[OOC] Do The Eagles Circle The Mountains? - A Eastern "Middle Ages" Fantasy RP

[Dinh AaronMk]

I'd say summer, seems to pretty much be the pretty standard way to start. Though it may not matter nearly as much when the most northerly people who aren't in mountains can enjoy a more-or-less eternal summer.

I'll also start posts later today.

[Vilageidiotx]

Its the beginning of summer, since the Sacrificial games mentioned in my post only take place on Solstice's and it wasn't wintery in my post.

So late June would be about right.

Though it may not matter nearly as much when the most northerly people who aren't in mountains can enjoy a more-or-less eternal summer.

@Dinh AaronMk

Wait, aren't we pretty far north though? I know I changed a few things when I read that the Northern Deserts are sub-artic.

I wasn't sure if you choice of Sarnath as a name of a city was from Lovecraft or the actual Indian city.

@TheSovereignGrave

It is an actual Indian place. I was just looking around an old map and saw it.

[Dinh AaronMk]

Wait, aren't we pretty far north though? I know I changed a few things when I read that the Northern Deserts are sub-artic.

@Vilageidiotx

I'd place us roughly around the 30 degree mark. There are going to be cool seasons, but they're not going to be freezing.

What effects the north would be - in my book - the long expanse of basically nothing up to those mountains. There'd be the season effect of the world's tilt to and from the sun, but seasonal warm moist air probably would not factor as heavily there as it would in the south or sometimes in the mountains. And with a minimal lack of mountains - save for dunish regions/highlands - there's a lot of unblocked landmass for colder arctic air to span further south earlier in the year and probably last longer. It's not to say all of it is and will be comparable to Siberia. But its position and relative nature throughout it and beyond it would make it like the The Taklamakan Desert in my book.

But the cold rain-shadowed desert would mostly be on the west side I imagine. There's a break in the mountains there that I feel would and should factor into things be introducing more season warm wind to mingle with the colder air making a section of there to be more temperate. It's probably one of the more diverse areas lumped together because it's geographically the same, but environmentally different. So you have cold-ass desert on one side, then it eases into sort starts turning into something more like this the more east you get...

[Vilageidiotx]

Ah, OK. The way the OP explains it makes it sound like a cold desert in the south and a tundra in the north, so I wasn't certain where we were going with it.

[Dinh AaronMk]

I could have gone on more I think, but that section was already getting very long to begin with. At the rate I was going it would be like I was making the north the focus of the RP and not anywhere else. So I tried to go over it and explain some factors that goes into that area and hopes the map would imply the rest.

[TheSovereignGrave]

Hey Gorgen; what, pray tell, does a siren actually look like? I'm curious.

[Dinh AaronMk]

[Waiting on race app for sirens]

[TheSovereignGrave]

You know, getting the first introductory post is always the hardest. I'll try and get it up today, though no promises. And we're getting a new dog today, so there's that that I'll have to deal with. But I will get a post up as soon as I can, I swear. And after that first one, they'll come much easier.

EDIT: And Wilted, it looks like that you'll probably end up bearing the brunt of Gorgen's nations violence. At least at first.

[Vilageidiotx]

Hey Gorgen; what, pray tell, does a siren actually look like? I'm curious.

@TheSovereignGrave

One of the most horrifying beasts of all.

[Thrashy]

I would like to join this game, if I may.

[Kassarock]

@Dinh AaronMk Question on seasons... again...

If we're starting in summer, will it be monsoon season? Since in India the monsoon starts during June/July and ends in September...

@gorgenmast And I thought I was playing the dick nation...

[Vilageidiotx]

I would like to join this game, if I may.

@Thrashy

Step right up and fill out an app.

And I thought I was playing the dick nation...

@Kassarock

That's the direction I was going too...

This'll be more realistic than we intended I think. "Who is the biggest dick?"

[TheSovereignGrave]

<Snipped quote by Thrashy>

Step right up and fill out an app.

@Vilageidiotx

@Thrashy

But don't post it in the Character section until it's actually complete.

[Thrashy]

@Dinh AaronMk

Nation is finished and awaiting approval.

Koraha

Faction
Koraha

Race
Human (Iwi)
Iwi are considered short and robust. They have slanted eyes and olive skin. Iwi hair is straight and thick and varies from dark brown to coal black in color. Common eye colors are green and brown, and in a few rare cases ice blue.

