Terror Incognitia
11-10-2008, 15:33
Part of this RP here. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=567673&page=1)
Nation name: Incognitia (sometimes The Republic of)
Race(s): Human (80%) Dwarvish (20%) others tolerated (negligible).
Head of State: closest equivalent is the High Admiral, currently Hugh Lowe.
Head of Government: leader of largest current faction in the Assembly. Can change almost daily depending on the issue. Currently usually Thomas Pitt, though James Wilson led winning votes four times last month.
Politics is generally liberal, in a sixteenth/seventeenth century sense of the word, with a mercantile bias, and an electorate comprising all sentient males meeting a given property qualification.
Population: * awaiting guidance, I was thinking approx 5 million seemed reasonable.
Geography:
Primarily fertile coastal plains, rising towards the mountains of the borders. The islands offshore are mostly rocky outcrops supporting fishermen, except for Saranac (the largest) which is fertile and quite densely populated. While the population overall is beginning to concentrate in the major cities on the coast and the inland trade routes, the core of the nation is still farming villages and small market towns. The two Incognitian archetypes are the merchant and the yeoman farmer; the dwarvish artificer is also a familiar folkloric figure.
The major cities have aspects of self-government, but all ultimately answer to the Assembly; likewise the rural shires.
The largest cities are as follows:
Nescia, the capital and largest port.
Menzerte, the main naval base and secondary trading city.
Dunkennen, the largest inland city, at the meeting of three main trading routes.
Nesais, the main West coast city.
Mountainhome, a vastly expanded dwarvish mining settlement, and the only place of any size in Incognitia with a primarily dwarvish population.
Saranac, the city on the largest island, itself also Saranac.
The economy is based primarily on domestic manufactures and trade, but boosted significantly by foreign trade of all descriptions, from foodstuffs via manufactures and weapons to the weird, exotic and enchanted.
Military: Navy
This foreign trade is protected by a capable navy, essential in the uncertain waters of the Dolthiac Ocean. Primarily consisting of modern cannon-armed warships, it is however supported on the arcane side by Naval Magicians. They tend to take on two roles in the modern navy; manipulating the wind to permit the ships on which they are borne to manoeuvre more readily, and protecting their ships from the magical blasts of their opponents.
Military: Border regiments
The capable, battle-hardened arm of the Incognitian army, the border regiments are engaged in near-constant low-level conflict on the mountainous fringes of the republic. In times of major war, they are used to buy time to raise larger forces in the interior, and train those forces up the the requisite standard. They number in total perhaps 20,000.
Military: Interior
The militia and City regiments are not well respected. While providing a slow trickle of short-term recruits for the Border regiments, who often return home on finishing their 5 year tour of duty, mostly they are suitable for little more than putting down the occasional riot and ceremonial duties. They do however number around 100,000 semi-trained recruits available for finishing training and then deployment in case of war. A few of the coastal regiments are more effective, where they are sometimes used on board naval vessels as marines.
The separation of the military establishment is partly intended as a political check and balance. The Borderers are sufficiently outnumbered as to be unable to risk a series of sieges against the Militia, and hold them in such contempt that they could never collaborate to endanger the safety of the state.
Military Equipment
Weaponry for both the Border Regiments and the Militia is based around pikes and arquebuses. A few country districts still routinely provide recruits capable with bows, and the Borderers routinely have numbers of men capable with a halberd. This makes Incognitian forces strong on the defensive and in grinding attritional conflicts, hard to beat, but less able to win stunning victories at a less than staggering cost.
The Borderers are naturally a little more flexible.
Magicians deploy with all forces of regiment size and up (1000+), though their focus is primarily defensive unless the enemy force has no practitioners of arcane arts, in which case they can wreak destruction almost as horrible as three hours of the press of Incognitian pike.
Both the broad passes of the mountain border and the crucial harbours on the coast are reasonably well fortified, to modern design. The borders are far from impenetrable, however.
Magic
Magic in Incognitia is widespread at low levels, through the fact that many can summon magical forces, and once a magician has written an effective spell, many can use it. The most complex spells tend to function like a computer program, being composed of many simple elements looped, branched and combined to make a more complex result. There is however a limit on the sentience or destructiveness both of any one spell, and on how many spells a given magician can operate at any one time. The level of sentience a being must show to be given the vote is judged as slightly higher than this, so that mages don't get two votes.
Religion:
Primarily a monotheistic worship of Ifni, the enigmatic Lady of Fortune. She wishes mortals well, but also delights in playing games. Devotees recognise a silver lining to almost every cloud she sends however, and say this is part of the point.
Other religions are tolerated unless they proselytize aggressively, in which case their toleration reaches a limit, and they find themselves squeezed out of society. The Lady's hand is believed to be at work in these matters also.
