Drunken Conquistador

Warhammer 40k: First into the field and the last out of it! - An Imperial Guard RP [CLOSED]

Gotta say I was going for a Romanian vibe with my char :p

Warhammer 40k: First into the field and the last out of it! - An Imperial Guard RP [CLOSED]

Name: Anton Ilia
Age: 26
Gender: Male
Former Profession: Gamekeeper
Rank: Private
Specialisation: Marskman

Warhammer 40k: First into the field and the last out of it! - An Imperial Guard RP [CLOSED]

I should have something by tomorrow

Takanis - A Dark Fantasy Nation RP

Name of Nation: Usharid Sultanate

Species: Humans form the bulk of the population and are the dominant “species”. Besides humanity, The Usharid also counts with a couple of notable Surabhi enclaves in the hinterlands. Which mostly exist to provide the Sultanate with specialist heavy infantry.

Culture and Society:

The Usharid Sultanate is a young nation though its components are as old as its venerable neighbors. The Usharid tribes who have long dwelled in the desert hinterlands and the Hijarki peoples who made their home in the fertile coastal highlands.

The Usharid themselves have been shaped by their eons in the desert. A culture of traders, raiders and survivalists, deeply immersed into the cult of Ushar, the god who created and named their people, and his priests. Whose powers bring forth springs from the depths of the earth and create oasis of life within the arid wastes of their ancestral homeland.

To the Usharids, Ushar embodies the quintessential virtues a man should hold. a stern but caring father, even handed and wise. Willing to dish out terrible punishments when the situation calls for it but reward greatly as deserved. Below Ushar are the angels, his direct servants and emissaries. Some are named and are associated with a particular virtue, profession or aspect, a trend that has gained steam ever since the creation of the Sultanate and the conquest of the Hijarki coast. An astute observer might even find undeniable similarities between the newest canonical angels and some deities of the Hijarki pantheon.

Ushar’s clergy is one that remains partly nomadic. Before the establishment of the Sultanate, temples were few and far between and most Usharid priests took apprentices at their own leisure, moving through tribes and oasis as they deemed necessary. The conquest of the coastline and the increased urbanization of the Usharid peoples over the last two generations, however, led to an increased hierarchization and organization within the Usharid clergy. Sponsored by successive Sultans, these reforms reshaped and expanded the structure of the Usharid orthodoxy. Several bloody purges and religious conflicts ensured that the Sultanate would, for the most part, follow this lead. Though several heresies still persist the further one goes from the capital and the coast. Besides greater religious structure, the new orthodoxy is also responsible for ensuring that the vast wealth of Usharid tribal lore could finally be collected and written down.

On the other hand, the Hijarkis that inhabit the coast are for the most part a polytheistic people. Worshiping a pantheon headed by Tarun, the Mountain Father. The Hijarki faith is a heavily paternalistic religion and shares a few more similarities with the Usharid faith, which may speak of shared origins or mere osmosis due to proximity. The religion isn’t officially persecuted by the Sultanate, that officially isn’t interested in mass conversions either, as the infidel populations are more heavily taxed than proper Usharids. But the simple fact that the apparatus of state is controlled entirely by Usharids or the occasional Hijarki convert means that the stream of conversions, though not overwhelming, has been a constant fixture ever since the early days of the Sultanate.
The societal pyramid, in simple terms, has the Sultan at its top. Below him is the aristocracy, who hold and rule lands in his name in exchange of military service and the clergy. Below them are the commoners, with merchants and skilled artisans and craftsmen above the mass. And then there are the slaves, household servants and bonded labor whose lives depend entirely on their masters and who have little if any legal protection. Criminals, prisoners of war, debtors, victims of raids and the like.

Despite its rather feudal nature, the Sultanate does counts with a state bureaucracy. Though it can be considered rather small and underdeveloped when compared to the massive Imperial structures used by some of its neighbors, being entirely under the control of whichever aristocrat rules over the region. A system that has been created and used by the Hijarki themselves for centuries before, adopted by the early Usharid Sultans who did not deem the simple and often haphazard system of tribal organization good enough to rule over their new and greater state.

As fitting for their origins as desert dwellers, water holds an important place within Usharid culture. Protecting the tribe’s water supply and ensuring everyone gets a fair share is one of the most important parts of a leader’s duty, and the strongest Usharid priests have long mastered the art of drawing water from the depths of the earth, making them well sought individuals all across the Sultanate. Engineering has also been long used to sate the people’s thirst, with the construction of Qanats and large reservoirs to provide for the masses.

