CS NES Development Thread

[appleciders]

Welcome to City-State NES, the latest in NESing technology, brought to you by none other than Bipolarbear and Appleciders, your friendly neighborhood moderators. What have we got in store for you this time? Only time and reading the next few posts will tell.

This NES, currently in the set-up phase, will be ahistorical but will follow historical technologies roughly, starting at a technology level comparable to Rome and progressing gradually over the course of the game. You are encouraged to model your nation after a real ancient nation or culture so that different cultures who never encountered each other in real history can meet (and probably fight). Ever wonder if a heavily armored Greek phalanx could hold up against light Hunnic cavalry archers? Or if Egyptian chariots would really rip through fierce Celtic warriors? Now's your chance!

How do I begin?
Just pick (or invent) a culture, write a little about the culture to give me a starting point, then add a little bit about the government style of your nation. You will serve as your nation's head of state- be that president, head of a governing body, king, chief priest, or what have you. This will determine the way in which you interact with your people; an absolute monarch will have almost no one blatantly opposing your orders until your people suddenly revolt, while a democratic governor will have resistance from within the government but will find his people less likely to revolt. A religious leader may find that corruption within the government saps his strength, though the people themselves may be a bastion of support, at least until that pesky Messiah comes through. Almost anything would be possible here. Choose wisely!

Beware that this model of NES stresses not simply your military prowess but your ability to keep order within your nation. You'll find that your nation in this NES behaves more like a collection of city-states than one coordinated whole. Careful attention will be required to keep your cities from revolting against your rule and attacking one another.

How do I give orders?
Simply post them to the thread. General governing orders should be posted directly, because these represent the official policies that you use to make broad, sweeping moves in your government. PMs can be used for any secret orders, which might include espionage, military raids, or vast surprise attacks. Anything secretive can be ordered by PM, while anything general should be posted to the thread, because it's just more fun to be able to get ideas from reading other peoples' orders, and it keeps the thread busy, which helps keep people checking back.

How do the nation statistics work in this NES?
Your nation has several important statistics in the stat block. From top to bottom, they break down as follows:
Size: This is the size of your city relative to other cities in the world. This doesn't represent any concrete number, but rather a way to compare how big your city is to other cities. To expand your city to the next size level, you must have an excess of at least 1000 of food, ore, and lumber. Having this excess is not a guarantee of growth, but it is impossible to grow without the excess and the greater the excess, the greater the chance for growth. If you do tap out resources entirely, you run the risk of having your city shrink in size. To found a new city, you must order settlers to be sent out from your city, which will reduce your city's size by 1.

Total Monetary Income: This is your government's income from taxes, tithes, tarriffs on trades, tolls, fees, and systematic plundering of your population. This is also the money that you spend on any pet projects that you see fit to begin. The ill-gotten gains from plundering of other populations varies from turn to turn, and goes into....

Treasury: Your national bank account. No deficeit spending here! If you need to spend more than your yearly income, spend from here. If you don't need your full yearly income to continue your quest towards world domination, the extra is stashed away here for the future. Other money that you come across (bribes, tributes, plunder) also gets put in here to be spent.

Total Food: This is the total amount of food you will harvest in a year with perfect weather over and above what your people keep to eat themselves. This doesn't nessecarily represent the amount of food that you will wind up with; as much as half of this figure may not be harvested due to weather factors, and food may be imported or exported on top of that. If your food reaches zero, your people are hoarding all the food produced, and starvation may ensue. You need food to expand and pay upkeep on your army, and you can use it as a source of income if other nations purchase it.

Fish, Farm Produce, Fruit and Hunting: These represent the food sources for this city. Hunting is a basic staple of small cities that becomes rather unimportant as cities grow because it is very difficult to increase the amount of food gathered through hunting. Hunting is, however, a reliable source of a small amount of food that varies little year-to-year.

Farm produce is produced primarily by cities with plains or valleys in their territory. Grain is a very productive staple, providing the means for a very large city, but grain production tends to decrease sharply in particularly wet, dry, hot or cold years. Herding is the other alternative here, similarly sensitive to temperature and water supply. Both are largely immune to wind factors, however.

