Insane_Panda
Deity
I think that gives you your answer Xen.
A Last Attempt at NESing
- Thread starter Jason The King
- Start date
I think that gives you your answer Xen.
Jason The King
Deity
The NES, after a series of Preliminary updates, will begin sometime in the beginning of the industrial revolution.
das
Regeneration In Process
Only glad to oblige.
Stormbringer
The Brick and The Rose
Novgorod
Area on the Eastern Baltic Sea (Novgorod)
Pacifist - Militaristic 2
Mercentile - Industrial 1
Isolationist - Expansionist 4
Army - Navy 4
Religious - Scientific 5
Centralized - Regional 5
Merciful - Merciless 2
A slavic kingdom that arose on the Baltic Sea around the small town of Novgorod. Slowly, but surely became the trading center that controlled the trade route from the Baltic to the Black sea and monopolized on that using its influence to unite many slavic tribes in the area.
I have not given up on creating a Russia out of Novgorod in one of your NESes!
Area on the Eastern Baltic Sea (Novgorod)
Pacifist - Militaristic 2
Mercentile - Industrial 1
Isolationist - Expansionist 4
Army - Navy 4
Religious - Scientific 5
Centralized - Regional 5
Merciful - Merciless 2
A slavic kingdom that arose on the Baltic Sea around the small town of Novgorod. Slowly, but surely became the trading center that controlled the trade route from the Baltic to the Black sea and monopolized on that using its influence to unite many slavic tribes in the area.
I have not given up on creating a Russia out of Novgorod in one of your NESes!
You want interesting?
Realm of Mortis
Location: Syria/Fertile Crescent
Pacifist - Militaristic 5
Mercentile - Industrial 5
Isolationist - Expansionist 5
Army - Navy 1
Religious - Scientific 1
Centralized - Regional 1
Merciful - Merciless 5
It is not known where these people came from; it is not known why these people came. But almost a millenium ago, a large army stormed the Fertile Crescent, destroying villages and massacring the population. But this army had an odd battle cry; they screamed "DEATH!" All of the men in the army were in long, dark cloaks. Some of them had bows, some of them had a long daggers. They spoke a language that sounded like a snake's tongue. They showed no mercy, they showed no fear. After they had conquered the Fertile Crescent, these evil people lay quiet for centuries. But rumors are spreading a far that these 'Mortisians' or 'People of Death' have awoken again, craving blood and destruction. The entire area populated by these demons, for they must not be human, is covered with blackness. What has caused this? Smoke? Bad weather? Evilness? Either way, there have been sightings of the cloaked men appearing in various states in southeastern Europe and the Middle East. The Men of Death have risen again. Their repeated cries of "DEATH, DOOM, DESTRUCTION" have created a dark cloud over the world...
(This is civilization of death, doom, and destruction. It's a really mysterious kingdom and any outsider who has tried entering it has been killed. The entire population wears dark cloaks and speaks a snake-like language. Hiss, hiss, and what not. THEY ARE EVIL.)
Realm of Mortis
Location: Syria/Fertile Crescent
Pacifist - Militaristic 5
Mercentile - Industrial 5
Isolationist - Expansionist 5
Army - Navy 1
Religious - Scientific 1
Centralized - Regional 1
Merciful - Merciless 5
It is not known where these people came from; it is not known why these people came. But almost a millenium ago, a large army stormed the Fertile Crescent, destroying villages and massacring the population. But this army had an odd battle cry; they screamed "DEATH!" All of the men in the army were in long, dark cloaks. Some of them had bows, some of them had a long daggers. They spoke a language that sounded like a snake's tongue. They showed no mercy, they showed no fear. After they had conquered the Fertile Crescent, these evil people lay quiet for centuries. But rumors are spreading a far that these 'Mortisians' or 'People of Death' have awoken again, craving blood and destruction. The entire area populated by these demons, for they must not be human, is covered with blackness. What has caused this? Smoke? Bad weather? Evilness? Either way, there have been sightings of the cloaked men appearing in various states in southeastern Europe and the Middle East. The Men of Death have risen again. Their repeated cries of "DEATH, DOOM, DESTRUCTION" have created a dark cloud over the world...
