Fluff Discussions about what was going on

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BS - Torpor
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Re: Fluff Discussions about what was going on

Post by BS - Torpor » Sat Mar 30, 2019 8:23 am

Arndir´s main motivation was to not have a unified humanity, since he was confident that would lead to his realm being conquered, in time.

Ofcourse, not minmaxing, he was behind early on. He was trying to find a guilder, but there was none, and not wanting temples for rp reasons.. well, it cost him economically. He was catching up towards the end however.

He saw Anuire as the main conqueror/unifier, and wanted that stopped. While he would have liked to kill Dhoesone and shireen after the gnoll matter, that was not that big a priority, the priority was to put them on the back foot. Make them loose something(for example the gnoll island again) so their forward momentum was broken.
He was not very hostile to Ector once his temple was out of his lands. He was against Arawn, but that was because there was a source in his lands, otherwise he wouldent have bothered as much. He considered Grycemark to be pathetic, as they caused the first war with the gnoll-breeding program, only to then stop wanting to take any responsability.
(the Gnolls on the other hand,w as against said program, wich silly enough meant Anuire invaded the ones who were against said breeding and allied with those who were making it)

He was an ershegh with focus on magic. First the ability to cast magic while wearing armour, later turning into a living source, able to cast realm spells anywhere without a source(and some other minor effects). Including on the sea, including defecting those levies in the big seabattle. He had a massive pool of regency towards the end after slowing down on bloodline advancing.

Every character increase ended up being constitution for some reason, I think he was up at 22 con at the end. Add spellcasting while wearing armour, and some other defensive things from his bloodtrait, short of bad luck with saves, he would have taken alot to kill.

At the end, he just wanted to keep the central alliance and Anuire at somewhat equal size and strength, to keep him(and to a lesser degree the other elves) safe.
Tor'por
"When I was a fighting-man, the kettle-drums they beat,
The people scattered gold-dust before my horses feet;
But now I am a great king, the people hound my track,
With poison in my wine cup, and daggers at my back."
- Robert E. Howard

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BS - Torpor
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Re: Fluff Discussions about what was going on

Post by BS - Torpor » Sat Mar 30, 2019 8:27 am

Oh yes, he really wanted to push the current ruler of Grycemark out, and if they could be found, install the gnolls from the breeding program as new rulers, as they technicaly were members of the Gryce family, it would put central alliance/Anuire on a more even foooting, and it would sting Anuire badly.

But noone else he suggested this to was ever interested, so he dropped it ;)
Tor'por
"When I was a fighting-man, the kettle-drums they beat,
The people scattered gold-dust before my horses feet;
But now I am a great king, the people hound my track,
With poison in my wine cup, and daggers at my back."
- Robert E. Howard

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KB - Kargrim Bronzebeard
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Re: Fluff Discussions about what was going on

Post by KB - Kargrim Bronzebeard » Sat Mar 30, 2019 8:30 am

With regards to the god issue at the time Aeric was looking to contact existing gods like Moradin. Aeric was not convinced that men could become gods and if they could he was wary that anyone who actually wanted that power should be given it. Aeric saw Arawn as a man with all the foibles/opinions/emotions a man has. He was not that his character was any worse than the average but he did not think he would transcend his own biases if he came divine.

He felt the same about the others wanted to become gods but Arawn was the one who spelt it out in black snd white.

By the time Harald met Shireen she seemed somewhere between human and divine from her appearance. She came across rightly or wrongly to Harald as more removed from daily human concerns/biases.

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KB - Kargrim Bronzebeard
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Re: Fluff Discussions about what was going on

Post by KB - Kargrim Bronzebeard » Sat Mar 30, 2019 8:34 am

With regards to the territory thing obviously everyone was taking what they could get. The Republic was settling provinces everywhere it could often in lands near to other people. Aeric would have been very annoyed at someone settling a coastal province beside him if they country was miles away so he understood why other countries were angry at Arawn. Others did it as well but Arawn stuck out because he seemed to claim more unlinked territories all over the place than anyone else.

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KB - Kargrim Bronzebeard
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Re: Fluff Discussions about what was going on

Post by KB - Kargrim Bronzebeard » Sat Mar 30, 2019 8:41 am

The gnoll/human hybrids were all polymorphed into humans at the end as the family wanted to keep them safe.

With regards to the war Grycemark viewed it as a simple land grab rather than the gnoll/human breeding being the issue. Aeric just saw that as an excuse.

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DB - Diarmuid
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Re: Fluff Discussions about what was going on

Post by DB - Diarmuid » Sat Mar 30, 2019 12:06 pm

AD - Arndir wrote:
Sat Mar 30, 2019 8:27 am
Oh yes, he really wanted to push the current ruler of Grycemark out, and if they could be found, install the gnolls from the breeding program as new rulers, as they technicaly were members of the Gryce family, it would put central alliance/Anuire on a more even foooting, and it would sting Anuire badly.

But noone else he suggested this to was ever interested, so he dropped it ;)
Daene had actually been thinking the same and thought it would be poetic irony for the heirs of Oduk and Ethan to rule over the lands of those who had caused them to lose their first home.
"Life is like a bag of cherries, it's pretty good until you bite into the rotten one."

