[OOC] Dungeon Keepers

[The 42nd Gecko]

Yeah, it's super easy to capture one or two of them... But to assimilate their culture? More thought required than "march in and beat them".

[Kangutso]

I'm debating whether I should make a new one as well or use the keeper I started.

[Lugubrious]

Shall I begin to brainstorm a nation as well?

[Cyclone]

Sure, we'll probably need you to control one. But so far we have four that I made plus Gecko's, so we'll probably have to get rid of one of mine in order to keep the number low. If this is the case then I vote dropping that first nomadic shaman tribe. It's the most boring of the four.

Alternatively you could elect to just use any of my four ideas except for the fire one. I call that one.

[Lugubrious]

Cool. I've got a fairly good idea just now.

[The 42nd Gecko]

So, for sure:

Dream magic central nation with everlasting king,
"We haz teh lizards" jungle nation.
Volcano's and black magic.

[KabenSaal]

The 42nd Gecko said
So, for sure:Dream magic central nation with everlasting king,"We haz teh lizards" jungle nation.Volcano's and black magic.

What about the Spirits Are Awesome nation?

[The 42nd Gecko]

I dunno, has someone put their foot down and said, "I'm playing these guys"?

[Lugubrious]

Alright, my nation is called Monolith.

This is an old civilization, one of the oldest if not the oldest. It is situated in an oasis in an arid biome, wherever we decide to put our badlands basically. Monolith takes the form of a grand city built encompassing a mountain, with various tiers that rise along with its slopes. Surrounding the mountain is a great valley, about half of which is submerged beneath water. It is there that most of Monolith's 'normal' attributes end. Everything else revolves around an orb of light housed in an open-air temple at the mountain's peak. Called Providence, this orb emanates a unique magical energy -Blessing- that pulses through carved lines in the city's buildings and roads once a week, provided certain standards are met.

Most interesting about Monolith are its inhabitants. Monolith is home to tens of thousands of golems called Workers. These beings range between four and five feet in height, can be made of metal, wood, rock, clay, obsidian, or straw, and, while resembling ultra-primitive robots, each house the spirit of a person. In essence, the people of Monolith are machines with the minds of people, though only their voices and personalities remain from their past lives. The Workers come to be in two ways: either the spirits of humans heading for the next life are caught by a mirror-shaped artifact called Salvation and sealed inside an inanimate body, or visitors to the city are transformed, piece by piece, by weekly Blessings. The Workers need the Blessings to survive, and if they are deprived of it, the magic holding their spirits in their bodies runs out and they effectively die. To ensure that Providence, which is equivalent to the Workers' deity, continues to send its Blessings, at least four fifths of the population must each day toil in the city. As such, almost no-one may leave, and the culture as a whole is rather reclusive.

The society of the Workers is very much like other human society, perhaps even more so. It is vibrant and benevolent, with a few quirks. Labor and life and both celebrated, and since Workers live until either they fail to receive a Blessing within the span of a week or their bodies become so decrepit that their spirits leak out, most live indefinitely. In addition to ordinary labor, Workers often improve upon their city, pursue various forms of art, and work to expand the edges of the wall-devoid city in a slow crawl to the edges of the valley. Since Blessings are the only things Workers need to survive, they can exist comfortable underwater, and many do. Because normal humans can become Workers by spending time in Monolith, the promise of immortality is very real but very costly, since none can ever leave again and must spend most of their days working. However, there is a distant end to the monotony: after enough time spent serving Providence, a Worker can, after an indeterminate but often long length of time, go to the temple of Providence and be transformed into a Traveler. Travelers range from six to seven feet in height, more resemble humans, and are far more diverse in their capabilities, an important one of which is their ability to leave Monolith for however long they wish. Unlike Workers, Travelers can and often do use powerful magic, and they journey through the outside world to bring back knowledge and specimens to add to the archives. After becoming a Traveler, a Worker regains the memories of his or her previous life, and this is often an impetus for leaving the city to settle affairs. Humans who have immigrated to Monolith must first become Workers before becoming Travelers, a process which takes a different amount of time for everyone but generally takes more than fifty years.

Monolith is ruled by the Journeymen. This council is composed of six Travelers who have each ventured into the outside world, one representing each material the Workers are made of. The Journeymen each serve 5-year terms and appoint their own successors. The power they have over their city is limited, usually only involved in unusual concerns.

Random notes
-The only way to distinguish male and female Workers are their voices. Travelers' more distinct, unique bodies allow more expression.
-Each Worker and Traveler has colored eyes and a similarly colored core. The cores, located at the center of their chests, slowly grow brighter and then darker in a neverending cycle. The rate at which this happens is determined by how long the Worker has gone without a Blessing. Faster beats mean more peril. The color is random.
-The faces of the Workers and Travelers are immobile, fixed in a single expression. This expression best reflects the individual's personality.
-Workers are generally slow, methodical, deliberate, and considerate. Travelers tend to be more quick and bold. Both are capable of combat but Travelers are way more adept. Workers carry tools with them at all times; when turned into a Traveler, these tools become powerful weapons.
-Aside from the whole immortality gig, a major strength of Monolith is trade. It has excellent manufacturing and uses primitive engines for transport that outperform animals.

