[OOC] The Relics (No Plot/Fantasy/Character Driven/Worthy of Skepticism)

[Ellri]

Peninsula on the peninsula. That works.

We'd imagine that a good portion of the empire is covered by really lush grasslands, but there's probably a decently sized section of forested lands, especially near the mountains. Grasslands as in end-of-last-ice-age grasslands. with grasses being around the same height as people. Considering the size of kalbeasts, they would only have evolved somewhere with a lot of food and space. Fairy humid, but large animals have kept forests from covering that area.

Climate, especially in higher regions of the empire, would be colder. probably around northern Scandinavian areas. i.e. lots of snow in winter, but not so cold as to be snowbound year round.

One other bit of trivia and a recommendation: Don't go near Kalbeasts during the mating season... It can be... dangerous.

[Sep]

Even if at the other side of the mountain ranges are hot that works out all right. mountain ranges can alter climates and if the continent is large enough It will all work out.

[CrabKing]

And finally my Character!

Name: Scratch, Mister Rags and a few others

Age: Appears to be about his late 60's

Gender: Male

Relic Description: A glass eye currently occupying his right eye socket.
The eye allows Scratch to see into the hearts of others laying bare before him the desires and emotions of anyone to meet his gaze. There are some though the eye shows nothing for and it is those that give Scratch pause.

Skills:
Deception- Scratch is eerily good at misleading others and presenting a fixed view of things.

Avoidance- Scratch is good at keeping himself distanced from things and yet still close enough remain privy to their activities

Honor Among Thieves- Due to his years of "Dealing" Scratch is familiar with the underbelly of almost every major city on the continent.

Background: where Scratch came from and why he collects the seemingly meaningless items he does is the rather odd mystery that follows the old man. Many tales pervade the poor of the cities where he is well known among their number. They speak of a powerful noble driven mad with desire for a woman he could never have and of a wealthy merchant who squandered his riches for a treasure only he saw as worth it. But surely those are just fables created by the ever imaginative beggars and urchins as for the real man he seems disinterested in talking about it. What is known is that for years Scratch has stalked the roads and city streets of Azukhar adding to a collection, only he cares about, items whose value only he sees.

Appearance:

Scratch

Motivation: Scratch is a collector and seeks seemingly random things "Because all things have value to someone" he says. Whether it be the ring of a rich nobleman or the hairbrush of a poor girl when he decides he wants something he hunts it relentlessly until it is in his grasp.

Theme Song:

[Ellri]

Scaling up the map like that will also mean that its a lot more complex to cross the "lake". It'll go from maybe 10-12 km across to something like 60-100km across (wild guesstimate). more an inland ocean, really. Still, it also makes it more plausible for people to get away by crossing it. or for that matter, to go out onto it.

We'd also think that this would mean that there are a lot of waterways not shown on the map. Even fairly large ones. a river 50m wide, or even larger would be invisible on such a map without having a massive spiderweb of blue threads. Those rivers criss-crossing the Empire are probably large enough for massive ships to pass beside each other without any trouble.

By the way, Sep. If you're working on turning Ulior into a new place (or whomever might do that), we'd recommend taking that island in the lake and putting it to good use. Stick a few cities there. maybe even a massive metropolis. Properly fortified, it'll be a hell for anyone to conquer, evokers or not. You could have walls high and thick enough to stand up against most any barrage. Evokers like that fellow striking at inner city gates would not be able to do much against such.

One more thing... if anyone is planning some city or such... We'll not mind at all helping ya determine defenses, even defenses that are suitable to stop Kalesian assault. (its fun throwing wrenches that potentially mess up our own plans). However, we'd rather not get involved in controlling the defense of Amaryth, or any other city the Kalesians might choose to strike at. Designing it is ok, controlling it not ok.

EDIT: interesting character you crafted, Crab.

[Guilty Spark]

@CrabKing your accepted.

@Ellri, solid points. I was hoping that island would get utilized myself.

Edit: To those of you just joining, you don't have to be in Amaryth considering it's under siege. We can decide on a secondary location, if you want.

