The Ringworld Serpents

[SouthernKing]

Link to video.​

This is much like the fresh start games of old; yet it is quite different. Instead of taking place on Earth or an Earth-like planet, we will be playing on the surface of a ringworld: effectively, a giant artificial ring fully encircling a star, placed in its system’s habitable zone. With gravity simulated by rotating the ringworld, an atmosphere and a wealth of life can be easily sustained.

See here for a further explanation of what a Ringworld is, as well as some pretty pictures.

If you're new, or if you're confused because I didn't explain properly, feel free to ask me questions! I'm always happy to help.

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No one is quite sure why, at the end of the last great age, this world’s creators so mysteriously departed. Nor is anyone sure where they were going, nor where they had come from, nor why they had created this world in the first place, nor who they even were: all this knowledge has long ago passed into the misty realms of legend. All that remains of the creators are the crumbling remains of their cities and machina, almost magical in their rumoured capabilities, and revered religiously by many.

In their wake, the remaining inhabitants - a vast range of species hailing from a full spectrum of worlds - slowly but surely lost their wondrous technological capabilities, decaying into primitive tribalism. Now, however, marks the dawn of a renewed cycle. At least in our little corner of the ring, a new set of civilisations have began to take shape, and a renewed circle of history is about to begin...

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Now, since the full surface of this ringworld is hundreds of millions of km in circumference, we will only be playing on an extremely small fraction of it (to be exact, a single set of continents somewhere along its surface, in total roughly the size of the Americas). This being said, interaction between the map and whatever might lie beyond it is definitely a possibility.

The map was made by North King, all credit to him because I cannot make maps to safe my life

For scale, each pixel is 5 km/a little over 3 mi to a side, or 25 km^2 in area.

Blank Map
Climate Map (Thanks for fixing it AA)

Spoiler Climate Key :

Dark green: Tropical forest (closer to a tropical seasonal forest than a tropical rainforest)
Medium green: Tropical savanna
Teal: "Mediterranean"
Orange: Semi-arid
Tan: Arid

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Signups

Culture Name/Player
Starting Location: Describe/mark the area you’d like to start in. Feel free to claim an area that's larger than just a few pixels (or don't, your choice) but stay within reason.
Species Description: Optional, if you choose to play as non-humans, give a physical/biological description of the species you are playing in. (You can certainly choose to play as humans if you like; in which case feel free to use this space to give a physical description of what your humans typically look like)
Society: How is your society organised? How is it ruled, and how is power transferred?
Religion: What beliefs and mythos does your culture have?
Economy: How do the members of your society make a living?
Personal Names: Some sample given names for individuals
City Names: Some sample names for towns, cities, and other settlements
Polity Names: Some sample names for countries
Feel free to give other names as well, as you see fit.

We are, technologically, in the social and technological equivalent of about 2500 BCE. Early cities have formed, basic knowledge of metalworking (both of metal from scavenged old remains and of metal ores mined from the rocks) is widespread, and the earliest relatively large polities have begun to coalesce.

With that in mind, you are allowed to begin with possession of advanced (precursor or whatever) technology, but in that case you have forgotten how it works and your culture treats it as “magic.” Additionally, I’ve gotten multiple questions even before launch about playing as artificial intelligence of some sort (robots/synthetics/replicants/whatever). I am actually going to allow this, so long as your “species” in this case lacks a means of reproduction that would require advanced technology. So for a simple example, you can play as droids, but you can’t start with a droid factory.

Keep everything within reason, of course. I do reserve final judgement, but I hope I won’t need to use it.

 

[SouthernKing]

Astronomical and Climate Details

The ringworld revolves around a G-class star. A day/night cycle is simulated by a ring of so-called “shadow squares,” which lies inward of the ringworld, and has a greater angular velocity. These shadow squares are seen as moving from east to west: from the perspective of a southwards-facing observer, the left side of the sun is the first to be seen at dawn and the first to be obscured at dusk.

