Tweet
So, completely random post, but I was thinking about the Furies (Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megaera)... And I've started to think about why they only hit/can only affect enemies but not villagers. And that went into how the other gods wouldn't either. I mean, they deal enough damage at level one to easily kill a handful of villagers with the damage from one hit, but they don't, even if a villager runs straight into their attacks. But why don't they.?
It might be because of their backgrounds. Let's look at the Furies first. All three punish some sort of sin: Alecto punishes anger, Tisiphone punishes murder, and Megaera punishes infidelity.
Now, think of what the units do in game:
-Kill other units (Murder)
-Are always looking for a fight while even units that are on the opposite side of the map and about to get one shot by a Cyclops or Ballista, running to them, and even attack useless structures like gardens and arches (Anger)
-Will switch sides if in the area of Aphrodite using her Charm abilities or a Monument to Aphrodite when it activates (Infidelity)
Now, of course, these are sensible game mechanics, but it would make perfect sense for the Furies' abilities and attacks to only affect units and not a random villager who ran right into a fireball, freeze, and plague attack at the same time. They're mostly fighting to punish mortals for their sins, all three of which have reasons to punish in-game. The villagers? They just walk around, chat with each other, jump and wave like maniacs, and pray to temples. The instant a battle breaks out, they run for the boundaries of the map and leave, not attacking anything they meet. They haven't done anything wrong! There's no reason for the Furies to punish completely random citizens because they're caught in the crosshairs. That could go for a lot of the gods, tbh. Hades is basically neutral in most of the myths he shows up in and knows everyone comes to him one way or another, Persephone is generally pretty calm with him, Cerberus really just guards the gates to the Underworld and lets the dead in if they have a honey cake, Charon just vibes on his boat of dead people going across the Styx and got dragged into fighting like an introvert being forced by their extroverted friends to go out and SOCIALIZE, Hecate is similar, but would rather vibe with her snake, three doggos and dark magic.
The Olympian gods can mostly be worked out similarly.
Ares is usually seen as a bloodthirsty war god bent on burning the world down for fun (Remember Wonder Woman?). However, Ares was generally fairly peaceful when not fighting. About the worst thing he's ever really done was help Aphrodite cheat on Hephaestus (Which was an arranged marriage anyway) with him, or brutalize a guy do was dating/molesting his daughter Harmonia, just like any father with a daughter they love very much would. I mean, yeah, Ares is definitely the last guy you want angry at you, but one of the other things he's done is look for Thanatos, god of death (Hades is god of the DEAD. He's more of the face of the whole thing while Thanatos is the guy doing a lot of the work), when Sisyphus trapped him (Even though it was kinda because of battles not having any casualties, but it could be seen as Ares legitimately wanting soldiers to not have to suffer much more then they already do). He wouldn't really want to attack random villagers who run away, and who can blame him? He's a 40 foot tall Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson with giant swords and flaming eyes, he's terrifying, especially if you're a regular person.
Athena is even less likely to beat up any random mortals who aren't attempting to kill her. As the goddess of strategy, she'd know it's a stupid idea to go running after random civilians intent on killing, both due to diplomacy and the fact that you're in battle, there's an entire group of people who want to kill you.
Hera is the goddess of women and marriage. The female villagers are basically off the hook by principle, and the male villagers aren't really worth her time to beat up for no reason, especially if they're running away.
Poseidon mostly just vibes during many myths, so he'd not really be into killing random mortals if they haven't slighted him.
Aphrodite likely wouldn't care too much about the villagers, due to the units attacking her and the other gods.
Zeus is, in-game, mostly attacking cities to get revenge on them for doing some sin (Look at the solo battle dialogue, it's pretty good), so attacking innocent mortals during combat isn't really his thing.
Hermes is basically the messenger and so could care less about attacking them, he'd rather get things over with to get back to his job.
Apollo and Artemis are probably just using the battles as free target practice and would probably just ignore the villagers in favor of more favorable prey (The enemy units coming at them).
I don't know, just a thought I had.
It might be because of their backgrounds. Let's look at the Furies first. All three punish some sort of sin: Alecto punishes anger, Tisiphone punishes murder, and Megaera punishes infidelity.
Now, think of what the units do in game:
-Kill other units (Murder)
-Are always looking for a fight while even units that are on the opposite side of the map and about to get one shot by a Cyclops or Ballista, running to them, and even attack useless structures like gardens and arches (Anger)
-Will switch sides if in the area of Aphrodite using her Charm abilities or a Monument to Aphrodite when it activates (Infidelity)
Now, of course, these are sensible game mechanics, but it would make perfect sense for the Furies' abilities and attacks to only affect units and not a random villager who ran right into a fireball, freeze, and plague attack at the same time. They're mostly fighting to punish mortals for their sins, all three of which have reasons to punish in-game. The villagers? They just walk around, chat with each other, jump and wave like maniacs, and pray to temples. The instant a battle breaks out, they run for the boundaries of the map and leave, not attacking anything they meet. They haven't done anything wrong! There's no reason for the Furies to punish completely random citizens because they're caught in the crosshairs. That could go for a lot of the gods, tbh. Hades is basically neutral in most of the myths he shows up in and knows everyone comes to him one way or another, Persephone is generally pretty calm with him, Cerberus really just guards the gates to the Underworld and lets the dead in if they have a honey cake, Charon just vibes on his boat of dead people going across the Styx and got dragged into fighting like an introvert being forced by their extroverted friends to go out and SOCIALIZE, Hecate is similar, but would rather vibe with her snake, three doggos and dark magic.
The Olympian gods can mostly be worked out similarly.
Ares is usually seen as a bloodthirsty war god bent on burning the world down for fun (Remember Wonder Woman?). However, Ares was generally fairly peaceful when not fighting. About the worst thing he's ever really done was help Aphrodite cheat on Hephaestus (Which was an arranged marriage anyway) with him, or brutalize a guy do was dating/molesting his daughter Harmonia, just like any father with a daughter they love very much would. I mean, yeah, Ares is definitely the last guy you want angry at you, but one of the other things he's done is look for Thanatos, god of death (Hades is god of the DEAD. He's more of the face of the whole thing while Thanatos is the guy doing a lot of the work), when Sisyphus trapped him (Even though it was kinda because of battles not having any casualties, but it could be seen as Ares legitimately wanting soldiers to not have to suffer much more then they already do). He wouldn't really want to attack random villagers who run away, and who can blame him? He's a 40 foot tall Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson with giant swords and flaming eyes, he's terrifying, especially if you're a regular person.
Athena is even less likely to beat up any random mortals who aren't attempting to kill her. As the goddess of strategy, she'd know it's a stupid idea to go running after random civilians intent on killing, both due to diplomacy and the fact that you're in battle, there's an entire group of people who want to kill you.
Hera is the goddess of women and marriage. The female villagers are basically off the hook by principle, and the male villagers aren't really worth her time to beat up for no reason, especially if they're running away.
Poseidon mostly just vibes during many myths, so he'd not really be into killing random mortals if they haven't slighted him.
Aphrodite likely wouldn't care too much about the villagers, due to the units attacking her and the other gods.
Zeus is, in-game, mostly attacking cities to get revenge on them for doing some sin (Look at the solo battle dialogue, it's pretty good), so attacking innocent mortals during combat isn't really his thing.
Hermes is basically the messenger and so could care less about attacking them, he'd rather get things over with to get back to his job.
Apollo and Artemis are probably just using the battles as free target practice and would probably just ignore the villagers in favor of more favorable prey (The enemy units coming at them).
I don't know, just a thought I had.