The City States of Greece

We've already adopted tradition :p although I plan to go down the liberty tree to get the free settler from now henceforth and after that it will be rather more complex thanks to the likely profusion of city-states who may, or may not, have competing views of what is the best policy outline.
 
Once everyone is introduced, a population point is going to represent an NPC, right? Or is it like a government office position. IDK. My point is, so what? People want to play sooner rather than later, and giving one person all the power until anyone else is introduced is not the way to make a great RP.
 
Well even if I wanted to change the rules so that everyone was starting at the same time, I simply don't have time right now to process actions from everybody. So any discussion will at least have to wait another couple weeks before I consider it. And hopefully enough will be in so that it isn't an issue.
 
I'm not asking you to magically introduce everyone, I'm asking you to better the environment for this rp.
 
ergo, de-desertify the desert the desert with an oasis or with a more fertile tile (perhaps with more wheat on top :p)
 
I thought that the point of RPs like this was to represent how stuff worked IRL, some are just born lucky?
 

Homer Fotismenos was killed, and with no other male family members Tambien is out of the game.

Magnive is born in Athens as Gennadios Plousios

People could hardly believe their eyes when they saw that the Fotismenos had the gull to show their faces in Athens again, and even claim rulership! The newly in power Megakyrios, Pericles, quickly called for the arrest and execution of Homer Fotismenos. He was promptly incarcerated by the Security Forces of Athens. A week later he was marched to the executioners block, and to ringing applause beheaded in front of all the people of Athens.

After the death of Fotismenos the people celebrated the Archon. Not only had he killed the rebels, but he opened up more of his own land to the people and to his nobles. The stories of the Economou, Glaros, and Kosta families were heartening to the people. It made them feel that anyone could, if they worked hard enough, prove to the Archon that they two deserved a spot among the nobility. Finally he ordered the the encampment of the Trojans destroyed. With them gone the people in the Wine District could sleep more easily.

In addition, the Nobles of Athens threw a great festival for Pericles. It lasted two days an nights, and everyone was able to drink and eat their fill. Amongst the jubilation Onesimos Glaros announced the betrothal of his daughter Athalia to Athantos Megakyrios.

Property Map:
Spoiler :
 
Ah, splendid, I'm in :)
 
ooc: ah the first casualty, as consolation everyone on the waiting list moves up one spot ;). As to Tambien no hard feelings I hope, Im just playing by doing what I think is in my best interests :cry:.

Oh and to Magnive and future players emerging in Athens. I would like to mention that I am not going to automatically place you in a position. Why? Well in the interests of encouraging activity on the thread I have decided to give positions based on merit. Ergo he who provides good counsel in his speeches and shows himself to be of good service when it comes to ensuring I proper discussion of plans and stuff is likely to be given a spot on the Areopagus. (also RP activity and stuff shalt make the archon smile also :p) He who remains silent will not be on the recieving end of benevolence.

This decision of mine should also hopefully prevent the GaP phenomenon of occasionly inactive ministers from occuring in Athens at least.

-

IC

Public Speech

People of Athens, today we bear testament to the fate of those who defy the judgements of the Archon and who act with hubris, impiety and arrogance. It is my hope that we together learn from the fate of the Fotismenoi, and come to understand that it is not for the individual that one should primarily turn his efforts, but to the greater good of the whole society. No one man can survive indefinitely alone looking out only for himself at the expense of others, however men united in proper fidelity to the gods and looking always to the greater good of the whole family can not only survive, but prosper and build wonders glorious to behold.

My people, we athenians are truly members of a single family, a family united under the paternal governance of the Archon, who is the father of our nation, and embraced in the enveloping arms of mother athens, the polis itself. This family, the children acting with due loyalty and honour to the father and mother, and looking only for the wellbeing of their brothers and the whole family is what I hope people will look too and understand in making their decisions and in their actions and relations with eachother. For united as a family we will prosper. As a mere collection of individuals eached concerned only about his own desires... well one needs only look to the Fotismenoi to see what ends that leads too.
 
The kyrios of the Demandroi sought an audience with the Archon to provide counsel.
"O great Pericles, Great Father of Athens. May Athena shower you with blessings uncountable. You have shown wisdom and strength in ridding this mighty polis of the Fotismenoi pretenders. Humbly I ask to offer to you the wisdom of my heart and of my fathers.
I urge you to demonstrate your strength once more and let the Japanese barbarians know that the compact forged by the tyrant Prota was against the will of the citizens of Athens and hence unlawful. Let the barbarians know that the compact has been voided and that we consider the river and the Fountain of the Gods Greek territory.
I also urge you to show wisdom and seek close relations with the Poles of Warsaw, their gleaming gemstones will prove valuable to us and should the barbarians take offence the Poles will be good allies.
 
*speaking to the Demandroi, a notable peasant clan from the wheatlands in his public audience (which I incidentally had this turn as an action) the Archon spoke*

-

There is no agreement with Japan, for Prota Fotismenos, the one decent member of that house wisely heeded my advice and did not ratify or sign an agreement, stepping back from the brink. Naturally to the chagrin of Japan. Ergo there is no compact, merely the notification of Japans claim to the Eurotas river basin. Indeed the Shogun has mentioned that settling on the sacred Eurotas would lead to "unfortunate conflict", but be rest assured that should that situation ever occur we will ensure that we are prepared to deal with it. Although hopefully such a thing never occurs, Athens wishes for peace with all its neighbours.

As to the Poles, taking further measures to deepen relations with the poles is under heavy consideration. However minor city-states, as is their nature oftentimes require monetary encouragement to pledge allegiance, in regards to this particular action the state must weigh all potential options before committing.
 
Oh wise Archon of the mighty house Megakyrios:

The peasants of Athens have never heard a cogent story of the negotiations with Japan. Rumors and confustion run rampant.

Would it be possible for some member of the noble house to address the public in a simple straightforward manner, so that we might understand the story of the Japanese delegation and negotiations in a way that is satisfying and understandable.

Or perhaps some distant cousin of the house Fotismenos could speak to this in the form of a story?

We the ignorant masses love a good story, and true ones that clearly convey important information are all the more interesting...
 

Jehoshua gains 10 prestige for eliminating another player!
Jehoshua gains 6 prestige for his stories!
Tambien gains 5 prestige for his stories!
Mickzter97 gains 5 prestoge for his stories!
Aaronius gains 6 prestige for his stories!


Soon after the death of the Fotismenos a new family came to be known in Athens. It was the Plousios. How would this new family fit into the social and power hierarchy of Athens? Would they one day rise up and overthrow the ruling family, much like the Megakyrios? In any case the people were happy under the Megakyrios Dynasty. Not only were new laws, traditions, and nobles brought to Athens, but they also gave the common man justice, and ample land to work for his own. Furthermore there was the first meeting of the Areophagus, and it went swimmingly. The Megakyrios held more power of the people than ever.

Notes:
-I'm going to go till the new citizen is born, so get ready to jump in Filli.
 
Excellent.... *finger pyramid of doom*

Quick nitpick, you're giving a lot of Prestige out for stories while the first post (and the original concept for prestige by yours truly) specify points will be given for roleplay. Going by the usual definition churning out stories is not RP as there isn't any interaction between characters and no description of what the characters are doing now. I may be going on a little rant, it's your prerogative after all, but a fair amount of actual RP is going overlooked in the prestige bonanza because it's getting drowned out by stories. I also find it a bit bizarre that story writing currently seems to be the major way of garnering prestige, I initially envisaged prestige for RP to only a give a small amount in comparison to other methods but it seems that it's going to be far and away the best way if eliminating another player entirely (which should be one of the major achievements due to how difficult it should be) only garners twice the average prestige given for a story.
OK, maybe that wasn't such a quick nitpick but it's been bugging me for a while and I didn't want to say anything until I knew what kind of prestige could be gained from non-RP/story sources. Sorry for the rant.
 
