MaxDZ8 on 1/6/2009 at 10:19
Quote Posted by Xorak
I see it as an allegory to Michelangelo's
Creation of Adam. (You know that picture of God's finger almost touching Adam's)
Here we see the Builder imbuing the pagan with life. See how the fingers of the Pagan creature are reaching out to the hammer just like in the
Creation of Adam. Both individuals are in complete peace, there is no sign of combat or hatred between them. I think it suggests that the pagan wants the learning and understanding that the 'hammer' brings, and that there is after all a similarity between the two rivals.
:thumb: I appreciate this alot, although I have to agree with the conflict interpretation. Furthermore, saying this sounds near heresy to me, it implies pagans are manifestations of the builder as well. No, I don't think this is possible.
Quote Posted by Xorak
Or perhaps it could very well be saying that the pagan was transformed into the priest by touching the hammer. Maybe the priest in the robe was a winged beast just seconds earlier, but the hammer has imbued him with sudden and unknown knowledge.
This is better reaching the
convert all pagans!!! objective. Kudos to you. :thumb:
Xorak on 2/6/2009 at 01:27
Quote Posted by MaxDZ8
:thumb: I appreciate this alot, although I have to agree with the conflict interpretation. Furthermore, saying this sounds near heresy to me, it implies pagans are manifestations of the builder as well. No, I don't think this is possible.
Couldn't it just be the same way that people used to look upon Native Americans. They looked at them as being 'without God' but they still tried to convert them, and for those that wouldn't become 'Europeanized' they just set about systematically ruining them. Couldn't you draw the same analogy between that and the Hammerite-Pagan struggle. I mean, Missionaries worked to convert the Natives, so they saw them as human beings, and they knew that God had created them as well even though they were considered savages.
Perhaps the Hammerites are trying to convert the pagans, but when that fails they destroy them. Maybe they believe that the pagan gods were created by the Builder, and perhaps turned evil (in their eyes anyways).
jtr7 on 2/6/2009 at 01:47
There is no evidence whatsoever that any conversion, coerced or peaceably offered, has ever happened. If the Hammers don't just kill the pagans, they work them to death.
Random_Taffer on 2/6/2009 at 03:16
The Trickster painting to me shows the Builder banishing the Trickster to the forest. The trickster's arm is recoiling from the holy light of the hammer as it slinks, defeated, away.
One could also look at it as an allegorical symbol of Order (the building of a city) banishing Chaos (disorganized nomadic behavior) to be with it's own. (A forest is quite chaotic in contrast to a planned city)
infinity on 2/6/2009 at 03:36
I always loved finding artwork like this. It's proof of such a strong game, because stuff like that isn't really necessary- but they added it solely to add interest, and play with the lore a little bit.
The Hammer/Pagan piece is nice, neat, symmetrical, balanced, and all those other nice things. The other piece are confusing though, as they seem more random. :confused:
Stath MIA on 2/6/2009 at 18:48
I doubt the devs put as much meaning into these painting as we do but...
I think that the first one, the woman, seems to be made in a style not of the City and rather reflects a foreign culture, perhaps that of the mages homeland, and represents the possession of an arcane power, mystical magic (like the mages) rather than divine magic (like the hammers) or natural magic (like the pagans). Perhaps the creature in the painting represents a (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Familiar) demonic familiar of some sort.
The second appears to depict a Hammerite, or perhaps the Builder, as the central focus with two sorceresses summoning what appear to be water and earth elementals, the two never seen in any form in game, in the background and in the far back it seems to show a scene of nature. This could easily be a depiction of the balance of powers, with the forces of progress displayed in the foreground, as they are currently in a position of command, the forces of the arcane come second as their faction is not in power but still is strong, and the forces of nature in the background, as they are subdued yet not totally gone.
