SprylliNES: The City of Oracles

Status: New thread

Update 0
Update 1
Update 2
Update 3
Update 4

Each update represents 3 years.

Summary:

In essence, there is a single city (whose name is "Dis") run by an oligarchy of twenty “kings” and one Priest who each have a seat on the Senate. The players represent ruling clans who have to acquire kingships from each other, or they represent some part of the priesthood, or they represent some band of travelling merchants or colonists.

Suffrage is presently universal male suffrage.

The Temple:

There must be three players in the priesthood, called the Prophet, the Priest, and the Dean.

The Prophet makes up prophecies and then sends them to me, to the Priest, and to the Dean. The Prophet may never post IC. The prophecies, as received by me, then tend to come true in the update. The identity of the Prophet is a secret withheld from all except the Priest and the Dean.

The Priest is nominated by one of the city’s elite clans, and this clan will be chosen randomly by me according to the verdict of a junior, non-partisan, acolyte upon looking at some entrails. The Priest has a seat on the Senate and is the only one who is allowed to announce prophecies. Thus the priest can neglect to tell the city about a prophecy or entirely make one up. The Priesthood is held by the Assir Clan and this position is held until either the Priest or Prophet should die.

The Temple (whose public face is the very theoretically non-partisan Priest) commands the great loyalty of the lower classes. How much loyalty it commands depends on how many of the prophecies come true, on how much the Priest tries to get them to do things, and, more than anything else, on the prestige of the Temple (i.e. the Dean). The Priest’s clan’s own prestige being high does not cause the populace to become any more loyal at all to the Temple.

The Dean runs the secular affairs of the Temple in the city. His task is to enhance the glory of God by the maximum aggrandisement of the Temple and to get the greatest possible influence for the Temple. He may not announce prophecies, but if he denounces the Priest’s announcements or otherwise contradicts the Priest he undermines not only the prestige of the Priest’s clan but also the prestige of the Temple itself. Public order may also be negatively affected. The Dean is also head of the city’s civil service. The Deanhood is held by the Picoles Clan and is currently hereditary within that clan.

The Senate:

The city itself is divided into fifteen quarters, each of which elects its own king every decade or so. Three seats on the Senate are held by appointed kings who hold their positions for life, elected by the other kings whenever one dies. The other two (NPC) kings are victorious generals. These take up their posts when acclaimed particularly enthusiastically by the populace, and so there may not always be three. More generals can be appointed as Kings by the senate, but normally only to placate the populace. The twenty-first seat is taken by the Priest. Only elite clans can stand to be elected Kings in the ten quarters of the city.

Otherwise, the Senate can levy taxes and pass legislation, as governments do. All the clans will want to enhance their own prestige through passing senate resolutions and by doing great things on their own.

Clans:

Clans are elite or mercantile. The distinction is thus: elite clans cannot engage in business outside the city's territory (except for ambassadors and purchase of materials for public works), and mercantile clans cannot stand for the Senate.

Clans, as in Daftpanzer’s Nesse, need a speciality. However, these can be wide ranging, covering not only inherently noble pursuits like diplomacy and generalship, but also more plebeian affairs such as trade within the city, metal-working and the arts.

The Stats:

Each faction has a turnly income, measured in Shillings (why not?) and an upkeep value.

Most of your clan's assets will cost you upkeep.

Upkeep values per turn are as follows:

Soldier: 4 shillings.
Warhorse: 4 shillings.
Labourer: 2 shillings.
Beast of burden: 1 shilling.

The initial cost of each of the above items is twice the upkeep value, although elite clans can avoid the initial double payment on soldiers by levying from their farms or buying armour from the metal-working clan.

Other things will cost you upkeep: potentially, corruption will, and so might anything else you build or invest in. Ships cost an upkeep of 10 shillings and can be purchsed at 40 shillings from the NPC Lepserian Clan. You can use your income on what you like. Ask me for the cost.

Income can be stored away physically (but of course it can be raided physically too) in a treasury. This is also shown in the stats. When you bank shillings, you should tell me where to store them.

Every clan has a membership, representing the wealthy benefactors and investors of the clan. These members alone can be used in your private army, but only as cavalry. Your prestige increases if prestigious, rich, sorts of people join you, and your prestige declines if you let riff-raff into your clan. Each member gives you a subsidy each year of 1 to 6 shillings depending on their wealth (but you always have to pay for their horses if you want them to have horses). Your membership can increase for many reasons, and increased popularity and prestige will encourage new members. You can give your members some things to do in your orders, but they will not really exert themselves, and you must remember that they are the, aristocratic or at very least middle-class, bosses and owners of the clan, and not the workers. They cannot be used for menial or day-to-day work.

Every clan has a prestige stat. At the end of the NES, the prestige stat determines the “Winner”. It also causes the clan to gain members and get popular respect (and thus victory in elections). Of course, the Temple always has greater popular respect than its prestige stat would indicate.

