You had no choice in the matter. None of the clan did: when High King Harlaus declared your clan traitors and oathbreakers, it was seen as an act of mercy that he outlawed your clan. It did not matter that it was the deeds of but a few that damned your clan; it did not matter that the High King himself had usurped his throne from the good king who came before him. No: all that mattered was his verdict.
Your clan could have simply dissolved. You could have become part of another clan, one strong and prestigious enough to weather the wrath of the High King. Some of you did, in fact. Yet for most of you, separating from the clan was simply unimaginable. How could you abandon those you've known since you were a babe? They are your kith, your kin, your family, and the bonds between you are stronger than even the threat of death. To sever those bonds is to sever a part of yourself.
So, the clan came to a difficult decision, and in the dead of night you all left Urland, that place which your ancestors' ancestors called home. You began the long journey south, traveling far over the mountains. You searched for a place which you could call your own.
And in the end, you've finally found such a place. It is a vast, beautiful valley surrounded by mountains with a pure and mighty river running through its midst. The trees stand tall and proud, and the game is bountiful, and the fruits are fresh. The god-talkers have communed with the gods and found this is the place which will serve as your home.
But your clan was not the only clan banished by the High King, and this strange, beautiful land is dangerous, too. You have seen strange things moving in the night, and eyes of crimson and a feral jade. You've heard strange music, too, and what's more, you don't know anything about the place you now call home. But you have weapons, you have the gods, and you have your family. When your clan stands together, there is nothing you cannot defeat.
So ends your exodus, yet the journey has just begun. Alongside the others in the Lodge, you must lead the clan to prosperity and see it through the dark times. Together, you must tame this land and become...
Masters of the Hidden Valley.
Okay, so what the crap was all that stuff above about anyway?
Firstly, let me just admit that I was heavily inspired by a certain video game called King of Dragon Pass. Some of the mechanics and decisions I made were inspired by threads presently being run by the players DeltaV and Frengo as well. Credit's due where credit is due.
Masters of the Hidden Valley is a different sort of NRP, mostly because you're going to be working together with your fellow players, not against each other. You and your fellow players are all members of the chief political body of any Urlundi clan, a group called "The Council." Chosen by a mixture of religious rite and electoral procedure, you and the others of the Lodge are
Let's get some bullet points out of the way:
- This roleplay is about teamwork. This is built into the mechanics, the story, the themes, and even the character creation system.
- The odds are stacked against you in this roleplay. In fact, there is a very real possibility that your clan will die out. It's not my goal to wipe you out, but you need to be prepared for the bad end. It can happen.
- You are not playing mighty conquerors, nor do you have a grand army at your fingertips. You are a small clan of maybe one thousand people at most, and you need to worry just as much about feeding yourselves as you do about protecting yourselves.
- This means that some threats will simply be too dangerous for you to tackle. You need to be able to judge when that is the case, because if you fail, that could bring about the end of our story.
- Finally, you should take some time trying to immerse yourself into the mindset of one of these clansmen. There will be inklings of what the culture is like peppered in throughout the roleplay. You won't get a huge infodump, but what information you are given you should read.
- The reason this is so important is that your clan's magic and your people's faith in you as a member of the Lodge both depend on how well you balance the needs of the present and to adhere to tradition. Tradition is everything to a clan: if your ancestors would disapprove of your deeds, then surely the clan is doomed.
- There are dice involved in this roleplay, but I'll be doing all the dice rolling behind the scenes. This means that even situations which seem impossible to fail have a chance of failure. So, before you undertake any kind of dangerous task, be certain you're prepared to deal with the consequences.
Now, you might be a bit alarmed by the bit about ancestors. "Ancestors!" you might say. "But that means infodump! I thought you said there wasn't going to be a huge infodump!"
"And there won't be," I'd answer. You see, it's not going to be an info dump because the first part of this roleplay is creating your clan's history together.
That's right: everyone who gets picked to play in this roleplay will get a chance to decide what the history of your clan is. Think of it as a roleplay before the roleplay, albeit briefer: you'll get to choose things such as who your clan fought for in the past, what god and what spirit animals they call their patron, how the clan was born, and more. This will be done via a voting process, and anyone whose decision did not get picked one round gets counted as having an extra vote the next round, that way nobody's voice is ever completely drowned out.
Hopefully I still have your interest piqued. Let's get to the actual mechanics that will be involved in this roleplay.
Turns and Seasons
Turns in this roleplay will advance once a week, namely every Saturday (exact time not yet determined). Each player can take one action in a given turn, though they may roleplay as much as they please during the week so long as they don't flood the IC and make it hard for others to read. Collaboratives are encouraged for this reason.
There are six seasons in the Hidden Valley: Rain, Fire, Ash, Harvest, Pale, and Moon. You might refer to them OOCly as Spring, a really long Summer, Autumn, and then a really long Winter. There are 60 days to each season for a total of 360 days. Each turn takes up 30 days, and so each season is split into "Rising" and "Waning." I.E. the Pale season is split into Rising Pale and Waning Pale, each of which is a turn that takes place over a week.
The important thing to remember is there are six seasons, each of which is split up into 2 turns, giving us a total of 12 turns, and 12 turns = 12 weeks of play. This means you only need to be able to post once a week, or perhaps twice.
Besides that, keep in mind what happens in each season: if you're attacking other clans in the Rain season, you're depriving your clan of the labor it needs to make enough food to stay alive. And if you don't have enough folks around during harvest time... Well, your crops won't magically harvest themselves.
Characters
You're going to create a character for this roleplay, obviously. Your character is a member of the Council, and one of you will be chosen by me to be Chief. Don't worry about competing for Chiefdom; I'm not going to tell you how I choose Chief. Just make characters you think you'll enjoy playing.