(This is civilization of death, doom, and destruction. It's a really mysterious kingdom and any outsider who has tried entering it has been killed. The entire population wears dark cloaks and speaks a snake-like language. Hiss, hiss, and what not. THEY ARE EVIL.)
Jason The King
Deity
cap, i said interesting, not unrealistic/science-fictiony
Insane_Panda
Deity
Why would the whole area be black? Did they decide to paint it or something?
Insane_Panda
Deity
Heavy factories does not turn the WHOLE of syria black, if it was black with that much smoke and ash, then it would be inhospitable.
Oruc
Reactionary
Nope!
Mu
Location: Pacific Islands
Pacifist - Militaristic 2
Mercentile - Industrial 2
Isolationist - Expansionist 5
Army - Navy 4
Religious - Scientific 5
Centralized - Regional 4
Merciful - Merciless 1
The ancient people of Mu carved out a large trading empire in the Pacfic by spreading the ideals of peace, liberty, and happiness. In turn, the Lemurians (People of Mu) created created a society in which the arts and sciences flourished. In this society, religion was not as big a role as in other parts of the world.
Location: Pacific Islands
Pacifist - Militaristic 2
Mercentile - Industrial 2
Isolationist - Expansionist 5
Army - Navy 4
Religious - Scientific 5
Centralized - Regional 4
Merciful - Merciless 1
The ancient people of Mu carved out a large trading empire in the Pacfic by spreading the ideals of peace, liberty, and happiness. In turn, the Lemurians (People of Mu) created created a society in which the arts and sciences flourished. In this society, religion was not as big a role as in other parts of the world.
blackheart
unenlightened
Hawai'i Commonwealth
Kaneohe, Hawai'i
Pacifist - Militaristic 4
Mercentile - Industrial 4
Isolationist - Expansionist 2
Army - Navy 4
Religious - Scientific 3
Centralized - Regional 4
Merciful - Merciless 5
Stuck in the middle of the Pacific, the people of Hawai'i are a unique bunch. Ever since settling on the island (which is the dawn of the world as we know it), the Hawaiians have always been ruled by everybody, and nobody. The thing is, there is a really really large beauracracy on Hawai'i of chieftains, sub chieftains, secondary chieftains, anti chieftains, janitor chieftains, god emperor chieftains, and real chieftains. The chain of command extends so far up that no one know who is at the top. Some Hawaiian radicals theorize that it is indeed a tropical bird that rules the islands, but they aren't quite sure, they just know that things get done and orders are sent.
So with the government in safe hands, Hawai'i naturally prospered. Millenias of peace have brought unprecedented cultural and scientific growth to the Hawaiians. Their religion consists of 3 gods, the main god being Bob, and the other two are actually unknown. What is known about them is that they are all-powerful and all knowing and are ill-tempered (it would soon be later discovered that these 2 gods were really actually Bob on a bad day
). Each year a harvest festival is held honoring Bob, with festivities, organized fighting matches, organized gambling, and the bi-annual sacrifice of an ugly virgin to a volcano.
In the recent years, there has been a huge turnover in the government beauracracy (primarily due to a volcano erupting on most of the beauracrats). New faces were put in charge and new ideas were brainstormed. The new middlemen got the OK from the high powers and started investing towards scientific research and industrializing. Everyone liked industrializing because now everyone could have their very own bicycle and rollerskates; every except the priests of the now-disproven two unknown gods, but they were promptly dealt with via a new sport of sacrificing whoever disagreed with the government.
Naval expeditions were soon sent out. Few returned. Those who did reported that there were angry sea demons (whales) that merciless attacked their ships. The Hawaiians responded by sending out more ships. Hard lessons were learned about the deep sea, but the Hawaiians quickly mastered it. A sea demon was eventually caught (all others fled before the mighty Hawaiian ships), and it was soon realized that their fat was good eating (that and the belief that it was an aphrodisiac, but soon caused a population boom). So the Hawaiians developed more powerful seaworthy vessels which were almost unsinkable to hunt the demons. Eventually they reached Asia and made contact with the locals there. Friendly hellos were exchanged, then the Hawaiians proceed to have limited trade.
