Sword Master and Wizard Extraordinaire
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Sephiryan Empires
The Forgotten Manuscripts
***
”The Time came for us to learn our world was going to be filled by white and cold, when the winds chilled our bones and we finally understood why in the ancient texts they were named Heralds of the Neverending Winter. The Time came for the Great Cities of Karadias, Elderheaven, Tokaria, Urdvorg and Hammerhelm, jewels of our continent to lose their shine and warmth, their streets, palaces and towers becoming cold and haunted by what looked the pale ghosts of their former denizens. The Time came for all of the Elves to learn how their kin had lived in Everwhite, for the Mer-People to face their ancient fears and for the Dwarves to choose between cruel reality or a fate worse than death. The Time came for everyone to look at what had been forbidden and scorned, in hope to change the fate of our world.
And, yet, when the Time came for our World to change forever, we refused to die like Summer did.”
-Richen Gardnver, Elder of the Council
Prologue Notes:
Sephirya is a small continent, surrounded by oceans and placed far, far, away from the biggest Demuria. Yet ships had always traveled between the two places trading goods and people between them. That at least until around seven decades before the events of the RP are going to unfold. Words of a large scale civil war raging over Demuria reached back to the smaller continent and it took little before its denizen realized that the ships they had sent for trading purposes weren't going to come back. With good chances being destroyed by raiders trying to prevent one of the two factions to get supplies that were unique to Sephirya's enviroment.
As the Sephiryan people watched for multiple small Demurian fleets to leave for the continent at war, wondering about their fate, the decision was choosen about not sending any more ship toward the war ravaged continent. Stories told that the small fleets, even if really bad equipped for battle, did war to each other once out of the Sephiryan Navy's sight, pieces of wooden wreckages appearing later on the shores. The most unsettling thing was that no one in Sephirya knew what the Civil War had been all about, as apparently everyone that left for Demuria refused to disclose their motives in doing so. From what the Council managed to gather later, every embassy leader from the countries of the Demurian continent proposed to their people to return without disclosing anything and leaving the ultimate choice to be made while in the darkness about the true motives behind the decision.
Time passed and everything turned normal. The Demurian people that had choosen to stay back in Sephirya became fully integrated with the other groups and while they kept the tradition from their homelands, no problem really rose due to their origins beside the occasional small brawl in the early days of their co-existance. With no signs of ships coming back from Demuria the people started to forget about their cousins on the distant continent and only few brave, or foolish, merchants sailed toward it, against all the advices from everyone else. Needless to say, they did never returned. After thirty years since the fleets departure no one really cared anymore about Demuria, not even the ones that once were tied with it by bonds of family and blood.
However, other issues reached for the attention of the Sephiryan's communities leaders. It started slowly, hard to notice, but as every year that passed each Winter was getting colder and colder and the each Summers paler and dimmer. The first decade was only a feeling, the second a suspect, by the third crops and livestock started to get slightly affected by the change of weather. Farmers could still sustain the population, but abundance was becoming a rare sight on many tables. By that point rumors started to spread about the coming of a Eternal Winter supposed to cover everything in white. At first people started to take these talks as jokes, but in the end common sense made the commoners at least consider about taking extra care when managing storages. While the scholars made fun of their fears.
Common folk's wisdom was what saved the royalty from starving when suddenly the first brutal waves of cold came to the continent. And yet it was just a temporary solution. For each year that passed the climate was getting colder and colder in a quicker way than before. Meat started to become a luxury so were becoming the fruits of summer. Root type foods started to become the standard guests on the commoner's tables and at times even at feasts hosted by nobles. And the people near the sea who was thinking they were lucky enough to be still able to sustain themselves with fishing had to face some harsh reality.
The seas around Sephirya's coasts had become less and less populated as the Homarids, a race of semi-sentient crab-like beings migrated from the dept of the ocean where they lived to warmer places, moving war to the Mer-people communities and forcing them ultimately to retreat toward the continent's coasts, soon followed by the Homarid's hosts. Unable to reproduce quick enough, the fishes population got decimated by the savage hunt the three groups gave them. Their numbers decreasing caused skirmishes to happen between the three parties, even between land dwellers and Mer-People which were formally allied against the Homarids.
