Molotov

The islands share very little between themselves, their cultures vary widely, their gods are different, their powers and even the way they look is different. But, there is one thing the islands share. They all have a storyteller, who has remembered the history of the people, nation and even humanity as a whole, and recites the epic poems, waiatas (songs), stories and whakapapas (genealogies). But the great oral tradition, while fascinating and complex, is also prone to exaggerations, disagreements and usually changes depending on the culture and even location of the speaker, it changes with the times.

But in the wild woods of the island of Pokapū, at the center of the archipelago, there lives a man, whom people call the Kōrero, (the speaker). The Kōrero is a mystery, as far as anyone could remember there's has always been a Kōrero, and as far as anyone can remember he has always been a male and looked in a similar manner. It is unknown if there is a succession of speakers, or a single man who has lived his entire life remembering the history of Humanity since its first day.

Whatever it is, the speaker has remained a fixture of the world. He never expresses opinions on current events, but he is always ready to interpret the past. And, as you sit around the fire with him, you get a sense of ancient and arcane knowledge.


His pale skin, almost glowing in the darkness that surrounds you, his pale, steely blue eyes staring, seemingly at your soul. His tattoos, very limited and simple, show what seem to be primitive canoes and a few strange shapes, on his right hand. Nothing like the complex tattoos that adorned the skin of the warrior-kings and clan-leaders of our world.

"Call me Anaru" he says with a smile as you address him by his title, "Tama a Lars, is what my ancestors gave me for a surname, long ago, but that is severely outdated. So Anaru will do just fine. Tell me, what do you seek knowledge about?"

You seek to know about the races and creatures that inhabit this world? So be it:

It is debatable when Humans emerged, it has been thousand of years. The storytellers in the islands will tell the humans have been Tangaroa's greatest creation. Some, believe that this is giving Tangaroa too much credit. He is a great god, he is a creator god, but no God in his right mind would ever create a race that has the ultimate ability to topple him and his co-conspirators.

Tangeroa, some believe, brought us here. We are driftwood, cursed to drift through the plains of existence, and this is but one of them. Of course, that is not the only explanation and it would be foolish to believe it simply to be so, do not forget humans with magical powers and vastly different appearances exist, their skins absorbing fire, or protecting from water and so much more. Tangaroa is a master craftier, he is a god of unparalleled power and if he could create the Patupaiarehe and Taniwha, what is to stop him from creating humans.

Whatever it may be, we have spent thousands if not millions of years rising and falling, creating great cultures and collapsing. We have even managed to threaten the gods themselves, but for that, later. We are not alone on this world, we share it with the creatures of the dense forests of some of the islands. The Patupaiarehe, spirit beings, sometimes hostile to humans, with man and woman no taller than 50 cm tall. Ethereal flute music and singing sometimes reveals their presence. Despite seeming idyllic, the Patupaiarehe are warlike and bloodthirsty creatures, living in smaller tribes, less technologically advanced by humans but wielding arcane magic and frequently used as assassins due to their knowledge and connection to the forest. They rarely have great empires, but when one arises it is a power to be reckoned with.

The other big race are the Taniwha, the massive lone serpentine, dragon-like , crocodile-like, and megalania - like creatures that live in deep pools in rivers, dark caves, or in the sea, especially in places with dangerous currents or deceptive breakers. This race is ancient, intelligent, but also incredibly lonesome, they never travel together or in packs, they rarely form bonds and those that do rarely spend more then a decade or two with the group they are bonded to. In ages past they were worshiped by humans, but nowadays they are accepted as part of life and while some nations still use them in combat and as valuable allies, others look upon them with distrust.


Other creatures of the world, a human should watch out, are the Te Wheke-a-Muturangi, the monstrous octopus that sometimes attack the human sailors. The Tipua, demons that could look like common objects; sometimes even trees and rocks, before emerging to devour or destroy Humans. The Poukai, the giant birds that could easily capture and devour a human beings.

Of course not everything is peril and danger, those who commune with the gods, can sometimes meet the Manaia, with the head of a bird and the tail of a fish and the body of a man, the messenger between the earthly world of mortals and the domain of the spirits, they serve to help people connect with their gods.

There are of course many other natural wonders in this world, more then I can list. Sharks, whales and fish of all shapes and sizes, but I can see that you are a fisher and a warrior, so you have probably encountered them before, am I correct?

Tangaroa's Regret?

Hmm, so that is what we've come to call it?

