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[Shootandrun]

Welcome, foolish mortal, to You are King IV

The first few posts of this thread explain how the game works, how to join us and what's going on in the world. For rules and technical stuff, refer to the Wiki.

You Are King is, and I quote, "A surprisingly deep game of politics, intrigue and feudal rule.  Play a noble, advisor or simply a minion of the King and seek royal favour - or risk the role of a rebel or independent and seek fortune at the risk of the King's wrath."
That basically describes it. It's a roleplay heavy affair, with simple mechanics to keep things balanced. The most basic mechanics are basically RTD ones; complex things that rely on chance/skill will have a die thrown for their success by an impartial authority. There's loads of other rules, but you can ask about those in the OOC thread, or read the wikia page on the rules.
Things are all over the place. You can basically do whatever you want- be a merchant, a noble, a warrior, whatever. People interact and we get a semi-coherent story/world going on! Want to join us? See the next post.

There is a dedicated OOC thread which exists for discussing the rules, things that are happening, and asking to join the game. Find it here.

Also, there is an IRC channel we use for the harassment of each other
/server irc.freenode.net
/join #YaK4

I strongly encourage using it. While the OOC thread is not used often, there are a few chaps in the IRC most of the time, willing to talk about the game and pretty much everything else. It's a much faster way of operating than through the OOC thread, although you don't have to use it if you really don't want to.

GMing in this game is a complex thing. Many actions can be resolved without GMs doing anything- a lot of stuff is 'just' people talking.
Actions that require rolling, NPC interactions, or just a description, are resolved by one of these people:
-Me
-Thatkid

and to a lesser extent the following king:
-Azthor

Taricus may help to do some rapid fire quests.

So you want to join us?

Step 1: Be sure you know what sort of game this is.
This is a roleplay-heavy game. Less min/maxing, more acting like your character would act. There is no way to 'win' and the mechanics are simple, but you are expected to interact in a sensible manner with people and not make your story be just about you; tie it into the stories of others and the story of the world at large.
The game is set in a high-fantasy antiquity world. There are non-human races. Gunpowder has not been invented and never will be in this game. This is the Antiquity. Magic does not exist, but there are mythical creatures roaming around the world, although centuries of hunting have left only a few survivors behind, and they have learned to fear - or to hate - the mortal races.

Step 2: Check up on the state of the world.
The world is crazy. It is created by the players as they play, and constantly growing and changing. So trying to describe the state of the world- bit of a never-ending task.
Check out the list of current locations on the wiki- just skim through that. That's where stuff happens.
Skim the list of current players on the wiki. That's who is making stuff happen.
Read the Story so far: that's a summary of what happened.
Read the end-of-season summaries (at the bottom of the first post). That's what has happened, chronologically - it will contain more in-detail information than the Story so far.
Read the last page or two of the thread. That's what is happening.
You now have a vague impression of what the world is like. If a particular aspect interests you, you can ask about it in the OOC thread.

Story so far: nothing yet.

Step 3: Think up what sort of character you would like to create.
So you have a vague impression of what sort of game this is, and know sort-of what sort of world is going on. Ok. Now, where do you fit in? Where do you want to fit in? You can be nearly anything, basically - including a landed noble. Preferably something interesting, but also plausible. When you have a vague idea, suggest your character idea in the OOC thread. Get feedback. Perhaps the feedback is 'are you sure?' or 'we have ten of those'. If so, maybe you should consider changing your idea.
Your character has to start in the player nation, in order to keep the players interacting with each-other. This is irrevocable.
There are two things your character CANNOT be: a trader or an engineer/scientist. We had those last game, they were boring.

Step 4: Create your character. Fill in the thing below, and post it on the OOC thread. Wait for GM approval before posting in the IC thread. If you do not, you can give up on your hopes of playing.

