The World Around Us (General Discussion)

Here it is! This is a platform for members of the roleplay to build the sandbox-world that our characters live in, and with the help of everyone involved we will build a breathing world from the ground up by your own creativity!

In this thread, please post:

• Discussions about past relations between characters
• Politics and relations between character's home and his or her people
• In depth lore about the islands/continents and their people (this will be to seek approval to be posted in the official lore thread)
• Miscellaneous discussions considered "world building"

Please, anything not listed or considered "world buidling" needs to be kept in the auto-generated OOC. Thank you.

The Island of Denauc [preview]

(Keep in mind the rest of the world is still in the Pirate Golden age)

Provided my character is approved, in his backstory is the Isle of Carpage, his old hometown. Not much need for the other islands mentioned in his backstory as one was a pit stop, and the other was decimated. Now provided he has been approved would you like me to post the information of the isle in case we ever get to it at all?

Do you want a full description of the Isles of Hashar, as well as a brief history on the rise of Clan Karintosh?

The Isles of Hashar are a collection of islands in the southern hemisphere of Terreth, quite a distance from most of the civilized world. The islands are a miserable grey collection of rocky, rainy islands where entire generations of Hashari have fought and died for generations. Hashar was once a pleasant collection of temperate isles during the Age of Wizards, until He came. He was a wizard of overwhelming power who desired to rule all of Terreth, to crush the other wizards and independent races. But to do all this he needed an army. An army powerful enough to do this. He spent several years looking, and he found the Isles of Hashar, a resource rich island chain populated by primitive humans.

He descended upon the islands like a God, resplendent in power. The tribes of Hashar quickly began to worship Him as such. He instructed them to build a mighty fortress on Vishar, most populated of the isles. After its construction he began his experiments on the natives, turning them into the Hashari of today. Spinning new DNA strands, stretching tissue and bone, shaping them from humble humans, into the hulking Hashari. The average height of 7'0" with almost ten extra adrenal glands, as well as other engineered glands that give the Hashari their legendary prowess in battle. After the Hashari had been created, the isles of Hashar were stripped of their resources to build a fleet and arm the warriors, and thus began the Great War, or the Last Wizard War. Island after Island fell to the Hashari Army and their Wizard Overlord. They made it all the way to the Isle of Denauc, where a battle of epic proportions began. It ended when a group of Denaucmen warriors assassinated the Wizard, and their army managed to beat off the first waves of Hashari. Without the wizard to guide them, the Hashari fell to infighting to determine a leader, and the great fleet fell back to Hashar, where it was subsequently destroyed through infighting. This began the Aeon of Blood, which caused the Isles of Hashar to become blood soaked resource poor splotches in the sky. Hashari have not left their Isles in many many years. And only recently has the outside world contacted them, with Clan Karintosh trading with a consortium of traders to gather modern weaponry. Goslet Karintosh has a dream of unifying the Hashari, and with the new weapons, he can do so.

edited something in the above:

"Nobles tend to be tall, and have very pale skin, but other than that no distinction can be made from other human races in the physical regard. There have reportedly been cases of certain families with a long history and military background with members that are rather difficult to kill. They poses skin difficult to penetrate, and tend to heal at an alarming rate when injured. They are also very much stronger and faster than other humans. All members of these family lines tend to have a rather pale cold complexion, almost like someone of the undead variety. Disposition, other than a general sense of pride, varies from Astrian to Astrian, and no special thing can be noted as a general personality trait for them, besides the pompous attitude of course."

Carpage Isle, a land of vast cities and political meandering. In its center lies the shining emerald of Carpage, Quiloth Commonwealth. In this shining city live the six ruling families who control the trade and economy of the entirety of Carpage. There is an almost constant shadow struggle for absolute power of the economic might of Carpage, as it is a major trading hub for the surrounding Isles and indeed many surrounding soverign island nations. The families Cerulean, Tival, Tiree, Quintok, Halafax, and Vieri each have their own separate slice of the economic pie. Cerulean deals with the trade of jewles and precious stones. Tival and Tiree, united by marriage, handle raw resources, lumber stone etc... and textiles. Quintok deal in the trade and manufacture of weapons and firearms, it is said if you own a Quintok Flintlock you own the best. House Halifax control the trade and export of edible goods and spices. House Vieri Control the trade and services of artisans into and out of Carpage. No one is quite sure just how profitable that particular 'commodity' is, as house Vieri refuses to provide numbers to any who ask, but they are a leading house with an iron grip on their own position.

There is of course, as with any large city or isle, the seedy underbelly of the world they live in. This gave rise to the unofficial 'seventh family,' The Beggars Communion. They in turn are actually controlled largely by the Vieri family, though you would never know it from the outside, and the last person to find out was exiled with a kill on sight order. The Beggars Communion control all the shady underworld dealings of Carpage, specifically Quilloth Commonwealth. This includes but is not limited to, thievery, burglary, arson, murder, prostitution, gambling, illicit liquor sales, the black market, and most infamously, the peddling of humans.

The unfortunate truth is that Quilloth and indeed Carpage was built on slavery. But the noble houses and ruling upper class refuse to admit to the past, thinking it done and gone with. It still happens, though in the shadows and guided by Lord and Lady Vieri. And so the beating heart of greed and corruption continues coursing gold and riches through the veins of Carpage Isle. The gleaming exterior of nobility and grace hiding the rotten core beneath.

The Geography and History of Nissia

The Island of Nissia is a relatively small island located in the western part of Terreth. Well, not small for an island but small for places that were liveable. Two thirds of the island were all inhabited by very thick forests and who knows what lurking within in them. The other one third of the island was a vast meadow, and this is where the foundations for the city were built of off. It started out as a small town and began to expand outward over the years, but as more and more people began to move in and settle down the closer they got to the forest and to the edge of the island. The people had try to cut down the trees that bordered the edge of a city, but the trees would grip onto whatever tool that was being used to cut them and turned them into a part of the tree. With more and more people starting to take residence on the island due to more and more trade, the only choice was to begin building upwards. Most houses belonging to the lower class because 2 or more story apartments while mostly the upper class and middle class stayed the same. The rulers thought this would be enough, it was not. They started to tear down quadrants of houses to make room for even higher buildings, after several years the tallest building was 100 stories; it wasn't really a conventional story measurement though, the upper class did not want to be confined to small 3 room apartments so some apartments were 5 stories just for one set of rooms. The building upward has ceased for now, the population boom was starting to come to a halt. The tallest building in Nissia now stands at about 800 non-conventional stories with thousands of buildings being just below it. To combat the clutter of massive skyscrapers, the ruler of Nissia had bridges and tunnels to interconnect important buildings as well as lobbies which serve as gates to communities. There are several Monorail tracks that loop through all the builds and go all the way to 300th floor. It doesn't rain or snow in Nissia, though it does get very hot in the summer. The heat is only a probably in the upper levels, in the lower levels it can get as cold as -12 degrees Fahrenheit due to the lack of sun.

Each level is split into districts and those districts have their own sub-districts and within those sub-districts there are sub-sub-districts. For example, the middle class floors are the 300th floor to about the 600th. Within the middle class district there is a market district, which is on floors 300 to 400. Within the market district there is the Flea Market district the Produce district the Swap Meet district the Harbor district and so forth and so on. Anything below the 300th floor is considered lower class which extends to about the 100th floor. Anything below the 100th floor is considered the slums. The slums are a particularly nasty place, only criminals get put into the slums. The slums include everything from a Red Light district to a Black Market district and everything in between. The very button floor where a once glorious city bustled holds disgusting mutants. Light doesn't touch the bottom floor at all. The bottom floor is also where all the waste is sent. Combine these two factors and you've got mutants who are probably just as bad as whatever lurks in The Forest.

The Nyssian
The Nyssian race was named after the round of Nissia, Nyssa Ruloa. They are a fairly normal race. If you receive the benefits of living on the upper floors you can live to be as old 300. If you live in the middle class floors then 225 and less would be the average life span. In the lower class and the slums you'd probably be expected to live from anywhere between 50 and 110.

The normality of everything continues within the height. The average height for a woman is in between 5'4 and 6'3, depending on where you live, and the average height for men is 5'9 to 7'0 feet, also depending on where you live. Dark skin is a sign of wealth there, as the darker you are implies your closeness to natural light which implicates who wealthy you are. Since the middle class doesn't get very much light, most of the Nyssian are fair skinned while the more wealthy are tanned bronze and darker.

Due to the complex structure of the tunnels, bridges, streets, districts, and monorail lines, the Nyssian have developed enhanced memorization. They can remember things more easily than most other races have and their sense of direction is also better than most other races.

[sizs=150]The Culture[/size]
The government that Nissia runs under is a Collective Leadership. They have one sole ruler who distributes their power to different branches of the collective who control different things for him. The reigning from of government used to be a monarchy, but as the race began to industrialize that soon faded away into the Collective.

There is no dominate religion in Nissia, most people aren't even very religious anyway. Most people usually just practice individual religions and their practices that were passed down from generations before.

The most dominate magics in Nissia are Wordweaving, charms, hexes, and wards. Most of the massive skyscrapers have support beams engraved with charms that give them the strength they need to keep the towering giants up. Hexes became popular because a few juveniles thought: "Hey, there has to be opposites to charms!" and created hexes that make food rot faster or make flies burst out when you take a bite into it. Wards were invented to both combat charms and Wordweaving. Wordweaving is something that wasn't a problem too much back when the highest building was 67 stories, but now that is has been hundreds of years since then the numbers of Wordweavers has multipled. Wordweaving was developed by musicians in the bottom floors to get extra tips from people who passed by and soon many people were either born a Wordweaver or started to practice it. Wards had to be developed and usually engraved into the skin to keep bad Wordweavers to try and break down the reigning Collective.

(I know my character, as with the other gunners, is kind of in limbo, but I'd figure I'd post a rough description of his homeland so I might be able to forge a history with some of the other characters. More to come!)

Oh, Culverin. To list the many quirks of the eccentric little nation would take more time then the stars have yet burned in the sky. Anyone who have glimpsed a Culverinic ship, however, can tell you that they are ugly things: Bulky, loud, smelly, and bristling with weaponry, the average Culverin craft doesn’t look like it can remain airborne, let alone compete with the infinitely more refined shipbuilding of their neighbors. Anyone foolish enough to entertain that idea tend to be drowned in an avalanche of lead and fire.

Culverin itself consists of one massive island with a rocky and inhospitable climate, a rather pitiful looking area given over to the ancestors of the Culverin people after they were forcibly relocated from their much more fertile homeland, long since lost to them. It quickly became a dumping ground for criminals and other outcasts, including entire mercenary companies. The nation that conquered them, collapsed and forgotten centuries ago,was content to turn a blind eye to the ramshackle city springing up from the rocky cliffs. They were confident they had given them the most useless land possible and would not hear from them again. What the conquerors did not know was that the land was possibly the most resource rich area in the entire region, being little more than a densely packed monolith of ore, fuel, and minerals.
When they returned to check up on their vassals and claim their tithe, they found that the people on Culverin had turned their settlement into a respectable fort. Impressed by their rapid progress, the empire demanded a slightly higher tithe in exchange for more autonomy, hoping they could have a new industrial vassal to build the tons of equipment required for their large nation. This proved to be a mistake, as before they knew it, Culverin became one huge industrial complex. Towering factories produced enough smoke to blot out the sun, cannons the size of small buildings guarded oceans of oil and mountains of gunpowder. The nation of misfits had become a staggeringly powerful industrial nation, and it terrified everyone around them. The other nations of the world knew that if the fever of Imperialism ever took hold in Culverin, none could stand against them. They formed a coalition, and planned. It is not known what occurred in those years of subterfuge, but one day something detonated in the main arsenal. Whatever it was was strong enough to crack the island in half, sending the entire eastern portion of the island plummeting into the depths below. Culverin was destroyed overnight. Severely weakened, Culverin was left to suffer by the other nations. That was centuries ago.

Now, Culverin has rebuilt quite effectively. While they will never be as powerful as they once were, Culverin is one of the most powerful military powers in the known world. The island is now more artificial than not, having regained a portion of their land through generations of construction. Their fixation on weapons remains undiminished, and Culverinic weapons and ships are known the world over for their effectiveness and are greatly prized. Indeed, Culverin is one of the most technologically advanced nations around, a necessity given the complete lack of magic. Culverin, for whatever reason, actively destroys magic. Enchantments sputter and die the second they cross the border into the smoking city, and no spell has ever been cast inside its walls. AS result, magic is an alien concept to the Culverins, and while it is not distrusted, it is a source of confusion and apprehension to the material-minded folk. They would jump at the chance to research it and many a mage has gone to Culverin purely to answer questions for curious throngs of engineers.

Politically, Culverin is staunchly neutral and very cosmopolitan. Personal freedoms are held in high regard and people fleeing persecution or past crimes tend to wind up there. They are infamous, however, for the massive amounts of war material they export and design, furnishing most of the world’s militaries. In addition, Culverins are known for having a mercenary streak a mile long, hiring themselves out as elite artilleryman and sharpshooters to select clients. It is a lucky warship indeed that can boast having a Culverin in their crew. For their militaristic ways, however, Culverin is a surprisingly peaceful nation, having never been the aggressor in a military conflict, and is content to create and sell their wonderful inventions and tinker in peace. Woe betide any nation foolish enough to underestimate them.

Official Approval for the Lore about:

• Astria
• Arcadia

By the authors:

• Madame
• HalcyonCamp

Please post these in the official lore/canon topic. As for the others, I approved these officially because I like the continuity in format, and this does not mean the unapproved are 'denied', just still pending approval.

Sincerely.

Yeah, I liked Madame's format a lot so I just stole it! Thanks for setting the standard!

If anyone would like a general code and map-out of information to base their region info on here you go:

Code: Select all

[font=aa][size=200]The Island of ________[/size][/font]

[font=aa][u][size=150]Geography[/size][/u][/font]

[size=90]Introduce the Island.

The island's geography, climate/s, and flora/fauna can go here.

What are your island's cities like?

More about the cities and how they survive, along with a brief on how most people live, this should tie in a little with government.[/size]

[font=aa][u][size=150]Religion[/size][/u][/font]
[size=90]If you have any particular religion important to your character's story or culture it can go here, erase this whole section if not. If you do I suggest mapping it as so:

The intro and synopsis of the religion, why it is a religion and what it means to them, how they celebrate it.

Any gods or goddesses/entities listed here with names bolded

and anything extra concerning special customs can go down here.
[/size]
[font=aa][u][size=150]The Race[/size][/u][/font]

[size=90]I liked the idea of starting up here with your race's opinion of themselves, maybe to drive home what others should think too, whether that be good or bad or just downright funny.

Life expectancy.

Physical traits. Abilities. Style could be mentioned here or in the culture section. Paint people a picture with words on how to recognize a character from your particular race.

Now relate your character's race with other races, how do they react to them. Are they isolationists or do they trade etc. Let us know how well known your race should be.[/size]

[font=aa][u][size=150]Culture and Technology[/size][/u][/font]

[size=90]A bit about how far technologically your race has become, maybe the reasons behind their technological standpoint. If their culture is more magical than technological a bit about that.

And then what would you like people in general to think about when they think about your race's culture? Think archetypes and use examples. Mention some revolutions and get political, but don't forget about the common people as common people will make up the majority of any given race.

Maybe mention some of the differences between classes, and men and women.[/size]

If this helps anyone at all cool, if not or you need more explaining feel free to just ask! I'm here to help ^^