By that point, scholars started to look at Magic as a way to solve their problems. The first of them being the Elves with their successful experiment to hybridate livestock and fungi-life using some long lost lore from their past. Porks or Cow Fungi being started to be herded in Havenwood, the gigantic Forest-Nation home of the Autumn Elves and some specimen of these creatures had been delivered to allied countries as the elves believed that keeping the resource only for themselves was only to attire the anger and jelousy from other countries. It wasn't really like ordinary meat, but no one felt to complain about this.
Following the Homarids' problem, the Orcish tribes living on the mountain placed in the nothern part of the continent started to abandon them, moving toward the warmer plains as hunts and gathering had become too difficoult to sustain their population. While at first the Orcs had no desire about battle and were only looking for a warmer place where to live, the distrust and prejudices of the plains folk moved the latter to attack on sight, fearing the Orcish tribe had set on a conquest war. Soldiers had been mobilized and while no army officially took a stand, small battlegroups started to raid the Orcish encampments, thus leading them to raid the farms back conflicts escalating until a sort of truce had been signed, ending up in cold relationships where both parties fear the other faction is going to raise military strenght before finally performing the surprise attack that would turn the conflict into all-out-war.
At the notice that goblins were following the Orcish tribes, the Dwarves almost completely retired themselves from the Continent's life and the vast majority of them returned to their ancestral strongholds, built under the few isolated mountain in the southern part of the plains the Orcs moved in. The few ones that remained in the Confederation's cities refused to provide more details, but continued nonetheless to offer their services as master craftsmen and military artisans. The rest of the races anyway didn't failed to notice that the delivery of metals and military equipments from the Dwarven Strongholds had suddenly decreased in quantity and quality as they were preparing to join the war as well.
At current time some decades had been passed since the events told above, making so around seventy or eighty years from the Demurian Exodus. Snow in summer is a common occurrance but somewhat the seasons kept going on. The Confederation Cities are slowly becoming cold and desolated and few of the many farms that had been built all over the continent are still functional. The Winter and Summer Elves broke their long isolationism and envoys from both kingdoms travel the roads while rumors about strange creatures haunting the deepest parts of Havenwood can be heard. The Mer-People colonized the system of caves present in the rocky coastal area of Sephirya, even creating new one with the help of the Summer Elves' magic. The Dwarves had fortified themselves in their Strongholds, rumors spreading about them leaving at night to butcher isolated Goblins' caravans or settlement despite the Councils' attempt to mend the wound between the factions stationed in the Plains. A new religion, the cult of Thouralh, is spreading amongst the inhabitants of the Confederation's cities, its priests promising the return of warmer climates and the help of Thouralh's divine servants to the devouts worshipping him. They were so convincing that the Black Knights of Urdvorg renamed themselves Order of the Onyx Hand and fully welcomed the cult as part of their Mysteries.
Despite the Council trying to find a solution for all these troubles, things looks pretty grim for the future...
The Continent of Sephirya:
Note: I did some work about a map, but since my scanner decided to die you guys need to wait for me to buy a new one or find a friend that would help with the issue.
Sephirya is a relatively small continent that deserve such a status mostly for being alone in the middle of the ocean rather than for extension. Mountains are scattered around all its surface, but beside the large range on the very northern part of the continent known as Frozen Fangs, the rest of them are just isolated peaks or group of small ones. The vast majority of the surface is made of hills, sometimes greeny of grass, sometimes covered in forests with the biggest plain areas being the one close to the Frozen Fangs usually referred as the Plains and Havenwood forest. Rivers and Lakes are present in good quantity and evenly distribuited over the whole territory. Small islands are conventiently placed all around the coasts at different distances but there are only two ones of considerable size. One being Everwhite in the northwest part of the continent, far away from the coasts, and the other Goldenglade on the southwest of Sephirya, relatively close to the continent.
The wildlife can be feral but not extremely dangerous. Wolves, Bears and the occasionally angered Boar are the most common peril the traveler are going to face, while stronger and more majestic creatures like Griffins, Unicorns and the sort keeps themselves usually away from populated areas. The exception being Dragons which are told having forged an alliance with the Elven-folks. It's almost unheard of aggression of mythological creatures to civilized settlements and in the few recorded case it was about beasts being enslaved and used as mounts by some random Lord or Knight. Needles to say that the area where these beasts live are filled with the bones of the fools that believed taming such creatures was something for everyone to achieve.
