House Jirmin Ruled by Ormand Jirmin, Duke of Pimmin. The Duke is a kind old man of 65, known for his lenience with the peasantry. He is however not known for being brave or eager to do battle, having earned him the nickname “Duke Delay” among his less friendly acquaintances. The Duke lost his wife and children to sickness a few years ago, but his younger sister Sasha, 45, still lives.
The Jirmins are beloved and respected by their people, and are in turn loyal to the crown. They have never given cause for discord, although they have never really committed to any military campaign. There are rumors circulating about the Dukes sister Sasha, claiming she is heavily indebted to one of the more prominent merchant guilds.
House Ulisse Ruled by Nadiege Ulisse, Duchess of Juriba. The Duchess is a woman of 55 years of age and is known all across the realm as a potent politician and ruler. Her family consists of her husband Jean, 56, and their two daughters Queen Tamrie Louzbain and her younger sister Sabine.
The Ulisses are known for their great independence. The Duchess is a hard woman with the needs of her people foremost in mind. They are loyal to the crown and have proven that loyalty many times, but some say that if push comes to shove the Duchess will choose Juriba over Operian. Let me know if anything's off. I'm keen to get this right.
Seems good boss. Better than any vassals I could make really.
@Aristo And given the size and proximity of your nation, it would be in Öspa's interest to establish good relations with Xiang. Xiang also appears to have a strong military with big ass ships and good troops---which Öspa obviously doesn't want on its shores. Plus, Xiang is an agricultural center---given that Öspa has to import much of its produce due to its rough climate, it would make sense to establish a dedicated trading partner like the Xiang. Perhaps some of the "massive ships" which you have as your Military Trait could've been built by the shipbuilding firms of Port Skova? They regularly take out big orders.
If you're cool a marriage alliance I totally am. Makes a lot of sense. However, I would probably have to RP as her given that she's the head of the Regency Council and thus the nominal head of state.
@The Omnipotent Sphere I think Öspa would ally with Jura for the same reasons---agricultural center, big army, wants a good trading partner, etc., etc. I wrote about a Princess Kélse who was married off to a "distant kingdom"---maybe as a marriage to one of the lesser princes of Jura? How do the Jurans feel about marriage to people who aren't converted to the Light yet?
Name: Dela Ah Mons. (Usually translated to 'Men of the Woods') Flag:
Capital and Major Settlements: Yggdrasil - Capital, built around a gigantic tree, with the Royal Palace actually inside it. Bifrost - A town on the border that deals with traders and the rare admittance into the lands. Ruler and Royal Family: Vaera Kabal - Queen of the Forest Vannozza Kabal - Heir to the Forest. Leader of the Reavers. People/s: Elves make up the majority of this nation, but there are a few small pockets of other races who have been allowed the settle down. Kingdom Traits: (Custom) Wary of Outsiders: Forget spreading dissent, it is difficult to even get into the nation, as the border is patrolled and anyone trying to sneak in is shot without warning or question. This makes spying and gathering intel very difficult.
(Custom) Well Adapted: While some would have trouble traversing the endless forests, and the lack of roads of any sort of landmark, the Men of the Woods move with ease, crossing dense undergrowth like it was a casual countryside stroll, avoiding all the hazards that a less intune man would stumble into.
(Custom) Always dark and cold: There is not much Sun to be found in the northern forests, especially at Winter. What little gets through the canopy does little to light up the forest floor, or take away from the bite in the air - something known to the Men of the Woods as 'Lazy Wind', when the wind can not be bothered to go around someone, and so simply goes threw them. While the Men of the Woods can bare it in summer, and wear specially crafted coats in the winter, it can be a severe problem for those not used to a 24 hour cold.
(Custom) Watch your Step: The leaves that cover the ground can hide roots, that make trip a man or Lame a horse, or it may just disturb a nest of insects that take their revenge. And all this is when the Men of the Woods are not putting down traps...
Military Traits: Masters of ambush Good archers Trained troops (Custom) Wilderness Logistics: From training and experience, all but the Green recruits know exactly how to survive in harsh cold of winter - and the slightly less harsh cold of summer - even when supplies grow thin, and can move large numbers across the roughest of ground with minimal problems. Good equipment (Custom) Shadow Warriors: A flutter in the night, and then an arrow in the gullet is what any invading armies sentries can expect. Anything can happen, at any time, and it is not necessarily limited to a few men.
Trade Traits: Agriculture (Custom) Wooden Wonders: Anything wood that comes out of this nation is guaranteed to be a masterpiece, be it a simple idol, or large furniture and even wagons.
Flaws: (Custom) Fortification?: The Men of the Woods do not have any walls, or palisades, or anything that could be classed as making a settlement fortified. Terrible boats Even your horses look weak (Custom) Bottle-necked Trade: There is only one place to trade in this nation, and that is Bifrost. Such restrictions can cause the flow of goods coming in or going out to be hampered. Culture: The Men of the Woods believe that each tree is an ancestor, and since they bury their dead with a scattering of for oak, ash or yew, this may have some truth to it. However, this does not mean that they are impractically devout about the wellbeing of the trees, but trees are felled in a controlled manner, and new ones are planted in replacement. Fire is controlled, and used mainly for cooking food, since most of the Men of the Woods do not feel the cold as most would. There are Fire Huts were the elderly and the young are kept when Winter comes around, but in summer nobody pays much mind to the weather.
