Hey so what is the history of this settings America equivalents, I'm thinking of making a Foreign Volunteer from there.
The existence of land to the west of Euro-Roma had been a long known fact to Euro-Romans. Contact between the continents ranged from Scandinavian accounts of settlements and dynastic dragon burial sites to elven villages who had long since settled this so called ‘alius mundi.’ However, the detailed Scandinvian and elvish accounts of the ‘other world’ were often absent from greater Euro-Roman political spheres resulting in a general lack of interest in the ‘other world’ that persisted throughout the middle ages. However, as Euro-Roman countries invested in oversea trading, interest in exploration rose and before long new Euro-Roman accounts of this other world began to circulate in Euro-Roman political circles. The term alius mundi or ‘other world’ was a highly academic one, coined by Euro-Roman monks, linguists and academics who were familiar with the full breadth of historical accounts of early settlements and expeditions. Euro-Romans, caught up with their colonial ambitions, began to refer to the ‘alius mundi’ as the New World and immediately Euro-Roman states began independent colonial missions to this New World, later though, as interest in New World colonialism formalized in Euro-Roman politics the continent began to be referred to as Amerique (or America) in reference to original maps drawn by an earlier explorer named Amerigo. The sudden rising interest in New World colonialism in the politics of man was considered a critical concern by the elves of Euro-Roma who were quite aware of their alius mundi dwelling kin and in response the elves organized the fourth great elvish convocation, presumably to discuss the sudden increased interest among humans for other world colonialism. The results of this convocation (as usual) were never announced outside of elf circles, but after, wealthy elves from across Euro-Roma began to invest into their countries New World colonial ventures and uncharacteristically sought leadership positions among the ventures. The only colonial ventures which did not feature heavy elvish investment were those of the Iberian Empire. English and Francobasque colonialism was marked by relatively peaceful encounters with indigenous humans and steady progress and primary took pace in the north. Iberian colonialism however, lacking the gracious elvish investments of other Euro-Roman ventures, was marked by conflict and uneasy relations with indigenous cultures which escalated into war against the indigenous Quetzalcoatl Empire. The Quetzalcoatl Empire, named after the night sky deity of the Nahuatl people, was a highly decentralized collection of tributaries that supported a warrior-emperor whose rule was informed by a powerful priest-class of intense magical power. Initially the Quetzalcoatl Empire resisted Iberian colonial ambition effectively and threatened to end the Iberian venture, but the tides reversed quickly as the Nahuatl people fell victim to disease. The Iberian Empire’s colonists looted the great stone cities of the Quetzalcoatl with a particular interest in gold items and the Quetzalcoatl Empire quickly faded into obscurity.
Francobasque’s American ventures would be minimized by a Euro-Roman war leaving English America as the primary American settlement. Post war taxation however led to bitterness in the colonies and eventually rebellion. The English Empire heavily drained from a Euro-Roman war failed to suppress the rebellion and eventually lead the formation of the Combined States of America, of which Francobasque was the first to recognize as an independent power. As America grew it became infatuated with western expansion and pursuit of its interest quickly led to its first political collision with elven settlements. Originally, using old records of Elven settlement (of which there weren’t many outside of elf hands) it was speculated that contact with elves would be an immediate reality of early colonialism. This was never the case though and the American political state was shocked (of course independent explorers and merchants weren’t) to find discover a thriving elf city-state and shaken by the overt nature by which these elves wielded their magic. However, this surprise did not curb American expansion and quickly skirmishes broke out between antagonistic American frontiersmen and elven denizens. The Elvish city-state acted quickly and confronted the American state calling for an American solution to this violence. The American state resisted initially until to the great surprise the elven state threated war and announcing clear intents to enlist English help. The Americans completely surprised by the Elvish city-state’s sense of Euro-Roman politics conceded the issue. The Elves also leveraged the opportunity to declare its geographical borders (that survive to this day) to the American state as well as promote its own trade policies that would ensure its economic survival. This upset was more humiliating than it was anything else and had little effect on greater growth and expansion of the American state. Besides a few border wars the American state enjoyed steady industrial progress. In 1854 the American state was beset by a national civil war over the northern expansion of slavery in America. The American Civil war was of great military interest of Euro-Roma as the first true industrial war. Advancements in strategic communications, naval warfare and artillery characterized the war. Also it was in the American Civil war that centaurs in the form of Francobasque mercenaries demonstrated the true breadth of their tactical value as high mobility units who can handle industrial weaponry without the extra logistical supply demands of similar cavalry units. The north American faction achieved strategic victory and to secure its position leveled a ban against slavery to strip the southern faction of their economic relevance. Afterward American society was characterized by urbanization, industrial growth, indifference to affairs on the Euro-Roman continent and a strengthening nationalist identity. The realms of film and horizontal commercial giants became dominated by American names and have brought upon the country great wealth. The average American is practical, praises hard work but has a fancy for luxury items such as production line cars and fine clothing.
