New NESes, ideas, development, etc

[thomas.berubeg]

(Chorus):
Sing a song, singer
Tell a story, teller
Remember for us
Remind Us

(Storyteller):
I remember well
For my father told me
What his father told him
And so will I tell
Of how it came to be:​

(Chorus):
What will you sing us, singer?
What will you tell us, teller?
There is a story you must tell
And we’ll pay with a shell

(Storyteller):
Long, long, long, ago
Or so our fathers say
There was an island
Where everything can grow
And all the sunny day
No one need lift a hand

It is there we were born
The Orcs of Mas’sool
From fire and foam
The Innards on the earth torn
Glowing and set to cool
In the sea that became home

No one knew hunger
Fish swam in the sea
For man, woman, and child
There was no anger
Because fruit grew on every tree
Fresh and sweet and wild

On every island we lived
Pure and peaceful
On every see we sailed
For fish and shell we dived
and slept every night blissful
The glory of our home unveiled.​

(Chorus):
Will you tell us, singer,
Will you sing to us, teller
What happened to our home
What was it’s gloam

(Storyteller):
It is getting late
The stars are out
My back is tired
My age is great
Do not pout
It s time I retired
​

(Chorus):
No, singer, no
No, teller no!
Your story is not done
And you must not run!

(Storyteller):
Ahh, as you wish
though it pains my voice
I will sing and tell
What happened to the fish
Why we can not rejoice
How the Islands of Sool became our hell.
​

(Chorus):
Thank you, Singer
Thank you, teller
Our eyes are bright
And our mouths are tight

(Storyteller):
The Islands of Sool
For an eternity our womb
For so long our home
Fell from our rule
Became a tomb
Where many ghosts roam

For a year and day
Our home shook
A great beast below
Being born into the spray
To the sea we took
Escaping its nativity throes

Far into the ocean we sailed
Watching back at our mather
As a beast of fire and ash
Of rock and heat scaled
Our big little brother
Consumed her in a flash

We left him to his feast
because in those times
We knew nothing of war
And could not have killed the beast
Our biggest crime
We turned and put hand to oar

That is our shame
We had paradise
A rich land of ease
And we will never find the same
Another year our price
Before we left the seas

Our mother dead
We landed here
A land bereft of her love
And we shook our head
And shed a tear
For the truth thereof

In this dark land
We made a promise
A promise to the dead
though orc took sword in hand
though cousin forgot his
kin, though we had fled

We would never forget
Always live and know
Know we are not whole
And though there is regret
We will always grow
And be the Orcs of Mas’sool.

And now this story is over
I am old and tired
I must bid you farewell
I will slip under my cover
And if this story you admired
Tomorrow another I will tell.​

(Chorus):
Thank you Singer,
Thank you teller,
Thank you grandpa
And have a goodnight.

I hope THIS is good enough. I tried to go for a pretty simplistic rhyme-pattern, as I envision this being told around a campfire, telling the children the stories of their people.

 

[Thlayli]

I would say that's much better, though the descriptive part at the end is still kinda weak. "Archaeological evidence" requires archaeology which implies a lot of stuff about epistemology and academia that aren't necessarily native to the setting, to provide one example.

 

[Angst]

LoE, is it too late for me to join the party?

 

[Lord of Elves]

I would say that's much better, though the descriptive part at the end is still kinda weak. "Archaeological evidence" requires archaeology which implies a lot of stuff about epistemology and academia that aren't necessarily native to the setting, to provide one example.

This. That said, there is still plenty of time to develop these submissions, and while we're being precise none of you have actually filled out the culture template I provided

LoE, is it too late for me to join the party?

We haven't even properly started. We call to Rohan Denmark for aid.

 

[Neverwonagame3]

Waiting on an actual thread post before I fill mine out, but definitely planning to.

 

[Angst]

[...] When the world was risen from the Deep [the ocean], it was still a barren glacier of winterwalk,
and there were no beings from highest to lowest, not even the smallest lichen grew there. The ice
and rock slept through a slumbering winter, and time crept as ages past.

But then, a thousand stars in the sky coalesced into the sun [or suns, depending on the skyline],
and it brought the first spring, and with it, seasons bode ready the waves of time. The currents
drove around the world, and it was no longer a stale frostlands. With the sun's light, the first
stormflower blossomed. A white skjarp [type of fish similar to the herring, ordinarily grayish
however] noticed its beauty, and in blissed awe it cast itself out of the water onto a flintstone. When
it breathed the air, it realized it had become fisleng [of-the-fish; man]. The stormflower blossomed
into a beautiful maid, and they made marriage.

Before their death, their thousand sons became the people of Svartkleppe. They were plentiful but
hungry during winter. One day, there was a beautiful girl named Elda. She walked by the Deep as
another white skjarp showed its face at the surface. When she asked it where it was heading, it
answered: "My brother once went ashore. I am here to bring him back and take his place." Afraid of
being pulled back into the Deep, Elda wished to plead. But she noted it eyed her figure, and she
said: "This is our land. Do not just take it and plunge us into the sea." "But I will," the white skjarp
answered. "No you will not. Have me instead of your land," she said. The white skjarp was
tempted, but knew she was a landleng [of-the-land, contrary to marine creatures].

