The Blood Dimension: Preliminary Thread

Welcome to the preliminary thread for The Blood Dimension.
In this thread I hope to draw interest for this game before it begins. Players will be able to propose starting locations of their cultures on the cradle map. Players can also begin to develop the identity of their own cultures a bit. I plan on running a few votes to decide on gameplay concepts in question.

To begin, I will be running something that is similar to my NESes in the past over on the NES subforum. You can click the link in my signature to view the third installment of my NES moderating career. This game will be a bit different than my last project, but a bit similar to my very first NES. In this game, it will somewhat mimic the course of the history of our earth without being too similar. There will be some cultures, names, languages, map features, historical events, and technologies that are similar to the ones in our earth's history.

This is a statistic-driven game, meaning that the narrative of the game will be driven by statistics resulting from player orders sent through private message. The narrative can also be enhanced by additional culture bits and short stories provided by players to create depth. There will be a technological tree and rudimentary money system driven by statistics. Don't be fooled though, it isn't all about the numbers, the statistics are just the backbone of the game.

Let's get started:


(Credit goes to North King for this incredible map)

The instructions for creating a culture are as follows:

1. Choose a starting location for your civilization, denoting this by re-posting my map with a colored dot at the preferred location. The color you choose for this dot will be your territorial color. The small black dots on the map are NPC starting locations, so you can't settle directly on top of them. I'd advise distancing yourself a little bit from other players and NPCs.

2. Give your culture a name and create a bit of an identity for it. Be advised that your culture ought to fit the regional culture. (South coast: The far western rivers will mimic ancient India. The next two rivers will mimic Mesopotamia. The following two rivers will mimic ancient Arabia. The easternmost river will mimic ancient Egypt. North Coast: the culture groups from west to east are: Carthaginian, Spanish, Greek, Roman) I am willing to be a bit flexible with these boundaries, but a culture named Xinhuang placed in the "Mesopotamia" region will be incredibly out of place and will be torn to shreds by its neighbors. I reserve myself the right to move a culture that I deem out of place. Don't feel pressured to get too in depth with your culture's identity yet. This step is only to reserve an appropriate location for your culture.

Remember this: While this game is designed to sort of mimic our earth's history, it should NOT include real names or ideas taken directly from history. IE: If you name your civilization "Rome" I will ask you to change it to something original. If your leader is named "Hannibal" he will undergo a name change to fit the game's context.

After you've done that, you can feel free to ask me gameplay questions. I haven't run a game like this in almost a year, so I want to make sure there are no major ganmeplay holes before we begin. Consult the link in my signature, it will take you to my older game that will provide a bit clearer of a summary of the game and an example of what a typical update will look like. Feel free to provide suggestons, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I hope to start this game in the next week. There will be a thread called just The Blood Dimension where you will have a few days to make your official submission following a provided template to officially join the game.

I figured this climate map may also be useful.

Tan is Semi Arid
Orange is Arid
Teal is Mediterranean
Green is Subtropical
Dark Green is Tropical

Mim'amu

color: orange

Government:

Stratocratic oligarchy with no real distinction between the army and formal government. Leaders are a sort of ‘council of strongmen’ with varying degrees of influence and power arising from the shifting alliances and powers these have.

Despite this the Mim’amu aren’t particularly militant.


Culture:

A particularly unique element of the Mim'amu culture are its philosopher-scholars. Like the philosophers of our own timeline's greece, the Mim'amu philosophers are usually provided patronage by some wealthier member(s) of society who in turn expect tutelage for themselves and their children. The philosophers practice at 'academies' which attract both brilliant minds and lazy minds pretending to be brilliant. The academies often compete with one another and often visit one another to compete in discussion and theorizing.

A second element of the Mim'amu culture is its use of stone. They are very accomplished stonemasons and much of their art can be seen in the statues, sculpture, stelae, and temples they raise which are often intricately carved with various depictions of local animals, scenes from everyday life, or more rarely, the three goddesses.

The Mim'amu are accomplished weavers and users of dye and their clothing is often intricately made and brightly dyed.

These people are generally optimistic and loud, valuing social interaction (and wine) as well as good-natured competition (and athletics). They enjoy argument but disdain violence. They have a musical tradition centered around both huge and much smaller lithophones which they assemble from local ringing rocks.


Women’s Roles:

Men and women are equal in crafts, farming, fishing, and religion but only men serve in the military or are involved in rulership.