Fruit is produced by cities with large hillside territories in orchards. The excellent drainage provided by the contours of the land makes irrigation easy and efficient, helping to keep fruit from being affected by particularly wet or dry years; the water can be channelled to the orchards in dry years and away from it during wet ones. However, fruit is susceptible to temperature fluctuations and windy years tend to break limbs and decrease production.

Fish are harvested from the sea, and seaside cities tend to rely heavily on fish as a source of food. The ocean holds heat well, and insulates fish catches against changes in heat or cold. However, stormy or especially calm years make it difficult for boats to navigate, and wet or very dry years make fishermens' lives harder as well, so fish catches will drop according to wind and rain factors.

Total Ore: This represents the total metal ore harvested beyond what your people need and are using themselves. Ore is needed both to expand and maintain your armies, and to encourage growth in your cities. Mining operations are not significantly affected by weather conditions, so the only difference between this value and what you actually harvest is the amount exported and imported. Whether or not a city has ore deposits is random; you could potentially find ore deposits anywhere, but they're most commonly found in mountains, so cities in hills tend to be the richest with regard to minerals.

Copper: The inferior but more common of the major ores available, copper can be used to wage war or to build your cities in peace. However, if you maintain your armies using copper ore, they'll be rather inferior to iron-using armies.

Iron: The superior and less common of the two ore options, iron makes higher quality weapons when used to maintain armies. Iron will always be used first when maintaining your armies, so make sure that your iron output is higher than your army size to make sure that your armies are as good as they can be.

Total Lumber: This represents the amount of lumber that your people harvest each year above and beyond what they keep to use themselves. Lumber is nessecary to encourage growth in your cities and to maintain and expand your navies.

One major change from past NESes to keep in mind: Each city supports one army and one navy. Each city incurs the upkeep charge for its own army; you can't have your tiny iron-producing city way up in the highlands foot the ore bill for your lowland city. This is reflective of the city-state nature of your nation; it's incredibly inefficient to channel resources through different cities so that each individual city's accountants can know what's going on, and anyway, Athen's citizenry won't put up with paying for Corinth's military. You can set up trades between your cities, though that is an expensive way to get your resources spread around.

To start a trade, simply order the trade to begin and your merchants will proceed to carry it out. A trade costs one gold for each one resource purchased. A fee to establish the trade route between 50% and 200% of the annual value of the trade will be charged at the beginning of the trade. So to begin importing 500 units of fish per turn, simply order your merchants to do that, and 500 gold will be traded to your trading partner and between 250 and 1000 gold will be charged as a initiation fee. Initiation fees represent the initial investment in hiring merchants, brokering deals, and learning the most efficient routes to this particular city. Therefore, the exact cost of initiation fees is dependent on many factors, like how well the cities are situated for trade (cities with deepwater harbors are best, while inland mountain cities are worst), how close the cities are, and levels of corruption and piracy in the area of the trade. Sea trade is most efficient, river trade is next, and overland trades are extremely expensive.

The major change in trades from previous NESes is that trade deals do not need to be mutually agreed upon. If you want to buy out your neighbor's entire iron supply, simply place the order and it will be done. If your neighbor wants to stop this trade, he will need to enact a blockade, begin arresting his own citizens who sell the resource, and generally imposing sanctions on those who defy him, which will cause unrest and hurt his economy.

Please note that you cannot force an enemy to accept your exports; you must negotiate with the player or NPC to get them to initiate that trade. You can only force-initiate trades with unwilling players if those trades are imports for you.

How do military forces work?
Each city can support one army and one navy. Each man in an army requires one gold, one food, and one ore each turn in upkeep. Each ship in a fleet requires 100 wood and 100 gold in upkeep each turn. An army has a maxium size of 1000 men per size rating of the city (A city of size 4 can have a 4000 man army, for instance) and a fleet has a maximum size of 10 ships per size rating of the city. A cost of 1 gold over and above upkeep costs increases your army size by 1 man, and it costs 100 gold to increase your navy size by 1 ship.

