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Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura: Difference between revisions

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Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura (view source)

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* [[MacGyvering]]: You'll do this a lot if you play as a scientist.
* [[Magic From Technology]]/[[Clarke's Third Law]]: Technology in this setting is capable of doing things so fantastic that it's essentially indistinguishable from magic in many ways (though magic itself is still a separate, distinct thing). A healing salve that closes gashes and mends broken bones in literally seconds? A staff that fries your foes with pinpoint-accurate bolts of lightning? A ring that gives you limited [[Super Speed]] when wearing it? A chemical concoction that can ''bring people back from the dead''? All of this and more can be yours through the wonders of [[Steampunk|late 19th Century]] [[For Science!|SCIENCE!]]
* [[The Magic Goes Away]]/[[The Magic Comes Back]]: It's implied that because of the [[Magic Versus Science]] rules discussed below, ''Arcanum'' goes through cycles of a period of high technology, a period when magic and technology coexist in uneasy balance, a period of high magic, another period of coexistence, and so on. Bates' manufacture and marketing of steam engines to the humans is causing a new age of technology to begin and magic to wane. Certain in-game books and conversations imply that magic was once stronger than it is now, and some of the relics from Vendigroth and The Iron Clan hint at what technology might achieve in the future. Although the Vendigrothian relics suggests that it is quite possible for the periods of uneasy coexistence to have both magic and technology be what the 'present day' of the game would consider high.
* [[Magic Versus Science]]: One of the best [[Justified Trope|justifications]] on record: [[Magic and Powers|Magick]] ''[[Reality Warper|alters physics]]'' to do stuff, Technology ''[[Awesome Yet Practical|uses physics]]'' to do stuff. Machinery operating around people using spells are performing nonsense actions: powerful spells will break weaker machines just by being used in the vicinity. Likewise, spells used around machinery are basically inserted into said machinery: powerful machines will cause weaker spells to fail just by operating in their vicinity.
** A hilarious and quickly-tiresome conversation occurs every time you try to buy a train ticket, basically boiling down to "Are you a wizard?", "Are you sure you're not a wizard?", "You might be a wizard, if-" and quickly turns out to be completely redundant, since the conductor has a device that detects hazardous levels of magic before letting you board a train anyway. Conversely, simply being inside a train station instantly lowers your magicka stat.
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** Averted with city dwarves, who eschew the old clan customs, and are more proud of their city of origin than their dwarvishness. They still don't talk about their females.
** [[Invoked Trope|Attempted invocation]] by {{spoiler|Magnus, who's so ashamed to be a city dwarf, he makes every attempt to be More The Same like he imagines ''real'' dwarves should be. Even when he doesn't exactly know the customs he should be following, he'll make them up as he goes along}}.
** Also subverted by {{spoiler|Preston Radcliffe, the dying 'gnome' at the game's intro. He's actually a dwarf who shaved his beard to disguise himself. To the rest of his clan, this is an unthinkable disgrace only partly forgiven by the severity of the situation. The player, if a dwarf, can lampshade this by saying, "We dwarves would rather cut our throats then cut off our beards."}}.
* [[Our Elves Are Better]]: The major elf groups can be ''colossal'' [[Jerkass|Jerk Asses]] to anyone who isn't an elf... up to the [[Knight Templar|Dark Elves]] who want to [[Fantastic Racism|bring all non-Elves under Elven domination, or else just kill them off]].
** [[Can't Argue with Elves]]: Raven can be frustratingly unwilling to help you clean up {{spoiler|a mess that the Dark Elves made by forging a letter from their ruler}}. Yet you really have no choice but to play her games and help with her problems before she'll let you talk to the Silver Lady.
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** {{spoiler|Arguably, one of the most disturbing and sickening parts of the game is visiting the factory farm where a large number of Half-Ogres were 'bred' by the Gnomish conspiracy}}.
