Back when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, I got started with writing online on the Spore forums. Man, those were the days. We're talking like 12 years ago 2010-ish!
I've been here on and off for almost as long, and have GM'd a bunch of different things to varying success.
Danr rose from his bedding at the first crack of dawn. One of the only people in the village important enough to have his own room in the tiny and cramped communal housing that the Ards currently had, he pushed through the fur hides serving as a curtain for his doorway. Some chieftain's hold he had, for the doorway was currently without a door. He almost tripped over a massive wolf that was slumbering right outside his room.
As disturbing as it was to know that a massive wolf had been so close all night, the chief had to at least give his son some begrudging respect. The new wolves were tamed well, as evidenced by how the beast hadn't torn out Danr's throat while he slept.
Stepping over the wolf, he ceased entertaining thoughts of the wolves once he saw the scene before him. At least seventy people were strewn across the floor of his mead hall, still asleep! With the four longhouses increasingly being filled with things like food stores, firewood, and now tamed wolves, there was less room in the crowded longhouses and so more people had taken residence in the central mead hall.
What kind of chieftain was he, to have to entertain seventy as his own tribesmen as permanent guests in his home for lack of housing for the tribe? What kind of village had such squalor and crowded, unsanitary conditions? It could not continue.
After he ate a hearty breakfast and allowed the others to do the same, the chieftain began barking out orders to expand the current mead hall and longhouses. As Danr imagined this small cluster of buildings atop the hill becoming the center of a much larger settlement, these structures would be made much larger and grander than the rest.
Using all of the remaining timber and other building materials that they had in storage, the Ards began to construct many smaller homes around the existing edge of the village. With a growing tribe combined with more and more room being needed for storage, this additional housing was long overdue. Still, Danr was planning ahead, so hopefully it would be sufficient living space for the time being and a ways into the future. If not, it would still be an improvement to have even the smallest bit more breathing room inside the communal longhouses and the mead hall.
-Using what timber they have left, the Ards are expanding the mead hall and existing four central longhouses. -Many additional, smaller longhouses are being built around the existing cluster of buildings
I made an awful map in MS Paint, but it should be decent enough to outline what I want my nation to look like. Basically just mountains to north, river in the middle, big deserts on both sides, and a fertile delta and floodplains. Cities as you go upriver.
Senor Herp and I both want to be put in roughly the same place, so if necessary my location could be shifted a bit to make some room for him.
Yeah, I've been busy so I haven't had much of an opportunity to finish the sheet. I will try to at least outline my nation by the end of today. Maybe add a bit more to my god sheet as well.
I'm feeling some inspiration from the Ptolemaic Kingdom, so can my nation consist of a large desert to the south, with a huge river through the middle and fertile riverside floodplains where everyone lives? It'd probably look better if you use the Warcraft editor but if you want I could draw it myself using paint.
Arni crept silently through the pine wood with a hunting bow in hand. Beside him were his two brothers, also carrying bows. With the new fishing raft and farms hunting was not so necessary anymore, yet the occasional hare or stag was still welcomed by the village. Besides, the hunting kept the archers' aim true, or so the chieftain reasoned.
After some time with little success, the three hunters came across one of the traps set to capture wolves, the dried meat that was its bait seemingly attracting every fly in miles, or so they thought from the buzzing. Upon nearing it, they were surprised to see no flies. There were some other strange insects, black and yellow, noisily flying around and ignoring the meat. Deciding to rest for a while, the brothers sat. Arni noticed something strange hanging in a nearby tree. Some sort of white husk, near where the black and yellow flies were. Bored, the three hunters backed a fair ways away and took turns shooting their arrows at it. Both of Arni's brothers missed, and then it was his turn. He squinted, nocked his arrow, drew the string back, and released it all in one fluid movement. In one equally fluid movement, the arrow whistled through the air and struck the strange object in the tree. The white husk fell to the ground and burst, a cloud of the black and yellow flies swarming out of it. Before the confused hunters could even react, the bees were upon them stinging like wild.
The three instantly took off running, screaming through the wood like savages. Covered in stings, it felt like an hour that Arni had ran before the last of the bugs gave up chase after him. Every inch of his exposed skin covered in painful red stings, the disgruntled boy realized that he and his two brothers had all ran off in different directions. Not sure where they would have gone, he found himself trudging back the way he had came, jumping at the slightest sound of buzzing now that he was wary of the strange flies.
