Distant Lands (an ASOIAF CK2 Quest)

Some rulers are chosen at birth, marked as one of the privileged few who head the ship of state, groomed to take their place at the head of a nation by a small army of tutors and teachers before they step into the role. You are not one of those people. You were never meant to take power, but through some combination of fate and effort on your part, you now have it. The question is, what will you do with it?

The opportunity is there, you can see a destiny unfolding for you, how the history books speak of the great works brought about by………. What is your name again?
[ ] Name (Write in)

Ah, that's right, and you are a:
[ ] Gender (this will have story consequences):
-[ ] Man
-[ ] Woman
-[ ] Ruler

Who has recently become:

[ ] The newly crowned ruler of the Kaezarian Empire
Astride the strait of Grador sits the Kaezarian Empire, a relative newcomer to the game of empires. It is an elective monarchy, where those descended from the founders of Kaezaria vote to elect one of their own as monarch-for-life. You have come to power in the wake of the death of your father, the previous Emperor, in an abortive coup attempt by disgruntled nobles irked by his efforts at reform. Unfortunately for the conspirators, they failed to secure the loyalty of the army, and were ultimately slaughtered to a man, but only after leaving you the only survivor of the Imperial family. The remaining noble families then voted to place you, a 19 year old, on the throne in honor of your deceased father. Now you will have to live up to his legacy.

• Pros:
  • Your army organizational structure and large population allows you to absorb substantial losses and continue fighting.
  • The Kaezarian Imperial Army is well rounded, providing good heavy infantry, heavy cavalry, and best of all, a large corps of experienced archers.
  • Your geography provides a natural barrier to attempts by the Dhizars to subjugate you, and a fertile plain to grow crops.
  • Your father's reforms have put the Empire on an upward trajectory, crushing the entrenched privileges of certain nobles and conducting land reform to satiate the plebes, creating a professional corps to anchor the Kaezarian Army, and smashed the Ipali threat once and for all.
• Cons:
  • You are only the third member of your family to take the throne, and Kaezarian dynastic politics are notoriously unstable, you may not be able to secure any children you have the throne.
  • Unfortunately you can't be sure that you caught all of the people who hated your father for his reformist ways, there may still be several factions which aim to topple you.
  • Many electors likely believed you would be an easily manipulated puppet, proving them wrong may draw their ire.
  • The number of troops and the amount of money available to you has been decreasing as increased power is consolidated in the hands of certain noble families. The creation of a standing force and the institution of land reform has helped, but has imposed an additional immediate burden on your treasury and angered many powerful interests.
  • Your trading options are……. lacking, to say the least.
  • You are surrounded by hostile powers, to the South lie the Qezetica, a confederation of tribes seeking new opportunities for glory, and to the North are the Dhizars, who have their eyes set on the restoration of Gaboor's glory and field an impressive force for the task.

[ ] The leader of the Farasan revolt that toppled the King of Hel'dah
Northernmost of the three successor states to Gaboor the Mighty's short lived empire, Hel'dah exhibits a curious contrast of fertile land, some of the best in the world, and arid desert. The Great Lake feeds its triumvirate of rivers, alongside which the majority of the people live, and traders from as far away as the Summer Isles and Zildinia call the markets of Marathdur their home. The former King squandered this potential, refusing to confront the pirates and Dhizars, and growing fat off the labor of his slaves, behaviour not befitting a servant of the Almighty Pentarchy. So you, the commander of his elite slave-soldiers, rose up, and the toad died by the hand of his own palace guard. Now the Farasan do not serve, they rule, but it remains to be seen what form this rule shall take….

• Pros:
  • You are essentially creating a state from scratch, and can shake the status quo up quite a bit.
  • The personal loyalty of the Farasan, a corps of professional cavalrymen numbering 10,000 in total.
  • Given the fact that you are a Faras, you possess considerable skill with a blade, and a fair bit of combat and tactical experience (++Martial)
  • Hel'dah has perhaps the most advanced medicine in the world, including actual hospitals.
  • You control one of the most important trade hubs in the entire region, the city of Marathdur.
• Cons:
  • You are essentially creating a state from scratch.
  • Although you control the capital and the Farasan, the loyalty of the rest of the army is not assured, and your control is currently only theoretical outside a certain distance from the capital.
  • The Dhizars have recently succeeded in crushing the Talbard army, and it is likely they will absorb them while you consolidate power, posing a substantial threat to your Southern borders.
  • There has been an upsurge in pirate activity lately, cutting into your trade income. You believe that they are coming from the Falchion Isles, but it will take some time to assemble an expedition to deal with them.

[ ] The elected Prince of the Republic of Zildinia
On the coast of the northern continent of Fealmir lies the Republic of Zildinia, a great trade city and its territories. It is ruled over by an elected Prince who answers to the veche, a citizen's assembly which holds most real power in the city. Slaves are illegal within the city, and the "nobles" are those rich merchant houses which wield considerable influence over policymaking. Yet the Republic could be so much greater, and you are determined to lead Zildinia into a new golden age as the undisputed hegemon of Fealmi, a center of learning and civilization envied the world over!

• Pros:
  • You lack any external early game threats.
  • You have excellent trade relations with the Hel'dah and have vague reports of people beyond the Sea of the East.
  • The democratic aspects of your government grant you additional legitimacy in the eyes of the people, and a noble coup will thus have to work around the veche in order to succeed.
  • In order to be elected prince, one must be rather good at talking to people (++Diplomacy).
• Cons:
  • Your army is small, heavily reliant on the boyars and Vrataks, and ill prepared to fight long campaigns.
  • The veche restricts what you can and cannot do, and you ultimately must share power with them. Their dislike of wars of conquest will mean that any wars must be justified to them.
  • Power must also be shared with the Temple, who will react ……. poorly if you attempt to remove them from the government. They also probably have the support of more of the population than you do and control much of the land.
  • The merchant families will staunchly resist any reduction of their influence, and command substantial networks of patronage.
  • You do not have the population or economy to fight prolonged conflicts against major powers.
  • Winter is coming.

