Occultus and the hidden Factions (Discussion)

[Alsatia]

If you've been going through The EB forums, you'll find a few EB members with an Occultus sig on them. They seem to show a design for one of the new factions. I have made this thread to discuss what they could be. The EB team will probably will not give us a fresh stele if we get it right.

Here are some of the Occultus sigs.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Actual code from the new EB Website; which may help you understand EB better:

if(! ($testmode || isFlagTrue($ps,'complete'))) {
	redirect('occultus_error','url');
	return false;
}

[oudysseos]

Good luck with that. The new faction sigs are very well obscured: if you actually get one right I'll give you a lollipop.

[Skullheadhq]

All is cloudy

[lenin96]

Hmmm... in Oudysseos' Occultus signature picture you can notice something which look like someones shoulders, and you can see armour on them. Bosphorans? A Steppe faction?

[Martelus Flavius]

Bosphorans? A Steppe faction?

Nope, I wouldn't say so, or well maybe right!

But if you observe better you can see a red backgroud with golden emblem... Isn't Red the color of a imperialist faction? And what about its golden emblem?

And it is not, as we were not perfidious enough to redraw allready known faction emblem and cover them with the occultus label! (But as said we are not like that!)

Well you'll excuse me but I have a very passionating lake sediment to study...

Regards

Martelvs

[bobbin]

Hmmm... in Oudysseos' Occultus signature picture you can notice something which look like someones shoulders, and you can see armour on them. Bosphorans? A Steppe faction?

I'm thinking it looks more like scales a dragon maybe?, definatley something serpentine..

Edit: the bosphorian kingdom tended to depict gryphons on thier coins so it could be that.

[Ca Putt]

could you add the known occultus sigs to your first post? that would be rather practical for anyone who is keen on de-occulting them^^

I agree that definately looks like reptile scales and the shape could be a snake.

Ps: we know we won't find them out too easily but were keen to guess, like John Cleese in the cheese shop :P

[bobbin]

Also i just realised I've been calling it the Bosphorian Kingdom instead of the Bosporan Kingdom, my bad.

[Skullheadhq]

Why does the factions have to remain a secret, It's driving me crazy and made me order M2TW: Gold Edition!

[Martelus Flavius]

Why does the factions have to remain a secret, It's driving me crazy and made me order M2TW: Gold Edition!

It is likely that the answer to your question lies in your statement!

Regards

Martel

[Skullheadhq]

Thanks to EB Creative Assembly gets through this economic crisis

[Cyclops]

Alsatia wasn't Cheez-Wizzery mentioned as a possible outcome if you did this? You are a brave man.

Good luck with that. The new faction sigs are very well obscured: if you actually get one right I'll give you a lollipop.

I heard that you guys have produced over 100 new occultus sigs, each a micro-shade lighter and less obscured than the last, which you are introducing as the faction release dates approach, perfectly designed so they become legible the exact day the next stele arrives.

Now I think there is a clue in Martelus Flavius post: he says he is studying lake sediment. This is so unlikely that I consider it a taunt, if not an outright clue. Let us probe further...

Now a pool is a small lake. What is the Latin word for pool? Lacuna. Now lacuna can also mean a gap. What do they sell at the Gap? Pants. And pants have pockets. What else has pockets? A snooker table. And what colour is the chalk on a snookier cue? Blue, like the sky. And what do we find in the sky? Star signs...and following on from the clue about the lake, its probably Pisces (or Acquarius, or Capricorn or even Libra but lets not get carried away, I think its clear he means Pisces).

So I feel theres a clear indication the occultus faction was founded by a leader whose star sign was (probably) Pisces, or otherwise was some kind of goat-bodied sea creature. I think we all know who that is, I mean I don't have to spell it out for you do I?

[Urg]

Hahaha. You're funny.

[A Terribly Harmful Name]

There's no secret it will be a nomadic faction - there's no great use of scales West of the Steppes, never mind scale sleeves.

[Cyclops]

There's no secret it will be a nomadic faction - there's no great use of scales West of the Steppes, never mind scale sleeves.

Have you read the Calawre description on the loading screens? Has a bit to say about scales IIRC...

[A Terribly Harmful Name]

These are bronze or leather scales from a sleeveless coat of armour, rather different from the clearly iron made scale sleeves shown in the reminiscence.

[Alsatia]

The bottom one got me thinking about the Bosporan Kingdom. There seems to be a helmet of sorts at the bottom of the sig, but the writing reminds me of Babylonia.

[bobbin]

The writing is just the normal EB writing take a look at your romani sig and you'll see it. It always seemed more celtic or germanic in style to me.

[Fabio Scevola]

Lol. You are really funny (@ Ciclops). And your reasoning reminded me those complicated mice catcher machines (from Tom and Jerry).

[Martelus Flavius]

These are bronze or leather scales from a sleeveless coat of armour, rather different from the clearly iron made scale sleeves shown in the reminiscence.

Iron? Scale? Sleeves? No, personally I think it's a bronze, silver recovered, horse head armour.

Well sorry, but a wonderful micaschist awaits me!

Regards

Martelvs

PS : Oh, and thanks cycolps! You learned me things that were unknown to my mind! Excellent deductive reasoning, except that I was actually counting varves of this sediment... Chronology.

[Apraxiteles]

It's probably pointless to speculate on this, but…

It would probably be easier to try to deduce the content of the sigs by who they are attached to, rather than what they look like. This is assuming, of course, that there is any correlation between the two. For example, gamegeek2, who has the second sig Alsatia posted, if researching Nabataea for ATB, and seems to have some knowledge of Arabic. This might, or might not suggest that his/her Occultus is an Arabic faction. I haven't bothered to pour through their posts or anything, so they might have other areas of expertise.

Another potential clue might be the color of the sig. Assuming they keep EB1's color scheme, it's highly unlikely that a red faction, like the other sig, the one with 'scales', would be anywhere near Rome or the Saka Rauka, from purely a map aesthetics perspective.

[Bucefalo]

I´ve got the feeling that the second occultus signature (the green one), might be something related to a germanic, or at least barbarian faction. The green seems to suggest something with woods (other barbarians sigs also have woods in the background) and the "occultus" letters clearly are written in a rhunic-like style. So my bet is for a new germanic related faction

[A Terribly Harmful Name]

Iron? Scale? Sleeves? No, personally I think it's a bronze, silver recovered, horse head armour.

So near to the hand, you cannot deceive anyone, unless they have "invisible" arms .

[Tux]

I´ve got the feeling that the second occultus signature (the green one), might be something related to a germanic, or at least barbarian faction. The green seems to suggest something with woods (other barbarians sigs also have woods in the background) and the "occultus" letters clearly are written in a rhunic-like style. So my bet is for a new germanic related faction

I say it's Epeiros...

[Tellos Athenaios]

Honestly you fans are seeing too much into this: those Occultus signatures are all about factions that have existed for ages in the mod ... nothing new there.

[A Terribly Harmful Name]

Rule number 1 - Do not trust an EB team member to talk about Occultus.

[machinor]

Rule number 2 - Amass as many guesses on the occultus factions as possible so that at least one of them has to be right, thus enabling at least one person to get a free lollipop from oudysseos.

Rule number 3 - There is NO rule number 3.

Rule number 4 - A man shall believe in only two things: free speech and free beer.

[Alsatia]

The writing is just the normal EB writing take a look at your romani sig and you'll see it. It always seemed more celtic or germanic in style to me.

[Reno Melitensis]

My quess is that they are a Keltoi faction, either the Boii or a Gallo-Thracian faction.

Cheers.