[OOC] General Discussion

[Pendragon]

Sj, Yuul, I will get your questions answered tomorrow. I am pretty spent for the evening, I didn't sleep well last night.

[sjsilver]

Originally Posted by Pendragon

Sj, Yuul, I will get your questions answered tomorrow. I am pretty spent for the evening, I didn't sleep well last night.

Not worried about it at all. Sleep well, enjoy the weekend.

[sanitas infirma]

sjsilver, I think that Pendragon nixed blackpowder and guns for the game when we asked, although I would have to go back and dig to find out if I am remembering correctly and (if so) exactly where it was said. For what it may be worth, sulfur could be quite valuable and nasty in its own right (foul smelling, flammable, not something you want launched at you by catapult mid-siege, and probably an alchemical ingredient needed by the mainland).

[sjsilver]

Yeah, I remember that we defiantly did not have firearms of any kind. One of the question's I raise to pendragon was about black powder if it's not something we want to have incorporated into the setting I understand, obviously it's been a while since we all where talking about the world and concepts as a whole. I didn't remember about black powder but if he has / we had issues with it ill remove it. Just think I'm going to have a small dwarf mining operation figure black powder was something that over the next 1-5 years would be discovered / explored by scholars / alchemists.

[Yuul]

I think it was first raid by TMM wonder which weapons to have put on his ships. In anycase Pen turned it down.

By the way SJ, I noticed you put three mines in your 'pit', I remember going over such things with Pen, and the initial mine costs 15k as your know, and covers for the first mile of tunnels. We discussed expansion for the mines and instead o having to buy dozens(in my case) or several(in your case), you can expand a mine's tunnels by another mile for half the starting costs(7.5k), and can do so multiple times. All five of mine have three miles of tunnel each.

Just trying to save you some gold.

Is Crowhaven bordering moutains, cliffs, or sea? Just wondering about those walls.



On second checking everything, I am starting to worry about my lack of developed magic, aside from the Divine Cathedral anyways.

[Yuul]

Just realized that the Isle of Ice isn't that small #2 designated district in the Tylanis map, but the giant thing in the global map. Darn glad there is to much ice there to grow as much food as they otherwise might...

Think of the barbarian hordes!

WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!

[InsaneFox]

You talking about Marie's Crowtown? Yeah to the East is a mountain range, and the wall is to the north, separating that little section from the rest of the district.

[sjsilver]

He's talking about a smallish city on the island of ice but I'm going to rename is forgot about crowtown, and crownheaven might bring up some confusion.

It is on the water so I only have 3 sides to really cover hence the cost on the city wall. It does have a "waterfront"

I'll rename the Crowheaven to Heaventown to avoid confusion in the future.

- - -

Thanks for the cost saving tips on the mines!

[TheMagicalMick]

Originally Posted by Yuul

I think it was first raid by TMM wonder which weapons to have put on his ships. In anycase Pen turned it down.

On second checking everything, I am starting to worry about my lack of developed magic, aside from the Divine Cathedral anyways.

Yeah, I asked about cannons for ships and was told there's no gunpowder, I believe.

There's not much magic in my district either. Sorta by design, but eh. I figured they'd run out of spells too quickly in a military setting, whereas people rocking bows can just keep shooting.

[Pendragon]

Isle of Ice is different. Sj's district is the Island of Ice #2 on the map. I should change the name, or let sj change it

I hadn't realized I had been redundant, forgive me

It looks like you worked out the black powder issue. I am still a no on that one.

Off to the Q & A thread to see what I still need to answer.

[Yuul]

I think it's time I remember to start negotiations for things...

Also, haven't read yet but how long has our new District 2 been a district?

[sjsilver]

Originally Posted by Yuul

I think it's time I remember to start negotiations for things...

Also, haven't read yet but how long has our new District 2 been a district?

Haven't really come to a conclusion on that yet. ~150-200 years ago, humans aren't very good with dates but I'mm come down with more hard number at a time. Scarling Markov a warrior of terrific skill united the tribes on the island under his rule for the first time in history.

Some time after that ~10-30 years latter the King of Tylanis out of concern for the main land launched an ill conceived attack on the island that was quickly put down. Five years later the mainlanders return again, however this time Scarling in his huberous met the force in open battle and was slain, his army broken. The island once again broke into factions.

While long ago there where once dozens of tribes and factions (think something like 20+) on the island the strongest that remain / dominated the culture of the other tribes by force or incorporation, I've written small blurbs on. (I reserve the right to add more such as the Bridge-Ironback dwarves, who have been on the island for many hundreds of years.)

Only recently say they past ~20-50 years have the clans once again been united under one rule. (Having issues coming up with a character concept that I really want to play so some story stuff has some rather large holes).

Things to know, the island is littered with ruins and forts / castles from prerecorded history. Who and why these ruins where built is just as much a mystery as it is today. Clearly an ancient people live her with tremendous understanding of engineering and build marvelous wonders relative to the simple nature of many of the current tribes.

The elves and other long lived races that call the island home have created a coven of scholars known as The Lost who over hundreds of years have recorded and uncovered secrets on the island. The Lost while not really a tribe carry tremendous respect or bewildered fear among the other tribes acting as advisors and minipulators.

Today the island is most highly valued for the rare metal adamantine which is overly abundant on the island.

[sanitas infirma]

Originally Posted by Yuul

On second checking everything, I am starting to worry about my lack of developed magic, aside from the Divine Cathedral anyways.

Originally Posted by TheMagicalMick

There's not much magic in my district either. Sorta by design, but eh.

I've had concerns about how magic is developing in Tylanis too, and my thought was that we're being dragged toward high-fantasy. I built Malachi as a low-fantasy wizard - avoiding flashy evocations, crafting items that he wants himself, and writing casters as generally rare and feared. He was one wizard trying to run the north and keep his fellow arcanists out of the limelight; true, there was a druid to the south with some beasts under his command, and a paladin in charge of the nation's army and college of learning, but in general it would have been a challenge to acquire powerful spellcasting services, non-trivial magic items, and fantastic creatures. This felt right since it avoided shifting the focus from trade and politics with magic as flavor to a setting where the answer to most problems was just casting the right spell.

The proliferation of magic is concerning since it raises the expectation that every district leader will - and indeed must - utilize magic and do so frequently. When barbarian mages with a few fireballs can slay a few hundred soldiers apiece, or where a force of 625 adepts can command an army of 10,000 undead that require neither rest nor wages, or when a magical college is churning out cheap magical goods for the whole kingdom, or when one northern wizard can scry and fry any enemy that doesn't spend their days cowering inside a lead vault, I worry that every district leader will have to depend upon magic just to compete. Please note that I am not trying to say that anyone will do these things - this is just to emphasize the difficulty of regulating the mechanics of spellcasting and the potential problems that might arise. I think that roleplaying solutions to keep magic reasonable would be setter suited - I even talked a bit with statesman88 to work out how our districts interact with each other and the rest of Tylanis. Does anyone think that we should try to brainstorm some ideas?

[Yuul]

Agreed, it is something of a concern, kind of like when it was looking like all of Neqq's druids were going to be actual druids.

As I said earlier, the only real institute of magic I have is the Cathedral of Abadar, and that's divine, which is generally a good deal less blasty or dangerous compared to arcane. The only real 'mage' in my district, aside from any hermits or low level minor casters, would be Carradyn's Cohort, Tobryn.

[sjsilver]

Originally Posted by sanitas infirma

Does anyone think that we should try to brainstorm some ideas?

Yes.

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I'm all in favor of keeping the setting more towards the mid level magic setting of things. The Lost while being magi of one kind or another are not going to be very numerous, their leader only between 6-7th level. It's kind of why I was going the black powder route with things because in a few years time it gives people of non magical origin ways to combat blasty / flashy effects. That said our first meeting occurred via teleporting runes between our capitols. Not something I expected but it is what is going on.

I mean my first character concept was a banker... a bazaar unknowable manipulative genius alien banker, but a banker non the less.

I will say I moved my focus more to a magic side of things, I can't really do the banking thing anymore, and there isn't really much the mainland would want or need. Stone / ore? covered by Yuul and Sanitas, wood neqq has druid that have a monopoly on magically treated wood and only trade route with some people on the other continents. Farm land, lets be real the island of ice isn't going to have farm land. Higher learning / arts, covered.

So I've pushed myself into a barbarian tribal group that has an ancient and unknown past. And access to lots of adamantine something mainland Tylanis doesn't really have.

That said I'm aware that this puts some pressure on Sanitas since he is no longer the only district centered on magic, this is somewhat intentional.

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Are these concerns centered on myself. Or on all of the new / returning districts? What can I do to alleviate concerns. If you have a general direction or idea I should consider taking taking with the island of ice let me know your ideas so I can consider them now while it's still relatively early in development.