Nomadic Civilization ModMod Development (FFH2+FF)

What it does is work exactly like Hope. The building is there only while the resource unit is there. The building creation modifies the duration of the unit. The unit is destroyed and so is the building when the duration expires.

Thanks that's a great idea using some of the unused unit fields to store values for culture, production, population, etc. I'll look and see what there is to use. Gold is not stored - is the gold amount that civ has tied in to cities?

 

Well, to modify the Gold in your treasury via WorldBuilder you have to select a city and assign gold to it. This value exists for each city and varies from one to the next as I recall. So I am relatively certain that at least a portion of your total treasury is kept in each of your cities. That also ties in to how much Gold people take from you when they capture a city, it is based off the portion that is stored in that city.

However, you can gain gold before you ever settle a city, so it is still tied to the player at least in part. I'm not precisely sure what will happen to your treasury when uprooting a city of your own, but I am guessing it just leaves your total treasury alone since no other player is taking a portion of it. Not sure though.

 

I've been testing Movable Resources, with all the units, spells and buildings added, and it looks so very clumsy both in XML files and in python with 19+ items in units and buildings. At this point I am pretty much sure that SDK changes will be needed. For example bonus and attitude related tags for units would save 100+ lines of repetitive code in python.

I can see other uses for those tags beyond nomadic civilization - for example guarding AI players cities with other civilization's units should affect his attitude towards the unit's owner. Having "bad" units in the city could affect attitude negatively. Units providing resources while in a city could also be useful in sedentary civilization's play for extra effect. And setting duration of a unit in XML would allow to define temporary units that are subject to wear and tear.

So this post will track my wish list and and progress on getting it done.

SDK Changes for Nomadic CIV:

1. Add bNomadic flag to CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml
- Reason: define a civilization that is nomadic in nature
- bNomadic(bool)

2. Add bonus related tags to CIV4UnitInfos.xml and functions for it
- Reason: to allow units to provide bonuses directly when in cities
- bResource(bool) - similar to bSummon
- BonusTypeProvide(string)
- iNumBonusProvide (int)
- Duration (int)

3. Add attitude change tag to CIV4UnitInfos.xml and functions for it
- Reason: to allow units to affect other player attitudes towards unit owner
- iAttitudeChange (int)

4. Modify functions in SDK that require a player to have at least one city to be alive or get techs and bonuses. Possibly simply find these checks and exclude any civ with bNomadic set to true from them.

I'm sure there will be more. Any ideas, pointers to right files and functions will be most appreciated. I am quite ignorant on what is already there - there's just too much to grasp in all the files for me. So if something is already there in FFH2/FF code and I just didn't get it - please tell me.

Thanks.

 

Kanske du har nytta av grafiken till 'Ecuadorian raft'?

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=283582

 

I really like this idea. Regarding your population and culture issue. You may want to generate a number of waggons equal to the city population. For example a city of three generates three wagons. That would allow for three separate cities or one city of three by allowing each wagon to have the 'build city' and 'add to city' options. You could use this mechanic to peel away some of the population without disbanding the city too. For example: drop a size 4 city to size 3 and generate a wagon.

You could address buildings by making additional wagons for each. A 'forge wagon', a 'shrine wagon' etc... This coupled with the pop wagons would allow you to move a whole city. Or split a city and its buildings. Or disband one city and incorporate it into another. Or have one city generate buildings and have the population move them about.

These buildings and wagons could be 'capturable' by other civs which would perhaps 'kill' the unit and generate cash for the aggressor (something like 1 coin per 3 hammers). This puts a risk to the action and forces the nomads to protect their wagons.

Regarding culture, I'd recommend forcing it to reset each time a city is settled. If they are creative or have a culture unit settling a culture building it will grow fairly quickly. I think that this represents the time that the people need to put out some influence on the surrounding area. A settlement is establsihed and time needs to be taken to influence the area.

This is a really neat idea for a civ. I am anxious to watch it grow into a reality!

 

Thanks! I found it just the other day and downloaded - it just might work for coastal rafts.

