Once upon a time, thousands of years ago, the Zem were mere mortal people: tall, slender, with dark skin and amber eyes. Their state of Hikut was located in the southern deserts and steppes, adjacent to the state of the Juns. And the history of Hikut is the history of the search for immortality, the reason for which was the terrible and almost instantaneous death of the great neighbor of the Zem people. At first, the Zem people tried to follow the path of necromancy, then science and technology came to the Zem civilization. “What is dead is initially incapable of dying again” - this is what the adherents of the new teaching said, developing ways to replace the mortal body with a mechanism capable of existing, if not forever, then still much longer than flesh. And soon it became fashionable among the people of Zem to flaunt new silver-plated limbs made of durable and light metal.
But there was one among the necromancers of Hikuta who did not accept new trends, but diligently continued his research, armed only with magic - his name was Tep. Studying the nature of death, Tep realized that every creature has a certain basis, a spark of life, which is contained in the body and leaves it with death - many called this spark the “soul”, “divine essence”. After he managed to catch another person's spark, Tap continued his experiments and soon realized that with the help of these sparks he could ensure immortality for himself, using them as a consumable material to support his own life - if he collected a huge number of other sparks in one place.
The thirst for immortality clouded Tap's mind. Using his knowledge, Tap could provide a "quick" way to fill his storage. And a terrible disease broke out in Hikuta, which threatened to destroy everyone. People died, and their “sparks of life” rushed into the Pyramids of Tap, which he placed in the desert.
Thus, the goal of civilization became the reason for its destruction. The cities of Hikuta were suffocating in the agony of death. Sparks of the dead filled Tap's Vaults. Having figured out the causes of the plague that struck Hikut, a handful of desperate, doomed to death, the last representatives of the Zem people attacked Tap, who had taken refuge in the Pyramid. As a result of the battle, Tap, who could die as many times as he wanted - die and immediately be resurrected - won, but the price turned out to be incredibly high: Tap's personal protection from the disease he had sent was destroyed. He got infected.
There was no cure for the disease - Tep died in terrible agony and was immediately resurrected again, receiving nourishment from his Storage. He was resurrected to become infected again, spend time in terrible torment and die...
New creatures came to the place of Hikut, new states of people appeared - Kania, Hadagan - and few people remembered the people of the Zem tribe. Their tombs were covered with sand, and forests grew on the burial mounds. And the Pyramids of Tap remained scattered all over the world.
And all this time, more than 1500 years, Tep was dying, resurrected for several hours, suffering and dying again. This was the price for immortality.
The cataclysm that split the world into allods destroyed several of Tap's Pyramids. Millions of sparks broke free and rushed in search of their true containers - the bodies of the people of the Zem tribe. This is how the Risen appeared - new creatures possessing the intelligence and memory of the people of the ancient Zem tribe, placed in half-decayed ancient bodies-mechanisms.
The rebels of Zem, unlike simple undead, have free will, intelligence, memory, they remember their history, they are eager to take revenge on Tap, who caused their death. But at the same time, Tep fulfilled their main goal: albeit in a dead body, the Zem tribe gained immortality - only violent death leads to the death of the rebels. But now they do not age, and one, “their” spark is enough to maintain life in a dead body for a very long time. And they devote their long life, a life without emotions, passions, desires, to science - it was the Risen who became the brains of the industrialization of the Empire. It was the scientists of the Risen, who studied the captured Kanian ship, revealed the secret of astral travel and created imperial ships that significantly surpassed the League ships in their characteristics. It was at the Institute of MANANAZEM (Magic and Heritage of the Zem People) that astral energy was discovered, which became the key to the greatness of the Empire...
Knowledge, Death, Ideal* Life is death
* Death is immortality
* Happiness is us
* Empire is the stuff
* League is also material
* Astral is the knowable
The Risen, also known as the Zem people, are one of the six races in the MMORPG Allods Online. In my opinion, the most impeccably thought out, stylish, almost pure perfection. It’s a pleasure to talk about them, so I couldn’t restrain myself.
