A New History of Midgard?

Midgard already has a reasonably-well-described history leading up to the “present time”, but included in this were a number of obvious and not-so-obvious game “restarts” (including a quite violent meteor strike).  Since we’re talking about yet another restart, what recommendations do you have for altering the history of the Midgard world?

I guess first and foremost, should we leave the meteor strike in the history books, or rewrite the consequences of that meteor (effectively replacing it as a different strike), or get rid of it altogether?  Should we go back in time and run Midgard from an earlier time in its history, or just make little changes to it but leave it basically intact, or write a new alternate history altogether?  Should we try to “explain” the restart or just pretend that it was like that all along (story-wise)?  Maybe you can even come up with other options.

What are your opinions on the subject?

[quote=Davin]
Midgard already has a reasonably-well-described history leading up to the “present time”, but included in this were a number of obvious and not-so-obvious game “restarts” (including a quite violent meteor strike).  Since we’re talking about yet another restart, what recommendations do you have for altering the history of the Midgard world?

I guess first and foremost, should we leave the meteor strike in the history books, or rewrite the consequences of that meteor (effectively replacing it as a different strike), or get rid of it altogether?  Should we go back in time and run Midgard from an earlier time in its history, or just make little changes to it but leave it basically intact, or write a new alternate history altogether?  Should we try to “explain” the restart or just pretend that it was like that all along (story-wise)?  Maybe you can even come up with other options.

What are your opinions on the subject?

[/quote]
 I believe we should go with the Meteor Strike story line and just rewrite history slightly from there.

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 invaders, and three great Midgard native 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.

NOTE: Just forget the past games play and start over as stated above. Simply have as you starting factions the (7) of: Imperial, Boda, Getham, Roder, Banner, Gift, and Ring.  Now you could then do the redesign of all of them to make them refreshed and fun to play, then after they are all fully in play, then consider adding other factions again.

We could also add the two religions of Blood & Fire, and Cult of the Dark One as well too.

[quote='DreamWeaver' pid='137219' dateline='1577937537']
Just forget the past games play and start over as stated above. Simply have as you starting factions the (7) of: Imperial, Boda, Getham, Roder, Banner, Gift, and Ring.  Now you could then do the redesign of all of them to make them refreshed and fun to play, then after they are all fully in play, then consider adding other factions again.
[/quote]

That's certainly a reasonable approach.  Let's see if we can come up with some additional (agreeing or disagreeing) opinions.

Yes the Meteor Strike story line sounds the best option with some minor rewrite of history from there. Have everything start as little better than ruins and a total build up again.

Sounds reasonable, though as I mentioned before I expect some significant loss of control and infrastructure, just so people have things that need rebuilding.

Who else has some opinions to share?

Here is a great looking Island....maybe have a total Ruins on it and another city on the far side that is just a fishing village/port/town, and maybe a slightly larger inner island town.

A good-looking size, but it seems a bit rugged for the kind of movement we'd need to be playing.

I don't see a problem with just drawing out a map by hand, though, and keeping it small and simple.

I forget now but look at the island just west of Migard is it 'O-3' and 'O-2" area there is a island there you could use.

I'll have to dig the world map out of the database sometime when I get some time to work on it.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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

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.

vadersThe point is that it is a total redesign and what was the history as Davin has said is wiped clean and rewritten. Thus in this timeline as I have presented The Imperial Republic came from Midgard and did not invade. All that previous history never happened, it is a rewrite to correct some issues.

Also the Skelts are the primitive native peoples in the southern half of Midgard mostly in the great forests. The barbarians are their cousins and yes they are invaders as well.

My attempt at the history rewrite was to stop the issues of the past! Basically the fact that Davin is limiting players in the beginning to only play the (7) core factions, it will mean that it will be "Dog Pile on the Imperials". Now Davin has already stated that he is taking away the Preserv's 25.0 Walls/Towers. He further stated that every pop center would be little more than ruins with almost no defences at all. Plus the super resources that the Imperium had in the past would be greatly sized down, which means the imperials would be vulnerable.  Add into that that the Barbarians are NOT a option to play at the beginning, then the only bad guys left are the Imperials.  There are NO Bandits, No Pirates, No Barbarians, No SOA, No MV, No B&F, No Serkeanar, No Cult, No Cymru, No Seekers, and so on. He might have some NPC clans but basically it is just the (7) factions to play in: Imperials, Boda, Gethem, Roder, Banner, Gift, and Ring.