 

There's a mod for warlords called Ancient Arabia. I suspect that you may find some of the graphics and ideas in that mod quite useful - and it's a nice looking mod in itself.

 

@Ingvar

Have you thought about your Leader traits yet given your vision for diplomacy and commerce?

 

Two leaders - two different routes. One leader is a female, charismatic, financial - represents the land, trading, soft approach from wagon treibs. I thought to have the ability to change leader mid-late-game with a world spell, that would among other things put in charge a sea, aggressive, financial leader from raft treibs. Possibly adaptive as well for both.

 

This looks amazing, and would be a really unique playstyle... can't wait till you release it.

 

Can I suggest that you'd think about a promotion that allows invisibility (A), and another one that makes it impossible to attack (B). Then a third (C) that yields a chance each turn to loose itself, and gain A and B. Lastly a fourth (E) that yields a chance each turn to loose B. Then two abilities, 'Travel the back roads' and 'Travel the main roads'.

If you use 'Travel the back roads' the unit gains C. That means that after a random number of turns the unit becomes invisible and cannot attack. Then you can travel and move about in relative security, using the secret and less travelled roads (or sea-routes). Then you can choose to use 'Travel the main road' that makes you visible and give you E which will mean that it will take a random number of turns before you can attack again.

This will leave you with units that with a delayed effect can turn to invisible travellers, and with a delay can be normal units again. Much harder then simply invisible units to use for war, especially since every unit will run on a different 'clock' - but it will be perfect for your mobile cities etc?

 

I would definitely consider Adaptive. I imagine the nomads will find themselves in more unpredictable situations than other civs. It's good to be flexible. (If I may humbly suggest).

 

I realy enjoy the ide of a nomadic civilization. Moving cities have allways been one of the top things on my wishlist.

Some questions however?
-Should you be able to move a city and settle it elsewhere on the same turn?

If you loose a turn of income every time you move a city, your capitol will porbably be stationary for some long time.

I fear that you will create a great mechanism for moving cities, but where moveing your cities is not worth it. Why move your city if you allready found a perfect spot. Ok, sometimes I see the usefullness of moving one of your cities from one space to one better spot, but if you have invested a lot in terms of farms, mines in an area it would probably not be that usefull to move cities around.

Do we need some rules to make moving cities usefull/needed?

Restrict building of farms and mines (which realy requiers a civilization to be none-nomadic, atleast in my view).
Give a bonus to the city title the first turns it is settled at the spot. The bonus could be +4 food/hammers/gold the first 10 turns or something based on what title (plain, hills, grassland etc.) the city lays on, just enough to compensate for the restriction and just enough to encourgage movement of cities





Enemy cities which you capture? Should they also be moveable?

 

Right now the spell for establishing settlement is set with 2 turn delay, abandoning settlement with 4 turn delay, non-permanent culture spreading improvement - campsite can be created within one turn.

Those were exactly my thoughts. Right now they are handicapped - no improvements other than camps and pastures can be built by the Wagon Driver worker unit, later in the game there is a better worker unit - Craftsman - able to build fast mines, plantations, farms hopefully only on bonus tiles. The main incentive to move is to go to resources already worked by other civilizations, razed cities, so that you can gain temporary resources and sell them for gold.

My plan is to make their abilities really strong while on lands of friendly civilizations. While out in the wild - they travel, avoid danger by being fast and defensive, but the main focus of game play for them would be to maintain really good relationships with all civilizations, trade, and above all be on the move.

I think that at the beginning of the game they won't have the power to attack cities - their early melee units are mostly defensive - the warrior as it is right now - has no movement points and has to be transported by the wagon, it also has only 1 attack point, so even with mobity1 most it could do is capture a worker.

Later in the game they do get the mobile power and powerful units, but they lack siege line completely. They might get other civ's siege units by other special abilities. But if they do capture a city - it is either returned to owner for gold (like in the Vikings scenario - not sure how it could be implemented), or razed with a chance to get extra wagons.

A lot of these concepts change daily, as I find things I cannot do in python/xml simply for the lack of skill. Keep those ideas coming - it's very helpful!

