Tempest: Order in chaos

[ursk]

I've taken the liberty of including an audio sample that may help emphasize the characteristics of each race. I'm thinking about starting a closed RP with this as soon as I get a few more ideas. Also, I need help on this.
Please, comment, review and make some short stories on it. If I like what I see, I'll plug it in.
Yes, the ogres are based off of Warhammer Orcs/Orks but I love them so damn much, I have to put them in! ;D

Overture :www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMLFvZMqvQQ

Man: Roman/Greek-like architecture, technology and society. Minus the depravity and persecutions.
Appearance: ...you're kidding, right? Think Greek or Roman, togas never go out of style. Don't worry, Dark Age wardrobe will exist somewhere.
Lifespan: 50-80 years
Lawful Good
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KKFoEI0kss up to 3:40)

Syrdak: Akin to Buddhist or Christian monks. Also adopt the role of a Templar Knight like soldier in war. Look like dinosaur-men.
Appearance: Much like dinosaurs, although on a smaller scale. Limbs are more proportionate and skeletal structure is upright. Scales are often a dark green with a pale torso skin.
Lifespan: 170-200 years.
Neutral Good
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-jT6T59rYw)

Orc: Viking like barbarians. Rugged, tough and violent.
Appearance: Earthy skin, wiry and strong. Faces like a scrunched human, and dark long hair. Tall and built, not overly muscular. Leather and chainmail make up the average wardrobe of this bruising people.
Lifespan: 60-100 years.
Chaotic Evil/Chaotic Good (www.youtube.com/watch?v=s40aCEKWpWc)

Zahrak: Somewhat Babylonian or Sumerian, with ziggurats and pyramids. View every race as lesser and hunt them like animals. War is considered the greatest thing.
Appearance: Dark red skin, packed with black scars. Hands and toes do not have nails, but claws right from the tip of the appendage like a reptile. Skin is also spontaneously mutated; with scales, spikes and the such. Head has the whole villain set; fangs, forked tongue, firey eyes, all that.
Lifespan: Can only be killed.
Completely Chaotic Evil.
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hJaF_ooIO0)

Ogres: Brutish and largely independant mountain monsters. They unite when there is a common threat or goal, but otherwise journey through the Chavar Peaks individually.
Appearance: Rotund and grey skinned. Average sized legs, but arms are lanky and double elbowed. All across, very muscled. Large underbite with tusks, small eyes and Night Elf sized ears. Generic clothing, like ripped fishing waders.
Lifespan: 20-30 years.
Chaotic neutral.
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9uMGdXllaw)

Feral Elves: Depraved sense addicts in every way. Although they are not animalistic, their desires are little more. Goals are money, sex, drugs and alcohol. Once a society, now just organized crime.
Appearance: General tall, beautiful, graceful nonsense. An aura of a snap-your-fingers spunk among lower ranks, but an uncaring callousness to the leaders. Dress would be elaborate robes and tunics.
Lifespan: 400-500 years.
Neutral Evil.
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=25JE_YhZzG0)

Light Elves: A sizeable faction of elves that seek to rebuild the ancient kingdom back to it's amazing glory.
Appearance: More or less same as Feral Elves, only the leaders have a more profound beautiful grace to them and the general wardrobe is more or less the same as the clothing found in T.E.S. Oblivion.
Lifespan: 1,000-2,000 years.
Lawful Good. (www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOmNzSd4b6g)

Liche: Mysterious occult like alchemists and wizards. Distrusted, but looked to for information. Their entire land of Zirthoj covers their hidden library.
Appearance: Very coal-like. Rocky flesh structure, rugged but lack of any physical prowess. Crimson robes cover much of their ruined figures, leaving much to the imagination. Their undead servants are general zombies and skeletons. Celestians sometimes volunteer their services to them, manifesting as banshees and ghosts.
Lifespan: Can only be killed.
Neutral/Neutral Good
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=75Vf0F2QxMs)

Dragon: Far east influence. Architecture is somewhat like Mos Eisley from Star Wars, now that I think about it.
Appearance: Usual European dragon, but upright and with a shorter neck. Culture is Oriental-like, so a kimono or something makes up the common dress.
Lifespan: 200-300 years.
Lawful Good.
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJCLkQMDMsc)

