More tGA stuff.
This entry deals with tGA-related stuff.
I got a few more comments from both the forums and via AIM and e-mail, so I thought I'd put up some things here for those of you who are still interested in continuing the story.
So, basically the general consensus seems to be that people would prefer to have the next RP set in the same world but so that it takes place a few hundred years after the events of the previous plot. This would basically mean that we could keep the current kingdoms, just revise some stuff a bit, and that kind of option seems to be what most people I've talked to are after.
Without further ado, here's my suggestion of how we might make things work out (I'll post a suggestion for the next "State of the World" post, but please not that it's not final and things can change depending on the reaction of people):
---
The Current State of the World
OOC: It has been 200 (or some other number of) years since the events of the previous RP.
When we left our world, two opposing forces existed: Light and Darkness, also known as Order and Chaos. Two mighty gods represented them: Cardia, the God of Order, and Mardük, the God of Chaos. Other gods, mortals and creatures chose one of these two gods as their ultimate leader. The conflict between Cardia and Mardük and their followers had gone on for countless millennia even when some heroes had managed to seal Mardük to an ethereal prison, thus forcing Mardük to use dark agents to further his cause.
The Yamato Empire, manipulated by Mardük's agents, invaded other countries. The forces of darkness were certain of their victory once the last resisting kingdom was conquered, and the powerful warlords began to backstab one another in order to secure more power for themselves. This in-fighting gave the forces of light an opportunity to act, and thus the Grand Alliance was formed.
The Alliance gathered supporters and liberated various kingdoms, and eventually the final showdown took place in the very heart of Yamato Empire. However, the dark agents managed to set Mardük free. The God of Chaos entered the battlefield with the evil gods and opened up a portal to the demon realm, letting countless demons pour into our world to fight in his name. Just when all hope seemed lost, Cardia appeared with the good gods. The two ancient enemies gazed at one another and decided that this battle would be their last and that the victor would rule the world forever.
As Mardük and Cardia charged at one another, a giant beast appeared all of a sudden and destroyed both gods in the blink of an eye. Then it proceeded to attack the remaining gods and the armies themselves. Panic struck both the forces of darkness and light, and everyone fled for their lives. The Godslayer, as the beast was to be known, eventually ended its rampage and headed out of Yamato. Because Mardük was no more, no one could close the portal to the demon world, and demons overran Yamato. Luckily for the rest of the world the demons began fighting among themselves for power when they realized that their leader Mardük was gone.
The survivors of the armies fled back to their respective countries, licking their wounds while trying to rebuild their war-torn kingdoms. They would also have to rethink their purpose now that the two ultimate gods whom they had served did not exist anymore. An age of isolation took place when everyone took care of themselves and did not care whether other kingdoms prospered or vanished. No one knew what was going on in other kingdoms, and everyone feared that the demons of Yamato would attack one day.
200 (or some other number of) years have gone by since then, and despite all the changes people still live the best they can. However, if the demon lords of Yamato ever manage to stop the in-fighting between their clans, their combined power would become great enough to threaten all the other nations. If the nations of Aison, Libaterra, Maar Sul and Remon want to survive in these dark times, alliances will have to be made. However, can old enemies forget the past and work together for a better tomorrow?
This is the Age of Emptiness in a World of Ruin where old values are no more, and new villains and heroes emerge from the shadows. History is yet to be written, and now the fate of the entire world rests in their hands...
---
If we were to follow the kind of setting shown in the "State of the World" post above, then we might work with the following depending on people's reactions:
If Yamato follows the demon invasion plot, it'd have a few demon clans that fight among themselves (and thus have several duchies which form one grand duchy), and the few native Yamatians that remain might work as demon hunters or whatnot, but most of Yamato would be under demon control.
As for Libaterra, it might be better to reimagine it completely. One way of doing that is to have it torn up to pieces from the previous war and have a new ruler for it, maybe make it an empire. As the closest nation to Yamato, it'd have to deal with occasional demon attacks.