Well first off, ther are few posts that really illustrates actions. No offense, but If your talking about your posts when you simply introduce a comment about the current state of affairs with "he said" or "he stood in front of the archon" then you dont get points for those because you are simply commenting on the game. It takes perhaps an extra ten seconds to add that on, when some people are obviously spending some actual time on theirs. And writing rp is certainly not the best way to get prestige. The sum of the prestige given out for writing is equal to that of the largest gain in prestige since last session. So you all gained a small fraction of the total prestige given out. I dont announce all the prestige given out.
 
ooc:

In my opinion there is a distinction between what is RP and what isn't when it comes to what people write both in regards to stories and actions. RP is something that relates to the occurances of the game directly AND elaborates on it to reflect an interesting narrative or description of events by providing a personalised context for the event/action/story. Thus a story if it is a reflection of whats occured in game is RP whereas one which doesn't directly relate to those occurance, say a backstory, is not even if it is an excellent story to every other qualifier. In the same manner a simple suggestion about policy which lacks the narrative or the production of the in-game setting and context for that (through in-character dialogue, and all the other things you get in stories and so forth) is really just has a simple phrase at the beginning with a token not to the game tha cannot be said to be RP, other than just a simple opinion. You must have the depth (like in the stories we have with the creation of contexts and scenes in an engaging way) and the relation to the game (like in the suggestions and the public speeches we have) present for it to be RP i think.

Considering this distinction I would agree with Filli Noctus that the awarding of prestige points should be altered in acknowledgement of what is genuinely RP and to reward significant in-game achievements more substantially in subsequent sessions (I mean you should know how much work I did in regards to Tambien). If it was me I would do this by keeping points the same for true RP (ergo stories, or elaborated narrative actions that reflect on the games events directly), by giving token points (one or two prestige perhaps) to stories that arent true RP, and by boosting substantially prestige awarded for milestone events like successfully winning a coup, or killing off a player.

I think doing this would perhaps encourage people to simply shift the narratives of their stories so they relate to the game more directly so that the excellent works by Aaronius and others start to illuminate on the actual occurances of the game (you can do this even as a peasant!) thus providing a richer context for the actual game as it progresses in the "present game relaity". This can only be a good thing.
 
Well first off, ther are few posts that really illustrates actions. No offense, but If your talking about your posts when you simply introduce a comment about the current state of affairs with "he said" or "he stood in front of the archon" then you dont get points for those because you are simply commenting on the game. It takes perhaps an extra ten seconds to add that on, when some people are obviously spending some actual time on theirs. And writing rp is certainly not the best way to get prestige. The sum of the prestige given out for writing is equal to that of the largest gain in prestige since last session. So you all gained a small fraction of the total prestige given out. I dont announce all the prestige given out.

No, I wasn't referring to my posts, although I can see how it could look like that (I certainly wouldn't give any prestige for them). Reagrdless this is an issue I would have brought up prior to my earliest post of that type had any awards of prestige for game actions been made publically before now. It was not made clear in the opening post that prestige could be given secretly and as you were publicly announcing some prestige awards I made the quite understandable assumption that all awards would be made publicly, the flavour behind prestige is that it is fame and historical notability of a family and therefore should be common knowledge to players (and their characters who would presumably receive a decent level of historical education).
 
:popcorn: RP :popcorn:

Life among the peasants is as hard as ever. One noble house falls and another rises. House Megakyrios looks as though it will reign supreme for all time, or at least until the Greek civilization is destroyed by one blessed with more fruitful and productive lands. At least the omnipotent Archon shows some mercy to the poor. The Archon also speaks of the possibility of advancement through merit, rather than the fortune of one's birth. Some citizens believe this is mere rhetoric, others look to his promotion of three noble houses as proof of his conviction.

