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Author Topic: Lords of the Realm OOC - The Dark Age begins  (Read 733 times)

Ardas

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Lords of the Realm OOC - The Dark Age begins
« on: September 26, 2014, 06:00:14 pm »

This is the time of change. Time of new world, with new lands and new people being both found and molded into something greater than themselves. Or perhaps not? Perhaps this opportune time can be used by the cunning and the ruthless to forge their vision into a reality, on backs of those less powerful or with weaker minds?

Your clan and 4 others descend from the same pillar, the Allfather. But for every similarity, there is a difference, and those make you what you truly are.

The escape from the Eastern ash lands of Eofol, or the Northern Wastes, or perhaps the deep forests of the West, brought you all back together, after dispersion of many generations. Will you come together to elect a new leader to rule over  all of Allfather’s kin, or will each of you struggle to create his own realm and gain a rightful place for your new people?

Character Creation:

Name:
Gender:
Race: May or may not go in. Vote below.
Appearance: Describe your character.
Bio: Describe your character's bio.
Skills: Spend three points. Being a clanleader costs one point. Skills listed below.

Spoiler: Skills (click to show/hide)

Tribe Creation:

Name of the Tribe:
Description of the tribe – culture, preferred terrain, customs, etc.
Emblem – what do you use to be recognized, what symbol stands to represent your people?
Heroic deed of your ancestor- why are you and not someone else the chief? What is the power of your lineage in the tribe?

-----------------

Few things about the game before we start:

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. Should be familar to those who saw You Are King games or other kingdom RP games.
The technology level is set roughly in the dark ages, and the land you inhabit might contain magic and mighty beasts, or it can be no more harmful than forests ofEurope few thousand years ago, with its wolves and bears. The key aspect is exploration, discovery and growth, and the eventual conflict between involved people.

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. While I will build it around you as we play, your actions and your tribes create  as much of the world as I do if not more. If a particular aspect interests you, you can ask about it in the OOC thread. Map and culture descriptions will come as IC is created.

Step 3: May the best man win.
Applications are approved on basis of merit (and my fancy). This also means that I won't hesitate from deadly encounters between players - if you go to war, you may die and so can they. Provided I can handle more than 5 players, I will allow people to join in as retainers or members of tribes or even independent characters. Again, those will be based on merit too.

Step 4: be gentle please.
This is my first proper GM affair, so please bear with me or my mistakes. Feel free to comment or correct me within reason.
« Last Edit: September 29, 2014, 01:59:47 am by Ardas »
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Ardas

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Re: Lords of the Realm OOC - The Dark Age begins
« Reply #1 on: September 26, 2014, 06:00:40 pm »

Reserved for future use.
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Ardas

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Re: Lords of the Realm OOC - The Dark Age begins
« Reply #2 on: September 26, 2014, 06:01:29 pm »

Another for future use.
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Ghazkull

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Re: Lords of the Realm OOC - The Dark Age begins
« Reply #3 on: September 28, 2014, 05:49:42 pm »

