It seems that a few people were thinking about a desert kingdom and Othain had a pretty good suggestion.
My own idea was a Kingdom ruled by Anthropomorphic Jackals, the name I had in mind for it was Osira. Like in actual Egypt most of the kingdom is based around a river that runs through the Kingdom. The Kingdom is ruled by a godpriest often referred to as Pharaoh, who's nobily was supposedly decided by the ancient gods. Osira is especially known for a system of underground catacombs filled with lost lore and magic.
According to legend a long time ago the Jackals who rule the lands came up to the surface from those catacombs, but an invasion by another kingdom drove them from their land. In a last ditch effort the great wizards and sorcerers of the land hid their arcane secrets behind various kinds of traps and magically locked doors to safeguard their knowledge. The Jackals have now finally returned and reclaimed their land, uncovering the catacombs bit by bit, a hard task due to all the deadly traps. At the current state the catacombs have been explored enough that Osira's magical academy has settled there.
The kingdom itself trades generously with the other lands and has a great magically reinforced military, almost every soldier of moderate rank has an enchanted weapon of some kind. Furthermore the country also has a large collection of golems that it uses in both the military and to safeguard the cities.These golems resemble giant statues of the jackals, they are tough and plentiful but have a lot of weaknesses. Only the High Council of the land is guarded by stronger statues that move with the same ease as a normal jackal, and who possess the fighting abilities of dead jackal heroes.
The jackals themselves have quite the notable appearance, most of the richer jackals have pitch black fur, red eyes are extremely common among them, although not as common as the black fur. Jackals of lower ranks have other colours, including a lot who have the same colour pattern as black-backed jackals. There used to be a time when all jackals were black, and nobody knows what exactly is causing the change in fur colour. All of the jackals are also fairly small in size, ranging from 3'8 feet to 4'5. The jackals are somewhat long lived and can live up to 200 years, they mature relatively fast too, reaching physical adulthood at around 20 years.
There are several theories about where the jackals came from and why they look the way they do, one very popular one is that the jackals were once Dark Elves who came from the underdark and somehow transformed. It would explain their colour pattern, their magical affinity and their lifespan.
So that is the gist of my idea, feel free to give your own thoughts and additions, we can certainly pour together a number of ideas to make something great.
Olthain wrote:
Yeah he mentioned he'd like one, but i didn't see a topic yet. You can all put your ideas together
My own idea was a Kingdom ruled by Anthropomorphic Jackals, the name I had in mind for it was Osira. Like in actual Egypt most of the kingdom is based around a river that runs through the Kingdom. The Kingdom is ruled by a godpriest often referred to as Pharaoh, who's nobily was supposedly decided by the ancient gods. Osira is especially known for a system of underground catacombs filled with lost lore and magic.
According to legend a long time ago the Jackals who rule the lands came up to the surface from those catacombs, but an invasion by another kingdom drove them from their land. In a last ditch effort the great wizards and sorcerers of the land hid their arcane secrets behind various kinds of traps and magically locked doors to safeguard their knowledge. The Jackals have now finally returned and reclaimed their land, uncovering the catacombs bit by bit, a hard task due to all the deadly traps. At the current state the catacombs have been explored enough that Osira's magical academy has settled there.
The kingdom itself trades generously with the other lands and has a great magically reinforced military, almost every soldier of moderate rank has an enchanted weapon of some kind. Furthermore the country also has a large collection of golems that it uses in both the military and to safeguard the cities.These golems resemble giant statues of the jackals, they are tough and plentiful but have a lot of weaknesses. Only the High Council of the land is guarded by stronger statues that move with the same ease as a normal jackal, and who possess the fighting abilities of dead jackal heroes.
The jackals themselves have quite the notable appearance, most of the richer jackals have pitch black fur, red eyes are extremely common among them, although not as common as the black fur. Jackals of lower ranks have other colours, including a lot who have the same colour pattern as black-backed jackals. There used to be a time when all jackals were black, and nobody knows what exactly is causing the change in fur colour. All of the jackals are also fairly small in size, ranging from 3'8 feet to 4'5. The jackals are somewhat long lived and can live up to 200 years, they mature relatively fast too, reaching physical adulthood at around 20 years.
There are several theories about where the jackals came from and why they look the way they do, one very popular one is that the jackals were once Dark Elves who came from the underdark and somehow transformed. It would explain their colour pattern, their magical affinity and their lifespan.
So that is the gist of my idea, feel free to give your own thoughts and additions, we can certainly pour together a number of ideas to make something great.
My idea was a kingdom based on anthropomorphic lizards.
Known as the Isthenir and inhabiting a region known as the Isethen Desert, they are small and wiry creatures often with sandy colourations, their culture I envisage is based more on Arabia rather than Egypt, though they too live along a river the Maal River. Their capital is the twin city of Maal-Aki, the city Maal being on the westerns ide of the river and the ity of Aki on the east. Most of their cities lie along the Maal River and with some few in other parts of the desert, near oases, mines, etc.
