Takanis - A Dark Fantasy NRP
“Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.”
Marcus Aurelius
From the cold Ice Wastes of the polar north, beneath the blistering heat of the Great Inland Desert, and the monster haunted jungles and ice-capped mountains of the far south, the world of Takanis is covered with the bleached bones of dead empires. Some perish through civil war, others through decadence and infighting, and some still through the exploitation of magic, their own hubris and the horrors of the Outer Realms. Some indeed linger still, disunited fragments of once great empires holding on still to their tattered glory, broken but not forgotten…
Thus it has ever been. Thus it ever will.
The wheel of time spins ever onward, and within its hub the spokes of rising empires form, shatter and are replaced by newer and stranger civilisations. Technology and sophistication is clung to with desperate hands, the secrets of ancient nations unearthed, lost, and rediscovered in the cyclical ages of Takanis. Magic is tamed, studied and deprived of its secrets, providing innovation to peerless cultures and its shimmering ores raising monuments of artistry and might, but always with it the eldritch terrors of hubris and pride for those who deem themselves its masters.
The world continues on as it ever has, the rise and fall of empires colouring it in many hues as knowledge of the long dead give voice to its new epochs, enriching a stilted planet with the fragmented lore of great technology and science. Societies regress and advance in tides as endless as the ocean, some achievements more lasting than others, but all too often swept aside by their decline as the years mount.
But now the winds of change blow across land, beneath the twin-mooned skies of Takanis…
The once great Empire of Humanity of the east and the Vehndathayan Empire of the south have been shattered for two millennia, and the dominion of the Serpent Folk of Ashammai has been gone for thrice that. Now their inheritors squabble over their crumbling carcasses, each seeking to restore the glories once lost and avoid breaking themselves upon the cliff-face of their own ambitions. Other races rise from barbarity as the degraded legacies of extinct nations, or the creators of new ones, their drive and will to conquer anew making citizens of savages, and heroes of blood-drenched warlords. Other realms pull back from the brink of decadence, excesses curbed, the source put to sword with fire and blood as their restorers seek to reclaim the glory of their lost golden ages. Others reign in their unsullied prime, unsurpassed by latter ages and wise enough to fight the wheel of time and the decline of civilisations…
The world stirs. A new age beckons. To endure you must carve out your empire through innovation, discovery, warfare, diplomacy and conquest. You must fight to rise above a world antithetical to civilisation, fight to rise above the follies of dead nations, fight to endure where vanity and decadence have destroyed the mightiest empires.
You must fight to survive.
Can you halt the wheel of time, Or will you be crushed beneath it?
Takanis awaits.
In this NRP, you play as a nation of your own creation. This is a setting with heavy historical inspiration, but no direct parallels. The best term for the setting is schizotech - this is a world wherein a mail armored cataphract charge coexists with nitrating crop rotation, the sextant, potatoes and tomatoes available without the need for any great dyings. We have technologies and ideas that would not exist until the 18th century coexisting with the 6th century. The setting is based on the concept of highly developed, intricate societies with a deep, complex web of trade, alliances, and diplomacy, societies that can build monuments to humble the Pyramids of Egypt or dwarf the Roman Colosseum. Vast empires with vast populations, deep history, and so on. That said, this is not a map painting simulator, and if you want to conquer the world, I fully understand, but this is not a Total War or EU4 game and such should not be your driving goal.
Individual nations are player created, with randomly rolled stats serving as a guideline upon which you should build your nation.
This is a world with by now some well established lore, and I encourage you to speak to me and the other players about how your own nation fits into it!
I invite those interested to join our Discord server and get to know the players already in. Slots are somewhat limited, unfortunately, so we do not have indefinite room for new players.