Your army is broken up by percentage into several different types of units (to be detailed below). You can change 5% of one type of unit to another for free each turn, or pay extra to change more than that. This represents the military stubborness, tradition, and infrastructure that resists change. Putting a little money into that system greases the wheels considerably, which makes for much greater change than simply ordering it.

You are greatly encouraged to write in stories and tailor your orders to customize and develop particular parts of your armies. Bear in mind, though, that the more parts of your army you try to specialize and perfect, the less special and perfect they will be; you can have one or maybe two very powerful units and the rest of your army fairly bland, or you could have several slightly above average parts of your army. If your speciality becomes particularly distinct, I may even give your army an extra division to describe it. Or you could do neither, and try to improve your city's trading abilities instead. And these traits can vary from city to city; don't consider yourself tied down to being a nation of hard-core heavy infantry a la Sparta or of nimble light cavalry like the Huns or a merchant kingdom like Venice. You can have all three, just as long as they're in different cities.

A brief description of the basic pieces of your army:

Light Infantry: Armed with only the lightest weapons and armor, light infantry are mobile skirmishers suitable to ambushes and scouting. They are extraordinarily weak in pitched battle, but are well-suited to hit-and-run attacks in any terrain and have small projectiles that allow them to be fairly useful in seiges.

Medium Infantry: With moderate arms and armor, medium infantry form the mainstay of an army. These troops are light enough to be mobile in most terrain, but heavy enough to withstand a cavalry charge with only moderate losses if given time to brace for the attack. Medium infantry are best countered by archers, as their armor will only hold out for a short time.

Heavy Infantry: The strongest of weapons and armor make heavy infantry nearly invulnerable in melee combat. This is the only unit that can easily throw back even charges from heavy cavalry, and is also nearly invulnerable to fire from archers. Heavy infantry are only strong, however, when their formation remains intact, so these troops can be easily flanked and cut down as they rout.

Light Cavalry: Lightly armed and armored, light cavalry are ideally suited to destroying a routing army as it flees the field. As the fastest unit on the battlefield, light cavalry are also well suited to attacking undefended light foot troops like archers and light infantry. These troops are still poor in a pitched battle, however.

Heavy Cavalry: With so much armor that their speed is only slightly above that of foot soldiers, Heavy Cavalry are the strongest unit around in charges. Their armor gives them a fair defense against archers as well, though the fact that they are a larger target negates that somewhat. They are less effective once bogged down in a battle, as much of their advantage comes from their speed and momentum.

Archers: Lightly armored but equipped with bows, archers are the only unit around that can effectively attack at range. These soldiers are entirely unarmed with regard to melee combat, but are excellent in sieges.

Artillery and Sappers: The behemoth machinery of your army and the dedicated combat engineers who work them. This catagory includes devices for defeating sieges, like catapults, trebuchets, and siege ladders and towers as well as small anti-personell equipment like mangonels. Particularly high amounts of sappers in your army will even allow you to begin to fortify your position in open fields before battle.


So that's what I have so far. There are more detailed things about your resources that I have yet to write, but that's just how to read the spreadsheets that I will inevitably need to post. Bipolarbear will handle the stories, intros, and that sort of thing, while I'm setting up the nitty-gritty rules on how exactly to play this. The map is partially done, and will be posted before the week is out, if I'm lucky. The map will consist of one major continent that takes up about one-third of the total area, and the rest will be various archipelagoes.

Any questions/comments/suggestions?

[Cyclotron]

Are horse archers subsumed within light cavalry? It doesn't seem like it, given that archers are "the only unit around that can effectively attack at range."

[appleciders]

They're not, though you could start working them in by tailoring your orders and funding their creation. I was intentionally vague about the exact weapons each type uses so that everyone can tailor their troops a little.

[foolish_icarus]

Sounds fun. I've already a culture in mind.
Is this set on an earth map? A particular portion of the globe?

