ImmacuNES VI: Dreams and Legends

[Arrow Gamer]

You can't farm with one

Don't come crying to me when all the topsoil blows away.

 

[Seon]

Don't come crying to me when all the topsoil blows away.

 

[LDiCesare]

Interested.
However I will likely have little (or no, I certainly hope not) internet connection from the 17th to the 22nd of March so I'll likely not participate at all during that week.

I don't understand the difference between fey and spirit. What is a banshee for instance? It's both a spirit and a fey to me. I'm not sure it matters, acutally. Anyhow, here goes.
Inspiration from Julian May's Saga of Pliocene Exile books (and from the actual Irish myths that inspired her in the first place).

So here comes the Many Colord Land of Danaans:

Racial perks:
(1) Tall (9 feet average), extremely strong, long-lived and resilient. This makes them almost immortal naturally but they have a very poor breeding rate (however, they could interbreed with humans).
(2,3) Latent magic. When wearing gold metal, most danaans have varying powers of coercion and illusion. Power intensity varies greatly, may depend on amount of gold worn in addition to individual variations, and (unknown to them to this day) is hindered/neutralised by iron.
Cultural perks:
(4) Ritual battles. This, combined with their physical might, makes them extraordinary fighters (but... see below).
(5) Gold industry

Spoiler :

Nation: The Many Colored Land
Player: LDiCesare

Race: Danaans (Fey)
Favored Climate: Temperate to Warm. Coastal or low altitude. Dislike high altitude so high mountains and plateaux are out of the question (they need lots of oxygen).

Spoiler :

Danaans look like tall humans (9 feet average) with a lot of variation in size (from 6 to 12 feet tall). They are fair-skinned, mostly fair-haired, and very handsome to most humans.
They are long-lived but have a low reproductive rate. They should be able to interbreed with humans, although their genes would likely dilute very fast in a mixed culture because of their lower fertility.
They are extremely tough, strong and resilient to damage.
Many among them have latent magic powers, mostly linked to coercing people or spinning illusions. However, these powers require a catalyst, namely gold, to be effective. The presence of iron would negate the effect of gold, but danaans are far from learning what iron is.

Governance
Monarchy with Council advisors
Liberty
Decentralized

Spoiler :

The Monarch is usually designated for life. The ceremony of KingMaking is described in the Cultural section.
The Monarch is advised by a Council made of powerful danaans that he nominates.
The rulings of the Monarch must be obeyed by everyone as he is the chosen of the Goddess and his word is Her will.
In theory.
In reality, danaans are totally unruly. They will do as they please no matter what. They all know the King could be someone else after all. It's a real nightmare for a ruler. In the end, the King's authority is very limited and he has to rule through consensus if he is to be listened, let alone obeyed.

Possible assets:
KingMaking (?).

Culture
Cult of the Fertility Goddess. Ritual fighting. Utterly insane glorification of heroic deeds. Geasa.
Neutral regarding Tradition vs. Adaptability
Glory

Spoiler :

There are 3 important things that shape danaan culture:

1/ Danaans have few offspring.
They also have magical powers and tremendous strength. This combines in a religion where they worship the Goddess, a fertility deity, by participating every year in ritual games. These games include fights and demonstrations of power. Glory matters a lot to the Goddess and to those who seek mates. But what matters most is the ability to sire offsprings who will themselves be glorious.
So...
The King is the Father of those who gain most glory in the ritual games.
The KingMaking ceremony happens when a mother (or, more likely, many mothers) challenges the current King, saying the father of her/their child/children is more fertile and spawned/can spawn more glorious children than the current king. It happens once in a blue at the end of the ritual games, either because the king died or because there's a pretender.
The KingMaking ceremony would meet extraordinary success on TV where reality shows have an audience. Too bad that didn't exist in the stone age. It usually involves lots of bragging, people telling of their feats at the previous ritual games, and lots of comments about siring children that can only be censored on a decent website such as this. It ends up when the mob acclaims the new king. This may happen after the king threatens to kill everyone who thinks the pretender is better than him, after the pretender splits the skull of the king, or after all the ladies cast their vote on the most handsome contender. Much more funny and less predictable than a jury voting for the New Star.
Please note that one of the King's privileges is the 'droit du seigneur' (or right of the first night). However, danaans don't have weddings. They just sleep with whoever they want. The King simply has the right to bed everyone he wants. Again, in theory.

