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3 mos ago
That feeling when you have a new character bouncing around your brain, dying to get out.
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K A S S A R O C K
30 | M | GMT
Greetings friends, partners, enemies, acquaintances, and strangers. I am Kassarock, or just Kass if you prefer, welcome to my profile. Anyway, I am a 30 year old male roleplayer from the UK and a long time user of the site, although I have come and gone a fair bit over my time here. I used to be more active on the old site, and I still am relatively active in the off topic sections today, as well as in the guild's discord. So you might see me around.

I generally consider myself to be an advanced writer, I pretty much always write multiple paragraphs, and will drop walls of text if the mood takes me. My grammar is okay, but not formally perfect, so I do not expect that from my partners either. I normally like quite dark and dramatic themes in terms of content in my roleplays, regardless of genre. Unless I have got an interest check up, or have messaged you, I am not usually looking for new partners to write with.

I think that covers just about everything. Message me if you want to know more.
Original Join Date: 07/04/2009

Advanced, Casual, 1x1, Nation, Tabletop

Historical, Fantasy, Sci-fi, Romance, Drama

Writer, Archaeologist, Cymro

..............................................................................................................

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~ BLACK FLAGS ON THE ABECEAN ~ | Casual Fantasy TES | Set on the isle of Stos M'Kai in world of The Elder Scrolls franchise.

A Journey Of Recovery | 1x1 Fantasy Romance | A cursed knight and his mage companion travel the land in search of a cure.



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Most Recent Posts

@TheSovereignGrave Yeah, so is Magnate as a title, couldn't think of anything better to use really.

India, that's Rajasthan mostly, some the interiors come from palaces further south. I lived out there for about 5 months.
Sheet is up, although I might try to add more into it at some point mainly explaining how magic users functions as an institution, also might want to add to history if people want to create some more recent history between nations?

Also, I feel I may have gone overboard with the pictures? I took quite a few of those myself actually...
The Principalities of Vös


Location



Race
Vös-Vishastani

The elite ruling castes of the Principalities of Vös are Vishastani. Genetically, the Vös are essentially the same as the rest of humanity, however they do share a few traits and characteristics and distinguish them from others. The Vös are typically slightly shorter and significantly more robust and stout than average, their skin the colour of dark copper and their hair darkest brown or black.

What makes the people of Vös Vishastani is their culture, which is almost exclusively derived from the culture of the Visha. The Vös also claim blood descent from the Visha as well, noting their robust nature as evidence of this. They say that in the days of old, the beautiful daughters of the Visha were wed to the human men of Vös to create the current Vös. However, the claim of blood descent from the Visha is a very politicised one, that should not be taken at face value.

The lower castes have humans from other parts of Gaṇājya, as well as the other races that exist across the continent. The personal slave harems and household slaves of the ruling princes are particularly diverse in their racial composition.

History

The Principalities of Vös are old and soaked with the blood of ages.

They trace their origin back into the days of the old Empire of Vishashtan, when it was emerging from the Northern mountains in its violent conquest of the rest of the known world. Back in those days the Vös had been a warlike human people who eked out a meagre existence fighting one another and their neighbours for control of flocks of goats and grazing land. They were not princes back then, nor truly Vös, as much of what would come to define their culture and their society was given to them by their soon to be patrons, the Visha.

If the peoples of the ancient Vös had a talent for one thing, it would have been violence. They fought with savagery and brutality that was unrivalled amongst their kinsmen. When a Vös fought, you could think the fate of empires and armies were at stake, not a few hides of poor land and a herd of mangy goat flesh. They were inspired in their ability to kill and maim, but unfortunately something was holding them back from achieving their true capacity: weapons and discipline. The Vös were goat herders, not blacksmiths, they lacked the weapons and the armour to turn them into warriors. They also lacked a strong hand, a controlling force that could turn transform the individually deadly and barbaric Vös into a fighting force that would unite like an iron fist to crush anything in its path.

The Visha, would provide both of these.