Other Things:

The map is lower down the page with a description of the city.

Orders, I hope, will be concise but interesting, with a clearly defined spending section.



Stories may cause their writer to receive a bonus. I appreciate all efforts to make this world more vivid and interesting.

How to join this NES:

Please apply to play by giving your clan a name, a speciality, a brief description/history, and say whether you want to be near anything in the city such as the port or the city centre, or if you want to be outside the city walls, or whatever. I would prefer it if you didn’t recycle names from other NESes; this is a tedious practice. Remember I need a Prophet and a Dean and some merchant/colonist clans as well as elites. In fact, I would rather have no more than 8 elite clans. Here is a template.

Clan Name:
Clan Type: (Elite/Mercantile/Dean)
Speciality:
Description/History:
Other:

Reservations:

The prophet has already been reserved. I'll tell the Priest and Dean who, but I won't tell anyone else.
Verisimilitude (Mercantile) looking for a player.
merciary as Tralysan (Mercantile).
Abaddon as Scara'moosche (Mercantile) with a base in Inland Ferante.
qoou as Picoles (the Dean).
Assir (Elite) looking for a player somewhat urgently.
Julius Gandi as An'Topi (Elite).
1stcitizen as Demoites (Elite).
Bill3000 as Antulan (Mercantile).
Adrogans as Haji (Mercantile).
Vertinari118 as Hlyngbanites (Elite).
Owen Glyndwr as Tal Rynn (Mercantile).
Anonymoose as Rah Kyl (Mercantile).

Current Stats:







The Senate has a treasury of 426 shillings (having sold off its slaves), and levies a tax of 10% currently from all clans' incomes except the Dean's. This tax income comes to 273 shillings this turn. The senate also owns 2 ships, 31 soldiers, 24 labourers, and 2 horses, costing it 200 shillings’ upkeep to pay this turn. The senate also holds tools for 80 stone-cutters, allowing it not to pay double upkeep next time it wants to hire 80 stone-cutters.

Net Senate funds for this turn: 499 shillings.

In the city, there are around 60000 people.

The Setting

The city is a quiet seaside town. Away to the north are hills that stretch so far that no-one can confidently say where they end, and arable plains are the main feature of the landscape for many miles along the coast, after which the beaches turn to cliffs and the farmland turns to forest. The hilly area is lightly forested, with valleys where large tribes of sedentary locals live. Rumours of a great civilisation in the North are sometimes to be heard in the city, but no-one can give any details about it.

The city is built on a small river that flows through the north side of the city and enters the sea to the east, outside the walls, and around the mouth is the lesser port of Yglissy, where fishermen carry out their work. On the north side of the river is a somewhat steep hill, the Ulerian hill, on which many of the poorer houses are, and this gradually slopes downwards on the other side into the thick woodland beyond.

On the south side of the river is the open market, which is sandwiched between the sacred area of the Temple on the west side and the Kings’ Hill on the other side. On this small hill are found the Senate and the headquarters of several of the city’s older, more established clans.

A wide road runs from the market to the port, and on either side of it stretch roads, and on these roads, small shops and pubs and houses can be found. Larger houses are occasionally found for the more prosperous middle-class families, many of whom have businesses at the ends of the roads near the city walls. This area is known as the Southern city. The South-eastern quarter of the Southern city is almost entirely inhabited by people of the Loresian religion, a foreign cult from a long way down the coast, and these people are thought of as heretics by a substantial minority of the population.

The city thins out before the gates, and the wide road proceeds out from the gates through miles of cornfields and vineyards up to the main port, Ferante. Here great merchant ships dock and trade deals are worked out with the people of the islands to the south and with the other towns along the coast. Many shipwrights live in the houses by the dock, and all around the dock are workshops where fine exports are made from imported and local goods.

To the northwest of the Temple, along the riverbank on both sides, are many of the other wealthy families of the city. They live in large houses with gardens, and there is a theatre here too. Roads lead out of the gate from this area, known as Hlyngba, along the southern perimeter of the woodland and lead to the farms along the coast.


The present clear threats to the city come from

a) the numerous barbarians in the hills;
b) the other towns along the coast;
c) the islanders to the south.


The Maps:

The maps are below. Each of the coloured areas is one of the quarters of the city. The holes in the city wall are the gates. The ][ symbols are bridges. The red area is the main road and the marketplace. The green quarter includes some houses, but these are in the western part and these are separated by the darker green line from the Temple's grounds.

Thanks to Bill3000 for the senatorial map (which reflects update 2).



The Quarters:

Reserved 2

Update Zero

The city is prospering increasingly these days, and trade is booming through Ferante. Still, though, many of the poorer people live in squalor, particularly on the Ulerian hill, and the stench of their dirty habits wafts down through the Forum and is quite a blight on the city.