2/ They are fiercely individualistic.
That's probably linked to the ritual games and heroic deeds. They love bragging and glory. They often want to impress others (potential mates mostly). That may be why their latent magic powers are linked to coercion, as coercion is often the only way to have them do anything. Some are traditionalists. Many more are innovators. But then many won't accept the innovations coming from someone else out of pride and jealousy, unless they see a clear personal benefit.

3/ Geasa.
Geasa (singular geis) are tabboos. It is said that the more geasa a danaan has, the stronger his magic powers. So godparents will put a load of ritual interdictions on newly born children in the hope that this will give them lots of magic powers someday. Geasa vary widely, from "never wash in the river Boann" or "never cut your hair yourself" to "never eat dog meat", 'never tell your name" or "never refuse a meal". ( Geasa like "never get your arrows from Credne the Fletcher" may also be bestowed upon the poor babies when their godfather is Goibniu the Fletcher.)

Possible assets:
Geasa (?)
Ritual games of the Goddess (?)

Economy
Neutral regarding Autarky vs. Interdependence
Free Market

Spoiler :

Regulation? The most efficient way of regulating danaans is probably to breed a new generation and put geasa on the newborn because that's the only law they'll respect.
Retrieving gold (the metal) under any shape is of utmost importance for magic reasons.

Possible assets:
Farming (?)
Hunting (?)
Gold industry (?)

Technology
Stone age.

Spoiler :

They probably know how to find gold. From rivers, even though it takes forever. Maybe some mining and smelting gold. However they are not stupid enough to use soft metals such as copper to forge weapons when obsidian edges keep so much longer. And you use fire to get rid of impure stones from the gold ore, not to mix it with tin or arsenic or such useless stuff.

Possible assets:
Oral tradition (?)

Military
Unorganised bands of wannabe heroes who barely understand the word leadership, let alone 'order'.

Spoiler :

As an individual, the worst danaan fighter is a force to be reckoned with. He is the scarred veteran of a hundred years of ritual battles where more or less accidental deaths are common. He is tall, strong, and tough. He is skilled in the use of his warclub, spear and javelin. He can probably kill two or three human warriors single-handedly.
As an individudal, the danaan is probably the best fighter in the world.
As an army, the danaan is definitely the worst army in the world.
They have no notion of obeying orders (except for the unlucky fews for whom it's a geis). They have no idea what acting as a unit may mean.
Here's the most likely outcome of a battle between 10 orcs and 10 danaans:

Spoiler :

In order to easily identify the protagonists, we will name them.
The orcs are called Orc Leader and Orc Grunt #1 to #9.
The danaans are Airmed, Bran, Cull, Dionket, Erin, Finn, Goll, Hara, Irma, and Jenn.

At the beginning of the fight, Orc Leader orders his grunts to stay grouped together and to club the enemy's legs. Once a giant is down, club his head till he's dead. If an orc is hurt, then close the gap and protect him. His grunts have been drilled through the traditional method of punching you in the face until you obey orders.

At the beginning of the fight, Goll and Jenn realise they haven't seen each other for a while, that the rest can defeat the puny orcs by themselves and therefore leave to make love somewhere they won't be disturbed by orcish grunts.
At the beginning of the fight, Finn eyes Cull with envy as Cull has managed to catch Airmed's attention and is likely to get away with her. He therefore accidentaly thrusts his spear into Cull's shoulder. Cull retaliates. Airmed, understanding that the males are fighting for her, remains there to watch them.
At the beginning of the fight, Irma warns the others that it's geis for her to fight opponents she hasn't warned three days in advance. She therefore threatens the orcs and leaves, saying she'll come back three days from now.

Thus, before the fight even started, there are only Bran, Dionket, Erin and Hara left on the Danaan side.
So we're left with 10 vs. 4 before the orcs start fighting.

The orcs advance and charge.
The danaans either charge or stand their ground. Bran and Erin charge. Hara starts charging, but Dionket says it's better to stand their ground so she hesitates and remains puzzled between Dionket and Bran for a while.

