Re: To Be Heroes Info

[The Counter Cultist(Sawyer)]

Since I'm too lazy to do horrible at drawing detailed Maps, I'm just gonna do detailed information on all the kingdoms. I'll start with what's become my personal fave: The Torvann


The Escar Republic(technically a monarchy)

Major Political figures

Leader: King Adrian Serventus(married to Queen Seera Serventus)
Heir: None yet, but the the queen is expecting

The Escar Council

Councilor Terva Toranus
Councilor Saleer Moonstrike
Councilor Koran Teven
High Councilor Ramius Toran
Supreme Councilor Renera Serasan

Military Leaders
High Commander Raziel Ascus
General Saruntui Ascus
General Leras Serasan
Lord Arius Serverus
Lord Krasius Teven


Major Military bodies

Ground Forces

Infantry

The Torvanni main ground forces are well balanced and highly trained, any attacking or defending army will have a mix of various unit classes, foot soldiers, spear men, archers, and even rifle men in the case of city defense. Magic casting units are also often present, but will go into those later.

Calvary

Due to the mythical energies that constantly bathe Escar, the horses bred there are supernaturally strong and fast. Any Calvary will have troops with lances, swords, and riding archery.


Elite Guard

The defenders of the major cities of Escar. They are well known for their extensive training regiments in the northwestern mountains. The Elite Guard armies are as varied as the regular infantry, and they will also ride horseback in case of emergency respond.

The Hunters

The Hunters, led by Lord Krasius Tevan, are the Torvanni equivalent of Elven Rangers, they combine different styles of sword play with repeating crossbows, Scimitars(an automatic crossbow), or rifles. They are trained to use ambush and hit and run tactics, but are well versed in direct confrontation.


The Escar Guard
Not really a military division, but they are the personal body guards of both the royal family(as such the entire Castle District is patrolled by Escar guards instead of the Elite.) and the Escar High Council(Similarly the Orb of Mystery,[which floats above the sinkhole city Effra] which is where council meetings take place, is patrolled by Escar Guards) They are trained in dual sword combat, and all of them carry flintlock pistols and rifles.

All of the Torvanni frontline troops, archers, Elite Guard, Hunter's, and Escar Guard, are trained in the ancient martial art of Serventus Shelk(Torvanni words meaning 'Dragon's Fist')

Magic classes

Escar Priests

These priests preach the word of the Three Gods of the Divine, the most popular religion of the World. The Torvanni form is know as the Order of the Divines. They use their skill in magic to heal wounds, and cure any poisons, diseases, or curses. The members of the Order also pray to a Fourth God, Soltarus, long believed to be a 'dead' God, though the Order still believed that his power was still accessible.

Arson Magi

These are quite possibly the most deadly beings in the World, an Arson Mage at the peak of his/her power is able to control powerful magics of destruction, alteration, conjuration, and illusion. However Arson Magi of this scale are incredibly rare, as such only five are known to have achieved this level of power, the rest however should not be underestimated, and as such it is widely believed that this is the reason that not even the slightly aggressive Artainians do not wish to anger the Torvann

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Torvann Physiology

Torvann are very similar to normal humans, reinforcing the idea that humans either splintered off from them, or that the Torvann simply evolved faster than the humans on Caracas. They share all the same physical traits, except that they are usually taller, and it is very rare for a Torvann to fall ill, unless he/she is at a venerable age, and it is rare for them to scar, and broken bones can heal within a matter of a week or two.

They are the longest lived race in the World with the oldest recorded Torvann(who died only a few years ago) was over 250,000 years old. The current average age of the population is a young 53,000, the King himself is only 26,050 years, and the queen is only six thousand years younger. Despite their near immortality they age to maturity rather quickly(reaching the age of physical maturity in about 300 years) it is believed upon hitting puberty that the Torvann's metabolism slows activating their incredibly slow aging. It is believed the the release of hormones during this time allows the hidden magical energies of Escar to flow through the Torvann. It should also be noted that while Torvann do sleep...on occasion, they do not require it, they can also see through pitch black darkness as if it were day.


