Ages' Beginnings - An Arrow/Immaculate Reboot

I expect to join; when do you want applications completed by?

From a game dynamics/stats modeling point of view its very helpful to have a submission- even if not complete- as early as possible.

We haven't put deadlines on submissions yet though.

Is there anything I should add, change or tweak about my current application?

I'd like to join this, will try to get an application done soon.

can some one please update all the claims in the map, as of now ?

if Immac and Arrow don't do it by tomorrow evening, I'll do it when I get back from work.

Name/Player Name:
Araskamemni ; "the Rasks" in the common tongue

Ruler/Family: Kemnek the Bald is the current ruler.
His wife is Mardreni, his mother Stalleken, his daughter Aramnrai and his three sons Kemnekan, Stannik and Stol.
His brother is Marl, his sister is Marlderen and and her wife is Selke.

Location:

The Howling Hold is ruled by Kemnek the Bald directly.

Vassals:
The Koleks of Haven are amongst the proudest of vassals, having served directly below the Araskamemni since the immemorable; more now their military captains in purpose and practice, they bear the tradition of Pelt-fighting and bring to the battlefield an immense, primordial fury. They reside throughout the kingdom in varying clans, the major two of which are currently having a minor strife. They are present in all administrative holds and probably more a natural extension-as-military than an actual faction. However, there is a Furor - general - of them, Selbarge, who lives with the Fulnek vassal in Tarkyn Highlands, its capital Haven.

There is the Pearl Guild which has risen into prominence recently; Amnik Pearl, their lord, has special connections within the fishermen and their treasures. He rules Eastern Tarsadyn as a noble lord, but has not been bathed in blood at birth and is therefore not de jure nobility - no such thing exists for that region.

There is Bertemni, a Wolfpelt minor vassal secluded in the North, being ambigiously careless on the affairs of the king and of the world; it serves no military, pays not much tax and is not disturbed much. The Bertemni are led by twins Argon and Targyn, both female, very secluded, yet said to be extremely captivating women. The Bertemni reside in Deaven.

Marl Araskamemni, the brother of Kemnek the Bald, rules Skimereng.

Marlderen, sister of Kemnek the Bald, rules Elbenfyre after the last of the old ruling Danymni dynasty from there, Mardreni, was married to the Rask King.

The Aramni, or the Rams, are a minor offshot of the Rasks from about two hundred years ago that conquered the Western Tarsadyn river. They still reside their, blessed by the Bald King.

Kingdom Biography:
Originally hailing from the further North, the Koleks were expunged by rapid expansion by the Telaarans. They migrated south, then, and eventually met the Rasks that were under the cruel rule of the now defunct Tyregar dynasty. The Koleks, looking for land, aligned with the Rasks and helped them rebel against the Tyregars. When they succeeded, the Koleks settled as the Rasks took the region as rule to themselves. This was five hundred years ago, but the Kolek people still bear a pride in being blood brothers to the Rasks and vice versa.

The five hundred years underwent with quite some trouble. The Telaaran dynasty tried several times to conquer the Rasks but were unsuccesful. The Rasks still bless the Furor for his vile fighting and the strength gained through Pelt and Blood.

Religion:
The religious practices of the Araskamemni are founded in the Old Faith, and they uphold ancient traditions that are sometimes considered barbaric by other houses, but nevertheless impressive and intimidating. These are practices that owe to the Koleks before they were expunged by the Telaarans; practices that were, in the further North, since purged and forgotten. But the Rasks picked it up and still preach it today, connecting deeply with the awesome size of the mountainous terrain, the roaring hills and sea, and the dense and dim woods of Deaven.

Anything else:
Araskamemni, 'the Rasks', born in pools of blood, relish in the knowledge of their lineage, the old leylines of the earth, Pelt warfare and rune "magic". (Whether it works isn't really the point; they believe in it regardless.) When giving birth, the woman is put into a tub filled with animal blood, "magically" invigorating the baby with the powers of the slaughtered animals. As such, the dead creatures are usually wolves, bears, mooses, elks, lions and other mighty beasts. Stannik is commonly teased for having been born into rabbits and cattlekin.

