New Act IV: Full Mock-Up, Complete With Picture! :O

I like how you did what I suggested with the Mansions, with one being like a Church.

I think that having Doedre, Maligaro and Shavronne of Umbra all be in the same extended family is a little bit unbelievable.

Malachai being a no-name Thaumaturge who rises up to the most prestigious position imaginable purely due to his immense talent (kind of like Einstein) would be much more inspiring.

Doedre, with her being persecuted so heavily, seems like she should have been a witch living in the forest with a Coven, with most of her work being discovered by Malachai after her death. She wouldn't have a place in Sarn. She is connected to Maligaro, but not by blood. That's just my thought, though.

Shavronne speaks kind of exotically, maybe she could be Ezomyte, or Maraketh (less likely). It would kind of make sense, with her obsession with "Beauty" if she was the one who originally created Kalisa's (Later Merveil's) Virtue gem, coming soon in the Unique Amulet The Star of Wraeclast.

Maligaro does seem like a noble, with the lavish furnishings of the Chamber of Sins, though, so that being part of that house would certainly make sense: I agree with that.

It seems like you didn't put in much Act V foreshadowing in (I mean: The current ActIV) when you could have. I mean, Malachai doesn't have so little information or background given as Dominus, but I feel like there would be good opportunity to give some lore pieces related to Malachai and the Godless Three.


Your other ideas, I really like, though. In Merciless, Dialla should probably be waiting for you outside the Eternal Laboratory, with her "Here's Malachai's Laboratory" line.


Well thought out. Totally agree with the necessity of this, and the build up for Dominus is excellent.

Sorry I missed the credit there! I definitely had your post in the back of my mind when designing Palais Ruzius but forgot to specifically mention it. I've edited the main post and rectified the wrong. :)

As for everyone being in the same House, I really think of Houses as very disparate, large things. If you ever played Morrowind, think of it like that. It's more like far, distant cousins. But that House having a weird corner on a lot of the darker thaumaturgy would show a bit of the nepotism involved in the deeper thaumetic circles. You need to be trusted to be let in, and having the right ties would be the reference you need to get in.

And I agree about Act V foreshadowing. You could easily litter small extra lore notes around building up Malachi etc. I was thinking earlier about having at least one extra lore item in every house from the nobles that kind of describes how they've fared since Izaro, and you could use that to shed some light on Malachi's early days and how he got to the top level near the throne.

Bumping for visibility - really nice feedback and ideas here. I really hope GGG sees this, it's well worth a meeting or two!

@Jonmcdonald - solid feedback, you made my job much easier. Fully agree with you. :)