@rezayHeyo, Rezay, and welcome to the team! Feel free to hop into the discord if you'd like - I ended up watching a movie, so I didn't catch your messages early on.
In regards to the Simmies, they are all based on the newest PoA apes, only separated by species. Tech level-wise, they have adopted human tech and depending on the backstory, they could potentially have passed the human tech all the way down to today, meaning they're essentially ape-shaped humans. Will you do the Donkey Rap, you think? :P
Acknowledgements: I would very much like to thank @Chenzor and @Cyclone for allowing me to use their nation RP concept for this iteration. Join us at our discord-server: discord.gg/cfnv8tkFMC
Status: Accepting!
Basic Rundown:
Civilisation is a turn-based character/nation RP with stats and actions which are used to guide the narrative, but not control it. You will be presented with choices on how to advance your colony. Every turn, your population grows (maybe) and you are presented with new choices and sometimes hardships. Do your best to delay your colony’s collapse and you might even be able to prosper in the Collapsed World. Best of luck!
The roleplay begins with a group of your people reemerging from some sort of safe room after a terrible apocalypse destroyed the world. What the nature of this apocalypse was, has been long forgotten. A great war? A meteorite? Climate change? The Rapture? Whatever it was, the world now is unlike anything ever experienced in the planet’s history. Your people are few and your supplies are low. Perhaps you are the descendants of a wealthy subset of the Old World population that could afford a proper bunker? Perhaps your people hid in ancient caves or built improvised shelter to fend off as much of the damage as possible? Maybe your people was one of the many unfortunate ones who couldn’t find shelter in time, but somehow survived due to terrible mutations? Or maybe, just maybe, you have come here from a distant land, one that was even more broken than this one? Whatever you are and wherever you are from, you must find ways to adapt, survive and maybe even thrive here. You know very little of these lands. Most certainly there are other civilizations on this continent and other races that may become your allies or enemies, but you do now yet know.
Your options each turn are these: A) Improve food B) Improve military technology C) Improve infrastructure D) Improve culture E) Explore F) Improve resources/technology G) Prospect further H) Expand military I) Take diplomatic action X) Other
Furthermore, these stats will be shown every new turn:
Population: – How large your combined population is, as well as demographics. Lists each settlement once you get more than 1. Affected by growth and food level and so on. Military: – How large your professional army is, as well as how many commoners can be drafted to militia in a crisis. A certain wealth and food level threshold must be surpassed to maintain a professional army. Food level: – How much food you have to go around. Will affect morale and growth where a surplus will lead to happier people and faster growth. Resources: – A list of resources you are harvesting and thus available to you to use or export. Wealth: – How wealthy you are considered to be. Not all races care about bling, though. Trade: – With whom you are trading and what you’re importing/exporting. Growth: – A percentage of your total population will increase or decrease depending on if your growth is good or bad. An average growth increase per turn is 3%, good growth 5%, bad growth 1%, and so on. Growth is affected by food level, morale, biome and population level. Morale: – Ranging from 0% to 100%, morale affects combat, growth and general well-being events of your people. A content (average) populace is considered 100%. Foreign relations: - Displays a list of other civilizations you have met and how well you like each other.
Each action from A to I present different opportunities and different consequences (good and bad). You may choose one of these per turn and preferably write up a post about how you, for example, "Improve food". Depending on how good and thought-out your post is, you may combine one choice with another. For example, while improving your "food", you discover how to create farms and thus also improve your infrastructure in the process. the X-action is an action of your own that is not in the list of choices from A to I. You may write and attempt whatever you want in the X-action, and I may or may not grant you what you hope for.
Lastly, every post will take place in a certain biome. The Collapsed World has many to choose from, and each affects actions taken there. There are pros and cons with every biome, and every biome has its own natural disasters and environmental hazards:
Your standard barren outback. Here, the sun bakes, life suffers and everything is preeeetty dead, as far as you know. Or is it? Where nobody wants to be, nobody wants to search, so anyone on the run from someone (or something) else just might have luck in the Wastes. Furthermore, legends say that desertfolk of the Old World used to traverse great deserts to trade, so if one has the tech or animals for it, the Wastes can potentially thrive as a sea on land.
Any units in this biome will take attrition every turn that they spend in it.
Bonus to all hiding and stealth actions.
Small increase to chance of finding Old World tech.
If one has pack animals or vehicles, this biome provides an immense bonus to trade if the destination is on the opposite side/inside of the biome.
Growth impact: -10%.
Possible hazards: Sandstorms, chaos storms (sandstorms, but worse).
Despite the state of everything, not all is dead in this world after all. Sure, it’s not doing great, but it’s still there. The forest is one of those cases, and it’s as vibrant as ever, if not more. Here, natural resources are plentiful and fairly safe to use; however, beware that the prosperity of the forest is fragile and that it may easily be over-extracted and disappear. Furthermore, you aren’t the only one who knows of its riches, and the forest is home to a lot more creatures than just you.
Bonus to all resource improval/prospecting/food production actions.
Excessive use of extractory actions may reduce overall bonuses of this biome and even make it disappear entirely.
Increased chance of encountering NPC civs, raiders and wild animals.
Growth impact: +2% (-10% if over-extracted).
Possible hazards: Wildfires, droughts, monsoon rains, floods.
As the name implies, these are poisonous wastes filled with chemicals and nuclear leftovers. No matter how well-adjusted one is to the Collapsed World, nothing can prepare you for these places. Constant radiation and exposure to all sorts of toxic fumes and substances will give you both acute and chronic symptoms (it’ll kill you now - and later!) that not even the hardiest will survive for long. So, why on Earth would you go there, then? Weeeell, the incredible danger of these places means that very few dare venture even near them, which means there’s bound to be all sorts of incredible artifacts left over from before the apocalypse! So if you’ve got your hazmat suit, your Geiger counter and an ambiguous will to live, why not give it a go?
All units inside this biome suffer intense attrition and will most likely all perish in the same turn they enter. Protective equipment can lessen the damage, but prolonged stay will eventually break down this protection, as well.
Very high chance of finding Old World tech.
Growth impact: -100%.
Possible hazards: ???
The memories of the Old World linger still in the form of great ruins and tombstones of colossal megacities that used to span the land from horizon to horizon. While much has been reclaimed by nature and the Wastes, the leftovers of civilisation cling on to the right to be beheld and marveled at. One would think these places dead, but that couldn’t be further from the truth: Free real estate littered with building materials (provided one can defend it), metropolitan neighbours to trade with (or war with), and maybe even the chance at some ancient Old World tech (provided you find it first). What’s not to like?
Bonus to all improve infrastructure actions in this biome.
Bonus to trade with other civs within the same biome.
There is a certain chance that rival gangs and raiders will show up and harrass players within this biome.
Prospect and exploration actions may in rare cases yield Old World tech.
Growth impact: +1%.
Possible hazards: Flash floods, droughts, monsoon rains, fire, landslides, building collapses.
The Haven biome refers to attempts by some powerful civs at restoring the world to its pre-apocalyptic glory. Here, intense and laborious efforts have been made to regenerate food soil, grow trees, populate the lands with wild animals and insects and purify the water and air. While no one knows exactly what the world looked like before, this may very well have been it - and the terraformers milk that for all its worth. They manage these lands with an iron fist, and anyone caught breaking the rules of those in power will see themselves tossed into the Wastes once more.
Bonus to all civilian actions in this biome, as well as growth, food production, wealth and morale.
Entering and staying in this biome requires permission from the government administering it, and all settlers may be taxed by said government for settling here.
Many outsiders covet these lands, and players inside this biome may be caught up in the landlord’s political and military matters
Disobeying or upsetting the government may incur penalties such as fines, imprisonment or exile.
Every Haven is different, and rules and encounters may vary.
Growth impact: +5%.
Possible hazards: There are no hazards in the Havens. Move along.
To some, the sea may offer a degree of freedom and prosperity in these dark times. Sure, the sludge and garbage can be annoying or toxic at times, but the sea is generous, and you never know what may wash ashore one day. Furthermore, there is no manner of transport that is more effective fuel- and capacity-wise than by boat, meaning a great deal of exploration and trading can be done quite a lot easier than on land. Just watch out for pirates, alright?
Bonus to exploration actions and trade by sea.
Every turn, there is a tiny chance that something valuable may wash ashore. Whatever this is is up to the fates to decide.
The proximity to garbage and sludge has a chance to reduce growth during a turn.
Players in this biome may encounter pirates.
Prospect actions at sea may lead to discovering schools of fish, which will provide a bonus to food every few turns if improved.
Growth impact: +1%.
Possible hazards: Tsunamis, flash floods, landslides,
When all the world became a living hell, nowhere was safer than the underground. Whether one lived in a vault or in deep, dank tunnels, what mattered was that the rock and stone above kept all the horror outside so those inside could continue to live. Down there, one could be safe, provided one could survive off of mushrooms and critters or send someone out to gather supplies for the colony.
Bonus to all defensive military actions.
While inside a cave biome, characters are immune to all environmental hazards except for cave-ins.
Any food production that relies on sunlight is impossible unless one has access to sunlamps tech.
While caves may potentially be anywhere on the map and connect to everywhere else, they are many and unknown. Finding a cave biome requires a highly successful explore or prospect action.
Growth impact: 0%.
Possible hazards: Cave-ins.
So how do I start?
Post a sheet here in the OOC, pick a starting location on the map and save yourself a spot! If the RP is full, you may choose to be put on a waiting list. If the sheet is accepted, you can go ahead and post it under Characters and start posting in the IC!
Make sure that there is room to join first! Below you will find a list of active players, and at the very top of the thread there should be a "status" line with either green, yellow or red text. It's either open, pending or full. Also, read the information about “So how do I start?” above.
Rules and regulations:
All roleplays have rules. You should know the basics like:
Don't godmode.
Don't metagame.
Don't be rude to other players.
However, there are also some other rules you should know about:
Never wipe a player out completely unless he or she has given his or her consent.
Don't focus on "winning", it's about playing creating dope-ass stories and enjoying them together.
It is okay to attack or raid another civilization freely as long as you have discovered them and scouted out the target first. Just don't expect it to always go your way.
Don't expect to never be met with setbacks or hardships. You may all be given good and bad consequences as well as random events depending on your choices.
