Hi all, I've been busy over here and just thought I'd drop another preview image (with color, because no one would enjoy the black and white version without the faction lines drawn in and it's nicer) of my Oerth map. I was kind of hoping I would get it done before William Ronald's posts so I could get his commentary - It still doesn't make much sense to me to have a full continental area between Miranda and the Flanaess, so I broke it up. "Aquaria" in this case is the series of islands stretching down from the far western edge of Hyperboria. I'm tentatively designating Anakeris as the Aussie looking continent off the Tharquish coast, and "my Aquaria" claimed is some large portion of the bit stretching off of Polaria - or perhaps you'd simply call it Polaria, but the climate is quite different. I'm still debating on if I'm going to dirty up the map with anymore islands than I already have, but there should be a substantial amount of them falling in line with the geography I suppose. The good news for me is that my current strategy for making these maps makes revisions really simply. Anyways, I finished roughing in a coastal line and moving the continents to where they should (I hope) make a little more sense in the way they're packed around.
The other attached image is a little heraldry to go with the formal proposal for my claim, which is a revision and addition of my old claim (and I hope that isn't too confusing). It's not finished either, but since people are now trying to send me ambassadors I thought it might be prudent to give people an idea of what they were trying to communicate with.
So, here's Aestia
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Aestia
Proper Name: Aestia Akalassa
Ruler: Aestem Raudex Merlend (Murlynd) at the behest of Ygravene Xagy (Zagyg), Perguine MLXI of Polaria, Duke of Askala and Irminsul, Ruler of the Malachite Throne, Keeper of the Vates of the Uttercold, Master of the Winds and Stars, Admiral of the Southern Seas, Chief of the White Hide Tribes, Lord of Illusion and Truth, Overking of the New Kingdom, Raud of the Srantovati, and Wind Duke of Aquaa.
Government: Meritocratic Monarchy overseeing a bizarre variety of governmental systems
Capital: Masyus (26,000)
Major Towns: Friesland (4,000), Ganna (limited to 436 permanent residents), Askala (4,000), Moren (41,800), Jelling (11,600), Stetten (22,700), New Roland (36,000)
Provinces: Many semi-independent nations of which Aestia, Askala, Arrona, Curonia, Dacia, Epirus, Ezra, Suomi, Pelegica, Paetrica, Vod, Levts, Vils, Sargynia, Mori, Raethra, and Rhaetia are all some particulars of.
Resources: Ships and seafaring technology, fish and fish products, reindeer, ivory, Gems (I-III), rare lichens, novelty goods and products
Coinage: Narwhal (10pp), Pelican (pp), Crown (gp), Noble (ep), Penny (sp), Common (cp)
Population: Awaiting Fair Serpenteye's scrutiny
Languages: Old Oeridian, Gnome, Draconic, Aquan, Common, Askalan (a secret tongue taught to the priests of the Askala), and many exprimental languages in this time of change - including at least one that involves flash cards and another that requires a trombone and pantomime.
Alignments: N, CN*, LG, LN, NG, CG
Religions: Alci* (The Twins, with both Gnomish and Aestian versions being popular), Alia, Bleredd, Boccob, Celestian, Daern, Delleb, Fharlanghn, Johydee, Lirr, Murlynd, Pholtus, The Zorya (The Fate Winds- Atro, Procan, Sotillon, Telchur, Velinius, & Wenta) Velnius, Xerbo, Zagyg, and Zilchus.
Allies: Various intelligent whales, ice elementals, lost seafarers, Akalan tradepriests
Enemies: The Man
Overview:
Coming Soon
History:
Aerdian domination of the Flanaess was an event that took place over hundreds of years, capped by the coronation of Overking Nasran in 1CY. By -213 CY though, the Aerdy had already began to show the fat complacency that would later lead to their downfall. A fleet of 437 ships full of stout adventurers and knights sailed south from the great ancient port of Roland, vowing to restore Aerdian honor and prestige to far away lands and to one day return with the secrets of making the Aerdy masters of their destinies eternally.