So whom do you think all these Combat Junkies are going to fight? The Gift and Ring players are not going to fight each other, maybe the Banner might raddle their swords a bit. The Getham are going to try to spread their control, but the Boda and Roder are going to go after the only Invader. Add to that Davin doesn't have either the Skill System or Naval system in place so you can either build stuff or fight. Most people are not pure Builders, instead they will want active players to fight against.

I am just trying to set up a history that will remove that whole hatred. Most likely we will have to suffer through 2 years before we can start up other factions again. Remember the process is have 10+ Players with 20+ clans that must declare as Independent (declared for the new faction to the GM but NO benefits at all) and they must all play for (12)  cycles (that is one year) before the faction even comes live.  So most likely all of these former factions that are not the 7 core factions will have to pay to play 3+ years before their factions come live. If we leave it as it is and do NOT redesign the History and Factions, this game will fail before it even starts.

We have to redesign the History and Factions for the benefit of the game otherwise the game will be dead on arrival. The redesigns I have put forward, I think would make each faction very much fun to play. I still have the concerns about not putting in place all the Bad guys and at least make them NPCs to start. Davin is trying to force the issue to have each of these 7 core factions fully staffed/populated before he will allow others factions to be considered.

I'm not trying to stomp on all the expansions completely, just keep them in reserve for a time when the game is running well again.  I expect to have plenty of minor NPC opponents (bandits, etc.) to start with to give everyone a chance to flex their military muscles early on.

I also don't plan on requiring the traditional process for starting up new factions early in the game.  Once we get the starting factions "filled out" I'd like to allow for new ones to arise fairly easily for a while, until we have a number of choices again.  So given that we get a bunch of players jumping in and having fun, a few new factions may arise almost spontaneously without having to wait for long game years.

I agree that the overall hatred of the Imperials is likely to be a stumbling block, and softening that attitude in some fashion I think would make the game more fun.  If the Imperials were more on a equal footing with the other factions, we shouldn't end up with the "dog pile" behavior and they needn't be someone that everyone must attack.  Don't you agree?

We spoke elsewhere about combining capabilities of several old factions into the base seven to begin with.  If we do that, it might provide opportunities later (when we have plenty of clans in them) for such factions to go through internal schisms (along those same lines) and split into new factions that might be similar to some of the older ones.  This could be worked into pretty much any new history we come up with.

Comments?

What happens later on when you give the ok to start new factions and people abandon the core (7) factions to spin up new ones? What will you do then, if there ends up with only a handful of players and clans in the core factions and new factions spin up? I understand what your trying to do but I don't feel you will get what you're hoping will happen. Midgard player-ship is a rare breed and it has never had the mega appeal of great numbers. Now those that do play are loyal and are willing to pay and play with great numbers, but  what does that mean in the over all numbers of active clans? That I can not tell as I have never had real game access to those stats. What I can speak on is what I have seen from and been able to do. I have managed to bring live (2) new factions, and was bring live a 3rd as well if Zan of Midgard USA hadn't past away. That group of players that I was connected to were all very active and we were all playing Cymru, Buccaneers, SOA, Skelts and Seakings all at the same time.  Also I had enough players/clans to also bringing live another Religious faith as well, we were (2) cycles away of reaching Live status.  Now I do know that the rest of the factions were starving for active Player and Clans. Basically other than seniors, in most cases many factions were almost empty. So what will you do if that happens again? Will you let players play more than the 3 clans that has been the traditional approach? In Zan's game, he allowed people to play (9) per player, BUT towards the end he allowed a number of us to play more than that. In the end I was playing 14 clans, plus a number of cities too. I was not the only one doing that either.