Each village is independent, but can also seek help from others if they need it, and all bring their grievances to Yggdrasil, where the Queen holds her court. Some are on the forest floor, and others create small hamlets in the imagery of Yggdrasil, there elders housed in a large tree that is no where near as magnificent as Yggdrasil, but still good as trees go. A few even combine the two, since there is no official ruling as to how a Man of the Woods should life. Despite their name, they have no set casts, and many women are Hunters and Gatherers, while many men are cooks and tailors. However, regardless of their role in life, every Man of the Woods can wield a bow with a degree of skill. Quite a few leave it at being able to simply pick up a bow if needs must, but others prefer to take their skills higher, and become the Hunter-Warriors. This group trains vigorously, and provides the capital of Yggdrasil with it's meat in peace time, but also lend their bows to the drums of war when one gets it in their mind to try and invade.
From these Hunter-Warriors is drawn a special unit, led by the Heir to the Forest, and called the Reavers. They act as a Royal Guard and police force in times of peace, but when war comes down to the forests, they take up their bows and move along the tree tops in deathly silence, looking for those who obviously desire to pursue a new life as a pin-cushion. The greatest bows and finest arrows belong to this sect, as does a meshed emotion of admiration and wariness. These are the Reavers that drop Deaths Head berries into the water supply, and put holes in the food supplies so that rats gorge themselves on the newly spread contents.
Military: The Men of the Woods are a rather unorthodox army. Horses do not belong in the terrain, and there are scarce clearings to allow open battles with flashing swords and roaring men. Anyone with that kind of thought would find their weapon buried in a tree as often as a person. Instead, they are equip mostly with bows and short daggers, and let fly with pin-point precision while the enemy stumble around the same square mile they have been lost in for the last couple of days, occasionally finding bodies of their dead as they cross their own tracks. In the unlikely event that the invading army does not freeze at night, get lost and starve, or are simply whittled down to breaking point and run away, they may find one of the small hamlets. In which case, the civilians still at home with scramble up the nearest tree and start shooting them full of arrows. The Men of the Woods are a in essence very good at using the terrain to their advantage, and the Reavers are the spectres that spread death and fear, to 'convince' outsiders they need to go home. However, they would not do very well if they decided to go out and invade someone else, somewhere with warm weather, a good view distance, and flat ground for calvary. Economy: The Men of the Woods are semi-sufficient by themselves, and only need to import a small amount of food to support themselves. Mostly, this food is sea-based since they have very little interest in what is not on dry land. Bifrost is the only city to have an actual currency, since the rest of the nation work off bartering one thing for another, and trust each other to be honorable in the trade. This means that Bifrost can have several different currencies on hand at one time, as well as a large deal of goods, both large and small at any one time. Reputation: The Men of the Woods are seen by as barbarians and uncivilized creatures that would not know even basic courtesy. The Town of Bifrost, is considered by the outsiders to be very much away from the culture of it's host nation, to the point some believe it is meant to be on the other side of the border. However, the truth is rather esoteric, and most that manage to get into the woods rarely come out again, wither it is the fresh - if rather brisk - air or the freedom that is given, nobody knows. But books about these people are slim, while the rumors of whatever they are up to could fill volumes. Some of it is even true. History: The nomads who, in ages past, found Yggdrasil where amazed by it's size and magnificence. They saw it as a sign to settle near the tree, and so a small hamlet built up over the years. Eventually, a single woman was born, with the presence and natural ability to Command. She led the nomads to take control of the entire forests in the north, and was eventually crowned as their Queen, taking court in the giant tree that her home was around. From this, the Men of the Woods put down roots all over, losing a dominant control, but gaining a relationship with the trees around them. Several queens passed, and then one of them had a great idea to make the forest grow even more, so that they, who controlled the woods, would expand their lands without actually having to invade anywhere. This culture endured until the present day, with the actual meaning behind it lost into the sands of time.
The Men of the Woods did not have the fire and the bloodthirst to have wars with others, so for the most part it has been a quiet and peaceful place to live. THis does not mean that they trust anyone out there, however, and so they train hard and strong each generation so they may fend off those who seek to harm their lands, while also growing as a people. Misc: (add anything that isn't covered by the rest of the NS)
@Thrashy This is just an idea: What if we could send you a few actions our nations were in the process of taking in the season before the IC begins and you give us the results so we can implement them in our first posts, just so we can maybe start off with existing activity. Something I notice about a lot of NRPs is that the nations usually appear to have been static and then the IC starts and ten nations all jump into activity at once, if we had some existing plans in action it would give us more to work with at the beginning phase.
@Thrashy This is just an idea: What if we could send you a few actions our nations were in the process of taking in the season before the IC begins and you give us the results so we can implement them in our first posts, just so we can maybe start off with existing activity. Something I notice about a lot of NRPs is that the nations usually appear to have been static and then the IC starts and ten nations all jump into activity at once, if we had some existing plans in action it would give us more to work with at the beginning phase.