Now, Hawai'i is at a crossroads. Rumor has it that the head of the government (whoever he/she/it may be) wants to establish colonies and spread the word of Bob all over the world. Many Hawaiians are preparing for the days ahead.
Kaneohe, Hawai'i
Pacifist - Militaristic 4
Mercentile - Industrial 4
Isolationist - Expansionist 2
Army - Navy 4
Religious - Scientific 3
Centralized - Regional 4
Merciful - Merciless 5
Stuck in the middle of the Pacific, the people of Hawai'i are a unique bunch. Ever since settling on the island (which is the dawn of the world as we know it), the Hawaiians have always been ruled by everybody, and nobody. The thing is, there is a really really large beauracracy on Hawai'i of chieftains, sub chieftains, secondary chieftains, anti chieftains, janitor chieftains, god emperor chieftains, and real chieftains. The chain of command extends so far up that no one know who is at the top. Some Hawaiian radicals theorize that it is indeed a tropical bird that rules the islands, but they aren't quite sure, they just know that things get done and orders are sent.
So with the government in safe hands, Hawai'i naturally prospered. Millenias of peace have brought unprecedented cultural and scientific growth to the Hawaiians. Their religion consists of 3 gods, the main god being Bob, and the other two are actually unknown. What is known about them is that they are all-powerful and all knowing and are ill-tempered (it would soon be later discovered that these 2 gods were really actually Bob on a bad day
). Each year a harvest festival is held honoring Bob, with festivities, organized fighting matches, organized gambling, and the bi-annual sacrifice of an ugly virgin to a volcano.
In the recent years, there has been a huge turnover in the government beauracracy (primarily due to a volcano erupting on most of the beauracrats). New faces were put in charge and new ideas were brainstormed. The new middlemen got the OK from the high powers and started investing towards scientific research and industrializing. Everyone liked industrializing because now everyone could have their very own bicycle and rollerskates; every except the priests of the now-disproven two unknown gods, but they were promptly dealt with via a new sport of sacrificing whoever disagreed with the government.
Naval expeditions were soon sent out. Few returned. Those who did reported that there were angry sea demons (whales) that merciless attacked their ships. The Hawaiians responded by sending out more ships. Hard lessons were learned about the deep sea, but the Hawaiians quickly mastered it. A sea demon was eventually caught (all others fled before the mighty Hawaiian ships), and it was soon realized that their fat was good eating (that and the belief that it was an aphrodisiac, but soon caused a population boom). So the Hawaiians developed more powerful seaworthy vessels which were almost unsinkable to hunt the demons. Eventually they reached Asia and made contact with the locals there. Friendly hellos were exchanged, then the Hawaiians proceed to have limited trade.
Now, Hawai'i is at a crossroads. Rumor has it that the head of the government (whoever he/she/it may be) wants to establish colonies and spread the word of Bob all over the world. Many Hawaiians are preparing for the days ahead.
Insane_Panda
Deity
I'm going to join in my ethnic homeland!!
Name: United Legion
Location: Northern America (New Englandish)
Capital: High Contempt
Pacifist - Militaristic (5)
Mercentile - Industrial (5)
Isolationist - Expansionist (5)
Army - Navy (2)
Religious - Scientific (2)
Centralized - Regional (1)
Merciful - Merciless (5)
During a partictularly hard year, a certain man came to power in the Native tribes in the Texas region. Angry at the Spirts, and at his fellow man for the precieved hardships he threw off his given name, and took a new one. He called himself Sarvogeos, and raised an army of hateful men who were angry with the mysticism of the native tribes. Preaching death, and hate, Sarvogeos led his men to fight against the tribes in the region.
