Difference between revisions of "Talk:New Player Background"

Revision as of 18:50, 25 February 2015

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)

Odessa -> The late medieval Britain of the 19th century Englishman's imagination. Powerful, self-reliant, and generally ruled well 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 pasturelands 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 grainfields 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.

Fresia -> Holy Roman Empire of the post-Barbarossa years. Preeminent world power turned broken mess of principalities, dutchies, free cities, and minor kingdoms, ruled over by an 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.

Celstia -> Generally speaking, Celstia is all of your Great Britain that isn't England (Ireland, Scotland) all smashed into a loose confederation unified mostly for 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 surrounds 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, since it's been largely a puppet state of Odessa at this point, now basically abandoned and looted.) In the earliest years of the era, the absolute nerve center of art, culture, politics and economics, now basically broken apart and basically reduced to dysfunctional city-states.

Hakan -> The original Hakan was basically the Iberian peoples. A large kingdom of intermarried minor kingdoms whose close borders with sophisticated neighbors shaped the 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 state - ruthlessness wearing a smiley face mask. A cursory look at the Churches 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 are 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 as a bit more weight than the Christian analog, although the Gnomish practice of Alexandrianism is by far the most idiosyncratic.

Petara -> The usual Turkey/Persia mashup from around when Constantinople was a pretty nice place by comparison to the rest of the world. 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.

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, but as long as they keep selling coffee and opium. 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 -> 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 backbones of the economic and political supraorganization uniting the mainland. (The Church)

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)