If I can get my head working and work more on the CS, I claim the two islands at the top right of the map :)
Edit: I was playing around with the idea of a chiefdom but... Hmmm.... In such an isolated part of the continent, couldn't that work? A tribe that rules over most of the land but still has other tribes to interact with and have made contact on the mainland. Probably trades exotic furs and such for guns, powder and ammunition. Maybe in the midst of gaining control of the entirety of both islands? Or maybe already rules everything but remains a tribe, a chiefdom. Strong warriors but weaker fleet, a disadvantage for island people's.
Maybe Polynesian, Filipino and Spanish mix up in there too. Although the existence of a chiefdom may suggest primitivism... I'm interested in the idea but I don't know if it'll fit.
I could just make it a chiefdom that has been acting like a nation for a long time I guess. Any thoughts?
If I can get my head working and work more on the CS, I claim the two islands at the top right of the map :)
Edit: I was playing around with the idea of a chiefdom but... Hmmm.... In such an isolated part of the continent, couldn't that work? A tribe that rules over most of the land but still has other tribes to interact with and have made contact on the mainland. Probably trades exotic furs and such for guns, powder and ammunition. Maybe in the midst of gaining control of the entirety of both islands? Or maybe already rules everything but remains a tribe, a chiefdom. Strong warriors but weaker fleet, a disadvantage for island people's.
Maybe Polynesian, Filipino and Spanish mix up in there too. Although the existence of a chiefdom may suggest primitivism... I'm interested in the idea but I don't know if it'll fit.
I could just make it a chiefdom that has been acting like a nation for a long time I guess. Any thoughts?
That could definitely work. Just put the claim on the map :)
Just so you know Gold I probably won't be joining this, mostly because 16th century and up is not really my jam. Maybe if it was steam/clockwork, but ya. Just so you're not waiting for me or anything.
Just so you know Gold I probably won't be joining this, mostly because 16th century and up is not really my jam. Maybe if it was steam/clockwork, but ya. Just so you're not waiting for me or anything.
Hey, I am playing as Knights Templar/Teutons in the Napolenic times. I am pretty sure there'd be even place for Mongol Hordes if you want.
<Snipped quote by GreivousKhan>Hey, I am playing as Knights Templar/Teutons in the Napolenic times. I am pretty sure there'd be even place for Mongol Hordes if you want.
Just so you know Gold I probably won't be joining this, mostly because 16th century and up is not really my jam. Maybe if it was steam/clockwork, but ya. Just so you're not waiting for me or anything.
The Rotturan flag is a combination of red and blue, the colors associated with Rotturans & Rotteros/Wetlanders, as well as the country's famous sunsets.
Nation Overview & Government
The Rottura Wetlands are home to some of Dysium's finest fruits, spices, jewelery, and performance, while housing some of the continent's foulest slums, brothels, and drug dens. Because of this, there is a deep-seated caste system and power dynamic in the country, which has created two cultures -- The artistic, cultured landowning merchant-lords, ruling houses, and their vassals, known as Rotturans, and the impoverished sailors, criminals, and itinerant workers who are called Wetlanders. Due to the country's lack of available work and high population, many Wetlanders travel around Dysium by way of boat, camping on riverbanks and under bridges which has given them the popular monicker "Muddies". Because many are willing to work for low wages, which are sent back and worth more in their native country, Wetlanders make up a large amount of the continent's fishermen, maids, farmhands, cooks, and laborers, while making up an even larger amount of the continent's pirates and smugglers.
Ethnicity
Ethnicity, and the percentages that create different ethnicities is a closely examined feature in the culture of the Rottura Wetlands. Those that identify as Rotturan -- or at least, the wealthy landowners who are Rotturan -- are descended from early Gattanian settlers, and have light skin, hair ranging from golden to dark brown, and are typically blue or brown-eyed. Their features are round and soft, to the extent that a common descriptor for a round jaw throughout Dysium is a "Rotturan Chin". Almost all are tall and full-bodied.
Wetlanders, on the other hand, have a large range of skin tones and features but have universally black, curly hair and dark brown eyes. They are commonly short and wiry as a result of malnutrition, though the well-fed pirates and thieves grow to be tall, fat, muscular, or any combination thereof. Because a large number of them can trace their ancestors to inbred Ranuun slaves, many generally have pointed features, thin lips, and hypodontia, a genetic condition causing them to naturally be missing teeth. As a result, many Wetlanders wear orthodontic cosmetics, such as golden tooth-caps, metal grills, and false teeth. Many Wetlander pirates and mercenaries sharpen their front teeth.