As a way to totally convince his men to his cause agianst the false mysticism, he torched the forests, and allowed his men to see that the spirts could not hurt them. With this revealation, the his men fought without worry, while in the smoke of the forests the tribes lost heart, and were utterly defeated. When Sarvogeos finally took the last stronghold of the old native tribes, he spat at the corpse of the enemy leader in the center of the city and said, "High Contempt, Elder." The Men heard him, and decided in a burst of irony to name the new capital of the empire Sarvogeos had wrenched from the tribes High Contempt.
It had been 100 years since the Reclamation of Truth, and the Empire Sarvogeos won is still strong. They only respect the land for the resources it gives them, they burn the forests for industry, they tear the fields for new homes and buildings. The surrounding people have nothing to give them except their bodies for slave labor. The United "Legion" was an empire of blood and industry, where anyone who stood in its way was sweapt away in the fires of war...
Location: Northern America (New Englandish)
Capital: High Contempt
Pacifist - Militaristic (5)
Mercentile - Industrial (5)
Isolationist - Expansionist (5)
Army - Navy (2)
Religious - Scientific (2)
Centralized - Regional (1)
Merciful - Merciless (5)
During a partictularly hard year, a certain man came to power in the Native tribes in the Texas region. Angry at the Spirts, and at his fellow man for the precieved hardships he threw off his given name, and took a new one. He called himself Sarvogeos, and raised an army of hateful men who were angry with the mysticism of the native tribes. Preaching death, and hate, Sarvogeos led his men to fight against the tribes in the region.
As a way to totally convince his men to his cause agianst the false mysticism, he torched the forests, and allowed his men to see that the spirts could not hurt them. With this revealation, the his men fought without worry, while in the smoke of the forests the tribes lost heart, and were utterly defeated. When Sarvogeos finally took the last stronghold of the old native tribes, he spat at the corpse of the enemy leader in the center of the city and said, "High Contempt, Elder." The Men heard him, and decided in a burst of irony to name the new capital of the empire Sarvogeos had wrenched from the tribes High Contempt.
It had been 100 years since the Reclamation of Truth, and the Empire Sarvogeos won is still strong. They only respect the land for the resources it gives them, they burn the forests for industry, they tear the fields for new homes and buildings. The surrounding people have nothing to give them except their bodies for slave labor. The United "Legion" was an empire of blood and industry, where anyone who stood in its way was sweapt away in the fires of war...
Texas Toast
Crazy Canuck!!!!!
Maruskia
Location: Northern Russia on Arctic Sea
Cap City: Vladstuka
Pacifist - 1 (Uber-Pacifist)
Mercentile - 1 (Mercentille)
Isolationist - 2 (isolationist)
Army - 5 (navy warfare)
Religious - 5 (Scientific)
Centralized - 5 (regional)
Merciful - 1 (mericiful)
The nation Maruskia was carved out of 5 several former Arctic States, and was brought together by diplomatic terms, with no warfare involved. The central government was placed, well, in the middle of the country, for that reason and that reason only. The central government has very little power overall, and the 5 Arctic states (Blastca, Maruskia, Haljja, Noresoon, and Klorn) still control most of their affairs by themselves. Only public services are used by the main government (road building, health, and such) while the provinces/states control their military and navy, mostly by themselves, except in times of war, when the main government assumes these roles. The only state with a large standing army is Klorn, on the border of Swaden, while the others mostly rely on good terms with their neighbours, but still keep a large navy/ fleet for domestic fishing and for war. They have no enemies, and are very bent on living a peaceful existance, with little interaction with the world, except for their neighbours. Religion has been abolished due to a fued that broke out between Klorn and Norseoon many years ago. Everything is based on known facts. Also all industry is family run. (except for war industry---run by main government)
Beat that for a funky nation :]
Location: Northern Russia on Arctic Sea
Cap City: Vladstuka
Pacifist - 1 (Uber-Pacifist)
Mercentile - 1 (Mercentille)
Isolationist - 2 (isolationist)
Army - 5 (navy warfare)
Religious - 5 (Scientific)
Centralized - 5 (regional)
Merciful - 1 (mericiful)
The nation Maruskia was carved out of 5 several former Arctic States, and was brought together by diplomatic terms, with no warfare involved. The central government was placed, well, in the middle of the country, for that reason and that reason only. The central government has very little power overall, and the 5 Arctic states (Blastca, Maruskia, Haljja, Noresoon, and Klorn) still control most of their affairs by themselves. Only public services are used by the main government (road building, health, and such) while the provinces/states control their military and navy, mostly by themselves, except in times of war, when the main government assumes these roles. The only state with a large standing army is Klorn, on the border of Swaden, while the others mostly rely on good terms with their neighbours, but still keep a large navy/ fleet for domestic fishing and for war. They have no enemies, and are very bent on living a peaceful existance, with little interaction with the world, except for their neighbours. Religion has been abolished due to a fued that broke out between Klorn and Norseoon many years ago. Everything is based on known facts. Also all industry is family run. (except for war industry---run by main government)
Beat that for a funky nation :]
North King
blech
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2004
- Messages
- 18,165
Gythsheirn
Location (including name of capital city): Svalbard, Capital: Dekkek Almoth.
