The Magic Lands - Discussion

Signup. Roleplay.

There are many lands on the continent of Urth, and it seems you have written of one, oh brave author.

So now we may compare our notes, decide upon the conflicts and shifting political states of the past, and learn of the wonderful history of the magic lands.

Translation: Discussion and Worldbuilding Thread is Go.

edited 1st Jun '15 12:28:12 PM by kagescorpionakki

Let's see, I'm trying to get an idea of our overall geography, at least from who we have signed up so far. Going in order:

• The Alliance of Saudor
  • Is in a desert.
  • Has the sea/ocean bordering its North and North-West side.
  • Has a forest area bordering the South.
  • All else unestablished.

• The Wardu Junta
  • Is in a landlocked great plain area.
  • All else unestablished.

• The Land of Light
  • Is in a landlocked jungle region surrounded by forests.
  • Has mountains bordering the South and South-East.
  • All other borders are either plains or more forests.

• The Magical Kingdom of Stalli
  • Is on its own island, North of "the mainland". (Though who's to say we only have one mainland?)
  • The mainland coast South of the island is primarily arid grassland.
  • South of the arid grassland is "an expansive desert".
  • All else unestablished.

Looking at what's compatible, the Land of Light could be South of the Alliance of Saudor, (the forest the Skaven came from could be among the forest regions just past their borders) and the Wardu Junta could border the Land of Light on pretty much any other side besides South and South-East, unless it's past the mountains.

It's the Magical Kingdom of Stalli that's a bit harder. The "expansive desert" couldn't be the Red Desert, as Cathari Sarad's description would imply that Saudor doesn't hold the Northern coast, which would be contradicting my description of Saudor; it could maybe be on the East side of Saudor, but my historical implications were that the Alliance of Saudor held the entire desert that they were in, meaning that any other borders shouldn't be more desert. Also while the Wardu Junta could border the desert, it probably couldn't border the arid grassland while also still being landlocked. And the Land of Light's description makes it completely incompatible with being adjacent to the areas described by the Magical Kingdom of Stalli.

edited 30th Apr '15 9:38:57 PM by FirockFinion

Alright, I made a crappy, temporary, and crappy mockup◊ of what our land might look like, trying to keep us relatively close while also keeping all our descriptions true.

Oh, I forgot to make that little bit of white on the Land of Light's East border also black, so pretend that black extends down to the mountains I guess. (It's temporary at best anyway, so whatever. )

edited 30th Apr '15 9:34:26 PM by FirockFinion

@Firock Finion: I'm not sure if "arid grasslands" was the right phrase to describe the Affadiz coast. I was kinda picturing that geographically, the Affadiz is something similar to North Africa/Algiers. In regards to your image, I was also kinda picturing the Saudor Alliance somewhere west of the Affadiz. I haven't looked all that into where the other regions would be compared to the others, but I get the feeling that the Wardu Junta/Ashura city-state would be really far away from the Stalli Kingom/Affadiz region. If the Ashura city-state was close to the Affadiz region, the Jaz Sultanate would have probably hired some of their mercenaries, which probably would have tipped the war to liberate the four Emirates/Duchies in Jaz's favor. I don't think the ponies/Affadiz humans would know about the Ashuras's existence except from word of mouth or legends or something like that.

Speaking of which, if I ever get time to do so, I'll probably see if I can draw up a more detailed map once we've sorted out everything.

edited 30th Apr '15 10:24:57 PM by CathariSarad

In my mockup, Saudor is West of Affadiz, just not immediately so; there's a buffer of land between them. As for the war, kagescorpionakki's signup mentions that the Ashura will commonly fight on both sides of any conflict, as a way to keep neutrality so that nobody will harbor ill will against them; so unless the ponies just straight up refused the help, they wouldn't have really tipped the balance that much either way.

