CvnnNES: As Many as the Stars

[Birdjaguar]

Cuiv, what do you mean by nation names?

 

[Cuivienen]

Cuiv, what do you mean by nation names?

Each culture will (or, is likely to) spawn multiple independent nations at the beginning, and further nations with a related culture may also appear later in areas with your culture but not under your nation's control. You will choose one of the nations of your culture to control after turn zero.

Think Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt, the Sumerian city-states, the early Chinese duchies, Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, Persia and Medes, etc.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Waipio People of the Stars
Aggression: 1
Expansion: 3
Cohesion: 3
Agriculture: 2 (aquaculture)
Sophistication: 4
City Names: Matu, Yetsu, Kupau, Kutsu, Massau

Nation Names: Waipio, Taipu, Waihapu, Taipio-nu, Haka waimu

Landmark Names:
Typhoon: Kulamala
Eagle's Eye: Fixed star of Navigation
Southern dagger: constellation for navigation
Wind from the south that carries us home: Ka-Wai
Wind from the north for which we yearn: Ka-Mu
Land: Reo
The Waipio are a seafaring people of the tropical ocean. They live in cities along the coast and trade the riches of the sea with their northern neighbors. And while they have established cities, they are skilled mariners and can make "long" journeys across the ocean. The Waipio are clan based and competitive, but only in achieving a greater good for the society as a whole.

“Grandfather,” the small child pleaded; “Tell us the story of the creation of all things. Please!”
“Yes, my little ones,” and he gathered the six small children close about him in the bow of the large canoe. The sea was calm and the skies clear; the stars seemed close enough to touch.

“Once upon a time…”
“No!” the six children shouted in unison. “Not that one, the real story.”
“Ah…OK.” He began again.

Wula dwelt within the great Nothingness that had always been. Wula dwelt within the great Nothingness that had no end or edge, no top or bottom. Wula dwelt within the great Nothingness that never changed. And Wula was the great Nothingness, but did not know it for Wula slept the sleep of ignorance of who she was. In her sleep she dreamt the first dream and in that dream she was alone under a dark sky. And Wula knew loneliness and for the first time sadness. And she wept the first tears and filled the empty hollows of her heart with the first ocean. And the great sea brought delight to Wula and she laughed the first laugh and filled the great sea around her with dry land born of that first joy. And the land she called Reo. In her delight Wula moved in the vast ocean and waves rolled across the surface of the sea and splashed upon the land with laughter of their own. And as Wula laughed and the ocean laughed, the land sang. And the laughter and song of that first moment hung in the great black sky and shone with brightness and remembrance of that time. And the sky lights were call pio or stars. And it is that song and that first laughter that we, the Waipio, “people of the stars” seek in all our journeys.

And long into the balmy night the old man told the stories of Wula and her dreamtime adventures. The story of Wula, Koa and the creation of the first great canoe was so popular that he had to tell it twice. And the death of Ludi at the hands of evil Mu was sad and terrifying. His cadence matched the rhythm of the sea and lapping of the waves and the twinkle of the stars and before the watch changed, the children all slept.

Note: For those with long memories, the Waipio had a false start in an old NES that died.

 

[North King]

Curious, I seem to have a Waipio on the map of the NES that I'm updating this very moment...

 

[Thlayli]

Yeah, the Luca got recycled too. Disapproval.

 

[Kentharu]

May I know when the dead line for nations is?

 

[Cuivienen]

May I know when the dead line for nations is?

11:59 p.m. on January 2 (EST). That's Saturday, for the record.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Curious, I seem to have a Waipio on the map of the NES that I'm updating this very moment...

Shhhhhhhhhh.......

 

[Abaddon]

Very interested, sad i've missed the launch. I'll grab a nation after update 1

 

[Cuivienen]

Very interested, sad i've missed the launch. I'll grab a nation after update 1

You haven't missed the launch at all. You have two whole days.

 

[Thlayli]

You must know a thing of the Amshar, stranger. There are lands where men claim authority and power for themselves, and the women remain home, gathering herbs and bearing children. We have heard of tribes where the women and men live separate lives, united only in the act of copulation. This is not so among the Amshar.