Location


Backstory-History
The Iwi are an ancient nomadic people originating from the vast plains of the north. They are a conservative and warlike people and living of livestock and raiding. The valley known today as Koraha was invaded and settled by the Iwi long after the fall of the Vishput, following a whawhai (holy war) sparked by the legendary seer Whetu who in a vision saw the promise of a holy land in the mountain range. It was the third time in recorded Iwi history that a whawhai had been issued, and all the tribes united beneath the standard of the prophet. The native inhabitants of the valley were crushed by the surging horde of Iwi barbarians and are today extinct.

Once the land had been secured, however, the tribes began to quarrel for resources and power. Having been nomadic throughout their entire existence, settling down proved difficult and brought on a long period of bloodshed which has not as much ended as it has ebbed out. Officially there is no war raging in the region, but individual tribes are still feuding and skirmishes occur all the time.

There is no king or queen in Koraha. There is in fact no government at all. A multitude of Iwi tribes simply occupy the valley, and the balance of power is always changing. It is a dangerous place to be in for foreigners as the Iwi are generally aggressive and inclined towards robbery and kidnapping.

Iwi religion is animistic and full of mystery and mythology. Everything has a soul, from the smallest pebble to the largest sea. Traditional worship includes small symbolic offerings and bloody sacrifice depending on the magnitude of the request made to the spirits. There is a widespread cult among the warriors in Koraha which focuses on the capturing and binding of the souls of living beings by slaying them. The warriors believe they are made stronger by binding other powerful souls to their own.

Iwi make no difference of men and women. There are no traditions, clothes, occupations, names or behaviors associated to gender in their culture. Their language even lacks words for male and female, as it simply is not important to them. There is also no heterosexual norm among the Iwi. They love and mate with whomever they please.

[Dinh AaronMk]

I'm holding that spot for someone. So you're going to have to relocate.

[Thrashy]

I'm holding that spot for someone. So you're going to have to relocate.

@Dinh AaronMk

Location has been altered. I edited my last post.

[Dinh AaronMk]

I had to enter into deliberations with Vilage on the matter of your app. I would Gorgen if he was on, since he has people related to his own people in the region (namely in the islands south of you, and I'm holding off making an official comment until he gives me a siren app). And since concerns of avoiding random bubbles have come to me, it's probably best to say something.

The biggest issue and hole is the claimed life-style your people have. It's been four-hundred years since the collapse of the Vishput so they would have been there for about that long at least. That's more than long enough for even the most nomadic of culture to mostly adopt a life-style adapted to that region. And in an area with a defined river and so coastal and lush chances are agriculture would have been picked up, whether on their own or adapted from the "exterminated" locals.

A comparison may be drawn from the Magyar or the semi-nomadic Arabs who in settling in or conquering their respective areas (to the Magyar Hungary and the Arabs everything else). Where there was a present agricultural complex for them to adopt or even cities pockets of their society would have adapted and grown from there. In the case of the Arabs it was them adapting parts of Greek culture and using the Byzantine administrative systems from which they built their cosmopolitan, urban culture. For the Magyar it was taking over the admittedly sparse farming homesteads in the Carpathian basin where Hungary would be born.

Point being, after four hundred years nomad-ism and a food source revolving around goat herding would have fallen by the way side or would be on the way to doing so. It's not to say that it would all but disappear, since even after a thousand or more years of having a urban society the Arab populations still have their nomad roots and the Bedouin - an Arab tribe - still freely practice a nomadic lifestyle despite the transition from semi-nomadism to urbanism in their more populous family tree.

And that region having Visha influence to and having been administrated by them from below there would have been some manner of organization to keep the local above-ground populations producing for them.

[Thrashy]

@Dinh AaronMk

Excellent points.

You are perfectly right that they could or even perhaps would have developed agriculture during the time they have spent settled. Mind you, they have not been there since the fall of the Vishput, but came there long after (as stated in the application). It is also noted that they are very conservative and, although not spelled out directly, xenophobic. Adopting customs from a people they readily defeated and perhaps considered weak does not seem likely to a culture like that.

I do however wish to satisfy you and am ready to meet you halfway. I could add a paragraph about some tribes recently turning to agriculture or something. Would that be enough?

EDIT

I also believe gorgenmast refers in his post to the archipelago with the volcanic island in the northwest, whereas I am in the northeast. We are nowhere near eachother.

[Chapatrap]

Ohai, Googer joined.

Dammit, we need more west coast humans.

[Vilageidiotx]

I was thinking about the religious structure of this world and was thinking: Should we whip up a Visha religion so that we have a common basis to work with? I had considered mentioning generally accepted deities in posts, but I doubt they would stick if it were just something I did. It might help to unify the storyline