From the scant bits of info we have my gut says Europe (which isn’t really a continent anyway) feels too small, while the entirety of Eurasia feels too big. My best guess is equivalent to South America, maybe?
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Clearly the spirits like squares. Who are you to question the spirits, unbeliever?
There’s some sort of in between the main meanie area and the new guys, but not when you go further north to the recently conquered area, so they share much more of a border now. Some mountains in the north of the republic. They tend to chanel invasions in a north-south direction, but there’s a corridor onto the steppe by which the meanies originally came over a thousand years ago.
Yeah. It forms some of the boundary between Laghuna and Kuthumikha, though the overall distinction is more climate-based. Though note that the republic officially considers them to be the same ethnicity.
Hey, my implications must be good 
I never made an official scale in case I ever feel like fudging it, but a little smaller than South America is probably about right. I am considering, however, that there might be a little more land that extends to the northwest that’s not included on the maps because it’s just frozen wasteland. The New Guys are definitely coastal, though, and they’re temperate, not taiga.
Might also just be a planet that’s a little warmer than Earth so it just doesn’t have a tundra zone…
Though the temperatures have fluctuated a little throughout history. We’re currently in one of the warmer periods 
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Down with the square! The only truly pure shape is the holy dodecahedron!
Or it’s just far enough south to avoid tundras.
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Just thought I should give an update since it’s been a couple weeks.
I’m working away at the first scene; I’ve just realized that thinking nonlinearly is more an adjustment than I’d anticipated. Hopefully I’ll speed up once I pass the curve.
I’ve also been planning out some of the major figures and families of the republic. (I plan to improvise more for the rebellion, but the republic figures have all their histories of allying and nepotism and betrayal so they need more interconnections.) @idonotlikeusernames will be pleased to know that I’ve worked out a dramatic situation for the cloth industries involving one powerful family trying to break up another powerful family’s hold. So hey, looks like our discussion fed a plotline that wouldn’t otherwise have even existed.
Also the MC’s uncle (mom’s bro, married into the market village) works for textile traders, mostly in a caravan support man capacity.
I’m also contemplating another couple of stats. I wanted “love/detachment” to deal mostly with personal relationships, helping people you care about, that sort of thing. But that leaves me without anything marking general altruism. Maybe I don’t need that, but it’s hard to say, and I don’t really want to conflate them. The other would be a political stat. One of the big issues is whether Laghuna really has a separate identity or should be part of a group with all Verdant-derived civilization. So separatism versus… unificationism? Not sure what to call that. Anyway, I don’t want to have too much stat inflation in case I end up neglecting some, but this is what I’ve got kicking around.
I hope to have my update ready early this week. Go Laghuna 
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IT’S ALIVE AGAIN!
Character thingy is evil…
Sorry, I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying?
Edit: OH, that character thingy! I was thinking of characters as in people in a story 
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There is a 20 character minimum to each post … 
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You can take over @Havenstone’s system of cosmopolitan versus nationalism, but that has its flaws too.
Yay! For the cloth industry, though my mc’s would want to get his hands on some of the leather and silk production too, because leather and silk is what he would most like to wear himself if he had the choice.
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So what with all the discussion of statistics, particularly opposed ones, engendered by all the Empyrean talk, I’m gonna be writing another post shortly to talk about what I had in mind behind the stats I came up with, and see to what extent that seems fitting or is something I might want to revise while I’m still getting started.
First, however, responses:
I really need to read XoR. 
What sort of flaws come up there? I was mostly just thinking of a dimension to represent “is Laghuna a separate entity, distinct culture, which needs to be independent” and not really anything else.
The same family that dominates other cloths also dominates silk. That’s actually where they’re the strongest, because in theory they own every silkworm in the republic (not that that’s something they can practically make sure of).
Leather is not dominated by any of the big families.
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What kind of religion(s) are there in the the republic? Are there any religious differences between the monarchists and the republicans?
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Start with leather (and cattle) then and build up from there to boot and shoe production and other leather products before making a foray into the other fabrics, or would that be impossible given our situation?
Of course it helps that leather is my (and most of my mc’s) favourite fabric by far. 
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So, the first five stats, called “the spirits that move you,” are all about the classical Verdant religion/theory of the mind. The basic idea is that the entire world is made of great spiritual forces, and individual minds aren’t really separate entities, but are most like knotted bundles of these forces, like how individual pictures may appear on a weaving but are still part of the same threads. The first five stats each represent one of the five most important of these great spirits. The idea is that the higher the stat, that means this spirit has a higher influence on the character, makes up a greater part of their mind-bundle. The opposed end of the stat represents less presence of the same great spirit, less influence. The spirits are all conceived as driving forces of action: one that motivates fear (caution/boldness), one that motivates anger, retribution, righteousness (justice/forgiveness), one that motivates expressions of grief, despair, sadness (sorrow/acceptance), one that motivates interpersonal bonds (love/detachment), and one that motivates direct personal pleasures, be they sensual, aesthetic, festive, whatever (joy/moderation). I wanted to have all the labels be things that could potentially sound like positive qualities, however, so you don’t feel pressured to pick one or the other.