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DB - Diarmuid
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Re: Fluff Discussions about what was going on

Post by DB - Diarmuid » Sat Mar 30, 2019 12:12 pm

LL - Lords of Law wrote:
Sat Mar 30, 2019 4:53 am
AG - Harald Gryce wrote:
Sat Mar 30, 2019 4:02 am

Arawn - Felt that others had a point with regards to his territorial aggrandisement all around the map. Disagreed with the idea of him becoming a god due to his character. Never made this an issue but it turned me off the Republican faith whereas I was happy worshipping Moradin. Never especially close but no enmity. Did not know he was moving from the Republic to Anuire until had joined the Kingdom.
I apologize for my spy that gained knowledge of the coming invasion of Grycemark negating a surprise turn and letting Shireen know to be there. I apologize for dropping a ley line into Southgift to trap a crap load of undead and delay them long enough for you and others to muster and for Anuire to get units up there. I apologize for my territorial aggrandizement that netted me less provinces than you owned. I assure you it will not happen again.
To be fair, Arawn did none of those things out of the goodness of his heart or because it was a decent or proper thing to do. As you've already indicated, you were trying to keep people off-balance and help Arawn find a way to ascend on someone else's coattails. Seems to definitely line up with Gryce's initial assessment (and Daene's as well -- hence why he never devoted shrine power to Arawn's faith).

A Grycemark which was quickly overrun by Corbin would have made Arawn's own efforts to ascend and play patty-cake with the Shadow more difficult to achieve.
"Life is like a bag of cherries, it's pretty good until you bite into the rotten one."

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WM - The Waste Mage
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Re: Fluff Discussions about what was going on

Post by WM - The Waste Mage » Sat Mar 30, 2019 12:25 pm

No... helping Gryce was before the shadow talked to me. I was all about team Anuire and conquering the world before being approached by shadow. We were going to annihilate you all. But when the opportunity was presented to ascend and steal all of the shadow power into myself my goals changed. I wanted the power but also thought by stealing it's power I might be able to top the world resetting. Needed the war to keep going and it looked like we were going to win too fast. So I offered to lead our navy which would actually be my doppleganger so there would be 0 bonuses on our side. Needed your side to have a morale boost since I knew what our land armies were about to do.

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HW - Halmond Westerly
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Re: Fluff Discussions about what was going on

Post by HW - Halmond Westerly » Tue Apr 02, 2019 9:52 am

Malinda was putting together the strings to usurp Daene's family's position in Cariele. I had been feeding some information to Arawn about the naval reinforcements that were being had, as well as doing some adventuring to stockpile some GB's. When Daene's son took the throne, I was planning on taking some of the source holdings from the son to attempt to stop the ability to cast realm spells, and use my lieutenants to slowly start agitating against the Daene family.

During that time, I wasn't going to do anything during the war, other than slowly build support for Malinda, in Cariele, as the legitimate heir. I had just gotten the great captain, who was planned on gathering more support for the nobles, and marrying Malinda. This was to have helped solidify the support of the nobility behind Malinda, as well as start the ability to have a dynasty.

Research into the portals from the Shadow Realms had been about to start, particularly on how they opened and closed. The idea there was as much to protect people and provinces as it was to be able to put to the reduction of portals opening, as a "clear sign of the favor of the divine" for Malinda's rule.
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he to-day that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
this day shall gentle his condition.

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AD - Aeren Dhoesone
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Re: Fluff Discussions about what was going on

Post by AD - Aeren Dhoesone » Tue Apr 02, 2019 10:19 am

Gaelin was a soldier. He was a Captain of the Iron Guard of Ghoere. He was not a sneaky leader or diplomat who would tangle with people on matters of philosophy. "You Point, I kill!" is a fair description. And Shireen was the first Priest (that he knew at the time) that he met.

Gaelin provided a declaration of war against Namel before he invaded (she of course felt it was out of the blue). The only time he did not follow the conventions of war was with the Gnolls. And he had asked his religious adviser if Gnolls were even entitled to the niceties of warfare. We decided that Gnolls were not entitled. Sidhelien, Karamhul, and Humans were. Hence I always openly told people if I was going to war with them, other than the Gnolls, who were not people entitled to declaring war - they were animals to be put down. Yes, I pulled the "we were still in a state of war with the Five Peaks" noise to justify it. But the breeding program... disgusted Gaelin. He was willing to let the Gnolls be his vassal, like you would keep a pet dog. His offer was pretty fair. During every war Dhoesone was ever involved in, I offered pretty fair peace terms with limited scope, and openly told people what I was going to do if they did not accept peace. The fact that no one else could engage in a limited war is what caused things to continuously spiral out of control, and that no one else seemed willing to properly judge their own limitations and exposure.

Namel did, and can probably attest to the fact that after we signed the peace/vassalage (in name only), I never did anything to damage her. The Polska brought it on themselves, when they breached the alliance agreement. I don't care if they felt it was justified, the moment they did that, there was no treaty agreement with them anymore, and subverting the leadership of Poland was deemed the best way to maintain the soul of the treaty, and keep our word with Namel.

Gaelin was not actually a racist. His original Oath was to protect all Colonists. And it is an important distinction to understand: Gaelin did not pillage Sidhe because they were Sidhe, or any race (except the Gnolls) because of their race if it came up. He would have pillaged humans to the exact same degree, if it made sense for his war aims. Gaelin did strongly believe each race should self-govern, and that humanity needed to unite. He was not wed to the idea that he was the leader of humanity. He was willing to step down to expand Anuire to include The Meadowlands, for example.

Gaelin took his oaths seriously. And was largely self-restrained. He did not rise to people sending assassins after him, calling him names, claiming nonsense about him. Murdering his vassals as some common street thug, and throwing heads around. None of it mattered, only his mission did.

Treating Wzebora like a little child. That, probably, is the only thing he did that was kind of lacking in restraint...

I regret never reaching out to Olaf. I kept meaning to, but kept being distracted by other issues. I obviously would have wanted him to join Anuire, but largely I approved of the SRF-Polska-Olaf alliance idea. I figured they'd be natural allies to Anuire, or at least stay out of the sphere of influence of the north and keep to themselves.

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