As the GM, I reserve the right to have the last say in conflicts and squabbles, and while I hope I won’t have to, I will remove anyone deliberately upsetting the harmony of the RP.
Also, here are some regulations that aren't "DON'T"'s
Non-player nations are free to be conquered, raided, wiped out or otherwise warred with however you want.
Any questions and OOC-chat should be reserved either for the Discord or the OOC chat here.
When plotting with a player against another player, I recommend you take it to PM to avoid metagaming. Please strive to keep as many parts informed, at least of the fact that you are plotting something.
When plotting as mentioned above, I want to be kept in the loop as the GM, to avoid misunderstandings and to avoid conflicts OOC.
You may otherwise choose PM or public IC post however you wish when communicating with other nations.
If you don't want to play one civ anymore but rather want another, tell me in the OOC and I will arrange a "natural disaster" for your people or take it over as a non-player civ. Lotta ways to die out in the Outback!
When starting over with a new civ, you will be given some bonuses to help you catch up, but not too much.
There is no enforced limit of posts per turn; however, you may only take your A-I choices once per turn. Also, don't speedpost. We’re making stories, so it’s always nice to see meaning and depth in those posts if you decide to post several per turn (When you interact with other players, this is crucial).
Current Map
Anything not on this map is not considered official. Current turn: 0
The reason why we have a preset list of races and subraces is so that I as a GM can easily paint the world around you using my own notes and ideas that I’ve put down when creating this world. Still, I want to encourage individualism, so if you’ve got a custom race, go for it! However, it may be harder to make things up on the spot if I don’t see things the way you, the player, see things about your race. Whether you choose from the list or make your own race, I encourage you to talk about what you want with your civilization, what your hopes are, what you aim for in the RP, if there’s a specific hook that you’re going for and so on so that I can narrate accordingly and fitting your vision. That said, it’s much easier to narrate a world when you know exactly what’s in it.
Nation Sheet
For the "character" section. Entirely optional, but handy.
Group/Colony/Town/Tribe Name: Represented Color: Race: Features: (Only if custom race) Breed: (Only if different breed of race available, for example dark elf, wood elf, blackskin orc, greenskin orc, etc) Capital: Ruler:
Type of Government:
Religion: ((On a dead world, many need something to pray to. What’s your divinity?))
Geographical Location: ((Upload a pic of the map with your preferred location on it.))
History: ((Can be long or short! Where’d your colony come from? Were they rich or poor? Recently mutated or descendants of the first of their kind? Have they only recently run out of supplies or has the hideout long since descended into a kill-or-be-killed chaos? Your story!))
The masters of the Old World. Many suspect that it was the hubris of humankind that brought low the world of old, and now, only a fraction of their once abundant species remains. While their cultures and colonies are many and diverse, there is no doubt that humanity as one ambitiously seeks to reclaim their crown atop the hill of the world. The question is: Can they do it again?
Stat summary:
Bonus to diplomacy.
Receives a boon to stats or action success chance depending on their lore rather than subrace.
Penalty to growth in all biomes except for Haven.
After an experiment went wrong in a pharmaceutical lab before the apocalypse struck, a group of captive great apes suddenly attained sapience. They mounted a revolution against their human captors and fled into the wilderness, whereupon they split into various tribes according to species. Simmies are great survivalists in certain areas, but fare very poorly in wastelands and deserts where trees are few and water is limited. Which one are you?
Being the closest to their bipedal, hairless cousins, it is no coincidence that the wisest and smartest of the simmies are the chimpanzees. When the apocalypse came, the chimpanzees knew to hoard as much human tech as possible, and they didn’t spend the ages inside their hideouts idly. The chimpanzees are strong, hardy and great scavengers and technologists; however, their heightened intelligence have made them spoiled and demanding, so a poorly supplied chimpanzee village can be sure to have a lot of grumpy patriarchs.
Stat summary:
Bonus to technology research (both military and civilian).
Bonus to exploration.
Increased morale damage from lack of food, resources and wealth.
When it comes to large mammals, few can beat the orangutan’s speed and mobility in the treetops. There, they easily find the best fruits and the tastiest snacks, and their pre-sapient wisdom when it comes to selecting the best produce and spreading their seeds lives on in an almost instinctive ability to grow and manage diverse orchards of food. The orangutan is, however, incredibly dependent on its grove, and as such, their villages cannot expand if the trees have not done so first.
Stat summary:
Bonus to food production and food infrastructure improval actions.
Bonus to all movement-related actions in forest biomes; penalty in other biomes.
Bonus to “Other” actions involving the planting of forest.
Cannot expand settlement to areas outside forest biomes.
A pre-apocalyptic symbol of might, strength and power, the enlightened gorilla certainly does not fail to exert such an aura, as well. Being the most powerful of the simmies, none can match the gorilla’s military and labour capacity. Led by their mighty silverbacks, their warriors know no fear in battle. That being said, the gorilla is slow to breed, and such mighty creatures require a great deal of food to sustain. While a gorilla army would be a terrifying sight to behold, one may have to wait for a long time before one can amass that many of them.
Stat summary:
Bonus to all military actions.
Bonus to infrastructure improval actions.
Slow growth speed.
High food demand.
The hedonists of the simian world, the bonobos live a chill and wholesome existence despite the state of the world. Being only slightly smaller than chimpanzees, the bonobos retain some of their cousins’ mighty intelligence and much of their strength. Most notably, however, is the bonobo’s tendency to breed - a lot. This not only ensures a steady population growth, but also that morale is at a high most of the time. That being said, the bonobo’s lifestyle does have its drawbacks, and sometimes their intense focus on one another may actually impact their prioritisation when it comes to tasks.
Stat summary:
Bonus to population growth.
Morale cannot decrease below 50%.
Every action has a certain chance to fail as a result of monkey business.
Having set aside their species’ differences, the United stand together as one - an ape is an ape, no matter shape or size. While this doesn’t give them the full benefits of either of the other species, they may just have the best of all worlds. Apes, together - strong!
Stat summary:
Slight bonus to exploration.
Slight bonus to movement in forest biomes.
Slight bonus to infrastructure improval actions.
Morale cannot decrease below 10%.
High food demand.
Every action has a small chance to fail as a result of interspecies disputes.
Born from the exposure to all kinds of chemicals and nuclear waste, the insectoids are mutated beetles, flies, mites, wasps and moths that have attained sapience (or, well, some in their societies might have). They have grown in size and some assume an upright stance when walking. Some are hive-minded; others are independent. In general, they are all short-lived, but quick to breed, and the access to flight for most of them plus incredible sense of smell make them great explorers, travellers and scavengers. Intelligence, however, especially among the hive-minders, is restricted only to a subset of the population, making them slow researchers.
Strong, hardy and capable of eating just about anything, the beetles used to be the most diverse order of insect in the Old World. There are plenty of good reasons for this, chiefly that the beetles’ shells are incredibly strong and shield their wings from hungry predators. After growing and attaining sapience, these beetlefolk make for the most powerful survivalists in the world. Their larvae can eat virtually anything, from dead wood scraps to dead flesh to excrement and waste, which means their sources of food may be plentiful. They also have a natural resistance to the elements. All this being said, they have some drawbacks: Firstly, beetlefolk are largely solitary, meaning they struggle to form large societies; secondly, few beetlefolk are particularly smart, meaning they are slow researchers, even with access to Old World tech.
Stat summary:
No penalty to growth during hazardous environmental events and in all biomes (except for Sludgelands).
Has the ability to fly.
Every food source counts as improved one level.
High morale up to a certain population; decreasing morale thereafter.
Penalty to research actions.
Formilings are overgrown ants which have continued their lives much like before they were enlightened, only now their queen has been granted intelligence, alongside a new phenotype in the colony known as the cardinal. The queen and her cardinals manage the workers and soldiers through a hivemind network based on communication through pheromones. Since they breed incredibly fast, are able diggers and have a natural warrior caste, the formilings are a force to be reckoned with. The formilings are at their strongest in caves, where they can grow fungi for food and remain safe from the above world. Of course, great hives require more than fungus for food, so the formilings must venture into the surface world, as well, and make use of its resources.
Stat summary:
Strictly class divided society based on phenotype:
The queen is at the top and responsible for the colony and egg-laying;
Cardinals function as researchers and administrators, and how many the player has will determine the speed and success chance of related actions.
Soldiers can only perform military actions, and how many the player has will determine the impact and success chance of these actions.
Worker ants can only perform non-research civilian actions, and how many the player has will determine the impact and success chance of these actions.
Can spend an “Other” action anywhere in the world to dig down and enter the Cave biome.
Bonus to food production, morale and population growth in Cave biome; penalty everywhere else.
If the Queen dies, is incapacitated or captured, population growth stops completely and cannot resume until the Queen is brought back or replaced.
Anyone but the Queen and cardinals receive massive penalties to diplomatic actions as no other races can understand pheromones.
Waspians are a race of contradictions - while they are fierce and bloodthirsty in battle, they are also calm and collected architects, forming impressive structures using tree pulp and spit. They are the emperors of the skies, and few can best a waspian in combat, naturally equipped as they are with massive jaws and a dreadful stinger filled with numbing venom. While these, too, live in a hive, they are not controlled by a hivemind, and so each individual is capable of free thought - there is no central queen other than an elected leader. These warriors are, however, highly dependent on the presence of neighbours to raid and enslave in order to further their kind. As parasitic egglayers, they must lay their eggs in live prey so that their larvae can grow fat on their innards. The leftovers are all eaten, for the waspians are carnivores and cannot let a scrap of meat go to waste.
Stat summary:
Bonus to all infrastructure improval actions in forest and haven biome; penalty everywhere else.
Has the ability to fly.
Bonus to all military actions plus “Other” actions involving the capture of prisoners.
Has an additional stat under food called “Prisoners”. The number of prisoners in a given turn will determine population growth in the next.
Carnivorous diet requires access to animals or people to avoid starvation.
Penalty to all diplomatic actions.