Escar;s Landscape

Escar is varied in it's terrain, featuring rolling plains, a medium sized mountain range in the northwest, forests, and even sloping highlands in the northeast.

Major Cities

Escaran
The walled, huge, and strikingly beautiful Torvanni Capital. The entire city and the surrounding area are classified as a region by itself. Escaran is a center of the arts, as well as political and military activity. It is home to the Base of The Hunters, the Torvanni Cathedral of The Three, and The Royal Castle.(widely regarded as the most beautiful and well guarded structure in the world)

The Torvanni king has always lived in The Royal Castle.(With the exception of the Toran Era, who made their home in the city of Arsonia) The current despot is King Adrian Serphentus, a direct descendant of the First Era kings, he and his Queen Seera, a skilled Arson Mage, are much beloved, both are known for walking the streets of the city together often, arm in arm, conversing with the common folk. Adrian himself is a skilled tactician, taught alongside his leading military advisors by High Commander Raziel Ascus, the most legendary soldier in Escar's long history.

The Cities District's are as follows, each incredibly large.
Note: Several short range teleporters are found within the city which allow instantaneous travel between districts.

The Royal District
Located at the very heart of the city, home to the Castle, the Cathedral, and the extensive castle gardens. The District is constantly patrolled by Escar Guard, and is often filled with visitors who wish to walk and enjoy the gardens.

The Residential Districts
The Various Residential Areas, filled with homes, gardens, and other features, each one of the districts are lettered, A, B, C, D, E, and F.

The Market/Trade District

The extensive market area, filled constantly with traveling merchants and Escaron's own shops and vendors.

The Military District

Home to the various Barracks, training areas, and Hunter HQ.

In addition there is the Warehouse Districts which house supplies, in the event of a siege the city is always well stocked with enough food and fluids to allow the city to last two weeks, and up to a month with rationing.


Other Major Cities

Effra

Known as the Sinkhole city, Effra is only accessible by a series of tunnels on the surface which lead to the parts of the city on the sinkholes walls, as well as the very bottom of the sinkhole, with the city proper.

Floating high above the bottom, so that the top half sticks out of the Sinkhole, is the Orb of Mystery, a gigantic sphere, where the Escar council lives and meets. The orb and city were constructed by twelve Master Arson Magi over three-hundred and fifty thousand years ago. It is unknown why they did this, but the most obvious reason is that they believed the underground access would allow researchers better to understand the source of Escar's mysterious magick field.


Arsonia

Arsonia is the home of the Arson Mage Academy, and is also where the 3rd Era Kings(The Torans) ruled, after the Toran's relinquished the Throne after a direct Serphentus heir was discovered, the head of the family at that time decided to use the family castle as a training area for Arson Mages, it should be noted that it is not fire that gives Arson Magi their name, but it is the name of the city that does so.


Socrates

Socrates is the largest port city in the World, and is the trade capital of the world, and is the main base of the Torvanni Trade Fleet, and is the main connection between Escar and Caracas.



Regions.

Escaran: The Capital city and the surround area, it's borders are cut in a perfect circle. The whole northern border is taken by the Meadowlands, the Plains of Kaezara, to the southeast lies the Forest of Agrogen

The Meadowlands: A few copses of trees, but for the most part this place is one large flat meadow, the upside being is that the land is very fertile here, so many villages with large fields attached to them dot the landscape, in the north-central region approximately 10 miles from the northern coast is the Effra sinkhole. To the West is the Deathgrip Mountain Range, to the east is the Misty Highlands,

The Plains of Kaezara

The Plains of Kaezara are rolling, fertile, filled with small single farms and many villages, the most famous feature is the shrine of Kaezara, which includes a statue depicting the Elder of the same name, and the ruins of the ancient Temple of Kaezara, believed to have been built long before the Era of Nothing(the Era in which there was not a singular system of government). Many Torvanni and Nataran historians believe it was built by the advanced ancestors of the the Torvann, humans, and Kovos, in the Old Era. The Knights of Serran and the Arian Order of the First have large a Fortress dedicated to training select apprentices here. The plains stretch all the way to the southern coast.