Name/Player Name: Kingdom of Chairt/Pole475

Ruler/Family: House of Chairt

King Cierden (39)
Queen Laurel (34)
Prince Hensey (18)
Princess Katerina (16) (Married to Price Hensey)
Prince Moravi (1) (Son of Prince Hensey)
Prince Cierden II (14)
Princess Locure (12)
Princess Friese (7 Died as Infant)
Prince Hannibal (4)

Location:

Use the border south and the west, but stop the border at Ophorian's claims to the east Should be fixed



Vassals:



House of Rascult: The House of Rascult was first given to Lord Hamerbill and has stayed in his family until the Rascultian Revolution. As one of the largest and first populated areas, it is also one of the most powerful and dangerous vassals. The House of Rascult tried to overthrow the Kingdom of Chairt once, but was repressed because of poor leadership on its part. The House was then given to the Gamorfian family, a wealthy family favored by the king himself.

House of Brahus: The House of Brahut has had much more of a peaceful existence. As one of the last provinces declared, the Baryyian family has kept power for all of its short existance, while still building quite a respectable system of loyal subjects. Brahut is probably the 2nd most powerful threat to the Chairtic rule.

Minor Vassals

House of Raihut: The House of Raihut was once a powerful House given to the Raihut family a decade before the Brahus House was introduced. However, recently, Katerina Raihut was chosen as the worthy bride for Prince Hensey. This marriage resulted in a son (Moravi) and the loyalty of the Raihut House to the Kingdom of Chairt, which, in turn, lessened the danger of the House of Raihut to the central government. That is why the House of Raihut are minor vassals and not major vassals.

House of Rallur
House of West Eindust
House of East Eindus

Kingdom Biography:

After the Kingdom of Rallus was founded, some mutineers, wanting to escape taxing from the Kingdom, traveled to the west until they reached the ocean. There they consequently founded the city of Carpatian, the capital of Varlor and starting a dynasty. The mutineers quickly expanded their area, acquiring land in the nearby provinces. Each time they founded a province, the gave ownership of the province to one of the vassals, forming the houses that are currently in place. About centuries after the first mutineers settled the area, the first dynasty died out, leading to a civil war. All the vassals tried to take control of the disunited Kingdom, with the prevailing House of Chairt gaining control of the area and changing its name from, the Kingdom of Varlor to the Kingdom of Chairt.

Religion:

The Natural Condition

The Chairtic People also worship the Titan Rallus in the same way the native Rallusians do, but with more gods added on for creating various natural features. Rallus is the god of the mountains, Ue'iki is the god of the water, Hi'oki is the goddess of the forest, and Tiarsis is the god of the desert.

Anything else:

Map of Chairt with city names


Family Tree (Current Generations)


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As I am still beginning at getting into this fantasy detail/story stuff and tips and feedback (good or bad) would be greatly appreciated

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I know claims will and can contradict, but I'd just like to make sure that pole475 knows that he and I have SIGNIFICANTLY overlapping claims.

I thought I went through all the claims, but I guess I missed yours. let me check.

EDIT: You're right, my claims will now extend east until Ophorian's claims.

Interested. But I need to do a lot of reading of other histories. An updated map is key to know where I might fit in, and how to model myself with respect to my potential neighbors.

Thanks Pole, feel free to appropriate any of my application stuff for yours if necessary, since we'd be neighbours, I'd imagine a lot of overlap. Once you've got your stuff up, I'll edit mine to incorporate some of your history/cultural notes.

Rough claims map.
I used the map from the previous game, so while the outline of Auronas is accurate, the rivers certainly are not. Additionally, where there was overlap, I went with a first come first serve basis (Obviously, the Mods will be better than me.) This should help, though.

Good job Thomas.


Please note that on the map, north is up and to the left, so the frigid north seems highly populated right now.

Tentatively claiming the curly-queue peninsula area center top of the map.

Posted my claims. Infos on the holds are upcoming.

I am tentatively claiming that river south of where Bair is. I'll hopefully get a submission today.

Edited my location a bit to the west in response to Everblack, also added a province list/descriptions.

Name/Player Name: Bangor Holds

Kingdom Biography:The Bangor Holds are the result of bad land, bad weather, bad people, bad history and worse luck (for everyone involved).