There is a caste system in place in the Rotturan Wetlands, which restricts purchases that may be made -- Rotturans, for instance, may inherit or buy property, farmland, and indentured servants, whereas a Strotero may only inherit farmland worked by regularly paid peasantry. This caste system is borrowed from their earliest Ranuun and Gattanian ancestors, which has allowed the Rotturans to remain comfortably in power since the country's inception.
• Rotturan • Stromatero (Half Rotturan and Half "Foreign") • Strogaturan (Rotturan descended from Non-Rotturan foreigners) • Strotero (Half Rottero and Half "Foreign) • Rottero (Rotturan of mixed/ambiguous ancestry, considered a catch-all term for Wetlanders by Rotturans) • Gartero (Half Rotturan and Half Rottero, considered untouchable by Rotturans)
Geography
Capital City Rotturan City Wetlander City
The Rottura Wetlands are the most tropical of Dysium's regions, and is the continent's sole producer of tobacco, sugar, and many types of fruit and spice. Closer inland, the landscape is hot and humid, with thickets of rainforest filling the space between the country's innumerable swamps, marshes, and bogs. Where there is arable land, there are swathes of tilled fields growing tobacco, cotton, or various spices, whereas farms closer to the country's many bogs grow sugarcane, rice, and water chestnuts.
The Rottura Wetlands are also known for their wildlife, which ranges from the everyday foxes and hares found in all of Dysium to tropical birds, venomous insects, and exotic, colorful fish. In particular, the most noteworthy of the animals in the Rottura Wetlands is the mosquito, a feared harbinger of disease. The "Mosquito Basket" is a creation which has become a common sight on the Rotturan countryside -- long nets attached to hoops on tall poles, meant to catch and trap the pests as they fly. Abandoned mosquito baskets fill with thousands of mosquito carcasses and frequently attract bats, the second most common pest of the Rottura Wetlands.
Further away from the rice paddies and tobacco fields of the Rottura Wetlands are its cities, which are as stark a contrast as the rest of the country -- Rottura cities are known for their remarkable design, featuring elaborate aqueducts, hanging garden-style citadels, and tremendous theaters, concert halls, and coliseums. Rotturan cities are patrolled by city guards and kept well lit by crown-paid lamplighters, with architectural design emphasizing open space and symmetrical design. Wetlander cities, however, are known for their cramped shanty-town conditions and use of improvised construction materials, such as debris of wrecked ships, driftwood, and hand-crafted mud bricks. Many are built on ports to aid in smuggling, jutting hundreds of feet outwards onto ever-extending docks and harbors. Floating gardens are popular methods of farming, though aside from fishing, virtually all business done in Wetlander cities is illicit.
Culture/Society
To most outsiders, the Rottura Wetlands house a single, homogeneous culture; They are a limp-wristed, oily-haired folk who spend their days eating mangoes, lounging in the sun, smoking exotic drugs, and buggering men. Most from the Rottura isles found elsewhere are Wetlanders, which has made the popular view of the Rotturan that of a swarthy, hot-blooded lout. At the same time, their reputation is affected by those who have visited the Rotturan cities, adding "musical", "liberal", and "effete" to their long list of stereotypes. They are largely seen as godless criminals by more pious countries due to the Rotturan crown's lax stances on prostitution, homosexuality, and religious freedom, which has incited many to blame them for the arrival of the color.
Those more versed in the culture and history of the Rottura Wetlands can make a slightly more accurate, if biased summation of the two groups; The Rotturans are wealthy enough that their culture centers around high art and philosophy, while the Wetlanders live in such poverty that their culture is one that focuses on drugs, violence, and crime. The two groups just so happen to live in the same mosquito-laden orchard of a country.
A few hundred years ago, the nuances of Rotturan culture had a far more basic explanation -- The Rotturans were masters, the Rottero were their slaves, and that was that. Rotturans, who were freed from labor by virtue of their use of slavery, were free to pursue higher intellect, a facet that is ingrained in their culture, even now that the freed grandsons of their slaves call themselves "Wetlanders" and live in squalor and debauchery. The Rotturans however, for all the buggery, hallucinogens, and binge-drinking the rest of Dysium use in their japes, were among the earliest intellects. The early Rotturans were the first to build sundials and chart the stars, the first to study human anatomy, and if a Rotturan was asked on the subject, likely the first of Dysium's spear-throwing tribesmen to hit two rocks together and make fire.
The Rotturans are a very musical people, who favor the concertina and accordion, as well as common stringed instruments such as the guitar. In addition to music, they are known for their penchant for theater, opera, and a type of political satire theater native to the country called "Statodroma", which has been historically used to mock unpopular low lords, clergymen, supporters of race-mixing, leaders of foreign countries, and the gentry of the Rotturan Wetlands. Because Statodroma is only performed in the country's native language, Rotturan, it is considerably less popular overseas.