Great bees are described by many as the more docile and orderly cousin of the waspians. Like the formolings, their society is also split into a strict phenotypical hierarchy, where the Queen rules all, the drones generally laze around and only serve to breed with the queen, and the workers do all the work, battle and childcare. Most notable for the great bees is their ability to make honey, which serves as an incredibly potent food source that does not expire within a foreseeable timespan and may carry with it certain buffs or debuffs depending on what biome it has been made in. A great bee hive may exist anywhere in the world where honey can be made, and if they can sustain their colony for long enough to develop a strong population, a hive may become an impenetrable fortress that rulers great expanses of land like a mighty queendom.
Stat summary:
Eats only two types of food: honey and pollen. How easy these are to gather and what effects they grant depend on biome:
Wastelands: Very poor honey and pollen production. Effect: Usually carcinogenic.
Sludgelands: No honey and pollen production.
Forest: Moderate to good honey and pollen production. Effect: May contain traces of hallucinogens from various flavours or toxic waste.
Ruins: Low to moderate honey and pollen production. Effect: City dwellers grow a variety of hydroponic and bedded plants, and effects can vary from medicinal to hallucinogenic.
Haven: High honey and pollen production. Effect: This is where the finest honey in the world may be made. Not only is it more nutritious than the honey elsewhere, but it’s also so pure that there is no chance that larvae and bees fed this will be poisoned.
Shore: Low to moderate honey and pollen production. Effect: Seaside flowers may be pure or polluted, giving medicinal or toxic effects.
Cave: No honey and pollen production. Not a lot of stuff growths down here, does it?
Has the ability to fly.
Strictly class divided society based on phenotype:
The queen is at the top and responsible for the colony and egg-laying;
The drones exist to fulfill one single duty: When the queen needs to be bred, they are to lay with her and die in the process, literally going out with a bang. Other than that, they do absolutely nothing except eat the hive’s rations and be pompous brats about it.
Worker bees vastly outnumber the two other castes and do everything in society: They fight, they gather food, they care for the young, they build - everything.
Bonus to all actions and stats if a settlement has existed in the same spot for at least ten turns.
Players may use the “Other” action Drone Culling. This action cannot be taken alongside other actions and will cause the worker bees to execute all the drones in the hive and toss out the corpses. This frees up food for population growth, but does, as mentioned above, cost a turn.
If the Queen dies, is incapacitated or captured, population growth stops completely and cannot resume until the Queen is brought back or replaced.
The mothmen are large, wise moths that thrive in dark, damp places where they can keep their larvae safe from assailants. The mothmen are incredibly unique from their fellow insectoids in that only their larvae actually need to eat; during metamorphosis, the larva loses its mouth, making adults unable to eat. A mothman settlement thus only needs enough food to feed its child population; one obvious drawback from this is that adults will eventually starve, usually within one to five months depending on level of activity. In return, the mothmen breed incredibly quickly, are powerful fliers and dangerous combatants, and are active food gatherers. Just make sure to keep any light sources far away, okay?
Stat summary:
Food level will only be affected by the size of the larva population.
Bonus to population growth.
Has the ability to fly.
Bonus to military actions.
Bonus to food improval actions.
Can naturally create silk, a most coveted luxury resource, that can be traded or used for crafting and construction.
Will lose a percentage of their adult population every turn. This loss will be affected by the manner of action taken that turn.
From the earth, you came; to the earth, you shall return. All insectoids spend at least some time on the ground, and it is what unites them all as one society. Here, the queens and mothers of every species have joined together as one society, uniting their strength perhaps at the expense of the organisational structures of the pure breeds.
Stat summary:
Slight bonus to military actions.
Slight resistance against all environmental hazards.
Has the ability to fly.
Bonus to infrastructure improval actions in forest biome.
Can spend an “Other” action anywhere in the world to dig down and enter the Cave biome.
Small chance that actions may fail or even critically fail as communication errors are abundant and queens are sure to argue.
While most of those above made it underground in time, the mutants are descended from those who didn’t make it in time. Twisted and tortured by toxic and nuclear exposure, they live a life of pain and suffering. Still, for them to have survived for all this time, the exposure to the coldhearted elements changed their bodies into something completely unlike their old forms. While no mutant lives for long, they may potentially be so powerful that what they can do in a lifetime of a decade, may be more than many can do in a century.
The wasteoids are descendants from those who survived the blasts that created the Wastelands. A lifetime of nuclear exposure almost magically fused with their thirst and hunger and bred forth a natural resistance to starvation and dehydration by slowing down their metabolism considerably. Their skin sports messy pock marks that secrete a sun-resistant oil, almost making survival in the Wastelands pleasant for them. However, their slow metabolism slows their whole society down, from research to movement to warfare. Therefore, most wasteoids stick to the Wastelands, where no one will bother them and they can go about life in peace.
Stat summary:
No growth penalty or attrition from entering and/or staying in the Wasteland biome.
Bonus to food level and slower depletion.
Bonus to resource improval actions in Wasteland biome; penalty in other biomes.
If the player attempts to complete two or more actions in one turn, there is a chance that the actions will result in a fail as the wasteoids are too slow or tired to complete them all. Each additional action beyond one increases this chance.
In truth, the term “shroomers” is a bit of a misnomer: What is used to term people infected by the terrible fungal disease known as bluebrains, sort of ignores the fact that these people aren’t really people anymore, but the subjects of the fungus. Originally a mutation of the fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, exposure to radiation and toxicity turned this nightmarish fungus from the bane of unfortunate ants and spiders, to a terror for the sapient races. The mutation has developed its own neural network which ties together all infected subjects and treats them as one, zombie-like army to do its bidding. For the neural network to function, however, the fungus needs its subjects alive - therefore, it must ensure that they all have something to eat, though they don’t have a mind of their own anymore to like or dislike certain flavours and textures.
Stat summary:
Neither the fungus nor the shroomers are concerned with morale, ignoring the stat completely.
Bonus to single actions; penalty to multiple actions. The fungus may control many minds, but that only makes it harder to multitask.
The fungus infects all other races, giving access to the physical abilities of each race in its network.
Immense penalty to research and culture actions. The fungus effectively eats up the minds of its subjects, and by itself, it is not a sapient being.
Growth can be done either by infecting new subjects or having subjects breed. This is a very quick process and the fungus can blossom from the corpses of dead shroomers and spread infectious spores on the wind. Bonus to growth, further boosted during wind-related environmental hazards.
While each individual shroomer has a short lifespan as their brains are slowly consumed by the fungus, the colony will continue to live as long as at least one member remains alive.
Immense penalty to diplomacy. Everyone hates the fungus.
Furfolk is a bafflingly broad category, for its members share only one trait: They’re humanoids resembling furry animals like dogs, cats, wolves, oxen, bears, moose - the variation truly doesn’t end. Some individuals even possess traits from multiple different animals. While this makes them great survivalists as a group on account of their many adaptations and by far the longest lived of the mutants on account of no immediately deadly cancers or poisoning, it’s very difficult for furfolk to stick together as a group. The reason? Well, when some share a lot of traits with predators and others, a lot with prey, times of rumbling bellies can quickly turn the camp into a bloodbath. This isn’t really considered cannibalism, either, as despite the fact that others categorise them as “furfolk”, furfolk themselves are all-too-aware of their diversity and will happily feed off of each other if it means survival.
Stat summary:
Great survivalists - negative growth from biomes and environmental hazards reduced.
Society is demographically split between carnivores, herbivores and omnivores. Too many of any of these categories may potentially endanger the entire colony, with carnivores eating their fill of the other two, herbivores grazing the surrounding lands to death, or omnivores outcompeting both. So why keep all three?
Carnivores boost military actions, with increasing success chances based on the number in your colony. Can use an “Other” action to sacrifice portions of the other two population types to boost carnivore pop growth.
Herbivores boost food improval actions, with increasing success chances based on the number in your colony. Receives double growth benefit from improved food resources.
Omnivores boost your research actions, with increasing success chances based on the number in your colony. Exploration actions count as a one-time improved food resource, giving increased growth.
All infrastructure, exploration, culture, diplomatic and resource improval actions have a chance to fail due to infighting.
Ogres received their label as a result of their colossal sizes and trollish features. While a well-fed human with the right genetics could be lucky (or unlucky) to grow to two meters, ogres frequently grow to above three. While this makes them truly frightening to behold, they are still human at heart, which means that neither bones, muscles or organs have ever truly adjusted to their sizes. This makes pretty much everything they do, quite a painful experience. Add to that that they are ugly as all hell, and there really isn’t much of a reason for ogres to stay around. It is perhaps for this reason, through some phenomenon inexplicable in the eyes of God and science, that ogres enjoy the pity of the cosmos - despite all probability, things often seem to turn out alright for them after all. And who can blame them? Poor things.
Stat summary:
Penalty to population growth.
Penalty to all actions.
Penalty to military size.
Bonus to all “Other” and diplomacy actions involving intimidation.
The ogres enjoy the pity of cosmic forces: Every action has a chance of critically succeeding. What this entails is for the cosmic forces to decide.
Named thusly for their small frames and stocky statures, the hobbits are in nearly every way the exact opposites of ogres: They are small, very healthy for mutants and overall quite good-looking, making them well-accepted in most humanoid societies (the simmies accept them, too, though more often as jesters to entertain the kids). Due to their sizes, however, they aren’t exactly great warriors, and they are in fact preyed upon by many carnivorous beings. Good thing they’re good at hiding, lest they’d probably never last two days in the post-apocalypse.
Stat summary:
Bonus to diplomacy with all humanoid races.
Bonus to movement in Cave biome.
Bonus to “Other” actions involving hiding.
Penalty to all military actions; double penalty against carnivorous races.
Sometimes, despite all their differences, the mutants are stronger together. As long as everyone manages to keep an eye on the shroomers to make sure they don’t try anything funny and keep the furfolk from tearing each other apart, maybe even the rejects of life itself may somehow thrive as one collected unit.
Stat summary:
Bonus to growth in all biomes.
Bonus to food level
All actions have a chance to fail due to potential infighting.
Small chance every turn of a shroomer outbreak, which must be beaten down by spending an “Other” action. Every turn after an outbreak where this action is not taken increases the chance of another outbreak. After five outbreaks, the colony switches race from Rejects to Shroomers.
Acknowledgements: I would very much like to thank @Chenzor and @Cyclone for allowing me to use their nation RP concept for this iteration. Join us at our discord-server: discord.gg/cfnv8tkFMC
Status: Full!