There are two types of Isthenir; the city-dwellers of the Sultanate and the Nomad Tribes. The Sultanate Isethenir have a highly advanced and very religious culture based around ancestral worship and a small collection of gods, although they are also very commercial and they do a great deal of trade with surrounding lands, and their artworks and other goods are exotic and in high demand.
The Desert Nomads are by far the most numerous and the most dangerous. Unlike their Sultanate brethren, the Nomads never settled down and they wanderer the great desert and know all of its secret ways and water sources, sources they hide from outsiders. One could be dying of thirst inches from a Nomad reservoir and you would never know. The Nomads are extremely isolationist and xenophobic and they often attack and rob from merchant caravans crossing the desert. Whilst the Sultanate Isethenir claim the entire desert as their territory, it is in fact ruled solely by the Nomad Tribes and it could therefore be considered one of the largest 'nations' in the world, if it were not so barren and riven by tribal hostilities.
One common cultural aspect for these Isethenir is that their belief that when they de their souls go to the Holy City of Isaia, which they believe was the home of their ancestors in ancient times but it was lost many generations ago. It is the scret dream of all Isthenir to find Isaia's location and reinhabit the city.
Ironically, the city of Isaia did once exist; it was a Terelain city of the First Kingdom which was abandoned more than fourteen thousand years ago when the fertile Isethen Plains became an arid desert and the course of the Maal River shifted eastward. The city of Isaia itself is probably buried deep beneath the sands of the desert, although some Terelain scholars believe that it was destroyed when the sole mountain in the desert, which is itself a holy site for the Isthenir, Mount Isseir, rose out of the ground beneath it.
No Isthenir knows about the true history of Isaia, however, since the Terelains have never bothered telling them. This is partly because the Isthenir wouldn't believe them, partly because no one has the heart to destroy their religion like that, but mostly because most Terelain scholars find the whole situation unbelievably amusing.
This is, of course, my own idea for a desert kingdom, so if we're amalgamating the idea then perhaps we could remove the Isthenir Sultanate but keep the Isthenir Nomads.
Known as the Isthenir and inhabiting a region known as the Isethen Desert, they are small and wiry creatures often with sandy colourations, their culture I envisage is based more on Arabia rather than Egypt, though they too live along a river the Maal River. Their capital is the twin city of Maal-Aki, the city Maal being on the westerns ide of the river and the ity of Aki on the east. Most of their cities lie along the Maal River and with some few in other parts of the desert, near oases, mines, etc.
There are two types of Isthenir; the city-dwellers of the Sultanate and the Nomad Tribes. The Sultanate Isethenir have a highly advanced and very religious culture based around ancestral worship and a small collection of gods, although they are also very commercial and they do a great deal of trade with surrounding lands, and their artworks and other goods are exotic and in high demand.
The Desert Nomads are by far the most numerous and the most dangerous. Unlike their Sultanate brethren, the Nomads never settled down and they wanderer the great desert and know all of its secret ways and water sources, sources they hide from outsiders. One could be dying of thirst inches from a Nomad reservoir and you would never know. The Nomads are extremely isolationist and xenophobic and they often attack and rob from merchant caravans crossing the desert. Whilst the Sultanate Isethenir claim the entire desert as their territory, it is in fact ruled solely by the Nomad Tribes and it could therefore be considered one of the largest 'nations' in the world, if it were not so barren and riven by tribal hostilities.
One common cultural aspect for these Isethenir is that their belief that when they de their souls go to the Holy City of Isaia, which they believe was the home of their ancestors in ancient times but it was lost many generations ago. It is the scret dream of all Isthenir to find Isaia's location and reinhabit the city.
Ironically, the city of Isaia did once exist; it was a Terelain city of the First Kingdom which was abandoned more than fourteen thousand years ago when the fertile Isethen Plains became an arid desert and the course of the Maal River shifted eastward. The city of Isaia itself is probably buried deep beneath the sands of the desert, although some Terelain scholars believe that it was destroyed when the sole mountain in the desert, which is itself a holy site for the Isthenir, Mount Isseir, rose out of the ground beneath it.
No Isthenir knows about the true history of Isaia, however, since the Terelains have never bothered telling them. This is partly because the Isthenir wouldn't believe them, partly because no one has the heart to destroy their religion like that, but mostly because most Terelain scholars find the whole situation unbelievably amusing.
This is, of course, my own idea for a desert kingdom, so if we're amalgamating the idea then perhaps we could remove the Isthenir Sultanate but keep the Isthenir Nomads.
We can easily combine our entire ideas. The river that runs through Osira could be the Maal River as well. Perhaps the two Kingdom's could've joined into an alliance long ago, an alliance so close that they could just as well be singular kingdom of their own. The jackals could provide the sultanate with golems and magical artifacts in return for profitable trade rights.
Still I'm curious about Oaky's idea as well, in case he still wants to share it.
Still I'm curious about Oaky's idea as well, in case he still wants to share it.
I quite like that idea. It seems we're on our way to creating one of the most complex and rich kingdoms we've seen on this group yet! I'm also interested in seeing Oaky's idea... I'd like to see what kind of weird hybrid Kingdom we'll end up with!