Anyways! Whether we were brought here, or created, we cannot argue that it was Tangaroa who was ultimately responsible for this. So why regret?

Well, we have not always followed the gods and the gods haven't always been kind to us. There have been wars between Humans and Gods before. And despite reaching an equilibrium several times, mistakes were made and wars begun.

Over the millennia, many kings, emperors and chieftains have asked for the gods favor, but many have sought to gain the power of the gods themselves. Ultimately all of these have been in vain, because Humans are too small, too weak to be more powerful then a god.

That is, until, the Five Banners.

One day, a meeting was held on one of the islands, between five great ruānuku [wizards] of different faiths, nations, and tribes. The five ruānuku having gathered arcane knowledge and power unimaginable on their own, had learned various different types of magic from different tribes. They were held with great respect by the people and they gathered with a noble goal, to stop the death of people by careless and reckless gods.

The legend goes, that these ruānuku entered the cave system of the island on which they met, and after chanting for over a year and using who knows what mighty magic, a wave of immense power spilled over their island. It was soon discovered, that their god was chained, unable to move and unable to do anything, his Manaia withered and died by the hundreds. And as the corpses of the beasts swam downstream and spread, before being devoured by the whirlpools at the center of the world, the world knew what had happened.

Men had bested a god.

This has had lasting consequences upon the world. In revenge, the gods have given men the plague of the Tinana Kau, the plague of empty bodies, as more and more kids are being born without a soul, completely passive, apart from basic biological functions, and are often abandoned by their parents to die or are killed outright. While thousands have been born empty, people have sought refuge by either communing with their gods and working with them or adopting the Five Banners' way of solving issues, by developing ways to chain their gods, or the gods' aspects, or even the gods' messengers.

Ah! But do not be in a hurry to judge, the great ruānuku of the five banners understand something many humans do not. The gods are ultimately not Humanity's friend or ally, they seek their own interest and their own power before everything else. And they have all lost people at the hands of the gods and have lived for thousands of years, overcoming their immortality. In reality, while some blame them for the plague, it is ultimately the gods that unleashed it, not the Five Banners. Many have seen the truth in their beliefs, the shapeshifters of the Temples of Inys Nanron in their isolated islands, having lost the favor of the gods and spend the last hundred of years in a total war with themselves. The ecological damage, lack of trees on their islands due a decision by their god to punish them and a massive starvation, driving by desperation, the Priest-Kings of the Inys Nanron found salvation in imprisoning the evil deity that almost drove them to destruction. Thanks to chaining their gods, the seal-people of Enys Nanron can finally once again be seen in the markets of the west.

And on the other hand, those that commune with the gods are hardly inherently good, like the olive- and bronze-skinned Children of Irka, living in the seven pyramids of Irkazu, drenched in blood and destruction, with very few who have passed through their lands living to tell the tale. They once carved a path of destruction in the search of their gods, who had once turned to flesh and left their previous islands, before landing where they are today, and the remnants of the Irkazu have annihilated their way to return to their gods. And they are still missing their god of death, seeking to find him and reclaim his skin. Or the L’wol, who not only commune with their gods, but actively seek to wake them up, believing that the purest form of death is to die by a waking god, having adopted this belief after loosing one of its islands to a waking god, decimating their populace.

Of course, not everyone is totally in communion with their gods, or chaining them entirely, there are nations that trot the line in the middle, preferring to remain neutral. The best example of these, are the the Clans of Trochia, a shaky union of god chainers and god fearers working together within the framework of their shared culture, having chain the negative aspects of their god, and working with the positive such in a tenuous and often dangerous cooperation, where a single mistake could plunge the vast island in a conflict. The neutral people also share their belief with the blood magic users of the south, in Denython, where their slaves' lives are nasty brutish and short, and from their misery and death, the Denython acquire the mana necessary for their blood magic to work, as they share their islands with two other nations the Denython cannot commune completely with their gods, having to instead rely on the blood magic to maintain their power over the vast slave network.

In the seas between the polities, Piracy is rife, of course, but nobody as mastered piracy the way the Shoal have, turning the few barren islands in the Twinkle Sea into a stronghold, they are a fearsome brotherhood of pirates spoken of in frightened whispers by sailors and widows of men lost at sea. Similarly nomadic are the Tanum Republic, although technically farmers who put some emphasis in their art and songs on warfare, in truth they are semi-nomadic tradesmen for the most part, shifting from island to island once the fields have been depleted to allow regrowth, building largely temporary huts, and sailing their finely crafted ships far and wide. Their skills and naval prowess is known far and wide.

