[OOC] The Empty Throne: War in the Broken Lands

[Slamurai]

I’m not trying to rock the boat here but Dutchy hardly seems in keeping with the “wild” and “Norse” theme of the RP...

@The Wyrm

...while norse-inspired, we shouldn't feel particularly limited by that in creating the setting.

@Flagg

[DELETED32084]

@Aristo Thinks tips. It just seems strangely out of character compared to the other factions.

[Slamurai]

I don't think that the meat of the NS is incompatible with the setting. But I suppose I can see your point in that there isn't any mention of where the Duchy falls in the hierarchy or society of the Great Clans.

[Dogematix]

We seem to have a few clans going for a heavy foreign influence. I think my clan may have to take great pride in their heritage of the "First men" or something like them. Depending on how many more nautical factions come up I might move them a little further inland too. I'm hankering for a culture of monster hunters each itching to forge their own heroic legacy. Troll steak anyone? They just regenerate so you can always have more :p

@Flagg Also Hagraven is a sick name I'm using that somewhere.

[Flagg]

We seem to have a few clans going for a heavy foreign influence. I think my clan may have to take great pride in their heritage of the "First men" or something like them. Depending on how many more nautical factions come up I might move them a little further inland too. I'm hankering for a culture of monster hunters each itching to forge their own heroic legacy. Troll steak anyone? They just regenerate so you can always have more :p

@Flagg Also Hargraven is a sick name I'm using that somewhere.

@Dogematix

Stole it straight from Skyrim. Also, my faction breeds and tames trolls and is also inland, so we should be good counterparts. I'll have a sheet up soon for them, and then mini-sheets for the NPCs and the High King's Clan (also NPC), the Stonecutters.

Also, @The Wyrm I really have not reviewed @Nerevarine's sheet in much detail at all, so besides the harpy pic thing I neither endorse nor reject anything in there until I get a chance to look at it. Grand Duchy is an odd name for the setting but seems to be a reference to Kievan Rus, which is setting-consistent. If it's just a name issue I'm sure we can figure something out.

[Nerevarine]

@Flagg No problem, switched to a description and added in the three major pantheons/religions of the Islands.

And yes, it is influenced by the Rus'

Harpies are to an extent going to be the Uralic or Turkic peoples to the Norse-Slavic Zimij; the over the top brutality of the Maldpa being sort of an oblique reference to the percieved brutality of the Mongols.

[Nerevarine]

Also in defense of the "colonists in a far and strange land", you can think of it as a smaller scale Greeland or Vinland type thing.

[gorgenmast]

If accepted, may we post now? Or would you like for us to wait for a second post?

[Flagg]

If accepted, may we post now? Or would you like for us to wait for a second post?

@gorgenmast

Post away

[Slamurai]

Woah, posting already? Feels like we've hardly collab'ed on anything yet - faction relations, history, political/social hierarchy, religion, even geographic locations haven't been nailed down.

[Letter Bee]

If accepted, may we post now? Or would you like for us to wait for a second post?

@gorgenmast

I think map issues are still being resolved.

Edit: Nin'jad!

[Letter Bee]

@Flagg, I can make long posts of five paragraphs of five lines each (or the equivalent), but I just woke up IRL; can my initial post be as short as yours'?

[Dogematix]

I'm on a nordic roll right now so here's some more on the gods I thought. Full disclaimer some of these guys are from a previous god RP I was in and those forms are the misrepresentations of them as created by a confused group of viking ice elves that were late to the game so if anyone wants to make more changes or add more stuff it's not going to step on my toes (In fact it would be deeply true to their origins). Here's the link to their origin for those interested: grandmythos.wikia.com/wiki/Stryfe

And here's some more stuff I made for those interested.

Yorven, Ormen, Grom and the Beginning
This is not the only story expalining the creation of the world in Azoth but it is a common one in the Crooked Isles.

In the beginning their were the gods who lived in their grand hold. Among them were spirits, demons and monsters who were so normal to the first gods. And there was man, who was weak, and small. Who was food and slave both to the things that made the grand hold their home.

King of these gods was Grom The Vast. He who was most powerful and strongest of all the gods! He was a tyrant and a warlord who loved to wage bloody war through the nothingness that was then creation.

