AFSNES II - Quintessence of Dust

Thlayli

Le Pétit Prince
Joined
Jun 2, 2005
Messages
10,611
Location
In the desert

“What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world. The paragon of animals. And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?”

-William Shakespeare, Hamlet

---

Introduction:

Welcome to AFSNES II - Quintessence of Dust.

This stands for Advanced Fresh Start Never Ending Story. This concept was first developed by das, for whom this title will hopefully stand as an homage and a spiritual successor. I have updated the vocabulary slightly, and I hope for a slightly higher realism level, but the base idea remains the same, as it was brilliantly executed the first time. What is an Advanced Fresh Start? The main goal of the NES is to advance quickly from the beginning of recorded history through successive eras, passing through centuries in a few updates and then focusing detail on intense, climactic 'turning points' throughout history.

The updates will be broken into BT’s, a term which here means Broad Turns, and IT’s, which here will mean Intensive Turns.

What do you need to play? A solid mind, the ability to dedicate at least 2-3 hours a week to write, and a post-secondary level of historical understanding. For the early phases of the NES, basic knowledge of cultural anthropology could help.

Spoiler How This NES Works :
Broad Turns and Intensive Turns:

A Broad Turn can last anywhere from 50 to 2500 years, gradually decreasing in length as history proceeds and civilization spreads. An Intensive Turn can last anywhere from 10 years to 1 year, depending on what is happening and where. Broad Turns are times of long-term development, during which the global economy and technology tend to improve and the global balance of power shifts slowly, not dramatically. New states and cultures can emerge and old ones decline during this period, but individual wars, battles, and events are glossed over in favor of the broader narrative.

Once the world reaches a sufficient level of technology and political competition, and the stakes have been raised to a sufficient level, the game enters an IT, an Intensive Turn, in which epic military and political struggles play out in detail, and one or several players achieve eternal glory and hegemony...only to see it evaporate as history fast forwards yet again through another Broad Turn.

Intensive Turns are typically very destructive and exhaustive to the nations concerned, given that they represent rapid change, upheaval and the emergence of a new paradigm.

Ideally, we will repeat this process throughout history, passing through bronze to iron age civilization, the birth of subcontinental empires and oceangoing states, and finally into the modern world with global exploration, mass communication and industrialization. The most important goal is simulating a richly detailed, interconnected world, weighted down with mythology, conviction and competition.


Spoiler How to Play Well :
Disclaimers and Understandings:

Above all, you must understand that while you may come to love your earliest creations, history will not allow them to survive into the modern world unchanged. You must embrace change: Ascendance, hegemony, decline, collapse and rebirth is what will happen to all nations. Especially for the pioneers who create the first civilizations, it is likely that nothing more than your greatest monuments, some political and religious concepts, and a few linguistic roots will survive to be examined by posterity.

As such, I need good players to be willing to tolerate their inevitable and tragic destruction. I encourage great players to spend the course of the game in multiple regions of the world, and not to be dismayed by setbacks, challenges, and the blazing hatred of your neighbors that will stop at nothing to take away everything you have worked so hard to create.

Work together or at odds, work to build or destroy. But do not forget that all are laid low by the Great Leveller. For none can truly escape this quintessence of dust.

On Language:

Those in CZ1 are asked to consider deriving words from Afro-Asiatic (in the southwest) or Proto-Indo-European (in the northwest) roots, where possible. The east is permitted language isolates, as it had in OTL.

Those in CZ2 are asked to use a derivative of Proto-Indo-European or Dravidian for their words.

Those in CZ3 are asked to use a derivative of Sino-Tibetan for their words.

What does this mean? I do not wish to have names in Civilized Zone 1 and Civilized Zone 3 that slavishly adhere to what sounds like OTL Ancient Egyptian, or OTL Chinese. A language family is extremely broad and can be permuted in countless ways. To take a random example, the word ‘two’ in various Sino-Tibetan languages is phoneticized as: ni, nis, gnis, nhac, and njijs. However, I also don’t want everyone making up nonsense vocabularies that ignore the general Paleolithic distributions of human subgroups. If you wish to have an isolate language, the burden weighs much more heavily on you to create a self-contained linguistic aesthetic, and I will only consider it if it sounds realistic.