[quote='DreamWeaver' pid='137406' dateline='1579570727']
What happens later on when you give the ok to start new factions and people abandon the core (7) factions to spin up new ones?
[/quote]
It may turn out to be a big problem, but I'm trying to avoid that in at least a couple of different ways.  First, I wouldn't want to start new factions if the old ones weren't populated and stable enough to withstand taking a large chunk away from them (and hopefully a reasonable number wouldn't want to move).  Then, I want to make the original factions fun enough to play, with enough internal variety, that few people will WANT to jump to a new faction.

If players wanted to leave the starting factions in droves, then they obviously aren't fun enough to be playing in.  I see two possible ways to remedy that: (1) make the starting factions so fun to play that not very many would be tempted to leave them, and (2) if they can't be made fun enough then don't start them up at all in the first place.  IOW, if you all don't think that the XYZ faction won't be fun to play if there are dozens of other choices available, then why should we have it to begin with?  Wouldn't it be better if we just threw it away and started with a "more fun" faction in the beginning?

If anyone can point out a faction (after we make any improvements to it) that they wouldn't rather play over one of the others that we're not starting with, then should we not just destroy it (in the cataclysm, if appropriate) and have one of the others rise up to take its place in the aftermath?

I think that's kinda the point about redesigning the way factions work, and their world history, so we end up with something fun to start with rather than something that will just be abandoned later.

So what do you think won't be fun to play, and is there anything we can do about it either way?  I'm not married to those seven specifically - I just thought it was a good place for discussions to start.  And as I also mentioned, then why not (if we keep them at all) add fun things to them so people will want to play them and keep playing them even with alternatives?

The asteroid struck the world south of Midgard and presumably on the continent of Kalamar. A score or so of smaller asteroids struck the Midgard continent. One, striking in southern Midgard, caused a massive earthquake, the land mass upon which the great Southern Imperial Preserve stood, sliding into the ocean within minutes. Scores of ancient cities crumbled or were completely destroyed.

Worse was to come.

Following the destruction by Gift and Boda engineers of the last Imperial Preserve in the month following, the skies darkened and an almost endless winter descended on the remaining people. For five years they struggled to survive made worse when the Blood and Fire descended upon the few remaining Gift enclaves, putting them to the fire. With their remaining forces too scattered to offer any effective support, the other One True God religions could only look inwards all the while owing revenge. Thus the remnants of the Gift Religion accepted the offer from the Getham Family to join with them.

It is into this world, a world of competing factions and shifting balances, that you now find yourself. The Imperials, their Preserves gone and many of their Forts battered, are in decline. The Boda and Roder Families struggled in the post asteroid strikes to hold on to what remained of their own holdings (albeit the Boda took out several smaller Imperial towns early on). The remaining One True God religions have stabilised what they have but are yet to exact their promised revenge. As for the Blood and Fire, their forces still range from their fortress of Fanglan. Providing support to their other holdings and descending with wrath and fire upon unbelievers.

So firstly, I'm a bit of a traditionalist. I don''t see what's inherently wrong with the original plotline, but I have created this scenario to change events from the asteroid strike onwards, with the following goals:

a. remove the Imperial strength of numerous Preserves and Forts all at either wall level 25 or 10.

b. provide within the scenario a greater level of destruction so that most (not all) cities are justifiably no higher than level 3.

c. Gotten rid of the Gift Religion (in the three versions of the game I have played, they are always the least supported in regards player base), but brought into play as hopefully a player run faction, the Blood and Fire. The Banner and Ring players should have their blood boiling to exact revenge on the B&F, especially since their great city of Fanglan survives.

d. The Gift embedded within the Getham offer interesting possibilities for those wanting an alternate to continual warfare. The Getham would love some of the Gift abilities to build, especially when they start reconstructing and building upon, their rod network for trade.

e. as mentioned, the Blood and Fire would be in play, and doing what they do best. The Boda would be supporting the Ring against them as one of their factional goals.

Next post (possibly tomorrow) would be my thoughts on the Imperials in this post asteroid environment.

Would your version of the B&F be player-run, or an "evil empire" opponent for everyone to fight against?

Wow...Brian.....Gggggggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Kill off the Gift!!!