Grom had two sons who each could almost rival him in power. Their names were Yorvengaand and Ormengaand. One born of fire, one born of ice. One made of mother's life, one of father's death. Oh what princes they were!

But Grom was a jealous and cruel god and he envied his sons, for he saw them as a threat. So when they became men among the gods and recieved the tools of their futures on their nameday, as all men do form their fathers, he played a cruel trick upon them.

To Yorvengaand who was light and warmth and loved all of life he gave the sword. A cruel weapon that unlike the axe or bow had no purpose but death. And he pushed this gentle hearted boy into the rings of the warriors and laughed as he was bloodied by cruel hands and blades, weeping as he was forced to shed blood.

To Ormengaand he gave the scythe of the farmer. The tool of the harvest and those that make that which gives life. To Ormen who was the blizzard given life, who brought nothiong but death in his wake and looked on all with cold eyes. How Grom laughed as his deathly son looked on his fields as they froze and wasted to nothing.

After suffering his cruelty for so long the young gods rebelled, leading an army of their own to overthrow their cruel father. In the end it came down to the three and with his fiery sword Yorven cleaved Grom's head from his shoulders, sending it spinning into creation. It was here that Ormen took his scythe to it and brought life in his own way. Grom's eyes overflowed and became the seas, his teeth the mountains, his hair the trees and his skin the soil.

The gods gave this world to the tiny thing called man as a reward for supporting them in the war for the grand hold (heaven to the northmen) in the promise that they would pay hamage to the gods who helped free them and in return those that lived their life true would return to the grand hold and feast with the young gods as equals. The dark things that fought alongside Grom were struck down and scattered becoming the monsters and red things of the world now.

The chaining or Ormengaand
For a time the gods walked the world and worked with men to make it grand, some say this was the time of the Old Ones. Yet it was not to last. For Ormengaand was a lord of death by nature despite his deeds and noble heart. Wherever he went ice followed and all met death before his endless cold. In time he threatened to end all of man's world. So came the sad time when the gods were forced to come together and imprison him.

With the help of Kaviken the trickster they lured him to the deep north and wrapped Ormengaand in chains made by the forge god. Yet even that was not enough! Ormengaand cursed them for cowards and traitors as he traded blows with his brother... until he saw the carnage he had wrought. With a heavy heart he submitted to the chains and asked of Yrven "If I am to be felled I beg it be by your hand, brother, for the love we share let my end come by a warm hand."

So with a cry of great anguish Yorven drove Ormen's grat scythe into his brother's heart. Yet that did not kill him, for a son of Grom is not so easily slain. Ormengaand yet lives, slumbering at the heart of his endless storm in the frozen north. Sleeping, waiting with one baleful eye open.

It is said that should the Red Gods ever be victorious then Yorvengaand will be the last thing to fall tot hem in battle and his last breath falling will be what finally wakes Ormengaand from his sleep. With a rage only love can bring Ormen will break free from his chains and sweep the world clean of demons once they have done so of all else. Only then, once all else is dead will Ormen be free to walk the world, finally able to breathe easy knowing he cannot spread any more death. What he will do with that world is known only to him.

Worship
Oremngaand is not actively worshiped in most places (Though some view him as a god of winter and not just death in certain parts of the world). He is still respected as a god among the northmen though the name Ormen does appear in many of their curses.

His most common symbol is that of a single red eye or a scythe.

[Flagg]

Woah, posting already? Feels like we've hardly collab'ed on anything yet - faction relations, history, political/social hierarchy, religion, even geographic locations haven't been nailed down.

@Aristo

Fair, but I feel like an introductory post won't be amiss, and might provide some fodder for all that collabing. I'll ask people to slow it down if the accepted folks are getting too ahead of the rest of us, fair?

[DELETED32084]

@FlaggDone. If you like it, I shall place it in the CS tab.

The Broken Hammer Clan

The Broken Hammer
The Jotunn

Leader

Jarl Geirlaug Åsmundottir, The Klyppr - 'Cutter'

Government

Jarldom ruled by the strongest and wisest of the clan, settled through combat and feats of intelligence.