The Northern border is shared with the Mountains of Mattesius(the mountains also share the northern half of the west board), The Meadowlands, and Escaran , the eastern with the Forest of Agrogen, and the south half of the western with The Trader's Land.

The Forest of Agrogen.

This thick dense forests of the south east, making up the entire southeastern corner of Escar, many clearings of various size are the only places that villages are known to be. The Forest is also the Torvann's main source of lumber, but they only take as much as they need and always replant any trees they cut down. While this is partially due to the Torvanni belief that any resource that can be renewed should, another big reason is that this the location of the Shrine of Agrogen, which is identical to the Shrine of Kaezaran but depicting a statue of Agrogen instead. It shares it's northwest border with Escaran, western with the Plains of Kaezara, and Northern with the Misty Highlands.

The Mountains of Mattesius

The large mountain range that makes up much of the continents Northwest corner, the only people that live here are hermits. The only known presence of a culture living here is the Shrine of Mattesius, identical to other two shrines but with a statue of Mattesius. It shares it's Northern and western border with the Crescent of Ages, it's eastern with the Meadowlands, and it's southern with The Plains of Kaezara.


The Misty Highlands

These highlands get their name from the perpetual mist that covers it completley(though the mist is usually faded and hard to see on sunny days) It is the location of Arsonia, the former capital of the Third Era, and the location of the Toran family castle, which is currently the location of Arson Magi academy. The highlands stretch out from the main continent to form a peninsula, despite being in the north, many, including some of the Torvann, joke that it is the phallus of Escar(yes I stuck a Flordia joke in ).

The Trader's Land.

A crescent shaped land to the south of the Crescent of Ages(which is inaccessible due to a small part of the Mountains of Mattesius spilling out into the Trade Lands) and the east of the Plains of Kaezara. It is called this due to the fact that it's the location of the most ports(these cover most of the large bay, and amongst them is the port city of Socrates), and the most warehouses for storing of Trade supplies, both imported, and to be exports. Due to the fact that most of the continents trade supplies are here there are many military garrisons in land, and each of the ports have a garrison of Elite Guard, and have cannon equipped towers.

The Crescent of Ages: This mysterious strip of land is only accessible through the Pass of Mattesius in the mountains, any other way is too treacherous. While unpopulated(with the exception of a few small outposts) it is the location of the only, complete, ruins of an Old Era city. By complete I mean it is in perfect condition, other than the few holes in walls and buildings, but with the city's age that is to be expected. Also located here is yet another Shrine, believed to be the Shrine of Soltarus. This belief comes from the fact that the statue present matches the description of Soltarus deciphered from Old Era texts.

The Crescent isn't really a crescent, but more of an upside down L(a seven if you will) with a slight curve instead of an inside corner. it's north, a small portion of the east and west ends are all ocean, the large majority of the south west is shared with the Mountain's of Mattesius. The small south border is shared with the Trade Lands, though it is blocked by a small set of mountains spilled over from the Mattesius range.

[The Counter Cultist(Sawyer)]

Humans

Serran & Terradel

Ruler: King ???????(married to Queen ??????)
Heir: Crown Prince ???????
Other children Princess ?????? Princess Terra ?????

Military Leaders
To be added in later

Knight Masters

Master of Joy: Equis Tovar
Master of Wisdom: Sven Sentari
Mistress of Luck: Jenera Sorus
Master of Anger: Bicolus Tovar
Master of Strength: Corvus Sentari
Master of Fear: Seren Arventa
Master of Wit: Currently unoccupied, will be taken by Kallen Tenatus.



Military Tactics

((A bit more compressed than the Torvanni Tactics))

Serran relies mostly on heavy infantry, well armed spearmen, Terradel rangers, scouts, and archers, supporting spell casters, stealthy saboteurs/assassins, and Orc mercenaries that come down from their mountain home looking for both work and battle. They mostly equip themselves with Kovos made armor and weapons, made from high quality mithril and an unnamed silver/steel alloy. Their calvary lies exclusively with the elite Knights of Serran, who also act as bodyguards for the royalty and aristocracy.

