[Morgoth]

lol.. I was supposed to write not

.. Notice btb, that these concepts and the world I've created belongs to me. MEaning the use of it is for me and me alone

[Cause]

Post the setting already. i want to get my ideas sorted

[Morgoth]

Right Right..

I'll start with the basics first.

Magic System: Same as LoC
There are in essence two kinds of magicians. Those who draw upon their own life to cast magic, and those who draw upon the life of everything around them. The first are fairly weak, but can still perform a neat trick or two. Fireballs and lightning is out of the question, but manipulate objects, unlock doors, draw on shadows, kill torches, light small fires etc, can be done. So very limited but usefull.

Those very very few who are able to draw on life around them are on the other hand incredibly powerfull. Here powerlevels can wary greatly though, as some magicians can reach out farther than others, thus drawing more power. These magicians have little limit to what they can do. A powerfull one could theoretically flatten an entire continent. There are however several ways to kill them, so invincible they are not.

Pantheon:
The empire's religion consists of ancestor worship for the most part. They call upon their ancestors to help etc, and sometimes, the ancestors are able to answer. Some may even wield susbstansial amount of power, depending on where in the hirarchy of otherworlds they are.

The Emperor is the avatar of a true god. This god gave the emperor the duty of protecting the empire and the world when it left five thousand years ago. Where it went and why is unknown. People refer to the god as Justice, but it is not generally worshiped as it obviously wont answer any prayers

Some still worship the ancient gods, whom have not been seen for millenias. There's hundreds of these gods known.. You know, god of thievery, war , wisdom and all that. In actual fact though, there are only eight.
....

One part done with. I realise this is a bit wague, so just ask whatever you want to know

[Morgoth]

Next is geography and so on:

The continent is about the size of europe, and located slightly longer to the south. The northern parts are located around the lattitude(?) of belgium, the southern around the central to north of Algeria.

There is no desert as such, nor much in the way of plains. The south is fairly hilly, kinda dry, but not bad enough to border on desert.

The central lands consist of rivers and grassland mostly, with some forests here and there.

The north is mountains, deep valleys and next to infinite evergreen forests.

The major cities are located around an ocean -kinda like the black sea in that it is almosy a huge lake but with a small opening into the sea- and the rivers cutting through the grassland. The ocean is located in the central south of the continent, and it is in that ocean that the island housing the bureaucratic capital is located.

There's mountainranges to the north and to the west.

The northern:
There's only one nation not subjugated and assimilated by the empire on the continent and that's a small nation to the far north of the continent. BEcause of the mountains, valleys etc, it's next to impossible to dislodge them from there, though the empire has been trying for a long long time. Soldier's who've been fighting in the north, or better yet, been in command, are often the ones who later rise to the top within the empire. Veterans from the northern campaings are considered the toughest of the tough.

It is slightly odd that a nation as powerfull as the empire seem unable to win the war. The northerners have superior steel and so on, but still. Compared to those of the empire, their armies are minisqule.

The island:
- is a strange phenomenon. It's sides are several hundred metres high, and almost unatrualy smooth. Climbing them has never been acomplished as far as anyone knows. The only way to enter is through a port on the southern side. The port is a small town of it's own as the food to the capital, mail, reports etc etc etc all go through it.

I'll write the intro post to the rpg thread with an illustration of how the entrance etc looks, but I'll give the basic explenantion: Stepping of one of the many ships at the capital's port, you're faced with a huge, perfectly smooth, black wall of stone, curving slightly inwards and strethcing up into infinity. Along the cliff wall there are several major gateways, leeding into the very heart of the island. There are two on each side. In the middle there's a set of stairs. These stairs cut straight through the stone all the way up to a another gateway almost at the very top.

The gates at ground level leads to a huge and incredibly complex labyrinth. You see, any citizen of the empire have the right to meet with the council during the council's monthly official meeting. However, as the empire house a population of several tens of million of people, some limits had to be put in place. So, the petitioners or whatever they are are free to meet with the council, they just have get through the labyrinth first.

The stairs are for the nobility. Though, no unconditionaly so. In order for anyone to be allowed to climb the stairs instead of using the labyrinth, one needs a written permission from either one of the twelve, or more rarely, the emperor himself. Do not be fooled however, the climb is an exhausting one and must be done on foot with no assistance from anyone else. Many a nobel stay out their days in the capital as they are too old, too weak, or too scared to brave the stairs back down.