Non-Human Species Descriptions:

Bloodaxe Clan of Giants
The Broken Hammer are allied with the Bloodaxe Clan of Giants who reside in the mountains to the North of the White Wood. The Bloodaxe are not found in great numbers but they're brutally strong and hunt in the White Wood where they clashed for generations with the Broken Hammer until, roughly a hundred years ago, peace was made in the interest of preserving lives on both sides.

The Bloodaxe Capital is series of large stone structures carved from spires and ridges of red rock in a remote mountain valley. They have no other settlements and rarely number more than several hundred in total. They take great pride in their ability to wield two handed weapons, and engage in great feats of strength that involve the throwing of large boulders, trees and captured enemies.

The mountains they inhabit are home to dozens of savage creatures, giant mammoths, fast and stealthy tigers, shaggy worgs, and numerous troll tribes and species that are forever engaged in battle with the Bloodaxe and Broken Hammer Clans.

Stonehorn
The Stonehorn are a massive four legged beast found in the harsher Northern climates. Their heavy fur pelts are greatly prized by Giant and Human alike for the warmth and durability they provide. The Stonehorn gets its name from its skull and the two massive horns that are a part of it, growing outward for a width of up to eight feet. The skull and horns are as hard as stone and impossible to pierce with any edged weapon. Heavy paws, wicked teeth, sharp claws, and a charge strong enough to shatter trees make the Stonehorn one of the most dangerous creatures in the North.

Hammertusk
A Hammertusk is a hulking four-legged beast that strides across the tundra of the North in small family groups of no more than five or six. It is a primordial creature that has survived since a bygone era through sheer stubbornness. It's tusks are highly prized for their toughness and the carvings that can be made from them. Few, however, have hunted a Hammertusk and lived to tell the tale.

The Great Mammoth
You had heard of the Mammoth no doubt, wholly with great tusks and a shambling gait. Well, the Great Mammoth is their cousin, a huge creature that serves as the Broken Hammer's primary mount. Moving in large herds and immensely strong, they can be found all across the North and are a prized animal for furs, and eating.

Dawnstarr Worg
Named for the Mountains they call home, the Dawnstarr Worg is a distant cousin to the common Wolf of the south. Domesticated for a thousand years by the Broken Hammer, they range at large in the wild in packs of five to twenty individuals and are more than capable of killing man and mammoth.

Gorger
Creatures and nightmare and legend, the Gorgers are a creature with a mindless instinct to hunt and kill whatever they can. Living deep in the caves and mountain caverns of the North, they are stealthy and cunning as any man. Thankfully few in number, they are easily capable of combating multiple enemies and eating the corpses of their foes.

Ogres
There are a number of Ogre Tribes that live in the region, most of them isolated in mountain valleys or hard to reach areas of the coastline. They hunt beast and human alike for food and are forever raiding Broken Hammer settlements.

Trolls
A general term used to refer to any bipedal creature that feeds on human flesh, is covered in fur, and can understand human speech. It is believed that the first Trolls were men gone mad in the Tundra from snow blindness and starvation since they are usually found in the darker places of the North. It is unknown if Trolls give birth to live young, or hatch from eggs, since no one is sure if they have male and female distinction, at least none the Broken Hammer have noticed.

Location:

The Broken Hammer inhabit the Northlands, in a region that borders on the frozen tundra, in the aptly named White Wood that stretches from the jagged Ocean of Tears to the savage Dawnstar Mountains. On the map of the region commonly used by Southerners, the Broken Hammer could be best described as inhabiting the peninsula to the East of the Bay of Storms.

Faith:

The Broken Hammer worship two main gods who are similar to those found in the Southlands, though they got by different names in the North. With conflict being such a major part of Broken Hammer life, it is not surprising that the Broken Hammer worship gods who reflect their harsh reality. There are numerous smaller deities, a few of which are note worthy.

Major Deities
Yngvild
The Goddess of Life and Rejuvenation, worshipped during the warmer spring and summer months. To Yngvild they ask for the blessing of life, birth, and enough food to survive the coming winters. Yngvild usually serves as the patron God for those who remain safe at home, farmers, mothers and children. Yngvild is often portrayed as a beautiful woman with long blonde hair, blues eyes, and a heroic smile.