But if you insist, that still means the only thing wrong with my mockup by your current request then is having Wardu Junta right near Affadiz.

edited 1st May '15 12:05:45 AM by FirockFinion

Huh, I overlooked that specific clause. Still, that sort of placement has some rather interesting implications, cause Stalli has a tendency of wanting to keep mercenaries in their military permanently, in a similar vein as the Order of Happiness. Not to mention, poniez will try selling them cocaine Happy Spice.

edited 1st May '15 12:30:39 AM by CathariSarad

Well, the Ashura wouldn't want to stay and just crush rebellions in one sided fights. And considering how fearsome the Ashura are I doubt the Ashura would have been forced to stay.

Since the ponies seem to want to 'end conflict it makes sense the Ashura would avoid them and since the ponies are on the island the Ashura could be a myth to them.

@kagescorpionakki: That's kinda what I was thinking, that the Ashura would be some sort of legend to both the Affadiz/Jaz humans and the ponies. Plus I kinda get the feeling Ashuras would want to murder ponies as soon as they met. On another note, when are you going to post the sign up sheet for our adventurer characters?

Speaking of which, we should probably come up with a bunch of different names for any border states that fill up the space between our nations. This'll probably help us figure out what sort of politics is going on in each region so that it doesn't look like each of our states is by themselves. Also we might want to figure out what sort of historical large powers/empires existed. There's the Jaz Empire/Sultanate that I mentioned in my post. I think the Sanojutsu mentioned some sort of vague empire in the post for The Land of Light, but it's probably a different empire. The Jaz Empire was at its height around 200-150 years or so in the past and I get the feeling the Land of Light is much older than that. Now that I think about it, the placement of the Land of Light in the markup makes sense given its predominantly jungle climate.

Yeah the empire I alluded to was this big elf empire in the style of the high elves in the Elder Scrolls, just south of the mountains in the south... I thought it could have reformed in some shape. But now the age of the land of light? I don't know I don't want it to be too old... maybe 500-700 years?

I'd rather wait until I know for sure where our nations are going to be in relation to each other before thinking about NPC nations nearby. That and I don't have many ideas currently.

Anyway, got kind of quiet in here. Maybe we should do some world building?

Sure I'm up for it. I was thinking about the Happy Spice. I can't help but think my guys would make a 'clean' version of it as fast as possible.

Just wondering, how exactly would a 'clean' version of Happy Spice work? Also, I'm not sure how far that stuff would have spread, cause based on our initial placements, the Land of Light is somewhat far away from the Affadiz. Plus it's land-locked, and ponies would probably be more interested in trading to coastal provinces or those they can easily reach through their areas of influence. I mean, maybe a few traders would have traveled that far, but I get the feeling the Spice wouldn't have penetrated those regions as thoroughly as those of the northern coast.

Also, I get the feeling that the Wardu Junta wouldn't be right next to the Land of Light. Seeing as the Land of Light elves are primarily defensive, they wouldn't be interested in instigating any wars, and thus I get the feeling they'd be trying to improve relationships with the bordering states around the Junta, which wouldn't be conductive to the Ashuras' battle-loving nature. It would make more sense if the region surrounding the Junta was a bunch of competing states.

Based on the current markup, I think the Alliance of Saudor would have tried to invade the Land of Light sometime in the past, considering they're magical, pacifist elves, which seems like an easy target for a loose collection of desert warriors.

Still, we might need to wait to see who else signs up to better define the location of the states.

Also, where's Kagescorpionakki? We're going to need to write up our adventurers eventually if we get off stage one.

The Adventurer sheet is up.

Probably gonna wait for one more nation and then get ready to start it. We can worldbuild and pick up adventurers as we go along, if people join in late.

In regards to Wardu, it is entirely likely that the surrounding nations are actually peaceful. The Ashura want an even battle, not a one-sided slaughter, so it's entirely possible that they would intentionally sell more mercenaries to one side. That would cause battles to be much less decisive while increasing casualties, so the surrounding nations would learn to call on the Ashura sparingly.

So the Ashura would probably start travelling around, leading to them becoming myth in more distant nations like Stalli.