Before the coming of the cold, the climate was similar to the one on the western part of Europe. The northern part being colder but southern had a warmer climate and was pretty indicated to grow plantations that needed such a warmth to develop. Now it's cold enough that the northern mountains are permanently covered in snow each month of the year and snow has reached parts of the continent that never had seen it before. The trees in the orchards are still alive, but rarely they manage to bring fruit, awakening from their slumber only for new leaves and flowers to sprout on their branches. Wildlife had somewhat adapted to the new enviroment but it hadn't been neither easy or cheap and many species population had been dramatically reduced. Harsh winds blows on the continent, bringing freezing promises coming from the mountains. Summer fleeting snowings aren't uncommon and winter had been recently made mostly of one snowstorm after another.
From a political point of view, the continent could be seen just like a big confederation of small city-states each one ruled by a lord that reports to the Council that resides in Akasha, home of the administrative life of the Confederation. Skirmishes are still present between neighbour communities but they never escalate too much in fear of the Council sending a detachment from one of the two military orders under their command to pacify the situation. Especially the former Black Knights had always a bad name for being pretty drastic in their interventions. Havenwood, Everwhite and Goldenglade are normally considered not part of the confederation, but the Autum Elves kept strong relationship with the humans so that they are considered de facto part of it. A similar thing goes for the Mer-People and the Dwarves which had been granted large embassyes in the cities surrounding Akasha.
Religion and temple are presents, but since the Gods are told never listening to human prayers, the temples and celebrations are built more around the concept of natural cycle and high moral concepts rather than about celebrating this of that God. Only exception being the Cult of Thoural which anyway doesn't have any temple and gathers privately to celebrate its mysteries. Overall, people will make the occasional good fortune gesture, mutter something for some God to hear, but not really believe into it.
Laws are issued and maintained independently by each other city state, but isn't uncommon for a wanted criminal in one of them to be considered unwelcome guest in the neighbour ones and sometimes even being apprehended and sent for judgment in the city where the crimes had been commited if said crimes are particularly cruel. After all if someone started to kill random children in one town, nothing would prevent him from doing so in the next one too. The sudden coming of the cold had forced the judges to get a new take on Death Penalty and Jail. If someone is considered reedemable, then either a fine or forced labors are what expect him but otherwise criminals should be ready to say goodbye to their lives as there are no resources to keep them idly in jails.
Magic is usually allowed and never frowned upon as long it doesn't bother anyone. Even animating corpses is allowed as long the corpses aren't obtained illegally or their sight wont scare the others. Especially in the last years it was surprising to figure out how many people would sell their family members' corpses or even promise their own for the future, only to get money enough to get a decent meal for the ones still alive. Exception are Elves and Dwarves that will openly frown upon the pratice and go lenghts to deliver punishment on anyone fool enough to raise a corpse coming from one of these two races.
Places of Interest:
The whole continent is covered by both artificial and natural wateways that allow the use of small ships for traveling faster than the regular roads would allow. For the biggest caravans though the old way is still the most convenient one and the well maintained roads, together with a great number of fortified and trading posts makes for land traveling to be safe and comfortable. The Council provides the foundings to mantain the bigger ones, while each single City provide to pay for the smaller ones that connect it with the neighbour ones sharing the expenses with them. The Dwarven had crafted a system of underground tunnels that connect each stronghold with the others, placing stairs that would lead to fortified outposts on the surface all over the path. A similar thing had been done by the Mer-People whom built an underground system of tunnels flooded with salt water that allowed them to reach every City that allowed them to build one of their enclaves within their walls. Everyone calls it the Coral Road due to the fluorescent corals that had been placed around to bring light amongst the darkness. While Havenwood has smaller paths crossing the forest.
