---

It is Medieval Age.

The Tawai Empire is no more.

The desire of conquest and lust for fame of King Auxfied of the Neryn Empire knows no bounds. Right after his ascension to king, he spent five years of his reign only to unify his chaotic empire, which had been engulfed in a huge civil war that had raged on for over a century, split between dozens of self-proclaimed rulers, using all means necessary, from trades, treaties to large scale battles. And then another five years to strengthen his throne and bolster the economy.

His entire social system was built off of martial hierarchy, where the citizens are born to become warriors. Battling to them is simply to breathe. The economy system was entirely devoted to war efforts. Weapons were manufactured, ships were built, men were trained rigorously. All of these were performed in order to partially ease the tension of a populace of citizens accustomed to war but mainly to fulfill his bottomless desire and greed for territory of the King. In a course of a few years, the Neryn empire has accumulated up to two hundred thousand men and five hundred naval ships and boarding crafts, hungry for total war.

In contrast, the Tawai empire had never seen war in the last six decades. Their society was a bureaucratic system, which focused more in cultural development and fishing industry, due to their long coastline. Therefore, their technological advances in ship building has been developed far ahead of other countries in the region. However, due to the long period of peace, boredom has taken into the soldiers. Troops were under-trained, under-manned, and ill-prepared. Weapons are not developed thoroughly, outdated. But most importantly officers and generals are less competent.

And then, Auxfied set his eyes on Tawai as his first nation of conquest, and he soon initiated an invasion. When the two dynasties clashed with each other, it was an incredibly one-sided fight. Because the Tawai’s army commanders were too accustomed to peace, they initially did not believe that the Neryns are actually invading until it was too late. Despite having a chance to engage the enemy’s invading fleet, the Tawai’s local admirals decided to sit still doing nothing, refusing to move. And when the Neryn’s land forces landed on the coast, Tawai’s resistance collapsed completely. Their army was poorly trained, ill-disciplined, unmatched for Neryn’s battle-hardened forces.

Being taken by surprise, local admirals decided to scuttle their fleets and flee deeper in land. Luckily for Tawai’s forces, there was still one admiral who decided to act against orders to sink his ships: Admiral Kan Mishifuri. Kan, a naval commander who had gone under rigorous naval training, having realized this imminent invasion all along unlike the other admirals and commanders, had been training his men and building ships in preparation for this. After news of the invasion reached him, he set off with over one hundred ships at his disposal, striking some of the harbors that Neryn’s ships were docking in, destroying dozens of ships and killing thousands of enemy soldiers. The Neryn’s army, despite being well-trained and experienced with war, were unfamiliar with naval warfare and ship buildings, due to their civil war being on land. Therefore, their navies fell apart when faced with a fleet with superior ship design and more experience at sea, leaving the Neryn’s land forces being trapped on foreign land

Auxfied, upon being notified of his lost of control over the Tawai sea, decided to send one hundred more ships to reinforce them, but was defeated badly. Furious, he sent another two hundred ships to the rescue, but to no avail. After some consideration, the Conqueror King decided to take a different approach. He decided to inject spies into the enemy’s land, bribing corrupt government officials, driving them to believe that Kan was plotting against the King. By a simple trick of manipulation, they succeeded, and Kan was imprisoned, tortured and later executed. Command of the fleet was replaced by another admiral, a much less competent one.

Auxfied, when he learnt the news of Kan’s removal of command, decided to assemble a huge navy of battleships and engaged the Tawaian navy in a decisive battle near Otto island. The result was devastating. The fleet that Kan had worked so hard to build, was utterly decimated. The admiral in charge, who were incredibly flawed and predictable, fell victim to a simple trick by the Neryn’s forces. His fleet was ambushed, surrounded and slowly destroyed. Only a handful of ships managed to escape the battle alive.

The devastating result of the battle greatly demoralized Tawai’s forces and bolstered the spirits of Neryn’s forces. Now, with Tawai’s army completely crushed, Neryn’s high command decided to use this opportunity to take the enemy’s capital, capture the king and end this war once and for all. They decided to mass two third of their land forces onto transport ships, move west to take a shortcut through the Strogult strait and intend to land on the North Western coast of Tawai for a quick seize of the capital. But in order to reach the capital, they must get pass the remaining ten ships of Tawaian navy, who had assembled together after being routed in previous battles for one final stand against a fleet of hundreds.

