[BAW 2] Truncated Chapters 1 and 2

[Gone 2 the Celts]

Could I have the island archipelago north of Khio Na? The culture group would probably inhabit the northern reaches of Khio Na as well, if that's okay.

[Barry Goldwater]

You mean that taiga/tundra one? I had plans for those, but I'd be willing to work out a compromise. You mind taking the western part of the archipelago while I take the east?

Edit: Actually, to support the above - if you're interested you could perhaps be the local native culture to my migrating Falinesti. Whether your guys survive their northern migratory waves and remain in control of the western archipelago or get smashed would of course be up to you

[jacb547]

Oh yeah, of course, any new stuff would still have to be voted on by the community. The sharks, snakes and even monkeys all sound reasonable enough (we had giant snakes & Megalodons in the past anyway, and monkeys are kinda close to humans in intelligence too so yeah) but I'm especially curious about what you mean by 'an offshoot of Homo Floriensis'.

Yeah exactly! Something like Anacondas and Great White Sharks, about that I meant something like the Homo Floresiensis. An old species that once lived there and were eventually out bred and intermingled with humans, so some people around there are still very small and stocky and primitive look. Of course that would severely decrease over the years. Something like a Neanderthal situation.

[Gone 2 the Celts]

You mean that taiga/tundra one? I had plans for those, but I'd be willing to work out a compromise. You mind taking the western part of the archipelago while I take the east?

Edit: Actually, to support the above - if you're interested you could perhaps be the local native culture to my migrating Falinesti. Whether your guys survive their northern migratory waves and remain in control of the western archipelago or get smashed would of course be up to you

I had actually intended to be local natives pushed into the tundra by invaders, so it works out perfectly! I'll PM you some of my ideas after I get home later today.

[Barry Goldwater]

Yeah exactly! Something like Anacondas and Great White Sharks, about that I meant something like the Homo Floresiensis. An old species that once lived there and were eventually out bred and intermingled with humans, so some people around there are still very small and stocky and primitive look. Of course that would severely decrease over the years. Something like a Neanderthal situation.

Well, on the matter of anacondas, this guy did kick around on the globe a few million years ago; BaW already has a trend of reviving megafauna from the earth's past, perhaps you could have the titanoboa still hanging around the SW islands? As for sharks, reviving the Megalodon (or blowing it up to an even more ridiculous size, as I did with our Leviathans) but also making it only capable of surviving in warm waters & thus preferring to hang around Astonogo Veli is a possibility. What d'you & the rest of our players think about these possibilities?

On the possibility of an h. floriensis-like humanoid that interbreeds with early humanity to give rise to a shorter 'semi-dwarf' species I suppose that's plausible, especially if these traits gradually disappear as their descendants breed more & more with ordinary Homo Sapiens outside of more isolated communities. What would their relations be in regards to the Falmer-y 'true dwarves' we're carrying over from 1.0? Also, yet again, I must now ask what the rest of the community thinks of this idea.

@G2TC OK, sounds good. I look forward to reading about 'em

[Xion]

Hm..could the h. floriensis idea be a tropical version of the dwarves who perhaps did not live underground or something similar?

[jacb547]

Well, on the matter of anacondas, this guy did kick around on the globe a few million years ago; BaW already has a trend of reviving megafauna from the earth's past, perhaps you could have the titanoboa still hanging around the SW islands? As for sharks, reviving the Megalodon (or blowing it up to an even more ridiculous size, as I did with our Leviathans) but also making it only capable of surviving in warm waters & thus preferring to hang around Astonogo Veli is a possibility. What d'you & the rest of our players think about these possibilities?

On the possibility of an h. floriensis-like humanoid that interbreeds with early humanity to give rise to a shorter 'semi-dwarf' species I suppose that's plausible, especially if these traits gradually disappear as their descendants breed more & more with ordinary Homo Sapiens outside of more isolated communities. What would their relations be in regards to the Falmer-y 'true dwarves' we're carrying over from 1.0? Also, yet again, I must now ask what the rest of the community thinks of this idea.

@G2TC OK, sounds good. I look forward to reading about 'em

Yes, those two look really fine. Perhaps the snake wouldn't be as absurd as this one even but something around 10m sounds about right. And no complains on the Shark things.

Shoot! I had even forgotten about the dwarf-Falmer idea, we could just scrap the H. Floriensies then and just have them be a sort of overworld Falmer.

