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 It's yet another Paradox game let's play - only this time with a twist! With the recent release of the Holy Fury DLC for Crusader Kings 2 the option for both "shattered worlds" and "randomize worlds" are now available which allow players to generate completely new map setups on the fly ingame.   We will be going with the latter of which, so while the landmass of Afro-Eurasia remains the same everything else will be completely new - cultures, religions and which kingdoms and empires exist or can be formed. (While the former would be similar to own world - still with all the same rulers and religions but the option to break up empires or kingdoms in to their constitute duchies or counties) Shattered Worlds has been a popular mod for Crusader Kings 2 for many years (and one of my personal favourites) and now that it's included in base CK2 with an incredible amount of customization / options I felt compelled to try and do a Let's Play in a completely unique world.  What happened to PopeLP? While I still love PopeLP and playing / writing it was some of the most fun I've had in any game the enthusiasm for it has simply gone. While I had played ahead since the last update and had many screenshots edited and ready to use in write ups I just couldn't muster the effort to write no matter how much I tried. A mixture of rushing through the Crusader Kings 2 portion (under two months) and getting burnt out, putting Sergius' immortality to a vote (it really wrote me in to a corner) and realising how much harder it is to write compelling parts for the post-CK2 games (I was dreading Victoria 2) due to how much more war-heavy (and thus repetitive) they are and the wealth of data/stats/events/character traits that CK2 provides being absent. So sticking to just Crusader Kings 2 seems the best course of action. As with PopeLP I won't be "playing to win" so to speak, no mass conquests and creating huge blobs of an empire. I will try to play characters as close to the traits they have and choose the most appropriate decision in events for said traits, not immediately picking the option with the best outcome. While I'm going in to Holy Fury blind I've also not played CK2 since the release of Jade Dragon so I'll have double the content I'll be experiencing for the first time! One of my favourite parts of PopeLP was actually writing up the history of Piast Byzantium by trying to piece together what happened by just looking at ruler's traits, relationships and how they died. So doing that on a continent-wide scale only seems an extra exciting propsect to me! So what kind of world will we be watching a dynasty fumble through to greatness / insignificance? I had a specific one in mind when I started messing around with the randomizer and kept generating new worlds until I got something close to it - that being one with many smaller dejure kingdom and empire sizes, no empires currently existing apart from one styled on and using Byzantine Empire and Holy Roman Empire mechanics, many unreformed pagans and a map mostly formed of tribals / nomads. And it's the year 769 to allow the most playing time possible. And while cultures / religions and titles may be given new names or a twist of familiar names, the actual names of provinces unfortunately remain the same. So while we still may see "Constantinople" "Paris" or "Jerusalem" the only similarity to our own is the name.  The Late Shadow Age Zhuge Yizhi 1 - 769 - 771 - Corsairs of Crete Zhuge Jingyan 2 - 771 - 773 - Unexpectant Chieftess 3 - 773 - 787 - The Huntress Zhuge Tan 4 - 787 - 796 - Tan The Giant 5 - 796 - 812 - Tan The King 6 - 812 - 822 - Tan The Destroyer 7 - 822 - 836 - Tan the King of the Athenians Crisis Now fucked around with this message at 15:25 on Dec 31, 2018 |
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Nov 15, 2018 15:27
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1 - 769 - 771 - Corsairs of Crete it is the year 769 according to the Limisolian Calender (which due to our proximity is just convenient to use). Limisol? Once the greatest city in the world so they say, at the helm of the largest empire ever forged that stretched from ocean to ocean. While we have our doubts about this grandiose empire we certainly know they at least once held this island we call home - Zhugelia, or Crete as it may have once been called. Ancient decrepit sun temples can be found on the isle and along the shores of the eastern Great Sea where we raid often. And just who are we? Why we are Zhuge Yizhi, great bandit lord and scourge of all the Great Sea!   We came to this island some ten years ago, having to flee mainland Athenia after one two many "adventures" drew the ire of the local lords.  King Yuanji had put a price on our head and while he may only reign from the ancient city of Adrianopolis with limited control over Athenia many of the other lords are still more than willing to assist him as he serves as the only major opposition to the Limisolians, and staying in his good books ensures he'll likely come to your aid when the sun worshippers come knocking.  We are not native to this land. Where we are from and how we got here is mostly lost to time with only scant myths and old folk tales of our ancestors trekking across scorching deserts and impossibly high mountains. At some point our peoples split and many went north, we went south and settled in what was once a Limisolian stronghold of Athens - from which we have drawn our name. This was in the final days of the supossed grand Limisol Empire and we apparently accelerated it's sharp decline something which the Limisolians detest us for.  The world was so close to being free of Limisol blowhards until one Zenia Zeni, a great warrior queen in the fractured lands of old Limisolia had managed to copple together the many republics in Asia Minor under her control and repel a major invasion by the Folcwaldingard heretics from the east. She proclaimed herself Empress and sought to rebuild the Limisol Empire once more. And while the neighbouring King Rahad had been vital in repelling the heretics and keeping what remained of the Taoite faith alive he had no desire to see Limisolia return. He was a king and saw no reason to bend his knee to any Emperor or Empress. What's worse is he held the ancient city of Limisol itself. Now little more than a bunch of ruins - but still a place with massive significance that the Empress will no doubt wish to acquire.     