CrashT on 21/1/2012 at 23:55
Quote Posted by nicked
Well that's wrong on several counts. Besides, I'm pretty sure that screenshot is just a gear, probably from the electrics or plumbing in one of the nearby rooms.
This Thief-nerd post probably belongs in Thief Gen. :p
Edit: That's maybe a bit unfair - looking in Dromed, it could be intended as a hidden shrine. The object itself is just a normal gear used elsewhere in the game in machinery. There's really no other evidence to suggest that the Mechanists are "in hiding" though - the very next mission has documents showing that the Mechanists have been actively taking over warehouse operations for the best part of a year and are implied to own half the city. Unless you insert a huge gap in the timeline between Running Interference and Shipping and Receiving, the mechanists are very much a powerful and active part of the city from the start of the game.
When I said they were "unknown" I mean that they have not been mentioned in The Metal Age at this stage, on that point I could have been clearer. Though their first mention is in Shipping and Receiving, you don't see a Mechanist until Framed and there are never any Mechanist on the streets of the City until the end of Trace The Courier. There is the implication that they are an active and noticeable presence but the fact they are rarely seen outside their Seminary until the later stages of the game can be taken to indicate that they are still operating predominately in the background.
As for the gear being a shrine, I'll admit the first few times I played I never really noticed it, but once it was pointed out to me its placement makes a lot of sense. It's hidden behind a stack of crates in a dark corner under the stairs, the idea that it's a concealed place of worship to a god not shared by the rest of the household makes sense. Given that its not until Life Of The Party that Karras actively courts the nobility it's very possible that Lady Rumford is not sympathetic to that order. The Mechanists as a whole are probably not "in hiding" but it's certainly likely that their supporters in the noble houses might have to be, as I'd imagine there's still a fair number of Hammer loyalists among the City's Lords and Ladies.
I'm not the first person to have considered it a shrine either, Lytha refers to the items in that area as religious symbols in (
http://www.lytha.com/thief2/ri/loot.phtml) her loot list.
demagogue on 22/1/2012 at 00:28
I'm ashamed you long time ThiefGen'ers don't remember the story behind that hidden gear. (j/k not really ashamed; you'd have to have seen the thread on it.)
In the original release version of T2 there was a different shrine down there, shaped like a square letter Y with a horizontal line through the top (I still have the screenshot on my other computer. Edit: actually now I remember -- it was a square letter Y with a long & squat square letter U passing through the top part, so there were 4 prongs at the top). Then some TTLGers found the same shrine in an AM's Alice map (IIRC), and they figured out the same mapper had worked on both maps (wish I could remember his name). Then that mapper actually found out we were looking for him (somebody emailed him?) and explained... The thread is somewhere in ThiefGen if someone wants to look it up.
Anyway, that's like his trademark symbol and he likes to hide it in all the maps he works on. He was doing detail work on Running Interference & put it in that back area. Then after the release, the team found out about it & weren't happy that he did it rogue without consulting them, since it sort of has story implications if that guy is part of some weird non-canon cult. So they took that original shrine out for the first patch. But they must have liked the general concept because after they took it out, they replaced it with that gear in a sort of shrine-esque looking arrangement, so it hints that the guy might be a secret member of the new Mechanist cult. So that's the story behind it.
This is Thief fan 101 stuff people. Well advanced undergraduate fandom anyway... ;)
nicked on 22/1/2012 at 08:23
I bow to your superior knowledge! I did not know that. :eek:
Probably cos I tend to bang out of those kinds of threads once the wild theories start flying, like the ones suggesting the Precursors were kurshoks...
Aerothorn on 23/1/2012 at 04:34
Congratulations on the RPS mention! That should bring in the traffic.
ThePhotoshop on 23/1/2012 at 05:39
Quote Posted by demagogue
I'm ashamed you long time ThiefGen'ers don't remember the story behind that hidden gear. (j/k not really ashamed; you'd have to have seen the thread on it.)
In the original release version of T2 there was a different shrine down there, shaped like a square letter Y with a horizontal line through the top (I still have the screenshot on my other computer. Edit: actually now I remember -- it was a square letter Y with a long & squat square letter U passing through the top part, so there were 4 prongs at the top). Then some TTLGers found the same shrine in an AM's Alice map (IIRC), and they figured out the same mapper had worked on both maps (wish I could remember his name). Then that mapper actually found out we were looking for him (somebody emailed him?) and explained... The thread is somewhere in ThiefGen if someone wants to look it up.
Anyway, that's like his trademark symbol and he likes to hide it in all the maps he works on. He was doing detail work on Running Interference & put it in that back area. Then after the release, the team found out about it & weren't happy that he did it rogue without consulting them, since it sort of has story implications if that guy is part of some weird non-canon cult. So they took that original shrine out for the first patch. But they must have liked the general concept because after they took it out, they replaced it with that gear in a sort of shrine-esque looking arrangement, so it hints that the guy might be a secret member of the new Mechanist cult. So that's the story behind it.
This is Thief fan 101 stuff people. Well advanced undergraduate fandom anyway... ;)
This is the kind of stuff I'd love to get someone writing for the site. I'm not familiar with all of it to do it myself, but I find this Thief ephemera no less fascinating.
nicked on 23/1/2012 at 06:43
Head over to (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=83&) Thief Gen - there are some hardcore Thief experts who hang out there all the time and maybe don't venture into Gen Gaming to have seen this thread. :thumb:
EvaUnit02 on 23/1/2012 at 14:45
You've just opened Pandora's Box. The world is now a worse place to live in, all thanks to you.
nicked on 23/1/2012 at 21:00
Lol.