Despite the horrible smell, the ceremony was held as usual to determine the new Priest. The entrails were inspected, and the acolyte loudly proclaimed that the entrails clearly spelt out that the Priest was a member of the Assir clan. The new Priest ascended the throne at the end of the Senate-house and everyone cheered.

In the richer quarters of the city, life proceeds in luxury for the elite clans. The farms have been bringing in substantial quantities of food over the last few years, and the rains have not been as torrential this year as they have been known to be.

The river that runs through the city is getting polluted, and many have misgivings about the effects this may have on the local inhabitants. Disease has been increasing over the past years, particularly on the Ulerian hill, and so the Tralysan clan is getting more and more business, but some are finding that their remedies are not effective at all against many of the diseases that are to be found in the city. Many believe that research to find the remedy to the disease will only succeed after considerable investment.

Meanwhile, far away from the splendour of the Elite clans in Hlyngba, shadowy gang-like clans are emerging. The Verisimilitude clan is bringing into the city a new practice, slave-trading, which appears very useful to many of the businesses in the city, and which could bring great benefits to the elites. However, public opinion is actually somewhat against slavery, and many citizens wonder whether they themselves are at risk of being attacked and enslaved; the Temple is not yet made its attitude known. The Loresians have quickly made it clear that they oppose the practice, and several Verisimilitude slavers have been set upon in the southern city by angry citizens.

Also in Ferante, the Scara’moosche clan seems to be monopolising business in the port by a combination of violence and bribery. Many in the port want new Kings who can sort out the chaos and occasional fighting in the port in one way or another, as elections in all three quarters are impending.

Gerignia, Kyly and Ucpleria are the names of the three next cities to the east. The coast is more sparsely populated to the West, and the next two cities are Rorarym and Dichles. Kyly, the richest and most populous city on the coast, is at war with its two smaller neighbours, largely on account of an expanding population that requires more farmland in order to sustain itself effectively.

Messengers have arrived from Kyly to demand a reduction of tariffs on them in this city.

Messengers have arrived from the Lycelen tribe of barbarians. They have presented the Senate with 50 shillings (10% of their king’s total wealth) as a gift and they want gifts worth 10% of your elites’ total wealth in return, according to their customs. This would amount to 300 shillings.

Messengers have arrived from the Muren tribe of barbarians. They want permission to enter the city to talk privately with one of the citizens.

In the far south, a trade war is known to have broken out between several of the cities on the islands.



OOC: The prophet should now send cryptic prophecies to the Priest (Kentharu) and the Dean (Haseri) for the Priest to announce. I will receive clear versions of the prophecies. If anyone has any questions, please ask.

Elections are to be held in all three Ferante quarters, and the Scara’moosche are the main issue. The merchants are to be found more predominantly in the coastal quarters of Ferante; the inland quarter is more industrial. Hlyngba Minor and the Southern City by the Market are also holding elections.

You all also need to consider what to do about the messengers from Kyly, the Lycelen, and the Muren.

I have replaced the dense forests to the north with hills for greater geographical interest.

Turns are 3 years long for the moment.

Stats will be posted after each update. The stats for this update will arrive shortly.

New players are still warmly welcomed and they will be able to receive seats in the senate on account of the elections to be held over the next few turns.

Stats:







The Senate has a treasury of 250 shillings, and levies a tax of 10% currently from all clans' incomes except the Dean's. This income comes to 191 shillings each turn.

That's everything! Kentharu should receive prophecies from the Prophet soon enough, and then should announce them.

You may post.

From: Clan Verisimilitude
To: The Senate and the Temple

Honored senators and most blessed Dean, we propose that the filthy destitutes of the Ulerian Hill be sold off into slavery by our clan for the good of our City. As we know, God helps those who help themselves. If we allow the rats to breed in their squalor like the unmitigated blight they are, they will spread like a blight and corrupt our entire city. They should be re-appropriated to a more beneficial use for our city, learning the value of hard labor and filling our coffers in our workshops and fields.

There is now also an international map on the third post. Also, there are some example orders, although feel free to make them more elaborate/entertaining than the example. Anything that provides me with interest is good.

I must interject, if those slobs were put to work in our cities factories, much greater wealth will be generated that a one off sale. Also, I ask our great priest, are we to lower ourselves so much by greed that we would sell our own brothers an sisters? I say ban this filthy trade, or at least outlaw out own citizens from befalling this cruel fate!

From: Clan Verisimilitude
To: Clan Scara'moosche

But that is exactly what we are proposing: selling the slaves to be put to work in the city's factories and fields. The military clans would gain benefit by obtaining a share of the slaves that they rounded up, the trading clans would organize the sale of the slaves, and the industrial clans would be able to benefit from the infusion of the cheapest labor possible.

