Creative Exercise: The Sovereign Dominion of Eyros

[Sarellion]

I humbly suggest that we move further posts about the distribution of NPC levels over to the crunch thread as it is rules related.

 

[Tonguez]

Very good...

The present Immortal Emperor of Xaleris, the Jade Jaguar (Immortal Emperors guard their true names and assume a title upon achieving the throne based on one of the 60 sacred animals, and the 60 sacred substances) is rather unhappy with his present situation.

The Xal Emperors are drawn from the Cult of the Fools, ascetics who learn to deny worldly distractions by focussing body and mind. When they appear in public these monks wear brightly coloured clothes adorned with feathers and streamers. Singing and yelling in a strange language they act the role of madmen and children engaging in energetic dancing, acrobatics and buffonry throughout the streets. Nonetheless they are greatly respected for their wisdom and ability. It is known that the play the fool in order not to be seen as a threat to the Emperor whom the serve and whom one of them will eventually replace.


The process by which the Beloved Predecessors acquire Lichehood is a carefully guarded secret amongst the cult and involves a number of rituals taught only to the Immortal Emperor

1. The First step is a change of diet whereby for a 1000 day period the emperor must only nuts and seeds that can be found in the forests surrounding the Royal Enclosure whilst continuing his daily training regime.
2. In the second stage, the Emperor must eat a small amount of bark and roots from pine treesfor another 1000 day period. He must also drink a special tea made from the sap of the urushi tree.
3. The last step of the process is to be entombed alive in a stone room just big enough for a man to sit in for a final 1000 day period.

 

[Arkhandus]

EDIT: Alright, I'm making this post into a contribution to solidify Eyros' approximate population for the sake of continuity. Let's all please edit out our junk over the last 2 pages debating population figures, okay? Get back to contributing. I'm going to drastically shorten my contributions for a bit now that I've posted big things recently to resolve conflicts.

Contribution:

Eyros is a bustling empire despite its slight decline in recent years, and despite the lack of new conquests in recent centuries. Instead, the Sovereign Dominion has better solidified its grasp on previously-conquered territories through more extensive conscription into the Sovereign Legions, and in more recent decades the implementation and deployment of the Enforcer Masks to pacify unruly 'protectorates'. Within the official borders of the Sovereign Dominion of Eyros, the last Imperial Census 5 years ago determined approximately 12 million people in Eyros, 4-1/2 million of them citizens, and the other 7-1/2 million consisting of peasants, elven villeins, and dwarven serfs. Approximately 2-1/2 million citizens and 4 million commoners are children, however. Many adults achieved citizenship in recent decades from higher conscription in the Legions, which grants citizenry after a 10-year term of loyal service, and the recent lack of conquests has made conscription relatively safe.....

On that matter, the Imperial Census indicated little over 60,000 of Eyros' 5,500,000 adults are currently serving in the Sovereign Legions, somewhat short of the normal 70,000 expected, due to a brief plague in Zhalccu province a few decades ago and several retirements. The Legions have been somewhat stagnant and declining in recent decades, for lack of sufficient funding and lack of any significant military campaigns in this time. The Second through Seventh Legions are each commanded by a Praetor from one of the Six Pillars, such that each Pillar controls a Legion. The First Legion is the Imperial Legion, serving the Grand Monarch and the Senators in defense of Eyrdeyn, but has declined to half its usual strength in recent years. The Imperial Legion is always led by a Praetor selected from amongst the Grand Monarch's immediate brethren, sistren, or cousins, those who were potential heirs of the same generation as the Grand Monarch. The Third Legion, led by House Vajar, and Seventh Legion, led by House Taljik, are at roughly 65% strength currently. The Second and Sixth Legions, led by Houses Zhal and Malarn, are likewise depleted but still close to 80% strength. Each Legion has a title by which its legionnaires call it, besides its numerical designation, such as the First Legion's title of Imperial Legion.

Each Legion is supposed to consist of 10 cohorts, each of which consists itself of 10 centuries, at the best of times anyway, and each century normally enlists 100 soldiers. Typically, any given Eyrian Legion is composed of 4 warstrider-mounted cohorts drawn from the citizenry and aristocracy, plus 2 cohorts of footmen primarily drawn from the ranks of lesser nobles and citizens, and 4 cohorts of auxillaries formed entirely from non-citizens. Dwarves and elves cannot join the Legions, with the exception that House Kiron has recently been allowing its elves to become legionnaires in the Fourth Legion, which a Kiron Praetor commands. Due to their particular territories and wealth, Houses Malarn and Zhal employ larger numbers of warstrider cavalry, so their Sixth and Second Legions, respectively, typically each have 6 mounted cohorts, 2 footmen cohorts, and 2 auxillary cohorts.

The Imperial Census also indicated, though for the Grand Monarch's eyes only, that there were approximately 2,200 elven Masks in service to the orc-blooded, 1,800 of which are the newer Enforcer Masks. The Grand Monarch also knows from the Imperial Census 5 years ago that there are approximately 1,300 gnomish necromancers in the Praes Thanatos, and somewhere upwards of 1,000 other known arcane practicioners in the Sovereignty, but most of these are of relatively minor power according to the Census and the Arcaneum.

Eyrdeyn itself, capitol of the Sovereign Dominion, was estimated at having over 100,000 people in residence, spread out over the city's mountain terraces upon Mt. Xark's southern half, as well as the surrounding foothills and plains.

 

[Rystil Arden]

So let's consider the population matter settled. We'll go with Rystil's suggestion based on my numbers, so there's a few thousand mages. Assume Eyros has a population of around 6 million, with about 4 million of those children and 2 million adults. Eyrdeyn itself has around 300,000 people let's say, so ten times my original estimate, a true metropolis. 200,000 of the Eyrdeyn folk are children, 100,000 adults. Roughly speaking. I'll edit my Enforcer Masks post to say 2,000 EMs. I'll probably change this post to a contribution itself, when I add a few more of the specific numbers in..

Sounds good to me, but I wanted to make sure you were happy before we closed it, since you did all that hard work with the math for us already.

 

[Arkhandus]

Note, I edited my post above to be a contribution. I decided to go with Khorod's and Sarellion's numbers to an extent for the sake of settling, since they do seem to have a point about the size of Eyros compared to the population density it would likely have. Let me know if there should perhaps be more mages in Eyros, or more people in Eyrdeyn. But remember to keep it short, civil, and to the point, right? With the population at 12 million instead of 300,000, it's likely that we should multiply the number of mages or something by 4 or something, or up the number of people in Eyrdeyn's greater metropolitan area to about 100 thousand or something. I dunno. Care to remind me how many people lived in the city of Rome/Roma at the time of Caesar Augustus or whoever it was?

 

[Khorod]

(Above process is based on Shingon Mummies of Jpana (who mummify themselves whilst still alive))

Just giving myself a public pat on the back for having recognized that before I got to this line.

Very nice. It throws a bit of craziness into what was about to become a Stygia./

 

[Mouseferatu]

Okay, folks. The noise-to-post ratio is getting pretty high. For the past few pages, actual contributions have made up a distinct minority of posts.

Don't get me wrong, I'm really glad that people feel strongly about what we've created here. But I'd rather see it end than have it turn into a series of arguments.

In order to avoid that unpleasant fate, I'm going to strongly request that if people cannot resolve a conflict within, oh, three or four posts, that they take the discussion to e-mail or private message. If necessary, take it to me, and I'll make a decision. But let's not continue to focus on 'em here, okay?

 

[Rhialto]

The Xal Emperors are drawn from the Cult of the Fools, ascetics who learn to deny worldly distractions by focussing body and mind. When they appear in public these monks wear brightly coloured clothes adorned with feathers and streamers. Singing and yelling in a strange language they act the role of madmen and children engaging in energetic dancing, acrobatics and buffonry throughout the streets. Nonetheless they are greatly respected for their wisdom and ability. It is known that the play the fool in order not to be seen as a threat to the Emperor whom the serve and whom one of them will eventually replace.


