buidling a town

[RodOfCorrection]

I really want to know if anyone wants to make a town or a big farm community in the PSW.  I know the RP would probably be divided into many smaller stories and it would involve a host of characters, but I want to see if it's possible. 

 

I also understand that it might run into a few planning problems with real storyline rps, or this subject might have already been covered and decided against.

 

Either way, I'd like for it to be considered.  I know my character couldn't get started on it right away, and I doubt anyone else could.  Like I said, it would take time and planning.  The place would obviously have to have a well planned history that we would have to perform.

 

So what do you guys think?

[Quibby]

It was several years ago, but the Freelanders did once have a town, so to say.  I can't remember if it was based in an existing city (part of me wants to say it was based in Lugard), or if it was a new, separate town unto itself.  The town fizzled out of existence because the Freelanders tend to be all over the place.

 

Note that this is not a "no, this is a bad idea."  This is just a guy who has spent waaaaaaaaaaaay too long at DM remembering the good ol' days.  It might be that this is an idea whose time has come.

[Mystica]

there was an idea of creating a sort of gathering place for the Freelanders as a kind of 'home base' thing during Raeyn's time as DL but it never did get implemented. From what I gather the location was to be somewhere on a cross between Altara, Murandy and Ghealdan, so Lugard sounds about right into that plan. Q also liked the idea but never got around to working it out either.

 

The thing is, this would only work for 'free roaming Freelander' groups (freebooters, Kin, tinkers). Sea folk, Aiel, Seanchan obviously wouldn't be able to join this and then there's those that would be stationed in other areas like 'the Andoran Innkeeper' or the 'Tairen Lord' or such more.

 

From what I understand the plan was is that the location would be a place people could fall back on for RP's between different characters from Freelanders rather than an actual town or farm.

 

This would be different for the Kin and their 'Farm' of course.

 

What exactly did you have in mind for your idea of a town/farm Rod?

[RodOfCorrection]

I was thinking along the lines of a place that could be a hub for the freebooters or anyone else who wanted to use it.  It wouldn't be a very big town, maybe as big as the Two Rivers was in EotW with NPC's. 

[Mystica]

*nods* let me gather up the info I've been given by Raeyn on this matter and we'll see how we can work something out :)

[Eqwina]

Hmmm...this could be an interesting idea. I too seem to remember it being tried before and as I remember it does require good organization.  ;D

[Mystica]

I've just been given some info from the first thinker-upper of this idea. Basically it was to create a fictional town for the Freelanders to call their own. Somewhere that had a port or a river, to allow for a location for the Seanchan and Sea Folk too.

 

Now, I still need to gather a LOT of information before this can be put into action, but any brainstorming ideas on this are welcome. I can't promise your ideas will be used or used un-altered, but they will be taken into account.

 

We do want to stay as true as possible to the wot reality and it's possibilities though, so this won't be an easy set-up. But I have access to all those marvelous brains that have been pondering on this before, so combined with you all I'm sure we can come up with something workable.

[Serey]

I don't have a Freebooter character, but I like this idea.  Anyways my two cents:

 

-Division:  I think it would be interesting if, in the history of the town, there are two families that have a long history of battling over X.  The X could be land, or maybe even who has the right to rule the town (this noble or that one...), or maybe something else (though I kinda like the power idea...)  By somehow dividing the townsfolk into Us, Them, and Everyone else- you set up the opportunity to have characters who have never met (one aligned with family A, the other B) but have the ability to pre-judge each other (which is always fun).  Best of all it gives everyone the chance to play some Daes Dae'mar whether they belong to family A, B, or some outside faction.  The family in power, trying to stay in power.  The family not in power trying to get it back.

 

And that's all I have...

[Mystica]

Intriguing idea that, Serey! thanks for the idea :)

[Quibby]

That is intriguing.  Especially since it means that my mercenary character will finally have the option of being hired by somebody for awhile!

[Jehaine]

Aside from Mara for room, board and free transportation, you mean? :D

[Mystica]

from what I understand, the Seanchan have arrived and set up shop in Tarabon's port town, Tanchico.

 

It's still a nightmare trying to find a suitable location that would allow all our groups within close proximity. Especially consider the Ogier need to be in a Stedding and our channelers can't just roam about in Seanchan occupied places without realistically being in danger of being captured and leashed.

 

In the north east of Tarabon, there's a nice location in between two riverbeds, overlapsing ground in Tarabon and ground to the south east of almoth plain. However, that poses a problem for the Sea Folk, who can only get there by the river which starts in Tanchico, where the entire force of the Seanchan are settled in.