 

This is a temporary list of land units I got in the works for the civ. I'll update it as I add/remove them. The plan is to give nomads a number of units tailored to the moving/wagons play style, and to keep in line with moving merchants, free spirited, worshipers of Tali.

Main points:

Workers - not built, but converted any time wagon makes a settlement or campsite. Early game - Wagon Driver, later game - Tinker/Crafsmen. Main objective is not to build your own improvements, but rather to create movable temporary resources from improvements already built. Slow work rate at the beginning. I am thinking of a possibility of adding their own roads on top of other roads, that would give bonus movement only to the nomads. So Wagons might get limited build capabilities just to get those done.

Late game tier4 units:
Knights, War Chariots, Phalanx - are all rolled into one class of units - Talirogha. Depending on the number of Griffon in the game you could get 12 flying strong units in late game.

To make up for loss of mid game mounted units a windfinder and herder might get a griffon rider promotion. The griffon can be separated from the unit - so in the end you can either upgrade herders and windfinders to better units or move their griffons to better new units.

Land Units:
Tier I
Wagon (0/3/2) - UNITCLASS_SETTLER, UNITCOMBAT_MOUNTED
Basic settler for nomads. The more you have the larger your civilization is.

Scout (2/2/2) - UNITCLASS_SCOUT, UNITCOMBAT_RECON
Just a normal scout - will probably be changed to something more interesting
Sentry (1/4/0) - UNITCLASS_WARRIOR, UNITCOMBAT_MELEE
Warrior replacement. No movement points. Defensive unit. Main purpose is to protect campsites and settlements, as well as wagons.

Raider (4/4/2) - UNITCLASS_HORSEMAN, UNITCOMBAT_MOUNTED
Windfinder (3/3/1) - UNITCLASS_ADEPT, UNITCOMBAT_DISCIPLE
- Starts with AIR1, NOMAD1
- upgrades to Mage, Windchanger, Priests

Tier II
Herder (3/4/2) - UNITCLASS_HUNTER, UNITCOMBAT_MELEE(?)
Guard (4/4/1) - UNITCLASS_AXEMAN, UNITCOMBAT_MELEE
Mage (4/4/1) - UNITCLASS_MAGE, UNITCOMBAT_ADEPT

Tier III
Tamer (5/5/2) - UNITCLASS_RANGER, UNITCOMBAT_RECON
Caravan Guard (6/6/1) - UNITCLASS_CHAMPION, UNITCOMBAT_MELEE

Griffon Rider Promotion (+1, +1, +1) changes unit to UNITCOMBAT_MOUNTED
- Produced by a spell "Mount Griffon" available to:
- Windchanger
- Herder
- Whisperer
- Talirogha
- Replaces: Horse Archer, Knight, War Chariot
- Changes artstyle

Tier IV
Whisperer (10/10/3) - UNITCLASS_BEASTMASTER, UNITCOMBAT_RECON
Talirogha (12/12/1) - UNITCLASS_PHALANX, UNITCOMBAT_MELEE
- Unit limit 12 (three fourth tier units combined)
- Can all become mounted via Mount Griffon
Windchanger (8/8/2) - UNITCLASS_DRUID, UNITCOMBAT_DISCIPLE
- Unique Spells:
- Griffon Call (summons griffon or converts griffon)
- when summoned only one can exist as unit or as promotion per Windchanger
- Cnamanalt (random effect of Tali's blessing - a "bone throw")

Archmage (5/5/1) - UNITCLASS_ARCHMAGE, UNITCOMBAT_ADEPT

Notes:
Griffon Riders
While most treibs are expert horse handlers and riders, second only to Hippus, some herders have developed a trusting relationship with Griffons, caught in their traps.
That trust allows them to mount these winged beasts and join the ranks of Griffon Riders. They are called upon when the distress is great and mortal danger is imminent.


I'll update this post with new info as it comes.

 

You'll certainly want to have more attributes added to Units to manage the mobility without it being a "I could, but why WOULD I?" issue.

Number one reason nobody will want to move, even in the start of the game when they find a good unique feature, is research. If you don't have any cities, then nothing is granting you any research, even if we enable you to get techs from goody huts.