Basic Rundown:
Civilisation is a turn-based character/nation RP with stats and actions which are used to guide the narrative, but not control it. You will be presented with choices on how to advance your colony. Every turn, your population grows (maybe) and you are presented with new choices and sometimes hardships. Do your best to delay your colony’s collapse and you might even be able to prosper in the Collapsed World. Best of luck!
The roleplay begins with a group of your people reemerging from some sort of safe room after a terrible apocalypse destroyed the world. What the nature of this apocalypse was, has been long forgotten. A great war? A meteorite? Climate change? The Rapture? Whatever it was, the world now is unlike anything ever experienced in the planet’s history. Your people are few and your supplies are low. Perhaps you are the descendants of a wealthy subset of the Old World population that could afford a proper bunker? Perhaps your people hid in ancient caves or built improvised shelter to fend off as much of the damage as possible? Maybe your people was one of the many unfortunate ones who couldn’t find shelter in time, but somehow survived due to terrible mutations? Or maybe, just maybe, you have come here from a distant land, one that was even more broken than this one? Whatever you are and wherever you are from, you must find ways to adapt, survive and maybe even thrive here. You know very little of these lands. Most certainly there are other civilizations on this continent and other races that may become your allies or enemies, but you do now yet know.
Your options each turn are these: A) Improve food B) Improve military technology C) Improve infrastructure D) Improve culture E) Explore F) Improve resources/technology G) Prospect further H) Expand military I) Take diplomatic action X) Other
Furthermore, these stats will be shown every new turn:
Population: – How large your combined population is, as well as demographics. Lists each settlement once you get more than 1. Affected by growth and food level and so on. Military: – How large your professional army is, as well as how many commoners can be drafted to militia in a crisis. A certain wealth and food level threshold must be surpassed to maintain a professional army. Food level: – How much food you have to go around. Will affect morale and growth where a surplus will lead to happier people and faster growth. Resources: – A list of resources you are harvesting and thus available to you to use or export. Wealth: – How wealthy you are considered to be. Not all races care about bling, though. Trade: – With whom you are trading and what you’re importing/exporting. Growth: – A percentage of your total population will increase or decrease depending on if your growth is good or bad. An average growth increase per turn is 3%, good growth 5%, bad growth 1%, and so on. Growth is affected by food level, morale, biome and population level. Morale: – Ranging from 0% to 100%, morale affects combat, growth and general well-being events of your people. A content (average) populace is considered 100%. Foreign relations: - Displays a list of other civilizations you have met and how well you like each other.
Each action from A to I present different opportunities and different consequences (good and bad). You may choose one of these per turn and preferably write up a post about how you, for example, "Improve food". Depending on how good and thought-out your post is, you may combine one choice with another. For example, while improving your "food", you discover how to create farms and thus also improve your infrastructure in the process. the X-action is an action of your own that is not in the list of choices from A to I. You may write and attempt whatever you want in the X-action, and I may or may not grant you what you hope for.
Lastly, every post will take place in a certain biome. The Collapsed World has many to choose from, and each affects actions taken there. There are pros and cons with every biome, and every biome has its own natural disasters and environmental hazards:
Your standard barren outback. Here, the sun bakes, life suffers and everything is preeeetty dead, as far as you know. Or is it? Where nobody wants to be, nobody wants to search, so anyone on the run from someone (or something) else just might have luck in the Wastes. Furthermore, legends say that desertfolk of the Old World used to traverse great deserts to trade, so if one has the tech or animals for it, the Wastes can potentially thrive as a sea on land.
Any units in this biome will take attrition every turn that they spend in it.
Bonus to all hiding and stealth actions.
Small increase to chance of finding Old World tech.
If one has pack animals or vehicles, this biome provides an immense bonus to trade if the destination is on the opposite side/inside of the biome.
Growth impact: -10%.
Possible hazards: Sandstorms, chaos storms (sandstorms, but worse).
Despite the state of everything, not all is dead in this world after all. Sure, it’s not doing great, but it’s still there. The forest is one of those cases, and it’s as vibrant as ever, if not more. Here, natural resources are plentiful and fairly safe to use; however, beware that the prosperity of the forest is fragile and that it may easily be over-extracted and disappear. Furthermore, you aren’t the only one who knows of its riches, and the forest is home to a lot more creatures than just you.
Bonus to all resource improval/prospecting/food production actions.
Excessive use of extractory actions may reduce overall bonuses of this biome and even make it disappear entirely.
Increased chance of encountering NPC civs, raiders and wild animals.
Growth impact: +2% (-10% if over-extracted).
Possible hazards: Wildfires, droughts, monsoon rains, floods.
As the name implies, these are poisonous wastes filled with chemicals and nuclear leftovers. No matter how well-adjusted one is to the Collapsed World, nothing can prepare you for these places. Constant radiation and exposure to all sorts of toxic fumes and substances will give you both acute and chronic symptoms (it’ll kill you now - and later!) that not even the hardiest will survive for long. So, why on Earth would you go there, then? Weeeell, the incredible danger of these places means that very few dare venture even near them, which means there’s bound to be all sorts of incredible artifacts left over from before the apocalypse! So if you’ve got your hazmat suit, your Geiger counter and an ambiguous will to live, why not give it a go?
All units inside this biome suffer intense attrition and will most likely all perish in the same turn they enter. Protective equipment can lessen the damage, but prolonged stay will eventually break down this protection, as well.
Very high chance of finding Old World tech.
Growth impact: -100%.
Possible hazards: ???
The memories of the Old World linger still in the form of great ruins and tombstones of colossal megacities that used to span the land from horizon to horizon. While much has been reclaimed by nature and the Wastes, the leftovers of civilisation cling on to the right to be beheld and marveled at. One would think these places dead, but that couldn’t be further from the truth: Free real estate littered with building materials (provided one can defend it), metropolitan neighbours to trade with (or war with), and maybe even the chance at some ancient Old World tech (provided you find it first). What’s not to like?
Bonus to all improve infrastructure actions in this biome.
Bonus to trade with other civs within the same biome.
There is a certain chance that rival gangs and raiders will show up and harrass players within this biome.
Prospect and exploration actions may in rare cases yield Old World tech.
Growth impact: +1%.
Possible hazards: Flash floods, droughts, monsoon rains, fire, landslides, building collapses.
The Haven biome refers to attempts by some powerful civs at restoring the world to its pre-apocalyptic glory. Here, intense and laborious efforts have been made to regenerate food soil, grow trees, populate the lands with wild animals and insects and purify the water and air. While no one knows exactly what the world looked like before, this may very well have been it - and the terraformers milk that for all its worth. They manage these lands with an iron fist, and anyone caught breaking the rules of those in power will see themselves tossed into the Wastes once more.
Bonus to all civilian actions in this biome, as well as growth, food production, wealth and morale.
Entering and staying in this biome requires permission from the government administering it, and all settlers may be taxed by said government for settling here.
Many outsiders covet these lands, and players inside this biome may be caught up in the landlord’s political and military matters
Disobeying or upsetting the government may incur penalties such as fines, imprisonment or exile.
Every Haven is different, and rules and encounters may vary.
Growth impact: +5%.
Possible hazards: There are no hazards in the Havens. Move along.
To some, the sea may offer a degree of freedom and prosperity in these dark times. Sure, the sludge and garbage can be annoying or toxic at times, but the sea is generous, and you never know what may wash ashore one day. Furthermore, there is no manner of transport that is more effective fuel- and capacity-wise than by boat, meaning a great deal of exploration and trading can be done quite a lot easier than on land. Just watch out for pirates, alright?
Bonus to exploration actions and trade by sea.
Every turn, there is a tiny chance that something valuable may wash ashore. Whatever this is is up to the fates to decide.
The proximity to garbage and sludge has a chance to reduce growth during a turn.
Players in this biome may encounter pirates.
Prospect actions at sea may lead to discovering schools of fish, which will provide a bonus to food every few turns if improved.
Growth impact: +1%.
Possible hazards: Tsunamis, flash floods, landslides,
When all the world became a living hell, nowhere was safer than the underground. Whether one lived in a vault or in deep, dank tunnels, what mattered was that the rock and stone above kept all the horror outside so those inside could continue to live. Down there, one could be safe, provided one could survive off of mushrooms and critters or send someone out to gather supplies for the colony.
Bonus to all defensive military actions.
While inside a cave biome, characters are immune to all environmental hazards except for cave-ins.
Any food production that relies on sunlight is impossible unless one has access to sunlamps tech.
While caves may potentially be anywhere on the map and connect to everywhere else, they are many and unknown. Finding a cave biome requires a highly successful explore or prospect action.
Growth impact: 0%.
Possible hazards: Cave-ins.
So how do I start?
Post a sheet here in the OOC, pick a starting location on the map and save yourself a spot! If the RP is full, you may choose to be put on a waiting list. If the sheet is accepted, you can go ahead and post it under Characters and start posting in the IC!
Make sure that there is room to join first! Below you will find a list of active players, and at the very top of the thread there should be a "status" line with either green, yellow or red text. It's either open, pending or full. Also, read the information about “So how do I start?” above.
Rules and regulations:
All roleplays have rules. You should know the basics like:
Don't godmode.
Don't metagame.
Don't be rude to other players.
However, there are also some other rules you should know about:
Never wipe a player out completely unless he or she has given his or her consent.
Don't focus on "winning", it's about playing creating dope-ass stories and enjoying them together.
It is okay to attack or raid another civilization freely as long as you have discovered them and scouted out the target first. Just don't expect it to always go your way.
Don't expect to never be met with setbacks or hardships. You may all be given good and bad consequences as well as random events depending on your choices.
As the GM, I reserve the right to have the last say in conflicts and squabbles, and while I hope I won’t have to, I will remove anyone deliberately upsetting the harmony of the RP.
Also, here are some regulations that aren't "DON'T"'s
Non-player nations are free to be conquered, raided, wiped out or otherwise warred with however you want.
Any questions and OOC-chat should be reserved either for the Discord or the OOC chat here.
When plotting with a player against another player, I recommend you take it to PM to avoid metagaming. Please strive to keep as many parts informed, at least of the fact that you are plotting something.
When plotting as mentioned above, I want to be kept in the loop as the GM, to avoid misunderstandings and to avoid conflicts OOC.
