The Magic Lands are Ours

Could you move Jianghu slightly westward so that it's surrounded by Dawlat, Liona,Daemun, Pandoa, and the Orcs with part of its eastern side touching the sea for the rivers to make sense? That seems like it'd work out, hopefully.

I'm not sure what you mean, could you circle it on the map? This is standard map directions, do you want to go east?

Also Faux pointed out on Skype that I fucked up Wyld. It should be on the other side of Liona.

edited 4th Jul '14 9:04:16 AM by nman

Why? Wouldn't that make Liona straight up North? Not exactly fertile, is it? And it would put Wyld right next to a desert. Honestly, I'm happy with my position right now.

It's mainly cause Liona is a bitch to place, since it's supposed to have mountains to the south, a nation to the north, ocean to the west, highlands to the west. I suppose if I shoved Liona where the CD and Uttowaith are, and moved those two where it is, that would technically still work and Wyld could be center-north.

edited 4th Jul '14 9:03:29 AM by nman

That works for me.

I think Grey Star meant something like this, Nman.

All this mapmaking makes me glad that the only thing I have set in stone for Daemuun is "it's land-locked."

That won't work, since Pandoa and Dawlat are supposed to border each other, and IIRC Dawlat and the Orks border each other as well. If it has to be south, there's really only two places Jianghu can fit in without disrupting established connections.

edited 4th Jul '14 11:18:38 AM by nman

I think the only thing that matters for the Theocracy is that it's beside Pandoa, so that the Basilians could've invaded.

• Geography Notes:

Nman wanted things to be summed up to be a bit easier. I've decided that rather than visual representation, we might opt to describe the nations and try out best to compromise and see what is essential.

North:

• Wyld: Bordering Ocean with claim over a few Islands. This may mark the end of the Silkmare chain, or it may be an individual chain. Southern lands are at least relatively fertile.
• Norstrade: Northern Edge as well, thus likely bordering ocean. No claim to islands. Relies on magic for agriculture.

North-Western Countries:

• Oreia: North West; Islands with the narrowest point to the North, which is less fertile due to climate [thus the Northern tip might be at the same point as the Silky isles, which rely heavily on fishing and durable grains]
• Silkmare: Must border Erunel. North Western Chain of Islands with some coastal claims [likely Erunel territory.
• Erunel: North West; Peninsular (described as having a North and Western coast), Moutains and Forest.
• Uttowaith: Under forest, may be between Liona and Erunel, in a sort of triple boarder or may be more eastern. No Geographic concerns outside of forest.
• Crimson Domain: May border Erunel to the East. Likely shares the same mountain range which marks its southern borders. May or may not be landlocked and it appears relatively small.

South-Western:

• Liona: Likely to be drawn as one of the most expansive nations. It is almost certainly a peninsula or at least expanding outwards. The Marshland to the south implies that it borders Logos and maybe even Yeoquetzal.
• Hivelands: Forests to the West. May or may not border Uttowaith, if so, they may both have some mountain territory.
• Logos: Likely to the south of Liona; peninsula.
• Yeoquetzal Ascendancy dominates southern Continent's jungle. Mountain range as described in sign up may have to be mirrored [towards the East rather than West] or else the Ocean bordering highlands of Liona may grow to mountains in the south: If so Logos is a subcontinent similar to India but likely on a smaller scale.

South Eastern:

• Pandoa: South-Eastern tip, likely. Largely Jungle but also contains swamp/marsh, and desert along side jungle.
• Dawlat: North of Pandoa, it is built around a mountain range which divides Desert and Jungle; dominating more the Desert side. Shouldn't be too large.
• The Cold Theocracy (Might need a geographical name: if only the Orken Plateau]: Must be Cold and Bordering Pandoa: Thus a Tibet-style mountain Plateau at the bottom of the Dawlat-Pandoa range.
• Jianghu: Rivers and Forests. Likely a Sub-tropical. West of Pandoa, likely borders Orks and Dawlat on the Desert side. (may mark where Forests become semiarid and eventually desert).
• Onogo: a large chain of small islands, likely boardering along Pandoa and Dawlat.

Central:

• Daemun: Central area. May be a source of polluted rivers which other bordering nations have to put up with or try to treat. Like Crimson Domain, it appears to be a relatively small nation, centered around a single mountain and city. History of posts had it near Pandoa, though it may be cut off by the Cold Theocracy.
• Draconia: City State, Valley & Fertile. As central as possible to continent.

