Fantasy Dormant

[Morianrhod]

So you know how in some versions of Sleeping Beauty, the princess (and castle) stays asleep for 100 years to be woken up by true love's kiss? I want to explore the idea that an entire kingdom was affected in this manner- it had been 'dormant' for 100 years and time and the surrounding kingdoms had moved on without it.


Things I would love to explore in this roleplay would be political stuff such as old alliances changing in the kingdom's absence or vanishing completely- (example; Kingdom A and Kingdom B have an alliance. Kingdom A is affected by the sleeping curse, Kingdom B's alliance with Kingdom A is forgotten about when Kingdom B is overtaken by Kingdom C etc).


I would also like to explore the possibility that the absence of the Sleeping Kingdom has created an export vacuum, (say, quality silver candleholders or something) that while they were dormant, the kingdoms surrounding them had to get their candleholders from another further away country, or even potentially the wider ramifications that there has been a loss of knowledge/scientific/technological advances which is only recently getting rediscovered with the kingdom getting 'woken up'.

 

[NotAllThatCreative]

This sounds fun. I'm in

 

[Abyss]

Interesting concept.

 

[Glasswing]

Very interesting.

 

[The Pooka]

Interesting idea! Would the roleplay be about the sleeping kingdom or the neighbouring kingdoms? Would the curse extend geographically or socially? That is to say, would only the Kingdom's subjects fall under the curse (even those abroad) or would it only be people within the area where the curse was inflicted?

 

[Morianrhod]

[QUOTE="The Pooka]Interesting idea! Would the roleplay be about the sleeping kingdom or the neighbouring kingdoms? Would the curse extend geographically or socially? That is to say, would only the Kingdom's subjects fall under the curse (even those abroad) or would it only be people within the area where the curse was inflicted?

[/QUOTE]
I'm thinking of going it for being a geographical curse, slightly affected by distance from the location of where the spell was cursed, so right at the geocentre, those people fell asleep right away, those closest to the borders took a little longer to fall under the spell. Those who were outside of the kingdom were not affected, but people of other kingdoms that were visiting there got affected too. I was contemplating it being a once-off curse where people who came back and found the kingdom asleep weren't affected, but I thought of another idea where, vaguely like an immune system, anyone who entered the kingdom during the spell's duration eventually gets affected by the sleeping spell not to be woken until the spell's completion.


I'm hoping that the roleplay might feature predominantly upon the sleeping kingdom, but obviously if we're doing a political slant on this, other kingdoms might have to be included too.

 

[The Pooka]

In Sleeping Beauty, the cursed ground was walled off by a hedge of thorns. If this kingdom was under a sleeping spell, there would be nothing stopping the place from being ransacked. Food would spoil. Wood would rot. Plantlife would grow wild and consume the place. When everyone finally woke up, it would be to an alien wilderness, not the kingdom they knew of old. Maybe a frozen-time thing would be better?

 

[Morianrhod]

That would be a good idea for the characters, but I'm thinking that it would be more interesting if it wasn't the case, so that it might make the roleplay more challenging.

 

[The Pooka]

But why would the sleeping people themselves be undisturbed? Wouldn't people come in and carry them out of the kingdom? And what about aging? Would an infant age while sleeping? Obviously the curse would prevent them all from starving to death at least.

 

[Morianrhod]

Because the still-active curse would eventually (within an hour or so) make any new person who came into the kingdom fall asleep too. And, to clarify. It'd be an ageless sleep, the sort where everyone, old or young would not age.

 

[The Pooka]

An hour is enough time for a search team to evacuate (or loot) the outskirts of the kingdom, surely. What would happen to people who were taken out of the radius of the curse? Would they wake up again? Would neighbouring territories construct a barricade around the kingdom to prevent people from entering and falling under the curse themselves?

 

[Morianrhod]

Some of the people in the outskirts of the town were taken out of the curse's radius, but they still remained affected until the time limit was up. It would've been incredibly disorientating for the people that had happened to- one minute, you're sweeping the floor in your cottage, the next, you're a curio centrepiece in some eccentric lord's castle who's inherited you from his grandfather however many years back.


As for neighbouring kingdoms, I reckon they eventually constructed a barricade after they were losing so many young and able-bodied would-be adventurers to the curse before they could get out in time, a barricade of which was at the beginning, garrisoned and patrolled regularly, but as the decades passed, became less manned after it became apparent to them that nothing was happening.