I suppose I should reserve a slot. Not sure how the mechanics work or what my backstory/culture/cities will be, but for now:
Civilization: the Three
Race: Naga
Region: Desert & Savannah
Geography: Ocean, desert, savannah. The Plymouth river runs from a forest on the border to the savannah to the ocean. The Thades river and its tributaries enter the border, merge and pass straight through the desert, and then the Thades merges into the Plymouth river in the savannah.
Magic: Naga magic is based on runecrafting and conjuration. Conjurers use mana to activate runes, or rapidly change the temperature and velocity of any object they touch. This is as powerful as lighting a match or throwing a pebble every second. Runecrafters use runes to stabilize rates of mana output, create light, heat, repulsion, darkness or cold. The 'mp' is a unit of measurement for mana. An untrained adult can expend 2mp/s for 50s, which increases with practice. A conjurer must be able to expend 7mp/s for 100s in order to given the title of mage. Mages are allowed to use runes in public. A handheld rune is a portable rune drawn on any flat surface. The amount of mp stored depends on the amount of ink used and the age of the rune. A brand new handheld rune can hold near 1000mp and loses 30% effectiveness every ten months. (E.g. 20mp after a decade of fading.) Larger runes hold more mana and handheld runes hold two minutes worth of a mage's mana. The effects are predetermined by the design of the rune. Runes are always active when they have more than 0mp, so it is standard to split runes into multiple parts. The longer an enchantment's duration the more complex the effects. A flaming sword or fire arrow only has a storage and a heating component, whereas a rune levitating an object can have dozens of components for storing mp and creating wind. Household runes for cooling a room or food can have hundreds of chain components, for storing and transferring mana at a slow and steady rate in order to gradually lower temperature over several hours. These are the most expensive kinds of runes, due to the complexity. So what does this mean? An untrained conjurer can charge a spell for two minutes with the power of a fireball. A group of mages can create complex chain effects, transporting large rune arrays storing unlimited amounts of mana with reciprocal mana transfer components.
Cities: Each major city is inhabited by a different tribe. The Sun tribe has the most natural resources and skilled labour. Their city is
Marosia, a trading hub located where the Plymouth river meets the ocean. Sun tribe is the most affluent and builds with wood floated down the Plymouth river.
Saris is a militant city in the desert, run by the Moon tribe. It is located on a river which crosses the desert. The Moon tribe uses adobe and animal hide building materials.
Bro of the Star tribe is a populous city in the savannah. The Star Tribe has the largest population yet the weakest political power. They consist primarily of nomads living in portable animal hide tipis, and farmers living in thatch huts. Bro is a seasonal city - most of its population is nomadic, and return after a successful hunt. Its population is dependent on the migration patterns of the antelope/elk/rothe herds. There are also deer, birds, rabbits and fae. Hunters visit the rural villages to help with the harvest, and carrying food to Bro, where they sell their crafts and the farmers sell their harvest. Bro is situated where at the merging of the Thades river and Plymouth river. Its seasonal inhabitants are poor, and prefer to ship construction material to Marosia while living in tipis, despite the cost of lumber being cheap along the river's edge.
And lastly, there is the underground slum city,
Al. Long ago it was a sacred site of pilgrimage, with prospering cactus farms and its own government. Then it was conquered by the Moon tribe and became the lawless & impoverished coal & iron mine that it is today. Nagas come here to die, steal, or to make a fortune off the exploited backs of miners. Water and food are valuable here, and medicine costs a small fortune. Yet its local currency has an artificially lowered exchange rate. A third of Al's population are slaves who never escape the dim-lit cave networks, so sickness and unrest are always high. Yet with workers composed of slaves and miners who are unfit for skilled labour or the Star tribe's nomadic lifestyle, most of the populace have nowhere to go! The once sacred oasis is now poisoned by the mining tailings, meaning that despite the unrest, everyone relies entirely on the water merchants from Saris for survival - paid for by the dangerous backbreaking labour in the mines. Here stealing is punishable by branding, and a slave with two brands is punished by death. This is where the Sun tribe send their criminals and their homeless. Once a holy pilgrimage site, Al is now a cesspit of misery and exploitation.
Products: The Sun tribe produces fish, crops, luxury goods, wood, runes, rope, imported goods, crafts, salt, medicines and other manufactured goods such as armour. They trade with foreign nations.
The Star tribe produces meat, hides & leather, wood, crops, and arrows. They are self-sufficient.
The Sun tribe produces fruit, coal, refined iron, metal products such as high-end weapons & armour, iron ore, and slaves from abroad.
Government: Each tribe has its own tribal government, which appoints senators to a Three senate in the capitol, Marosia. Marosian senators are elected by the wealthy, Sarissian senators are appointed by nobility, and Bro senators are elected by its citizens. Every tribe has veto power. Saris is authoritarian, Bro is egalitarian, and Marosia always gets their way through bribery.
Culture: Hedonist. Marosia belongs to the Sun tribe, Saris belongs to the Moon tribe, and Bro belongs to the Star tribe. The Sun tribe is the most advanced and multicultural, the Moon tribe is the military powerhouse of the Three, and the Star tribe is the most democratic and principled. Nagas value money and believe that other races exist to serve them. Slaves are called 'servants'. Selling servants requires a license, owning servants requires government insurance, and killing servants is highly illegal.
