Raylah

The Dawn of the Civilization (Stone age tribal NRP)

@gowia Of course. I like it, you are accepted! :)

The Dawn of the Civilization (Stone age tribal NRP)

@Irredeemable Feel free to create some NPC tribes if you want to, not sure if the hippie tribes will be eager to fight :D

The Dawn of the Civilization (Stone age tribal NRP)

Also anyone with approved tribe feel free to start posting into IC.
I will wait about a week before I start with the story, so all is well and peaceful for now.

The Dawn of the Civilization (Stone age tribal NRP)

The sun was rising above the riverbank, the first beams of sunlight touching the waters of the great river. As most mornings, Kiala was sitting at the edge of the floating construction, her eyes closed as she enjoyed the sun, her feet submerged in the water. This was her daily moment of peace, a little while she had only for herself before she had to go back to decide about the issues of the whole tribe. It will not be long until I won’t have a moment for myself anymore, she thought and smiled, softly touching her belly. She felt the baby move slightly, as in response to her thoughts. “Good morning,” she whispered to the small being inhabiting her body. “It’s just a few more weeks, my love, be patient.”

She laid back, happy and calm, her feet splashing in the water. She giggled as she felt some tiny fishes nibbling on her fingers. As Nizshi wished, all things that were no longer needed were returned to her. As a result, the floating villages were often followed by swarms of fish and flocks of various birds, all enjoying the blessings of the great river. Even the great crocodiles were hunting around, although never attacking any of the Ai’dallani, such act was unthinkable as long as the tribe was under Nizshi’s protection.

Ruuvi approached her quietly, but soft screeching of the reed on the floor gave him away. He sat down next to her, but stayed quiet, didn’t want to disturb her meditation. Kiala smiled, she didn’t even need to open her eyes to recognize him. She thought back to the last year’s ceremony, to the surprise the whole tribe felt when the voice of the river assigned him as the new Lan’Nizshi, the male spiritual leader of the tribe. While no one would ever argue with Nizshi’s decision, some were unsettled and even jealous about it. Ruuvi wasn’t special in any way, he wasn’t a strong warrior or a shaman, but the moment Kiala saw him, she knew that the spirit river had made an excellent choice, not just for the tribe, but for herself as well. She was elected for the third time and the well-being of the tribe now rested on her and her new partner.

The tradition didn’t require Lan’Nizshi and Aila’Nizshi to be together as a man and a woman, most of the elected couples spent the year living together as a brother and sister, which was accepted. After all, the great crocodile and ibis spirits were also siblings, the first children of Nizshi. Kiala was good friends with her previous partners but knew this time would be different. Luckily, Ruuvi felt the same way about her, and now she was just weeks from bring a new blessed child into the world.

“The stream is slowing,” she spoke quietly, “has the council decided where to move once the spring floods are over?”

Ruuvi laid a hand on her raised belly. “They are still arguing about it. Most the chieftains want to move upstream all the way to the forests, and Ozei is trying to convince them to stay at the lakes to the east.”

Kiala sighed and shook her head. The young chieftain seemed to always be in the opposition, no matter the subject. “What do you think?”

“They are both right. The forests would provide us with building material to make more permanent repairs. There have even been voices asking for the construction of a new village, as our numbers are growing. On the other hand, Ozei is right as well, more people need more food and clothes if we are to survive the fall and winter, when Nizshi is weaker. And the east lakes do offer much better fishing and hunting grounds. So I think that it might be wise to split the villages, at least for a few months over the summer. We can send Ozei’s and Shuvi’s poap’kis to the lakes and rest to the forests, that way we will…”

Kiala wasn’t listening to him anymore. Although the morning sun was already strong and it was warm, her body suddenly shivered and she instinctively pulled her feet out of the water, eyes widened by fear. Ruvvi leaned over her, concerned, but she pushed him away and stood up, carefully watching the surface of the water. For a moment she thought she saw something, but it must have been just the shadows playing tricks on her eyes. “It was nothing,” she whispered, more in attempt to convince herself than Ruuvi. “Just an eel in a colder undercurrent brushed up against my leg and startled me.” Her voice sounded stronger now. “Splitting the villages up is a serious decision, all chieftains must agree on it.” It wasn’t unusual and it was done once in every few cycles, when the tribe required, but this time Kiala had a very bad feeling about it.

“They probably will,” Ruuvi answered, coming closer and hugging her. “So they will be able to spend the summer away from Ozei,” he added with a smile.

Kiala managed to put a smile on her face, but still was unable to shake off the strange and ominous feeling. “That matter is up to the council to decide anyway, not us. We need to start preparing for the end of spring ceremony.” She glanced on the river one last time, one of her arms wrapped protectively around her unborn baby, but didn’t see anything unusual.

