How would you feel about trading with the mighty Red Dragon in return exotic goods from the northern continent or a modern advantage over your enemies...
Sure. Sounds good. Our people probly have a bit of history anyway, seeing as youre in the south. Let me know how you wanna do this? Perhaps a representative of the Drathan dictator comes north? What are our relations like?
Flagg, my colonel's talks with the red dragon should be quick, seeing as we are already loosely trading. The Colonel before long will head down to either Chee or Dratha to continue to negotiate
Sounds good. Let me know if you want to collab something out. If you dont mind making more characters, there's no reason your nation wouldnt already have representatives in Dratha land or somehow involved with Barrow & White.
Alright. This confusion is my fault. I throw up a post tonight that should get everyone going. If I don't get it up tonight, it doesnt mean I've forgotten, just that I was unexpectedly busy, and I will try to write it over the next few days.
Rebooting this? Nice. I was so bummed when the original one died.
Welcome back Spleen! Sorry I forgot to PM you about the reboot. I just messaged everyone with an NS in the old thread accepted library, so I may have missed some other people...
Hey folks,
My political map seems a bit funky to work with with paint, bc of some peculiar way it saved. For now, the easiest quick fix is to just use Serps blank map, found here:
and rotate it in paint and fill in your nation claim.
I will work on fixing the map in the OP.
Liking the NSes so far, keep 'em coming.
Capital: Zar Dratha Government Type: Imperial Oligarchy/Mageocracy Ruling Body: The Congress of Masters Currency: Drathan Teeth Population: ~14 millions Realm Size: 80 Blocks
Unique Trait 1:Wizard-Lords: The Union is governed by the (often fractious) Congress of Masters, a group of extremely powerful mages. Drathan sorcerers are famed for their skill and knowledge of hidden arts, as well as for their almost complete lack of scruples. Magical inquiry of (almost) all kinds thrives in the cities of the Union, which is home to the most celebrated libraries, arcanums and universities in the known world. All forms of magic, including necromancy, blood magic, and the other branches of dark arts are permitted and indeed actively studied in the Union.
Unique Trait 2: WIP
Unique Flaw 1:Subjects, Serfs and Slaves:Except for the relatively small members of the ruling caste, and for mercantile plutocrats, the denizens of the Union are deprived any political participation, and the vast majority of the population are impoverished serfs and slaves. The Congress of Masters lords over a vast, diverse empire encompassing a huge, racially and culturally diverse population. For the most part, they are forced to rule with the lash, and inspire little loyalty or love from their subjected populations. [practical effects = police state, heavy revolutionary activity and often mutinous armies]
Unique Flaw 2: WIP
Dark Purple = Drathan Union
Internal-Realm Map: WIP
Major Cities: Zar Dratha Zar Pellos Zar Vo Near Ryloth St. Gavos' Harbour Zar Anthedalas Zar Varyon Onctes Archeos (holy site) Tripantos
Major Castles: The Tower of the Sun and Moon (holy site) Zar Velym Zar Mythrad Far Ryloth
Buildings of Interest: Tower of the Sun and Moon (holy site) The Grand University and Orrery of Zar Pellos The Divine Arcanum at Archeos The Tripantos Fighting Pits The Seven Libraries of Dratha The House of the Masters
Geographic Features of Interest: Sea of Teeth Gravemire Isle Varyon River Drathan Delta Archeos Oasis Avanagashan Desert The Bloodspring (holy site-red pantheon)
Drathans: humans from a number of aristocratic bloodlines carefully maintained over millenia, Drathans have a natural affinity for magic and have ruled the desert cities of the south for millenia. Infighting between the major Drathan clans was the norm for centuries before the coming of Justinian and the formation of the Union. They form a small minority and ruling caste throughout the Union, and are striking for the faintly bluish tone of their skin.
Avanagashans: human cultural/ethnic group of the fertile river valleys and Archeos Oasis. Avanagashans are farmers and city dwellers, and have been ruled by the Drathan Clans for millenia. They are strongly Yuwanist, and are known to be skilled merchants. Avanagashans fight as sarissa hoplites when called to war.
Tripantese: human cultural/ethnic group that dominates the southernmost tropics, the Tripantese are an ancient Yuwanist culture famed for their dense coastal cities. Seafarers, the Tripantese ply the coasts of Avara with their trading vessels, and hunt leviathans for food and sport. They are slavers and mercenaries, with formidable swordsmen, and have prospered under centuries of Drathan rule.
Nuvidians: human tribesmen of the vast Avanagashan desert, Nuvidians are skilled light infantry and cavalry. They follow their own strand of Yuwanism, and many worship desert spirits and djinns that are part of the Red Pantheon. They serve the Drathan wizards as mercenaries.
Beastkin: cruel amalgamations of beast and humans bred by Drathan wizards to fight their wars, the beastkin serve as foot soldiers for the Union, and but many feral tribes have roam the southern jungles freely. The Drathan lords allow this, since it fosters the development of new and more savage warbreeds which can then be coerced into serving Union arms.
Minority Race: Trollkin
Race Characteristics: The result of centuries of bio-alchemical experimentation by the Drathan Masters to produce a race of obedient soldiers, the Trollkin are foul hybrids of human and demon. Strong, fast, vicious, and fearless they are outstanding shock troops and are the most feared soldiers in the Union's armies. Unfortunately, they are of limited intelligence, and their high metabolism and native ferocity often makes them dangerous to their own commanders and allies. Likewise, the magical means used to accelerate Trollkin growth results in high levels of mutancy and physiological degeneration. Despite these drawbacks, the Union is investing heavily in producing and arming ever greater numbers of the Trollkin, which are bred in vast, unspeakable "farms" in the slaver-cities that dot the Southern Coast.
