The Setting
Ever since man came into being on this world, they have attempted to rule over their kin and over all of the lands. That did not change with the discovery of magic within certain individuals, magic only made conflicts more and more devastating. It's not known when was magic discovered or how did it come into being. But after the devastating battle between the Mage Worbel and the Berka Knight Harove, the battle which shattered and sunk many civilizations of old to the ocean, the Mages of the North, West and South gathered together to put a stop to the wars between each other. And so the Mages' Guild was formed.
- The Chronicle of the Guild, excerpt from Chapter I Before the Guild.
Magic Systems
The world is divided by two main systems of magic, all types of magic fall under these two systems. (Save for Necromancy which is forbidden by the Guild and The Crusader Orders) All casters, regardless of specialisation, have the skills of Teleportation, Levitation and Telepathic Communication with other mages/knights.
Guild Standard
The standard magic system in use since the forming of the Guild hundreds of years ago. In usage in all parts of the world save for the East. Has more diverse but less powerful spells as the Berka System. All mages trained under this system are members of the Guild, and hence, also subject to all orders and rules of the Guild, despite serving under various rulers.
Red Mage (Offensive)
A mage specialised in long range and bombardment spells, adequate at creating defensive shields.
Magic Color: Red
Golden Mage (Defensive)
A mage specialised in defense, creating barriers, shields and capturing the enemy with binding magic.
Magic Color: Yellow
Blue Mage (Summoning)
A mage specialised in area of effect spells, creating storms, illusions and freezing the enemy with powerful magic.
Magic Color. Blue
Green Mage (Support)
A mage specialised in teleporting groups (regular mages can only teleport themselves), healing spells and creating telepathy-jamming barries.
Magic Color: Green
Familiars
Support creatures, can be either Offensive or Defensive type (but never Summon or Support), can only be summoned by a WoI and is a constant strain on their master's powers. One familiar per WoI.
Magic Color: Orange
Berka Magic (Knights)
The prevailent magical system of the east. Being more confrontational than Guild mages, the Berka Knights (as mages of the east are called) have more powerful but less diverse array of spells than Guild mages. The Berka prefer magically enchanted melee attacks to long range spells, for example. Berka Knights are trained under one of the many Crusader Orders of the east, all of the Crusader Orders answer to the High Lord, servant of the Emperor of the eastern lands. The Berka Knights do not answer to the Guild, as they are not a part of it.
Crusader (Offensive)
The Berka Knight equivelant of the Red Mage. Specialised in magically enchanted melee attacks, adequate at creating defensive shields.
Magic Color: Red
Steel Sword Knight (Defensive)
The Berka Knight equivelant of the Golden Mage. Specialised in creating barriers, shields and capturing the enemy with binding magic.
Magic Color: Purple
Zealot (Summoning)
The Berka Knight equivelant of the Blue Mage. Specialised in area of effect spells, creating storms and turning their opponent to stone.
Magic Color: White
Knight of the Lake (Support)
The Berka Knight equivelant of the Green Mage. Specialised in teleporting groups (regular mages can only teleport themselves), healing spells and creating telepathy-jamming barries.
Magic Color: Green
Guardian Beast
The Berka Knight equivelant of the Familiar. More powerful than the familiar but creates more strain on their master.
Magic Color: Brown
The Mages' Guild
The Guild is what trains the mages of all the western world, and as such all of the mages of the west answer to the Guild first and their own rulers second. The Guild is very strict when it comes to conflicts between Guild member nations, as it can forbid training of mages from the agressor nation. (Of cource the player can train mages with their existing mages, but it will have poorer results) The Guild has also been known to use force to deal with rulers who have not obeyed the rulings of the Guild.
The Guild is located on the central island at the heart of this world.
While the Guild does not expect member states to wage war on the heretical Berka Knights of the east. It does expect that no contact or trade be made with the Knights, consorting with the Berka Knights will lead to severe punishment by the Guild.
