Knifeblossom

[Ysne]

So what will the Akaviri humans look like? What should their skill bonuses and attributes be? I'm fairly sure I've seen some asian face models on Planet ES that we might be able to use.

[Arbiter]

Originally posted by Ysne
So what will the Akaviri humans look like? What should their skill bonuses and attributes be? I'm fairly sure I've seen some asian face models on Planet ES that we might be able to use.

Yeah, perhaps Asian style. I guess they should be like the Imperials or something. But shouldn't they be under-powered race? If they're slaves to Tsaeci or something. ?(

[Ysne]

According to our lore, Knifeblossom is not part of the Tsaesci Empire.

I don't think they would be any weaker than any other human race. I'm not sure what to do about specific attributes and skill bonuses yet. I'm also not sure what the special racial attributes would be either.

[Kodama]

I think that they should be a tiny bit shorter then the imperials.
They should have the best asian faces that we can find, i can't make them myself, but i have seen some good ones.

Skill bonus should be Blade 10, Armorer 10
Also, archery and blunt skill could be high, i will have to think about it.
This race should be easy to make.

Any suggestions about their powers are welcome.

They should have a high Endurance, Agility and Wisdom, i will have to think about how high these should be.
I will then figure out the rest.

[somebody]

maybe you can use those blind Moth Priests in Oblivion as the Akaviri men

but without the blind-folds or something

[blade-knight]

They should have 12 blade and 14 agility.

[sphr]

hmm.. not sure if this spoils things. but due to the claim that there are no human in Akavir, although I didn't take it at face value, I did planned some settings that make human slaves "working" under the Tsaesci unlikely.

In my current thoughts, human slaves are special to Tsaesci. A more appropriate term for them is "livestock". Unlike the other slaves which are kept around for labor, human slaves are "reared" for their blood. And as a response to a few major uprisings a long long time ago when the Tsaesci Empire was conquering Akavir, they decided to "dummify" the human slaves by eradicating the culture of the former Naga-Human Empire : destroy all written records, destroy all educated people who knows history, don't allow the human slaves to be educated. They had achieved moderate success.

So I'm thinking that any "normal" human left should be enemies of the Tsaesci and should be hiding from them. They may even be part of some resistence force which is still far too weak to confront the Tsaesci. Due to the harsh conditions, it could be reasonable to say that majority of them (even the elders and children) are not helpless (knows basic skills) and that the average warrior's skill/physical abilities will be slightly better than the more peaceful (relatively speaking) Tamriel.

So currently, I have the idea of two types of "human". One uneducated, backward group which is treated as livestock by the Tsaesci. Even though most were used to it, there may be still some spiritied ones among them which the resistance can recruit (sidenote. think : The Matrix movie). The other is a hardy people who are hiding from the Tsaesci and scrapping out a living from the harsh conditions (what do you expect in places where even the Tsaesci can't be bothered to search thoroughly?).

On further note, if Knifeblossom is made into "the last human stronghold", could it have played the part of "Zion" as in the Matrix : the Tsaesci PURPOSELY left it alone for some reasons.....

[Kodama]

Knifeblossom is safe from Tsaesci invasions because of two very good reasons.

1: It's one big natural fort, a siege would be hopeless because they can grow their own food and can resist the siege forever.
The will have Sohei (warrior monks) and Samurai (male and female) their armed forces are strong enough to resist a Kamal attack.

2: if a vew Tsaesci lords would capture Knifeblossom, they would over extend their borders and their armies, Ka Po Tun would love to attack them in their back even before the Tsaesci could capture Knifeblossom.



They would have been part of the original human empire, the lore will have to be updated.

The Tsaesci slaves are kept as livestock.

[sphr]

I will try to find the time to draft out something to add some background. Just throwing out some ideas for discussion to gather some feedback for a while until there is sufficient materials.

I have some alternate suggestions for the reasons of safety from Tsaesci, though. I was thinking that given the scale that I was working if, it the Tsaesci really want to deal with them, it wouldn't be THAT difficult (these guys kill dragon-gods!). Instead I propose the following adjustments:

1) Knifeblossom lies within influences of Snow Hell i.e. there is almost NOTHING worth plundering and has no value to the Tsaesci (except the human blood) whatsoever. Furthermore, the presence of the aggressive and unpredictable Snow Demons serves to deter any large scale invasion (modified from your point except that the human currently has no real strength to resist the Tsaesci upfront)

2) Knifeblossom is a "secret" stronghold. Nobody other than its inhabitants knows its position and this secret is guarded vehemently (intruders will be captured and quite possibly killed or kept imprisoned for life). I am just thinking, what about instead of just 1 fort, Knifeblossom is actually made up of some extremely tough to attck forts carved into cliffs and walls and such (similar to your original idea of "natural" fort) and linked by underground passages and even an underground "heart" city. Will have to work out some economic specialties like food and water sources, which can serve to make it stand out from just any city. The distributed sysem of forts with underground passages is also a safety mechanism : there are constructs in-place to collapse certain passages to "cut-off" a section/fort in case it gets discovered, as a safety-switch for protecting the secret location of the 'heart'. This could also be symbolic with the how the "flower" blooms outwards from the center and each small-fort/outpost/settlement is like a petal?

3) For historical background, we can have something like Old Knifeblossom Keep, which was the ruins of the original Knifeblossom Keep from some 5000 years ago. The keep was abandoned after the human empire was defeated (too obvious a target) and instead, its inhabitants stayed hidden away, while they eventually found a new place to build a safe haven. This also serves as a buffer such that whatever crap I decided to add to the lore regarding Knifeblossom, it has no direct relation with the current settlement since I would have been talking about the Old Knifeblossom Keep.

4) In my setting, one of the Tsaesci Lords (the fallen princess) is actually sympathetic towards the humans. She could be part of the hidden reason why Knifeblossom's location stayed secret from the rest of the Lords, although for mummery's sake, perhaps only the highest-ranking people in knifeblossom knows of this relationship, and she is referred to obliquely in another name/title (e.g. she can be regarded as a deity among the common human folks although nobody knew that their "deity" is actually one who would be considered their enemies..) sets the stage for some possible events that can be very "explosive" Perhaps Cog can think of something?

5) As this may be the "last human stronghold", it could also be home to a faction whose aim is to free the human blood slaves in the Tsaesci Empire (though it will be tough as not only are the Tsaesci very powerful, but a lot of groups of bloodslaves already lost their sense of dignity/initiative and desire for freedom)

[Ysne]

The Zion idea won't fit with Knifeblossom.

However, there may be a possibility of something like that inside the Tsaesci Empire.