Around the campfires at night the common talk strays to politics, and to the ways that power is shared or consolidated. The organization of Greek society into "Houses" is discussed. One House seems always to rule, while a few other Houses may be delegated a relatively small fraction of power. In the wild lands outside of Athenian society, however, power can be distributed quite differently. A portion of the Aaronyssey speaks to the notion of the "Tribe", as an alternative to the House. The strengths and weaknesses of such a system occupy the thoughts of the more philosophical minds among the masses...


Part VI: The Ways of Amazons and Lesbians


Spoiler :


My recovery was going very well, and my wounds were healing nicely. Now, in addition to treating my wounds, Cyme and an armed Amazon would escort me out of my hut for exercise. As painful as it was at first, it felt wonderful to walk about again. Day by day the walks grew longer, and I was even allowed to jog along the beach. I could bathe in the river and the lagoon, and by swimming I was able to rehabilitate the strength in my arm as well as my leg. It felt so wonderful to be able to swim again.

The time in my hut was growing tedious in the extreme. I would exercise on my own whenever I had the strength, but I was quite bored and lonely now. Cyme was my only companion, and she was not even supposed to talk to me. I was still required to perform my essential function for my tribe of captors, something that was becoming the true highlight of my days. I was not allowed to demonstrate pleasure or enjoyment as part of my duties however, and much to my disappointment I was being asked to perform them less and less as the weeks dragged on. It appeared that I was ultimately successful in performing my duty, as evidenced by many members of the tribe showing a healthy change of complexion, others experiencing a sickness in the morning hours, and a few possibly growing the tiniest bit around their bellies.

At least once a week I would be asked to speak with Aegea and the other leaders of the Amazons. Always I was asked to repeat my story, always there were several questions about the Neriedes, always I begged them to distinguish between the relative merits of the men who built and ran the warlike galea, and the slaves that were kidnapped and forced to row it. Little by little Aegea and the other Amazons came to accept my story. The original Lesbians seemed to believe me entirely as they had memories of trading with my people. I was able to mention names of my family members and elders that a few of them had met personally in years past. They also seemed entirely convinced of my status as a slave, as their own men had been taken in just such a manner. What everyone seemed skeptical about and also most keenly interested in were the Neriedes. Constantly I was being asked to provide every single detail, repeating myself time after time after time.

There was also a growing rift between the Amazons and the Lesbians, about what I could not entirely discern. Part of it involved me of course; the Lesbians took me as an honest man and felt I should be allowed to join the tribe with full rights and privileges. The Amazons seemed to have the opinion that no man could be trusted, and that only a very foolish tribe would treat men as anything better than slaves. By eavesdropping very carefully I was also able to learn that the Amazons wanted to take the galea and go somewhere, whereas the Lesbians were strongly inclined to stay in their village. Another issue that I could not understand was some kind of argument about the Neriedes. For my part, I tried to be as respectful and deferential as possible to Aegea and the Amazons. I constantly advocated for more rights for myself, and tried to impress upon them that I had absolutely no reason to be anything but an ally to them. With Cyme, I listened and learned as much as I could about the two groups of women. I encouraged her to speak as much as possible, something she seemed naturally inclined to do. I also implored her to speak to the more sympathetic Lesbians on my behalf.

The Lesbians were a society that had long been dominated by females. In Lesbian society status meant everything, and every single female was ranked in order from top to bottom. With the onset of adulthood, and according to traditional customs and availability, men and women paired up in a ceremony similar to those on my island. The goal was that a woman and a man would pair and mate for life. The men and children were given a status based on the rank of the female to which they belonged. Women would groom their daughters through to adulthood in an effort to achieve a higher status for their daughter. When a female died there was often a power struggle, the duration and severity of which were largely proportional to the status of the female that had died. The daughter would often struggle to maintain her tribal status, while other women would politic to overtake her on the chain of rank. Sisters and cousins would make and break coalitions to try to cement status within the tribe. The men and the children belonging to the deceased female were either adopted by an adult daughter or perhaps a close female family member, otherwise they dropped to the lowest status in the tribe. At the best of times, this system seemed to work well enough, but life could be tough for those of the lowest rank, male and female.