You may otherwise choose PM or public IC post however you wish when communicating with other nations.
If you don't want to play one civ anymore but rather want another, tell me in the OOC and I will arrange a "natural disaster" for your people or take it over as a non-player civ. Lotta ways to die out in the Outback!
When starting over with a new civ, you will be given some bonuses to help you catch up, but not too much.
There is no enforced limit of posts per turn; however, you may only take your A-I choices once per turn. Also, don't speedpost. We’re making stories, so it’s always nice to see meaning and depth in those posts if you decide to post several per turn (When you interact with other players, this is crucial).
Current Map
Anything not on this map is not considered official. Current turn: 0
The reason why we have a preset list of races and subraces is so that I as a GM can easily paint the world around you using my own notes and ideas that I’ve put down when creating this world. Still, I want to encourage individualism, so if you’ve got a custom race, go for it! However, it may be harder to make things up on the spot if I don’t see things the way you, the player, see things about your race. Whether you choose from the list or make your own race, I encourage you to talk about what you want with your civilization, what your hopes are, what you aim for in the RP, if there’s a specific hook that you’re going for and so on so that I can narrate accordingly and fitting your vision. That said, it’s much easier to narrate a world when you know exactly what’s in it.
Nation Sheet
For the "character" section. Entirely optional, but handy.
Group/Colony/Town/Tribe Name: Represented Color: Race: Features: (Only if custom race) Subgroup: (Only if different subgroup of race available, like orangutan, shroomer and waspian.) Capital: Ruler:
Type of Government:
Religion: ((On a dead world, many need something to pray to. What’s your divinity?))
Geographical Location: ((Upload a pic of the map with your preferred location on it.))
History: ((Can be long or short! Where’d your colony come from? Were they rich or poor? Recently mutated or descendants of the first of their kind? Have they only recently run out of supplies or has the hideout long since descended into a kill-or-be-killed chaos? Your story!))
The masters of the Old World. Many suspect that it was the hubris of humankind that brought low the world of old, and now, only a fraction of their once abundant species remains. While their cultures and colonies are many and diverse, there is no doubt that humanity as one ambitiously seeks to reclaim their crown atop the hill of the world. The question is: Can they do it again?
Stat summary:
Bonus to diplomacy.
Receives a boon to stats or action success chance depending on their lore rather than subrace.
Penalty to growth in all biomes except for Haven.
After an experiment went wrong in a pharmaceutical lab before the apocalypse struck, a group of captive great apes suddenly attained sapience. They mounted a revolution against their human captors and fled into the wilderness, whereupon they split into various tribes according to species. Simmies are great survivalists in certain areas, but fare very poorly in wastelands and deserts where trees are few and water is limited. Which one are you?
Being the closest to their bipedal, hairless cousins, it is no coincidence that the wisest and smartest of the simmies are the chimpanzees. When the apocalypse came, the chimpanzees knew to hoard as much human tech as possible, and they didn’t spend the ages inside their hideouts idly. The chimpanzees are strong, hardy and great scavengers and technologists; however, their heightened intelligence have made them spoiled and demanding, so a poorly supplied chimpanzee village can be sure to have a lot of grumpy patriarchs.
Stat summary:
Bonus to technology research (both military and civilian).
Bonus to exploration.
Increased morale damage from lack of food, resources and wealth.
When it comes to large mammals, few can beat the orangutan’s speed and mobility in the treetops. There, they easily find the best fruits and the tastiest snacks, and their pre-sapient wisdom when it comes to selecting the best produce and spreading their seeds lives on in an almost instinctive ability to grow and manage diverse orchards of food. The orangutan is, however, incredibly dependent on its grove, and as such, their villages cannot expand if the trees have not done so first.
Stat summary:
Bonus to food production and food infrastructure improval actions.
Bonus to all movement-related actions in forest biomes; penalty in other biomes.
Bonus to “Other” actions involving the planting of forest.
Cannot expand settlement to areas outside forest biomes.
A pre-apocalyptic symbol of might, strength and power, the enlightened gorilla certainly does not fail to exert such an aura, as well. Being the most powerful of the simmies, none can match the gorilla’s military and labour capacity. Led by their mighty silverbacks, their warriors know no fear in battle. That being said, the gorilla is slow to breed, and such mighty creatures require a great deal of food to sustain. While a gorilla army would be a terrifying sight to behold, one may have to wait for a long time before one can amass that many of them.
Stat summary:
Bonus to all military actions.
Bonus to infrastructure improval actions.
Slow growth speed.
High food demand.
The hedonists of the simian world, the bonobos live a chill and wholesome existence despite the state of the world. Being only slightly smaller than chimpanzees, the bonobos retain some of their cousins’ mighty intelligence and much of their strength. Most notably, however, is the bonobo’s tendency to breed - a lot. This not only ensures a steady population growth, but also that morale is at a high most of the time. That being said, the bonobo’s lifestyle does have its drawbacks, and sometimes their intense focus on one another may actually impact their prioritisation when it comes to tasks.
Stat summary:
Bonus to population growth.
Morale cannot decrease below 50%.
Every action has a certain chance to fail as a result of monkey business.
Having set aside their species’ differences, the United stand together as one - an ape is an ape, no matter shape or size. While this doesn’t give them the full benefits of either of the other species, they may just have the best of all worlds. Apes, together - strong!
Stat summary:
Slight bonus to exploration.
Slight bonus to movement in forest biomes.
Slight bonus to infrastructure improval actions.
Morale cannot decrease below 10%.
High food demand.
Every action has a small chance to fail as a result of interspecies disputes.
Born from the exposure to all kinds of chemicals and nuclear waste, the insectoids are mutated beetles, flies, mites, wasps and moths that have attained sapience (or, well, some in their societies might have). They have grown in size and some assume an upright stance when walking. Some are hive-minded; others are independent. In general, they are all short-lived, but quick to breed, and the access to flight for most of them plus incredible sense of smell make them great explorers, travellers and scavengers. Intelligence, however, especially among the hive-minders, is restricted only to a subset of the population, making them slow researchers.
Strong, hardy and capable of eating just about anything, the beetles used to be the most diverse order of insect in the Old World. There are plenty of good reasons for this, chiefly that the beetles’ shells are incredibly strong and shield their wings from hungry predators. After growing and attaining sapience, these beetlefolk make for the most powerful survivalists in the world. Their larvae can eat virtually anything, from dead wood scraps to dead flesh to excrement and waste, which means their sources of food may be plentiful. They also have a natural resistance to the elements. All this being said, they have some drawbacks: Firstly, beetlefolk are largely solitary, meaning they struggle to form large societies; secondly, few beetlefolk are particularly smart, meaning they are slow researchers, even with access to Old World tech.
Stat summary:
No penalty to growth during hazardous environmental events and in all biomes (except for Sludgelands).
Has the ability to fly.
Every food source counts as improved one level.
High morale up to a certain population; decreasing morale thereafter.
Penalty to research actions.
Formilings are overgrown ants which have continued their lives much like before they were enlightened, only now their queen has been granted intelligence, alongside a new phenotype in the colony known as the cardinal. The queen and her cardinals manage the workers and soldiers through a hivemind network based on communication through pheromones. Since they breed incredibly fast, are able diggers and have a natural warrior caste, the formilings are a force to be reckoned with. The formilings are at their strongest in caves, where they can grow fungi for food and remain safe from the above world. Of course, great hives require more than fungus for food, so the formilings must venture into the surface world, as well, and make use of its resources.
Stat summary:
Strictly class divided society based on phenotype:
The queen is at the top and responsible for the colony and egg-laying;
Cardinals function as researchers and administrators, and how many the player has will determine the speed and success chance of related actions.
Soldiers can only perform military actions, and how many the player has will determine the impact and success chance of these actions.
Worker ants can only perform non-research civilian actions, and how many the player has will determine the impact and success chance of these actions.
Can spend an “Other” action anywhere in the world to dig down and enter the Cave biome.
Bonus to food production, morale and population growth in Cave biome; penalty everywhere else.
If the Queen dies, is incapacitated or captured, population growth stops completely and cannot resume until the Queen is brought back or replaced.
Anyone but the Queen and cardinals receive massive penalties to diplomatic actions as no other races can understand pheromones.
Waspians are a race of contradictions - while they are fierce and bloodthirsty in battle, they are also calm and collected architects, forming impressive structures using tree pulp and spit. They are the emperors of the skies, and few can best a waspian in combat, naturally equipped as they are with massive jaws and a dreadful stinger filled with numbing venom. While these, too, live in a hive, they are not controlled by a hivemind, and so each individual is capable of free thought - there is no central queen other than an elected leader. These warriors are, however, highly dependent on the presence of neighbours to raid and enslave in order to further their kind. As parasitic egglayers, they must lay their eggs in live prey so that their larvae can grow fat on their innards. The leftovers are all eaten, for the waspians are carnivores and cannot let a scrap of meat go to waste.
Stat summary:
Bonus to all infrastructure improval actions in forest and haven biome; penalty everywhere else.
Has the ability to fly.
Bonus to all military actions plus “Other” actions involving the capture of prisoners.
Has an additional stat under food called “Prisoners”. The number of prisoners in a given turn will determine population growth in the next.
Carnivorous diet requires access to animals or people to avoid starvation.
Penalty to all diplomatic actions.
Great bees are described by many as the more docile and orderly cousin of the waspians. Like the formolings, their society is also split into a strict phenotypical hierarchy, where the Queen rules all, the drones generally laze around and only serve to breed with the queen, and the workers do all the work, battle and childcare. Most notable for the great bees is their ability to make honey, which serves as an incredibly potent food source that does not expire within a foreseeable timespan and may carry with it certain buffs or debuffs depending on what biome it has been made in. A great bee hive may exist anywhere in the world where honey can be made, and if they can sustain their colony for long enough to develop a strong population, a hive may become an impenetrable fortress that rulers great expanses of land like a mighty queendom.
Stat summary:
Eats only two types of food: honey and pollen. How easy these are to gather and what effects they grant depend on biome:
Wastelands: Very poor honey and pollen production. Effect: Usually carcinogenic.
Sludgelands: No honey and pollen production.
Forest: Moderate to good honey and pollen production. Effect: May contain traces of hallucinogens from various flavours or toxic waste.