As said, Sephirya is covered by multiple city-states, rather than having nations or kingdoms, so an exhaustive compendium of them is hard to compile. Beside the cities there are plenty of farm, more or less isolated, where livestock was once raised and then brought to the cities to be turned into meat. Small village had been built at times near trading post on really busy roads, but by now they had all become deserted. The biggest cities usually share some common traits like having fortified walls and a decent amount of farms outside them. These cities are usually built following Sephirya's architectonic style, but there are some exceptions, mainly built by dwarves or, at times, by the people from Demora. These latter ones are usually exotic in appearance and costumes with merchants, adventurers and everyone with much free time on their hands considering them as interesting destinations. It's not unheard that the lord of a City-State would visit one of these for a change of pace and some fun activities like exotic substances and company.
Here is a list of the most famous cities and places:
Akasha: Home of the Council Halls, more than a city is an hub of administrative facilities. Libraries, offices, meeting halls. Akasha is entirely populated by politicians and people tasked to support them. Nonetheless there are also plenty of museum and other places where the continent's history and culture can be preserved. While every Race had contributed to building it, the main influence about its style and architecture comes from the Winter Elves before they retired themselves into seclusion, making it a sight to behold because only Everwhite has been told being able to rival with Akasha's white marble towers. The High Guard, a group formed by the best veterans from the Confederation, protects and guards the streets and very few people had managed to commit a crime there and avoid punishment.
The Five Stars: While these Cities are technically just districts parts of Akasha and surrounding it, their extension and distance from each other makes them look almost like indipenendent cities, especially if one takes in consideration the great differences they have in architecture, style and population. Each of them had been built to house an enclave at it's center and then commercial and administrative activities started to be developed around it until with the passing of the decades they turned out on becoming full fledged cities. In some of them is possible to see the touch of the races that contribuited to build them, in others it's less evident but them all had been the fruit of a communal effort. While they are not the oldest settlement on the continent, they date anyway from the founding of the Confederation having actually been completed before Akasha itself had, turning them into some of the most important historical places of the continent.
Elderhaven: Built to be home for the Autumn Elves enclave, Elderhaven is also know as the Verdant City or the City of Gardens due to the great amount of parks, flowerbeds and even orchards present on it due to the Elves overseeing the works since when it was first founded. Streets and buildings had been finely adorned with exquisite decorations fruit of the best elven craftmanship and even now, during daytime, the city is able to convey a warm autumn feeling with his shades of dark red and green while at night it becomes a stage for dreams to walk on eaerh with its streets lightened by faerie fires and the performers coming out to share their dreams with the crowd. Home to many jewel-craft artisans and laboratories, Elderhaven is known to produce the finest jewelry of the Confederation, rivaled in beauty and skills only by the artisans from Everwhite or the Dwarven Strongholds. And still, in the city is told to be a certain place where Winter Elves from Everwhite and Gold Dwarves from the Stronghold of Balindor create beautiful items of majestic splendor. With his walls covered by ever-red ivy, beautiful fountains offering crystalline water, multiple flowerbeds and trees offering their comfort all around, Elderhaven is the most serene and tranquil of the Five Stars, making easy to understand why it's a favorite destination for artists to live in and people to come if in search of a place where being able to forget about the worries of a more fleeting life.
Karadias: Built under the guidance of Lord Angus Droftstovl to be home for the Knightly Order he had been tasked to create and train, Karadias was given an unusual appearance due to both Angus and his brother Roland's love for the Game of Chess. The whole architecture, statues that adorned it, gargoyles placed on the bastions of the highest towers had been inspired by the pieces of the board, built entirely with snow-like marble it wasn't a surprise when people started to address it as the White Tower and the Order stationed there becoming known as the White Knights. To stay true to the name the adminstrative personnel of Karadias would traditionally go lenghts to preserve the pristine conditions of the City. The Guards are known to instruct all the incoming visitors about the harsh reprimands and fines that are bestowed on whoever intentionally litters or ruin anything. Due to the unique appearance and the majestic feeling of purity, the city attracted the interest of people who ended up building temples all around the central point offered by the Knights' castle, turning Karadias into a religious center where ceremonies would be held on behalf of everyone that asked for. It's common for ever the poorest of people living close enough to hold their weddings in one of the many Temples surrounding the Castle, as no one would charge a coin for the service as long they're polite and respectful of the place. Due to many of the temples' guardians being usually also well versed in the arts of healing, Karadias had gained a reputation as well for being one of the two most popular places for whom are seeking healings together with the universities of Tokaria.
