As I said. I am not doing a terribly great job. That said they are there to be examples. Part of the problem is that there are only so many distinct ideologies when you think about it. Still just give them some differences or take the faction farther than in its ideas and I won't really care. Not too much to ask right?
EDIT: Let's take the guilds, which is an awful name and needs to be changed. Yes they do seem to be analogous to the Long Coats. They are interested in money and pretty social Darwinist. Is it actually just regular Darwinist if everyone is an animal? Anyway, the differences are that they aren't pro democracy, their Darwinist tendencies are jacked way the hell up to the point it consumes their political philosophy and as written they aren't necesarily capitalist. They may well be merchantilists. A vagueness I only allow as it is an example party and not a real one. If it survives to the real game it will be explicit one way or the other
The long coats will feast! Let's try not to rip off the factions from the game too directly. I know I'm not doing a terribly great job of that already...
In this world there are no humans, only anthropomorphised animals. However, not all animals are created equal. Pigs, Cows and other farmyard creatures are consider not even animals by the majority. They are put to work as a slave class. Working farms to grow crops to feed themselves. Fattening up for consumption by the animals. You see a real animal only eats meat.
Uskary is a poor state ravaged by a war from ten years ago where it became a battleground between the Ardesh Empire to the west and the Old Kingdom of Escal to the east. Neither state survived the war, but each side ravaged the countryside of Uskary and it has not yet fully recovered. As such the livestock, which normally would feed the whole population are unable to grow fat enough to suffice. The nobility have for the last decade enacted the harvest, in which animals are chosen to be carved up and fed to the rest of the populace in order to fight the growing lack of meat. Officially this is supposed to be done at random, but in reality the nobles just choose on their own whims, be it to eat a succulent looking subject or smite down some up and comer in the world.
All around nations have industrialized and adopted new governments since the end of the great war. Meanwhile, Uskary has kept a feudal system well past its lifespan and is significantly behind the times economically, militarily, socially and politically. Most of the populace has in secret blamed the old aristocracy for being petty, self serving and slow, but upon the death of the old King, his son, prince Oskar, declared that the government would change. An election would be held to decide who would lead the country and whoever won the election would have free reign to create a constitution to lead the country into the future. Oskar would be overseeing this election personally, but not running in it. He wholeheartedly believes that the people would decide what was right for them.
The elections are to be held at the end of the year where all animals would gather to the cities to submit their ballots. Before then though the leaders of all prospective parties would need to gather in the capitol with at least five hundred supporters to be recognized by prince Oskar as a valid contender in approximately two months. Many grassroots movements have sprung up in the wake of this announcement, but surrounding countries have taken this as a time to expand their influence over a neighbor. Despite the damage done to Uskary during the war up and coming political parties in Ardesh are making an impact on various levels of Uskary society and the new dictatorship in Escal is sowing dissent for the nobility and exporting the cult of personality for their own leadership. Meanwhile, to the south, the coastal Nation of Veska wants desperately to trade with Uskary to bring its untapped natural resources to a world market and hopefully enrich themselves.
The race is for Uskary’s future. Success will surely guarantee a life without hunger and failure may well see you on your opponents’ plates.
The slave class is referred to as Livestock, stock or just as food and are never included in the term animals.
Animals wear clothes. Livestock do if their particular masters desire it.
Animals are proportionately sized to how they are in real life. There will be a very real size difference between a squirrel and a bear.
Livestock traditionally have been owned by various lords and managed by peasants of their choosing, but with the recent political upheaval many groups have stolen livestock in order to set up their own farms.
Communication is limited. Not only are there no phones, but telegrams can only be sent between major cities. Otherwise an animal must travel by road or fly by it’s own power to deliver information.
Transportation. Some railroad lines were constructed during the war by ardesh and survived. They mostly connect the capital and the other western cities to Ardesh and would not useful for traveling the country even if they were in good repair. Other than that some nobles have cars, but for the most part animals must walk to get anywhere along worn dirt paths and some old cobbled roads.
Weaponry in the world is transitioning towards second world war era technology, but the people of Uskary have only muskets and muzzle loading rifles. The army has access to some breech loading single shot rifles, cannons, bayonets and sabers, but modern weapons will need to be brought in from outside the country if desired, be they bought or provided by an outside benefactor.