Thus, you'll want your wagons to maintain certain attributes of the cities and continue to act with them. Most notably will be research, but also you might want them to continue to produce gold to support units.

On the thought of units and support, your units will rarely be within your borders, so you will be facing higher support costs the entire game (Unit Supply, only charged for units outside of your territory).

The civ seems to be oriented toward peace, and so that means it must consider peaceful victories. That is religion, Culture, Tower or Altar.

Tower and Altar will require considerably build times, so production will be an issue. Fortunately you can go and find yourself a perfect spot by that late in the game, so these seem viable, but they do require a stable, settled city, so are counter=flavor.

Culture will be a huge issue since your cities are constantly uprooted, unless the culture continues to build up while you are moving, which might be tricky if the "city" unit and the buildings are all seperate entities.

A thought which just now occured to me is that rather than manipulating the unit to contain the city data, as long as SDK changes are being made, a better approach may be to simply add a new field to a city which will keep it from doing any checks which respond to location. Then you could just move it off of the map and activate that flag. The entire city exists precisely as it was, and waits for you to issue a command which will move it back onto the map at an actual location.


Of course, that will be almost as hard to code as the unit thing, but it would help to cover issues which could arise slightly better. Though that means that you would have to settle the same city that you lifted up, and I think most of what you have been working on assumes you can easily transfer resources between your cities as a fringe benefit of being nomadic.



Anyways... main point before I started rambling was just to think about what kind of victory conditions you can aim at, and what incentive there is for the civ to NOT move their cities. Aim to make the first viable, and squash the second

 

I think that they will have a go at every victory type. Obviously the best thing to do is to actually have moving cities - culture, production, research, gold all coming with it - since nomadic tribes do not stop living when the move - actually that is how they live. The reason for moving is tradition, lifestyle, and resource drain. Most nomadic cultures are centered around resource management - herders move from one area to another for better pastures and in order to avoid overusing one place. Trade nomads are on the move because they exhaust the demand for their labor or skill. Their culture is changeable, adaptive. They manage to keep their traditions, while taking what they need from their sedentary neighbors, at the same time leaving their cultural imprint on them, at times enticing the best to join up.

Given that the game engine wasn't meant to do that, one must find ways to represent these ways of life the best possible way.

Nomads are not entirely evil or good, peaceful or aggressive - they just are. Different. I was thinking that as far as lore goes, the premise of these people is the travel itself - descendants of those rare few people of the Age of Dragons that survived by hiding, moving, and exploiting harsh environment the best they can. While others settled during the more profitable Age of Magic - these tribes did not, out of tradition, or religion - no one could say with certainty. At that time they formed a loose union of solidarity - not a national pride - but a set of customs to be observed by those of the same way of life. Perhaps they were not prosperous during Patrian times - after all in a single great empire what use is there for malcontents that are impossible to track. That would be their time of trials - not the Age of Ice as much. Tribes learned to hide on land, retreated to the oceans, and sought mixed blessings from Tali. While empires of other man and creatures suffered in the Age of Ice, it would be nothing new to the nomadic people. If anything it brought them more skill and prosperity - they remained the way they were, while others lost it all. These people would possess a memory of what big empires bring to the nomadic people - so they treat them with some distrust. If it serves their purpose a tribe would participate in Council of Esus plans, but if a Priest of Leaves would help the tribe's life, they would switch sides in an instant. They'll fight well the enemies that present themselves - Infernals or Orc clans, but will just as fiercely defend themselves from abuse of The Order. Trade is more profitable than fight, and easier - that's their reason for peace. But behind it all - if there was any reason for them at all - it would be to preserve their freedom and tradition at all costs.

So with that in mind. They can conquest - take out those that grow fat and rich and big, and limit nomadic freedom. They can gain cultural victory - steal "The Lyre", have multiple great works as units - representative of their ways affecting the ways of the sedentary civilizations so that they convert to nomadic ways themselves - was a city, now a wagon train. They can collect the Altar - after all how big are those relics? I was under impression that Altar is not built, but rather investment is made into finding pieces of it - if that's not the case, they can still have very remote places with monastic communities where such artifacts are produced. Secret caves known only to travelers - visited on each cycle of travels, with resources brought by each tribe.

