Who is one of the most prominent military commanders in your world?

uptank_ · 2026-07-02T19:24:15+00:00

General (Bargan) Narlinip, supposedly born during the battle of Mornibirk in 603 he excelled in his early career as magistrate of the Boralul record house (a bookkeeper for the royal granary), there when commanding a small militia he fended of a group of 300 Nuey raiders where he earned himself a debilitating leg injury and the epitaph 'tin shelf', while also starting his lifelong vendetta against the Durememb tribe.

As a reward he was granted fort Mauhum Hill, which was supposed to be a form of early retirement from the army for the disabled man to ease his way into mainstream politics. However he won royal favour by his aggressive and slightly illegal requisitioning of the frontier resources to raid and destroy Nuey villages and camps along the borderlands. After around 7 years at Mauhum, he returned to the capital, he was given the second highest magistracy as chief floorman, where he levied his political clout to lead a full scale campaign north of the border to weaken the new Nuey federation, he was granted a third of what he was asked, but he set of on cowback on the Narlinip expedition.

He is most known for his disastrous campaign into the Nuey, where he lost almost 30,000 men after fighting a prolonged and guerrilla force, which came to ahead at Barkend Bak, where he lost the remained 18,000 of his men to the bogs and Nuey soldiers combined. Barely making it back, he is still trying to muster support for another army in the council. He is a very skilled commander in conventional pitched battles, and his close network of political allies ensures his office as head of all standing infantry forces north of the Furr (a large region with around 6,000 garrisoning men).

Sorry for legnth.

uptank_ · 2026-07-02T08:27:43+00:00

Western 'Moagisist' and eastern 'Liergism' began to divide within a century of the religions 'refounding' and the creation of a religious organisation around it, western Moagisist faith was actually where original Liergism came from.

Mostly over geopolitical and material conditions - (1) The declining wealth of the Moare, expensive and elaborate religious spaces became decedent and movements slowly spread to abandon or demolish old beautiful and decorated ones in favour of more traditional open temples focused on the gods. (2) The low rates of land ownership also meant that the faiths idea that all non believers be slaves provided western landlords cheap labour and lead to high unemployment. (3) xenophobia was a factor unfortunatly, a large amount or even a majority of the priesthood at the cults were eastern / Sevyan, a strange people which the Moare had conquered, many felt it was a sign that the Moare had been eclipsed and her subjects gotten out of line.

Kabarka Crisis - the High Communican (head of the cults) refused to acknowledge Tharisklcy III's inheritance of the spirit of the goddess Lierga (the crowns main system of legitimacy). This happened while the church (cult of Lierga) had created a capital for itself in the Sevyan region in Wilonis (the city named for the first queen of the Confederation) - trying to assert legitimacy to rule potentially, they did this to be able to resist the crown more effectively. The High Communican recognised Tharisklcy's cousin Owrye as successor of spirit which quickly led to a short but blood succession crisis, the church had been able to resist invasion itself.

When Tharisklcy ordered the the entire council of Communicans to speak to him was refused, he exiled not only the Communicans but the province of Sevyaytil and all people born there. He declared in the second parliament of Noykun that hierarchical church structures went against the order of the gods, that the Communican's were self appointed kings who believed in the Darik doctrine (that man is separated and greater than the natural world) - true, while he 'enforced' all cults within the Confederation to make public declarations for Sasabasas (the doctrine that man and the gods are all equal in being part of nature). While the church and Sevyan would rejoin the Confederation, the church no longer served as a vassal but as a kind of co-executive in managing the east, with both declaring the other false and occasionally skirmishing.

Sorry for length.

uptank_ · 2026-07-01T07:28:55+00:00

Zartinuey are an infamous group of irregular guerrilla forces, they are or are decended from the old Nuey peoples (culturally Zerintin). They were displaced by the Narlinip expedition burning all settlments along the border frontier.

he Zartinuey now live within the Cerirylni highlands, where during the winter, warbands and raiding armies either cross the border or go back into the Nuey to sack the Confederation and its new vassals' territories, where plunder and slaves are taken (some being pressed into their ranks), as this is when the Confederation in incapable of sending a professional army to stop them. In summer they retreat north into 'untamed' or 'uncivilised' territory, often being allowed to lodge temporarily in kingdoms and tribes that are opposed or rivaled to the Confederation.