Nothing in this world will be named what it is named in OTL, but MANY things might be named similarly. This is obviously more difficult than copying names like "Finno-Ugric" and "Huang He," but I believe in the long run it will be more interesting and engaging.

You should assume that pre-NES migration patterns were mostly similar to OTL. Obviously post-start migration patterns will change what language families are spoken where in the future, but we’ll handle that as it comes up.

On Determinism

Moderating and playing in a "realistic" fresh start NES comes with a unique set of challenges, because "realism" often means "being guided by what happened in real history," but being guided too closely by what happened in real history risks railroading players into predetermined outcomes, effectively making them non-participants in a recreation of our own Earth's history by any other name. The NES I aim to create will hopefully occupy a middle ground between total historical determinism and totally unrealistic outcomes, the ideal nirvana of "interestingly different but plausible."

Most of these choices are my battle to fight, but obviously as good players you want to help. By this point, you're probably asking the question, "What can and can't I do?" You already know the language-family rule seen in the On Language section of the rules, so continue to follow that. One of the other main ways in which we *are* being deterministic, at least for BT 1 and BT 2, is by following the spread of civilization at the same pace it spread in OTL, to +/- 200 years. We will be calling this the Two Hundred Rule.

"Well, what does that really mean?" you probably reply. "And can you give me a handy rule of thumb to help?" you also think, if you're smart.

Civilizational Spread During BT 1

The following information is for BT1, but it illustrates how the Two-Hundred Rule should be applied.



The best way to measure civilizational spread is by the spread of writing. There are *civilizations* all over Eurasia by this point in time if we define civilizations as "organized tool-using humans living in collective habitations of hundreds or more," but for the purposes of this game, a tree hasn't fallen in the forest if nobody can hear it, and a civilization hasn't existed if it can't leave a written recording for posterity. Also, with writing comes the ability to administer distant settlements through written orders, create a bureaucracy and etc. You know all this already.

CZ 1a invented writing first. Players in this region will be responsible for between 1500 to 2000 years of recorded history. [Pseudo-recorded near the beginning is fine.] This means you'll be passing through multiple iterations of centralization and collapse, with at least 2 or 3 hegemonic/dynastic cycles passing, assuming that's the political model you follow. Near the end of your history, CZ1b neighbors and migrants will be able to challenge your regional dominance with increasing success. Your culture is extremely powerful and influential, and your economic resources are unparalleled until near the end of BT 1.

CZ 1b exists on the periphery of 1a, and writing will most likely spread here from 1a's scripts. You will be responsible for approximately 1000 years of history, though you are not obligated to chronicle it as coherently as 1a is. You will come into existence influenced economically and culturally by your forerunners in CZ 1a. These regions are less supportive of massive cities and populations, but are key lynchpins of trade and important resources like metals, allowing expansionist states to easily challenge the older CZ 1a hegemons. Regression into tribalism is possible during a collapse.

CZ 1c exists on the true periphery of civilization. You will be responsible for 100-500 years of true history, as your regions are but the first stabs of a people very close to tribalism at creating an organized society. Regression/fragmentation back into tribalism is quite likely. Large, organized polities may not even emerge in this region by the very end of BT1, but they still can. If they do emerge (especially on the fringes of CZ 1a and 1b) organized states can be extremely powerful and potentially quite large, but are extremely unstable.

To take one example, the oldest discovered Mycenaean writings date back to around 1450 BC, just a *little* bit after the end of BT 1. So, if you wanted to run a culture in OTL Greece, you'd probably be able to squeeze in a writing system using the Two Hundred Rule.

For players in CZ2 and CZ3, use the Two Hundred Rule to determine how much history you have to chronicle.


Spoiler Old CZ Information :
Civilized Zones and Submission Groups:

The upcoming BT 1 will cover approximately 2500 years of history, from roughly 4000 BCE to the technological equivalent of approximately 1500 BCE. Depending on where you begin (near or far from a river,) you will not need to narrate all 2500 years, as it is expected your cultures will migrate into the region or gradually enter the historical record at some point in the middle of the turn. The end of BT 1 will place your cultures well into the era of sophisticated writing systems, bronze working, and the ability to make massive public works projects.