Among the Usharid settlers in the coastline, who have access to the Sultanate’s most fertile and irrigated land, the practice has become merely ceremonial. While the creation of sumptuous wet gardens has become something of a statement of power and wealth for the wealthy.

The Hijarkis, original inhabitants of the coast, are a people far more versed in agriculture, construction, metallurgy and sailing. Their fertile highlands and mountains providing the Sultanate with the bulk of its food and a bounty of lumber and mineral resources. Their conquerors now exploiting their talents for all that they are worth. The old Hijarki warrior nobility irreparably crippled by the Usharid invasion and subsequent rebellions took out a vital chunk of pre war Hijarki society, coupled with the loss of independence and a considerable share of its material and cultural heritage due to the devastation wrought by the Usharids, this has guided the remaining intelligentsia into melancholy in the immediate aftermath of the Usharid conquest. Which led, surprisingly, to a new Hijarki arts renaissance. Deprived of their role as warriors for the first time in generations, the remaining Hijarki nobility turned to the arts and later, bureaucracy and administration.

History:

Territorial Claims:

Economy:

Army

The army is organized along feudal lines. The lords hold land on the condition they raise their Junds to fight alongside the Sultan. These forces are raised from among their lands and generally vary in size and composition as no two lords rule over the exact same kind of land. Its the role of the bureaucracy to keep updated tabs on the state of these estates so that the central government can know exactly how big of a contribution each noble can provide, and together with army inspectors, ensure that they don't try to eschew their duties to the crown.

Many of these aristocrats, both Usharids and the remaining Hijarki landowners, also count with their own mass production workshops within their lands. Allowing them to not only arm their troops to a decent extent but also to make additional profit by arming the levies of the lesser nobles who can't.

Besides the landed nobility, the desert tribes are also obliged to provide military support to the Sultanate. To ensure that the rosters are kept up to date, inspectors are placed upon major oasis in the desert, places where the semi nomadic tribesmen will surely stop at one point in their wanderings. This system is not as effective as the one that deals with the nobility but it nevertheless does well enough for its purpose in providing manpower for the Sultan, especially excellent light cavalry and skirmishers.

Navy:

Traits

-Barren Land: Most of the territory controlled by the Sultanate is composed of deserts and dry lands. Survival is possible there, and many tribe still dwell in this vast territory as they did before the Sultanate rose, as nomads and semi nomads travelling through a circuit of oasis through the seasons. But that life is a harsh one, where there is little time for anything else than worrying about survival.

-Learning from the betters: The Usharids are not above copying from others. The Sultanate was built on the foundations of Hijarki administration and bureaucracy and ever since then, the sons of Ushar haven't grown too prideful to admit that they have yet much to learn from others. Such as the traders coming from the divided lands of the Old Empire to the east.

Foreign Relations:

Rolls

Land Area: 11
Land Fertility: 3 (+4) = 7
Development: 12 (swapped with Magical Reserves): 16
Land Power: 19 (+1) = 20
Naval Power: 13
Economy: 16
Magical Reserves: 16 (swapped with development) : 12
Magical Sophistication: 8

Tech trees

Into the Abyss - Suicidal empires at the ends of time

I have some tentative interest

Takanis - A Historically Inspired Fantasy NRP

USHARID SULTANATE
The capital city of Al-Dourem.

Al-Dourem was the jewel of the Usharid crown, an entirely new city built near the abandoned Hijarki metropolis of Tar-Vamir. Not that one would notice it with a simple survey of the region. The Usharid conquerors were incredibly efficient in reusing what material was available in the ruins and destroying the rest. Leaving Tar-Vamir to inhabit solely the realm of history. Subsequent generations of Usharid Sultans and magnates spared no cost or effort in further building up Al-Dourem. The city was, after all, theirs from the beginning. Built from the ground up by the former desert nomads and not simply another urban area subjugated and colonized.

Not to say that the city's layout and architecture is utterly devoid of foreign influences, for the Usharid themselves have no hesitation when it comes to adopting concepts and ideas if it benefits them. And if one were to look closely, the influence of Hijarki, Surabhumi, Neferher and even Kera-Bijani styles had on Al-Dourem. But for once, the Usharid managed adapt and build upon instead of merely copying what their "civilized" neighbors already possessed.

Architecture, however, was far from the minds of the great potentates gathered in one of the Sultan's sumptuous solar rooms.

