Quick Updates and General Brainstorming Sessions
Jul 31, 2017 5:14:55 GMT
Post by admin on Jul 31, 2017 5:14:55 GMT
Hey Guys,
Time for a quick update - while currently I am busy working with the forge on the actual designs (and otherwise occupied with end of the month stuff like the digest) I wanted to make a quick post to make sure we don't lose too much momentum, and give you all an idea of what concepts we should be concentrating on next.
So here is a general brainstorming session. The first bit - the Empire at War and its relations with surrounding territories. Below is a political map of the Continent:
KEY
PURPLE: The Empire
BLUE: Suzerian Allied States (Pomedica, Tauth De and Silverleaf)
WHITE: Neautral to the Empire - generally friendly relations.
BLACK: Openly hostile to the Empire
RED: At War with the Empire
LEGIONS
The location of the legions is marked on the map - 6 Legions with 10,000 men each giving the army a total strength and size of 60,000 men. This is about double the size of a Historical Roman Legion, but less than half the size of the Roman Empire, due in part to the use of magical weapons and magic on the battlefield.
WAR
The Empire is locked into two more or less eternal wars. The first and the Oldest is with the Northmen. Currently there is no active large scale conflict, but a recent alliance between the rival Northmen Kingdoms suggests more attacks and invasion attempts are inevitable.
The main war, which has about half of the entire Imperial Army actively involved, is with Escia. While the war has been raging on and off for centuries, it has recently reached a turning point and the Empire is being forced back and a large Escian force of 10,000 men have broken out of their territory and lay siege to Windkeep Fortress while also engaging Imperial forces across the border with another 10,000 men..
AREAS CURRENTLY UNDER MY DIRECT DEVELOPMENT
Here are some areas that I already have fairly detailed plans for but have not been filled out much yet. The first is the Kingdom of Thane, which was left kind of open but eventually started to take on a life on its own. My thoughts are that this is the scene of the first war between the Paragon and his ancient Nemesis, a Death Knight. The War took place in this Kingdom and left it completely ruined. Over time, being neglected, it was overrun with Orcs. But the fertile fields call brave and hardy colonists, and within it there are now many small colonies driving back the orcs and expanding ever Westwards towards the sea..
Religion is another one that I will do - we touched on this briefly before, but basically the primary gods are the sun and the moon, followed by worship of the demi-god Paragon (the first Emperor). Lhasa follows a mystical philosophy kind of like Zen Buddhism, which has also been adopted by the people of Escia.
The Land of the Dead is also something I am personally fleshing out (pardon the pun, did not see that one until I wrote it!) - but the ideas you guys had on it are excellent and it keeps the 'undead but neutral' concept of a semi-tragic king who is basically a benevolent dictator and who considers his people to be his children.
AREAS THAT NEED YOUR IMMEDIATE INPUT!
Now, here are some areas that are kind of blank and need some serious brainstorming ideas from you all.
SILVERLEAF: Silverleaf was mentioned as a City in one of the stories accompanying an entry, and was impressive enough to go down on the early maps, but has not been developed further.. As Nokortion will be the center of magic in the Empire, it does not need to be a center of magic as was discussed briefly, but does need to be fleshed out. There are two large cities side by side, probably rivals. The the North are the elven lands - so some significant Elven influence is to be expected. It is a Suzerian of the Empire, and the only real threats are 'leakage' from the Badlands to the East and Orcs from the South coming from the Broken Kingdom of Thane.
My general thoughts that this should be an area that concentrates on trade and is largely a peaceful, sophisticated place. Perhaps a Gnome influence is appropriate.
THE ABANDONED FOREST: This is a large expanse of territory overshadowed by a Big, bad red Dragon. We have determined that the Dragon does not enter Elven lands, but is an occasional threat to the Empire and the Northmen. The lands in his shadow are empty. But he needs a better backstory, a name - and a motivation.
MASTER SMITHS: This is where we can get really creative. We should have some named Master Smiths, both historic and current. So far we have identified two - one at Batrion who is like an 'Ulfbert' and who supervises the construction of the Imperial Gladius, but also makes his own very powerful magic blades. There is a master dagger maker known as the Warlock in the Badlands (Tower of the Warlock). The magical, meteoric steel used will be called Coronatite - and the largest known remaining deposit is in the Badlands, so there should be other smiths around there too. Maybe an evil one who works with the Hobgoblins making nasty blades is a good choice.
But naturally, there should be more - especially ancient ones. Remember, Dwarves do not make swords in this world but are in a primitive barbaric state. But there could be an exception..
There should have been a famous smith who forged the Sword of Danu. The Vorpal Sword also needs a creator - perhaps a half elf in Silverleaf who forged it aeons ago to slay a Jabberwocky like monster. And who made the first Castir?
So there should be famous smiths, both living and historical, in Silverleaf, Escia, Lhasa (Jian and Dao), etc. Bascially, each land should have at least one master smith and style it is famous for.