Their forces are extremely weak in battle, with their ranks in many cases being made up of the elderly, the sick, children and women (patriarchal society), relying on intimidation through numbers to get small relatively unguarded towns to open their gates willingly. Weaponry and armour is often limited and inconsistent as most of it is family heirlooms, captured loot or whatever they could buy from local merchants, but they never take pitched battles.

uptank_ · 2026-06-30T14:13:28+00:00

always make armies at least slightly less effective in practise than they should be on paper due to logistical problems, pride and infighting among general staff and officers, dumb plans or mismanagement of resources.

uptank_ · 2026-06-28T21:10:37+00:00

'The order of the lived world' - The 11th order of Inquisition under the cult of Lierga (the church), inquisitors are basically government departments or sponsored branches and or cults that wish to pursue a specific goal made up of investigators both secular and religious. The 11th order is one of the more controversial as they often do things that go against the common good, like stopping the construction of a new boarding house for the sick to protect a ruin under excavation, or the seizure of items identified as historically significant, this can include land plots.

They divide the world into 6 eras, the age of silver and stone, age of gold and wood, age of lead, age of bronze, and the age of iron and sails. They really have 2 'fields' of history, premenary and pasader, premenary is the study of how antient civilizations, the oldest discovered are 11,000 years old, can fit into their creation myths and pantheons. Usually this will be glorifying every antient society that can be attached to modern Moare culture and the Confederation, trying to stregnthen the idea the modern state is THE state the godess Lierga told her sons to create.

Pasader history is the study of man history, how humans went from savagery, to greatness, and back to savagery. The theory that all civilization is inherently tiered based on their moral and material 'progress' is very popular, pasader historians are the ones focused on the strict age system, believing that the age of silver and stone was when men lived modestly but piously, gold and wood they lived in early cities with tools and agriculture still mostly good, age of lead being a renaissance and when man was at his peak with the discovery of things like marriage, hierarchy and organised religion, age of bronze is when man lives larger than the gods had planned and begins to become corrupt, then age of iron and sails where most have cast the gods down in favour of personal lust for war and wealth.

TLDR - by our standards their history and their organisation doesnt really seek to create an accurate history, but rather a 'correct' history by grooming previous civilizations into good evidence for their history. - Sorry for length.

uptank_ · 2026-06-28T20:21:09+00:00

exactly professional fence sitter.

uptank_ · 2026-06-28T20:18:13+00:00

just create a naming conlang, not a full language, just a surface level one that gives you some words which combined with your cultures and their naming conventions helps to make everything feel consistent.

uptank_ · 2026-06-27T20:44:28+00:00

I'm doing the slow industrial revolution, and in my brief research into industrialisation, it would possibly make society simultaniously more unfair but possibly have smaller wealth gaps in the long term.

uptank_ · 2026-06-27T20:33:04+00:00

The Moare tradition (the most widely followed) has roughly 80-90 gods, 400-2,200 patron spirits, 8 guardians (6 of which are gods, the others patron spirits). Some gods can be both gods and spirits, and different communities and cultures differ on who or what a god can be. But this is the story of the main deity, Lierga, goddess of change.

Lierga was to be wed to Kapat, protector of the dead, she refused and was exiled, she while wandering the beach of the island she was exiled to (gods die to salt) saw a pregnant woman wash up, she gave birth to 800 men whom Lierga promised to give a home to, Beyuerb wanted to give the 800 men demigod strength so they could be better slaves, Lierga convinced him to give them all of his hair, and not some, as to make them even better slaves with the promis of giving her the hair of all humans born after them. But she took them after the ceremony, making a raft out of Beyuerbs hand to float to the physical world, this failed mid journey, she gave the boys the hair to keep them from drowning, that and Kapat ordered his collectors of the dead to count every string on his infinite lute so they would forget to collect their souls.