Do you know, stranger, why we made war on the Tathka, the hill tribes of the north? There once was a great marriage ceremony between several Amshar women and Tathka men. After the marriage, the Tathka forced the Amshar women to wear a clothing that covered their entire body, even in the stifling heat. They prevented them from riding camel, or leaving the Tathka villages, even to visit their relations. When we found of this injustice, we drove the Tathka into the mountains and liberated our women.

If anything, dear stranger, our women are our fiercest. Have you seen a mother fight when her children are threatened? You are foolish to think women weak. They must go through the pain of childbirth, a pain, it is said, worse than being branded by heated metal. Tolerance for pain makes one a warrior. For this reason, women fight and work among men. This decision was made long ago.

Now, it would be foolish to say that women are stronger than men. It is a fact that most men are larger and stronger, could carry two sheep where a woman could carry one. But women are quick, you must know, quick in the mind and quick in the dance of spears. This is not a quickness that we exile to the sleeping room. Though it is useful there too.

But observe the desert lions, as we have. The lionesses venture out, day and night, to hunt. What do the men do? Roar and clean their fur, and kill the occasional hyena. Amshar men do not laze as the male lions do. But we are not dull and stupid enough to think that a woman cannot be a bricklayer or a stonecutter, a spear-wielder or a camel-rider.

The only thing that is forbidden to women is the kingship. Because, as the High Seers have seen, the diadem must crown the head of a man. The High Seers, however, the ones who acclaim Kings and High Kings, are female. It is as the Great Snakes wished. A glorious balance. Now come, stranger, and take wine with us, as is your right as guest.

 

[Jason The King]

Too crowded! I'll wait until you expand the cradle a bit before joining.

 

[nutranurse]

But the benefit of all this crowd is all the intermingling that will occur! Hybrid cultures!

 

[Abaddon]

You haven't missed the launch at all. You have two whole days.

I meant the launch of the thread.. already the map is too crowded for my liking.

 

[nutranurse]

Re-posting with my story and culture info.

Rivirouin (reh-vee-RUE-in)
Aggression: 3
Expansion: 3
Cohesion: 3
Agriculture: 3
Sophistication: 3

Nation Names: Gaire, Rennaquet, Voyatarre, Fluericien, Arouac
City Names: Monnarre, Isaux, Bellouise, Fouranne, Meganille
Landmark Names: River Onnet, Tuqoix Mountains, Hills of Gyours, Lake Troiseille, Battle of Eau Ignen Plains

(I'm the purple dot, btw)

Spoiler A Story :

The old man was not a warrior or a priest or even the village's leader; in all his years he had done only one bold act and to this day he cursed himself for it. Yet the people of Fouroup treated him like a God-king amongst men, leaving bowls of wheat, fine wool, and beautifully wrought jewelry at his doorstep each morning. He had come from the east countless springs before with his father, intending to trade with the mountain-people. They had exchanged grain, jewels, and mud for the fine wool the mountain-villages were known for, but more importantly they traded stories.

His father had been the first to tell a story, as traditions dictated. He spoke of the making of the mountains, telling of Esgain's great war against Berrateau that lead to the rising of the Tuqoix Mountains and how the sheep were made from Ovira's tears as she wept over the fallen Esgain, her first husband. His father was a fool. Every shepherd knew that tale and all walks of life in Fouroup herded sheep. Fouroup's Chieftain-a brown skinned woman whom he had found wildly attractive then-thought the tale was meant as a slight and in return told the story of Ogeur the World Eater, the most common tale known to man. His father would not let such an obvious offense go unchallenged and so he took up his sword with the intention to challenge the woman to combat.

Engulfed with the fear that his father would die a pitiful death-as Fouroup's chieftain was visibly ten times the warrior his father was-he spoke up and said he had a tale of his own, one that no man, woman, or child had ever heard before. All the people went quiet and their eyes shot to him at hearing such a bold claim. He then haltingly began a tale revolving around the river-brothers Havrion and Roges, common enough figures to the people along the River Onnet, but alien to the mountain-dwelling shepherds of Fouroup. He made up the tale as he went on, gaining confidence as he spoke and saw that his audience sat enraptured by his telling. He finished just as the sun began to rise and for some long moments no some stirred until the chieftain spoke in a loud and plain voice, keeping her tone even despite her obvious awe.

"Ennui I felt from your poor tale, Onnet-Merchant, but your child... he tells with the skin of men ten times his age. Half our flock I offer for him and fifty fine sheep every year to you so long as he remains alive."

