What about this part in the OP regarding region 1 (Verigarde's location)?

"Though small icy oasis dot the landscape, its singular and major water source is its long river that meanders to the northern lowlands where it meets the regular cold winds that blow off from the arctic. Unfettered by natural barriers the cold winds blow cold and dry from the tundra far beyond the imagination of the peoples of the south."

That's referring to the much larger river to the west.

Technically that whole region rests on a sort of plateau. Though vague and probably not very telling the dashed marks to the south of your present location indicate cliffs, or at least some sharp or noticeable drop-off of altitude (in geographic terms). The river that makes your southern border travels west into the lake before going south, over the cliffs or through that landscape there, and out into the sea through region 3.

The river/river-system I discuss in that part of the post is the central one that branches out. It's flowing out of the mountains and into the drier steppe beyond there.

Region 1 is one of the more diverse areas of the map, lumped together mostly because it's one continuous piece of flat-lands. Where you're at I would describe as being sort of like certain regions of Kazakhstan.



Or the Manchu-Mongolian grasslands.



This being that the gap in the mountains provides an opening in the rain curtain that otherwise exists and for warm hair to channel north, keeping that area moist and comfortably warm. The prevailing southerly winds would also connect with the northern winds and basically keep them out. There'd be seasonal fluctuations, but all around that region is warm.

By comparison, because there's a mountain range that stands in the way of the rest of region 1 from the lush south, this creates a rain curtain which makes the rest of the territory resemble something like the Taklamakan Basin.



As seen here from space.

Under different circumstances - namely: the Himalayan mountains and the Tibetain Plateau never existed - the Taklamakan Basin would be a pretty warm and green region. But because the Himalayas are there it prevents any and all moisture from reaching the desert and the climate is predominately run by cold, dry, Siberian air from the north.



Don't let the sand fool you. At the worse times the desert can get to be nearly -20 degrees celsius and it rarely ever snows.

A similar rule would be in play for the desert there. But every so often a rogue cell may drift along the northern face of the mountains. But any and all water out there does not come from assured rainfall. But run-off from glacial melt in the mountains or springs.

So in closing: western 2/3rds of region one are cold and arid because rain curtain and arctic air dominating the environment. Eastern 3rd is warmer and wetter because there's a break in the rain curtain letting in warm moist air and not trapping it on the southern face of the mountains. And as a whole the region is elevated higher than the south, and even that not-mountain pocket of region 3, which would factor in but not so much in the eastern part of the region as the central/western.

EDIT - I would also like to revise my earlier statement that the area Maav is in would be the equivelant to Egypt when gauged by latitudes. It'd probably be more comparable to northern-Italy or Austria, if not for the Alps. Or the grasslands of Eastern Kazakhstan.

I like it. Mostly because I don't have to change anything in my IC post.

...right?

I like it. Mostly because I don't have to change anything in my IC post.

...right?

You're talking to me.

I'm half behind.

Aaron hasn't actually sat down and read a post since Christmas.

Also. just a short note regarding the crossbows, the Chinese crossbow is weak so remember that. I could see potentially having a complex crank system that allowed heavier crossbows to be used on horseback, but it wouldn't look like the Mongols.

Yeh, Mongols relied on speed a lot. Not just on horseback, moving around fast, but also in terms of firing rate. You can't fire rapidly with a crossbow, so you'll either have riders firing all at once, in volleys, or sporadically, with shots very spaced out and random. With bows though, you can have a continuous stream of arrows raining down on the enemy because every rider can and will be firing arrows back-to-back, so there is no pause. Cranking up a crossbow on horseback, especially on the move, has to be a pain in the ass too. I can't say crossbows would have been my first choice.

EDIT: Just realized the above post had nothing to do with speed. Sleep-deprived again, don't mind me. Still a good thing to remember though.

That tactics would be different. There are bonuses to the crossbow, namely that it is easy to use and can cut through armor fairly efficiently. But to properly use a crossbow on horseback, you'd have to slow down... I think. Perhaps the Mongolians could have pulled it off at full gallop... I have heard their best riders could hang off the side of their horses so that the horse's body was between them and their enemies, where they would return fire from underneath their horse's chin. Those guys knew what they were doing.

Still, the imagine I can't help but have of mounted crossbowman is as a mounted firing line. It's a legitimate tactic, just not the one people assume when they think of horse archers.

Yeah, I think if you're going to form firing lines to fire volleys, it kind of defeats the purpose of being on a horse. Might as well be infantry.

EDIT: Unrelated - How long ago did Shapur's conquest of the desert area happen?

It would have happened in the declining period of the Visha, probably a century or so before they fell.

And regarding the cavalry, they would still have the advantage of maneuverability that comes with riding a horse. Plus, they could easily also have a melee weapon with them. I could see crossbow horsemen functioning as a sort of skirmishing force.

