Largent
27-08-2007, 01:40
Chapter 1: The Kingmaker
1184 Years Ago
The jungle paths began to harden and the dry season set in around Altun Ha. Located in the regions lowlands, the land yeilded little beyond bare sustinence to its inhabitants. A high civilization had no business there, nevertheless, one had managed to survive. Altun Ha was a prestigious trading center, boasting four main plazas, hundreds of buildings, temple mounds up to 300 feet high, ceremonial palaces clad in painted stucco, and courtyards graced with carved limestone altars and monuments. A trading power, it filled the strategic location on the Usumacinta river, which flowed westward from the heart of the region. Its markets overflowed with edibles which anyone without an untrained eye would deem appropriate for one of its mesoamerican counterparts.
Exotic goods found their way to Altun Ha as well. Jades for sculpture and jewelry and quetzal feathers for costumes came from the mountains to the south, and obsidian for weapons and pyrite for mirrors from the plateau to the west, the domain of Takalìk Abaj.
A sprawling metropolis of one hundred thousand or more, Takalìk Abaj's motives in dispatching Siyaj K'ak', their most elite warlord, were clear. It was a perfect staging area for military action. Bringing Altun Ha into Takalìk Abaj's orbit was central to the warlords mission. Through persuasion if possible, through force if necessary. The principal goal, however, was not Altun Ha, but rather Nakbé, the most influential city in the lowlands at that time. If that city fell, the others would follow.
On a hot day in January, Siyaj K'ak', flanked by his warriors, marched into Altun Ha. They marched past the three hundred foot temples, through the bustling markets, and across its plazas. The citizens gaped, not only impressed by the show of force but also by the extravagant feathered headresses, javelins, and mirrored shields--the regalia of a distant imperial city. The soldiers were shock troops, designed to display his bona fides and demonstrate good faith. He needed reinforcements and he had come to get them. In return, the goodwill of his patron, the mysterious ruler of Takalìk Abaj.
Siyaj K'ak' marched alone into the palace to meet face to face with Altun Ha's king. The meeting was a brief one and the same day he marched out of the city with not only his reinforcements but having cemented an alliance. Now with hordes of fierce warriors swelling their ranks, they set off in the sweltering rainforest heat towards Nakbé.
Small garrisons undoubtedly dotted the route, and warned the city of the approaching army. Nevertheless, the fifty mile march took only two days and on the third smoke rose over the horizon marking the routing of every soldier who stood in the warlords way. The conflagration could be seen by Siyaj K'ak's allies and on that date an empire was born, breaking all ties with his patron state following a coup d'état, Siyaj K'ak' founded a new dynasty to rule the region, rivaled only by Takalìk Abaj for more than a millenium.
Present Day
A space probe silently drifted by the lonely planet. Through its lense the largely tropical planet came through as a fine red surrounded by an emerald green, no doubt the ocean. This particular planet had been seen before, documented, named UB-160693, but never scrutinized to the extent that some of its neighboring planets had been. It was the farthest trip from Sol and the whole system had been buried by more pressing matters in recent years.
On Earth, the probe had been given a relatively low priority and so Michael Briggs had the destict honor and pleasure of sitting in his office alone, at two o'clock in the morning monitoring the probes findings. It seemed a nice enough planet, although nothing special. That was until and odd yellow contrast began to show on the hologram.
Briggs' usually emotionless facial expression changed completely. His angular eyebrows arched in shock and his habitually pale face became almost entirely bloodless. Grabbing a printout he took off from his station, all the usual uncertainty in his gait having vanished as he made the call to wake his departments director.
It only took an hour for the department's employees to assemble. As Briggs displayed his findings his eyes flashed with excitment. He took special care to emphasize key words as to not leave anyone behind, which was not out of the question seeing as he spoke very quickly. "Ladies and gentlemen, it seems clear that there was at one time a thriving civilization on that planet, and there may still be some form of sentient life. The jungle is far too thick to send robots, so it seems that we will have to send in a team to investigate."
OOC - Okay, so the set up for this was inspired by an article I recently read on Mesoamerica, so there are going to be some obvious similarities in the settings. However, that is where similarities end. This will be a character RP in which a team will venture into the jungle to investigate and be thrust into a world of warring dynasties, court rivalries, violence, mysticism, and dark secrets hidden in the planets underworld.
The inhabitants described in the first half of the post are not necissarily human although for our purposes we can assume they appear to be very near to human. If you are interested RP your character arriving at the Largentian Air and Space Organization [LASO] and once we have a few people assembled they will be adressed and the RP will begin.
For any further questions I can be found on IRC or just drop me a telegram. Try to avoid characters with special powers.