FORGING TECHNIQUES: In a Fantasy world, forging techniques are going to be quite different with more options. What does Quenching in Dragons Blood do to a sword? We have determined a couple of things about Coronatite (previously 'Unobtanium') - the first discovered deposits were near Paragonia, but the current supply is in the Badlands. It is a meteoric steel which when alloyed with steel in equal parts can create an inherently magical blade - but only in two configuations, stretched out as a rapier or shorted to a 22" Gladius blade or less. But the sweet spot area does not allow it to work for a dagger or pilum tip (unless it is enhanced somehow, perhaps by quenching in Dragons blood).
More powerful weapons can be created with a core of Coronatite and techniques or rituals to infuse the magic of the core into the whole sword. And of course, there may be other types of steel or materials a sword can be constructed from.
So lets get into the steels and forging!
MORE CHARACTERS: The characters being developed so far are great, but the more the better. More pics and portraits, more random personalities will help flesh it all out.
IMPERIAL TRAPPINGS: We know what the Gladius of the Imperial Army looks like and that they are based roughly on an evolution of the Roman Army. We also have a pic drawn by Mr. Hoffman who created the winning entry for the Gladius which hints at the Imperial Coat of Arms.
My thoughts are that it could be two crossed Gladius and Roman style Wings (as angels wings are a theme of the Paragon too). Themes of the Empire are the Demi-god the Paragon, the Griffin, the Centaur and the Sun and the Moon.
MARTIAL ARTS: There should be several major sword schools in the Empire. Imperial soldiers would get basic training in sword and shield, pilum, archery, etc. But there should be more advanced and noble techniques studied by the Imperial Gentry (both armed and unarmed). The characteristic style of the Imperials is likely a straight line attack.
The people of Pomedica are primarily a naval Kingdom, but also have a very sophisticated urban scene with rapiers carried by the well to do, so they would need a fencing style to utilize them.
The Escians meditate and train constantly with the Castir and their top warriors are all 'sword saints' - similar to monks but who specialize in the Castir. Their techniques should be sophisticated and complex, whipping the Castir through the air in all directions.
Because some swords are magical, techniques not viable in the real world should be possible, such as breaking an opponents sword in two or cutting into a stone pillar.
CONCLUSION: I hope that the idea sparks presented here will result in some good brainstorming ideas. While there are other areas that we will eventually need to focus on, the areas above I feel are good starting points and nice and 'open' so there should not be too much doubling up of our efforts. But even if there is, that is not a bad thing. This is all just brainstorming really, nothing becomes set in stone until the website is created and as we still have several months to go before the winning swords are actually created, plenty of time. But let us do what we can to keep the momentum going..
Time for a quick update - while currently I am busy working with the forge on the actual designs (and otherwise occupied with end of the month stuff like the digest) I wanted to make a quick post to make sure we don't lose too much momentum, and give you all an idea of what concepts we should be concentrating on next.
So here is a general brainstorming session. The first bit - the Empire at War and its relations with surrounding territories. Below is a political map of the Continent:
KEYPURPLE: The Empire
BLUE: Suzerian Allied States (Pomedica, Tauth De and Silverleaf)
WHITE: Neautral to the Empire - generally friendly relations.
BLACK: Openly hostile to the Empire
RED: At War with the Empire
LEGIONS
The location of the legions is marked on the map - 6 Legions with 10,000 men each giving the army a total strength and size of 60,000 men. This is about double the size of a Historical Roman Legion, but less than half the size of the Roman Empire, due in part to the use of magical weapons and magic on the battlefield.
WAR
The Empire is locked into two more or less eternal wars. The first and the Oldest is with the Northmen. Currently there is no active large scale conflict, but a recent alliance between the rival Northmen Kingdoms suggests more attacks and invasion attempts are inevitable.
The main war, which has about half of the entire Imperial Army actively involved, is with Escia. While the war has been raging on and off for centuries, it has recently reached a turning point and the Empire is being forced back and a large Escian force of 10,000 men have broken out of their territory and lay siege to Windkeep Fortress while also engaging Imperial forces across the border with another 10,000 men..
AREAS CURRENTLY UNDER MY DIRECT DEVELOPMENT
Here are some areas that I already have fairly detailed plans for but have not been filled out much yet. The first is the Kingdom of Thane, which was left kind of open but eventually started to take on a life on its own. My thoughts are that this is the scene of the first war between the Paragon and his ancient Nemesis, a Death Knight. The War took place in this Kingdom and left it completely ruined. Over time, being neglected, it was overrun with Orcs. But the fertile fields call brave and hardy colonists, and within it there are now many small colonies driving back the orcs and expanding ever Westwards towards the sea..
Religion is another one that I will do - we touched on this briefly before, but basically the primary gods are the sun and the moon, followed by worship of the demi-god Paragon (the first Emperor). Lhasa follows a mystical philosophy kind of like Zen Buddhism, which has also been adopted by the people of Escia.