Ok let me point out a number of points:

a) Davin has already stated, that he is not going to include the Hospital city building within the game.

b) The Serkeanar do not exist in this version of his Midgard

c) Being a Traditionalist, the Gift before Zan were both Construction and Healing, Zan changed that. My description redesign gave back to the Gift the Healing skills. If the Gift are gone then there would be no current Healing ability within the game.

d) The Gift building bonus was based on some God gift of Faith as it was explained to me by Zan, being a former Gift #3 senior. Having the Getham somehow gain that would be wrong, as any clan that has retainers within Unit #0 gain a 2x bonus. So what would the Getham then gain? At game start the Skill system will not yet be in place so what would then be the bonus?

e) The Getham the game's money bankers, shop keepers, would now also be the city builders too. Oh exciting, I can see the lines forming now to staff that faction out now. It might work, but you would need to expand of that a bit more.

f) Not everyone in this game wants to play Combat junkies, some players like to do other things that don't fit into the Old Games Midgard Wars. Brian the reason why the Cymru were so successful, was because 16+ players walked away from the Gift and Boda and went south. We had 16 active players and like 36+ active Cymru declared clans within Kalmar. These same players also played: Buccaneers, SOA, Seakings Barbarians, Skelt Barbarians, and we were (2) Cycles away from standing up another new religion "Seekers of Faith" - based on worship of the Old Gods which Moorlock was one of them. (Moorlock was one of the Old Gods and he was the God of Knowledge). In the next two versions these same players aided in standing up the Seekers of Knowledge, that were based with Kalmar and southern Midgard. We were also extremely close to bringing live the religion of The Cult of the Dark One (The Dark One was Moorlock). Then there were those of us that were also trying to bring live the Bandits as a faction.

g) Davin does not plan on having Barbarians, Bandits, Pirates, Heretics, and B&F as live PC factions in the beginning of the game. They might show up as NPC clans to hunt down, but not active factions with abilities.

h) The Skill system will not be in place at the beginning of game play.

I) The Naval systems play will not be in place at the beginning of game play.

j) Davin has stated that most cities will be ruins and very few will be declared to a faction. It will be almost a total rebuild for these many population centers. We have even started talking about what makes up an: village, town, or city.

I like the style of the Imperial Republic, which makes them seem like the correct and proper faction to rule Midgard. Having the Imperials as invaders never really set well with me.

As I mentioned before, I'm not opposed to combining some of the extra factions and their benefits/capabilities together to provide more fun play, but I'd like to start the game with a number choices commensurate with the number of players.  IOW, I don't want 10 players trying to fill out 20 different factions.  If we can start with many players then I have no problem giving them more choices to choose from.  But I still don't want any faction to be boring enough that people won't want to play in it even when other good choices are available.  That's a tightrope that I'm trying to walk here with these redesigns.

Redesigned 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 invaders, and three great Midgard native 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.

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.

That seems reasonable, apart from some trivial inconsistencies.  But I seem to recall that some other old players took exception to parts of this narrative.  Could we hear any alternate comments/discussions from them (or anyone else)?  Agreements from other players would be of value, too.

Ok then if we want to look at it that way, lets get rid of or not start with either the Getham, Roder Families and the Banner Religion

Thus lets redesign the Imperials to a kinder faction like the Imperial Republic, and the Boda Noble House. Let those two factions stand up as the two real contenders for the heart and body of Midgard. These two factions can both be at odds with one another. The Boda could be as I have stated a former Guild within the Imperial Republic that stood up faster and seem to survive better with coming together out of the ruins after the great ruin before the Imperial Republic could manage to reform itself again. They are not really enemies of each other but it is a land grab at this point, as they both try to collectively convince all the cities of at least northern Midgard to join either of their two causes instead of just remaining Independent. The former Roder and Geham Nobel Houses could be left in a state of Limbo as being out there talked about but just have not really stood up yet as well as others that are also rumored to also exist (gives room to maybe expand in the future if there are players to consider doing that).

