Land of the Eleven Tribes

[LonewandererD]

Man vs Nature takes on a whole new problem in these lands as Nature has a means to fight back. When I first thought of this land I was initially inspired by Princess Mononoke (awesome movie) so the spirits and various god-like entities of the land are very real and powerful and so should be treated with respect and fear.

The humans here have to keep the spirits of the land calm or else it would mean war. That doesn't say that they don't engage in agriculture and industry, just not to the degree that other fantasy countries do. Basically they're allowed to cut down trees and dig up the earth but just not too much and if they do it is recommended that they make some sort of offering to whatever greater spirit reigns over that area, e.g. if they cut down a grove they should make and offering to the Watcher of the Woods else some tragedy befall the woodcutters.

Anyway, that's some of the backstory to these lands.

-D-

[Gandwarf]

Ah yes, then the farmland should work perfectly.

[LonewandererD]

Okay, the new name that substitutes for "The Land of the Eleven Tribes" is "Evelakaia" (Ever - lay - ki - a). The name is a recycling of the Everlandias. The people of Evelakaia are the Evelins, which the exception of the Ithekins who still call themselves the Ithekins.

Also, when I do future maps of the surrounding areas you'll note that all of the lands end in "Aia", such as Ithekaia and Belkadaia, which in the local tongues of these lands basically means land or earth. It's a mimicry of Gaia I know and I only acutally realised that after I established it.

-D-

[Steel General]

This will be interesting to watch develop. I like what I see so far, though I can't even find the farmlands .

[LonewandererD]

Yeah the farmland texture is being revised but for now heres an update

Added major marshes, 2 great chasms and some more smaller mountain groups. Also included is a very rough idea as to where the tribal boundaries are. I'm now going to go back and clean up the map, move the hills around a bit and maybe add some more rivers or mountains. I know the smaller mountain groups stand out a bit but once i've added the forests they shouldn't be as noticable.

-D-

[Steel General]

I see that theses are only 'rough' tribal borders, but I would have thought the rivers would play a bit more prominent role.

Also I think you need some foothills around the various mountain ranges.

[LonewandererD]

I'm moving most of my hills around the mountains, and free up more space for open grasslands, to make foothills but as the forest layer will go on top of these foothills it seems a bit of wastes to make anything significant as it'll just be covered up anyway.

The borders will be revised but they're aren't permanent in these lands becuase when the lesser lords and townships change allegiances between the tribes so too does ownership of the land so the borders are in a constant state of change. The Tribal lords don't think much of it as their main terriories sit really far in so as not to be affected by the fickle loyalites of the lesser lords. When a border dispute does arise it falls to the Judge's Caste to decide the outcome.

-D-

[LonewandererD]

Not really an update, just a practice run of how some of the forests will look on my map. I've also lightened up the rivers to try and blend it with the coastal water and I added a texture to the ocean to give it more depth.

A question for our environment gurus, this country lies a just above the northern tropics line, just a little bit south of where Japan is in our world, so would it receive snow in winter and if so would it be light (confined to the mountains) or heavy (across the land) snow? Also in which season would tropical storms be striking the coasts?

-D-

[Juggernaut1981]

***Sirens of the Geopolitical Police***

So basically what you're saying is that Lords bounce between tribal alliances frequently? Are these tribes or university politicians or teenage social groups?

You are seriously unlikely to have the kind of level of flux around you're suggesting. Stability is the norm for feudal systems, and even more so for tribal society (they tend to have internal ambition). The people who rise to the top do everything they can to secure their own powerbase (e.g. land, lords, goons, livestock and peasants... almost in that order). Any system that is in the kind of level of flux you are talking about will dissolve into internal conflicts quickly and rivals will just sweep them aside.

End result = Valley of One Kingdom controlled by a megalomaniac with a bigger army and tendency to execute those who change alliances. (Makes for a nice BBEG if you wanted).

Inter-tribal stability basically requires mutually recognised boundaries. The simplest mutually recognised boundaries that do NOT require full-time cartographers and surveyors (which seems out of place in a tribal society) are: forests, hills, valleys, rivers and lakes. So the boundaries of groups will tend to fall closely along those landforms.

If you are going to have a kind of "border skirmish" type scenario in the area (which I would advise against unless the campaign for PCs involves surviving in this society and maybe rising to the top)... then you should have "Core Tribal Lands" and "Disputed Territory". The young up-and-comers will gravitate to the Disputed Territories because there is a chance to gain land and prestige with the Political Heavies in the Core Tribal Lands. The good ones will hold some of the disputed territory, the poor ones will lose it fairly quickly.

[LonewandererD]

Okay, i need to explain, which is also another reason why i changed the named from "The Eleven Tribes" to the "Evelakaia".

In the modern time of this map the tribes don't really exist as the tribes anymore, they're closer to being great houses or city states. The real reason why the tribes exist today is because there are families that continue to claim tribal heritage, also there are certain traditions still practiced by certain tribes. Claiming direct tribal descendance is a way of claiming that your blood is better than that of other families, having "purer" blood is also a way of determining status amongst the nobility.

Now the land itself is divided up amongst the Jhul (nobility) and there are three levels of Jhul. At the top are the D'Jhul (high nobility), these nobles are the families that can claim the purest tribal blood and are second only in power to the reigning Jha'N (king or queen), they are technically all that remain of the original eleven tribes. Below them are the This'Jhul (sworn noblility); these are the families who can claim direct descendence from a particular tribe but aren't as pure as the D'Jhul, there is some mixed blood here. Finally at the bottom are the Jhal'a whose blood is the least pure and therefore have the less power. To roughly translate, the D'Jhul are the equivelant of Dukes and Duchesses, the This'Jhul are Marquis and Marquesses and the Jhul'a are Barons and Baronesses. All these groups still use the informal title of Jhul'N (noble person).

Now the land is divided as so. The traditional lands of tribe, also the best lands, are given to the D'Jhul. The next best land are assigned to the This'Jhul by the D'Jhul but in all actuality the lands really belong to the D'Jhul. With the combined lands of the D'Jhul and the This'Jhul the eleven tribes each have their own established lands and power bases. Still the borders are blurred because the borderlands between the tribes as well as farflung townships and frontier territories are given over to the Jhul'a. These lands aren't considered to be of enough worth to fuss over and so it's left up to the Jhul'a to determine where their loyalties lie. As a tribe's political power waxes and wanes the Jhul'a will change their loyalties accordingly though they have to be careful about it for if a Jhul'a where to suddenly support the Khadon but they're surrounded by the Lobradis and Belphradunn then they're going to have a hard life. Now as the Jhul'a can't claim power through blood they can only claim power by trying to impress their superiors or claiming land from other Jhul'as; this leads to minor skirmishes and scheming amongst the Jhul'a but these are heavily monitored by the judges. The Judge caste are the ones who maintain order and peace through the land, like the Inqusition in Warhammer 40K its their sacred duty to uphold the law and keep the peace and they have the power to requisition the services of anybody except the fifthteen Council Members to do so.

I hope this clears things up.

-D-