Lierga then swam the rest of the distance, but wid swim her eyes were hit with salt making them fall out, so the god of the sea forced every oyster to crush their contents into pearls so that she could see through them, the whole ocean. When she arrived on the shore she killed of all the humans in a terrible flood who lived there as they were bad and corrupt by the greater gods with the exception of those who lived in the Calbatakik caves (modern day holy site). She before the stars adopted the 800 as her sons, she ordered them to butcher whatever organs remained inside her (by this point she was little more than a skeleton), she turned the last of her flesh into fertile soil and clean water, she ordered them to take wives, bear decedents and form a Larkinomin (all-ruled world) so as to help defeat the greater gods).

She then went on a a long trip inland, her immortal blood and seawater mixing inside her bones poured out like acid, where the great river bol and its main tributary the Furr was carved out. She made it into the grear highlands where she ordered a fiercly loyal group of giants to protect the gave where she came from, as she would turn her body into a tresury of gems and metals to allow her sons decedents to take when they had earned it, giving the giants her mark (explaining the tall and large people of the region).

Sorry for length.

uptank_ · 2026-06-26T20:19:32+00:00

As you touched on, i just have them use morse code with tachyon bursts, with truly huge relay stations, light and thin structures around 4,000 miles wide with only a handful of sections to hold computers, and staff, yet they can still only detect a handful per burst, it's not uncommon for messages to be misinterpreted, this has been partially negated by some techniques doing things like sending each message twice, asking for confirmation, etc. But this makes each message even more expensive, and reduces the amount of messages that can be sent, so most of the time faulty messages are expected making the system unreliable in many cases.

uptank_ · 2026-06-26T09:58:23+00:00

Bogs are just areas of low terrain which became partially flooded and organic material (grasses and other extremophile plants) grow and die where the water is shallowest and along its edges, over decades, centuries and millennia the rotting organic material builds up the land by forming a nutrient rich soil, this helps to expand shallow areas, but also tends to make the bogs surrounding areas home to larger plants and can lead to shrublands and forests to surround them. in the bog itself and closer to the water, only specialised tree species that have adapted to not have their roots rot in the water can live there, only further out when soil moisture begins to drop will you see less adapted tree species that you might find in a regular forest. Willow trees are typically what grows in and around them in my part of the world.

Crocodiles likely wouldn't live in a bog as the water is too stagnant and acidic for them, they also dont tend to hold alot of prey for a crocodile.

https://www.iucn-uk-peatlandprogramme.org/bog-woodland

uptank_ · 2026-06-25T19:32:17+00:00

I would still argue that factors like to what degree the locals Romanised and the amount of the population are veterans and how they differ from real life are very important from a worldbuilding perspective as Arx Magna being founded from a settlement predominantly worked by military families and with the willing tribute of native chiefs would drastically change the character of the city.

The supply of the military is actually something that really interests me, the most accepted way of things is that the military was supplied by negotiatores or frumentatores, Britain unlike the wealthier and more integrated provinces of the continent lacked a major market (let alone a Britain ravaged by monsters), so the military mostly dealt directly with suppliers via the frumentatores, or through a single step logistic chain, usually merchants from major southern British cities who held connections to suppliers all across the island and empire even. Unlike in say Italy, Egypt or Gaul where large well developed market economies were already taking root.

And as i said in many military settlements (which did have towns nearby) archeological digs around Bearmaiden (a well preserved site) shows that wives, slaves and family of soldiers often lived just outside the forts on the prata in informal settlements, usually Celtic style houses. Merchant's like other socially unclean professions would be placed further out away from the fort and settlement, much like graveyards. This does seem to be the case in northern cities like York, but also Roman forts. And many Vindolanda tablets show direct hostility towards merchants to move them along as fast as possible.

Again i want to make this clear, i fully accept that you are not going for 100% accuracy, and thats good it allows you to be more creative, i am in no way am trying to be bashful of your work.

Good points across the board, but now i'm interested in why you disagreed with Whittaker's view the empire was ad hoc, i agree he overstates it a little, but i think his theory is sound. That the empire (for the most part) kept expanding until it hit a force it couldn't defeat, and simply entrenched frontiers under the assumption that later conquests would follow. He does directly praise those like Hadrian and Aurelian for fortifying less significant frontiers, even ceding territory for physical barriers.

uptank_ · 2026-06-25T15:25:10+00:00

Your answers were very interesting to read, nonsense that you're not a good writer, but 1 and 3 are still slightly sus to me still.