Grim news from the far east had once again made Sultan Ishaq gather his trusted councilors (or at least which ones still remained in the capital) for another round of emergency meetings.

"This pact will not hold for long." Spoke short and stocky Grand Vizier Tawus as he paced the length of the -now empty- musician's platform. "It won't. There can be no lasting peace between Sanghara and Surabhumi."

"It will hold long enough." Prince Kasim, sprawled atop the pillowed divan, countered. "Too much work has gone into it. And the way news travel." He shrugged. "The armies are already on the move. For all we know, the fighting has already started." He paused to pop another grape into his mouth. "Barring a miracle, the small realms of the Far East will fall. Only then will Sanghara and Surabhumi turn on each other. As they often do"

"The shift in the balance of power might prove disastrous." Spoke the goat-like Emir Rubbayat. Propping himself on his hands as he rose up from the veritable nest of feathery pillows he had built over the course of the meeting. "But for all that a decisive victor in the Far East might influence us, the real danger lays much closer."

"Anahama." The Sultan added. "The Mountain Realm also claims overlordship over all the former Empire. With both Sanghara and Surabumi busy for the foreseeable future, and most likely soon to fight each other again, there's no great power at hand to stop them from striking out against Ikkam, Jabpu or the other lesser nations."

"Surely you dont believe Anahama can overcome all the might of the region, father?" Kasim asked as grape juice ran down his chin.

"It doesnt matters. Whether Anahama wins or not, the entire balance of power will be uspet." Sultan Ishaaq replied grimly. "Cities razed, fields salted, armies slain, nations toppled. Anahama marching to war will upend the whole region."

"That's not even thinking of what those fanatics of Kera-Bijan might do." Rubbayat sighed, leaning over to grap a succulent tangerine from the bowl by his pillow fortress. "No matter what action we pursue, we must always keep wary eyes to the northern desert."

"Let them come!" Kasim shouted suddenly, sending the plate of grapes tumbling into the floor in his excitement. "Those inbred savages are no match for our steel. Slaying a few of their hosts ought to teach those arrogant fanatics to stay away from our lands."

"If they come, then we shall fight them." The Sultan replied evenly, as he often did when his firstborn got into one of his boastful moods. "But it will do us no good if we set out seeking a fight. We are already maligned as it is. Besides, we can't afford to have our attention diverted if war does starts to our immediate east."

"So are we simply to stand and watch?" Kasim frowned. "Like scared merchants clutching our purses at the thought of raiders riding over the dunes?"

"We prepare." The Sultan replied as he moved closer to the center of the room. "I have already sent emissaries to assess the readiness of the Junds. Call upon our agents and spies for information, specially on the happenings to our east." The Sultan paused, looking over the room to ensure he had everyone's attention. "Soon, emissaries shall depart to Perishem and Mihajla, to offer terms and seek treaties to secure our western border and our seas."

"Which kind of terms?" Kasim interrupted.

"Favorable trade deals, more promises of friendship and non aggression, gifts, a coalition to drive away piracy from our shared sea lanes." Grand Vizier Tawus replied, giving the Prince an annoyed look.

"I've talked with your brother, son." The Sultan spoke up. "He has agreed to take one of their ladies as wife, should they prove amenable to the idea. And your daughters are old enough to marry. It would please me greatly and render our people a great service if you were willing to consider offering their hands to them, should the opportunity arise in the future."

Kasim remained silent for a few moments, weariness clear in his handsome bearded face, before finally relenting with a nod.

"Thank you, my son." Ishaaq smiled. "These coming months will demand much of us all. We shouldn't shirk from our duties."

Unheroic: A Second Chance [ENDED]

This looks like a pretty interesting concept. Is it still open?

Era of Strife: The Eternal War of Saqquar (Or a medieval-style RP about a civil-war)

Interested. Will get a sheet in a couple hours

Edit: is there a sheet where we can find more of the established lote? Cultures, geography and the like?

Warhammer 40k: Platoon (Back to Basics) - An Only War/ Imperial Guard RP [CLOSED!]

I guess its time to bayonet some robots then.



COME AT ME, XENO!

Takanis - A Historically Inspired Fantasy NRP

USHARID SULTANATE

WIP

Name of Nation: The Usharid Sultanate

Species: Humans

Culture and Society:

Fierce lands breed a fierce people, or so the saying goes. It was true for a thousand different peoples through history and it was true for the Usharids. The Desert Fathers and other learned folk speak of the first Usharids being created out of the desert sand by Abtum, the Spirit of the Desert and the one and only god of the Usharid tribes.

