From Create Your Species
You are the Aerie of the Blue Skies, a nation-state...
You are the Aerie of the Blue Skies, a nation-state...
Monarch of Blue Skies (Sci-Fi Nation Quest)
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Introduction and System
You are the Aerie of the Blue Skies, a nation-state encompassing one hundred million people. As a monarchy (like all other nations on the planet), your country is ruled over by a Matriarch who rules over the nobility, who in turn rule over the people. The Industrial Revolution has swept the world by storm, vastly improving the productivity of the nations but also upsetting the delicate balance of power and supply which had previously kept the world free from any major wars in the last decades. Now prosperity is not just the result of good policy and administrative acumen, but on natural resources required to feed the ravenous appetite of the factories.
The geopolitical situation is relatively stable. To your north, the Aerie of the Grass Plains remains the greatest threat as you share a land border. To your south, the Aerie of the Long Shores still maintains a massive naval advantage which secures them against attack. To the east are short(er) borders with the White Peaks and Great North, who are more focused on each other and their immediate neighbours. Lastly to the west across the ocean is the Disputed Territory, which so many wars have been fought over to practically depopulate the area of any significant power structures.
Nobility
As a Monarchy, your word is law, both for your personal holdings and those of your subordinates. However, you control these by force of loyalty from the nobility, whose armies you use in your wars and whose judgements you rely on to enforce your laws.
The nobility's power is measured by influence. Although decreasing their power is desirable because it centralizes your authority and income, it also comes are a cost to your relations with them. If nobility influence drops too low, they will attempt to regain it by diplomacy. If that fails, they may resort to force. With the loyalty of the armies they contribute split and possessing a third of the nations GDP, this can cripple you and render you vulnerable to outside actors.
Influence
0: The Nobility is Impotent (+50% Point Income - Become Absolute Monarchy)
1-24: The Throne is Very Powerful (+25% Point Income)
25-39: The Throne is Powerful (+10% Point Increase)
40-59: The Throne and Nobility Are In Balance
60-74: The Nobility is Powerful (-10% Point Reduction)
75-99: The Nobility is Very Powerful (-25% Point Reduction)
100: The Nobility is All Powerful (-50% Point Reduction - Revolt to Become Noble Republic)
Budget
You are given a number of points (100), which you allocate to the divisions of your government along traditional lines (health, military, education, welfare, government, etc). These remain set for five turns (or however long it takes for your government to 'turn over'), at which point you may re-allocate the budget to address your needs. Excess points are allocated at these budgetary reviews, allowing you to focus on fields you consider more important without taking away from other sections (and risking unrest).
Points can be allocated to projects, whose success is determined by a d100 roll and the investment you provide. Military projects will use the military budget, research the educational budget, administrative projects the government budget, etc, etc. You can run multiple projects in each category, but the investment cannot exceed the points allocated to that category in the budget.
The advent of the industrial era (and mechanically assisted flight) has created a ravenous appetite for coal to drive the steam engines which power your great factories. This is a strategic resource, marked by a four-pointed star on your map. As your technology advances, other resources (oil, uranium, natural gas, etc) will appear on the map. Coal is consumed by your factories, with the excess being stored. If you have no stockpile of coal, and your industrial capacity equals the amount you mine, you won't be able to further expand your factories (and gain more points to put into your budget).
Currently, you control three coal resources. More may be discovered in time or with events, but this is not guaranteed. Each coal resource produces ten coal. Your industry currently uses twenty five out of the thirty coal you produce a turn.
Nobility:
50 Influence
Budget Income:
50 Points (10 Cities)
50 Points (Industry - 25 Coal)
Strategic Income:
30 Coal - 25 = 5 Coal
Stockpiled
10 Coal
| Year -5 Budget | ||
| 100 | Points | Percent |
| Government | 60 | 60 |
| Education | 20 | 20 |
| Military | 20 | 20 |
| Year 0 Budget | ||
| 100 | Points | Percent |
| Government | ? | |
| Education | ? | |
| Military | ? |
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Species
Species
Your species, the Shakarukh, evolved on a near-freezing planet under the light of a pair of tightly bound stars. Natural selection differentiated you from your closest cousins, opportunistic birds of prey, first by expanding your size to allow you to tackle larger targets and then diversifying your diet to include fruits (a change which can be pinpointed to one of your planet's many ice ages). This ability has since expanded to some roots and particular leaves, but meat is an essential part of your diet.