Urdvorg: Twin city to Karadias with which it shares the Chess themed inspiration, Urdvorg had been build though with black onyx stones so to bring out feelings related to the black pieces of the chessboards. Due to the vibe the color gave out, the artisans went for a much darker version of the style used on Karadias, and while on the White Tower the sculptures and art gives out a feeling of majesty and calm, for the Black one, claws and bat wings on the gargoyles and the menacing appearance of the knights' statues give out a more fearful and mysterious vibe, something that picked many wizards' interest and had them build their schools and towers around the Black Knight's castle, just as the priests did with the White's one. Unlike Karadias, Urdvorg is usually avoided by the common folks and the only one daring to venture in the depths of its streets are talented youngsters wanting to become wizardry students, experienced wizards looking to trade informations with their colleagues, the members of the Order of Onyx hands and shady traders said to bring the mages the materials they need for their experiments and practices. No common merchant would dare, or actually like, to venture to bring supplies and there are few places to eat and rest in the city. Nonetheless, despite the bad rumors about it, there are no recorded istances of visitors having any sort of problem after a visit to the city.
Tokaria: A dual city, built above and under the salt waters of an artificial lake connected to the Coral Road, Tokaria had been built to be both the home for the Mer-People Enclave and the Sephiryan University district. It's there that the most promising and talented minds gather both to learn and to teach, while under the water's surface, the Mer-People dance with the waves, charming people with their exotic beauty and costumes. As expected for a center where the youth gathers, Tokaria is filled as well with recreational locals where it's easy to find any kind of pleasure one could be looking after, from the most conventional to the more rare and unusual. So, even with its really traditional architecture, Tokaria is considered the most exotic of all the Five Stars, a place where students of every Race could be found, a place where any sort of wonder could be seen. Chimeraes and other magical beings can be seen flying above its towers, swim in the waters and walk in the streets. They're usually magically altered beings made for attraction and amusement rather than the scarier three headed monsters associated with the same name.
Hammerhelm: Home to the Dwarven Enclave and almost entirely populated by them, Hammerhelm is on a stark contrast with all of the other Cities for how essential its architecture looks. Decorations and adornments are minimal, used mostly to display the skill of a certain laboratory rather than to enhance the appearance of the place. The buildings are squared and built usually with red or maroon materials, be them bricks or stones, with an impressive set of artificial water courses and aqueducts so that every factory and laboratory could access to the precious resource. Laboratories that produce finely jewelry and even better weapons and armors, the Dwarves of Hammerhelm being the ones supplying the two Knigthly Orders armouries. Numerous beer-houses are present on all the city's streets and districts for the workers to visit them after a long day of hard work, in accord with dwarven traditions. It's considered somewhat sad that despite the great quality of the local breweries, few people outside the city known about how awesome Hammerhelm beer is. While no one had officially admitted or denied it, it's rumored that Hammerfell too had been connected via some secret tunnels through the same web that connects the Dwarven Strongholds.
Havenwood: The Forest-Nation of the Autumn Elves, Havenwood is basically a huge forest that the Elves had turned into their home, fortress and greatest city on the continent. Tree-benders had shaped the plants making houses, orchards and farms out of them. Fortresses had been created with the same technique, hidden ontop of the secolar oaks and ironwood trees. Faerie fires lighten the houses or the many pathways during night or when the latter dwelve too deep in the forest, where Nature finally overtakes even Elven Magic. Raising in height even above the taller trees is the mountain known as Dragonkeep wihich the Elves had carved to host their last resort fortress together with mines to extract the little iron they can gather from their territory to not being forced to totally import it and be home for their Forest Drakes, a breed of draconic creatures that had been artificially mutated through magic to be slender, faster and lose the ability to breath fire or anything. Pale imitation of the true Dragons that Winter and Summer Elves uses in desperate wartimes, but still fearsome mounts that the humans and the other races wont never been able to obtain in such numbers and quality. Mounts perfectly able to move through the forest without being hindered by it and being usually at the advantage in a fight. As if Drakes and Elven warriors weren't enough, the Forest is also home to the Sylvanid, a race of beings that share traits with both the animal and vegetal realms, close allies with the Elves, it's thanks to them as well that no one even dares to attack the Forest Kingdom. Havenwood is a sight to behold and despite the Autumn Elves actually encouraging people to visit, the aura of mystery and detachment that comes from anything related to the Elven People is enough to discourage everyone but the most brave or curious to take the voyage.