But it's pointless to use crossbows that way when you can use bows. If you are going to be forming lines, you may as well be able to fire a lot of arrows rapidly, as opposed to a few a minute. When you are firing in volleys, the point is to fire in unison and pretty much rain death on people. You do that more effectively if you are firing rapidly. And if you are going to be forming lines, then you are presumably firing from afar, which would be negating the armor-piercing ability of a crossbow, and as a result be negating the one trait that crossbows have over bows. So you'd just be handicapping yourself at that point. You'd be better off with a bow. You can even slap on some armor-piercing heads to the arrows.

EDIT: The one redeeming factor is that crossbows are easier to master, so you don't have to spend as much time training people.

Venice is a little cliche now though.

If I were you, this is what I would do. Since we already have sea merchant states, I would go a different direction. Maybe a "He who control's the spice control's the universe" situation where you have a nation or city state sitting on a rare, and very popular, resource. It has to be something that can make a city rich, while being impossible to find anywhere else. Luckily, this is fantasy, so you have options. Perhaps it is a naturally occurring drug that sprouts from the earth, like liquid LSD or some shit, that is incredibly valuable amongst the spiritual. Maybe it is something more mineral, like a type of glass that bubbles up from the ground and, when tempered a certain way, becomes as hard as steel. Maybe it is a full blow apocalypse-making crater so rich with meteorite stone that your city grew rich on it. Either way, the point is that you have a small state with a lot of money. This means merchants could become richer then land lords. They don't own companies or buy patches of land. Banking becomes a big business for them, since land-bound caravans would want binders for insurance and the ability to transfer money back and forth, since there would always be a risk of being robbed along the road. Other men pull their money by milking all the people in town with money in their pocket. And others might use illegal means, like selling goods at a discount price and then paying highwaymen to steal the goods back for them.

Banking families would rule the state, since they have the most money and the most invested in foreign affairs. These banking families have cohorts in every trade port they can get their hands on, and they have the ability to manipulate politics based on their interests by controlling what foreigners get loans. They might even give gifts to particularly useful allies.

Ah, thank you so much for your help, you're great! I was thinking about that piece of land just off the mainland, east to the sand bridge, and maybe the archipelago that surrounds it. Getting those useful resources from the mountain next to them.

I have work orientation today and a bundle of things to do after, but I'll definitely work on a sheet for you guys.

EDIT: Unless someone would prefer to have that to use with a spiritual, shamanistic country, what with the perfect pillars and all.

Emperor Qin Shi Huang actually had a lot of success with the crossbow in his campaign to unify China, both on horseback and on foot. It reportedly fired an arrow more than 2,500 feet, and were twice as powerful as the modern assault rifle. If I recall correctly, they used crossbows for the efficiency. They could pierce through the heaviest armor of their enemies without a doubt. Furthermore, the Han Dynasty have attributed the success of several of their battles against the Xiongnu to volleys of crossbow bolts. Now, that was around 230 BC, which is far from this period, but the premise wouldn't drastically change, would it?

I have a hard time believing the "twice as powerful as a modern assault rifle" part. And the heaviest armour of 230 BC is nothing compared to the heaviest armour of the medieval era.

Do you, then, mayne.

But in the words of Yoren: "Always hated crossbows; takes too long to load!"

The assault rifle bit seems a bit bloated and I'm going to need to require citations.

"A 2,200-year old crossbow believed to have had a range of perhaps twice that of a modern assault rifle has been found by archaeologists during excavations at the site of China’s Terracotta Army."

...Uh, whoops. I guess I misread that, sorry.
Source: http://article.wn.com/view/2015/03/20/Qin_dynasty_crossbow_found_at_China_s_Terracota_Army_site_ma/

@TheSovereignGraveYou are correct, but the technology would (and did) change over time. The Han Dynasty defeated the Romans in an expedition into central Asia, primarily because the bolts penetrated Roman armor and shields. Also, in Medieval Europe, it was determined that armored soldiers were ineffective against crossbows as the bolts were capable of piercing their armor. However, I can not say whether or not they were capable of piercing the breastplate, as I've read different answers from different sources.

The Han Dynasty defeated the Romans in an expedition into central Asia, primarily because the bolts penetrated Roman armor and shields.

Are you referring to the Battle of Zhizhi? Because if you are, that is kind of a bad example. Firstly, only about a hundred Roman soldiers were supposedly involved, and this is only speculated because the men were said to have fought in a formation that resembled the Roman testudo. It has never actually been proven that it was Romans. And if even if it had been, it was hardly an "expedition", and not a true battle between Romans and Han Chinese.

And if I recall they had been captured anyways and weren't in service to Rome at that time.

As well, there's no real hard evidence supporting that. Espeically since the propositions is more speculative that its worth, and not accounting for the Silk Road for the "Caucasian" features of Li-chien.

...I don't think the Romans ever sent any kind of expedition to China. Most of their contact with one another was indirect.

EDIT: Well, I got ninja'ed. Twice over.

And the formation the Chinese described was rather vague, describing it as "Fish-scaled". Which may also imply groups of Macedonian-Greek soldiers in the Parthian Empire who could have gotten recruited by the Central Asian nomads the Han fought.