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Post by admin on Aug 6, 2017 7:53:53 GMT
 OVERVIEW Once consisting of two nations, the lands of the Qahoori Nomads to the West and the Ancient Kingdom of Khartoum to the East, both nations were subjugated by the armies of Thane and the people enslaved and unwillingly pressed into military service over 1000 years ago. While devestated by the wars, after the fall of Thane the previous ruler and Pharoh of Khartoum returned to his lands and, with the aid of the Necromatic magic he had learned while in the reluctant service of the DeathKnight, raised the dead and began rebuilding and expanding Westwards to claim the empty deserts previously occupied by the now extinct Qahoori Nomads. In the centuries that followed, the Lich King as he came to be known, has largely withdrawn from the day to day affairs of running his Kingdom, and maintains both a regular army at Ankarath, and a much larger force of undead warriors at his home base at the Burning Temple. While feared and even despised outside of his Kingdom, the Lich King is neither good nor evil, nor has plans of conquest and world domination - but only to preserve the culture and the livelihood of his people, whom he considers himself a father to. His undead minions, which outnumber the living 5 to 1, are generally hidden away or dressed in robes and wear golden masks to cover their skeletal visage. NAMED AREAS ANKARATH: The Capital, controlled by the Lich Kings council, all of which have direct telepathic links to him. The undead minions are rarely seen here openly. A major trading seaport - Ankarath is a rich and prosperous place with bustling markets, foods from every corner of the continent and a rich cultural scene, the Lich King being a major patron of the arts. NEMRU CITADEL: Is completely manned by skeletal warriors, it appears almost deserted if causually observed, but actually garrisons over 20,000 undead warriors without the need for food, water, entertainment or any of the other usual expenses needed to maintain an army of this size. The lands surrounding it are the only truly fertile farmlands. MAKALANI STRONGHOLD: Another 'unmanned' outpost, this one with 5,000 undead soldiers ready and waiting for the Lich Kings order. NEBTASAI PASS: The pass contains scattered throughout the valley many natural mineral deposits, including steel, copper, tin and one of the biggest gold mines on the continent. What makes it so different from anywhere else is that the vast majority of the miners are undead with a handful of human supervisors and families. THE FORBIDDEN DESERT: The largest desert on the continent, it is a haunted place at night, with the angry spirits of the murdered Qahoori Nomads attracted to the living like moths to a flame. QUSEMU: An Oasis town that was once the central meeting place of the Qahoori Nomads, it has recently been re-established by a rebellious necromancer who is raising his own army in the desert. The reason for his rebellion, and the reason that the Lich King has taken no action against him, is known only by the Necromancer and the Lich King.. KARAMENTONEN: Originally inhabited by the Qahoori as hunting grounds, Karamentonen is situated next to a large oasis with additional bore water supplies. Over the years this town has grown into a city in its own right, trading by sea and serving as a hub for several gold mines in the hills. THE MOTIONLESS SHORE: Once a Thanish town and stronghold, the city was unwittingly built too close to the Loch. Reclaimed by the Land of the Dead, it was wiped out some 600 years ago overnight by the Tentacled Horror - its first appearance. THE BURNING TEMPLE: Was sacred to the Qahoori Nomads, and destroyed during the invasion of the Thanes - it has been partially rebuilt, and an extensive labyrinth exists below it from where the Lich King has his throne, and his amazing treasure hoard to rival even the oldest Dragon.. MORE STUFF Just a few quick pics of the Lich King that I have obtained the license to use for the main site to give you a better idea of how I envision him. PIC ONE: The Lich King when he was still alive, returning to his Kingdom after the defeat of the Thanes. He studied Necromancy under the DeathKnight - though for some reason was not corrupted by it.  PIC TWO: The Lich King as he appears in public today (which is rare). He wears the golden mask to cover his fleshless face. The 'skin' you see on the rest of his body is actually a suit magically swathing his body, taken from executed criminals (the worst punishment of all is to be skinned alive and condemned to work in the mines - the soul trapped inside, stuck until the bones finally crumble to dust in a state of constant pain and a nameless fear. Punishments in the Land of the Dead tend to be severe and terrifying).  I have lost track a little of the previous discussions we had about the Land of the Dead and the character of the Lich King (and the names we decided upon) so if someone could refresh us here in this thread, that would save me a lot of time trying to consolidate it all here. |
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sevicler
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Post by sevicler on Aug 6, 2017 8:45:39 GMT
The Lich King's name that the forumites chose is T'shering the Eternal.