Source - allods.ru. The full description from the developers is worth reading. I give a free paraphrase)
Essentially, the Risen in Allods represent the undead - but not quite standard undead. Their appearance is directly related to the history of this race.
Once upon a time, thousands of years ago, the Zem were mere mortal people: tall, slender, with dark skin and amber eyes. Nowadays these are creatures, most of whose bodies have been replaced by mechanics, and whose faces are hidden under masks.
The Zem civilization existed in ancient times in parallel with the Jun civilization, who were the Atlanteans of their time: they reached incredible heights in magic, architecture and science. However, the Jun people died from an unknown curse, and this traumatized Zem’s civilization: she was seized by the fear of death and a passionate desire to defeat it.
Zem's search for immortality followed two paths at once: necromancy and technological progress.
Necromancers perfected the art of embalming in order to preserve as many bodies as possible until the time when the secret of eternal life was found. How reminiscent this is of “cryomedicine institutes” providing a similar service for preserving the mortal coil, isn’t it?
Zem scientists have learned to replace worn-out body parts with mechanical prostheses and artificial organs. which significantly extended people’s lives, but did not abolish old age and death. This is also quite familiar to us...
What turned history at a new angle and ultimately destroyed and reborn the Zem race was, of course, the energy of a genius. In this case, the evil genius.
A necromancer named Tap discovered the concept of “Sparks,” a kind of analogue of the soul, and (through terrible experiments) learned to extract and retain these sparks. To maintain his personal immortality, he began collecting huge amounts of sparks in special containers, now known as the Tepa pyramids. Only sparks from people who did not die a natural death were useful, and Tep unleashed a deadly plague on his people. Thus the Zem civilization perished.
The Global Cataclysm, which shook Sarnaut and split the planet into allods floating in the astral plane, destroyed part of the pyramids and captive sparks rushed to their containers. So the Zem civilization rose in the guise of undead creatures with mechanical limbs.
Now they are those who have known death. Cool mind, the best scientists and magicians in the whole world.
Plus they're just cool ^^
Here's my beauty:
Nomarch Avilar about the Zem race in the game "Allods Online":
Sarnaut is one of those worlds that has absorbed only the best from other fantasy settings that have been popular at different times. In Nezeb and Jasker we recognize the casual version of the Emperor of Mankind from the Warhammer universe. The story “The Fog” by Stephen King is an echo of the original version of the Astral in the world of Allods. But its modern incarnation in AO is an undeservedly forgotten classic in the form of the game Spelljammer: Pirates of Realmspace.
The elves in AO now do not raise the slightest doubt about their similarity with their older brothers from Tolkien’s Middle-earth or the World of Warcraft gaming universe. Wormfaces are reminiscent of the Illithids from D&D, and they, in turn, take their origins from the image of Cthulhu in the works of Lovecraft.
But AO is not a rip-off Universe; This is a synthesis universe, the main ideas of which have been unchanged and original for about fifteen years. And although the borrowings that I will describe below using the example of one of the game races are obvious, this does not detract from the innovation of the developers.
Many of us, when choosing the race of a game character, were guided by our preferences in such games in general. Those accustomed to playing as the undead choose the Risen Zems.
What do we know about them?
“The rebels are the official name of this people in the world of Allods; they themselves call themselves “the people of Zem” (or simply “Zem”). The rebels are citizens of the Empire and its “brain” - the military advantage of the Empire over the League during the First Astral War was ensured namely Zem. There are even those in the League who complain that at one time, when decayed creatures rattling with rusty iron crawled out of their tombs, the League, without understanding it, committed the genocide of a “new type of undead.” After all, perhaps Zem would take the side of the League , The Empire would not have survived….
Once upon a time, thousands of years ago, the Zem were mere mortal people: tall, slender, with dark skin and amber eyes. Their state of Hikut was located in the southern deserts and steppes, adjacent to the state of the Juns. And the history of Hikut is the history of the search for immortality, the reason for which was the terrible and almost instantaneous death of the great neighbor of the Zem people. At first, the Zem people tried to follow the path of necromancy, then science and technology came to the Zem civilization. “What is dead is initially incapable of dying again” - this is what the adherents of the new teaching said, developing ways to replace the mortal body with a mechanism capable of existing, if not forever, then still much longer than flesh. And soon it became fashionable among the people of Zem to flaunt new silver-plated limbs made of durable and light metal.
But there was one among the necromancers of Hikuta who did not accept new trends, but diligently continued his research, armed only with magic - his name was Tep. Studying the nature of death, Tap realized that every creature has a certain basis, a spark of life, which is contained in the body and leaves it with death - many called this spark the “soul”, “divine essence”. After he managed to catch another person's spark, Tap continued his experiments and soon realized that with the help of these sparks he could ensure immortality for himself, using them as a consumable material to support his own life - if he collected a huge number of other sparks in one place.
The thirst for immortality clouded Tap's mind. Using his knowledge, Tap could provide a "quick" way to fill his storage. And a terrible disease broke out in Hikuta, which threatened to destroy everyone. People died, and their “sparks of life” rushed into the Pyramids of Tap, which he placed in the desert.
Thus, the goal of civilization became the reason for its destruction. The cities of Hikuta were suffocating in the agony of death. Sparks of the dead filled Tap's Vaults. Having figured out the causes of the plague that struck Hikut, a handful of desperate, doomed to death, the last representatives of the Zem people attacked Tap, who had taken refuge in the Pyramid. As a result of the battle, Tap, who could die as many times as he wanted - die and immediately be resurrected - won, but the price turned out to be incredibly high: Tap’s personal protection from the disease he had sent was destroyed. He got infected.
There was no cure for the disease - Tep died in terrible agony and was immediately resurrected again, receiving nourishment from his Storage. He was resurrected to become infected again, spend time in terrible torment and die...
New creatures took the place of Hikut, new states of people appeared - Kania, Hadagan - and few people remembered the people of the Zem tribe. Their tombs were covered with sand, and forests grew on the burial mounds. And the Pyramids of Tap remained scattered all over the world.
And all this time, more than 1500 years, Tep was dying, resurrected for several hours, suffering and dying again. This was the price for immortality.
The cataclysm that split the world into allods destroyed several of Tap's Pyramids. Millions of sparks broke free and rushed in search of their true containers - the bodies of the people of the Zem tribe. This is how the Risen appeared - new creatures possessing the intelligence and memory of the people of the ancient Zem tribe, placed in half-decayed ancient bodies-mechanisms.
The rebels of Zem, unlike simple undead, have free will, intelligence, memory, they remember their history, they are eager to take revenge on Tap, who caused their death. But at the same time, Tep fulfilled their main goal: albeit in a dead body, the Zem tribe gained immortality - only violent death leads to the death of the rebels. But now they do not age, and one, “their” spark is enough to maintain life in a dead body for a very long time. And they devote their long life, a life without emotions, passions, desires, to science - it was the Risen who became the brains of the industrialization of the Empire. It was the scientists of the Risen, who studied the captured Kanian ship, revealed the secret of astral travel and created imperial ships that significantly surpassed the League ships in their characteristics. It was at the Institute of MANANAZEM (Magic and Heritage of the People of Zem) that astral energy was discovered, which became the key to the greatness of the Empire..."
Of. JSC website
Experienced players will see in this backstory, a kind of national “quenta,” an imitation of their older brothers and their ideological predecessors.
Back in 2001, Nival Interactive released one of its first ambitious creations - the game “Demiurges”. Two years later a continuation followed in the form of “Demiurges II”.
"The setting of the game is fantasy. In the fictional world, there is a conflict of four races or sides: vitals (green, life and nature), chaos (red, chaos and fire), kinets (blue, movement and water), synths (black color, synthesis and technique).
In slightly different ways, representatives of each side strive to surpass the others and take the place of Lord of the Aether. The player makes two choices during the short campaign: first the side of either the vitals with kinets, or the chaots with synths. Later, a choice is made between the respective two sides."