And finally there are the two vital trade-ports, the Arenujalapura servicing the western sea, and Osidaea, serving the eastern sea. I probably have a map somewhere...

Anyways, you probably already know this.

You seek knowledge about the other nations of the world?

Sure! But you will probably need a map... here I have one.
[if alignment is not mentioned, they are neither god chainers nor god fearers, also much like Christianity didn't stop war in medieval Europe, being in the same belief when it comes to gods doesn't mean you cannot be enemies]

Kingdom of Mahayagah: Called Bird-men, living in the tallest mountain, they have adopted to hunt and even some of them ride the Poukai, a constant thread for the Arenujalapura, whom they threaten either through air or more specifically by the land connection they share with the island-city.

Phriman: The disunited tribes of whale-hunters who usually live outside of the archipelago, in the vast northern ocean, but due to whale migrations have moved in through the north.

Children of the Serpents: leathery-skinned people making their iron forges upon a dead god, venerate the Taniwha as sacred creatures, have convinced some to live with them.

The Krul: two groups of people. At the top of the society is the M’nao. The M’nao arrived within the last 100 years. They were warriors and hunters. They conquered the Lewa. The Lewa make up the bottom 70% of the population, acting as farmers, scavengers, and artisans. They are the wards of the M’nao clans. M'nao are chainers, the Lewa are fearers but they don't have power to stop the M'nao from chaining their god.

1. Matriarchy of Wa'hine-i-Roto: Society is led by female witchdoctors. These matriarchs have great magical abilities. Cannibalism is a common practice. Lead several wars against the Five Banners, never strong enough to defeat them - fearers

2. Stratocracy of Whetu: Tree-bark skinned people, live in caves in the hills of their island, run by a strict military hierarchy in answer to raids from the Phrimen. Constantly at war with Phrimen and Patupaiarehe, frienemies with L'wol and mistrustful of the Serpent-Children. - chainers

3. Kingdum of I'jur: Patupaiarehe run kingdom, constantly fighting with its human neighbor over the forests in the middle of the island and fighting with the Whetu.

4. The Ku'lra: A confederacy of small villages, that due to the lack of resources on their part of the island are fighting with the Patupaiarehe over land, and live in small obsidian and magic created villages under the water itself, defended by the bay that their part of the island naturally forms. Trade with the Tanum.

5. Empire of Zaiyah: Ruled by a ruānuku, the horned people of Zaiyah have already conquered three other states, their bodies morphed by magic and their leader, a hammer wielding giant believing that the way to stop Tinana Kau from overtaking them is to conquer more land. They are on a collision course with Danython.

6. The Mayirea: Another ruānuku run state, they have managed to chain two minor dieties, not enough to solve the Tinana Kau at home, but enough to gain the power to infuse other souls into the hollow bodies. As they started putting fish and animals' souls in bodies, even Patupaiarehe souls, they have created monstrous mindless abominations that bolster their forces, but ultimately they seek to gain the ability to cure their Tanana Kau. - Chainers

7. Realm of the Free: A mountainous democratic state, living in the high mountain with a volcano has made the people hardy, they can also withstand heat like the Danython, they worship a creature found only on their mountain, the Krama, with a body of a wolf with the head and wings of a bird. Some of them are born with wolf pelts. - Fearers

8. Riki Empire: The Rikimen are shrub-covered men from the Riki Empire have spread out form their humble island to conquer one of the largest empires in the region after the Children of Irka descended upon it in search of their goddess. - fearers

9. Skif'au State: Hunters and farmers, surrounded by powerful states, the Skif'au have for a long time been able to cling to power thanks to conquering and threatening the Inys Nanron, however with the Nanron now united raids and destruction by the Rikimen and their own island contested by an emerging Patupaiarehe kingdom, they seem to be on the verge of collapse.

10. Krnaerids: Newly-born Patupaiarehe Kingdom, united by their young King Krjnaer, who is rumored to be a physical manifestation of the Patupaiarehe shapeshifting trickster dolphin deity.

11. The MaTuatou Tribe: a small tribe, who's only claim to fame is that a rare bird lands there, the bird makes its nests of a combination of thing which ultimately when boiled, create a potent drug. The tribe trades that drug with the Shoal's raiders and pirates.

