Occult Ideas

[Darkson]

What have you seen on the occult. Fire off your ideas American, German, Russian etc projects. Occult and creatures of myth? Bring them on.......

[malika]

I could see the Germans experimenting with psychic powers, so trying to get troopers with power to shoot lightening from their hands or Gestapo officers who can read people's minds.

The Russians..well they dont really believe in spirituality and the supernatural (it goes against their communist doctrine), however they would seek a "scientific" explaination for it.

The Americans might have some Native American stuff going on, ancient spirits in the form of animals perhaps?

[Darkson]

I would like to see some Russian folk lore. So any of you guys from Russia please share your tales. This also goes for everyone else.

[baphomael]

darkson said:

I would like to see some Russian folk lore. So any of you guys from Russia please share your tales. This also goes for everyone else.

Russian Folk lore...hmm...one I always liked was the stories of Ilya Muromets - he was kinda like a Russian Sir Lancelot.

"According to one legend, Ilya Muromets, the son of a peasant family in the town of Murom (that's where his name came from), was born a cripple who could not walk. His family left him lying on the great stove in their house every day when they went out to work. One day when Ilya was alone, several men in old rags came to the house. "Good day, Ilya Muromets, good day, famous knight. You are the protector of the Russian land and invincible victor over enemies."

Ilya replied to them gloomily: "Whom do you call knight? Me, a cripple? I cannot walk, people laugh at me." The men persuaded him to stand up, chanting: "Get up, Ilya Muromets, joy to your eager heart, straighten your strong shoulders, stretch your quick legs."

Suddenly Ilya became joyful and stood up. And, Oh! A miracle! He could walk, jump, dance and felt great power surge through his body. He was healed.

Meanwhile his elderly parents were trying to take out tree roots and stumps for a new field. They worked very hard, but were not successful. All of a sudden they heard a great noise, the ground shook, the forest cracked. It was Ilya who came to help them and did so very quickly. The parents did not believe their eyes, "Is it you, dear son? Who gave you the strength and healed you?"

He replied: "Good day, my dear parents, several guests visited me today and gave me power beyond belief."

Ilya chose a strong foal named Karushka and took good care of him, walked him, washed him and said to him, "You will be a knight's horse and your duty will be difficult." In the smithy several masters hammered arms and armor for the knight Ilya. They made chain mail, a steel sword, a big lance and a purple shield. They asked him where he would go. "My path is to the city of Kiev," Ilya answered and after his equipment was ready he rode to Kiev.

On the way, he stopped at the city of Chernigov. It happened that Tatars were besieging the city. Ilya attacked them and won a famous victory. The Tatar troops ran away. The citizens of Chernigov opened the gates and welcomed the knight with bread and salt. They asked him to be the leader of their army. He thanked the citizens for such an honor, but told them he must continue on to Kiev.

Ilya's way was through dark, pathless, swampy forests, Chornye Gryazi. There were no animals around, no birds. In the dark forest there lived an evil highwayman named Solovey ("nightingale") who lay in wait atop a great tree and robbed travelers by killing them with a terrible loud whistle. When Solovey heard the horse's hoofbeats he became angry. He let out a whistle more fearful than a wolf's howl, a bear's roar, an animal's bark. From his horrible whistle the leaves on the trees withered. Ilya Muromets raised his heavy bow and fired an arrow that hit Solovey in the forehead. The highwayman fell from his tree at Ilya's feet. Ilya put him across his horse and went to Kiev.

The knight arrived at noon, when Prince Vladimir and his knights were eating their midday meal. Vladimir asked the stranger knight where he was from. Ilya answered, "I am Ilya, the son of a peasant. I am from the town of Murom. In the city of Chernigov I went to matins, then I listened to Solovey's whistle."

Everybody at the table laughed, and Prince Vladimir said sternly, "What are you talking about, young man? Chernigov is besieged by Tatars. The Chyornye Gryazi is a terrible place. Wolves and bears avoid going there because of the terrible Solovey. Whoever hears his whistle falls dead."

Ilya took them all into the courtyard and there was Solovey tied to Ilya's horse. Prince Vladimir saw the highwayman and decided to test him: "Well, whistle! Bark like an animal, hiss like a snake!" Solovey drank a whole pail of wine and started to whistle so loud that the leaves blew from the trees and a great sandstorm began. Only Ilya could stop him. The evil Solovey was executed by Prince Vladimir's knights. Prince Vladimir was so impressed he invited Ilya to become one of his knights. Ilya became the greatest defender of Rus (old name for Russia) against its enemies."