Everwhite: Located on a large island on the north-west of the main continent, the Kingdom Everwhite is the place where the Winter Elves secluded themselves in an isolation that lasted centuries and had been broke only due to the recent events. The island had always been subjected to a cold enviroment, Summer being something unknown to its denizens who in turn used magic and common knowledges to make their lives comfortable. Majestic palaces of marble and granite had been built to house the noble families and even the commoners in the kingdom live a life that would be considered almost as good as royalty by any outsider, thanks to the elemental servants doing the most of the hard work. Farmers are meant only to oversee their assigned structures, artisans are valued and selling on the continent even a single one of their masterpiece, could almost grant a comfortable life for some decades. Fitting to the climate and to days being shorter than nights in the northern parts of Sephirya and of the world in general, Everwhite people favors colors like white, silver and the dark blue of the night for their buildings and adornments. The island is also filled with many hot springs that the elves had turned either in places of enjoyement or channeled so to bring a warm addition to their homes. Like Dragonkeep, the highest peak called Dragoncradle had been turned into a place for the fearsome Frost Dragons of the north to live, these majestic beings the greatest military assessment for the northern elves empire.
Goldenglade: The larger island on the continent, Goldenglade is located south-west of the continent, home of the Summer Elves the kingdom is, for appearance, climate, and mood, the exact opposite of Everwhite. In a place where it was basically always summer, the Elves had built houses that had no roofs, letting the tree branches to replace these, using the large leaves to protect them from the rain. Unlike the northern island, the Summer Elves' one is a place that inspire joy and happiness compared to the contemplative majesty of the snow covered kingdom. There are no gardens, but orchards where everyone is allowed to take what they desire, the fragrance of sweet wines flows through the streets together with the music of artists that perform during day and night endlessly. At least until the coming of the long winters it was a paradise and, even now, the Summer Elves are struggling to keep it going. Like for their autumn cousins, Sylvanids protect their borders but the ones living there are said to be beautiful, with living flowers between their hair, slender bodies and a seductive fragrance coming from them. As expected, their higher peak, named Dragonguard had been turned into home for their Flamebreath Dragons, the other branch of the True Dragons who had sealed a deal with the Elven kin. Right now Goldenglade is sort of a shadow of its true former glory but, even so, still a sight to behold.
Balindor: Also known as the Seat of the King Balindor is the archetype and paragon for every other Dwarven Stronghold on the continent, ancestral residence for their High King. Completely built inside the mountain that ultimately took the name after the settlement, Balindor is a breath-taking underground city. Its halls are lighten by thousands of lamps, a master-crafted system of pipes allowing them to be always filled with scented oils. Gold and gemstones adorn the pillars and archways placed everywhere. Laboratories and foundries had been built deep down, where the dwarven had digged enough to reach for the fires of the earth, fires that now warms their houses and keeps their furnaces alive. Whole halls are destined to the livestock or the giant fungine plantations that make up for the most part of the dwarvens' diet, while terraces on the surface are destined to the growth of the cereals used to make bread and beers. Even now, beautifully crafted crystal walls had been built around these fields so that the denizens of Balindor could sustain themselves. Breweries, beer-houses and public houses are present everywhere so that the visitors could feel welcomed once passing through the gigantic bronze and golden doors that seal the entrances to the underground kingdom. Every other dwarven stronghold is pretty similar to Balindor, the only difference being the riches used to adorn streets and halls, riches that are definetely more abundant on the Seat of the King. The only exception to this rule being Harthwind, which is know for being the only Stronghold facing the sea and has a vast underground hall where the Dwarven fleet is stored and ships depart for the island of Thirbardin, only place in Sephirya where the Ur metal can be extract. In the deepest halls of every Stronghold, armies of automated golems wait in slumber for the moment they'd be activated to protect it. The secret to build and infuse life to them is the most well guarded one and it's the only thing that even the Elves hadn't managed to achieve.