The Godslayer might've gone to Aison and rest there to gain back its strength, and meanwhile it would have a high prophet doing the actual administration stuff, and thus the place would be known as the Theocracy of Aison. Basically Aison would be divided into several factions: Central Aison ruled by high prophet's forces, West Aison ruled by loyalists to Kingdom of Aison who want the prophet deposed, East Aison ruled by the Magestar (mages), and the south by dragons.
Remon could have an heir of Sarillius on the throne, but he'd be supported by a church of the memory of Cardia, and this might slowly give way to some power struggle between the church and the king, which could further cause dissension among the three races (men, elves, dwarves) of Remon.
Maar Sul could have divided into city-states after the war, so that the Khitans would control the northern part of the island, the Scuns the southern and the human city-states would be mostly loyal to the city of Maar Sul and control the central part of the island.
This kind of thing does, however, require some tweaks to the map, most notably Maar Sul and Libaterra (the latter would have to be shattered and have island states instead, but I think Doomgaze drew a map of a shattered Libaterra so maybe that drawing could be used).
In any case the whole point about this kind of stuff about the countries is just to have some basic stuff which people could use creatively while not having too much information. All of these nations differ considerably from one another and thus offer different plots which the players could utilize.
Maybe one plot could be the King of Remon sending some adventurers out there to see what's going on in the world. Maybe Maar Sul acts as a mediator and has some important wedding where players attend to, and then there's an assassination attempt on the groom or the bride, which might escalate things into a new world war or something while the players try to figure out who was behind the assassination attempt. The possibilities for plots like these and other kinds of plots are endless.
This would allow players creative freedom while also having some foundation on which to build more stories. If you have some basic info about the world but not too much, you won't have to worry about too much backstory and yet you have a clear enough idea about the world so that you don't have to wander aimlessly hoping to find something to do when you can actually build on the plots the setting could offer.
Of course this is just something I've gathered from various conversations with various people. It doesn't mean we have to use the kind of stuff I've explained in this entry (although I've noticed most people seem to prefer this kind of stuff anyway), but I feel that the things we've talked about might be a good way to create an interesting, interactive setting with adventure, war, political intrigue, drama and other stuff like that while also allowing players to shape the world and the plot as they like without worrying too much about backstory.
So, what do you think?
Yours,
Mikko
I got a few more comments from both the forums and via AIM and e-mail, so I thought I'd put up some things here for those of you who are still interested in continuing the story.
So, basically the general consensus seems to be that people would prefer to have the next RP set in the same world but so that it takes place a few hundred years after the events of the previous plot. This would basically mean that we could keep the current kingdoms, just revise some stuff a bit, and that kind of option seems to be what most people I've talked to are after.
Without further ado, here's my suggestion of how we might make things work out (I'll post a suggestion for the next "State of the World" post, but please not that it's not final and things can change depending on the reaction of people):
---
The Current State of the World
OOC: It has been 200 (or some other number of) years since the events of the previous RP.
When we left our world, two opposing forces existed: Light and Darkness, also known as Order and Chaos. Two mighty gods represented them: Cardia, the God of Order, and Mardük, the God of Chaos. Other gods, mortals and creatures chose one of these two gods as their ultimate leader. The conflict between Cardia and Mardük and their followers had gone on for countless millennia even when some heroes had managed to seal Mardük to an ethereal prison, thus forcing Mardük to use dark agents to further his cause.
The Yamato Empire, manipulated by Mardük's agents, invaded other countries. The forces of darkness were certain of their victory once the last resisting kingdom was conquered, and the powerful warlords began to backstab one another in order to secure more power for themselves. This in-fighting gave the forces of light an opportunity to act, and thus the Grand Alliance was formed.
The Alliance gathered supporters and liberated various kingdoms, and eventually the final showdown took place in the very heart of Yamato Empire. However, the dark agents managed to set Mardük free. The God of Chaos entered the battlefield with the evil gods and opened up a portal to the demon realm, letting countless demons pour into our world to fight in his name. Just when all hope seemed lost, Cardia appeared with the good gods. The two ancient enemies gazed at one another and decided that this battle would be their last and that the victor would rule the world forever.