If the old tales of Great Limisolia are to be belived then this is the extent of their empire. Talking to a Limisolian is a tiring chore as they wistfully talk of ruling a thousand cities and legions of light wielding warriors patrolling the miles of road from Atlantic to Indian ocean. Well where is it all now?  The heartland of old Limisolia still retains many of it's old institutions, maintained as best they can be. in Asia Minor and parts of Athenia the people live in huge fortified cities with immense stone walls and towers. The local lords live and abide by some kind of contract with ruling duke or sometimes King, land and power in exchange for taxation and service in times of war. Beyond Asia Minor the rest of the world is mess of warring tribes and nomadic clans. The Limisolians derisively call this the Shadow Age as the shadows of ignorance and barbarism have shrouded the world. We prefer to think it's because the shadow of that decaying old Empire still clings to us and dictates the actions of so many.  The Taoite religion still persists where memories of the old Empire are strongest. They worship the Sun and the Moon or simplifed to "The Siblings" and fear the day their light is extinguished by The Eternal Darkness - whether this is a figure or a mere concept we do not know. The Sun Priest once dictated the faith from the Temple of Sol in Tao, but there has not been a priest for centuries and there is nothing but more ruins in Tao.   While a handful of Athenians (including good King Yuanji) have converted to Taoite in an effort to appease the resurgent Limisolians many of us still ahere to the Creed of Oravainen. It is a very loose collection of faiths joined together from the beliefs of the peoples of south / central Europe. It is a lenient religion, with no great priests or strict scriptures we must all ahere, which suits us just fine.  And out west another vestige of the old empire lives on in the form of the Lost Legions. The Algerians and Tunisians once formed the bulk of the Limisolian slave armies. Frujin claims to be a descendant of one of the greatest Limisolian Empire's generals, who led a successful slave revolt only to turn around and accept rulership of the western half of the empire in exchange for keeping the other slaves in line and providing armies for the empire. Frujin is no doubt strongly oppossed to the resurgence of Limisol and has no love for the Empress or her ancient faith.  While we shirk away from the "civilised" world and shun most forms of authority we may have to put up with the customs of the Keepers of the Light - in hope that we attract some great warriors to Zhugelia to serve as warriors in our raiding bands.   An initiation is required and we travel to lodge in Capua on the Susan Peninsular. Our opponent is a mere boy half our age, though cocky and self-sure. We are sure we could make short work of him but he mimics our attack only better and bests us in the duel. Though we have proved ourselves and allowed in the Lodge our pride has been hurt, as well as an actual injury in the form of a twisted ankle, but it will heal in time.   To make matters worse upon returning to our island we learn our son and heir Sifu has died. In the mere week we were away he had come down with scurvy and died in agony in bed. He had spent much of his life on the seas, patrolling the shores of Zhugelia and training with our warriors. He had been preparing a raid in our absence but now he has passed we will continue it in his honour.  And what better target than the Hallowed Limisolian Empire. The renewed empire is filled with republics and city states, filled with gold and poorly defended.  Unfortunately the lords and lord mayors beneath this new 'feudal' style of government are all far too honour-bound and rise at a moment's notice to defend one another (and seemingly to serve the Empress en-mass if she called). We make a hasty retreat as the nearby Grand Mayor of Upper Slovenskyia musters his forces and navy and approaches Rhodos.  We return to the island with a paltry amount of loot but at least we remind the Limisolians that they are not untouchable. A reprenstative from the Keepers of the Light has been awaiting our return with rumours of great riches being held in the vaults of the King Yuanji. Well that is evident enough but he informs us it would surely increase our standing in the Lodge were we to plunder these vaults. Well we can think of no finer way to prove ourselves.   Our daughter Jingyan has come of age and though insistant on some kind of celebration or at least acknowledge of her becoming a woman we are far too busy preparing for the raid on the King. She had never particularly been the center of our attention while growing up, we had given everything to Sifu, expecting him to become the new corsair lord of this island. His suddden death was a shock to us and we're still unsure what is to be done about the fact our heir is now young Jingyang. We promise her there will be celebrations upon our return, and hopefully the time away will give us amble time to bare a new son.  In the winter of 770 we land on the shores of Thrake, having slowly sailed up the shores of the Aegean, stopping and raiding small unprotected homesteads and monasteries where we could for supplies. Our men inform us the defenders of Verissa are too numerous and any attack would surely be doomed. We holdfast regardless, surely a siege of this castle over the winter will cut them off from supplies and force a surrender.  Spring is almost upon us and Verissa castle still stands, by now armies of the local lords have been alerted to our presence and we prepare to make a hasty retreat to the safety of the sea. An approaching army is spotted, barely half our size and we rest easy knowing we could surely deal with such a smaller force. However some two hundred of their soldiers are clad in incredible armour, our arrows do little and they are far more disciplined than our raiders. Northern Athenia's proximity to the Limisolians has meant they have started to adopt not only their faith but their customs and style of government too - not too much technology. The battle is no longer going in our favour and we attempt to slink away, but our wounded ankle from the duel still lingers and chooses the most inopportune time to remind us of it's existence.  As the remainders of our raiders run for the shore and the boats we trip on the loose rocks, our pleas for help unhead in the chaos as we tumble in to a ditch. At the very least we are not discovered by the Thrakian soldiers, but any attempt to crawl out fail and we die writhing in agony clutching at the mangled ankle. 