Except as mentioned in their history, Saudor doesn't want to push themselves beyond their borders much, since they see that as a way to make unnecessary enemies and possibly over-extend their abilities. There's also the matter of their main religion being about humility and tolerating others' beliefs. All in all, they have the exact opposite of an expansionist mindset.

So the only way they'd really go to war against another nation is if that nation started it. Though speaking of, if we keep our relative placements and Stalli did try to trade happy spice along the Saudorian coast, Saudor would eventually outlaw it and treat incoming shipments of it as akin to hostile acts.

Anyway, I'll try to come up with an adventurer after I get back from work.

edited 5th May '15 4:22:47 PM by FirockFinion

Checking in before work, got a question: Are our adventure characters supposed to already know each other? The first signup post almost seems to imply that they've already been adventuring with each other for a bit now.

Well I wish I checked for a discussion thread before, oh well what can you do.

I did get the impression that some of us would know each other before hand at-least. In which case which people know who and where/how/when did we meet up? I mean we could go with old tradition but we might want to be a bit more creative.

I am personally ok with either possibility of knowing or not knowing each other at the start. Of course Kagescorpionakki, may have a idea already there.

Geography wise, Rana is fully surrounded by water (it is a island) so it could be anywhere that is relatively warm. The land used to pretty dry in the past so near a desert location would make some decent sense. By its isolation it being quite a distance away by ship or being in a precarious location (maybe past a huge reef, whirlpool, fantastical monster or otehr appropriate water based hazard) could work. For its personal geography it has its huge mountain in the centre, wet forest hills more or less surrounding it and low lying swampland near the eastern and southern coasts. Most of the isalnd does have rocks and cliffs making it difficult to dock or land except for its east side. The east side also being the lower part of the island and it slopping taller towards the west (except for the mountain).

edited 10th May '15 1:47:27 PM by darkdestinysoul

@darkdestinysoul: I take it your island place would be tropical in climate? Or would it be somewhere else? I'm just trying to get an idea of what sort of earth-equivalent latitude/climate your place would be in so I have a good idea where to put in when I give a shot at making a map. I'm thinking it'll probably somewhere to the far east or west of everyone else based on current placement.

Far east would be more appropriate I feel. Tropical or Indian climate if that helps you judge where to place it.

edited 10th May '15 2:49:10 PM by darkdestinysoul

Well my idea was actually that they had just met. Wardu is neutral exactly so that we can use it as a starting point as we go nation to nation doing whatever the rulers/people need help with. Though not every country would have the same opinion on how dangerous the Mad God is, I imagine they'd at least send one representative to see what's going on.

But if you think it would be more fun to start with them not knowing each other, we can do that too. I'm open to suggestions.

Hmmm.... Well how do we know to meet up. Did someone send out a call to arms, a letter, a divine message heading nations to send people or posters saying HELP, "representatives wanted!".

Starting not knowing each other will mean we will have the fun job of introducing ourselves to one another in character. (And the discovery of all these strange foreign cultures.)

For my character it makes sense that he traveled with someone, considering Wardu is landlocked and Rana is a island. It would depend where on the map is the nation that makes the most sense. Though as said I am happy either way, the question is, as a group what do people prefer.

edited 10th May '15 3:19:23 PM by darkdestinysoul

@darkdestinysoul: Thanks. Probably won't get around to drafting a proper map till next week due to finals and stuff. Also, based on Firock Finion's draft and my impressions, Stalli's probably the closest to Rana, but I don't see Dora being Stormcaller's escort. Plus, I'm thinking there's a huge continent in the way so it would be impractical for Stalli ships to travel that far. Though, depending on the map arrangement, its possible Sarlus and Dora might run into each other.

@kagescorpionakki: I'm kinda in favor of the first few posts having our characters just meet each other. It's going to be much more difficult to write out our characters already having known each other because we might not know how our characters adjust to each other without having them interacted first.

Another thing, just what is the nature of these macguffins we're supposed to be collecting from each nation or whatnot? What exactly would happen once we collect these macguffins and defeat the mad god once and for all? Or, at the very least, what do legends say would happen? Cause these kinds of details will probably determine how I set up my plot for when we eventually travel to Stalli/the Affadiz coast.

