[center][h1]New Anathagos[/h1]

[i]To Carthage then I came, where there sang all around me in my ears a cauldron of unholy loves.[/i]
St. Augustine, Confessions Book III[/center]

[img]https://msolneyauthor.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/1354924079-0600534-www-nevsepic-com-ua.jpg[/img]

Hello!

This is a faction/character RP in a fantasy setting based in the single, massive, mercantile city-state of New Anathagos. Through designing their characters and factions, players will help to flesh out the city and the wider world together. There will be a central plot that participants are welcome to join or ignore as they wish. People can design any type of faction they wish: crime syndicates, mercantile guilds, noble houses, foreign embassies, assassin brotherhoods, and anything else folks can come up with. 

[hider=A Short Description of New Anathagos]

New Anathagos is one of the greatest cities in the world of Phlegethon- and certainly one of the richest. Located on the subtropical island of Jos in the middle of the Sea of Beasts, the maritime power is ideally situated between major nations, and has grown rich over its storied history as a hub of commerce. New Anathagos was founded in forgotten eons by the Vermillion Horde, a group of human refugees fleeing destruction, and has since received many tides of migrants from distant lands over its long existence. As such, and as a commercial center, it is one of the most diverse cities in the entire world, home to practically every race, sentient species, creed and culture that can be found on Phlegethon. 

[u][b]Geography and Commerce[/b]
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The secret to the city's commercial success lies in its location in the Sea of Beasts. The Isle of Jos is located along the spine of an underwater mountain chain that provides a channel of relatively shallow water across the sea known as the [b]Anathagos Route[/b]. The Route is important because the Sea of Beasts lives up to its name- it's depths are infested with a huge array of monstrous creatures that make regular passage treacherous at best. The relative shallows of the Route provides (relatively) safe passage across the sea, without which trade vessels would need to hug the coasts of the sea or risk passage over the monster-haunted [b]Deeps[/b]. Ships passing through the Route enjoy the protection of the New Anathagos Navy from pirates and the lesser sea-beasts of the shallows, in exchange for which they pay the [b]Passage Toll[/b].

New Anathagos itself is heavily engaged in maritime pursuits. Fishing, whaling, sea-beast hunting are all specialties of the city's seamen. Whale oil, leviathan bone, sea-serpent skin and other fruits of the world's most dangerous sea are all major exports of city. 

[[i]players should feel free to make up other exports (and sea monsters!) as it suits their factions[/i]]

Outside the outskirts of New Anathagos, the rocky hills of the island of Jos are dominated by plantations and terrace-farms that provide the food for the city and other exotic goods for export and trade.

Major imports include gunpowder, lumber for ships, foodstuffs, metals, and spices.

[[i]players should feel free to make up other imports as it suits their factions, and are free to have their factions operate in the agriculture hinterland on the island around the city as well as within the city itself[/i]]

New Anathagos' major trading partners (NPC nations) include:

[hider=Free City of Tripantos]
WIP
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[Hider=Drathan Union]
A loose confederation of desert city states along the River Velym, mostly ruled by mage-lords (many rumored to be vampires and liches). The greatest of these cities is the vast port of [b]Zar Dratha[/b], located East of New Anathagos along the [b]Bay of Teeth[/b]. The Union is a powerful but backwards place, usually aloof to concerns beyond its borders and protected by the vast deserts that isolate it from most other nations. Among important Union exports are crocodile skins, enchanted and magical goods, educated or trained slaves, and foodstuffs from the hyperfertile river valleys of the desert. It imports gunpowder, metals, maritime products and, above all, slaves of every kind.
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[Hider=Aryon Monarchate]
WIP
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[[i]players should feel free to make up other trading partners/NPC nations as it suits their faction. I will add them here as players create them.[/i]]

[u][b]Politics[/b][/u]

Ruled by a bicameral Parliament divided between an aristocratic upper house known as the [b]House of Wisdom[/b] (that serves as a sort of collective executive branch and supreme court) and the popularly elected (by male humans) lower house that acts as a legislature known as the [b]Chamber of Noise[/b], [u]in practice New Anathagos is a fairly anarchic place, with its myriad districts de facto governed by influential factions, syndicates, noble houses, religious orders and other centers of authority.[/u] Popular political parties in the Chamber of Noise include: the [b]Monists[/b], who advocate for human supremacy and the more extreme elements of which wish to expel the non-human species from the city, the [b]Ecumenicals[/b] who want to extend the franchise to all sentient species within the city, the [b]Anarchs[/b], reactionaries who wish to dissolve parliament and return rule directly to the Great Houses, Guilds and other factions who control different parts of the city, and [b]the Autarchs[/b], factions of which are divided over whether to institute a constitutional or absolutist monarchy instead of or alongside Parliament. There are many other political parties [[u]players are free to invent some or control any of the above as they wish[/u]] as well who vie for influence over the city.

The current [b]Prime Minister[/b] of New Anathagos is [b]Sir Garyn Gwent[/b], elected from the House of Wisdom. Gwent is unaffiliated with a political party and is widely regarded as a competent, pragmatic champion of the status quo. He is aided in this regard by the feared officers of the [b]House of Questions[/b] an inquisitorial secret police that administer's the [b]Anathagos City Guard[/b]. Gwent is often criticized by deputies from the populist parties of the lower house for relying on the secret police and on the vast personal resources of House Gwent in lieu of normal political channels order to further his agenda.