* [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]: {{spoiler|Kerghan has an epic speech where he explains why basically life itself sucks and must be wiped out, accompanied with FMV stills. What makes the speech extra creepy is that he actually makes a fairly convincing case for it, since what amounts to Heaven is demonstratedly real in-story}}.
* [[Religion Is Magic]]: Making offer to gods whose altars a scattered around ''Arcanum'' gives you very real stat boosts. It also gives you very real curses if you don't respect their interpersonal relationships when doing it.
* [[Religion Is Right]]: Partly subverted and partly played straight with Panarii. Most of their myths actually happened. Their prophecies, on the other hand, need some work. {{spoiler|You are not the [[Chosen One]] and reincarnation of Nasrudin, as Virgil believes. It's really hard to reincarnate when you are still alive}}.
* [[The Reveal]]: Towards the end of the game. {{spoiler|[[Fantastic Racism|Arronax]] has done a [[Heel Face Turn]], wants to [[The Atoner|atone]] for his misdeeds, and is stuck in a crystal unable to interact with his surroundings or communicate with the normal world. [[Omnicidal Maniac|Kerghan]] is the real [[Big Bad]]}}.
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* [[Third Person Person]]: Ristezze in Shrouded Hills, the first town you come to.
* [[Too Awesome to Use]]: Magic Scrolls end up being this to many players. You rarely encounter them lying around, and they cost a lot of money; even the nearly-useless ones. So they just end up sitting there, waiting for "that time" where you'll want that Scroll of Fireflash.
* [[Ultimate Evil]]: In-universe example. Arronax is deliberately portrayed as this by the Panarii religion {{spoiler|or rather, by the Dark Elves running the church. Kan'Hua specifically states that "ultimate evil" is a fantasy that can be reasoned away or presented as a metaphor. The real idea of Arronax merely being a very powerful mage sealed behind magical wards is played down to avoid anyone seeking to repair the deteriorating seal.}}.
* [[Universal Ammunition]]: Pistol? Rifle? [[Hand Cannon]]? [[BFG|Elephant Gun?]] Same bullets.
* [[Vagueness Is Coming]]: The dying gnome at the start of the game helpfully informs you that "unimaginable evil" is coming to "destroy everyone and everything"."
* [[Video Game Cruelty Potential]]:
** Use [[Charm Person|Charm Beast]] to befriend a wild animal, like a wolf or bear. Walk to the nearest town. Have your animal friend enter an occupied house while you wait outside. Magelock the door shut. Then dispel Charm Beast. (Youyou might want to magically seal the windows, too—youtoo: you don't want anyone to escape the wrath of [[Everything's Worse with Bears|Mr. Disoriented Grizzly.]]). Is also an effective means to assassinate someone without the guards finding out it was you (whereas if a cop NPC walks into a room, and you're standing over a bloody corpse with a sword in your hand, they'll usually put two and two together and attack you).
** There's also the fact that there exists only 1 NPC in the game who can't be killed {{spoiler|(Thethe Silver Lady)}}. Every major character can be murdered, then have their ghost summoned and interrogated. A true villain may kill the dwarf leader of the Isle of Despair, then raise his spirit just to tell him that you're going to travel to his home clan and kill everyone -... oh, and that you'll drag the corpses into the daylight just to add insult to injury (sadly, you can't actually drag the corpses outside). There's almost no limit to how much cruelty you can inflict upon the populace of Arcanum.
* [[Video Game Cruelty Punishment]]:
** While most things in this game can just be killed to deal with them, there are two instances where the game will punish you severely for trying. The first instance is a quest Raven sends you on. The area in question is cursed so that if you or your party harms anything there, you all die automatically. The trick is to get your targets to do this to you. The second is dealing with Stringy Pete. You have to do three quests to get his boat. You might wonder why you can't just kill him instead. After all, he's just one high-level skeleton. He is just one high-level skeleton... armed with the best magical armor available, and summons six similarly high-level skeletons to back him up. While it is ''technically'' possible to win, it's very unlikely unless you bring a huge group and prepare for it. Too bad one of his quests is impossible to complete if you pick up the Torin stone before speaking to him and the priests. Or if you lose the stone. Then killing him is the only way to get to his ship.