The three eventually found each other in the same clearing by the wolf trap where they had shot their arrows. The bees having left by now, the trio went to examine the husk that they had shot. Why had it been full of the insects and why had the wretched things been so angered? Upon nearing the husk, they observed some sort of strange fluid seeping out of the husk. Arni poked it, and the sticky fluid stuck to his finger. Holding it to his tongue, it smelled sweet. Carefully he licked a drop off of his finger. The stuff was delicious! The trio brought back the entire husk full of honeycombs to the village to show the others. Upon cracking it open, they saw some sort of larvae inside some of the honey combs, though they seemed different from ordinary maggots. Perhaps they were the babies of the yellow bugs? Maybe they could be raised as livestock to make more of the sweet juice? After some debate the three deemed it a good idea to try putting the honeycombs full of honey into a wooden box and leaving that box outside. With any luck, the trio would stumble upon some of the secrets of beekeeping and manage to create a reliable source of honey, beeswax, and sticky propolis.
No later than a few weeks after the last scouting expedition, Danr was already organizing more. Now that his worries of hostile skraelings were put to rest and his tribe knew about the nearby terrain, it was time to begin looking for ways to exploit this rich new land. When the scouts had spoken of foothills and a great mountain to the southwest, several of the men that had been smiths or miners in the old lands had expressed interest in searching for metals. Now, they would have just the chance to do that. New tools were needed badly and the Ards would not devolve to cave-folk carrying stone utensils. They would need to mine metal and create a proper smithy. But before that could be done, ores were needed, so Danr arranged for a band of miners to trek out to the mountains and bring back what they found in caves and such, but also look for ideal sites to set up a more permanent mine.
Equally pressing was the need for more lumber to expand Njor. The woods nearby were small and would not provide enough to make the chieftain's ambitions come to fruition, and besides, the small forests made good places to hunt and forage. In any case, felling trees and then dragging them a few miles back to the village was back breaking work and required too many hands. The only real solution in Danr's eyes was to set up a logging camp elsewhere, near to a river or the ocean, and tie the logs together. Then, using oars or even sails, the lumberjacks could sail the huge rafts right to the fishing piers by Njor, where they could be broken apart and the individual logs put to use. More lumberjacks and explorers would travel down the coastline in both directions from Njor, looking for an ideal spot to build a logging camp as their chief envisioned.
Summary:
-Still awaiting Chenzor's word on how the wolf capture and training is going -Arni and his brothers discovered bees and their products, and are now trying to begin beekeeping. Wax and propolis added as resources and honey as both a resource and food, though currently the honey and wax must be gathered from wild beehives -Prospectors and miners went towards the nearby mountain in search of metal ores. They plan on bringing back as much as they can carry, but are also looking for a good spot for a more permanent mine. -More scouts (and with them some lumberjacks) were sent out to follow the coastline to the south and the one to the north and west. The scouts are looking for larger forests near the coast or rivers, so that the logs can be tied into rafts and floated back to Njor.
The thunderous bangs of firing potato guns shall echo through the plains of blood mixed with ketchup! We will smash your heads like grapes and make red wine! The diabetes will kill you all!
I'm an Ulm fan too, but you're going way overboard with the inspiration. Beyond just taking the basic concept of black steel and forge masters, you're constantly mentioning the stats of black steel plates and the Ulm warriors in Dominions.
I'm not trying to be patronizing here, I just genuinely feel that it's more fun (and better practice writing) to use something as a mere inspiration rather than make a carbon copy of it. You said you'd change it up a bit for the purposes of the RP but aside from name I don't see many changes. My honest advice would be for you to change it even more.
I'm not going back and saying your nation is OP, mind you. No need to make changes that would make it weaker; I'd just stray away from basing every single concept upon Ulm. Ulm is like a less fiery, less magical, and more squishy Abyssia, if anything it's underpowered in Dominions :P
Note: This is a huge WIP, I'm just posting to get early feedback. My god probably sounds absurdly OP, but don't worry. I plan on making a small, weak, and mostly ordinary human kingdom as his nation.
Name(s): Ialu the Enemy of Sanity, Lord of Near and Far, The Hidden One, He who is Always at the Shoulder, The Pale-Eyed King
Appearance: To nigh any being Ialu will appear as whatever he chooses, as his power over the mind allows him to alter even the perception of reality of those near to his physical form. When he manifests himself away from his physical body, whether in the dreams of another or in the real world, Ialu most often takes the form of a strange, speechless mist that has shades of every color men can see, and then some.