I'll start with geography, since it's important to the background of what the Holds are. The Bangor Mountains serve as a massive windbreak for the Northern Kingdoms, blocking the fierce storms that come out of the Spotted Sea north of Langro and instead creating a low-pressure area past the mountain chain which sucks up milder air from the Bay area further south. That's great for the other kingdoms; for the poor sots who "live" on the Mountains, it's awful. The Bangor Mountains are what we would call "new" mountains, extremely tall and rough and with few passes through them. The western side of the chain comes directly down to the ocean, with a coastline consisting mostly of impassable (but beautiful!) cliffs and jagged fjords, with no real location for a port city. The length of the typical stormy season combined with their severity forces the treeline very low, and there is very little potential for logging. The eastern ridgeline is only somewhat better; while the storms lose their teeth from crossing the mountains the eastern side has even fewer valleys and the mountains there are even steeper, which results in very little farmable land.

Historically, this geography dictated that the Bangor Mountain area was completely undesireable. Even in mineral wealth, the Bangors were lacking, for while there might be riches there the difficulty in accessing them combined with the much easier access to the minerals in the Hellas Mountains left very little drive to make an attempt. There was no pressure to habitate the Bangors, and the few that did live there were some poor villages in the eastern valleys and some even poorer and vastly more insane herders and hunters wandering the highlands.

This changed during the Telaaran expansion, as fleeing refugees moved south and west. The first groups were gladly welcomed to settle the valleys; the second wave was met more grudgingly as a strain to feed during the long, long winters; the third wave was met with spears along with the fourth, fifth, and sixth. Eventually the natives were forced through previously-undiscovered and nigh-impassable passes to the previously uninhabited western coast, while on the eastern ridge refugees continued to pile up, eventually, the Telaarans bothered to conquer the area. They would leave less than a generation later, upon realizing the Bangors provided them nothing and that the remaining population was too busy starving to a more sustainable level to be a threat.

The retreat of the Telaarans was nearly as traumatic as their advance. The former refugees, now without even the doubtful support of an invasive army yet boxed into an imprisoning mountain chain by that same army, learned to survive in a brutal and rapid fashion. Unsupportable or indesirable people were promptly expunged from villages, fortifications went up while raiding parties went out, and a general return to barbarism occured for a couple hundred years. The handful of highland herders and hunters slowly swelled into parties, then clans, then tribes - growing from the castoff dregs and criminals of the east. Unsurprisingly, many turned to banditry to supplement their meagre lifestyles and preyed not just on their brethren, but increasingly further into the shrinking Telaaran-occupied areas. Meanwhile, the new population of the west was exploring their new lands and realizing that while their were no real ports along the coast, there were plenty of inlets just the right size for one or two "fishing" boats and a previously-unbothered major trade route from Langro and the Bay in the south to Illirio in the north.

This status quo continued for a few hundred years, but about forty years ago a handful of particularly farsighted chiefs (and, not coincidentally, some dire threats towards a continual annoyance from the last truly effective Emperor) came together to unite the region now known as the Holds. It took thirteen years of continual meetings, seven minor wars, nine sanctioned murders, three probable assassinations, a brutal and complete purge of a town, the conquest of the entire Jaari River basin, two mildly incestuous marriages and five Commandments from five different gods, but eventually a system approaching that of the other Kingdoms (if you squint really hard and don't think about it too much) was arranged and a High King appointed over the Holds. Miraculously, the death of that effective Emperor didn't cause the system to completely disintegrate, and two generations later it is still holding together.


Ruler/Family: High King Armen Haadrade (the Haadrade dynasty), 26. Two sons, Jaarl (heir, 10) and Arik (6). Four daughters. Married to two junior wives - the "tradition" since the Holds united is for the ruling dynast to marry multiple times to solidify alliances and ensure succession, but it's possible to declare a senior wife which also due to recent tradition (and a story I'll have to come up with) is actually a position of some real power - Armen hasn't married a senior wife yet, and the current junior wives are less "solidify alliances" and more "ensure succession" (and also "not entirely voluntary", the Bangor are still quite behind the times to even reach 'middle ages' status).