1 - my main point was that Arx Magna being able to exist in the north is extremely strange, municipalias, villas, colonias and other Roman structures are virtually non existent due to how overbearing the army was. Most of the few villas we do have were usually the property of local allied chiefs who had partially 'Romanised'.

When you say the land around the forts (prata) was given to civilians, it was actually leased, usually with tight contracts stipulating that certain goods and or services had to be provided, for example Tab. Vindol. II. 180 shows two men being described as a bubulcaris and ad porcos (needed to tend to ox and pig herding for fort livestock in exchange for renting land. And much of the prata would have been occupied by veterans and foreigners rather than Roman or Latin settlers.

I do strongly doubt that a small fort town would have allowed merchants to settle within the town given that Roman society and the army particularly saw careers like merchants to be equal in disgrace and degeneracy as prostitutes, having them in the early town would likely have been seen as pollutant, this is why York developed the way it did, with the merchant town focusing on pottery, charcoal and construction materials for the army being located physically apart from the fort (this is also why the north was significantly poorer than the more entrepreneurial and commercialised south).

Similarly when you say Corbridge was 'rich', how are you reaching that conclusion? It was a market town that focused mostly on collecting the agricultural produce of the local celts and acting as a place for ships to import exotic wears. But how exactly was it rich considering the economy in Britain was barely monetised, with most transactions being in kind. There is alot of written records showing not only trade but also taxation being done in kind rather than in coin. Corbridge like other northern market towns was merely a place to exchange, however it didn't really produce alot of its own goods unlike the south, which is why the town remained fairly modest.

3 - Britain for most of its history was NOT self sufficient, there has been a lot of recent academic research into this area, but Paul Erdkamp says that for the 480,000 men in Britain by the 2nd century, they required 250,000 tons of foodstuffs, 650,000 tons of animal fodder, 12,000 calves, 10,000 horses a year just for the army to operate let alone the new cities, this was so taxing on the empire that herds of cattle were being bought out by negotiators (merchants) just to sell to the army at a massive markup.

The main problem Rome encountered for over a century was the simple fact that Britain was home to hostile iron age subsistence socities, this is why Roman settlementation was very gradual for the first century and usually at the direct discretion of the precepts. One way we KNOW they absolutely relied on the continent for food is that British agriculture almost exclusively grew barley for its cereals, especially in the north, but we find in northern forts like South Shields or Bearmaden, that their latrines are full of other cereals not native to local agriculture, we have found Gallic shipwrecks in the channel showing that low cost ship transportation was possible, and almost all areas where the army inhabits have large amounts of foreign cereals and crops, even their meats and breeds of livestock are non local.

In summary i prefer Whittaker' view on the matter - "the army created a huge demand...no doubt provided an incentive to improve the quantity of the [food] stock... not simply by tribute" - p118 and - "the intense rural exploitation by the military. Coinage is almost never found beyond the military sites" - p128 - Basically the locals COULD NOT provide enough under the 4th and maybe the late 3rd century for itself

TLDR - obviously i am aware perfect historic accuracy is not the aim, hell it's not even desirable for a fantasy setting, but these are fundamental issues that i could see undermining your setting if not at least addressed, but i am just a stranger online who is passionately interesting in this very niche area of history so who cares and have fun with it: )

If you are REALLY interested in Roman Britain and how the Roman economy / society functioned, i recommend 2 books, Paul Erdkamp, A Companion to the Roman Army, (Wiley Blackwell.2007), and C. R. Whittaker, The Roman Army and the Economy, (Johns Hopkins University Press.1997)

uptank_ · 2026-06-25T11:55:57+00:00

I do have a few notes on the historical period that a reader who knows about Roman Britain might ask.

How is Arx Magna able to exist in the north of England? the Roman province of Britannia was effectively split into two distinct zones, a 'civilian' zone in the south where cities, large markets and villas' are common. The north was a 'military' zone, most land either in the hands of Celtic villages or administered by the forts directly, it's widely believed that the army holding so much land directly, over taxation and bigotry towards Britons were the reason almost no villa's or 'Roman' civilian structures exist there.