Zirsmun: The Zirsmun wear loose tattered robes over their pale furred skin and travel in nomadic tribes.
Appearance: Dog men, basically. Werewolf like torso and head, but arms and legs are exceptionally long. Like Balverines from "Fable", but with brown fur, thinking capacity and dusty rags as clothing. Very fast-paced, nomadic society.
Lifespan: 700-800 years.
Chaotic/Chaotic Evil
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFM6YjdoHjs)

Goblin: Apache and Native American inspiration. Forestry people and exceptionally violent toward any society other than tribal, due to the illusion it is against the nature of the forest.
Appearance: Like T.E.S. Goblins, but more primal looking. A more barbaric savagery to them.
Lifespan: 6 months-1 years
Chaotic Evil.
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNLQ0ecGEGQ)

Dwarf: West African Kingdom like in economy and relations to other nations. More violent and entire society is based on slave trade.
Appearance: Humans, basically. Vaguely elven features, but still distinctly human.
Lifespan: 60-70 years.
Lawful Evil.
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO_9wPHkhpo&feature=related)

Trolls: The big ass, honking monster trolls; not the flimsy little dudes. Ferocious bastards, too. Good counter to the Orcs, as both'll rip you to pieces without a second thought. Trolls are more vile about it, reveling in the gore more than the fight. Orcs love the war, trolls love the gore.
Appearance: Massive, average height being around twelve feet tall. Face is reptilian, whole body having the Tolkein troll build. Scaled, rocky backside.
Lifespan: 40-50 years.
Neutral Evil.
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0yxLM-inkA&feature=related) ((No, the track is not music, but it's the troll mentality. Hurts to hear, after awhile. I don't recommend the group : \))

[ursk]

Map

artpad.art.com/gallery/?k7iwjjl5llc

Man: Grey blue
Syrdak: Green
Ogres: White
Liche: Grey
Zirsmun: Yellow
Goblin: Sagey green
Elves: Light purple
Dwarf: Brown
Dragon: Dark violet
Zahrak: Red
Orc: Light green
Troll: Orange

[ursk]

Thayruen Plains: Much like Nagrand or Arathi Highlands only more rivers, fjords, etc. Perfect farmland, very beautiful and open. Eastern borders have forests of every size, thickening as they stretch into Eastwood. It has been mankind's manifest destiny to rule there for time immemorial. photos.igougo.com/images/p132476-Ireland-Irelands_Country_side.jpg

Eastwood: A massive forest, a knotted maze of roots and mile high trees. The forest floor is but the region that is mapped. There is a whole other world within the tree tops. The Syrdak make their stone monasteries within this ancient wood.
i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn2/SINDER_Blackdragon/RedwoodForest.jpg

Chavari Mountains: Named for the ancient Liche, Lord Chavar, who first ventured into the icy mountains. These peaks are dotted with caves and cloisters that hold a multitude of fearsome creatures. The magic swirling throughout the mountaintops would certainly have an effect on the "normal" residents. Gnolls, harpies, hellhounds, daglares, sartali and a host of other obscenities of nature. The ogres reside here, feeding and travelling until they are called otherwise.
www.bergoiata.org/fe/landscapes2/Landscape%20-%20Mount%20Everest.jpg

Zirthoj: Once not unlike Eastwood, Zirthoj was reduced to a grey ashen waste when the ruler of the Liche, called The Bridge, ordered his greatest conjurers to cast a spell of unparalled and unknowable power. Instead of achieving whatever their bizarre ends may be, they shattered part of Thykrua and reduced their land to wastes. Sparse and grand universities stretch high into the dusty sky, appearing as distant spires among a sea of grey.
www.sasaa.co.uk/images/tawahin%205.jpg

Varai Waste: Desert. Sparse, sandy, rocky and drier than any other place on Velurgren. It is rumoured that at the center, there is not even a water droplet in the air. The Zirsmun have learned to live in this hot hell, against the odds of scaled elephant creatures and feathered giraffes.
www.answersincreation.org/curriculum/geology/images/Sahara_desert.jpg

Deysia Marsh: There is no true "ground" in this realm, just thicker mud and soaked debris. Besides the Goblins and their loathsome faith, there exists a myriad of life much like the Carboniferous Period. Bugs the size of a mans head, spiders the size of horses and fungi stretching high into the green sky. One could say it is a mutated Eastwood and not have an inaccurate description.
www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1863/september/louisiana-swamp-soldier.jpg

