Angst
Rambling and inconsistent
NEWNES - OUR ORIGINS
In the beginning the earth was without form, and void.
But the sun shone upon the sleeping earth,
And deep inside the brittle crust, massive forces waited to be unleashed.
The seas parted, and great continents were formed.
Mountains arose, earthquakes spawned massive tidal waves.
Volcanoes erupted and spewed forth fiery lava,
And charged the atmosphere with strange gasses.
Into this swirling maelstrom of fire and air and water,
The first stirrings of life appeared.
Tiny organisms, cells and amoeba, clinging to tiny sheltered habitats.
But the seeds of life grew, and strengthened, and spread, and diversified, and prospered.
And soon every continent and climate teemed with life.
And with life came instinct, and specialization, natural selection, reptiles, dinosaurs and mammals.
And finally there evolved a species known as man.
And there appeared the first faint glimmers of intelligence.
The fruits of intelligence were many:
Fire, tools, and weapons,
The hunt, farming, and the sharing of food,
The family, the village, and the tribe.
Now it required but one more ingredient:
A great leader to unite the quarrelling tribes,
To harness the power of the land,
To build a legacy that would stand the test of time:
A CIVILIZATION!
But the sun shone upon the sleeping earth,
And deep inside the brittle crust, massive forces waited to be unleashed.
The seas parted, and great continents were formed.
Mountains arose, earthquakes spawned massive tidal waves.
Volcanoes erupted and spewed forth fiery lava,
And charged the atmosphere with strange gasses.
Into this swirling maelstrom of fire and air and water,
The first stirrings of life appeared.
Tiny organisms, cells and amoeba, clinging to tiny sheltered habitats.
But the seeds of life grew, and strengthened, and spread, and diversified, and prospered.
And soon every continent and climate teemed with life.
And with life came instinct, and specialization, natural selection, reptiles, dinosaurs and mammals.
And finally there evolved a species known as man.
And there appeared the first faint glimmers of intelligence.
The fruits of intelligence were many:
Fire, tools, and weapons,
The hunt, farming, and the sharing of food,
The family, the village, and the tribe.
Now it required but one more ingredient:
A great leader to unite the quarrelling tribes,
To harness the power of the land,
To build a legacy that would stand the test of time:
A CIVILIZATION!
----
Welcome. This is a NES inspired by many of old.
The rules are very simple and hosted here.
If you're new, the link also contains some information of what a NES is.
Basically, it's a return to form, emulating the simplicity of old while keeping with a semblance of realism, hopefully.
For now, I'll be posting the join information, cradle pictures and templates below.
Let's make history.
----
JOINING
The game is a non-Earth fresh start game, meaning we’ll start out in a cradle surrounded by unexplored ‘shroud’. Each player initially describes a starting culture which will be placed in the cradle and then remixed with the cultures of its surroundings; from that I’ll make states which the players can control. Mind you, this means that whatever your submission is, it is very unlikely that it won’t be changed. Also, some things will be changed in order to accord with certain elements of realism.
If you join during the cradle, read the Cradle section below for information on the starting locale. Your culture has to account for certain restrictions
If you join during a later stage of the game, you have a few possibilities. You can take over an NPC state; you can birth a nation from the decentralized ‘gray’ areas surrounding the players, basing a state on a present culture; or you can create a culture from the starting culture template, migrating to the region. Mind you that the newer, less established you are, you’ll have more freedom to design your culture, but you will be weaker.
Join template
Reminder: If you’re joining at the beginning, before filling this in, read the Cradle section below for initial restrictions.
Culture name: The name of your culture.
Mythos: What are your peoples beliefs; where do they come from, where did the world come from and how does it reflect in their current society?
Society: How does your culture’s people normally govern themselves? What are their ‘normal’ - what are their gender roles, what are their traditions, what are their cultural efforts and what do they consider virtues and vices?
Sample sentences: This is to get an idea of what your language looks like. Write three sentences of your language as written in the Latin alphabet. (Don’t use apostrophes unless they’re glottal stops or have similar function of transcription.)
Phenotypes: Note here an approximation of your look(s). You’re relatively free to choose from phenotypes that aren’t strictly in the area of your choice. (Before you ask: No, there is no stats effect of this. The point is just to give players a visual idea of the look of the cultures. That’s it. (Naturally, you’re free to create a racist culture, as you’re free to create a culture that is irrational and cruel in other ways.))
Claims: Choose an area on the world map.
THE CRADLE
The above is the starting area. Circle the region you want your culture to start in - the more spread out, the lesser it will be defined by your wishes.
The initial cradle is a mixture of several ethnic looks; I currently have a map of the whole world and will track its cultures as we go on.
The Cradle and the World
First of all, here’s the climate legend:
Dark Orange: Mediterranean
Light Orange: Arid (IE grassland, scrubland)
Yellow: Desert
Dark Green: Rainforest
Light Green: Temperate Forest
The climate may seem weird, but this world’s tectonics and geography are not akin to Earth’s. Trust me, it will make sense when you know more.
The white labels in the cradle’s shroud are its cultures’ general idea of what kind of terrain is just outside their knowledge. Some of this may be inaccurate and even wrong.
This world’s volcanic activity is much more prevalent than on Earth.
The night sky resembles ours, with one moon and minor stellar features you’re free to explore.
The cradle has pigs, chickens, cattle and cereal crops available. There are no horses in this region, but camels traverse the desert.
The eastern river carves through a harsh desert, but seasonal floods create a rich, narrow band of greenery in an otherwise hostile land.
There are giant ground sloths in the caves of the western mountains.
Untamed elephants roam the northeastern jungle.
The cradle starts in the bronze age.
Now, some notes on the area’s racial makeup.
The area has a wild mixture of several very different phenotypes of people. The map colors intend to give a general idea of a stereotype; if you were presented to a person, wearing no ornaments and totally culturally ambiguous clothing, you would guess they belong to the group of the according map color.
In general, the colors account for groups having similar facial features and other elements. The closest equivalent of the real world is:
Violet: Papuan
Darker violets/burgundy: Bengali
Northern brown: Yoruba
Eastern brown: Maasai
Green: Yemeni
People’s skin tones vary from Moroccan reddish brown to Central African black, getting darker as we move northward, although some rainforest peoples are slightly lighter.
The cradle's hair and eye colors are almost as diverse as they can get, save for red hair.
Last edited:
