Ellri

The Relics (No Plot/Fantasy/Character Driven/Worthy of Skepticism)

Ruins and pointy rocks could work. Maybe also a bit of cliffs?

The Relics (No Plot/Fantasy/Character Driven/Worthy of Skepticism)

We don't really know of any instant historic examples for waterfront hindrances. It could be cliffs. It could be really nasty reefs. It could be something else. We don't have ideas here and now.

Just the act of jumping on a boat isn't worth a full post on its own. We would highly recommend a full-length collab there.

The Relics (No Plot/Fantasy/Character Driven/Worthy of Skepticism)

Toss him a PM. Then you can work out a longer post through that. He won't mind.

I need advice on how to make this kind of RP.

Even if you don't use it now, we'd recommend recording it somewhere. If you can't get it working now, maybe you can later?

We've got a few RP concepts like that laying around. You never have too many of those.

The Relics (No Plot/Fantasy/Character Driven/Worthy of Skepticism)

Limiting access. I.e. make the docks cover not the entire 8.4km length.

One option is always some sort of cliff or such, but we wouldn't mind ideas from people. Including where to place such, and how much to place it on. While vertical stone walls is possible to do there and would be relatively easy to draw, we'd rather have something less regular and more imaginative. The height is also something we wouldn't mind suggestions for. Anything up to around 130m is ok without too much remodeling. We'd rather also maintain fairly low height near the outer walls. Especially the western wall, where the wall is better drawn.

Oh, and there's a river entering the lake at around 3.6km from the eastern outer wall. That would need taking into account for any cliffs or whatever.

The Relics (No Plot/Fantasy/Character Driven/Worthy of Skepticism)

Post is finally up, after a full rewrite. We didn't like the bit we made yesterday, so we discarded it. We'd have liked more information in now, but it was more important to get things moving.

By this post, they've conquered all but the docks of the outer city and that lack is quickly being mended.

one thing we wonder if anyone has thoughts on... as it is on a peninsula, the city of Amaryth has a pretty long waterfront. Currently about 8.4km. Any thoughts on how to shorten it?

here's also a bit of OoC stuff in the form of a couple of bare-bones NPC sheets and a new rank in the Imperial war machine.

Kalesian army NPC sheets

Name: Katarína Kovac
Age: 44
Gender: Female
Rank: Processus

Name: Sykora
Age: 41
Gender: Male
Rank: Commander
Known: Former Mauler cavalry. Skilled commander now. Nominally in charge of the campaign.

Name: Jahoda
Age: 36
Gender: Female
Rank: Commander
Known: Not as senior as Sykora. More hands-on, direct confrontation. Not a brilliant tactician, but stubborn. Loyal.

Kalesian Military Ranks

Processus:
In a Kalesian Army, the Processus is the individual in charge of guiding the commanders’ efforts so that they are as the best they can be. He or she is made aware of every development in a battle, be it major or minor. Where commanders decide which specific tactics to use, the Processus tries to know everything and ensure that all units are in the right places according to the main plan. They’re far from perfect. And they’re not really good fighters, as after the absolute basic training, they were focused entirely upon theoretics.

Commander:
Unlike most armies, there isn't just one commander. Sure, there's one in command over the others, but he, or she, holds the same rank as every other commander. Representatives of the Empress can promote and demote such at need. By the time any reaches this rank, he or she is fully capable of leading an entire army, thus the act of having a commander assassinated isn't as deliberating to the army on the whole as it is in other nations' armies. Most commanders have achieved several great victories before their ascension to the rank of Commander.

Kalesian Nobility

Kalesian Nobility:

The nobility of the Kalesian Empire is hardly the standard when it comes to the upper echelons of power. Where in many lands the nobility are envied or even hated by those below them for often arrogant or cruel behaviour, the class generally known as ‘nobility’ in the Empire is far different. The Empire does not value bloodlines so much as it values competence and the willingness to contribute to the good of all Kalesian society, thus, those that bear a title in the Empire have very likely earned it.

In order to be declared a noble, a Kalesian citizen must have the approval of the existing nobles as well as the Grand Imperial University and the governor of the closest city. The stringent and demanding standards these groups will hold people to ensure that only individuals that can truly live up to Kalesian ideals will join the highest echelon of society. The only exceptions to this are either the favour of a Quaesitor or the Empress herself. Furthermore, once a Noble, one must continue to prove one's worth in academic, economic or civil areas. A noble proving particularly lax for any length of time will have their title stripped and will not be able to regain it, encouraging dedicated service to the good of the Empire. The Empress possesses Veto power on both the instatement and demotion of nobles, but rarely is this power used.

Bloodlines do exist among the nobility, and the Empire is not without long standing noble families. Children of noble parentage (where only one parent need be a noble) are considered to be noble until the age of eighteen (unless confirmed as nobility earlier), though lacking titles throughout this time. At the age of twelve, their actions and temperament begin to come under a review known as the Titling trial. If they consistently meet the standards against which they are measured for two years, they will be granted full titles. Should a noble child have failed to live up to the standard for at least one year by the time they reach eighteen, they are demoted back into the common citizenry. This means that the oldest a noble child may be granted full titles is nineteen, though it is rare that the successful ones have not proven themselves before this. Those that do not make it at this time will conditionally be either banned from attempting to regain their position as if they’d been stripped of title or allowed to regain it in the future. Such a rule is to ensure that those with late blooming potential are not penalised, while those that clearly are unworthy of a privileged position are never allowed another chance.