 

There is a nice space abover Tear, called Haddon Mirk with rich grounds and a passway into the Aiel Waste, but that puts the groups quite some distance away form the Seanchan.

 

Another option that I can see is to the east of the Mountains of Mist, in Ghealdan, somewhere around the city of Jehannah but if the Seanchan ever move to take Altara (as they have in the books), that would also cut off the Sea Folks ships to there.

 

So yeah, no matter where I look, there seems to be a problem everywhere. On every coast there only seems to one-point rivers with little to no sidetrackings to them. Each river is fed from one point only at the coast, from what I can see, making any location a possible blocking point for the Sea Folk.

 

 

Anyone have any suggestions? 

[RodOfCorrection]

I was mainly thinking of just a small community that freebooters could pass through or rest up at, nothing huge enough to be a big stop for aiel or sea folk, and hopefully out of the figurative crosshairs of the seanchan.

[Visar Falmaien]

Suggestion:

Well if we're not bothered about excluding involvement by the Seanchan (at least for now...they might reach this point later), what about a town along the banks of the Manetherendrelle, between Whitebridge and Illian somewhere?  Could be either in southern Andor, Murandy, Illian, or perhaps somewhere in between where those rulers don't have direct rule (Well, there is no one big honcho of Murandy as far as I understand right?  The king there, if there is a king, doesn't have much power compared to the different lords and their local territories and estates).

 

I'm thinking somewhere in Murandy would be cool, maybe within a week's ride or so of Lugard or something like that (or however long it would take the distance to travel by land from the Four Kings to Caemlyn, roughly, looks about the same distance from the Manetherendrelle to Lugard, maybe a bit/a day longer in the latter case; how long did it take Rand and Mat to get to Caemlyn from Four Kings in the books?).  So, access to trade from Andor to the north and Illian from the South, there's a road that forks west of the River, one road going to Jehannah in Ghealdan, and the other down southwest to Ebou Dar.  Maybe the river there is wide/deep enough for the Sea Folk to get a ship upriver from the port of Illian if they so choose to do so.  Would be quite appropriate for Freelanders if the town is sort of in the middle and not directly ruled by any one nation, as a lot of places in Randland not near the capitals seem to be.

 

What does everyone think?  Just a suggestion for a location, that's all; no clue what to call the place.  Maybe something in the name relating to the river (Manetherendrelle) and the road fork from Lugard to Ebou Dar/Jehannah, I would imagine that crossroads would be important.

 

As for characters, I might be interested in rolling a bard (working for one of the local lords/mayors) or a gleeman that likes to stay around the town.

[Mystica]

I understood that, Rod :) I'm just considering all suggestions in combination of ideas from the past by the previous Dl's and their teams on this.

 

 

Here is the map with some of the already existing RP locations from other divisions marked on it.

 

Stedding Madan = place used by the PSW Ogier

Farm = Black Tower

Wolfkin stedding = where the wolfies roam

 

 

for bigger view, click link: http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/7319/mapn.gif

 

Visar's suggestion has a number of possibilities from what I can see. We can come up with a name later, though, that's not really important right now :)

 

 

One thing I need to find information on is that there seems to be a Manetheren already here at DM. Something to do with the Band and the Wolfkin if I'm not mistaken.

 

 

note: keep in mind this is only a brainstorming session, we're not deciding anything just yet. But these inputs are really usefull in finding what would or would not work. At this point, I'm considering every suggestion given to that goal. We'll be cutting and molding later when we have a better view on what we want to end up with.

[Sieve]

I really really like this idea!  ;)

[Mystica]

glad to hear it, handsome ;)

[Sieve]

glad to hear it, handsome ;)

 

Handsome!  I look like a troll that fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down! Ask Eqwina...

[Mystica]

well I look like the female version of the michelin dude, but this is the internet. I can be a knock-out here and I can call handsome who I want. My delusional self requires it's daily fix.

[Sieve]

well I look like the female version of the michelin dude, but this is the internet. I can be a knock-out here and I can call handsome who I want. My delusional self requires it's daily fix.

OK, if you say so!  ;)

[Mystica]

;)

[Taymist]

Yes, we have a Manetheren. It's run jointly by a Council comprised of the BT/Band/WK and the country is headed up by a Queen, Adine, who is an Aes Sedai.

 

The final maximum limits of the area taken by Manetheren look like this (they're not set in stone yet):

 

 

You can see the WK Stedding on the map Myst posted and the Band's Citadel is situated just outside Emonds Field.

 

Sea Folk rakers wouldn't be likely to go upriver. They're ocean/sea going vessels and given the Sea Folk love of wandering around half naked, I'd be surprised if they did any river trading. I haven't seen any reference to it in the Books.

