Status: Update Five has happened! Everyone should write an in-thread story for their character/family, and they should indicate what actions they want their character/family to undertake for Update Six.
Note for would-be players: Player stories are canonical in this NES so would-be players should read the whole thread, or at least carefully look through the stories for the important details, not all of which are necessarily in the updates. The NES is quite slow-moving but so much happens outside the updates that this is really no bad thing and it isn't as slow as the number of updates would suggest.
Spoilered stories are non-canonical and do not fit into the overall narrative. Please ignore them.
This post contains many important instructions telling you in what spirit this NES is to be played, i.e. one of collaboration not of competition. There are quite a lot of OOC posts containing arguments preceding and following this post, but would-be players can safely ignore their contents, generally speaking.
Update 1
Update 2
Update 3
Update 4
Summary of the plot up to Update 5
Update 5
Rough Map (Turn 4)
IC:
The land of Pog is a wealthy land. The three great cities on the Great Lake lie stretching before the observer who sits patiently at the top of the Tower of the Saints. But as I look down, down from the Tower over the lake, anxious, I know that all this luxury will perish in fire and blood one day. For the books tell of the fire and blood sent by the Devil to punish the poor. For they are all poor who dwell in splendour but have nothing of the air, of the trees, of the outside world. But not that fire and blood! There will be fire and blood tomorrow and the next day and for as long as I live, for the people are coming from beyond the Hills. They are numberless, and they think they are the Devil himself. We think they are the Devil himself, or at least they do in the cities. I am from the city, and so I believe the same.
But I don’t. Confound reason; I was never born to be reasonable! I was born to sit here, on the Tower of the Saints, like my father and his father before him, and pretend to be an oracle. For what do they do with oracles when they think they can’t prophesy any more? They hang them from that tree. Do you see the one? I could probably hit it with my arrow from this far away. I’ve had enough practice. I have shot so many animals and just watched the birds feast. What else is there to do?
Read? I’ve read it all. Every single tome written in the bare two thousand years this world’s existed. Maybe one day there’ll be more to read. Maybe these hordes that are coming of people who are supposedly the Devil will make sure that no-one ever reads again. Who knows?
And write? Confound that too. I’ve written more than I’ve read. I write history. I tell of the birds I see between the crestallations. I tell of the oracles I give. I even tell of the doings of wicked man as he fights and eats and reads all around me. But mostly fights. Still, the birds are the best bit. Prince, let me show you my works on ornithology.
No, you’d rather hear the history? But, my prince, the world was not made for you but for the birds. We have the Devil to haunt and tire and kill some of us every day of our corrupted lives. And you are but the highest pinnacle of this. My prince, you threaten me? You demand I hand over my scrolls? But, sir, it is so true! Very well, I shall tell you of your own sin and corruption.
You see that city, far below? You see the towers and their lofty pinnacles, known since time immemorial? There you were born. There your race was born, the offspring of the great lord Gritchen, fifteen hundred years ago if my calculations are right, and I assure you they are, sir. Gritchen was a generous man, and under him the first city was built under the fine starred canopy. It was built in a single night. Some say the Devil slept. Others say he was busy on the other side of this accursed earth making trouble for our future.
Who will be Gritchen and build us a magical city, magnificent with gold and glowing with spired turrets, unhindered by the all-powerful Devil, in a single Night?
Note for would-be players: Player stories are canonical in this NES so would-be players should read the whole thread, or at least carefully look through the stories for the important details, not all of which are necessarily in the updates. The NES is quite slow-moving but so much happens outside the updates that this is really no bad thing and it isn't as slow as the number of updates would suggest.
Spoilered stories are non-canonical and do not fit into the overall narrative. Please ignore them.
This post contains many important instructions telling you in what spirit this NES is to be played, i.e. one of collaboration not of competition. There are quite a lot of OOC posts containing arguments preceding and following this post, but would-be players can safely ignore their contents, generally speaking.
Update 1
Update 2
Update 3
Update 4
Summary of the plot up to Update 5
Update 5
Rough Map (Turn 4)
IC:
The land of Pog is a wealthy land. The three great cities on the Great Lake lie stretching before the observer who sits patiently at the top of the Tower of the Saints. But as I look down, down from the Tower over the lake, anxious, I know that all this luxury will perish in fire and blood one day. For the books tell of the fire and blood sent by the Devil to punish the poor. For they are all poor who dwell in splendour but have nothing of the air, of the trees, of the outside world. But not that fire and blood! There will be fire and blood tomorrow and the next day and for as long as I live, for the people are coming from beyond the Hills. They are numberless, and they think they are the Devil himself. We think they are the Devil himself, or at least they do in the cities. I am from the city, and so I believe the same.
But I don’t. Confound reason; I was never born to be reasonable! I was born to sit here, on the Tower of the Saints, like my father and his father before him, and pretend to be an oracle. For what do they do with oracles when they think they can’t prophesy any more? They hang them from that tree. Do you see the one? I could probably hit it with my arrow from this far away. I’ve had enough practice. I have shot so many animals and just watched the birds feast. What else is there to do?
Read? I’ve read it all. Every single tome written in the bare two thousand years this world’s existed. Maybe one day there’ll be more to read. Maybe these hordes that are coming of people who are supposedly the Devil will make sure that no-one ever reads again. Who knows?
And write? Confound that too. I’ve written more than I’ve read. I write history. I tell of the birds I see between the crestallations. I tell of the oracles I give. I even tell of the doings of wicked man as he fights and eats and reads all around me. But mostly fights. Still, the birds are the best bit. Prince, let me show you my works on ornithology.
No, you’d rather hear the history? But, my prince, the world was not made for you but for the birds. We have the Devil to haunt and tire and kill some of us every day of our corrupted lives. And you are but the highest pinnacle of this. My prince, you threaten me? You demand I hand over my scrolls? But, sir, it is so true! Very well, I shall tell you of your own sin and corruption.
You see that city, far below? You see the towers and their lofty pinnacles, known since time immemorial? There you were born. There your race was born, the offspring of the great lord Gritchen, fifteen hundred years ago if my calculations are right, and I assure you they are, sir. Gritchen was a generous man, and under him the first city was built under the fine starred canopy. It was built in a single night. Some say the Devil slept. Others say he was busy on the other side of this accursed earth making trouble for our future.
Who will be Gritchen and build us a magical city, magnificent with gold and glowing with spired turrets, unhindered by the all-powerful Devil, in a single Night?
Spoiler :
