Suggestion: Crom benefit

I’m for nothing or something. or just being bale to place a object to show proof of my love for Crom even if it did nothing. (move journal entries!!! hehehehhee)

I’m in favor of it smashing you with lighting for asking Crom for something.

OR, it keeps track your kills, in manner that if you should die(Or get knocks to below 5% health). Crom may slap a boon on you to fight harder since you amused him all this time.

User who flop to other religions basiclly drop this favor, and must regain it.

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Although an interesting idea, now when i think about it, this will make Crom an active god in mortal affairs, maybe it’s going against the lore a bit.

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Crom woshipers God power is sending Purge to another player.

“Doom! to the nonbelievers!”

XD

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Another often contemplated point Abomineer, and one I have have done more times than I care to recall. Myself and other proponents such as @Sera67 believe that a lore friendly possibility again not only exists, but is actually probable. I will now discuss the prospects of a Crom Shrine.

There are numerous ways we can have a Shrine to Crom, and still be in keeping with the lore. For example, it could be simply a glorified placeable which produces NOTHING as you suggested; just sits there.

Alternatively, it could harm or kill the player. For example, placing it or pressing the interact button on it could result in the player 1) getting hit by lightning and dying 2) the player taking on a stack of noxious debuffs such as poison, bleed, sunder, etc 3) it could emit heavy corruption 4) it could result in several high tier creatures spawning in to kill the player, ie-a Purge as Zeb suggested 5) the player could simply drop dead, like we do when removing the bracelet.

ALL of these would be I) consistent with the lore, II) mean we wouldnt have to betray our alegiance to him just to complete the Journey Steps III) allow all players greater role playing freedom.

Well…there is one possibility listed above. The other will be listed below…

I will now discuss the idea of an Avatar with you Derynea. I get the impression that it is not something you personally would prefer. Which is fine, and for the record not my first choice for an additional feature. However, I want to go on the record here and point out something which other advocates such as myself and @WhatMightHaveBeen have been arguing for sometime. The in game lore illustrates that the ‘gods’ (avatars) in the Exiled Lands arent actually the real gods, but weaponised constructs created my man; impostors. Therefore, ‘Crom’ is not actually the real Crom, and hence probably wouldnt give a damn if we did pray to or call upon ‘it’. Conan himself states quote:

“…But nowhere have I seen gods as I see them in this land. These avatars that stalk and spread destruction in their wake. These are not gods. These are what men want the gods to be. Weapons”. Conan.

So there are a few possibilities to consider here. We could I) summon a Purge as Zeb and Solarius like II) summon a Meteor like you suggested III) have ‘Crom’ show up but not to help the player. No. Instead for a lore friendly approach, make him hostile towards the summoner, and maybe for that matter ALL player characters.

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I really dig this idea and from my understanding of Crom it fits

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So nice to see the thread so active ^^
There’s a lot i want to answer and give my input on, here goes :smiley:

Yes! The house of Crom is in essence a temple dating back from the times when the Atlanteans emigrated to Cimmeria and became Cimmerians, changing their worship from Xotli to the pantheon of Crom. Its entrance is opened by the invading Vanir to excavate for riches, and is located in the sacred area of Mound of the Dead, where chieftains and important elders from all tribes all across cimmeria are buried in their clan’s mounds. The House of Crom mainly holds atlantean influence and style of architecture, intricate stonework and art that i can only compare to some imagined real-life fusion of aztec and pictish. With a bit of googling, you can find albums of concept art from Funcom on that dungeon and also the atlantean style armors you can get from there. As for shrines however, I can’t actually remember noticing any there. It serves much more as a burial tomb for high-standing atlanteans than an actual place of worship, as i understood the place.

Yes, as i think it’s probably the most logical middleground between lore and what’s possible/acceptible for funcom to integrate gameplay-wise. They’ve been explicit before about not wanting to make racial differences in conan exiles, which i can understand - but while all the other religions give their benefits to things like healing foods, antivenoms etcetera, it’s a shame that Crom’s gift to his chosen are not looked at. And like i already said, once someone takes a second religion, the buff should be lost immediately.

