The People of Ava'Laina

[pholkhero]

Spoiler ooc :

I thought I'd try my hand at an old Civ 4 style story thread, mostly to show off the game to Ozbenno and give myself a bit of hobby for a little while. Feel free to comment or throw stones anyone, and mods, feel free to move to an appropriate forum. I wasn't sure where to go with this.

I had my daughter make the avatar and pick a name. One adjective to describe Ava was "kind," so that's the general RP hook I've got to start with.

Spoiler Act I :

I
The elders tell me that we have lived on these lands for generations past knowing.

Since the time of Dreaming, we have wandered the shores.

Living off the bounty of the land.

And using our minds to bring us more.

Fast beasts roamed the plains,

seeming to find solace in the spirits of the burnished rocks nearby.

We revered the gods’ great works around us.

But when we found the children, sobbing at the graves of their parents, something felt wrong to me. I spoke to the elder council, but was chided. “Surely the gods wish us to care for these vulnerable ones,” they said. “We have much, and they have little.”

But it wasn’t long until the Sickness came.

It took one out of every three of us. We had to camp for many seasons to care for them, but in the end, our tribe endured. Even prospered after the loss, as our camp began to feel like something more . . .

Spoiler Act II :

II

They would finally meet up with his clan for the Great Hunt during the time of the Dark Moon.

Era’Lorn and the others left at the turn of the season, to track the Grandfather Tuskers, and the scouts came back to say that they were at the far end of the mesa, days away.

And more importantly, they had the trail.

We came together to feast and bond. The disparate clans meeting as one people to celebrate the Tuskers and the gods for their gifts that would grant us life over the coming winter.

The young men competed in sparring matches, keen to show each other (and prospective partners) their prowess:

And on the dawn, we departed, catching our prey on the banks of the western lake.

The gods smiled on us as we lost none of our own, and, thanks to the gifts of the great Tuskers, our people will continue to grow.

Spoiler Act III :

III

Time passed, and our people grew still using the old ways. But the old ways were joined by new ones as well.

The small shelters we had made during the Plaguetimes gave way to more permanent homes, all scattered around the holy man who had done so much for our people then, and who began to give his name to the village itself.

Setting down and devoting ourselves to the fields, we grew and grew. But this brought new conflicts that tested our bonds of community.

Selfishness . . .

. . . and self-righteous violence . . .

. . .held no place for us. We banished the hoarder, leaving him in the hands of the merciless gods, and we all decided it would be best if our tribe split again, so that we could remain one people.

Like us, some took their destiny into their own hands, and began to farm the Mesa to our south, within sight of the cliffs.

Some were stubborn, and held to the old ways, leaving their care to the gods:

Only coming to our villages once or twice a season.

But we remain one people though we fill our island . .

We call ourselves . . .

[to be continued in part 2.]

 

[MrRadar]

Ah, now that's something HK was made for!
Nice style and story so far, I'll be eagerly waiting for what's coming next!
And I wish you all the required patience and endurance, such projects do take a lot of time

 

[Taefin]

Excellent!

“We new generation insist it is time to join the evolving world around us, adopt new ways and look to the future. No the elders say, we must honor our ancestors who hunted the great mammoth.”

“Time passes and now we chide the young fools for losing the way. They must not be allowed to lead, no, we must stop them. To hunt the mammoth is the way, the only way.”

 

[Ozbenno]

Consider myself shown off to!

 

[Ozbenno]

We call ourselves . . .

Judith?

 

[pholkhero]

Judith?

splitter!

edit at add: thanks, also, for the encouragement all; it makes my heart go pitter-patter . . .

wait that's not good at my age . . .

 

[pholkhero]

Spoiler Part 2 :

Old ways?! New ways?! Feh!

We Olmecs

should have only known the way of the gods. But the soft people of the north, in the city of the blasphemous holy man, so called "San" Lorenzo, wanted to rule over us all, to replace the gods.

They told us this land was theirs alone.