Also, Junta definitely sounds like a good place to start. As a note, I don't want to be one of the first ones to set up an adventure. I kinda have an idea of what I want to happen when we eventually travel to Stalli/the Affadiz, but I kinda want some time to figure out all the details. Plus, I think the party should have a decent amount of adventuring experience before we get to Stalli/the Affadiz.

edited 10th May '15 3:36:54 PM by CathariSarad

According to legend:

Lo, and the dying prophet said: "From each king, every queen, all councils, would the saviors be given a small token, a Memento, a symbol of unity. These marks of Harmony would make whole the cursed chaos, lashing it into a mortal form. But should the saviors fall to madness, all the world shall be lost."

Also, Wardu is going to be the first adventure so you all have time to think of stuff and things.

Some pair ups might work as having already at least met, though I would certainly say that I'd prefer none of our characters really knowing each other yet. Also, it seems like there would be some contradiction in character for certain ones already knowing each other.

Like, to say that Kothar would be extremely disapproving of Dora having happy spice on her (assuming he knows what it is) would be an understatement; and if he saw her trying to give or sell any to anyone else, he might just straight up start a fight with her.

So them already being acquainted before the RP starts begs the question of how that hasn't come to a head between them yet. And that's just one particular cultural clash; wouldn't some of the more magically oriented characters (Dora, Sarlus, Sovelkin to a lesser extent) have some choice words to say to Kothar about his society's negative view on magic?

@kagescorpionakki: So, I guess we'll have to wait and see what sort of macguffins these memento things are.

@Firock Finion: Yeah, I get the feeling lizardfolk are going to hate/dislike poniez on sight, seeing as literally everything they do relies on magic. Whether or not Saudor folk would know about Happy Spice and what it does would probably depend on how much it would have integrated into any coastal towns, word of mouth, and whether or not someone lived by the coast. Based on your version of the map, Saudor folk living in the north probably would have heard of it from human traders, since I kinda picture there'd be a number of minor states bordering the red desert to its east. If Saudor issued some sort of ban on Happy Spice, poniez would probably stop selling that stuff and just sell other stuff instead, though that would probably trigger a few minor riots/crime sprees depending on how deep the stuff penetrated into any given town. Or poniez would probably stop trading with Saudor altogether, especially since lizardfolk don't like magic and ponies would start viewing them as unhappy ogres.

Dora probably wouldn't give Happy spice to others, though she'd be tempted to do so. While her supply is effectively limitless for the purposes of this RP, it's assumed she only has enough for herself. Plus, if she started giving it out, the other party members might try to murder her to get the rest of the stash as soon as they got addicted. Happy Spice has nasty withdrawal symptoms.

Though, on the other hand, it's entirely possible that there might not be that much interaction between Stalli and Saudor. Whenever I get around to drafting an alternative map, I'm considering making a multicontinental version. As things stand, it's kinda difficult for poniez to get to the Wardu Junta, seeing as they'd probably want to avoid going through the red desert as much as possible. Most of the nations will stay in the same relative locations though.

@Cathari Sarad Sarlus needs no escort, or at-least he thinks he doesn't. I will leave it up to you however if we ended up meeting at some point and joining each-other on our uneventful trip to X. I do not think it will make a huge difference either way.

When it comes to these macguffins I have already began thinking about what to do for Rana's story-line. I wouldn't want to go first by any means but that's because I don't want to set he opening tone. Which is why I also endorse starting in Wardu. We still may need a little intro to why Wardu and why do we know to meet now? Some context at the start would help it.

@Firock Finion I think we will all have some interesting things to discuss when cultural clashes arise. We all have different values, reasons, methods, gods/beliefs and worlds compared to one another. I think this will be the large point of the RP when we are not doing adventurous things.

So does our world have some kind of common tongue? That could be interesting otherwise for people and while some of us have some language skills I am not sure everyone does.

edited 10th May '15 11:13:39 PM by darkdestinysoul