Crisis Now fucked around with this message at 16:20 on Nov 15, 2018 |
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Nov 15, 2018 15:27
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Clearly we must take Limisol and restore the light of the old great empire.
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Nov 15, 2018 16:06
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Hey, Crisis, could we get a peek at the tenets of the Folcwaldingards, Yeciites and... Mizzakaians, or whatever the gray blob in Africa is called? I'm curious about their various heathen ways.
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Nov 15, 2018 16:36
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Looks like great fun! Can't wait to see how neglected, young Jingyan grasps the reigns of power and carves something greater in the decayed heart of Limisol.
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Nov 15, 2018 16:48
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MaxieSatan posted:Hey, Crisis, could we get a peek at the tenets of the Folcwaldingards, Yeciites and... Mizzakaians, or whatever the gray blob in Africa is called? I'm curious about their various heathen ways. I anticpated this very comment and went and ahead and prepared screenshots of the largest faiths! I just wasn't sure how to incorporate it into the first post.  Folcwaldingard  Yecite  Godwadian The most  religion. I kept trying to generate a world I liked the look of and had this faith in a good region to play with but alas it never came up. Ceed of the Oravainen Koknesseian  Taoite Creed of the Lyubech  Muzakaian  Torresite  Nyimaard 
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Nov 15, 2018 16:52
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Loving these new religions. Do we know what's the deal with the broader religious grouping, and if the religions dogma are autogenerated as well or prewritten?
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Nov 15, 2018 17:36
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ThatBasqueGuy posted:Loving these new religions. Do we know what's the deal with the broader religious grouping, and if the religions dogma are autogenerated as well or prewritten? The dogmas are prewritten with the God / Devil / Holy Text being selected from a list. As well as the actual mechanics of each religion being random. The actual groupings I'm still trying to figure out - Presumably most of these faiths all have a common founding or core tenant, whoever this Abdulah is. Crisis Now fucked around with this message at 18:18 on Nov 15, 2018 |
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Nov 15, 2018 17:54
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Crisis Now posted:The dogmas are prewritten with the God / Devil / Holy Text being selected from a list. As well as the actual mechanics of each religion being random. I took the liberty of reviewing the descriptions of each Abdulahist religion and found some interesting threads:
MaxieSatan fucked around with this message at 23:46 on Nov 15, 2018 |
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Nov 15, 2018 19:17
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The gender equality/enforced patriarchy split within the Abdulahists probably has a pretty interesting story behind it
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Nov 15, 2018 22:35
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Oh boy a Crete LP  Are you going to be sticking with the same dynasty for the entire game or swap to someone else when things get too stale? Either way I loved PopeLP so I'll be reading this.
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Nov 15, 2018 22:54
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Grizzwold posted:Are you going to be sticking with the same dynasty for the entire game or swap to someone else when things get too stale? We'll see how things pan out. 700 years is a long time, and the Zhuge family may change greatly in just a few centuries; either faith, culture, location or all the above.
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Nov 15, 2018 22:58
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Are the Kvendolic the Jewish analogue? They have the right color blue on the map and are small and isolated. If they are, could you share their features? To confirm, whichever religion is the Jewish analogue should be the only one to mention a Kohen Gadol. Fake edit: Oh, I see it listed now. Kvendolic is a heresy of Kafirkotian, which has the Kohen.
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Nov 15, 2018 23:18
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A shame about the Pope LP but I'm very excited to see more of your excellent writing! Holy Fury looks absolutely amazing and I can't wait to see what crazy poo poo happens in your world. Also can we get a look at the city of Limisol? Is it a seven holding county?
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Nov 15, 2018 23:28
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HomestarCanter posted:Are the Kvendolic the Jewish analogue? They have the right color blue on the map and are small and isolated. If they are, could you share their features? To confirm, whichever religion is the Jewish analogue should be the only one to mention a Kohen Gadol. It does seem to be the Judaism analogue.    loving love Fiona Apple posted:Also can we get a look at the city of Limisol? Is it a seven holding county? Just a regular 4 holding county. I can maybe mod a few things in.