Wikipedia
The Synth faction attracted particular attention:
Wikipedia
Reading this description, an inexperienced AO player involuntarily imagines... the Risen Zem. This is understandable, because even externally in the surviving art we see a direct inheritance of recognizable features:
 |
| Concept art of Zem from AO |
From a more detailed description we get an even more clear picture of the transfer of the race to Allods Online:
“How can you recognize them? It is impossible to confuse them with anyone. The ether streams of Synthesis are not the best environment for the existence and development of living beings. Therefore, synthetics, trying to adapt to these very specific conditions, left a minimum of living things in themselves, replacing what was missing with mechanisms.
Black color.
Their strength lies in the fact that they are incredibly tenacious - how could it be otherwise, because there is so little life left in them! In addition, being the complete opposite of vitals, synths interact perfectly with inanimate nature: in the ether of Synthesis, chemical reactions and physical processes proceed rapidly, and all living things exist with difficulty. They are characterized by cold calculation, clear organization and scrupulous planning of any action.
Their weakness: synthetics cannot completely get rid of “softness” - they only maintain a balance of living and nonliving things. Sometimes this balance is disrupted - and in the unbridled desire to become “mechanical perfection”, synths lose their minds, becoming mindless destroyers. In addition, even well-functioning mechanisms have breakdowns that cannot be repaired.
If you fall in love with the Lord of Synthesis... be prepared for the fact that they will not believe in you at all. Your charges can provide a huge amount of evidence that you don’t exist. However, this should not worry or embarrass you: after all, the main thing is that your vassals do what you need.
In the case of direct contact with a synth, remember that for him communication with you is an emergency situation, akin to a short circuit or an unsolvable paradox. Such an unintended failure forces their brain to work in a super-stressed mode, using all mental resources."
www.etherlords.com/flash/rus/world/races.php
But if the “Demiurges” were the predecessors of AO, as well as contemporaries of the “Allods” game series in general, then such “wanderings” between games are quite understandable. The situation is different with the Necrons from the War Hammer universe:
“Many millions of years ago, long before the ancient Eldar, the intelligent race of the Necrontyr fell victim to an insidious betrayal. In search of immortality, they turned to the gods for help, who gave them truly eternal artificial bodies - however, absorbing their souls and making them their faithful slaves. For sixty million years, the Necrons - the former Necrontyr - slept in the deep crypts of desert planets. Their masters waited until the galaxy was again overflowing with intelligent beings: the gods needed souls, billions of souls. And in the 41st millennium such a time came, the Necrons awakened and began to ruthlessly indiscriminately exterminating all sentient beings they encountered, their unexpected blow further crippled the already declining Empire of Man.
Sarnaut is one of those worlds that has absorbed only the best of other fantasy settings that have been popular at different times. In Nezeb and Jasker we recognize the casual version of the Emperor of Mankind from the Warhammer universe. The story “The Fog” by Stephen King is an echo of the original version of the Astral in the world of Allods. But its modern incarnation in AO is an undeservedly forgotten classic in the form of the game Spelljammer: Pirates of Realmspace.
The elves in AO now do not raise the slightest doubt about their similarity with their older brothers from Tolkien’s Middle-earth or the World of Warcraft gaming universe. Wormfaces are reminiscent of the Illithids from D&D, and they, in turn, take their origins from the image of Cthulhu in the works of Lovecraft.
But AO is not a rip-off Universe; This is a synthesis universe, the main ideas of which have been unchanged and original for about fifteen years. And although the borrowings that I will describe below using the example of one of the game races are obvious, this does not detract from the innovation of the developers.
Many of us, when choosing the race of a game character, were guided by our preferences in such games in general. Those accustomed to playing as the undead choose the Risen Zems.
What do we know about them?
