Sjsnwhnxshsh1 Another crusader human country. Melee> ranged. How honorable. Maybe, hit and run wears this army out real hard
Name your kingdom
nomanlike Being a trading country it will have lots of allies though, especially with the humans, considering it is a sort of "Jerusalem"
We have quite the focus on trade here since the country was founded by business conglomerates. It also will be able to have a weak connection with every other country since it is sort of a “country of immigrants.” I wish we had more details about Azeroth and what he and his knights did while alive though. Perhaps adding a “history” section that explains why they were so famous would be cool? Otherwise it’s just a bit vague, but it’s still a nice addition to the world!
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shadowdrake27 To be honest, history is the single most important thing about the countries we're writing about here. It gives them flavor, and depth, beyond just the reasoning foundation supporting the politics and business conducted within the country.
Sorta the idea I had when I created the Weyland Theocracy. It's simple, probably anything you'd see in a generic isekai anime, but it's solid because of the history. Even though I didn't go into great detail about the politics or business (because I'm not very good with that stuff), it's still good, just because the history carries.
And because of how robust the Theocracy's history is, it made it possible to link yet another place, the Labyrinth, to it seamlessly. Which is the beauty of modular storytelling.
The Legend of Azeroth:
Long ago, like every other man, The Lord of Men was a boy. He was born in a small town of Arém, which is now one of the Five Great Cities. One day, an old by by the name of Ares arrived. He was seeking a disciple, a child to receive the blessing of War and Order, from the god of wars Ares and Athena. There was one requirement. The child had to be chosen, born on the exact second of when the last Blessing-Holder has died. Ares has travelled long and far, seeking the one to continue the eternal legacy. He found Azeroth, five years old, already hunting for rabbits using a primitive slingshot. He studies the boy a little. A familiar glow emerged from the boy. Ares exclaimed to himself. This was sign sent by the gods.
Soon, Ares had transferred the legacy to Azeroth at the age of 15. This blessing planted the idea of complete world peace and order, which drove Azeroth to leave his hometown to venture into the large world. He travelled, solving disputes whenever he saw them. It was after a year that he had a group of loyal followers, all determined to follow their leader.
Azeroth had grown old. He was 50, long beyond his prime. His blessing was used, and all men had allied together in a great empire never seen before. However, a plague was spreading. It was transmitted by air, and already half the population are dead. a fourth have ran to find haven in other countries, while the rest are also doomed to die. Azeroth couldn't watch on. He walked outside.
"By the gods above, high in their thrones, Zues, the Thunder-Bringer, King of King, Ruler of The Heavens, Dianta, Queen of Light, The Undying Hope, Save my people from this plague!"
Then Azeroth crumpled onto the ground. He was dead. The PLague had struck him down too. However, the gods have heard his plea. In a blinding flash of light, the remaining people were healed. They recorded the lifetime of Azeroth in scripture, and buried him in The Skeleton of The Ancients, where we are living right now.
This draws a lot of Greek mythology, which people have not liked since this is not earth that we are setting on. However, I think it’s fun to get the backstory for such an important figure in your country’s history! It’s very generic, but it give us a better idea of what your country is like.
shadowdrake27 Do you know why alternative fantasy name really like to have -oth in the end? Azeroth, Koth, Hoth, Gordoth.
No clue. I’m really bad at making fantasy names
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Dzeeck Because the majority of authors don't want to break outside of the norms of fantasy writing. They want to play it safe, by going with tried and true naming schemes, themes, and what have you. Or, in other words, they don't want to be original, for the sake of success.
Also, WoW has a lot to do with it, so yeah.
Dzeeck No idea, I just name them like that because I feel like they flow...
Country: The united tribes of the great market.
Adjective: Golems.
Capital: The Great Market.
Cities: Only the Capital.
Race: Stone Golems.
Animals: Polar bears, Arctic Foxes, Snowy Owls and other animals the Golems don't care about, for they don't have the ability or need to eat meat.
Culture:
In the great market you are what you earn, literally. Stone golems have the innate magical ability to manipulate rock, metal and earth. Naturally, they can also manipulate their own bodies. Replacing stone with gold, replacing weak dirt with solid rare stones and molding themselves into intricate works of art. Rare materials are used as currency, with poor Golems keeping them deep near the core of their being protected from thieves by their solid stone bodies. Richer and more arrogant golems, use their rare gems and metals to decorate their outer shell.
The rich, can afford diamonds, which can be consumed by their core to strengthen their magical abilities. Stronger magical ability means a bigger body, as the stronger their abilities, the more matter they can wrap around their cores. The poor on the other hand, can only hope to earn enough in the mines to get any kind of metal to consume. A week or so without feeding their core with enough metal means death. Without metal their core will turn from a red energy crystal to solid stone, killing them in the process. Really desperate golems may cannibalize another's core for sustenance. The practice of cannibalism is extremely taboo and punishable by death. Calling a golem a cannibal is considered the highest of insults amongst the higher class. Not only are you calling him a deviant but poor as well. Most rich golems would prefer to be dead than poor.
Another way of showing a golem's wealth besides their bodies, is by building the most grandiose house for themselves as they can afford. Golems prefer building downwards. They don't need the warmth of the Sun, can "see" in perfect darkness and the metals and gems they need for sustenance and greed are all underground. Most golem are extremely agoraphobic as well and their isolated society is quite xenophobic. Most of them see other life-forms as inferior because of their inability to shape their bodies out of expensive materials. "The more expensive you are, the closer you are to enlightenment" claims famous golem philosopher Zerx the ancient. Other life forms may wear wealth or live in wealth, but only the golems can become wealth.