Something to note is that the people on the Council aren't all rich and wealthy and powerful. Some may be warriors, sure, and some may be wealthy farmers or important sages and magicians. Some, however, are just well-to-do shepherds who have a lot of friends or youths who show promise as potential leaders. You can write someone from practically any walk of life and have them be a part of the Council.
If you want to apply to join this game, make a character application now. However, be ready to change your character once we finish making the clan in the first IC. Your backstory and traits ought to be written to work with your clan and with the other players in the roleplay. You want a balanced group of leaders on the Clan Council, after all.
Below is the code for the character sheet. PLEASE use this format when applying:
Traits
Traits are how we're going to define characters. Your traits decide a lot about you: what you're good at, what people think of you, how famous you are... things like that. They're descriptive in nature, and they're helpful for using as a baseline for writing your character's story, and having a trait or lacking it may change the outcome of a battle, course of action, adventure, or event.
EXAMPLES: Let's say you're a Master Builder. If you oversee construction efforts, they'll be easier for you to conduct than someone else. And if you have a trait that makes you a better fighter but one that makes you a weak leader, your go-to option in battles should be to pick up your sword and start hacking at the enemy, not trying to rally the warriors. Why would they listen to you, after all? You're a weak leader.
Traits are purchased with 7 points at character creation. If there's traits you want but you don't have enough points to spend, you can always purchase negative traits. Positive traits have blue numbers at the end (+#), and negative traits have red numbers (-#).
In the hider below are a list of traits. More may come later. Again, I want to thank DeltaV because his trait system (which was based on someone else's trait system) is what I based my trait system off of.
If you take a trait, you are expected to roleplay that trait. In other words: act reckless if you take Reckless. Put that Theatric trait to good use if you take it. Etc.
I may add more traits before the roleplay itself starts.
The Deities
I'll just cover this section later. All you need to know is, uh... There's twelve of them.
Okay, you ALSO need to know they don't walk among us or anything, but they can be interacted with on a personal level. Namely: you can actually, through certain rituals, embark on quests your deities once embarked on in ancient times. These are called "Heroquests," and while they're arduous undertakings with a great deal of risk involved, they can be a source of magical boons for the clan. You shouldn't be embarking on any in your first couple years in the Hidden Valley, but you should keep them in mind.
Urlandi Culture
I promised I wouldn't give you an infodump about this, and I will stay true to that promise. However, there are a few rules of thumb to keep in mind when you're writing your character and participating in this roleplay:
- Honor the Gods. Earning their favor is a good thing, and earning their ire can bring terrible luck upon us.
- Tradition is everything. Remember always what your ancestors did; balance the needs of the now with the ways of the ancestors. Such brings good fortune to the clan.
- Blood demands compensation. Whether you demand more blood or something else is up to you. Cattle, gold and silver, magical artifacts or sufficient quantities of food can be sufficient to end a blood feud.
- Be neither overgenerous nor stingy. There are times when you should give unto your neighbors that which belongs to you or to the clan, the better to solidify relations with them. But there is a difference between generosity and surrendering all you have. Also remember that you can always offer reciprocal gifts in answer to a stranger's gifts: such honors you both.
- Heed the people. Those who have chosen you to serve on the Council can through violence or through appeal remove you from it as well. While such a thing would be a disgrace to the religious rites that put you on the Council, you nevertheless should do your best to keep situations from reaching that point.
- If you cannot protect your herd, you deserve to lose it. While murdering a man is a crime, attacking his clan in a raid to take his herd, his silver, or his land is perfectly just, and warriors who die protecting their fields need not have their deaths compensated. But remember, too, that if you pressure another clan too hard, you may start a blood feud, and who knows what powers they may turn to in seeking your destruction...
Finally, you should know the basic social structure:
The Chief - This man or woman leads the clan and is chosen from among the Council.
The Council - You are a member of this. You are the governing body of the clan. Each member of the Council may come from any other walk of life and often represents that group of people on the clan ring.
God-Talkers - These are the priests of the clan. They search for omens and tell us what the gods want from us each year. Philosophers find themselves lumped into this category even though they cannot speak with the gods.
Gallocmen - These are the professional warriors of the clan. Combat is their sole profession: they do not farm or sow or herd sheep. They only adventure, patrol, and fight. Some consider themselves to be fine poets, too.
Craftsmen - These are the merchants and tradesmen of the clan. Blacksmiths, traders, artists, bakers: they all belong to this category.
Landsman - These are the landed peasantry, and they can be very wealthy folk indeed. A great many kerns typically work for a single landsman. They often have some basic administrative experience.
Hunters - These are the woodsmen of the clan. They are skilled trackers and are adept at catching game, often through use of either a spear, bow, or sling. They make good skirmishers in times of war and patrol the woods to ensure nobody encroaches on our land.
Kerns - These are the peasantry at large, those clansmen who work the fields, tend the cattle, and also serve as the footsoldiers alongside the elite Gallocmen in times of war. They do whatever needs doing.
Thralls - These are those unfortunate souls who have been captured in raids or made slaves due to their crimes. They alone are not allowed to serve on the Council, but they may one day earn their freedom and become members of the clan.
Okay, so that's a TON of info. I know. But who all is interested in this?
I'm going to be honest: I don't expect to see a lot of interest in this. However, if I do get enough good applications - 5 acceptable applications at least - I'll go ahead and start the first IC thread.
I plan for this to take a long time, so keep that in mind. This won't be a rushed roleplay, and it'll be slow to a lot of players. I'll only be updating turns once a week, as I said, and it doesn't matter how quickly folks post. Keep that in mind.
If you're interested, please let me know!