About a crom religion placeable:

Firstly, i agree the religion should have a placeable of some kind, but perhaps not something like an idol. According to my own understanding of the religion at least, what Crom wants from his people is for them not to need him (kinda like me in relationships >_>). The idea of a cosmetically different blacksmith bench is an interesting idea, since Cimmerians draw paralells between their own god-given strength and their steel. A blacksmith in a cimmerian village is regarded much in the same way as a priest is in other cultures in Hyboria. This would work.
On the effects though, 1) To incur his wrath, all one has to do is worship or pray. Creating an idol to begin with dedicated only to him, might already be a failure. I could be wrong, but in my course through all of cimmeria’s regions in AOC and also the books, i can’t recall any idol or totem to Crom. This might not fit with how Funcom sees the religion and wants it portrayed.
2) Valid, disease and plague are real consequences to prayers just like the meteors that unfortunate cimmerians have experienced before.
3) Corruption is a very real “cost” on the soul,related to the use of sorcery and black magic in the world of Conan. It is a force stemming from the outer void, and exclusive to gods and practices that stem from that place, such as Set, Erlik, all forms of necromancy etc. The only link i know of between Crom and the Void is that he reaches up into it from the top of his mountain to grab meteors and hurl them at his enemies, or unfortunate worshippers. As sorcery (and thus corruption) is a hate and fear that all cimmerians share to a primal level, i have difficulty imagining that Crom would have any relation to it or use it against his people.

You’re entirely right, Conan does say this, but I can’t be sure wether or not he’s right or if this is conan judging people for “crusadery”. The lore behind True names (the tokens used to summon avatars) are true - the ultimate power that a sorcerer or priest can hold over any demon or god stemming from the void is to know their true name, enabling them to summon and give them physical form and hold power over them. This is true also outside of the exiled lands. One other thing that puzzles me is the Frost temple, a conjunction caused by pure faith where it seems according to the lorestones left by the giant-kings that simply enough people believing strongly enough, forced the actual presence of Ymir - and there’s no question it’s real, given that his actual sons (the frost giants) are walking around the place. That ofcourse can also perhaps be a manifestation of faith, but the meteors are Crom’s doing, in line with his habit of pelting things he doesnt like with meteors, and he’s chucking them at Ymir’s sons. I’m not sure that too is a manifestation of faith in the same way. It’s kinda confusing! But, the deeper i dive into it, the more i think it likely that im trying to find justifications for decisions that Funcom mainly made for game design purposes ^^
An avatar to Crom, i see as unlikely…I think Joel would veto it nomatter how much anyone justified it, and i’d probably agree with him. But there’s no doubt that some form of it is possible, though not so directly under the players control as a normal avatar is.
We can never have it exactly as we’d want it anyway, Funcom has to consider a compromise between all kinds of playstyles and a middleground between lore and gamedesign. All the more important that we put our wants and suggestions out in the forums here though, because they do really read it ^^
At the very least, cosmetics would be great for a crom religion. If nothing else, it gives bragging rights.
If possible, it’d be fitting to have a small passive buff to attributes as long as no other religion is held. And if i’d push my luck, i’d still keep a finger on a dangerous, highly volatile meteor as a form of endgame benefit to Crom, but in no way as destructive as any other avatar can be. People who want to stick with the Crom religion know what its about, and i dont think they’d ever want that kind of avar anyway, they want their cruel god and their own strength, and to show it off with pride, which i think is awesome ^^

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By the gods that sounds cool. I so wish we could somehow get an offline port of AoC to ps4. I would buy that bad boy in an instant. Thankyou for further elaborating. For the record, the reason I enquired about shrines and statues to Crom is because I noticed from a map that it has a temple district. See below.
images-4

I would very much like a couple of Crom placeables. So definately agree! It would give those among us who do want Crom features of some kind the freedom to roleplay. Other people would not be obligated to use them anymore than they would a Mitra Shrine or a Set Snake Idol. People should have the option to decide for themselves. I have a frequently used saying: “The option which presents more options is usually the better option”. I would love an Ornament or Banner of Ben Morgh ie-Croms mountain (which is sacred to Cimmerians) which we can place around our base. The mere fact that his Insignia (the one at the choose your religion screen) has survived or even exists is proof proof that he does not object to it being displayed. Because if he did object, both it and everyone/everything associated with it would have been spectacularly annihilated by him.

