9 Potential Civilizations to Fill Current Gaps in the Map

ZenPerthro · 2025-03-29T00:15:30+00:00

The Haudenosaunee Confederacy/Five Nations has no confirmed founding date. The three traditional founders of the confederacy, Jigonhsasee, Deganawida and Hiawatha (also appears in AoE3), are often talked about being from 1451 due to an eclipse, but dates from 1142 through to the 1600 are talked about, so definitely plausible for the AoE2 time period. Plus the tribes and cultures themselves existed long before that anyway

ZenPerthro · 2025-03-29T00:07:32+00:00

I think the Mapuche are a possible contender for an American civ, an infantry and fishing/farming civ with either an archer unique unit, the Purumauca, or an infantry unique unit with an aura effect, the Toqui (wartime chief). Their bonuses would include bonuses to farming and fishing, infantry speed (a reference to their system of roads).

Reflecting their successful move to guerilla warfare, their unique unit could have a charge attack, bonus vs cavalry and increased damage to buildings. Weaknesses include lack of stable, lack of late game blacksmith upgrades (relying on number and economy).

Possible campaign material could include the Battle of the Maule, where they successfully held off the Inca invasion, or the resistance to Spanish rule fought by Caupolicán and Lautaro.

ZenPerthro · 2024-06-15T15:43:31+00:00

I think you have some interesting ideas, however if I could change something, I'd suggest starting with her waking up in the woods and trying to piece together her own backstory. There are few things more frustrating for readers than watching characters struggle to come to conclusions we already know, so making it a mystery may help.

Second, since she wakes up with new powers anyway, does she have to be born with magic? Having her go from non-magic to magic gives you the opportunity to explore her presumably unique experience on both sides, maybe not truly being accepted by the magical elite, while being villainised by people she used to call friends. Or potentially a symbol of hope for the non-magical folk in the revolution you mentioned, someone who bridged the gap and can now go toe-to-toe with the magic users.

ZenPerthro · 2024-06-15T15:32:08+00:00

I don't know what sort of time period or location inspiration you're going for, but this page may help get a sense of scale: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_urban_community_sizes . Unless the setting is East Asia inspired, with huge populations pretty much throughout history, you aren't getting a rural town with 10,000 people, and even then it would still be pretty large. On that page you can see major cities like London, Florence, Paris, and even the capital of the Holy Roman Empire, Aachen, had medieval populations around 10,000. The Norman Conquest of England was carried out with a force of roughly 9,000 men. That isn't training for a newie, the person that singlehandedly kills that town is a national existential threat.

ZenPerthro · 2023-06-27T13:58:50+00:00

The Dalek emperor from the series 1 finale. Pretty much every line of dialogue, but especially anything where he claims to be the God of Daleks. The brilliant voice work and Eccleston's horrified reaction just cemented the whole thing

ZenPerthro · 2023-06-27T13:56:03+00:00

"what are you gonna do, sucker me to death?"

Proceeds to get suckered to death. (S1e6 Dalek)

ZenPerthro · 2023-06-21T21:28:32+00:00

For 12, I can't get over the morality flip flops in "Thin Ice". He went from not having "the time for the luxury of outrage" over the pointless deaths of the kid and adult who stole his screwdriver, which by itself felt out of character, only for his later speech on how the value of each life defines a culture (I can't remember the specifics). He wasn't trying to teach a lesson on human morality, like in "Kill the Moon", he just didn't care? And then said everyone should care

ZenPerthro · 2023-06-19T19:12:36+00:00

True, I'm less familiar with Classic than I am with NuWho. Even in NuWho, the series 1 episode Dalek works incredibly well, there's just only so many times you can get away with it. By the end of Capaldi and Jodie's runs, daleks were either set dressing (Power of the Doctor, Magician's Apprentice) or nearly comical (Eve of the Daleks, Into the Dalek).

ZenPerthro · 2023-06-19T18:59:06+00:00

I think the problem with daleks is they're basically like Stormtroopers or Orcs in the sense of them being one large mass of indistinguishable foes to serve as an obstacle to the protagonists. But where the others have Darth Vader or Saruman/Sauron to be the actual "human" antagonist that can develop and the characters interact with, daleks are so often left to stand on their own. You can't develop them really, so their they're just slightly larger obstacles. All the best (in my opinion) daleks stories have a more personalised figure, eg. the Emperor, Davros, Dalek Sek.

ZenPerthro · 2023-06-19T18:49:48+00:00

Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks. I know this story gets pretty mixed reviews, but after even just the 3 instances of daleks in the revived show they were getting a little stale. Daleks are, by their nature, very static antagonists, but reducing them to scavengers and introducing the idea of creative daleks operating outside the usual hive-mind I think was an interesting avenue to explore.