Vincent; "...perhaps T'shering the Eternal is actually an assumed name or a title of rank, like Darth (Name) from the Star Wars franchise. It could also be a bit of an in-joke among the Lich King's council, because T'shering already means "long lived", but most people didn't know that, so they attached "the Eternal" onto it at a later date, letting the council members have a laugh at their leader's expense, since their title is now 'Long Lived the Eternal'."
But if he were to have a True Name, I would give him 'Umr at-Tawil (Arabic عمر الطويل) The [Most Ancient and] Prolonged of Life).
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Post by admin on Aug 9, 2017 4:27:51 GMT
Thanks Servicler, I remember the 'in-joke' about his name, that is staying in there.. Lol.
I will be locking this one down soon, so anyone else have any further ideas, now is the time to put in your $0.02.
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Post by Vincent Dolan on Aug 9, 2017 7:05:34 GMT
I haven't honestly been paying much attention to this sub-forum since I've been busy with life problems and just haven't really felt the muse descend. But I should be able to come up with something, as I feel this is the one aspect of this world I think I contributed the most to. > In addition to necromancy, I think T'shering should have some skill in conjuration from the magic thread; specifically, creating weapons. I've played mages in numerous video games and there's really only two situations where a mage doesn't need to be skilled in melee combat: either they have a strong party to kite enemies and tank damage or they have such overwhelming AOE spells that they can essentially nuke the battlefield. Depending on how strengthened the undead are, the first might be possible, but the second most certainly does not apply. Being able to summon and use a sword when the enemies get too close is definitely worthwhile. With that in mind, I (rather biasedly) imagine him wielding a longsword with a serpentine blade. He doesn't actually need it as he has retreated so much from the public life, but he still keeps up his skill with it, as a long life has taught him to be prepared for any eventuality. Personality wise, I think he would be the long suffering sort; he's grown weary of dealing with the living and so has secluded himself away within a massive library where he reads adventure novels and just groans in exasperation whenever he actually has to deal with people. He regularly receives new shipments of books from Ankarath via the coastal town. > Culturally, I would picture them as being naturally guarded around foreigners given how their nation is thought of beyond their borders, but internally being a rather mercantile people, started by the Lich King's policy of renting out the services of the undead. Due to the often high rental fees, the people prefer to barter, trading items or services for what they want so they can save their coin to retain the services of their undead servants; the wealthy would be able to purchase longer term contracts than those less well off, but the Lich King tries to be as fair as possible, so it all evens out to roughly the same amount in the end. As a result, many of the people love to haggle to get the best deal, though it's all good-natured because they feel a strong sense of community with their people; after all, they often feel as if the whole world is out to get them, so they'd best stand together. > Technologically, I think they would be somewhat behind in terms of military arms, with the primary weapon of their undead troops being a broad shotel (pictured below) and a domed rattan round shield (pictured below); armor would primarily be thick linen with the occasional linothorax, but as the majority of their troops are undead (and likely skeletal to boot), linen robes patterned after the type they commonly wear in daily life are the norm. However, they should have significant advances in medicine, being a desert culture where a misstep could be fatal (often literally, given the number of venomous creatures found in deserts), with numerous remedies for just about any illness one could think of. I like to think they would also have discovered the process of desalination, being a desert culture on the coast of a major ocean, alongside water preservation techniques and quality, if winding, roads to allow them to deliver it to the major cities and some of the more medium sized ones.   (Shotel sampled from a discussion on VikingSword.com; Replica rattan shield produced by Wing Lam Enterprises) > While the Lich King can conjure his serpentine longsword, he's not quite skilled enough to be able to actually craft a sword whenever he needs one as his talents lay elsewhere, however his sword is one of the very few forged by the infamous swordsmith, Dzvezda, some decades ago. Originally from the more western regions of the Aleutian Empire, she was exiled when her unconventional blade designs developed a nasty reputation after a few were used in rather high profile assassinations; one of the surviving examples went on to be copied by a group of bandits that plague the highways of the Empire to this day. She forged a number of swords for the Lich King that he would award to people for meritorious valor and have since become family heirlooms. > Elsewhere, while the Nemru Citadel is garrisoned almost entirely by skeletons, many are also repurposed for the cultivation of the flax plants that are grown in the nearby lands alongside much of the food that is necessary for the cities to function. It would be an almost impossible to ignore target in the event of invasion, which is the main reason for such a large garrison and its almost deliberate appearance of being rundown and abandoned, the crops growing seemingly wild. That's all I've got for now, unfortunately. |
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Post by AndiTheBarvarian on Aug 9, 2017 7:54:53 GMT
In the bestiary thread I had the Idea of two groups of evil paladins.
