A New History of Man: The Dawn

[christos200]

Will complete sign up tomorrow.

 

[Tyo]

Because of a mix up concerning the start of the game with several people, I am officially saying we're starting in the bronze age.

To clarify on some rules, players must play as some sort of city-state or something akin to that. Nomadic tribes and the like will be represented as NPCs, along with smaller city-states and tribes with permanent settlements.

For the sake of everyone who posted, I think everybody is fine so far. You just have to finish your signups

 

[Tyo]

So... Only have two complete signups. Yeah.

 

[Lord_Herobrine]

I am interested and am hoping to get an application in, but college has me in a bit of a time constraint right now.

 

[Tyo]

I'll probably extend the deadline.

 

[thomas.berubeg]

is mine completed?

 

[christos200]

Completed my sign up.

 

[Tyo]

yes, Thomas. That makes 3.

 

[Tyo]

When I get 5 players I'ma start.

 

[spaceman98]

This is to say that elves are banned, but is not to say that Neanderthals and other pre-homo sapien sapiens are.

You have inspired me.

OOC: If this is too divergent from OTL, then say so and I'll cook up something else

Clan of Bones:

Claims: See First Attachment

OOC: The Province system would have allowed me to claim an absurd amount of Siberian land, so I'm disregarding it, and claiming something that's more reasonable for a bronze-age polity. Even as it is, I think I'm the largest country on the map, but that shouldnt be an issue given that most of my land is of little value

Capital: Lagada, built upon the lake of the same name. Lagada is a large settlement of fishermen, hunters and gatherers. Like other, similar settlements, it is mostly wooden structures, with some stone structures. As in most settlements, the largest structure is a stone temple where sacrifices are made, and offerings are given to various spirits. Unlike other settlements, it has a large ceremonial circle of Mammoth bone (OOC: if Kinich-Ahau can have megafauna, so can I!) in which the Tribal Council takes place (see below).

Government: Chiefs of various tribes and settlements come together every 10 years in the capital (Lagada) to elect a High Chief. Individual tribes and settlements have many diverse ways of choosing their chief.


OOC Note on IRL Neanderthal Biology:

Neanderthals differed in several key ways from homo sapiens:

1: Their bodies are stockier, and they were likely much stronger than modern humans. Likewise, contrary to popular belief, their brain size was actually larger than that of modern humans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal#Anatomy

2: It appears that Neanderthals had shorter average lifespans, though the scientific consensus on this is rather murky. Elderly Neanderthals are rare in the archeological record.

3: Neanderthals are more adapted to cold climates, and by contrast fare worse in warm ones

4: Neanderthals, due to 1 and 3, needed MUCH more food to survive. This meant their populations were always sparse, even before Homo Sapiens arived. The OTL extinction of Megafauna may have deprived them of this protein source, thus driving them to extinction. Alternatively, their sparser populations may simply have assimilated. Of course, my history is focused on finding ways around these things.

Whether you want to fudge my stats somehow to adjust for these factors is up to you.

Culture and History:

These lands are our home, and you think you can just take them from us? - Charadon, early leader of the Clan of Bones

The Clan of Bones is end result of a long period of northwards Neanderthal migration. Since the end of the Ice Age, the climate of much of Europe became inhospitable for the Neanderthals, and for the Megafauna that they depended upon. Thus, they either had to move to marginal lands like the Urals, or assimilate into Homo Sapien populations. Those that failed to do either were driven to extinction. This plight was worsened by diseases brought by early humans as they spread out of Africa. However, the Neanderthals did not die out completely. Their large brains and strong, cold-adapted bodies allowed them to adapt and survive in the northern wastes of Siberia, where Homo Sapiens feared to tred. Nonetheless, their numbers dwindled, and it seemed unlikely that they would ever again be a serious challenger to Homo Sapiens supremacy.

This all changed when some clever tribes began to domesticate the dwindling populations of Steppe bison https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steppe_bison and Giant Elk (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_elk OOC: The name Irish elk is a misnomer). Under the tribe's careful management, this megafauna managed to rebound providing the protein that the Neanderthals needed to survive. Indeed, these two species of megafauna (along with other, rarer, wilder Ice Age beasts) are integral to the culture of the Clan of Bones even today. Their meat is the staple of most Neanderthal's diet, their skins and fur are used to make cloaths, while their bones are used for ceremonial purposes, for most weapons and tools, and in the architecture of temples.

This domestication sparked a sudden increase in dwindling populations. That lead to innovation and rapid development. Wolves were domesticated, and bred into large hunting dogs. Wooden sleds and a rudimentary pictographic writing system grew, creating the first preserved spiritual and oral tradition. This writing system is today preserved in paintings on stone, and notches and carvings on bone.

