FusNES01: A Higher Consciousness

[Terrance888]

On a big island, or reckoned by some: a small continant. A land populated by birch and poplar. Silver streams flow into mighty rivers. Great cities and grand citigals presided over the country side. The men are noble, and known for their love of no matter how big a community: Comrades of the barrack, Townsmen in the city. Farmers in the village. And tis this land is called: Silverdale 'Siltheburh' by the commons.

But who do they worship? For years, as the first gleaming walls are built and trusts are formed, they scrabbled over land and fought wars. Except in once place in the then warring states: Hartsgard Mountains. There, silver-bark trees grow miles high. There, I have presided for centuries.

But I, then, was weak. Sustained by the flickery mind of damn builders and weed sleepers. Humans forsake the beautiful place: legends of giant castles, but naught the dams I help build, kept them away. The first humans are rough, for they are people escaping for believing what I represent: community aid and hard-working values. Quickly, summoning all my strength, I ousted the truely herectical spirit and pushed him under by command, I lead these humans to glory.

For years, they aided those in need and worked hard for the glory of all. A watermill is build with wood I designated from my trees. They built towers. They herded, they hunted, they farmed, always I guilded them to unselfishness. Their works reached other small villages of the range. They started to convert, as I grew stronger, I aided in great projects: A big copper mine for plow, a big grannary for the grain, and then, the first stables.

Soon, the foothill vales they lived in is not safe, a neighboring kingdom, one ruled unfairly by an aristocrat, sent troops to overrun the hills for the copper needed to use for swords. Wave after wave of wild, spear weilding men charged, each ran down by the desperate levy of bowmen. Even in crisis they co-ordinated their rain of arrows. Soon, a patron noble heard us and in his inquiry for the diety that aids them and I showed myself to him. He gave his coins to those that need it. He begun to study hard. He granted his estate workers freedom.

Soon, his estate gained greater efficiancy then before. Others begun to copy them. And soon men all over Silthburh worked together. The Greats still held money. The poor still needs it. But all those who have needs are granted. All those who don't grants. Soon, walls of silver stone rose. Prosperity is the norm for this little land. Perhaps I'm strong enough to leave through the endless waves that surround by friends: perhaps.

Athenforth is the writer of this work. He is our great patron god. He considers it is worth doing something only if many share in the benifits.

 

[Fuschia]

Good stories, all of you. Very good, actually.

Fuschia, I would be willing to draw a map for this NES.

That would be appropriate, you being the god of knowledge and all. The main problem I have with a map is that it is concrete, and the ability to create new areas for stories in areas already mapped is severely limited. So, just as long as everyone is willing to understand that the maps are not concrete, I would enjoy seeing one.

My god wasn't listed at all.

Not all the stats are up as of yet. The rest should make their way to this thread tomorrow morning, along with a good number of NPC gods and the first place descriptions.

OOC: Fuschia, can we talk to other gods at the moment? Or do we have to wait until the update is over?

You may speak to other gods, although the usefulness of what one might say is probably somewhat limited for the moment, as their is little for you to talk about. After the first update, and the first few story elements weaved into said update, you should have much more to talk about.

 

[Neverwonagame3]

1- We can presumably send orders, right?
2- Why did you amend "Usually" to "often" in terms of favoring the better strategist, and only in battles Darnang oversees personally? Are you assuming a God must be capricious or something? Perhaps some metaphysical explanations would be helpful...

A Land to Play With
Darnang looked over the surface of the earth. He identified a group of islands- an area which, as far as he could see, had interesting potential.

"Why are there no empires on the face of the earth? Why should I not create them?"

He looked over a region of islands, observing a single boat going across the water.

"What type of man is he? Is he the type of man I am looking for?"

The man in the boat looked around. Darnang asessed him from above.

"Is he a leader?". For Darnang, this effectively meant "No.", as this man clearly was not.

"Is not here the best place to create Empires?" asked Darnang. He looked over the spot.

"Is that not a correct statement?" he asked, effectively meaning Yes.

He switched to thought- talking to himself was appropriate for some things, but not others. It was time to begin planning this continent...

In the north, he would include a single expanded isle, making it large enough for a significant power to emerge. He would give it wood for supplies, but put it's vital military tin and iron interests on the Continent, which would force them eventually to make expeditions there for their own defence.

The tin/iron area would be in the northern regions of the Western Region, grassy plains with a supply of domesticable horses. This region would be defended by mountains, and have the potential to become a prime military power- if it united. Darnang decided to put several more mountains in it to make this harder.

