If allowed to have Egypt, I figured that a combination of Egypt/Meiji era Japan would work well. Basically, they would have been one of the first civilizations out of the box and attained a large and stable empire with their magics, but this made them extraordinarily arrogant and hidebound, such that they began to badly lag behind technologically. So much so that they started to take some severe thrashings and things started to become embarassing. So a generation or so ago a young, ambitious prince rose to power and declared that the country was going to be modernized and all the backwards idiots were going to like it.
That sound good? Could have all sorts of fights in the Mediterranean and conflicts over the oil fields in the Middle East. In fact, if no one wants anywhere else in the middle East, I would definitely try and have this magical modern Egypt spread over much of North Africa and onto the Arabian penisula as possible. But if someone wanted to have a magical modern Babylon that would be equally cool. Someone to fight with.
I love learning. Teach me. I will listen. You know, if Christian dogma included a ten-foot tall Jesus walking around in battle armor and smashing retarded cultists with a gaint mace, I might just convert - Noble Ire on Jesus smashing Scientologists
Last edited by Ethereal41 on 2007-12-20 03:56am, edited 1 time in total.
There is a better world out there, where we don't have to be slaves to an invisible man in the sky, where we can make decisions for ourselves and our society based on evidence, reason, and our own best judgment, devoid of what some shithead wrote two thousand years ago because he had a vision along side a desert road.
That's the country I want to live in, and it's well within our grasps as long as we stand up to be counted, fight the battles big and small, and realize that there is a light at the end of this tunnel. I look forward to seeing you all there on the other side.
-Wicked Pilot
Sweet modelling there. Definitely looks like something like that could fit into the world Ire is building here.
I love learning. Teach me. I will listen. You know, if Christian dogma included a ten-foot tall Jesus walking around in battle armor and smashing retarded cultists with a gaint mace, I might just convert - Noble Ire on Jesus smashing Scientologists
That's pretty good. The central structure does look like it could be an abeotic reactor; they would have to be quite imposing, and would be at the center of most large cities.
I'm still working on a brief history for the setting. Let me know if there's any other aspect of the fluff that needs particular attention before players can start writing up OOBs. I'm also considering components of gameplay.
Here's a loose chronology for Tellura. The last entries are intentionally vague; its up to each player to establish their own nation.
------------------------------------
Timeline (Note: Dates correspond to the crowning of Emperor Canill the First, the first ruler of the Apennian Empire. Contemporarily, all dates after that event are held as being in the “Common Era”. This dating system is used throughout West Asia and the Orient, and is the favored temporal base of world commerce, but other systems are used internally by East Asian and Gean civilizations).
300,000-200,000 BCE: Modern Sapinum, Mensch, Humans, and Kimoa evolve in West Asia, Northern Africa, and Middle Gea. Most are slow to expand, but the highly nomadic nature of early Human tribes allows them to establish populations as far as Lower Gea and Abcampa.
6,000 BCE: The first known writing system is created on the western shores of the Mediterranean. It is a simple system of hieroglyphics used to facilitate communication between tribes of Sapinum and Humans.
3,200 BCE: The cliff-dwelling Kimoa civilization of Kromot develops a calendar based on the movements of Luna and Sol.
3,000 BCE: The early cultures of the Mediterranean Region begin to mine and forge metal extensively. The abeotic potential of abinium is exploited by aberrants, and contests between small states lead by imbued warlords become the defining feature of regional affairs.
2,750 BCE: The Mensch civilizations of East Asia grow rapidly in size and power, and begin to expand into the Pacific Isles.
2,725 BCE: A plague devastates the Kimoa, throwing their civilizations into utter disarray and setting back their technological and societal development by centuries.
2,500 BCE: The warring tribes of West Asia, Northern Africa, and the Orient give way to city-states. Wars continue within and without species boundaries, but codified laws and social orders begin to emerge, and with them technology beyond simple reliance on abeotics.
1,000 BCE: Four distinct civilizations dominate the Mediterranean region: the Human city-states of Arabia in the Orient and the Egyptian Empire of Northern Africa, and the Sapinum of Hella and Matese. Each vies with each other constantly for control of shipping and fishing lanes, fertile costal lands, and deposits of precious ores. Over centuries of constant warfare, each civilization makes significant technological leaps, especially in the area of abeotics. Among the most impressive examples of this are the massive pyramids of Egypt and the cliff fortresses of Aegean Islands, early experiments in large scale power-generation and warcraft based on abinium.
