Guns Of Icarus Online
Main => World => Topic started by: Gato Blanco on May 14, 2013, 12:22:53 am
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What we know
-Desert dwellers
-Government is "Largely independent and heterogeneous city states"
-Scavengers
-Culturally derrived from western Europe
-At war with the Guild
-Colours are rust and white
-Symbol is the vulture
So they’re at war with the Guild. It makes sense, looking at the map, it has the most direct routes between 2 nations (2), neither of which has a large impassable body of water in between. In fact, Caldos and Hikagebashi are on opposite sides of a tiny lake (Devs, is there any way we can download a bigger map of the world?)
One of my big questions is “Why?” Why do the southwestern cities still live in the desert, if it’s so hard? They have airships, they can move about. Why are the other independent towns not a part of the league, which is made up of independent towns? Strength in numbers, right? They’re a desert scavenger society that doesn’t seem to have an edge technology- or infrastructure-wise. I can see the eastern settlements near water being lively places.
Culturally based on western Europe, so I’m thinking, where able, they would try to build stone buildings with tiled roofs, things that can last for ages (In North America, 100 years is a long time, in Europe, 100km is a long distance).
I’m no expert on European geography, but I don’t believe that there are any deserts in western Europe, so how they would adapt would be interesting to see. Many European countries are by the ocean (Germany, France, Spain, Greece, Italy, etc...) so the cities there could have different buildings based on different cities in different countries, like Nice, Barcelona, even Venice.
Political interactions- the League could have many languages, and for average citizens to speak several languages would be the norm. For example, 2-3 League languages and 1-2 non league languages, on top of “Common”, if there is a universal language.
-The Guild-Hates the guild for being expansionists. Member states near the water are at the most risk of being taken by the guild, the others are at less of a risk due to lack of resources.
-The Empire- Don’t really like the Empire, since they want to convert them, and they don’t understand their way of doing things. They are, however, their best trading partner, buying up a lot of what they scavenge.
-The Republic-Very good, though they’re rather far away, they would need to cross through Empire territory to trade with them. The Republic doesn’t always want what the League has to sell, since they can plunder locally, but often when an Arashi ship bearing raw materials comes along, they will usually buy it. They rarely raid the Arashi league due to the distance needed to raid Arashi territory, and almost never take Arashi thralls (Lord Dick, explain the other reason xD). Anglean craftsmanship is highly valued by the Arashi, due to its quality and durability, though some adjustments are made for dealing with hot, dry or moist, salty environments. Therefore, it is not uncommon for Angleans to make the trip to the League, knowing that they will be sure to sell out whatever they have
-The Baronies-Good. I can see them often hiring the Arashi as mercenaries for their desert campaigns; the League is too far away from the Baronies to be worried about an invasion. They both readily trade by sea, and some lords in the Baronies have winter homes in some of the port cities of the League
-The Order-Good. Though they rarely have use for the products of Chaladonian science, the Order’s universities and research bodies are keen on picking up any and all ancient technology that the desert hides, as well as buying rare ingredients found only in the desert.
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I was thinking it's something along the lines of the Yaqui tribes that used to live in northern Mexico and southern Arizona. They enjoyed the desert, it was a natural barrier against enemies and it was very easy for them to survive because they knew the desert. Maybe even a religious mythos could spring up about the gods giving them a homeleand that tests their worthiness.
I really see these guys as highly motivated to keep their homeland safe and their culture intact. Something about the rough living of desert cultures, it builds hard stubborn people. I really do see them as hunters by necessity and having all the skills required to make an animal kill useful all the way down to guts for string.
Also concerning the relationship between Arashi and Anglea, perhaps skilled engineers from Arashi sometimes decide to trek to Anglea to learn more or perhaps just volunteer to join their engineering corps to get away from the heat?
Also Desert dwellers at constant war with a superior enemy, they would probably be very wary of any outsiders.
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The Arashi joke,
Why do Arashi always sell for more at market?
Because of how much it costs to clean them.
I hadn't even considered the language barriers, that along would make almost every city almost a nation onto itself with vastly different cultural norms.
