Creative Exercise: The Sovereign Dominion of Eyros

[Sarellion]

Contribution:

The imperial legion standard:
The standard is crowned by a dragon with his wings spread, sitting on a roof supported by 6 pillars. A red cloth hangs beneath the rod that is the floor of the building. There are golden letters stitched into the cloth identifying the troop which carries the standard.

The sign of the dragon and the pillars is the official heraldic sign of the Souvereign Dominion of Eyros. It is flying on banners and engraven above the entrance of imperial offices.

 

[Rystil Arden]

The deadline approacheth!!

As of this posting, it is Tuesday, March 29. I want you all to know that I will consider this thread complete, and begin seeking volunteers to write the PDF, on Monday, April 11. (That gives people almost two more weeks.)

This isn't entirely arbitrary on my part. Lions Den Press actually has a release schedule, and I want to be sure we fit this into it.

Feel free to contine contributing through the 11th, but also start deciding if you want to volunteer for any of the "real" writing, and how much you think you can handle. (Please try to volunteer for no less than 2,000 words, and no more than 10,000.)

Deadline for rough drafts will be in mid-May--precise date yet to be determined--so you will have approximately five weeks in which to do your writing. Please keep that in mind when volunteering.

One last very important point. Failure to acquire sufficient volunteers, or having volunteers fail to meet the obligations to which they've agreed, may result in this project failing to happen. I don't say that to guilt anyone into helping. I just want to drive home the importance of people sticking by their agreements in this case. I really want to see this done.

I have created a Yahoo group specifically for people who will be working on the PDF. If you request to join the group, I'll be assuming that you're volunteering to write (or provide art, or the like). You can find it at http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Eyros/.

Hmm...mid May is probably the worst possible time for a deadline for me, since that's when I'll have all kinds of deadlines and such. I'll have to volunteer to write less than I would have, but I still volunteer nonetheless. I can probably do 4,000-6,000 words. Were the deadline at the end of the first week of June, I could easily do 10,000.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Contribution:

The imperial legion standard:
The standard is crowned by a dragon with his wings spread, sitting on a roof supported by 6 pillars. A red cloth hangs beneath the rod that is the floor of the building. There are golden letters stitched into the cloth identifying the troop which carries the standard.

The sign of the dragon and the pillars is the official heraldic sign of the Souvereign Dominion of Eyros. It is flying on banners and engraven above the entrance of imperial offices.

The most wide spread religion among Halflings is a philosophy called Ve'Amares (the way of the sea). The central tenant of this philosophy is the importance of movement. Emulating the ocean waves, an adherent of Ve'Amares is constantly in motion. The most common application of this philosophy is the Halfling practice of working hard and playing harder. Sleep is seen as a necessary evil, not a leisure activity. Halflings see the demon Taufenacht as a personification of sloth and complacency, often portrayed as a listless and dehydrated Halfling. The symbol of Ve'Amares is a stylized crashing wave.

In it's most extreme interpretation Ve'Amares is a revolutionary movement seeking to tear down anything that would promote the status quo. These radicals (often called Tempests) are a small minority, but are the reason most nations do not welcome large numbers of Halflings within their borders. All Halflings were expelled from Eyros after a cabal of Ve'Amarian Tempests attempted to collapse the Eryian Senate building during the coronation of one of the Grand Monarchs.

 

[Khorod]

Hmm...mid May is probably the worst possible time for a deadline for me

Mid-May through mid-June, for me. Thats papers through finals time. I can pull off 4-6 thousand as well. Its an amazing, first-ever, all-humanities quarter. I can't promise more than that... but I might be able to pull a little slack if things are going well around that time.

New Contribution:

Before the rise of Nistadeen as a mercantile power, the People mostly kept to themselves. Until they realized their presence in the world was beginning to shrink. Seeking to revitalize themselves, the ruler passed on his authority to his relatively youthful heir. In an almost impulsive but nation-altering decision, Nistadeen was rebuilt as a naval power.

Few of the old guard appreciated this decision, and thus the Elven fleet was bereft of the most able warriors and spellcasters of the day. Now, after another generation and a half has come of age and the benefits can be seen, Nistadeen's fleet has begun to expand in its power and presence.

The old diehards are still about however. They are being pushed more and more towards a traditionalist mindset which effects everything they do. The swordsmen of this faction are increasingly formulaic and ritualized and the spellcasters inflexible, but it will be another generation before the rulers of Nistadeen can risk offending this influential group. The Elven King is well aware that should he stumble and grant these traditionalists power over the realm his people will be even worse off than when his uncle first had the fleet built.


(I wrote this thinking about a massive timescale- Nistadeen becoming a Naval Power of some degree 1500 years ago. It occurs to me now that this might not be kosher. The wiki page is down now, so I invite error-catches.)

 

[Rystil Arden]

Zounds, considering that the entire half-orc system of Agathon was established only 350 years ago, 1500 years is pretty early. Fortunately, your description itself allows for any timeframe at all, although it requires defining generation length of the Nistadeeni, so there won't really be any problems at all.

 

[Arkhandus]

Before the rise of Nistadeen as a mercantile power, the People mostly kept to themselves. Until they realized their presence in the world was beginning to shrink. Seeking to revitalize themselves, the ruler passed on his authority to his relatively youthful heir. In an almost impulsive but nation-altering decision, Nistadeen was rebuilt as a naval power.*snip*

Contribution:

Far across the eastern sea from Eyros, near the western shores of the Luviar continent, lies the vast deserts and savannahs of the mighty Mo'ahhim Confederation. The Mo'ahhi are somewhat-savage humans of dark brown skin, but also one of the most advanced of barbarian nations, maintaining their ancient ways merely by tradition and the fact that it has not held back their dominance in the region. Women are the dominant power in Mo'ahhim, and men are little more than slave workers and servants to the females, though some men hold respectable positions in the clannish bureaucracies. Some Mo'ahhi men are trained and sent out as ambassadors and spies in other nations, and these men rarely survive very long, but unwittingly do their jobs well. Mo'ahhi warrior-women rule and hold all positions of real power in the Confederation, chiefest amongst them the mihar'ahan'na of each clan. Strangely, the Mo'ahhi men largely do not resent this, as their society's religion teaches that women are the pinnacle of humanity, masters of life and death, to be venerated and served in order for humanity to prosper and grow. Mo'ahhi value cunning, wit, and charisma, and their culture has longstanding traditions of dance, song, and storytelling. Over the ages, Mo'ahhi have conquered a substantial portion of their continent's western half, though it is relatively barren.

 

[Abisashi]

Hmm...mid May is probably the worst possible time for a deadline for me, since that's when I'll have all kinds of deadlines and such. I'll have to volunteer to write less than I would have, but I still volunteer nonetheless. I can probably do 4,000-6,000 words. Were the deadline at the end of the first week of June, I could easily do 10,000.

My finals are all the first week of may, so pushing the deadline back a week (which might not be an option) might let me do more as well. Not sure yet how many words I can write.


Also, the wiki site (the whole thing, not just our wiki) is down, and has been for a few days now.

 

[Sarellion]

(I wrote this thinking about a massive timescale- Nistadeen becoming a Naval Power of some degree 1500 years ago. It occurs to me now that this might not be kosher. The wiki page is down now, so I invite error-catches.)

According to the summary, Nistadeen became a rival to Eyros several decades ago. There is not much about their rise to naval power so this could be a separate event.
Something must have kept Eyros from invading the lands of Nistadeen or they lost them perhaps.

I got time for writing but as it´s not my native tongue I am not sure how time concuming it will be. So I would volunteer for 5000 words.

 

[Arkhandus]

Man this thing's slowed down over the last week or something. No contributions all day. Dangit. More contributions! *bump*

I suppose I may be able to volunteer around 4,000 words maybe, as it doesn't look like I'll be able to resume college until late May. Double dangit.

As for stuff left to do here......
We still need to flesh out more of Eyros', Nistadeen's, Xaleris', Ghalfaen's, Kwlloch's, Indracca's, and Saagersberg's history.
We still need to flesh out some NPCs for these places, and/or things going on in these places that may be of interest for DMs or players.
We still need to flesh out more of the land's geography, landmarks, strange places, terrain features, place names, city names/quirks, and the names of the darned oceans and seas that are as of yet unnamed.
We still need to flesh out more of the political agendas, events, goings-on, and such.
We still need to flesh out more of the daily life, common events, fashions, naming conventions, holidays, celebrations, ceremonies, religious institutions, and such.
We still need to come up with more historical, famous, legendary sort of figures of Eyros' past, of which various towns, monuments, buildings, fortresses, terrain features, spells, holidays, and such may be named after.
We still need to flesh out more information on the races and their places in the nations around Eyros, such as Indracca, Xaleris, Nistadeen, Ghalfaen, Saagersberg, and Kwlloch.
We still need to flesh out more of the religions outside of Eyros, and perhaps a bit more on just what the Crucible and Draconic Legacy do in Eyros proper.
We still need to describe more about the Jagged Eye, Animus, Vildaxaranthus' territory/minions, and any other secret societies, cults, rebellions, and so on.
Folks might still also contribute something about Orrukar, Mo'ahhim, Nientei, O'hoa'ti'neumas, the mysterious fog-shrouded western isle, or the Nistadeeni-discovered far-southern desert land of thri-kreen and such. Or any of the barbarian tribes or other undescribed stuff around Eyros proper.

As for me, I've one more tidbit about foreign nations to post (Nientei), and then I'm going back to contributing tidbits about Eyros proper as described above.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Man this thing's slowed down over the last week or something. No contributions all day. Dangit. More contributions! *bump*

I suppose I may be able to volunteer around 4,000 words maybe, as it doesn't look like I'll be able to resume college until late May. Double dangit.

Well, sorry to hear about the school woes, but we'd be glad to have you aboard.

You should go and sign up on the Yahoo group.