The god: Sem'seddin, Lord of the underworlds
spheres: Death 20%, Undead 30%, Dark magic 30%, Dark creatures 20%, Eternal night (this is an universal goal and effect of worship, i refuse to give it a percent number how important it is).
Sem'seddin is mainly an unknown god, the god of those who often dont worship him in any other ways than providing him with new servants.
Watching over all the dark and hideous creatures and the restless undead in the world, he is a dark and merciless god, his only goal to spread the darkness of his
Eternal night.
He most often takes the form of a bodiless lich, only the one last strangely shapen black skull remaining, floating above ground and hiding its bodilessness in dark red, Long sleeved robe embroidered with gold around sleeves and edges of the hood.
Civ: The Akkad Sultanate.
Civ symbol: ±
Hero symbol: Ç
Army symbol: ç
preferred site: Deserts, plains and ancient sites.
Race: Akkadians
A common Akkadian warrior. Plains/forest/jungle/hills/swamp/desert/rocky hills/tundra/high mountains/sea/river
Human 7 6 5 7 5 10 6 4 2 9 9
Undead 7 6 5 6 7 8 6 5 3 6 8
(the undead moving speed varies by type and human by mount. At somecases, even undead troops might be mounted up on for example skeletal camels.
Also, the sea movement varies by the ship, but since Akkadians never dare sea with rafts, their usual moving speed is high enough, If they dont have harbor with ships ready, they need to build one which takes 1-3 turns.
Undead units by common sense ignore water as a obtrusion, they simply walk through bodies of waters.)Population capsSavanna 60
Desert 60
Palm Forest 70
Rain Forest 40
Swamp 40
Temperate forest 95
Wasteland 20
Taiga 30
Tundra 25
Glacier 10
Plains 120
Rocky Hills 30
Mountains 10
As everyone knows, Humans are highly adaptive. Hence the high pop caps. And since Akkadians have mostly lived their lives in desert enviroment, they know how to survive.
physiology: There isnt much to say about Akkadian physiology, They are basically Humans, the only difference being their naturally tanned skin and slightly longer noses that tend to curve downwards.
The Akkadians tend to be nimble and strong, yet some are quite frail.
History: The history of the sultanate and people of Akkad is long and mysterious, leading to times long past. About 5000 years ago, the Akkadians were still a nomadic people of the deserts and surrounding dry plains. Even at those times, They had knowledge of magic, the power that so much rules their ordinary life these days.
Many a generation of Akkadians were spent in infighting and territorial wars before the time of the unification wars.
The unification wars began about 3600 years ago, when in a single tribe four wizards rose to take the power from the petty sultans. The first tribe was quickly subjugated, for their power was terrible. Each one was a great wizard at their own right, but together they were unstoppable to the splintered tribes that could not unite against them.
Finally the great sultanate of Akkad was born, and the wizards formed a council of four, taking the ultimate seat of power to their hands. They ruled with an iron fist, gathering an army of hedgemages and bloodthirsty tribal warriors to ensure their power and control over the Akkadians.
Nearly one hundred years passed by, and the wizards began to see their life slipping from their hands as those hands grew frail and bony, their hairs and beards drooping in long white manes and bones aching with the smallest of movements. They had ruled long, and the Akkadians were beginning to recognise them as somesort of eternal rulers, yet a threat of the end of their rule loomed over the wizards. They were not going to give up so easily.
Several years passed, and the wizards researched magic with fervor like never before. Soon they began to experiment with the magics of death and life, hoping to find the answer for the immortality of their minds and bodies there.
They delved deep into ancient and forgotten books describing arts banished from the face of world long ago, and soon they were practising the art of Necromancy.
It was very experimental at first, they raised dead bugs and small rodents back from the death, their skeletons and husks and rotten bodies caught into cages in order to be studied. They noticed that with right incantations these beings would become either creepy inactive living husks that looked into space with their empty eyes, or horrendous aggressive flesh hungering beasts. They homever couldnt control these soulless bodies, and dared not to raise anything larger or more dangerous than a bunny.
In search for the answer and secret of controlling death, they delved deeper into the ancient and forbidden books. Finally they hit gold, a text about some sort of well deep in the desert, inside an ancient tower rising in junktion of two rivers. There, they would find what they seeked.
As the journey began, notable changes in the wizards could be seen. They had grown pale, their hairs and beard more thinner and now blazed in the color of brightest white, they were thinner than ever, mere skeletons under their robes and turbans. Yet still, the Akkadians revered them as ultimate rulers and no soul dared to oppose them in their already dark quest for immortality.
Months did they travel in the desert, their bodyguards and escorts dying around them in the heat and lack of water. Finally it was only the wizards, pressing onwards with unnatural determination.