Abtum gave the people a strict set of rules to his children. Rules to ensure that the tribes would give Him and His physical body (the desert) the deserved respect. And to ensure that the tribes lived in righteousness and piety. As any proper man should.

And so the tribes lived for eons. Respecting the holy places, honoring elders and the Desert Fathers, giving God His deserved offerings and prayers whilst striking down heretics and apostates with extreme prejudice. Living according to the means the land afforded them and ensuring that no foreign taint would take root upon the billowing dunes.

That system worked smoothly for who knows how many thousand years. All around the desert empires rose and fell, races grew powerful and withered all the while the Usharid tribes lived as their ancestors, taking whatever changes the outside world threw at them in stride. Adopting whatever they thought was useful and shunning the supposedly superfluous. Fighting whoever sought to impose their will upon their lands and occasionally venturing beyond the sand dunes for plunder and loot, either as raiders or mercenaries.

The conquest of Hijark broke this placid equilibrium. Suddenly, the Usharids were not only an unified people, but they had also expanded beyond their original homeland, finding themselves ruling over a large amount of settled people, the Hijarkis. The Usharids changed, or were changed by their new circumstances.

The modern Usharid Sultanate is still a land in flux. As the new generations grow knowing nothing of the old days of Hijark or the tribal confederations save what they learn from their elders.

The Usharids still make up most of the ruling elite. But instead of silken tents, they now inhabit perfumed palaces and countryside estates. Many of them even having Hijarki blood themselves, on account of Jibal’s policy of intermarriage. These children grew into an increasingly mixed culture. That although still calls itself Usharid and pays homage to Abtum and his scriptures, also has undeniably been impacted by their new wealthier and settled lifestyle.

The Hijarkis experienced their own share of changes imposed by their new overlords. Though the framework many of the old Kingdom’s institutions and organizations survived the Usharid conquest, many others didn’t or were irreparably damaged. Old mage guilds were suppressed and hunted down for resisting the Usharid invasion. Many temples, shrines and libraries were looted and razed during the invasion itself and in the suppression of the many rebellions that followed while the old warrior aristocracy that ruled Hijark was gutted. Meanwhile, cities and the coastal plains were filled with bands of Usharid tribesmen, eager to leave behind the harsh dunes for an easier life on the coast. But even then, this influx of tribesmen wasn’t enough to replace the native Hijarkis, who to this day still make up the majority of the Sultanate’s population.

The remnants of the Hijarki warrior aristocracy still cling to whatever power they managed to preserve. Mostly by ingratiating themselves with their new overlords and working within the new system. A far cry from the heights of their power in the previous centuries. Not only have they been subjugated by a new, stronger force but now they also need to compete with a new, growing class of bureaucrats and government officials raised from Hijarki and mixed race burghers and merchants. Who have become vital to the running of the Sultanate.

And last, but not least, there are those Usharids who still inhabit their ancestral homeland. Being either too poor and lacking the political and blood connections to earn themselves estates in Hijarki lands or simply choosing to remain in the desert for one reason or the other. Some of these chieftains look to the developments in the Sultanate with some concern, for they too can see how their ancestral desert has fallen behind, relegated to a backwater within the very nation that carries its name. Ruled by their supposed kin, who grows increasingly foreign with each passing generation. Distancing itself from the land and ways that originally gave them the strength to seize the lofty palaces and green fields they now lord over. Still, these men are few, and yet lacking the power to do much besides grumbling and whispering to those of their coastal kin who still stubbornly cling to their ancestral ways.

History:

The Usharid Sultanate is a young nation, specially by the standards of the region. Surrounded by nations and empires who can claim long centuries or even millennia of history, the Sultanate’s less than two centuries certainly pale in comparison.

The Sultanate’s tale with a blood feud, as many tales in the desert are won’t to do. When Ali ibn Tariq of the Lazash tribe gutted Zaffura bint Hassam of the Rubyat tribe in the middle of Aqquba Oasis’ bazaar because the trader supposedly sold him spoiled meat. The Rubyats, understandably, were incensed by the murder, and claimed that Ali had killed Zaffura to avoid paying his large debt to her.

The two tribes soon took the issue to the dunes, as usual. This little spat would’ve been just one among many in the Usharid’s long story of inter tribal warfare if not for the fact that the Lazash tribe, smaller and poorer than their foes by a considerable margin, called upon the help of their kinsmen of the Turraq tribe. At the time led by young Salman Ibn Ayyub.

