The Banquod Family

[Wumpus the 19th]

(challenge. take a shot of the weakest booze you've got for everytime i say the word "banquod".)

With @Sei Bellissima recent addition to their datamining topic, we have the intro slides for smith's campaign, and with that comes lore. Because of this, i think it's a good time to set up a basic story for Smith's family, the Banquods.

THE EARLY BANQUODS

Though we don't have a benchmark for the validity of this quote, or if smith was just bluffing, we have a quote saying that the Banquods were a line of kra'deshi tracing all the way back to the "deltrean tree" as a "progeny of the root" and a "vassal of the tentacle". Smith's great great grandfather was "second only to the emperor", which casts extreme renown on the family's lineage. He also states his great aunt was an admiral on the rentorian frontlines, which sheds light on their military renown. not much else is known, or at least I don't know.

Mr. and Ms. Banquod.

(from left to right, it's Mr. Banquod, Ms. Banquod, Vix'malli, Mullifee, Smith, Theroux)

Mr. and Ms. Banquod are the parents of the family. I believe that we still haven't gotten their names per se, as by smith's campaign they're dead due to an incident described later, so they'll be called Mr. and Ms. Banquod for the story. We don't know what professions they had as well, although due to the usage of bright blue on Mr. Banquod and the orange clothes with some light blue on Ms. Banquod, my assumptions are that Mr. Banquod is in the cult while Ms. Banquod might be a merchant. we also know the entire family are heshians, due to the later mention of tithes, coloration, status that could be reaped from being high in the cult's ranks, etc. The banquods are also called the strongest family in the entirety of Pearl-on-the-foam. The parents had attempted to instill heavy heshian beliefs into their children with private cult tutors.

The family had 4 broodlings. from oldest to youngest, it's Vix'malli, Mullifee, Smith, and Theroux.

The Successful Children

All of the kids apart from smith grew up as how their parents expected. Vix'malli, the eldest, was inducted into the cult's ranks as a cardinal. it's most likely this is due to the Banquod's sinking large amounts of money as "tithes" into the cult, and in exchange they elevated Vix'malli. Vix'malli also likely took to their parent's cult tutoring much better than his other siblings, making him the perfect child to induct. The induction ceremony is reported to have brought a large amount of grifters and passer-bys, although smith remarks it isn't as many as their parent's funeral.

Theroux, the youngest, followed his mother's profession, becoming a wealthy merchant. most likely combining a whirlwind of his family's power, money, and some basic business sense that was drilled into him, Theroux became an esteemed trader across Havaria, joining the merchant's guild.

Mullifee, the only daughter of the family, became an admiralty captain, or at least a patrol leader. While it's likely the reason she sped past the entry ranks was because of her family being the Banquod's, a possibility is that she could have actually climbed the ranks because of her legitimate skill and talent.

The "No intro needed" broodling, Smith.

(smith at his smith-iest)

Smith was the outcast of the Banquod family, a role he took to with vigor. A grifter in modern times, smith's childhood was supposedly filled with rambunctious misadventures due to his rich upbringing. Smith never understood his parent's insistence on him becoming a successful kra'deshi by taking an elite job, preferring to travel Havaria in order to get away from the foam. His cult tutors, who could have helped Smith become a heshian, instead had their teachings slough off of Smith's slimy skin, save for what he could salvage for "theological debates" (getting out of trouble with the cult).

At some point, Smith had found sweet moreef during his school years. A Timid Jarackle, Moreef's family we're late converts to the cult, causing the cult to oppress the family, supposedly ripping fur from sweet Moreef, as he admits. During the time they spent with each other, Moreef likely spent his time being the straight arrow to Smith's hot headed ventures. Smith also didn't shy away from "friendly rough housing", something that Moreef remembers vividly. after they had grown distant from smith leaving pearl-on-the-foam, he started "The Hideaway" grill and bar in the foam, which was unique in it's lack of security personnel and kra'deshi favoring atmosphere, attracting nobles and some commoners alike.

Smith's family name gave him an advantage over most who challenged him. His negotiation ability consisted of repeatedly name dropping his family and contacts of his family until the person learned not to start anything with him, however an embarrassing encounter with his younger brother, Theroux, led Smith to learn the art of "improvise until person is convinced".