[u][b]History & Mythology[/b][/u]

New Anathagos is said to have been founded in ages long past by [b]St. Exguin the Sealord[/b], who led the nomadic [b]tribes of Thag[/b] to safety from the fabled Devourer Clans across a landbridge into the heart of the Sea of Beasts. As the Clans attempted to follow, Exguin is said to have made a compact with the fell gods of the Deep, and the landbridge was flooded, leaving only the Isle of Jos above the sea.

Rumor has it that the spirits of the Devourers still haunt the oceans as [b]Goblin Fish[/b] and [b]Snatchers[/b] that plague the bays and harbors of New Anathagos.

Saint Exguin and his band of Companions and other heroes from the Anathagan past are venerated by many in New Anathagos, especially among the older aristocratic houses. [b]Temples to the Ancestors[/b] are scattered throughout the city, but the greatest are found in the [b]Ancestral Precinct[/b]. There, the great Shrine of Exguin, also known as the [b]Skull Shrine[/b], since is fashioned from the head of a great sea-monster supposedly defeated by the saint, towers over a thousand lesser temples to various ancestral heroes and venerated wise men of Thagan legend. 

[[i]players should feel free to make up other saints and heroes and to expand on the ancestor worship of many Anathagans, and add episodes in the city's history[/i]]

[b][u]Sentient Races of New Anathagos and their Cultures[/u][/b]

WIP

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[Hider=About This RP]
- It is a character-centric faction RP. Players will design and write as the different factions of New Anathagos, but the focus of the RP will be on the characters.
-It is dark fantasy set in a bustling renaissance era city state.
-This to be an exercise in collaborative world building. That means that we want [b]factions and characters that feel like they inhabit a shared world[/b]. Players should collaborate heavily in designing their factions and characters.
-[b]It is low-medium fantasy: magic exists. It is powerful, dangerous, and uncommon.[/b]
[hider=More on Magic, Races and Cosmology]
A note on Magic: I am not a big fan on fixed magic rules or magic systems. I do want to stress that this is low(ish) fantasy. That means no armies of reanimated dead or golems, no legions of fireball casters, balrogs, etc. We're going to err on the side of how the LotR handled magic rather than say, D&D. Meaning, it is present and powerful, but mysterious and often indirect. 

I prefer what I call the Tolkien/GRR Martin approach to magic and religion. Magic is real, mysterious, and powerful, but for the most part takes place 'off-screen', and is for aesthetic purposes somewhat subdued or indirect (eg- no undead armies or mages throwing fireballs around). Likewise, the RP will take the GRR Martin approach to religion: there are as many religions as we can come up with here, but we will leave it an open question as to whether any of them are true. Conflicting mythos and cosmologies and visions of god(s) are encouraged.
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-It is vaguely Renaissance tech. Cannons and arquebus are new military technology. There are a few exceptions to this.
-It has original fantasy races. We're going to try to stay away from orcs/dwarves/elves/halflings. If you want a version of a classic fantasy race, try to give it a unique spin.
-It is inspired by Tolkien, Dune, Warhammer fantasy, Lovecraft, China Mieville, & Morrowind.

RULES
- Writing standards are [u]advanced[/u]
- Have fun, act like a human being, and remember this is a vehicle for story telling and world building and not a competitive strategy game. If you want that, try Civ or Total War. They're fun.
- Respect the judgment of the GMs.
- Please try to post once a week. If you can't, that's no big deal at all, but check in here to let the GMs know you're still with us.
- One more note on posting: everybody gets writers block, or burned out, or is unsure how to proceed once in awhile. If that happens, nbd- but maybe try to find other ways to stay active? Help flesh out the history of the world, or invent a new subfaction or religion. Worldbuilding might prompt a solid IC post. Let's keep this alive and awesome. 
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[hider=Faction, Race & Character Sheets]

[b][u]Faction Sheet:[/u][/b]

[b]Fill out as much as the below form as you think necessary to give a succinct overview of your faction. No need to fill in all headings if they do not apply.[/b]

[i]A note on factions: if a player goes inactive, a faction may revert to NPC status, to be controlled by the GM and other players until the original player returns.


[/i]
Faction Name: 
Alias:
Faction Type: {noble house, merchant guild, crime syndicate, religious order, political party, etc. Sky is the limit here.}
Faction Specie(s): {Sentient species that make up your faction. Please keep in mind how we're handling standard fantasy races (elves, dwarves, halflings). [b]Also, your faction can include races created by other players, and you can create races to populate the city that are not nec affiliated with your faction![/b]}
Species Descriptions:
Location: {which area of the city is your faction based, if any? We're not starting with a map, so feel free to make up areas of the city to suit your purposes! Once we reach critical mass of players, we'll design a rough map based on people's CSes}
Faction Religion/Ideology:
Faction Description: 
Faction History:
Important Characters:
Important Holdings/Territory/Possessions:
Relation to other Factions:

[b][i]Please use this template if you'd like to create NPC nations outside of New Anathagos![/i][/b]

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