Nation Building [Closed] 5000 BC

[Riverman]

I'm seeking anywhere between 6-14 players to participate in a game based around the theme of the dawn of early civilizations, and carrying on for however long seems appropriate. To spare myself a lot of writing, and the potentially uninterested a great amount of reading, I'll summarize the game with a few bullet points.

• The game will take place on the map file shown below, lovingly borrowed from Paradox Interactive's Crusader Kings 2.
• Players will be allowed to choose 3 connected tiles to start off with if a settled tribe, and 1 tile if starting as a nomad/herder.
• Each turn will represent 25~ years passing.
• Each turn gives an opportunity to take three actions. These actions can vary from researching a new technology (which may take more than 1 action), offensive actions to neighbours, and whatever else might be applicable.
• The success or failure of an action will be determined with an off-screen roll done by yours truly, with the difficulty of said roll being determined by the relative difficulty of the action being undetaken.
• The Game's rules, whilst not to be played around with, are fairly loose so as to allow players to be as creative as possible. There are a few hard limits that can be deduced with common sense, but if you're interested in specifics, don't hesitate asking.

Finally, those interested in joining the game should message me on my Discord (listed in my profile) for further details and to discuss the setting up of your nation. This will be done on a first-come first served basis.

(Taken tiles will be marked off as people are accepted)​

 

[Akrita]

Name of the Tribe and People: The Akritai, of Akrita.
Background to:

History:
The Akritai are a confederation of powerful tribal magnates around the geographical divide that separates Europe and Asia. Bound by common tongue, culture, and music, they have elected a leader from among themselves to better govern. Arriving to Southern Europe with the Dorian Greeks, the Dacians, the Scythians, and other such migrations, they represent themselves a fusion of multiply migratory factions. While yet relatively few in number, they hope to someday go forth to all banks of their sea, and to build a nation that will stand the test of time.

Culture:
Their culture is fusional in nature; between the native Thracian isolate, Scythian migrators, and Ionian Greek invaders. Though they speak a form of Ionian Greek, many of their rituals are wholly apart from their Dorian cousins, and make them different. Out of respect for application length, instead of explaining their entire culture, I’m going to list the tenets below:

A leadership preference that will eventually manifest in a vaguely feudal system with magnates.
A polytheistic pantheon with nine gods, less than the other Greeks, that is closed. No more.
A moralistic society with a list of virtues that could later be described as ‘Christian’. These include temperance, chastity, humility, and bravery. I’ll make a better and more full list when the culture’s more developed and more settled in their big cities.
They are vain, and pride themselves on their appearance, even if their religion frowns on it. This is the battleground between the rich folk and the later clergy.
They actively work against filth, and have a stigma against it, working towards early sanitation.
They have a love for and deep care for the sea- it is the first thing they will explore.
A structure that will eventually involve into limited democracy, with free male adult citizens selecting leadership from among themselves to create a ‘noble’ class.
Slavery? Not yet, but maybe later.

Looks:
The Akritai vary in phenotype; but contemporary sources describe them on a scale. Their hair color ranges from red to black, slowly darkening, with some browns in the middle, and their skin tone ranges from a European light to slightly tanned by the Mediterranean sun. They are not an especially tall people, but are a little taller than the native Dorian Greeks further south, and the sons of Hatti and Urartu and other such Anatolian kingdoms.

Religion:
A polytheistic pantheon, as mentioned above, with the traditional Indo-European selections. Just only nine of them. Zeus, Hera, Hades, Apollo, Artemis, Athena, Hermes, Ares, and Poseidon. I think.

Rituals:
None that should stand out too much yet, but I’ll shorthand a few ideas for you.

Some sort of harvest festival with sacrifice?
When our ~Pythagoras shows up, maybe I get a spooky number cult.
Maybe when some enemy attacks us, we drown their diplomats in the ocean as an offering to Poseidon.
We frickin love Poseidon.

Political System:
Tribal leadership, that will later develop into a system of proto-feudal noblemen lording over city-states.

Nomad or Settled?:
Settled.

Map Placement:
See below.

 

[Pat]

Mene​

A settled godless yet spiritualistic people found within northern egypt, the communalist agrarian Mene are united by a king who answers to regional chieftains appointed by councils made up of local village heads. Offspring are raised by society as a whole rather than by any particular individuals, making individual communities and tribes the basic family units. A single household typically contains two or more spouses, in addition to servants, although it is not unheard of for lesser households to temporarily combine their resources by striking mutually beneficial alliances with one another. Often, the achievement and maintenance of, privacy and independence, respectively, is the metric by which the ultimate success of these pseudofamilial arrangements are measured.

 

[mausedpotatos]

Name: Morval
History: From out of the Eastern mountains and from the nearby plains, an agricultural nation-state has arisen.
Culture: The people are not overly warlike but they will battle to keep encroaching peoples from their lands if required. They believe in one god named Dazbog. The people speak an early Baltoslavic language. The people of Morval primarily grow beets, onions, wheat, and collared greens.
Religion: There is no formal name for it, but it is an expected thing for families to work together to make offerings to Dazbog so that harvests will be good.
Political System: Local clan leaders owe fealty to the clan chieftain.
Settled or Nomadic: Settled.
Map Placement: blue bits attached!