[appleciders]

A non-real map. I'll finish up the map in the next few days, I hope.

[Nubclear]

Sounds so complex. Like i'd need a spreadsheet to track everything
I'll wait and see how it goes.

[foolish_icarus]

Oh most excellent. Should I wait to post my culture idea, or should I type it up now?

[appleciders]

Hopefully it'll just be me needing the spreadsheets, and I've already spreadsheeted up the wazoo, so it should work out ok.

[Nubclear]

How about this: I'll join yours if you join mine

[Micha]

This looks great! I cannot wait to see the map, cause if the map is good, this might become a great NES!

Some fresh ideas from you guys! I hope bipolar will use his "Morgan Freeman Facts" sparingly when he does the story part of this NES...

Some things I have noticed though:

Originally posted by appleciders
Size: This is the size of your city relative to other cities in the world. This doesn't represent any concrete number, but rather an abstract idea of how big your city is. To expand your city to the next size level, you must have an excess of at least 1000 of food, ore, and lumber. Having this excess is not a guarantee of growth, but it is impossible to grow without the excess and the greater the excess, the greater the chance for growth. If you do tap out resources entirely, you run the risk of having your city shrink in size. To found a new city, you must order settlers to be sent out from your city, which will reduce your city's size by 1.

You´re contradicting yourself here. Either city size is an abstract relative figure like "big" or it is a number. If it is abstract, what does "increase size by one" mean?

You need food to expand and pay upkeep on your army, and to

To what? The sentence might look better with an ending

A cost of 1 gold over and above upkeep costs increases your army size by 1 man, and it costs 100 gold to increase your navy size by 1 ship.

So if I want to expand my army, do I need to
a) pay upkeep so the current army stays the same
b) pay addtional upkeep for each new recruit to equip him and
c) pay 1 additional gold piece for each man as "recruiting cost"?

[appleciders]

Originally posted by Micha
You´re contradicting yourself here. Either city size is an abstract relative figure like "big" or it is a number. If it is abstract, what does "increase size by one" mean?

You're right, I did. It's not relative, it's an absolute measure of size that I'm not attaching specific units to.

Originally posted by Micha

To what? The sentence might look better with an ending

Oh. Yeah. I'll get on that.

Originally posted by Micha

So if I want to expand my army, do I need to
a) pay upkeep so the current army stays the same
b) pay addtional upkeep for each new recruit to equip him and
c) pay 1 additional gold piece for each man as "recruiting cost"?

Yes.

[bipolarbear]

Originally posted by foolish_icarus
Oh most excellent. Should I wait to post my culture idea, or should I type it up now?

You may submit it for mod approval.

I hope bipolar will use his "Morgan Freeman Facts" sparingly when he does the story part of this NES...

This has been FDA inspected for MFCs (Morgan Freeman Contents) nad passed with a remarkable 0% MFC rating.

[Micha]

I just wanted to say what marvellous an idea this is! I really hope it gets off the ground before the slumber sets in...

When thinking it over, I´ve come to the opinion that there should be a fifth ressource called "luxuries" or something like that. It would resemble the expensive and shiny things you would want to have so you can boast to your neighbours about it.
They can only be produced in your cities if you attract the artisans and craftsmen needed, like for example by lowering the tolls or not taxing several professions. Or you could build artisan quarters in your cities.

And while thinking about that, how about buildings? Like different levels of walls, keeps, granaries, storage facilities, barracks, temples, foundries, palaces, statues etc.?

Originally posted by bipolarbear
This has been FDA inspected for MFCs (Morgan Freeman Contents) nad passed with a remarkable 0% MFC rating.

That´s good, my friend!

[bipolarbear]

I'm glad to see someone else is as excited about this as we are. We've tossed around some ideas similar to luzuries and the like but we're trying to keep this relatively simple as far as stats and the like go. These do have a nasty habit of falling apart even under the best circumstances.

We're trying to change the roles a bit in this and don't want to risk losing attention to those elements by getting bogged down in other areas.

[appleciders]

Luxuries would be nice, and we might add something like that in future, but for the moment we're going to keep it simple so it can get off the ground and then complicate it. As to city improvements, just build them and I'll put a note in your stat blocks and we'll keep them in mind when updating. And as to nation ideas, go ahead and post it.

[foolish_icarus]

The Singidu

Long, long ago, a people came to this part of the river. They called themselves the Singidu, “Those Who Watch the Stone-Grey Fish”. For all this time this river, the Dimini, the lands that surround it, called Cernica, and the ocean it flows into, called Beo, have nourished the Singidu. It is a long river, and The People have traversed much of its banks.

The river, even near the sea, is fairly clear, and rarely floods much beyond its banks. Many of its tributaries are exceptionally clean, the visibility of their river rock bottoms and the water creatures that hide amongst them having given The People their name.

Far, far upstream up among some harsh range of terrible, stormy peaks, snow and rain feed the beginnings of the sweet Dimini. Down here where the Singidu make their homes, somewhere between those mountains and the endless, sunlit waves, the land is gentler and more fruitful.

Hills, most low, some high, lie here and there over the lands of Cernica. Forests of many varieties thrive in this temperate clime, as do meadows, grasslands, and scrub. Fish, beasts, and the fruits of plants were plentiful for The People to make use of.

Most years the Singidu have thrived in this place. They brought wisdom with them when they arrived here, things their ancestors learned in The Place Where The Birds Are Born. Wisdom about digging in the hills, and cooking metals and dirt in fires, and stretching hides, and bending wood and twisting grass or hair or leather. They discovered new wisdom living in this place, new dirt and metals to cook and mix, new ways to cut wood and fit it together. The taught and learned wisdom from other tribes in far off vales who came Cernica before or after the Singidu themselves did. They were shown how to make animals do hard kinds of work, where delicious beasts came from and went to in changing seasons, which plants to put in the ground and when to gather their seeds and when to cut their stalks.

Those whose ancestors came from The Place Where The Birds Are Born had many homes along and near the Dimini. In winter they would cluster in their cold weather camps and eat from their larders and of the wintertime plants and animals they could acquire. In the warm seasons they roamed up and down and beyond the Dimini, sometimes all the way to the sea, or up to the flanks of the mountains from whence the Dimini and her tributaries flow, or even in other directions, far from the rock grey banks, out to the vales of other peoples, or the lands of the lakes, where the journeyers could point and say to each other, “In that direction, far away, is The Place Where The Birds Are Born that our ancestors came from”. In these warm seasons between travels they stopped at camps that were like the cold weather camps, or made new resting grounds in new places, and stayed for as long as they needed, days or weeks or even an entire season if the fish jumped well and the crops swayed high in the sun's fresh warm breezes.

The Singidu have long practiced religion, though the distinction between religion and the customs of daily life is hard to point out. They believe that the power of magic comes from sleep and dreams and takes shape upon one's mind, body, and perhaps even entire tribe through dance, song, paint, and masks. From the decorations that adorned their camps and bodies during their frequent festivities came their first logographic writing system, which a large proportion of average people had at least a rudimentary grasp of, due to its widespread use in everyday as well as ritual situations. Surviving cultural artifacts from this early period usually consist of small, portable items such as decorated pottery, masks, tablets, and hides, although some early carved wooden pillars still exist. Because creation of custom, literature, art, et al. was not restricted to any particular class but was practiced by all elements of society, there is an abundant diversity of material represented by surviving folklore, literature, ceremony, and artifacts.

The People knew how to work iron, though crudely, and rarely used this skill. Their working of bronze and brass and other alloys of bright copper has grown quite skilled and they have always preferred to make their sturdy and elegant tools and ornaments with this well-crafted material.

Relatively protected from any more than the occasional famine, epidemic, natural disaster, material shortage, or external violence, The People developed into a fruitful and capable society. They found uses for obscure new technologies and even began to engage in indirect trade with far off civilizations by way of their more connected neighbors. They governed themselves with Band Leaders and a proto-senate council of distinguished persons selected by popular, though not numerical, approval. They approved of hospitality, vigor, courtesy, wit, friendly competition and displays of impressive feats, and disapproved of greed, sloth, resentment, and cruelty. Sometimes the gods were kind to them, sometimes they were unforgiving, but they saw no hidden meanings in their fates, only the need to sometimes make the best of bad events and other times to be clever and apply themselves so as to make more good things follow.

Generations of almost uninterrupted peace came to a close when the Invaders, literally, “Hunters of Men” offered their poisoned embrace to the lands of Cernica. They did not eat horses or use them to plow the earth. They rode atop them into the land of lakes and the vales and finally the valleys and hills of the Dimini among the Singidu to throw torches and spears into the people who, until just then, had contented themselves with watching the rock-grey fish.

The People were new to the ways of war. They were not ignorant of the ways of nature; they knew they were prey, and their persons and possessions were the flesh that those that would hunt them wished to consume. They knew what prey must do to win its life from the slender, red-tipped claws of its predator.

The Singidu ran as fast and as far as they could while the Invaders filled up their bellies and their bags and their cruel lusts with the loot torn out of a scattered riverside people. The People washed their hands with their tears and stood up straight on their toes upon the hard earth. One of the Leaders of The People drew out his pouch and let his hand clench the hot, dusty remains of his home and kin. The People became warriors, those who hunted the hunters, and they were called The Lips Burnt Black, for when they prepared to fight they smeared their mouths with ashes still warm.

The Singidu took their nets and their snares and their arrows and spears and notched blades and turned them away from the rabbits and poultry and antelope and they turned them against those men who rode their horses in order to hunt men. They turned their eyes and their minds and instincts and their grim unparted blackened mouths against the Invaders who thought to make game of the riverlanders.

In the hills and valleys of Cernica the Invaders began to know fear of the men and women they had though were soft. The ghosts of these forests could not be dissuaded from having their vengeance. The Invaders soon decided to take their horses and ride away to lands where they hoped they would find easier pickings.

Our people who had once watched the fish began to build their tools and homes anew, with walls and warriors to guard them. Their neighbors from the vales soon felt the affliction of the Invaders' hooves and sent messengers asking for the aid of those who had shed blood to send the Invaders away. The Singidu looked to each other and said, “We did not ask the Invaders to be our enemies, yet they became our enemies. Surely, then, if these or any other people ask in earnestness to be our friends, we must become their friends?”

The Invaders were driven far away, and the Singidu and their neighbors had learned of cause to build strong walls and keep firm hold on bent bows and fire hardened spears and maintain alliances as peoples of the same heart. Indeed, the Singidu and their neighbors have grown very close, upon seeing the lay of the outside world and just how similar they really are. On calm days, when the wind blows sweet and watchful faces say all is safe, all the people of Cernica can sit together and watch the fish.

[appleciders]

You are a story-writin' fool, aren't you?

Excellent, that's one nation set. Next?

[foolish_icarus]

I'm getting pretty excited about this. The 'capital' city, by the way, is called Singidunum.
Influences were from all over; barbarian non-Mediterranean Europe, pre-Hellenic near east and Helladic Greece, Sub Saharan Africa, North American Indians...I wanted to try something away from the classic Greco/Roman/Mediterranean paradigm.
Any chance we can get a peek at the map, even if it isn't finished?

[bipolarbear]

I have an old proto map with some notes etc. on it, that may whet your appetite. We (ciders really) is/are remaking it to have one large central continent, and this is just a pure archipelago with some bigger islands.

Giganti-map

[LordShiva]

I'm in, will post my civ soon.

[Cyclotron]

The Azuran

Our people were once without a home, but no longer.

Since the dawn of time when Zhursas, the Lord of Heaven, created the peoples of the world, the tribes of the Azuran roamed the world with their flocks and their horses. We lived our lives on horseback, men of peace when the years were good to us, and men of war when times were lean. We learned the art of archery and took up the bow, and with that instrument of war made many peoples pay us tribute. All this was ours, but we still had no home.

The Zhurhiman, priests of the Lord of Heaven, prophesized that one day we would find a land to stay and become like other peoples, and that the sign would be a fire eternal. Our Lord carries fire as his sacred symbol, and for generations we searched for the place where it was prophesized we would make our home.

Now, we have found our place. Our numerous peoples found a fertile land by a great lake, where a people dwelled in ignorance of Zhursas and his will. They had a shrine there, a place where fire wells up from the earth eternally, and yet they were blind to its great holiness. We, the inheritors of the sacred fire, made war against them, and they were swiftly conquered - how can scattered tribes of footmen compete with our great host of mounted warriors - even our women can ride and loose an arrow into enemy eyes! It was here that we have made our home, and here we shall stay.

Let it not be said that other peoples are not good for anything. The natives of this place have over time intermarried with our own peoples and adopted the worship of Zhursas. They are indistinguishable from us now, and together we have built a great city, Surizhad, meaning "the place of sacred flame." Our Great King rules over us all, both the commander of our allegiance and the highest priest of the land, commanding the Zhurhiman that administer our realm. We have learned from the natives the ways of building with stone, of writing, of making pots and working iron. We learn the ways of peace and remember the ways of war - we have not abandoned our lives upon the horse's back, and most of our people outside Surizhad's walls are still the herdsmen-warriors that made the fufillment of the prophecy possible.

O Zhursas, Lord of Heaven, the Sacred Keeper of the Hearth, keep our people strong and our rulers wise, our flocks numerous and our fields rich, our arrows straight and our horses swift. We will have much need of all these things when we contend with what lies beyond our promised land, peoples who surely follow your eternal opponent, the wretched Agharisus. We shall always keep your eternal flame, in our Great Temple and in the hearts of our people. Bring glory to the Azuran, and make our children masters of the vast plains of the world!

OOC: Sounds like a promising NES. I've given these guys a ancient persian/parthian/sassanid theme, and used plenty of gibberish words! The capital city, as I mentioned above, is Surizhad, and our current Great King is named Khozol.

[Cyclotron]

PS, get rid of that giganti-map, it breaks the tables

[foolish_icarus]

Horsemen! Pray to your spirits that when we meet you have no malice in your hearts, for our mercy, though great, dwindles at the sight of evil half beasts who would seek to fill their cruel gullets with the spoils of our people.
May you find plentiful grazing...far away from our fields. Those who walk upon two feet are welcome among us.

[Sheep]

hello all, its been a while.

[foolish_icarus]

Greetings, thou Nebuchadnezzar, breaker of walls and despoiler of cities!
(I've been waiting all afternoon to say that to someone. Thanks for accidentally obliging )
You going to join?

PS ancient Mesopotamia has the coolest words and names, period.

[Cyclotron]

Originally posted by foolish_icarus
Horsemen! Pray to your spirits that when we meet you have no malice in your hearts, for our mercy, though great, dwindles at the sight of evil half beasts who would seek to fill their cruel gullets with the spoils of our people.
May you find plentiful grazing...far away from our fields. Those who walk upon two feet are welcome among us.

As sure as the holy flame of the sun rises over the plains, we have no quarrel with your people. You must in turn pray that you accept Zhursas, Lord of Heaven, into your hearts, for his path tarries not into darkness and evil. You speak of cruelty in taking spoils, but one does not scold the hawk for preying upon the mice of the world - so how can one speak ill when the strong prey upon the weak, or the righteous upon the unrighteous?

[foolish_icarus]

Your people's long years out under the flames of your holy sun has made you haughty and a little bit addled, but we like your zest and vigor anyway!
We are amused that you might supect us to be mice--Step into the forest, dance and wrestle with us and run beside us as we track game through the woods in the dark of night, and you might be surprised to learn who is the bird of prey.
We revere the sky, but there are other forces that lend us strength as well, each at their appropriate time. May all of them take their turn in lending strength to this peace growing between our people.

[Rand Al'Tor]

The Fathan

Fire, steel, flesh and blood! That is what all is made off! In the beginning there was only nothingness and the gods. These gods were hunderds all immensely powerful, with bones of steel and blood of fire. Measuring strength against eachother, they started a battle that lasted ages, until only one lived! He took the other gods' corpses, made a mountain of them, and with his own blood, the Great Warrior ignited the pyre and watched the mix burn. Before his eyes, the pile of corpses turned to this world.

As the fire lowered, he saw that embers settled in little pieces of flesh, some animals, but the brightets pieces of flame were for humans, especially whose flesh was created from the loins of the dead gods. The Great Warrior saw how these first mortals mimicked their ancestors, the fire driving them to glorious combat, and he was pleased, for he feared the eternity would boring once the fire went out. So he took the ones in whom the fire burned brightest, and he gave them the sacred task of making sure the world remained aflame, and for that they would find all the pleasures of the world open to them.

Our people have followed this decree with greatest pleasure. Our ancestors say we long travelled, fighting against one another when none were close, and fighting others when they were. But those times are done, for today the flames are fanned to the size of armies, and one needs cities, farms and mines. Thus we found a city, and after vanquishing it, we did not burn it to the ground, yet became rulers.

We called the people we rule 'Ash-men' for there seems to be little fire. Occasionally they revolt, which gives our youths great possibility for first kills. Occasionally, the spark from us flies and one of the Ash-Born ignites, and is welcomed among us. Also, we claim the thirdborn child of the ashborn, so our blood does not thicken.

We find weedy men who crave authority over other ashmen and have them deal with the boring stuff. Us Fathan are content as long as our demands for food and weapons are met. Forging Weapons is forbidden to the Ash-men though. Mostly our wives, whose fire tempers steel, do that. (Though they can get in the army if they can silence anyone that would call them too weak)


I have been accepted as Warleader after defeating other contestants. We've spent many years making sure the Ash People wouldn't dare to betray us, but I shouldmake sure there are warriors in the city always. And ofcourse, once we have taken other cities we will see if they'll fight to the last,or turn Ash-men as well.
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Oh Great Warrior, this city is subdued and shall provide the fuel for the infernos to come. We are all but like burning straws, our existant short and without fate. Let us provide pleasure to You and ourselves, and make the world burn until there is nothing left and darkness and silence claim all!

(Bit of a mix between Spartans and Vikings. Mostly Vikings with perhaps a dash of orc. Will have a hard time keeping order really,mostly rule through brute force Maybe a bit like Cyclotron, but more 'hand to hand' oriented, and less 'nice' all around.)

[appleciders]

The map posted was in a very developmental stage, but I'll probably keep most of it and edit a large continent in near the middle. Before you ask; you don't get to pick your spot, BP and I are reserving that right. That's only your first city, so it shouldn't be much of a handicap. Most, if not all, of your cities will be on the mainland.

A quick explanation of the map:
Ignore the red and neon green; those were ways for Bipolarbear and I to communicate.
Dark blue is deep water, good for shipping, not fishing.
Medium blue is medium water, great for fishing, ok for shipping.
Light blue is shallow water- safe harbors but small ships, some fish.
Light green is plains and grasslands; good for farming, lousy defense.
Dark green is forest; lots of lumber, some defense.
Brown are hills and mountains: not much food, but ore is most likely to be found here and a great defensive position.

You'll also see some rivers and inland lakes, which are pretty self-explanatory.

I've got lots more to say but not much time to say it in, at least tonight. Semi-final map tomorrow, if I'm lucky.

[Cyclotron]

Fish, Grain, Fruit and Hunting: These represent the food sources for this city. Hunting is a basic staple of small cities that becomes rather unimportant as cities grow because it is very difficult to increase the amount of food gathered through hunting. Hunting is, however, a reliable source of a small amount of food that varies little year-to-year.

If my city is to be tenable, herding should be somewhere too. We are a pastoral people!