Name:
Gender:
Race: See the races and cultures page
Appearance: Describe your character.
Bio: Describe your character's bio. Some useful info: We play as Hadria, an "empire" (aka a kingdom with big ambitions) named after its capital. Our neighbor is the Whitepeak alliance, a confederation of four city states allied because they fear us. We encourage players to be in the aristocracy or to be part of the military (or both) to increase interaction.
Skills: Spend two points, choose from the skills page, the rest will be pure roleplay.
Political alignment: Only if you are part of the aristocracy: note which senatorial faction you support:

Step 5: Jumping in. Exactly what it says on the tin. Wait until you are approved by a GM before you do that. A player saying "yeah, seems ok, go right in" is not an acceptable excuse for a GM. The fact that the GMs seem to have missed your application is not an acceptable excuse to jump in. If you were buried in posts/ignored because we missed you, just post again (give us a margin before doing that), saying "I was forgotten" or something like that.

[Shootandrun]

The World, the Background

Spoiler: World map (click to show/hide)

Use the Spreadsheet for reference

Spoiler: Races (click to show/hide)

 As with Previous YaK games ,we embarked on world building process yet again. With the theme this time around being empires and antiquity, we decided to make it somewhat interesting by mixing races and cultures.

We are using your bog standard fantasy races, with sever different culture types to give a bit of flavour to each othem and ot differentiate the game form the standard fantasy setting.

Races in the game :

    Humans - Playable; they exist in all cultural varieties
    Dwarves - Playable; they exist in all cultural varieties
    Elves - divided into 3 sub groups: Civilized, normal/forest and Desert born. So far only Civilized elves are mentioned as playable choice. Cultures: Pseudo-human for the civilized, Celtic for normal/forest ones, and Carthaginian/Phoenician for desert elves.
    Lizardfolk - not playable, exist in feral and Persian variety
    Orcs - not playable, exist in germanic-barbarian variety only.


Cultures that we have chosen at present are mostly those of the Ancient Mediterrenean basin and only those willl be seen in game. Here I list cultures and the main type of people that can be seen in that culture. Please note that only Humans and Dwarves are cosmopolitan enough to be encountered in all types of cultures, although they will be in lesser numbers to the dominant race of that culture.

    Roman and Greek - mostly Humans, Dwarves and civilized elves
    Germanic - Humans and Orcs, although orcs tend to be more primitive
    Persian - Lizardfolk
    Phoenician/Carthaginian - Desert Elves
    Celtic - Elves


Just as ancients did, certain norms like slavery are present. Most of cultural elements will be based off them, but do not hesitate to modify or add elements that in your opinion wuld fit or make an interesting addition, in constraint othe nature of the game.

Spoiler: Player Nation (click to show/hide)

We play as the Empire of Hadria, an ambitious human nation determined to cut its place into history. It is currently ruled by Septimus Vorenus Sollemnis, the emperor, with the cooperation of the senate.

The Imperial Spreadsheet.

[Shootandrun]

Reserved.

[Azthor]

The Emperor stands before the gathered senators, about to submit his motion for the invasion of the Confederation of Whitepeak to the chamber. Though years of intensive militarization, starting with Legio I Hadria, had all but announced the move, only now would it be made official.

He knew that the Optimates and Isolationists' support was probably lost to him, but hoped for his supporters amongst the Imperial and Popular factions to make up for the opposition. The Novi Homines, he reckoned, would be the turning point in the Senate's decision and, as such, many amongst their numbers had already been "generously rewarded" for their loyalty to the Empire, all in preparation for this moment.

[5+1] "Good men and women of Hadria, I stand before you today to plea for you to take this matter of utmost importance to the Empire in your own hands. For long have our neighburs, the four city-states of the Confederation of Whitepeak, obstructed our access to the west and even worse, they would, in their cowardice, rally against us like treacherous wolves!"