Name: Cimber the Black
Gender: Male
Race: Drugherr - literally meaning "Dead People" or rather "Army of the Dead", Drugfolk are certainly not dead. The name comes from their most infamous tribe, the Draug, which have a habit to attack in the night painting their bodies and shields black and carrying armor and weapons of blackiron. Drugherr themselves actually have three genders and even more different phenotypes. All different phenotypes (or castes if you want to call them that) are looking in large parts humanoid.
First and most important are the "Svardi" - already fertilized females. Figures of Religious importance they also decide to what other caste a newly born Drugherr belongs. The process of determining a Drugherrs caste is a deeply mystical (maybe even magical) process and the male and neutral castes are completely closed out of it. There are generaly relatively few Svardi at a any given time, due to the simple fact that Svardi need only to be impregnated once to be fertile for the rest of their lives. The Number ranges from three in a small tribe to twenty or even thirty in a large tribe like the Draug.
"Svarki" are unfertilized females and technically belong to the first caste. They serve as handmaidens to the Svardi and as priestresses and shamans for the tribe. "Svarki" are closest to what human myth refer to when they talk about female trolls. beautiful humanoids who often kidnap men only to release them later after they did her bidding. Svarki will often spend years or even decades finding the right mate among the male castes before presenting him to the Elder Females who will decide if he is suited to carry on as a tribes progenitor. Usually Svarki will live in marriage-like arrangements with promising males to make sure their chosen individual proves himself to the Elders. Interestingly in times of peace lower castes are preferred while in times of war higher castes will be higher valued.
"Hariers" are hulking dun-skinned humanoids with rather coarse faces. Larger and more intelligent and cunning than their lesser brethren this male -caste make elite warriors and clan-leaders of their tribes. Their indivdualistic nature and natural ambition has forced the Svardi to create fewer of them to prevent constant infighting among the tribes. Even so many Hariers are expelled from the clan-leaders and take up life as Mercenaries and Bandits.
"Svears" make of the other larger part of the male castes. Color of Skin ranging between a blackish green to a light almost teal colour, a svear-caster is warrior, craftsman and while ferocious in battle is obedient to his highers. While Harier-Casters are known for their ambitious and agressive nature, svears are more disciplined but lack imagination and intelligence. While overall vers solid craftsmen there have never been any true "Masters" among them. if one takes a look at Svear craftmanship he will never find something exceptional, that doesnt mean however their works are shoddy...far from it!
"Vali" are the lowest caste. Having no gender at all they cannot even reproduce. barely rating intelligent enough to rate as sentient, Vali work as hunters, herders and guards. Essential they rate as speaking guard dogs. Fiercely loyal they seem to enjoy their rather simplistic lives. There is a joke that whenever a Vali is born a female got frustrated with the males and chose a dog...
Vali are stunted creatures, with crooked backs each no larger than a mans hip. Usually working in small (for a lack of a better word) family units Valis are tasked with ensuring that enough food is there for the tribe. Led by the largest (and usually most intelligent) of them (which sometimes reach shoulder lenght of a normal human...that is if they are really lucky) a family unit either concentrates on guard duties, hunting or herding of sheep, cattle, goats or slaves. When a Vali is freshly brought from the sacred groves the new members are distributed by a Priestress via mystical rituals (read drawing lot of the most successful families). Over the generations the different Vali family units have interestingly formed tradition and fierce competition exists between them to increase the size of their family. But not only the size of the family is an indicator of prestige and wealth among them. If members are called off by the priestresses or craftsmen to serve as assistants it is deemed a great honor by a Family Unit and it is immediately carved into one of their Ancestor Sticks.

Appearance: a hulking giant of his kind, wearing the traditional hairstyle of his people: his grey hair bound into a elaborate braided knot on the side of his head. This in conjunction to his dun skin marks him as one of the "Hariers" one of the higher castes of his tribe. His lean body speaks of endurance rather than brute strength and his lack of scars and marks of battle is rather atypical for his people.
Bio: Cimber the Black is the clan leader of the Draug Tribe. An old raider, Cimber has seen many winters, he was the one who lead the Draug through the lean times of the migration and brought them here...wherever that may be.
Cimber is also sometimes called "the Great Father" being married to six different Svarki wives (all of which patiently(or not) wait for their turn to finally get into the Elder Council) and having had the honour to have helped ten other to rise to the Elder Council. That basically means a good third of the tribe can call him father...
Skills:
Clanleader
Axes +1
Tactics +1

Name of the Tribe: Draug
Description of the tribe – The Draug are a highly mobile people. Ignoring agriculture they concentrate on animal husbandry and hunting and sometimes trade. It is often noted that Draug Houses can quickly be assembled and dissassembled if need be to continue travelling where they deem fit. The Draug are well known for their warlike ways and are constantly at war, in fact they only trade away what they got through raids and warfare in the first place. When Draug settle a new area they usually start a war with one entity until they are either destroyed or subjugated and then attack the next one...either until all potential enemies in an area are gone or their land isn't fertile enough anymore to sustain their herds...in which case they wander onwards.
Despite claims of being brutish babarians, the Draug are known to have a complex belief system centered around the Allfather and the Svardi Brood Mothers. Amusingly they are also known to wash at least once a week...which makes them propably better smelling than the average medieval peasant.
Slavery is common among the Draug although preferably other races are enslaved since they bring new knowledge with them.
There are also darker rumours that the Brood Mothers often take slaves for other purposes...dark ritual sacrifices are mentioned by some, while others claim they want to create a new caste...and indeed in recent years more and more svearn have been seen who have grown larger, more cunning but at the same time more obedient and less individualistic than the Harier-Casters.
In any case the Draug are the most warlike of the Draugherr Tribes and known for nightly raids, in which they paint themselves and their shields black. Their armours and weapons are oftimes made from blackened iron.
Despite their half-nomadic ways, the Draug are known as masterbrewers of mead made from their own domesticated beehives. How they carry those around with them is propably yet another mystery of these strange people...
Death Rites include the raising of a runic stone for Hariers and important Svear-Casters, while their bodies are being laid out for crows on raised platforms.
Vali are buried or burned and an according mark is made into the ancestor sticks of a Vali-Clan.
Svarki and Svardi death-rites are not as well known, all that is known that their bodies are brought to the sacred grooves...what happens there is unkown to anyone but the females themselves.