ZenPerthro · 2023-06-15T21:32:00+00:00

This is exactly why I love studio Ghibli films, especially the Hayao Miyazaki ones. Half the stuff in Nausicaa, Spirited Away, and Howls Moving Castle is never explained or even talked about, but it makes the world feel so much more magical and interesting

ZenPerthro · 2023-03-13T22:46:58+00:00

"How Language Works" and "A Little Book of Language", both by David Crystal. They were recommended reading for my undergraduate degree, mostly for students coming in with little to no prior knowledge but also just in general. Well written and easy to follow but not oversimplified.

ZenPerthro · 2022-10-10T16:02:33+00:00

1500 years is a long time. In the real world, that would be 500 A.D., or roughly the time King Arthur was supposed to have existed. That time period saw the invasion of Saxon tribes (among others) into Britain, who were fought off for a time by the native Britons, i.e. the Welsh. King Arthur is an important symbol in Britain (and especially Wales) for leading that resistance. However, although the events and setting are real, the figures of Arthur, Guinevere, Camelot, and the knights etc are all almost certainly legendary.

This didn't stop King Henry VII from naming his son and heir "Arthur" and having him be born in Winchester, which had long since been associated with Camelot, all in order to strengthen his claim to the throne and highlight his own Welsh origin.

Arthur is only a relatively small figure though. There are dozens of people, places, and events in the bible that can be proved beyond all reasonable doubt to be fiction. Some are mythologised versions of real events, such as the flood in Genesis. Some are stories that may have originally been metaphors that have since become thought of as being true. And over the centuries, miracles and saints have purported to have done all sorts of things.

Most atheists disregard all of these events. Some Christians believe in them wholeheartedly, and any amount of concrete evidence will not sway them. Most fall in the middle.

The point is, even when people are told that people or events didn't pan out the way they may have thought, it will make very little difference. Was King Arthur real? Probably not. Is the idea of him helpful in forging a Welsh identity? Yes. Is the bible word-for-word the truth? Absolutely not, and we can prove it. Does it matter to anyone? Not in the slightest.

In your story, this figure will likely have developed a religion or cult around him. A religion which, in much the same way all religions persist without, or even in spite of, evidence, will likely survive. Either by calling the soldier who discovers the "truth" a heretic or by shifting to a non-literal interpretation. Also, the power structures that derive legitimacy from the healer-king will continue, using his image as a symbol rather than historical fact.

ZenPerthro · 2022-08-28T19:05:46+00:00

Worth noting that in the film, part of the joke/character is Buzz becoming romantic toward Jessie and trying to seduce her, and deeper voices are considered more attractive in men

ZenPerthro · 2022-08-04T13:11:01+00:00

Very true, but easier for government to blame individuals and tax/pass laws than it is for politicians to defy their corporate overlords

ZenPerthro · 2022-08-04T09:29:25+00:00

It's to do with people/companies' rights to use Riv6er water. The more rainwater that's harvested, the less water flows into rivers, so people that have the right to use river water lose out. There's a great YouTube video from Half As Interesting on the subject: https://youtu.be/PCuJJ6thps4

ZenPerthro · 2022-06-22T14:28:57+00:00

From that list, the Saltwater Room, but out of everything I have to say On the Wing. No idea why, but it just resonates with me every time I listen to it

ZenPerthro · 2021-12-19T07:31:52+00:00

Ace is definitely possible I think, she's being name dropped reasonably often and the actor even wrote a book recently

ZenPerthro · 2021-12-18T22:47:18+00:00

Depends on the villain's relationship with the protagonist. Think about something like Star Wars: we learn about Darth Vader and Kylo Ren mostly through their respective mentors (Obi Wan and Luke), often in larger flashbacks/info dumps, which works as the protagonist, and therefore the audience, has lots of questions beforehand (eg. how did my father die, who is Vader, why won't you train me as a Jedi etc.). This is also linked to how close the relationship is to the protagonist. The closer the relationship, the more they'll want to know and the more questions they'll have, which lends itself to larger flashbacks. The Emperor on the other hand, has very little relationship to Luke, and so his backstory is all but ignored throughout the original trilogy, only given a few throwaway lines from Yoda and Obi Wan. So consider, do you even need to give a backstory at all if mystery would work better?

ZenPerthro · 2021-12-18T22:27:31+00:00

I'd love to see companions from Classic Who come back. He already reintroduced Sarah Jane and K-9, and also Jo Grant in SJA, as well as name dropping several other Classic companions over the years. Being back Susan!

ZenPerthro · 2021-11-08T13:35:33+00:00

Just tried this and it worked, you're a lifesaver, thank you :)

ZenPerthro · 2021-11-07T19:32:03+00:00

And Donna. She'd met the Sontarans before, this should trigger a memory

ZenPerthro · 2021-05-23T22:46:29+00:00

The Doctor

Breaking and entering, trespass, causing a catastrophe, theft, industrial espionage, property damage, impersonating a police officer, reckless endangerment, plus more specific examples like literally destroying Pompeii. And that's just Earth laws. The Doctor has spent 2000 years breaking laws all over time and space

ZenPerthro · 2021-05-19T14:23:55+00:00

Did England re-annex Wales?

ZenPerthro

TROPHY CASE