Pacifist - Militaristic: 5
Mercantile - Industrial: 2
Isolationist - Expansionist: 5
Army - Navy: 5
Religious - Scientific: 1
Centralized - Regional: 4
Merciful - Merciless: 4
Almoth is an odd nation, to be certain, and it is quite unknown quite how the people of the nation reached where they currently live. By all appearances, by geography itself, they should be Scandinavian... But oddly, their legends teach that they came out of the west, that they sailed into the rising sun. Later studies would show them to be most closely related to the Thule genetically...
The earliest of the seven crucial founding legends tells of their coming to the isle. Gyth the Sailor was king on his own ship, a great ship of over 500 feet in length (probably exaggerated). This famed longship, Dekkek Foi (Great Ship) was known as the terror of the eastern seas. Village after village was completely sacked and burnt to the ground by this great ship with its fearsome black sails.
Finally, the villages of the Eastern Seas banded together in a great coalition to defeat the voyager. Ten thousand men they gathered, in five hundred ships. After fifty days and fifty nights of sailing around the western seas, he finally decided that, though rich the plunder here was, it was too well guarded. He fled to a great frozen isle, where he settled his people, but even here he was persecuted.
He led his people again to the great longship and sailed again, into the rising sun. They sailed for days. Days stretched into weeks, and weeks into months, until finally they made landfall on an even smaller, colder, rockier island. He declared that this would be their home from henceforth.
The second of the legends concerns Tyk the Builder. Son of Gyth the Sailor, he was born into a harsh world where only the strong could survive. The progeny of the people of Gyth by this time had settled the islands with a few stone hovels clinging to the harsh rocks, but they lived ever in fear of the fearsome storms that shattered their hovels.
Tyk the Builder assumed leadership of the village after his fathers death, but his rule was tenuous at best. He knew he would have to do something to prove himself; he also knew he had to do something in order to make the villages something other than mere caves. For a year he wandered the isle alone and isolated, through the storms and the long midnight. When he finally returned, the islanders were in chaos. There was no public order, and the people were starving, their homes ruined.
He rapidly rallied a large number of villagers to his cause, and built a great Almoth (fortified hill) upon the island. This Almoth, built out of the ruins of a rocky spire Tyk had the villagers destroy, had walls a hundred feet high, and fifty feet thick all around. It was impregnable, impenetrable, sheltered from the storms, and could house a veritable city. From here, the islanders soon grew to dominate the islands, where before they had merely been a small group of inhabitants that clung to the rocks.
The third great king was Pykka, the Fisher. Son of Tyk, he looked at the old, shattered remnants of his grandfathers ship that had been thoroughly scavenged for wood, and from this design built his own. He soon set the entire population to building these, and soon they lived off a rich diet of reindeer meat and whale, and fish. The people were happy, and they began to strike out. Smaller versions of the great Almoth began to spring up, small little castles that populated the isles all over. Each lord of the Almoths theoretically gave fealty to the Great Almoth, but in reality they were kings in all but name, and had fleets and armies of their own.