Here! A brief, brief sketch of American political history. Of course, the uncovered subtopics are endless but I hope you find this in line with the other countries expositions I've provided. If you wondering what their cultural landscape looks like atm, super stores, film, radio, cars and the American Civil war is relatively fresh in cultural memory.
Cars, films and such are also super popular on the continent the main difference being that Americans haven't been faced with the prospect of national war with huge political ramifications for a while so they don't have as much distracting them from liking nice things as continental countries do.
Name: Zehn Graftkin
Race: Orc
Appearance: A thick, solidly built orc, he has dark eyes and hair, and tries to keep his uniform neat at all times.
Backstory: English, spent time in the remote colonies learning folk magic and spirit-speaking. He lost several comrades but also several local friends, and as such has become overly protective of his comrades, but instead of holding back he became more aggressive. When the war started, England needed machinegunners.
Skills:
Necromancy- overseas, Zehn learned from tribal mages how to speak to the spirits of the dead and placate them with offerings to gain their cooperation.
Man of Many Words: Zehn knows some languages from his time overseas, and took the time to pick up some Gothic before he shipped out. Speaks Gothic.
Machinegunner - +1 to suppressing fire.
First draft complete.
An orc! Was also hoping for an orc! The bio looks great but I see its hampered by my lack of information on certain topics. Namely English colonies and Necromancy.
If you spent time in the colonies and lost a lot of comrades it sounds like you might have been a English Regular or part of English Colonial Auxiliary Forces in Hindu (India) or Afrika, the English Colonial Auxiliary Forces are less trained and would handle skirmishes with unsettled natives and police duties (this is a good pick if you don't like the idea of already being a super trained soldier), the aforementioned are professional, highly trained (considered the best army in the world at the time) soldiers with huge amount of abroad experience. Both Hindu and Afrika have prominent folk magics. Zehn is English born, right?
Academically, talking to spirits is considered more the province of astrology and subversive magics used to glean insights from fleeting souls (there is debate over what a 'soul' is, some more dreary types suppose its just memories and their derivative personalities). Necromancy is a overt form of magic that (most usually) involves handling dead bodies and stuffing them with various ingredients and totems or with some/all/one of the following ambitions, reconstituting a soul (maybe I should say memories) into a physical form (that may not be its original form), revitalizing a body, creating a new life form from organic/inorganic material (often dead things). Of course magic academia is basically absent from regular culture so it is often that folk magics (like ancient Gothic traditions) relate the two. Necromancy one of the least ethical thing someone can do next to witchcraft (I mean that matter-of-factly, don't interpret it as critique on your char idea) in Euro-Roman culture and in early modern times surgery was forbidden as it was suspected as a pseudo form of Necromancy.
And finally your skills. Orc of many words (as I'm calling it) is befitting your character and it won't just be gothic you know. It'll be lots of things. High jesus that's a relief on my side as every border hop you guys do doesn't create a plot nightmare for me.
Necromancy is a great skill and one that sounds very fun to me as GM. You'll roll a dice to commune with the dead and mannn the things you could do with it in and out of combat sound cool. Offerings will change the context of the communing, it doesn't increase the chance of succeeding a commune rather changes the duration and context. I mean why would an enemy soldier want to tell you useful things if you don't offer to him.
Machinegunner is a good skill that is likely to define your combat role. Suppression isn't a contextual action its actually covered in the mechanics as part of the fire superiority deal. So instead of a +1 blanket a mechanics based skill is recommended. These could be things like a +2d6 to your contribution to your teams fire superiority when firing more than 10 rounds with a machine gun. Or something else similar. Check the mechanics page if you want to come up with one.
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Topic: OPERATION MARKET STORM: TURN 7, Mission 1: Ich gebe auf! (6/5) (Read 17556 times)