The Amazons were also female dominated; simple enough considering there were almost never any adult males in the tribe. The hierarchical social structure was similar to that of the Lesbians. A key difference was that Lesbian status evolved almost exclusively by peaceful political and social means, whereas Amazon status seemed to be more of a result of physical or martial prowess. The Amazons came from a much larger land to the North. There were many independent tribes within the larger Amazon confederacy. Each tribe had its own rules with regards to males. Some never co-existed with any adult males at all, whereas others kept a small number. Some Amazons roved as hunting and fighting parties, never having children, whereas other tribes were more domesticated. When procreation was called for, one of the fighting parties would simply attack a village from outside the Amazon confederacy. Once the village was defeated, the men would be used on the spot for their essential procreative function, or perhaps a few men would be brought back to repeat the duty until they were no longer needed. In either case, men rarely were allowed to live longer than they were absolutely required. When one or at most a few men did exist in an Amazonian tribe, they had no status, and existed entirely to perform the single essential function.

The freedom I sought above all others was to visit my uncle in the neighboring hut. Every time Cyme came to see me I would ask her to beg on my behalf with the more sympathetic Lesbians. From Cyme’s reports my uncle was not doing well. He had survived a long state of unconsciousness and fever, but his strength simply was not returning to him. His guts had not healed correctly, and it was difficult and becoming impossible to force him to accept any nourishment. He asked to see me every time Cyme visited him; that is, when he was conscious and even had the strength to speak. “Please Cyme”, I begged of her, “I must see my Uncle before he gets worse. He is my only family in the world.” After several pleas of this nature she finally promised to raise the issue on my behalf, and I thanked her with all my heart. It was the next day after this conversation that things in the village seemed to reach a crisis point.

“You. Manscum. Get up, and come with us.” Though heavily accented, the Amazon speech was becoming easier and easier for me to comprehend. I had been napping all afternoon, when the pair of Amazon hunters came into my tent, looking armed and menacing. Normally I would be happy to perform my essential function, or for any excuse to get out and about, as I was literally dying of boredom. Today however, there was a strong tension evident in the behavior of the Amazons that was making me nervous. As I emerged out of the hut into the late afternoon light, the village seemed deserted through my squinting eyes. “Where is everybody?” I asked. One of the guards responded by poking me in the back with her doru. At this I promptly stared and walked forward, probing my back to see whether the jab had drawn blood. Clearly something was amiss. After all I have been through, is this finally the end for me? Am I no longer of any use to the Amazons?

Another surprise greeted me at the edge of the village. I was being led towards the side of the village where the small river met with the lagoon. At the precise point where the fresh water met with salt there were little spits and islands of sand and stone of various sizes, separated by little tongues and streams of water. At high tide many of these spits and islands were submerged, and the water flowed around them in different directions as the tide was coming in or going out, constantly making and destroying, reshaping the land with an ancient beauty and rhythm. At this moment the tide was coming in, and much of the land was disappearing. Near the center of this boundary between river and sea was a large island of volcanic rock that was never submerged at any time. It was upon this largest of the islands that the entire village was gathering. A great collection of firewood was being shaped for some purpose: A bonfire, an altar, what? The women of the village were organizing in a circle around the wood pile; the Lesbians clearly on one side of the circle, the Amazons on the other. As I approached the water under armed escort, all eyes were upon me and the conversation nearly reached an uproar.

I stepped into the shallow stream that separated me from the island. I felt the sand beneath my feet, the pull of the making tide against my legs. The water of the lagoon was warmer than that of the river, and tiny eddies of varied temperature wrapped around my legs like soft and tiny tentacles. I wondered whether this would be the last time I would ever experience the liquid embrace of the water, or the grains of sand slipping between my toes. Time began to slow down and I could sense the world around me as never before. It almost seemed as if I could stop time altogether, as if I were connected to the entire world through my feet, as if there were no boundary between my body and that of the water, or the sand beneath. I felt as one with all of creation. I also began to feel an old familiar presence around me; a presence I had felt once when I was alone on my little skiff, and once when I awoke on the galea bound for this island. From far far away now, I could hear the voice of the guard behind me telling me to move, but it felt as though I had all the time in the world to comply. Now I felt the jab of the doru, an inconsequential poke like the landing of a fly.