The Dawn of the Civilization (Stone age tribal NRP)

@Lady Selune Well it's not exactly in the sections, but it is really well thought out so I'll take it :) Just a reminder though to the gold and especially iron - that it would probably be just stones or raw pieces of metal picked from the ground, not in a smelted form. I can imagine that with some effort they could be able to smelt gold (even though it would not serve any practical purpose), but smelting iron is much more advanced technology.

The Dawn of the Civilization (Stone age tribal NRP)

THE OOC is up :)

@Lady Selune Please rework the sheet a bit to the new format

@Heyitsjiwon Looks great, you can move it directly into the CS tab, just please put it in a hider so it is easier to scroll around

@Ozymandias Add a few line to the "Story" part - just how your people believe the world and their tribe were created, where do they come from and why - whatever comes to your mind.

@Irredeemable Needless to say you are accepted, you can move straight to the CS tab :)

@LordZell You can still join in whenever you finish your tribe

The Dawn of the Civilization (Stone age tribal NRP)

Ai’dallani, the children of Nizsi

Name: Ai’dallani, the children of Nizsi

Brief description: Nomads travelling the river in their floating villages

Main deity: Nizsi, the great river
All life that ever was, is, and will be is a gift from Nizsi. During spring, Nizsi spreads to the country, removing the old life and seeding new life in its place. During late autumn and winter, Nizsi is weak, gathering strength for the beginning of the new cycle. Nizsi grants her children with all they need for life – food, water and protection. In exchange, all she asks is that all that came from her is returned back to her when it is no longer needed. For a child of Nizsi when their time comes, returning to her welcoming arms isn’t just a great honor – it is a necessity, the only way to be reborn again.
When Ai’dallani feel that the great river is angry, they pick several people amongst the volunteers, which then sacrifice themselves to Nizsi. During this self-sacrifice the person takes the largest stone they can lift, and jump into the water, holding the stone in their arms. It is considered the greatest honor amongst the tribe.

Side deities:
Lankushna, the crocodile spirit
Lankushna and his mate Ailinia were the first children of Nizsi. All life descends from their connection. Lankushna is the spirit of fighting and protecting. He grants Ai’dallani warriors strength and resilience, but only when they fight nearby the great river’s waters.

Ailinia, the ibis spirit
Ailinia is the spirit of family and continuation. She helps to heal wounds and cure sickness, if one is submerged into Nizsi’s waters. Every newborn child in the tribe must be bathed in the great river right after birth, so that the first thing in his life is receiving Ailinia’s blessing.

Government:
Ai’dallani have two levels of leadership – a ruling couple representing the guardian spirits and the council.
Each spring, at the start of a new lifecycle, the tribe performs a ritual to celebrate. During this ritual one man and one woman are chosen through divination as Lan’Nizsi and Aila’Nizsi – the human representatives of Lankushna and Ailinia spirits. They then live as a couple for the following year, ruling over the spiritual aspects of the tribe.
The council consists of chieftains of the seven poap’ki – the floating villages that shelter most of the tribe’s population. The chieftains are chosen from the most skilled people in the tribe, they can be the bravest warriors, the most successful hunters or fishermen, the most revered seers or healers. The council rules over the material aspects of the tribe.
Ai’dallani are friendly people, even to other tribes with different beliefs. They believe that all life, including the land-people, came from Nizsi. Whether the others believe it or not doesn’t matter – they are just blind to the truth, because they have not been in contact with the mother for generations. Ai’dallani will gladly welcome guests from other cultures, provided the guests will be respectful to their traditions.

Inhabited area and settlements:
The tribe inhabits the great river and the lakes it flows through. The area consists mostly of tropical marshlands, altough on some places the river runs through dense forests or open flatlands. Currently most of the tribe lives in one of the seven large floating villages, the poap’ki, although some decided to live on smaller vessels that accompany the villages on their journey. The villages usually travel in the same general direction, not entirely together, but always nearby. There is dense traffic of smaller boats travelling between poap’ki at all times, transporting goods, news or people from one village to another.
The river's current is weak most of the year, allowing the villages to sail in any direction they want to, using long poles to push the vessels around, and even using sails when the winds are favorable. The river goes through a yearly cycle - with the beginning of spring the river widens and floods the surrounding areas, filled by heavy rains and snows melting in the mountains upstream. Summer and fall are the best seasons for travelling and finding a safe place to anchor for winter. The temperatures don't drop too low, but the rains stop and the becomes narrower and more shallow.

Warriors:
Ai’dallani are rather peaceful people, the only true warriors in their tribe are Kushini – the crocodile warriors. These are the most elite fighters from the tribe, sworn to protect the people and to serve as bodyguards for the Lan’Nizsi and Aila’Nizsi. The crocodile warriors fight with two weapons – long and short with sharp spikes on one side, resembling the jaws of a crocodile. Mauls are usually made of bone or wood, with sharp stones or real animal teeth. If the need arises, hunters and fishermen can be useful in a fight as well.