[Marine323]

I don't know all the details but I do know that Himler was obsessed with relating himself to some Teutonic Order and even held rituals with the SS in some castle. Saw bits and pieces of this on the History channel. Anyway there is great lead into some SS guys running amok looking for long lost Teutonic Artifacts from wars long past.

[xeoran]

Lots of Germans looking for Crusader (Knights Teutonic, Templar and Hospitaller- possibly these could be resurrected as Nazi Orders) artifacts. Spear of Destiny etc. Bits of true cross.
Gestapo wrenching information from minds of enemies. Summoning demons into the bodies of men. Ressurected troops. Drugs that allow soldiers to go on fighting even having lost limbs and the like. To my mind Germans should be the most occult, to make up for in game disadvantages (less troops, less support). SturmKriegSoldat- soldiers who use occult equipment to shoot/channel lightning from shock staffs.
British psycics are well known (Hellboy anyone...). Spirit familiars and elemental creatures. Use of nature. Commonwealth troops (in fact all colonial troops from every army) can have shamans etc depending on their culture.
Americans a few native American spirits...but lets not go overboard, i doubt many were alive...For America mechanical manipulation seems most likely. Or think Lovecraf/Poe.
Russia, spirit beasts (dogs, bears, horses). Swarthy shamans with amulets callign upon brutish nature.
Just a few ideas.

[tordenskjold]

I am not keen of the idea of shamans/mages, sounds to much like Harry Potter to me.

But I like the idea of Nazi scientists trying to rebuild the knightly orders, possibly by resurrecting actual members of those orders (rumour has it that quite a lot of templars lies buried in the Vatican, and if the Germans could get their hands on the holy grail... think Indiana Jones!)

[baphomael]

"Russia, spirit beasts (dogs, bears, horses). Swarthy shamans with amulets callign upon brutish nature.
Just a few ideas."

I'd say the Russians should be the *least* overtly occult.
During the reign of the Tsars the "Old Believers" were nigh on wiped out by the newer, more dominant, Eastern Orthodox Church. Christianity won over pagan beliefs a *long* time ago.
Then the Oktober Revolution came and all concepts of religion were viciously surpressed by the Soviet Union - religion was, after all, the "opiate of the people" according to Marxist principles.

[tordenskjold]

I don't think the Russians should be more limited than everyone else. A lot of the most powerfull people in russia did'nt realy care abou the communist cause, but acted that way cause they did'nt want to end up in Gulag. They could still use shamans/artifacts/whatever like everyone else, they would just have to be more secretive about it.

[malika]

tordenskjold said:

I am not keen of the idea of shamans/mages, sounds to much like Harry Potter to me.

But I like the idea of Nazi scientists trying to rebuild the knightly orders, possibly by resurrecting actual members of those orders (rumour has it that quite a lot of templars lies buried in the Vatican, and if the Germans could get their hands on the holy grail... think Indiana Jones!)

A potential "Battle for the Vatican" might be interesting...this wouldnt be an open siege or anything since the Catholic Church in general didnt really mind the Nazis, however we could have elements within the Vatican that resist against this. So it would be some civil "conflict" (all secretive and practically unnoticable) between the pro Axis members and the pro Allied members. Perhaps some scenario in which an American commando unit has to protect several priests from being assassinated by Germans troops.

[xeoran]

A secret Vatican war would be great! Possibly Vatican/Papal troops fr hire? Swiss guard anyone?
Russians actually were rarely supressed religously, Stalin even condoned it in the war as a way of keeping people happy.
Mages and Shamans would be very few and far inbetween, not Harry Potterish at all!
Ressurected Knights would definately be fun.....

[skorzeny]

Actually, religion was suppressed until the war started going bad for Stalin. Then it became just another tool to use to mobilize the masses.

[xeoran]

So thats what 1941 until repression ends. I doubt we'd really see Russian Orthodox clerics fighting for Stalin though. And of course in many of the smaller villages Stalin couldnt stop the religion.

[skorzeny]

Oh he could and did. Don't forget how many people were packed off to Siberia under Uncle Joe's watch. And immediately after the war, state support for Orthodoxy dissipated at an alarming rate. You'd almost think they were just using it to fight the Germans...

[xeoran]

Not in many of the smaller villages furthur away from Moscow. Admittedly it was bad but some survived. It really depends on the distance from Moscow.

Stalin using ideaology for his own purposes, surely not!............