We are beginning with the three traditional cradles of history which were first to develop organized agriculture, urban civilization, and writing. From west to east, these will be identified as Civilized Zone 1, Civilized Zone 2, and Civilized Zone 3 until names can be procured for them.

Spoiler BT 1 Civilized Zones :


Civilized Zone 1 has a capacity for 4-6 players.

Civilized Zone 2 has a capacity for 1-2 players. This will increase after the first BT.

Civilized Zone 3 has a capacity for 1-2 players. This will increase after the first BT.

In addition to player capacity, the size of the Civilized Zones themselves will gradually expand after the first update, reflecting the spread of the technology necessary to build a civilization beyond tribal subsistence. After the first or second update a 4th civilized zone will open up on the western two continents.

In further addition to this, after the second update I will begin to solicit input for migratory tribal groups outside of the Civilized Zones. Let's get to that point before we explore that idea any further.

For Cradles 2 and 3, individual submissions will be accepted and I will select the best ones. For Cradle 1, we are going to attempt something slightly more complicated, a Group Template. I am willing to accept accept dual submissions in Cradles 2 and 3, but in those cases, dual submissions should be exploring divergent facets of a single ur-culture, rather than independent cultures in the case of Cradle 1.



Templates and Order Formats:

Please ensure you have read ALL of the above sections before proceeding with your template. If you cannot take the time to understand me fully, I cannot make the effort to understand you.

Spoiler FOR OLD PLAYERS :

Historical Narrative:
Cultural Changes:
Military Efforts:
Geographic Errata:

Detailed History: Your people have a solid, documented history at this point and they are recording their deeds reliably. Give me a detailed account of all of the major events that you would like to happen in the next two centuries, keeping in mind that things may go otherwise. Contingencies would be appreciated. Mention a minimum of 4 historical figures and at least one woman. [500 words minimum]
Cultural Changes: Describe how your culture evolves, how your state institutions change, how your religion changes, and if you are Influential, what you export to your neighbors; if you are Influenced, what you absorb. Does your culture fragment into separate ethnicities entirely? If you build anything impressive, put it here too. [400 words minimum]
Military Efforts: This is entirely optional; you don't have to try to conquer anyone if your culture just isn't into that. But if you're not out conquering it's likely you're being conquered, so you should probably prepare for that, too. [Optional]
Geographic Errata: I want more of everything. Names for regions, seas, peninsulas, bays, new cities, old cities, mountain ranges, valleys/passes, individual mountains even. The more names the better. Your people are now inhabiting a living world. [50 words minimum]


Spoiler FOR NEW PLAYERS :
Culture Name:
Mythology:
Society:
Material Culture:
Abbreviated History:
Geographic Errata:
Neighbor Influences:

Culture Name: Include CZ and specific location/proposed distribution in an attached image. Include proposed names on the map for bonus points.

Mythology: What do your people believe in? How do they see the world around them and how do they see themselves? What rituals and practices reinforce their beliefs? Is/are your religion(s) hegemonic or cultic? [300 words min.]

Society: How are your people organized? Are there any sub-cultures? What are the differences between men and women? Who has power? [200 words min.]

Material Culture: Does your society have any distinctive ornaments or dress? What do they build and what is it made from? What symbols does your culture give meaning and authority to? [200 words min.]

Abbreviated History: Give me your people’s history as it passes from the mythological into the documentable. If you have a calendar system (you probably won’t yet,) you can institute it here, otherwise use BCE. How do historical changes percolate into the cultural and religious spheres? Mention great leaders and what they have done. Mention at least one important woman, real or mythological. [500 words min.]

Geographic Errata: Name the major physical features around you. Mountains, rivers, seas. Provide city names, and names of separate dynasties or political entities if you intend to have more than one. If you are part of a group template, ensure that you share or have similar names for certain things with your neighbors. [25 words min.]

Neighbor Influences: Describe at least one point of religious, sociocultural, and political connection with each of your neighbors in the region you're joining in. [150 words per neighbor]

Your completed submission should come to about 4-5 pages [minimum 1225 words] before any additional group information is added. Anything under this will not even be considered.