When they fight in offense, the Knights only fight together in small groups of three to six knights, with whatever weapons suit them, the favorite is for them to use a single longsword, with rifles. Their ability to shoot from horseback is unrivaled. They strike quickly.

The Knight's train hard, even after ending their apprenticeship, and their martial art's style is a deadly combination of the Arian White Lotus style, and the Torvani Serventus' Shelk. These deadly styles are combined, and enhanced with a few original moves from the Serranans.

In magic support, Serran turns to Battle-Mages, heavily armored troops armed with battle axes, that are capable a tossing a fireball every which way. Like most other regions, the Serran's follow the doctrines of the Three God's of The Divine, they're dominant belief is in the Goddess of Luck, Mattesius, and they're priest's are capable of spurring troops to battle by leading them in pre-battle chants, which often leads to the troops gaining good luck. For the sake of the Terradellans, priests will pray with them to the God of The Hunt, Agrogen.

Landscape: Serran is a land of hills and small copses of forest, it's southbound province, Terradel, is nearly covered in forest, with a large circle shaped plain in the center, the forest is divided into north, south, east, and west borders.

Serran shares here borders with Aria, Natara, the Kaz'Goroth Mountain Range, and Terradel.

Terradel shares her borders with Aria, The Elven Forest lands, Sarren, and the Artainian Empire.

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Natara- This one will be pretty brief


Ruler Consul ???????

Leading Council
High Historian ?????
Professor ?????
Professor ?????


The Nataran's are exclusively a scholarly culture, the most warriors they produce are pistol slinging gunslingers, expert in the technology behind firearms, and even then, most of these elite gunmen are mercenaries. Many of the World's most important scientific breakthroughs; prototype steam power, gunpowder, firearms in general, as well as the theorys of human, Torvann, Kovos, and Elven evolution. Currently several of the nation's leading scientists are researching Orc and, Troll evolution. Religion has become somewhat obsolete, and Nataran's are beginning to mix their technology and magic, believing this will lead them to crack that mystery.

Gunslingers: Always equipped with two pistols, a rifle or blunderbuss, and plenty of powder and ammo for both, as well as maintenance supplies. Gunslingers are known to mix magic and firearms in deadly sync. Imbuing bullets with the elements, and even causing multiple bullets to fire with the original. It should also be known that Gunslinger is only a title of a skill set, and that the master of these skills may have a second profession, usually scholar, historian, or even just an explorer or archaeologist.

Land Scape

Natara shares it's Land Scape with Serran, although many large cities dot Natara's land scape.


Natara Share's her borders with Artainian Empire, the Kaz'Goroth mountain range, and the Serran Kingdom.



Arian Empire.

Ruler: Emperor Yamamoto Shinto(His empress is deceased)

Heir: Princess Yamamoto Tai-Li

Inner Council(Note the Shoguns of the Council are also akin to a military rank higher than general)

High Shogun Tanaka Auron
Shogun Iguchi Hirahito
Shogun Muyo Sora
Shogun Nomura Kento
Shogun Ueamatsu Tanto




The Arian's are a culture of humanity that greatly resemble our ancient Asian dynasty's, they believe strongly in personal honour, train from a young age to fight, and distrust many industrial advances, particularly firearms.


Military.

Consider their military as Japanese samurai, equipped with traditional weapons, with the addition of Ming technology. Horses are not used as beasts of war unless it is for scouting, so they have no calvary. Their magic users are purely healing only, with priests who pray to the Three Divines. Their main worship is Kaezara, who is the Divine of Wisdom.

Warriors of Shadow(AKA: Ninjas)

These mysterious masked warriors are masters of death, sabotage, escape, and, most of all: stealth. They train within the northern forest and train themselves in not only the martial arts of their homeland, but some moves from the Torvanni martial art of the Serventus' Shelk. They are used mainly as spies within enemy settlements, using make-up so their skin-tone matches the population, once in place they will begin missions of sabotage and assassination, as well as gathering information. It is widely suggested that if a master Warrior of Shadow were to duel with an Escar Guard, the fight may very well go on until the human's short life ended.