"But no longer, for the last six years we have been preparing, creating a highly disciplined and superbly equipped army, and the result has bore fruits in the forms of Legio I through III, boasting no less than 15,000 of our upstanding citizens. we are now poised to not only strike Whitepeak, but spread our glorious civilization through the four corners of the world, and all we need is for you, good citizens of Hadria, to approve the motion which I now submit to your judgment:"

"15,000 men, led by me and two Legates appointed by this chamber, are to lead Legio I, II & III into the realm of Whitepeak and, by disposing of their meager forces, ensure their ever continued loyalty and collaboration to the Empire. This is a new chapter in our Empire's history, and all you have to do is seize it!"

Having ended his speech, the Emperor retires temporarily, leaving the Senators to deliberate the motion amidst themselves.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Speech effect: +1 to further Legislation rolls in this session.

[Shootandrun]

[2+1] After much private deliberation, the various senators of the Novi Homines took their respective seats while their de facto leader, Kaeso, took a step forward to announce that he was about to make a statement. The senate quieted down for a short time; this would be one of the most important speeches of the day, since it would determine where the support of the dwarven faction would go to.

The representative waited for the silence to come, and he spoke with a deep and loud voice - standing upon a small podium to look as tall as the other humans, although there was no doubt of his origins to anyone who saw him.

"Senators,

In my own humble opinion, the nations of the Whitepeak Alliance silently declared a war upon us on the very day that they signed their cursed agreement, to undermine us and limit our connections to the outside world. Ever since then, it was no secret to any of us that they despised us and feared us as much as we despised them; and in my own humble opinion once again, the only shame in this war is that it was not started a decade ago!

However, some of my brothers and sisters of the Novi Homines have raised the concern that our Honored Emperor may be simply attempting to increase his influence within the realm, by amassing even more land and growing ever the richer while we, humble citizens, have to pay taxes and hold very little lands and property compared to his. For these reasons, it was decided that perhaps a system should be put in place to limit our estimated leader's power within the Empire.

The senators supporting the Novi Homines have decided that they would only support a declaration of war against Whitepeak if the Emperor assigns a governor to rule over the conquered territories as a province of the empire, instead of adding the land to his own domain or granting it to a family member. The aforementioned governorship would be temporary and have to be renewed every year, in an effort to avoid corruption and the entrenchment of bureaucracy within the province. Those are the only conditions the Novi Homines will demand, and those are the only conditions the Novi Homines will expect.

My humble thanks for according me this time to speak,
I leave the floor to another senator."

With that, he sat back down, and watched as the game began.

[CyberGenesis]

"You speak of not having enough lands to govern to pay your taxes with, then propose to limit the inclusion of any acquired lands into the empire as a whole. You propose to give a single governor the reign of an entire province? Aside from that, I fail to see how the assignment of a governor -by- the Emperor is any different than what you're saying you're against. The assignment would be someone under the graces of the emperor in the first place, would he honestly give the position to someone that habitually votes against him at every turn?

In reality, taxes should be the least of our concerns! While the Whitepeak Alliance stands, they cast a shadow of insult to the Empire. The longer they stand, the stronger they stand. We should be more concerned about the removal of this symbol of defiance and insult and less concerned about the meager taxes they would raise for us. A deep investment from the Emperor will be required before any taxable profit is ever seen from this venture anyway, but the removal of a threat is more important in the long term."


Cain did his usual to prevent the appearance of confrontation in his words. While he was never exactly against the Novi Homines in theory, he was always waiting for the excuse to lay down some accusations of treason - on anyone to be fair. Some days were just harder than others, it was usually just easier to argue a vague point in favor of Emperor by contradicting another senator with his own words.

[Sheb]

Lucullus listen approvingly to Kaeso's speech. If only he was a patrician, if only he was a man! But for once, he spoke the truth. Ever since the downfall of the old republic, every Emperor had been trying to grab more power for himself and his supporters.

Indeed, my esteemed colleague tell the truth. I myself led our citizens against the men of Whitepeak before your ascent to the throne, and I feel it strange that we had to wait for so long until a new campaign.