No sentient plants.
No cryptozoological animals.
It is prefered player animals be ones that would be found in or near Europe, but you can be any real animal so long as you give me a good reason why your character would be so far from home.
So if you are on board for this know that the intent is to explore politics and ideologies in a terribly shitty world with virtually no hope of getting better. Society cannot get away from eating each other or at least away from eating the livestock. There are no heroes and attempts to be such will not be met kindly by the rest of the world. You are just going to have to try to be the least bad if goodness is your goal.
Bellow are a few example political Parties. Feel free to join them, head them, suggest edits for them or ignore them to create your own. These will only make it to the final game if players want to be a part of them or if I think that a hole can be filled by their inclusion.
Party Name: Canine Unionist Party (CUP)
Leader: TBD
Overview: A Canine only faction, the CUP puts their own first and has ideological ties to the political winds in Ardesh. Believing wholeheartedly in the rule of law the CNU think that the old establishment needs to be torn down because the nobles do not distribute justice evenly. Following naturally from this, those in the CNU think that pack animals like Canines, would be the best choice for taking the reigns after the election as they instinctively understand the need to work together to complete goals and loyalty.
Stance on the Harvest: They claim the harvest will run as intended with everyone being equally likely to be chosen by lottery, but many suspect that no canine would ever be selected.
Other Core Issues:
Desired Government: Oligarchy of Canine Leadership.
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Party Name: The Guilds
Leader: TBD
Overview: Various Merchants who see the establishment of free markets and trade with Veska as the only long term solution to the food crisis. By making money off of coal, oil and other exports the people of Uskary can simply import meat from other countries. To this end they support a meritocratic government where everyone is tested physically and mentally every few years. Those who score well are given jobs in government and those who score poorly are assigned to a number. That number may be pulled randomly for public service, be that cleaning litter from parks, being drafted into the army or being put to the table.
Stance on the Harvest: The less able of society should feed the more able of society when necessary.
Desired Government: A termed authoritarian system with the leader chosen by merits.
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Party Name: The People's Revolution.
Leader: TBD
Overview: Commonly referred to as the revolutionaries, The People’s Revolution is predominantly made up of poor folks who caught word of the great improvements in the lives of the working poor in Escal under the rulership of glorious leader Sabrina Payne. They seek to overthrow the government and join Uskary with Escal. All land and other Property will belong to everyone equally and all animals will be forever equal under glorious Payne
Stance on the Harvest: A popular vote will be held by party members on who to eat. This shouldn't be a problem as certainly all good animals will be party members.
Desired Government: To be joined to Eskal's Dictatorship
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Party Name: Uskary First Group (UFG)
Leader: TBD
Overview: The Uskary First Group is dedicated to seeing Uskary become a dominant force on the world stage by any means necessary. They speak to a nationalism in all animals to make their country great. Openly they support a representative democracy as such a template has been successful in other parts of the world, but in truth they will support anything that will raise Uskary to the world stage. Still they are committed to their principle that no Uskary should have to be torn to pieces to feed his fellow citizens.
Stance on the Harvest: Night raids should be performed to steal food and animals from Uskary's neighbors in order to bypass the Harvest.
Desired Government: Representative Democracy
Party Name:
Leader: TBD
Overview:
Stance on the Harvest:
Desired Government:
Name:
Species:
Age:
Appearance:
Overview:
Some work still needs to be done, like coming up with a real name, making a map, describing any important regions and probably some other things that have escaped my mind, but I got a little impatient and decided to push the interest check out early.
So Is anyone still interested in this. I've sorta been waiting on there being more characters to start, maybe just one more, but we can start now or let it die or whatever
That sounds fine. The devil will be in the details. You may notice my earlier analysis of Infamous Empath's character. Admittedly the exact bio I was critiquing at the time is no longer there. Regardless it is not inherently a problem.
No no, magic is fine, I just wanted to know how you intended to use your alchemy so I could make sure it was not going to cause problems. Anything up to the capabilities of a first level adventurer should be fine and some more extravagant abilities may still make it in for fun. Particularly in your case, a simple explanation of not having the right materials would keep the character in line with everyone else if need be. Still what do you want to be able to do with alchemy and how quickly?
As a side note I am quite fond of the alchemist as presented in pathfinder.