Story:
At the beginning of time, there was only a barren wasteland, spreading over the world. The land was dry and cracked in many places. And from one of those cracks, a small spring appeared. At first, it was nothing more than a few drops of water, forcing their way through the rocks just as a child forces its way out of its mothers' womb. It was a long and painful birth, but drops became a trickle, the trickle slowly became a stream and the stream turned into a great river Nizsi, the mother of all living things.

Eventually Nizsi spread into the to the wasteland that our world used to be, seeding it with life. Colorful plants of all kinds began to grow and bloom, turning the rocky barrens into fertile lands. Nizshi would come every cycle, sweeping off the old life to give a chance to new one and the world was in perfect balance.

But Niszi felt there was still space for more life in this new world, so she gave birth to the first living creatures - her children Lankushna, the crocodile spirit, and Ailinia, the ibis spirit. They roamed the land, enjoying its beauty. Eventually they joined together and from that connection the ancestors of all living things were born. Suddenly the world was overflowing with life - fish, birds, reptiles, insects, mammals all placed next to each other, learning to coexist. It took Lankushna and Ailinia millenia to bring balance back to the world, to ensure that all the species will survive. It was then when Ailinia revealed her last creation - a human. Since the world was already in perfect balance, Lankushna was hesitant to place humans into it, worrying it might upset that balance. He eventually agreed, but the humans were instructed to preserve the balance, never taking more than they needed from the world, and always return everything to the mother of everything, Nizsi.

Some of the humans desired to explore the world and wandered far away from the river, forgeting about Lankushna's teaching. A large group however decided to stay as close to their mother as possible, at first sailing on feeble boats, which in time were perfected into the shapes of the poap'ki, the floating villages.

Important people:
Kiala – current Aila’Nizsi
Kiala was first elected Aila’Nizsi at the young age of thirteen and now it is her third year in row leading her people. While being young, innocent and perhaps a bit naive, she has strong connection with the spiritual world and great experience with interpreting the will of the spirits.
She and Ruvvi are currently expecting a child. It is considered a great blessing for the tribe when the leading couple conceives a child during their cycle together.

Ruvvi – current Lan’Nizsi
Ruvvi is twenty-six and it is his first cycle as Lan’Nizsi. His election was a surprise – he wasn’t a great warrior or a shaman like his predecessors, but rather a simple fisherman. Despite that, he is quite smart while having a calm mind, not easily provoked to violence. While most leading couples throughout the history were just formal tradition, Ruvvi and Kiala truly love each other and plan to stay together.

Ozei – chieftain of one of the poap’ki
Ozei is a twenty-two-year-old female leader of one of the floating villages. She is friendly and outgoing, but also rather short-tempered – easily angered, easily excited. Despite her flaws, her people love her as a fair and responsible ruler. She is a fearsome fighter, although her duties as a chieftain do not allow her to join the Kushini. She at least gets to train with her mate Vug, who is one of the crocodile warriors. They have three children.

The Dawn of the Civilization (Stone age tribal NRP)

The humans, once frightened creatures crawled up in caves, are evolving. No longer solely dependent on hunting and gathering – crops are being planted, small huts risen, villages founded. The tribes are no longer just a group of families bound together by hunger and fear, but real primitive nations, each with a different culture, beliefs or government. Some tribes thrive, rich crops harvested from fertile lands or stolen in raids from weaker opponents, others try desperately to survive in a hostile environment, suffering from harsh weather, wild beasts or greedy neighbors. All are oblivious to a new danger arising, unnoticed in the caves beneath the great mountains, the darkness which is ready to send its forces to the surface to feast on human flesh and souls.

Welcome, I hope that the short intro had caught your interest. I’ve been thinking about this idea for a while now and I believe it is ready to see the light of the world. This is going to be a story-driven nation RP from tribal era. There will be no stats or rolls, it is entirely up to you how powerful your tribe will be, what will be its strengths and weaknesses (but I will ask you to keep things in balance). Your tribes should be fairly small, couple of dozen people in the ideal case - remember that you should make a plausible explanation on how they gather enough food and other supplies to survive.

I think you can get the best idea about the setting from the sample sheet in the IC and the questions in the tribe sheet template, but I have also put together some basic information about the world to use as a baseline. Most of the things written in the "magic" description are meant only as examples, I will be happy if you come up with your own original pantheons and ways of worship.
The RP will be casual, I am not expecting you to write pages of text (altough you are welcome to), but I expect some coherent ideas and story. If you have any questions, suggestions or tribe ideas, feel free to ask me here or to shoot me a PM.

Races
Only humans allowed. I’m sorry but mixing half-centaurs with faeries and lizardmen just creates chaos.

Technology
The technology level will be fairly primitive – think late stone age, so sticks, stones and bones, no metal.