As Mardük and Cardia charged at one another, a giant beast appeared all of a sudden and destroyed both gods in the blink of an eye. Then it proceeded to attack the remaining gods and the armies themselves. Panic struck both the forces of darkness and light, and everyone fled for their lives. The Godslayer, as the beast was to be known, eventually ended its rampage and headed out of Yamato. Because Mardük was no more, no one could close the portal to the demon world, and demons overran Yamato. Luckily for the rest of the world the demons began fighting among themselves for power when they realized that their leader Mardük was gone.
The survivors of the armies fled back to their respective countries, licking their wounds while trying to rebuild their war-torn kingdoms. They would also have to rethink their purpose now that the two ultimate gods whom they had served did not exist anymore. An age of isolation took place when everyone took care of themselves and did not care whether other kingdoms prospered or vanished. No one knew what was going on in other kingdoms, and everyone feared that the demons of Yamato would attack one day.
200 (or some other number of) years have gone by since then, and despite all the changes people still live the best they can. However, if the demon lords of Yamato ever manage to stop the in-fighting between their clans, their combined power would become great enough to threaten all the other nations. If the nations of Aison, Libaterra, Maar Sul and Remon want to survive in these dark times, alliances will have to be made. However, can old enemies forget the past and work together for a better tomorrow?
This is the Age of Emptiness in a World of Ruin where old values are no more, and new villains and heroes emerge from the shadows. History is yet to be written, and now the fate of the entire world rests in their hands...
---
If we were to follow the kind of setting shown in the "State of the World" post above, then we might work with the following depending on people's reactions:
If Yamato follows the demon invasion plot, it'd have a few demon clans that fight among themselves (and thus have several duchies which form one grand duchy), and the few native Yamatians that remain might work as demon hunters or whatnot, but most of Yamato would be under demon control.
As for Libaterra, it might be better to reimagine it completely. One way of doing that is to have it torn up to pieces from the previous war and have a new ruler for it, maybe make it an empire. As the closest nation to Yamato, it'd have to deal with occasional demon attacks.
The Godslayer might've gone to Aison and rest there to gain back its strength, and meanwhile it would have a high prophet doing the actual administration stuff, and thus the place would be known as the Theocracy of Aison. Basically Aison would be divided into several factions: Central Aison ruled by high prophet's forces, West Aison ruled by loyalists to Kingdom of Aison who want the prophet deposed, East Aison ruled by the Magestar (mages), and the south by dragons.
Remon could have an heir of Sarillius on the throne, but he'd be supported by a church of the memory of Cardia, and this might slowly give way to some power struggle between the church and the king, which could further cause dissension among the three races (men, elves, dwarves) of Remon.
Maar Sul could have divided into city-states after the war, so that the Khitans would control the northern part of the island, the Scuns the southern and the human city-states would be mostly loyal to the city of Maar Sul and control the central part of the island.
This kind of thing does, however, require some tweaks to the map, most notably Maar Sul and Libaterra (the latter would have to be shattered and have island states instead, but I think Doomgaze drew a map of a shattered Libaterra so maybe that drawing could be used).
In any case the whole point about this kind of stuff about the countries is just to have some basic stuff which people could use creatively while not having too much information. All of these nations differ considerably from one another and thus offer different plots which the players could utilize.
Maybe one plot could be the King of Remon sending some adventurers out there to see what's going on in the world. Maybe Maar Sul acts as a mediator and has some important wedding where players attend to, and then there's an assassination attempt on the groom or the bride, which might escalate things into a new world war or something while the players try to figure out who was behind the assassination attempt. The possibilities for plots like these and other kinds of plots are endless.
This would allow players creative freedom while also having some foundation on which to build more stories. If you have some basic info about the world but not too much, you won't have to worry about too much backstory and yet you have a clear enough idea about the world so that you don't have to wander aimlessly hoping to find something to do when you can actually build on the plots the setting could offer.
Of course this is just something I've gathered from various conversations with various people. It doesn't mean we have to use the kind of stuff I've explained in this entry (although I've noticed most people seem to prefer this kind of stuff anyway), but I feel that the things we've talked about might be a good way to create an interesting, interactive setting with adventure, war, political intrigue, drama and other stuff like that while also allowing players to shape the world and the plot as they like without worrying too much about backstory.
So, what do you think?
Yours,
Mikko