[ ] One of the competing God-Emperors of Yi-Ti
Located east of the Bone Mountains, Yi-Ti is one of the claimants of the title of "cradle of civilization", a land of vast wealth, infrastructure, culture, and power. Your traders roam throughout the land, and only the former Valyrian Empire ever came close to your literacy and infrastructure. However, political fragmentation has afflicted Yi-Ti for years, and now all central authority has collapsed into hundreds of petty fiefdoms ruled by fools. You are the former commander of the Golden Empire's Navy, now the God-Emperor of a new Empire of Yi-Ti, rising from the coastal cities like a phoenix. Your rivals can boast of legitimacy, of wealth, and of magic, but you have the knowledge that only you can save the realm from catastrophe, that unlike your rivals you have risen from nothing and the will to do whatever is necessary to save your beloved people. A burning desire for revenge against the corrupt court officials who have denied you what should be yours by merit animates you, and you will save Yi-Ti from their taint, or die trying.

• Pros:
  • Yi-Ti is the wealthiest nation in the world, and you posses some of that wealth, making you fabulously wealthy by the standards of the rest of the world.
  • You command the majority of Yi-Ti's navy, and your unwavering drive and determination to improve your command have honed it into a potent professional force.
  • You have earned the respect and admiration of your men, your troops will follow you to the end of the earth before betraying you so long as you do not abuse their trust.
  • Your literacy rate and general knowledge base is much higher than the majority of the world's, and you have knowledge of gunpowder.
  • Yi-Ti's rich soil has created an amazing agricultural base and a correspondingly large population, anyone who secures the entire country will not lack for manpower.
• Cons:
  • Your army is of a rather poor quality, composed mostly of poorly paid hereditary soldiers or peasant levies.
  • Corruption is rife among the bureaucrats of Yi-Ti, and so your enormous wealth is often squandered by greedy fools.
  • Three other claimants are seeking the same title, and the Jogos Nhai are getting bolder by the day, you are unlikely to lack for wars.
  • The country is totally fragmented, in most places central authority has broken down and now warlords and bandits rule the shattered countryside.
  • Right now at least two of the three other claimants have substantially more support than you do, and the third has dark magics, you will need to play your cards carefully.
  • Your known enmity towards much of the nobility makes finding allies a near impossibility.

No matter who you may have been, you are a leader now, which means you have an obligation to your subjects to protect them from those who would exploit them. Rule wisely, and remember, Winter is coming.

Hello, and welcome to Distant Lands, a quest set in the universe of George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, in which you play as a new ruler of a polity far from the familiar ground of Westeros.

The mechanics for this quest are based upon Paradox Interactive's Crusader Kings 2, like in many other quests on this forum. The center of Crusader Kings 2's play is formed by characters, specifically the ruler and their most trusted advisors.
A ruler's attributes are added to their councilor's attributes and half of their spouse's attributes to determine the state level of that attribute. The five attributes are:

• Diplomacy affects other characters' opinions of you. It is important for having better success with character interactions.
• Martial affects a character's skill as a commander on the battlefield, personal ability to fight, and the character's grasp of things such as logistics, making it core to realm survivability.
• Stewardship reflects a character's general level of administrative proficiency and modifies a ruler's tax income, making it essential for getting the most out of your holdings.
• Intrigue affects a character's ability to plot and uncover others' plots. It's important for both increasing your options and surviving others' designs on your power.
• Learning affects technological research as well as things such as knowledge of foreign political situations and histories.

Further augmenting a character's abilities are traits. Traits range from small modifiers to complete alterations of how a character works, as such, reading individual trait descriptions is key. Traits may also possess hidden effects or modifiers which can be deduced through looking at gameplay and rolls.

In a typical turn, you will assign each of your advisors an action to perform, whether this is leading an army or carrying out tax reform. You then may choose where to devote your personal energies towards, helping with an action or carrying out your own project. I have yet to decide on a standardized time elapsed per turn, but once I do so I will edit this sheet to include it. Actions will be constrained by your state budget and political support. While the budget is a clearly quantifiable value, political support is murky, unclear, and generally something you need to keep a careful eye on (this is an ASOIAF quest, what did you expect, easy politicking?).

War is an essential part of ASOIAF as a setting, and while I will be using Martial as a shorthand for a character's skill at battlefield command, if you are personally on the field you will be able to make more specific decisions as to how to conduct the battle. Furthermore, battles are affected by the composition of the armies involved, their general level of supply, terrain, whims of the QM, morale, etc. etc. I will not always tell you exactly what modifiers exist, because the fog of war is a thing that exists, as a general rule, the closer you are to the action, the more you will know about what is going on and why things play out the way they do. Of course, this also increases personal risk and prevents you from attending to other matters, so it is not always a good idea to take the field yourself.

In general, expect delays and lag times in communication, as you do not actually have things like "radios" yet given that this is a Medievalish sort of low fantasy world.

Voting should be done in plan format, with victory by plurality. I may occasionally change this up, but expect me to explicitly tell you and provide further instructions at that time.

I may add more to this sheet as time goes on, but for now, this should cover the basics of what you need to know to play. Feel free to ask questions, a Quest is fundamentally based on the interaction between the players and the QM after all!