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Nov 16, 2018 00:20
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So, I assume we're going to convert to Godwadism as soon as possible and strike down the gods? Also, good to see you back, CrisisNow. If anyone could make sense of this utter madness, its you. Best of luck.
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Nov 16, 2018 02:17
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I vote against wasting any money on so-called "walls"
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Nov 16, 2018 03:48
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Huh - the descriptions of the Eiriksonard faiths are interesting to me, because the Kvendolic and Sankhyavatist flavor (especially the Sankhyavatists' Fantasy Minyans and approach to numerology) seems to reinforce the Judaism parallel. Now I'm curious if the random religion generator is specifically geared to encourage things like that or if it's just a neat coincidence.
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Nov 16, 2018 06:20
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this is interesting to me, i was expecting a 'every province is a OPM' scenario but this has some structure behind it. evidently there's custom content for the religions but how much of that is randomized? it looks like there's some rhyme and reason associated with how ethnicities and religions and formable/historic empires and poo poo are distributed. how do they algorithmically generate that? i'm curious about all those details also, is there anything like this for the american map from that mod i wish i could see more LPs about?
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Nov 16, 2018 06:24
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Awesome! Looking forwards to this and love how you're filling out th eworld and giving it a sense of history and building
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Nov 16, 2018 08:02
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Eh, might as well ask here- any way to guarantee a shattered world generates all pagan religions?
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Nov 16, 2018 08:50
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CommissarMega posted:Eh, might as well ask here- any way to guarantee a shattered world generates all pagan religions? There's an option for more pagans, which I used for this. But I think having a map entirely of pagan / unreformed religions may make progress very slow - unless you have lots of feudal pagans.
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Nov 16, 2018 08:54
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Disappointed this is not an Animal Kingdom Shattered World LP.
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Nov 16, 2018 09:30
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1 - 771 - 787 - Unexpectant Chieftess Father is dead. A messenger bird arrived this morning with the news. It was only a matter of time, he was all action and no thinking, we don't know exactly what he was expecting to happen by raiding the vaults of the Athenian King. But alas now we have suddenly found ourselves head of the Zhuge clan and ruler of this island. Father had never much cared for us and likely saw little in us beyond our use as a bride to some Athenian noble on the mainland so he could secure some tenuous alliance, which a year ago we would have thought ourself destined to.  Against his wishes and without his knowledge we had spent much of our youth sneaking off from the town to Chandax on the otherside of the island - where the giant lived. Li Sansi was already living on the island when we arrived twelve years ago, father sent off a team to take down 'the monster' but when Li came to the village himself with a sack full of the hunters' skulls father quickly changed his tone. The giant was permitted to live and rule on the eastern half of the island and was even consulted some times by father for his knowledge on the island and the surrounding ones where the Limisolians dwelled. Whenever we got bored of learning to be a 'proper woman' by mother for some Athenian noble we'd go spend time with the giant where he taught us to track and hunt animals and to fight with bow and staff.  We were sure to quickly find ourselves a more suitable husband, someone who would be willing to follow our lead and not be some loud boarish thug. What's more Zhaodu was an expert with numbers and organizing and looking after all the little things that helped the clan and the island run smoothly - something we had never be taught for.  The raiders returned today, a few weeks after news of father's demise. And it was no surprise to anyone that the old man had managed to bed two seperate women and have two seperate children with them in the short time he was gone from the island. Little Daija and Yun were somehow born on the same day and so will both undoubtably become thorns in our side at the same time in a decade and a half's time, no worry, by then we will have secured our rule of the island and any attempt by them to seize power will be futile.   What's more it doesn't take long for our liasons with Zhaodu to bear fruit, we are with child and the future of the Zhuge clan with our own line is assured.  Another boat returns from the mainland a fortnite after the main raiders, carrying the body of father whom we would have really gone without seeing again. Now the burden of dealing with his blotted half decaying corpse falls on us. We make the week long journey up the White Mountains to the south of the settlement, carrying and cursing at father's body to the summit where we leave him for the vultures.   In the months during our pregnenacy we abstain from any physically demanding tasks and instead take to overseeing improvements to the settlement alongside our husband. When father founded this town some twelve years ago it was little more than a hobbled together mess of shacks, and that's exactly what it remained to this day. With what meager resources we have at our disposal we begin the construction of actual defensives for the island.  As the fated day where we'll bring new life in to this world draws frightfully closer we beginning seeing far too many signs and bad omens from The Supreme. No matter how much we try to assure ourselves, and the assurances of Zhaodu and mother we are all too convinced that we must be cursed and this pregnancy will only bring terrible things.  A week passes and we have given birth to a boy.  An ugly boy.  A giant ugly boy.  It was unpleasant. But now it is done and over and we hold (with great strain) our giant grotesque son. Our sweet baby boy, we will love him regardless! Half a year has passed and the lodge of the Warriors of Light is still present on the island after our father began associating with them. We are up and on our feet again and wish to do physical activity again and seeing as they're here it wouldn't hurt to join them too. A warrior from far off the far off Tribe Of Memel of which we've never heard arrives on the island to duel us for our initiation and we at long last have a chance to prove ourselves and see if years of secretly training with the Giant paid off. Seemingly they did, though we never had any advantage over the other fighter we at least held our ground for what felt like hours, in the end it wasn't our expertise that won but the Memelman's exhaustion that let us strike a blow.    Further improvements are made to the island's simple fortifications, perhaps one day we will have grand stone walls that rival those of the Limisolians (or maybe it may just be easier to take one of their cities and just leave this island). All the while we continue to duel with other members of the lodge, fighting with a fierce tenacity and constantly improving our skill.    Disease has arrived on the island, carried here by the few merchants that dare come here or by some raiders returning from the mainland. The land of the Limisolians and more "civilised" Athenians with all their cities and castles crammed full of people are rife with illness. Nowhere else is like this.   It was only a matter of time before we too came down with one of the illnesses that plague this portion of the world and we are bedridden with small pox.  The island's healing man (who reportedly also fled the mainland after one too many people died under his care) sees to us and we're very unsure of his methods. But miraculously we are cured within a fortnite.   Feeling reinvigorated and eager to get some fresh air we gather the few other warriors who are not also bedridden and ride out at once on horseback in to the wild woodlands of the island in search of quarry to hunt. Despite living here for almost all our lives there is still so much we don't know of this island and what beasts or mysteries may linger in it's depths where no man or woman tred.  We hunt for weeks on end, bringing back all manner of felled beast. Enough to feed the settlement for a year but when a lodge member overhears us boasting one night in the drinking hall she is quick to remind us while we may be a great hunter and a superb duelist in a completely controlled safe environment we have yet to prove ourselves in actual combat. Not one to balk in the face of a challenge we agree that no we haven't led troops in battle yet, and the lodge member tells us of a most suitable target - Seleukeia in the Limisolian lands of Rahadland, plauged by disease and civil unrest they shouldn't make too hard an opponent.  The warriors of Zhugelia are gathered and aboard the ships we sail north to the mainland. We have not left the island since coming here as just a child but we have heard many tales of the Limisolians, none of them quite prepared us. Even the tiniest of towns on the mainland were skirted by immense walls, within perfect houses of stone and brick that made our collection of shacks look abhorrent. The more experienced warriors tell us there are some cities futher inland where individial buildings themselves are as big as our entire settlement on the island, their palaces and sun temples.  But we do not let this dissuade us. Making landfall we find only small patrols of Rahadlander soldiers on the roads, most of their army is off east dealing with a civil war. The walls of Seleukeia stop us but only for a short while as a number of us manage to sneak inside in disguise and open the gates allowing the other few hundred of us to pour inside. The townsguard and the few locals that put up a fight are no match, we manage to ensure that not a single Zhugelian raider is lost and take control of the town.  Even this meager town holds within it's keep a mighty bounty, all manner of gold and trinkets are hauled away and stored on the ships. We receive no trouble from any other Rahadlander soldiers and the locals are more than willing to give us everything of any value if it just means we'll leave quicker. No need to kill them all, there'll be nothing to loot in a few years time once they recover otherwise. As we depart one of the raiders hands us an axe he discovered in the keep. It is ancient, most likely from the time of Great Limisolia and holding it in our hands we feel there is some kind of strange energy coursing through it, we will be sure to put it to fine use in the raids to come.   As we depart again for Crete assured that we're now carrying everything that wasn't nailed down in Seleukeia the men begin to come down with something, and then it aflicts us too. The boat journey home is spent coughing and vomiting endlessly with little to no rest, and what rest we do recieve torrments us with feverish nightmares. Lost Child curse this disease ridden place. 
Crisis Now fucked around with this message at 13:44 on Nov 16, 2018 |
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Nov 16, 2018 10:57
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These four-character Chinese names are freaking me out.
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Nov 16, 2018 14:48
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RIP PopeLP, but the duel between Sergius and Mark was an ending for the ages. Pumped for this one.Crisis Now posted:An ugly boy. What's this green trait? I don't remember seeing it before Holy Fury.
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Nov 16, 2018 16:52
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That's the symbol for the Zodiac sign of Virgo. Dunno what its effects are, though.
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Nov 16, 2018 16:55
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Are we sure Jingyang wasn't sleeping with the giant man of the island?
