Creative Exercise: The Sovereign Dominion of Eyros

Its not my turn yet, but I have a few suggestions: A lot of people are naming Pillars (the 6 main houses of Eyros, for those who, like me, can't keep all the terminology straight), which is great until we run out (there are only 6), at which point we might not notice and a lot of shuffling will be in order once we discover that we have seven Pillars. We may want to create a brief index of all the Pillars created so far (which could provide a springboard for eager contributors to describe the quirks of each of our extant Pillars). Also, nomenclature for several terms could be called out so they remain standardised. For instance, we now know that Eyrian is the adjective for someone from Eyros, whereas Eyrosian is the language name (kinda like Arab and Arabic from the real world). Finally, we know that Felra Raj-Tinar is adversely affected by house Vajar's shame, so she more-or-less must be a member, and when combined with the fact that Felra's compound last name implies house membership, we need to create some kind of rule like "take the last three letters of your orc house spelled backwards to determine what comes before the dash" in order to explain this.

Since I don't want to just post in and be an curmudgeon, I'll extend my kudos to Mouseferatu for such a great idea. Its given me so many interesting ideas that I only wish that my sleep patterns were more in keeping with the rest of the posters here so that I could post more times, rather than waking up and noticing that 26 people posted since I fell asleep ^^

Phineas Crow said:

Located on the great river Kohoal is Mhur, the City of Iron, a bleak city covered in soot and smoke from numerous blazing smelters and forges. Mhur is the industrial heart of Eyros and from its docks flow heavy barges laden down with iron and weapons, delivering their valuable cargo throughout the region.

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I am sort of making a very bad mud map of this place. Would you think it would be a good idea to have Mhur to the north of Eyrdeyn near the Valdwey Peaks so it could use the mining resources of those mountains? That would also make the Kohoal a really great river if it is large enough to take that kind of traffic all that way.

Oh, very good points as well Rystil.

Jakar said:

I am sort of making a very bad mud map of this place. Would you think it would be a good idea to have Mhur to the north of Eyrdeyn near the Valdwey Peaks so it could use the mining resources of those mountains?

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On the topic of the river, I was thinking it could flow from the north, down to the south, emptying into the fens, which then empty into the great sea of mystery (or whatever). A set up similar to the Mississippi emptying into the Bayous of Louisiana, and then those into the Gulf of Mexico.

If it's a major trade river, what they probably did was to stick the City of Iron about halfway between the mountains, for metal, and Eyrdeyn, which would be their major trade center.

But that's just me, I didn't think up either of the cities, and it's not my turn to contribute yet, anyways.

Phineas Crow said:

Located on the great river Kohoal is Mhur, the City of Iron, a bleak city covered in soot and smoke from numerous blazing smelters and forges. Mhur is the industrial heart of Eyros and from its docks flow heavy barges laden down with iron and weapons, delivering their valuable cargo throughout the region.

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The main food producing areas of Eyros are the broad plains to the west of Eyrdeyn. These fields were made by cutting the bountiful forests that once stood there down many many generations ago. The soils are now slowly being depleted which is leading to a decline in the amount of food that is being produced thus leading to problems for the 6 Pillars.

There has also been a number of years of drought which has also had an effect of the food production level. To combat this, there is a plan being formulated to dig a grand cannel from the Kohoal River to supply water for irrigation to this region. Dwarves are being rounded up to dig this cannel, although the Gnomes are pushing for their mindless undead to be used for the task as well.

As brilliantly suggested by Rystil...

The terminology of Eyros:

Eyrian: Someone from Eyros.

Eyrosian: The "common tongue" of Eyros, also "Vulgar Eyrosian" or "Peasant Seech."

Noble Eyrosian: A formal dialect, also "Court Speech."

Pillars: The six primary families/Houses of Eyros. Half are human, and half are orc. Only half-orcs can hold the throne, so much of Eyros' politics involves deals and schemes between the Pillars. Obviously, the Pillars include half-orcs, as well as the appropriate parent race. Two of the Orc Pillars are House Zhal and House Vajar. Two of the Human Pillars are House Kiron and House Malarn.

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I'm sure there are other terms already presented that people feel should be called out. If so, please post them, and quote this post in the same message, so I know it's a terminology post, and not a new contribution. Don't do that if you're providing a new term, though; treat that as a normal contribution.

It's up to other contributors to develop Mhur and figure out where it goes, I created it because it was about time Eyros had more than one city.

Oh, and my next contribution:

The various Houses of Eyros (including the Six Pillars) are greatly extended families, and actually contain more than one family name within them. If someone wants to fully and formally identify themselves, they include personal name, family name, and House name. This procedure uses the Orc prefix "dal," which indicates "of." For instance, Felra Raj-Tinar would, in court, introduce herself as "Felra Raj-Tinar dal-Vajar."

The House of Malarn, is considered to be the most progressive of the Pillars. The leaders of the house occasionally go as far as to "adopt" notable or particularily worthy members of other races into the house, on an honorary basis. Obviously, they are kept out of positions in line for ascendancy to the throne. They are however, allowed to add the dal-Malarn suffix to their name.

Because of this, they are looked upon with suspicion by the more pure Pillars. Even more so, since their house produces a higher percentage of officers in the Army and other military services (what military services are there, anyways?). Are they positioning themselves for a move against the other pillars?

Mouseferatu said:

I'm sure there are other terms already presented that people feel should be called out. If so, please post them, and quote this post in the same message, so I know it's a terminology post, and not a new contribution. Don't do that if you're providing a new term, though; treat that as a normal contribution.

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Pillars: The six primary Orc-Blooded families/Houses of Eyros. So far the Pillars include House Zhal and House Vajar.

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Just a point for clarification. I thought the six Pillars were three Orc and three Human houses, that's why I specified House Kiron as human-blooded.

Twiggly the Gnome said:

Just a point for clarification. I thought the six Pillars were three Orc and three Human houses, that's why I specified House Kiron as human-blooded.

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You're right. My bad. I'll go fix it.