>me in charge of spacing paragraphs

hurr durr

The "Proto"-Age, it became to be known, was the sentence of death for the small man -- and myself. For the first time in the history of life, thousands began to join together under a common cause; whether it be religion, war, death, or politics, they united under banners across the known world. This gathering of men began a race of technological and social progress like never before. Thousands gathered together and erected stone walls and created organized fighting forces, cooperating for the greater good of their cultural or religious reasons. Life has existed for hundreds of eons, at least that's how far back our records go, but until then there were no "cities" or "nations". As I reach the final years of my life, I feel the need to give my own account for future generations on what truly happened in the Proto-Age, that Renaissance of Society.
It all began with in the Near East. Who would have thought too, right? A bunch of sand eaters comprised of stuck up noble folk in one corner and ruthless barbarians in the other getting along and creating the first civilization, The Confederate States of Dal Riata it became to be known. The Dal Riata were, like many other peoples at the time, based heavily on a dual caste system. The light skinned, olive complexion nobles who ran the cities and the dark skinned, red haired former barbarians who roamed the lands outside the safety of the city walls. United under common purpose of survival they put their two collective 'heads' together and created a highly efficient machine. Perhaps the greatest invention of the Proto-Age was their manifestation of a representative government rather than a monarchal one.

>>21743928

Fucking Word in charge of properly formatting. Fixed it now for good.

The Dal Riata also had another innovation, the organized army. One of the Confederations first order of business was creating an organized troupe of a few hundred light infantry and using them to more thoroughly secure and most importantly explore the lands around them. To the south they found Iron, which they extracted and then smelted, but most importantly traded to other rising nation states which further the destructive power of militaries. The success of the first contingency furthered the cause for more structured military, and another expeditionary force -- this time fielding men with horses, hundreds. It must have been terrifying for the Doth'laki people near the delta when that force arrived. The Doth'laki were always disorganized but had a general rule of peace due to their fertile land they happened to sit on, and when a military force almost the size of their total population arrived on their doorstep you bet they tried to be diplomatic.

A group of 12 tribes numbering about 600 total convened with the general of the force, and the intention of the force was clear -- annexation, but worded so eloquently. The words have been written in the sands of time forever, those few words by the General: "I'd like to offer you a place in our confederation of men, to build trade and unity between our cities, to strengthen bonds, to protect each other as equals." The vote was 9-3, which showed not only some of the first signs of representative democracy but also the negatives of it -- the 150 men of the three tribes who disagreed to the annexation. Nonetheless, the choice had been made, and the Dal Riata now had an enormous advantage, fertile soil along with their two contingencies spreading influence over their desert.

>>21743934

Not all nations were brought together by common cause, however. Some were brought out of necessity, like Kingdom of Acheron to the far north. The 'Mausoleum City', as Acheron had been known to be called, used to be a rising power on the world stage actually. Ten thousand years ago, Elysia showed promise of civilization rising with the Acheron. However, it was so rapid and so expansive that plague destroyed the city and, to save the rest of his peoples outside of the walls from the disease he locked his thousands of people into their own city to die together. Now, as peoples begin to gather together and populations rise the city gates have been opened again. Undead had been seen wandering out of the gates and reported in the surrounding countryside. Attacks were not erratic, but with purpose and rumors of a Lich as their King is being spread like a wildfire among trading posts. Hundreds had already been taken, no not killed, kidnapped and taken to the Dark City. For what purpose, well, that is for another time.

In response to this rising number of undead attacks, this 'Kingdom' of undead and skeletons to the North came the Order of Saint Bernard. Thousands flocked from across Elysia of all races, mostly human though from the local area fearing for their own lives looking for solace and brotherhood in the face of that terrible evil in the form of a legion of skeletons bearing down upon them, closer day by day. The Order is a strange group of men, as they are worshippers of a single man, not a pantheon of gods. Bernard, you could guess, is seen as a deity to the people. Now, the Order has been around for hundreds of years and essentially had regional control of where they now reside, and even had a Protector and nobility, but only in these times of troubles had they truly come together in this fashion to create a true NATION.