[Sundered Echo]

On the crossing the lake (now inland sea) thing, they could well just cross the edge of it, such that they still get across it in a reasonable time frame.

Also, new lore.

Kalesian Siege Engineer Corps

The Siege Engineer Corps in the Imperial military is a small and oft-overlooked section, whose importance to the Kalesian war-machine is smaller than most similar groups in respective militaries across the world. From the very beginning the engineer corps has had to deal with the overshadowing influence of the battle-evokers that are employed on the front lines of the Empire, as well as the brutal effectiveness of the Kal beast. These factors combined with the militaries policy of preserving enemy infrastructure as much as possible have forced the siege engineers into a very much supportive role.

The siege engineer corps is responsible for several things in the war effort, first and foremost being tunneling. The excavation techniques used by the engineer corps are far beyond any other country, and on the rare occasion that the Kalesians need to bring down an enemy wall they will turn not to the catapult and trebuchets that usually typify such a task, but rather the quick but careful digging of a tunnel under the wall, followed by its rapid collapse, bringing whole sections of wall down without any obvious attack being made. Perhaps the most ambitious application of this skill, however, has been the recent bypassing of a mountain range, allowing a surprise of attack of unprecedented effectiveness on the Othean capital Amaryth. The task combined the skills of the Engineers and several Evokers, the Evokers doing the majority of the actual digging while the Engineers directed them and reinforced the tunnel behind them. It is considered the crowning achievement of the engineer corps to this day, and even now a sizeable portion of the corps is engaged in efforts to turn the tunnel into a permanent passage between the Empire and Othea.

When the engineering corps is called to participate in direct battle, they employ expertly crafted ballistae that incorporate elevation control and the capacity to launch both long impaling spears and moderately sized rocks, all on a quickly set up platform. These weapons are not particularly effective against walls, but the engineers make use of range finding equipment to ensure they are at least fairly accurate.

As well as this, they have a variety of payloads to maximise the effect they can have on an enemy army. As well as the plentiful rocks and spears, they employ shot containing volatile oils to create firebombs, as well as thick flasks containing flesh searing acid extracted from a particularly deadly giant snake found only in the southern reaches of the Empire. Tests with more exotic compounds have always resulted in disaster however, and while the corps is always on the lookout for another edge to match evokers, they avoid anything even remotely unstable or dangerous to their skilled personnel. Better to use safe and reliable methods than have to spend years training more men. Any research into the field of explosives has been abandoned due to being too dangerous.

The members of the Siege Engineer Corps tend to be highly motivated over-achievers - a direct result of fulfilling such a marginalised position in the military. They force themselves to succeed as spectacularly as possible in an effort to match or exceed the results the battle evokers tend to attain with what they perceive to be ‘incredibly lazy methods.’

NPCs

Name: Lord Dorian Sorus-Vecusa
Age: 38
Gender: Male
Rank: Commander
Known: Personal friend of Alessia. Career military man, believes in the Empire. In charge of the rear-guard of the current army.

Name: Lord Valerian Kroseus
Age: 27
Gender: Male
Known: Intended Kalesian Governor of the new Imperial City Amaryth.

[Sundered Echo]

The current deployments of the Siege Engineer Corps puts about 80% of them in the tunnel reinforcing it for permanent use.

There are about ten percent of them in the armies rearguard - they aren't really in demand for this assault, and are more likely to get deployed with their weapons on the walls once the city is taken. I don't fancy figuring an exact number of men, but I'd say there were about 200 well supplied siege engines with their crews backing the army right now, though these have not been deployed into combat.

[Guilty Spark]

@Sundered Echo, added to the OP.

I also updated the map with a new name for the colossal swarm of mountains to the south, considering the scale of the map I'm calling it "The Stone Sea"

I've also added one hidden location, designated by the number "1", which nobody will know exists openly.

[Sundered Echo]

Excellent, thank you. I figured it'd be easier to grab my own post for lore rather than keep adding to Ellri's one. More clarity on NPC ownership too.

Anyway, hows the defence organisation going? I am eager to have developments in that area that I might post for Alessia some more.