The Land of the Dead is also something I am personally fleshing out (pardon the pun, did not see that one until I wrote it!) - but the ideas you guys had on it are excellent and it keeps the 'undead but neutral' concept of a semi-tragic king who is basically a benevolent dictator and who considers his people to be his children.
AREAS THAT NEED YOUR IMMEDIATE INPUT!
Now, here are some areas that are kind of blank and need some serious brainstorming ideas from you all.
SILVERLEAF: Silverleaf was mentioned as a City in one of the stories accompanying an entry, and was impressive enough to go down on the early maps, but has not been developed further.. As Nokortion will be the center of magic in the Empire, it does not need to be a center of magic as was discussed briefly, but does need to be fleshed out. There are two large cities side by side, probably rivals. The the North are the elven lands - so some significant Elven influence is to be expected. It is a Suzerian of the Empire, and the only real threats are 'leakage' from the Badlands to the East and Orcs from the South coming from the Broken Kingdom of Thane.
My general thoughts that this should be an area that concentrates on trade and is largely a peaceful, sophisticated place. Perhaps a Gnome influence is appropriate.
THE ABANDONED FOREST: This is a large expanse of territory overshadowed by a Big, bad red Dragon. We have determined that the Dragon does not enter Elven lands, but is an occasional threat to the Empire and the Northmen. The lands in his shadow are empty. But he needs a better backstory, a name - and a motivation.
MASTER SMITHS: This is where we can get really creative. We should have some named Master Smiths, both historic and current. So far we have identified two - one at Batrion who is like an 'Ulfbert' and who supervises the construction of the Imperial Gladius, but also makes his own very powerful magic blades. There is a master dagger maker known as the Warlock in the Badlands (Tower of the Warlock). The magical, meteoric steel used will be called Coronatite - and the largest known remaining deposit is in the Badlands, so there should be other smiths around there too. Maybe an evil one who works with the Hobgoblins making nasty blades is a good choice.
But naturally, there should be more - especially ancient ones. Remember, Dwarves do not make swords in this world but are in a primitive barbaric state. But there could be an exception..
There should have been a famous smith who forged the Sword of Danu. The Vorpal Sword also needs a creator - perhaps a half elf in Silverleaf who forged it aeons ago to slay a Jabberwocky like monster. And who made the first Castir?
So there should be famous smiths, both living and historical, in Silverleaf, Escia, Lhasa (Jian and Dao), etc. Bascially, each land should have at least one master smith and style it is famous for.
FORGING TECHNIQUES: In a Fantasy world, forging techniques are going to be quite different with more options. What does Quenching in Dragons Blood do to a sword? We have determined a couple of things about Coronatite (previously 'Unobtanium') - the first discovered deposits were near Paragonia, but the current supply is in the Badlands. It is a meteoric steel which when alloyed with steel in equal parts can create an inherently magical blade - but only in two configuations, stretched out as a rapier or shorted to a 22" Gladius blade or less. But the sweet spot area does not allow it to work for a dagger or pilum tip (unless it is enhanced somehow, perhaps by quenching in Dragons blood).
More powerful weapons can be created with a core of Coronatite and techniques or rituals to infuse the magic of the core into the whole sword. And of course, there may be other types of steel or materials a sword can be constructed from.
So lets get into the steels and forging!
MORE CHARACTERS: The characters being developed so far are great, but the more the better. More pics and portraits, more random personalities will help flesh it all out.
IMPERIAL TRAPPINGS: We know what the Gladius of the Imperial Army looks like and that they are based roughly on an evolution of the Roman Army. We also have a pic drawn by Mr. Hoffman who created the winning entry for the Gladius which hints at the Imperial Coat of Arms.
My thoughts are that it could be two crossed Gladius and Roman style Wings (as angels wings are a theme of the Paragon too). Themes of the Empire are the Demi-god the Paragon, the Griffin, the Centaur and the Sun and the Moon.
MARTIAL ARTS: There should be several major sword schools in the Empire. Imperial soldiers would get basic training in sword and shield, pilum, archery, etc. But there should be more advanced and noble techniques studied by the Imperial Gentry (both armed and unarmed). The characteristic style of the Imperials is likely a straight line attack.
The people of Pomedica are primarily a naval Kingdom, but also have a very sophisticated urban scene with rapiers carried by the well to do, so they would need a fencing style to utilize them.
The Escians meditate and train constantly with the Castir and their top warriors are all 'sword saints' - similar to monks but who specialize in the Castir. Their techniques should be sophisticated and complex, whipping the Castir through the air in all directions.
Because some swords are magical, techniques not viable in the real world should be possible, such as breaking an opponents sword in two or cutting into a stone pillar.
CONCLUSION: I hope that the idea sparks presented here will result in some good brainstorming ideas. While there are other areas that we will eventually need to focus on, the areas above I feel are good starting points and nice and 'open' so there should not be too much doubling up of our efforts. But even if there is, that is not a bad thing. This is all just brainstorming really, nothing becomes set in stone until the website is created and as we still have several months to go before the winning swords are actually created, plenty of time. But let us do what we can to keep the momentum going..
