Sephiris: The Price of Peace - OOC

Send me an email at kalonordona2@gmail.com and I'll add you to the shared list (for the chronological compilation, I'll reiterate, since we're on a new page). ^_^
Though I think it'll only work if you have a Gmail account. Maybe not, though; I've never tried. Regardless, Google's just the best anyway, so if anyone doesn't have one, they totally ought to. xD

Maybe I will make one just for this then.

A couple of things to discuss concerning Mandor:

If King Orion is both the King of Mandor and Sephalia, then how does Dor fit into that. I had not imagined Dor being ruled by a Duke, but the seat of the king himself. However, I kind of like the idea of there being only one king, and it fits my ideas for Mandor a bit better. So should Dor be ruled by a Duke, or should it just be the placeholder seat of the king, the location of his closest advisers for Mandor as well as one of the main strongholds for the kings soldiers?

My plan for Mandor is for it to descend into war (if that is alright with you, Kalon. I'm not sure how the story is going to progress really). But Duke Omoron is going to try to defeat Aram and the currently unnamed city near Dor. Should he be successful it would give him much political power. However, Iyel'Del and Dor are a major deterrent to his success. So he is going to try and be sly about it. Unfortunately, if there is a king on Mandor, the Duke would kind of put himself in a bad position. If the king marched against him, no amount of political maneuvering would save him. The Duke and his House would be gone, branded as traitors. However, if the king is in Sephalia and occupied with other things, it gives the Duke a free hand to make his move.

What do you think about this?

Shiver of delight, that's what I think about it.
Maybe I played too much Lords of the Realm II when I was younger.
(watch, you'll see what I mean. ^_^ [x])
Barons dukeing it out (inadvertent pun, there. xD) when the king is gone.
So yeah, that idea appeals to me. ^_^

It's also more LOTRish, Gondor-y, even, with stewards. I like the idea of Dor being a place-holder for the king whenever he drops by. That city is probably controlled not by dukes but by special officers appointed by the king.

So yes, you may proceed with your war. Your description of their less pious motives seems like a logical succession of the plot. And it DOES present an irresistible opportunity for them. ^_^ Don't do a complete coup yet, though. Keep your options open. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

We can come up with something to add to the Locations entry for Dor, in this regard.

Yeah, it isn't something I planned on getting to for quite a while yet. though I did hint at it in Ragner's post, the one where he is fleeing to Caslemon from Aram. I don't know if anyone caught it or not, or if I even stated it bluntly or not...I think I might go reread it myself.
Edit: It isn't very blunt after all. Maybe you caught it, if you read it. Maybe you didn't.

I am glad you like the idea though!

And I made a gmail account and sent you a message.

I'm updating a few locations. I forgot to add Pinewood, the town north of Dor, where you all met Quentin.

Also, Gandila, S'harahe's birthplace, as well as Kragamer, Z'gan's birthplace.

I'll update Dor's location info, while I'm at it.
And add a qualification that it isn't the center of Zephirisian religion in the world, just in Mandor, like Telmural would be for Sephalia. In Sephalia it's a bit more organized, in Mandor, it's a bit more fanatic.

They met Quentin in Dor, actually... It was in a chapel.

Just wondering if I have this right... a Duke is higher than a Baron right? A Baron would rule sections of land, a barony, within a dutchy, right?

Yup, Duchies are wider areas while baronies are smaller sections. Pretty sure, anyway. For our purposes, we'll say that each large city has a duke that presides over the surrounding area, including nearby towns, and each town has a baron.

Alternatively, we could put the barons in charge of forts and dukes in charge of cities and surrounding areas.

And I guess Pinewood didn't feature as heavily as I thought. I think it was only mentioned three times on their way back from Dor. I'll just stick it on the map anyway. ^^

I don't think a duke would much like that. Superiors are normally not happy when underlings control the troops. I think it is better to have the barons in charge of the towns.

Good point.