Merdun: White rock, cliffs and epic stretches of rugged land. There are ancient roads from when the Elven Kingdom spread across, a gleaming jewel of cosmopolitan ideals and captivating cities of flawless flowing marble. It has since been demolished many times over. The only remnants of this beautiful civilization are the decaying structures and shacks used by the crime families that now rule the land.
www.irelandtravelpictures.net/Ireland-travel-Irish-Skellig-Michael-Lothann.jpg

Hellvine Jungle: The Amazonian world of Hellvine is a steaming pot of vegetation where only the largest of creatures thrive. Man does live here, but not for the greater good. Only for themselves. Dangerous predators slink through the massive foliage. Crassusaurs, Teragadons, Belkien Gorillas and other massive monstrousity's that can crush a man without a concious thought.
www.sights-and-culture.com/australia/rainforest-jungle_0247.JPG

Leschone: Much like northern China or Japan. Long mountainous expanses and long rivers across a sea of dusty green. Collossal villages of tanned stone house the dragons when they are not accomplishing their nations tasks.
www.hotelsbible.com/travelblog/wp-content/uploads/hotelsbible.com/Ireland-travel-view.jpg

Daigros: Ruddy orange and blood red earth make up this broken landscape. Great cliffs and mesas are everywhere across the horizon, not unlike a less orderly Thousand Needles. The durable Orcs have adapted to this vicious land, being tall and powerful. The bottom expanse is lethal, with the roaming Red Unicorns seeking to drain the blood from victims with their despicable horns. Countless other unnamed creatures thirst for life below, and are constantly beaten back by the noble Orc warriors.
brjproductions.com/i/dl_px_001_highres.jpg

Firefield Savanna: A long expanse of volcanic activity, it is quite literally Hell on Earth. It is said that not a day goes by without some regions being renewed completely in the fires and magma of the volcanoes.
scat.blog.kataweb.it/files/photos/uncategorized/mordor.jpg

Thykrua: Cold and burning, frozen and searing, metallic and molten. Words alone cannot explain the complete inhumanity that echoes within this land of eternal black evil. If one knows and values the seven virtues, that would do well to avoid this realm of darkness. For such is the lack of those seven, that a moral man may go insane from the hideous permeation of hatred, anger, violence and contempt for all life.
www.oceansbridge.com/paintings/artists/special/big/sadak_in_search_of_the_waters_of_oblivion_by_john_martin_1812.jpg

Kudos to Google for giving me access to the photographers and artists that led me to such amazing scapes I was looking for. Bless 'em.

[ursk]

Hey, I'm really grateful for all the reads but... can I get some review? I mean, some of you's can really come up with good stuff, so's if you would have a look-see and lemme know how's I'm doing, that'd be awesome, really.

Much obliged,

[Kaez]

(( Here's what you do: Next time I get in-game on Kaez [ I only get on Kaez is I'm bored ], say, "PETE! YOU ASS! GO REVIEW TEMPEST!". Since I'm bored, I'll gladly take you up on it. Promise. ))

[ursk]

First Era: -The world, Velurgren, is created by Tarshezi (Orc for, literally translated, "Star God") and Yahk-mul (Orc for "He who guards/protects"). Yahk-mul creates the raw, material earth and plants. Tarshezi creates the natural laws of the world and life essences of all creatures.
-To protect what has been created, Yahk-mul creates the Orc (Which is orc for "sentinel" or "guardian") to keep order in the world. Tarshezi creates the Syrdak to be the learners and thinkers. Ogres are formed to be the workmen and labour force of the new people.
-Scyleroth, God of destruction, sees what the two creators have accomplished and covets it. From him, he creates three new deities. Mezkala, God of mischief and lies; Oblitarius, God of killing and will to dominate; and Slestiarr, God of self-destruction. Through this disunity, Scyleroth is able to more subtly destroy the creators.
-In his division of Mezkala, he starts an angry fight between the two. Through Oblitarius, he starts a war between the Syrdak and Orc. And as Slestiarr, he feeds on each player's pride immensely.
-Tarshezi and Yahk-mul slug it out, with cosmic blows and soldiers of each race.