At last... they reached their destination. They saw the two rivers flowing through the desert, forming a line of lush vegetation and a small paradise along its banks. And in there, where the two rivers connected into a single large one, stood in the middle of the currents an ancient tower rising from a small island of stone.
They made their way in, over a small stone bridge and into the gaping doorway into the darkness of the tower. On entering one of them lit a small magical fire and they saw on the middle of the floor a round hole, staircase descending downwards to the earth. Going down and down for nearly two hours in this small round shaft, they finally reached a large, round natural cavern with floors of dry black sand. In the middle of the cavern, was a dark pool of water. It was deep, deeper than any pool they had ever sawn. It was so deep that upon dropping a macigally enchanted glowing rock in it, the glow dropped on until it faded from sight.
Suddenly, a loud voice, yet a whisper, spoke in their heads. It asked them why they were here, in the most sacred sanctuary of Sem'seddin, Lord of the Underworlds. Answer came: We have come here, seeking immortality for our minds and bodies! Now we know that you can grant these boons upon us.
Answer came: Indeed... It is in my everlasting power to grant such boons... But there's a price. You must swim in the well of souls, and grant your souls to me, devote yourself to me. Such is the price of immortality.
The wizards, their greed for power and wealth controlling in them, did what asked, and swimmed in the well of souls... Soon after, they returned to the small city where they formerly had kept power, and ordered it to be abandoned and a new one to be build around the tower and the shores of the rivers.
And from that day onward, began the everlasting rule of the council of four wizards, now immortal. The flesh slowly rotting from their bones since flesh is not immortal, but their minds and bones. And so it came to pass that Sem'seddin was now the god of the Akkadians, the nights of the deserts growing longer and dark creatures allying themselves to this now corrupted people.
Lately, a strange shifting has come to the minds of the liches, making them to desire creating a portal to other worlds... It was done, but so doing, the liches have made an enemy with unknown fate.
Culture: The Akkadians nowadays are a very arabian like people, retaining their old ways of magic and desert culture, only that they are now living in the single city they build around the tower. There are some one hundred and twenty five Akkadians living in there. After the devotion to the god Sem'seddin, the sultanate of Akkad has become a land of dark creatures, lurking death and the shadowy people of Akkad, All over seen by the four liches governing over them from the ancient tower.
The Akkadians are skilled in all forms of art, making paintings, structures, sculptures and other that kind of thing, but mostly they focus on music, which is often very important to them.
The unnaturally long nights in the desert has made its effect on the culture of Akkad, making their cities often with wide passageways and windows to let the moonlight everywhere, and it has made their sleeping habits not that very sound since they tend to sleep just when they feel like it.
On the counter of it, daytime is scorchingly hot and any wandering into the desert in day is often deemed as suicide.
Magic is one of the things Akkadians are proud of, sometimes someone among them decides to take up the path of wizard and seeks to enter the tower of the liches, in order to join in the ranks of the magistrates, who are the voice of the liches.
Magic is often seen in the usual lives, as torches that light with deep blue light the streets and magic carpets that soar the sky. It is also not uncommon to see magically enchanced items and things in the streets.
After the pact with Sem'seddin, the Akkadians have slowly gained affinity over magical creatures of dark and the undead, capable of control and live with them all around. As such, an armoured skeleton is not unusual homeguard or a gargoyle as messenger animal.
The religion is strongly present in Akkad, and minarets and temples often dominate cities. The praying time is once a day, when the moon falls and rises immeaditetly back on the sky. The praying reaches its highest point when moon falls into horizon for several minutes and the night turns pitch black.
Anyone interrupting the prayer is deemed infidel and declared as a "free one" Meaning anyone can do anything they want with him/her without anykind of penalty.
The Akkadians are often seen as shrewd traders, seeing how their greed for wealth often drives them to do trade in even places most inhospitable and unwelcoming. They often drive their goods in large, sometimes miles long caravans of camels, wagons and traders. The goods Akkadians trade are usually only of highest quality.
Mostly they trade: Exotic foods, spice, valuable minerals, weapons and armors, exotic animals, magical trinkets, Akkadian rugs and sometimes even the more valuable items tied to their culture like magic lamps and magic carpets.
All the traditional middle eastern magics and stuff of legends are used by Akkadians, namely Magic carpets.
The magistrates: these are those Akkadians who have shown enough sway over magic to create or capture a node of their own, and have thus become wizards. The magistrates govern over the Sultanate of Akkad as the voice of the liches and the greatest of them is aptly called the Sultan. The magistrates are a quite powerful bunch, though not as nearly as powerful as the four liches residing in the natural cavern under the tower.