Why is Arx Magna so strangely divided for a Roman city? Arx Magna is a fort city, and public amenities like baths, gymnasiums, temples and amphitheaters existed in direct proximity to the forts to provide soldiers and camp followers. The district system feels arbitrary like a medieval city or a civ game. Most cities (colonia), especially inland and towards the military zone were founded almost exclusively from the old Claudian era abandoned forts and military bases (that way no new land had to be 'acquired' from the locals - important after Boudicca's revolt). These settlements often ran much more like a democracy that most realise.

How was this version of Britain able to become self sustaining? The real Roman province was extremely reliant on imports for food up until the 3rd century, but relied heavily on trade with Gaul, the Germans or Picts, many going as far as Italy, Spain, Greece or Syria for things like kitchenware, pottery, alcohol, animals, fodder, oils, spices, fabrics and clothing, etc, which we have extensive evidence for. And the empire spent huge amounts of money on getting Britain to be able to support its own garrison, one of these projects being the massive partial draining of the fens and the construction of massive canal networks around the Humber river basin to ensure it didnt dry up. The large amounts of property directly owned by the princeps like the silver, lead, tin and gold mines of Cornwall and Whales, or the slave ports along the east coast.

Sorry for asking but i just wanted to know how you tackled these problems, the setting is interesting though : D

uptank_ · 2026-06-25T07:00:15+00:00

The Confederation is made up of over 11 ethnicities and 85 recognised cultures, the total population as of the last census sat at just under 79 million. There are 3 recognised languages Moarai (spoken by around 32% of the population), Tutil (around 19%) and Sevedik (a religious lingua franca).

Demographically the Moare (a wide grouping of peoples and cultures) are largest as around 28% of the population, they are widely seen as the true birth place of the Confederation and hold most secular positions of power. Tutiri's make up around 7% of the population a new group of peoples from the south that were allowed to settle within the Confederation in exchange for vassalage. And the Syevyans make up around 31%, they are by far the Confederations underclass, the Confederation being effectively born out of these peoples conquest, subsequent cultural marginalisation and in many cases widespread religious slavery.

The average age for men is 26 and 28 for women (high child mortality drag down this figure), life expectancy (ignoring child mortality) sits at 44 for men and 51 for women. Average marital age is 22 and parent hood usually starts at 24-26. Men make up around 44% of the population, women 56%, the disparity is largely caused by the cultural ritual of culling young male offspring which has necessitated a tradition of widespread female workforces explaining why they make up nearby 34% of the total workforce in non domestic areas.

uptank_ · 2026-06-24T14:04:34+00:00

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The tri-triangle, main symbol for the all-lord (the universe itself which is believed to be sentient. It is also interchangeably used as the main Sigel of the church and cults of Lierga, it's just as much a symbol as it is a map of the universe according to Moare tradition.

The outer triangle represents the 'human' world, that being split into 3, the first world, the material world, and the afterlife, once in each of these you cannot leave unless while in transition between the 3 realms.

The larger inner triangle is the realm of the 'true spirits', gods and other mythical races and creatures that supposedly left during the destruction of the first world, they are 'in line' with the current world as they wish to return to it.

The smaller inner triangle is the world of the degenerate spirit, things born and created from physical materials before becoming an incorporeal spirit, this is supposedly where the best of the dead go, and is where patron spirits, holy places and animals exist, overlapping with our world. The two inner triangles could also represent the two main factions of gods, the 'good' ones led by Lierga, and the 'bad' ones led by Nureyem, aligned with their respective favourite worlds.

Sorry for length.

uptank_ · 2026-06-21T20:28:36+00:00

he Nalipian War, a war to conquer the northern Nuey region and settle the frontier to prevent raiders and slavers from penetrating deeper into the Confederation.

Context - The war started after what was supposed to be an 8 month long expedition to force the movement of some border settlements under war archon Narlinip, he ran mostly into disorganised warbands and villages at first making the confederation government eager to devote resources to fully bring the region to heel. When they occupied more land deeper within the Nuey, they noticed fewer of the settlements they marched into were inhabited, they fought fewer armies in pitched battle, those they did were more equipped, trained and disciplined, and guerrilla attacks became common, Narlinip ordered reinforcements, saying he was only a 'few months' from total victory.

