[TSoY] World-wide Maldorian Empire: Local myth or slice of history?
shadowcourt:
My feelings on the expansiveness of Maldor are many-fold. Eero did a nice job on it, though I should mention that my own map is radically different. For instance, Ammeni and Zaru are their own subcontinent, and there aren't land-trade routes to them. This increases the overall need for water travel between Ammeni and Maldor (in the great metal-for-food swap between the two), which gives more value and interest in things like Khalean piracy, and all around boat travel in general, which I like, and which are often much more exciting to players than long caravan routes.
Hand-in-hand with that idea is my sentiment that both Khale and Ammeni are splinters from Maldorite culture. The Khalean one happened centuries before Ammeni, and is the furthest northern point of expansion, almost like a Lost Legion was the founding force behind Khale. Ammenite cultural origins are tied up in one of those small regional subcultures that was "Maldorized", as Eero put it, but emmigrated to the Zaru subcontinent to exploit its valuable resources. They've done well for themselves, naturally, and while they're linguistically different from Maldor, it's sort of Provence-France situation, in some respects.
The benefit of all of this cultural touching has been for simplification purposes among some conceits, particularly language. The "common tongue" of Maldor is called Imperial in my games, and means that you get into fewer of those moments where language barriers become obstructions to game fun, and more opportunities for them to signify an odd-ball character or obstacle to circumvent in a foreign language. Hence Ammenites speak a highly accented and strangely-inflected Imperial which can sometimes seem like a foreign language. Khalean has roots in Old Imperial, enough that it can sometimes be interpreted, but can also be a foreign language when it's handy. Plenty of Zaru know Imperial, and many Oranids speak it as well, as the conqueror's/trade language which came to their country. Goren is an offshoot of Maldor, as well, so it picks up the same language. My other southern nations have some Maldorite influence, and the ones which don't, such as Vulfland, have such extremely odd circumstances that they have nothing in common, like the Qek.
The "northern cluster" of nations that I've been talking about were beyond the reaches of the old Maldorite empire. Sohakaimet was too far north, ditto for the proto-culture the Qek come from. Maldor probably traded occasionally with the Wazidi, the old culture which ruled Hamouad, but the crumbling of national trade which occurred with the Skyfire and period beyond made journeys more hazardous and no centralized authority in Maldor with an interest in going thousands of miles for exotic goods. As such, Ammeni has more trade with Hamouad these days, and northern Maldorite lords do so through Oranid horsemen, by crossing the expansive steppes and deserts which are Oran.
Does that make more sense?
I could probably sketch out a quick map of what my unofficial Near looks like, if people are dying to make some sense of where the nations are located and what sort of boundaries keep them from interacting easily. But I'll only do it if there's a serious demand for it, or otherwise it's pretty superfluous.
-shadowcourt (aka Josh)
dindenver:
Eero, Josh,
I did a search and couldn't find any other maps for Near.
So, um, where are they, what do that look like? Share please?
dindenver:
Harald,
RE: Zu, I strongly feel that the Zaru myth that Zu was used to create the world is a local belief and not a universal truth. The fact that the magic works as described has no more significance than the fact that Khale Music/Magic works (or 3-corner magic or Qek Spirit magic) in my mind.
Also, I thought Zu was the Underpinnings of the Zaru culture, not Maldor. In fact, Absolon learning Zu was a late phenomenon and a possible cause for the Shadow event, no?
oliof:
dindenver: My take is that neither approach is wrong or disprovable from the source material.
dindenver:
Josh,
RE: Ammeni/Khale - I get that. The Ammenites especially feel like an offshoot of Maldor (though this feeling is not supported in the text). I get a Rome/Constantinople vibe off of the whole thing.
In practice, I see Ammeni as more of China as depicted in Wuxia Blood Operas (think curse of the golden flower). The stratification of society, the sort of fatalism of the peasants and slaves in Ammenite culture. It strikes me as a very medieval Chinese setting.
I don't know about Khale though. There is room to go either way, no? You could cast Khale as Britton after the fall of Rome. A sort of Roman wannabe with no place to call home. Or go more with the Gauls, seeming barbarians with their own traditions/culture, no? People that were influenced by the presence and continuous contact with Maldor, but maybe never fully absorbed by Imperial forces?
I guess, part of the reason I ask about the old Maldor Empire was, I was wondering how amazing the loot should be if someone braves an old Maldorite Walled City. Like, if it was a theoretical world-wide empire like Alexander''s Greece or the Old Roman Empire, than it doesn't have to have high-tech loot in the old city. They were world spanning in the sense that they conquered everything they discovered. But, if it was actually a world spanning empire, like the UK or the Mongols, then the need/potential for high tech goodies seems like it would be higher.
And part of this hinges on the nature of Maldorite society. Are these the kind of people that were rabid explorers (frontier America) or more pastoral people (medieval China)? This answers the sort of questions as to how fast they could spread and how far they would want to spread, no?
Based on the little tidbits, I see a empire that has conquered all it discovered, but that the discoveries were few and far between. The fact that old Maldorite cities have enough information to explain to these apocalyptic survivors how to make and use explosives. And the presence of printing presses tells me that the old empire was very advanced indeed. But the fact that they didn't discover the Zaru until the end of the Empire tells me that maybe they preferred their luxury and didn't have a strong wanderlust or an organized means of exploration maybe...
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