If you are a clever, ambitious and expanding people, what do you do with a violent, yet poor and wretched neighbour? You arm them, you train them, you make them owe everything they have to you. You make them loyal. The Visha approached the Vös and became their benefactors. They gave them weaponry and armour made in their great forges and factories, they taught them tactics and strategies thought up by their superior thinkers, and most of all, they gave them supremacy over all the human neighbours of the Vös. They became masters of these violent dogs and put them use hunting down the enemies of Vishastan.

The Vös were the vanguard of the oppressing Visha armies. They fought and died as soldiers for the Visha in their wars and conquests, and in return they were rewarded with wealth, power, and stewardship of lands above grounds. And for this the Vös worshipped the Visha. They began to imitate them in all ways, dressing and grooming like them, as well as adopting the Visha tongue. They even abandoned their gods in favour of the ideology of the Visha.

Eventually, using their wealth, they moved from the narrow and poor valleys of their homelands down into the central lands of the rapidly growing Vishastan Empire, which were then rich and beautiful, for this was long before the Visha carved it up to fuel their industries and turned it to desert. Here they built fortresses and palaces atop the mountains and crags from which they ruled the surface slave populations as Rajas, all under the hand of the Visha governors. But obviously, this was not to last...

When the Empire of Vishastan collapsed into smoke and ruin, the Vös endured. Though there was revolt, civil war and conflict in those first few decades of blood and fire, the princely Rajas of Vös still rule from their mountaintop fortress-palaces. They have lost influence and land, as well as having to reform and rebuild their economies, but Vös still endures.

Society

The Vös take almost the entirety of their culture from their former Visha masters, in many ways the Vös wish to recreate the Empire of Vishastan, in their own image. However, Vös is not an Empire, it is not even united under a single ruler. The Princely Rajas of Vös are all fiercely independent warlords who rule their mountain strongholds, half fortresses, half palaces. They all fight for dominance and dominion over all the Vös but none have achieved it since the last Visha governor of Vös died over three hundred years ago.

Vös is ruled by a number of oligarch families called a 'Great House', headed by a Princely Raja. Each of the Great Houses can supposedly trace their lineage back to the Visha, and therefore, they claim this this gives them, and them alone, the right to rule. Infighting and skirmishes amongst these Houses are common, as is the use of assassins and treachery. Above the Princely Rajas, there is no formal higher authority, however, there is the Magnate.

The Maharaja (meaning: 'Great King') is considered to be the most powerful individual amongst the Princely Rajas, and therefore the most powerful man in Vös, in a given generation. Their rule is informal, and often changes between Houses and lineages upon their death and often with bloody wars of succession, but nonetheless, they do enforce a slight sense of unity and common purpose into the Vös.

Power in Vös is concentrated in the hands of the few, and wider society focuses in around the Fortresses of the Princely Rajas. There are no real large cities in Vös, most towns are settlements to support the Fortress Palaces, however, some larger market towns are developing in the region.







Economy

The economy of Vös relies on two key cornerstones: slavery and trade routes.

The lands of Vös are now mostly poor in natural resources and infertile, after centuries of exploitation by the Visha, so the Vös make their money off of stealing and slavery. The slave markets in Vös are some of the biggest in Gaṇājya, traders come from all over the known world to buy and sell in life. Vös is both centrally placed, is a nation of slave owners, and has the military might and will to readily acquire slaves, making it an ideal hub for the slave trade.

The location of Vös is also key to its second great preserve, its taxation of foreign trade. The Princely Rajas of Vös control the southern entrances to the two central mountain passes to the north of Gaṇājya. They also control the deserts to the south of their mountain homes, where trade going between the eastern and western coasts often passes. The Vös never fail to exact their dues on the caravans and merchants that travel these routes, and should one try to escape paying, the Vös will seize their cargo as payment instead.

The secondary industries of Vös are ceramic wares, silver mining, iron mining, goat herding, and camel rearing.