** Killing the fat perverted Mr. Franklin who hires a female PC[[Player Character]] to sleep with him ([[Black Widow|while he is fast asleep from the sex]]) will result in the quest-giver attacking when going to pick up the payment. Can be averted by killing him ''after'' payment is received.
** The fortune teller sidequest. To elaborate, Tarant has two fortune tellers, Madame Toussaud and a fraud in upper Tarant. Once you speak to the fraud, she'll ask you to steal Toussaud's crystal ball. Upon arrival, Toussaud will know why you've come and demand you choose a side. If you choose her side, you get the ball with no conflict and give it to the fraud, who dies upon touching it. You get a decent blessing (stat boost) for the trouble. Side against Toussaud, though, and you get hit with an equal curse (stat reduction), while the fraud rewards you with nothing worthwhile. No sane person ever sides with the fraud.
* [["Wake-Up Call" Boss|Wake Up Call Level]]: While the game can be incredibly easy with the right character, the Black Mountain Clan Mines will absolutely murder a low level party. This is made all the more frustrating since the game's narrative actively pushes you to travel there in the early stages.
* [[We Buy Anything]]: Played with;: vendors will only buy things related to their stock (smithy shops only buy armor and weapons, for example), except for the junk vendors, who will buy anything short of destroyed items. Get mastery in Haggle, though, and they will not only buy anything, they'll sell you the clothes off their backs.
* [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]]: {{spoiler|Kerghan wants to [[Omnicidal Maniac|kill everyone]] because he believes that the afterlife is better and more peaceful than life}}. Interestingly, that particular theory is somewhat confirmed in-game, since one of your party members {{spoiler|who dies and is resurrected}} agrees with him, but still thinks that people should be allowed to choose their own fate.
* [[When All You Have Is a Hammer]]: Virtually any problem can be solved with the right application of force. Locked door? Beat it down. Guy holding an item you like? Kill him. Interdimensional portal releasing demon hoards upon the land? Whack it closed. Note that while this method may work, it is not exactly the most ''subtle'' way of doing things. Also, some of the [[Golden Ending]]s for various places require that you be skilled in Persuasion, such as taking a diplomatic solution to the matter of {{spoiler|Donn Throgg}}.
* [[Wizards Live Longer]]: Played with;: elves are both the most magically talented race in Arcanum, and have the longest lifespans (up to a millenium), and humans with a talent for magick live slightly longer than those without, [[All There in the Manual|according to the manual]]. On the other hand, dwarves and gnomes have respectable lifespans (600 years) despite having no natural affinity for magick, and orcs and halflings, thought to have been mutated by exposure to large amounts of magick, have shorter lifespans than the races they evolved from (40 years and 400 years, respectively).
* [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]]: The writing in this game deserves credit considering that the {{spoiler|completely sane Kerghan whose primary goal is to kill absolutely ''everything'' isn't a [[Complete Monster]] in any way, but this instead. He's decided that because being alive is painful, summoned spirits suffer terribly from the experience, and the final afterlife is perfect bliss, then the logical solution is end all life. He reasons that if living is unpleasant and death peaceful, then having to live must be a terrible crime to force upon a soul and one that must be permanently removed. Remarkably if the player can explain the flaws in his philosophy he'll willingly abandon his genocidal agenda and submit to having his soul banished forever. He even shows some slight regret that he never learned how to enjoy life himself: "Perhaps some souls are destined for death; they never know how to live."}}
* [[Year Outside, Hour Inside]]: Is the case inside The Void. {{spoiler|Stennar Rock-Cutter refers to the elderly Gilbert Bates as "the boy" because from his perspective it's only been a few months/years since he and his clan were banished, while it's been over half a century in Arcanum.}}.
 
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