Your increase in size and weight resulted in tradeoffs elsewhere. Your wings, once large and powerful, have atrophied and are now sheets of membranous tissue. Your downstroke is powered by bands of muscle across the chest and back, the downward force resulting in powerful cartilage locking the flexile bones that make up the leading edge and supporting struts of your wings in place. Despite this and flight characteristics designed to reduce effort (such as pulling the wings in towards your torso to reduce drag), it still represents a monumental expenditure of energy which makes true flight impossible. Flight is characterised by the exploitation of updrafts, long periods of gliding, and short journeys. Takeoff requires a significant downward slope of at least sixty degrees and a headwind. While not in use, wings are pulled in and folded to the sides of the body.
The body plan of a typical male appears more lizardlike than avian, the long neck typically found in other flighted species significantly shortened. The average size of a healthy adult is five and a half meters from beak to tail, with the long tapering tail making up the last three meters and acting as a balance in flight. Despite the fearsome eight meter wingspan, the central body measures only eighty centimeters across at its widest point. The belly is typically seven to ten centimeters from the ground.
The head consists of the skull, the upper part of the beak being integrated as one bone. The beak is somewhat curved, with wide and flat surfaces at the rear which jaw muscles can grind back and forth, then the lower beak becomes smaller towards the front to allow sharp and overlapping edges for cutting. The tip of the upper beak curves over the front (and flatter) edge of the lower into a sharp but thick tip which protects the tongue and mobile lower beak.
Sight is accomplished by a pair of side-set eyes. Nasal passages are small channels above the beak that enter the skull. The head and body is covered in short rearward facing hairs back from the beak, the colouration of which varies according to ancestry and geography. Communication is via clicks of the beak, whistles, and crude vocalisation with the tongue.
Despite their short appearance the rear legs begin high in the body, and are situated just prior to the beginning of the tail. Forward movement is primarily accomplished by movement of the knee, but the body weight can largely be supported by the femur when standing upright, although natural balance prohibits doing so without being supported by the forward legs. The rear feet are characterised by three forward facing long toes with short talons and a highly mobile thumb which faces forwards during locomotion but which can draw outwards and fold in to create a grasping talon. This is typically used to cling to the side of trees or carry heavier weights which the forward legs are incapable of supporting, but only when in the air. Carrying on the ground is accomplished by the beak.
The forward legs act as locomotion, but also as tool using and supportive appendages. When in rapid motion, like the rear feet, the three forward talons and mobile thumb face forward. Also like the rear feet, the thumb is capable of grasping. Unlike the rear legs, the front legs have a significantly reduced range of forward motion, impeded by the chest muscles used in the wings. Climbing upwards is typically accomplished by tilting back the neck and allowing the talons of the forward feet to climb up and tilt the body, at which point the rear legs are recruited to stand and then also grasp the vertical surface in the case of further climbing.
The forward feet are significantly weaker due to the addition of an extra joint between the knuckle and beginning of the talons. These extra joints are capable of moving inwards to press together, forming pinch surfaces which allow finer motor control based around the wrist and forelimb.
Full cognitive maturation occurs in fifteen to sixteen years, with sexual maturity beginning between eight and nine. The children become notably developed at that time and become capable of many of the tasks which full adults can manage. Sexual reproduction occurs between the male and female, with the female carrying live young for around six months.
Unlike the smaller males, females continue to grow as they reach maturity, until such a point as their wings become unable to lift their greater weight. Historically this occurred after the female was impregnated by an accepted male at the nest of her birth, after which she set off with a small cadre of males with the intent of establishing her own aerie with herself as matriarch. Once land-bound females typically grow to around nine meters in length.
Once situated, females birth males until such a time as the aerie becomes overpopulated, at which point she bears females who she will eject from the aerie with retainers. Males are differentiated in the womb according to environmental conditions. Worker males are born when resources are scarce, and once matured will gather food and tend to crops. They are somewhat smaller than usual and have a flattened beak to better carry loads and tend to juveniles. Warrior males are born when resources are plentiful, and exhibit territorial behaviour in defence of their mother and the aerie, as well as hunting within its borders.
Death typically occurs at between fifty and sixty years of age. In the case of matriarchs, females present would engage in a power struggle to take her place. In the modern age when unsanctioned killing is forbidden (though often practiced in isolated or less developed regions), dynamics have shifted to account for this. Although females are still highly independent, and tend to form in-groups around themselves in the greater aerie, they are no longer ejected into the wilds as they were in pre-civilization. Birth rates have also dropped to account for the greater density of females.
The advantages of civilization have advanced at a greater pace than culture - every generation warriors birthed in the well-provided cities are forced to clash with their natural instincts and work in tasks that traditionally belonged to the workers in order to provide for themselves. Often they will instead attempt to enter military service under the matriarchs who control the land they were born in, and serve at the behest of their rulers.
Your species, the Shakarukh, evolved on a near-freezing planet under the light of a pair of tightly bound stars. Natural selection differentiated you from your closest cousins, opportunistic birds of prey, first by expanding your size to allow you to tackle larger targets and then diversifying your diet to include fruits (a change which can be pinpointed to one of your planet's many ice ages). This ability has since expanded to some roots and particular leaves, but meat is an essential part of your diet.
Your increase in size and weight resulted in tradeoffs elsewhere. Your wings, once large and powerful, have atrophied and are now sheets of membranous tissue. Your downstroke is powered by bands of muscle across the chest and back, the downward force resulting in powerful cartilage locking the flexile bones that make up the leading edge and supporting struts of your wings in place. Despite this and flight characteristics designed to reduce effort (such as pulling the wings in towards your torso to reduce drag), it still represents a monumental expenditure of energy which makes true flight impossible. Flight is characterised by the exploitation of updrafts, long periods of gliding, and short journeys. Takeoff requires a significant downward slope of at least sixty degrees and a headwind. While not in use, wings are pulled in and folded to the sides of the body.
The body plan of a typical male appears more lizardlike than avian, the long neck typically found in other flighted species significantly shortened. The average size of a healthy adult is five and a half meters from beak to tail, with the long tapering tail making up the last three meters and acting as a balance in flight. Despite the fearsome eight meter wingspan, the central body measures only eighty centimeters across at its widest point. The belly is typically seven to ten centimeters from the ground.
The head consists of the skull, the upper part of the beak being integrated as one bone. The beak is somewhat curved, with wide and flat surfaces at the rear which jaw muscles can grind back and forth, then the lower beak becomes smaller towards the front to allow sharp and overlapping edges for cutting. The tip of the upper beak curves over the front (and flatter) edge of the lower into a sharp but thick tip which protects the tongue and mobile lower beak.
Sight is accomplished by a pair of side-set eyes. Nasal passages are small channels above the beak that enter the skull. The head and body is covered in short rearward facing hairs back from the beak, the colouration of which varies according to ancestry and geography. Communication is via clicks of the beak, whistles, and crude vocalisation with the tongue.
Despite their short appearance the rear legs begin high in the body, and are situated just prior to the beginning of the tail. Forward movement is primarily accomplished by movement of the knee, but the body weight can largely be supported by the femur when standing upright, although natural balance prohibits doing so without being supported by the forward legs. The rear feet are characterised by three forward facing long toes with short talons and a highly mobile thumb which faces forwards during locomotion but which can draw outwards and fold in to create a grasping talon. This is typically used to cling to the side of trees or carry heavier weights which the forward legs are incapable of supporting, but only when in the air. Carrying on the ground is accomplished by the beak.
The forward legs act as locomotion, but also as tool using and supportive appendages. When in rapid motion, like the rear feet, the three forward talons and mobile thumb face forward. Also like the rear feet, the thumb is capable of grasping. Unlike the rear legs, the front legs have a significantly reduced range of forward motion, impeded by the chest muscles used in the wings. Climbing upwards is typically accomplished by tilting back the neck and allowing the talons of the forward feet to climb up and tilt the body, at which point the rear legs are recruited to stand and then also grasp the vertical surface in the case of further climbing.
The forward feet are significantly weaker due to the addition of an extra joint between the knuckle and beginning of the talons. These extra joints are capable of moving inwards to press together, forming pinch surfaces which allow finer motor control based around the wrist and forelimb.
Full cognitive maturation occurs in fifteen to sixteen years, with sexual maturity beginning between eight and nine. The children become notably developed at that time and become capable of many of the tasks which full adults can manage. Sexual reproduction occurs between the male and female, with the female carrying live young for around six months.
Unlike the smaller males, females continue to grow as they reach maturity, until such a point as their wings become unable to lift their greater weight. Historically this occurred after the female was impregnated by an accepted male at the nest of her birth, after which she set off with a small cadre of males with the intent of establishing her own aerie with herself as matriarch. Once land-bound females typically grow to around nine meters in length.
Once situated, females birth males until such a time as the aerie becomes overpopulated, at which point she bears females who she will eject from the aerie with retainers. Males are differentiated in the womb according to environmental conditions. Worker males are born when resources are scarce, and once matured will gather food and tend to crops. They are somewhat smaller than usual and have a flattened beak to better carry loads and tend to juveniles. Warrior males are born when resources are plentiful, and exhibit territorial behaviour in defence of their mother and the aerie, as well as hunting within its borders.
Death typically occurs at between fifty and sixty years of age. In the case of matriarchs, females present would engage in a power struggle to take her place. In the modern age when unsanctioned killing is forbidden (though often practiced in isolated or less developed regions), dynamics have shifted to account for this. Although females are still highly independent, and tend to form in-groups around themselves in the greater aerie, they are no longer ejected into the wilds as they were in pre-civilization. Birth rates have also dropped to account for the greater density of females.