@The Omnipotent Sphere I'd actually like to take this opportunity to raise a question: is there going to be any shared religions between our kingdoms? I think it would be realistic with an island of the size of Seyan that there would be some overlap or some form of shared religious/cultural heritage...but if not, here's the lowdown on religion in Öspa.
This what I have so far: in modern Öspa, direct worship of the old shamanistic gods is on the way out. While the regime hasn't outlawed it---and probably won't, as there is a sizable minority who do practice the old ways, particularly on Bildsfelln---the vast majority of Öspaín have begun to practice a "new" religion, which I haven't really worked on yet, but which is influenced in equal parts by old shamanistic practices and new practices from the continent (i.e. similar to the conversion of the Nordic nations in the Dark Ages to Christianity, though this religion will not be an analogue of Christianity). However, freedom of religion is state policy, in order to accommodate the growing number of immigrants to Öspa, and as a courtesy to their trading partners who regularly send merchants to do business in Öspa. It is entirely possible, I think, that there is a small population of Juran immigrants, though as you said they don't often venture out of the homeland.
The stance of the royal family is becoming more and more ambivalent and obviously changing. The royal line are considered direct descendants of Öspad the Arbiter, the "founding father" of the nation and a figure couched in mythic significance by the shamanistic community. Öspad is considered a lesser god, I suppose, and there are many legends of him having been advised by the gods on his journey to unite the disparate tribes of the islands. Thus, the king is kind of the ur-role to the shamans, who purport that the drop of divine blood in the veins of the royalty gives them mythical prowess, the ability to look into the future and to re-live events of the path, and their role has a special magnetism that keeps the nation together. That's why during the War of the Succession, the shamans prophesied the end of the nation---it was kind of a cataclysmic event to them, and they predicted that the new dynasty would cause ruination. They were seriously superstitious about it, and many communities migrated to the less-populated islands, fearing that the gods themselves would wreak a holocaust upon the land. Of course, that didn't happen---the nation has held together, and the Siglunes have brought Öspa into a new era of prosperity. Some hypothesize that this is the reason for the gradual death of the shamanistic tradition---this was the test of the potency of their gods and mythos and it kind of turned out to be a fluke, and the shaman class was humiliated. Others purport that since the ascendance of House Siglune, the Öspaín have grown less and less insular---the shamanism is highly community-based, and the sense of Öspaín "community" has rapidly expanded in the period of three-hundred odd years. Thus, the death of shamanism could be said to be a product of expansion and the wholesale adoption of foreign cultural elements into Öspaín culture.
However, that is not to say that the Öspaín are not proud of their traditions. Shamanism has left its wake on social and community structures, in naming conventions, on holidays, on the calendar---the culture is still recuperating from the rejection of shamanistic practices and thus still retains some of the structures of a shamanistic culture. Thus, to the un-attuned eye, it might appear that Öspa is still shamanistic, even though a majority of the population are no longer practicing.
The same goes for the royal family. The royal "pageantry" is still couched in shamanistic motifs and symbolism---the throne room is adorned with arrases depicting events from myth, and the throne itself is carved of the wood of Öspad's bjali boat and decorated with the myth of the creation of the world. But the fact of the matter is that, even though the royal family has much mythical significance, they themselves are either ambivalent on the issue of faith, or have converted to other faiths. The status quo is changing and thus they are still unsure as to where they should stand. Thus, it is entirely possible that a roving priest from Jura managed to convert Princess Kélse to the Light, and maybe even some of the other members of the household. At least at this point in Öspa's history, for the royal family it's kind of an "anything goes" situation. Make sense?
Sorry if that was kind of long :|
EDIT: Forgot about Holtlí. She is basically the creator god to the shamanistic tradition of Öspa. The bear-shamans who were exiled to the forests in Bildsfelln were exiled not because of some crazy practices, but because they fetishized Holtlí as the one-true-god, while the others even within the shamanistic tradition were lesser---a political move by Öspad. So basically they practiced a form of henotheism I suppose. Anyway, in mainstream shamanistic practice, she is revered just as much as other gods, though as she is the goddess of the waves it is common, even with the new religion, to burn a votive candle for her before embarking on a voyage. Another leftover of the shamanistic tradition. It is also possible that she is incorporated in some nominal form into the new religion, just gotta work on developing that a bit.
My plan was to have the ethnic peoples of the Xiang originate off-continent and arrive some thousand years ago; what we could call the setting's early antiquity. Since then, numerous dynasties have expanded westward from the shoreline, either driving out or subjugating those in the way. Haven't decided whether the expansions have been peaceful or more like conquests. In any case, the current Xiang Dynasty has ruled for a generation or two.
@Aristo Given their military traits, particularly Siege Genius, it sounds like they would have been conquests. Otherwise, when did they learn to be Siege Geniuses, right?
@babbysama If you incorporate a Sun-God(ess) into the traditional Öspain deities, we can give that god and the Juran Goddess a shared theological origin in distant history. That would also allow me to use some of Öspa's culture as my nation's own theological background which was phased out during the violent rise of the Light.
