Cú Chulainn And The Book Of Invasions Concept

Cú Chulainn And The Book Of Invasions.

This will be a action RPG game for the android (and maybe iPhone).

Pick up and play game play as it's being designed for handheld devices.

Fast pace Hack and Slash combat.

Artistic style

It should be child friendly and cartoonist with bright colors, greens, reds and yellows.
Not unlike the Zelda games.
I want to use a lot of cell shading, even the combat shouldn't be to gory although I will be taking a lot of influences from the Zelda games I want to avoid the overly used anime art style and use a much more Celtic style  as seen in The Secret Of Kells.

Very Early Sétanta Concept Designs

Character Movements - 

Up, down, left, right, combinations for diagonal movements.

Health bar. pick ups and slow regeneration.

A mana bar filled by combat that when full, unlocks power of ríastrad (terrifying battle frenzy)

Interactions will vary based on the tool equipped.

Boy Cú Chulainn

For example with a sword equipped you could use a standard attack.
With a hurley and sliotar, defeat Irish wolf hound boss.
With a hammer you can break down certain structures.
With a pickaxe you can mine and dig.

Adult Cú Chulainn

Cruaiden Cadatchenn his hereditary sword

Cúchulainn's shield of dark crimson with a pure white silver rim and bronze embossed animal-shapes.
Missive or throwing shields with sharp edges used as offensive weapons for ranged attack, limited on time for shield to return.

The Gae Bulga - this was a type of harpoon with retractable barbs, it was given by Scathach the warrior woman to Aoife who Cúchulainn conquered as a test while in the service of Scathach therefore it passed into his ownership when Aoife was defeated. It had thirty barbs and was made from the bones of a sea monster.

"And Cúchulainn called for the Gae Bulga from Laeg son of
Riangabair. This was its nature: With the stream it was made
ready, and from between the fork of the foot it was cast; the
wound of a single spear it gave when entering the body, and
thirty barbs had it when it opened and it could not be drawn
out of a man's flesh till the flesh had been cut about it."

From J. Dunn translation Táin Bó Cuailnge 1914.

Storyline

The story will follow the story of Sétanta (Cúchulainn as a boy)
as he sets out on hes quest to become a member of the Ulster champions.

Chaper one of the game should be the story of how Cúchulainn got hes name.

Cúchulainn was born Setanta son of human parents, Sualtam the warrior hero and Dechtire half sister to Conchobar the King of Ulster. His divine lineage includes the fact that he was an ancestor of the Dagda - the good god, and son of Lugh the sun god or god of light.

How Cúchulainn got his name

At first the son of Dechtire and Sualtam was called Setanta. As a child he was the strongest of all his peers and won all the sports competitions. One day while playing Hurley single-handed against a team of other boys and beating them, he was summoned to the court of King Conchobar so that he might attend a feast at the house of the sidhe blacksmith Culann. Setanta promised to come along as soon as his game was finished.

When the Ulster champions entered the smith's hall, the king gave permission for Culann to let loose his fierce guard hound, forgetting that Setanta had not yet arrived. When Setanta came into Culann's front yard the hound attacked him fiercely, Setanta reacted quickly and hurled his sliotar (Hurley ball) into the mouth of the hound choking him, he then grabbed him by his hind legs and smashed out his brains on a rock.

Culann the chief smith was enraged to find that his guard dog had been killed. Setanta apologised and promised to find another hound and train it for Culann but in the meantime he himself would act as Culann's guard. Thus from that time onwards he was known as Cúchulainn - the hound of Culann.