The game itself isn’t taking a position in whether or not these great spirits actually exist. I was mainly thinking these would affect relationships, and they’d have a more significant role if you go for being a seer, but I did think there might be some other ways to use them. Caution/boldness in particular seems like one where it could affect how well a character is doing at cautious or bold actions, but then I am worried about possibilities for minmaxing or discouraging the middle ground. I was thinking a character with high sorrow might be able to chanel the emotion for artistic endeavors, or might trigger scenes where another character wishes to comfort them or the like.
Overall they are all meant to represent motivation more than action.
The politics stats are more directly relevant to the big events going on. I just tried to distill all the separate controversies, plus whether you were going for a war/peace approach. Plus I stuck in purity/skepticism as the main religious dimension, since I want to deal with whether the main character is going for the more religious strictures or doesn’t really believe in them. This does paper over some gray areas, though.
This is also where I realized that I didn’t have something to cover overall altruism. I started using “love” to cover that, but it’s not really what I’d meant for that stat to cover. I’m not sure if I should just say there’s a sixth great spirit (in theory there’s an infinite multitude, but the five I mentioned are conceived as the most important) or just consider it a political dimension, somehow.
Skills are still very much up in the air. I was contemplating working in levels rather than percentages, a la ZE:SH, but without characteristics like ZE:SH has (which isn’t something I want to go into implementing), I’m not sure if it’d be as effective. It’s definitely how I was planning to handle language fluency, though.
I also realize I didn’t really do anything in terms of having incompetencies…
…maybe a negative level of skills, if I have them be leveled?
Education’s gonna happen (well, start to happen) after all the 7-year-old stuff so I have some time before I implement all that.
Nice question
The Verdant Realm in classical times had a fairly syncretic mix of religions. Traditional religion tended to be spirit and seer-based, but they picked up plenty of gods and practices from other cultures, and also developed a mass of intellectual scholarship. So people could pretty much pick and choose whatever worked for them without any of it being considered in opposition.
The empire that originated in the steppe (labelled “Meanies” on the “map” 
) eventually developed a rather more exclusive religion, which adapted many of these elements but also believed in an overarching Purpose, who is sort of like God but is more of a principle than an entity. So suddenly that meant that other practices could be considered as being against-the-Purpose.
Nowadays in the republic, most people believe in the Purpose but are fairly open to a wide variety of religious practices as being valid expressions of it. But there is a lot of controversy over what the Purpose actually is, what it represents, and whether direct knowledge, or even any knowledge of it, is possible. And religious practices can be fairly diverse.
Strict steppe-style believers are more likely to side with the rebellion due to historical ties. Classicists who might not even believe in the Purpose would on average hold classical views in other things, including republicanism, but this is only a tendency. Otherwise, religious differences aren’t really along factional lines.
I’ll have to see. I didn’t sketch out anything about leather yet. There’s probably some mid-level families who dominate it on more regional levels.
(There’s also a difference between making leather for yourself and making it to sell. If you have cows nobody’s gonna make much of an issue at getting your own leather for yourself. Once you take it to market, then there’ll be more forces to contend with.)
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As I was allowed to give my opinion… Here it goes. Good lore Terrible stats , and weird flow . Impossible to role play with., And no Mara choices. A great potential. Your world build have interested me… with help could rock.
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Thanks for replying~
I hope some of this will be better once we’re a little further on, since so far I’m just going for setting the scene.
What would you want to see when it comes to stats? Are there any of the current stats you feel concerned about? Bear in mind that there will be skills once education starts, so those aren’t currently covered.
Those questions go for everyone, as well. I’ve never done anything like this before, so I’m not versed on stat-building, and I’d like to nip problems in the bud. I just stuck together stuff that’s relevant to the setting and themes I want to write about.
I’ll be interested to know whether it feels more roleplay-worthy and better flowing once I have more available. As far as choices, I’m definitely looking to expand choices to include whatever different players might like to do. Bearing in mind that the character is still seven in the first scene, were there any Mara choices you’d have in mind at this point?
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the flow is weird because you end phrases to soon. Rough example The forest is vibrant . there are x plants and a river. Big sis is working. that make flow slow. Is better start with something more action based to attract people I would love start in a small give birth scene or something far in time.
Stats are opposite stats that alone make role-playing impossible.
You forced me to love a family I already hate, you assumed too many things in your explanation… And I wanted make my sister drowning make that a joy state was lol… A question about you love your family could be so great for rp. I WANT MISCHIEF NOT JOY
I agree with Mara that opposed state tend to not be ideal for role-playing.
For example lets say you make brain and brawn into an opposed stat that immediately closes you off from playing a character it precludes me from playing say a genius bruiser type of character.
Maybe I want my character to have both brains and brawn this time around but compensate with low charisma or wisdom (making him lack common sense) .