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Nov 16, 2018 19:02
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Gosh, all the religious parts of this make me want to go and do a running commentary on the whole situation from the perspective of one of the Oravainen high priests who picked Crete as the deepest hole in all the world to hide with his fragment of The Code. ...and hiding out is probably the operative statement, given the 7.5 Moral Authority. What's the story there? Jossar fucked around with this message at 23:49 on Nov 16, 2018 |
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Nov 16, 2018 23:44
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ninjahedgehog posted:What's this green trait? I don't remember seeing it before Holy Fury. Zurai posted:That's the symbol for the Zodiac sign of Virgo. Dunno what its effects are, though. I didn't think to check it but it actually has an effect. Seems newly born characters get their zodiac sign but pre-existing characters (so in this case Yizhi and Jingyan) have to be at least 10 learning to find out theirs, which they are not. Apparently they're not smart enough to remember what month they were born in.  Jossar posted:...and hiding out is probably the operative statement, given the 7.5 Moral Authority. What's the story there? Already played on to 787 so I cannot attest to why it was 7.5 back in 773 but it has already gone up to 40 in just ten years. MA is going to flucuate widly for the first few decades as everyone is warring and conquering in all directions until things calm down.
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Nov 17, 2018 19:31
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Crisis Now posted:Yecite I guess Iain M. Banks references aren't limited to Stellaris. They also sound like huge assholes, like their book equivalents.
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Nov 18, 2018 00:13
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Excerpt from "The Sun Casts Shadows: The Fall of the Limisol Empire and Its Immediate Aftermath" As for the followers of the Creed of Oravainen within the Empire during this period, an observation can be seen from a transition in philosophical and theological transmission: during the waning years of the Limisol Empire, interpretations of the Code were presented for submission from the priests in isolation to the organized hierarchy of the Creed in the largest city of a region, which mirrored the structure of the priests above them by providing messengers with the council's interpretation throughout a number of small towns. Throughout this process we note that the priests that dwelt in the vicinity of the Limisol Empire intensified their general practice of a highly philosophical and analytical interpretation of the Code. The concepts tended to become more generalized and simplified in concept and speech the further down the chain one went, but there is nevertheless a very clear attempt of the priests of the Empire themselves to conform to Limisolian philosophy and writing conventions, with a strictness and rigidity that is shocking considering the wide variety of writing we see from the Empire's priests only decades earlier. After the fall of the Empire, we see a drastic snap back from this a mere generation later when priests presented their interpretations to the now tribalized territories of the empire. These interpretations are much more emotional in character, with renewed emphasis placed on key phrases from the Oravainen religion itself, rather than a focus on reconciling general principles of the Creed with a more formalistic Limisol framework. Noted is repeated and ecstatic praise of The Supreme, in a rhythmic style indicating mnemonic use to help keep the contents of the message harmonized. This suggests that these interpretations were primarily sung, which is rather shocking as demonstrates the extent to which infrastructure collapsed in the aftermath of the empire such that literacy was no longer expected of a priest/priest's disciple or that there was no intermediary council to which a priest could transmit his or her interpretations of the Code and these had to be provided to the people directly who had varying degrees of education even before the empire fell as a result of declining infrastructure in locales outside of the Taoist heartlands. There is a consensus among historians that the former was a coordinated strategy among the few priests of the Creed within the Empire to make an attempt at protecting the flock. As Limisol became increasingly wary of outside forces tearing the empire apart, the priests of the Creed felt increasing pressure to be seen as "more Limisolian than Limisolians" as can be seen in their writings. But this backfired and encouraged an already contentious flock to double down on its rejection of imperial organization, as when the empire collapsed, all of the areas in which worship of the Creed of Orevainen was popular rejected the governmental institutions of the Limisol Empire. At this point, the priests either gave up on attempts to try and reconcile the Creed with Limisol thought, moved to more spiritual practices in light of a world gone mad, or were torn down and replaced with priests that were willing to do so. This is contested by at least one modern theory: Ziyang suggests that given our limited knowledge of pre-Shadow Age religious demographics this might have been an attempt on the part of the empire's priests to experiment in the face weakening Taoite influence and see if a portion of the Athenians which had previously been Taoites would be willing to embrace Orevainenard beliefs if packaged in a more familiar form. There are a number of problems with this theory, primarily in that it suggests a degree of cynicism which is not usually attributed to the otherwise traditionally contemplative and doctrinally inclusive priestly hierarchy. Ziyang counters that the Orevainenard tendency towards doctrinal harmony should not be confused with an unwillingness to play politics and points to the rise of Lost Child cults in the Early Shadow Age and conflation of the Lost Child and the Supreme with religious figures from adjacent religions or indeed each other as an example that members of the Creed were unsure even by their usual lax standards as to what the predominant form of their religion should look like. So that the reader may reflect on this matter, one fragment of the priestly interpretations (often called Codicils, in that they are meant to be smaller fragments of the Code as perceived through its guardians) on the origin of the world as dated to the Early Shadow Age is provided below: The Cretan Codicil, c. 800 LC posted:
(If this is getting too far into dumb theological speculation/dry scholarly analysis of history territory, please inform me and i'll delete this.) Jossar fucked around with this message at 18:24 on Nov 18, 2018 |
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Nov 18, 2018 04:51
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Dude. We are CK2 players. We live for either dumb alt-historical poo poo or to cause as much misery and incest as possible.
