Talk:New Player Background
I think this was enumerated completely somewhere, but just for my own sake:
- (This is a little 1:1 linear for my tastes, but I'll polish and revise later one day maybe. . . ) -gm
- Yeah I should probably caveat here that this is all broad strokes (which is also how you've characterized it when you talk about it). For example, I think of Odessa as being very Mediterranean "on the street", even if its governance and proto-Imperialist bent are British. -Slitherrr (talk)
- We need a talk page for the talk page. Replacing adjectives with adverbs? ADVERBS? Adjectives outrank adverbs. absalom (talk) 21:54, 25 February 2015 (EST)
- Ha, "well" is an adverb too, Jonesy. Anyway, it's modifying a verb, so an adjective would just be wrong. Unless you're talking about some other edit. -Slitherrr (talk)
- Well exists as both, though being used as an adverb in that sentence. "-ly" words are always adverbs are always a downgrade.
- LOL, I like you better as a high school History teacher than a high school English teacher. -Slitherrr (talk)
- Turns out I'm both! Degree'd and certified, even. Ironically, my most intensive writing training came from historians and not a literature...arians? It's probably surprising if all you've seen is the wiki, but writing turns out to be one of my core competences. (Which probably speaks more to my lack of other competences than it does to highlight any particular writing skill, but there ya go.) absalom (talk) 15:28, 26 February 2015 (EST)
- LOL, I like you better as a high school History teacher than a high school English teacher. -Slitherrr (talk)
- Well exists as both, though being used as an adverb in that sentence. "-ly" words are always adverbs are always a downgrade.
- Ha, "well" is an adverb too, Jonesy. Anyway, it's modifying a verb, so an adjective would just be wrong. Unless you're talking about some other edit. -Slitherrr (talk)
- We need a talk page for the talk page. Replacing adjectives with adverbs? ADVERBS? Adjectives outrank adverbs. absalom (talk) 21:54, 25 February 2015 (EST)
- Yeah I should probably caveat here that this is all broad strokes (which is also how you've characterized it when you talk about it). For example, I think of Odessa as being very Mediterranean "on the street", even if its governance and proto-Imperialist bent are British. -Slitherrr (talk)
Odessa -> The late medieval Britain of the 19th century Englishman's imagination. Powerful, self-reliant, and generally ruled competently by a government balanced between a landed peerage grand council and a hereditary monarchy. A strong-willed nation of free peasantry living in endless expanses of idyllic plains and pastures, while also possessing a strong maritime tradition. The primary mountain range of the western mainland acts as the nation's border with the rest of the mainland, and serves to make Odessa - like England - both a part of and entirely separate from the mainland proper.
Flannary -> France of the High and Late Middle Ages: Endless grain fields in every direction, worked by the plurality of the mainland's population, who can rise into fearsome armies when provoked, all ruled over by a strong king and absentee landlords who reside in a city that is basically a realm apart from the rest of the nation. Also baller knights.
Fresia -> Holy Roman Empire of the post-Barbarossa years. Preeminent world power turned broken mess of principalities, duchies, free cities, and minor kingdoms, ruled over by a lifetime-elected Emperor wielding generally nominal power over the Fresian state. A nation of deep forests, humble towns, and bustling free cities, Fresia is the most insular of the nations, with trade primarily being focused internally or towards the East. They love heavy infantry.
Celstia -> Generally speaking, Celstia is all of your Great Britain that aren't England (Ireland, Scotland), smashed into a loose confederation unified mostly by their deep hatred of Odessa. Highlanders, lowlanders, sea traders, pirates, fishermen, and you name it. As the regional names suggest, the current theater of the conflict (Pwywyeldon Valley) and environs is your Wales.
Alexia -> Italian/Greek of vaguely the Medici strong-polity weak-nation area, but without the local importance to trade (at least, not anymore, after having largely a puppet state of Odessa, and most recently being basically abandoned and looted). In the earliest years of the era, the absolute nerve center of art, culture, politics and economics, it is now more-or-less broken apart and reduced to dysfunctional city-states. Pikemen!
Hakan -> The original Hakan was basically the Iberian peoples: a large kingdom of intermarried minor kingdoms whose close borders with sophisticated neighbors shaped their culture profoundly. In their current incarnation, the Hakani are probably closer to the non-Russian Slavic peoples: generally denied real autonomy and shoved into some ill-fitting political arrangement with some domineering state or the other.
