Alright, here's mine.
God: Rolitokovo (rho-li-tock-oh-voh, occasionally with the first R rolled slightly)
Spheres: Scholarship 36% Victory 30% Trade 34%
Race: The Anqip (ahn-keep)
Civilization Symbol: P
Army Symbol: ρ
(Not P's, greek letter Rho)
Preferred Sites: Jungle, Forest
Population:
Growth Rate = +25%
Plains: 90
Forest: 100
Jungle: 120
Ocean: 50
River: +40
Desert: 10
Tundra: 20
Movement:
Plains: 10
Forest: 9
Jungle: 8
River: 8
Desert: 6
Hills: 6
Sea: 6
Tundra: 5
Rocky Hills: 4
Swamp: 2
Mountains: 2
Physiology:
The Anqip are a race of lizard-like semi-humanoid bipeds. Despite their green or brown scaly appearance, they are actually warm blooded. They stand between 2.0 and 2.3 meters tall on average, with a tail nearly 1 meter long behind them. Their 3 fingered hands and 3 toed feet have long claws designed not for slashing as much as piercing in and latching on, their sharp teeth are what does the real damage in nature. When having children, they ley eggs, and the mother and father will both tend to the nest, whoever's more fit and able going out to hunt (or work, in civilization). They are carnivorous, but can eat plants, often using plants as spices or seasoning on a meat main course. The Anqip have keen senses, especially smell, though it's nothing supernatural. They are pretty intelligent, and have had a long standing ability to hunt cooperatively... though this is not always the what they do. Their maximum lifespan possible is circa 140 years normally, but due to the hardships of not living in a perfect utopia, most could expect to live up to 50 or 60 years.
Culture:
In peace, the Anqip are an intellectual and artistic race, and are also proud and willing to show it. Quite a bit of energy is put into science and more effective, practical means of succeeding in life, but also highly valued are the works of talented artists. When a true masterwork is created, often it would be displayed proudly in the very heart of town. Often their settlements develope close trade relationships with one another, sometimes forming large and expansive networks, bringing a variety of goods to each town and also often resulting in closely bound nations. The capital of a powerful nation would be a flourishing city of tens of thousands, broad avenues carrying constant trade caravans in and out, grand public works, often adorned with masterful artwork, a large, strong castle in the middle. No government type is shunned, though if there isn't a benevolent monarch often a democratic system is used. Abuse of leadership power is considered highly dishonorable, and the people will see to it that their proud nation is not disgraced in such a way!
Wealth and power tend to be something an Anqip would be proud of, though using one's wealth to hurt another, or interfere with the competitive nature of the market, is considered disgusting and worthy of punishment. It is one of the few serious taboos in Anqip society. They consider the market place to be a place of mutual benefit and a means to better society, abusing the market, hurting others for personal gain, is quite frowned upon. Apart from this, there are essentially no taboos... no taboos regarding clothing, reproduction, language, any of it. As long as it's not hurting someone most won't mind it. Indeed, their free acceptance of the reproductive impulse leads to a good growth rate.
All in all, they tend to be a nice and optimistic culture, and like to make friends with new peoples. Though their cities are grand, not all of their towns are such. They have long been good at expanding to capitalize on new resources. Their towns start out as wooden slap-together huts, but as time goes on and the town grows, they improve their buildings and use stone and eventually metal in their constructions. Often new towns are founded for economic reasons, followed by large amounts of immigration resulting in wooden boom towns, which improve their buildings over time to form a new city.
When it comes to a town getting food, Anqip prefer to hunt, making the lush and dense jungles their favorite place, though woodland creatures also make good prey. Where the hunting doesn't suffice, they use ranches to get meat. In any case, some towns will grow spice plants for consumption or export if the biome is suitable for it.
Though they tend to be nice, tolerant, and well meaning, they take challenges and threats seriously. If an Anqip is seriously being challenged by someone, that individual will probably accept the challenge and do whatever he or she can to emerge victorious. Though, 'cheating' is often grounds for disqualification in any regulated event, and getting disqualified is considered a very bad failure, hence they don't like to cheat. Threats are dealt with swiftly and appropriately... the combination of challenge and threat was often how wars broke out between their nations.