To it's direct southeast would be the Island of Darnang. The Army of Darnang, and a great religious centre, would eventually come here. He would forbid them to advance on his main continent, but considered giving them the resources to attack elsewhere. He decided to leave it for now...

In the Central region, he decided to stimulate war by phalanx, using mountains ranges and narrow mountain and valley passes for soldiers. On second thoughts he changed his mind, leaving this to the North Central Region. He decided to give them sea acess, and a "Land of Empires" to their north, acessible via sea. The "Land of Empires" would have gold aplenty, but would be isolated, disunified islands- ripe for the picking, and for war.

The Middle and South Central Regions would be a single region, with easy supplies, agricultural rivers for high population, and easy-to-acess resources. It would be easy to forge an empire here- would these empires conquer all, or would others come to challenge and defeat them?

Not wanting to make it too easy, Darnang put mountains to protect the South Eastern Region. He decided to make it a region with many a large oasis in the middle of a desert. Each oasis would support about 5000 people, but with desert tribes around them having to cope with desert conditions. The ocassional "natural road" or river would allow for the transportation of small armies, and Darnang would give them carrier pigeons for communication. But this region was a buffer, and little more...

Finally, he made the Great East, as he called it. This region would be hard to unify, but when it did it would be a great power. Defended by mountains, and a river which technically made it a seperate continent, this area would have the resources needed for future ages in abudance. The prerequistes for steel, salteper for gunpowder, oil for a great future civilisation, and so on.

Thinking about that, Darnang decided he would make a Far Great East later. It would trade through the Great East by land, and would have many wealthy goods- spices, salts, and so on. The Great East would eventually learn to jack up prices as a middle man, stimulating the way to a strong Western civilisation...

 

[MooseWarrior]

Story: The Conversion of Taalack

On the large island of Taalack, there was a very powerful king named Xan. Xan ruled over most of Taalack with what some would call an iron fist. He would crush anyone who openly opposed him or even voiced a disagreement about his rule. Xan would take the town's most beautiful women for himself, and no-one would ever see them again.

One day a man clothed in a white robe over simple clothing appeared. This man appeared young and had angular features. He tried to become Xan's advisor, but Xan would not listen to him. Spurned by the Xan in the main town of Taalack, this man went to another town near the edge of Xan's empire. There this man met someone named Labduro. Labduro was not a man who appeared in the best of shape, and didn't seem to know how to handle a sword well.

So, the man in white asked Labduro, "How would you like to become the ruler of Taalack?"
Labduro replied, "Well, surely I couldn't do a worse job of it than Xan."
"Ok then, I'll take that as a yes, now all you have to do is take me as your advisor, and I will help you to overthrow Xan.
"Alright, I, Labduro, pledge to listen to and take advice from you in order to save Taalack from the tyranny of Xan."
"Ok then, here I will tell you what to do in order to dethrone Xan."
Thus, the man in white proceeded to tell Labduro all he needed to be told in order to overthrow Xan.

2 weeks later,

Labduro and nine others made their way towards the main town on Taalack. They stayed at an inn to rest up for one day after arriving in the main town. Then, under the cover of darkness, Labduro and his companions made their way to the palace. They snuck into the kitchens and poisoned as much ale and wine as they could, not with a lethal poison, but with a fast acting poison that incapacitated people when taken in a large dose. Then the next day, Labduro went to the palace, and challenged Xan for the kingship. Xan, not thinking that Labduro could pose a challenge accepted.
Labduro said, "Before we fight, let us drink, have your servants bring out your finest wine and ale."
Xan replied, "Alright, that sounds good. SERVANTS! Bring out our best wine and ale, and also start cooking a roast for a feast for whoever wins this duel."
So, the wine and ale was brought out. Labduro didn't drink too much, saying "I am saving up for the after-duel feast"
But, Xan drank much wine and ale laughing "Hahahaha, Labduro, you will not be alive for the after-duel feast! Now,.let us begin!"

So, Xan and Labduro both drew their swords and fought, after about a minute, Xan seemed to have the upper hand and was about to deal the final blow to Labduro when he doubled over in pain and collapsed on the floor. Xan could not get up because of the pain, and the most he could do was roll around on the floor. Labduro saw this, and got up and beheaded Xan.
Thus did Labduro defeat Xan and become the king of Taalack.

