A New History of Midgard?

[DreamWeaver]

It is the larger island with 2-3 cities on it that is just west of Midgard A-3 map.

[DreamWeaver]

History:

The skies grew dark and a great ball of glowing red light steaked across the skies heading south over Midgard. It seem to hit the sea south of Midgard and north of Kalmar. At the point of impact, everyone was thrown off their feet. After the strike great waves came crashing inland and swept over the lands of Midgard. Many cities in the south were simply swept away. Meanwhile great earth quakes were felt across the lands everywhere and many cities were reduced to rubble and/or burned to the ground. Then those that managed to survive that had to endure a great long winter that lasted two years, leave many to die from the elements or famine. Much was lost and most people just tried to survive. That was from the times of our parents, and now people have started to reform and rebuild from the ruins of the past. Some of the former political organizations have reformed again and have started to via for political control of the lands once again. The Imperial Republic, and three great Midgard Families of; the Boda, the Getham and the Roder.  Also some religions sects have reformed as well; The Banner, The Gift, and The Ring.  Other organizations are rumored to also have started up or come into existence but at this point they just seem to be rumors.

The Redesign of the Imperial's History of Midgard

The Imperials where born from a political faction of men that created an organization called a Republic. It was not a Noble family or Line, but a elected group of men to rule the Imperial Republic. They banded together as a group of representatives from each city to for a single ruling body called a Republic body. The Imperial Republic started in the north of Midgard and started to spread across  the lands. Sadly as this new organization started to coalesce into a real ruling body, the great Meteor struck in the south of Midgard. In the aftermath of the two year winter and great earthquakes with fires much fell into ruins. Most people just spent all their efforts to survive, and try to rebuild from the vast ruins. Recently many of the older people started to remember the past again and wanted to reorganize the Imperial Republic again. The people wanted to establish the Imperial political faction again, in the hopes to rebuild the Imperial Republic once again. It is through the old Laws that society could once again band together and become a great society again under the rule of the Imperial Republic. So they formed the Imperial Legates, and seek to build their offices across the lands of Midgard to bring back the old Laws that made up the Imperial Republic.

Now as they began to spread this idea again, they encountered other factions that were based from Noble House Families of Boda, Getham, and Roder. These great Families had existed within the Imperial Republic, but were apart of the Republic itself. It seems that these (3) Noble Families, have grown in power and each believe that they are better than the Imperial Republic and they should rule Midgard. Each seeks to control Midgard in their own way under their own rule.  So all (4) factions seek to win the support of all of the peoples of Midgard and try to via for the upper hand. None of them want open warfare with each other, but  they do feel that they are better to rule than the others. They see working together with each other but it seems for now they wish to try and win the support of the people and convert all population  centers to follow each of their own factional control.

The Imperial Republic was ruled by a Senate that was made up of a representatives called a Senators. Each city had one elected Senator that had a seat within the Republic's Senate. Now there were a number of Noble Houses within the Imperial Republic, that had concerns within many of the Cities of the Imperial Republic. Each of these Noble Houses also had a seat within the Senate as well, and so each had a single Senator as well in the Senate. Now of the remaining  Noble Houses that survived the ruin, only three remain. They are Noble House Boda, Noble House Getham, and Noble House Roder. Each of these Noble Houses had a special purpose within the Imperial Republic that they managed across the Republic in all of the Republic's many cities. When the Imperial Republic seem to fall after the great ruin, these three Noble houses seem to manage to keep going and grew in power. In place of the former Republic they filled that political void and became ruling Factions of their own and started to grow and take power for themselves.

Noble House Boda, which is now called The Boda Family:
The Boda were specialize in building weapons. After the ruin they kept their specialization and expanded on and became foot soldiers that pride themselves on their warrior ability on the field of battle.

Noble House Getham, which is now called The Getham Family:
The Getham were specialized in trade and commerce. After the ruin they kept their specialization and continued to expand and reform trade again across Midgard

Noble House Roder, which is now called The Roder Family:
The Roder were specialized in agriculture and mounts. After the ruin they kept their specialization and became mounted Calvary soldiers along with producing food for Midgard.

These three Noble Houses, now calling themselves Family factions all grew in power and started to fill the void after the ruin and seemingly fall of the Imperial Republic. They each are trying to gain the upper hand and win the support of the people of Midgard, as well and get the many cities to declare for them. They each feel that their own faction is better suited to rule, but they do see the value of working together as well too. Now that they have encountered the rebirth of the Imperial Republic again, they look on the Imperials as another faction that also seeks to rule the lands again. They see the value of Law and Order that they bring and are willing to also work with them as well, but these four factions have a uneasy peace with each other. They all seem to have the same goals, to rule all of Midgard again under their own factional ways.

They all share the same enemies, and they would be the Barbarians, Skelts from the South of Midgard, Bandits, Pirates, and Religious Zelots of the Blood & Fire , Serkenar, and Cult of the Dark Ones.