Food, reports etc are hoisted up in a farily simple system of baskets, rope and so on

The capital itself is huge. The entire top of the island, and most of it's insides are occupied by apartments, storagerooms, archives, meeting rooms, treasuries, libraries, chappels, observation towers, pigeon towers and so on and so forth. You've got quite a major . There's also several huge parks sprawling all the way to the edge. Most of the population, excluding -though not always- the nobles, are born, live and die within the capital, never once leaving for the rest of the empire. There are peple whos family never once left for hundreds if not thousands of years. There's quite an extreeme hirarchy of servants, guards etc based on the time ones family has lived there.
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Right, that's it for now. Have to be sosial again. Will do more tomorow. You're to define your family as you see fit. MAke up their own story, where they come from, what they do and so forth. Just check it with me before you set it in stone

cheers

[Tes'thesula]

Nice job so far, but just a couple of questions for clarification.

- The capital, is it an actual city, or more like the Forbidden city, a palace complex? Would the 12 families have their own manors on the island, as well as their estates from their home province?

-When you say the north is equivalent to the latitude of Belgium, does that mean it has the same kind of weather and temperature as belgium? Does this mean the north is not as extreme as, say, Canadian winter?

-How long has the empire been subjegated? Has a common language moved throughout the continent? I'm assuming that we will want to try and make the 12 families come from different parts of the empire with their own various customs and traditions (easier to role-play).

-The emperor is the same guy who was charged to defend the empire five thousand years ago right? The dude's immortal?

Just the questions i can think of now, not sure how important the answers are yet.

Cheers

EDIT: forgot a question

-magic; the wizards who only draw on themselves, can they do things like stop a man's hurt, or prevent air from going to the lungs (maybe not long enough to kill someone)? subtle stuff like that, but maybe not so high powered?

[Morgoth]

Yes, it's like the forbidden city, just much bigger.. The number of servants, soldiers, priests etc living there equals a big enough number for the place to be considered a small city just on the merits of its population though.

The twelve families will have their own compounds etc. Remember though that most of the islands insides consists of tunnels, rooms etc, some secret some not, so those combined with arches, bridges etc above ground pretty much ensures that all buildings are conected.

I was thinking more Belgium than canada when it comes to weather.

The empire started out five thousand years ago, with the same man as emperor, so yes, he is immortal. The empire stretches over a medium sized continent, so yes there will be several languages, and to some extent cultures. Som having been within the empire longer than others. The present day empire reached it's final borders just under a thousand years ago. When it comes to different cultures though, there is a fair amount of self sovereignity for the different regions within the empire, but still, thousand years if more of belonging to the same nation does tend to wash out cultural differences. there is a common language dubbed Imperial. So there are few huge cultural gaps to be breached.

ofc, traditions vary, as does values and so on

Wizardry- Yes, that should be possible. The hurt bit a least.. But, I forgott to mention this under themagic section, which was dumb of me, but anyways: Magic resists use.. Or, to use a metaphor- Magic in this world acts kinda like water in that you can bend and shape it etc, but it is next to impossible to fix into a position, and then it wont stay so for long.

So, no enchanted weapons etc. No shields, wards and so on. The ony enchanted weapons are those belonging to an ancient and long long extinct race. Mostly though these tend to be huge and are generaly not all that practicle... Only their knives function like a normal human weapon - pretty much the size of a normal sword- except for the fact that they do not break and cut through pretty much anything like it was butter.

...and yeah, we're all in the capital, though it is not impossible to write posts outside it, but in general it's best to stay on the island

... and oh yea, the powerfull kind of magicians can live for hundreds if not thousands of years depending on their level of power

[Tes'thesula]

Thanks morgoth. The magic system kinda of reminds me of JV jones system in the book of words. But yeah, i get it, if the power is drawn from the strength of the wizard, then it is unlikely to hang around once stuck to a different object. Sound.

One last thing for now, what is the common view on wizards, what does the average commoner and noble think/know of them and their ways?

[Cause]

Are we roman like nobility (wealth and privelege) or feudal nobality (vassal lords)

[Morgoth]

@cause - the former. As to wizardry, since most have little real power, they are not considered much. There's no schools and such, and neither any strong lobby of magicians. The truly powerfull maigicans - those who draw from their suroundings - are way too few for there to be any point in them organicing anything together, and besides, they're in general so powerfull that they do not need to. When that is said, there are no known magicians of that sort on the continent. It's been so long since any such talents were discovered they're mostly considered obscure myths perhaps even less feasible than the old gods. There's a level of distaste directed at magicians btb as drawing on ones own life is seen by some as unatrual.

And the book of words system? I don't see any obvious similarities, but then its been a while since I read the books.

[Morgoth]

KaL;119784 said:

Nothing too big though I believe is the key.