Emblem – Usually a Simple Black Shield or a black banner although the personal Emblem of Cimber is a red stylized crow on the black background.

Heroic deed of your ancestor- Apart from his already better claim to chiefdom through his caste, Cimber is known as a vicious and dangerous warrior. Nearing one hundred and fifty winters now, no one really remembers who Cimbers potential father was. His Mother is however known, she is the Current Ancient of the Elder Council: Lughil the Crone. Don't ask anyone however how old she is...the few that know wouldn't dare to elicit her wrath and bring down terrible curses upon themselves.
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Varee

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Re: Lords of the Realm OOC - The Dark Age begins
« Reply #4 on: September 28, 2014, 08:26:58 pm »

Name:Vix
Gender:N/A
Race:LizXie , LizXie are a group of lizard pixie. The are about two feet tall lizard with tiny wings on their back. They usually lives in a forest away from other. They do not have gender nor do they reproduce. There is a  few enchanted tree in the center of their village that give life to new LizXie from the fruit if the tree. These tree are call "Mother tree". They hunt using bows and tiny poison/enchanted arrow that bring down most animal in one shot. They are rumor to process magical power but the truth is only a handful of them, the shamans, can really use magic. The other can only create glittering dust when they flaps their wing. These shamans are powerful individual who make most of the ammo the LizXie uses. They are no more than five alive at anytime and they are treated as the ruler of the race. They are normally detected when a new LizXie is born from the mother tree and then trained by the shaman to become a competent successor.
Appearance: Vix has yellow scale and a very stubby mouth. His claw are white and this wing are larger than normal.He have a green stripe on his spine and his two ankle. He is about 22 inches tall.
Bio: Vix is selected at birth to be born with magical power. It was a very amazing event as the other three shaman in the village are very old and the village have nit seen a new shaman for almost a life time. He spent his youth training to be the next shaman and at about ten years later another shaman is born. He grew up with Trix and they became best of friend. Even the age different of ten years, it didnt matter much as the LizXies don't really grow after they are born. They inly age once they reached old age at about ~200 years old. He became one of the best archer in the village and combine with his power to enchant arrow at will, he also one of the most successful hunter in the village. Trix , on the other hand, grew up to be the village medicine man. His magical healing power exceed even those of the existing shaman. He use his power to heal other while Vix use his power to bring them food and protect his village.
Skill: Clan leader ,Bow, Agility(if it is more reasonable, can i replace this with magic skill?)




Name of tribe: The Pupituk (this mean Guardian in LizXie ancient tongue)
Description: Pupituks live in the lush forest in the west. They are rather isolated and live around 2 very large mother trees that exist for as long as anyone can remember. They live on fruits and game in the forest and rarely ever leave the shade of the trees. Most of them are skilled with bows and arrows and they hunt in small group. With the magical arrows, it is not hard to take down a game that is ten time their size. They also wear armor made from leaf and twig to blend into their surrounding. Their home are in the branches of the trees near the mother trees. They live in holes that have been dig into the tree with the power oft he shaman. The population of the village is less than one hundred people and most of them knew each other most by name and the rest by sight. They live in harmony with the nature and never take more than they need from the forest.
Emblem: Pupituk has taken a glowing heart shaped leaf shield and crossed bow and arrow as their symbol.
Heroic deeds : One day all the peace and happiness come to an end. A large wall of flame came though the forest, driving all the animal away. The shamans tried to protect the village but the unrelenting force of the fire is too much for their power to hold it back. The Pupituk then evacuate out of the area and wander west to the former land. Vix and Trix leads the little band forward as the two most competent individual in the tribe. They face many problem and enemy along the way until finally they reach a place where they can finally settle. The older shaman finally revealed how the mother tree came to be, they must complete a ritual that cause the tree to became the mother tree and this require a sacrifice. Vix and Trix volunteer to do the ritual but the shamans said that they are still need to lead the tribe so they should stay back and guard the mother tree. So Vix and Trix vowed to guard the mother trees and keep the legacy of the Pupituk going.

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Ardas

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Re: Lords of the Realm OOC - The Dark Age begins
« Reply #5 on: September 29, 2014, 02:39:51 am »

So far so good, I will see how other apps look like before I decide. For now I will put the option of races on hold though, seeing as I will have to invent an explanation on how they are all related to each other. Bog standard humies are the preferred option.
Ghaz and Varee - your apps can remain for now.
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Varee

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Re: Lords of the Realm OOC - The Dark Age begins
« Reply #6 on: September 29, 2014, 07:40:08 am »

I dont mind making my char into a human that live in the wood if necessary
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