New Suggestion - "Barbarian School" building

[Marie Louise von Preussen]

Barbarian factions in RS generally don't have anything to improve the skills of my family members and generals. Civilized factions have Academies and a whole deal of buildings to acquire favourable ancillaries.

In EB, if I remember well, there was a special basic building for barbarians equal to the Academy of more civilized factions. I was thinking about how that could be implemented in RS 2.0, if it hasn't before.

Surely there'll only be a basic building, nothing like the civilized Ludus Magna. And they won't get as many ancillaries, but still it would be a viable way of educating and improving the skills of governors and family members alike. What do you say?

[Mulattothrasher]

Barbarian factions in RS generally don't have anything to improve the skills of my family members and generals. Civilized factions have Academies and a whole deal of buildings to acquire favourable ancillaries.

In EB, if I remember well, there was a special basic building for barbarians equal to the Academy of more civilized factions. I was thinking about how that could be implemented in RS 2.0, if it hasn't before.

Surely there'll only be a basic building, nothing like the civilized Ludus Magna. And they won't get as many ancillaries, but still it would be a viable way of educating and improving the skills of governors and family members alike. What do you say?

I'm unsure on the buildings that will be in RS2 (not sure we've gotten to that point), but you've a good point that I hope will be implemented.

I've not familiarized myself with Germanic, Dacian, Iberian, etc... and other so called barbarian establishments, but that because I've not really dug into those civilizations., You've given me an good excuse to post some things on Celtic education and writing that I do know



Celts were a more literate culture than believed. The 'illiterate barbarian' notions probably in part stems from the notion that to be literate, a culture needs tons of books, writing, libraries, etc...

Though the Celts did not write native books on history, philosophy, nature, etc...they did use Latin, Greek, Etruscan, and Phoenician alphabets. Around 60 or more inscriptions have been discovered in souther Gaul, and likely due to contact with the Greeks in Massilia, Greek seemed to be the Gallic alphabet of choice until Latin influences, stemming from southern Gaul/Provence began to take hold. North of Roman Provence, over 20 inscriptions have been found in Latin, like potter's records and other texts, such as the popular Colingy calendar inscribed with of Latin alphabets. A couple Celtic war helmets have been discovered with writings on them in the Etruscan alphabet. The Celtiberians have some long inscriptions over 200 words long about a Celtic ritual, and another inscription was found in Celtiberian, which used a variation of the Iberian script. I can go on and on

Still, its important to remember that the Celts, like other so called barbarian cultures, had a strong oral and spoken tradition, relying on the skills of ones memory, not on writing everything down. So anything that we might include in RS2 would not mirror a Latin or Greek school (like you mentioned). Still, its great the Irish monks later on started writing down much of the Celtic stories, beliefs, and other odds and ends. Without that, we'd have a smaller outlook on the scope of all this.

[The Sloth]

I just posted a suggestion for celtic academies in the economics thread. You might want to take a look at it. But I'm afraid we would still have to find something for germans, getae, scythians and sarmatians

[Marie Louise von Preussen]

Indeed that's truly a point supporting it, apart from it being in EB .

I just posted a suggestion for celtic academies in the economics thread. You might want to take a look at it. But I'm afraid we would still have to find something for germans, getae, scythians and sarmatians

This is truly the point. A "barbarian school" does not need a literate culture to be allowed within.

After what was discussed in this thread my suggestion is that you implement two levels of academy building to the Celtic cultures and just one level for other barbarians. Germanic people already did write at this time, IIRC, but every culture had wise men and a rich oral tradition and wisdom that was teached to younger generations and so on.

The first level of academy, available to all barbarian factions, would be simply like a small camp or improvised location where wise men, like druids, would pass on their skills orally. The second level would be a bit more sophisticate, of course, but only available to factions such as the Gauls and the Getae which had more contact with literate civilizations.

[dvk901]

A very good point...flesh out the ideas on this and we'll add it.

[Marie Louise von Preussen]

I was thinking also about a set of auxiliaries that would come uniquely to barbarians, to avoid giving the old same "Philosophers, Ctesibius, etc..." to them.

More likely the building would give them "Bards, Priests, Druids, Wise men, etc..." as well as a whole new set of barbarian ancillaries, if necessary, to moderately boost their skills.

Also new traits could be created to benefit their management and command skills. "Understanding of Tactics", for example, as well as the basic "Mathematician" trait can also be included.

[cherryfunk]

I was thinking also about a set of auxiliaries that would come uniquely to barbarians, to avoid giving the old same "Philosophers, Ctesibius, etc..." to them.

More likely the building would give them "Bards, Priests, Druids, Wise men, etc..." as well as a whole new set of barbarian ancillaries, if necessary, to moderately boost their skills.

Also new traits could be created to benefit their management and command skills. "Understanding of Tactics", for example, as well as the basic "Mathematician" trait can also be included.

That's a fantastic idea. There could also be some auxiliaries denoting Greek/Latin advisers, like 'Greek Philosopher' or 'Greek Tactician', specifically for barbarian cultures.

[dvk901]

Well, that would be Squid's area, but in truth, it would be nice to differentiate the Barbs from the standard RTW stuff and make them more culture specific.

[Marie Louise von Preussen]

Also a nice idea. Basically it sums up to:

1. Give barbarian factions a building equivalent to the Academy.
2. Allow men educated in cities with this building to get special ancillaries and traits that improve their overall Command and Management ratings.

There could be a distinction between a completely nomad faction such as Sarmatia and the Celts. This is where your foreign auxiliary idea comes: Celts and Dacians should have a second level academy or so that would allow them to gather foreign advisors, be they Roman or Greek. Other barbarian factions also could have a chance of getting one, but it would be much smaller.

Or maybe we could give level 2 academies to every faction as well as equal chances of getting foreign advisors, since it's all in the realm of alternate history and barbarian factions close to Rome, Greece or the East would inevitably adopt their ways partially, including writing and their knowledge.

As for graphical elements I was thinking of a small, open garden with benches to be a level 1 Academy while something in the lines of a wooden hut or building for a level 2 Academy. Both should be cheaper but somehow provide marginally less benefits than civilized equivalents.

[wynofthetim]

Nice ideas here. The difficulty to gain a decent entourage as a barbarian faction has always been an issue when ive played as a barbarian faction previously.

I personally feel that maybe the taverns could be extended as they were a social hub for some barbarian cultures (weren't they?) although this would only really work well for western european barbarians, rather then nomads/steppes

but thats just my two penny's worh

[rory o'kane]

maybe they could earn the traits "Speaks Greek"/"Speaks Latin" - gives them +1 influence or something else... just a thought...

[Mulattothrasher]

I cannot find much in the way of what a building would look like (not unless directly a result of Greek/Roman influence or Roman conquest), but we know the Celts were not country bumpkins.

The the rule of thumb, any building that Celts on the continent would have would be likely be rectangular in shape with a thatched roof, while ones in the Britain Isles would have been circular. Not to mention the tons of outside groves or clearing where students could have trained under the watchful eye of their teachers. Anglesy Isle (of the coast of northwest Wales) was a stronghold for the druids, and druidism is thought to have started somewhere on the islands and them jumped to the continent and it's also theorized that many continental druids would travel to Britain for their teachings (I think it was Caesar that mentioned this in the Gallic War?).

20 years is a long time to learn the ways of the universe and nature, but thats what made them among the best in Europe.