Second Era, first age: Tarshezi and Yahk-mul eventually destroy one another. Their blood creates the Celestians, ghost like spirits with great knowledge. Their sweat and tears create the stars. The swords of either had cut the sky so that three moons glistened over the night. Their last attempts to create life, however, produced man. This curious breed would come to pass as one of the most vital in the history of Velurgren.
-Scyleroth now has free reign over the new world. He creates his people, the Zahrak, to violate and destroy his shiny new playground.

Second age: The disparate Orc clans and broken Syrdak orders cannot stop the tide of monsters. The simple tribes of men attempt to commune with the Celestians. Providing the bodies of fallen Zahrak, the Celestians possess them. Disfiguring and warping the carcasses in the process, they become the first Liches.
-The Liches unleash magics of shocking power against the Zahrak, who withdraw in fear from the roiling tides of the mysterious energy.
-The unbeleivable spells are not without consequences, however. The ogres are affected adversely; over half their number break apart into the loathsome Goblins, whilst the rest have their minds dulled to that of beasts. Some men, too, experience change, and develop into the elves.
-With loss plaguing the minds of some of the Syrdak Orders, some offer fealty to Scyleroth. He sends them to the southern part of Firefield Savanna, where he mutates them into the nightmarish trolls.

Third age: The Liches establish themselves in the temperate forests of Zirthoj. Man remains at his birthplace, in Thayruen. The new elves retreat south to Merdun. Some men depart in primitive vessels to the island south of the main continent. Orcs find that trolls are their new neighbors on their continent and don't take kind to strangers. In accordance with their awry sense of honour, they make war on the dark neighbors.
-The Goblins travel south amazingly quickly on foot, and take up residence. The Syrdak numbers drop even more, until they retreat to the Deysia Marsh. The ogres remain in their mountains.
-Scyleroth puzzles about how to have his people wield his power like the Celestians. Through many violent experiments and killed Trolls and Zahrak, the first Zahrak Sorcerors are created.
-Against the plans of Scyleroth, the creator brothers had fellows. Yurlao, the God of righteousness; his brother, Fadsjii, God of forgiveness; Lusra, the Goddess of love; and Pelswyr, of hope and caring. At the arrival of the power of these Gods, Scyleroth panics and sends his Zahrak to destroy the mortals as quickly as possible.

Fourth-Fifth ages: The Zahrak Armada departs from Thykrua with massive arks to carry the trolls with. Trolls are intelligent, but lack the resouces to make vessels. Goblins travel around north through the Chavari mountains to strike Thayruen from the north. Zirsmun attack into Zirthoj to stop the liches from interfering. The dwarves sail up north and strike the Elf kingdom. The Syrdak Orders mobilize to Thayruen to defend humanity, as it is the most harshly struck.

~~~~First Cataclysm~~~~

• Battle of Ice Cove (oceanic) Human/Syrdak/Elf victory
  
• Battle of Northern Varai (land) Zahrak/Troll/Dwarf/Goblin victory
  
• Northern Goblin infestation (land) Human side victory
  
• Dragon Sea Clash (ocean) Human side victory
  
• Siege of Lastrethia (land) Zahrak side victory
  
• Recapture of Lastrethia (land) Human side victory
  
• Shattered Isles skirmishes (mix) Zahrak side victory
  
• Siege of Melcaddes (land) Human side victory
  
• Battle of gusting terror (ocean) Zahrak defeat from storms. Not enough on human side left to say "victory."
  

[Kaez]

What can I say, man? It's delicious! The song links really add some oomph to it. Keep things up. Hope to see a story from this world. *nod*

[ursk]

Just a notice,

Two new races!
-Trolls have been upped to a much more serious bad guy, happy to say. I didn't like the idea of a whole race (orcs) fighting monsters, so the trolls are now a formal society.

-Light Elves are for those who cling to the good and heroic elves. They're a faction of elves who kept away from the sense addiction their brethren (which I now christen "Feral Elves") fell to and are looking to re establish their kingdom. They and other elves duke it out over Merdun.

[Kaez]

(( Light Elves. A nice and comforting element of familiarity. Cool stuff. ))

[ursk]

Nov 3, 2008 21:02:35 GMT -5 Kaez said:

(( Light Elves. A nice and comforting element of familiarity. Cool stuff. ))

To hell with familiarity! *lights cannon* Destroy all common ground to everything!

.....

Ah damn. That is why they're here. *puts out fuse*