In an all out war, they have no qualms about using any tactic that will yield a victory. They tend to opt for training large numbers of troops, and have perfected the art of large scale tactics over eons. They will build a large force if they can, they will use it intelligently, and if pressed to it they won't have any problem with employing such things as scorched earth tactics and total war doctrine. Though, they do not always make a habit of stomping their enemies. They will do anything do either win or draw even... and a peace treaty is considered drawing even. They often build strong defenses around cities, and prefer to use the terrain and it's altitude to their advantage. When attacking enemy forts, if possible, they place siege weapons behind hills, and fire over the hill, onto the fort on the other side. Armies tend to be generally multirole, with some emphasis on ranged weaponry.
History:
It is said that Anqipian civilization began in earnest when the tribe of Kalpim sent some livestock to the tribe of Ziltan, who in return sent various tools and spices back... a good relationship in the making... or it would've been. The Ziltanese merchant had never been stolen from and claimed himself unbeatable, so when the Kalpim ranchers returned, the merchant dared the ranchers to steal their livestock back, laughing at them, and laughing with pride in his own establishment... well... the ranchers were not amused. They really did go in and try to steal their livestock back, and when the merchant came out with a club and tried to drive them away, the fought back, knocking the merchant out cold and taking the livestock while he was out. Well... several weaks later, a few spearman showed up on the doorstep Kalpim tribe, intent on taking the livestock back. When the ranchers took up spears of their own, and actually managed to drive the spearman off, chasing them back to the entrance of Ziltan, they found the Ziltanese had put up a palisade to keep them out. Ever since then, the two regions were in competition, occasionally violent competition. One would make a heavier ram to knock down a palisade, so the other just designed a better, stronger palisade, invulnerable to the ram.
Everyone threw in their ideas into how to make bigger and better means to compete with the other side, and everyone took care to study yesterday's mistakes and the innovations of the current day. Palisades gave way to crude stone walls, which gave way to strong walls of brick as rams gave way to catapults, which gave way to trebuchets. But, when the Anqip took hammer to metal, they didn't just forge swords, they forged coins. The competition moved to who could outcompete the other on the market, and in the end, the two regions eventually learned to accept, then like one another under the mutual benefit of flourishing trade! In this age of prosperity, small towns became vast empires, factions splitting off to become their own nations, finding other cultures all around the world!
Ironically, the wars of prehistory ended the same way they started, trade. But, better design and better metals meant bigger caravans and bigger profits. The regions were still quite deeply in competition, but finally, a Kalpimian and a Ziltanese could coexist without a problem. It was in this golden age of prosperity and peace that the Anqip discovered magic. Immediately, immense effort was poured into developing higher and higher magic. Life was made a lot easier!
Looking down at a successful, flourishing and ever advancing world, Rolitokovo found his attempt at a civilization to be a success, so he decided take a weekend off at a nearby moon to relax from his work.
Meanwhile... unsupervised by any regulating force, magics of war and weapons of war were developed independently from nation to nation. Crime led to disputes over who had the best, which led to war once again. The golden age was run through, but now with magics and weapons never seen before. The trebuchets of one would burn to the ground under a hail of lightning and fireballs... but those mages would have to be wary, for on the opposite hill were stationed cannons and musketeers, waiting to strike. The mages came anyway and won! Wars of magic dominated the arena, and as with all their other methods of war, they trained not a few elite sorcerers, but gave basic training to large armies, making use of spells that required power from crowds of people!
Alas, this resulted in an ever escalating 'arms race' of magic. One spell would sacrifice a few to kill a group, the next would sacrifice a group to kill a crowd. But as they expanded to bigger and more drastic means, the fabric of magic itself seemed to be polluted by their wars!
Soon, spells could be shot over hundreds of kilometers, taking out masses, and requiring large crowds to be sacrificed... this caused a transition. Armies vanished from the field... in fact, as polluted magic turned the lands purple and turned woodland creatures into horrible monsters, many of the top leaders got afraid to use it... it became a war of threats, threats from ever more apochalyptic means...
For a decade, there was a peace... a peace in which there was more tension than in any previous war. Then in one move, the underdog nation of Gikspia cast it's most powerful spell... an entire city was sacrificed in casting it, thousands perishing... but it's target, nearly 5000 KM away, a large city and the whole region around obliterated. Lush grassland was reduced to waste, the city to a burnt ruin... and the lands turned purple. The creatures turned to disgusting monstrosities, before perishing... corrupt magic sickened anyone who entered. Klipan was not about to tolerate this... such loss was not an option! They responded in kind... though now, the target was not armies. These spells were cast from cities, so a city destroyed is a city the enemy couldn't sacrifice. An attack turned to dozens, dozens to hundreds as the world was engulfed in the worst form of total war ever imagined! Millions upon millions perished... and the world was covered in a purple shrowd of eternal twilight. The forests rotted and died, sickened beasts, Anqip included, changing horribly and finally dying a slow, painful death. Nothing would grow on the corrupt soil...