Clay is abundant in the south and west, and ceramics from Vös are known to be of fine quality. There is unexploited iron veins in the north of the territory, and old silver mines dug by the Visha in the central regions. The south-east is the most fertile and best irrigated lands of Vös. All the lands have ample sandstone for quarrying.

Agriculture is the weakest link in the Vös economy, often food and virtually all lumber have to be imported from outside of their lands.
Sheet will be up in an hour or so, just finishing off religion and adding some reference images in for architecture
The fact they get referred to as dwarves probably also influenced my interpretation as well - damn fantasy conventions.
@Pepperm1nts

For the Visha themselves – often referred to as Vishput or Vishaput or many other names from many people – they've been often physically described as “beautiful”. Stout in nature, they seemed to tower over their own slaves.


See, I took this as them being physically short but, 'seemed' to tower due to their presence/aura or something? Doesn't stout have connotations of shortness? Or am I making that up? If so I'll change, find some other bullshit similarity to exploit for the same end.

Also, my people aren't really related to the Visha, they just claim to be as a self aggrandising thing. Like I said its a politically motivated claim, one which they mainly use to justify their participation in the slave trade, as they consider themselves racially superior due to their imagined Visha blood. There might have been a kernel of truth in there somewhere, i.e a few historical cases of intermarriage, but no where near enough to say they are really 'descended' from the Visha.

@Vilageidiotx

Yeah that's always my gripe with NRPs

And I don't care about my borders as long as I control that cluster of smaller mountains and the entrances to those two passes. It's kind of integral to my nation, since I have the land that's worth fuck all, they make all their money off of taxing trade and slaving. Gotta have a dick nation.
Work in Progress, will probably finish off the history tonight...

The Principalities of Vös


Location



Race
Vös-Vishastani

The elite ruling castes of the Principalities of Vös are Vishastani. Genetically, the Vös are essentially the same as the rest of humanity, however they do share a few traits and characteristics and distinguish them from others. The Vös are typically slightly shorter and significantly more robust and stout than average, their skin the colour of dark copper and their hair darkest brown or black.

What makes the people of Vös Vishastani is their culture, which is almost exclusively derived from the culture of the Visha. The Vös also claim blood descent from the Visha as well, noting their robust nature as evidence of this. They say that in the days of old, the beautiful daughters of the Visha were wed to the human men of Vös to create the current Vös. However, the claim of blood descent from the Visha is a very politicised one, that should not be taken at face value.

The lower castes have humans from other parts of Gaṇājya, as well as the other races that exist across the continent. The personal slave harems and household slaves of the ruling princes are particularly diverse in their racial composition.

History

The Principalities of Vös are old and soaked with the blood of ages.

They trace their origin back into the days of the old Empire of Vishashtan, when it was emerging from the Northern mountains in its violent conquest of the rest of the known world. Back in those days the Vös had been a warlike human people who eked out a meagre existence fighting one another and their neighbours for control of flocks of goats and grazing land. They were not princes back then, nor truly Vös, as much of what would come to define their culture and their society was given to them by their soon to be patrons, the Visha.

If the peoples of the ancient Vös had a talent for one thing, it would have been violence. They fought with savagery and brutality that was unrivalled amongst their kinsmen. When a Vös fought, you could think the fate of empires and armies were at stake, not a few hides of poor land and a herd of mangy goat flesh. They were inspired in their ability to kill and maim, but unfortunately something was holding them back from achieving their true capacity: weapons and discipline. The Vös were goat herders, not blacksmiths, they lacked the weapons and the armour to turn them into warriors. They also lacked a strong hand, a controlling force that could turn transform the individually deadly and barbaric Vös into a fighting force that would unite like an iron fist to crush anything in its path.

The Visha, would provide both of these.

If you are a clever, ambitious and expanding people, what do you do with a violent, yet poor and wretched neighbour? You arm them, you train them, you make them owe everything they have to you. You make them loyal. The Visha approached the Vös and became their benefactors. They gave them weaponry and armour made in their great forges and factories, they taught them tactics and strategies thought up by their superior thinkers, and most of all, they gave them supremacy over all the human neighbours of the Vös. They became masters of these violent dogs and put them use hunting down the enemies of Vishastan.