New Hakan -> Like Israel, only less "Jingoistic Nationalism creating the state of the chosen people" and more "Welcome, diaspora peoples, into your new home among us!". (ed: Actually, it's probably both. The curtain is only starting to be drawn back on the Gnomish lands in terms of metaplot, but in a lot of ways Gnomish Hakan is the modern Israeli or American state - ruthlessness wearing a smiley face mask. A cursory look at the Church's history reveals that every high profile assassination has been at Gnomish hands. It's basically understood that the Gnomish state is capable of taking (and more than willing to take) swift, decisive, and unilateral action whenever it feels threatened or even mildly perturbed. Gnomes are the most secular people on the mainland, and this willingness to take extreme measures more than offsets a relative paucity of gnomish clergy. Alexandria's hold across the Mainland stage would mean that the mandate has a bit more weight than the Christian analog (that is, from an International perspective), but it should be noted particularly that the Gnomish practice of Alexandrianism is by far the most idiosyncratic.
Petara -> The usual Turkey/Persia mashup from around when Constantinople, but although there is certainly the high culture and wealth of the Levant represented here, it's probably closer to Samarakand under the Timurids. Geographically, at least, it's more windswept Central Asian plateau and less Arabian Desert. In terms of the mainland's point of view, it's very much your higher culture Muslim-world analog. Generally speaking, Petarans are not recommended as players for all kinds of reasons, not the least of which is the desire to keep the non-Mainland locations suitably foreign and mysterious. The Gunpowder Empire! (No, you can't have a gun. There is an entire school of magical assholes in Petara who hunt and murder people who get a hold of them. Mainlanders basically consider the things cursed and won't have anything to do with them).
Sidhe-Praxen -> In Olden Days the elves were the Portuguese/English of the world, but now they're politically a non-entity. They're ultra-isolationist and essentially a non-entity except through Petara's trade monopoly. The trade and foreign policies of Tokugawa Japan coupled with the domestic policies of the Garden of Eden. Perhaps some kind of an anarcho-democratic commune sort of thing (because Elves always have some anarcho-democratic commune sort of thing going on). Or it could be a crypto-fascist dictatorship run by a living god. Or a big hippie love in. No one is really sure, although their religion seems to be centered around druids and they live in a literal Eden in a small population hunter gatherer society; as long as they keep selling coffee and opium, nobody really cares. Believe it or not, Sidhe are perfectly suitable as player characters. Elves will not take each others lives, so most players will be exiles tossed off the island, and so are not likely to even understand the answers to these questions themselves. Such is the nature of Sidhe society.
Gildenhome (i.e., Dwarves) -> Mildly isolationist, but with a big presence in the Alexandrian fold that keeps them internationally relevant, and a big merchant/trading thing going on. Kind of like the Germany of today, a strong financial base and export-driven economy driving paternalistic nationalism with international participation with unity of purpose, in contrast to Fresia's relative chaos (and liberty). Also, the Dwarves are, in many ways, the administrative and bureaucratic backbone of the economic and political supraorganization uniting the mainland (that is, the Church). Fearsome advocates of the status quo, much of the history of Dwarven relations with the realms of men--at least from the Dwarven point of view--involves coming in and setting things right after some inevitably Human-precipitated catastrophe.
Ulan -> Forest barbarians of vaguely pre-Christian Eastern Europe. Also maybe some vikings.
Halflings -> Romani, more-or-less, or probably more properly any one of a the many stateless peoples of medieval Europe, except generally regarded fondly instead of being largely mistrusted or despised.
The Bandit Kingdom -> Any of a number of failed states throughout history.
Temporal Authority -> The Vatican. Or maybe Washington, DC. Probably both.
The Western Lands are complicated, and mostly deal with one edge case and are not meant to be viewed to any degree of real resolution (although, it's worth noting that my Medieval East Asian credentials are a hell of a lot stronger than my Medieval European ones, so it certainly could be done).
- (From an email with Daniel, on the topic of justifying the objectively better Eastern armor: "Po and San are various flavors of fake China (there's a lot of China to go around), Zha is fake Tibet, and Lang is fake SE Asia. I want very bad for there to be a fake India, but I don't think I could do it justice.")
Utrell -> The frontier crossroads. Petara and the Mainland - unlike the Christian/Muslim lands of the middle ages - share no land border. Utrell is the point where the two superstructures collide. Also hugely strategically important. Cyprus? Probably more like Grenada.
I think that covers the main Almanack regions, and all of the regions that are in play right now, but I might be missing some. -Slitherrr (talk)