After being crowned king, Labduro sent for the man in white, only to find that the man was staying in the same inn as his companions. The man in white told Labduro, "Thank Myrthin for your kingship, for he has helped you to become king."
Labduro said, "How do you know it was Myrthin who helped me, and not some other god?"
The man replied, "Come with me, and I will show you how I know that it was Myrthin." The two went off and eventually came to a forest. They went deep into a forest, and the man in white took off his robe, and all of a sudden he turned into a shadowy figure. This figure told Labduro in a low voice much different than how the man in white spoke, that he is a servant of Myrthin, and if Labduro still didn't believe it was Myrthin who had helped him become king, that Labduro, too, would be overthrown in a much more spectacular way than Xan was.

Thus, Labduro turned into a believer of Myrthin and turned the whole island of Taalack to worship of Myrthin. Labduro set up many temple to Myrthin throughout Taalack, and made the most grand in what was the most important town of Taalack, and is now called Myrthincael in honor of the god that helped Labduro become king.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Epilogue:

Myrthin was pleased that his scheme to gain more followers had succeeded. He even began work on creating a new type of spirit, because of what he had accomplished on the island of Taalack.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Introduction to Szok
Floating above the clouds, countless fathoms above an azure sea, is a great, hovering structure.

Growing out of nothing is the foundation of what appears to be a great, pillared temple, clean and white. Rising above it is an eye-bendingly large structure, roughly pyramidal and coated in spires, soaring off and upwards. Clouds obscure the furthest reaches from view.

Within the center of the pillared base, at the center of a great geometric pattern, Szok, a small figure sits cross-legged. A quill rests in her right hand, a brown and emerald python is coiled lazily around her arms and behind her. Quickly, but with deliberation, the quill glides across a clean piece of parchment. Mountains, islands, forests and seas come into form. Names are scrawled into place, and notes are added. The map is complete, for now.

Nodding to herself, the figure rises. Turning to face the serpent, she nods. The creature makes a yawning movement with its face, and slides off, coiling the parchment into a scroll with unearthly dexterity. Gingerly picking up the map, he glides off into the distance, climbing up into the dark interior of the building.

 

[Neverwonagame3]

Lord Iggy, that map's pretty good but the isle was supposed to be a bit further west. Sorry if this comment's a bit nitpicking but the islanders were supposed to be more likely to attack the Western then the Central region.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

The little one north of Silverdale, or the one next to 'Darnang'? I assume the latter. You can always smash the earth and move the island, and I'll alter the map for it.

 

[Neverwonagame3]

I would have created it further west in the first place. Fuschia has to approve the map before it becomes canon, presumably.

EDIT:

i:
From Darnang
To Drahl

We have a common interest in spreading the doctrine of Might Is Right. How about an alliance?

ii:
Fushia, why did you leave large parts of my stats blank?

 

[Neverwonagame3]

EDIT: Oops. Could the mods delete this post?

 

[Fuschia]

1- We can presumably send orders, right?

Yes. Keep in mind that the outline for the orders is in, I believe, the third post and, while I will always be lenient when it comes to exactness of orders, it should contain more or less that which is part of the outline.

2- Why did you amend "Usually" to "often" in terms of favoring the better strategist, and only in battles Darnang oversees personally? Are you assuming a God must be capricious or something? Perhaps some metaphysical explanations would be helpful...

The majority of the tweaking was just word changing, such as usually to often. The second part is a more major change, because gods are far from all-powerful, even within their own spheres; they have an enormous amount of power, but to assume that Darnang can effect the outcome of battles which he does not pay at least a small amount of attention to is rather presumptuous.

Therefore, I will change it back to usually if you want, and I can do a slight change of words for the second part, but there are reasons for any major overview changes that I have made, mostly for making of a smaller stat section and to ensure that gods are not too powerful. My apologies if you are upset, but if I feel it necessary to change something it will, generally, stay changed, unless you can point out a flaw of some kind in my reasoning.

And again, good stories, both of you. Keep up the good work. Also, remember that updates only cover one season, so to move through entire wars in anything but back story may be unreasonable within the time frame.

EDIT: My apologies; this post should have been up last night. Apparently I wrote it up but did not hit the submit reply button. Replies to everything else to come shortly and, after that, stats for all the other gods.

 

[Neverwonagame3]

i- To be fair you might not have seen it, but this does leave the second point.

ii- About the metaphysics, I didn't know. I do now.

iii- To be fair you probably didn't see it, but what about the second point?

 

[Fuschia]

@Iggy: The map is good; I will put it in the front with the place descriptions, if their are no objections.

ii:
Fushia, why did you leave large parts of my stats blank?

A mistake on my part, stemming from those parts of your stats being in a different post in the other thread. I had it up and meant to put them there but, as in so many other cases, I was forgetful. I will correct that first, and then the rest of the stats should be up fairly quickly.

