Jb — Roleplayer Guild

The continent of Alnar is the largest out of four – roughly the same size as our own continent of Asia – a diverse land of territories controlled by all manner of potentates calling themselves everything from 'King' to 'Emperor' to ' Merchant Ruler'; all is not created equal in this world, and the cultures and technological levels of each domain will inevitably vary, the most advanced (the Merchant Commonwealth of Sayko) having advanced as far as the powder and steel usage of the Fifteenth Century. There are others, of course, such as the savage tribes of the Ciekoth peninsula, or the steel-clad knights of the Kingdom of Elenesse, and each vie for supremacy of the continent as Homo sapiens sapiens has done since time immemorial.

This would all be fine and well had they been the first to inhabit these lands, had their forefathers not committed centuries of genocide and slavery to create the dominions that they now called their homelands, and had those that they fought actually been eradicated from the world for good...but they were not.

Such slaughter and killing was not all bad, the Elven realms remaining largely intact and their peoples even employed and hired by the humans as scholars, teachers and advisers. Likewise the Dwarven holds, these robust folk given treaties and their existence in exchange for technology, the forging necessities and a military alliance with many of the larger human lands; these races were considered by humans to be the 'good' races – their appearance not unlike their own, similar enough that they would not massacre them on sight, and their useful skills better engaged in assisting them that having to wipe them out.

Not so for others.

Centaurs, once masters of the western steppes, were considered abominations in the majority of the human faiths and – those that were not immediately put to death – were subjected to subjugation in many forms; for the most part they were used as labour, as personal mounts, or as curiosities to be gawked at in zoos.

The Children of the Cyclops – one eyed creatures living mostly in isolation on small islands away from the mainland - and minotaurs were simply considered too bestial for anything but hard labour or the cold black of death! Mostly digging quarries or mines, assembling towering buildings and monuments to those that had killed and captured them.

Orcs, creatures so reviled by man that their very name conjures images of cannibalistic savages, were once as prosperous and as varied as the humans themselves – some being little more than grunting cave-dwellers, while others might hold a lance and ride a horse as well as any man. Through systematic oppression and mass terror, they became the most numerous of the slaves used by mannish rulers, being used as everything from gladiatorial combatants to house servants and farm hands with only small pockets still existing in the darker corners and underbellies of Alnar.

Yet there is, and has always been, an undercurrent of discontent moving through this more mythical subclass of the landmass and it would take but a spark to ignite it. Such a spark, though kept well hidden from prying eyes, is currently smouldering away in Sayko – a land of merchants and mercenary armies, but also one of blood sports and naval supremacy, a Commonwealth built quite firmly on the back of slavery and those that came before. 

Once it reaches the powder-keg of revolt, there is no telling what might happen...

And there you have it, for now, the barest skeletal outlines of what I intend to be my most in-depth and longest attempt at a fantasy narrative RP; taking influence from David Eddings (Belgariad etc), Tolkien (Lord of the Rings etc), Andrzej Sapkowski (The Witcher) and R. E. Howard (Conan) to name a few, I intend to build up a world with themes as mature as they are varied – and that begins with an uprising in one of the most comfortable dominions of man. If one were to delve into real-world history then comparisons could be found in the conflicts of Spartacus against the Roman Republic, the French Revolution, and others.

Like Eddings and Howard, the human lands within this setting vary greatly, with the most basic being Bronze/Iron Age and the most advanced being around the fifteenth century I.E. the pike and matchlock coming into play on most major battlefields. Flintlocks are not a thing...yet.

Players will be taking the roles of the 'mythical' underclass – whether a free born member, an enslaved subject rising against their master(s), or a sympathiser to their cause. Intrigue, bloodshed and more being the outcome of this.

There is a lot more, but that will probably do for now!

Any and all questions are welcome, and if you would be interested then please say so.

P.S.

I will be putting up sections about magic, more obscure races and so forth in the OOC thread, but I'd need players for that first.

<Snipped quote by Jbcool>

I agree, but I find it's generally hard to interest people in things that aren't 'the current hot topic on RPG'. I've learned over the course of my few years of GMing that generally the only way I can get an RP that isn't part of the 'mainstream' roleplay topic (I hate saying mainstream, I'm not critiqueing those RP's) is to have friends that I can count on to join up.

What is popular is standard fairy tales - princess and prince pairings, but that's only in 1x1. In group RP's it's typically a fandom. It's how things go. 

Nice Sutton Hoo ;)@Buddha

Whelp, you are very right about that! Guess I'm attempting to break some sort of mould? 

And thank you, nice...runes?

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Because we're here lad

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