Karl Heisenberg Is Steampunk-Yeehaw-Astarion, Change My Mind.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 - Announcement Trailer

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Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is a role-playing game (RPG) set in a Seattle faithfully re-imagined in the World of Darkness. The game is currently in development and will launch on PC and consoles in 2020. Developed by Hardsuit Labs, Bloodlines 2 is the successor to the iconic RPG Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, featuring reactive storytelling, fast-paced melee combat, and intriguing characters with their own hidden motives. Players will become the ultimate vampire as they stalk the city streets for prey, maneuver complex political relationships, and balance their need for blood against their withering humanity.

Created in an act of vampire insurrection, your existence ignites a blood war among the vampire factions who run Seattle. To survive, you’ll choose a clan and enter into uneasy alliances with the competing factions in a world which will react to every choice you make. Unleash your supernatural powers against your prey, but be mindful of your surroundings at all times or run the risk of breaking the Masquerade — the absolute law of secrecy that keeps Vampire society hidden from humanity.

The creative mind behind the original Bloodlines, Brian Mitsoda, returns as Lead Narrative Designer for Bloodlines 2, giving fans a true successor to the original cult classic. “When Paradox announced they were acquiring the World of Darkness IP, I immediately started thinking about what it would be like to return to Vampire: The Masquerade,” Mitsoda said. “Our aim has been to carry on the signature themes that made Bloodlines unique – particularly its dark tone, atmosphere, and humor – and I think that fans of the original will love what we’re doing with Bloodlines 2.”

“Fans of the original Bloodlines have been hungry for a sequel for a long time, and we began to hear those suggestions — well, demands — as soon as we began to work with the World of Darkness,” said Ebba Ljungerud, CEO of Paradox Interactive. “We all understood what this opportunity could mean, but it was essential for both us and for Hardsuit Labs that any sequel should be done properly; a true successor guided by the people who knew what made the original so special. Keeping this game a secret for the last few years has been quite the Masquerade for us! It’s both exciting and relieving to finally let everybody know what we have in store for them.”

“At Hardsuit Labs we’re proud to have assembled a team of industry veterans who have worked on blockbuster titles, ranging from narrative-driven RPGs to action-packed shooters,” said Andy Kipling, CEO of Hardsuit Labs. “We started working on our pitch almost immediately after we heard that Paradox had acquired the IP and I’m thrilled that Paradox recognized our passion and abilities. We are honored to be bringing Bloodlines 2 to fans all over the world.”

Key Features

Become the Ultimate Vampire – Immerse yourself in the World of Darkness and live out your vampire fantasy in a city filled with intriguing characters that react to your choices. You and your unique disciplines are a weapon in a forward-driving, fast-moving, melee-focused combat system. Your power will grow as you advance, but remember to uphold the Masquerade and guard your humanity … or face the consequences.

Descend into Seattle’s Dark Heart and Survive the Vampire Elite – Seattle has always been run by vampires. Hunt your prey across Seattle locations faithfully re-imagined in the World of Darkness. Meet the old blood founders present since the city’s birth and the new blood steering the tech money redefining the city. Everyone has hidden agendas – so choose your allies wisely.

Enter into Uneasy Alliances – Choose a side among competing factions, each with their own unique traits and stories, in the war for Seattle’s blood trade. The world will judge you by the company you keep, but remember no one’s hands stay clean forever.

Experience the Story – Written by the creative mind behind the original Bloodlines, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 brings the ambitions of the first to life and sees the return of a few fan favorite characters. Nvidia GeForce RTX is the official graphics partner of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 and Paradox is excited to work with Nvidia on bringing real-time ray tracing and Nvidia DLSS technology to the game.

Glasses in sideview are mean to draw. Thank You to all the people who liked and reblogged my previous sketches - it was a great birthdaypresent!

This is now my headcannon as well! I love witcher 1, and siegfried was one of my favourite characters! I was sad that he did not make a reappearance in the third game, but seeing what became of the order, maybe it's better that way. If one assumes that he really is the lonely champion, it would be a nice form of closure for such a formidable character!

Something else i noticed, related to the lonely champion as a card:

- he destroys firesworn tokens - which could be seen as him not agreeing with the fanatics, and what became of the order.

- as op rightly remarked, the knight is surrounded by drowners. You know who else was surrounded by drowners when first encountered? - siegfried. (He battled against them with geralt on the way to the basilisk in the sewers).