When Bran and Erin meet the orcs, they are outnumbered five to one. When Hara finally reaches them, Erin has killed Orc Grunt #4 but she also lost her knee in the process and her head is being clubbed to a pulp by grunts #1 and 2.
When Dionket reaches the melee, the danaans are outnumbered three to one. But then, they are stronger. This would work marvel if both Bran and Dionket didn't try to attack Orc Leader at once, hindering each other and ignoring the grunts in order to reap the most glorious kill. Orc Leader understandably retreats while his grunts swarm the giant feys. Bran and Dionket only manage to get themselves killed, although, to their credit, it must be said they wounded a few grunts in the process.
Meanwhile, Hara has dispatched two orcs. There are still seven left, 4 of whom are unhurt, while she sports several cuts. Not being suicidal, she runs away.

At this point, Cull and Finn have hurt each other so badly that they are barely in figthing condition. Airmed realises that they won't be much help against the angry orcs so she imitates Hara and runs away. The orcs finish Cull and Finn easily.

End result: the orcs won the battle with 3 dead and 3 wounded. The danaans ran away or didn't even fight and had 5 dead and 1 wounded.
If you consider the breeding rate of orcs and danaans, you'll realise that it's not a good idea for danaans to fight wars.
On the other hand, if orcs intend to enslave the danaans, they will have a very hard time doing so or keeping them checked.

Possible assets:
Ritual warfare (?)
Utter lack of discipline (?) (more of a huge drawback really)

Magic
Danaans have latent magic powers of coercion and illusion that require the bearing of gold to activate.

Spoiler :

Golden torcs, rings, armbands or even simple nuggets... are more than signs of wealth for the danaans. They allow their bearers to cast spells. Their strongest heroes can take the illusory shape of giant monsters or coerce enemies to slice their own throats. The most powerful of all are even able to coerce danaans and force them to work or fight together when they'd rather be doing something else!

Possible assets:
Latent coercion/illusion magic (?)

 

[Arrow Gamer]

Extensive deep plowing of the virgin topsoil of the Great Plains in the preceding decade had displaced the natural deep-rooted grasses that normally kept the soil in place and trapped moisture even during periods of drought and high winds. -Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl

 

[Immaculate]

deep plowing of the virgin

teehee

 

[Seon]

Immaculate is a dirty dirty cannibal man.

 

[Immaculate]

Map done. Today has been very productive.

 

[Arrow Gamer]

Will you post it?

 

[Immaculate]

no- its a secret.... (see the OP)

 

[KaiserElectric]

Sorry if it was asked already, but if we write a story, will it be relevant to the bonus that we get, or will you just give us a random award if we write stuff?

 

[Immaculate]

Don't be sorry; it wasn't.

I'll try to make it a bit relative but if there's no easy fit it might be pretty random.

 

[KaiserElectric]

No worries then, I prefer writing stories for flavor over writing stories for an award anyway.

 

[Immaculate]

Vert and others,

Concepts like nobles and dynastic houses are a bit too advanced for the stone age. Try to provide some earlier version thereof okay? Strongmen lineages???

Thanks.

 

[Vertinari118]

Replace with clans or tribes or other preferred word. It reads much the same, though I suppose the social dynamics are somewhat different. Would a system of ruling and subordinate clans be allowed with the ruling clans then forming a confederation rather than annihilating one another be allowed as that is the best encapsulation of what's going on? Or is that also too complex? I'll do a rewrite once I have the answers and have slept.

 

[Immaculate]

sure- if you want to do that thats fine.

 

[Patchy]

The fact that two other factions have a higher arcana than me as well as equal or more income, tech, and magic income by spending a fraction of the perks that I did is making me very twitchy.

 

[Immaculate]

Your units can basically escape conflict at will. Part of what you 'paid' for was a unit trait. Imagine if you weren't pacifist, and you wanted commandoes... if you don't want to travel through the spirit world you can resubmit with new perks and we can redo your stats.

I don't mind; i want you to be happy with the nation you built.

 

[Patchy]

Well that's the thing. I just realized since my people are tied to their trees anyone could just RP starting a forest fire and I'd be screwed disappearing or no disappearing.

That's why I want at least some way to protect myself in the early game. Give me higher arcana to represent how the Kodama are magical enough for every single member having the ability to traverse the spirit realm at will. Or give me higher resource income so that I can build projects early on and it would represent how the Kodama are nature spirits and would be the most familiar with getting resources from nature.

Really the problem is that I don't think they are being represented well enough through the stats.

 

[KaiserElectric]

The Jolustrym are finished and ready to crush some skulls.

 

[merciary]

I appear to yet to have stats, do I need to fix somethings beforehand? I have a feeling I may have set mine a little too advance.