Ruins: Low to moderate honey and pollen production. Effect: City dwellers grow a variety of hydroponic and bedded plants, and effects can vary from medicinal to hallucinogenic.
Haven: High honey and pollen production. Effect: This is where the finest honey in the world may be made. Not only is it more nutritious than the honey elsewhere, but it’s also so pure that there is no chance that larvae and bees fed this will be poisoned.
Shore: Low to moderate honey and pollen production. Effect: Seaside flowers may be pure or polluted, giving medicinal or toxic effects.
Cave: No honey and pollen production. Not a lot of stuff growths down here, does it?
Has the ability to fly.
Strictly class divided society based on phenotype:
The queen is at the top and responsible for the colony and egg-laying;
The drones exist to fulfill one single duty: When the queen needs to be bred, they are to lay with her and die in the process, literally going out with a bang. Other than that, they do absolutely nothing except eat the hive’s rations and be pompous brats about it.
Worker bees vastly outnumber the two other castes and do everything in society: They fight, they gather food, they care for the young, they build - everything.
Bonus to all actions and stats if a settlement has existed in the same spot for at least ten turns.
Players may use the “Other” action Drone Culling. This action cannot be taken alongside other actions and will cause the worker bees to execute all the drones in the hive and toss out the corpses. This frees up food for population growth, but does, as mentioned above, cost a turn.
If the Queen dies, is incapacitated or captured, population growth stops completely and cannot resume until the Queen is brought back or replaced.
The mothmen are large, wise moths that thrive in dark, damp places where they can keep their larvae safe from assailants. The mothmen are incredibly unique from their fellow insectoids in that only their larvae actually need to eat; during metamorphosis, the larva loses its mouth, making adults unable to eat. A mothman settlement thus only needs enough food to feed its child population; one obvious drawback from this is that adults will eventually starve, usually within one to five months depending on level of activity. In return, the mothmen breed incredibly quickly, are powerful fliers and dangerous combatants, and are active food gatherers. Just make sure to keep any light sources far away, okay?
Stat summary:
Food level will only be affected by the size of the larva population.
Bonus to population growth.
Has the ability to fly.
Bonus to military actions.
Bonus to food improval actions.
Can naturally create silk, a most coveted luxury resource, that can be traded or used for crafting and construction.
Will lose a percentage of their adult population every turn. This loss will be affected by the manner of action taken that turn.
From the earth, you came; to the earth, you shall return. All insectoids spend at least some time on the ground, and it is what unites them all as one society. Here, the queens and mothers of every species have joined together as one society, uniting their strength perhaps at the expense of the organisational structures of the pure breeds.
Stat summary:
Slight bonus to military actions.
Slight resistance against all environmental hazards.
Has the ability to fly.
Bonus to infrastructure improval actions in forest biome.
Can spend an “Other” action anywhere in the world to dig down and enter the Cave biome.
Small chance that actions may fail or even critically fail as communication errors are abundant and queens are sure to argue.
While most of those above made it underground in time, the mutants are descended from those who didn’t make it in time. Twisted and tortured by toxic and nuclear exposure, they live a life of pain and suffering. Still, for them to have survived for all this time, the exposure to the coldhearted elements changed their bodies into something completely unlike their old forms. While no mutant lives for long, they may potentially be so powerful that what they can do in a lifetime of a decade, may be more than many can do in a century.
The wasteoids are descendants from those who survived the blasts that created the Wastelands. A lifetime of nuclear exposure almost magically fused with their thirst and hunger and bred forth a natural resistance to starvation and dehydration by slowing down their metabolism considerably. Their skin sports messy pock marks that secrete a sun-resistant oil, almost making survival in the Wastelands pleasant for them. However, their slow metabolism slows their whole society down, from research to movement to warfare. Therefore, most wasteoids stick to the Wastelands, where no one will bother them and they can go about life in peace.
Stat summary:
No growth penalty or attrition from entering and/or staying in the Wasteland biome.
Bonus to food level and slower depletion.
Bonus to resource improval actions in Wasteland biome; penalty in other biomes.
If the player attempts to complete two or more actions in one turn, there is a chance that the actions will result in a fail as the wasteoids are too slow or tired to complete them all. Each additional action beyond one increases this chance.
In truth, the term “shroomers” is a bit of a misnomer: What is used to term people infected by the terrible fungal disease known as bluebrains, sort of ignores the fact that these people aren’t really people anymore, but the subjects of the fungus. Originally a mutation of the fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, exposure to radiation and toxicity turned this nightmarish fungus from the bane of unfortunate ants and spiders, to a terror for the sapient races. The mutation has developed its own neural network which ties together all infected subjects and treats them as one, zombie-like army to do its bidding. For the neural network to function, however, the fungus needs its subjects alive - therefore, it must ensure that they all have something to eat, though they don’t have a mind of their own anymore to like or dislike certain flavours and textures.
Stat summary:
Neither the fungus nor the shroomers are concerned with morale, ignoring the stat completely.
Bonus to single actions; penalty to multiple actions. The fungus may control many minds, but that only makes it harder to multitask.
The fungus infects all other races, giving access to the physical abilities of each race in its network.
Immense penalty to research and culture actions. The fungus effectively eats up the minds of its subjects, and by itself, it is not a sapient being.
Growth can be done either by infecting new subjects or having subjects breed. This is a very quick process and the fungus can blossom from the corpses of dead shroomers and spread infectious spores on the wind. Bonus to growth, further boosted during wind-related environmental hazards.
While each individual shroomer has a short lifespan as their brains are slowly consumed by the fungus, the colony will continue to live as long as at least one member remains alive.
Immense penalty to diplomacy. Everyone hates the fungus.
Furfolk is a bafflingly broad category, for its members share only one trait: They’re humanoids resembling furry animals like dogs, cats, wolves, oxen, bears, moose - the variation truly doesn’t end. Some individuals even possess traits from multiple different animals. While this makes them great survivalists as a group on account of their many adaptations and by far the longest lived of the mutants on account of no immediately deadly cancers or poisoning, it’s very difficult for furfolk to stick together as a group. The reason? Well, when some share a lot of traits with predators and others, a lot with prey, times of rumbling bellies can quickly turn the camp into a bloodbath. This isn’t really considered cannibalism, either, as despite the fact that others categorise them as “furfolk”, furfolk themselves are all-too-aware of their diversity and will happily feed off of each other if it means survival.
Stat summary:
Great survivalists - negative growth from biomes and environmental hazards reduced.
Society is demographically split between carnivores, herbivores and omnivores. Too many of any of these categories may potentially endanger the entire colony, with carnivores eating their fill of the other two, herbivores grazing the surrounding lands to death, or omnivores outcompeting both. So why keep all three?
Carnivores boost military actions, with increasing success chances based on the number in your colony. Can use an “Other” action to sacrifice portions of the other two population types to boost carnivore pop growth.
Herbivores boost food improval actions, with increasing success chances based on the number in your colony. Receives double growth benefit from improved food resources.
Omnivores boost your research actions, with increasing success chances based on the number in your colony. Exploration actions count as a one-time improved food resource, giving increased growth.
All infrastructure, exploration, culture, diplomatic and resource improval actions have a chance to fail due to infighting.
Ogres received their label as a result of their colossal sizes and trollish features. While a well-fed human with the right genetics could be lucky (or unlucky) to grow to two meters, ogres frequently grow to above three. While this makes them truly frightening to behold, they are still human at heart, which means that neither bones, muscles or organs have ever truly adjusted to their sizes. This makes pretty much everything they do, quite a painful experience. Add to that that they are ugly as all hell, and there really isn’t much of a reason for ogres to stay around. It is perhaps for this reason, through some phenomenon inexplicable in the eyes of God and science, that ogres enjoy the pity of the cosmos - despite all probability, things often seem to turn out alright for them after all. And who can blame them? Poor things.
Stat summary:
Penalty to population growth.
Penalty to all actions.
Penalty to military size.
Bonus to all “Other” and diplomacy actions involving intimidation.
The ogres enjoy the pity of cosmic forces: Every action has a chance of critically succeeding. What this entails is for the cosmic forces to decide.
Named thusly for their small frames and stocky statures, the hobbits are in nearly every way the exact opposites of ogres: They are small, very healthy for mutants and overall quite good-looking, making them well-accepted in most humanoid societies (the simmies accept them, too, though more often as jesters to entertain the kids). Due to their sizes, however, they aren’t exactly great warriors, and they are in fact preyed upon by many carnivorous beings. Good thing they’re good at hiding, lest they’d probably never last two days in the post-apocalypse.
Stat summary:
Bonus to diplomacy with all humanoid races.
Bonus to movement in Cave biome.
Bonus to “Other” actions involving hiding.
Penalty to all military actions; double penalty against carnivorous races.
Sometimes, despite all their differences, the mutants are stronger together. As long as everyone manages to keep an eye on the shroomers to make sure they don’t try anything funny and keep the furfolk from tearing each other apart, maybe even the rejects of life itself may somehow thrive as one collected unit.
Stat summary:
Bonus to growth in all biomes.
Bonus to food level
All actions have a chance to fail due to potential infighting.
Small chance every turn of a shroomer outbreak, which must be beaten down by spending an “Other” action. Every turn after an outbreak where this action is not taken increases the chance of another outbreak. After five outbreaks, the colony switches race from Rejects to Shroomers.
Clement du Pierre stood alone in the dark of twilight, dressed in his finest clothes and equipped with a basket of fruits, vegetables and small pots of spices. He wore a magnificent white cloak of wool, treated with felgar oil to make it resistant to the winter elements. His green linen shirt, coloured with the juice of mashed grass, needed help from a wool-reinforced vest of buffalo skin, gifted onto him by a Nubveian friend. His pants were of borak skin: thick, heavy and well-suited for the snows that would be here any day. His boots were expertly cobbled from the skin of bearfish, oddly elastic and soft despite years and years away from the sea. Atop his head, a finely waulked bonnet of goat’s wool imported all the way from the distant land of Cúibarsear, brought to Ha-Dûna through great Fìrinn’s mirror. Somehow, it sat more majestically atop his bronze-haired head than any hat of local wool.