Then that leaves room to set up a Barbarian culture of the Skelts within the deep forests of southern Midgard. These Skelts are enemies to both the Imperial Republic and Boda Noble House and will fight both of them on the spot. They don't want either of them in their lands of Sothern Midgard, and will raid the other two as well. The Cymru could have stood up in Kalmar as the People's Defenders against the Imperialisms of the Imperial Republic and the Boda Nobel House.

So that would give you the following factions then:

- Imperial Republic (at odds with the Boda and enemies of the Skelts)
- The Boda Nobel House (at odds with the Imperial Republic and enemies of the Skelts)
- The Skelts (enemies of both the Imperial Republic and the Boda Noble House, uneasy true with the Cymru)
- The Cymru (at odds with the Imperial Republic and the Boda Noble House uneasy truce with the Skelts)

As to the religious wars, well I think both the Gift and Ring have a place and would work great within the game. However I would take the Banner silent for now and add another Moorlock religion like either the Serkeanar or The Cult of the Dark One and keep the Blood & Fire silent like the Banner. So maybe do the following: The real Religous wars has not truly started yet and both the Banner and Blood & Fire are silent but not stood up yet. If in the future there are enough players with the desire then they can then be stood up and restarted.

- Gift (at odds with the Moorlock religion Serkeanar or Cult of the Dark One, allie of the Ring)
- Ring(at odds with the Moorlock religion Serkeanar or Cult of the Dark One, allie of the Ring)
- Serkeanar or Cult of the Dark One (enemy with the Gift and Ring, wanting to spread all across Midgard and Kalmar and trying to win the support of the people)

So this would mean then that you would open up both Midgard and Kalmar continents for game play with I would advise some rework of those maps a bit just to make them a little more different. Also it would make the Cymru being the People's Defenders of Kalmar, and slight odds against a religion that was not really for the benefit of the People. So their might be some uneasiness between them and any of the controlling Moorlock religions of the Searkeanar or The Cult of the Dark One.

[quote='Imperium' pid='137408' dateline='1579605069']
The asteroid struck the world south of Midgard and presumably on the continent of Kalamar.  A score or so of smaller asteroids struck the Midgard continent.  One, striking in southern Midgard, caused a massive earthquake, the land mass upon which the great Southern Imperial Preserve stood, sliding into the ocean within minutes.  Scores of ancient cities crumbled or were completely destroyed. 

Worse was to come.

Following the destruction by Gift and Boda engineers of the last Imperial Preserve in the month following, the skies darkened and an almost endless winter descended on the remaining people.  For five years they struggled to survive made worse when the Blood and Fire descended upon the few remaining Gift enclaves, putting them to the fire.  With their remaining forces too scattered to offer any effective support, the other One True God religions could only look inwards all the while owing revenge.  Thus the remnants of the Gift Religion accepted the offer from the Getham Family to join with them. 

It is into this world, a world of competing factions and shifting balances, that you now find yourself.  The Imperials, their Preserves gone and many of their Forts battered, are in decline.  The Boda and Roder Families struggled in the post asteroid strikes to hold on to what remained of their own holdings (albeit the Boda took out several smaller Imperial towns early on).  The remaining One True God religions have stabilised what they have but are yet to exact their promised revenge.  As for the Blood and Fire, their forces still range from their fortress of Fanglan.  Providing support to their other holdings and descending with wrath and fire upon unbelievers.
[/quote]

I like this idea but go a bit further mention what I said in another post.

This is why I would place the game 60-100 years in the future after another meteor strike, which could have even been religiously motivated like the destruction of the followers of Moorlock.  Explaining the non-existance of the Blood & Fire and Serkenar in the game.  Also further feeding the Banner as religious zealots of the One True God.  Their need to stomp out those of any other faith to prevent this from happening again,  as the One True God struck done the defilers.  This then makes any Heretics a major threat and whether you officially create the Cult of the Dark One as an active faction or the unknown forming faction that the Banner is looking to stomp out.  Rumors of Hidden Shrines and stuff will keep them running all over the place.