>>21743939

The Order followed suit to the Dal Riata in creating organized forces. They created expeditionary forces to formally secure their southern part of the peninsula they resided on, creating settlements near established trade posts and ports to gain control of them in the future as well for further funding. Meanwhile in the North the Archerons created a force of a few hundred of their skeleton infantry to also scout out the lands, specifically south towards the Order. Crossing the Angolian mountains they make contact with a trading envoy, and immediately assault it. Although they are repelled handily, the threat was made known to the Order and their expeditionary forces had collapsed back onto their great city to combine into one massive force. Meanwhile in the North, the undead hordes begin to form their own armies -- armies greater than that of just scouting forces.

No sooner than civilization rising, the drums of war begin to thunder. However, in an odd twist of things, the potential of peace also arises as trade envoys from the Acherons reach the Dal Riata, of all people, requesting iron for assorted trade goods and luxuries left over from their old city that their undead forms no longer had need for. The trade, accepted, created mutual wealth for the two nations and a steady form of peace because of it between the two -- but perhaps that has more to do with them being worlds apart than what they were trading. Only time will tell, however.

>>21743942

Even the likely of contenders for nationhood began to rise on the world-stage, with the rise of a strange sea-faring race in the Far West. A group of tribal amphibious pygmies came out of the sea in an organized trope for the first time, a group of men dedicated to their God of Land, Edon, moreso than the usual greater God of Sea, Levith. To show their dedication came a great city of thousands of the pygmies with permanent intention. They sent hundreds of men to scour the island they happened upon for resources and other peoples, to get a bearing on their surroundings. These are truly some of the most interesting of the nations who rose out of the Proto-Era, because it makes no sense why they would leave the safety of the sea to become land dwellers. Well they had, and found an almost limitless abundance of untouched small animals, with their furs ripe for the harvesting and then trading. That is how they became relevant on the world stage, and that is what they named themselves -- The Levithedon Trade Federation.

Now, the more apt readers might look at this and realize that most of these nations are seafaring nations near the coasts. What about Central Elysia, you ask. Where was that burst of culture and society? Well uh, it had a burst of...something. In the earliest reports no one had any idea what the "Varemi Tribe" even was. All they know is that roughly the time these other civilizations began to arise and trade routes began to be bustling with convoys, those convoys began to get attacked if they crossed those forests. Not only attacked, but ripped to shreds. Skinned, carved open, their organs and flesh taken from the bones like eaten by rabid beasts. Most assumed it was just the beasts of the land, but increasing rumors of an Elven people causing these atrocities began to spread like wildfire across the trading posts and towns of the world.

>>21743946

Well that's that for this week folks. I'll be talking about the two other nations next week when they actually get some playtime. We only played 5 turns in our first session, mainly because we spent about the first hour really taking our time and making sure we got it good before we kicked it into high gear and started cranking out turns quicker. We're shooting for 8 turns next session, and making that our rough average per session (aka 2 ingame years), so hopefully next time will have a lot more content. I hope you enjoyed my writing. We currently got 7 players, and we aren't accepting new people just yet into the fold. Still want to see how the game turns out and how the flow works over the next session or two before we even begin thinking of more people ^^

>>21743955

I'd be more interested in actual gameplay, than all of this writing.

>>21744006
What do you mean we do this for the fluff, for the storytimes and awesomeness that comes from it...the mechanics are just a crutch to keep it Elos from going insane

>>21744022

This.

This is a game more about the diplomacy and interactions of the different civilizations, and building the fluff and rivalries (ie: Order of Saint Bernard vs Kingdom of Acheron, dat Skype Chat banter) and generally having some laidback fun and giving me content to writefag about. Isn't meant to be a hardcore starcraft match strategy game in any way. ^^

>>21744022

B-but I like numbers and strategy!

I'm no enemy of fluff, but numbers are cool in my books too.

File: 1353864974997.jpg-(267 KB, 1024x768, excel sheet.jpg)

Oh yeah, Harmen (our Varemi player) wrote some poetry in his fluff, and it's kinda cool.

