Creative Exercise: The Sovereign Dominion of Eyros

[Sarellion]

Well, I am not sure where Xaleris would be, but many people said, it is on a separate continent. Rhialto said it was in the south west in post 770.

I remember a post about the humid djungles, but just saw that it was arid. But the actual contributors and Iron Regime, the map maker, might be more helpful about an actual position.
I think my contrib works with every direction as long as Xaleria is on a different land mass.
I tried to keep it deliberately vague. The islands connectng both continents could start from anywhere ( I assume that features to the map can be added).

 

[Arkhandus]

Deleted now-redundant clarification and evidence of my own occasional stubbornness.

 

[Arkhandus]

Now, let's put the misunderstandings behind us and get focused again, shall we?

I'd like to hope folks will clear their posts of the old speculations and mix-ups too so we don't confuse newcomers or waste their time with a lot of now-clarified stuff.

Conflicts naturally occur when things get as long and involved as this Creative Exercise with so many people working together. Nothing to get upset over or stressed about, right? *woo-saaah*, *wooooo-saaaah*, eh? Glad we've worked out some of the confusion and let out the stress. Positive thoughts! Teamwork!

/emote shuts up before he sounds too much life an idiot

 

[Khorod]

"...resupply line to the eyrosian troops in Ventis..."

Unless the Eyrosian troops were part of this contribution, there aren't any there. I mentioned a Rebel Army, which was a reference to a growing force of rebellion amongst the conquered states of Xaleris.

***
If Xaleris is really close by, I don't think it contradicts the earlier posts. Frex, my initial picture when I heard it was separated by water was something like the English Channel, at most.

Xaleris sounds like it should be a landmass at least a couple hundred square miles. Otherwise, as an Old Empire its a Naval Empire, which isn't the feel I've been getting from Rhialto's posts...

 

[Arkhandus]

One of the Imperial Holdings on the Western Border of Xaleris is Ventis.

Khorod, what exactly did you mean then by "Imperial Holdings" on the border of Xaleris? Imperial as in Eyrian, or Imperial as in Nistadeen (what's the term for people of Nistadeen anyhow?), or Imperial as in Xal? I think that's what may have led Sarellion (and indeed the rest of us) to think you meant Ventis to be an Eyrian foothold on the island/continent that Xaleris is on.

BTW, as for the size of Xaleris, Sarellion pointed out earlier that the scale of the map is 1 hex = 50 miles or so, thus that big island on the map right next to Nistadeen (west of Nistadeen, just south of Malarn-ka and the Bay of Deception) might be appropriate if only "a few hundred square miles". That's entirely up to Rhialto though. Maybe he wants it to be a larger place than Nistadeen, and thus lie somewhere in the western/northwestern sea or something.

 

[Sarellion]

I assumed from the post that Ventis is some kind of colony or tributary of Eyros. So you meant the Xalerian empire? Then the troops are wrong there, I thought that they are Eyrosian troops stationed to protect Ventis.

It´s getting crowded out there in the sea.

My original idea was that Nistadeen was originally part or a tributary of Xaleris, as the elven realm only rose up to be a major power a few decades ago and that the island was the last part of Xaleris, but it seems to me that this wasn´t what the original posters indicated or wanted , An empire that is mysterious and old, and still powerful, even in decline and on a different landmass than Eyros. The island as is is probably to small to support a significant army.

If we change Xaleris to be this island I would then change my contribution to my idea mentioned above.

I propose Nistadani for the people of Nistadeen.

 

[Rhialto]

May I make the radical suggestion that more than one thing can be found in the same direction?

But seriously--as I see it Xaleris is right next door on an easy pathway, relatively speaking--Thri-Keen land is a long, arduous voyage by the Nistadani, who seem to be (along with the halflings) the big naval power of Eyros.

Also--Xaleris might have been a naval power at its height, but these days, it's sort of fallen off.

And now the contribution...

Lately Eyros, and the world in general has seen--if not a flood, a steady trickle of young Xal leaving their homes to spend time abroad. Most who do this do it to escape Xaleris's stultifying atmosphere, and dolorous, inflexible religious customs. Many of these young people have come to doubt the Xal's faith in the Mother, noting foreign priests do just as well worshiping different powers, and even those who don't are filled with a sense of confinement in their native land. Thus they come to kick up their heels and make their pathways. For many, their time abroad is a dream, a time to drink of a freedom they would otherwise never experience.

From an Eyrosian perspective, of course, it is a political nightmare. The Xal are foreigners, unfamiliar with Eyrosian law and custom, and thus bound to cause trouble--however, those that arrive are usually high enough in Xal society that simply kicking them out would cause a great deal of bad feelings. Worse, quite a few are sorcerers, whose rather casual attitude towards their powers is a great contrast to Eyros's tight regulation of arcane casters, a fact that sends the Praes Thanatos and the Arcaneum into fits. They continue to suggest radical, unrealistic solutions to the "Xal problem" and launch into epic speeches where they mention "the Herewald situation" as demonstrations of what happens when Xal sorcerers are tolerated. Many Senators have taken to napping during these speeches, as very rarely does any new material come up.

Of course, there is another aspect to the Xal expatriates that has people worried--some are spies and agents of the Immortal Emperor, there to gather information and destablize things in Eyros. Presently, the largest number of agents have been sent not by the present Emperor, but by his Beloved Predecessors Onyx Turtle, Amber Locust, and Silver Hound to locate and take care of the present Emperor's missing sister, who they believe to be hiding somewhere in the Dominion.

 

[Sarellion]

The term warstrider is used by WhiteWolf´s Exalted as a term for the mecha in the setting.
Can we use it or is there some kind of property conflict?

I changed my last contributon.
I´d thrown out the stuff about eyrian troops in Ventis. The halflings are now cutting of resupply to the islands occupied by the Dominion.
Named the island groups the isles of grief in reference to the many soldiers who died there over the years.

 

[Khorod]

Yeah, sorry about that. I meant a Xaleris Imperial Holding. I figured references to Nistadeen having special contact, mention of a Rebel Army in a land of a fading empire, and so forth made it clear.

This place was once one of the heartland territories of Xaleris, sharing a direct border with it. That they could be hosting an army of the the last few territories Xaleris holds as an Empire, and are preparing to strike down Xaleris, is the implication I was trying to leave. I wouldn't be surprised if Tellas wishes she could go and play in that sandbox...

My contribution is based on my Post #646, which began thusly:

Elven monuments were either made from delicately worked stone (preferrably marble), from wood, or even from bonsai'd trees. Trees of that sort were often quite large. Trees of this sort can be seen in Nistadeen. These monuments were sometimes covered in traceries of formal Elvish script, commemerating their purpose, or imbuing the monument with some magic, or anchoring some magic to the land around it.

This script translates from the Elvish as Silverlight. It has a reflective, silvery quality, giving it its name. When applied, it burns into what it touches by a half a finger's width. Under the light of certain stars the text glows with a matching light.

New Contribution:

Oobrack is a large village ten miles inside the official Eastern boundaries of Eyros and about 30 miles south of the Blue Mountains. If one were to dig up the houses and dust off the streets, you would find the ground is the floor of an ancient stone border fortress of the Elven Knighthood, the Elpatha Sifela. Around the outline of the village, where it is debated in every generation whether or not to build a wall, are buried the shattered remains of Elven monuments to the dead.

Because of this ancient legacy, the Headman of the village has a small basement. In the corners are the shattered pieces of an Elven Monolith that once stood on the site of his home. There are the remains of Silverlight script on many of these pieces, and on the night of the Winter Solstice they glow with a pale blue light.

Several of these pieces have been gathered together and built into a small shrine in the basement, growing for the last twenty years. No one is sure who started it, but the village headman is also the head of a small cult worshipping the glowing rocks. They particularly ask for protection, since historically the village has had a hard time of it, what with the lack of walls. This cult operates mostly as a failsafe to please whatever forces might be about, their worship is done in tandem with the Draconic Legacy. Many of the little rituals of their cult are actually suggestions of a young man who the village has been grooming to be sent to the nearest city for a clerical education.

 

[Arkhandus]

Warstrider is the term one of the first few posters used on the first or second page to describe a longstrider trained for war, and in that post he described longstriders as basically deinonychus. Since we're using terms like mind flayer, illithid, and thri-kreen, which are probably all Wizards of the Coast Product Identity, I doubt using the term warstrider is going to be troublesome in this context.