The worship of the dwarves is a very private matter, about which little is known.
Nation name: Incognitia (sometimes The Republic of)
Race(s): Human (80%) Dwarvish (20%) others tolerated (negligible).
Head of State: closest equivalent is the High Admiral, currently Hugh Lowe.
Head of Government: leader of largest current faction in the Assembly. Can change almost daily depending on the issue. Currently usually Thomas Pitt, though James Wilson led winning votes four times last month.
Politics is generally liberal, in a sixteenth/seventeenth century sense of the word, with a mercantile bias, and an electorate comprising all sentient males meeting a given property qualification.
Population: * awaiting guidance, I was thinking approx 5 million seemed reasonable.
Geography:
Primarily fertile coastal plains, rising towards the mountains of the borders. The islands offshore are mostly rocky outcrops supporting fishermen, except for Saranac (the largest) which is fertile and quite densely populated. While the population overall is beginning to concentrate in the major cities on the coast and the inland trade routes, the core of the nation is still farming villages and small market towns. The two Incognitian archetypes are the merchant and the yeoman farmer; the dwarvish artificer is also a familiar folkloric figure.
The major cities have aspects of self-government, but all ultimately answer to the Assembly; likewise the rural shires.
The largest cities are as follows:
Nescia, the capital and largest port.
Menzerte, the main naval base and secondary trading city.
Dunkennen, the largest inland city, at the meeting of three main trading routes.
Nesais, the main West coast city.
Mountainhome, a vastly expanded dwarvish mining settlement, and the only place of any size in Incognitia with a primarily dwarvish population.
Saranac, the city on the largest island, itself also Saranac.
The economy is based primarily on domestic manufactures and trade, but boosted significantly by foreign trade of all descriptions, from foodstuffs via manufactures and weapons to the weird, exotic and enchanted.
Military: Navy
This foreign trade is protected by a capable navy, essential in the uncertain waters of the Dolthiac Ocean. Primarily consisting of modern cannon-armed warships, it is however supported on the arcane side by Naval Magicians. They tend to take on two roles in the modern navy; manipulating the wind to permit the ships on which they are borne to manoeuvre more readily, and protecting their ships from the magical blasts of their opponents.
Military: Border regiments
The capable, battle-hardened arm of the Incognitian army, the border regiments are engaged in near-constant low-level conflict on the mountainous fringes of the republic. In times of major war, they are used to buy time to raise larger forces in the interior, and train those forces up the the requisite standard. They number in total perhaps 20,000.
Military: Interior
The militia and City regiments are not well respected. While providing a slow trickle of short-term recruits for the Border regiments, who often return home on finishing their 5 year tour of duty, mostly they are suitable for little more than putting down the occasional riot and ceremonial duties. They do however number around 100,000 semi-trained recruits available for finishing training and then deployment in case of war. A few of the coastal regiments are more effective, where they are sometimes used on board naval vessels as marines.
The separation of the military establishment is partly intended as a political check and balance. The Borderers are sufficiently outnumbered as to be unable to risk a series of sieges against the Militia, and hold them in such contempt that they could never collaborate to endanger the safety of the state.
Military Equipment
Weaponry for both the Border Regiments and the Militia is based around pikes and arquebuses. A few country districts still routinely provide recruits capable with bows, and the Borderers routinely have numbers of men capable with a halberd. This makes Incognitian forces strong on the defensive and in grinding attritional conflicts, hard to beat, but less able to win stunning victories at a less than staggering cost.
The Borderers are naturally a little more flexible.
Magicians deploy with all forces of regiment size and up (1000+), though their focus is primarily defensive unless the enemy force has no practitioners of arcane arts, in which case they can wreak destruction almost as horrible as three hours of the press of Incognitian pike.
Both the broad passes of the mountain border and the crucial harbours on the coast are reasonably well fortified, to modern design. The borders are far from impenetrable, however.
Magic
Magic in Incognitia is widespread at low levels, through the fact that many can summon magical forces, and once a magician has written an effective spell, many can use it. The most complex spells tend to function like a computer program, being composed of many simple elements looped, branched and combined to make a more complex result. There is however a limit on the sentience or destructiveness both of any one spell, and on how many spells a given magician can operate at any one time. The level of sentience a being must show to be given the vote is judged as slightly higher than this, so that mages don't get two votes.
Religion:
Primarily a monotheistic worship of Ifni, the enigmatic Lady of Fortune. She wishes mortals well, but also delights in playing games. Devotees recognise a silver lining to almost every cloud she sends however, and say this is part of the point.
Other religions are tolerated unless they proselytize aggressively, in which case their toleration reaches a limit, and they find themselves squeezed out of society. The Lady's hand is believed to be at work in these matters also.
The worship of the dwarves is a very private matter, about which little is known.