Although just for the record, I would like to offer a different take on one aspect. Im not sure if an idol or shrine is possible or not, but a Statue of Crom is openly worshipped openly on Ben Morgh (I can support this claim and others I am about to make with full references to the various books and comics in my thread; see next post), so we may be in luck! I do believe that a distinction should be made between prayer and worship. To some they are one and the same. But prayer is to me typically asking for something (eg-favour, aid or items), where as worship is more about venerating the god. While Crom certainly will not respond well to prayers, he does not dislike being worshipped. Crom will even accept animal sacrifice (The official gamepedias religion description of him, line 1, is: “The God who requires no worship.” But I have digressed for long enough.

For the record here, I would totally get behind the idea of a cosmetically different Blacksmiths Bench (Im sure one with a Frost Giants skull mounted on it would please him…). And even more so if it would allow us to create some Crom themed Weapons and Armour, which is my personal favourite idea for new features. Even if they were just reskins of Star Metal or Hardened Steel items. You know Derynea…I am the one who got us the Sword of Crom and Crom’s Hammer through my campaigning…!

I cant say for certain myself either here, so I shall refrain from speculating tooo much further. But it is something for us all to ponder. And it may just leave the door open enough for the future.

Now this is equally interesting. I have completed the Journey Step where we “Discover all of the Giant-King Obelisks”, but it obviously didnt register with me at the time. And who knows, the blind faith and devotion on display at the Mounds of the Dead may someday lead to some nice new Crom features one day. Well we can always hope. :pray:

Yes indeed, I agree in the strongest possible terms here. We will never get absolutely everything that we desire, and it would be kind of selfish for us to expect such. However…

THIS ^^^ ×10 for me!

Derynea I want to show you and the other faithful here what I was alluding to previously. It is not a map to buried treasure or Picassos lost artwork (sorry :man_shrugging:). But what it is, is a way to voice our support for change; whatever we desire it to be…

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An Invitation

Derynea I am the communities leading campaigner for Crom to recieve an overhaul, and compiler of facts pertaining to him. And I would very much like you to welcome you to my thread. It is the forums central and oldest hub for all things Crom related, and a ‘petition’ of sorts for change.

Derynea it sounds like you feel Crom worshippers should recieve a Passive Stats Bonus, and a Summonable Meteorite; hardly unreasonable or unrealistic expectations, or even an uncommon one. You know, I found myself in exactly the same boat as yourself regarding Crom, when I began playing, and much to my disdain at that. Expecting his religion to have some, any form of in game features. Crom is under represented in this game, having no role whatsoever beyond the character creation screen, and locking the player out of numerous Journey Steps. However, I genuinely believe that it does NOT need to be this way! I am among those who wish to see Crom be given an overhaul, and a role befitting that of the Conan universes most important and central deity. There are now a number of possible additions suggested by members such as myself and others, among the most common are a flat stats bonus mentioned by yourself, and some Crom themed weapons and armour built by the player in the Handcrafting menu (NOT by Crom). Derynea, I would like to invite you to read my thread, fully referenced with examples from Conan lore to support my case (the bolface capitalised ones), and if you would genuinely like to see Crom recieve some, any form of in game features, I encourage to to upvote the Original Post. I have made some suggestions in the original post, but these were just intended as starters. Think of it as voting for the concept of of the overhaul, as opposed to the specifics. As you wil see, the support for this movement has grown huge! Feel free to offer your own ideas too! I firmly believe that if we achieve enough support (and as you will see, we have plenty!), then Funcom will be much more likely to come to the table. Feel free to post too if you like. Heck, you can re-post your whole OP there if you like! It is factual and informative, and as you will see my thread is always unlocked.

This offer extends to all other members of the forum too. So @Zeb, @Abomineer @Jklinger and Solarius you are also most welcome to stop in However, I have only one request for all of you and others too. No matter which side of the argument you support; please…do not insult or ridicule other members who have opposing viewpoints. Treat your fellow members and their beliefs with courtesy and respect; the same way we would want them to treat our own. Friends…welcome.

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Thank you! Took the liberty of posting, quoting over my original post from this thread :slight_smile:

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This looks like some fantastic reading material for my lunch breaks

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If you have the patience to get get through it Jklinger then I seriously commend you. Some of them such as the rise of Crom are quite interesting. As you can tell by its age and size, its become fairly bloated over time. Nonetheless, it is the forums most successful call for Crom to gain some additional features to date.

But I firmly believe that our numbers will speak a greater volume and hold more sway if we all present a single, united front which is clearly quantifiable. So please friends… if you support this call upvote both mine and @Derynea OPs.