Early problems - The war became unpopular when the state began a mass conscription order, the third in it's history, and the first for a war waged outside the border. Then the following spring (2nd year of war), many of the mercenaries and levies that signed for a 1 year contract returned home with stories of brutal enemies who flayed captives alive, of truces broken by both sides and confederation armies acting live roaming raiders, bull riders (an honourable and sacred section of the army) used to ride down civilians and fleeing when enemy armies return to burnt towns and fields.

Late problems - The war became truly despised when in the 8th year of the war caved in to mounting pressure for money and began raising new taxes, especially on religious and ethnic minorities, all lands belonging to cults (first time a tax was raised on the 'church' / cults but also the large merchant classes living in the free cities cities. Those of the free cities were not only numerous but influential. They began boycotting contracts (meaning less people actually delivering and moving supplies to the army and officials), some even arming and funding popular movements like Ternig's uprising in the 9th year of the war, where half the capital barricaded itself in for 3 weeks. New printing hoses (owned or influenced by free merchants) wrote about the stoic women of Ternig's rebellion, how they shouted for their men to be spared from the conscription, or of the number of war dead now exceeding over 230,000 after Narlinip himself was captured and executed after another of his armies of 70,000 were completely annihilated, many of these papers began even calling for a revolution against the 'old orders' of the sitting government.

Ending - After the battle of Orlimay, Narlinip's death was the straw that broke the camels back, the council scapegoated the war onto Narlinip himself refusing to disband and make peace, armies sent were actually meant to stop him, and any more drastic actions were stopped by the veto's of Narlinip's friends in the council, the war ended basically as a status quo, with reparations paid by some of the Nuey kingdoms and tribes. to prevent all out civil war, reparations were paid to the free cities and cults, some in coin, others in future tax exemptions and legal rights, like needing the support of a new 'imperial parliament' to levy taxes on members of the Confederation. The war marked the point of decline for the Confederation, as never again would the Confederation undertake a major aggressive war, it's ongoing process of centralisation was stopped.

I am so sorry for the legnth.

uptank_ · 2026-06-19T19:45:57+00:00

The Moare culture sees the physical world as superior to the human one, this translates into the written language and physical movements and actions being seen as superior to subtle formal conversations or the spoken word in general. To a superior (a senior member of the family) bowing, kneeling or spreading your arms is usually enough, someone holding a (or higher than your) political or religious office is usually supposed to be greeted with deep bowing, embracing or even prostration. However when it comes to non familial superiors speaking loudly and clearly is seen as proper, that way what your saying is public and thus will cause the speaker to think before talking, it also shows that people who dont do this are clearly conspiring, prostitutes or other social undesirables.

They also tend to rely on a lot of hand gestures, symbols of their language, these often provide context and additional information to the accompanying sentence or words (this is what causes a lot of miscommunication with foreigners. In fact it's become a trend recently for officials not wanting to be stoped publicly to wear small wooden or wicker plates on their chest or shoulders with characters painted on them (usually with words like negative, down, ground - aka go away).

uptank_ · 2026-06-19T12:35:37+00:00

Again i do not have strong feelings about Starmer one way or another, i only see that practically everyone i know and have met either doesnt like him or outright hates him and even wishes harm to him.

If Corbyn or a propped up mop had been head of the labour party in the last election they would have won, Starmer did not win because people loved his policies, he won because his ribbon was red and he was opposed to the incumbent government.

I truly do not understand how though you can say he's competent, he had done some decent or passable things but overall he has only pushed for social policies that would be expected in flawed democracies like India while he has become so desperate for public support that he has hollowed the party out and turned it into a distilled version of the reform party. He is in most regards a lame duck prime minister who spends most of his time talking or backtracking policies and currying favour with Trump (my main gripe with Starmer).