"But you can never be close to me," it said, "You can not cross water." "Then teach my people to
sail," Elda replied. So the skjarp did. And Svartkleppe built boats and she sailed a kjeppe [ship type]
over the white skjarp. But it grew weary with it and wanted the land. Again, she denied it access.
"But you can never be with me," the white skjarp said, "You cannot stay in water." "Then teach my
people to swim," Elda said. So the skjarp did. And the people dove from their boats into the great
Deep and she swam with the white skjarp. But it grew weary with it and wanted the land. Again,
she denied. "But you can never live with me," the white skjarp said, "You cannot eat in water."
"Then teach my people to fish," Elda commanded. So the skjarp did. So Elda went to live in the sea
with the skjarp. But she had again tricked him. As such, when they made marriage, she impaled
him and gave his children to the fislengjer so that they would never starve.

Such was the beginning of Kuldnengjer [man]. They owe everything and nothing to the sea. For they
were given the power of the fisleng, and the power is choice. [...]

- Brackets note things that are necessary for a basic understanding of the text.
- The mythology explains the cosmological framework of the Kuldnengjer and their self-understanding as different from anything else, including other humans.
- A number of things give to the Kuldnengjer self-understanding and refers to different parts of their culture: the coalescing of navigational astral bodies (stars) into the sun, the defining aspect of "humanization" as being able to sail, swim and fish, a cultural idol in the skarp fish and the stormflower as well as the spiritually empowered positions of virgins in the Kuldnengjer culture due to the deitific position of Elda.
- Going by that implication: The Kuldnengjer are direct descendants from the first magically-transmuted man, but apparently other people exist without proper explanations of exactly where they came from. I'm aware of this. The same issue is in Genesis. It's supposed to be mythology, not a scientific text.
- I swear the Darwinian mock-imagery wasn't intentional.
- Also there's some serious Freudian stuff going on there. I'm sorry about that. Not intentional.

 

[Lord of Elves]

I made some unmanly-sounding "squee" noises after reading that, angst.

EDIT: I've read and reread the orcish poem and it's grown on me significantly. Very excited.

 

[thomas.berubeg]

Anyone else plan on playing Orcs?

 

[Gem Hound]

-Where do we come from?

Do you really want to know?

-Yes!

The Faelnrn bring the children into the villages every year.

-Don't lie to me father, I'm old enough now to know better!

*sighs* Fine. The First Dwarves were forged from the fires of the smith Altnon, and had life breathed into them by his wife Hengia, giver of life. For thousands of years, Altnon forged our people from the very rock we stand on. We were treated like the greatest of chieftains, each and every one of us. Then the time came.

-What time?

You see my daughter, Altnon did not create us due to wanting to create something. No. He wanted to destroy something.

-What did he want to destroy with us?

All the other gods my daughter. So that Altnon would sit beside Hengia on the throne with the dead around them.

((There was silence for about 5 minutes))

-Did we help him?

It was our greatest shame, and our people have been trying to repay for the great dishonour. We agreed to help Altnon in his mad schemes and marched to the mountain of the gods and sacked it. Many thousands of our kin died that day, yet we simply overwhelmed them. Altnon and Hengia walked in after the battle for the Aerie and sat on the thrones of Yornda and Marlvn having not lifted a finger.

-If they are the gods now, then why should we be ashamed of it?

You have heard of how users of magic are exiled, and not allowed to remain with our people?

-Of course I have, yet I have never known why.

The reason they are exiled is that they are dangerous to everyone around them, due to the success at the Aerie.

-Why do you say that?

We had not known that the gods had been fighting against unimaginable horrors. These beings filled the power vacuum left by the old gods, and every single magic user can accidentally bring one into our world for just being who they are.

-That is horrible father, why would they practice magic then?

Magic child, is not learned, but born with. I will continue on with what I was telling you. Magic has been getting increasingly weaker and more dangerous to wield as these beings continue to filter into the Aerie. Our people are not too dissimilar from what is happening to magic. Do you see the iron in your fellow Dwarf's face? No. As time passes, our powers diminish, to the point that now we are only truly remarkable as a whole at working the stone and metals beneath us. When magic dies, the world will die. We caused this.

-What about the other races? Where did they come from?

Goddesses can have fun too child. I'll leave you here to think about it. I will be outside cutting wood for the fire if you need me.

 

[Amesjay]

Lord of Elves, I wanted to start preparing something for this, but I wanted to know whether the race had to be roughy human sized. Or could They say be giants or stone golems etc

 

[Golden1Knight]

I'm planning to play with the elves, and I'm already thinking up something interesting. I'll post in a few days.

 

[Grandkhan]

Man I am so down for this but every idea I come up with I remember already exists in Warhammer. The alternative is making an entire race of Shrek.

I'll get to it at some point.

 

[Angst]

I made some unmanly-sounding "squee" noises after reading that, angst.