500 BCE: The civilizations of Hella, Matese, and the Orient form a loose alliance and besiege the increasingly-powerful Egyptian Empire. The decades-long Nile Wars result in the utter defeat of the Egyptian civilization. The Arabian states begin to fight amongst themselves over the spoils of the victory, and are so weakened over the subsequent century that the Hella are able to subsume most of them with little conflict.
400 BCE: Traders from Mensch East Asia make their way to the Orient. At the same time, others make their way into Upper Gea and encounter relatively primitive tribes of Kimoa on its western coast. Their influence triggers a wave of technological growth that spreads across Gea.
300 BCE: Still under a loose alliance, the Hella and Matese Sapinum expand northward, encountering wide-soread tribes of “uncivilized Mensch”. Efforts to colonize the region are met with heavy resistance.
125 BCE: The Sapinum alliance breaks down and its two major factions vie for power over West Asia. The war breaks the power of both states, allowing an ambitious and wealthy Matese principality of Vettore to rise in power.
0 CE: Emperor Canill the First establishes the Apennian Empire from remnants of Matese and Hella. He and his successors eventually reclaim all the lands of the older states, and then begin to expand north, south, and east. Over several centuries, it conquers the remaining Human cities west of India, subsumes most of Northern Africa, and lays claim to the Mensch wilds as far north as Britania. Upon the backs of Human and Mensch slaves, the Apennian Sapinum construct an unparalleled network of cities, mountain fortresses, aqueducts, and roads, all leading back to the mighty city of Vettore, a sprawling metropolis with a honey-combed, abinium-powered mountain-citadel at its core.
175 CE: Apennian ships discover Gea and Abcampa. Some also come into contact with colonies of the Kingdom of Zanrei, the dominant civilization of East Asia.
350 CE: Wide-spread corruption and slave rebellion begin to tear the Apennian Empire apart. City-states in eastern portions of the Empire attempt to break away, leading to internal civil wars that shatter its complex infrastructure.
436 CE: The last Apennian emperor, Nadlith the Fourth, is killed during one of the endless raids by Mensch tribes that eventually leave Vettore an abandoned ruin.
450 CE: The remnants of the Empire fall into chaos. War, famine, and disease sweep West Asia and Northern Africa, and only a few isolated cities keep the light of order and science alive. Freed from the grip of the Sapinum, Human states begin to reform in the Orient and India.
525 CE: The Clan Wars consume East Asia, and do not subside for centuries.
1,200 CE: Order slowly begins to reassert itself across the Eastern Hemisphere. Cohesive states arise with new religions at their cores, and soon these new entities give birth to fresh adversaries and conflicts.
1,500 CE: The Great Enlightenment asserts scientific and secular ideals and attempts to unite sapients regardless of species and religious boundaries. It takes hold in only a few areas, but those states see the beginnings of inter-species cooperation on a scale unseen for millennia.
1,600 CE: The greatest powers of the world expand outward in search of new lands and untapped resources, hoping to lay claim to the relatively untamed lands that cover much of the Southern Hemisphere.
1,800 CE: A new age of imperialism is in full swing, and nothing stands against the growing empires of the world save the ambitions of others…
Okay, definitely a cool setting, and now I really want the Egyptians. Now I see them being a bit like a combination of the Egyptians, Meiji Japan, and Renaissance and Fascist Italy. I can see them having all sorts of broken technology lying around for a good two thousand that they started studying around the time of this world's Renaissance, perhaps that even being one of the sparking events of the cultural rebirth after the dark and middle ages. They then went into decline again after a few hundred years, a severe attitude of arrogance and glorification of the past being a major problem for them, and now they are seeking to restore themselves to the glory days once more.
That sound cool?
I love learning. Teach me. I will listen. You know, if Christian dogma included a ten-foot tall Jesus walking around in battle armor and smashing retarded cultists with a gaint mace, I might just convert - Noble Ire on Jesus smashing Scientologists
Well, it was sad that the Fantasy TGOD didn't really get off the ground. I might be interested in a new one, and re-use the old nation I had for that...