Due to general bullheadedness, the Bangor Holds are full of Kings that "rule" "kingdoms" that have a population in the double digits. Thus, "High King". The Haadrade dynasty has no great line or history; the first High King of the Holds (Jaarl I) was originally content to call himself a chief unlike many of his kingly brethren. He led a moderately large and moderately successful highland tribe, and as the negotiations for establishing overall rule began he wasn't even invited. However, the traditional emnity between the eastern and western valley holdings meant that the best compromise for an overall ruler lay with the highlanders (who were merely hated, not loathed), and combined with a brilliant decision to invade and conquer the Jaari River midway through the proceedings left him in charge. That same backwater cunning has been maintained by the Haardrade despite two generations of time and internal and eternal pressure to add a veneer of nobility to the proceedings. Similarly, the resolute backing of the dynasty by the highlanders has never really wavered, and while as a group the highlanders are a small-to-tiny majority their aptitude for individual combat and impervious homeland has kept the Haadrade firmly in power.

The Haadrade rule from the North Pass Hold, a castle made impressive not for it's construction, but rather it's ludicrously impractical location high in the Bangor Mountains. Is sits astride the most accessible (although "accessible" may be too strong of a term" pass through the Bangors, and so long as the North Pass does not fall the western half of the kingdom is nigh impregnable to invasion.




Vassals: House Naarwae a' Naarwae (in this context, a' equals "of")- the largest of the western valley kingdoms, Naarwae and it's ruling House are the nominal representatives of the interests of the original Bangor Hold settlers. The westerners are much less willing to unite than the highlanders, though; while the highlanders tend to fight today and ally tomorrow in order to protect their interests, the westerners are much more inclined to hold grudges and generational feuds. There is also a split between the seaside "fishermen" and those who live in the valleys further up the mountains.

House Weden - King Aaden of Weden controls several large fiefs and valleys in the east, and often serves as the counterpoint to House Naarwae a' Naarwae. While the westerners are united in background but split by purpose, the easterners are almost polar opposites: their interests are all basically the same but their polyglot backgrounds and external pressures keep them from agreement. The Wedens, for instance, are an old settler family that were the de facto nobles of the only valley settlement that wasn't forced west; this causes several of the refugee descendant families to view them with the same distrust they grant all the original settler descendants.

House Iraen - the Iraen are one of the greatest beneficiaries of the ascension of the Haadrade. Originally a minor eastern family of no great accord, the Iraen first became notable when their dynasty was initially proposed by House Weden to become the High Kings of the Holds. The expectation was that after establishing the Iraen, they would become puppets of the Weden. This expectation was swiftly crushed when, after the proposal was made and a significant minority of the Holds' aristocracy supported it, the Iraen reneged on an upcoming betrothal to the Weden. They followed this astonishing act by raising an army and laying an undeclared siege on the larger House's primary holding. Support for the Iraen immediately skyrocketed, with even some western Holds backing the claim. However, a year and several hard-fought battles later, the tables had turned and the Iraen found themselves on the run, with their old holdings burned and most of their army dead or deserted. In a bid to survive, the remainder of the House sought protection from the Haadrade, and in the following decade the orphan Iraen were at the forefront of many of the Haadrade conquests. Their service was rewarded, and today they number a half-dozen minor kingdoms that collectively control the lower half of the Jaari River and the vital port of New Illirio.


Religion: The Holds have a mix of religions, although nearly the entire population has at least some adherance to the Old Religion (since it's less of a religion and more of a generic belief system in a continental polytheism; as an aside, most of the other created religions seem to easily fix in the Old Religion framework as local area variants dedicated to a single potential god within the Old Religion base, and in my humble opinion the canon should treat these as such - the obvious-to-me exception being the Worship of The One and, potentially, the Reach of Arot). There is also a significant fraction of the Ridge variant to Worship of the One from past incursions/influence from the old Telaaran kingdom. Overall, the net effect is that the "baseline" worship is very similar to what has emerged in Rallus. There are extremes in either direction (towards universal polytheism or total monotheism) from this norm, however.

Religion section updated-- please let me know if there are any problems or mistakes.