They had "conquered" it

And made it one

We argued, and fought to make our voices heard, but it was a hollow victory:

They bridled our horses.

They built him a "shrine" and chopped our sacred groves:

to keep us out.

Ugly! It was too much. We could watch no longer, and so, we left.

Our cities honor them properly.

Our Gift and The Three Lights:

Built so close to our places of worship:

Now, the gods have blessed we priests and priestesses with their secrets. We have learned to track the stars, and raise the waters so that our farms will thrive. We have learned to dig metals, the bones of the earth, and fashion them to our own ends. We have seen that our destiny is to go beyond this mere island, to follow the gods in the sky as they lead us to new lands.

But the arrogant elders tried to forbid us from following our devotions. They craved their own power too much to relinquish it.

But they underestimated our strength, and soon our priests were directing construction of docks and ships to sail forth, in addition to our great holy works.

We are no longer the Olmecs. We have come to see ourselves as a new people, united in our faith, and our devotion to the secrets of the gods. Call us now . . .

OOC: So, this was a lot of pushing enter this set. Turns out island living isn't as fun as the sims. But i think our friends here are headed for some adventure overseas (but not as the Carthaginians: that's too easy ).

Which also leads me to noticing the tension when playing between making good RP choices and good gameplay choices as it won't be too fun if i'm woefully behind . . . or maybe it will . . .

Finally, anyone should feel free to ask questions, too, about the game. Don't hold back just b/c "meh story!"

 

[Ozbenno]

I think that was my main gripe with the game when I played the once that I did. Too much pressing enter. I also had no idea what I was doing so maybe I shouldn't have been pressing enter but doing other stuff.

Death to the Olmec Liberation Front

 

[pholkhero]

hey all, i haven't forgotten about the game. had a bit of busy two weeks, so this game fell to the bottom of the priority list. I also did indeed underestimate the task i undertook: not writing the game, but creating a (somewhat) compelling narrative from a lot of pushing enter -- getting stuck alone on an island didn't help, but in any case, i should have a new "episode" up soon (TM) and am going to modify how I report/tell teh story in the future.

 

[pholkhero]

Spoiler Part III :

We Mauryans speak with the gods.

We have overthrown the decadent people of the lands of the so-called "holy" lorenzo. Bah! We sold their relics:

What do they know of holy?!

We who are truly blessed by the Gods should lead:

We honored the gods:

In return, the gods have taught us secrets unmatched:

Have blessed our cities with paeans to their generosity:

We who ride the seas:

We found blooms in the waters:

Danger:

and other lands:

and marvels:

But danger followed us there:

Our riders fled east, and took shelter amongst the people there. They called their city Akkad, and they, the Akkadians. They told our men and women they had never heard of the Gods. Our priests spoke with their people long into the night, and into the next day. And the day after that. When two full days had passed, the people of Akkad proclaimed their allegiance to the Gods and us:

Spoiler OOC :

so, the writing of it went a lot faster than i thought it would this time. Turns out, when everything is 'because of the gods,' its pretty simple Going forward, these people feel a bit fanatical at the moment, and so may be out to conquer . . .

 

[pholkhero]

Spoiler Part 4 :

There are more infidels in the far lands. And they are led by the most evil, Dave Navarro's brother:

He tempts our people with his decadence:

But we discovered where they call home, these infidel Huns:

However, when we came to speak of our glorious deities, our missionaries were met with open hostility:

as we engaged in a dangerous cycle of tit-for-tat with the Huns:

Indeed, it seems the gods have even taken to shaking the foundations of our empire after a mad man blasphemed:

the gods have sunk our ships:

and driven our populace mad with greed:

Perhaps we have sown the seeds of our own destruction. Taking in the foreigners from the far lands:

already their ways are seeping into our lives:

Who needs to "roll" things anyway?

How long can the glorious Mauryan empire stand if it allows itself to be tarnished by foreign influence? How can we allows ourselves to be tarnished by foreign influence??

 

[Ozbenno]

Given you guys look like Marilyn Mansun, Dave Navarro's brother is pretty angelic...