While everyone suffered leave the Imperials as the big major enemy invaders of this land.   They are taking resources from this vital land and sending it back to the Homeland only further upsetting people in this land.  This keeps things as a continuing story of midgard not an alternate world of midgard.  If your going to completely redesign the world and the history then simply build a completely new world and call it something new do not say your bringing midgard back.  Minor modifications are one thing but completely redoing things leaves no value in calling it midgard.

My whole concept here is build on the Midgard that others have played otherwise the value of the name is worthless. Also use the time and incident to further the reasons of why these groups have issues or problems with each other. I would go into further detail on the Gift/Getham merger that many of the Getham Leaders had children that were in the preisthood and that the events forced the Getham to use their wealth to help the Gift build hospitals and things to save the people and with the conditions so poor they were forced to combine to make the most out of their resources. This effectively gives you a religious order of engineer/merchants, while a one true god religion it would simply be tolerated by the Banner as it is more accepting or tolerant of non-one true god religions.

I do not like hat design at all, and I am sorry but the Gift are good the way they were designed. But why destroy the Gift, to save the Getham? Do that and no one will want to play either of those factions, let alone the combination Sudo-Bogus new faction. I say drop the Getham all together. I know I would not play in that faction.

[quote='DreamWeaver' pid='137493' dateline='1580529856']
I do not like hat design at all, and I am sorry but the Gift are good the way they were designed. But why destroy the Gift, to save the Getham? Do that and no one will want to play either of those factions, let alone the combination Sudo-Bogus new faction. I say drop the Getham all together. I know I would not play in that faction.
[/quote]
Then drop them both the Gift was never a major faction and never had numbers.  The only reason anyone ever played a Gift clan was it counted as an engineer and they got a added build order.  The fact is they really did not fit in.

[quote='Steve Kort' pid='137486' dateline='1580525041']
While everyone suffered leave the Imperials as the big major enemy invaders of this land.   They are taking resources from this vital land and sending it back to the Homeland only further upsetting people in this land.  This keeps things as a continuing story of midgard not an alternate world of midgard.  If your going to completely redesign the world and the history then simply build a completely new world and call it something new do not say your bringing midgard back.  Minor modifications are one thing but completely redoing things leaves no value in calling it midgard.
[/quote]

If you can come up with some different conflagration that will take the Imps down to everyone else's level, that seems reasonable.  But that also seems difficult to manage in some ways.  For one thing, I'd rather not have the Imps being everyone's worst nightmare, so I don't see that I can let them be so powerful (as a group) as they were in the past.  Perhaps you can come up with a reasonable explanation for this?

I agree that I don't want to create an entirely new game -- that would rather defeat the purpose.  That's one of the reasons I suggested using the same base factions as before.  But I don't have a problem with a little bending of reality -- I think (and hope) that the players would go along with a few changes in the interest of making it a more enjoyable game.  All we've really been talking about so far is adjustments to the behavior of factions and the history (or future) that explains those behaviors.  That doesn't really sound like "a whole new game" to me.  I'm trying to keep it as close to what the players (as a group) want and still be fun and playable.

[quote='Steve Kort' pid='137491' dateline='1580529345']
My whole concept here is build on the Midgard that others have played otherwise the value of the name is worthless.  Also use the time and incident to further the reasons of why these groups have issues or problems with each other.  I would go into further detail on the Gift/Getham merger that many of the Getham Leaders had children that were in the preisthood and that the events forced the Getham to use their wealth to help the Gift build hospitals and things to save the people and with the conditions so poor they were forced to combine to make the most out of their resources.  This effectively gives you a religious order of engineer/merchants, while a one true god religion it would simply be tolerated by the Banner as it is more accepting or tolerant of non-one true god religions.
[/quote]

I don't have any problems with this kind of vision.  Do you suppose that most players would agree that was a good direction to go in?

[quote='Steve Kort' pid='137506' dateline='1580532668']
[quote='DreamWeaver' pid='137493' dateline='1580529856']
I do not like hat design at all, and I am sorry but the Gift are good the way they were designed. But why destroy the Gift, to save the Getham? Do that and no one will want to play either of those factions, let alone the combination Sudo-Bogus new faction. I say drop the Getham all together. I know I would not play in that faction.
[/quote]
Then drop them both the Gift was never a major faction and never had numbers.  The only reason anyone ever played a Gift clan was it counted as an engineer and they got a added build order.  The fact is they really did not fit in.
[/quote]

This is the kind of discussion I want to be seeing out here!  Keep up the good work!