The hope of the entire Tawaian nation now lied entirely on ten lone ships, ten ship commanders and several hundred sailors.

---

First of all, I am very much grateful for your time reading through such walls of texts. Thank you very much!

To get started, I will go on to explain the concept of this RP. So I got this idea after watching the movie ‘The Admiral: Roaring Currents’, depicting Admiral Yi Sun-sin’s most finest victories of all time. And as any of the history enthusiasts would notice, the lore that I wrote up is largely based on the Japanese invasion of Korea in the late 16th centuries, and the battle that is the center of this RP is largely inspired by the Battle of Myeongnyang, but with moderate changes (such as admiral Kan's death so that the player's role shall be more significant). In order not to provoke anyone, I have decided to make the two countries completely fictional. The only thing you should keep in mind is the era when the battle takes place, which is late medieval, so gunpowder, arquebuses and naval cannons are widely available, and the type of ships that you will be bringing to battle, which is galley (A ship that propells mostly by using oars). You can get creative and add sails and other fancy stuff if you want, it’s just that oar-powered ships are much faster and more maneuverable here (if you have better ideas, just voice it out and I’ll consider)

You will be playing as one of the ship commanders who will be taking part of the battle. Your character will have a ship and a handful of crews at your disposal. You can also design your own respective ships (i.e what it has, how fast is it, what armaments does it contain,…), just bear in mind that it will be a medieval galley. The Tawaian navy is known for having technologically advanced ships, while the Neryn’s armada is not, but they have supreme numerical advantages. So I will be going with that to depower their strength accordingly to your designs.

The current situation is that the enemy has over 300 ships heading for you, over 100 being warships. But since this is called 'The Miracle at Strogult Strait', you will ultimately emerge victorious, despite the overwhelming odds. This is an RP that values courage, bravery, loyalty and comradeship, so not exactly a tragedy RP (you can still kill your character though).
There will be four arcs to this RP:

-The Gathering Arc: This will be very short, but will not be rushed. This arc is simply to gather up the remaining ships, and getting to know each other if the characters don’t have any histories with each other.

-Morale Arc: This will be longer than the first arc, but not as long as the third one. So basically, you will be trying to make a plan to counter the opposing Neryn forces while trying to deal with problems that will no doubt arises within the army. I mean, when faced against an enemy that outnumbers you thirty to one, it can drive any man to shit their pants, right? There maybe exceptions, but definitely not everyone. So there will be problems caused by fear within the fleet, and you’ll have to work together to fix it. There will be character development. Also, that problem can also be you, if you volunteer to become the problem. Anything is possible. Just give me a notification, and we’ll plan around your ideas.

-The Battle Arc: The longest of the four arcs. The battle commences. There might be some unresolved issues that still lingers within your soldiers. It will cause a bit of a problem at first, but at the heat of battle, all will be resolved. This will be the test of bravery and loyalty to all of you and your sailors, and your relationship to other ship commanders will have a lot of significance here. Like I said earlier, be guaranteed that you will emerge victorious in the end. But ships can be sunk, and sacrifices can be made if you want to have some dramas. If not, that’s ok. In the real battle of Myeongnyang, Korean naval forces suffered very little casualties, around 10 at best, so you don’t have to worry about having too few deaths or wounded.

-The After Arc: A conclusion to the Battle Arc, and the fate of those who survived the battle. It can also be very short, but I have yet to think about it thoroughly. If you want, you can expand it into another fully-fledged battle. Depends on you.

---

---

---

Thank you for taking your time here. We are still accepting more commanders so if any of you who has interests, you are free to join. And if you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask me. I would be willing to answer.

@TheSeriousJoke
@Artymis
@DeadDrop
@BigPapaBelial

*waves* The OOC is here. You are free to make your character if you are still interested.

Alright, I'm gonna start working on my CS and hopefully get it done by sometime later today.

@BigPapaBelial

It's mostly muzzle loaded. Breech loading rifles are ok, but I don't know if breech loading cannons exist at the time. The era is the 16th-17th century after all. But still, I don't want to apply such concrete rules to RPing, you can make cannons breech loaded, just refrain from making them too modern.

Thank you Conscripts for this answer from the other thread. Much appreciated. Really helps me narrow down the idea. Thank you very very much.