If one were to encounter Ialu's physical form and somehow penetrate through the god's shield of illusions, they would see him for what he truly is: an anemic and ancient man cloaked in robes woven from the softest clouds, with a great beard of white that cascades from his neck. If one were to look into the eyes of the dreamer-god they would see only milky white opals, blind to light and the world yet capable of perceiving intangible things such as dreams and thoughts.
Personality: It is said that Ialu's heart beats once in a century. His breaths are even fewer and farther between. The god sits in his throne and sleeps while life goes on and those in his dominion go about their business; though just because Ialu is asleep does not mean he is inactive. Rather, he is in the dream world weaving plots and manipulating the dreams and nightmares of mortals and gods alike. Ialu's intentions, motives, and thoughts are unknown even to his closest followers. Some say that his mind is alien and incomprehensible, but they would be wrong. His ambitions are very real, if secret.
In terms of his interactions with others, Ialu very rarely will directly intervene with matters or appear before his followers, preferring to be the puppet master that weaves webs of plots and intrigue to achieve his goals without drawing the ire or attention of others. He ensures that his land is friendly enough to neighboring kingdoms, though he is careful to limit trade so as to not allow his realm to become reliant on foreign resources. Similarly he strives to limit outside influence so that Saru does not become infected with other traditions, ideologies, or worst of all religions.
Rarely does he speak directly to other gods or get caught up in the petty wars between their domains, preferring to remain neutral with all unless acting otherwise would prove very beneficial. This does not mean that he does not get involved in the affairs of other gods, merely that he tries to hide his own involvement and work from the shadows. Rather than fight an enemy nation, he would prefer to cripple it from within, manipulating the dreams of its people and sending his priests to assassinate important people in an effort to create utter turmoil.
Powers: Within the realm of the sleeping Ialu's power is unfathomable; he can see the every thought and desires of the sleeping, appear before them in their dreams, and plant within their subconsciousness the seeds of whatever thoughts he might choose. In the real, waking world Ialu is much weaker. He is still capable of creating illusions the likes of which most mortals would find unimaginable, though this sort of magic becomes far more difficult if the targets are particularly intelligent or possess magical abilities. He can command almost entire control over the perceptions of those near him, can easily create lifelike hallucinations of all sorts within his own realm. When he manifests himself as mist, his mere presence can induce either a serene and sleepy air, or an aura of paranoia and nightmarish fear. The simple touch of his misty form results in an irresistible need for sleep, and mortals unfortunate enough to inhale the mist can find themselves possessed by Ialu.
However, Ialu holds very little power over the awake outside of his domain. Unless one invites the god of dreams into his mind or Ialu for whatever reason chose to leave his domain and come within the general vicinity of a person, he would be largely powerless to do anything to them. That is, unless they inevitably fall asleep, or enter the lands under his influence. Though it has not happened in living memory, Ialu could awaken from his slumber and travel the world in his physical form. While this would leave the god incredibly vulnerable, it would allow him to unleash his unadulterated and full powers anywhere in the world, if he physically traveled there.
Magic Items:
The Lens of Obscurity - An artifact of incredible power created by Ialu himself, it appears to the untrained eye as a simple hand mirror. Those who merely glance into its depths will find their souls pulled through the glass and into the dream world, effectively causing them to instantly fall into a deep slumber.
Those who possess magic strong enough to resist the artifact (or who are favored by Ialu) can instead stare harder, and see through the mirror as if it was a mere lens of glass. Through the lens one can peer into the dream world just as the god himself does, penetrating the minds of any people in sight wield great power over them. If one possessed a truly extraordinary amount of magical prowess, he or she would be able to use the lenses to contact Ialu himself, see the invisible traces of the god's work, and even sense the location of Ialu's secret temple.
The Lens of Obscurity are guarded by the High Prophet of Ialu, an extremely powerful sorcerer and a force to be reckoned with. The High Prophet uses the Lens both as a tool to communicate directly with Ialu while awake, and as a weapon to carry out the god's will.