He was alone. He had been escorted here by his cousin and her siblings - brave members of his hildargeach, but he had been asked to come alone, after all, and his word was his chain. He stood before a great door fashioned from wood - a rare sight even in Ha-Dûna. Its frame was carved beautifully with imagery depicting the tale of Jeanix Blanche’s battle of wits against the troll sorceror Mysticka, a favourite around clan Blanche hearths. Clement studied the details of the shining woman’s face and its contrasts to the demonic troll hag’s mug in the scene where Jeanix solves the sorceror’s riddle. He pondered whether he should have his own clan’s myths enshrined in wood in this manner.
The bar on the other side scraped against the inside of the door and it was pulled open, revealing the bald, smiling, mustached face of Charlix of Blanche, who took a bow and drummed his chest in salute. “Clement, my prestigious colleague and friend - welcome to Maiseonne Blanchease.”
Clement returned the gesture and bowed a little lower, though his movements were rougher than his counterpart’s. “Charlix, my fellow mórthéin and brother of different blood - thank you for the invitation.” He tilted his head up to study his host - at first glance, one could make the mistake of assuming that Charlix wore poorer clothing than Clement, dressed as he was in a simple shirt knotted together at the collar, a blue and yellow tartan kilt and long, woolen stockings under a pair of wooden shoes. However, the shirt had a sheen to it unachievable with both wool and linen; the kilt was held up by a belt buckled with gold tied into intricate knots; the stockings were of felgar wool; and the shoes were fashioned from an exotic sort of lumber that few in this area even knew the properties of.
“Please,” said Charlix with a grin. “Come inside. You must be freezing.”
“Oh, no, no,” Clement replied politely and kicked the first snows off the underside of his boots before he stepped inside. The inside of the Blanche tún longhouse, the legendary Maiseonne Blanchease, was a wonder of architecture: Three decades of ceaseless timberwork had resulted in a hall large enough to house twenty people comfortably, kept warm by not one, but two hearths. All along the walls hung colourful carpets and animal pelts; many such also decked the floor. The house was so large that, in addition to the main hall, the two ends of the longhouse were their own separate rooms - to the south, the largest room, the laird kept his animals in the winter, and already, Clement heard the grunts and bleats of curious sheep; to the north, Charlix had built a separate storage for food, which combined with another hearth into its own kitchen, allowing for the main hall to exclusively be used for feasting and, for the guests, sleeping. The host and his family would sleep on a sort of second floor, which had been built above the storage room. Clement marvelled at the structure and passively said, “I’ve been quite fine, but thank you.” He gave the air a sniff. “Oh, what are these smells?”
“Do they draw your interest?” chuckled the host as Clement’s cape was taken by a young lady dressed in a beautiful blue and yellow, tartan-patterned linen dress, topped with a woolen vest around her torso and a kerchief around her neck. She offered the guest a smile and walked off. Clement blinked.
“Was that your Beatrice?”
“Not quite,” answered Charlix and guided him over to a decked long table between the two hearths, full as they were of dancing flames. “It is my Enguerrand’s wife, Aranrhod, though I can see how they resemble one another.”
“Enguerrand’s wife, huh…” mumbled Clement as he placed his hands on the back of one of two chairs, each situated on opposite ends of the long table. The table sported a wooden plate for each of them, a linen cloth, a spoon and gilded drinking holds. The table between them was decked to the brim with bowls of fruit, pots of porridge, plates of meat, baskets of cakes and jugs of drink. Clement swallowed at the sight. “What, uhm, what clan does she hail from, then?”
“Leona,” answered Charlix. “That old vixen Branwen sure knew how to ensnare my boy with her daughter, that she did. She wasn’t cheap on the bridal gifts, either.” He sighed and pulled out his chair to sit down; Clement did the same, though he naturally let the host be seated first. “But alas, as a father who loves his son, who would I be to deny him the love of his life?”
Clement nodded. A young man came over to him with a bowl of ash and a small basin of water. Clement briefly dipped his hands in water, then pinched some ash and rubbed it over his hands before quickly washing it off again. The young man bowed and returned to whence he’d come. As he tried his washed hands on his kerchief, he asked, “I couldn’t agree more, my friend. So, will your son be moving to the Leona tún, then? I seem to recall Aranrhod is the oldest of their flock.”
As the young man returned to pour them drinks, Charlix shook his head. “Nnnno… No, I don’t think so.”
Clement raised a brow and lifted his now-steaming horn, filled three-quarters full of something warm. “Oh? Well, why not? I’ve heard the Leona tún is a most satisfactory estate - I’m certain your son will be blessed to live there together with his wife and children-to-come.”
“Oh, certainly, certainly,” Charlix agreed, “but my Guiscard has said he would be willing to offer him the other house - the one on the hill - should he choose to stay and become hildargeach.”
Clement nearly spilled his drink before he could take a sip. “And Branwen agreed to let her oldest and heir marry into a different clan?!”
A smirk lifted one corner of Charlix’s mouth as he dipped his lips into his drink. “As I said: The bridal gifts were not cheap.”
Clement put down his horn, left fingers catching his forehead ponderously. “Does that mean that their tún will pass unto--”
“Gods, Clement!” scoffed Charlix and chuckled. “Of course not! Do you mean to assume that I am out to unite all of Ha-Dûna under the Blanche? No, no, the estate will pass to little Conall once Old Branwen passes on, I reckon.”
“Conall? Oh! Yes, yes, of course… Right, since last winter…”
“Aye,” Charlix nodded solemnly. “Shame about that cough. Cian would’ve been a worthy second choice after Aranrhod. Alas, the Bone Serpent must have his due, as the Mink say… Try the wine, by the way. It is most exquisite!”
Clement blinked down at his horn and picked it up again, giving the rim a sniff. A warming scent amplified by the rising steam and vapours of alcohol filled his nose with memories of autumn, of wandering aimlessly through berry bushes and sneaking whiffs from the spice boxes of foreign merchants at the market. He gave the drink a sip and felt himself grow light. Such sweetness and fullness had he never before tasted in, well, anything - it was magnificent, a work of culinary art. Affording himself a second, longer sip, he eventually lowered his horn and stared wide-eyed at Charlix. “What in the gods’ names is this?”
“You like it?” snickered the host. “Marvelous - I have been dying to share this cask with someone for ages. This, my friend, is Caefirite grape wine from the Gold Coast - bought it from an Arraki merchant some weeks back. You can tell it was made by artisans using only the finest ingredients.” To illustrate his point, Charlix savoured intently his following sip. Clement, on the other hand, seemed to have fallen off at “grape”, for he had never heard of such a fruit, as he presumed it was. He decided not to pry, though, and sipped his horn again, the flavour forcing him to close his eyes in pleasure.
“Mm… Oh, by the gods, your clan has come a long way since you drank curdled milk and muddy water back in Old Brasforts.”
“Hoho, my friend - we are miles beyond that now. After all, this city is meant to be the Jewel of the North, is it not? The former sanndatr was archaic in her understanding of wealth - what we need is a proper aristocracy, someone with means to invest and develop this land!”
“Hear, hear,” Clement mumbled passively into his horn, eyeing the food hungrily. Charlix followed his gaze and chuckle.
“O-ho! Where are my manners! Please, my friend - eat, eat your fill! Everything on the table is for us, after all.” He helped himself to an oatcake and some stewed meat. Clement blinked.
“A-all of this is for us? Charlix, this could feed a warband.”
Charlix raised a brow at him. “Point being? Come on, eat now.”
Clement furrowed his brow to the point where it fused together into one flat line, but he wasn’t the kind to stare a gift horse in the mouth. He scooped some stewed meats onto his plate, helped himself to some potted carrots, grilled onions and oatcakes. He gently dipped a cake in the stew, topped it with a piece of onion and carrot and took a bite. A million sensations assaulted his tongue simultaneously and he had to block his mouth shut with his fist as his body had almost instinctively assumed such flavours and textures couldn’t be natural. Chewing slowly, he savoured each and every one - the cake had a wholesome warmth and roundness to it, a theatre of flavour compared to the dull ash loafs he ate at home; the meat stew offered salt and umami, followed by a burning sensation that made him reach for his drink; his hand was stopped, however, as the sweetness and acidity of the carrot offered respite; and the onion finished off the experience with the sort of gentle, sugary flavour and jammy texture only hours of cooking could achieve. He struggled to swallow, for his mouth wanted to preserve the flavour for as long as possible. Across the table, he caught Charlix’ smirk. At last, he managed to swallow and said,
“... This, this food…”
“A product of the labour of this world’s many peoples and cultures, my friend,” the man answered with calm and satisfaction. Charlix snapped his fingers and Aranrhod came out into the room again.
“Yes, Father?” she asked politely and bowed.
“Bring the spice box, would you? The mórthéin is curious about the flavours.”
“Yes, Father.” With that, she walked off again, turning the corner to enter the kitchen. Clement pursed his lips.
“The spice box?”
“Why, of course! A meal like this would be unachievable without the gold of the west, as they call it.” Aranrhod returned swiftly with a box of similar dimensions to a sheet of cowhide used for writing. It was about as deep as a regular drinking cup, and she carried it with both hands. Stepping over to Clement, she opened it, revealing to the guest what Charlix had meant by “the gold of the west”. Inside the box was a four-by-six grid of separated rooms, each containing its own little pod, bead, grain or twig of spice, herb or flower. While all of it had been dried for preservation, they still had an aroma unlike anything that grew in these parts. They had all been neatly sorted so that each spice had a room to itself, though it was clear that Charlix and his family favoured some over others. Clement picked up a roll of what appeared to be bark and gave it a gentle whiff. The sensation was so unfamiliar to him that he had to sniff it again. Charlix chuckled. “Do you like it? A Doserung merchant brought me that - said he had bought it from the Hacuáins from the Prairie Sea. And that’s not all - supposedly, the Hacuáins acquired this from a distant continent, further away than any Dûnan has ever travelled - the mythical land of Mithia.”
“Mithia,” mumbled Clement. Charlix nodded.
“Supposedly, there, the men and women walk in the night and sleep in the day; their skin is as blue as the sea, and they have ears like frightened rabbits. They tattoo their skin to frighten their enemies and divide society by this very same ink. There, insects as large as the terrorwasps of the distant east have formed a great empire. There, all employ magic similar to Bastian sorcery to fuel great slaver empires which grow plants such as these. That one there - he said they call it ‘zeenahmon.’”