Exactly

[Obdigore]

Now!

There once was a man from Nantucket... wait, wait no... I think we need this thread to discuss, and i think that Morgoth should start another thread where we post things that actually happen

[Morgoth]

yes, it would be good if people gave a description of their house in this thread first though, so that people will have some idea what to work with

[Valgard]

hi sorry to be really cheeky but could I join in as have jsut noticed this thread and would quite like to take part if there is still space. Have soem ideas for a house all ready.

[Tes'thesula]

The Imperial House of Kios

The family of Kios [Kai-Oss] is a branch of the Great Family Ost, which ruled over the Northern city-state of Seagor [See-Gor] before the Empire’s legions assimilated it almost a thousand years ago. It was during the conquest that House Kios rose to prominence over the Great Family. At the time Ost was lead by the legendary warrior-mage Garon auf Ost, who was a pious and patriotic man. When the news came that the Imperial armies were marching on Seagor, Garon was torn between his gods and his city, for the Grand Temple of the Majestic, the nine old gods of the North, lay miles outside of the city walls, high on a mountain pass. His allegiance to his gods meant that Garon could not leave the Temple undefended, but nor could he allow the heathens to simply claim Seagor without a fight. A whole night he meditated on the solution and, it is written that there was a line from his room in the highest tower to the city gates of soldiers who wished to advise him of how to split his forces, but he saw none of them. At last, when dawn broke he had his answer. He would lead the armies of Seagor out of the city gates and to the Grand Temple. High above the world he would face the armies of the Empire or die fighting. He reasoned that since the Temple lay before the city on the path that the legions would take, the Empire could not afford to attack the city without fear of being attacked in the rear, and in this way both city and gods would be defended. So Garon auf Ost rode out of Seagor with the might of the North behind him, leaving behind his cousin, Norgan auf Kios, and the man-at-arms of the Family Kios as a skeleton crew to man the walls of the city.
But even the great Garon could not have anticipated the determination of the Emperor, who had sent the bulk of his army to deal a hammer blow to the North. When the Generals leading the armies got word of Ost’s movement, he split his armies into two forces, the larger of the two heading towards the Grand Temple, the smaller, to Seagor.
The Seagorians with Garon fought like warrior gods, and the numerically smaller force managed to rout the Imperial forces over the period of five days, though a scant thousand of the Northern men remained alive at the end. All this was for naught, though, as when they returned to Seagor they found the monolithic city gate closed to them, and Imperial men on the walls. Norgan auf Kios, sensing the path the future would take had opened the gates to the legions, but not before assassinating the most vocal of Great Family Ost’s supporters. While Garon and his men were killed outside of the walls of their home, Norgan became the Imperial governor of Seagor, and the Family Kios matured into the Imperial House of Kios.
The pragmatism of Norgan has continued to be a trait of House Kios up to the present day, and the House banner, a black bear wielding a great sword rampant on an ice blue field, flies above many a trading establishment across the continent. Indeed, perhaps one of Norgan’s greatest achievements – apart from the Sacrifice of Ost – was the creation of the Kios caravan company which handles much of the Empire’s transport needs. This, along with its mining and weapon-making interests makes Kios one of the more wealthy Houses on the Island.
The Sacrifice also had negative consequences on the House, material and spiritual. Though much of the truth of Norgan’s betrayal has been suppressed over the centuries, there are few in the Spires of the capital who will let House Kios forget the dishonour that runs through their veins. Many a meeting has ended with a Kios being called a coward. Along with this, House Kios holds little sway with the Hierarchy, since their more ancient and powerful ancestors are almost universally from the Great Family Ost, indeed it is a long held rumour that those of the line of Norgan suffer terrible nightmares of the last few moments of Garon and his Thousand. Despite this, the members of House Kios are generally devout members of the Hierarchy church, the ancient cult of the Majestic having been almost eradicated after the Sacrifice as a show of loyalty to the Empire.
The present Councilor and Head of the Imperial House of Kios is Bravga au Kios, who, breaking from the pragmatic mold of his family is fiercely loyal to the Empire and its immortal sovereign. His closest advisor is the tattooed mage Seram au Nurn (‘Nurn’ meaning ‘no line’. Seram is not of Northern origin). The men of Seagor, those most loyal to the House, are a hardy lot, hammered on the anvil of the war with the True North, and many of the warriors and guards are veterans of battle, scarred and taciturn.

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Well thats my intro entry. I took a few liberties, names of places, historical events, calling the ancestor worship the Hierarchy, but if there is anything you have great exception to Morgoth, just tell me about it. Well...enjoy

[Cause]

Valgard feel free