[Cause]

I think we need to trade some msn adressess or something o e can plan out our stories

[Morgoth]

mm.. well mine should be found easily enoug..

The ships are black, sleek, built to cross big oceans and wheather pretty much any storm.

The entrance to the sea is in the sentral south. There's several small islands stretching along the gap, most holding a small tower with an equaly small garrison. There's a really big, heavily fortified tower located on the west and east side of the entrance.

As the lands contain military instalations, it's imperial and does not belong to any individual house.

[Tes'thesula]

Its taking longer than i thought to get the internet up in my house, but i will try and post a IC post as soon as possible...sorry guys

looking good so far

[Valgard]

Sorry have been writng a seminar talk this week so ahve been really quite busy with data analysis etc. , but it is mostly doen now hope to have something up soon.

[Sir Thursday]

I have assumed the geography is as follows - there is a peninsula extending to the south to the west of the opening to the inland sea. Baliari is on this, with Tredenes' lands to the north-east of them. Note that Baliari does not border the inland sea.

A question:

How exactly are we going to do a council meeting? I have policies I want to propose.

[Illuyankas]

I'm a little busy - actually, I'm really VERY busy right now - so I won't be posting much til the weekend, but I'll put something here for House members and something in the main thread soon.

[Morgoth]

yeah, the council meeting, I can open it with the statements from the emperor and such, perhaps some reports from the military, and the houses can comment, critizie each other, make suggestions or whatnot.. going to post something again tomorow, bit more about the fleet, the labyrinth and the emperor.. things are looking good so far

[Illuyankas]

So Cause, does that mean you want Orthus to become a freelance house for anyone to use, or ignored entirely in lieu of Ryker?

Oh, and Morgoth, I seem to have given my house a sailing ship that’s several hundred metres tall by accident, but given that House Screlogue lands have enormous trees, it’s not much of a jump to have the explorer ship fleet made out of these tree’s larger cousins in my house’s mountain range – it’d explain why the khrorozans live in them, as they’re huge, and not mess up Screlogue’s cornering of that market, as Khrorozor don’t allow wood taken from the trees to be sold. Plus it could be partly steampowered, but I doubt I’d use the vessel for more than a macguffin storyline-wise. I was thinking of having this ship return shortly before the RP started, before you mentioned this warfleet, but I’d like to have some ambiguity about whether Dhos Jal in the Emperor’s Glory provoked this fleet, led them here in chase and then siege, or the two are unconnected and their arrival within a week of each other is coincidental. I hope it’s not a problem, as I liked the idea of an immense mystery appearing, casting doubt on House Khrorozor and scaring people, as well as where the idea went simply from me misreading a measurement, but if you think it’s a problem, I’ll reluctantly change/remove it.


Anyway, more for my house;

Members of House Khrorozor:

House Lord, Vandir Jal - After the death of his father, due to the Elder Jal's carelessness at allowing his assassination, Vandir was chosen to be the next lord of Khrorozor at the age of twenty three, and marched off to the north with his personal guard of khrorozan cavalry to join the siege of the barbarians, leaving his younger brother Dhos to perform the political duties for the House. Four years of faultless military service later, Vandir - a General under the Emperor at this time, as usual for house heirs but seldom achieved this quickly - ran into an ambush and suffered heavy losses to his guard. Following this, he refused to allow the use of khrorozans against the northerners under any circumstances, despite direct orders to the contrary. Stripped of his command, he was sent home in disgrace to face the wrath of the council and the Emperor, but upon his arrival at the City, he found that his brother had refitted the gargantuan explorer ship Emperor’s Glory for an lengthy voyage, left the running of the House in the hands of their sister Tualya, and departed a year after Vandir reached the border, a large proportion of the House’s engineers and alchemists with him.

Taken before the Emperor, what occurred between them is and will probably never be known, but Vandir left reinstated as the House Lord, yet placed in the City to perform the sadly neglected political duties he so despises, his uncle taking over his position in the northern siege. The khrorozans are officially under the sole command of House Khrorozor, and so exempt from active duty for the near future, for reasons unknown to all but Vandir, his surviving guardsmen and presumably the Emperor. Vandir is an avid military strategist, excelling in defence and very competent at counter attacks, though he recognises his limitations in a prolonged offensive, at odds with his training as a khrorozan lancer. Finding City life boring, he devotes as little effort as possible to the ‘pointlessly flippant’ parties and social occasions as he can, but never shirks his duties to his House and his Emperor. A tall, saturnine figure, House Khrorozor’s fortunes have risen since his appointment, yet can this continue given the potential involvement of Dhos Jal in the appearance of this mysterious fleet?