One thing that I would alter is the way city is building things. With nomads there would be a place picked to build a monument, and then every tribe, every wagon would contribute. Might actually be faster than their city walls proud neighbors.

On development side, it would be really nice if there was an array for each unit/city that produced a small amount of research, gold, hammers, culture from each turn while on the move, and a spell to empty out hammers whenever something is produced on the spot.

Another idea would be to abandon plot working for moving cities completely - every "citizen" makes two food, two hammers and one commerce - eight citizens - 16 food a turn, 16 hammers, 8 commerce. Then plot working would only add if there's a resource and improvement - change the logic somewhat. In normal cities - it is plot oriented, specialist enhanced, vs nomadic cities specialist oriented - plot enhanced.

Maybe have a special improvement/city - sacred grounds, where wonders can be built, but not by working the plot, but rather by contribution of entire nation - one brings gold, one brings skill (measured in hammers), another people - great people to hurry projects. If a sedentary civ captures the grounds - they get a city with those wonders, but if not - it acts a special feature improvement.

This is sort of an endless idea development So for now - figuring out units, buildings and that sort of thing. Most other things require SDK changes I cannot do yet But if you are planning adding things to SDK to make this possible - for sure either a unit needs to act as a city for all intents and purposes, or a city information needs to be stored somewhere and unit tied in to that information by an ID of some sort. Also unit adding to research based on that information, and gold.

 

Aye, always best to figure out precisely what you are aiming for before you code anything, as pulling code that will be this deeply intertwined out of the system when you change your mind on how to do something is a major PITA. Thus the rather endless questions. Not sure who will wind up coding it, but if the Civ does wind up looking viable and entertaining, it quite likely could be me. Whoever does it though, will benefit greatly from having the ideas all soundly developed in advance


Having each unit gain Hammers/Gold/Culture and whatnot is quite possible already with the code I have written actually. Would have to write a special function to block the intended application of the fields and allow a mass dump though. But some re-writing would be ideal anyway to just hitchhike on the existing work and adapt it to your idea.

The latest fields I added allow units to affect the various aspects of any city, and you can have as many such modifications on a unit as you desire. So in your case you would have them automatically re-gain a promotion which provides their yields for the turn at the start of each turn. Thus their ability to contribute to a city would be continually growing. Then you just have a seperate function which makes it so that instead of granting that bonus every turn, they have a spell which they can cast to dump all of the fields into a city and reset themselves.

So, for an example you could have a unit that represents the Forge for a city. It "produces" 3 Hammers and 2 Gold per turn by way of a unique promotion which is flagged to require that unit (nobody else in the game can ever get it), it costs no XP, is set to be automatically acquired, and stack effect. Just for kicks, probably also set to be an Effect Promo.

What that means is that the turn the unit is created it will be capable of casting a spell which will grant 3 Hammers and 2 Gold to the city. If they cast it, then the next turn they will again have the same option (due to re-acquiring the promotion). Should they not cast it, then next turn they STILL re-acquire the promotion, even though they already have it. The effects stack upon themselves and now the unit is capable of casting a spell to provide 6 Hammers and 4 Gold to a city. If they cast it, next turn they'll be again capable of granting 3 hammers, 2 gold. If they don't then instead they'll be capable of 8 hammers 6 gold..... and so on.



Now, a slightly more interesting approach might be to never have cities in the first place. But instead figure out an approach to gaining units and other benefits from only the units you have initially. I think it might be possible to still have "your territory" by making use of the Culture Claim Flags that were developed for Dungeon Adventure. They are units, and provide minimal culture to their vicinity.

Using that effect, your culture would exist wherever your units have been. So moving around a lot means you don't have MUCH control in any one area, but you have a little control over a large expanse. Someone else can come by with a city and culture push against you fairly easily, and you'll have to gather up your units in the area to acquire enough culture to push back. But that means now your units are not moving through the rest of your territory, so you could be culture pushed from another side.


