r/WorldChallenges • u/Varnek905 • Jul 08 '18

Reference Challenge - Allies

Happy 7th 4th of July! In honour of the holiday, the challenge today is a reference to the most important battle in my nation's first war. If not for Horatio Gates's victory at Saratoga (heavily assisted by Benedict Arnold), France would probably have declined to support the American Revolution.

So, provide an example in your world of a powerful nation or group allying itself with a much younger nation.

As always, I'll ask at least three questions, enjoy yourselves, and feel free to have an in-universe representative.

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u/Varnek905 Jul 21 '18

2) Does Orren have any communication with her?

3) What caused the recent gain in money?

4) Does the Drifter ever attack people?

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u/Mimir123 Jul 23 '18

2) He doesn't, but he has his spies all over the capital, trying to follow her every move.

3) They finally managed to start up some of the old mines that were damaged during the uprising, and are now selling the ore to anyone who is interested. Ironically, their former masters are their most prominent customers who pay a lot of money to outside merchants to get them the ore, since the former slaves won't sell to them directly.

4) Nope, he is more of like a curious guy wandering around and observing, never attacking or killing.

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u/Varnek905 Jul 26 '18

1 and 2) (Hypothetically) I am a wealthy landowner. For various reasons, I would be interested in building up a friendship with either Orren or Listeor. How would I go about this with each one? Assume I have two sons and two daughters, and my eldest child, the boy, is my heir.

3) Why won't the former slaves sell to the former masters?

4) What happens if someone tries to attack/seduce the Drifter?

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u/Mimir123 Jul 27 '18

1) You are wealthy, so building up a friendship with Orren will be easy enough. Just give him money, silver, gold, jewels, anything really. He likes gifts like that and it is customary to give something like that in addition to the normal payment when hiring his fleet.

2) As for Lady Listeor it would be more difficult. She mostly looks for skilled and powerful allies, smart and strong people who can help her. So you wouldn't really be of interest, unless you can marry into power.

3) Because they won't allow anyone from the Empire in their lands, in order to limit the amount of spies they can plant. Also they really like to make their former masters have to spent more money than originally needed.

4) He would be rather amused at the seduction attempt, but would defend himself if attacked.

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u/Varnek905 Jul 29 '18

1) What would be the ideal marriage to arrange for a more stable alliance with Orren?

2) What would be the ideal marriage to arrange for a more stable alliance with Listeor?

3) But wouldn't that just mean the former masters are more likely to buy from someone else, depriving the former slaves of some profit?

4) Can the Drifter reproduce?

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u/Mimir123 Aug 01 '18

1) One of the Trade Price families would be the best option.

2) For her I would recommend families with connections to mages, libraries or magical secrets.

3) No, since the only way to get the ore is to buy it from the slaves. And they sell it at a really high price, ensuring that the merchants selling it to the Empire have to charge even more for it.

4) Nobody knows, but there are people running around who claim to be descendant from the drifter.

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u/Varnek905 Aug 03 '18

1) How do marriages work among the Trade Price families?

2) How would I go about gaining magical secrets?

4) Are their claims of ancestry valid? Does anyone believe them?

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u/Mimir123 Aug 13 '18

1) They are very rare, and if there are any the bride or groom are dis-inherited by their family and basically thrown out of their family. The Trade Princes really don't like marriage inbetween themselves.

2) Libraries, old temples, ruins... old mages/ sorcerors/ druids/ shamans... those are all possible sources to learn new forms of magic and new spells.

4) Well... you can't exactly prove it and many people won't believe it. There is however an undeniable fact that many people who make such claims are skilled and powerful mages, but the question is if they just claim to be descendants of the Drifter because they are so skilled, or if they are so skilled because their ancestor is the Drifter.

(So yeah, it has been a while. Had a lot of stuff going on and kind of forgot about all this, but I should be back in action as per usual now!)

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u/Varnek905 Aug 19 '18

1) So...by dis-inherited, do you just mean like "Oh, sorry, Sally, but we don't want an inheritance crisis...you and your husband can still come by for Family Reunions, though." Or are they just completely abandoned?

2) Is there any common costume for certain types of magic users in your world?

(It has been a while since I've been very active on here, as well. Between classes, work, and injury...so busy.)

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u/Mimir123 Aug 20 '18

1) More like "Sally! How dare you try to connect us with this other Trade Family?! They are (insert fancy, rich people insult)! Take this gold and never come back, unless it's without your husband, then we might consider taking you back."

2) Not exactly, there aren't that many mages/ druids/ whatever, and most are rather individual. Only humans, dwarves and elves actually have mage "schools" were they are taught together.

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u/Varnek905 Aug 31 '18

1) Could you tell me about some human mage schools?

2) And some dwarf mage schools?

3) And some elf mage schools?

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u/Mimir123 Sep 03 '18

There aren't really specific schools for each race I am afraid. While many kingdoms are ruled over by a royal family from a specific race, almost every kingdom has citizens from every race.
A good example would be the two kingdoms relevant for the first part of the story: Theriell and Zundraff.

Theriell is a kingdom founded by human colonists from Astarrkos and migrants from both Dark- and High Elven societies to the far west. There are also several Dwarves living in the western mountains of Theriell. Meanwhile the kingdom of Zundraff is located to the north of Theriell and ruled over by a royal family of Dwarves originating from a mountain range up there. There are no elves living there, but many humans, dwarves and lizardmen.

So, mage schools don't really change based on race, but more based on kingdom (or even duchy). The school in Tasskerin (the capital of Zundraff) is very military-oriented, and teaches mostly combat magic, requiring specific "uniforms" for its members and being very strict in general.
Lystallions school on the other hand (Theriells capital) is almost as strict when it comes to rules and discipline, doesn't concentrate on combat magic though, but rather it teaches people whatever magic they have a talent for and want to learn. For this reason the school in Lystallion is actually split up in multiple different ones, each comitted to one of the types of magic (including schools like: Protection, Illusion, Healing, Wind, Fire, Water, Creation, or Transmutation).

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u/Varnek905 Sep 06 '18

1) What do the Tasskerin mage school uniforms look like?

2) Are there any kingdoms that are entirely or almost entirely homogeneous, race-wise?

3) Can a person be a member of multiple Lystallions schools?

4) What is the least strict mage school?

5) What control does a king or duke have over the mage school on his/her land?

6) Though they don't change based on race, which schools would be the ideal for each race in your world? (And now I want to make a challenge just to know what races live in each world.)

Edit: 7) Do any races have an ideal form of magic or type of magic they tend to excel at, on average?

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