Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ralts Bloodthorne" data-source="post: 3005234" data-attributes="member: 6390">Vellexa EmpireAnother civilization bordering the Great Shadowed Woodlands, the Emperor of Vellexa has forbidden logging of the woodlands. Only the occassional four or five Orgrillians, or maybe some of the trolls from the Woodland attack his kingdom.Vellexa is currently in the midst of a Golden Age. Philosophers, mathmaticians, sages, and artisans abound. The discovery of both iron and mithril, both of which easily mined, as well as a pocket of gold and gems, all fused in sandstone, has created a massive influx of tax revenue, allowing the government to subsidise it's golden age with government funds.Vellexa is roughly 200 years old, and is strong, energetic, but not expansionist or isolationist. The Emporer is only 25 years old, and is wise beyond his years, as well as a philosopher in his own right.The military of Vellexa is strong, and used during times of natural disaster or during harvest season only. The military is well trained, well equipped, and competantly led.Schooling in reading, writing, mathmatics, and science is free for the first 5 years of schooling, giving a high literacy rate, encouraged by the churches, as well as a wealth of scribes, mathmeticians, and learned sages.Vellexa is currently envied by neighboring kingdoms for their strong economy, happy citizenry, and seemingly bottomless treasury. The slight bluish tint to the gold and silver discovered in Vellexa is being seen in more and more coins, and slaves often run to Vellexa, where slavery is illegal, and the punishment for attempting to recover a slave is a public whipping and to be expelled back across the nearest border completely naked.The population of Vellexa is currently heavily mixed, with even orcish, goblin and kobold sages being found here and there.Kingdom Deventua-UllemAn old kingdom, roughly 500 years old, the Kingdom of Deventua-Ullem is finding itself in its latter days. Civil unrest, corrupt nobility and government, incompetant administrators, and excessive taxation combined with handouts to those not working, mean that this kingdom is finding itself in its autumn years.The current nobility is so heavily inbred, only one in five children are even near normal intellect, and the current king is unable to much more than repeat carefully taught platitudes that were taught with painstaking patience to a mentally retarded person with the intellect of a three year old. The current king is chinless, with buck teath from thumbsucking (which he often does on the throne), and unable to even dress himself.The citizens are left to their own devices. Those without jobs are paid 1 sp a day, paid weekly at offices. Daily each citizen can get a cabbage, a loaf of bread, and two onions, and some citizens go to other wards within the cities and draw it numerous times.The few who do work (less than 20% of the population) are paid exhorbiant wages for incompetant or little work. Once Deventua-Ullem produced some of the finest armor and weaponry in the Middle Kingdom, but now armor produced by Deventua-Ullem is known to kill a wearer due to shoddy design, materials, and construction. (Any armor purchased from Phaestus is considered to have 2 less to the armor bonus, 10% higher spellcaster failure, -2 skill check in addition to standard, weigh 110% of normal, and -5 ft to speed, while costing 125% of list price. In addition, the armor inflicts an additional +1 hip to damage done to the wearer, as burrs and spurs inside the armor, as well as substandard padding, inflict more damage upon the wearer when the wearer is engaged in combat. In addition, upon ANY type of reflex save, the wearer will take 1d4 points of damage)The nobility wastes its time on parties, self congradulation, and vices, piling more slaves on top of any task needing done. Slaves within Phaestus are known to pass out from exhaustion after ten minutes of work, and the nobility, having never done any type of labor themselves, and the slaves are paid for their work, are able to take days off for illness and be paid, and are well fed.The military never leaves its barracks, gets free wine and concubines/catamites, and hasn't trained in 5 years for anything. Many soldiers don't have anything more than wooden swords and crappy leather armor. It's not unknown for the generals to pay off opponents rather than actually fight them, and then lie to the crown about the pitched and horrendous battle.None of the neighbors of the Kingdom of Deventua-Ullem wants to invade it, realizing that the drain on their kingdom to take it over would be horrendous, as the last three generations of the Kingdom Deventua-Ullem hasn't done anything of worse, and less than .05% of the populace can read, and of that percentage, less than 5% can count to eleven without removing their boots.Shadtree DominonEntirely broken down into military districts, the Shadtree dominion is ruled over the a council of generals, and a ruler who carries the title of Tyrant without shame. Every man and woman is part of the military, and children are enrolled in military schools at the age of three, where they learn reading, counting, physical training, weapon use, armor use, and shield use.The economy is carefully controlled by the Military Council, and retired soldiers make up the entirety of the beuracracy (not hard, since everyone has been in the military) as well as the legal system.The Shadtree dominion follows a warrior god, who as little as 100 years ago ordered the successful and prosperious kingdom to become a warrior nation. The God's followers did not question the move, and consulted the new additions to the Holy Text for the way to mold their society.A kingdom of sages, artisans, and peaceful thinkers transformed itself into a heavy duty war machine within a generation, with most of the industries nationalized and under the control of the government. While its neighbors were nervous, and tensions were high, Shadtree Kingdom, which had become the Shadtree Dominion, never invaded its neighbors. For the last four generations, their military has grown in power, and the Military Council often hires adventurers to search out lost items of war.Recently, there has been lines added to the holy text of Thargum the Mighty, creating a navy and marine force, as well as a war-mage force. This has turned the highly efficient nation into building a huge naval force in the last three years, going from a handful of trireme ships to dozens of warships, multiple drydock facilities, and the training of marines.Neighboring kingdoms are once again becoming concerned, since their war-god has taught harbormasters and shipbuilders how to build highly effective warships through visions and dreams.What the ultimate goal of the war-god is, is beyond mortal knowledge.(more soon)</blockquote>

Verification