The Elder Scrolls IH, Take II - World/Lore-Building Thread
So as I announced in the Diadochi thread, with the end of that game I'll be launching a new one in 2-3 weeks from now: set in the same continuity as the previous IH game in Tamriel, but 252 years into its future. This thread is where you'll be claiming territory for your faction and working out a history for them with other players.
Current mod list:
Myself
Xion
Pyrrhus
Bastard Feudalism
The year is 1E (First Era) 242, and though Tamriel is still young, it is clear that its past history is & its foreseeable future will have to be written in blood. This is the time when humans began to rebel en-masse against their legendarily cruel and Daedra-worshiping Ayleid Elven overlords in central Tamriel, the land that would become Cyrodiil. Another thorn in the Ayleids' side was the fact that some among them had not turned away from the Aedra that they had originally worshiped and, disgusted by the excesses of their 'fallen' kin & the lengths they were willing to go to in their Daedra-worship for more power, cast their lot in with the rebellion.
Elsewhere, new powers are continuing to stir. By this point in time the ferocious Sons of Snow, with their raw strength and the magical Thu'um or 'Storm Voice', have effectively taken over all of Skyrim from the native Snow Elves, who have been exterminated or tried to take refuge with their Dwemer ('Dwarven') cousins only to be subjected to a fate worse than death at their treacherous hands, and the High Kings in Windhelm who claim descent from Ysgramor (the first leader of the Nords on the continent) have begun mounting campaigns to conquer other parts of Tamriel: either directly with their own forces, or by supporting existing Nord colonists. Of course, there is no guarantee that the established overlords of the more distant Nord colonies will remain loyal to the Ysgramor Dynasty instead of trying to forge their own independent destiny, or that the Jarls in Skyrim do not covet the Jagged Crown of the High King for themselves for that matter...anyway, there is little doubt that the Nords will also come to the aid of their fellow humans resisting Elven tyranny to the south in Cyrodiil, whether it be out of genuine human-to-human altruism or simply to grab more land in western & northern Cyrodiil for themselves.
In the west, the regions of High Rock and Hammerfell remain fractured. The former is a battleground between the Mer & Nords trying to impose their dominion over the entire land and the native Bretons (the elf-blooded descendants of the native Men of High Rock) & Orcs, who have abandoned the safety of the Wrothgarian Mountains to establish a homeland for themselves in the more prosperous southeastern parts of High Rock. There is no love lost between all four races, or even between their individual leaders, and so although the simplest way to term the wars plaguing this region would be that it is a 'four-way war', such a simplification is also likely to be proven inaccurate on closer inspection. Further south, in the deserts and mountains of Hammerfell a many-sided struggle is brewing as well, pitting the native humans against technologically advanced Dwemer coming in from the east and the dark-skinned Yokudan colonists from the west.
Here's the map we'll be using. As I promised, I have extended it to cover Skyrim and Cyrodiil. Parts of Morrowind, Valenwood & Elsweyr are in the map as well (due entirely to the difficulty of getting just Cyrodiil/Skyrim in there) but you can ignore those, they aren't playable (nor can you invade them) and the most you can do with 'em is try to interact with NPC powers there like Pyrrhus did with the Nabataeans in the recent Diadochi game. Considering that the Nords were expanding into Morrowind at this time, I can open Morrowind up as well, but only if we luck out & get a lot of players (as well as another mod, right now we have four mods so we can divide responsibilities on a Provincial basis). The regions where players can set up shop are marked below:
Blank map
Provincial map
And an economic map:
Econ map
Now then, some house rules for this thread:
1) You can claim as much territory as you want, until your faction shares borders with other players. Ideally we will completely eliminate space for NPCs, so that all wars & roleplay in this game will be PvP.
2) In-universe, 252 years have passed between the last game and this one. Obviously you don't need to cover every single year in your faction's history in excruciating detail, but you should work with others to determine when, where & who was involved in the major events in that history. No faction should develop in a vacuum, untouched by everything & everyone around them: at the very least you should be involved with your neighbors.
3) Multiple factions are allowed, and in fact encouraged. You can have a maximum of one faction in each of the four Provinces, though they cannot border with each other to avoid conflicts of interests.
4) The nine playable races are: Nord (heavy infantry bonus + mages are placed by Thu'um-using 'Shamans'), Nibenean (bonus to spears & light inf), Breton (bonus to mages & heavy cav), Deathland Nede (units are weaker but cheaper), Yokudan (bonus to light cav & inf), Altmer (bonus to mages & spears), Ayleid (capable of summoning Daedric units), Dwemer (mages replaced with mechanical units) and Orsimer (bonus to heavy inf & spears). Colovian (Nord + Nibenean) will be an 'emergent' ethnicity akin to the Heterogenes in Diadochi.
5) No flaming. I trust you're all emotionally mature and responsible fellows capable of discussing the intricacies of a forum game with each other without degenerating into a flame warBe considerate of other players & open to negotiating over territory, if you want to get mad you can do that with in-game wars but not when we're still worldbuilding.
If anyone has further queries or suggestions, feel free to list them here. As I've said elsewhere we'll start around June 15-20th, which gives you all quite a bit of time to get your faction(s) & its/their relationships with those of other players done.
Originally Posted by Bastard Feudalism