Neither he nor his father could believe their ears-such a price would make his family nobles with no peers! His father also realized this.

"Done." And with that Fouroup became his home. Not soon after his father left he was confined in a lavish hut where he would be allowed out of twice a year to tell his stories.

The Rivirouin initially came from the mountains, and roughly a third of them still remain there. In the mountains they herded sheep, leading pastoral lives without any concept of unification or ties beyond the immediate family. It was not until the first among them descended from the mountains and into the fertile river valley below where they transitioned from herders to farmers that the notion of a township came into being. As the river valley became more and more populated the river-side Rivirouin were united under King Esard the Sheep-Taker.*

The King would gain his epitaph for the war he waged against the Rivirouin still living in the mountains, subjugating these shepherds and forcing them to identify with one of twenty major clans. Esard's small kingdom would die with him, but the mountain Rivirouin maintained the twenty distinctive clans long after his death.

Spoiler In Green, Esard's Kingdom :

*Note, Esard is a mythical king created as a result of the bardic nature of the Rivirouin, exactly how the twenty mountain clans came into being and how the first riverside city-states came together as a single entity is not exactly known and hotly debated

To this day he Rivirouin exist as two peoples, mountainous and riverside. In the mountains the ties to one's family are more so important and villages are ever-shifting, but the clan-system instated by Esard keeps some notion of government in tact. Every five years the mountain people gather in the ancient meeting grounds where Esard first signed the pact with the then disjointed mountain people. There they elect new leaders of the twenty clans and the riverside Rivirouin always make their appearance to trade with their mountainous cousins.

Along the river the Rivirouin exist in a largely agricultural state where small villages attach themselves to larger towns which in turn attach themselves to one of three city-states. The city-states are ruled by a nobility that purchases their status rather than pass it down through blood. Although the noble families are largely stable governing entities, it is not unheard of for a family to lose power when its scions fail to acquire enough wealth. Nominally the cities are ruled by council where the noble families of a city guide their state via vote, however in reality the richest families tend to purchase the lesser families and gain their votes, effectively making them the de facto rulers of the state.

Inter-warfare amongst the Rivirouin is common. City-states wage great wars against one another, mountain clans fight for grazing ground, not to mention the raids conducted by both river-Rivirouin and mountain-Rivirouin. Still they are able to maintain a stable enough environment for trade to occur, if not flourish.

What marks the Rivirouin as distinct is their fascination with stories. While a religion exists amongst the Rivirouin it is largely unorganized and in its stead the oral story-telling traditions of the Rivirouin provide morality as well as a catalog of mythology mixed with history.

Stories for the Rivirouin exist not only for entertainment, but to maintain their history- from small families to huge cities each has its story that is venerated as often as possible. The greatest honor for any Rivirouin is to be remembered as the protagonist of a story and have it told outside his family- oftentimes such individuals become deified and enter the enormous pantheon maintained by the Rivirouin. However the difficulty of such an achievement is immense considering the staggering number of tales any one story has to compete with.

More important than a story, though, is it's teller. A good storyteller to the Rivirouin is worth twice their weight in gold and such transactions have occurred. Wars can literally be brought to a halt if a storyteller can captivate both sides with a story dear to each aggressor and any family that can produce such a storyteller can easily advance into the upper echelons of both the mountain and river societies. Storytellers are not revered as beings who are untouchable, however. It is a common practice amongst the River-rivirouin nobles to kill off storytellers who present themselves outside the dominate family's grasp and as such most storytellers will find themselves with 'patrons' who dictate what can be told. The same holds true amongst the mountain-rivirouin.

On gender not much can be said. The Rivirouin maintain a largely patriarchal society, with rural women possessing more liberties than those found in the city. In the mountains a woman can lead a tribe or clan, but she likely is an exemplary being with a herd that dwarfs her competition and able to tell stories that could silence a thunderstorm.

 

[conehead234]

I'm in the same boat as Jason, too many people. I'll wait.

 

[Oruc]

ahh I missed the beginning

 

[Azale]

It seems weird to have so many wildly different cultures in such a small area. I think I'll wait a few turns and snag something, because I know it will be good

 

[erez87]

Perhaps a second area for civilization to start in?

 

[nutranurse]

Would be nice as it'd allow for some breathing room.