Clement gave it one last whiff before putting it back. “Remarkable… To think I have lived my whole life without ever knowing such fragrances - without knowing such stories.”
Charlix grinned. “Right? The world is a book, my friend, eager and waiting to be read. Oh! Speaking of books! He snapped his fingers again and the young man came out of the kitchen, carrying a large tome with him. It looked like a stack of three bricks, being about as thick as a grown man’s forearm and as long and broad as one, too. The covers were two sheets of elephant skin, connected together with a spine of quillat quills. Between the covers were thick sheets of cowhide pages. In golden Dûnan letters on the front page, a title read, “The Hundred Journeys of Tillis: A Collection of Stories and Tales by the Famed Explorer of Harbiuré”. Clement was speechless.
“For… For…”
“I know your son, Claude, has been shirking his lessons. Well, these are, supposedly, some of the most intriguing stories in the land - eyewitness accounts of everything this beautiful world has to offer. With this, he’ll hardly want to stop reading.” Before Clement could continue, Charlix added, “By the way, I had it all translated into Dûnan for him. Would be best to keep with the times, would it not, so he, too, would leave Ketrefan behind?”
Clement cracked it open and turned the pages. Writing on cowhides was a very recent trend in Ha-Dûna - they were easier to write on than the more traditional wood tablets, but cowhides were so expensive that they were only reserved for the most valuable documents. Additionally, the Dûnan script had existed for less than a year. This translation was not only written beautifully - Clement admittedly could not read most of it, though - but it was complete with illustrations, colouring and much more to make the stories come to life. He could practically see them before him without reading a single word. “How, how did you have time to--”
“Oh, time was no issue. With enough scribes, one could translate a book like this in a week.”
“What on Galbar did that cost you?” demanded Clement.
Charlix said nothing, but he winked playfully back at his guest. Clement felt a pang of fear in his chest as he laid aside the book. He had known that Clan Blanche was rich, but this was insane. The clothes, the house, the spices, the gift - these things must have cost the equivalent of Ha-Dûna herself, should you sell her.
The table went quiet for a moment as the two returned to eating. After savouring another serving, Clement could no longer hold back something that had been irking him ever since he had received the invitation to come. Of course, he already suspected what the answer may be, but he needed to hear it from Charlix’ mouth. He scraped the last spoonful of stew off his plate and took a sip of wine and said, “Charlix, my friend… This is… This is all so kind of you…”
“Oh, ‘tis my deepest pleasure,” the host replied proudly.
“Still, I… I must ask: Why? Why all this? What is the reason for this feast?”
Charlix chuckled. “What, can I not invite a friend and colleague to dinner and give him gifts like any other?”
Clement wrinkled his nose. “While I appreciate the implications of your words, I know you well enough to see that there is another side to this. Yes, we have been colleagues for a few months now, and we have met for feasts and the like for many, many years. But you know as well as I that our families have never been on the friendliest terms; at best, the two of us have maintained a sort of mutual agreement to remain acquaintances and only acquaintances. Even as we both were made mórthéins, this agreement persisted - we have hardly exchanged a word - until that silence was broken this evening, and ‘broken’ does the situation little justice - ‘shattered’ is more like it.” Clement studied his host as he paused; Charlix maintained a small smile, his hand hovering movelessly in the air while holding his drinking horn. The guest continued, “I do not wish to offend by being direct, but understand me correctly when I say that I would prefer if we could do away with the false pretenses and flattering words. Tell me, so, Charlix of Blanche - what are you planning?”
For a twenty seconds, the host said nothing, and the air snapped sparks between them. However, he eventually offered a small chuckle and said, “I should have expected as much, Clement. You have always made an effort to make others think you are slower than you actually are. I admire that about you.”
Clement made a small smile. “What did I say about the flattery just now?”
“Oh, no, please do not misunderstand! The compliment was genuine. It shows that you have a knack for intrigue - trick your opponent into underestimating you, and the upper hand is yours.”
“Why, of course. A viable strategy in combat, that,” Clement agreed.
“A subject that you know quite a lot about, in fact. The songs about your deeds before and during the Conquests are still sung in the taverns here and there, I hear.”
“I am humbled.”
“Yes, I can imagine. However, it is a competency that I, myself, do not possess. As you have probably both heard and seen, I am an abysmal fighter.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say abysmal, but--”
Charlix grinned. “See how easily the flattery comes?”
Clement stopped himself and chuckled. “Must be the wine… Please, do go on.”
“Yes, well - I am not only an abysmal fighter; I have also never had a knack for strategy in battle, at least not when it comes to fighting in real life. The planning phase is all well and good, but, well, the sound of battle tenses me up - makes me tight in the chest. Surely, it must be the ghost of Naya overtaking me with the thoughts of the tragedy to come.”
Clement nodded along slowly. “Not all were made to swing the axe…”
“Surely, my friend, you can see where I aim to take this,” continued Charlix as though the subject had grown too personal to discuss further. Clement took the hint and nodded.
“You want me to take command in this war.”
“Precisely. The druids will need some time yet to find the next sanndatr. In the meantime, governance of this city falls to us, the mórthéins. By breaking bread together this way, I propose an alliance between the two of us - one that plays on each of our strengths to combat our weaknesses.”
Clement put down his drinking horn and folded his hands under his nose. “I’m listening.”
Charlix smiled. “Starting today, my hildargeach are yours to command. With both my warriors and yours backing your claim to leadership, you should have no issue making even the most loyal of Boudicca’s followers fall in line. Should anyone give you trouble, refer them to me, and I will do my best to persuade them to fight for the city’s cause.”
Clement nodded. “... A very alluring proposal. What will be your role in this?”
Charlix had another sip of wine. “Well, as we both know very, very well, among the two of us, it is clear that I have a somewhat better grasp of, well…” He gestured around. “Finances.”
Clement frowned. “... Noted.”
“Anyway, I will remain here, as it were, and ensure that the city remains functional during this war - I will ensure that your army’s supplies do not run out, all while maintaining trade with the north, west and south to make certain that Ha-Dûna does not starve.” He plucked an oatcake from a nearby basket and dipped it in some stew remains on his plate. “I have already reached out to the King of Bast. He has agreed to sell me two ships which can sail up along the coast for the whole winter given that the sea does not freeze. This should speed up trade with the reindeer herders, seal hunters and reef-folk.”
Clement blinked and swallowed. “You… You’ve certainly thought of everything, haven’t you?”
“Well, that is my job, is it not?”
The guest nodded slowly to himself and then squinted one eye suspiciously. Charlix caught the expression and frowned. “Is something the matter?”
“How can I be sure your word is true?” Clement hardened both eyes now and studied his host intensely. Charlix pursed his lips and licked the inside of his upper lip.
“A laird’s word is all he has, Clement. Who knows what would happen to me - to my clan - should I betray your trust in this?”
“Do not take this the wrong way, Charlix,” Clement started, “but ask yourself - would you have trusted yourself with your word?” There was a long pause. Eventually, Charlix chuckled once again and poured himself some more wine.
“Certainly, my friend, you are as quick as they come.”
“You must have had abysmal expectations of me if you thought I would be so dense as to outright trust you,” retorted the guest. The host nodded in quiet agreement.
“So be it, then. What must I do to earn your trust in this? Understand, my friend, that I am genuine in my words - I am doing this for the sake of our relationship as friends and co-rulers-to-be. Whatever you may want, you shall have.”
“Then…” mumbled Clement. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully and then said, “Your eldest son and heir. He will join me as my lieutenant.”
“My eldest,” Charlix replied as though it was just another word. “Guiscard?”
“Unless he has a twin I don’t know about,” Clement replied jokingly. “Guiscard is a worthy and mighty warrior, trained by none other than Frode the Enduring to become a young legend among the hildargeach in every clan. His aid would be irreplaceable at my side.”
A moment to ponder later, Charlix uttered a single, “Done.”
Clement frowned. “Really? Your son and heir?”
Charlix shrugged. “He is part of my hildargeach, after all, so he would have most likely come along to fight anyway, and at your side, he will be much safer than at the front. Furthermore…” Clement felt himself grow somewhat intimidated as his host’s mouth curled into a smirk of almost malicious quality. “... If he is your lieutenant, he will be your responsibility, and news around here travels fast - should anything happen to him, I will know days before you can return to your side of the story.” He rose to his feet and held his horn out in a toast. He smiled, but behind his teeth, Clement saw a spirit of vengeance like few others he had seen before. He joined him in the toast, a ball of uncertainty pushing uncomfortably at his windpipe. “And know this, Clement du Pierre,” Charlix continued, “if I receive a certain kind of news, you can cover it up all you want; you can try to flee the country or attempt to kill me yourself; no matter what you do, you will not know peace, and you will be punished for your treachery against me.”
The room was momentarily silent as the grave pyre, only the hearths chittering in the background. Then Charlix broke it: “In that respect, you could say this is a reassurance for both of us, wouldn’t you agree?”
“... Y-yes… Certainly.”
“Well, then,” said the host cheerfully. “A toast - to the formation of a new and fruitful alliance between our two houses. Cheers!”
Clement forced a smile and lifted his horn. “Cheers!”
Clement has been invited over for an unforgettable luncheon at Charlix’ place. Clement dresses nicely and all, but when Charlix opens the door, it turns out the Clement has gotten outswagged. In fact, as the night goes on, Charlix keeps dropping bougie shit on Clement every other second, going as far as to gift him a whole book for free (possibly worth as much as a small country). Clement gets wise and sees that this is an obvious ploy to win him over, so he asks Charlix what the deal is. Charlix admits that he wants to form an alliance, where Clement takes over military command and Charlix administers Ha-Dûna. Clement agrees on the condition that Charlix sends his firstborn and heir, Guiscard, with him to war, so that he’s sure Charlix won’t try any funny business while he’s off warring. Charlix agrees instantly, and Clement understands why when Charlix says that the son will be his responsibility in the war, and if anything happens to him, Charlix will make his life hell on Galbar. Thus, the pact is formed, and the two toast to good cooperation and hopefully not backstabby treachery.
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Scrawl Banditta
Alisdragon911
Double Capybara
