1. Copy, can do. Will let you know when it's done. 2. Well wood has lots of things to hunt, and ocean provides food. So maybe short on war materials and certainly on luxury items, which would explain the raiding?
(Place names and such are rough ideas. Open to changing them)
Actually, whole thing is a bit rough right now. Let me know if you want changes or have ideas!
Clan Name: Broken Hammer
Jarl/Chief/King Name & Description: Jarl Geirlaug Åsmundottir
Alias: Klyppr - 'Cutter'
Government Type: Earldom
Non Human Species Descriptions: The Broken Hammer are allied with the Bloodaxe Giant Clan.
Location: The Broken Hammer inhabit the Southlands, in the aptly named Deep Wood that stretches from the jagged Ocean of Tears to the savage Dawnstar Mountains.
Religion: WIP - Need players!
Clan Description: The Broken Hammer are a powerful Clan located in the South of the Broken Lands along the Ocean of Tears. This harsh and cliff strewn region has seen it's fair share of warfare as the Clan wages a never ending war with The Salished Empire. Broken Hammer longships slide from small rocky harbours to wage a savage war of hit and run raids on Imperial subjects while the Imperial Navy seeks to sweep them from the seas.
The Broken Hammer itself gets it's name from the Ancient Ones ship that is wrecked in their principal harbour. The massive hulk, battered by never ceasing seas, bears a great hammer on the prow, a hammer that has long since lost its upper half and now lies embedded in the sand on the beach. The Jarls Hall is built into the old hull, patched with wood and stone from the surrounding land.
The Broken Hammer are slightly smaller than their northern neighbours, and certainly much smaller than the Bloodaxe Giant Tribe. They wage war with brutal ferocity like all those in the Broken Lands, the strongest among them wielding vicious jagged headed hammers.
Clan History: WIP - Need players!
Regional Geography/Resources/Economy Details: The Broken Hammer live in a region known as the Deep Wood, so called for the dense and lush forest that blankets the region. Bordered to the north by jagged mountains, and the south and west by rocky cliffs with small natural openings that lead to excellent harbours. Resources here are plentiful in food sources, lumber, stone, and coke for the smelting of iron to make weapons.
Important Characters: Jarl Geirlaug Åsmundottir is the Jarl of the Broken Hammer Clan. She has earned the title through combat and cunning, as one must to be Jarl of the Broken Hammer. Tall, blonde, with a single sharp green eye, she is beautiful by any standards. Her otherwise stunning visage is somewhat marred by left eye being gone, pulped by an enemies sword pommel during a raid on the Salished Empire.
Important Holdings/Territory/Possessions: The Broken Hammer have two principal settlements, their Capital of Askasmiðr, built around the shattered Ancient Ones ship, and the Bjarneyja, a fortified city of stone and wood located at the heart of the Deep Wood. The two are connected by the Rauða River.
There are numerous smaller settlements located throughout the region, none coming close in size to either of the cities.
Relation to other Factions: WIP - Need more players!
Looks good! A few thoughts:
1) would love to see more detail on the giants and what their deal is. 2) Maybe resources in the Deep Wood are not really plentiful (besides wood, obviously). Hunting/gathering probly can't sustain a large Clan, and mining is probably tough in what is essentially a wilderness. Since the whole Clan is built around raiding the South, why not have that be one of the main reasons they do so? For resources.
The sea gives, the gods take. The sea takes, the gods give. - northern reaver proverb
Kingsport, the Crooked Isles
As usual, Kingsport lay under a thick blanket of mist, heavy with the smell of brine and dead fish. From the window of her solar she could only just make out the shadow of battlements that lay not forty paces from her. The city, if you could call it that, was invisible completely, hidden beneath its white and stinking shroud. Thank the gods for small mercies.
She hated this place, and had for nearly thirteen years, ever since her barbarian husband bargained with her father for her hand. That she had come to love her husband and had loathed her father since she'd been a nursling never quite made up for the indignity she suffered, having to live here, far from the sun and wine and stern but orderly gods of the south, whose names now she could not quite recall. She could remember their images, though, on the feast days when the Forge Priests would march through the narrow, sandstone streets of Kul Nabal, holding aloft the Holy Blades and the idols born on litters, resplendent figures wrought of silver, their eyes living flame.