 

[GigaMegaSuperUltraChad]

Name: Dorian Greek Tribes
Background: Arriving with the other Balkan residents during a Great Migration, the Dorian Greeks pushed further into what would one day be known as Greece. The Dorian Greeks settled in the fertile mountainous region of Laconia, forming many tribal communes, and entering a period of great wars and rivalry. Eventually, a large number of Dorian tribes would become subjugated by a great Chieftain, who would eventually give name to the tribes - Doros. Due to a long history of military feuding, the Dorians would grow a militaristic culture and prize the martial ways of thinking and behaviour above all else.
Culture: The Dorians boast a warrior-culture, placing favour on fighting and militaristic behaviour. Though they are also avid thinkers, as they simply subjugate and fight to secure a way of life. They thus have developed a callous outlook on their neighbours, partaking in slavery in order to spare themselves from labouring their land. Dorians desirLe luxury, and war brings it to them, so it's war they prize.
Government: Each small hamlet has an elder which reports to the Dorian leader of the largest settlement - The Chieftain or King.
Appearance: They have a fairly short yet stocky build. Olive tanned skin, and typically black or brown hair, accompanying brown eyes of varying shades. They tend to be very well built, due to a rich diet of meats and bread.
Location: Peloponnesia
Religion: Proto-Hellenic Paganism, placing bigger emphasis on the God of War.

 

[pubbe]

Wiilashii ​

An originally migratory people hailing from the eastern Danube and now settled around the northwestern crest of Mesopotamia against the Mediterranean sea, the Wiilashii are a fierce people who put efficiency before ethics. Their harsh culture glorifies laziness, for their conditions have never allowed it. The saying of the people is that a man who can be lazy is a harder worker than a man who cannot. Because of this, their society widely revolves around a strict hierarchical system, with the bottom of the barrel being nothing more than enforced labor, so that the most powerful men of the clan were given the luxury of rest. This labor brought strength to the weak and brought them through the hierarchy until they too could prove themselves to be as strong as their peers - and provided ample incentive do to so. There was no place for weakness in Wiilashii society, only growth.

This is reflected in their government system, an elective tribe wherein the strongest and wisest man was chosen to lead - which he would then do for life. His rule could be challenged through combat, however, though should a challenge be made and then lost - the entirety of the loser's family would be killed as their honor was stripped away.

Women are highly valued yet also heavily under the men of the tribe's thumb - they are seen as the children of Kubadaha, and inferior to men. They are protected at all costs and in turn, they are never harmed or insulted- without great shame brought upon the individual who committed such acts - yet they lack much of their own freedom and are tied to their man. Men have multiple women, and the more women a man possesses and the more children he has, the higher he appears in the hierarchy.

The religion of the Wiilashii is formed around the belief in the "twin brothers", which represented every opposing force in the world. Night and day, hot and cold, wet and dry or even ugly and attractive. These brothers were known as Timo and Kubadaha, and Timo represented all that was considered good - while Kubadaha would represent that which was bad. These things were not fixed, however - if something fell out of favor it would be considered to have fallen into the domain of Kubadaha. In culture, these two figures were represented by any entity, one of which would be large and the other small. The larger object would be green, and the smaller one red - or preferably orange if the medium allowed it, with the larger green object representing Timo and the latter his brother. Another common image for them is to have two hands, one pointing upwards and the other pointing down - still with their respective colours.

Spoiler: Map Placement

 

[DogRawz]

​

Name: Byzan
History: Originating from Northern Africa, the Byzan are a collective of war driven tribes bound by old traditions and a sense of honour.
Religion: Whilst the Byzan don't really revere to any deity or god, the shamans among their tribes are very important to the Byzan. They are sorcerers with the ability to foresee the future, cure illnesses and the bravest among the Byzan may be sent to the shamans to undergo a spiritual journey of self exploration.
Political System: despite being a collective of war driven tribes, their political system is very similiar to feudalism.
Settled or Nomadic: Settled.
Map Placement: red-purple ish bits in the North of Africa

 

[Marm]

Name: Teithwyr
History: Emerging from the valleys of the southern welsh lands, the Teithwyr is an unofficial name for a group of nomadic celtic peoples seeking to expand as much as they possibly can- to reap what they can of the lands they occupy.
Culture: Holding with them a proto-celtic culture, the Teithwyr's beliefs revolve around their fondness for travel and their inability to stay in one spot for long. It is the dream of the Teithwyr to one day hold the entirety of Albion and therefore be able to travel to their heart's content.
Religion: Whilst there is no formal organised religion, the Teithwyr offer sacrifices to the various forest creatures such as Pixies and Gwyllons.
Political System: Disorganised communes connected with vague diplomatic links.
Settled or Nomadic: Nomadic
Map Placement: Red

 

[gasnmask]

R J Y A L K


Name: The Rjyalkia, or Rjyalk

History: Once only a loosely associated group of tribal nomads on the cold shores of Iceland, Rjyalk has been unified by the arrival of a stranger to their shores, claiming to be from beyond their lands. With the outside world now of far more interest, the Rjyalkian people band together with singular purpose, and greater power.

Culture: Rjyalk is a land of harsh conditions, but the people themselves are not barbaric or uncaring. Rather, they live in close-nit communities, usually only a few families large, in which trades are taught early. Because of this, respect for mothers and fathers is ingrained into the culture, art, and traditions. Children will be expected to serve their parents at the dinner table, and care for them in old age.

Religion: The Rjyalk worship a Sky Goddess and a Water God, and in past, have been deathly afraid of the ocean. The eldest mothers and fathers of individual families are expected to serve as religious authorities within communities, and conduct yearly rituals with both burnt and drowned offerings to the dual gods. Animals, plants, and people are thought to be the children of the two gods, and death is thought to be the only enemy of their two deities.

Political System: A highly-organized conglomerate of inter-family bonds. Families are expected to meet with others in their communities, and the eldest parents of a given community are expected to meet with other community elders for council and direction.

Settled or Nomadic: Settled

Map Placement: Green​