After what seemed an eternity, I placed one foot in front of the other and began moving again towards the village assembly ahead. With each step I gained in speed and confidence. As I rose out of the water I felt an overwhelming sense that all was right with the world, and that no fate could befall me that I would require fear. The conversation grew quieter and finally died away altogether as I stepped onto the island, all eyes firmly upon me. The setting sun rapidly approaching the hills beyond, already casting the island in an evening shadow; the last of the warm orange rays still shining upon my face and torso, I stood dripping before them. “Be seated one and all”, came the authoritative order of Aegea. “You, Aaronius, approach”. I walked slowly but confidently up the aisle of pebbles and sand, towards Aegea and the woodpile. On one side the Lesbians looked up at me with a mixture of looks: some sympathy, some concern, some support, and perhaps even a little bit of yearning? On the other side the looks of the Amazons was of a different mix. I saw some lust in the Amazonian eyes, and even a small but significant amount of concern and support, but also some looks of amusement, scorn, disdain, and in a few faces, outright hostility.

As I reached Aegea I stopped. I stood perfectly still and mute with my arms relaxed at my side, and for the first time ever I took a long long look into her eyes. They were hazel eyes of immense complexity, with radial flecks of brown and green and blue and tan. For a moment I saw nothing but my own reflection in her eyes. Eventually I noticed something deeper; a glimpse into her spirit, the birth of an awareness in her, a surprise followed by the dawn of an understanding. As quickly as the connection was forged, Aegea broke it. Now her mind and heart were closed and her mouth was opening. “Tie him to the stake!”




Previous chapters of Aaronyssey as well as other fine works can be found in the library of former House Fotismenos: http://forums.civfanatics.com/group.php?do=discuss&group=&discussionid=4897


OOC:

So what have I learned today? First of all, assassinating a household is worth a few times more than a story. More interestingly, dot80 has a formula wherein the "sum of the prestige given out for writing is equal to that of the largest gain in prestige since last session". If the "largest gain in prestige" is calculated prior to the awarding of "writing prestige", I can deduce that Jehoshua has gained 28 prestige in the last turn; 10 from eliminating Tambien from the game, and 12 more from something(s) else. Post-facto, 22 points were divided up amongst those who have contributed RP, six of which went to Jehoshua, for a grand total of 28. Alternatively, if the "largest gain in prestige" is calculated after the awarding of "writing prestige", I can deduce that Jehoshua has gained only 22 prestige.

Any way you slice it, those players in this game that really want to compete are at a supreme disadvantage by virtue of the fact that players born early are able to earn several times the amount of prestige. When you consider all of the real power and wealth they are also earning, it seems impossible that any player other than Jehoshua can win this game. That is sad considering the game has hardly begun.



I have also learned that I should perhaps defend my particular brand of RP:

My stories invoke gods and customs relevant to the time and to our civilization. I also allude explicitly to technologies that are relevant to our era, and imply strongly what the benefits of certain technologies could be. I have expounded greatly on the potential virtues of sailing and bronze working for example. I have also advocated IC as a lowly peasant for settlement locations that will incorporate the "Perlas" on the north coast, and my stories motivate such a desire in the Greek civilization.

You will also find that once I am born in game my character's actions will be very highly informed and motivated by my back-story; hopefully to such an extent that the other players in this game will be able to predict and understand my character's actions and behaviors.
 
OOC: Well, I guess that Jehoshua recieves some prestige form his position alone and so on? And besides, Jehoshua "defeated" someone who had been in this game longer than him, so that's not impossible
 
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