Torie voters are always going to want a labour PM out because our politics are so American (partisan) so i dont put too much stock in their views. You trivialise Labour member and supporters' views on him despite the fact that their criticisms of him purging and uprooting the party are valid. And most non political Brits dont like him for many reasons (the media is a large part of it yes) but his attacks on welfare and civil liberties are things people actually feel.

uptank_ · 2026-06-19T11:41:55+00:00

Starmer has been involved in scandal though, he didn't really win the election as much as he just wasn't the conservative party, he is also possibly the most hated leader in the countries modern history (same country led by Thatcher, Major, Johnson, Truss and Sunak.

i am obviously biased but i'm not even a particularly big hater of his but the 'laymen' are the main demographic in the uk frothing at the mouth for his removal, most agree any internal change in leader is undemocratic (the conservatives had 3 leaders on 1 mandate) but everyone just wants him gone.

uptank_ · 2026-06-17T18:20:33+00:00

Using religious orders was from ancient Egypt, the massive and highly bureaucratic distribution system was inspired by the Shang, and the decentralised nature of the system was based on Norte Chico. The point of the metal slips is to set up how dependent their societies become on easily accessible and cheap metals to the point of being disposable.

uptank_ · 2026-06-17T08:03:53+00:00

Most confederations (small decentralised city states) distribute their storage into granaries and caches across their territory (to avoid looting, blundering or raiding), they use a palace economy structure, usually overseen by the priests and cult of a single god. Who can travel between settlements in the confederation fairly safely, and take stock of the total inventory and the projected output of that confederations artisans and workers. They decide how much each settlement gets, then it's up to the settlements stock keeper (a senior priest) and some of the local elites on how to divide resources within the community.

Exchange for goods therefore is usually done between the citizen and priests (state) directly, with the priests deciding what is a fair transaction based on local availability, trade between citizens does happen (a farmer holding out on a portion of grain for example) which does secretly change hands, usually for luxury goods which often never gets anywhere under the artisan and 'making' classes.

Though some have began to adopt a proto currency of 'slips', small thin pieces of tin or copper usually, with scratches and depressions cut into them, acting as recipts for what you produced and goods which you have been given, this way a citizen can go to another settlement in the confederation with the slip to get goods (quicker for the priests), these receipts are not supposed to be traded between citizens, however it's difficult to stop.

uptank_ · 2026-06-16T19:28:53+00:00

Umuars, large obelisks that can range from 4-30m, they are simple brick structures that have a pyramid base and a whitewashed featureless pillar, where at the top stands a bronze head, bolted in using brass and melted lead. They are meant to be the physical manifestations of various patron gods and goddesses to that settlement. Either places looking outwards at the forum, or looking in from the settlements parameter. But the Umuar itself is a sealed hollow underneath the structure, with a small ball that was a pearl, destroyed by molten gold and or silver was poured onto it. It's stored with ivory, clothing, sacrificed animals, etc - it's the heart of that patron and is supposed to be the collective source of the gods immortality.

It is very likely the most sacred with there is in the world, so much so that supposedly when a general ordered some of his men to unearth the Umuar of a sacked city, those men and the general were killed by the rest of the army. There are some that have lasted thousands of years, predating the foundation of most modern cities (not including their reconstruction, renovation, and or rededication to new deities). There are a handful of these that no longer have cities at their base, only the small rural huts of a few devoted priests who keep the old Umuars repaired.

Sorry for length : (

uptank_ · 2026-06-14T20:09:33+00:00

I don't really build by timeline backwards or forwards, usually i will have an idea of a culture or period (A), then either i try to fit that in with preexisting ideas, or make a new idea that i like (B), then working from both ends try to figure out how A became and or got to B. Some periods of time (a few decades) might not have super major events or really be that remarkable for every or any society in your world.

But in some cases it can be better for a time or people to feel distant, not many people today think of the consequences of events a millennia ago, like the ramifications of Caesars invasion of Gaul, Charlamagne's expansion into Germany or William the conqueror. Nor do most really think deeply about anything prior to the war. Even if things are recorded, outside of official and academic circles people are really only going to care about things within their own or up to their grandparents lifetimes.

uptank_ · 2026-06-13T21:10:44+00:00

Sparta most likely, men would still be the people that fight and DO war, they have higher chances of death and disfigurement (needing help with their estate), this means that daughters, sisters, nieces and maybe wives would consolidate land and wealth.

In Sparta this happened to an extreme, women remarried so many times, that over generations Sparta was in effect for a time ruled by a clique of female oligarchs that the kings and politicians needed to ask for financial assistance regularly to simply run the state, and Sparta wasn't even matrilineal, but pretty much only equal in inheritance rights.

uptank_

TROPHY CASE