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Nov 18, 2018 05:11
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Jossar posted:If this is getting too far... Absolutely not! This world is pretty much a blank slate so any input and theories are more than welcome. I'll try to find ways to incorporate such things where I can, as in PopeLP.
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Nov 18, 2018 12:00
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Well since there's enthusiasm, might go back and add in the rest of the creation story rather than just having it cut off due to "missing text". I just thought it was funny how in Europe, feudalism seems to be in lockstep with the Taoite religion and immediately dies the instant you hit non-Taoite territory, as opposed to the Middle East and Causcaus, where throwing off the Empire seemed like more of a cultural and political deal.
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Nov 18, 2018 15:02
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Jossar posted:(If this is getting too far into dumb theological speculation/dry scholarly analysis of history territory, please inform me and i'll delete this.) 
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Nov 18, 2018 15:37
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In keeping with the Creed of Oravainen's status as a faith made of an amalgamation of religions, the (now-edited) creation story is set up to try and parallel most of the other ones/smush them all into a single text. - The Supreme being the creation of the Lost Child, and "defeating it" through superiority in the contest of creation. (Godwadian) - The fact that there is a contest where two participants take turns in making things of a similar, though reflected nature seems rather like a game. (Yeciite) - Though there will be a later story in which humanity receives its individualized status, all "complicated life" starts unified as a single creation of the Supreme. (Folcwaldingard) - The Lost Child and the Supreme are two closely related beings which, having emerged from the void in which there was nothing, created everything. (Taoite) - The Lost Child itself being that void/darkness, the fact that it is a corruptive figure, and that it runs off at the end all make it analogous to a lot of evil figures, even though it doesn't do anything itself malevolent. (Lyubech, Taoite, Muzakaian, Koknesseian) - The fact that there are 9 acts of Creation, with the 10th being the next story in which the Code is handed to mankind, distinguishing it from all other life, is not a reference to the Sankhyavatist belief that everything comes in tens. It instead justifies the independent Oravainen reasoning as to why there are ten priests that guard the Code. Of course, a Sankhyavatist would say that the reason this happens to be so is because 10 is the perfect number, OBVIOUSLY. There are probably more, but these are the ones that immediately come to mind. Jossar fucked around with this message at 16:23 on Nov 18, 2018 |
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Nov 18, 2018 16:08
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3 - 773 - 787 - The Huntress Having returned to the island the healing man sets out performing his strange procedures once more, but yet again he manages to heal us so we cannot complain about his methods too much.   Before long we are with child again and after being gifted with little Tan we decide to do everything we can this time to appease The Supreme in hope that we may have a more.. normal child. We love Tan dearly but we hope to never go through that experience again, and trying to raise him is more than a handful. Despite only being three he is size of a ten year old and has the strength of someone in their teens. Having to raise two of them sounds impossible.    Athenians favour ranged combat over messy and chaotic melees, it's much better to cut an enemy down before they can even reach you. Over the centuries our people have been developing and perfecting the crossbow, though here on the island we nether have the facilities for building and maintaining these weapons nor the experts to train islanders in it's use, we must rectify this if we wish to keep up with the mainland Athenians and the advance of the Limisolians.  Zhaodu has convinced us to take it easy for the next few weeks as the big day approaches yet again. He has been showering us with presents and trying to take on more responsibilities looking after the island while we relax, and spend time with Tan. He does not make friends easily, the other children of the island are afraid of him and he's often got his head stuck in some book brought to the island by the merchants, he is far smarter than people expect him to be.   We give birth to little Fuyuan, a perfectly normal healthy little girl. We continue to spend time away from ruling the island to be with Fuyuan for almost another half a year.   It doesn't take long however for the lure of the hunt to call to us once more. We ride out to the forests and almost come upon the fabled stag that stalks the island. He is almost within our grasp we are sure that next time we will have him us our prize.   While we are a great hunter our ability to duel one-on-one with other people is still lacking and we constantly duel with other lodge members hoping to improve. More often than not we come away bruised, battered and scared.    But we have spent too much time hunting, dueling and trying to be a good mother - our true quarry awaits us on the mainland in the form of bountiful loot. Marshal Yizhi as managed to convince a travelling band of warriors that are staying on the island to fight beneath our banner for a short while so we must not squander this oppotunity.  Our usual targets to the north may not be the best right now as the new young Empress of the HLE has inherited our father's war - to see Rahadland subjegated and made a part of 'New Limisolia'. With the masses of troops moving about and skirmishing our tiny band of raiders would be picked off in no time.  