12. Cartodons: After a terrible plague wiped out the population of the island, their King went to visit the five banners, then locked himself in a cave chained its god, to draw form the powers of his god to restore his population, after being struck with the Tinana Kau as well. One night he dreamed that the tuna-fish emerged from the ocean and transformed into Humans. Upon waking up, he found his empty village's streets filled with young men and woman ready to serve, with scaly skin. He is currently in the process of conquering his island and is killing Patupaiarehe in the forests, having taken over all other kingdoms around. - chainers

13. Realm of Nu'kre Used to be a massive empire ruled, pushed away first by the Irkazu, then by Osidea and the latest losses were by the Krnaerids. They are still ruled by the dead body of their founder king, hoisted up on a golden throne. In reality, they are run by a council of elders, who claim to be interpreting the dead founder king.

14. Bu'hersson Republic: A rising industrial power, the smelters of the island have produced high quality goods for the region for a while, recently, due to their location, good tin deposits and copper mines, the Republic has seen a massive rise in their life-style, as well as allowing them to contract a bunch of mercenaries to booster their forces, to avoid invasions. - Fearers

15. The Motu Pokapū: The Pokapū island is not a country, it has thousands of Patupaiarehe on it, but this is their ancestral neutral ground, where they meet. No war is allowed here, the great kings are merely just another of the Patupaiarehe. And over time the humans have gone to accept that as well, turning the island as the location where the great storytellers meet and where discussions happen.

16. The Geloera Clans: An essentially hunter-gatherer culture, old as the hills of that mountainous island, and devoted followers of an ancient crocodile cult, claiming descent from that god, said to dwell deep beneath the bay - his teeth wash ashore as powerful relics. Through headhunting, cannibalism, and ritual they are powerful, but their constant wars with their neighbors means that they are few in number. The recent series of conflicts is born form the wish of their neighbors to chain the island and therefore the crocodile god, having lost some of their followers to the new banner-men. - God Fearers

17. Moeroa Kingdom: The long-time enemy of the Geloerai, the Moeroa are familiars, using various creatures to fight their wars for them, but recently their society has split over the issue of chaining, as a massive chunk of their familiars joined a new group seeking to chain the gods of their islands. For the first time in their history, the Moeroa might seek the friendship of the Geloerai. - God Feares

18. Haere Noa Faction: An hodgepodge organization of both Geloerai and Moeroai, gathered together with the express purpose of chaining the islands, initially formed entirely of Moeroai but after landing on the Geloera's island and convincing some of them to abandon the shark god their numbers have swelled. - God Chainers

19. Rākau: A civilisation of gardeners - who worship a very rare, powerful tree-borne god-creature - taking seeds of it to all new cities, where its roots become part of the architecture, its trunks the temples, its branches the watchtowers on the walls. Unfortunately, the tree itself's motives are unknown. Ruled by the "avatars" - men and women part-absorbed by the tree. - fearers

Some rules to keep in mind.

This game is slightly different from your regular BoP. There will be no credits, or PMs to players, or anything for that matter. You will notice in the stats thread, that there are a set number of actions you can take between updates. This is a simplified system. You take your actions between the turns and depending on how well you do things, i will award you.

Bare in mind these are foreign actions, as in, you use them to spy, influence, wage war on other players, or build ships [1 ship = 1 action and depending on the ship it takes a certain amount of time to make them. Except for small ships where 1 action = 2 ships a turn.]. Contacting other nations/polities/civilizations is free.

Internally, you are in full control of your nation/civilization. Notice that some of these nations are more civilizations then nations, with several city states inside or whatever, that means you have to roleplay in the main game topic as your civilization, decide on how they handle internal conflicts and wars and what they do together or separately. The shittier time you give your nation internally, the better. And if I decide you are not doing shit realistically and are just saying shit like "OUR NATION IS DOING GREAT ITS THE BEST NATION EVER", then I will be the one to give you internal conflicts or worse yet might cause civil wars inside. The Greeks were rarely united, so will your civilizations be. Feel free to wage internal wars, have political dramas, have bad harvests, weird religions crop up and angry people take down governments. You are role-playing as a civilization, not as a leader.

If you want jolly good shit to happen to your nation/civilization, run it by me, I can give you my approval. If you want weird shit to happen, run it by me. Generally, run shit by me, feel free to ask me questions and play around, be free, but don't be a dick and ruin everyone's fun.

I will post an update every 4 days or so, depending on time availability. I usually keep to that time-frame and I rarely wait for players, even 3 turns will be enough to keep shit going. And I only report on foreign actions, its up to you to report on events happening inside your countries. Unless, I am displeased with you, then you will start hearing of your nation in the reports, and the things you hear will rarely be good.