[Barry Goldwater]

Maybe they could be the local competition for land-wyrms and megadeathwhales, respectively?

Well, the Falmer-y dwarves are only like that b/c they lived in the caves for too long. Perhaps they could still stick to living on the outside of the mountains their ancestors hailed from, and only occasionally stray into the lowlands to hunt or w/e? Though I think that if they're at all related to the true dwarves, they'd still be extremely hostile to any humans they run into.

[Kip]

I've been mulling over a similar ethnic off-shoot - a group that split off from the true-dwarves relatively early in the evolutionary history, losing most body pigments due to lack of sunlight but largely retaining their human stature and aesthetic. At the moment this pseudo-albino ethnicity are filling in as the slave-soldiers of the Delta (as well as the Mameluke-esque political elite), but I'll be thinking more about the evolutionary biology and these folks might also be the "Horse People" to the north of the Delta I described ages ago.

[Gone 2 the Celts]

Do we have any blank maps of the world? While the climate maps are awesome, I would prefer to map out my culture on a blank map so I don't confuse climate colors with culture colors lol.

[Barry Goldwater]

Not just yet, I'm still waiting on Dan to deliver those maps & notes.

[Dan the Man]

It's on the way, I'm just trying to figure out how to make Dropbox work. I'll PM the link to the full file-folder soon.

[Barry Goldwater]

OK folks, Dan has just given me the maps & his notes for his final culture! With this, we can move forward to Chapter 3 (which I've always considered the true 'meat' of BaW), where we can create our cultures & civilization. I notice we still have a few loose ends here, namely Jacb's fauna ideas for the SW continent and Kip's albino Mamelukes, so I'll keep this thread open until those two have been discussed & approved/disapproved by you guys. I'll have the Chapter 3 thread up very soon, probably within this hour.

[Xion]

Barry suggested I present my proposal for the Kuronesti, a divergent group from the Northern River Culture who migrated first into the Wodashiral and World's Spine before reaching the western coast forests and mountains of Khio Na. Over time they would develop a lack of melanin that results in them having paler skin than the average human, red/yellow/chartreuse/purple/darker shades of blue/green eye colors possible, and fairer hair color(ex. silver, red, blonde). They are just normal humans with a melanin deficiency developed from living in a massive forest with little sunlight reaching the forest floor for generations.(I have them arriving in the forest somewhere between 4000 and 1500 BU)

[Xion]

Jacb, will the shark and snake ideas be limited to the southwestern islands or be present elsewhere?

[Barry Goldwater]

OK folks, I need you to vote on the above proposals: Jacb's (mega-snakes, mega-sharks, and outdoors mountain Dwarves, all of whom I shall assume live only in the SW islands until and unless he states otherwise), Kip's (albino, more properly humanoid Dwarves) and Xion's (melanin-deficient humans with a wider range of eye colors + lighter hair colors). If nobody votes on 'em by Sunday, they'll automatically pass on account of the total lack of opposition voiced thus far on this thread, because seriously I think a week would've been long enough to discuss these things already.

In other news, probably later today I'll also be posting some biological stuff on behalf of Narf, the latest player to join us.

[Gone 2 the Celts]

I'm definitely okay with the megafauna jacb proposed, as well as Xion's elves

Im indifferent on Kip's Mamluk albinos, so I guess I'll abstain on that.

[jacb547]

Yeah they'd be only limited to the southeastern islands, and as I already told Barry I am having finals for this trimester in school so not a bunch of free time.

[Xion]

Southwestern. Southeastern are part of Essita-En. Then I support the ideas.

[Barry Goldwater]

Yeah OK, so I know I said I'd post Narf's biology stuff for her yesterday, but complications got in the way and so I'm doing it tonight instead. Here goes:

Anikluhn Shoahmuhgoat/Anikluhnmuhg Shoaloat (ANIK-luhn-muhg Shoam-oat)

A race of humans with white hair: this trait became hereditary among them after centuries of careful breeding to preserve it in both prehistoric times and the early AU years, when it was recognized as a sign of beauty & purity. Even men without white hair would invite those with it to lay with his wife, so that they would have white-haired children. Eventually, a genetic mutation tied to this white hair reinforced the passage of this white hair among this ethnicity, like how some birds of the same species can develop different colors in different regions.