Thank you. That kind of writing excites me a lot

 

[Milarqui]

*cries*

My curse strikes again.

Remember CFC.com, the RPG NES where players controlled people that traveled along the multiverse (Yeah, not one of my best times, and I wish I had polished the whole thing better before starting it)?

Well, now I am reading a webcomic called Captain SNES: The Game Masta, and I am wondering if an RPG NES that works on something like that would be fun.

Each player controls characters that come from videogames, each with their abilities, and they are set against an evil threat to the video game land. Of course, not all "heroes" would be perfect. For example, if you pick Mega Man, you could play him as the Bob and George version. If you take Black Mage from Final Fantasy, you can try your hand at being 8-Bit Theater's Black Mage Evilwizardington.

Yeah, it is stupid. It could be fun, though.

 

[Patchy]

Anyone else plan on playing Orcs?

Yea, why?

 

[Tycho]

It would indeed be fun Milarqui. You thinking of hosting it?

Also, not going to lie, LoE's NES looks to be very entertaining and I eagerly await it's launch.

 

[Grandkhan]

Anyone else plan on playing Orcs?

I was going to play Ogres.

 

[Arrow Gamer]

Iggy's and Arrow Gamer's templates are both good examples of the type of writing I am looking for in early culture proposals, and I'm very excited to work with their submissions.

Nice. Anything you want me to expand upon or change? I was planning on being a mining culture, and exploit pay some humans in order to ship it places (obviously a long-term plan, but eh).

 

[Ophorian]

The First of the Elsyn

It is said that the first of the Elsyn, Sen, arose alone to the sight of the twinkling stars. Many a year he spent alone, walking across the land in solitude. Seeing no other and believing himself to be alone in the world, the young elf cried out to the moon, begging the heavens for companionship, but met with silence.
Resigned to his fate, he shed a tear, and where that tear met the earth, a great tree began to grow.

The Earth beneath the young elf’s feet began to tremble and quake, and all around him, the grass grew and trees arose in a moment of breathless beauty. It was in the shadows of the great forest that the second of the Elsyn, Sena, did emerge.

Thanking the heavens for their compassion, he took Sena to be his wife. Viewing the sudden emergence of the forest around him as a gift, Sen vowed to preserve the sanctity of the forest, and of nature itself. The elves felt a deep, primordial connection with the forest around them, and Sen found that his voice could move the mighty trees to his will. With a whisper, the great tree that arose beneath his feet began to shift, hollowing in places and extending to meet the other towering trees in others.

So it was that the trees became their home, and Sena bore her husband many a child. As the years passed and their children had children of their own, Sen and Sena ruled over their children, and their children’s children.

It was when Sen failed to awake one morning that the Elsyn first became acquainted with the concept of mortality. In sorrow, Sena laid her husband down by the roots of the first tree, committing his body to the earth to become one with the nature that he so loved.

Over time, some of the Elsyn became restless and ventured far, past the comfortable borders of their forest home. It was these Elsyn who first discovered the Middle Race, and indeed, some came to live among them.

On the Physiology of the Elsyn

Legend holds that Sen and his wife were as pale as the moon, their skin fair and free of blemish. Tall and slender, the Elsyn are oft described as among the most beautiful creatures to grace the earth. The pointed ears of the Elsyn serve to be the easiest way to distinguish between the Elsyn and humanity, though there are other features to be sure. The eyes of an Elsyn are considered to be hauntingly beautiful, glowing brightly with an otherworldly aura.

In ages past, the Elsyn supposedly lived for centuries, though the descendants of Sen face a far shorter life than that of their mythic ancestors. A modern Elsyn can expect to live nearly one and a half centuries, though the mental capacities of the average elf rapidly deteriorate past that bound.

On the Culture of the Elsyn

Dating back to ages past, the Elsyn have maintained a strongly traditional culture, revering and honouring their ancestors as well as nature itself. The Elsyn are most at home in the forests, and live in harmony with nature. By and large, the Elsyn eat off the fruits of the land, and though there is no explicit forbiddance of the consumption of flesh, the Elsyn avoid it best they can.

Note: About time some brought elves into the mix. Though, if it's all crap, let me know.

 

[Milarqui]

It would indeed be fun Milarqui. You thinking of hosting it?

Don't know. I do have a couple of ideas on how to do this so that it could be feasible, but not much.

One of the problems of CFC.com was that I was asking players to give detailed actions, and that I wouldn't update until I had most everyone.

I think that something that could work would be to ask the players to come up with a "strategy" of sorts on what to do for some time (hours or days) and only ask for more detailed orders when it comes to important things such as a "boss fight". It would also account for what the stragglers would do, as they could actually be NPCed and follow the steps of the other players for a time.

Stats could be easy. Each player would have three main stats (Body, Mind and Soul, which account for physical abilities, intelligence and special abilities) and then one or two extra ones that depend on what the character can do, plus special abilities (Mega Man would be able to copy attacks from a defeated enemy, for example) and problems (Mega Man is only smart when it comes to fighting, just like in Bob and George).

And the enemy in the horizon would be clearer than just the Acebees.