[Guilty Spark]

I'm on the verge of finishing my collab with Shin and Sitara, it's holding me up for the moment due to the perspective. I've decided to cut it short though, so it should be finished today.

[Sundered Echo]

This is good news. I look forward to it!

[Guilty Spark]

I took it as an opportunity to practice writing from an unfamiliar character's perspective, so the whole post is from the eyes of Shin.

[Sundered Echo]

I have done that only once, it was an interesting experience to say the least, and not something done all that often from what i've seen. It'll be interesting to see it in practice here, particularly whether I notice a difference in writing styles or not... But for now, I am going to bed.

On a more random note, do people want to see the pic I have for Alessia? I haven't bothered with it so far as I'd have to upload it myself (rather than my usual fare of finding something online - that proved overly difficult this time.) No its not my art (i'm a terrible artist), nor particularly stunning as far as pictures go.

[Guilty Spark]

I wouldn't mind seeing it, but it isn't important if you think it might detract from our perception of her.

[AlidaMaria]

Guilty Spark said
I'm on the verge of finishing my collab with Shin and Sitara, it's holding me up for the moment due to the perspective. I've decided to cut it short though, so it should be finished today.

Sorry for holding you up Sparks :') We should try to finish it once I'm back I guess then... Which will be in aboit two hours, although I also have to finish the the collab with Marcus and Sparkles. Sorry for taking so long on both sides > . <

Sundered Echo said
I have done that only once, it was an interesting experience to say the least, and not something done all that often from what i've seen. It'll be interesting to see it in practice here, particularly whether I notice a difference in writing styles or not... But for now, I am going to bed.On a more random note, do people want to see the pic I have for Alessia? I haven't bothered with it so far as I'd have to upload it myself (rather than my usual fare of finding something online - that proved overly difficult this time.) No its not my art (i'm a terrible artist), nor particularly stunning as far as pictures go.

I'd love to see Allesia but if it's too much trouble you don't necessarily have to upload it ;)

[Sep]

I got a couple of things I want to work on to do with Religion then I'll start throwing stuff up. Expect an elaborate history and such. In terms of Techno what is the highest level you're willing to go with Gravity as it may be an avenue I explore. Obviously no muskets or anything like that.

[WilsonTurner]

Guilty Spark said
I'm on the verge of finishing my collab with Shin and Sitara, it's holding me up for the moment due to the perspective. I've decided to cut it short though, so it should be finished today.

Always the best posts, he has.

Besides the posts that myth-imagination makes. Myth's imagination is sooooooo amazing, it's like a T-Rex armed with those little grabber thingies.

Therefore, if Myth's Imagination is like a T-Rex with grabbers, then...



EDIT:
Also, i have a nation idea for the 'Stone Sea', those mountains, if they are the ones I am thinking of [Map is blocked on school wifi], so ye.
May I PM you what I have so far, Spark? Sparks? Sparkles? Sparkies? Sparky?

[AlidaMaria]

WilsonTurner said
Also, i have a nation idea for the 'Stone Sea', those mountains, if they are the ones I am thinking of [Map is blocked on school wifi], so ye.May I PM you what I have so far, Spark? Sparks? Sparkles? Sparkies? Sparky?

Will, I just wanted to remind you that there are some small villages of "The southern mountain people" as I've previously briefly mentioned them (just Otheans who live there) and a really tiny cabin in the woods in those mountains, but seeing as how the size of the map has just evolved, there is no doubt room for your idea as well ^_^

Edit: after looking at the map again, the "Southern mountain people" will only inhabit the part of the mountain range bordering Othea so there'll be lots and lots of space left.

[Maki Casanova]

Hi guys, I just wanted to let you guys know that I plan on having a character with a relic that controls sound. Are there any boundaries that I should be aware of other than the general "don't make it OP"?

[Guilty Spark]

WilsonTurner said
EDIT:Also, i have a nation idea for the 'Stone Sea', those mountains, if they are the ones I am thinking of [Map is blocked on school wifi], so ye.May I PM you what I have so far, Spark? Sparks? Sparkles? Sparkies? Sparky?

As long as it's practical and doesn't touch Searing Gorge.

@Maki, None.