Not to say he hates fighting, far from it. due to his rich lineage, he had taken to the drink rather quickly, and with it he became a notorious bar brawler. his fighting style had become based on his moxie ability, a modified version of the base kra'deshi healing factor. He used his moxie mostly for bar fights and stunts, as he takes a self-damaging approach to many to his fights. He also had been known to take, or at least ask for, drugs, as mentioned by the bilebroker who he has a history with during the oshnu quest. The bilebroker had become unfriendly with him due to him asking for drugs so much, however the bilebroker was never one to turn down the skin samples that Smith was willing to give in exchange for drugs. These drugs, combined with the multiple livers all kra'deshi's have, seems to have given him an intense tolerance to the point of easily drinking hard alcoholics under the table, noted in the drinking quest with the heshian...guy...(i have no idea what debug commands do, so i mostly wait for the actual updates).

Due to all of these things, he'd get into many fights that his parents consistently had to bail him out of any real trouble, furthering smith's attitude that he could evade any trouble through his parents.

(the beached creature is the large, light green with heavy light blue coloration in the middle)

The Great Beaching/Mr. and Ms. Banquod's funeral.

A few days before Smith returns to pearl-on-the-foam, Mr. and Ms. Banquod had been mud-bathing on one of the massive beaches in the area when a large, luminous creature arrived on the scene. The creature had been able to kill Mr. and Ms. Banquod before it either went dormant or the admiralty took it down. the creature was also rumored later to have been sent from hesh itself, due to the lumin. Because of the event, a large amount of "pilgrims" flocked to pearl-on-the-foam, hoping to become closer to hesh. Due to the large amount of commoners, The Hideaway's lack of security had become unappealing, causing Sweet moreef's profits to plummet. With the alleged religious connections between The Great Beaching of Mr. and Ms. Banquod dying specifically, the successful children see prosperity. Mullifee and Vix'malli are both slated for promotions in their respective careers, while theroux is signing a betrothal contract with either Andwanette, A corrupt Pearl Merchant, or Denkius, A civil, black market centric Spree member. Mullifee begrudgingly sent a notice about the funeral to Smith, prompting him to return to the foam. However, Vixmalli seemed to have other plans, as he allegedly masterminded something to keep Smith out of the funeral...(either that or tei's full of manure). This eventually leads to the current game, in which Smith gets refused at the door only to reunite with Moreef and meet Tei in an alleged destiny that Smith has waiting for him.

(i'll refine it later, but right now i'm tired. i know i'm probably wrong on some accounts, but that can wait.)

[ResettePlayer]

Yo I'm gonna hijack your topic for a bit.

2 hours ago, Wumpus the 19th said:

Moreef's family we're late converts to the cult, Which had the cult oppress the family, supposedly ripping fur from sweet moreef

Something I've noticed a little while back is that the currently known members of the Cult are entirely human or kra'deshi, with the exception of one shroke. I doubted this was a coincidence, particularly considering there's a bit of flavourtext somewhere that mentions that jarackles don't get the respect they deserve. So racism is a thing in this world, and now I'm wondering if it's constructed and perpetuated by the Cult.

Now, I have not delved deeply enough into the Experimental build to see any of Smith's campaign, so my little theory could be totally wrong here. But I do think this would be an interesting aspect of Havarian culture to shine a light on in his campaign, what with Smith being extra privileged and his closest friend being of an oppressed race.

Here are my citations:

Spoiler

Well I suppose one can't really tell the race of most Luminari.

Also are Phryna and Phryniwin like, two separate manifestations of the same person? What up wit dat?

 

[Prismaux]

I'm pretty sure all Luminari that wear masks are human for some reason- I've met kra'deshi Luminari and they don't wear masks, and the masked ones don't have any species boons in battle.The Cult seems to employs the more privileged species.

Same thing with wealthy shopkeepers- mostly kra'deshi and humans, with some odd shrokes here and there. 

Jarackles seem confined to mostly Jakes smugglers and dockhands, though there are plenty of them working for the Barons as security guards, although Taskmasters are almost exclusively kra'deshi.

Interestingly shrokes and humans seem prevalent in the Spree- I can't remember much jarackles or kra'deshi working for them. 

Interested to see more of these interspecies power dynamics! 

 

[RageLeague]

It turns out humans consists of half of havarian's population, based on the number of unique skins with each species and the defined weighting of generic character species. what does this mean?

[pacovf]

That the artists know more ways to make humans look distinct from each other than made up species.

[Lulubalu]

The codex entry for Jarackles definitely implies there's something going on:

jarackle:
    title: Jarackle 
    trigger: jarackle
    body: |
        A thick-pelted species, usually kept under heel by the Havarian power dynamics.

Though, aside from that one line from Moreef and the members of the cult we have rn, yeah, there's nothing else about it so far.