The stories of Cú Chulainn's childhood are told in a flashback sequence in Táin Bó Cúailnge. As a small child, living in his parents' house on Muirthemne Plain, he begs to be allowed to join the boy-troop at Emain Macha. However, he sets off on his own, and when he arrives at Emain he runs onto the playing field without first asking for the boys' protection, being unaware of the custom. The boys take this as a challenge and attack him, but he has a ríastrad and beats them single-handed. Conchobar puts a stop to the fight and clears up the misunderstanding, but no sooner has Sétanta put himself under the boys' protection than he chases after them, demanding they put themselves under his protection.
Culann the smith invites Conchobar to a feast at his house. Before going, Conchobar goes to the playing field to watch the boys play hurling. He is so impressed by Sétanta's performance that he asks him to join him at the feast. Sétanta has a game to finish, but promises to follow the king later. But Conchobar forgets, and Culann lets loose his ferocious hound to protect his house. When Sétanta arrives, the enormous hound attacks him, but he kills it in self-defence, in one version by smashing it against a standing stone, and in another by driving a sliotar (hurling ball) down its throat with his hurley. Culann is devastated by the loss of his hound, so Sétanta promises he will rear him a replacement, and until it is old enough to do the job, he himself will guard Culann's house. The druid Cathbad announces that his name henceforth will be Cú Chulainn—"Culann's Hound".
One day at Emain Macha, Cú Chulainn overhears Cathbad teaching his pupils. One asks him what that day is auspicious for, and Cathbad replies that any warrior who takes arms that day will have everlasting fame. Cú Chulainn, though only seven years old, goes to Conchobar and asks for arms. None of the weapons given to him withstand his strength, until Conchobar gives him his own weapons. But when Cathbad sees this he grieves, because he had not finished his prophecy—the warrior who took arms that day would be famous, but his life would be short. Soon afterwards, in response to a similar prophecy by Cathbad, Cú Chulainn demands a chariot from Conchobar, and only the king's own chariot withstands him. He sets off on a foray and kills the three sons of Nechtan Scéne, who had boasted they had killed more Ulstermen than there were Ulstermen still living. He returns to Emain Macha in his battle frenzy, and the Ulstermen are afraid he will slaughter them all. Conchobar's wife Mugain leads out the women of Emain, and they bare their breasts to him. He averts his eyes, and the Ulstermen wrestle him into a barrel of cold water, which explodes from the heat of his body. They put him in a second barrel, which boils, and a third, which warms to a pleasant temperature.

This description is taken from a translation in The Cúchullin Saga edited by Eleanor Hull in 1898:

A handsome lad was he that stood there, Cúchulainn son of Sualtam. Three colours of hair had he; next to his skin the hair was brown, in the middle it was red; on the outside it was like a diadem of gold; comparable to yellow gold was each glittering long curling splendid beautiful thread of hair, falling freely down between his shoulders. About his neck were a hundred tiny links of red gold flashing, with pendants hung from them. His headgear was adorned with a hundred different jewels. On either cheek he had four moles, a yellow, a green, a blue and a red. In either eye he had seven pupils, sparkling like seven gems. Each of his feet had seven toes, each of his hands seven fingers; his hands and feet were endowed with the clutching power of hawk's talons and hedgehog's claws.
He wore his gorgeous raiment for great gatherings; a fair crimson tunic of five plies all
The champion carried a trusty special shield coloured dark crimson with a pure white silver rim all around its circumference; at his left side hung a long golden hilted sword. Beside him in his chariot was a lengthy spear, together with a keen aggressive javelin fitted with a hurling thong and rivets of white bronze. In one hand he carried nine heads, and nine more in the other; he held these heads as emblems of his valour and skill in arms, and at the sight of him the opposing army shook with terror.
other info

The Celtic method of single combat in battle situations

Although a large army of men and women set out to do battle, combat was primarily undertaken on a one to one basis. Warriors were chosen from each side who would engage in combat with each other. The outcome would determine which side had won or lost. This was seen to be preferable to all out combat in which many lives were lost regardless of whoever was ultimately victorious. It was considered the height of barbarism to waste human life needlessly when heroic champions were an integral part of Celtic culture and had thus been specifically trained in the warrior arts - it was the champions role to fight on behalf of many people rather than just themselves.
This was how Cúchulainn came to defend Ulster single-handedly, instead of being overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the army of Queen Medb of Connaught he defended his position by fighting warrior after warrior in single combat. He also slew the totem animals of Queen Medb, the dog, the bird and the squirrel.

Art work By Oghme comics

A very Cool comic, I would suggest anyone that's in to Irish mythology to read  this.

http://www.oghme.com/origins/cuchulainn/post/p.000#zestrip