We sail along the coast south until we reach Ascalon. Once another great Limisolia city but now all that remains ruined are tribal lands surrounding a single dilapidated fortress. The local militia rides out to meet us but we outnumber and outmanoeuvre them until we capture the lord of the fortress - and sacrifice him on the battlefield in the name of the Supreme.   With the defenders delt with, looting the province was simple and we took our time packing the ships with as much as we could and return to the island. Still feeling jubilant from the success we decide to continue on to the next raid the moment we have the ships empty, feast in the drinking hall and get a good night's sleep in the arms of our husband.  The next day we sail for the mainland once more. This time north to the lands of our brethren Athenians. Thessaloniki lies at the edge of the 'civilised' world, once a Limisolian city but now thoroughly Athenianized with pagodas adorned with Taoite symbols dotting the skyline.  Within hours of arriving on the mainland we come down with something yet again, coughing and sneezing uncontrollably until we are confined to a bed in the raiding camp. Thankfully it passes by the end of the week. In the mean time scouts have been scouring the surrounding countryside, silently eliminating townguard patrols and finding weak spots in their defences. We return to our troops feeling reinvigorated and lead them on a nighttime raid in to the city, scaling the walls and sweeping the streets to take out any and all defenders we come across.   We return to Crete with our biggest haul yet. The next year is spent feasting, hunting and improving the island with our new wealth and renown, Kaneia continiues to grow and attract more adventurous people from the mainland.   Kaneia and Chandax are host to ever more festivities and our relationship with the other islanders grow immensely. And spending so much time with our husand once more it doesn't take long until we are with child yet again.     Knowing that in a few months time we will be preoccupied with our third child we quickly take the oppotunity to lead another raid to the mainland. And seeing as we had such success in the Duchy of Old Yangia that's precisely where we return, though a little further down the coast from the city of Thessaloniki this time. We capture fleeing peasants as we approach the city of Seres and on the eve of our raid on the city sacrifice those we captured in full view of the defenders on the walls. The next day The Supreme smiles upon us for our bountiful sacrifice and grants us victory.   One victory follows another and we plauge the shores of Old Yangia for months, raiding settlements, defeating Athenian patrols and robbing any passing caravans of their loot.   It almost comes as a surprise when we entered labour as we had been so preoccupied with the raiding and looting. After falling back to the warcamp and confining ourselves to our tent with a local medicine man we had captured we gave birth to a second daughter, Zhaopei.  And then after two days with her promtly returned to our duties leading the raiders.  We arrive back on Crete almost a year after we set off, bringing back with us more gold and loot than anyone on the island has ever seen before, our boats straining under the weight and some beginning to take on water as we approach Kaneia.  Tales of our endeavours have spread far and wide, and while the Limisolians and our fellow Athenians only hold ever more comtempt for us, others in the Oravainen faith are being drawn to our great Corsair stronghold. The lodge of the Light Keepers on the island has grown immensely and many other rulers from along the shores of the Great Sea will visit to train with our raiders and occasionally join them in raids themselves. There is no shortage of lodgemembers to spar and befriend.  Our father's two mainland whorespawn Daija and Yun and come of age. The former a keen steward and the latter an.. okay spy and scout. By now our popularity with the other islanders is unfounded and they would never have any hope of ousting us from power if they so wished. They would be much better suited just serving us and keeping their heads low.   Tan has almost come of age too, and we do everything we can to ensure he is prepared for the day he will have to rule Zhugelia. He is fifteen years old and stands at 7ft and could defeat a bear with one punch. While physically he could take on this whole island if he needed to there is more to ruling than just brute force and intimidation and try to remind him of that. He strives to work as hard as he can in all areas of rulership.  It's illness season again on the mainland it doesn't take long for a merchant to bring it to the island. For the fourth time in our life we are struck down with a debilitating illness and confined to our bed. Our old healing man Zang Shuji has passed away some years back and a new seemingly much older, much more experienced Taoite worshipping healer came to Crete. He barely speaks any Athenian and instead uses the Limisol tongue, despite Shuji's questionable methods he at least somehow healed us, Yixing doesn't seem to do much at all.   With our faith in Yixing waning we instead turn to our faith in The Supreme. With the erecting of a great pillar in the center of Kaneia we hope The Supreme will take mercy on us and bring health to us once more so we may serve him in our continued harassment of the Taoites.   It seems The Supreme had other plans for us. Our health only deteriorates further and with just a month to go before little Tan becomes a man we pass away to hunt in the great forests beyond.  
Crisis Now fucked around with this message at 13:37 on Nov 19, 2018 |
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Nov 19, 2018 13:17
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It is the age of Giants.
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Nov 19, 2018 15:32
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 19:28 |
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Can't wait for the intelligent, hardworking, super-strong guy to get ganked three weeks into his reign because people dislike his face
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Nov 19, 2018 15:39
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