Release Things
- Roa Dyr interior claims have been sent off for detailing.
- The merger of all section files will happen when the dialogue claims, the Tur Julan and Roa Dyr interiors have been merged.
A Dres Roundup
On the Dres political setup:
The Satchem-Ithil and their migratory council travel around from clanstead to clanstead, holding judgement and dispensing diplomacy. They generally take care of dealings with non-Dres and with joint ventures of the Dres like the tradeposts of Dres Horak and Tear and the slave hunters, with advice from the Matriarchs.
The clansteads are organised in councils composed mostly of elders, strong warriors and successful herdsmen, with an elected Suzerain heading them and a Matriarch offering advice. The Matriarch’s residence serves as council hall. The Matriarchs are often represented by their primary assistant, who takes the position upon their death. Both Matriarch and assistants are only seen behind screens or veils.
The clanstead councils send representatives to the migratory council.
As previously noted, the immortal Matriarchs are not succeeded by their assistants. Their advice is basically taken as law and they select or veto the representatives for both the clanstead and the migratory councils.The true power of the Matriarchs is unknown outside of the clanstead councils and select members of the migratory council.
On earliest Dres history:
The Cantemiric Velothi moved into the Deshaan forests and deforested them to make the land tillable, thereby creating desertification. They moved ever furth south until they settled in the valley that’s now the Arnesian Jungle. When the valley was flooded, they moved back north and joined Dres society.
The Dres proper were formed from clans that settled the salinated lands the Cantemiric Velothi had created through their ecological disaster. These became known as Saltwalkers, and ended up merging with the Cantemiric Velothi. Their identity as Dres was only really established with the founding of the house.
Dialogue claims
Critical for the next release are the dialogue claims.
- Roa Dyr: Gnomey has been gathering information and organising things.
- Khalaan: Slepana has been writing dialogue and needs feedback.
- Indal-ruhn: Pending review, please check and feed back feedback.
- Aimrah: Pending review, please check and feed back feedback.
- Thirr plantations: Jani is working on them.
2016-01-19 19:35
1 month 3 weeks ago
I have some quibbles to make--
While I like the idea of climate change being part of the formation of the Deshaan plains, I feel there's some bad science going on there. What is the timescale of this long collapse? For a real life timescale, refer to the Fertile Crescent, for instance, which was first farmed around 7,000 BC, or 9000 years ago, and today's desertification seems to both fairly recent and based mostly on the construction of too many dams and droughts and climate change from modern industrialization. Irrigation and deforestation can also lead to salination, yes, but that's in an already dry climate with a low water-table, which it would arguably not be if the place was a forest, and when it's next-door neighbors of Mournhold and Black Marsh are decidedly not arid or dry-soiled.
So, where did all the salt and toxic waste in Deshaan specifically come from? And why is the salt purported to be magical? Unless the Dres were using magic or some heavy duty fertilizers/pesticides/re-routing of rivers (and even then), normal farming shouldn't do this? So what else happened to speed up or add to the desertification?
Ideas to consider:
*Red Mountain eruption. If it can add a sea around Vvardnfell, perhaps it can drain a sea somewhere else (or at least lower the water table/raise the land). Dres being connected with Sload may make even more sense if this place used to be coastal or under water.
*A side-effect of the Sload farming tech specifically. (Though this bears the question of why it hasn't effected the surrounding areas environmentally.)
*Some other Dres deal lost to time--such as a Daedric deal gone awry (or right, depending on your point of view)
*Similar to above, perhaps an ancient battle with the Hist, and when the Hist died, the magic or whatever that was keeping the area a salt-marsh fell apart.
*Same as above, just Argonian water-witch tribes (or something) instead of Hist.
*Shift of weather patterns from the eruption(s) of Red Mountain, leading to wide-spread droughts.
*Some BS metaphysical explanation to do with water = memory and Argonian exploitation leading to climatic trauma.
*EDIT: ADDED: Something to do with Skyrender popuation booming. Perhaps the salt or toxicity is a byproduct of their dung or hive-building material.