Okay I wanna talk about Siegfried of Denesle for a hot second (especially in Gwent)

(gif by @thirstyforred​ )

Short background to Siegfried for all those that didn’t play the first game: Siegfried, son of Sir Eyck of Denesle, joined the Order of the Flaming Rose, the military organisation rooted in the Eternal Fire belief, when his father refused to take coin for hunting monsters after his mother fell gravely ill. Though he renounced his father he still followed a strict knightly code to do good and defend the weak. He felt that, although sometimes drastic, the Order would give him that opportunity. What he didn’t know was that the order was rotten to its core and the Grand Master Jacques de Aldersberg cooperated with the criminal organisation Salamandra to make money by producing the drug Fisstech and produce mutants - not the witcher kind though, those mutants were barely human anymore, mangled mounts of flesh made to kill and be killed.

In The Witcher 1 you have the possibility to support the order, but what this mostly looks like is supporting Siegfried. In the end he will see that the order is not all that he was promised it would be. He is named the next Grand Master by king Foltest and assissts Geralt with getting to de Aldersberg to stop him for once and all.

In The Witcher 2, if you have chosen the Order path in Witcher 1, you can meet him again. He will help you get inside Loc Muinne, where an important political summit takes place. Even more importantly though is that he will help Geralt and Vernon Roche to keep the heir to the Temerian throne, little Anaïs La Valette, out of king Radovid’s hands.

The big mystery however is that he does not show up in The Witcher 3. In one DLC you can get the dialogue choice to mention him once to shame a former order member, but that’s it. So what happened? The order had been gifted lands by king Radovid between Witcher 1 and 2, that’s why they stood as his private army in 2. In 3 however their assets had been seized and the Order been disbanded. The members either joined the Witch Hunters or turned to organized crime and banditry, producing fisstech. Absolutely not a word to be found of what became of the Grand Master. You can however find a note on a noticeboard written by a “Siegfried de Löwe” (Löwe=lion) basically threatening villagers if they didn’t pay protection money. It is unclear in-game if this is some other Siegfried or the same.

I will however argue on the basis of the Gwent standalone game that he is not, and even more important, he is doing morally better than the twisted organisation the order became.

The first big indicator for me is that he is a neutral card. All other order members are of the Syndicate faction, meaning they have an association with crime.

Next are his categories. “Human, Knight”. All units that have an association with the Eternal Fire or the Order have “Firesworn” and therefore marks them as belonging to the thus named religiously fanatic syndicate faction.

Then there lastly is his deploy ability “Purify all other units”. This means that all positive and negative effects are removed from your and your opponents units. Of course to sensibly use this ability you’d use it when your own units have mostly negative effects (like bleeding, or having their abilities locked) and your opponent having mostly positive effects (i.e. shield or defender). He is by far of course not the only unit that has a variant of the purify ability, but he has the only one that affects the whole board, giving a certain weight to his “purity”.

There are arguments that could counter this, I want to specifically mention the Philippa Eilhart cards (one is Northern Realms, the other Syndicate), because they show her at different stages of her story, so of course this Siegfried card could just be early-on Siegfried and at some point we will get a Siegfried: De Löwe card or something.

Another point could be, that such a card had to be made neutral (for example a lot of the Witcher cards are neutral as well as Yen and Ciri cards)

I do however have a funny little headcanon.

See this guy?

(gif by @thirstyforred​ of course)

This card is called Lonely Champion with the following flavour text: “So long as he continues the righteous fight the Order and its flame endure.” It shows him surrounded by drowners, run of the mill monsters, not involved with crime. So though he is a Firesworn unit, he is not Not Like The Others. Plus he has the immunity ability.

I like to imagine that this is Siegfried after having the order ripped out under him by Radovid, trying to fight the righteous fight on his own, adhering as the last one to the knightly values he wanted and expected the Order to incorporate.

Alright, thank you for reading! I know Witcher 1 is an … aged game, but if you should ever feel like diving into the games, keep in mind that you can only meet Siegfried if you play the first game! To all my fellow Gwent and Witcher 1 enthusiast: I would love to read your thoughts!

Sir Terry Pratchett died today. We have lost a brilliant writer and an amazing creative mind. But like any writer, he lives on through his work, and I suggest that every one of you go out and get one of his books to read.

Honestly, that would be such a sick connection if we ever get a remaster of the first game!!!

Do you remember the story of Alina and Celina in the first Witcher? And the broken mirror? That was a quest object. Not an ordinary one. The mirror of Nehaleni, a magical artefact with oracular abilities. When it comes to mirrors I become very suspicious. Gaunter described himself to Geralt as a former merchant of mirrors, and that was not just a fable, he might indeed put his special mirrors at markets, and then, isn't it a perfect way to watch, to play, to mock?

The Monster Deck welcomes a night wraith.

Antlerbros.

A broken man, in body and mind.

I really wanted to contribute to the moonknight fandom, and it made me sad that there's so little harrow content, so here's a ~15 min sketch.