The World
The map is just to give a rough idea of the world. Most of the tribes so far are nomadic, but there is still a lot of space for both more nomads and also permanent settlemets. If you want something added, let me know.

map

The fauna and flora will Earth-like, depending of course on the environment you are in. Since this is set in the past, you can add extinct animals like mammoths or sabertooth tigers or even slightly “mysterious” things like giant squids etc.

Magic
No active magic as in fireballs and telekinesis etc. is allowed in this world. There will however be a more subtle magic present in the form of blessings (or even curses) from your tribal deities. Each tribe will have a different system of “religion” – they might be worshipping the sun and moon, a mountain, some kind of animal or even a spirit that reincarnates as a seventh son of a seventh son each generation. This deity will require your people to worship it in a certain way - it can demand eating the hearts of your enemies, sacrificing part of your harvest or maybe kissing a tail of the sacred mouflon. Failing to meet the demands of your chosen gods might result in losing the gifts blessed upon you by your deity, or even a “curse” of some kind. Keep in mind this will be entirely up to you and your storytelling, I will not interfere with that at all.
As for the type of “blessing” that your tribe can get, it might be as simple as better harvest or calling the rain when needed, or more complicated, like giving your warriors strength in battle or allowing your people to see better in dark. All I ask is that you keep it on the mystical side of things rather than magical.

The Story
At the start of the RP, the life of the tribes will just go the normal way (whatever that might be for your people). Soon however, a new danger will emerge – fierce, demonic-like beasts, that will start appearing all over the continent, attacking all living things. How will your tribe react to this enemy? Will you stand up and fight, cower and hide, rely on the mercy of your gods, blame the neighborhooding tribe or even attempt to communicate with the creatures in hope of striking a deal with their master?

The Monsters
The monsters are flesh and (sort of) blood, that usually resemble some existing animals or their combinations. They will take up features and behavior of their respective species. Their bodies look ‘corrupted’ and slightly decayed, as if you took a few days old animal carcass and brought it back to life. The beasts spread a foul rotting odor around them, and their flesh doesn’t seem edible (although some things might happen if for some crazy reason someone would decide to eat it). Their bites tend to get infected and bitten people often die if they aren’t treated well. The monsters are fierce and dangerous in combat, slightly more intelligent than their animal counterparts, and very hard to scare away, with the exception of fire – as they spend most of their lives underground, they aren’t fond of the daylight or any other sources of light. They will prefer to attack at night.

The wolf monsters – will usually travel and attack in packs of anything between three and fifteen individuals. They are good at coordinating their attacks, very similar to regular wolf packs. Their sense of smell is exceptional, and they can track their prey for several days.

The bear monsters – huge and tenacious creatures, created to tear apart anything that moves. They aren’t very smart, but once they enter battle rage, they are almost impossible to stop. Normally they move alone, but under the orders from their master, they are willing to accompany other monsters without attacking them (or at least without killing too many of them).

The amphibians – creature based on a huge squid, mixed with reptilian features that allow it to move on dry land. Their true power however lays in water – they are able to move in both fresh and sea waters, sliding gracefully on long distances, using their long tentacles to catch their prey. Their size varies, most are between eight and sixteen feet.

Nation sheet
Feel free to make the sheets prettier or add some additional sections if you are a dedicated world-builder. A paragraph or two in each section will be sufficient.

Tribe sheet

Name:

Brief description: A quick reference to describe the tribe. Are they nomads or have a settlement, conquerors or peaceful people, hunters or farmers?

Main deity:
Please describe the main deity worshipped by your people. You can add a short origin story or just a few words about who/what it is and what it does. How would one go about pleasing it? What angers it? How does it influence the lives of the people?
Side deities:
You can have two or three additional spirits or guardians or sacred objects

Government:
Is there one person leading the tribe, or a council of multiple people? Chosen by their strength or wits or by the power of the gods? Are your people free to speak their mind, or punished when they insult a leader? Is the tribe friendly to outsiders?

Inhabited area and settlements:
What is the environment your tribe lives in? Are there harsh winters, rainy springs? Is it a dense forest or open plains?
Does your tribe have any permanent settlements? What does it look like? Or do you move around, building temporary shelters?

Warriors:
What types of warriors does your tribe have (if any at all)?

Story:
What is your people's origin? How do they believe the world and their tribe became to existence?

Important people:
Entirely optional for now, later you should list the characters that will be important in your story.

Discord link - Discord

The Dawn of the Civilization (Stone age tribal NRP)

Also, how do people feel about this? It's just a rough sketch to get a general idea of the land.

map

The Dawn of the Civilization (Stone age tribal NRP)

@Irredeemable Looks great
@Ozymandias I hope you read the "Story" part of the OOC, because even the hippie tribes are gonna have to do some fighting to survive :D