Expanding that into a coherent map:

• In the South East, there must be a mountain chain which likely levels out into a sort of Plateau.
• There is also likely a chain in the North West, considering how they are expected to extend, they may be best left as separate entities, though a zag might be possible to connect the two.
• The South of the continent is likely covered mostly in Jungle.
• A Desert likely covers at least a portion of the Central area, especially if the two mountain ranges are separate. However, following after Desdenelle's request, this desert should be somewhat small or have fairly large unclaimed portions.
• The Northern Reaches of the Continent seem to have tundra but not necessarily permafrost.
• The North Western Extent has a boreal forest extending through Elven lands and onto the Silkie isles.
• The North East may be home to a large bay as all Eastern nations appear fairly warm. Even the Dawla border jungle rather than forest.

If everyone can agree on all of this, then that saves a good bit of headache and a visual representation can be done by Nman [ideally] or me [if we get the lion's share of climate argument out of the way].

Edit: I said I retired but I lied. After Nman complaining and arguing with him about my own borders, here is one last attempt on my part based off of these laid out notes; http://imgur.com/WdHYQUm. I'm not bothered to try to draw this from scratch again so if there are major concerns, or something that might seriously throw this out of whack, I'll just strike this map and leave it to N. However, based off the geography sections and what I could find of other posts on that brief skim, this should be pretty close.

Primary issues I see are that Nostrade's southern tip would actually be pretty good farmland. This could be remedied by granting that territory to the Crimson Domains. Wyld has some actually pretty good lands as well, but that could be donated to the Dawla or left as disputed.

Jianghu also have to deal with the fact that some of their rivers are likely sulfur or other crap because Daemuun rivers are awful.

edited 4th Jul '14 12:43:58 PM by Fauxlosophe

The Orken Plateau sounds fine to me.

I'm okay with some of the rivers being sulphurous since real life China has a river like that already. And I'm okay with the map so far since I wanna stop giving people a headache. Just stretch it out a bit so that some part touches the coast for the rivers to empty out.

I've been notified by Maestro that the Cold Theocracy ought to be smaller: This is do-able.

Grey Star: Jianghu having a border with so many nations and a coastal holding seems like it would be really difficult. I aimed to give them a large number of neighbours and assumed that they would have several rivers running through their nation which they could use to trade with their other neighbours but ultimately drained into other basins (or formed lakes), otherwise you will either be breaking the border between Pandoa and Yeoquetzal [who are bordering and have been at war, even if I missed that in my notes] or reaching out all the way West in a long awkward line through current Liona territory; these lands would have to be Marshy for climate to make sense. I can do this, but I think where you are now works; it makes perfect sense for rivers to run through you, to have a pleasant subtropical climate in the way you described and trade is open with all the nations listed [Dawla trade needs to pass through the Scarlett Wastes, but Daemuun settlement is "scattered" and wouldn't be an obstacle] as well as Yeoquetzal.

Tricksen: The Wylds ought to have islands. I told Nman this, I made a note of this myself but I didn't draw these on. If the map is acceptable to everyone and the island borders are fine, then I'll start drawing some on. I want there to be a large Oreia-Selkie-Wylds chain, but if you would prefer them to the North [independant chain, largely inhopistable] or a more temporate souther Islands [attached to Onogo chain], then we can discuss this.

edited 5th Jul '14 7:48:09 AM by Fauxlosophe

Oh, okay. That makes a lot of sense and I'll go with that, then. Thanks for putting up with my whims, eheh.

I don't have a problem but the one you should be talking to is Tricksen, it's his country.

Mulled over it while I was busy doing other stuff a bit and I decided on my adventurer being a Misci-Demon hybrid because gg dragon ripoff and other cool stuff like that. Could my Adventurer be your Adventurers servant or the like, Kage? Or something else that makes them some sort of pseudo-duo.

@ Nman: Faux's map just made me realize, I'm not happy about being center-north. My fault entirely, sorry about that. North-East with a coast on the East is where Wyld belongs.

@Faux: I deliberately made the number of islands Wyld owned tiny because there were already three nations who were solely based on islands, but if you, Tricksterton, Claw Parable are fine with expanding that number a bit, then we could do an Oreia-Selkie-Wyld island chain, though Wyld's island chain would be pretty small compared to the other chains.

The bits on the same latitude as Malkarath are far too good for Wyld, I agree, and can remain undisputed or part of Dawlat as Des wishes, but I would like to keep the borders on the mountains. The Yeti would be very interested in that, and it could be a source of minor conflict.

Speaking of conflict, remember how you wanted a nation to be on rocky relationships with the Selkies? The Yeti could probably fit the bill for that, considering the proximity to the two, and the fact that the Yeti trade extensively via sea. They could also be the reason why trading ships have the military guard that I mentioned.

edited 5th Jul '14 11:51:31 AM by Tricksen

@Katsuun: Iozia probably wouldn't have servants (she was born to Imps, the lowest social class, but was unusually tall). However, she would have quite a few cousins and siblings, and the term 'illegitimate child' is meaningless is Daemuun, so feel free to make your Adventurer related to mine.

What I said in the signup made me realize thing have gone quiet. Anyone here? Who wants to further discuss international relations, history, etc? We have 1500 years since the Empire fell and I don't think we live in bubbles.

Right now the only historical event I have to offer is the Pandalorian War, so if you want me to add you to the victor list just ask. But I'd also prefer to collaborate on making up new stuff that happened in the last millennium and a half.

edited 11th Jul '14 10:11:33 AM by nman

Something something my race was driven to near extinction for the millionth time in it's history during the Wars. Hard for my people, being what they are, to really get involved in history unless someone wages war on all of them at once.

Seriously though, the evil Sauron esque sorcerer needs to be a thing.

Also, kage, I made my adventurer a Misci-Demon hybrid, you may want to check to be sure you approve of the stuff I said.

edited 11th Jul '14 12:20:09 PM by Katsuun

Your hybrid looks good. I see nothing that contradicts what I've written about demons. Which is good, because I think I forgot to mention the one major difference between male and female demons: Male demons have straight horns, female demons have curved ones.

On the subject of history, there's an event that Daemuun and its neighboring nations should probably remember.

The Time of Cruelty.

Three centuries ago, the Nameless Count stumbled upon an ancient demon relic, The Eye of Tyrannis, an opal said to break the will of any mortal being. The then-queen, Zera the Ravenous, demanded he return it to the Black Palace, but the Count refused. Zera, taller and stronger than him, moved to steal the jewel, and though the Count tried to use its magic to make her stop, Zera managed to resist. Before Queen Zera could attempt to take the jewel from him, the Count tried to swallow it, but it got stuck in his throat. The queen charged at him in a rage, but he bid her halt, and she did. The Count discovered, then, that his voice held the jewel's power.

He declared himself king, and for several months traveled around Daemuun and its neighbors, making people do whatever he pleased for his own amusement. Eventually, however, an unlikely pair - an assassin and a sorcerer - defeated him. The assassin struck at his throat, and though it was not a lethal blow, the mage infused magic into the wound, rendering the Count mute. In rage, the Count killed them both in retaliation, but their legend lives on, unlike the Count's.

Rather than kill him, Zera denied him the peace of death and instead had The Count's true name stricken from history, and his mate, Countess Catharsia, gained control of his estate. He has lived in silent shame since then.

Anyone can claim the glory as the homeland of the assassin and/or the sorcerer, but they don't have to be from the same nation or the same race.

edited 11th Jul '14 2:50:33 PM by Kagescorpionakki

Noted for when/if I eventually make images for my peeps, thanks.

Ooh, I had an idea. Say the sorcerer was the current Misci ambassador at the time? And between this and a couple of other small things the harpies are generally well regarded by the demons? I sort of think the Misci would like Demon airspace because of it's centralized location and the higher ambient heat making it easy to catch the start of convection cells to let them fly easier over the rest of the continent. So it'd be one of the places that my people congregate (slightly) more often compared to the other nations. So their relations are pretty good, at least to begin with.

I imagine that would've affected the Orcs in some way, because I think they border Daemunn to the east?

Does it have to be one assassin and one sorcerer or could there have been more? Because while I would want to have a Pandalorian be the assassin, I wouldn't want to take that spot from someone who really wants it.

Also where's the jewel now? I hope it's not laying around.

And right now I'm stuck on my phone, but when I get home I'll try to look at my list of ideas to try writing up some historical stuff we can work on.

edited 11th Jul '14 2:34:07 PM by nman

That works. I sort of imagine that Demons see more beastlike races (Orcs, Pandalorians, Misci, Dragons) as their kin, while they distance themselves from humans and elves.

I believe they do. This may or may not have affected Demon-Orc relations. There's also the fact that the Orcs live in a really cold climate so the Demons wouldn't really visit that often. Because, you know, they're cold-blooded.

Obviously other people were trying to stop him, but because he could just command anyone who outright attacked him to stop, having a smaller group sneak up on him makes more sense. Also, the Jewel is still fused to the inside of the Count's throat. This keeps anyone else from abusing it, since the Count can no longer use its power and anyone else who wanted it would have to kill a high-ranking demon, which is not an easy feat.

Ohhhhhh ohhhhh ohh! What if the reason they succeed was because they wore specially-crafted bamboo helmets that countered mind control like Magneto's helmet?