Anyhow, good writeup OP, excellent recap of what we've got so far

[Wumpus the 19th]

Honestly as long as you guys leave a like so i can feel validated for a small, fleeting second, and as long as some of these posts end up talking about the main story, like how i haven't mentioned how smith apparently did drugs (i'll get to it), then frankly you can talk about the best flavors of cashews for all i mind.

[WildmanOfBorneo]

The more and more I hear about Smith the more and more I go "LMAO THAT'S ME!!!"

[Wumpus the 19th]

with the updated slides (no new info), should i change the pictures to compensate? I've thought of keeping this post updated for as long as smith isn't finished and we don't have all the dialogue and therefore all the story.

[minespatch]

Keep it as it is.

[Wumpus the 19th]

Just to bump this topic back up so i can keep the edits coming when we get more info, i have a question.

Which of the children do you like/want to see more of than the others? We already know vix is the villain at the moment and theroux is going to be an ally due to him not having any part in the will tampering and in fact, wants smith to get his brood rights.

But if you could re-arrange the current story to make one child get more attention than the other 2, I.E. main villain or main ally, which one would you pick?

[minespatch]

Would be a real twist if the roles were reversed but the story was kept the same. Where Theroux is real villain and pinned elements on Vix to make Smith fall into a trap.

[Lulubalu]

I'm probably too early in saying this but I hope Mullifee gets a lot of screen time, she seems really cool 

[RageLeague]

17 hours ago, minespatch said:

Would be a real twist if the roles were reversed but the story was kept the same. Where Theroux is real villain and pinned elements on Vix to make Smith fall into a trap.

And Tei is working for Theroux all along! Theroux promised Tei a share of his inheritence to get rid of Vixmali, so he can keep all the inheritance to himself!

[veryrussiancorn]

On 8/28/2020 at 5:52 AM, Sei Bellissima said:

I'm probably too early in saying this but I hope Mullifee gets a lot of screen time, she seems really cool 

i absolutely agree, she deserves a lot of love

[Wumpus the 19th]

Second question for those who want to anwser.

Would you like more inter-species power dynamics? Given Sweet Moreef's oppression by the cult seems to show that jarackles are lower than shrokes and humans on the hierarchy, would you like there to be more references to this structure or should smith's campaign focus more on smith and his family instead of background world building. Smith lives in the rich part of havaria so it would make sense that inter-species dynamics of the poor and the rich would be heightened.

Second part to the question. if you said yes, you want more inter-species dynamics in the game, how would you want it to be presented as? should it be simple like the cult's lack of jarackles or explicit like smith helping a jarackle that's being harassed by the cult/kra'deshi.

[RageLeague]

right now in the code, you can't specify an agent's species, i don't think. when you create a character, it will select an existing skin, or it will spawn a generic character with a random species.

of course, they are the devs, so they can change the way spawning agents work.

if the devs do interspecies dynamics, though, I am obligated to add species support to my democracy mod, and I may or may not be too lazy to do so.

[ResettePlayer]

5 hours ago, Wumpus the 19th said:

Would you like more inter-species power dynamics?

Yes. Like you said, being in an urban, higher-class setting is a great opportunity for this. It could also be a sort of narrative foil to Smith's comedic laid back attitude.

5 hours ago, Wumpus the 19th said:

explicit like smith helping a jarackle that's being harassed by the cult/kra'deshi

Preferably. Smith's relationship with Sweet Moreef is perfect for this: he will have ample opportunity to witness first hand how an entire population of people is mistreated for superficial reasons. Smith has lead a privileged life so far and only recently has been brought down socially, and yet he is still "above" someone like Moreef.

[minespatch]

6 hours ago, ResettePlayer said:

Smith has lead a privileged life so far and only recently has been brought down socially, and yet he is still "above" someone like Moreef

He's also oblivious over Moreef'sn position but still sees Moreef on equal footing due to them being childhood friends.

[Wumpus the 19th]

Third Bump question.

Would you like more lore about the parents or to focus on the present more? Should the parents be a foot-note, simply there to die and trigger the plot, or should we learn about whatever scandals or strategies they had to gain and maintain their fortune with someone like smith on the family tree? 

[minespatch]

I would like both to be honest.

They got killed a-al Monty Python's Flying Circus opening.

[ResettePlayer]

I'd imagine bits of their story emerges in little bits, usually spurred by something else. However I can't imagine anything of great detail emerging because it was unlikely Smith was paying very much attention while they were alive.

[Wumpus the 19th]

I can't really give a bump question, as i have none. however, i have added some bits about the new day 2.

Sadly for this post, most of the dialogue on day 2 is placeholder until further notice (that means november).

[minespatch]

I guess they really want me to kill his brother....

[Wumpus the 19th]

hot hell this isn't archived yet