Unfortunately for those devout individuals, stalwart souls all, they had little comprehension of the task they had set for themselves. From the very start they encountered resistance to their cause. Sea monsters, hostile natives, and all manner of dire celestial portents all caused attrition amongst the crews and many ships were lost. Still they persisted, their fleet nearly halved and every person aboard (even the halflings) gaunt and starving, they finally found a land to claim for themselves - a paradise of rocks covered in lichens and desperate fur trees at the mouth of a tremendous river. Their leader Masyrus claimed land on the northern side across from that island and called it holy. So the first twin settlements of Masyrus and Ganna were founded and a new calendar was established in 1AR (-197CY).
Eventually those Aery explorers began to call themselves more properly the Aesti, or "Sea People." The harsh islands and coastlines of Aestia almost provided the final wave over into the bilge for the hapless settlers until they met with the indigenous tribes of the area - mostly gnomes, dwarves and kobolds - who they negotiated with and cajoled until those races joined them. Today, in some places at least, the societies are almost completely intertwined. In 102AR (-95CY) their alliances and agreements were settled into the forms that are recognizable today when they drove the last remnants of the hordes of the Ancient Green Dragon Mxaples from the Calnan Swamps and the leaders of all races involved were granted noble status in the great houses of Aestia. Also of noted presence was a great adventurer mage by the name of Ygravene Xagilvy, also promoted to nobility by the consensus of The House of Lords and Houses.
Over the years, Aerdian sensibilities ahve changed much in the Aesti with the Aestian culture now sharing many facets with their gnomish and other demihuman allies. The provinces of Aestia are known properly as Celestial Houses, the Overking of Aestia rules from a throne made of malachite and platinum, and the dream of finding the perfect political system is expressed at the county level with great latitude given to individuals and communities to persue different forms of government and expressions of provinence.
Recently the Aestians have came under the curious rule of a descendant of the mage Xagilvy and his appointed Aestem Raudex Merlend. The two are a curious sort, coming from the sea from nowhere, pronouncing and proving their establishment as progeny of a Celestial House thought lost long ago, and besting every foe in almost every task and challenge until they won the seat of rulership. Their companion Jaldamee dead on the journey, the mage Xagy seems to be still mourning - tirelessly searching the icy frostfell wastes of Polaria for something. Merlend, on the other hand as his agent, seems bent on squeezing every last secret from the scrolls of technology and knowledge that mysteriously appeared in the nation just after the Gods stopped communicating with their priests. Already he and the seers of Askala have vetted out many missteps and inaccurancies that seem to have been placed within the manuscript, and the people of Moren cheered last fall when Merlend demonstrated the first steps of what he calls "aeronology" with a flight in a contraption he called "Pelican III." Unfortunately further experiments by other "aeronauts" have been less than successful.
Powers:
Coming Soon
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So, in synopsis, they're descendants of the Aerdy that spent several decades trying to find a new Aerdian homeland and finally found one. They think they're hardcore Oeridian culturalists...but they don't really know what that's all about in particulars because they've mixed culturally with a wide variety of cultures. I see them as being dark-skinned from Touvish influences, but with Oeridian features. Their homeland is mountainous and glaciated, and I shamelessly ripped a huge amount of stuff from a book on pagan europe I read last week
Except they're not quite "pure", and they're were founded as an exercise in experimental government. And Zagyg's always had a soft spot in his heart for the nutjobs, and now he's stranded he decided to take charge. Murlynd, well he's trying to reign in Zagyg's excesses of course - while still letting the mad mage do whatever he does to fix this mess that things are in. Also in there is a bit suggesting Johydee got to be a deader in whatever calamity took place too, I could write that out pretty easily (I put it in mostly because it seemed like a good way to make even Zagyg sober and scared for a moment) or Johydee could very easily fake her own demise (she's the goddess of deception). They're even more off the beaten path than the Mirandians were, but thanks to their status as a sea power and gnomish merchantile greed they're bound to know quite a bit about the world around them. They're probably arrogant, loud and brash - with a positive obsession with new things and new ideas, as well as this mixed up notion that they're something like the Aerdian New World.
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