The northmen had no feast days or marches, and their gods were dour things, carved of wood, demanding no true sacrifice for their meagre boons.
Still, she prayed to them now, prayed for their protection. For her son was a northman, and they were his gods. Her son, the only child of Aigoth Stone Foot, High King of the Broken Lands, Jarl of the Crooked Isles, Slayer of Giants and Trolls, He Who Humbled the Coward and Brought Peace to the Clans, Vanquisher of Southrons... Killed by his prey on a shark hunt.
He was laughing, the men said, as he readied another harpoon and was dragged into the gray, cold water.
Leaving her, who for all her years here was a stranger still. And her son: the new High King.
Often, for undaunted courage, fate spares the man it has not already marked. - Beowulf
So every bondman in his own hand bears The power to cancel his captivity. - Casca, Julius Caesar
I shivered oddly in the cold, thin air, And wondered where I was and how I came, When a cloaked form against a campfire’s glare Rose and approached, and called me by my name. Staring at that dead face beneath the hood, I ceased to hope—because I understood. - A Memory, Lovecraft
Welcome to Azoth.
Welcome to a world scarred by history, to a world broken by the wars of ancients known now only as the Old Ones.
Who or what they were is mysterious even to the most learned, for they destroyed themselves in ages so distant only confused myths and legends remain. Some tell of a race of gods descended from the stars, others of kingdoms of devils that dwell still in the many hells below the earth. Azoth is strewn with the ruins of these advanced and strange peoples, haunted by ghosts and demons, warped and mutated by untamed magic. Millenia have passed since the fall of the Old Ones, and societies have risen and fallen in their wake.
The Broken Lands
It is now the Year of the Setting Sun 7,801, as reckoned by the astrologers of the Dratha.
Aigoth Stone Foot, High King of the Crooked Isles and all the Broken Lands, is dead.
Aigoth II, a mere boy ruled over by his mother, stands in line to replace him.
The Jarls, Princelings and Kings of the Great Clans grow restless: some call for a Kingsmoot and a new High King elected, others seek the throne, others independence, others still allies in the face of the looming threats from north, where pale-men of have begun raiding and despoiling the sons of men once more.
To the South...
The Salished Empire, the mightiest nation in all Azoth, has signed a new armistice with the with its ancient enemies, the wizard-lords of the Drathan Union, ending the Third War of Priests and Sorcerers. With the Drathan city of Zar Vorgul now firmly in his grip and his border fortified, the Shashul is now free to strike at the Broken Lands from the south. His legions are ready, they await the Shashul's command.
Welcome!
Everyone will RP as a Clan or faction in the Kingdom of the Broken Lands, a (very) loosely norse-inspired confederation of tribes and peoples in the world of Azoth. You will design your faction- one of the Great Clans, headed by a Jarl or lesser Kings. The High King, to whom all Clans owed feudal obligations, is now dead, a power vacuum created just as the powerful Salished Empire to the South begins to turn its attention northwards.
This will be lowish fantasy, and while norse-inspired, we shouldnt feel particularly limited by that in creating the setting.
I would like all Clans to be mostly human, but I'm ok with demi- or non-human characters and elements (eg, perhaps your Clan is allied with a giant tribe or your royal bloodline are implied to be werewolves, etc).
The culture, religion, history, etc of the Broken Lands- and indeed, the world- will be fleshed out by players. As always, I'm big on the collaborative world building and telling cool stories as a group of writers. If you're here to play Civilization: the Text Edition, maybe this ain't the place to be.
About This RP
-It is dark fantasy nation RP set in a harsh and unforgiving fantasy world living among the ruins of ancient, hyper advanced civilizations. Azoth is crawling with mutants and monsters. Resources are scarce. This is Lovecraft meets Tolkien meets Skyrim. -I'd like this to be an exercise in collaborative world building. That means that we want factions and characters that feel like they inhabit a shared world. Players will collaborate heavily in designing their factions. -It is low-medium fantasy: magic exists. It is powerful and dangerous.