The only ones to survive was a small, overlooked town near a port. A genius mage had put up a shield around the town, killing himself in the process, but saving nearly a hundred fifty others, though looking into the eternal twilight of their own doom... they realized with great shame... this was a war in which nobody won. They took a vow to never practice magic again... as if it would mean much.
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Rolitokovo, returning from his weekend off, looked down... and saw his once beautiful world a dead planet enshrouded in a purple twilight. His avatar stood upon the charred ash... he looked ahead, silent, then looked down. He'd liked how this world had gone... but he realized he'd made quite the folly in letting them have powerful magics, while competing, and walking away. Alas, though scholarship was one of his spheres, wisdom was not. He then noticed about a hundred survivors, present in a shielded town.
Well, at least there might be one way to give them a new chance!
He went to this town, and told them to build a ship... a ship large enough for them to all fit on. He requested his trusted immortal Traga to join, and she accepted... Rolitokovo promised to deliver the people to a new land where they could rebuild and once again become the strong, proud people they once were!
At first they were a bit skeptical, but it was better than slowly dying to painful corruption. So, they did build this boat, a large vessel with tall sails holding a hundred and three... they took all their technology and plans aboard along with as much of their culture they had preserved... but they left their magic behind. They shunned magic now. They sailed away into the murky waters, and as the shore finally fell out of sight... the ship was sucked into a huge whirlpool with a deep hole in the middle. Such a powerful eddy offered them no chance to resist. They fell into the whirlpool, free falling down the middle... oddly, their ship flipped upside down... then they realized this was right side up. Their ship flew out of a whirlpool on the other side, the whirlpool closing beneath them... then, their bote settled on the waters, they looked around to see blue sky, pristine oceans, and a green land in the distance, the sun shining bright above. All at once they let out a roar of cheer, setting sail for this new land immediately!
They sang a happy tune as their ship neared shore. Finally, they pulled themselves up, and disembarked, finding themselves on a pristine, beautiful beach before a dense forest, a river and mountains in the distance ahead. They trekked inland, finally spotting up stream a vast waterfall, mist pouring off the bottom, shining peaks above the top of the waterfall, surrounded by vibrant life and glistening terrain. Heck, it was a high up, defendable spot to boot! Aroudn the top was a natural amphitheater of stone with plenty of room inside for buildings. Traga let out a relaxed sigh looking at the beauty of it all... but then the task at hand took priority, "Kavla Niti (Beautiful radiance)... We got plenty of lumber 'ere! Right, let's get with the building!... But use the lumber from down -there-... this natural beauty is to remain unscathed." Rolitokovo looked down from his invisible presence. Something was odd with this world... in fact, it resembled, a game board? He snickered, "Works for me!"
Technology:
The Anqip had left their world, intentionally, with no magic whatsoever and no intent of ever using it, but among the races they are quite developed technologically. They know more advanced methods of smelting and forging. They tend to employ swordsman, axemen, and musketeers, often lining the musketeers in long rows, firing all at once to send a volley across an area. The muskets are powerful and scary to most, but they are inaccurate, and tend to give one's position away, hence any musketeer expecting to be in a small group would also carry a short sword at least. When stealthier or more accurate ranged combat is required, they tend to use bows, choosing different types of arrow, such as anti-armor, or fire, to fit the situation at hand. For more heavy duty purposes, their siege engines have by and large been replaced with the smoothbore cannon. These cannons are much more powerful than your average catapult, but they are quite expensive and are difficult to produce in any real quantity, hence they are generally only used to defend large cities, or on larger naval ships. Cannons are only used on the field in case of desperation, intimidation, or sometimes as siege weapons if the target is too big. Any mobile cannon on land is nearly impossible to hit a moving target with.
Their ships tend to use more triangular sails, and while it limits their absolute top speed, it allows them to sail upwind much more effectively.
If a large group is attacked and forced into desperate means, they might light their powder kegs and roll them down the hill at the attacker... with the drawback of this sometimes unreliable powder potentially going off too early or too late.
They developed the steam engine just before leaving, as an attempt to bilge out corrupt waters from their wells. It was never built though.
Last but not least, one of the most peculiar inventions employed by the Anqip are wooden gliders, which one or two troops might ride in, raining down fire on enemies below, before landing behind them. Of course, a wooden glider is quite vulnerable to both magic and fire, and there is the chance of it crashing instead of landing, injuring the troops riding in it.
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The Champion of the Anqip, Traga the Cannoneer!
Traga was originally the princess of Vildun during the early years of the second age of warfare. Legend had it that when experimenting, the Vildun archmage created a potion that was renowned to do absolutely... nothing. Then, when Traga got curious about it and picked it up, it exploded in her face! Much to the curiosity and confusion of all of the mages, she was not harmed at all, and indeed, hasn't aged a moment since. No mage was ever successful in reproducing this... some attributed it to intervention from Rolitokovo himself.
Well, not all mages were satisfied with this... when she was off with a hunting party one day, a powerful archmage kidnapped her and brought her back to the fortress of Anikosiv, intent on experimenting on her, whatever it took, even if it killed her, to find out how to create these potions of immortality. But, before the mage could start cutting her open, Zisul a champion among all Vildun rode up to the castle gates in shining armor, a great sword drawn. He swore an oath to rescue Traga, and indeed created enough ruckus fighting at the gates to distract the whole castle. He fought bravely, but took a musket ball to the back of the knee. He was knocked over, and before he could turn about to defend himself, he was blasted full of holes by a troop of musketeers.
But, he did distract the whole castle! They weren't looking, so Traga cut herself free, and snuck out. She took an axe from a display, and attacked a pair of guards from behind, knocking one out and mortally wounding the other with a hit to the neck. She ran around the castle aimlessly without a clue as to where the exit was... though the castle infantry were starting to home in on her. She snuck into a room with a wagon, the exit in sight, guarded by a row of musketeers. The mules of the wagon looked at her curiously, and right in the back of the wagon was a large gun, likely a small cannon meant to be mounted to the back end of the wagon, thought the mount would also work as a decent stock... Seeing no other way, she picked it up... it was very heavy. The cannonball rolled out of it, nearly hitting her in the foot. She put the cannonball back in, lit the fuse with a candle, and stood in the doorway, holding it tightly against herself, under her shoulder. The musketeers turned to face her just in time to hear the thundrous report of the gun. Romors had it that with one shot several musketeers were felled, the recoil of the gun popping Traga's shoulder out of joint and knocking her back against a wall, a nearby armor display's helmet falling on her head. The other musketeers that remained were frightened stiff, and she still had her axe... as well as a suit of armor by her, a wagon, and an overly large handcannon. She grunted, and pissed off beyond all, got to work putting her shoulder back together.
A few minutes later...
The castle doors burst open, a wagon speeding out over the steps, a steel clad Traga riding within, and with a thoundrous crack, she sent grapeshot flying through the castle guards!... she was nearly knocked clean out of the wagon, but she held on, this time using padding to avoid being hurt by the recoil. Though she had no chance of reloading the thing, the guards dove out of the way of the wagon. The crack of musket fire was heard. She ducked down... a musket ball struck her in the leg, one glancing off of her helmet. Half her wagon pullers gone, she drew a sword, cut the dead mules free, then threw the sword at a musketeer, splitting his head in twain. A wagon entering immediately moved out of the way. They released the gate. The gate closed upon her wagon as she raced out of the castle, shearing the top of the wagon off entirely!... but, she was finally free. That cannon would be one of her best friends since.
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Since then, she has trained to become skilled and effective with her cannon as well as with a halberd, those two becoming her main weapons of choice. She trained up her strength to be able to wield such a weapon effectively and carry it all with. Her thick armor and heavy weapons weigh her down and that means she isn't agile, but she has the toughness and firepower to protect herself and her fellow citizens. If she has the option to use a mounted artillery piece, she'll also use that very effectively if the situation needs it. She's trained herself as close to perfection as she can in heavy weapons... it's where her title comes from after all.
In battle, she is known to be ruthless sometimes. Though she always keeps the tactical situation in mind, she tends to stride through the field with a smile on her face. She enjoys victory and is very proud of it! Though, she is no warmonger, given the option she'd rather have a nice chat with someone than fight them. In more peaceful times, she's known as a very outgoing person who enjoys spending time with her people. When she has nothing better to do, sometimes she just goes around helping random people out or contributing to larger projects. When asked why, she often replies, "Some of 'em could use the help... I feel for 'em you know. If nothing else I'd be bored if I didn't help."
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Topic: Battle of the Gods 3 : Rule discussion, OOC talk and preparations (Read 29601 times)