I am ready to serve again and offer my knowledge of the Whitepeak lands and men for the Emperor to use. However, while there is no time to be lost and our Legio should set off as soon as possible, it is this chamber's duty to discuss how the newly conquered land shall be adminsitrated and it should do so while we crush the cities of Whitepeak one by one!

Lucullus sat back among his fellow Optimates. He had offered the Emperor a conundrum: appoint his Imperials as Legates and deplete the Senate from his supporters, or reach to the other factions.

[Ghazkull]

Somewhere in the far back of the large Senate Building Rurik was watching the whole affair with interest. While most of the Guards were Praetorians, the Svebish Guard was present too, although Rurik figured it was just to not insult the Svebes. Leaning against one of the ornate columns he watched in wonder as these "civilized" men tore each other to parts with words.

Next to him and almost as tall as him stood Gren, his second and to the chargrin of many a roman, an orc. He had impressive tusks for his kind and gave his already brutish features the look of a boar. In fact a big advantage for Rurik since the hadrians all seemed to underestimate the old orc. Though he looked like the true caricature they drew of the Svebes: clothed in furs, brutish features as strong as an ox and looking dumb as one, he was far from that. Gren was the oldest among the Svebish Guard, a veteran of many battles and the young revered to him as Kvasirsson. In fact the old veteran was cunning like Kvasir himself.

"Heh."

what is so funny?

"They are ripping each other apart over the fur of a bear that they haven't even killed yet. These Hadrians are amazing me more every day we are here...its like watching children squabble."

Children with 15.000 men to back their threats. True the Svebish count more heads...but still. Whne was the last time a chieftain had that many warriors following him?

"Well there was Chieftain Boremund who fielded 30.000 against the Elves when they disrespected the borders again. But that was looong before your time Rurik, that was when i was a unblooded warrior."

Stop bragging Gren, i can't even imagine these 15.000 on one spot. with that the whispered exchange ended and both brought their attention back to the Senates Discussion.

[Ardas]

Crassius observed everyone in the chamber, listening to the speeches and motioning for war enthusiastically. But they would not be the ones that give blood to pay for the riches that the eepire was to garner from this enterprise. He was supposedly their equal, but he knew the stench of the common people he knew that crowds had to be bought before they are persuaded to follow you ito the meat grinder.
He stood up, raised his hands in gesture to speak, and waited for murmurs to die down.


"Honoured senators, fellow Hadrians! Aren't we forgetting something? Is this campaign for the glory of our people or glory of chosen few, that will reap the benefit of war? Who will gain from the spoils of conquest? Ideed, dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, but can we expect to hold up our end of the bargain to the populus? Who will ensure that their blood is not feeding our pockets? who will ensure that their pain is not our gain?

I say, felllow senators, it is our duty, as fathers of our nation and as advisors to our distinguished imperator, may gods keep him safe, that the wealth gained in this capaign be shared with the people! We must build public buildings, roads, markets and temples! We must pay out to the families of the soldiers that fall and we must reward every milites with enough silver to make up for the sacrifices he made. Unless there is a provision to make sure that at least tertia pars of all war spoils is handed out to the plebs, in form of festivites, extra bread and olive oil or as payments to the soldiers and their families, we are no better than eastern despots that send their subjects to death and treat their people like cattle."

[Sheb]

"Here come the populare again" though Sheb. They had no sense of honor and purpose. How he hated the fool Emperor that first let them in the Senate for some short-sighted advantage. But now they had to be dealt with.

"I know you like to say you speak in the name of the Plebs, but truly, never I had heard a son of Hadria state he wouldn't willingly risk his life for his fatherland and his family's safety or worse, ask for payment for it. You're but playing politics, putting the interests of your patron before the nation's and hoping to enrich yourself in the process!

[Ardas]

"Here come the populare again" though Sheb. They had no sense of honor and purpose. How he hated the fool Emperor that first let them in the Senate for some short-sighted advantage. But now they had to be dealt with.