Big jewel crusted skeleton magic warriors/generals ("Jewel Princes") in rivalry to the same number of old demon like warlocks ("Dukes of Hell") simular to Kali, Loki, Lucifer, Santanico Pandemonium or whatever.
They would be busy with intrigues to each other which could be the reason for the undead not conquesting other land.
The Lich King uses this rivalry to rule them.
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admin
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Post by admin on Aug 9, 2017 10:46:59 GMT
Its all good guys, I will incorporate as many ideas presented here as possible. The Talisman angle is excellent and I think gives the Escians what is needed to survive as hand to hand militants in an age of magic..
I really like the idea that the Lich King is a bookworm..! This is what makes it all so unexpected, that normally when you think of a Lich King you think of something steeped in evil necromantic magic. But it doesn't necessarily has to be that way.. I would imagine the Lich King is indeed the long suffering type and probably is beyond anger these days - his emotions likely range from mildy annoyed to mildly pleased and is generally stable and the same from day to day, week to week, year to year, century to century by now (he is about 1080 years 'old', and has no need for sleep but probably kind of hibernates or 'vagues out' for days or weeks at a time as he 'ages')..
Maybe eventually he will go into stasis of some type..
One final thing, he is probably REALLY hard to destroy. Even if his body was damaged, perhaps he can animate any dead body in the vicinity at will. He may also be able to do this with any of his servants. Never know who is watching in the land of the Dead..
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sevicler
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Post by sevicler on Aug 9, 2017 11:09:01 GMT
Its all good guys, I will incorporate as many ideas presented here as possible. The Talisman angle is excellent and I think gives the Escians what is needed to survive as hand to hand militants in an age of magic.. I really like the idea that the Lich King is a bookworm..! This is what makes it all so unexpected, that normally when you think of a Lich King you think of something steeped in evil necromantic magic. But it doesn't necessarily has to be that way.. I would imagine the Lich King is indeed the long suffering type and probably is beyond anger these days - his emotions likely range from mildy annoyed to mildly pleased and is generally stable and the same from day to day, week to week, year to year, century to century by now (he is about 1080 years 'old', and has no need for sleep but probably kind of hibernates or 'vagues out' for days or weeks at a time as he 'ages').. Maybe eventually he will go into stasis of some type.. One final thing, he is probably REALLY hard to destroy. Even if his body was damaged, perhaps he can animate any dead body in the vicinity at will. He may also be able to do this with any of his servants. Never know who is watching in the land of the Dead.. Looks like everyone important who played a huge part in the war 1000 years ago went into stasis and came back recently  First the Witch. Who may be an acquaintance or even mentor to the first emperor, Paragon. Now the Lich King. Taking a personal stance in controlling his nation and people The modern day sounds really exciting. Two god-like beings of immeasureable power waking up and wreaking havoc. These two may even eclipse the Death Knight in overall threat level. |
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Post by onekelvin on Aug 9, 2017 17:01:03 GMT
I imagine that if the Lich King's entire shtick is to preserve his culture that the few living inhabitants of his kingdom would have it pretty well off. Outnumbered 5-1 by the dead yes, but treated to a life of luxury among the dunes, watched over by gold-masked servants. Doesn't sound to bad to be living in the kingdom of the dead. Also it is worth noting that the Pyramids and Temples in Egypt were built largely with slave labor. Slave labor that needed to rest, be fed, housed, and given time for daily life lest they get too fed up with their situation and revolt (which many times they did anyway.) If the majority of the undead are not sentient, then they are in essence prefect slaves, one step from automata. This means 24-hour building, farming, or fighting. It means storing them in a shed in rows. It means no morale problems or time off. In addition to the massive building projects he could complete in a short time I could see every living household in the Kingdom of the Dead owning or wanting to own a skeleton for manual labor. A person may even will their bones to their descendants so as to ensure they have a skeleton to do work for them in the future. Picture little Sisma-Ra playing fetch with grandpappy's skeleton before it goes out to work the fields. XD And by big building projects I'm talking big.  