[OOC] An Age of Empires [Low Fantasy - Advanced]

[OneEyedChurro]

So for Pros and Cons, we're allowed to come up with one of each of our own, correct?

[Sini]

So for Pros and Cons, we're allowed to come up with one of each of our own, correct?

@OneEyedChurro

Affirmative!

[Cyclone]

I'm assuming you want us to run them through you. These are what I came up with: Pro: Healers of the Faith: Most holy men and other members of the clergy are adept healers. Ancient knowledge of various medicines and treatments has survived, passed down as a part of the holy texts. Still like other places in that a mere cut can be life threatening due to infection, knowledge of antiseptics and various herbal treatments, as well as some forms of crude surgery, mean one's chances are substantially better here. Con: Slash and Burn Agriculture: As the most common form of farming, this is unsustainable and bad for the longevity of the nation. Valuable woodlands are rapidly destroyed to make way for new farmland, and overfarming soon exhausts the soil's fertility and forces the farmers to travel even further away to find new woodlands to burn. Many of the forests in the country are already gone or under threat, and as the years go by the farmers are bring forced to move farther and farther away from the cities that need their produce.

[Sini]

@Cyclone Thank you. That seems in order. I was considering roughly the same additional con trait! :P

[OneEyedChurro]

In that case, here are mine- Pro: State Inquisition- the Inquisition is a small panel of three judges tasked with maintaining the security of the homeland. Their size means they can deal with threats quickly and it doesn't take them long to establish a network of agents both at home and abroad to locate traitors. Con: A Call for Reform- the abolition of the former privy council was one of the final steps in the gradual change from a strictly monarchistic state to an open commonwealth. However, many have voiced their doubt in the current leaders and have made sure their stance is known, adding only more to the growing political unrest.

[Terminal]

In my case - There's only one Necromancer, so having Ossuaries everywhere isn't much of an advantage, especially considering they were never intended to raise massive undead armies. And how worship of Mot is now strongly discouraged, leaving body remnants out in the open like that would be seen as bad. I'll keep the Bloodthirsty con, but I'd like to replace my pro with: Songbird Communiques: The warlords and skirmishes of the Fulmen Nati are masters of moving and communicating as widespread guerilla groups moving unseen in the underbrush. One of their more successful strategic advantages has been their successful domestication and breeding of Songbirds, used for surveillance, reconnaissance, and communication across both short and vast distances. Sometimes the only warning you have of a Nati ambush will be the low, pleasant, burbling chirps of unseen birds.

[Sini]

In that case, here are mine- Pro: State Inquisition- the Inquisition is a small panel of three judges tasked with maintaining the security of the homeland. Their size means they can deal with threats quickly and it doesn't take them long to establish a network of agents both at home and abroad to locate traitors. Con: A Call for Reform- the abolition of the former privy council was one of the final steps in the gradual change from a strictly monarchistic state to an open commonwealth. However, many have voiced their doubt in the current leaders and have made sure their stance is known, adding only more to the growing political unrest.

@OneEyedChurro

*Thumbs up*

In my case - There's only one Necromancer, so having Ossuaries everywhere isn't much of an advantage, especially considering they were never intended to raise massive undead armies. And how worship of Mot is now strongly discouraged, leaving body remnants out in the open like that would be seen as bad. I'll keep the Bloodthirsty con, but I'd like to replace my pro with: Songbird Communiques: The warlords and skirmishes of the Fulmen Nati are masters of moving and communicating as widespread guerilla groups moving unseen in the underbrush. One of their more successful strategic advantages has been their successful domestication and breeding of Songbirds, used for surveillance, reconnaissance, and communication across both short and vast distances. Sometimes the only warning you have of a Nati ambush will be the low, pleasant, burbling chirps of unseen birds.

@Terminal

How about this for a different pro then? Winged messengers: Through the use of birds, communication within your nation is quick and secure, though the birds do leave a bit of a mess.

[Cyclone]

Hmm. For some reason my nation sheet's first hider seems to be broken, and my image doesn't properly load. Anybody know why?

[OneEyedChurro]

Try getting rid of that rogue [/indent] under Military, in 'Other'. Think I had that too.

[Sini]

Try getting rid of that rogue /indent] under Military, in 'Other'. Think I had that too.

@OneEyedChurro

Yes, I noticed it too. I have corrected it in the offered BBC coded sheet. My mistake.

[OneEyedChurro]

Think my sheet is pretty much done, just need to work on a flag. I may add tiny bits here and there; it'd mostly be locations.

[Cyclone]

That fixed it, thanks. On an unrelated note, @gowia @Terminal Want to have a trade route between our nations? The Drastonian Empire has food and spices, while mine has more in terms of metals as well as some large cities that would have finished goods. Fulmen Nati would be conveniently placed about halfway down the trade route for ships, so it could be involved too.