Thoughts? If any of you can guess what a major inspiration for this is, congrats but it wasn't that hard.

[DR_TRAPEZOID]

I can't really say I know what the inspiration was for that, but I love it.

[KabenSaal]

Yea, I'm at a loss for the inspiration as well.

[Cyclone]

I'm not sure either. It is reminiscent of Gorsik's domain that turned flesh into stone and that city of golem-like humans, but I doubt that's your inspiration.

[Lugubrious]

Bionicle. Guessing games aside, the two of you like the idea?

[Cyclone]

The ony qualm that I can think of is the same as the one that I have with Gecko's nation: slaves, the major resource for this new installment, are the motivation to conquer an NPC nation. If I understand correctly, almost all of Monolith's denizen are either Workers, and they die in about a week if they leave the city. Not the ideal situation for your slaves to be in.

But as a concept, I love it.

[Lugubrious]

It's a pretty darn good incentive for a Keeper to conquer the city and take control of Providence, then, and have the most powerful manufacturing center on Elysium utterly under your thumb.

[BBeast]

(Are we still calling it Elysium? I don't think the name fits any more)

And in order to capture Workers you'd have to go to Monolith itself, so while you're there you may as well grab Providence. As a key point of interest, it is good. As an entire nation, it lacks in that it is limited to a single city in a single location. But then again, it isn't as if we have much room. In terms of politics, Monolith would likely be on good terms with the central nation, for who else is there to trade manufactured goods with? This also means you could deprive the central nation of many manufactured goods by cutting that supply line.

I'll play the central nation.

So, we have so far:
Immortal dream-control king in Central nation
Volcano shadow shamans and Caldor cult
Loner jungle lizard riders
Golem-run manufacturing city

Geographically, so far we need jungle, volcanoes, and desert, and probably kinder terrain to chuck the capital in. We'd probably have some mountains too. Considering size, it would be impractical to have a tundra, although if we need cold we can chuck them on top of the mountains. Volcanoes would probably go somewhere at one end of the mountain range.
Then again, we could probably get away without much desert, at least not within the borders. Monolith would be wedged somewhere in the mountains. Those mountains probably form one of the borders. On the other side could be desert.

[Cyclone]

I really liked the idea of the (sometimes cannibal) ice tribes ruled by demons disguised as witches. In the description I implied that the demons created enchanted winters far longer and hardher than normal so as to strengthen their minions and cull off the unworthy. Although it would normally be weird to have a tundra so close to a jungle, seeing as these are demons with great power over ice and snow, a tundra could exist due to their magic.

For the name of the world I like Crete. Or maybe Cyprus. Lots of little islands have cool names.

[BBeast]

I've thrown together a quick work-in-progress map in a few minutes of spare time of how I envision the world (or at least our corner of it) at the moment. I made this before considering the ice witches (although I think that is also a cool idea).



I'd put the ice witches next to the volcanoes along the top half of the mountain range.

The yellow is desert, worthless wasteland. The blue lines are rivers I've slapped in there, because you need rivers, as they provide key passages of transportation. The connection between Monolith and the capital is not coincidental. If they are major trade partners, they need a connecting river.

We'd be best to leave the East ocean (assuming up is North) clear (assuming we don't completely reshuffle it), because the central empire will want seaports.

I've noted a few things about how politics might be affected by the geography. The central nation (that still needs some name, as do they all save for Monolith which already has one) would be undertaking logging activities in the jungle, encroaching on the territory of the lizard riders and meaning semi-frequent clashes. The ice witches and volcano shamans would be feuding with each other, because of proximity if nothing else, unless we choose a different spot for the ice witches or volcanoes. And Monolith is distant from hostile tribes, so it has little concern other than desert nomads/barbarians, which pose no real threat. It would rest on its alliance with the central nation for protection from any powerful forces.

In the complete map, when we are ready for it, it shall include roads and all villages and towns (possible since it is only the size of a European country), because if humans are an important resource then we need to be clear as to where to find them and how there is a finite amount of them.

[Cyclone]

Hmm, I hadn't thought to put the warlocks next to the ice witches. The ice witches would of course be annoyed by the volcanos constantly spewing ash everywhere and would logically want to freeze them into hibernacy, and the thin is that the warlocks would probably want the same as well because they don't exactly enjoy the wasteland that they call home.

So I suppose that the Caldor cultists who appreciate the volcanos would find a way to sow discord. The warlocks also don't seem like the type to ask before they take, so at the start of the RP it would be cool to have them arrange the abduction of an ice witch for them to enslave and experiment on. That would ensure some hostilities.

[BBeast]

Who's being the ice witches?

Also, in terms of plot for what the players shall be facing, should we make a plot with magic Totems and Titans and whatnot, or should we just stick with people conquering people and Keepers?