If You Need More Help:

We’re moving out of the territory of real history, so properly designing a culture requires understandings of the principles behind culture itself. If you wish to make yourself more likely to succeed in this early phase of my NES and improve your knowledge while doing it, please read from:

Collected Essays on the Sociology of Religion, Maximilian Weber
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, Emile Durkheim
The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell

And of course, don’t forget all the great books recommended in The Library Thread. The internet and your imagination should suffice for coming up with decent words and names for your cultures based on common language roots.

Think simultaneously outside and inside of the box and you’ll succeed. It’s a Heisenberg thing.
 
Statistics:

Spoiler CZ1 Stats :
Culture Name: Eshylam [Adj-ilan]
Abbreviated History: An ancient civilization that came to power in the Djai river valley. Ruled by a theocratic council, they have caused numerous lesser tribes to submit to them or be conquered. They are famous seafarers and monument builders and have founded several trading colonies across the sea, along with client-kingdom relationships.
Sub-States:

The Hayrath [NPC]
Military Power: Very High
Cultural Influence: Very Influential
Info: The Eshylam are a centralized state, and the Hayrath is their main ruling council. Priests lower in the hierarchy control individual provinces in smaller councils that report to the Hayrath. Currently in a phase of expansion and monument-building.​

The Gedolm [erez]
Military Power: Low
Cultural Influence: Influenced
Info: The Gedolm are strange schismatic Eshylamites that worship similar gods with different names; currently preparing for a war with Eshylam they will likely lose.

Karros [NPC]
Military Power: Very Low
Cultural Influence: Neutral
Info: A mysterious kingdom that is a source of exotic goods for Eshylam. Little else is currently known.

The Selamai [azale]
Military Power: Low
Cultural Influence: Influenced
Info: The Selamai, led by a high priest or 'Shoru,' of the god Sokol, are located on the isle of Ykeyefra, with several other small colonies (mostly devotees of Sokol rather than truly subject tribes) on the mainland. Currently giving tribute to Eshylam.​

Culture Name: Kaksi [NPC]
Abbreviated History: A young and powerful tribe of proto-Lashic migrants that follows a similar spiritualist/shamanic faith to the Gwonsaum, but is differentiated by a more powerful military aristocracy. Have urbanized and are currently the largest military power in their region, threatening Chufriel and the Gwonsaum.
Sub-States:

Guwwun's Krakdom
Military Power: High
Cultural Influence: Influential
Info: Guwwun is the oldest son of the old Megkrak currently fighting to replace him. He holds the royal city in the north and most of the men.

Ardgis' Krakdom
Military Power: Medium
Cultural Influence: Influential
Info: Ardgis is the younger son of the old Megkrak currently fighting a civil war against his brother. He is seen as skilled but outnumbered.​

Culture Name: Gwonsaum [thomas.berubeg]
Abbreviated History: An urbanized, shamanic culture living near the headwaters of the Janashak and Tharan rivers. Fragmented into several city-states under shamanic or kingly rule. Currently under serious military and cultural pressure from the more developed Shanalash and the more warlike Kaksi.
Sub-States:

The Megshekemate of Tusendakru
Military Power: Medium
Cultural Influence: Influential
Info: Highly respected as a trading and religious city and successful at fending off Kaksi raids, Tusendakru is the closest thing the Gwonsaum have to a leading power. Will not be able to hold off a united Kaksi or Shanalash attack alone however.

The Krekdom of Penkdem
Military Power: Low
Cultural Influence: Neutral
Info: A mostly passive and defensive city-state; can be bullied.

The Shekemate of Ther
Military Power: Very Low
Cultural Influence: Influential
Info: A well-respected ancient city with a significant population of Shanalashian traders. Many temples abound to Migwon, the river-spirits and Ashva, but the city is not powerful.

The Krekdom of Mergis
Military Power: Very Low
Cultural Influence: Very Influenced
Info: Nominally Gwonsaum, Mergis has fallen under Shanalashian influence and is currently under military pressure from Keishah. The site of a famous alliance.