al-Fayruz: The Turquoise a portual town founded by settlers from the denizens of the Great Desert in Demuria and named like that due to their amusement over the verdant scenery of Sephirya. With its arabic themed architecture and many exotic wonders, al-Fayruz is considered one of the wonders of the continent, rivaling and usually surpassing Tokaria for the sheer amount of visitors the city receives, visitors in search of pleasures and excitements. Once lively with activities related to the port, the Demuria Exodus seemed to be foretelling the decline of the city. Against all the expectations though, the people living there refused to give up and they switched their focuses from naval activities to the raising of Demuria's desert horses, a specific breed of noble steeds that while not really suited for armored cavalry are perfect for explorers, skirmisher and wealthy nobles. They also started to distribute the beverage known as Qahwa, black, strong and usually served warm, creating great fields to place the plants producing the beans needed to make it and ending up having a great success over that.
The City-States: They're all similar to each other and yet unique in their own ways so that an accurate description of all of them is impossible. Generally there is a central castle, residence of a lord able to mantain a small military around which people in search of protection started to build houses, farms and laboratories at first and finally walls to protect the settlement. The farms are usually kept outside the walls and the architecture is generally traditional even if some touches coming from a specific race could be seen here and there in some specific issues. It's fairly welcomed if the players would want to create or at least give a rough draft of some specific town they would like to be born into, or I can draft something based on their ideas.
Races
Normally playable Races:
These are the races people can play normally, since there is no setting restrictions for them to be commonly seen around.
Humans: They're your average humans, with a life expectation of around 80 – 100 years, they come in all the flavors we're used to see and makes up for the greatest part of the continent populations. Even if Sephirya is pretty much similar to the northern part of Europe multiple communities born by people that settled on the continent coming from Demuria are still present even after the Exodus and they keep their traditions and costumes alive. Despite that, Demuria resembles to Eurasia and Africa during middle age, so some south american populations and Australian ones wouldn't really fit with the setting. For everything else, Players are free to pick anything and come at me for explanations or defining details.
Elves: Pretty tall, slender and generally tolkienesque in appearance, they divide themselves in Winter, Autumn and Summer clans which share the general appearance but differ over some physical traits. Winter elves are taller, paler and slender compared to the other two clans, generally with black or white hair and dark eyes. Summer ones have amber colored skin, brown or golden hair, more well rounded and sensual bodies and generally clear eyes. Finally Autumn one have a more tanned complexion, reddish or reddish-brown hair, eyes of all the shades of green and grey and a more muscolar build. A fourth term, Spring Elves had been originally created to indicate the children of Summer and Winter Elves weddings, children who shared traits from both parents and is now used to indicate any mixed heritage looking Elf. The culture is pretty different between the clans, with the Winter ones being more contemplative and detached, the Summer Elves joyful and willing to help anyone and the Spring one somewhat practical and hard to gain the trust from. Elves matures exactly as men do, but are known to not suffer from the passing of time once they reach the age of 30 or 40 years old, resistant to common illnesses they're still affected by some diseases specific to their races and have the lowest birthrate of all the known races.
Dwarves: Sturdy, muscolar and not really tall the Dwarves divide themselves in three big chastes, being the Gold, Bronze and Iron Clans. This is more a social distinction rather than a racial set of characteristics, a distinction based on how much wealth and skills in the trade a certain family can show. Families are pretty important in Dwarven culture and the young are expected to follow into their elders traditions, taking after their activities and passing down the secrets of the craft. The only way to follow a different path is to join another family through wedding and, while usually there wont be hard feelings, in such cases the old family completely stops considering the one who left as a relative turning him or her into a close friend. Dwarves are long lived and can walk on earth for around 300 years, the members of the royal house had been said to even reach 500 in some cases. Their skins can go from a strong tan to bronze and even almost black, their hair usually show brownish and dark colors, with the occasional blonde family or white ones. Despite the commoners' jokes about it, female Dwarves have no beard and they're slightly slender than the male counterpart.