Maybe interested, this premise seems certainly different.

Maybe interested, this premise seems certainly different.

Hello and welcome! I hope that this little idea of mine will have your interest in the future.

Thinking of a heavy patrol/brownwater/siege and assault ship pressed into navy service. Part turtle ship, historical to Korea.

Kind of heavier guns, lower draft, part turtle ship, but slower, and harder to get moving, armoured partly mounting longer barreled cannon, magazine fed crossbows. (weaker than guns, faster rate of fire). Also maybe ability to fire rockets or some other kind of historical weapons system like mortars.

(all historical to eastern states of the period or before, including influences from China etc. )

It can be out positioned by faster more agile ships, and has sails yes, but also oars and ability to function on man power alone.

Not as effective in open sea as a river/costal vessel it has a lower draft rendering it less stable in waves, storms and such.

@BigPapaBelial The character you made is awesome! Though I would prefer if you post it on OOC instead until I approve it. But nevertheless, can't wait to see the completed form. You can keep it in the character tab for the moment.

@PrinceAlexus That seems to be a cool concept. Haha, I have already sense the turtle ship coming when I post this topic.

i admit i took inspiration and some ideas from existing as not to over crew or over arrm my vessel into some kind of river going Yamamoto of the rivers,

so all close facts are meant in appreciation and good faith.
first draft

...............................................................................................................................

Name: Captain Minjun “Stone Breaker”

Age: Your character's age. 39

Gender: Male

Appearance: Rough and ready, with a dark beard and close cut hair with flecks of grey from a lifetime of hard duty, calculating and strong dark flint eyes. Some scars and signs of shrapnel wounds originally serving as a Gunner, then Deck Officer, finally promoted when his captain was slain taking over command of the venerable Iron Dragon.

5’3 and stocky built from years as serving the heavy duty of the gun deck, he is physically strong and with a slight limp from a accident when his carriage broke one its mounting ropes.

Dressed in heavier studded leathers and the golden marks of a captain on his sleeves, but also a gunnery officers battered breastplate for protection from shrapnel, despite weighing down in water, he never intends to need to test that one in combat.

On normal duty he wears darker colours to not stand out on coastal duty, dark leather boots, and a black heavy jacket with badges of rank and honours over a simple shirt often makes him one of the more plainly dressed and plain captains.

On formally and winter duty he has a thick formal coat of a Naval officer oiled against the sea for bad weather even if he gets some jokes from the other Officers in there finery and golden trimmed attire,

Personality: cool, calculating and often overly direct the captain has rubbed up with some degree of friction with the Officers in the sea going fleet. Years of river patrol, siege command have tempered the man’s patience and does not mind playing the long game to achieve victory and quick to detect weakness in both stone and wood structures and guide his ships powerful guns to target.

Background: Born in a small coastal town he soon was working aboard one of the numerous trade vessels that took supplies from the coastal areas deeper into the peninsulas main rivers until he was in his teens quickly learning the trade of navigating the winding rivers of Tawai's and its rugged coasts.

His enlistment into the Navy was first during a local rebellion when the Lord conscripted the local river men to man a new generation of river boats, heavily armoured and armed they were used to quickly crush the towns that broke tribute.

Recognizing his skills he soon earned his way from the oar deck to gunnery deck, and his progress began on patrol duty his skills learned in teens saw him well to promotion to the Officer of deck after taking charge during an minor mutiny and bringing the gun crew to loyalty with strong leadership and a carpenters axe.

Later in his career he earned his captaincy when he was forced to take command when the captain was killed, leading the ship to victory against an enemy warship and bringing the nearby town back to the Lords fealty he was promoted the Iron Dragons captain which he has held for the past 4 years.

Equipment:
Heavy war axe for combat, a remaining trait from the act that brought him into Officer of the deck.
rough and heavy pistol for range combat, made at local smith it incorporates and a iron butt plate for bringing those who break post quickly into line.

Long Glass. The yearrs have weakened his eye sight and now uses a long glass to sight and see weakness in enemy ships or defences from afar.

Breastplate, metal. Rather a odd trait for the naval officer he wears in in battle after years on the gunnery deck seeing many more men die of shrapnel than drowning.
now old, solid but still effective it is simple steel, and without ornament.