"I know you like to say you speak in the name of the Plebs, but truly, never I had heard a son of Hadria state he wouldn't willingly risk his life for his fatherland and his family's safety or worse, ask for payment for it. You're but playing politics, putting the interests of your patron before the nation's and hoping to enrich yourself in the process!

My dear Lucullus, are you going to stand in one rank with the people in the prima cohors? Are you willing to lead an assault and then hand over everything to other senators while you are dead and your family is mourning loss of their pater? Sacrifices are made so that your familia can live thier life in safety. You ask for gladius to be raised without a thought given to those who are to carry out that task, nor for the families that they leave behind.

They are not afraid to go and fight, but I am afraid for the fate of their sacrifice. Your vanity and your pride run high, but your respect for others runs low. I ask nothing for myself, yet, you seem content to deny our people rightful claim to what they will earn with their blood. "Tertia Pars" is not only logical, but great and patriotic thing to do. Just as everyone pays taxes on their labour, so we pay our dues to the soldiers of our empire.

Senators! I wish to put a motion before you! Before war is approved, I propose a law of "Tertia Pars", to ensure equal division of war spoils and to ensure provision for war widows and orphans, as well as provision for poor that share our blood and citizenship. It is only right that they take part in the glory and prosperitas that our conquests will bring about!"

Crassius sat down and awaited a response. He gave his piece before the Senate, and that optimate bufoon will have a hard time explaining himself to others, his empty arrogance laid plain before the senators.

[Sheb]

Oh, I am most sorry my dear Crassius. I forgot how you spent so many days fighting the hordes of matrones coming to buy your clothes and surely your victories against your commercial rivals outrank the campaign I led to the East.

How dare I speak of honour to such a gentleman, that was ever willing to risk his live and capital for profits? My own son is serving the Legio Hadriana, and I just offered the Emperor to serve again if he so wished!

Truly, why we ever let merchants into the Senate is a mystery, for they have no sense of duty or honour, and speak of money when we should be speaking of glory!

 I shall not address any more words to you today, but I will vote against any of your money-grabbing scheme, and I am sure my colleague will do likewise!

[Terenos]

Derahoc was lounging across his seat. Listening intently to the other senators argue, while munching quietly on small fruits.
Not time to speak yet, let them keep talking.

[Dragor23]

A young man standed up, holding his left hand in the air, his ring finger and little finger folded on his palm.

"Pax, pax, my dear friends. Our dear homo novus is not here without reason. He certainly proved himself to be suitable to be here, he only needs our guiding hand to show him what it means to be senator."

He smiled in a friendly manner and looked straigth  at Crassius now.

"Indeed, Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, but the sweet taste of victory is diffused, when the plebs get the spoils. They will only be fooled by their greed and demand more unnecessary wars, soothing their simple minds. Panem et circenses, that's what the simple minds want. if they get too much, they will go crazy and will not act in true hadrian ways. We need to guide them and I say, let's abolish that prosposal. It's certainly well-intentioned, but it will make things worse."

[adwarf]

Wulfric pushed himself up, scratching his beard as he listened to the exchange before him, how could so many men think only of a way to benefit from war when they could seek a peaceful solution. He shook his head at the thought, and let his booming voice be heard,

"My fellow senators! We all speak of war, and yes I agree a war may be necessary, but why send the men who have given their lives to protect this land to their deaths when we do not seek a way to avoid it? I say we seek a peaceful solution, they have gathered together out of fear that we would turn our swords to them and lay waste. And now we conspire to do exactly what has drove them to this, I say we seek peace, I say we seek a peaceful annexation of Whitepeak.

If we cannot reach this peaceful annexation then my backing will go to this war, but let us try diplomacy before we use unwarned force like uncivilized barbarians. That is all I have to say, and I believe at least a few of my fellow Senators feel the same, if for different reasons."