The Vös were the vanguard of the oppressing Visha armies. They fought and died as soldiers for the Visha in their wars and conquests, and in return they were rewarded with wealth, power, and stewardship of lands above grounds. And for this the Vös worshipped the Visha. They began to imitate them in all ways, dressing and grooming like them, as well as adopting the Visha tongue. They even abandoned their gods in favour of the ideology of the Visha.

Eventually, using their wealth, they moved from the narrow and poor valleys of their homelands down into the central lands of the rapidly growing Vishastan Empire, which were then rich and beautiful, for this was long before the Visha carved it up to fuel their industries and turned it to desert. Here they built fortresses and palaces atop the mountains and crags from which they ruled the surface slave populations as Rajas, all under the hand of the Visha Voivodes. But obviously, this was not to last...

When the Empire of Vishastan collapsed into smoke and ruin, the Vös endured. Though there was revolt, civil war and conflict in those first few decades of blood and fire, the princely Rajas of Vös still rule from their mountaintop fortress-palaces. They have lost influence and land, as well as having to reform and rebuild their economies, but Vös still endures.

Society

The Vös take almost the entirety of their culture from their former Visha masters, in many ways the Vös wish to recreate the Empire of Vishastan, in their own image. However, Vös is not an Empire, it is not even united under a single ruler. The Princely Rajas of Vös are all fiercely independent warlords who rule their mountain strongholds, half fortresses, half palaces. They all fight for dominance and dominion over all the Vös but none have achieved it since the last Voivode of the Vishastan Empire died over three hundred years ago.

Vös is ruled by a number of oligarch families called a 'Great House', headed by a Princely Raja. Each of the Great Houses can supposedly trace their lineage back to the Visha, and therefore, they claim this this gives them, and them alone, the right to rule. Infighting and skirmishes amongst these Houses are common, as is the use of assassins and treachery. Above the Princely Rajas, there is no formal higher authority, however, there is the Magnate.

The Magnate (meaning: 'Great Man') is considered to be the most powerful individual amongst the Princely Rajas, and therefore the most powerful man in Vös, in a given generation. Their rule is informal, and often changes between Houses and lineages upon their death, but nonetheless, they do enforce a slight sense of unity and common purpose into the Vös.







Economy

The economy Vös relies on two key cornerstones: slavery and trade routes.

The lands of Vös are now mostly poor in natural resources and infertile, after centuries of exploitation by the Visha, so the Vös make their money off of stealing and slavery. The slave markets in Vös are some of the biggest in Gaṇājya, traders come from all over the known world to buy and sell in life. Vös is both centrally placed, is a nation of slave owners, and has the military might and will to readily acquire slaves, making it an ideal hub for the slave trade.

The location of Vös is also key to its second great preserve, its taxation of foreign trade. The Princely Rajas of Vös control the southern entrances to the two central mountain passes to the north of Gaṇājya. They also control the deserts to the south of their mountain homes, where trade going between the eastern and western coasts often passes. The Vös never fail to exact their dues on the caravans and merchants that travel these routes, and should one try to escape paying, the Vös will seize their cargo as payment instead.

The secondary industries of Vös are ceramic wares, silver mining, iron mining, goat herding, and camel rearing.

Clay is abundant in the south and west, and ceramics from Vös are known to be of fine quality. There is unexploited iron veins in the north of the territory, and old silver mines dug by the Visha in the central regions. The south-east is the most fertile and best irrigated lands of Vös. All the lands have ample sandstone for quarrying.

Agriculture is the weakest link in the Vös economy, often food and virtually all lumber have to be imported from outside of their lands.
Hmmm, not sure if my previous idea would work considering the geographic distributions of nations at the moment.

I was gonna probably put it on the big southern delta in region 8, but since everyone is in the north I might go back to the drawing board.
Well we'll have to see how the relevant areas work out then. I suppose there's always room in the end.


Cool, like I said, other ideas as well.
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