:52
Quote Posted by cast
What confuses me in haunts is this: why do they use swords at all? If they're dead Hammerites brought back to life for one reason or another, they should either have no weaponry or (due to possibly being buried together with their gear) wield hammers only.
Ah, if you think what haunts say is nonsensical, listen to apparitions.
By the way, I have a feeling that there's more and more troll threads showing up recently, and yet people here ignore the trolliness and turn these threads into regular discussions. Marvelous. :cool:
I'm sure jtr7 will be along with the requisite documentation, but the gist of it is this - in times past, the Hammerites turned from the Hammer, and weilded swords - the Smith-in-Exile comments on it, if memory serves.
As to the speech - they're tormented undead spirits. Listen to what they have to say, sometime.
.j.
lost_soul on 29/8/2010 at 00:06
I think the apparitions are the scariest sounding enemy in a game... ever.
jtr7 on 29/8/2010 at 00:35
Haunts aren't Hammerites, but Hammerite corpses that became possessed by evil "demonic" spirits when the Hammerite graves were desecrated. In TDP/Gold, the Trickster-caused Cataclysm (involving earthquakes, fires, and influx of BugDemons/Beastesses/BugBeasts, and The Eye amusing itself) cracked open the earth and desecrated gravesites, and Hammerite corpses were reanimated by evil spirits. Brother Murus calls them possessed bodies of his brethren and asks that they be killed, while he seeks to have his own burial blessed, and for his friends bodies to be buried, ending their limbo after 50+ years.
Chains are not only a common symbol for the ghosts of the damned who are imprisoned eternally, but a commonly reported among people who claim to hear ghosts in their attics roaming about. The Haunts speak of hellish existence and invite the living to join them in the fire. Also, chains are fitting irony for an industrious Order of forgers who imprison others. They aren't speaking gibberish. As was mentioned, the spell-casting Apparitions are the ones that are unintelligible, but they are speaking pitch-distorted and reversed clips of Viktoria's speech to Garrett before she rips his eye out.
Before LGS settled on the concept, they actually had the Haunts reciting Hammer chants/tenets, but evil spirits possessing Hammer bodies wouldn't do something considered holy and purifying, so they changed that.
It makes perfect sense for non-Hammerite spirits possessing corpses to wield whatever weapons they want, and Hammerites do forge swords, as well as hammers. It also reflects that something's wrong to see a Hammerite not using a hammer.
sjb5001 on 29/8/2010 at 02:44
...jtr7, any plans to publish a book on the Thief universe? :idea:
jtr7 on 29/8/2010 at 03:00
There was a plan to make an Encyclopedia available once. Right now, it's a bunch of half-organized databases and in my brain, though another taffer had been collaborating with me and writing the actual entries--a big big task--until real life became overwhelming and he had to make the Encyclopedia a low priority.
One of the major purposes for it--after living without the games for 5 years--was to have the comprehensive Thief Universe available in book form without the need for any electricity or electronics to enjoy it or reference it, for people interested in the canon for fan-fic and fan missions. :sweat:
bob_doe_nz on 29/8/2010 at 05:55
What about the Thief Wikia?