Lady, Tualya Jal – The elder sister of Vandir and Dhos, she is incredibly hedonistic, spending a vast amount of her personal wealth for the sole purpose of pleasing herself. No artworks, sculptures or rare items, no matter how scarce or difficult to obtain, is denied her, her agents or her banker’s reach. However, she has been taught everything that her brothers learned in matters of statesmanship, and, being a sharp and intelligent woman, is perfectly capable of running House Khrorozor by herself, despite the customs that she is extremely happy to abide by. This was put to the test by the disappearance of her brother Dhos, and she managed to keep Khrorozor out of the many dangers facing them - with an apparently ‘weak’ woman in charge and severe debts mounting, many houses felt that they could take advantage of them, but due to her deft management, House Khrorozor was able to remain somewhat prosperous. On Vandir’s return, she detailed the events that had occurred, then retired to her palacial apartments, hopefully to never be bothered with matters of House business again. Her wish is not going to be fulfilled.

Lord, Dhos Jal – The youngest of the Jal family, Dhos was due to run the financial and political end of House Khrorozor for seven years, before replacing Vandir in the northlands, a cycle that has continued since Khrorozor began. Dhos was known as one of the most intelligent people that had been born in the Empire, making a torrent of discoveries that had House Screlogue in a fury, and helped to set up Khrorozor for a prosperous future, a future that may never happen, or that at best is delayed. For Dhos’ primary interest was the relics and history of the gods, vanished races and unexplored continents away from the Empire. Once Vandir left for the north, Dhos settled in and began to set up a series of risk-ridden bargains and trade agreements with other houses, with pay-offs that only he saw. Yet, before any of these could bear fruit, a piece of information was passed to Dhos by a courier of suspected Tredenes origin, a piece of information he could not pass up.

Gathering the best of his alchemists (in actuality historians and doctors as well as chemists) and engineers, he refitted the truly immense explorer ship Emperor’s Glory - a hulking vessel the size of a town and requiring a crew of over a thousand, created by a long vilified House Lord who ordered that the great trees that covered the Jal Mountains be cut down and made into a fleet of ships, until the effects of their removal were discovered, for three mountains lost their khrorozan population entirely, and a fourth not entirely stripped of forest took centuries to recover. The six ships that were finished were stored and abandoned, being far too unprofitable for use in anything. Five of the ships were merely three times the size of a galleon, but the intended flagship Emperor’s Glory was colossal, the masttops reaching several hundred paces high and a stone's throw from the clifftops of the island of the Imperial City. Taking a fortune in sailcloth, coal and Khorozor steel, Dhos installed the prototype series of steam engines his engineers had developed into the Glory and, after buying a vast crew, woke up his sister one morning, told her she was running the House for him until Vandir or he returned, and left, rowing out to his ship and leaving the continent far behind. Nothing was seen of Dhos and the Glory for years.

Until recently, for the scarred and battle-damaged Emperor’s Glory was half-pushed, half-blown into the central ocean, running aground near a Khrorozor-owned port. No-one left the ship, and no-one was visible moving onboard. What connection, if any, the reappearance of the Glory has with the appearance of the strange fleet currently threatening the Empire a week later is a matter of severe concern for House Khrorozor, but not quite as much as what has become of Dhos Jal, what was he searching for, and whether he found it? Vandir and Tualya do not want to find out, another wish sadly guaranteed to go unfulfilled…

Secretary, Hrol Hirn – To be fleshed out later.

Relations between Khrorozor and other houses - To be fleshed out later. Damn Tuesdays.

[Cause]

People can use house orthus if they like. After all we need 12 and have less than that. But Im fine with it being scrapped as well. I just did not want another merchant house so tried something diffrent with ryker.

Edit-Im finding it hard to keep evrything on track. SO many houses, so many diffrences so many people. Can we all post up a short point by point summary of our houses. Ill post mine later.

Something like

Ryker
-Ryker is the largest house concerning members
-Ryker has the largest membership in the militray
-Ryker runs the prestigous imperial officer academy
-Mikel a general in the north

[Valgard]

Dranwreaker

- House that controls the riverlands and surround farmlands.
- Most fertile part of the empire. Controls the grain supplies for the empire.
- Average number of members.
- Average population
- Very wealthy house
- Grain is the main commodity with others being meat from cattle and other farm produces. Also textiles often come from these lands.
- Large tracts of land surrounding the River.
- Althelsaran head of house.

[councilor]

Screlogue:
-house of mechanics, scholars, engineers
-also house of spies, assasin etc (not outright acknowleged)
-very poor
-income from special wood, tuition fees, contruction projects for the empire,
swamp extracts, theives guilds (minor)
-system protoges for inheritance
-three house lords, each with own specialisations

[Sir Thursday]

House Falona:

- Owns the Southern-most lands in the empire (The estate is called Baliari).
- Only supplier of Paracas (a very strong stimulant popular with the nobility)
- Produces the majority of the empire's wine.
- Beginning to develop mining capacity.
- Fecund.
- Very large progeny (follows from Fecund).
- Took over from House Poluba 185 years ago.
- Not particularly powerful in council (due to relative youthfulness of house).
- Has inside information into the affairs of many houses thanks to many intermarriages.