Speaking of which, there is no dominant object (like Earth's moon) in the ringworld's sky, aside from the shadow squares, whose true nature is not understood, and occasionally (from the eyes of a keen observer) other parts of the ringworld itself, appearing as a broken, dimly lit blueish ribbon across the far sky. The stars are visible with the sun blocked out, and seem to move from west to east, in the opposite direction of the shadow squares. Some ringworld denizens have noticed that the same stars appear in the same places in the sky roughly every nine days. Others have noted that there are three stars in particular, only really visible near dusk or dawn, that seem to wander in differing patterns.

Since the ringworld is always directly perpendicular to solar radiation, there is no temperature difference with latitude. As such, the entirety of our world consists of climates that would be found in Earth’s tropical latitudes. Most of the world (except the more arid regions) undergoes two distinct seasons: a dry season and a monsoon-like wet season. Aside from the sometimes heavy monsoon rains, weather on the ringworld is far more stable than weather on Earth. There are no violent cyclonic storms or violent eruptions. There are no plate tectonics, either, and normally, no earthquakes or volcanoes.

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Rules

If you’re unfamiliar with how fresh start games work, we start off with player-created cultures near the beginning of history, with the goal of playing out an entirely different course of historical events from there.

The stats will change as the game progresses, but for certain, we’ll be using the IT/BT system that (I believe it was das?) developed in a past age. This means we have two types of turns: one, “Interesting Turns,” which last a very short time period each (at most, a few years), where the stats and events are focused, more resembling a “traditional” NESIOTWTFBBQ and usually covering a critical period of rapid change; and two, “Boring Turns” (not that these are at all boring), which can last up to several centuries’ worth of advancement each, and allow us to cover that long period of time in broad strokes.

With that in mind, the first few turns will be BTs, until the world’s development has been advanced to a point where switching to ITs seems like a good idea. Once that sequence of ITs is settled, we shall switch back to BTs until reaching a point where ITs once again seem necessary, and so forth. Hopefully this cycle will continue ad infinitum for as long as this game lasts, unless it feels necessary to change. Which is very much possible.

(I'm largely done with the ruleset for the initial BTs, but I just want to make sure it's okay; I'll post it within the next few days)

 

[SouthernKing]

Reserved

 

[SouthernKing]

Severed

 

[SouthernKing]

you may now post

 

[KaiserElectric]

Subbing so hard.

 

[Grandkhan]

So goddamn hype it hurts.

So, uh, given we don't have to play as humans... Can we start in the sea?

 

[NinjaCow64]

hiss hiss i am player

 

[Decamper]

I interest. Game like. I play.

 

[SouthernKing]

So goddamn hype it hurts.

So, uh, given we don't have to play as humans... Can we start in the sea?

Believe me, I really really really would love to let people start in the sea, but unfortunately it would just be too much to account for (with the seafloor and whatnot) on my end. Sorry

 

[SouthernKing]

I forgot to add a very, very important bit to the OP: Now, since the full surface of this ringworld is hundreds of millions of km in circumference, we will only be playing on an extremely small fraction of it (to be exact, a single set of continents somewhere along its surface, in total roughly the size of the Americas). This being said, interaction between the map and whatever might lie beyond it is definitely a possibility.

 

[Double A]

Believe me, I really really really would love to let people start in the sea, but unfortunately it would just be too much to account for (with the seafloor and whatnot) on my end. Sorry

aka "the floor is lava"

 

[JohannaK]

Link to video.

 

[Terran Empress]

subbing

 

[Novice_Writer54]

Sorry about the excessive detail- I think I got a bit carried away here.

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Signups

Yagari/Novicewriter54
Starting Location: Mediterranean, in the northeastern part of the eastern sea

Species Description: Green men, longer lived than humans thanks to comparatively better disease immunity but with a lower reproduction rate. Their bodies appear fit (like humans who exercise a lot) but too slim to make them more attractive- this is deceptive, however, as their strength physically is on par with humans.