Salman, eager to make a name for himself among the tribes of the desert, eschewed the traditional tactics of endless skirmishing among the sands and ritual combat between champions to instead strike directly at the Rubyat’s camps and the oasis where they sought shelter, usually held as neutral ground in Usharid culture. Winning the war with great displays of tactical acumen and personal bravery, but also committing a terrible taboo in the eyes of the other Usharid tribes. Salman had been too aggressive, too bloodthirsty in his campaign, a small blood feud was not enough justification to eschew the traditional ways of fighting. To burn homes and disrupt the sacredness of the oasis settlements and neutral grounds.

Still, Salman’s victory earned him some prestige and respect from other tribes. Enough to garner him some allies for more campaigns against other tribes. Age old enemies of the Turraqs or merely convenient targets. In the span of a few years, Salman had managed to establish a sizable tribal confederation with him and his tribes at its head. Such organizations weren’t unheard of in Usharid history. After all, it only took an ambitious warlord of foreign threat to unite at least some of the tribes. The difference between Salman and those previous warlords, however, was that Salman flaunted the ancient customs and traditions of the tribes. Not only when it came to warfare but religion too. Abandoning the proper worship of Abtum for the faith of Ishareth and going as far as declaring that he would spread his “True Faith” to all the corners of the Usharid realm.

That was the final straw for many who until then had stayed out of Salman’s way out of fear or apathy. Conquering warlords came and went in the desert, but apostasy could not be tolerated. This new coalition rallied under Umar Ibn Ali, chief of the Raidus tribe.

Umar was neither the wealthiest nor the strongest of the chieftains who rose up to challenge Salman. But he was a pious man leading a notoriously pious tribe. His strict observance of Abtum’s commandments made him the natural choice for their leader. And thus, he was named Caliph, commander of the faithful, by the Desert Fathers.

The religious nature of the conflict sapped Salman’s strength. Many of his allies and subjects refused to fight by his side or even defected to Umar’s army. The Desert Fathers, the only organized order of mages in the Usharid lands, also pledged their full support towards Umar’s cause. Still, Salman was a commander of unmatched skill at the time, and his own warriors were mighty veterans, experienced and ruthless fighters.

The Salmanid Apostasy lasted around 6 years. As able commander the Apostate was, he proved himself unable to defeat the powerful coalition in detail before it could fully mobilize its forces against him. Salman himself died at the end of the fourth year of the war, alongside with most of his army. With the rest of the conflict being spent chasing down the last dregs of his partisans and kin, purging them with grievous prejudice and destroying every last trace of the foreign religion upon the Usharid lands.

Umar himself would not live long to enjoy the prestige and adoration of having had purged the Apostates root and stem, but his firstborn, Jibal would do so spectacularly. Wielding the disparate alliance first into a loose confederation and gradually bringing all the tribes under his wing. The culmination of Jibal’s work came with the conquest of Hijark.

Realizing that in due time, every tribal confederation was prone to splintering, Jibal knew that if his work were to outlive him, the Usharid tribes would need to evolve beyond their current means. They would need institutions and structure. And most importantly, outside threats to keep the tribesmen united. And so, with that in mind, Jibal turned his eyes to the Kingdom of Hijark. A prosperous settled realm that controlled the fertile lands hugging the coastline southern of the Usharid desert.

Provoking the settled realm into war by incessant raiding and harassment of caravans, Jibal gained the outside threat necessary to rally the desert warriors. And so the great Usharid horde stormed south, giving battle to the mercenaries and levies of Hijark and breaking them in seven great battles over the course of three years. And thus, at the dawn of the fourth year of the conflict, Jibal Ibn Umar al-Raidus was declared Sultan, by the jubilant Desert Fathers over the burn ruins of Hijark chief city. And thus the Usharid Sultanate was born.

Jibal spent the next two decades of his life tirelessly working to turn the loose tribal confederation he ruled into a proper, “modern” realm. Work that more often than not involved coopting already existing Hijarki structures and institutions.

Territorial Claims:



Economy:

Army:

Navy:

Traits:

Foreign Relations:

Rolls:

Land Area: 11
Land Fertility: 3 (+4) = 7
Development: 12 (swapped with Magical Reserves): 16
Land Power: 19 (+1) = 20
Naval Power: 13
Economy: 16
Magical Reserves: 16 (swapped with development) : 12
Magical Sophistication: 8
Other: