Elven Empire Quest (CK2)
- Thread starter Powerofmind
- Start date
- Original
The End of the Beginning: 500-582
Powerofmind
In Madness Fallen
- Location
- United States
Aldegard leads a grand expedition to study the manawastes...
Eris communes with the gods, becoming a paragon of order and goodness...
Logon (what the fuck Logon stop riding the crazy train) leads a devastating punitive war against Saex, becoming known to all by his third century...
-----
Aldegard's preparations begin in earnest. She questions the affected, studies their bodies and minds in detail. The effects of the manawastes are dangerous, and their name is something of a misnomer according to the explorers. While the wastes are indeed a blasted and burned land only a few miles from the Everlake, when one dares to venture further, their senses are bombarded with the intense, life-bearing power of the Heart. Like a beacon, explorers were drawn to the center of the blast radius, where a grand monolith stood that no pre-catastrophe text made mention of. Called Beren's Heart by the mesmerized explorers and refugees, initially desperate to return to the homeland, many eventually settled there to nurture the powerful nature spirits that had taken residence at the monolith.
In Aldegard's studies, she discovers that the overwhelming effect of the mana-madness wanes naturally with time, despite being far more severe a case than more localized causes for the affliction. In particular, casting and the siphoning of small amounts of vital energy appear to greatly accelerate recovery, which is a great balm to the minds of other concerned scholars and mages. While few of the most established voices in the Academy or the College feel secure in venturing forth, they are more than willing to offer Aldegard many dutiful understudies and channelers.
Despite this, it is hard to gather a significant number of lower houses or independent families, or many of the least trade families. Enough to get by, perhaps, but they are unwilling to commit much to the venture of reclaiming what appears to them to be a vast desert, void of resources with which to ply a skill upon.
Even so, Aldegard's grand expedition to the so-called Heart prepares all the same.
-----
In the interim of preparation, when letters have been sent to Logon to ask his accompaniment, news of a war reaches the capital. The Half-Blood Kingdom, Saex, has declared that, by right of some distant kin, in a way that seems all too convenient, theirs is the right to the empire, and that Mava is to be unseated from the eternal throne. While the idea is initially seen as preposterous, the huge number of experienced half-bloods the kingdom has churned out make even some of the elder warmasters balk. Backed up by a coalition of lesser human nations in their sphere, Saex has razed an ancient border fortress to the ground for resisting their conquest.
Aldegard initially began to drop everything in favor of converting the expedition into an impromptu legion, but more news came only days later. The First Legion, on exercises, had been caught out by the human army and was driven off in a skirmish, only to resurge with a vengeance a few days later, picking apart the overextended human forces with ease. The High General of the legion had been killed in the ambush, only for Logon to rally the fleeing Legion and turn their efforts away from pitched battle, where the humans could replenish their dead more easily than an elf, breeding like rabbits as they did, and breaking the Legion into a spread-out array of companions, using their superior abilities and training to ambush smaller forces of humans, less able to leverage their great numbers.
Frustrated, the Half-Blood king tried to force a fight in unfavorable terrain, where Logon's Legion formed itself up surrounding his army and summarily routed it in the Valleys of Ardil. So furious was Aldegard's son, that he pursued the humans all the way back to their capital, where he viciously ransacked their cities and towns, making a point to abscond with every full-blooded elf his army could find, many of whom were ill-treated and ignored by their half-blood scions.
So thoroughly humiliated, the half-blood kingdom was forced to sue for peace while shouting from the fields outside of their capital city. Ever-merciful, Logon accepted their terms, but threatened that their kingdom lived on borrowed time for their crime of conquest of ancient elven lands and elven peoples.
The stories quickly ballooned into gossip, adulation, and then veneration, Logon being hailed as truly of his grandfather's blood.
-----
Feeling secure in her efforts, Aldegard set out not long after that, making the trek into the blasted desert of the east. Initially, the far reaches were mostly devoid of all life and energy, scoured by the blast, but the further in one went, the more clearly they could sense the wonder that was left behind by the destruction.
Despite being ultimately talentless when it came to Lux magic, enough shamans and channelers were able to commune to paint a picture for Aldegard; they were young, but powerful. The spirits were mostly unaware of the amount of energy they let spill into the world around them, and very quickly the researchers, and Aldegard herself, were able to locate the source of their race's troubles, after only a few decades of time in the wastes. The intensity of the energy in the wastes excited their bodies and spirits more severely than all the way in the west, and it allowed them to detect the subtle changes caused by the spirits' blind play more clearly.
The spirits of the wastes would have to be brought to heel with channelers and menders, so that their energies would no longer be released in such damaging ways to the mana-sensitive elves. The mender apprentices were unsure, but optimistically guessed that perhaps a few centuries would be enough time for the spirits to be calmed enough that the elves would be able to heal.
Still, more work would have to be done, and a colony would have to be prepared, in order for the efforts to begin. Aldegard would have to stay a few more years before presenting her findings back home.
Eris communes with the gods, becoming a paragon of order and goodness...
Logon (what the fuck Logon stop riding the crazy train) leads a devastating punitive war against Saex, becoming known to all by his third century...
-----
Aldegard's preparations begin in earnest. She questions the affected, studies their bodies and minds in detail. The effects of the manawastes are dangerous, and their name is something of a misnomer according to the explorers. While the wastes are indeed a blasted and burned land only a few miles from the Everlake, when one dares to venture further, their senses are bombarded with the intense, life-bearing power of the Heart. Like a beacon, explorers were drawn to the center of the blast radius, where a grand monolith stood that no pre-catastrophe text made mention of. Called Beren's Heart by the mesmerized explorers and refugees, initially desperate to return to the homeland, many eventually settled there to nurture the powerful nature spirits that had taken residence at the monolith.
In Aldegard's studies, she discovers that the overwhelming effect of the mana-madness wanes naturally with time, despite being far more severe a case than more localized causes for the affliction. In particular, casting and the siphoning of small amounts of vital energy appear to greatly accelerate recovery, which is a great balm to the minds of other concerned scholars and mages. While few of the most established voices in the Academy or the College feel secure in venturing forth, they are more than willing to offer Aldegard many dutiful understudies and channelers.
Despite this, it is hard to gather a significant number of lower houses or independent families, or many of the least trade families. Enough to get by, perhaps, but they are unwilling to commit much to the venture of reclaiming what appears to them to be a vast desert, void of resources with which to ply a skill upon.
Even so, Aldegard's grand expedition to the so-called Heart prepares all the same.
-----
In the interim of preparation, when letters have been sent to Logon to ask his accompaniment, news of a war reaches the capital. The Half-Blood Kingdom, Saex, has declared that, by right of some distant kin, in a way that seems all too convenient, theirs is the right to the empire, and that Mava is to be unseated from the eternal throne. While the idea is initially seen as preposterous, the huge number of experienced half-bloods the kingdom has churned out make even some of the elder warmasters balk. Backed up by a coalition of lesser human nations in their sphere, Saex has razed an ancient border fortress to the ground for resisting their conquest.
Aldegard initially began to drop everything in favor of converting the expedition into an impromptu legion, but more news came only days later. The First Legion, on exercises, had been caught out by the human army and was driven off in a skirmish, only to resurge with a vengeance a few days later, picking apart the overextended human forces with ease. The High General of the legion had been killed in the ambush, only for Logon to rally the fleeing Legion and turn their efforts away from pitched battle, where the humans could replenish their dead more easily than an elf, breeding like rabbits as they did, and breaking the Legion into a spread-out array of companions, using their superior abilities and training to ambush smaller forces of humans, less able to leverage their great numbers.
Frustrated, the Half-Blood king tried to force a fight in unfavorable terrain, where Logon's Legion formed itself up surrounding his army and summarily routed it in the Valleys of Ardil. So furious was Aldegard's son, that he pursued the humans all the way back to their capital, where he viciously ransacked their cities and towns, making a point to abscond with every full-blooded elf his army could find, many of whom were ill-treated and ignored by their half-blood scions.
So thoroughly humiliated, the half-blood kingdom was forced to sue for peace while shouting from the fields outside of their capital city. Ever-merciful, Logon accepted their terms, but threatened that their kingdom lived on borrowed time for their crime of conquest of ancient elven lands and elven peoples.
The stories quickly ballooned into gossip, adulation, and then veneration, Logon being hailed as truly of his grandfather's blood.
-----
Feeling secure in her efforts, Aldegard set out not long after that, making the trek into the blasted desert of the east. Initially, the far reaches were mostly devoid of all life and energy, scoured by the blast, but the further in one went, the more clearly they could sense the wonder that was left behind by the destruction.
Despite being ultimately talentless when it came to Lux magic, enough shamans and channelers were able to commune to paint a picture for Aldegard; they were young, but powerful. The spirits were mostly unaware of the amount of energy they let spill into the world around them, and very quickly the researchers, and Aldegard herself, were able to locate the source of their race's troubles, after only a few decades of time in the wastes. The intensity of the energy in the wastes excited their bodies and spirits more severely than all the way in the west, and it allowed them to detect the subtle changes caused by the spirits' blind play more clearly.
The spirits of the wastes would have to be brought to heel with channelers and menders, so that their energies would no longer be released in such damaging ways to the mana-sensitive elves. The mender apprentices were unsure, but optimistically guessed that perhaps a few centuries would be enough time for the spirits to be calmed enough that the elves would be able to heal.
Still, more work would have to be done, and a colony would have to be prepared, in order for the efforts to begin. Aldegard would have to stay a few more years before presenting her findings back home.
Icipall
Don't worry, we can fanfix that!
- Location
- Cold snow fields of Finland
Well, we have certainly achieved a lot.
Impressive.
Dog bites both ways. Only thing that changes is which head is doing the biting.
So lot of new, strong spirits appeared, which led to overflow of magical energy, which in turn led to elven infertility due to their sensitivity to mana.
Varder
Tired Cultist
- Location
- Hell
Aldegard total:
skills: 116-1d10
magic & prowess: 84
Eris total:
skills: 106
magic & prowess: 69
Logon total:
skills: 96
magic & prowess: 58
You know, for someone who's hailed as a genius and a superior sibling, we're not nearlly that much better than Eris. And Logon's just ridiculus. Something to keep in mind for when Mava bites the dust.
Now that's just sad. Come on, son, get some action! Even Eris has a lover.
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Its like in Warhammer 40k when Eldar needed to switch from their heavy handed tactic used when their were a Galaxy class Superpower Empire to being outnumbered surviviors. We need to levereege fact that each Elf live is priceless but also several times more effective/skilled than our oposition. So making use of those skill with superior coordination and tactics is needed for us to remain relevant in long run.
We can also start using our many high skilled magic users with millenia of traditions behind them to outperform others who lack such institutional history. Or use Sanguis magic and fuel it with sacriface of 'lesser' barbaric races that threaten us. Like if are going to slaughter humans and half-elfes why not use them as sacrifaces to make said slaughter easier on our numbers?
Yeah we are described as genius that also put dedicated hard work in everything she does to master it. While also have a more than century on our sister during a golden age of our race. We realy should be much better then her.
What this implies and I dont like is the fact it looks like to cure Elfes will require realy high Lux mastery. With our sister excel at.
Unless we figure some Arcana bounded fields to shield elfes from this 'waves' or maybe Sanguis rituals to strenghten and adapt our race against them.
Considering demons are a thing, could it possible to bind them for use as mainline combatant. Sacrifice some humans and the occasional unwanted half elf before a battle and send the resulting demon horde at the enemy?
Though whether or not it is a viable strategy will probably be something for Logon to test.
Going to third the complaints that while Aldegard is called a genius, her stats don't reflect it compared to her sister.
Though whether or not it is a viable strategy will probably be something for Logon to test.
Going to third the complaints that while Aldegard is called a genius, her stats don't reflect it compared to her sister.
Powerofmind
In Madness Fallen
- Location
- United States
Aldegard is considered a genius because of the weight of the stat lines. Magical skills are quite a bit harder to raise than non-magical ones, and to have an average of 13 across all the magical disciplines vs an average of 11 is actually a pretty significant difference.
Overall, Eris' stat line on the whole is ~300-400 years behind Aldegard, and she's only a hundred-odd years younger than her.
473 A.B.
Powerofmind
In Madness Fallen
- Location
- United States
Forty years.
You have been gone for forty years.
You do not plan to have nothing to show for it, however. The camps around the Heart have been informed as to your peerage, and while there was some grumblings at your relation to Father, you are the Imperial Princess. You will need to organize infrastructure, prepare a food supply, begin the process of pacifying the spirits' playful attitude.
Forty years, and you are stuck here for a while yet, it seems.
Aldegard's level of magical ability (If she does not know a certain spell that can be used in a strategic way, she can create one under the following conditions):
Current conditions:
Safety: Insecure, limited local knowledge
Food: Limited, not produced
Colony: Refugee Camp, mostly transients
Heart: Mostly Unknown
Spirits: Unaware of you
Aldegard must manage this fledgling colony. What should she focus on for the time being? Create a plan only. (Choose a total of three, marking them with [Pioneers], [Expedition], and [Aldegard]. Aldegard can be used to double-up on another action, as she can probably use powerful magic to support it)
[] Secure more food supplies
[] Build up shelters
[] Build up colonial infrastructure
[] Secure the colony with fortifications
[] Gather information about the area
[] Study the monolith further (expedition only)
[] Begin binding the local spirits (expedition only)
[] Begin negotiating with the local spirits (expedition only)
[] Curative effort to halt or reverse the symptoms of extreme exposure (pioneers only, Aldegard may assist)
[] Send word home and establish contact (Aldegard only)
You have been gone for forty years.
You do not plan to have nothing to show for it, however. The camps around the Heart have been informed as to your peerage, and while there was some grumblings at your relation to Father, you are the Imperial Princess. You will need to organize infrastructure, prepare a food supply, begin the process of pacifying the spirits' playful attitude.
Forty years, and you are stuck here for a while yet, it seems.
Approximately:
150 apprentice mages of varied disciplines (primarily Forma and Lux), suffering from limited mana exposure
50 hired hands trained in exploration, suffering from limited mana exposure
2000-3000 colonial refugees of various pioneer trades and means, suffering from severe mana exposure
1 Bound Demon of the Foul-Tongue Caste
Resources:
Rations and supplies, meant to last many years for 200 explorers, stretched to feed roughly 2500 for a few years at most
Pack animals and survey equipment
Various and unsorted, if limited, pioneer supplies from refugees
150 apprentice mages of varied disciplines (primarily Forma and Lux), suffering from limited mana exposure
50 hired hands trained in exploration, suffering from limited mana exposure
2000-3000 colonial refugees of various pioneer trades and means, suffering from severe mana exposure
1 Bound Demon of the Foul-Tongue Caste
Resources:
Rations and supplies, meant to last many years for 200 explorers, stretched to feed roughly 2500 for a few years at most
Pack animals and survey equipment
Various and unsorted, if limited, pioneer supplies from refugees
Aldegard's level of magical ability (If she does not know a certain spell that can be used in a strategic way, she can create one under the following conditions):
- Incanti
- Forma
- Arcana
- Sanguis
- Lux
Current conditions:
Safety: Insecure, limited local knowledge
Food: Limited, not produced
Colony: Refugee Camp, mostly transients
Heart: Mostly Unknown
Spirits: Unaware of you
Aldegard must manage this fledgling colony. What should she focus on for the time being? Create a plan only. (Choose a total of three, marking them with [Pioneers], [Expedition], and [Aldegard]. Aldegard can be used to double-up on another action, as she can probably use powerful magic to support it)
[] Secure more food supplies
[] Build up shelters
[] Build up colonial infrastructure
[] Secure the colony with fortifications
[] Gather information about the area
[] Study the monolith further (expedition only)
[] Begin binding the local spirits (expedition only)
[] Begin negotiating with the local spirits (expedition only)
[] Curative effort to halt or reverse the symptoms of extreme exposure (pioneers only, Aldegard may assist)
[] Send word home and establish contact (Aldegard only)
TaliesinSkye
Occasional Editor
- Location
- Northeast Ohio, United States
Yeah, that's a good question.
I'm also worried about the mana poisoning. That might be something that needs doing sooner than later.
I'm not sure if we need fortifications, but of course there's no real way to know. Infrastructure might be more useful, depending on what's included. (Growing food? Safe water supplies?) And if we get in contact with home they could send aid. We know how to fix Elvenkind. Even if it's going to be a huge project, they'll help.
Powerofmind
In Madness Fallen
- Location
- United States
These first few turns will be in short, half-year phases, while the colony is prepared and actions are small in scale.
Infrastructure includes all the trappings of developing a self-sufficient community, which, for elves in a mana-charged desert that's desperate to be teeming with life, amounts to pinning out the spaces where enchantments will be done to seed land, structures to hold stores of food and water, and places of proper veneration for the various core dedicants in a pioneer colony (mostly low trade dedications or more generalized magical dedications), as well as, for Aldegard's personal sense of propriety, a central administrative area, and, unique to this colony, either a place to prepare for and anchor the bindings, or a place where shamans and powerful spirit mages can placate and quiet down the rowdy young spirits.
TaliesinSkye
Occasional Editor
- Location
- Northeast Ohio, United States
Okay, it sounds like as long as we get infrastructure set up in the first two or three turns we probably won't need to spend an extra action getting extra food supplies by hunting or something. It can probably safely wait one turn.
I'm still not sure how urgent mana exposure is to look at.
Edit:
Here's a proposed alternate plan. I'm willing to prioritize the medical problem we definitely have over the possibility that we'll be attacked by unknown assailants that fortifications would help us with.
[X] Plan Urgent Things First
-[Pioneers] Curative effort to halt or reverse the symptoms of extreme exposure (pioneers only, Aldegard may assist)
-[Expedition] Build up shelters
-[Aldegard] Send word home and establish contact (Aldegard only)
Next turn we can get infrastructure going for food income, scout, and possibly fortifications or something else.
I'm still not sure how urgent mana exposure is to look at.
Edit:
Here's a proposed alternate plan. I'm willing to prioritize the medical problem we definitely have over the possibility that we'll be attacked by unknown assailants that fortifications would help us with.
[X] Plan Urgent Things First
-[Pioneers] Curative effort to halt or reverse the symptoms of extreme exposure (pioneers only, Aldegard may assist)
-[Expedition] Build up shelters
-[Aldegard] Send word home and establish contact (Aldegard only)
Next turn we can get infrastructure going for food income, scout, and possibly fortifications or something else.
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TaliesinSkye
Occasional Editor
- Location
- Northeast Ohio, United States
He can stand on the perimeter and look intimidating, I guess? With a name like Foul-Tongue Caste he's probably not a great cook XDWhat, we can't have the demon do anything?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I feel like Gather information about the area is more important than getting contact back to the empire, as we don't know how close this wasteland is to a Fallout style wasteland.
The mana exposure cure is important, but I feel like having Aldegard assist is important in it succeeding.
TaliesinSkye
Occasional Editor
- Location
- Northeast Ohio, United States
I'm thinking we can't actually use the scouting information immediately, though. Everything we need to do for the next few turns is at our base camp.
- Location
- USA
[X] Plan Urgent Things First
I gotta agree with trying to reverse the currently very mana sick people. Once they start recovering we can start taking actions with more people to work. But I don't want them to start dropping like flies at the very sick end of it because thats many precious live we need, especially if we want this new colony to succeed.
Aside from that proper housing is important for our people to have any reprieve from the desert itself. Especially if a storm comes along.
Establishing contact with the home front and letting them know that we found this many people, and we're pretty sure we got a road map to success is another big thing. Especially if it nets us more regular resources.
I gotta agree with trying to reverse the currently very mana sick people. Once they start recovering we can start taking actions with more people to work. But I don't want them to start dropping like flies at the very sick end of it because thats many precious live we need, especially if we want this new colony to succeed.
Aside from that proper housing is important for our people to have any reprieve from the desert itself. Especially if a storm comes along.
Establishing contact with the home front and letting them know that we found this many people, and we're pretty sure we got a road map to success is another big thing. Especially if it nets us more regular resources.
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