Lord of the Octoroks, all hail!
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- Oct 8, 2012
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Have you ever felt some sort of dissapointment at the notion that your character's actions are irrelevant after a particular roleplaying experience, because when it is done then it was all for naught?
What if it was different?
Maybe it takes place in another part of the world or it explores different themes... but you know that your characters and the actions taken by them before actually happened in the same world, and maybe those actions (if great enough) are bound to have had a lasting effect upon the world!
That is the intention with this latest project. It's a unified fantasy setting, which means that you will be able to experience all roleplaying experience through the same world from now on!
I am further expanding some ideas from Crimson Hearts into the unified fantasy setting. While dropping the ability system that was too specific, it is being replaced it with a much more free and open system that still allows for extensive specialization - the summoning system, for example, will now involve golems, and be just one set of abilities amongst many more.
Now a bit of in-universe history, and a base map.
Modern History of Balgrantos
Modern History of Balgrantos
Of Revolution 1648 started with the murder of a monarch. The throne was left vacant, and the aristocracy threatened to submerge the realm into the chaos of a sucession war, while neighboring nations attempted to expand their borders by swallowing the breakaway lands of such competing nobles. That would have been the end of Balgrantos, if only things had gone slightly differently.
But as it happens, fate decreed that a particular character made his appareance then, one of those characters who appear only once every thousand pages, and whose destiny is almost always to change everything. This man had risen from amongst many and challenged the ruling structure that governed the realm, and through a brilliant combination of grand strategy and battlefield tactics, lead his armies towards victory across the countryside, storming each province undefeated and ousting the local nobles which had caused so much damage to the country through their petty infighting.
The revolution was a resounding success when the remaining aristocrats finally submitted, deciding to join Louis Landrenau's forces rather than to invoke his wrath.
Of Empire The year ended with the ascention of Emperor Louis I Landreneau of Balgrantos to the throne. The former revolutionary leader had been appointed to the position in accordance with the newly created Balgrantos Consititution, which established the position to be lifelong, non-hereditary, and elective by a simple majority within the now permanent Balgrantos Senate.
Despite the fact that it had been a compromise, the constitution had the most profound effects; most importantly the commoners were elevated to citizens with aknowledged natural and legal rights (amongst them the right to own property), while the aristocracy had been greatly weakened in the provinces with them losing their personal levies to the centralized state, but at the same time given control over said centralized state through the senate so long as they abided by the constitution - this effectively secured peace and prosperity within the realm, with the Balgrantos Emperor being the only one able to grant or revoke titles and command the armies, and the Balgrantos Senate in turn appointing the Balgrantos Emperor.
Risen from the ashes, Balgrantos had been reborn. It was during the first quarter of 1649 when the newly formed Balgrantos Imperial Army forced the armies of the invading enemies to retreat, but not satisfied, pursued them further into their own territory and coerced them to sign an unconditional surrender - they were turned into protectorates, which as the name implies, meant that they were forced to disband their armies and instead rely on the protection of their parent country, while at the same time their government was filled with submissive ministers who quickly drafted a knock-off constitution.
Once again Emperor Louis I Landreneau of Balgrantos, who had lead the charges himself, showed his prowess in both battlefield and negotiation table. Upon his return, the Balgrantos Senate conferred upon him a standing ovation after a victory discourse in an event often referred to as 'the second coronation' for it was when he confirmed his superiority, and for entire weeks the citizens cheered on the streets and threw parades on his honour. It was at this time when Balgrantos had shown the world it had the strenght to defend its revolution, that the idea of 'Peace of Balgrantos' began to take hold amongst the population - the thesis stated that the empire could not stay passive at the world stage while its population enjoyed the fruits of the revolution, but rather that the empire had an humanitarian responsability to spread the the revolution through the world so all peoples could enjoy it. The duality between empire and revolution became ingrained in the people's belief, there could be no revolution without the empire nor the opposite.
It must be understood that at this time, partially due to propaganda, the Revolution and the Empire had both aquired important fanatical undertones. Hundrededs of journals had been published independently during this period, all encouraging the spreading of ideas; most of them portrayed caricatures of foreign monarchs and ministers, all plotting to destroy the revolution and the empire, which for most of the citizens (which had finally been aknowledged as such) was simply unacceptable.
Of War and Peace Through the following years (1649-1656) Balgrantos would militarize the country further, preparing for the inevitable confrontation against the enemies of the revolution and the empire. The negotiations had collapsed following the refusal of the empire to withdraw from its protectorates, a demand which the foreign powers had brought upon the table as necessary to ensure the peace and prosperity of the continent. None of the parts would concede, as the protectorates notably shifted the balance of power.
Of utmost importance during the militarization was the creation of specialized batallions, which used trained alchemist as an essential part of their general strategy and battlefield tactics, changing the course of battles in mere seconds; under this newly established system, all alchemists needed to register to legally continue with their personal activities, and imperial alchemists were given priviledges which outweighted the risks of the battlefield for most of them.
The government had gone to great lenghts to ensure everyone understood the changed roles of the alchemists, now as weapons for empire and the revolution, for Balgrantos. But it was still difficult to shake off preconceived notions from ages past, in which alchemists were wanderers, wielding great powers that could bring great changes upon the isolated settlements in which they arrived, and thus were greatly feared.
Towards the end of this period, Balgrantos finished yet another project of theirs. The combined efforts of military engineers across the empire had finally culminated with the development of the airship, granting their owners a clear advantage which would go on to re-define military strategy through the following centuries. These flying behemoths were most terrifing in battle, able to persuade would-be-enemies to surrender before a battle started.
The Continental Coalition was formed in 1657, as a powerful alliance between all other nations in the continent, condemning the expansionist thesis that Balgrantos had embraced; believing themselves capable of achieving victory if they stood together, they sent an ultimatum demanding the empire's withdrawal from its protectorates, threatening with a full-scale invasion of the empire's borders.
Emperor Louis I Landreneau of Balgrantos is believed to have said, upon receiving the letter: "Neither can revolution nor empire be stopped. The only thing that can be done, is for their children to give them direction through victory". Needlessly to say, the war was on.
Of Victory and Defeat
It was 1661 and Balgrantos had utterly swept through the world; the ambitious campaign for world conquest had been launched a few years prior, and the people of the empire could almost feel the sun within their grasp already. Althought competent, the Continental Coalition found itself rapidly losing ground against superior forces, and at this point half the allied countries had been defeated and occupied, while the other half were already crumbling.
In retaliation towards their defiance, the defeated countries of the Continental Coalition were stripped from their independence and turned into protectorates dependant upon Balgrantos. Of course, all resistance movements were initially supressed. But unlike in the homeland, the protectorates were drained from all their resources and became the battlefields of numberless battles during the ongoing conflict, thus their people suffered the consequences of poverty and disease, which in turn inevitably lead to crime and ultimately rebellion.
While in theory the people of the protectorates had been given the same rights as those living in the homeland, when all the previously mentioned problems are coupled by the corruption and discriminations from the occupation force, the truth of the matter was that it would take a long while before they were considered as anything more than third-rate citizens or as 'those who lost the war'.
The small Republic of Remenellia was amongst the Continental Coalition nations left adrift at the mercy of history's restless tides. Our own story begins in this ruined and disgraced country, in which there were still those who with great hope fought for the justice that they had been denied, for it is known as a truth amongst historians that great hopes make great men - and great man don't live in vain, for the history of the world is but the biography of great men.
The map is currently empty, but will be filled soon enough. It's an archipelago that is supposed to be similar in size to Western Europe.
The Map
Edited by Arcvalons, January 31, 2013, 7:50 pm.
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