Society: Tribes are ruled by a Council representing those with the greatest prestige in society, that decides its own successors and is capable of expelling members (though this is only supposed to be done to reflect changes in formal or informal status. To not be a Councillor when you deserve to be is an honor insult that justifies defection). The Council's decisions as it is constituted are absolute, and power is obtained by both feats worthy of respect and gaining the favor of existing Councillors.
(NOTE: If I can do this, then an unusual trait of their world is that getting on virtue of political intrigue skill alone is seen as an acceptable way to earn Council status. The best political intriguer in the pack, having proven himself internally, is then supposed to aid his tribe externally using those same skills)

(NOTE TWO: Once polities which have more than one city each start to exist, nominally the whole polity is an extension of the city and other cities are "Colonies". They are founded to serve specific purposes of the main city, which hopefully for me means more logical city placement despite the downsides of a one city-centered structure. Various people are either coerced or incentivised by the Council to move to the region and start building the city.

"Colonies" can have people elected to Council, but Councils are direct democracies so their ability to influence the vote is limited.)

Religion:
Ancestor worship, but excluded to legendary figures who earned far more prestige than mere Councillors. Each tribe is said to have it's own gods/ancestors, and to switch worship is the same as to change tribal allegiance and is thus expected for women who marry into a new tribe.

It is at least theoretically socially acceptable for a mortal to aspire to become immortalized after death and ascend to "God" status. This is considered very arrogant, but comparable less to how a Christian would see such an aspiration than a person arrogant enough to claim to be, say, the next Confucius or Napoleon.

Economy:
(OOC: I'm dodging the agricultural issue because I'm very gamist in how I play. Basically, within the bounds of plausibility and fairness given what other players do I want it to be as agriculturally centered as possible.)

The male head of a family owns resources. If the family is involved in any kind of production (food included), then by ancient custom even the Council is expected to respect a fixed portion stays with the family while a fixed portion belongs to the State (in practice, the Council's delegates). Heads are expected to specify who receives what is theirs after they die before they die, but in term receive legally binding obligations to look after their wife and children. Wives are often given in marriage to a new man this way.

(OOC NOTE: With names, as a general rule I'm shortcutting the process by saying that personality, polity, and city names are all named after a virtue or otherwise positive trait they claim to have, either aspirationally with people or as a concrete empirical claim with cities or polities. Cuturally, person names aren't taken so seriously but city and polity names are.

Family names exist, and are a virtue the family itself claims to have. Naturally, lines of descent and biology do not correlate highly. Family name comes first, not last.

All of these can be substituted with each other to some degree.)

Personal Names(as either personal or family): Strong, Smart, Enduring, Loving, Beautiful, Cunning etc

City Names: If the capital, same as the polity. If not, then [Polity Name] Second, [Polity Name] Third etc.

Polity Names: [family name] [personal name]'s Legacy, Unity, Honor, Safety, Victory

 

[W|M]

You do realize there's a button you can press to subscribe without posting, right

 

[Robert Can't]

When is this going to start?

 

[SouthernKing]

When is this going to start?

Ideally, by the end of next week. Not really 100% set on that though

You do realize there's a button you can press to subscribe without posting, right

Except it also helps me a lot, since I know who is playing. I don't mind people doing it at all.

Sorry about the excessive detail- I think I got a bit carried away here.

Thanks for submitting, and no worries! in fact, this kind of detail is perfect I just have one fairly minor issue with your signup:

Personal Names(as either personal or family): Strong, Smart, Enduring, Loving, Beautiful, Cunning etc

City Names: If the capital, same as the polity. If not, then [Polity Name] Second, [Polity Name] Third etc.

Polity Names: [family name] [personal name]'s Legacy, Unity, Honor, Safety, Victory

It's not *absolutely* necessary, but I would prefer (just for immersion's sake) if these names weren't in English.

 

[Robert Can't]

Ideally, by the end of next week. Not really 100% set on that though

Ah, I might join up late then if that's going to be a thing

 

[Ahigin]

Joining as Minsk. Never mind, just kidding. Ah, I miss Nagayana.