PS- I am also sitting on a few other Crom lore facts which I am hoping to put out soon, including a number of source pictures of him. However, my work is just so ridiculously busy at the moment. Hopefully soon…

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How about this,

1 Croms “alter” is a forge where you make Conans Atlantian Sword, his father’s sword from the movie, and other things Cimerians. Creating stuff earns zeal

  1. I love the idea of activating your own purge, and it should be done with the zeal! Genius idea. To weaponize it, you can activate it wherever you are, and it attack everything in site. Badda Bing badda boom.

  2. I’m a big advocate for a buff to survival or strength or vit, but if the alter is a forge that only creates a handful of weapons and armors, then put the buffs on the clothes. I firmly recall both in book and movie more than one cimarian stating that “Crom does not want prayer” and “Crom gives you strength to survive at birth” and to pretty much be happy you’re alive lol.

  3. If not a purge for the big zeal eater, than maybe an epic weapon. Then you’ve earned it yourself and it just costs the whole damn forge to make it lol

If you do that, then it’s a fully fledged religion, lore friendly and all!

Crom’s religious placeable being a forge is what would definately make the most sense.
I’ll steer clear of calling it an “altar” too tho since like you say, it kinda indicates worship and/or prayer and Crom isn’t about that jazz - but the religion needs a placeable like this to host all the recipes if it’s ever expanded, i agree.
Activating one’s own purge, i wouldnt be able to make any educated guess on :woman_shrugging: It would be hella cool i bet, but ultimately i think that would come down to the design director (i think that’s his title) Alex.

As for stuff to be crafted in such a forge though, i highly doubt they’ll let us craft the atlantean sword there, since it’s already a pre-order/epic edition exclusive or whatever it is - i got it from preorder at least, i think.
But, Funcom is sitting on a huge library of excellent concept art, some of which we can snoop in online :smiley:
There’s no shortage of awesome cimmerian/atlantean awesomeness for things like weapons and armor, i took a quick look on the site i often go to to daydream about upcoming stuff, and just picked two examples.


This is one of the armorsets from Age of Conan for example, a traditional cimmerian heavy/medium armor outfit attributed to Clan Conarch.

While we already have one version of the bear shaman armors in Exiles already, this is a different set for that class in AOC. Another typic northerner wildling armor, i know my northern roleplaying friends would go mad for both these sets ^^

I also remember the cimmerian warpaints from AOC, and they were unique in the way that previous to the Khitai expansion, they were the only multi-colored paints in the game. There’s no multi-colored paints in exiles at the moment either, and that would be a cool idea.
Like i suggested in an earlier post, and Crom’s Faithful affirmed, it doesn’t even need to be spectacularly good or in any way an advantage over others simply because it’s crom, just that it’s unique and gives bragging rights :slight_smile:

If all other points are unacceptable to funcom, and they dont want any benefit at all to crom’s religion, then at least just some visuals or hardened steel/star metal equivilants that just give bragging rights i’m sure would be hugely appreciated.

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Oh and for those who want to browse through the album of concept art themselves, here ya go:
https://www.videogamesartwork.com/games/age-conan-unchained

Also @Zeb

I dont read all answers, but just the first one with bonus attributes…

Please dont forget that you can learn all religions within the game.

So if Crom has such a bonus, everyone else also has to have such bonus. Because, why should anyone pick sth else besides Crom then?

Or you have a big negative impact, when chosing Crom… Like, you never get human purges or you can only wield stuff with Croms name in it.

Love all the ideas. But it maybe expensive and takes time to do all of that. And in return how many more players will pay to buy this game just for these ideas to be implemented you think? I think not much. How about this…Crome religion gives you 1 little blue jewel. You combine it with a weapon and Tataaaa! It is bound to your bracelet. Can not loose on death, cannot be looted. Now you can kick butt no matter what and where.

crom gives bonus resistance to temperature,extra climbing stamina, and a damage buff when attacking avatars, because he gives men strength. to appease crom you must show you are strong and can defeat your enemies. if you can appease crom then he will grant you revenge by revealing to location of the last player that killed you on the map.

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What happens if they loots your base and not kill you? Lol

That means you didn’t appease Crom but makes him laughs rolling on his mountain top. You can forget receiving anything from him except contempt.

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