Sphaera: A World Forged by Iron: Discussion

I have it as 311 Meiya.

I'm alive, but sleepy.

I am back.

Be afraid.

EDIT: I even maed a post. The end is clearly nigh.

edited 10th Feb '13 1:41:26 AM by rabbitRider

On the history progress, Scott.

Project idea. If everyone could describe where key cities or areas are located in their nation it would be helpful. Or even mark them out on the map.

My idea for a long time. Will do soon.

Edit: A Lso to other people doing it; Keep in mind the fludity of borders at the time. Even the most organized Empires were a little hazy and relied on physical markings where were historical but those weren't always available.

Stuff I need to do:

• Fayn [Already marked out with several villages]
• Fayn Colonies-Less so.
• Northern Clans- Work with Drall here.
• Viha- Clan names more than borders but I should still mark stuff up.
• Meiya- Decent idea of stuff, just need to put it up.
• Dussarit-This one is much vaguer.

Stuff I should help with-

• Nman and his Galavic and Northern Settlements.
• Rider and his Galavic [Galyr and Soeryr] Settlements.

edited 15th Feb '13 8:20:32 PM by Fauxlosophe

Thanks Parable! I needed to get off my proverbial backside and fill in some of the blanks I had in regards to history. Hopefully, now that I've started to fill it in I can give Horatelemos more of a connection to his home via cultural and societal references rather than just a place on the map.

Speaking of maps, I've also used my rudimentary MS Paint skills to mark out the various Huon states on the map, and I'm putting that up on the wiki too...

And I have upgraded my Rudimentry MS Paint Skills into Basic Photoshop skills;

The Realms of Sphaera

Fayn Regions

Meiyan Regions

edited 19th Feb '13 10:58:51 AM by Fauxlosophe

Ripping off Faux's map to give you, The provinces of Zewan-Tal◊.

I just reread your provinces.

Hatred.

There is so much.

The pun hurts my soul.

Amusingly enough, that was not intentional.

Adding a post here but ideally this should be addressed on the wiki.

We clearly need a timeline for Sphaera.

I'm laying out a page there, but here are some approximate realworld dates; http://sphaera.wikia.com/wiki/Real_World_Dates

As it currently stands:

Measued in HMY [Ha Meiya] and BMY [Bi Meiya]: Before and After Meiya. MMY- Foundation of Meiya./

• Early Meiya Symbollogy- 3000 HMY
• Eramos Conquest of Dussarit/Southern Mountains- Division of the So'raan and Zewani peoples.
• So'raan Writing- 900 HMY
• Fayn Runic Form- 800 HMY
• Galavic Iron Age- 700 HMY
• Death of High King Llútaliléna- 639 HMY
• So'raan Iron Age- 600 HMY
• Foundation of Toryr- 471 HMY [Approx. Based off of the First Schism]
• Death of Emperor Ro'vak- 290 HMY
• Meiyan Iron Age- 50 HMY
• Foundation of the Kingdom of Meiya- MMY.
• Eralih Iron Age-100 BMY
• Foundation of Zewan-Tal: 261 BMY
  • Iron Age here marks the common place use of Iron for weapons and tools, not the initial introduction and use as a status symbol weapon/jewelry.
  • This timeline mostly focuses on the West since I'm not comfortable enough with Eralih/Meiya/Saremitas/Zewan/Viha history to date things clearly.
  • I need Toryl dates/history from Rider.

Scott, I thought I let the So'raan be introduced to Iron through the Fayn in order to simulate the Greek Dark Ages. Similarly, Fayn Runic form is developed early compared to Ogham or Runes but is similarly influenced by the Huon through closer contact [For the sake of this game, I'm taking the opinion that they were introduced through the Greek Alphabet].

Also, I'm working on a proto language for you and Schol; http://sphaera.wikia.com/wiki/Thread:2233. If I can get the phonology together, I'll go for some simple demonym so I can stop calling them "So'raan-Zewani" [or Ze'raani which, while fun, is wrong].

edited 23rd Feb '13 12:48:08 PM by Fauxlosophe

Being wrong has never stopped people from using names before.

Posted.

Sorry for the lateness: Other pressing matters in life and I was hoping for more biters.

Considering auctioning off either the Dussarit or Northern Tribes to any takers, either in this game or outside of it. Anyone know anybody who might be interested in picking up either group? I could share notes but they're underdeveloped enough that I could allow a lot of freedom with them.

Playing around with language has given me a speculative word list for Huon based on Zewani. If I manage to keep this up, I'll soon be able to port Fayn into Toryl and visa versa then build a universal word list that will let us all contribute to one big vocab list [where we can add in stuff like neologisms and loanwords as exceptions for our own].

Anyway here's a sample:

• English-Zewani-Huon
• I- Da - Ta
• you - Za - Xa
• we - Siz - Usix
• one - Ju - Chun
• two - Ovan - Tovan
• woman - Zaclaon - Xaclaon
• man - Zacla - Xaclaos

I'll reply to Nman once Schol or Drall post something.

edited 29th Mar '13 3:12:16 PM by Fauxlosophe

Alright, I'm planning to move the party out of Shenlin as soon as possible but I want to at least get some conversation in first. Since it's been a while and I have a hundred plots going, I'm going to point out where your specific attention needs to be directed;

• Scholable: 128 & 120 require attention. Also possibly the latest post.
• Scott: 128, and I'm willing to insert myself into the plot if you give me a few cities, possibly the potentially traitorous ones loyal to Toryr.
• Drall: 121 and maybe commentary on the Wunizuma plot.
• Nman: Latest post and 128 require attention.