The Guild holds a mage tournament every three years, only WoI can participate. One WoI per nation, the player has the freedom of sending one of their own WoI to compete in the tournament. And to give instructions on how to beat their opponents. Any of the four mage types can participate, with the addition of their own familiar. Using artifacts to boost the mage's power is allowed. Winning the tournament carries with it, in addition to the title of champion, a powerful magical artifact that the Guild has in its possession.
Berka Knights are forbidden entry to the tournament.
The Crusader Orders (Berka Knights)
The Crusader Orders train the Berka Knights (mages) of the eastern kingdoms. They are not as strict as the Guild with regards to wars between various Berka nations, but they will not approve it either. The Crusading Orders are located in the eastern islands at the very edge of the world.
The Crusader Orders expect rulers of the eastern kingdoms to send teams of Knights to invade some of the island kingdoms to the west. (This means that every once in a while, you are ordered to send some of your knights to invade islands to the west. No need to send regular armies.) Failure to do so will come with a severe punishment from the Crusading Orders, with the possibility of forbidding you to train knights.
Trade with the western lands is forbidden.
Wizards of Importance (+Artifacts)
These are quite unlike your regular mages/knights, as they are more powerful than the average magic user. They are the only people capable of wielding artifacts and have a higher ranking than average mages/knights. They are visible in your stats with the following info given: Name, Mage Ranking and Artifact Wielded (if any). Having a WoI lead your army into battle is not just a huge morale boost, but a great asset aswell, as the spells of a WoI are much much more powerful than you would expect of an ordinary mage/knight. It costs 10 gold to recruit a Wizard of Importance. The Guild nations do it through the Mages' Guild, Berka nations through the various Crusader Orders. A WoI can be any of the four main types of a mage/knight. (Excluding Familiars/Guardian Beasts for obvious reasons)
Like any other magic user of this world, WoI have the abilities of Telepathic Communication (with other magic users), Levitation and Teleportation.
WoI ranking (from the weakest to the strongest): AA, AAA, S, SS and SSS.
+ and - may be added after the letter if the mage/knight is borderline between two grades, so the strongest is SSS+ and the weakest is AA-. After you have gained a WoI the only way to increase their training is through artifacts and battles. WoI ranking is determined randomly by me upon hire, stories help here.
A WoI can hold their own against large groups of regular mages/knights and can take out entire non-magical armies on their own. But it is still advised to protect them with regular mages/knights or team them up with other WoI.
WoI are the only ones capable of entrying the Guild tournament.
Artifacts are weapons/objects of power which grant their wielder considerable powers. Only one can be wielded by a WoI at any given time. They can be found or excavated, gained by killing other WoI or bought from the Mages' Guild/Crusader Orders, stories help here.
Economy
I will be using gold as the measurment of your economy, gold is gained by building new cities, trading and looting enemy cities. Each nation starts with 5 gold and can increase it directly by building more cities. The capital of your nation grants you 5 gold per turn, each new city grants you 1 gold per turn. Building a new city costs 4 gold.
Trade is done by putting ships to trade with other distant lands, the longer the distance between you and your trading partner the bigger the profit, but also higher risks of pirates and sea monsters attacking your fleet. Each trade route grants you 1 gold, regardless of the amount of ships comissioned (for simplicity), the extra ships are used as escort.
Military (Army, Navy and Mages/Knights)
Your army is mostly alike with OTL Late Medieval Age (around 1300-1490's), however Gunpowder weapons (Arquebuses) are in usage in the land armies (however not compleatly replacing archers). Due to there being no large landmasses in this world, and feudalism never forming, cavalry never gained such an important role in the land military and the term Knight refers to the practisioners of the Berka type magic. Your infantry thus consists of anything from levied peasants and archers to Arquebusmen and macemen.
Training 250 infantry costs 1 gold.
Your navy is alike to OTL ships of the Age of Discovery, with ships of the line-typic ships being commonly in use.
Building 10 ships costs 1 gold.