The fourth king of the Isles was Zekk the Pious. He was a builder of great temples throughout the isle, and he alone was responsible for the religious uniformity of the isles in their current state. The religion was a complex one, but it centered mainly on the deity of the Waves, who ruled the seas. He was the destroyer, the god of darkness, of death. But he was also the god of life, of strength, of intelligence. He had let the islanders live long enough for Tyk to build his Almoth, he let them harvest the oceans. But hee was also there to remind them of their sins. He was both good and bad, just and unfair. Below the Wave God were many avatars, the various aspects of the Wave. They were all of him, but they were all separate. All was one, one was many. Light was darkness, and darkness light.
The fifth of the great kings was Kypp the Craven. He was the weak one, the one that could not control.
Under Kypps rule, the outer Almoths rebelled. They raised their own banners, the red banners. They declared that they would no longer submit to the rule of the Dekkek Almoth, and that they would now be free and independent. For forty days, the rebels gathered men under their banners, readying themselves to march on the Dekkek Almoth itself, and force the king to acknowledge their rule.
Kypp himself refused to march to meet them, instead he delegated one of his generals to do the honors. The Dekkek Almoth army, however, was shattered in their first battle, outnumbered, surrounded, and surrendered, and, as legend would have it, dyed their banners with the blood of the fallen and joined the rebellion.
The great host marched on the capital, fifty thousand all in all (or so the legends would have, more than likely there were less than five thousand on the islands altogether in any case). Surrounding the Dekkek Almoth, they laid siege to it.
The days were long, and fiery stones were launched at the fortress from the catapults of the besiegers, smashing huge sections of the walls, but the great foundation blocks remained, and the Dekkek Almoth stood.
The sixth great king was Revin the Avenger. Son of Kypp, he had his father imprisoned for a trumped up charge of treason, and gathered the banners.
Soon he had every able bodied man in the city under his command, and he led them out of the gates en masse. The great horde of units charged the besiegers, and smashed the rebel army in a battle that was said to have lasted the entirety of the Long Midnight of that year. The Dekkek Almoth had prevailed against all odds.
Revin spent the rest of his life seeking out the lesser Almoths, and gradually subdued them one by one. The isles were united just as he died, leaving a legacy that was to haunt the entirety of the Arctic seas for eternity.
The last of the first, the seventh king of Gythsheirn, as it was now called (Gyths stone, literally translated, pronounced gieths hearn), Hybyn the Conqueror, son of Revin, proved himself at the age of 7 in single combat in the popular tournaments of the isle (a strange game that will be revealed later). Born with a strong body and a ready mind, he was a charismatic and influential king. He continued the tradition of Revin quite well, keeping the islands united and putting down any rebellions.
But his greatest achievement was yet to come. Three years into his reign, he called the banners and assembled a great warfleet. In the midst of the Long Midnight, he launched his fleet and sailed south east for a year, letting his brother reign in his stead. He came back at the end of the Long Midnight of the next year, bringing cargo holds full of wealth and announcing a large island had been utterly conquered, subdued, and was now populated by their own people, answering to their king.
He continued on the warpath, calling the banners year after year, and assembling a large dominion that stretched over all the lands bordering the Southern Seas.
By the end of the separate reigns of the seven kings, the time period was 2000, or close enough. Gythsheirn ruled over what we now call Iceland, northwestern Norway, the Orkney and Shetland Islands, and Eastern Greenland, but only time will tell if they can hold these conquests against the various nations they border.
Gythsheirn is a nation of rugged people to fit a rugged land. They live primarily in large stone homes that are sheltered within massive stone hillforts which vaguely resemble square castles. They are a cultured people, thoroughly sophisticated, and very skilled in the arts of war. They are perhaps the greatest seafarers in the world, and rarely far away from their ships. Their land warfare techniques are good too, using a disciplined charge as a whole unit to smash the enemy and win a battle before it begins.