So in that case Ragner Duiran would actually be a baron, though that position is currently on shaky ground. Hmmm.... Baron Duiran... I'm going to have to get used to the sound of that.

Okay, I sent it to you and Digi. Turns out Digi has ymail, not gmail, so we'll see if it works.
Anyone else have gmail? Stion? Blackrock?

Just so you know, you can use any email to set up a Googledocs account.

I did not know that. Cool!!

Maybe it is just my computer, but opening it up (the google doc) makes it run VERY slow... I will try it on the desktop and see if it works any better.

Well, it is quite large. Almost a hundred pages, for the first one.
Depends on your computer. My computer reads it quite slowly as well.

Hurray for libraries.
And friends with awesome laptops.

Silvone Elestahr wrote:Maybe it is just my computer, but opening it up (the google doc) makes it run VERY slow... I will try it on the desktop and see if it works any better.

It does, sadly. GoogleDocs is VERY slow-making,

Everyone, check out the first page of this OOC. I added a handy list of links. Hurray for organization!

Nice Kalon, everything is so much tidier now! Unfortunately I don't use Gmail, so I can't see the collected greatness of our work, but maybe I'll go ahead and make one - just to be able to see it.

As for Dukes and Barons, Ragner needn't be a Baron. "Lord" is still an appropriate title, it simply denotes that the man in question has sworn an oath of fealty to one higher in the feudal hierarchy than him. (i.e a Baron is still a Lord) So yeah, it can go both ways pretty much...to my knowledge at least.

I guess Digi says you don't need a Gmail account, like I thought? *shrug*
You could email me with your regular email, if you like, and we can try that first. Digi has Ymail, and it is implied that she can see it just fine.
However you like. Gmail is awesome anyway. *shrug* ^^

Ouch, how did I miss that?

I'd blame my lack of reading comprehension on the early hour, but I got up about two hours ago, no excuse there! At any rate, I'll try out later, once I have the time.

I was thinking. Maybe Orion "united" Sephalia and Mandor. Or one of the Orions--pick a roman numeral. xD Before that maybe there was a king of Mandor, too, but now it's a stewardy place. Or something. Just a thought, not really sure about it yet. These things just crop up, I like to share them with you guys first. Collaboration is fun! xD

Check it out, you guys!
My first real movie thingy ever!!

Nice trailer! That was cool. I totally approve of the music you chose.

Sephiris doesn't look exactly like that--there are only two wings, though they're big and they stretch a long way--but the image there more or less gets the feeling across, I think. ^^

The only thing I would suggest is more artwork. There is a bit too much of the map. However, I really, really love it! And I agree with Digi on the music Great work!

Edit: Don't forget to put that in the beginning of the OOC and/or IC thread(s)!

Yeah, the map was really all I had, except for more maps, and that wouldn't fit with the music as much. xD I could have waited until I had more material and better software, but better to have and improve than improve and not have.

I loved the music, too. First time I heard it, I thought, Sephiris Trailer, and now here it is. xD Huzzah for Audiomachine and similar groups like Immediate Music.
Did everything fit the music okay? That was the main thing I was going for. If I can get the timing right on the first time out of the gate, I'd say this is the start of a beautiful new superpower. xDDD I can do movies!!! ^_^ Well, image-based trailers, anyway.

I liked it a lot, too. Music was awesome!

The image with the characters really stuck out to me. My first thought was: One of my characters is in a trailer!

Huzzah! I was hoping you would all like that bit. ^_^
Just think, if I'd known how to do this before, I might not have had those character portraits to work with. Kinda too bad I don't have those for my own characters yet; I had to improvise to get something close to S'harahe in there. Technically, of the five characters there, only Kate is among those "called" folks the trailer mentioned... so far... dundundun. ^^ Still, there was no way I was going to pass up the chance to have each of us in a YouTube-worthy movie. xD

Woah, Kalon! That is pretty amazing! I don't think I've seen a character of mine in a trailer before! Huzzah for our GM's movie-making skills