Folkmar
The God of Death and Battle. Folkmar is portrayed as a hulking Broken Hammer warrior, part human, part skeleton. It is not surprising that there is a deity to reflect that harsh reality of the North where many children do not survive their youth, and every day brings new dangers and enemies. Warriors and those who are nearing the end of their life will turn to Folkmar for favour and guidance.

Minor Deities
Asfrid
Goddess of Brewers and Cooks. Portrayed as a large woman with a jolly smile, Asfrid is a popular figure amongst taverns and inns throughout the North.

Ulfheid
Goddess of the hunt. Popular among any and all who hunt the tundra, deep forest, or the oceans for food.

Starri
God of Tradesmen. The work of tradesmen and women within the Broken Hammer is held in high regard. Masons, Carpenters, Blacksmiths, etc. All of these skilled persons are required for the Broken Hammer to survive their hostile homeland. "Strong shelters and strong weapons make for a strong people" - As the old saying goes.

Clan Description

The Broken Hammer are a powerful Clan located in the North of the Broken Lands along the Ocean of Tears. This harsh and cliff strewn region has seen it's fair share of warfare as the Clan wages a never ending war with Pale-Men and the fantastic beasts that live among them. Broken Hammer longships slide from small rocky harbours to wage a savage war of hit and run raids on virtually anyone they can reach.

The Broken Hammer itself gets it's name from an Ancient Ones ship that lies in their principal harbour. The massive hulk, battered by never ceasing seas, bears a great broken hammer on the prow, a hammer that has long since lost its upper half and now lies embedded in the sand on the beach below The Jarls Hall is built into the old ones ship, a great hall of huge timber beams and fine stone work has been added to expand the hull.

The Broken Hammer are noticeably larger than their Southern neighbours, probably as a result of inbreeding with the Giants, Ogres, and even Trolls in the region. Some can reach twice the size of an ordinary human though they are certainly much smaller than the Bloodaxe Giant Tribe. They wage war with brutal ferocity like all those in the Broken Lands, the strongest among them wielding vicious jagged headed hammers.

Clan History:

WIP - Need players!

Regional Geography/Resources/Economy Details:

The Broken Hammer live in a region known as the White Wood, so called for the dense forest that extends from the tundra to the rain soaked south coast. Bordered to the north by jagged mountains and broken tundra, and the South and West by rocky cliffs with small natural openings that lead to excellent harbours. To their West is the great Bay of Storms, an almost perfectly round Bay with a volcano at its core infamous for the storms that spring up without warning. The region is rich in food, furs, iron, and excellent ship-building trees. Luxury items and slaves are rare however, leading to the Broken Hammer's many raids southward.

The Broken Hammer are hardly wealthy but they are comfortable in their region, having learned to live and survive within the limitations placed upon them by nature. That said, they are always happy to improve their lot at the expense of others.

Important Characters

Jarl Geirlaug Åsmundottir is the Jarl of the Broken Hammer Clan. She has earned the title through combat and cunning, as one must to be lead a people like hers. Tall, blonde, with a single sharp green eye, she is beautiful by any standards. Her otherwise stunning visage is somewhat marred by left eye being gone, pulped by an enemies sword pommel during a raid by Pale-Men.

Important Holdings/Territory/Possessions:

The Broken Hammer have two principal settlements, their Capital of Askasmiðr, built around the Ancient Ones ship, and the Bjarneyja, a fortified city of stone and wood located at the heart of the White Wood. The two are connected by the Rauða River.

There are numerous smaller settlements located throughout the region, none coming close in size to either of the cities.

Relations to Other Factions

WIP - Need more players!

[Letter Bee]

@The Wyrm, So, can our clans be trade partners?

[DELETED32084]

@The Wyrm, So, can our clans be trade partners?

@Letter Bee

Depends where we're located.

[Letter Bee]

@The Wyrm, Oh, I am in the far west of the Broken Lands; my CS is on the Characters Tab as it got accepted.

[Flagg]

@The Wyrm, Oh, I am in the far west of the Broken Lands; my CS is on the Characters Tab as it got accepted.

@Letter Bee

As I mentioned when I accepted your sheet, locations may change. Will let you know.

[Flagg]

@The Wyrm Accepted! Get to work on the history!