Maybe my love for Esperanto, as it was more in use around ww1, would still be alive a a trade language between the tribes. Will give it that ultra RP angle shared by some in the EvE community who had adapted swahili as the minmatar language.
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xD love your jokes Tim.
I came up with this for the Mercantile post, that they would export tobacco or opium, shisha even (Thought that may be more the Order's cup of tea (oh god, bad joke....I'll just see myself out)). Though they may not have the most fertile of land, it may be an alternative to growing their own food, by producing a high value comodity that can be transported well (as in, not get damaged from moving it), something that sells on the grey or black market of Yesha or the black market of the Guild.
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Ooo, the league could potentially be a big trader and illicit goods across the world, another thing I hadn't considered.
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Surprised no one has ever pointed out that the word Arashi means storm in Japanese. When I saw the name I would have never labeled them as former Europeans. The name is just too synonymous with Japan. I kinda hope they eventually add a backstory there as to why a European group has that name.
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Yeah, there's a famous Japanese pop group called Arashi, so I was amused when I first saw Arashi League on the map :D
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The Mercantile Guild named the desert, but the Arashi were stuck living in it.
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That indicates that the Guild might have been there first (souteastern settlements at least), and that the League were the agressors, gaining a small amount of territory. The other nations (Yesha and Chaladon in particular) might not have gotten involved during the Arashi annexation. They might have openly justified this as giving the Arashi people a better chance of survival in the hars environment, giving them some territory near water, whereas their true intentions for non-action might have been to weaken the League.
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But wouldn't they change that name if they hate the guild so much?
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They don't hate the Guild that much. Arashi and the Guild are involved in a few, relatively recent skirmishes, but they're not sworn enemies. I know our update might have given that impression, but it was one incident, almost a historical footnote, that happened to get mentioned and featured prominently. Relations may certainly continue to devolve in the future, but they don't have a ton of history of bad blood yet.
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Also, just repeating it here to clear up the misconception: the Guild and the League are not behind the Nalm—Sylka war in Battle on the Dunes, Eric misspoke in the video. That fight is between two independent towns. The main conflict between the Guild and the League at this point is the little Caidos—Hikagebashi dustup, which I might tell you about someday. :)
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I kinda figured the sunshine bridge would be the conflict point. Its why I centered my speculative second opening for Desert Asp at that point.
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Awesome. Thanks for clearing that up.
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I kinda figured the sunshine bridge would be the conflict point. Its why I centered my speculative second opening for Desert Asp at that point.
Tim, I've just had an interesting conversation with Gomidog, our resident Japanese translator. I was translating Hikagebashi as "Shadow Bridge," so I was surprised to hear you referring to it as "Sunshine Bridge." She clarified that it's more literally "Sun-Shadow Bridge," as in "shade from the sun," so there's definitely a bit of dark/light duality there. Veeery interesting.
This also led to the possible alternative translation "Shady Bridge," which we agreed sounds like a retirement home for old airship captains.
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Airship captains get killed three days before retirement. Always. xD
All this talk of duality brought this quesiton to mind (Duno how....): About 1/3 of the cities are by the sea, 1/3 are by an inland body of water, and 1/3 of the cities are not located near any large bodies of water. Does this cause a schism between the cities in different biomes?
Furthermore, the capital, Alleron, seems to be located outside the boudaries of the League in this map
https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/000/458/573/edfac92683c239d47a3115f047f8e325_large.jpg?1363806197
Furthermore, its also quite isolated from the majority of league lands, atypical of a capital city
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That map is a lie. We probably shouldn't have published it. But oh well!
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UR MAPS LIE!
Furthermore, I noticed I said "Furthermore" twice in a row, it was late, I was tired.
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I kinda figured the sunshine bridge would be the conflict point. Its why I centered my speculative second opening for Desert Asp at that point.
Tim, I've just had an interesting conversation with Gomidog, our resident Japanese translator. I was translating Hikagebashi as "Shadow Bridge," so I was surprised to hear you referring to it as "Sunshine Bridge." She clarified that it's more literally "Sun-Shadow Bridge," as in "shade from the sun," so there's definitely a bit of dark/light duality there. Veeery interesting.
This also led to the possible alternative translation "Shady Bridge," which we agreed sounds like a retirement home for old airship captains.