We do not see the scum of the Hill as 'our brothers and sisters.' They are not citizens of Dis, but a blight brought upon us by our God to test our judgment. We must not let them corrupt our city with their lethargy and lack of value held for labor. Not all men are created equal: we are blessed by our creator by power and will according to our birth, and while the strong do what they can, the weak suffer what they must.

On the matter of the Kyly:- Honorable brothers, we cannot bow to such the threats and demands of the Kyly, least they and other perceive it as a weakness and seek to strike us. I say we stand firm and maintain our current tarrifs. The House of Assir shall vote no.

On the matter of the Lycelen Barbarians:- What manor of strange and foolish custom is this? They give us a paultry 50 shillings and then expect 300 in return? Truly these men are barbarians, and possibly insane. The House of Assir shall vote no.

On the matter of the Muran:- Let not the tainted ones step through our walls. The House of Assir shall vote no.

On the matter of the Verisimilitude clan:- The people of the Ulerian Hills are not as you say. It is not up to you to decide who is free and who is not. To be so eager to set yourselves upon the people of this city is not the way of the light.

On the matter of Slavery:- This has weighed heavily on our conscious and with lengthy consideration. THe House of Assir sees that there is both a need, and a just cause for slavery in our fair city. However it is within our glorious city that the light of God shines, and our city alone. All those born within these walls shall be free, and all those without are but servants to our God, and to us.

ooc how large are the barbarian tribes of the Muren, the Lycelen, and Cybulen, also how many warriors do they have.

"Come one, Come all! We have the cures to what ails you. You sir, do suffer from aches and pains? If so we have an ointment made from fine herbs from the wilderness. You ma'am, does your face lack that flush that men want? Then we have a pigment for your face. And you sir, do lack that vigor that you once had. Then we have something special for you."

Someone from the crowd shouted out, "What about this sickness, do you have anything for that?'

"Ah....No not at the moment. This sickness is proving a tad challenging, but we do have herbs that can mask the smell of those who are sick. Even if you or a love one is sick others no longer have to suffer with you. Every purchase you make now will go to helping find a treatment for this plague. Do your part now!"


OOC: How much would it cost to buy a building suitable for research/storage?

OOC:

@merciary: a small house for research/storage would cost 30 shillings. You'll need to pay labourers too to operate it.

@Kentharu: the scouts say several hundred men of each in total, armed and unarmed, but that there are about three hundred armed Lycelen, that there are about two hundred armed Cybulen and that there are about one hundred armed Muren. The Cybulen have the best weapons, manufactured in Gerignia.

@Julius Gandi: hooray! More elites!

Here is Julius Gandi's form.

Clan Name: An'Topi
Clan Type: Elite
Speciality: Equine
Description/History: Several hundred years ago Juaq(Hwa-k) of the clan An'Topi was born. He grew up fascinated with horses. He grew up riding whenever he could and as he grew older taught himself to train and breed these horses. He passed on his passion and knowledge of horses to his descendant. They are know for their horsemanship and breeding.

OOC: How do elections take place (you mention by boys are involved some how?)

It's universal male suffrage. Elite clans only can hold seats ("kingships"). Five seats are having elections next turn. Three of these are in Ferante, where some of the voters object strongly to your increasing attempts at monopolisation. If anyone can put forward a realistic plan to sort out the monopolisation and ganglike intimidation and occasional violence, then they will likely be elected to the seats in Ferante.

How big is this place? I wouldn't imagine 3 factories as being a monopoly!

1) no-one else has that many. Not a monopoly yet, but more of a monopoly than anyone else is anywhere near.
2) more to the point, you've been intimidating people and you also have workshops that are actually making profits for their owners although you're price-fixing with them and that sort of thing.
3) you have just acquired four more factories . No more money though.

The Dean's current plan for the city:

Construction of Demi-temples and shrines - No longer will the poor have to make long journeys to the centre of the city to be close to our Lord and Protector. A smaller Demi-temple in every district and a shrine on every street so offerings and prayers may be made to His High Holiness.

Creation of the Temple Guard - These stalwart defenders of the Holy Ground will defend the Temple from looters and theives. And, hopefully, in time will protect all the city from blasphemers and wrong-doers, should the kings allow them in their districts.

Yglissy Road (The name is subject to debate - I am sure a generous sponser could sway the decision) - Lowest on the list of priorities, but I would like funds to be found so a road can be built to the town of Yglissy, aiding the movements of goods between here and there.

A show of faith in the form of sponsership in any of these projects would be most welcome.

(I would like prices for these.)

I would have to agree with our Priest. The people residing on Ulerian Hill follow the same path as us all. And as the Codex says:
"Those That Follow My Light Shall Not Take Another As His Own" - Guidance, Ch 8, Ver 17.

So only the elite are involved in elections? The rest of us have nothing to do with it?