Tears of the Night - Not an artifact, but rather a sacred potion with magical properties, made and consumed by Ialu's priests. A strange concoction, it is created by a mixture off many strange ingredients: powdered silver, opium milked from poppy flowers, the fumes of incense burnt within Ialu's holy temples, various herbs, and finally magical gems distilled from pure starlight using an ancient ritual. These components are mixed by alchemists and then blessed by high priests.
The result of all this effort is a strange fluid black as pitch, yet reflective like a mirror. Warriors paint the substance upon their bodies before battle to repel evil and to draw the power and favor of their god. Wise men and philosophers drink small quantities to temper their minds, fortify their health, and increase their magical capabilities. The priesthood boil the tonic over fires and inhale the fumes, which can result in anything from death to personal encounters with Ialu himself, though it usually causes no more than a deep slumber in which the user experiences all manner of strange dreams.
Mortality: Ialu bleeds like you and I; to slay him would take no more than an arrow true to its aim or a sharp blade. Aware of his own great weakness, Ialu hides locked away deep within his first temple, tucked away in a corner of the world. Only a few beings know the location of this hidden temple, however the High Prophet of Ialu who holds the Lenses of Obscurity could tell you. What guardians or other defenses the temple might have are a mystery not even the High Prophet could know.
Almost always sleeping in the safety of his temple, Ialu will only reveal himself to others by entering their dreams or manifesting before them as mist. When he manifests himself in one's dreams he can be banished with great difficulty if the dreamer becomes aware of his presence and actively fights it, though this rarely happens. When he manifests himself in the physical world as mist, he can be neither banished nor slain. Killing Ialu would be easy, the difficulty lies in finding his secret lair or somehow forcing him to show himself in flesh and blood.
Name: Saranite Kingdom Terrain: Most of the kingdom's domain consists of the vast sister-deserts, Sharu and Clysu. Sharu lies to the west and Clysu to the east, with the two split by the great Saran, also known as the Silver River. To the north of the two deserts where the Saran's tributaries originate is a large chain of mountains. Near the rivers are large, fertile floodplains where the vast majority of the Kingdom's population is clustered. Near the delta and sea are large forests, dense enough in some places to be called jungles. Wildlife: The mighty Saran river is in many places plagued by hippopotamuses and crocodiles, yet it also has many serene parts inhabited by turtles, ibis, and the like. Many large fish live in the river, enabling the predators to thrive and Saranite settlements to possess substantial fishing industries far upstream from the sea. The deserts themselves are barren, blazing seas of sand rather than mere grassy steppes or savannas, yet there are still hardier animals like jackals, camels, and scorpions. The coastal jungles are home to the most biodiversity, possessing everything from elephants to tigers. Species: The Saranite lands are home to two very strange creatures.
The first is the mighty bone vulture, the filthy king of all carrion animals. Bone vultures are massive, occasionally with wingspans wider than three men are tall. Their plumage is ashen and their eyes as black as the shriveled, dehydrated corpses that are left of those who die in the desert. Bone vultures have been known to attack men and carry grown adults away to devour, yet this rarely happens. The birds have an incredibly keen sense of smell or else some sort of magic, as it is said that one can sense a corpse from a dozen leagues away. In any case, the bone vultures wander the desert skies by night, always in search of food. They carry many foul diseases, and a scratch from their talons or wound from their menacing spear-like beaks will nigh always result in a fatal infection. The Saranites behold the bone vultures with both terror and reverence, for the birds are considered mighty, immortal, and sometimes even sacred, yet they are also associated with death, pestilence, and nightmares.
The second creature is known as the Scorpion Man. Even more obscure than the bone vulture, it is rarely if ever encountered. There are many that declare it to be no more than a myth, yet nontheless, once or twice every decade a band of travelers will claim to have encountered one in the desert. A twisted monster, the Scorpion Man has the head and torso of a man, but rather than legs his form gives way to the horrific, chitinous body of a scorpion. Usually about ten feet tall, the scorpion man has venomous saliva, massive claws, the stinger of a scorpion, and two humanoid hands with which it might equip a spear or similar weapon. According to legend, Scorpion Men are intelligent and malevolent, wield terrifying powerful dark magic, and live beneath the sand, plotting to one day clamber to the surface by the hundreds or thousands and claim the petty kingdoms of men for their own.
Culture(s): The Saranites are different from most other feudal societies in that warriors are not considered elite, but rather learned men. From bottom to top, their caste system goes: slaves, farmers, warriors/hunters/slavers, artisans, bureaucrats, scholars/doctors, philosophers, alchemists, and finally priests. This seemingly lopsided and rather complicated caste system ensures stability to a greater extent, and has developed due to the Saranites' history of relative peace and isolation.