 

Having said that, it doesn't matter much who's in charge of what areas. Towns exist all over the place. You don't have to literally build one from scratch. Pick a location, pretend there's an existing village there, give it a name and expand it over time.

 

I plan to make a Kin member and she could be based there. That would give a legitimate reason for making it a base of operation. Freelanders are the kind of people likely to need a place to hide, hole up, conduct disreputable dealings  ;) , be healed etc. If it's a place conveniently located near sea and other trading routes, it's conceivable that many FL members would have discovered a Kin woman already and the place just naturally becomes used by them. Big plans like this are best kept simple and that's more plausible than that everyone from all these groups suddenly got together and decided to build a town.

 

Hope that made sense, it's early.

 

*trundles off to make tea*

 

 

[Mystica]

eh, no, sorry sis but you're confusing me again.

 

First of all, the Band's citadel is not marked on the map that I posted. Only the Ogier stedding, the Wolfkin stedding and the Black Tower Farm are marked on it.

 

Second, I'm confused why you think your (or anyone's) Kin character would be the center around which to build a town/city (as it looks like from how you're describing it) and what location exactly you are referring to when you say 'she could be based there'. 

 

As for Sea Folk, there is a reference in the books to them trading up river prior to book 12 where they make a deal with Elayne concerning a piece of land in Andor near it's riverbanks. So maybe they will use smaller boats for that, but looks like it to me that they do river trade so long as there's a conduit to the Sea.

 

This Manetheren queen that is Aes Sedai, which division does she belong to? I assume White Tower, since she's Aes Sedai, but Queens normally are part of the FL division, so how does that work? Who plays her?

 

so yeah, confused and I can't really make out those drawing maps of Manetheren all that well. Do you have bigger copies?

[Taymist]

First of all, the Band's citadel is not marked on the map that I posted. Only the Ogier stedding, the Wolfkin stedding and the Black Tower Farm are marked on it.

 

I didn't say the Citadel was marked on the map, I said the Stedding was and then informed everyone where the Citadel is since it's not there  :P lol.

 

Second, I'm confused why you think your (or anyone's) Kin character would be the center around which to build a town/city (as it looks like from how you're describing it) and what location exactly you are referring to when you say 'she could be based there'.

 

It doesn't have to be mine (or anyone's) Kin character, that was merely a suggestion/example. Basically, communities build up in specific areas for a reason. The FLers are spread out all over the place so for them to have a "base of operations" as is being described here, it would take a universal reason. Trade isn't universal for all FL characters (although it's certainly a major contributory factor) ... but there's not a single person who wouldn't need a "healer" at some stage... hence why most villages and towns have one or more Wise Women, Wisdoms, Kin etc etc. I'm thinking in terms of the books... every time Nyn & co. go anywhere, they know how to find a healer. It's conceivable that many FL characters could be aware of someone like that, especially in an out of the way area where monarchs/guards etc won't disturb them, and it would draw people to the area which would then expand over time. A person like that would also tend to be a local authority, knowing everyone in the area and their business, an ideal contact for people like the FLers. I'm not saying she'd be the only reason... but she could be the factor that starts the movement to expand the place. Oh yeah and when I said based there, I meant exactly that... she could live in the village/town already (I'm basing that on Lara's set up for the Kin rather than the books). As I say, just an idea... feel free to ignore it. 

 

As for Sea Folk, there is a reference in the books to them trading up river prior to book 12 where they make a deal with Elayne concerning a piece of land in Andor near it's riverbanks. So maybe they will use smaller boats for that, but looks like it to me that they do river trade so long as there's a conduit to the Sea.

 

Ok stand corrected on that, only up to Book 4 on my re-read and been no mention of river trade yet. My mistake.

 

This Manetheren queen that is Aes Sedai, which division does she belong to? I assume White Tower, since she's Aes Sedai, but Queens normally are part of the FL division, so how does that work? Who plays her?

 

Adine al'Thoram Torfinn, a former Battle Sister, Bonded to Daishell Hirn was crowned Queen in mid 999 NE... she was played by Kaylan and then Muirenn as a WT character because she was a Sister. A replacement was never found to play her when they had less time to do so and the RP died out.

 

Having now been crowned, when the RP continues, she will be a FL character as she's no longer primarily a Sister. She'll be played as an NSW not a PC. Nobody has been selected to play her at the moment as the RP has not restarted just yet. Though I think Muir may have offered.

 

so yeah, confused and I can't really make out those drawing maps of Manetheren all that well. Do you have bigger copies?

 

No, afraid not.

 

 

[Mystica]

thanks for the clarifications sis :)

 

*zaps*