An approach like this might be quite useful. You can allow them to acquire new units by using spells with long delay timers to create new units, or set up other conditions, like the acquisition of Hammers and Gold outlined above, but rather than dumping them into a city, allow them to trigger new spells at certain levels of "growth" to generate new units.

 

Here's a bit more lore. Frankly my most favorite part of doing this Besides playing of course.

The History

When dragons roared and gods contested, together came my people.
When kingdoms forged and magic shone, paths unseen saved my people.
When Winter ruled and blizzards swept, winds strong blessed my people.
The world reborn and freedom kept, what fate awaits my people?

- First verse of Wind Rose, Astreotreib memory song.​

Sometime during the Age of Dragons, bands of people started appearing traveling from one place to the next, sometimes just a family, sometimes a few families carrying their garb on pack animals or on their own backs. These people never stayed in one place for too long, which was not uncommon in these trying times. What was different about them, is that when most moved out of sheer necessity, these people seemed to revere the journey and take pleasure in it. They called themselves Ambulnati and are known to others as The Walking People. They were in those days bringers of news and goods from far away places. Their tales of grand battles and gods' armies witnessed by them in thier travels to this day are remembered in many old songs and legends. As Gods retreated from open combat and the Compact was signed The Walking People still traveled the roads of the newly formed kingdoms, but now more often were confronted with disdain and hostility from the new rulers for not pledging alligiance to any one king.

Rumors spread and more and more often Ambulnati were accused of theft and soon enough it became a crime in most lands to be Ambulnati. This was the time of the first Great Gathering. For seven years a message has been passed in secret for all the treibs to meet in a far off corner of Erebus. Treibs from every corner of the world have gathered for the first time, many knew each other from similar smaller gatherings, but never before there was a need for the affair at hand. Elders of every treib were now sharing same disturbing story - there was an unseen war waged upon their people. What was to be done to preserve the freedom that they for so long have held so dear? Some suggested fighting, some hiding, and yet others from lands that were kinder to them saw not the reason for any change. The most numerous treib at the time was Astreotreib - they have lost many people to judgements of local rulers and much gold to new taxes. Eshia of Astreotreib argued her point for weeks. She suggested that to preserve their way of life all of the people need to hide their origins in other lands. She failed. The council of elders has decided to keep things as they were. So happened the great split of The Walking People - the few treibs that sided with Astreotreib have left the gathering and went into hiding, and the rest left to traverse familiar paths.

Things were the same for a while after the gathering and most have come to have a hearty laugh at Astreotreib, who now were not seen on any open roads and certainly were missing profits of the trade and new emperial roads that were fashioned so well. New laws were mostly fair and treibs fared well, with losses one might expect when fiesty youths get into trouble. Herding treibs have breeded magnificent beasts wanted for sale across all lands, tinkers fashioned intricate devices for royal courts, trade caravans did well by selling spices and dyes. No one suspected any trouble. Yet it came. Some sixty years after the gathering. A magistrate of Saakel accused a passing treib in theft of emperial property. No one can say with certainty whether the treib in question has commited the crime or not, some say that the magistrate did the stealing himself, but all the same - the treib has escaped the city with a fight. It is said that the report of this event has reached Kyorlin and he has sent the order to halt all treibs in empire lands until the treib in question is found. The sentance for defying authority was death. A mass slaughter ensued. Every old wrong was unearthed, every jealousy acted upon and soon not a single wagon was seen in the empire. The Walking People soon became a fleeting memory and something a farmer would scare his kids with - "Do well, or The Walking People will eat you."