Details about the different caster types has already been given under the Magic Systems. Suffice to say that all casters have the abilities of Teleportation, Telepathic Communication (with other magic users) and Levitation.
All types of Mages/Knights cost 1 gold per 5 casters of that type. (Save for Familiars and Guardian Beasts, which can only be summoned by Mages of Importance.) Increasing the training of 5 mages/knights costs 1 gold per level. So, increasing the training of 10 casters by 2 levels costs 4 gold.
As all Mages/Knights have levitation and teleportation, there is no need to transport them with ships.
Magical Ranking (F = Weakest, A = Strongest): F, E, D, C, B and A. (All casters start at F)
UU: Pretty obvious as to what this is, depending on the power of the UU it might cost more then the unit type it replaces. One UU per nation.
Training of navy (10 ships instead of 5 casters) and army (250 infantry instead of 5 casters) is handeled the same as the training of casters. Save that the scale goes from 1 to 10. 1 being the worst, 10 the best.
Government
It's quite obvious what this is. I will probably not restrict what this can be, but try to keep in touch with the world of this NES. For example, the Mages' Guild does not look favourably on dictatorships. Changing government forms will most likely cause unrest among the supporters of the previous government.
Confidence
This represents on how your populance feels about your government. It is a number on the scale from 1 to 10, 1 being that the populance is just about ready to get rid of you and 10 means that they will defend you to the last. At the start all nations are at 5. It costs 2 gold to raise confidence by 1.
Culture
This represents on how united your populance is. Again it is on a scale from 1 to 10, 1 is that the nation is full of rebellious minorities and ready to fall into a civil war, while 10 is that the country couldn't be more united (combined with low confidence however it is not good for you). It costs 2 gold to raise culture by 1.
Education
I won't bother setting up any age systems. But education will still be important in the performance of your army, navy and mages/knights, aswell as how much your projects will cost (the higher your education the less you projects will cost). It is on a scale from 1 to 10, 1 is the lowest, 10 the highest. It costs 2 gold to raise education by 1.
Projects
Can be a magical artifact, cannot be as powerful as artifacts that can be found, a building/monument or a program of some sort (such as clearing more land for farming, or a propaganda program). You tell me what you want it to do, and I shall give you how much it costs, no turns required to complete.
Orders
Orders must be in English, sent by PM and be in a list form. To make my work easier, and make updating faster, follow these steps.
1) Copy your nation's stats into the start of the pm.
2) List where, and how much, you will spend of your available gold. (Includes money spent on projects aswell as starting new projects)
3) List all of the diplomatic treaties that you have signed. Treaties not listed in your orders will be ignored.
4) List your domestic orders here (and peaceful foreign orders, includes espionage).
5) List your military orders here.
6) Questions/complaints to the mod, plus OOC comments, are the last.
Turns/Updates
Each turn takes 1 year of in game time. I will try to have one update each week, most likely during the weekend, I will set up a deadline later on.
Stories
Yes, please. The players are the ones who make what the NES world is, I will not dictate the cource of the game (Unless I really need to), the way this NES developes is entirely dependant on you people and the stories you write. Stories will also help your nation advance faster, gain artifacts, WoI, etc.
Where Have I Loaned Elements
The Magic Systems are combined from elements from The Black Magician Trilogy (The Guild) by Trudi Canavan and the MSLN series (Berka Knights, Magical Ranking). The map used here is the world of Earthsea from the novels by Ursula K. Le Guin, although the world otherwise bears no resemblence to Earthsea.
Complaining/Questions to the Mod
Ask/complain away, I'll try to address each question/whine as soon as I can.
Nation Template
Nation Name (Be Creative)
Ruler/Player: ?/?
Government: (Be Creative)
Magic System: Guild/Berka
Gold: 5
Mages*(Ranking):
Army (Training):
Navy (Training):
WoI (Ranking): None
Artifacts (Wielder):
Confidence: 5
Culture: 5
Education: 3
Projects:
Background:
*Knight for Berka countries.