Culture Name: Chufriel [wrymouth]
Abbreviated History: A recently formed tribal confederacy that worships a dizzying and confusing panoply of different gods. Has a priesthood but are ruled by kings, likely due to eastern influence. Warlike and expansionist but also highly internally unstable.
Sub-States:

Various Morai [Princedoms]
Military Power: Medium
Cultural Influence: Very Influenced
Info: A squabbling band of princedoms that hate one another far more than their enemies, which lie in all directions.​

Culture Name: Shanalash [NK]
Abbreviated History: An ancient civilization in the cradle of the Two Rivers; the Shanalash are known for their sophisticated culture, influential religion and great ancient cities. A pinnacle of science and technology; currently seriously disunited between assemblies and tyrannies.
Sub-States:

Shuhai
Military Power: High
Cultural Influence: Influenced
Info: A military colony built during Shuryah's time to keep watch over 'Morah' in the west. (Unclear if a specific Chufrielite Morah or the region at large.) Small but very competent army; ruled by an assembly of jaish only which has just elected a new Jaishmagi; unclear if this is precedent-setting or not.

Ieresah
Military Power: Medium
Cultural Influence: Very Influential
Info: The old heartland of Shuryah's empire, his great-great-grandson still reins with the title of Jaishmagi, but this is but a shard of an end of an empire. Ieresah itself remains one of the greatest cities in the world.

Keishah
Military Power: High
Cultural Influence: Influential
Info: A rival tyranny ruled by a jaish who once served the old Jaishmagi Urshaihafah before his crushing defeat. Seeks to recreate the old empire but is obviously opposed by Ieresah.

The League of Jaidarah
Military Power: High
Cultural Influence: Very Influential
Info: A traditionalist association of free cities, led by a hegemony at Jaidarah. Has no tyrant so military leadership is somewhat disorganized but has large economic resources to call on for troops. Wants to restore an ancient era of pre-imperial glory 'free' from 'tyranny.'

Minor States:

The Tribe of Jerab
Military Power: Medium
Cultural Influence: Influenced
Info: The great patriarch Jerab has united his people around the worship of Mohal, the winged bull, and has built a great temple around the hilltop city of Zaphelim. Ambitious and looking to expand, though unwilling to clash with Eshylam.

The Tribe of Zub
Military Power: Medium
Cultural Influence: Very Influenced
Info: A migratory tribe often called upon by Eshylam to serve as mercenaries or servants for other purposes. At war with all of their other tribal neighbors.

The Kingdom of Kedu
Military Power: High
Cultural Influence: Neutral
Info: A kingdom to the east of Shanalash that has always antagonized the river cities, invading them when possible. Speakers of an obscure, untranslatable language with an incomprehensibly complicated writing system. Also worships a large pantheon. Regarded by the Shanalash as terrifying barbarians.​



Spoiler CZ2 Stats :
Culture Name: Kayula [SK]
Abbreviated History: An ancient and influential polytheistic and matriarchal culture built around the Jalneer river valley. Historically organized into a legendary Vijayaka under a Vijayi (or queen), this system has fragmented into city-states of various provenance under the onslaught of the Desa, skilled masters of horse and war. Currently in disruption but slowly recovering.
Sub-States:

Dhanvadaka
Military Power: Medium
Cultural Influence: Neutral
Info: Northernmost of the Kayulan city-states, Dhanvadaka has taken on some of the elements of Desa lifestyle, including a patrilineal kingship, but in all other respects remains Kayulan in culture. Seeks to use a Desa alliance to replace Kamath as regional leader.

Kamathaka
Military Power: Low
Cultural Influence: Very Influential
Info: Kamath is the ancient capital of the Vijayaka, and even after being sacked by Desa raiders, it still retains immense prestige. The city has recovered from the assault and hosts pilgrims from all over the river valley, including the Desa states, which makes it impervious to further attack, but its low military power makes expansion more difficult. Center of the rapidly-spreading cult of Myaati, consort of Jal.

Salmanka
Military Power: Medium
Cultural Influence: Influential
Info: Another Kayulan city-state seeking to benefit from Kamath's decline. Relatively uninterested in expansion but wouldn't mind remaining independent; overall content with the status quo.