State Religion: The Old Ways
Religious Information: Though Yuwanism is the official religion, the Congress of Masters tolerates the practice of many local religions within its borders. The worship of the Red Pantheon is widespread among the slave armies of the Union and, indeed, among a sizable minority of the bureaucracy.
Magic and religion in the Union are policed by two inquisitorial guilds answering directly to the Congress of Masters. The first and most prominent is the Order of the Sun, which is responsible for rooting out the taint of Plague within the Union, for 'recruiting' magically talented children into the state Eugenic Arcanums, and for monitoring political and religious groups for subversive tendencies. The Order of the Sun provides battle-mage Overseers to serve as commanders and commissars in Union formations.
The Order of the Moon for its part, is surrounded in mystery. Among its duties are studying the Dream Plague in order to seek out ways to defeat it, as well as plumbing the depths of forbidden magicks, such as the creation of warbreeds and experimental blood magic. Invigilators (as members of the order are called) are also tasked with internal and external espionage, kidnapping, assassinations and other black ops, and provide the Union military with powerful dark wizards and assassins.
The Order of the Sun is devoted to the Bright Lady, an aspect of Yuwan as Philosopher-Queen. The Order of the Moon worships the Goddess Unspoken, an aspect of Yuwan as the ruthless and cunning lady of shadows.
Both Orders maintain fortresses throughout the Union, and are based out of the immense Tower of the Sun and Moon, on Gravemire Isle in the Sea of Teeth.
Religion Demographics:
Holy Relics In Possession: The Liar's Sword The Alethia Mechanism The Precepts Unspoken, original scrolls Staff of Unjolo The Eye of the Moon
Holy Sites Under Control:
Archeos
Tower of the Sun and Moon
The Bloodspring (Red Pantheon)
Magical Schools and Curriculum: See unique trait one. All schools of magic are permitted and studied in the Union, which is home to some of the worlds most famous arcane libraries and universities. Magical practice is monitered by the Order of the Sun, and inquisitorial fraternity committed to rooting out the taint of plague in the lands of the Union.
Total Military Size at start of the RP: ~165,000
Military Details WIP
Head of State/Monarch: Kai daz Syfo, Archmagistra of the Congress of Masters, nominal head of the Drathan Union. She is a skilled military leader and blood mage.
Religious Head: Vaia the Dreamer, Heirophant of the Divine Arcanum, Chief Diviner of the Circle of Augurs, Prophet of Yuwan
Additional Persons of interest:
Athalus daz Velym, Magister of Zar Velym. Secretly an arch-lich, and perhaps the most politically gifted member of the Congress.
Urmine Pellos, Magister of Zar Vo. Accomplished skinchanger.
Therana daz Zule, "The Godless" Magistra of Zar Mythrad, famously contemptuous of all cults and gods.
Qux Many Eyed, Magister of Archeos, arch-lich, eldest of the Congress.
Ulthaur Red Hand, Magister of Onctes, unapologetic devotee of the Red Pantheon, potent blood-mage.
Odrossian daz Nagath, Wizard-King of Tripantos, oversees the beast and trollkin farms.
Gabul the Wanderer, nominal Magister of Near Ryloth
Other Heroes:
Karrack Goresword, Beastmaster, Dark Eater, Favored of the Red Gods (beastkin warlord)
CULTURAL
Short History:
WIP
The Union's origins lie in a league of human merchant cities in the Drathan Delta and the Archeos Oasis. For centuries, the Drathan cities had been ruled by a loose affiliation of magi known as the Congress of Masters. Devoted to the accumulation of knowledge and arcane power, the magi of the Congress were little interested in the day to day politics of their fiefdoms, which they ruled mostly as a means of retaining sufficient personal wealth and leisure to pursue their wide ranging philosophical interests. Personal feuds and vendettas between mage-lords coupled with laissez-faire rule over the masses characterized much of Drathan politics in the long centuries before the rise of Justinian.
The Breaking of the Moon changed things. The rise of Justinian and major political powers devoted to his worship across the world worried the Masters mightily.
Bound together by self-interest, the Congress of Masters determined to form a vast power base from which they could resist the encroaching threats. The diverse polities and tribes occupying what would become the Drathan Union were quickly united by the wizard-lords, who had in the space of a year united vast armies of ravening beastkin and hired legions of mercenaries to do their bidding. The Congress of Masters subjugated the clans of the Southern tropics, formed pacts with the Nuvidian desert tribes, and bent the innumerable beast folk inhabiting the wilds to their will.
In less than a decade, the Masters had formed one of the world's largest empires, a testament to their incredible power and genius... but their conquest was fragile and superficial, and the following years saw the Union totter and reel with internal confusion as the Congress of Masters attempted to mobilize the now vast resources at their disposal. An unwieldy bureaucratic police state was formed atop a polity of immense internal diversity and contradiction.
It has taken the looming threat of the Dream Plague to solidify the Masters' despotic hold on their varied domains.
WIP
-List of Historical Grievances -Relations
Cultural Notes
Slaver Society
Culturally Diverse- the Union comprises many major cultures, with innumerable varieties of Yuwanism and worship of the Red Pantheon being the most common religious practices.
Intellectual- Desert cities of the Union, thanks to century of magi-rule, are home to incredible libraries, universities, orreries and arcanums.
If Commodore does not return, what are we to do about Task Force Rho?
I have a plan for that, Ink. No worries. I was going to give you the option of having your ship moved from Rho to the main invasion fleet at the last minute, or more likely of just keeping @Commodore Robot's char as an NPC until he returns (if he does) and proceeding with the diversionary attack. Based on the IC post I'll throw up soon, you'll have the option of either being in the main fleet and explaining why your ship changed sides, or being part of the diversion.