_____________________________________________________________________________

I would prefer it to be galleys, since it does not rely on nature and rather on human power, but if you want an exception, you can notify me. If you do not want to make your own ship, then you can use the default ship, which I will upload if anyone want that.

Name of ship: Iron Dragon

Type of ship: Heavy River Patrol ship, Armoured Siege vessel. (Oar powered with sails, mainly uses Oars in tight conditions)
3 low decks, Oars, Stores and magazine. Lower fighting and gunnery deck for big guns, Upper fighting deck for lighter weapons.

Armaments:
2 long barrelled cannon to fore, 4 port and starboard, 8 guns total plus 2 forward. (Mounted on heavy systems to bring the barrel back inside for reloading and back out, driven back by recoil, and worn mouths in the form of fanged dragons) (All on lower fighting deck)

Long range guns. Heavy calibre and good penetrative power.
Low reload time. Need 5-6 gunners to be effective even with modified systems.

One forward mounted heavy metal armed crossbow on upper fighting deck, firing from dragon head mouth at ships bow. (Replaces a siege morter or rocket system from land duties) (long range, limited angle traverse, forward some 45 degrees. )

Long range. Limited traverse. Needs 5 men to operate. 4 on winders, 1 master bowman to load and fire.
Fairly powerful metallic bolts.
Slower rate of fire.

4 semi auto magazine fed crossbows on the upper fighting deck each side, firing from protected slits for close in Defense when on river patrol, or attacking open decked ships.
1 of same mounted covering aft section off vessel.
(Shorter range, but gain higher rate of fire than gun powder, installed to defend against river ambush now turned against exposed crews)

Lower damage than aqabus
Faster rate of fire up to 20 bolts a minute.
One gunner, one loader for max fire rate. Magazine fed system.
(did exist in ancient China)

Crew: 25 Marines Manning upper decks, 2 per semi auto, 5 for heavy crossbow. Also stocked with bows and weapons for boarding, shore duty etc as needed.
30 Oarsmen per side, total 60. (under manned for a vessel of its class)
30 sailors, manning main guns, the sails, and the rudder. (can only man 5-6 of the main guns at once.)
Captain
3 Officers of the deck. Marine Comandor, Gunnery officer, and the Master of Oars.

Appearance:

Iron Dragon is a heavy river patrol boat and coastal vessel, painted in muddy and darker tones fitting its previous duty. The battered, older and more worn vessel has long been the butt of jokes of the more flamboyant and ornately decorated vessels of the fleet. She is undermanned for her size having been assigned the far less glamorous duty of river patrols, younger men often gravitating to the more exciting sea duty.

However its heavy guns, and armour have surprised the more arrogant captains soon finding Iron Dragons battered exterior is hiding a capable vessel of war, and her long guns give it a surprising range built at first to attack enemy land defences and river fortifications.

Built of thicker timbers its hull is well protected against lighter weapons fire and roof is reinforced with battered, repaired and scarred Iron plating from close engagements. All this armour and heavy guns have however slowed the old ship down and is one of the slower vessels in the fleet, taking more time to turn, move and get underway. Unlike its sea going sisters it can turn in a small area due to shallow draft but its mass has made this a slow and labour intensive exercise as its rowing crew is undersized for a vessel of its class.

Being a river boat its lower draft means it’s less stable in rough seas, and unable to deploy in open sea or coastal strom conditions. This also means though it can sail closer to shore and operate in areas sea going ships cannot.

Much like a Turtle ship, of a slightly older design than some of the ships in the fleet, its battered figure head though patched, repaired And scarred has never been replaced since its duty started and is considered a honour to carve your name into its timber for acts of heroism, Valor, and distinction.

.....

How it got to battle.

Iron Dragon was a assigned to river patrol duty when the war broke out. During the invasion it supported a local Lords defense of several key fords and held off several vanguards before the main army arrived.

Outnumbered and vulnerable to enemy artillery in the cramp rivers she was forced back several times and despite inflicting heavy losses the ground war was quickly lost.

The captains skill and years of experience enabled him to evade the enemy for days and pick off a few enemy patrols, bridges and slow down the advance in his sector. Soon a captured group of river boats where put to hunt him down and despite beating the ill experienced troops who manned them they where only delaying the inevitable.