[Davin]

See my comments over on the Imperials thread where I discussed some things that should have gone here instead.  We can continue such discussions here.

[DreamWeaver]

This was from 'Davin' within the Imperial Redesign thread....

Ok, I'll buy that.  Though if I were the Imperials and the families left me, I wouldn't give them any seats at all.  I can see the families wanting to split off because they want to rebuild control themselves and didn't like having to subjugate themselves to group control.  And I can see the Imperials wanting to maintain overall control and not cooperate with the renegades trying to take it away from them.

I think that maintains a good balance between the factions without having any one of them overpowering the others or a special need for cooperation to eliminate a common enemy.  And yet it also provides a competitive relationship between them all, providing a reason why they wouldn't want to cooperate much with one another.  I think it's a good design!

Now, for the religions...

I can see them being independent of the Imperials and families from before the strike and continuing to do so afterwards.  But they'll surely need some competition between one another, ostensibly to garner all the worshipers over to their own side.  This part shouldn't be too difficult, as long as we declare their methods & purposes of worship to be somewhat less than tolerant of one another, but short of outright violence.  That gives them a religious version of competition to deal with.

However, we need to go back to some of the stuff we were discussing before, where certain religions cooperate with certain families and/or the Imperium for various purposes.  And it need not be strictly one-for-one, either, or else we'll end up with fixed "teams".  Instead, I think I'd recommend a division of cooperation for such purposes.  For instance, one (or two) of the religions might cooperate with a family in terms of construction, and one (or two) of the same or other religions might cooperate well with a family that helps with markets.  And perhaps they all might cooperate with the Imperials with regards to maintaining local law and order in the cities and surrounding areas, especially where they have temples.  Surely non-violent religions want peaceful relations between neighbors where they're trying to entice worshipers over to their side, would they not?

What do you think about approaching things from that angle?

(I think this whole issue might make a good example for the general "good game design" discussion people were trying to have elsewhere.

[DreamWeaver]

To clarify about, after the Strike/Ruin...the Imperial Republic collapsed. All the cities and lands were in utter ruin and with no intercommunication...the Republic collapsed. In a few cities some of the former ideas remained in the minds of the people, and after a while some of them started to reform again. Now the Noble Houses of Boda, Getham, and Roder did somehow manage to reform faster and started to rebuild before the Imperial Republic started to stand up again. By the time the Imperial Republic did stand up and reform again, the Noble houses declared themselves Indepenent Families and started to spread their own individual political power. By the time the Imperial Republic Senate had reformed the former Noble Houses had already become as strong as the Imperial Republic. So now all 4 factions via for control of northern Midgard and control of all the cities.

[DreamWeaver]

There are rumors that one or two of the other Noble Houses also did survive as well and that they are trying to stand up again as well. The Noble house of <yet defined>, is going to reclaim it's place again as a former Noble House of the Republic. (A new faction to be worked out, need to work out the details with Davin).

[Davin]

It's perfectly reasonable that the Republic pretty well collapsed.  I was just mentioning a way that their reasoning could have run.  If the other houses wanted to be on their own then I can see the Imperials just leaving them completely out of it and trying to rebuild what they had.  I wasn't trying to change your basic premise, but just inject a little more detail and reasons into the description.

We still need the detail redesigns of all the factions fleshed out (with powers, benefits, alliances/disagreements, etc.).

I think it'd be reasonable for other houses (or factions in general) to try to start up again, but I would recommend them being "behind the curve" so that we can bring them in later in the game, as the player population grows, rather than at the beginning.

[DreamWeaver]

True ...I was just saying I am working on another House that trying to restand back up again. I am already working with a couple of others to design this new house faction, and I think it would have a perfect fit for the game and is a missing element in the game at this time. I know you want to focus on standing up the core (&) factions of the:

- Imperial Republic
- House Boda Family
- House Roder Family
- House Getham Family
- The Banner Religion
- The Gift Religion
- The Ring Religion

We need to work through the History first to iron that out before the redesign of the factions can really proceed. I have managed to find the former Imperial #1, and the former B&F #1 to aid these talks. I await them to both wade into the talks here. Sadly one is awaiting for the Admins here to send him a email to activate his account, so he can post. I had hopes to get two former Banner seniors to also join us as well too, to aid in this redesign work.

I have my own opinions about such matters, but really would like others to also add in their thoughts too. My goal to make a very well rounded game that will make it all fun for many people to play. The factional past versions of the factions were a little 2 sided and extremely flat. I want them to be more 3 sided n feel and flavor...adding fun for all.

[Davin]

I agree - the more participation we can get on this, the better!

[Imperium]

I don't quite understand this Imperial Republic thing.

If we are going with the scenario of a re-write from the time of the Kalamar asteroid strike, then everything before then remains extant. Imperial invasion, Great Harvest Uprising, Treaty of Frostmarch. All remains as is. Even the second harvest uprising and the Barbarian invasion.

Asteroid strike.

From that, we change things, and I certainly will be looking at the Imperial Faction going forward from them. Battered and bruised.