[Cold]

Pro: Elephants - Elephants are domesticated and bred and used for farming, construction, transport and many other purposes. In war, elephants play a crucial role in disrupting enemy lines, breaking morale and generally trampling men, horses and villages. Being of a more hardier and better trained kind, War Elephants are the prized possessions of the wealthiest of warrior nobles. Con: Corruption - Gold and the endless quest to get more of it moves citizens to crime, politicians to important positions and entire cities to the brink of disaster and back again. Many wars and conflicts, both sensible and insane, have been started because of the plots of the greedy, the ambitious and the corrupt.

[Sini]

Think my sheet is pretty much done, just need to work on a flag. I may add tiny bits here and there; it'd mostly be locations.

@OneEyedChurro

Rocking those fancy hats. Traits looking fine too.

[Terminal]

That fixed it, thanks. On an unrelated note, @gowia @Terminal Want to have a trade route between our nations? The Drastonian Empire has food and spices, while mine has more in terms of metals as well as some large cities that would have finished goods. Fulmen Nati would be conveniently placed about halfway down the trade route for ships, so it could be involved too.

@Cyclone

The Fulmen Nati, I suspect, would not be formally recognized as a nation per se. The organization you'd be dealing with would be The Free Family (check them out in the NS), and they'd have what you want. Here's some cold hard supply and demand for all of us:

The Bottom Line

Dominion: Mineral Deposits - Rich deposits of metals and minerals such as copper, lead, coal, usable stone. Valuable Mineral Deposits - Trace deposits of rare earth metals. Unique Materials - dyes, leather, sugar Drastonia: Mineral Deposits - Minimal deposits of metals and minerals. Valuable Mineral Deposits - Trace deposits of rare earth metals, predominantly silver, some marble quarries. Unique Materials - Spices, hardwood Fulmen Nati: Mineral Deposits - Rich deposits of metals and minerals such as copper, lead, coal, usable stone. Valuable Mineral Deposits - Trace deposits of rare earth metals. Unique Materials - incense, dyes, ivory

Looking at our positions on the map (which really needs to be updated, and Cyclone, your link on the forum is broken - I had to manually follow the embedded html back to your imagur library), one problem at hand is that for the Dominion's shipping to reach Drastonia, they'll need to sail around Iugulum Mot. If they sail within sight of the shoreline, this will cause problems akin to sailing too close to Old Valyria. Sailing way far off the coast is possible, but likely impractical and time consuming - if nothing else, Dominion shipping heading that way will likely be issuing several formal and extended complaints. Meanwhile, the situation with shipping to the Fulmen Nati is complicated by the fact that a Warlord controls roughly half the Southern borders of Nati land, based out of Mollis Latus. All direct land shipments will likely be raided and sacked, you'd have to take the long way around to get to Radix Arx or Respicit Fulmen. Worse, if you go too far East, you get slammed by the Satus and Baleosus warlords. Your only viable route for circumventing the Nati lands is to go through Arhus. Drastonia and the Free Family should have a considerably easier time of trading with one another. Iugulum mot isn't in the way of naval shipping, and as long as they don't mind dealing with Vathcras even land convoys shouldn't have too much trouble, and the Free Family would likely be able to arrange safe passage for caravans into Baleosus. As for raw materials - Drastonia appears to have a shortage of metals and minerals, and could probably use the dye and incense (unsure about the ivory). The Free Family would be interested in their silver and spices, moreso in the latter. They don't have much use for silver since the Nati lack any kind of official currency, so they probably only want it as a trade good they can sell to other nations - in which case they'll probably try to undercut you on silver trading, since they'll be relying on selling it back for more than they paid.

[Cyclone]

Thanks for pointing out that my picture was broken, I fixed it. I haven't added this to my nation sheet yet, but the Azracs have pretty outdated ships. It is unlikely that they would be the ones going back and forth, when the Drastonians have a larger and better equipped navy to handle piracy. (Or actually haul the trade goods themselves. Using military ships for trading isn't unheard of.) As in for the sunken city full of ghosts, are they really so dangerous and vicious as to actually pose a threat to a fleet a mile or two off the coast? Still, if the sailors were superstitious they could sail just out of sight of the coast for that particular stretch of the way. Terus is in a unique position with its crops being grown in the country several days away from its cities, which leads to high food costs. Any nation really could bring shiploads of food and sell it for several times what it is worth in their cities, especially if they are growing something other than the wheat and barley that Azracs farm. The fact that Terus has several cities with 50,000+ in the population range means that one strength (probably the main strength) of it is the ability to process raw materials and manufacture things on a scale few others can match with their smaller towns and spread out populations. With lots of people to work breweries, dyeries, foundries, carpenter shops, etc. finished goods would probably be the main export, rather than just the dyes, leather, and sugar that are available in abundance as natural resources.