The thing is they don't have to be everyones worse nightmare, they just need to be tough enough to not have any true allies. The fact is the Boda really only cared about the north part of the continent. The Roder would be there area of the world. Meaning only a small area would they likely gang up on them. For the most part the religious people would not care for them but they also really don't want to fight unless they had to. Now the Banner could find issue with them or anyone if they ever felt they were supporting any sort of outside religion.

They can be tough, as long as they don't have overwhelming advantages (like built-in level 25.0 walls!) over the other factions.  What's all this I've been hearing about everybody ganging up to fight the Imps because that's the only way they can keep them from taking over completely?

I forget to look at this website for 6 months and then I look at what's happened !

Played Midgard many moons again and would like to get back into this.

So much to read and so many questions as to what's happening. Plenty of reading for the next couple of days me thinks !

Colin

[quote='Kain' pid='137850' dateline='1583272169']
I forget to look at this website for 6 months and then I look at what's happened !
[/quote]

Welcome back, Kain!  I think there's enough here all of a sudden to wear out your eyes!  Keep in mind as you read that a number of plans were changed along the way due to these conversations.

If you'd like to PM me your email I can add you to my distribution list for any formal announcements.

just sent you a PM

would be interested to see how this turns out.

I'm not on facebook so can't see anything from that end !

[quote='Davin' pid='137509' dateline='1580533094']
[quote='Steve Kort' pid='137506' dateline='1580532668']
[quote='DreamWeaver' pid='137493' dateline='1580529856']
I do not like hat design at all, and I am sorry but the Gift are good the way they were designed. But why destroy the Gift, to save the Getham? Do that and no one will want to play either of those factions, let alone the combination Sudo-Bogus new faction. I say drop the Getham all together. I know I would not play in that faction.
[/quote]
Then drop them both the Gift was never a major faction and never had numbers.  The only reason anyone ever played a Gift clan was it counted as an engineer and they got a added build order.  The fact is they really did not fit in.
[/quote]

This is the kind of discussion I want to be seeing out here!  Keep up the good work!
[/quote]

Some good thoughts there. I liked the original setup the Australian game had with the Imperials, 3 families, Gift/Banner/Ring/B&F, MV and Soa (don't think I missed any). Originally I thought who would play Gift or Getham but after playing for a bit took up a Getham clan just to try something a little different and liked the difference. I would suggest keeping the base lore as close to possible to the original as that is what made the game good fun. 

In defence of the Gift. If Gift are the healer/builders then they would have more importance if as noted in some of the other threads some of the cities might not be starting off as strong? Being able to re-build via Gift abilities would certainly help there! Or if a random plague is built in to the game world engine I kind of think that having some Gift healers around might be useful...…  Gift-ies are the types that join up because they want friends and want to help.  It is good to offer quite a contrasting religious caste/archtype. [color=#333333][size=small][size=small]The only thing I would probably change is that name :angel:[/size][/size][/color]

I am not sure how it ran in other countries but with the Aussie version we all started generally up towards the top-ish of the North Island (If I remember correctly) spread out and explored our way south from there. I found the base history matched the start of the game very well.  We then bumped into some of the "hidden factions" such as Orthodox Banner, Winged Society (I think), Seakings etc as we were exploring. Having some hidden factions made it very interesting. While not as strong, you could join a faction that was niche, and some people like that! They might not be as strong as the families or the imperials, but it adds some unknowns to the game. These can always be added later to the game anyway.

One of the biggest things about early Midgard for me anyway, was all the unknowns. The early map, the cities, dodging the early clans that were bandits, the GM tidbits in the turn message for the area you are in, …. the exploring was hell fun! Then add to that the trading of information between players. This was a big piece of the fun of Midgard.

Probably missed out on some stuff or forgot some of the mechanics - been trying to throw my brain back 25 years! Bit of a challenge these days!