They take residence in the upper parts of the tower, living in decadence and luxury there, researching their powers and doing what the liches wish.
A peek on the city of AkkadWays of warThe Akkadians, being humans dont have any notable physical advantages expect being jacks of all trades, often prefer ingenious tactics combining their vast manpower of undead troops, small ironfist troops of various magical beasts and the Humans in the back, throwing spells and often being the elite cavalry and heavy infantry units.
In battle, the Akkadians prefer to fight mounted onto camels or horses, using spears as charge weapon and then quickly switching to shamshirs.
Armours are often half plates with chainmail or leather covering the back or just chainmail. The armours are always hidden underneath a thin desert robe, preventing the enemy from seeing the weak joint places in the armour, and preventing the armour from heating up in the sun.
Those Akkadian men belonging to heavy infantry often prefer a sword and a shield, and a more ingenious weapon, They wield a long curved shamshir in right, and a shield in left. Homever, hidden in the sleeve of the robes right hand, they wear a small but long bladed wrist blade, springing up with a certain wrist movement. This weapon is most often used in toe to toe battle but sometimes as a surprise weapon when charging.
The magics of AkkadThe Akkadians have always had potency for magic, there being long traditions on practising it. Sometimes, a practitioner rises above others, like the liches, and gains immense power. The Akkadian magic uses a special way of harnessing the magic of the world, most usually the places where it is especially strong, called Nodes.
Once a wizard or wizards gain control of the node, it begins to flow its magic, often referred as power, to the wizard in steady rate. The power flows are usually endless, the node creating more magic when some of it is taken away. Thus, the only way to permanently hamper the wizard from casting spells, is to sever the link between him and the node, which can be sometimes very difficult and very dangerous.
The nodes vary in power, depending usually where the node of magic is. Very special places are often powerful nodes for wizards. The power of the node governs how much power the node gives to the wizard each day.
Build structures and temples to the wizard or the god he serves, often act as lesser sources of power, backing the the major nodes. The larger and/or more impressive the structure is, the stronger node it is.
If a wizard casts spells that remain overtime or summons creatures to do his bidding, these spells follow a simple prodecure:
The initial casting drains a set amount of power, once casted, the effect or creature will be under wizards control. Homever, these spells continue to drain wizards power at steady rate, depending how powerful these spells are. If the drain exceeds the flow of power to the wizard, he will begin losing power gradually for the amount the drain exceeds the flow.
The drain can be controlled by the wizard, if he decides to weaken or strengthen the spell currently in use.
Akkadian wizards are those devoted to all sorts of dark arts, having special affinity over magics and spells of that kind after the pact with sem'seddin.
Even though they have special affinity over the dark arts, the wizards and the four liches CAN use other kinds of magic, namely they can for example throw fireballs and lightning.
((This might get edited a little))
The Four LichesThe liches are immensevily powerful, nowadays rather ancient creatures that are in the most direct contact with Sem'seddin of all. They reside in the natural cavern, where the well of souls is, drawing their power directly from this powerful node of magic.
The names of the four liches are those they had in life, Sechmed, Fared, Yarasin and Al'Debar.
The hierarchy of power among the lich is determined solely by their power and control over magic, the most powerful of them being Sechmed, then Al'debar, Yarasin and Fared.
The four wizards, some 1000 years after the pact. Sechmed would be the one in the front, the second Al'Debar, the one not seen very well is Yarasin and the last behind Fared.The Liches control supremely over all their minions, human, beast and undead alike, Their word being the law in Akkad. This coupled with their limitless greed for power and knowledge, makes them rather dangerous even when not in immediate closeness of their enemies.
The Liches are almost never referred as "liches" among the Akkadians, rather they call them "The council of four". Even further so, the Liches can disguise themselves in their original human shapes, preferring to move around the earth in this form rather than as what they truly are.
(As it seems to be customary to tell something of the combative abilities of thy heroes, ill do it here)
As said before, the liches vary in power. Eventhough every single one of them is a terrifying foe and immensevily powerful, being 4000 years old practitioners of magic.
The Liches can actually inflict damage on brutish melee fights, often brandishing their metallic, enchanted staves to bash the enemys skull and ribs in.
The wail of Lich is a terrifying sound, often driving the hearer mad and sometimes even kill the most weakwilled. It also calls all the lesser nearby undead creatures to rush to their aid. They will always start the fight with a chorus of wails.
The magical affinity of the liches is unparalled, their control over forces of darkness supreme. The liches are highly proficient with almost any kind of magic, but if the spell is of dark nature like for example finger of death, the liches are casters supreme.
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Topic: Battle of the Gods 3 : Rule discussion, OOC talk and preparations (Read 29590 times)