Religion: There are various Naga religions and they share a common theme. Nagas believe that they reincarnate after death. A naga who lives virtuously will reincarnate as a naga. A foreigner who is pleasant to nagas will reincarnate as a naga. A foreigner who helps another race will reincarnate as that race. An intelligent pet will reincarnate as a humanoid. Yet a cruel naga will be reborn a foreigner. A cruel foreigner will become an animal, and a wicked animal will become an insect, and a wicked insect will become a weed. Once their soul is purified they become a tree, then progressively larger and smarter animals until they are born as the race their soul has the highest affinity to, whereupon their mission in life is to serve the naga race. There is a lot of mythology involving souls sinning and being reborn. Nagas believe themselves to be spiritually superior to all races, that every race and animal has its own guardian God, with many plant and insect deities being killed so that their powers could be absorbed. They believe that the Naga guardian deity Quetzalcoatl is the most powerful God, and that all other deities obey him.
Attributes: Nagas are vulnerable to cold. They are stealthy and strong, but their large tails make them easy targets for projectiles. Their bodies can resist poison, they have humanoid willpower and intellect, and their average life span is 37 years. Those who live in dry biomes and hibernate regularly can reach the age of 60.
Racial bonuses:
The Three: Tribal Strength: +8 unrest cap
Mage abilities: Runecraft: In cities with a mage unit, for 3 CP you get a rune set, which can be consumed for a d6 combat bonus in any combat, or a d10 in combat by a mage
Weakness: Short-lived: +2 zombies in army of the dead disaster.
Units:Archer|D4|land support| Naga archers are equipped leather armour on their torso and are expected to procure their own weapon. The majority of archers use a recurve hunting bow, though some Moon tribe archers swear by the javelin, and many Sun tribe archers are wealthy enough to afford composite bows (yet have less practical hunting experience). Archers value hunting skills, and are highly mobile capable of using 'hit & run' tactics or stealthy guerrilla warfare. They cannot climb but are excellent swimmers. They rely on terrain and warriors for protection against enemy projectiles. Their projectiles can be enchanted with combat runes to shoot fire arrows.
Warrior|D6|land combat| Naga warriors are trained by the Moon tribe to use spears, short swords, targe shields and their powerful serpent tails. They are supplied with either an iron ahlspiess, ranseur, fauchard or glaive. Urban warriors receive a copper dagger while rural warriors receive a wood & leather targe shield double-rimmed with copper. Their armour varies by personal wealth, with
Galley|1d8|water combat| A trading ship that can travel upstream along the Plymouth river trade route between Marosia and Bro, and the Thades river trade route between Bro and Saris. (Map will determine if there other cities on the Plymouth river..?) Research is being done into runecraft propulsion and rune powered cannons.
Mage|?|support - A mage squad is tantamount to a walking ballista. Their weaponry is highly portable and deadly. Naga mages use conjuration to create rune sets which can conjure a preset magical spell repeatedly until its mana runs out. An unequipped mage only has enough mana to activate a fireball rune once, yet with combat runes a mage squad can wield enough firepower to power siege weaponry nonstop for an entire hour, provided there is enough ammunition. Combat mages can use anything heavy as ammunition, including boulders, cannonballs, rocks, or even walls! Enemy vehicles and ships can be pummeled with heated boulders. Unarmoured infantry can be bombarded with rock fragments, and a boulder propelled from fireball rune can knock out one or two horsemen. Flammable constructs are easily destroyed. A thin wall can be used as makeshift ammunition, being blasted inward by siege runes. Moats can be rapidly frozen, and a reinforced metal gate can simply be melted and blasted away, making naga mages the most powerful unit in siege warfare! Unfortunately, they carry zero protection and very little ammunition. Runecrafting siege runs is rather straightforward, but runecrafting and charging the mana runes needed to power them is extremely expensive and time consuming. The majority of mages are sheltered cowards who try to avoid melee combat. A mage unit has several squads, with the majority of mages being responsible for the mana rune transportation and conversion. Reciprocal mana transfer arrays are used to store mana, which must be transferred into the siege runes in order to activate them. Thus, if the leader of a mage squad is struck down then the entire squad loses its firepower until the siege runes are retrieved. On the battlefield a single naga mage uses dropped equipment and even corpses as ammunition for fireball runes! For the life and death situation in close quarters, they carry a glass orb which can be melted and blasted at an attacker. The glass orb is used as proof of graduation and for measuring mana. Activating runes in public is frowned upon, and activating or transporting over 1000mp of mana is illegal for civilians. There is ongoing research into using runecrafting to power cannons, swords, guns and watercraft propulsion. A combatant's best method for killing a mage is with projectiles, and if that fails then be sure to cut off their hands before killing them, as letting a naga mage touch you or even your shield is a suicidal move! That said, all runecrafters are mages, and runecrafters are highly-respected for their production of luxury goods which was their primary focus before the apocalypse...