>>21744044

I made an entire excel sheet that has about 15-20 different combat formulas in it. Pic related.

Anyways here's the poem.

Leave the woods alone my child, the trees they hide no fun
Amongst the grass and green so sweet the thing to do is run
for under treetops shadows lurk, waiting for you and me
they told us no and set their wards, the grooves are not for us to see

Leave the woods alone my child, to you I've never lied
and when the woodland comes to us I hope that you will hide
for in the trees the wild things live, a savage breed for sure
they come and claim what they want; and always wish for more

Leave the woods alone my child, be spared the knife of stone
for in that land cruel gods reign upon a heartless throne
they steal your life and laugh aloud, if you catch their eye
and think of little brother there, please don't make him cry

Leave the woods alone my child, you know the stories well
of mighty men with blade in hand who swore to evil fell
but leaf and tree grew red and wet as they met their fate
the monsters snickering with glee for well that night they ate

So leave the woods alone my child, not as your brother did
he heard no counsel and walked his path, that was how he lived
he saw the grooves and thread the grass, all within a day
and for your poor old brothers soul we must all now pray

>>21744059
And still people claim that we are uncultured, I havent seen any poetry about anyone else.
vote Varemi for peace and free exchange of culture!

File: 1353865795593.jpg-(20 KB, 201x241, 1342730165280 (1).jpg)

And I want this to be as interactive with /tg/ as possible too, so if you guys here got any suggestions or ideas please do post. We're very open to hearing them. I don't want this to just be a random writefaggotry dump.

>>21744143

savages pls go

>>21744190

Well, it's hard to say anything about it while not seeing in firsthand.

Are there NPC nations? Were there any real battles already?

>>21744190
how do we declare actions?

File: 1353866537449.jpg-(6 KB, 344x240, 1343766612618.jpg)

>>21744248

I wish I could give more, but I don't want to write TOO much out of character workings because it would give too much shit away to the other players of the group of others plots and the like.

No there are no formal NPC nations, I don't want to turn it into "DM vs the Players", I want it to remain "Players vs the Players", but as you could see with the Dal Riata there are situations where you'll be interacting with NPC peoples from time to time in events, such as when he went and discovered the Delta area and that whole thing happened.

There were no formal battles between nations yet, but I imagine that'll be going on next game for sure with what's going on between Saint Bernard and the Skeletons.

>>21744265

Meaning?

Also put this thread up on suptg archive for future threads. Don't want anyone not knowing what the hell happened in previous games.

>>21743946

>elves are cannibals

Well color me surprised.

is like evolution quest, where is start talking about what i want to happen and then roll, or like the other civ where i dedicate this turn to this thing. Or something completly different.

>>21744456

Oh no it's not an interactive game or anything on /tg/, I didn't mean to give off that idea. It's mainly just me writefagging what happens in our weekly games because I want to share what's going on with you all.

However I don't want it to be a simple dump of information, so it's not so much "roll for X to happen" but if you got any suggestions for a future event or the direction of the game, maybe even some NPC tribes or something in the future that players will interact with I want to open the floor for that.

>>21744515
Well if you ever want to cause some inter-player interaction put something "valuable" in what would be the most disputed land (meteorites work), and make cooperation hard, you know a stealthy npc tribe that kill people or something so that they can blame each other for it. Best i got. I could see them building an allaince to fend off attackers though. Maybe just make it really valuble and very limited, that might work best.

>>21744612

Oh yes, I already thought of that first one. You see the way economy works is that you find resources and you make industry with those resources (ie: find gold -> make a gold mine -> get 2 refined gold a turn -> can make a gold forge that uses 1 gold a turn). We're still working on the finer aspects of it, but that's the absolute basics of how money is generated as well as trade. I made a certain, easily contestable area of the map rich to the brim with those resources.

>>21744612

Oh and I like that meteorite thing. I'll definitely implement that later in the game with an event or something where a meteor hits the planet and it causes some form of natural disaster that the players deal with, and also provides a new rare material for them to fight over.

Fun shit.

Just thought it should be noted that my nation is technically older than all of the others, so suck it livingfags