Typical Rotturan dress is one meant to announce the wearer's wealth without becoming gaudy or tasteless -- Long, white robes and colored belts or sashes are popular as a demonstration of the wearer's cleanliness, while retaining modesty in the country's hot, humid weather. From their first "flowering" until their marriage, women traditionally cover their hair with a red scarf to denote their availability, whereas men are expected to shave their facial hair until they have fathered an heir, at which point they may grow beards or mustaches.
Rotturan food uses a number of ingredients considered exotic delicacies despite their local abundance, making the cuisine a highlight of the country. Rice, flatbread, and pastas are more popular than bread, while most meat used is goat or poultry. Olive oil, mangoes, peppers, and goat cheese are all considered stereotypical Rotturan ingredients. In addition to their sought-after delicacies, there are many items on a typical Rotturan plate most denizens of Dysium would stray far from -- Roasted insects, raw fish, and snake meat are all fairly commonplace in the country's kitchens.
Though "Wetlander" seemingly applies to one group of people -- the peasants and laborers of the Rotturan Wetlands -- it is a culture with two distinct splits; The Wetlanders who remain in the Wetlands, and the Wetlanders in the rest of Dysium, which are more than double the number of natives. This is due to the high number of Wetlanders, who are typically the impoverished descendants of slaves, and the low amount of legal work there is to be done in their home country. Because Wetlanders are a very nautical culture, they travel the coasts and rivers of Dysium where there is work to be found, giving them the derogatory term "Muddies" due to their common practice of running their small boats aground in shallow banks in order to camp freely amongst themselves rather than for a fee at a dock or inn.
Native Wetlanders live in coastal shantytowns of their own design and rule, too far and too unlawful to successfully be governed any further than their infrequent tax contributions and meager support in wartime. Those who own boats frequently live in them, while the rest live in tightly-packed hamlets by the shore. Because of their distance from the crown, Wetlanders have even greater numbers of brothels and drug-houses than the refined variants found in Rotturan cities, though the Wetlanders can undeniably say theirs are the cheaper options. Wetlanders also have a very "loud" manner of dressing, preferring frilled collars, vests, and ornate copper jewelry and piercings to the more modest dress in the rest of the world. Wetlander barmaids and singers are frequently bare-breasted, whereas many Wetlander males wear little else than pants. Dye, beads, and braids are all commonplace in the hair of both sexes, as well as piercings and coal-based eyeshadow. Many Wetlander pirates have tattoos, filed teeth, and other forms of body modification, one of the most popular of which being the removal of the front teeth which had once a mark of slavery.
Wetlanders speak Common and Rotturan, as well as a pidgin dialect known as "Low Rotturan" used to communicate amongst themselves. Low Rotturan employs a mix of Common and Rotturan words, as well as complex slang and words used in Old Gattania, Ranuun, and Middenland. It is illegal to speak Low Rotturan in front of Rotturan nobility, as it is essentially a criminal's language and considered probable cause for dissent.
Wetlander food is similar to Rotturan food, with an emphasis on shelf stability moreso than flavor. Fried fish is a staple of their diets, as well as porridge and pickled vegetables, fruits, eggs, or meats. Drinking, smoking, and all forms of drug use are commonplace, which frequently aid in the enjoyment of their cuisine, which foreigners usually describe as "sour". Because of the commonplace use of seawater as an element of stewing, Wetlander food can cause an outsider to vomit, even if it is cooked properly.
Economy/Industry
The Rottura Wetlands are the continent's source of luxurious goods -- Namely several types of fruit, wine, sea salt, spices, incense, tobacco, sugar, and mind-altering drugs. In addition, the two cultures both seem to export two very different types of itinerant labor; Rotturans give the world travelling bards who sing in the courts of kings and concert halls, Wetlanders give the world cheap labor for construction, cooking, and cleaning. Many travelling Wetlanders are also used as shock troops for hire in times of war, though they are not considered any more skillful than local peasantry and are mostly hired to gain an advantage in numbers. In terms of imports, the Rottura Wetlands is the largest purchaser of livestock, fur, and wheat in Dysium. Due to their low number of mountains, there is very little metal to mine in the Rottura Wetlands outside of bog iron, so metal is also a considerably in-demand commodity.
Exports • Wine • Incense • Fruit & Vegetables • Various Spices • Tobacco • Sugar
Imports • Livestock • Vegetables • Stone • Bread & Wheat • Fur • Cheese • Metal
Military
The Rottura Wetlands, for all the chaotic disarray they are in, have lost surprisingly few wars. Despite lacking a standing army or siege weapons, the Rotturans have historically held strong advantages over opponents due to the high number of itinerant Wetlanders living in the ports, rivers, and cities of each of Dysium's countries, who can be swayed by the Rotturan crown for relatively little money to slow their work pace, sabotage tools and ships, steal, malinger, spoil crops, act as spies, incite riots, and outright murder. This is a reason Rotturans are viewed as untrustworthy -- They are not only a clannish folk who speak a secret language and live amongst themselves in other countries, but they have historically worked against these countries during wartime.