1184 Years Ago
The jungle paths began to harden and the dry season set in around Altun Ha. Located in the regions lowlands, the land yeilded little beyond bare sustinence to its inhabitants. A high civilization had no business there, nevertheless, one had managed to survive. Altun Ha was a prestigious trading center, boasting four main plazas, hundreds of buildings, temple mounds up to 300 feet high, ceremonial palaces clad in painted stucco, and courtyards graced with carved limestone altars and monuments. A trading power, it filled the strategic location on the Usumacinta river, which flowed westward from the heart of the region. Its markets overflowed with edibles which anyone without an untrained eye would deem appropriate for one of its mesoamerican counterparts.
Exotic goods found their way to Altun Ha as well. Jades for sculpture and jewelry and quetzal feathers for costumes came from the mountains to the south, and obsidian for weapons and pyrite for mirrors from the plateau to the west, the domain of Takalìk Abaj.
A sprawling metropolis of one hundred thousand or more, Takalìk Abaj's motives in dispatching Siyaj K'ak', their most elite warlord, were clear. It was a perfect staging area for military action. Bringing Altun Ha into Takalìk Abaj's orbit was central to the warlords mission. Through persuasion if possible, through force if necessary. The principal goal, however, was not Altun Ha, but rather Nakbé, the most influential city in the lowlands at that time. If that city fell, the others would follow.
On a hot day in January, Siyaj K'ak', flanked by his warriors, marched into Altun Ha. They marched past the three hundred foot temples, through the bustling markets, and across its plazas. The citizens gaped, not only impressed by the show of force but also by the extravagant feathered headresses, javelins, and mirrored shields--the regalia of a distant imperial city. The soldiers were shock troops, designed to display his bona fides and demonstrate good faith. He needed reinforcements and he had come to get them. In return, the goodwill of his patron, the mysterious ruler of Takalìk Abaj.
Siyaj K'ak' marched alone into the palace to meet face to face with Altun Ha's king. The meeting was a brief one and the same day he marched out of the city with not only his reinforcements but having cemented an alliance. Now with hordes of fierce warriors swelling their ranks, they set off in the sweltering rainforest heat towards Nakbé.
Small garrisons undoubtedly dotted the route, and warned the city of the approaching army. Nevertheless, the fifty mile march took only two days and on the third smoke rose over the horizon marking the routing of every soldier who stood in the warlords way. The conflagration could be seen by Siyaj K'ak's allies and on that date an empire was born, breaking all ties with his patron state following a coup d'état, Siyaj K'ak' founded a new dynasty to rule the region, rivaled only by Takalìk Abaj for more than a millenium.
Present Day
A space probe silently drifted by the lonely planet. Through its lense the largely tropical planet came through as a fine red surrounded by an emerald green, no doubt the ocean. This particular planet had been seen before, documented, named UB-160693, but never scrutinized to the extent that some of its neighboring planets had been. It was the farthest trip from Sol and the whole system had been buried by more pressing matters in recent years.
On Earth, the probe had been given a relatively low priority and so Michael Briggs had the destict honor and pleasure of sitting in his office alone, at two o'clock in the morning monitoring the probes findings. It seemed a nice enough planet, although nothing special. That was until and odd yellow contrast began to show on the hologram.
Briggs' usually emotionless facial expression changed completely. His angular eyebrows arched in shock and his habitually pale face became almost entirely bloodless. Grabbing a printout he took off from his station, all the usual uncertainty in his gait having vanished as he made the call to wake his departments director.
It only took an hour for the department's employees to assemble. As Briggs displayed his findings his eyes flashed with excitment. He took special care to emphasize key words as to not leave anyone behind, which was not out of the question seeing as he spoke very quickly. "Ladies and gentlemen, it seems clear that there was at one time a thriving civilization on that planet, and there may still be some form of sentient life. The jungle is far too thick to send robots, so it seems that we will have to send in a team to investigate."
OOC - Okay, so the set up for this was inspired by an article I recently read on Mesoamerica, so there are going to be some obvious similarities in the settings. However, that is where similarities end. This will be a character RP in which a team will venture into the jungle to investigate and be thrust into a world of warring dynasties, court rivalries, violence, mysticism, and dark secrets hidden in the planets underworld.
The inhabitants described in the first half of the post are not necissarily human although for our purposes we can assume they appear to be very near to human. If you are interested RP your character arriving at the Largentian Air and Space Organization [LASO] and once we have a few people assembled they will be adressed and the RP will begin.
For any further questions I can be found on IRC or just drop me a telegram. Try to avoid characters with special powers.