[Tes'thesula]

House Kios
-Based in the Northern province Seagor, on the front lines of the War
-Well represented in the military
-Large steel production and mining operations
-Responsible for much of Empire's transportation needs; land and sea
which facilitates
-An extensive intelligence network with frequent use of small but elite assassin cadre
-Known for their pragmatism
-Highly tolerant of mages
-Hereditary succesion; currently headed up by Bravga au Kios
father of
-Jhon au Kios
and advised by
-Seram au Nurn; a foreigner and mage

[Tes'thesula]

Update on internet situation; a guy will come round an install internet on the 14th! So until then I will try to write IC on computer and manually ferry them to college comps. and internet, but this may mean i am behind the curve

Apologies to any names places and traditions that I mess up, as i won't have aquick reference point

[Morgoth]

no worries.. I ended up talking to a friend who broke up with her boyfriend.. took hours, so I'm in no mood to write tonight. Scanner isn't working, so I'll take a pic of my scribbled map and copy it here tomorow when I get my cable back..

When it comes to plans..
The fleet will send a delegation to meet with the council. The council do not knwo this yet, but you as players should know
The delegation will consist of ten guards, two priests and the leader of the delegation who is a mage of the powerfull kind, though this is obviously not something he will flaunt.

Oh yeah, the name of the stranger are the Laurens. They're a theocratic nation, ruled by a council of priests. Society vice, try to imagine Stalin's USSR, but with priest ruling, not politicians. They worship the elder god of death, though in their pantheon, it's not one but two. A brother and sister. The Lord and the Lady. The Lord is the god of life and lives in this world and thus obviously takes most interest in it. The Lady is the god of death. She dwells in the otherworld and only rarely take any interest in this world.

The perhaps most important thing here is that Lauren priests can channel the power of their god(s) directly, making them powerfull. More powerfull than a normal mage by far, but no match at all for the stronger kind. The power of the priests and priestesses is heavily influenced by the aspect of their god, and so either life or death aspected. So no levitation, fireballs etc. Priests of the Lord dress purely in black, while priests of the Lady -which are very rare- dress in white.

RIght.. I'd like to be able to do a post with Lorii before he meets any of your characters.

Anything else you need to know?

Ah yes, the Imperial legions are huge. The largest portion is standard trained pikemen, obviously, but there's also quite a substansial number of professional soldiers, cavalry, heavy infantry and so on.. The problem obviously is that the Empire itself is equally huge and so gathering a large enough army is not something acomplished in a few days.

[Illuyankas]

House Khrorozor

-Another elder house
-Top tier of wealthy houses
-Major coal, iron and steel producers, especially highest quality steel
-Virulently anti-mage
-Best doctors
-Engineers, chemists and mechanists rivalling Screlogue
-Heavy lumber and other tree-based stuff imports
-Moderate trading fleet in central sea
-Large military levy
-Led by Vandir Jal, ex-khrorozan lancer general, stoic and reluctant
-'Assisted' by Tualya Jal, his elder sister and very hedonistic (my thesaurus failed me )
-Also of note, Dhos Jal, eccentric genius and possibly the reason behind the enemy fleet's appearance

(I might have too many points, but then my house is pretty overly complicated, and will probably get me later)

End of 'footnotes'.


Relations with other houses, which if you dislike I can change or discuss with you a compromise:

Ryker - Previously good relations between the higher ranks of the houses have soured over Vandir's deliberate disobeying of a direct Imperial order, even after the Emperor's pardon. Other than this, troops from both houses are well received by the other and Khrorozor have a strong presence in the Empirical armies.

Tredenes - Major trading partner, for construction materials Khrorozor can't produce itself. As a result, Tredenes has priority on Khrorozor steel and other metals. There is some conflict over Tredenes wishing to acquire the Khorozor trading fleet and remaining explorer ships, but otherwise relations are good.

Dranwreaker - No more than the usual background level of suspicion and skullduggery, amplified by recent events such as the enemy fleet and Dhos Jal. At least, openly.

Screlogue - Great rivalry between the two houses' academics, with Khrorozor envious of Screlogue's greater fame and reputation. Recently, Khrorozor have produced engineers and chemists to rival any Screlogue, and doctors to better, although Screlogue are by far the better scholars, politicians and whatnot.

Falona - While not specifically antagonistic - Khrorozor isn't as judging of new houses as some of the others, and a large proportion of wine comes from Falonan merchants - Falona's recent forays into mining have placed them under careful regard by Khorozor agents.

Kios - Second great rivalry, through their position in the military, their attempts to muscle in to the steel trade, and their attitude towards mages. Suspected to be responisble for attacks and pirating attempts on the trading fleet and exploring ships Khrorozor maintain. (It'll be fun being mean to your house, Tes (mwahahaha))

Kalita - Poor relations sank during Dhos' reign, rose for Tualya's stewardship and are currently drifting down again under Vandir's command of Khrorozor, specifically due to the northern steel's market appearance.

Orthus will wait until we decide to keep it or not. Man, I need to update these things more often. And get a actual RP post in too - Definitely tomorrow, Morgoth.

[Morgoth]

yeah.. I was supposed to post yesterday. I am terribly sorry about not having posted yet. There's a lot of **** going on in my life right now, and so i just don't seem able to sit down and write anything.. Too restless by far. I will force myself to do so though, either tonight or tomorow.. I'll paste up the map too..

Sorry you all