The ages turned, and the Compact was broken. The Winter came. Once proud cities reduced to mounts of decaying ruins in icy plains. People turning savage. Great knowledge lost. Yet there were still travellers in the cold. Most often then not these man and women said very little, exchanged all manner of things for furs and left. Nothing set them apart - they could have been Doviello in Doviello lands, or Amurites in Amurite lands. Their wagons posessed no visible distinction, and were gone before anyone thought twice of them. Those who tried raiding these wagons and lived to tell the tale have reported fierce fighting. Ambulnati lived through wise choice of Eshia. They hid their ways, and hid their treibs in vast expanses of the world. To all they seemed as merchants, adventurers or refugees from far off lands, but certainly not a nation. They were. They shared their own language and unwritten code of conduct, while empire faltered they prospered as well as one could through blizzards and snow storms. Unknown to the world they have perfected travel both on land and ocean. Their wagons fast and well constructed, their ocean rafts at times joining together to form islands in a midst of water filled with life. Some treibs have saved great herds from times before - the animals through winter grew sturdier and stronger, well cared for. When Mulcarn was slayed - not many humans could claimed they fared better than Ambulnati treibs.

What does the future hold for them? Will they be exterminated as before by new empires? Will they confront the settled lands and pillage them? Will they keep their traditions or fall into newly reformed world?


Blown in by the Wind.

Tali plays, Tali rages, Tali lives
I will play, I will rage, I will live

- Windfinder's rhyme.​

Across Erebus many send their words to Tali. Some asking for protection on the road, some hoping for the same freedom, some hoping to avert his playful wrath. Many settled nations are favored by Tali - Hippus for their love of wind in their faces in the wild ride, Austrin for their curious spirit, but Ambulnati have long been a safe and welcoming haven for those choosing Tali as their patron. These man are known by many names - windfinders, windchangers, Tali's breath - none really suit them for they are not a single entity. The most in common they have is their will to live life in spirit of Tali - unpredictable, unavoidable, strong and gentle at the same time. They have no temples, short of a few unkempt shrines in remote mountains, and some tokens that remind them that they were once blessed by Tali's will. Most of them study winds and know its habits, some can change winds with few well chosen words of power, yet others have given themselves completely to the air, loosing some of their humanity in the process and gaining an insight into Tali's purposes and power. Most treibs of The Walking People will have a windfinder among them, raft-dwelling treibs might occasionally give their thanks and gold to a windchanger who predicts the coming storms and works his weather magic for them. But all treibs can seek protection by Talirogha - a small order of warriors who live to server Tali's purpose and an instrument of his will. They are like their god, unpredictable and powerful, sometimes the price for their protection is so unforeseen, that it may very well could have been better not to ask for it. However most of them take origin in Ambulnati treibs and still have ties to them and will come to aid in most terrible circumstances. Expert griffon riders, it is said a band of Talirogha could overtake a dragon in flight, dirty and expert fighters they use air magic to aid them against demons and angels alike. They share Tali's dislike of Kilmorph and are known to raze Temples of Kilmorph and fighting with those in service.


The Great Raft

The current is my road.
The fish I herd.
To water and wind
I trust my raft.

- Rafting song​

After the great split of The Walking People, Eshia has convinced most of the river and coastal rafting treibs to go into hiding. Marikantreib at the time was a small band of timber rafters that made their living by traversing a great river, selling timber in one of long forgotten sea ports. Every season they would raft the timber down the river and walk up the stream for more to sell. They were the first to create an oceanic raft. To an observer such a raft looks more like a small island made of timbers and seaweeds, but what an observer does not know, is that it is well protected from the storms, and is guided by unseen rudders, and can be moved with help of magic, muscle and tame sea creatures. Most of the time these rafts follow the currents in the ocean - people farm fish, dive for materials in shallows and at times raid passing ships by pretending to be an actual island with fresh water source. Some of these people have never seen land, yet their ways and traditions unite them with their land-traveling brothers, and sure enough most goods across the oceans are passed on by rafting treibs, entire land treibs are transported by these rafts to far off lands. Tali is said to have had a friendship with Danalin, so these man who live on water are blessed by the God of Air and are often spared the worst storms the sea can furnish, as they remind Tali so much of Danalin's beloved Aifon. It is a hard live still. Lanun pirates will not miss a chance to raid a raft, Octopus Overlord demons are often seen, giant krakens, sea serpents, and other monsters could easily doom a rafting treib. It is said that the ocean is twice saltier by the tears of Danalin, and trice by blood and tears of rafting people.

 

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