Often when they do not war, they trade. They are skilled metalworkers even in this day and age, setting their hammers to gold, silver, copper, and bronze, making swords, shields, and ornaments. Their trinkets are found on both sides of the Atlantic in great profusion.
They are a religious people who answer only to the king, and even in that case not often.
Gythsheirn, in short, is a land of rugged individualists who seem poised to conquer the North Atlantic out of the darkness of their home isles, if only they can stay united.
Location (including name of capital city): Svalbard, Capital: Dekkek Almoth.
Pacifist - Militaristic: 5
Mercantile - Industrial: 2
Isolationist - Expansionist: 5
Army - Navy: 5
Religious - Scientific: 1
Centralized - Regional: 4
Merciful - Merciless: 4
Almoth is an odd nation, to be certain, and it is quite unknown quite how the people of the nation reached where they currently live. By all appearances, by geography itself, they should be Scandinavian... But oddly, their legends teach that they came out of the west, that they sailed into the rising sun. Later studies would show them to be most closely related to the Thule genetically...
The earliest of the seven crucial founding legends tells of their coming to the isle. Gyth the Sailor was king on his own ship, a great ship of over 500 feet in length (probably exaggerated). This famed longship, Dekkek Foi (Great Ship) was known as the terror of the eastern seas. Village after village was completely sacked and burnt to the ground by this great ship with its fearsome black sails.
Finally, the villages of the Eastern Seas banded together in a great coalition to defeat the voyager. Ten thousand men they gathered, in five hundred ships. After fifty days and fifty nights of sailing around the western seas, he finally decided that, though rich the plunder here was, it was too well guarded. He fled to a great frozen isle, where he settled his people, but even here he was persecuted.
He led his people again to the great longship and sailed again, into the rising sun. They sailed for days. Days stretched into weeks, and weeks into months, until finally they made landfall on an even smaller, colder, rockier island. He declared that this would be their home from henceforth.
The second of the legends concerns Tyk the Builder. Son of Gyth the Sailor, he was born into a harsh world where only the strong could survive. The progeny of the people of Gyth by this time had settled the islands with a few stone hovels clinging to the harsh rocks, but they lived ever in fear of the fearsome storms that shattered their hovels.
Tyk the Builder assumed leadership of the village after his fathers death, but his rule was tenuous at best. He knew he would have to do something to prove himself; he also knew he had to do something in order to make the villages something other than mere caves. For a year he wandered the isle alone and isolated, through the storms and the long midnight. When he finally returned, the islanders were in chaos. There was no public order, and the people were starving, their homes ruined.
He rapidly rallied a large number of villagers to his cause, and built a great Almoth (fortified hill) upon the island. This Almoth, built out of the ruins of a rocky spire Tyk had the villagers destroy, had walls a hundred feet high, and fifty feet thick all around. It was impregnable, impenetrable, sheltered from the storms, and could house a veritable city. From here, the islanders soon grew to dominate the islands, where before they had merely been a small group of inhabitants that clung to the rocks.
The third great king was Pykka, the Fisher. Son of Tyk, he looked at the old, shattered remnants of his grandfathers ship that had been thoroughly scavenged for wood, and from this design built his own. He soon set the entire population to building these, and soon they lived off a rich diet of reindeer meat and whale, and fish. The people were happy, and they began to strike out. Smaller versions of the great Almoth began to spring up, small little castles that populated the isles all over. Each lord of the Almoths theoretically gave fealty to the Great Almoth, but in reality they were kings in all but name, and had fleets and armies of their own.
The fourth king of the Isles was Zekk the Pious. He was a builder of great temples throughout the isle, and he alone was responsible for the religious uniformity of the isles in their current state. The religion was a complex one, but it centered mainly on the deity of the Waves, who ruled the seas. He was the destroyer, the god of darkness, of death. But he was also the god of life, of strength, of intelligence. He had let the islanders live long enough for Tyk to build his Almoth, he let them harvest the oceans. But hee was also there to remind them of their sins. He was both good and bad, just and unfair. Below the Wave God were many avatars, the various aspects of the Wave. They were all of him, but they were all separate. All was one, one was many. Light was darkness, and darkness light.