The tradition of naming within noble bloodlines is one that ensures the nobles names continue. A child of one noble and one commoner bears only the nobles name, regardless of genders involved. The child of two nobles will carry both the nobles family names, with the order determined by their gender. A female child will have her mothers name first and fathers second, while a male child will have his fathers first and mothers second. In the case of a parent that bears two names, they will pass on only the first of their family names, a rule instituted not long after the modern practice of nobility was established to ensure that names did not become exceedingly long, as well as to dissuade dynastic tendencies somewhat.

Quaesitor:
Individuals who bear this title wander are generally well into adulthood by the time they gain it. They might be men or women, gender is of no relevance. While the title tends to move in families, its not exactly hereditary. The traits most common to Quaesitors are often hereditary, but also a bit cultural. If your father (or mother) is extremely fond of wandering the land, chances are you might end up sharing that interest.

Their role, is to wander the empire and find individuals suited especially for different services to the empire, be it military, research, government, or virtually any other. The attention of a Quaesitor is sufficient for individuals of otherwise no chances in life to reach the highest ranks in Kalesian society. If your family are the poorest of farmers, its not normally likely you’d have much chance of being anything else yourself. Changing that is the very goal of the Quaesitors, given that you show the potential for it. According to imperial policy, low (or high) birth should not be a barrier.

Quaesitors can also assign new noble names if they deem it necessary. Or they can ‘recommend’ that a certain noble family adopts someone particularly suited to their favored field. While a noble family can say no here, most generally do not. Quaesitors do not bear family names, as they might come from any origins within the empire.

Imperial Evokers

Ivona Danica - Speed, strength, etc. + gifting - Vocator leader (Sep)
Unknown - Empress (All the sparse evidence indicates she is some form of Evoker)
Alessia Rezalla-Rhidian - fear & calm - Kalesian Noble (Echo)
Slavómir “Weaver” Rezník - Shadow weaver - imperial citizen
Unknown - Fire field creator - presumed imperial citizen
Unknown - Metal field creator - presumed imperial citizen
Unknown (female) - Farseer - Imperial citizen
Jana - Shaker - Imperial citizen
Unknown - Unknown - Imperial citizen
may be more.

The Relics (No Plot/Fantasy/Character Driven/Worthy of Skepticism)

Imperial Kalesian command post, near Amaryth's Eastern gate
“The Outer City is all but ours.” Commander Sykora said out loud, very proud of his own achievement, as if he alone was responsible. “Not quite, commander. There is still the issue of the docks. Members of the heathen church and a few of the Untrained stand in the way. This reinforcement will fix that.” The person speaking handed the commander a set of orders indicating a full regiment of Maulers and three Kalbeasts be deployed to aid the forces sent to the docks. “Thank you, Processus Kovac. While I am loath to lose access to those outside, taking the outer city is essential.” The Processus nodded. “Deploy them inside. You do not need them outside right now.” After this, the Processus turned around and went back to her work, harvesting information from her underlings, who in turn acquired it from theirs. It wasn’t the simplest system, but it worked.

Near the docks, not much later
The barricades blocking the streets leading to the docks were surprisingly strong to have been built so quickly. The soldiers there, most bearing the colors of the knights of Idris, were ready for anything. Nothing the Empire had thrown at them had even moderately phased them, let alone broken through. For the most part, it had been small units of infantry, easily crushed. Then suddenly, it was not just odd units of infantry moving down on the barrier. Suddenly, the crowd had stopped coming, only to be replaced by ranks of infantry, with Mauler Cavalry moving on all sides, including across the rooftops. Not to mention the Kalbeasts at their head.

The soldiers at the barriers, foolishly tried to fight. Possibly holding to the idea of a “last stand”. Commander Sykora did not really care much about that concept. He simply had the Kalbeasts punch straight through barrier after barrier, just after the Maulers had flanked them. Oh he could remember the days when he personally had ridden one of those. Those were the days. Nonetheless, not a single barrier held out against their strike and the conquest once more moved towards the docks. Soon only the Inner city would remain. He did not yet know how to conquer that, but do it he would. For the Empress, might she live forever.

Elsewhere in the outer city
Thora was beginning to dislike this place. There were soldiers everywhere. And where there weren’t soldiers, there were crowds. She disliked both of those. Almost all her concentration was focused on keeping the thirst in check. Since that strange foreigner, she had fed twice. She did not know whether anyone had seen, but she was afraid that was the case. It was proving more and more difficult to control, or at least it felt like it was. She didn’t know for sure. She was starting to want to get out of the city more and more, but had no idea where to go to do so.

Unknown location in the City
For a few moments after the signal was sent Slavómir had struggled to get the darkness to recover. He thought it would have been easier if they had simply used one of those Evokers who could wield fire to create the signal, but it did make sense that they did not want a simple one. A random fireball could happen. Fire evokers weren’t that rare as evokers go. Nightweavers, however were. It would not be good if any signals were sent when they should not be. All he had to wait for now, was the instructions to lower the darkness. While it was not hard to maintain it, it would still be relaxing to not maintain it. And he would feel safer. So long as he wove a darkness this large, he could not use the darkness for self-defense around himself. No matter how powerful a relic, it would always have limits.

The Relics (No Plot/Fantasy/Character Driven/Worthy of Skepticism)

It was an effective form of invasion. Those invasions designed to merely wreak havoc just don't work as well.

The Relics (No Plot/Fantasy/Character Driven/Worthy of Skepticism)

Its not impossible for the relations to be that they hate the nobles, but still love the king. Its not unheard of.

The Relics (No Plot/Fantasy/Character Driven/Worthy of Skepticism)

Not Kalesian style. At least not in this phase.

We're thinking that with how the inner and outer cities are so separated... might be that there's a bit of dislike among the outer city commoners and the powerful folks inside? Would that be ok to work on as a thread?