Yet even these advanced Neanderthal herders were relegated to the northernmost wastes of the Eurasian continent. If their own oral tradition is to be believed, that all changed with Charadon, a chief who united numerous tribes under his banner. The stories about him varry. Some say he rode a Mammoth or Wolly Rinoscerous into battle. Others claim that he was a giant, standing 10 feet tall and weilding a tree as a weapon. Yet others attribute to him magical powers to call forth blizzards, or transform into a great wolf. Whoever he was, and whatever he did, all stories agree that he led a massive migration southwards towards the great lakes of northern Russia. Whether magical blizzards or domesticated mammoths were involved is dubious, but unity, cohesion, and sled "chariots" pulled by elk or dogs were quite sufficient to dsplace the local Homo Sapien tribes. How Charadon died is just as contested as how he lived. Supposedly, when he died, the chiefs of various tribes gathered in the place where he fell, elected a new chief under the skull of his mammoth mount. That Mammoths are basically impossible to domesticate, and nearly extinct, lends doubt to this story, but a massive Mammoth Skull does indeed adorn the Chief's Circle at Lagada.

Intermingling with Homo Sapiens, and the warmer climate of northern Russia's lakes allowed the Clan of Bones to develop large sedentary villages on the lake shores, which either fished, or farmed. These villages allowed the development of temples and specialists, and came to resemble rudimentary cities. However, most of the Neanderthal population still lives as Elk and Bison herders, migrating between villages, and throughout the massive territory of the Clan of Bones.

The Neanderthal faith is complex, centered around spirits and ancestors. Burial sites are sacred, and Pink Quartz (OOC here http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2885663.stm) is used in ceremonies associated with burial and worship of the dead. A decesed man or woman is usually burried with some pink quartz tokens, and with tools and weapons that they used in life. Families are burried together in mass-graves, often over many generations. Nomads will return to the same site to burry their dead. Pink Quartz has also become a currency, because it is scarce, and redeemable at any temple, making it a perfect medium of exchange, preffered in these parts to gold or silver.

Neanderthal Elders are rare, with most people dying before age 40. Thus, those who do live to an old age are venerated, and generally become priesthood. They are taught the pictographic and caligraphic writing of the clan, and record oral tradition, and more mundane things like crop yields onto stone tablets or bone carvings, which are stored at temples. Teaching begins if the past elder/priest realizes they are growing weak. They pick someone who already has a long life experience as their student, i.e. someone who is still healthy, and over the age of 40.

The Clan of Bones is highly distrustful of outsiders, which is part of why Neanderthals here have remained genetically "pure", rather than interbreading as their European kin did. Nonetheless, some traders do come to the southern fringes of the empire.

Warfare:

Most weapons are stone, though bronze mined from the Ural Mountains is slowly moving throughout the empire. Bows exist, but javelines are preffered, as the strong arms of a neanderthal man can hurl a javeline further and with more force than a normal human.

Warfare is of two types: War with outsiders, and war between tribes within the Clan:

War with outsiders resembles in part a raid, in part a tribal migration, and is generally brutal, with multiple tribes coming together. "Chariots" consiting of Elk-pulled sleds lead the charge. Warriors and Javelin throwers follow. Prisoners are rarely taken, except to be exchanged.

War between tribes is much more ritualized, and designed to minimize bloodshead. Often, both tribes will nominate a champion, and they will duel until one surenders, or is unable to keep fighting. One of the High Chief's main functions is to prevent inter-tribal warfare, by clearly enforcing territorial rights.


Resources:

See second attachment. Food is produced around the lakes (fishing, farming) and elsewhere (hearding). Coin, i.e. Pink Quartz, is mined in the Ural Mountains. There's also a coin source in the south representing trade. Much of the forest, along with the northern Urals. Yellow is coin, red is production, green is food

 

[spaceman98]

Tyo is my signup ok?

 

[Tyo]

Looks good to me!

 

[christos200]

When will this start?

 

[Tyo]

Whenever I get one more actual complete signup.

 

[Tyo]

War mechanics were just overhauled and I added some units for you all to see. I have 5 complete signups now so I will begin working on the update - I'm aiming for Thursday for the first one, but I may hold off till Saturday because that's when regular updates will occur. Anybody who still wants to join/finish their signups has till Saturday morning (US East) at the latest, but I can (and will if i am able) post the update before then.

IF you don't make it in this update, in this case, you will be joining the following update.

 

[Double A]

holy crap, provinces

dibs on *rolls* Egypt?

goddammit

 

[Double A]

Yeah screw the RNG, I'm Malacca.

 

[Tyo]

The update is coming along. I don't actually know if I'll finish it today, but progress is being made; so far I have all the stats ready to go. What's left is some mapmaking, NPC creation, and writing up the first update.

 

[christos200]

Great. Take as much time as you need. Do not rush it.

 

[thomas.berubeg]

Our people are totally related, Reus... We probably escaped the same cataclysm, centuries ago The Black Sea Deluge. We're Indo-European, with commonality of mythology, though different Ensha/gods have grown to be important after however millenia of migration.