[Terminal]

As in for the sunken city full of ghosts, are they really so dangerous and vicious as to actually pose a threat to a fleet a mile or two off the coast? Still, if the sailors were superstitious they could sail just out of sight of the coast for that particular stretch of the way.

Cyclone

It's not quite like that. There aren't actual ghosts and wraiths poking around, so much as a curse hangs over the coastline like a pall. This is a low fantasy setting, so I'm going with the [Maybe Magic Maybe Mundane] route. Perhaps the Necromancer in Iugulum Mot has some heeby jeeby curse going on, or maybe that particular stretch of coast and the peninsula just happens to be a horrible sailing deathtrap full of sharp jutting rock formations and rogue tides. Who knows? Either way, sailing too close is not recommended. And yes, I did say they could sail out of sight of the coastline - but check the map, there's a large jutting peninsula to sail around. I indicated that sailing around the super long way would be both time consuming and impractical. You can do it, but,

if nothing else, Dominion shipping heading that way will likely be issuing several formal and extended complaints.

Terminal

Also, the Iugulum Mot stretch is a barrier to Drastonian vessels trying to reach the Dominion as well. Same problems apply. We'll have to wait for Gowia's input before proceeding further on that front. If Drastonia has particularly good trade relations with the Free Family, it may be that they could have a shipping outpost located at Dakat'fium - which is located South of the Iugulum Mot stretch. Drastonia could ship goods overland across Nati territory and then sail them directly South, and the Dominion could send shipments there instead of having to sail around - which cuts time off of their trade route. The obvious problem is that a massive stretch of the trade route is being controlled by uncivilized bloodthirsty savages.

[OneEyedChurro]

Any nation really could bring shiploads of food and sell it for several times what it is worth in their cities, especially if they are growing something other than the wheat and barley that Azracs farm.

@Cyclone

Arhus, baby.

[Goldeagle1221]

Slowly upgrading my sheet. I'm hitting writers block hard.

[Senor Herp]

Ey, Sini, where's a sane placement on the map for severe volcanic faulting? Ashlandy stuff, Morrowind-alike. Ideally somewhere that makes sense for that geography and that also might've been a plausible imperial centerpiece & hold-out for a formerly much larger state. I'm thinking Khumer has been a relative constant through antiquity as the codifier of asshole sorcerer kings (or supposed sorcerer kings) having ups and downs between superpower status and dogged slaver rump-state. Lots of coalition wars of containment, successful or failed, that sort of thing. Editing in retrospect, I think I see three good places; east of the southwestern delta, in the spine by Oxfreight and Jukku, and in the far northern mountain hideaway. I'm leaning heavily towards the southwestern delta mountain spine, south of Arman-Arhus and east of where Cap'n's sorcerer-king killers are probably getting situated, so I'll claim that for the time being and keep the other two prospects on backup in case of any necessary shuffle-around. For custom pro & con, I tried to make them as thematic as possible, and broad reaching rather than specific practices. Something to give life in crunch to the overall fluff. By Terror Thou Shalt Wage War: There can be no doubt that as a military entity Khumer is efficient and brutal, but further so as a sociopolitical one. While few men would willingly subject themselves to the horror of living in Khumer's lands and systems, to throw themselves in chains under those exceedingly cruel men, yet fewer would like to face the cruelty of the Khumerian highborn or their much-repressed slaves. Better to go into captivity amongst exceedingly cruel men than be eaten alive by them, or vice-versa. With little or no fight, some states in history have become vassals to Khumer when faced with the inevitability of conquest to spare themselves the butcherous ruin that would follow refusal to submit. Although such days are long past with Khumer's sorry state and the ease of successful coalition, soldiers will nonetheless face wildly fluctuating morale and force organization when faced with the Khumite question; an organized formation might be feeble and giving, or an unbreakably, rabidly fearful mob- fighting as many more men on the personal level- might lose all cohesion. Either may serve as wheat to thresh for the Khumites if the enemy commanders do not retain control of the situation. O Daughter of Babylon: Conversely, the terror of Khumer and all its iniquities leaves few men alive to speak any favorable thing, to have any good notion of it. It is a black-hearted man, either by malevolence or fear, who would make any deal with the priest-statesmen of Khumer. Legitimate diplomacy with that black realm is ill found in this era, and even secret overtures are few and kept as careful secret. The Khumerian highborne as a race are rarely considered humans, more often as demons given flesh, both for their stature and the stature of their moral monstrosity. Therefore, Khumer can expect an absolutely frigid political climate, if it is not warmed by fire and blood.