Order of the Fist(based on the Shaolin)

These warrior monks preach the more pugilistic beliefs of the Divine of the Hunt, Agrogen. They believe that to only fight in self defense, but have pledged to defend their homeland if it is ever invaded, many warrior's of varying nations come to the Monastery's in the mountains to simply -watch- these warriors practice their legendary fighting style of the White Lotus(the Arian version of our Kung fu) they also train themselves in a wide variety of Arian weapons, and meditate daily.

Aria is semi mountainous, forested, region, with many valleys, and rivers flowing from the ocean. It's capital is the city of Eko-Tai

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Artainia

Ruler: Emperor Dagran Forsirrim III

Heir: Official crown prince is Hagran Forsirrim, though the Emperor has many children.

Military Techniques: Use of Overwhelming Force and technology, while they still use Archers, all frontline soldiers are equipped with rifles, which they use before engaging the enemy in melee combat. Calvary is made up of only rifle shooters, their major tactic is circling the enemy and firing at them. The Artainians also are fond of using fear as a weapon by wearing masks depicting the demons of the Old Era and black armor. They are also the only nation to use Cannons offensively, and they make very good use of them.

Magic Use: Artainian Mages use powers of alteration to make themselves float in the air, and they use conjuration and necromancy to bring extra allies into the fold, and illusion to instill fear into the enemy.

Artainian Landscape: Artainia is mostly a bleak and desolate wasteland dotted by a few large dense forests, some water features, and large industrialized cites. It's capital is the famed City of Iron- Auschwitz(cheesy I know)

[The Counter Cultist(Sawyer)]

Elves

(NOTE: Think of happier night elves with blood/high elven skin tones. Architecture is a combo of both races' style.)


The Elves are mysterious, and not very trusting of the other races, even the Torvann. However they are very friendly, and always enjoy visitors in their elegant halls. Any visit from an outsider- no matter his or her standing in his or her's respective culture- is welcomed warmly, and treated to a feast filled with singing, dancing, and plenty of food and drink. This has led the elves to have very excellent reputations amongst the other kingdoms, even the mostly isolationist Artainia.

The elves live in an expansive forest at the south of the Caracas continent. It's exact size is only known by the elves, as no Human, Kovos, Orc, Troll, or Torvann, have ever been more than 100 miles into the forest, or, at least if they have, as most gunslingers are believed to have been, they did not record their travels, traveling from the north of course. While this expanse contains many outposts and cities, it is believed to be only a fraction of their lands.

As told by the elves themselves their capital, the mystical city of Korisa, is in the heart of the forest. It is described as being so beautiful, that to look upon it's beauty would make the strongest, manliest, warrior shed a tear of amazement.

Military: Little is known of the elvish military, though their archers crossbowmen, and Rangers are rivaled only by the Torvanni Hunters.

Magick: No elven magick user has ever been seen. But they are believed to be close to the Torvann in terms of magical skill. It is also rumoured that some of their magical users can actually transform into different animals, though these are merely rumours.

Religion: Elves mainly worship Agrogen, Divine of the Hunt.


Average lifespan, about 15,000 years.

[The Counter Cultist(Sawyer)]

And there's the Torvann

[The Counter Cultist(Sawyer)]

Elves are up, Kovos, Orcs, and Trolls will be done in the above post,

A history of the World will be done here, it will be basically brief summaries of the Era's

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History of The World


Part 1: The Old Era, and the Ascension of the Divines.

Long before even the Torvann began their kingdom, there was an biologically advanced race of human like people, the only known name for them is the Ancients. They built many shining cities and temples, and prayed to the very essence of the world, and even built statues depicting their leaders in various regions of their home continent. They were ruled by a collective of five rulers, Soltarus, who was the supreme ruler, Kaezara, Mattesius, Agrogan, and Maleficus.

The nation prospered for many years, but there was a cancer within it's leadership; Maleficus. The councilor grew annoyed at Soltarus' policies and, one day, announced that he would be leaving to find another nation. His fellow councilors were depressed at his decision, but supported him. A day after his announcement, he left with a ship with a crew of only fifty people, and travelled east, over the course of that year, many others followed suit.