The rebels are the official name of this people in the world of Allods; they themselves call themselves “Zem people” (or simply “Zem”). The rebels are citizens of the Empire and its “brain” - the military advantage of the Empire over the League during the First Astral War was ensured by Zem. There are even those in the League who complain that at one time, when decayed creatures rattling with rusted iron crawled out of their tombs, the League, without understanding it, committed the genocide of a “new type of undead.” After all, perhaps, if Zem had taken the side of the League, the Empire would not have survived...Once upon a time, thousands of years ago, the Zem were mere mortal people: tall, slender, with dark skin and amber eyes. Their state of Hikut was located in the southern deserts and steppes, adjacent to the state of the Juns. And the history of Hikut is the history of the search for immortality, the reason for which was the terrible and almost instantaneous death of the great neighbor of the Zem people. At first, the Zem people tried to follow the path of necromancy, then science and technology came to the Zem civilization. “What is dead is initially incapable of dying again” - this is what the adherents of the new teaching said, developing ways to replace the mortal body with a mechanism capable of existing, if not forever, then still much longer than flesh. And soon it became fashionable among the people of Zem to flaunt new silver-plated limbs made of durable and light metal.
But there was one among the necromancers of Hikuta who did not accept new trends, but diligently continued his research, armed only with magic - his name was Tep. Studying the nature of death, Tep realized that every creature has a certain basis, a spark of life, which is contained in the body and leaves it with death - many called this spark the “soul”, “divine essence”. After he managed to catch another person's spark, Tap continued his experiments and soon realized that with the help of these sparks he could ensure immortality for himself, using them as a consumable material to support his own life - if he collected a huge number of other sparks in one place.
The thirst for immortality clouded Tap's mind. Using his knowledge, Tap could provide a "quick" way to fill his storage. And a terrible disease broke out in Hikuta, which threatened to destroy everyone. People died, and their “sparks of life” rushed into the Pyramids of Tap, which he placed in the desert.
Thus, the goal of civilization became the reason for its destruction. The cities of Hikuta were suffocating in the agony of death. Sparks of the dead filled Tap's Vaults. Having figured out the causes of the plague that struck Hikut, a handful of desperate, doomed to death, the last representatives of the Zem people attacked Tap, who had taken refuge in the Pyramid. As a result of the battle, Tap, who could die as many times as he wanted - die and immediately be resurrected - won, but the price turned out to be incredibly high: Tap's personal protection from the disease he had sent was destroyed. He got infected.
There was no cure for the disease - Tep died in terrible agony and was immediately resurrected again, receiving nourishment from his Storage. He was resurrected to become infected again, spend time in terrible torment and die...
New creatures came to the place of Hikut, new states of people appeared - Kania, Hadagan - and few people remembered the people of the Zem tribe. Their tombs were covered with sand, and forests grew on the burial mounds. And the Pyramids of Tap remained scattered all over the world.
And all this time, more than 1500 years, Tep was dying, resurrected for several hours, suffering and dying again. This was the price for immortality.
The cataclysm that split the world into allods destroyed several of Tap's Pyramids. Millions of sparks broke free and rushed in search of their true containers - the bodies of the people of the Zem tribe. This is how the Risen appeared - new creatures possessing the intelligence and memory of the people of the ancient Zem tribe, placed in half-decayed ancient bodies-mechanisms.
The rebels of Zem, unlike simple undead, have free will, intelligence, memory, they remember their history, they are eager to take revenge on Tap, who caused their death. But at the same time, Tep fulfilled their main goal: albeit in a dead body, the Zem tribe gained immortality - only violent death leads to the death of the rebels. But now they do not age, and one, “their” spark is enough to maintain life in a dead body for a very long time. And they devote their long life, a life without emotions, passions, desires, to science - it was the Risen who became the brains of the industrialization of the Empire. It was the scientists of the Risen, who studied the captured Kanian ship, revealed the secret of astral travel and created imperial ships that significantly surpassed the League ships in their characteristics. It was at the Institute of MANANAZEM (Magic and Heritage of the Zem People) that astral energy was discovered, which became the key to the greatness of the Empire...
Of. JSC website
Experienced players will see in this backstory, a kind of national “quenta,” an imitation of their older brothers and their ideological predecessors.
Back in 2001, Nival Interactive released one of its first ambitious creations - the game “Demiurges”. Two years later a continuation followed in the form of “Demiurges II”.