A note on Magic:
I like the Tolkien/GRR Martin approach to magic and religion. Magic is real, mysterious, and powerful, but for the most part takes place 'off-screen', and is for aesthetic purposes somewhat subdued or indirect. I am not a big fan on fixed magic rules or magic systems. I do want to stress that this is low(ish) fantasy. That means no armies of reanimated dead or golems, no legions of fireball casters, balrogs, etc. We're going to err on the side of how the LotR handled magic rather than say, D&D.
Likewise, the RP will take the GRR Martin approach to religion: there are as many religions as we can come up with here, but we will leave it an open question as to whether any of them are true. Conflicting mythos and cosmologies and visions of god(s) are encouraged.
-It is vaguely Renaissance tech. Cannons and arquebus are new military technology, and would be very very very rare in the Broken Lands, which are generally barbarous and backwards. -It has archeo-tech from a lost, highly advanced civilization. Salvaged/repurposed Old One tech is common in many places across Azoth, though the Broken Lands are backwards in this respect as well. Old One ruins are very common all over the world. -It has original fantasy races. (GM approval needed for original races, which can be allied/part of your mostly human Clan) -Inspired by Tolkien, Warhammer fantasy and 40K, Lovecraft, China Mieville, Morrowind, Skyrim, Song of Ice and Fire...looking forward to seeing what others bring to the table. - Advanced writing standards. -Discord
FYI: brief nation sheets for the two major NPCs to the South, the Salished Empire and the Drathan Union will be posted shortly for your reference.
Clan Name: Jarl/Chief/King Name & Description: Alias: Government Type: (most will be petty kingdoms) Non Human Species Descriptions: [Clans are mostly human, but non human allies/slaves/etc are allowed with GM approval] Location: Religion: [gods will likely be shared across Clans, but some clans may be devoted to some gods more than others. Please work with your fellow RPers to design the religious traditions of the Broken Lands] Clan Description: Clan History: [pls work with other players- our clans are all part of a single confederation, there will be a lot of shared history] Regional Geography/Resources/Economy Details: Important Characters: Important Holdings/Territory/Possessions: [describe your settlements, limited to 3-4 cities, max, plus as many lesser holdings as make sense for your Clan] Relation to other Factions:
I am hoping to make some Psuedo- Saxon mixed with Spartan peoples. I was planning on 11th century technology but I can add three centuries to that I suppose.
I mean, do what you like- we'll make it work. As I mentioned, the Broken Lands is ass-backwards, so cannons and the like might be used by the NPC invaders a few people, but it's not going to be wide spread. And archeo-tech is more flavor for the setting plus the possibility of heroes having interesting artifacts rather than stuff in regular use by the factions we'll be controlling.
@FlaggI was thinking of having my guys gain in size as their reputation and legend increases. Essentially Jotunn, from the Norse myths.
Something like that could be fine, but the Clans are human. A clan allied/integrated with a tribe of giants tho would be fine.
Very loosely watching, but at this point, I'm inclined to wait for sheets to see how far the tech goes. Very much on the border for me, though if 'tech' is basically as integrated as dwemer gear in Skyrim (you can find it, but it ultimately ends up barely used in the 'real world') then my 'maybe' becomes more solid.
The dwemer ruins/artefacts in Skyrim and Morrowind is exactly the model of how tech would be used.
I'm fairly open to what people bring to the table for this. It's tech from an ancient, highly advanced civ, most of which is severely degraded. I don't want to give too many specific examples bc I want to see what people do with the idea. But a faction could completely ignore it w.o being 'underpowered' in any way.
Eh... Getting a little to much into the techno side for me. Someone always has to have guns to win, and it tends to ruin it.
I really wouldnt worry about that. I'm not going to allow power-gaming with magic or with tech of any kind. Everything will be for the sake of a good story, not 'winning'. We're telling a story, not playing Risk. Also, as mentioned above, all the factions will be from a part of the world in which gunpowder and archeotech are especially rare.