Religion:

Three goddesses each with their own cult. The goddesses are sisters and are renown for their meddling in the affairs of mortals. Formalized priesthood lead prayers and offer sacrifice (usually animals or food)


Economy:

Food agriculture (limited wheat, greater quantities of various appropriate fruit, probably olives, grapes, dates and that sort of stuff, sheep and goats), Commercial agriculture (mostly cotton, also some dyes), Wineries, Stonework (homes are almost entirely made of stone- wood being reserved for ship-building), Pottery, Extensive fishing (including pearl diving industries), Textiles (cotton) and soft leathers from goat and sheep, Mining (copper), Ship-building (probably pretty limited initially depending on timeframe), Trade (export: olive oil, wine, salt, pottery, pearls, cotton, import: other metal (finished and raw), rarer dyes, heavier leather goods (from cattle), occasionally grain depending on local harvests)


Location:

Government Form:

The Kalasos are a monarchical tribe ruled by a Leves in the capital settlement of Timarios

Current Leves: Maokus Haldes

Settlement Names:
Timarios, Gaios, Desus, Sebrum, Eteros

Male Names:
Maokus, Velos, Kalengashius, Feres, Holeim

Colour: Preferably one of the 50 shades of blue.

More to come!

Thanks for the reservations. One thing I forgot to add is to specify your territorial color on the political map. Please either color your dot on the map or specify the color in words or numeric color code.

The people of the little peninsula called Pyrakhita are merchants and sailors, and always flock to the sandy beaches and rolling waves. They have, unlike many other nations, women in power. The Aphokht, the person who manages the usually hostile seven clans(Hithamen) who own the trade companies is a women. The Pyrakhiti are friendly in the most part, except when dealing with desert nomads, and have a lust of gold. They are great shipbuilders, building galleys that can last quite a while. The Pyrakhiti worship seven gods, each Hithamen representing one of the clans, and the sea, called Netaki, who, like the Aphokht with the clans, manages order between the gods. In the most part, women are equal to men. The only inequality is leadership of Hithamen, where only men can do the such. Most economic growth comes from the large pearl and fishing industry. Agriculture is mainly done by other countries, where the Pyrakhiti import from.

Settlements: Ukunet(capital), Tilakiqa, Porphanen, Kuhital, Qa'Haruk
Color: (RGB) 255, 174, 201
Origin: From the people of the river in the east.
Probably some more stuff later.


EDIT: I'm at the little peninsula by the Egyptian-like area. It's difficult to see.

Keweenai


Color: [RGB] 240, 228, 0
Government Type: Oligarchic
Culture Similarity: Carthaginian

Economy:
The Keweenai people rely heavily on the practice of trade in the region. The typical sailing merchant will have visited most every settlement along the coasts each year, ensuring a steady stream of exotic merchandise. Fishing is also an important industry to the Keweenai and provides food to the growing communities along the coasts.

Settlement Names:
Calumet (Capitol), Traverse, Baraga, Seeney

More to come later!

Nation’s name: Astana
Capital City: Dumgarh
Leader: Ranjit Singh
Government Type : Despotic Monarchy
Settlement Names : Paswani, Kulazabad, Adkheri, Rafitra, Amunetivu, Vaddmulla, Inadakot, Kabagar, Fepur, Narmipur
Person names: Vishnu , Bhaskar, Naraka, Saubhari , Sanjiv , Yama , Akshobhya , Kapil , Shashi
Societal Structure: Society is classified according to the the work that the populace does. The classes are as follows : Warriors-Learned ones- Farmers & Trader-Slaves. Men and women are incorporated into the societal structure, both represented equally across all hierarchies.
Religious Beliefs: Polytheism, multiple aspects of the nature are often worshiped,
Brief History: The town of Dumgarh grew upto be to the cultural center as it is today, because of the immigration of the nearby tribes that roam the country side. Because of its location at its location near the Lake BestiTal, (Tal=Lake) the area around the town of Dumgarh, provided the most fertile plains for cultivation of crops, the lake also provided for a bountiful of fishes for the populace.

Map :

Going to need a map and a territory color from you, bonefang.

Guys, I am debating between three ways to display the statistics:

1. Screenshot image of an excel spreadsheet
2. Downloadable excel spreadsheet
3. Google Docs spreadsheet

Please let me know which you prefer and why

A Google doc set to read only would be best. There are also options to allow comments, which would let players identify issues.

I Second the Google Docs motion.

Ok, I will create a google docs and it will be shared by the first update.

In other news, I'm creating a tech tree rather than the traditional linear technological progression I've used the past three times I've run a NES. I've also created a "trait" system like in Civilization 3 if you've ever played that. I will explain the traits in the official game thread, but basically you will choose two civilization traits in your official submission post. Traits provide bonuses that vary by era.

I'm looking to have the official game thread up sometime on Sunday. Please ask any gameplay questions beforehand, it is easier to iron things out before the game gets going.

Merry Christmas the thread came early. If you've already went into detail in your reservation, then your template submission should be a piece of cake.

Thread:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=548881