The game setting is fantasy. In the fictional world, there is a conflict of four races or sides: vitals (green color, life and nature), chaos (red color, chaos and fire), kinets (blue color, movement and water), synths (black color, synthesis and technology) .In slightly different ways, representatives of each side strive to surpass the others and take the place of Lord of the Aether. The player makes two choices during the short campaign: first the side of either the vitals with kinets, or the chaots with synths. Later, a choice is made between the respective two sides.
Wikipedia
The Synth faction attracted particular attention:
Wikipedia
Reading this description, an inexperienced AO player involuntarily imagines... the Risen Zem. This is understandable, because even externally in the surviving art we see a direct inheritance of recognizable features:
Synthet from "Demiurges"
Concept art of Zem from AO
From a more detailed description we get an even more clear picture of the transfer of the race to Allods Online:
How to find out? They cannot be confused with anyone else. Synthesis ether streams are not the best environment for the existence and development of living beings. Therefore, synthetics, trying to adapt to these very specific conditions, left behind a minimum of living things, replacing the missing with mechanisms.Black color.
Their strength lies in the fact that they are incredibly tenacious - how could it be otherwise, because there is so little life left in them! In addition, being the complete opposite of vitals, synths interact perfectly with inanimate nature: in the ether of Synthesis, chemical reactions and physical processes proceed rapidly, and all living things exist with difficulty. They are characterized by cold calculation, clear organization and scrupulous planning of any action.
Their weakness: synthetics cannot completely get rid of “softness” - they only maintain the balance of living and nonliving. Sometimes this balance is disrupted - and in the unbridled desire to become “mechanical perfection”, synths lose their minds, becoming mindless destroyers. In addition, even well-functioning mechanisms have breakdowns that cannot be repaired.
If you fall in love with the Lord of Synthesis... be prepared for the fact that they will not believe in you at all. Your charges can provide a huge amount of evidence that you don’t exist. However, this should not worry or embarrass you: after all, the main thing is that your vassals do what you need.
In the case of direct contact with a synth, remember that for him communication with you is an emergency situation, akin to a short circuit or an unsolvable paradox. Such an unintended failure forces their brain to work in a super-stressed mode, using all mental resources.
But if the “Demiurges” were the predecessors of AO, as well as contemporaries of the “Allods” game series in general, then such “wanderings” between games are quite understandable. The situation is different with the Necrons from the War Hammer universe:
Many millions of years ago, long even before the ancient Eldar, the intelligent race of Necrontyr fell victim to an insidious betrayal. In search of immortality, they turned to the gods for help, who gave them truly eternal artificial bodies, although they absorbed their souls and made them their faithful slaves. For sixty million years, the Necrons - formerly the Necrontyr - slept in the deep crypts of desert planets. Their rulers waited until the galaxy was once again overflowing with intelligent beings: the gods needed souls, billions of souls. And in the 41st millennium such a time has come, the Necrons awakened and began the merciless extermination of all intelligent beings they encountered indiscriminately. Their unexpected blow further crippled the already declining Empire of Man.Necrons are mechanical creatures, most similar to animated skeletons. The upper part usually looks more or less human, but instead of legs, Necrons can have snake tails and anti-gravity platforms. In addition, mechanical spiders fight in their ranks - from small scarabs to tank-sized monsters - and the “dead creatures” are led into battle by silent ghostly Lords in fluttering shrouds. The Necrons are armed with powerful energy rifles that can disperse matter into molecules.
Magazine "World of Fantasy"
If the Zem race adopted its fundamental features from synthetics, then the history and arachnid pets are undoubtedly worth looking for in the Warhammer setting.
Necron. Compared to the ruthless killer, the Zems look like dolls for children
This is by no means Research Institute Mananazem
I had to extract several details from it in order to enter it into the JSC
as Guardian Necromancer Zem
The creative producer put it aptly back in Nival Online when she called the Risen “a Russian breed of undead.”
Zem is the natural beauty of cold knowledge. They value reason above all else, and would happily exist. without having a body, if it were not yet unrealizable. In everything they do - and in their own bodies as well - the perfection of technology is combined with perfect calculation. This is the secret of the incredible charm of these cold, ponderous and (what can I say) unfeminine creatures.