The process by which the Beloved Predecessors acquire Lichehood is a carefully guarded secret amongst the cult and involves a number of rituals taught only to the Immortal Emperor

1. The First step is a change of diet whereby for a 1000 day period the emperor must only nuts and seeds that can be found in the forests surrounding the Royal Enclosure whilst continuing his daily training regime.
2. In the second stage, the Emperor must eat a small amount of bark and roots from pine treesfor another 1000 day period. He must also drink a special tea made from the sap of the urushi tree.
3. The last step of the process is to be entombed alive in a stone room just big enough for a man to sit in for a final 1000 day period.

Heehee--loved it. Also, I'm glad that someone is adding to Xaleris besides me...

The history of Xaleris and Eyros is long and entangled. It was Xaleris's invasions at the height of its power that caused Eyrdeyn to unite with its sister cities to become an empire--it was to protect other lands from the Xal, initially, that Eyros troops were deployed in other nations. There have been numerous attempted invasions of Eyros by Xaleris and of Xaleris by Eyros over the long years, though these have been growing more and more infrequent as time goes on. The most recent one was over 70 years ago, when the ambitious half-orc general Salla Zul-Dagvar launched a secret expedition with over 2000 soldiers (mostly foreign mercenaries and discharged legionares) into Xaleris's Haza Dre (Spine of the Mother) Mountains. While his forces met with some success initially, ultimately their relatively small numbers were no match for the Xal's unrelenting attacks, and Xaleris's merciless climate. (Xaleris is swelteringly hot and dry, though the annual rainstorms are infamous for their ferocity.) Salla's legion was slaughtered to a man--Salla himself had earlier perished from a fever.

Salla's actions nearly led to a war between the two nations, which was only prevented when the Grand Monarch demonstrated that the general had acted on his own initiative, a story the Xal, hardly eager for conflict themselves, chose to accept. Though most believe this explanation, some are dubious. After all, they point out, isn't it strange that a general as skilled--even legendary--as Salla would undertake a lunatic invasion with so small a force, with no expectation of support? So the matter stands, still a matter of grumbling and theorizing after all these years...

 

[Sarellion]

I checked back with someone more fluent with english, than me and it seems that my english is not as good as I thought. So if some posts were interpreted as Do that, that´s the truth or else, it was probably intended to be more of a friendly proposal from my side. For example whenever I used the word "should" I meant it as a friendly suggestion, like we may consider. If I am not wrong now it seems to be more in the direction of "must" or "have to". That´s not what I wanted to say.

I must admit that some posts I exchanged with Rystil were more hard arguments, but I meant them in a respectful way. The only thing that really got me was the contribution about the rigged uniforms.

I also thought that most people already knew of the general size of Eyros.
I apologize if someone really got offended with me. I think you are a great bunch of guys and your ideas are awesome.

 

[Rystil Arden]

I checked back with someone more fluent with english, than me and it seems that my english is not as good as I thought. So if some posts were interpreted as Do that, that´s the truth or else, it was probably intended to be more of a friendly proposal from my side. For example whenever I used the word "should" I meant it as a friendly suggestion, like we may consider. If I am not wrong now it seems to be more in the direction of "must" or "have to". That´s not what I wanted to say.

I must admit that some posts I exchanged with Rystil were more hard arguments, but I meant them in a respectful way. The only thing that really got me was the contribution about the rigged uniforms.

I also thought that most people already knew of the general size of Eyros.
I apologize if someone really got offended with me. I think you are a great bunch of guys and your ideas are awesome.

I think that your English is quite good. It is probably more the subtle implications of certain words that are catching you up than anything else. And I can't speak for everyone here, but I know that I was personally not offended. I'm thrilled that we have all reached an understanding because I really felt awful when I had to make all those debating posts; I would come home and get a dreadful pit-of-the-stomach hollow feeling when I looked at my e-mail and realised that I needed to do it again. Hurray for unity and friendship in Eyros!