For now, my goal is to dismantle the large and now abandoned Toryl and Eralih Empires. I'm going to reopen sign ups for people invovled. I suspect Rider will return in time but if I can get this moving in time, then it will be worth shrinking the roles of these Empires for now. Dalt hasn't officially dropped but I've gotten mixed messages at best about continuing and usually spaced a while apart from eachother, so I'm going to assume she's left.

edited 12th Apr '13 4:37:19 PM by Fauxlosophe

It's not too late for Mahou Shoujo no Sphaera

Hey everyone,

Sphaera is pretty well dead but I thought I'd say my peace on it;

I'm going to be relitively busy and generally my creativity is flowing elsewhere so how much time I spend on TvT Forums in the future is up in the air right now. I saw Sphaera as a potential last hurrah and as far as things go, it went alright;

I think calling it an RP was misleading since what I ended up focusing on was collaborative world building elements and especially language and culture which are probably the most demanding aspects of world building. It came out very complicated and dry and came out more like an attempt at Tolkien's scattered notes than an attempt at Lord of the Rings. I think there's good things to be said about the game itself, or at least its potential, but I ended up putting too much on people who wanted to be players rather than D Ms and the loss of Rider & Dalt was a significant setback. These I think were the major flaws of the game and not entirely unanticipated ones; this was a personal project I wanted to run for a while and I'm greatful to everyone who was a part of it; both to veterans and to the new players.

You guys are why I stuck around TvT so long, so thanks for everying.

That said, this is one of the few RPs that I've been a part of where I feel the world created is worth deeper exploration; I don't have time currently to commit to running a campaign but world building is something that just happens scatteredly in the back of one's head. I hope to re-use some of the material here and with your permission; I'd like to recycle my notes on all of your cultures and shift things around as I can in order to build them into a single coherent world. If there are objections, then I'll respect them and lay the culture to rest. If you are interested in looking at it from more of a world building perspective, I'd be happy to start a correspondance or else just notify you once I've created a solid background and am ready to run a more traditional [ie. More fighting, PC interaction and character driven storyline, less world building and politics] RP in the setting.

Cheers & all the best,

Faux.

edited 7th May '13 1:58:54 PM by Fauxlosophe

What's mine is yours. Feel free to take anything you think would be interesting.

Have fun with whatever you're up to.

Also, for the Kergen, do whatever you want. In the words of your favorite author: "I am leaving it as I found it. Take over. It's yours."

It was a good run, and the setting's sound. Feel free to use my contributions to it, though I may end up using it myself, too; it has a lot of potential.

Faux - The phrase 'too good to last' comes to mind for me. As the others have said, feel free to use whatever from my ideas - that way at least they can live on!

Everyone - I'd like to say actually that despite the fact that Sphaera has died off, it was an absolute blast, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience to read all of your different ideas and such. The setting has so much flavour and potential in it - and hopefully, one day it might resurface, and if it does it would be excellent to play a part again. Hopefully if this occasion does come I would be inclined to be more active...

Finally, this was actually my first attempt at getting involved in an RP of any kind, so I believe a thank you is in order for you guys (and gals) making me feel so welcome, as well as helping me on the way! I think I'll find myself in a few more RP's in the future.

Hopefully I'll see you soon - on the forums or in another RP.

Cheers - Scott.

Well, Nman's post has made me want to give a shot at a reboot. I honestly don't know if anything can come of this but it's a good setting and I felt a flash forward might do justice.

The setting in some ways is too full and weird and suited to each of our tastes to ever be fully adapted to a regular game, though I suspect that one day, I may still try. I've done this and that within it and fleshed out some of the conlangs.

If anyone around here is still willing to give it a shot, I've opted to split up the party; The Chilai/Meiyan sides will be more free form combat oriented which a lot of people wanted in the original. While I had envisioned a calmer, more episodic sort of adventure with some fights but also episodes of quietness and peace, relying more on intrigue and solving personal problems [or at least trying help a handful and leave a positive influence while the uncontronable wave of history washes over everything else]. If enough of you are willing to return to the game, say where your PC would like to return to and I will conjure up a post on the basis of that for the travellers.

I did not make a post for the Hu'on but I'd be happy to do so. The Ietsahru war was a costly one and most of your army is caught up in that. Dussarit is trying to call you to war. I just forgot to type it up and the long post and trying to remember my names and notes took a lot out of me.

I am realist enough to recognize however that Sphaera itself will have to be rebooted in a much more significant way, barring a major rejoining [and even then I think we're all quite rusty]. If significant interest shows up however, I'd be interested in rebooting it as smaller factions or towns in Toryr and/or Meiyan civil wars rather than trying to fill up an entire continent; that way there could be lot more flexibility in players leaving and joining.

Eitherway, here's to a return to a good game or a solid last hurrah.

edited 31st May '14 1:12:11 PM by Fauxlosophe

I don't really remember what I was doing or why, but I'd be down for a new game. Playing on a more local level in one of those places you mentioned would make it more personal for the characters and I think it'd be fun.

Village-scale sounds cool.

But yeah, like Parable, I really don't remember what I was doing. I'd prefer a new game, new world, and not having to re-remember all this stuff and reactant myself with all the international politics and other stuff that I've forgotten.

Perhaps something more focused would be good too. We put too much focus on worldbuilding for nothing but the sake of worldbuilding, even if what we wrote gave us nothing we could really talk too much about. Everyone detailed all about how many pointy sticks their militaries had, how many gods were in their pantheon, or what type of shiny rock they used as money, but we wound up doing very little RPing.