EDIT: In the stats, many and another of you over spent or left an entire stat blank. I filled them in and changed them as best I could, but I would advise you to check over everything and voice complaints now, so I can get to them tomorrow morning. And remember, orders are due on Friday. If you can all get them in by that time, that would be good; if not, I will deal with your god as an NPC, basing actions of any stories you have written or, if necessary, just your portfolio and tenets..

 

[Ninja Dude]

I like the map very mcuh as it displays all the major areas mentioned in the stories. But I think it would become insanely difficult to make a map for the world if it is as big as Fuschia said it was.


_____________________________________________________

The Holy Shroud

“Hmmmmmm. It appears other gods are starting to influence humans also. Surely I must protect the chosen ones from those who have been tainted by other gods!” Vompi said to his spirit slaves.

“I, however, have developed a plan. Hold on a sec. SLAVE! MORE TEA! Okay, like I was saying, I have a plan. I will create a shroud. A shroud so holy, only those chosen by me can go through. It will be made of the very darkness of this realm. All of you quickly gather up as much darkness as possible and begin making the shroud!”

The spirits worked day and night, gathering darkness from Vompi’s realm. They then dropped it down around the border of Fanto Island. The inhabitants saw this as a great miracle. Now they could finally gaze upon pure darkness. They had been given a gift from their god.

Vompi himself was still in his couch in his realm, ordering slaves going to the mortal realm to stop and fluff his pillows and fetch him tea. After getting comfy and relaxed, he decided to look at Fanto Island. It was by far the most prestigious of the islands he had converted. While other islands had in fighting and squabbles, this one was peaceful and quiet. It took almost no work on his part to maintain this status either.

And Vompi intended to keep it that way.

 

[rhawn]

i:
From Darnang
To Drahl

We have a common interest in spreading the doctrine of Might Is Right. How about an alliance?

/OOC: So how do you presume to initiate this dialogue with Drahl? Is your god stating this aloud hoping that it is heard? Is he requesting and audience with Drahl to speak of such matters, if so, to whom is this request made? Or is he attempting to enter Drahl's realm of the Endless Seas of Blood to speak with Drahl directly?

Concering the map: I like it, it seems it would be a good reference as long as a disclaimer is attached, not drawn to scale.

 

[Psychic_Llamas]

im going to post the story of Puc later on, probably tomorrow. ill also PM you my orders then fuschia

EDIT: also could you change this:

Court Organization: Despotic

in my profile to 'Benevolent Dictatorship'?

 

[Ninja Dude]

Well, I have my orders in.

Man, I'm going to be hated by every other god . Almost everyone has tenets that go against mine.

 

[Terrance888]

As I watched over the map over a serpent of an complementary, I found that another groups is also fingering hold in Silverdale: according to scrips of Darnang we, of the vales of Hartsgard, are in the the central, populated region. I wonder for the path of history. Will the Silver Forests be defiled by invasion? Will I have to rally my followers to defend from that menance? Suddenly, a conscience almost totally against my values startled me: a god willing to spend strength to make food grow on rock? None of his people are working at all. Some even refuse to talk from my distance. I know only one way to try to break the spell: and that is risky.

Compating the easy invasion if an organized enemy attacks, I changed form into an beaver and thought of hard work in building a cathedral of a dam made my form smile. I tried to port there when: I stopped. I can see those men of Vompi laying in the sand, laughing and hitting: all sustained by a god. As I fall I change into an otter, swam to clear my mind and ported back to the heavens.

"What did you do to them!" I asked a smiling, clouded form crafting shadows.

A big smiling face appeared . "I? Why I am trying to be all powerful of course!"

OOC: Your right Ninga Dude, The horns of Silver Dale will sound upon Yea when we are strong enough!

 

[Neverwonagame3]

I OBJECT TO THE MAP. As I said, Darnang would have made the island futher west.

/OOC: So how do you presume to initiate this dialogue with Drahl? Is your god stating this aloud hoping that it is heard? Is he requesting and audience with Drahl to speak of such matters, if so, to whom is this request made? Or is he attempting to enter Drahl's realm of the Endless Seas of Blood to speak with Drahl directly?

Concering the map: I like it, it seems it would be a good reference as long as a disclaimer is attached, not drawn to scale.

OOC: Darnang didn't see any problem with proposing it in public. The gods aren't in major intrigues yet, as he sees it.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Okay, the northern island will be moved to the northwest corner of the continent.

 

[dldnjstjr]

I'd say there needs to be more land.