For some of the discussion of the applicability and desirability of opposed stats in XoR see here.
I will wait to comment on this until we get to the teenage stuff at the very least as I’m usually not that interested in the young childhood stuff. Others probably love it though.
At least you didn’t have us start as a baby or toddler.
So it is based on the earliest of early Roman Republic right after the overthrow of the fifth king? Can are characterized to Patrician like status? And what is the Republican government like?
Well, that example isn’t covered by the opposed stats which I set up, anyway. Like I was saying, skills will not be opposed. I just don’t have skills yet.
The first five stats are all based around presence of a certain motivating factor (conceived as a great spirit). Please refer to the recent post Uprising against the Verdant Lords (small update 12/9) - #72 by TSSL for the idea behind them. I’d originally just thought of them as five one-sided stats, but the way that ended up looking I was concerned that they all looked like skills or something where higher is better, and where low levels don’t have any meaning to them. So I decided to label the opposite end to represent absence of said quality. For example, with love representing interpersonal bonds and all that, a low level then is detachment. I thought it would look more balanced this way, rather than prioritizing one side over the other. I was also thinking along the lines of various dimensions of personality, like the Big Five (though this is a different big five…). I mean, I do tend to think that people vary along dimensions… I didn’t want to look like I was favoring one side of the scale over the other.
The next five were just meant as the main political oppositions where they’d represent what the character’s siding with and prioritizing. Sorta like a political compass test, only using the dimensions that’d be relevant in Laghuna.
None of them really represent abilities. You could sort of think of them as extended factors of the character’s “alignment.”
Where it comes to presentation of information, do you think you would prefer to have skills presented earlier on the screen than the personality/political stats? That way you would get frontloaded with the stuff the represents what you’re able to do, rather than the motivation+social relation stuff.
Otherwise, are there other ways you’d consider implementing the same factors? I’m definitely unsure about labeling and so forth. Or if there’s character concepts that you feel would be constrained or not represented by the stats that I have, or if any of the first five traits don’t really represent one being the absence of the other, or if you have concerns about any of the political ones not actually being a scale.
But certainly rest assured that I am not doing any kind of mutually exclusive abilities.
Where does the text indicate that the main character loves the family? I don’t recall writing any 2nd person attitudes apart from the choices.
If it’s the fact that the main character is assumed just to follow Big Sister along… yeah, I could add an option for the main character to run off. I’ll want to finish the scene as is first, but it would still work.
At this point she is quite strong enough compared to the main character that it wouldn’t be possible, but if you’d like me to add something more aggressive than pranking her, I can certainly do that.
Once you’ve met them all, I’d like to write it so that you can be as loving, antagonistic, or indifferent as you wish. We’re not there yet, but once we are, certainly let me know if it feels like it’s missing
Heh. I actually first wrote a “being born” scene followed by early memories, but I didn’t think it was likely to be engaging enough, and I thought the early memories had more substance, so I decided to wind those together and make them into the first scene that we have now.
Well, it’s not really specifically based on anything in particular, but the Roman Republic at a slightly later period (War of the Allies, Slave Revolts, Social Wars) is one part of history I’ll be looking at. Also the fall of basically every Chinese dynasty ever
I’m guessing you mean “character rise,” right? Yeah, something like that should eventually be possible.
It’s based around the Assembly of Families and the Assembly of Communities; the former has a representative per recognized family, the latter a representative per region (some of which are much bigger than others). They elect the seven main lords and ladies who preside over the government as a whole. In practice it’s dominated by the wealthiest of families, who generally end up with free rein over the poor. The region of Laghuna (basically the entire inland area), in particular, has little representation.
For more detail, there’s a bunch more if you click on the arrow near the end of this post Uprising against the Verdant Lords (small update 12/9) - #19 by TSSL
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I only have time to ask a couple of thing before work, so here it goes:
Regarding the “love/detachment” stat…How would an anti-social character (detached) that still shows love to those who approach them (love) be represented?
How would a character that thinks war is necessary and isn’t afraid of going to battle, but that does it to ensure long-term peace by getting rid of their enemies would fall in the “war/peace” spectrum?
How would a character that believes society needs an elite of leaders so they can provide better for the population in general be classified in the “populism/elitism” stat? What does it measure? (I’d speculate I don’t want to get too political).
Uh…“Purity/skepticism”…Are you really, really sure about that? Purity seems like an overly positive term, and I can see it causing some bias…Maybe try “Spirituality” or something…
Are monarchism and republicanism the only two political sides that can be supported? Can the MC abhor family-based politics (which both sides seem to be based on)? Can the MC go for a more meritocratic/militaristic/authoritarian route?
That’s it for now. Sorry if what I’m asking has been answered already. I’ll read the entire thread when I’m back 
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Where does the Mandate of Heaven like mechanics last rise and fall of dynasties it comes in?
Speaking of Avenue listen to a fantastic podcast on history of China who said I lease a working knowledge of Chinese history now.
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