Like mountains of carved stone arches and pillars, artificial vistas-type big. Imagine a promenade, stone above, stone below, tall pillars behind you, and nothing but open air in front - carved into a cliff, a pyramid, or just built in the desert, stretching for miles. A road through the desert would be one single building - hundreds of miles stone tiles, arched pillars, and steps down the sides - all just to support a tiled roof so that the living may travel in the shade. A temple would take the place of a desert mountain - the entire mountain squared off, an immense cube of living rock, with an outer wall just as high and pillars underneath. Kind of a statement about the dead's mastery over the environment. After: Before:This will still work of the undead are sentient. There would be this sense of generational duty, that in order for the easy and pleasant life you live to continue for you and your children you must work in the afterlife. No pain, no exhaustion, but when your time comes you must work long and hard to sustain those who are still alive. |
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admin
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Post by admin on Aug 10, 2017 10:41:30 GMT
Looks like everyone important who played a huge part in the war 1000 years ago went into stasis and came back recently :) First the Witch. Who may be an acquaintance or even mentor to the first emperor, Paragon. Now the Lich King. Taking a personal stance in controlling his nation and people The modern day sounds really exciting. Two god-like beings of immeasureable power waking up and wreaking havoc. These two may even eclipse the Death Knight in overall threat level. Actually, the Lich King is going the other way.. Still exciting times, especially because we still got more good guys and bad guys to add.. ;-) The Lich King is slowing down a bit probably BECAUSE he has been taking a personal stance in controlling his nation and people for over 1000 years, which is enough to take the wind out of anyone's sails.. And yes, agreed that the Witch did indeed know and get on okay with the Paragon, though it is probably being swept under the carpet and considered heresy due to current poor relations between the Empire and the Deathless Witch.. ONEKELVIN: Spot on - life is not too bad for the living in the Land of the Dead (and not too bad for the dead either, certainly a much more active 'afterlife' than in other Kingdoms..). The skeletal slaves are basically mindless - I suppose the only disadvantage of this is that if they are not supervised properly, instead of the problem of revolts by human slaves you would get stupid interpretations of orders on occasion, as they don't reason and just try to do what they are told as best as they can understand it.. Great posts guys, will start entering it all into the dedicated site and lock it down like the others when it is done. |
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Post by celegon on Aug 10, 2017 19:53:24 GMT
this region reminds me a lot of the planet koriban from star wars, a land filled with tombs,temples and statues
im working on a number of beastiary descriptions and one is gargoyles, what do you guys think. would they be a good fit for this area or should they be used in another?
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Post by onekelvin on Aug 10, 2017 20:06:01 GMT
this region reminds me a lot of the planet koriban from star wars, a land filled with tombs,temples and statues im working on a number of beastiary descriptions and one is gargoyles, what do you guys think. would they be a good fit for this area or should they be used in another? I think they could work; you'd just shave to specify that gargoyles came in different "breeds". It wouldn't make sense for a grey, granite, demon-shaped gargoyle to be on top of a sandstone Egyptian-style temple, but a sandstone hawk-gargoyle would look right at home up there. Here are some different ones:     In that vein a gargoyle would be a "sub-species" of animated statue or golem, a smaller version made of almost anything but usually stone, and set on the roof rather than in a hallway or in the center of a courtyard. They would probably rely of surprise and numbers to overwhelm intruders rather than the regular combat tactics of an animated statue. They may even try suicidal attacks by silently jumping off a high position and guiding themselves down to crash on the enemies head. The impact of the stone alone could kill, and if they aren't wearing a helmet the head and body might cushion the gargoyle enough that it survives the fall and can then attack any other (likely surprised and stunned) intruders. |
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Post by celegon on Aug 10, 2017 20:14:40 GMT
oh yea thats makes sense. gargoyles can be found anywhere but their appearance and material changes with region ( i just posted in the Lhasa thread about enchante jade statues, so they can be a form of gargoyle also ) and whatever the gargoyles are made from is enchated by magic to come alive when needed ,or come alive at night.