The advantages of civilization have advanced at a greater pace than culture - every generation warriors birthed in the well-provided cities are forced to clash with their natural instincts and work in tasks that traditionally belonged to the workers in order to provide for themselves. Often they will instead attempt to enter military service under the matriarchs who control the land they were born in, and serve at the behest of their rulers.
Military
Military
Gunpowder has revolutionised warfare, but it is the industrial revolution that has turned it into the last word on the battlefield. Since the body structure of your species prohibits the dexterity and locomotion to fire rifles, other alternatives have developed. The disposition of the battlefield is split into three distinct subcategories.
Infantry
It may be easier to think of infantry as mobile rapid-fire emplacements rather than individual fighters. Shakarukh infantry consists of three vital components: the carrier, the gunner, and the supplier. The carrier is the most vital part of the trio. The warriors in the army who are physically strongest are equipped with sturdy harnesses which strap round their torso, and they carry with them either the standard rapid-fire machine gun or a set of parts which can be assembled on site into a more powerful fixed emplacement. This gun is mounted to the back in such a way that although the carrier cannot fly, he can sit low on his legs while the gunner stands on his own hindlegs to reach the handles and trigger of the machine gun. The rapid expenditure of ammunition necessitates the addition of the supplier, who wears a similar harness to the gunner but with ammunition cases slung at his sides.
Because of this, Shakarukh infantry combat is characterised by bold pushes forward or misdirection, both with the aim of setting up the heavy guns and driving back the enemy.
Fliers
The fliers are the most mobile and historically admired soldier on the battlefield. Once all armies consisted solely of these warriors, but the advent of effective and rapid firing guns have relegated them to a secondary but nonetheless vital role. It is the mission of the fliers to act as distractions while the infantry move forward, attacking the defending line or by dropping fire grenades into the enemy line. Often they will have to do this while under attack by enemy fliers. To assist their efforts without increasing weight, their beaks and claws are sheathed in lightweight but sharpened steel that allow instantly lethal blows, especially to an enemy in the air showing his vulnerable wing membranes. Unfortunately in the age of rapid-guns, approaching an enemy position head-on is a good way to be slaughtered.
Artillery
Artillery is king of the battlefield. When the infantry push forward, it is the artillery that shells the enemy line to give them the opportunity and cover to set up their weapons. The damage of these increasingly accurate cannons threaten to turn the valiant art of war into nothing more than an exchange of shells, but the fundamental weakness of their immobility renders them exceptionally vulnerable to enemy fliers moving on them from the skies.
Gunpowder has revolutionised warfare, but it is the industrial revolution that has turned it into the last word on the battlefield. Since the body structure of your species prohibits the dexterity and locomotion to fire rifles, other alternatives have developed. The disposition of the battlefield is split into three distinct subcategories.
Infantry
It may be easier to think of infantry as mobile rapid-fire emplacements rather than individual fighters. Shakarukh infantry consists of three vital components: the carrier, the gunner, and the supplier. The carrier is the most vital part of the trio. The warriors in the army who are physically strongest are equipped with sturdy harnesses which strap round their torso, and they carry with them either the standard rapid-fire machine gun or a set of parts which can be assembled on site into a more powerful fixed emplacement. This gun is mounted to the back in such a way that although the carrier cannot fly, he can sit low on his legs while the gunner stands on his own hindlegs to reach the handles and trigger of the machine gun. The rapid expenditure of ammunition necessitates the addition of the supplier, who wears a similar harness to the gunner but with ammunition cases slung at his sides.
Because of this, Shakarukh infantry combat is characterised by bold pushes forward or misdirection, both with the aim of setting up the heavy guns and driving back the enemy.
Fliers
The fliers are the most mobile and historically admired soldier on the battlefield. Once all armies consisted solely of these warriors, but the advent of effective and rapid firing guns have relegated them to a secondary but nonetheless vital role. It is the mission of the fliers to act as distractions while the infantry move forward, attacking the defending line or by dropping fire grenades into the enemy line. Often they will have to do this while under attack by enemy fliers. To assist their efforts without increasing weight, their beaks and claws are sheathed in lightweight but sharpened steel that allow instantly lethal blows, especially to an enemy in the air showing his vulnerable wing membranes. Unfortunately in the age of rapid-guns, approaching an enemy position head-on is a good way to be slaughtered.
Artillery
Artillery is king of the battlefield. When the infantry push forward, it is the artillery that shells the enemy line to give them the opportunity and cover to set up their weapons. The damage of these increasingly accurate cannons threaten to turn the valiant art of war into nothing more than an exchange of shells, but the fundamental weakness of their immobility renders them exceptionally vulnerable to enemy fliers moving on them from the skies.
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