My wife said it was most likely "Shaded from the sun bridge" as a direct translation and I ignored her and said "Sunshine bridge is plainly what she did not intend, so thats what I'm calling it."
Japanese is FUN! It also plays into how Japan came out of Nipon, just bad, bad localization.
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So I loved the recent Arashi league post by muse, really opens the Arashi to have tons of different small cultures and traditions living beside one another.
What do people think some of the larger cultural groups might be?
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Gonna have to be nautical cultures. Places like Nice and Venice, places near the water would have to worry less about survival and set their minds to things like art and abstract development.
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The League are by far the most appealing to me, in my mind at least i want to play as part of an elite assassin sub culture with the squid as my deadliest weapon using the tools and terrain to strike fear in to the guild convoys to scavenge for the supply's my family and friends need,
imagine the setting you roll out on the setting of dusk, Your crew is prepped and fully prepared to come back with the spoils of a raid or not at all, you are part of a team of 16 4 squids 4 people per squid,the sand parts as you fire up the engines and balloon's and slowly ascend into the the newly dark skies.You have 4 directions to scavenge your domain of the desert, what will you find, Ancient Ruins of the lost world..a fresh convoy ripe for the picking, to survive in this desert the rules go by the wastes in which you live and primal base instinct takes over, You need quick reactions sharp eyes and killer instinct, to have all these qualities is to be part of the deadly side of the league, the Arashi assassins
so excited for adventure mode
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Love that view of the Arashi from a new perspective! Our reasons are the same for choosing them, there just appears to be a great diversity born out of need and struggle.
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I can imagine there are going to be a lot of reasons to join any faction. Muse is painting such a rich world for us to explore and I can't wait to wander the canvas once they're ready to showcase it to us. I'm sure that every different faction will have a lot of great qualities drawing people to it.
I don't know how I'm going to decide which to affiliate with!
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tribes will wed themselves to eachother or raid eachother for more influence and to secure their power.
Im thinking a lot of old mamaluk kinda way of living and ruling tribes, through culture and a monotheistic religion.
people outside the tribes are kinda like barbary pirates. they plunder everything they can, making the desert a very dangerous place to travel through, as the mamaluk territory is suicide, and the wastes you have to fend against the barbary kinda raiders.
Im also thinking since their current map position has a lot of cities for a nation built around desert culture and yea desert. The arashi people send their young men to serve in the arashi military for 2-4 years. this gives the young men the right to become part of their tribe afterwards and the right to marriage.
This military serves only as protection for their cities, as their borders are often run over by outside influence, they put their faith into the dunes to scare away enemies before they reach their cities.
The arashi way of living is highly cultural and the village elders or the village leader can banish members of his tribe if they do not follow the same cultural way of life. This banishment can be a few years or life. These outcasts often join barbary pirates, or fly out into the world to get away from the indoctrinated village.
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Since when was Arashi european. I always thought that Arashi was inspired by the Middle East.
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Since when was Arashi european. I always thought that Arashi was inspired by the Middle East.
kickstarter bi-weekly update video 1.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSd0Ah4CgDg&feature=youtu.be&t=3m51s
although its true the viking bit of the anglean republic was later clarified
I knew this would happen if I said Vikings...why'd I have to say Vikings? It's a pretty handy parallel for describing their political and economic situation, but not their aesthetics. They're really not barbarians, they're pretty damn organized and "civilized" (they just don't like you much!). Just try to get all those bearded Norsemen and dragon longboats out of your head, they're only confusing everyone. :)
so things could change i suppose but i do not think the western european is a shorthand for some other aspect of their culture.
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Since when was Arashi european. I always thought that Arashi was inspired by the Middle East.
As Jaeger posted, a video mentions it.
Also, if you look at the map (http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140314035859/gunsoficarusonline/images/2/27/Guns_of_Icarus_Map.jpg), Arashi towns are named in mostly Western European languages.
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After watching the adventure mode focused dev chat today I have to say I really like the way the Arashi ships look - especially the Bonefish which basically is somewhat like a giant monstrous goldfish. It'd be nice if we could get some nice clear pictures of the Arashi ships that aren't from a video!
It has me very excited about what the other factions look like.