Nagrajaka
Military Power: Medium
Cultural Influence: Influential
Info: A famous center of dakshina. The current vijayi of Nagraj is interested in southern expansion, though she has yet to overcome the city's own internal opposition to do so. Prefers to ignore the whole Desa situation if possible unless they come knocking again.​

Culture Name: Desa [NPC]
Abbreviated History: The Desa are a recently arrived migratory people, possibly proto-Lashic in origin, who recently invaded the Jalneer and Yamneer river valleys. They are in varying states of assimilation and non-assimilation, depending on location.
Sub-States:

Desa States
Military Power: High
Cultural Influence: Very Influenced
Info: A fractious, violent, and unstable group of kingdoms that have recently settled in the Jalneer. Ruling over a significant substrata of indigenous people, these Desa have rapidly begun to worship Kayulan gods among their own dark-and-light-god which they brought with them into the region. They have intermarried with the Kayulans and generally avoid attacking them in return for tribute.

Arjivh
Military Power: Very High
Cultural Influence: Very Influential
Info: A much more powerful tribe of Desa warriors who established a kingdom on the Yamneer, or Yamna, river valley. They are much more aggressively monotheistic than their western cousins, and are rapidly expanding their elective kingdom into a river-spanning empire. They do occasionally carry out long-range raids against the Jalneer, but they currently prefer to expand against the more disorganized forest tribes, the so-called Ragjasa. Their dualistic god, Mezasiva, is the master of light and darkness, the world-conqueror.




Spoiler CZ3 stats :
Not here yet!
 
Order Deadline and Update Schedule:

BT 2 Submissions will be due no later than 2:00 p.m. EST on Sunday, March 16, Anno Domini 2014. BT 2 will cover a period of 200 years, from 1500 to 1300 BCE.

I will update no later than 11:59 p.m. EST, on Sunday, March 23rd.

Update Archive:

Update 1 - Pillar of Salt [4000 BCE - 1500 BCE]

Map Archive:

Update 1 Map [Labeled]

Story Archive:
 
Trying to 'reserve' an area without a proper submission is an instant disqualification. I will favor those who have the best submissions before the deadline, not those who have the fastest ones.

With that said, you may post.

I look forward to this NES being a success. Have fun!
 
I'm joining, probably in Greece.
Trying to 'reserve' an area without a proper submission is an instant disqualification.

You just explicitly disregarded at least two things that I just said. Thanks for your interest, but maybe you should think before posting!

This NES isn't for everyone, as a high level of reading comprehension is recommended!
 
Saying I was probably in Greece wasn't exactly reserving an area...

It's premature to say where you are before you've followed the instructions I've written above. Also, I'd like to not deter anyone from wanting to play in any location, which is why I don't want anyone jumping into the thread and saying "I'll play here" before doing the submission. If you were to say that, and deter others from making a submission for that location, and then you don't end up doing a submission for any reason, we could end up in a situation where we have no player for that region, which I would like to avoid. I hope that I've made myself sufficiently clear.

Furthermore, to avoid the kind of derivative history that can make this unrealistic, I'd like to get away from calling things by their OTL names. It's important for immersion. Thanks. :)
 
redacted
 
The Pyrgol shall form in the area that in OTL is Corinth. They shall be a people of heros, tattoos, ancestor-worship, and fishermen. More details to follow.

I'll say it again, please don't do this. Don't claim spots until you have a full submission according to the stated guidelines.
 
Interested, but unsure if the time commitment is achievable. If I do join, I have no preference for a specific CZ but have radically different ideas for each one.
 
Subscribed for interest. Also noting that I will have a competed submission in likely within the week.

I also don't believe this was explicitly stated, but if it was, then I apologize greatly. Thlayli, would you mind if I were to continually edit this post, or would you prefer just the complete application at its completion?

yeah no
 
Whichever you prefer is fine by me, Bair.

I know that azale, Iggy, NK, wrymouth, and thomasberubeg have decided to form a group to contend for CZ 1. I believe they may accept one more hanger-on, or you could choose to form a rival group of your own. Please note that I reserve the right to pick and choose between members of a group if some submissions are better than others.

Regardless, I will find space for qualified submissions in subsequent turns if we exceed this turn's quota.
 
thlaylichan i want to be not-spartans okay i claim all of greece p.s. if i cant have greece i want to have italy so i can be not-romans

very excited for this nes my people are going to have guns at the start
 
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