What they won't admit in their arrogance, is that their need to feel superior to outsiders comes from extreme fear. You can barely distinguish the great market above ground from any other mountain. It is completely disguised. Only after venturing deep underground one will find the amazing palaces, shops and mines of the golems. Real stories of contact with outsiders are rarer than the most expensive jewels the great Market. Most will tell you outsiders are pathetic savages, only interested in stealing their treasures. One named Voxis the fool, may tale tales of actually venturing outside and scaring their goblin neighbors by covering himself with snow and pretending to be a snow monster.
Politics:
Each tribe is ruled by a Big Boss Commanding smaller bosses who in turn are commanding the lower class. The big boss is literally the biggest in tribe because of his wealth. Only someone as big as him may challenge him for his title. The Challenger must prove he's wealthier than the current Big Boss. The loser of this duel of greed loses his entire wealth to the winner. The losers often commits suicide soon after their loss, as the fall of being made out of gold and diamonds to being made out of dirt is devastating. Because of the deadly consequences of losing a duel, not many are brave enough to challenge the Big Boss of a tribe. On top of that because golems don't age, the same Big Boss may rule for thousands of year.
Taking over the position of boss by force is unheard of. All golems are inherently disgusted by the idea of using violence against another golem. With that said, what a health taboo is committed like cannibalism or stealing from the upper class, all the bosses of a tribe gather to execute the offender. All the bosses use their magical abilities at one to crash the offender to dust. That way the guilt of killing another of their kind is split between all of them.
If a boss commits a crime the over bosses punish him. The overbosses are the richest golems in the great market. That act as their own tribe, and oversee the other tribes. They may be the smallest tribe, but they own most of the market alone, from stores to mines.
Contrary to most other races, family doesn't mean much to the Golems. Golems reproduce a-sexually every 15 or so years. The process is non voluntariness and the new golem does not take any of the traits of his parent. The only thing that influences your place in the hierarchy is your wealth.
History:
All golems know the legend of the cruel father. The legend says that the creator of the golems was a powerful sorcerer. He created the golems to be the perfect miners, digging rock unusually fest with their magical abilities, not needing sleep or food except for metal that they have in abundance in the mines already and most importantly being completely subservient to the sorcerer's will.
What the sorcerer didn't count on is the golems slowly gaining awareness. With their new ability to think and reflect, the golems thought of radical ideas like "Keeping the ores they worked so hard to mine for themselves". The sorcerer as a conservative at hart, punished every golem to disobey him with swift death.
The golems devised a cunning plan to set them free. The first boss took gold and jews and made themselves into beautiful, expensive works of art. The sorcerer was ugly and felt shame looking at the magnificent golems. So he left in shame and the golems were free forever.
What really happened was much different. In truth no one knows way the sorcerer abandoned his creations. The golems never knew what he did with the ores they mined for him. He teleported them away to an unknown location. One Day he just teleported away never to be seen again.
Name/flag color(s): "The Great Market" in gold color.
Coat of arms: -
Location: The very top left of the frozen valley, deep under the mountains.
I didn't expect to write so much but I ended up really enjoying making this and wanting to add more and more. I may come back to edit it and fix small mistakes.
Cynical_Stranger Please read before you submit, thanks!
I thought this was rather creative, and you even made up a new race for it. While making up a race is technically against the rules of this forum post, I liked it.
Seems like this race would be not be interactive with other races, but the goblins I made (that you reference) would be fairly similar. My biggest question is if these golems sell any materials to the outside world for profit. Since they are called “the market” it would make sense that they have some sort of trade; however, your lore seems to indicate that they never trade with anyone. Even trading among golems would be bad since they would have to pay with pieces of themselves, and trading with other races seems impossible since your lore clearly states that they do not interact with the outside world.
The golem society itself is very unique. Having them display wealth on their bodies and social status be determined based on that they are made of is very interesting. There are some issues with this though. One of them is the question of why a golem would ever “work” for another golem. If I’m a lowly miner who is starving and finds a precious metal, why not just eat it and keep digging to find more? Even returning to The Market would not be necessary since I don’t have to eat or sleep. It seems to me like they would devolve quickly into solitary creatures that consumed for themself whatever metals they could find.
That being said, well done on creating the most unique society. I’m glad you had fun thinking it up!
Didn't know inventing my own race was against the rules, guess my kingdom is not canon then. Oh well, still had fun writing this.
In my head the golems do trade with each other. Like one golem trading some of his gold for rubys. Or a rich golem paying a talented artist golem to mold his body into a beautiful work of art. But for a place called the great market, I did neglect to mention how trade worked.
I see your point about them being soletery and not working for another. A bit of a big plot hole that needs to be mended. I may come back to fix if I feel like. But then again, my kingdom is not canon because I was hasty and didn't read all the rules. I might come back to make a new one instead, this time obeying the rules.
Cynical_Stranger Kinda wish this was allowed though. This is a very unique idea, so much so that it deserves to be here. It feels like a race that would actually be in a fantasy story of some sort.
Though I don't know about the sustainability of these creatures' lives. I would think, depending on how long they've been around, they would have gone extinct long ago. After all, minerals aren't all that common, and depending on whether they were endemic to a region of mountains, would've died out without enough minerals to go around.
Cynical_Stranger oh this is canon, but somewhere not in the continent. good cataclysm
Day 11, Austmark, Scotia, Ruritania added.
5 days to go
WebNovel: Revenge of the Chinese Spams
I think the event would go ballistic quickly in the sea war rather than land. Because well not much of the close border between land major countries