Breed: Humans extremely adapted to the cold and with somewhat superior strength and endurance, yet with very poor magical abilities.
Capital: The coastal village of Njor.
Ruler: Danr claims the title of Chieftain of Njor and Jarl of the Ards.
Type of Government: Something of a democracy in electing chieftains for villages, yet if the chieft has a remotely competent son then that son is almost guaranteed to inherit his father's position. Titles of nobility are usually not hereditary and are granted by merit, and chieftains are despots with essentially total power at the end of the day.
Religion: The Ards follow a largely unorganized religion consisting of countless fables and legends, many of which are unrecorded and passed down orally. Father Frost is probably their most notable god, the lord of winter who is revered for choosing the Ards as his favored tribe and granting them strength, yet feared for sending the blizzards and long winters that killed all the other tribes and made the Ards' homeland inhabitable.
Another important god is the Hanged King, a god that is condemned to limply dangle off the edge of the world by a rope around his neck. When the Ards die and their spirits begin to drift down to the underworld, it is the Hanged King who judges them and decides whether to catch their souls and send them to the heavens above, or let them simply plummet into the darkness.
One notable part of their religion is that the Ards view most magic users with great contempt; thinking that magic is gifted from the gods and should only be used by holy men. Any other magic users are thieves and unholy blights upon the world, and associating with their ilk would surely bring about the gods' wrath!
Other notable gods will be added to this section if the Ards ever reform/record/start building temples for their religion.
Geographical Location: The Ards live along the northwestern coast of the continent.
History: The Ards once were one of many tribes of people living in a land far to the north. However, in the past few decades the clime grew ever colder and the winters ever longer, until it suddenly climaxed in a great blizzard that killed off nearly all the crops, livestock, and wildlife of the island. People died like flies and entire tribes crumbled, yet the Ards were strong and they survived, or at least a small fraction of them did.
Faced with near certain death if they stayed, an opportunity for escape eventually arose. One of the sharper tribes had realized that to survive they would have to leave, and so this tribe began to construct several ships of colossal proportions and fill them with the last of the supplies that were to be found from the dying land. The Ards bided their time, lurking near the boat builders. When the day came and the ships were finished, the Ards struck. Though the boat builders had been wiser they had also been weaker, and the Ard warriors fell upon the boat builders' village and a massacre followed. After looting the other tribe's village and stealing their ships, the Ards set sail for new lands.
They were rather inexperienced sailors and as such several ships wrecked and many people succumbed to sea sickness, so the Ards' already shrinking numbers began to dwindle further. By the time that they arrived where they now are, battered and tested, they numbered only 250. Their chieftain Danr burned their mighty ships on the beach as an offering to the gods, and then the Ards began to build Njor.
Back when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, I got started with writing online on the Spore forums. Man, those were the days. We're talking like [s]12 years ago[/s] 2010-ish!
I've been here on and off for almost as long, and have GM'd a bunch of different things to varying success.
[center]Word of my splendor:[/center]
[hider=My messenger's letter][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019b0090-4706-75b9-bfe5-fd4ef6737466.webp[/img][/hider]
[hider=My fellow monarch's response][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019b0090-a418-774f-a117-1ae23ac670fd.webp[/img][/hider]
<div style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Back when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, I got started with writing online on the Spore forums. Man, those were the days. We're talking like <span class="bb-s">12 years ago</span> 2010-ish!<br><br>I've been here on and off for almost as long, and have GM'd a bunch of different things to varying success.<br><br><div class="bb-center">Word of my splendor:</div><br><div class="hider-panel"><div class="hider-heading"><button type="button" class="btn btn-default btn-xs hider-button" data-name="My messenger's letter">My messenger's letter [+]</button></div><div class="hider-body" style="display: none"><img src="https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019b0090-4706-75b9-bfe5-fd4ef6737466.webp" /></div></div><br><div class="hider-panel"><div class="hider-heading"><button type="button" class="btn btn-default btn-xs hider-button" data-name="My fellow monarch's response">My fellow monarch's response [+]</button></div><div class="hider-body" style="display: none"><img src="https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019b0090-a418-774f-a117-1ae23ac670fd.webp" /></div></div></div>
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