The fifth of the great kings was Kypp the Craven. He was the weak one, the one that could not control.
Under Kypps rule, the outer Almoths rebelled. They raised their own banners, the red banners. They declared that they would no longer submit to the rule of the Dekkek Almoth, and that they would now be free and independent. For forty days, the rebels gathered men under their banners, readying themselves to march on the Dekkek Almoth itself, and force the king to acknowledge their rule.
Kypp himself refused to march to meet them, instead he delegated one of his generals to do the honors. The Dekkek Almoth army, however, was shattered in their first battle, outnumbered, surrounded, and surrendered, and, as legend would have it, dyed their banners with the blood of the fallen and joined the rebellion.
The great host marched on the capital, fifty thousand all in all (or so the legends would have, more than likely there were less than five thousand on the islands altogether in any case). Surrounding the Dekkek Almoth, they laid siege to it.
The days were long, and fiery stones were launched at the fortress from the catapults of the besiegers, smashing huge sections of the walls, but the great foundation blocks remained, and the Dekkek Almoth stood.
The sixth great king was Revin the Avenger. Son of Kypp, he had his father imprisoned for a trumped up charge of treason, and gathered the banners.
Soon he had every able bodied man in the city under his command, and he led them out of the gates en masse. The great horde of units charged the besiegers, and smashed the rebel army in a battle that was said to have lasted the entirety of the Long Midnight of that year. The Dekkek Almoth had prevailed against all odds.
Revin spent the rest of his life seeking out the lesser Almoths, and gradually subdued them one by one. The isles were united just as he died, leaving a legacy that was to haunt the entirety of the Arctic seas for eternity.
The last of the first, the seventh king of Gythsheirn, as it was now called (Gyths stone, literally translated, pronounced gieths hearn), Hybyn the Conqueror, son of Revin, proved himself at the age of 7 in single combat in the popular tournaments of the isle (a strange game that will be revealed later). Born with a strong body and a ready mind, he was a charismatic and influential king. He continued the tradition of Revin quite well, keeping the islands united and putting down any rebellions.
But his greatest achievement was yet to come. Three years into his reign, he called the banners and assembled a great warfleet. In the midst of the Long Midnight, he launched his fleet and sailed south east for a year, letting his brother reign in his stead. He came back at the end of the Long Midnight of the next year, bringing cargo holds full of wealth and announcing a large island had been utterly conquered, subdued, and was now populated by their own people, answering to their king.
He continued on the warpath, calling the banners year after year, and assembling a large dominion that stretched over all the lands bordering the Southern Seas.
By the end of the separate reigns of the seven kings, the time period was 2000, or close enough. Gythsheirn ruled over what we now call Iceland, northwestern Norway, the Orkney and Shetland Islands, and Eastern Greenland, but only time will tell if they can hold these conquests against the various nations they border.
Gythsheirn is a nation of rugged people to fit a rugged land. They live primarily in large stone homes that are sheltered within massive stone hillforts which vaguely resemble square castles. They are a cultured people, thoroughly sophisticated, and very skilled in the arts of war. They are perhaps the greatest seafarers in the world, and rarely far away from their ships. Their land warfare techniques are good too, using a disciplined charge as a whole unit to smash the enemy and win a battle before it begins.
Often when they do not war, they trade. They are skilled metalworkers even in this day and age, setting their hammers to gold, silver, copper, and bronze, making swords, shields, and ornaments. Their trinkets are found on both sides of the Atlantic in great profusion.
They are a religious people who answer only to the king, and even in that case not often.
Gythsheirn, in short, is a land of rugged individualists who seem poised to conquer the North Atlantic out of the darkness of their home isles, if only they can stay united.
Texas Toast
Crazy Canuck!!!!!
egads thats a long description....