Aside from their cultural history of working as saboteurs, when the Rotturan crown calls men to war it boasts one of the world's largest armadas, and though it is an armada unlearned in the ways of naval warfare, it is an armada nonetheless. The Rotturan navy for this reason has been referred to as "Merchants and fishermen given grapeshot and swords" by historians.
History
Self-explanatory. This doesn't need to be long; just informative. We encourage players to collaborate and create shared history, in fact, it is almost necessary. No nation exists in a vacuum.
Relations
As above. Collaborate with other players.
Characters
Optional section. Put any info about any special characters here: kings or queens, military leaders, and hero “badasses”.
WIP.
You're sheet is approved for the CS and IC. Speaking of which, lemme see some sheets guys! >:) so we can begin your dooooom.
Alba is a nation filled with large barbaric individuals known mainly for pillaging and conquering land without remorse. In recent decades the wave of chaos have slowed as raiding parties have begun to settle down to create settlements. This is partly due to the centralisation of the original clans of Alba that have now joined together under one flag.
Alba society is divided into three socio-economic classes of Thralls, Karls and Jarls.
Thralls are the lowest ranking class and are slaves, used for everything from chores to large scale construction. New Thralls are supplied by either the sons and daughters of thralls or enemies captured.
Karls are free peasants. They own farms,land and cattle and engage in daily chores. They employ Thralls if they can afford to buy them to do the more manual aspects of farming life.
Jarls are the Aristocracy of Alba society, owning most of the wealth and living in excess. Jarls involve themselves in administration, politics, hunting, sports and expeditions. Jarls will have many Thralls tend to them, and receive offerings of allegiance from Karls. Jarls rule over Karls, a beneficial agreement for both parties as Jarls receive food and minerals from the land of the Karl's of which they trade with other Jarls. Karls receive protection from the Jarls in exchange for this, and also can buy food and minerals from other settlements that the Jarls trade with.
At the top is a King, a recent addition to the classes, this man or woman is the main connecting force between the Jarls and calls upon them when diplomatic manners must be attended.
Ethnicity
Albians are tall and bulky individuals, men standing at an average of 6’ 5”, and woman standing at 5’ 7”. They speak Branter, a mix of Old Norse and Gaelic languages. The Albians deem non-Albians lesser to themselves, seeing those south as weaker and feeble.
Geography
Picture of claim goes here
The climate of Alba is that of frozen tundra, the further north the worse the conditions are, despite this many settlements reside all over, surviving however they can. Despite this most settlements are to the southeast, as the climate is better and allows more opportunity for farming.
Culture/Society
[/b] Albians are a hardy people that take pleasure in the simplest things. Fighting, sex, money and eating, because of this many festivals occur all year around in Alba culture. Power is deemed the most important and impressive aspect, and an individual who can show they have power, be it through physical strength or through the subjugation of others, will earn respect with the Alba people. What are your people like? What is notable about their culture and how they do things? History may play a large role in this section, and vice-versa. Include a religion here if you want! There is no official dogma, so have fun.
Economy/Industry
Alba is rather technically challenged and so must import firearms and gunpowder from other nations, as well as any machinery.
The mines in the mountains of Alba produce many minerals including copper, iron and gold. This, plus the large amount of vegetables such as potatoes and turnips that are produced provides an excess of possible export goods. The large furry animals of Alba also produce a large fur trade.
Military
The military consists of all aspects of Alba society. Thralls are used mostly to carry and care for animals whilst traveling, but can rise to become true Alba Warriors. Karls are expected to fight at the request of a Jarl, and most will gladly take up arms to prove their worth. Due to the large population of Alba, this creates a large military force.
The general equipment of the Alba military is varied between the different clans and Jarls.A large axe or sword is the most common weapon, paired with a shield. Muskets have become more common but many factions will fire off only a single volley of musket fire then throw their guns to charge at the enemy. This technique is used effectively due to the size of the Alba forces, as well as the intense fear it creates in the enemy that is traditionally used to volley tactics.
Alba forces are adored with many furs, covering the body from head to toe. This armour is a necessity in the cold, but has also known to deflect a sword slash or bayonet lunge.
The Alba are also master seamen, the longboats they hand craft light enough to be some of the fastest ships on the continent, and able to transport many men and women over large areas.
History
Started off on one of the islands to the north then expanded. IM BAD AT HISTORY OK.
Relations
The Trade Union of Isang Tribes. Many raids in past. Hired by them sometimes