Great Dolphin Conspiracy - Chatter box
"Implications: we have been intercepted deliberately by a means unknown, for a purpose unknown, and transferred to a place unknown by a form of intelligence unknown. Apart from the unknown, everything is obvious." ZORAC GALE Force Euro Wimp Human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority.
Players: Ideally, there should be at least four participants, who would RP the dominant powers of West Asia, Upper Gea, the Orient/Northern Africa, and East Asia; naturally, it would be better if there were multiple player-controlled factions in each area, but that depends entirely upon who wants to play. The natives of the Southern Hemisphere, your targets for colonization, would be RPed by an impartial party, possibly me.
Factions and Gameplay: As it stands, each player would be award the same number of “construction points”, and thus would be a power of the same degree as each other. If we had enough participants, I might consider designing a tiered power system, but right now, I don’t think that will be necessary. In any event, each nation would have a set number of points to construct their infrastructure, militaries, etc. along with a rather large chunk of land, up to a continent in size. Obviously, you won’t need to personally populate, describe, and direct it in its entirety; should combat come to a player’s door, all action would revolve around major cities, the nexuses of industry, commerce, and infrastructure. Capturing enemy cities would earn you more “annual” points, as would erecting colonies in the untamed wilds. One could also gain points by exploiting natural deposits of abeotic resources in the wilderness, pirating shipping lanes, and through a variety of political and trade means that can be fleshed out later.
Militaries: Much of each player’s point totals would go to reinforcing their borders and cities, and constructing armies and navies. Armies (the composition and flavor of which would be entirely up to the player) would be used to prosecute war with neighboring powers and help establish control in colonial areas. Navies would transport troops overseas, defend supply and trade convoys, and disrupt enemy shipping lanes. Combat would be similar to that of space STGODs, save for the fact that points would probably be arranged by fleets and battalions rather than individual units, and battles would rely more upon terrain and weather conditions, related previously by an impartial game-master (again, hopefully me).
Bonuses: Each player would be allowed to give their nations certain general bonuses, typically related in some way to abeotics. As noted before, certain species are particularly good at, although not limited to, specific kinds of matter manipulation (I’ll expand upon that more soon). On a large scale, this would serve to improve any number of facets of a nation, from point generation to military healing and replacement to combat prowess and speed. I’d probably give each player a set number of special points for this area, although it could be drawn from the larger point pool instead. I might also include “hero” units, special characters who would increase the effectiveness of armies or fleets he or she was attached to, but I’m not sure of that yet.
Timescale: This is one of my major concerns for the game, and why I had considered reducing the scale of the setting down to a single continent. Realistically, actions as sweeping as colonial construction and massive land campaigns would take place over months or years, and that might be difficult to RP in this kind of format. As always, suggestions on this or any other front are welcome.
I would be interested in this game. Having the whole world to work with could be too ambitious; I'm personally more of a fan of having a smaller area, say, setting the timeframe back a couple of hundred years and having one of the continents just "discovered" by the civilized powers. Then you could have the situation as it was in America, with the home powers fighting by proxy really to seize territory and claim resources to send home which would allow them to send more troops as needed. Just an idea.
I agree with the above. My experience with this sort of thing tends to suggest the smaller the scale the more succesful the undertaking.
There is a better world out there, where we don't have to be slaves to an invisible man in the sky, where we can make decisions for ourselves and our society based on evidence, reason, and our own best judgment, devoid of what some shithead wrote two thousand years ago because he had a vision along side a desert road.
That's the country I want to live in, and it's well within our grasps as long as we stand up to be counted, fight the battles big and small, and realize that there is a light at the end of this tunnel. I look forward to seeing you all there on the other side.
-Wicked Pilot
Yes, I have been worried about the same issue. I could easily rework the setting to take on a smaller scale; I'd just need to decide whether or not to keep with the "alternate Earth" setting, or opt for the freedom of an entirely new and distinct universe.
Noble Ire wrote:Yes, I have been worried about the same issue. I could easily rework the setting to take on a smaller scale; I'd just need to decide whether or not to keep with the "alternate Earth" setting, or opt for the freedom of an entirely new and distinct universe.
Just my two cents, but I would definitely prefer the freedom of a "clean" planet. Of course, then we have to work out and agree on a system of rules and limits for civilizations.
P.S. Also, I'll get back to your story. I promise....someday...