Sylvanids: Sylvanids are usually confused for Autumns Elves, despite their nature becomes evident on a closer inspection. With good looking slender humanoid bodies and sap flowing into their blood vessels, they are hybrids between the animal and vegetal kingdoms, able to grow bark on their normally soft skin to protect themselves or extend vines and roots from their fingers to take nourishment from the Earth itself. Rather than having a culture of their own, Sylvanids share the one of the Elves they live with, be them either the Summer or Autumn ones as the two races lived together since the begin of times. With their normal humanoid body the Sylvanids had always attracted humans attentions and interests, especially the female specimen who ended up being called Driads and stealing the heart of many adventurer that wandered around the borders of Havenwood. The ones coming from Goldenglade are even more seductive and impish, able to bloom flowers in their hair and make most men fall through their pheromone scent.
Complicated to play Races:
Races that have some troubles to be properly played in the setting, both for political or biological reasons.
Mer-People: They're a species of humanoids with bodies adapted to live in salt water. While they're not half fishes\half humanoids, the signs of their adaptation to the sea are well evident on their skin multicolored motif and the fins on their legs, arms and sometimes shoulders. Mer-People lack any sort of modesty and are often seen showing their usually slender an well shaped bodies to whoever cared to look at them, they're mammals and known for taking often humans, and sometimes elven, lovers and their Pool of Pleasures are fairly renowed in Tokaria for what they have to offer to the visitors. Once living in their beautiful capital of Tideria, they had been exiled from it, the ruins of the city working now as hatching halls for the Homarids and now the Mer-People are refugees, trying to find a new place to settle on. On a gameplay note, the only problem with them is that they're totally unable to function properly on ground. Some of them are carried around in giant bowls like Dune's navigators but it's easy to understand it's pretty limitating.
More to come if people asks for something specific...
Magic:
Magic is a widely common practice amongst every race but the Dwarves which instead prefers the safer process of channeling power through runes. Despite the common misconceptions though Magic follows specific laws and has its own limitations, it allows poeple to channel a great amount of energies to spectacular effects but doesn't for miracles. The most common way to employ it is through channeling Mana, an element present in the world's atmosphere, and alter its properties in the form of any other material. It's possible to bring out flames, summon rain or even create walls of stones accordly to one's specific attitude. As said, there are rules and while things like wounds cannot magically healed just wishing so, the energies and potential can be used in any field to improve the results. Elves are known to be master of the winds energies, each of the three clan traditionally learning about using another element as well, Water for the Winter Elves, Fire for the Summer ones and for the Autumn Clan is Earth and Plant-shaping. Mer People are the absolute rulers of Water forces while the Shamanistic Orks are known for the ability to channel energies through their bodies. Humans have no specific field, but they have learned and mastered the art of performing Magic Rituals, ceremonies that while being slower and more complex than regular altering of Mana allows for channeling more of it and obtain wider results. Rituals combine Rune Magic and Channeling Magic and many of them are ancient and blindly followed by their practictioner for fears of bringing up catastrophes if something is done wrong. And yet both in Tokaria and Urdvorg, scholars are willing to experiment with them, altering the original forms in hope to find new results and uses for them.
Rules of Conduct
Rather than post a series of Rules I'd rather advice you about reading the site general ones and explain the specific approach I'm going to have to the RP.
The game is going to be mostly sandbox-ish, the only thing that will happen without a doubt are some starting events over the course of a year on the continent of Sephirya. We're going to have a full cycle of Autumn (Prologue) -> Winter -> Spring -> Summer -> Autumn -> Winter (Epilogue) during which the events will unfold.
The characters will have free reins over how to approach said events, I'll be around for advices but I'm warning you guys in advance there isn't a bad or right way to do things. Your choices will shape how the plot will evolve in the following events.
As said before I'm going to allow you as many characters you'd like to play, should them be either main cast members or side-story ones for RP experimentations of new roles you want to try but not sure about how they'll work out. I'm not going to be pushy or greedy on your time, but since we know each other, I'd prefer to be informed if things are getting busy\troublesome rather than getting silence dead times.
Here are the basic info, this is mostly an interest check so no rules of conduct or Sign-up thread yet, but it should give you plenty of info about the characters you'd like to play. Mind you it's going to be pretty sandbox-ish with some set events that couldn't be prevented or stopped to delineate the story. More than saving the world the RP is going against races that are seeing their world completely change and will struggle to keep in par with it.
So, feel free to ask question here in the thread, c-box or by any other mean.
Edited by Kayurin, Feb 12 2014, 08:32 PM.
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