While holding up for repairs in one of the few remaining loyal river bases the call up for all ships to join the defence of the Strait.

Knowing it was a desperate battle, and that the war was going badly the crew voted and decided to join the fleet despite not being officially a Navy warship they joined a determined few ships willing to make a final honorable stand for there country.

Sailing into the gathering point the battered, bloodied but proud river boat joined its Navy cousins, its Armour dented, hull riddled with bullet scars and bolt heads still stuck in its thick timbers. No time to repaint her for costal deployment she still sports her proud river camouflage setting her apart from the warships of the Navy.

@PrinceAlexus

Nice! The sheet is very detailed for a first draft. Though the Korea part I feel that it wasn't very suited in this scenario. I intend to make this universe fictional, but I can change it to the real world, with alternative empires existing, with Tawai's establishing trade with Korea to match with the player's desire. But I don't really know what you mean at the Korea part. Your character, by default shall be Tawaian, but if you want something different then you can notify me

My apologies, I hadn't seen a hint that you wanted it posted in the OOC first. I'll go about finishing it here later. Hope the ship is okay too! I was thinking of revamping it some just a little, adding another mortar is all.

Hope that's okay and I'll try and get everything finished out soon.

@Conscriptsil edit the Korea bits out :)

no worries, its a first draft after all.

Im also open to adjust crew and leave of guns to make sense.
though its a larger design warship than the other one so can mount the full size cannons.

Abit of a dreadnought, but it crew means it can only man so many cannon and relies on semi auto and technology of time to make up its firepower against crews.

Just a quick question, is it alright if I make a female character? I don't really know how close we're sticking to history.

@TheSeriousJoke I don't mind female characters. In fact, having a few of them may make it even more interesting. I'm not sticking up on history in this RP, since I decided to make a brand new world instead of keeping Japan and Korea as two factions. I think that will solve all the restriction on gender, age and culture. So I think you only need to keep in mind the era and technology, which I won't bother too much unless it gets too modern.

And I like the ship ideas so far. Don't mind too much about its power, since you're facing hundreds of enemy ships.

Alright so I believe I'm done with my CS and ship sheet as well. Let me know what you think Conscripts. If there is anything that is needed to be added or is needed to be removed let me know.

Do I need to work up how the ship got there. I not have a ship that can sail at open sea.

It can join as a ship that was scrounged up and maybe was part of a battered and escaped river flotilla, or joined the last stand at the mouth from down river maybe.

Also do I need super accuatte stats like gun weights and calibres.

I was generally going with the guns being longer barreled and higher velocities.

Fitted out for sieges they fire longer, and hit hard but that they take longer to reload and bring to ready again.

Even with they swinging back on a cradle to counter there lengh meaning the muzzle cannot be loaded otherwise and offset so they can fit each gun swinging the full width of the ships lower deck.

Halves your gun volume but increases the armaments possible size over larger number of regular guns.

Maybe im ovr planning this lol

@BigPapaBelial Oooh! I like the CS, so accepted! Though I may have to ask you to reconsider the small part when Doyun and the ship escape the Neryn armada. If you mean the ambush that decimated the entire Tawai navy, then I suggest making them and a few other ships escaped, since I intend to make it so that several ships in the ten ships fleet escaped the battle, regrouped to fight the one last stand (including my character, haha sorry)

@PrinceAlexus Well for the ship's backstory, you can either write it flat out or reserve that for the IC post. It's up to you. For the stats, I don't require accurate stats, so depends on your decision. For me it's just a general summary of its stats (like it has high caliber, but slow rate of fire and etc). Don't want to make RP too tabletop and statistical.

Though I may have to ask you to reconsider the small part when Doyun and the ship escape the Neryn armada. If you mean the ambush that decimated the entire Tawai navy, then I suggest making them and a few other ships escaped, since I intend to make it so that several ships in the ten ships fleet escaped the battle, regrouped to fight the one last stand (including my character, haha sorry)

This part yeah sure I can change that. I'm not too attached to that. Only thing I would have fought on is the set of up the ship and the fishing rod really. Everything else totally willing to change. I'll go and do that. Thanks man.

@Conscripts

Thanks. Il stick to that.
Though I think we have managed to go to depths of detail you might not have been expecting!

Okay, here's my CS! If you need me to change anything/go more in depth let me know!