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admin
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Post by admin on Aug 14, 2017 5:13:00 GMT
This makes a lot of sense. In Japan, there are stone guardians like these guys:  Come to think of it, most cultures have stone temple guardians of some type.. In our world, we could lump them all together as one group and each cultural version would have powers appropriate to the culture it comes from. Perhaps in the land of the dead there could be greater form versions, such as giant Anubis or Sphinx commanded by the Lich King like a puppet?  After all, it is not much of a stretch from animating the dead to animating inanimate objects.. They should also have the 'standatf' guardian gargoyles, but I think having two or three massive statues that can be used in times of war would be another good reason not to mess with the Lands of the Dead and leave them to it (as a balance factor for these huge statues, perjaps they start to de-animate when they leave the border of the Lands of the Dead and unless they return quickly, will end up stuck as a huge statue in the wrong territory. Heck, maybe there is one like this somewhere already that the Lich King can't get back..  |
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Post by onekelvin on Aug 14, 2017 6:11:16 GMT
That's an idea: Animated statues aren't self-sustaining and need a nearby power source to keep them functioning. That would keep them from being overused in war as taking out the "generator" (crystal, mage, glyph-carved obelisk) would cause the statues to run out of steam quickly and de-animate. Most living statues are probably intimidating (have you played Path of Exile?), but still not too much trouble for properly equipped living warriors. Natural stone/marble/jade is probably more attuned to magic and easier to keep animated, but the time required to carve an aesthetically pleasing unit would limit the number seen in civilian settings.  Their main allure from a functional standpoint is the never tiring, and the constant vigilance. Perfect guards. You may see crude ones deployed around military camps as supplement guards, but don't expect the flawless facial features of temple guardians or protectors set in the governor's garden. Animated armor would be nasty to deal with, and nigh-impossible to kill, but being metal it might take even more effort to animate than the stone or clay of standard statues. Armoring an animated statue might help it survive longer, but the armor won't be alive, and since you'll probably be using hammers against them anyway armor probably wouldn't help too much. Animated bronze or gold statues follow the same rules as the armor or clay. If it's filled with clay and the clay is animated, then breaking the clay runes apart inside kills the statue. If it's just bronze and the bronze is animated then it's going to be like fighting the terminator... until you get far enough away from the power source, or just break the power source. Also mechanical warriors may be a sub-set of animated statue, but since the enchantments can be made simpler due to the mechanics making up for them. (An animated statue needs a complex enchantment of intelligence as well as enchantments of articulation and strength for all limbs, fingers, elbows, etc. A clockwork man only needs an enchantment for intelligence and a power source.) Therefore mechanical warriors can be made fully self-sustaining because they need less magic to accomplish the same thing. The dead may do hybridization for their statues and the larger sphinxes and guardians. An existing, interred undead may act as the "brain" of the creature, while the body uses standard animating enchantments but on a scale that only the dead have the labor or patience for. When the creature leaves the border, the undead loses coherence due to distance from whatever it is makes the undead live in the Land of the Dead, and thus the statue is immobilized due to either the brain or the body losing power. This all might be better in the bestiary but er... hmmm....  |
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Post by celegon on Aug 14, 2017 6:22:20 GMT
i added a gargoyle submission on the bestiary thread. but if you feel like you can expand that or add your own ideas please feel free to do it magic and spells arent really my expertise lol but bronze statues...hmm i always loved this scene  |
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Post by admin on Aug 24, 2017 10:13:33 GMT
Land of the Dead (aka Greater Khartoum) has been consolidated and added to the dedicated site - thread locked.
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