No word was heard for over a decade, and the remaining councilors feared the worst. One day however a messenger arrived bearing news that the south eastern coast had been attack by troops in black armor, and that their leader was none other than Maleficus.

Upon hearing this, the normally calm and peace loving Soltarus flew into a rage, and rushed to the attacked city. Upon arriving he met with Maleficus in person, and demanded an explanation, Maleficus merely replied that he understood everything now. After which, he mercilessly attacked and stabbed Soltarus with a poisoned dagger, however, in his final death moments Soltarus was able to behead the tratorious Councilor. Shocked at the death of their leader, Maleficus' forces retreated in their ships. Soltarus' death, however, had a more lasting effect on the Ancients. Despite the fact that Maleficus was dead, the people demanded the blood of his forces, the remaining three councilors, saddened by the death of both their fellow leaders, complied, but their main reason was to find the source of Maleficus' corruption, and what he meant by understanding everything. They sent a fleet, and awaited their response.


They received a message carried on the fastest ship the fleet had with them. The messenger reported that once they had landed two months, they found Maleficus' forces, and something else. The messenger described demonic looking creatures, that called themselves Daedra, that had been in a state a hibernation, and that Maleficus had awoken them, and according to the Daedra that they had met with, they and their lord Djall served him. After meeting with the Daedra captain, the army left, but not before the captain said that they would return with the full force of their army, their intent to travel to the Ancient home and destroy them.

The leaders were unsure of what to do, but that was before the unexpected happened. Soltarus appeared before them, in a white robe, surrounded by light. He explained to them that he and Maleficus had both ascended to a higher plane of existence, living as pure energy. He said that he had a plan to defeat Maleficus and his army of Daedra, but he needed them to ascend for it to work, and to tell their leading general to lead all of the army to the Daedric continent to meet the Demonic Army head on to serve as a distraction for Djall, and Maleficus both. He also said that they had one advantage, Maleficus had no idea that Soltarus had ascended, so they could successfully carry out their plan.

After explaining their plan to their General, he agreed and led the army away to the home of the Daedra. Afterwards Soltarus assisted the three into Ascension and led them to the Northern Middle lands. On the way Soltarus explained that the plan was to tap into a specific rift of the World's leylines, and use the untapped energies their to put the Daedra back into their hibernation and to de-ascend Maleficus, afterwords they would seal off a section of the Daedra Continent with all of their twisted kind behind it, along with Maleficus trapped in a sealed coffin.

At the moment in which the Ancient army met with the Daedric, the Ascended councilors began their chant at the rift(which coincidentally was the location of Maleficus' statue and a nearby Temple of the World.), with Soltarus opening a portal into the plane in which the rift was located. It was at this point however that a snag was encountered, in the form of Maleficus, he revealed that he had known of Soltarus ascension and had predicted that he would ascend the other's for assistance. The wicked former Councilor than made a move to completely destroy them all, but Soltarus intervened, finishing his portal. He engaged Maleficus in a dangerous magical duel, made even more spectacular by the open rift. Eventually the energies became too much for the spell and it activated prematurely, and bathed the World in a light.

After the light died down, discovered three things, the first being that Soltarus had disappeared, the second that their plan to de-ascend Maleficus had only half worked, he had returned to physical form, but still possessed the power of an ascended being. However, he had fortunately entered a state of hibernation, the third being that the statue and temple disappeared and, in it's place was a large sinkhole. Deciding to explore their nation and world, they were horrified to find that their entire civilization had been accidently wiped out by the premature activation of the spell. However the silver lining was that all the Daedra had been put back into hibernation. The Ascended Councilors finished their plan by placing the Daedra and Maleficus in the Western Wastelands of their home, and placed Maleficus specifically in a magically bound coffin in Djall's fortress, with a warning.

Beware, all who enter,
Within this lies one of the most evil being's in existence.
Open this, and you release an evil plague that will very well destroy, or cause you to destroy, your culture.
You have been warned.


Afterwards, they used their abilites to build a wall, for further protection. And then made a pact, that they would not interfere in the lives of mortals ever again.

And so ended, the Era of Ancients.