Late 18th century RP (OOC)

[Jimanistan]

Okay, I have something to add. My nation is supposed to be known for having people who develop really nasty poisons. To the extent that they're still used, albeit rarely, in MT. I could easily provide something that acts in a good way to get around tasters and such -- I figure this way, we don't have to handwave an excuse nearly so much, and just need to come up with interesting poison effects.

Excellent.

My idea was sort of, uh... Ridiculous.

Maybe a delayed poison of some sort, so that it passes a taster's inspection?

[Free Outer Eugenia]

But wouldn't an idiosyncratic poison indigenous to Santheres remove a great deal of suspicion from Telvira?
What I'd like to know is this- is there a form of killing that is associated with Telviran assassins? Which methods would just scream "a Telviran did it!"

Poison could work, but there are other ways- anything from a black powder bomb to well-placed crossbow bolt in the chest. The death of the target is a secondary objective at best. There needs to be a conspicuous attempt and everything needs to be done to make sure that the Telviran government gets blame. The perpetrator must either escape or very quickly end his/her life.

Now would also be a good time for everyone involved to give a brief outline of the political system and general situation in their countries during this time period.

[Jimanistan]

Hmmm... I'm feeling like an insomniac tonight, in case anyone wonders why I'm posting so late...

Well, I'm sort of indifferent on the meathod of assassination, really, so long as someone dies... I just grasped onto poison because it seemed convienient. But, your idea about outlining government, et cetra, is probably a good idea...

Jimanistan is an absolutist monarchy at this given time, having been in roughly this form for over seven hundred years, give or take some local autonomy. It sort of reminds me of Great Britain, minus Parliment and Magna Carta, et cetra. Each of the provinces maintain a certain level of disunity, each with a slightly different culture (with the exception of Elaith, which is totally different). The remnents of feudalism remain in Jimanistan far longer than in most other countries, with peasants still tilling the soil for local landlords. However, peasants do not make up the majority of the Common Man, which is instead represented mostly by Freeman, a class I think would be most similar to the Equestrians of the Romans: They are a primarily landed class, with some level of freedom, and are much better off than the peasants, while remaining well below the Nobility in both status and wealth. Religion still plays a signifigant role in the personal lives of the People, the primary faith being the Tyromi dualistic religion, which honors the Father of Creation and his eternal and co-equal mate the Star Queen.

Jimanistan has the urge, if you will, for colonization at this time. The general opinion of professionals is that it must either expand into something or begin to decay. As such, the country becomes involved in Eugenia... Also, they have a very typically European outlook. That is, they think everyone else, not just primitive people, but every other people is just a band of illiterate, unwashed savages who smell funny and aren't really fit to be part of civilized society. This would be the primary reason for their otherwise isolationist policies... Also, once again, it comes back to an excellent way to blame Telvira almost immeadiately.

Oh, and the Military tactics employed by Jimanistan would be a bit behind... While having all the modern technology, they wouldn't really be adept at fighting with it, as wars aren't very common for an isolationist country, except for maybe small-scale internal conflict... Sabers, amongst the Nobility, have yet to fall out of favor, and are still worn by every highborn man (and occaisionally by a particularly ballsy woman), pretty much without exception. Jimanistan would also be known to culturally favor hand-to-hand combat over ranged engagements, having romanticized that intimacy of battle. While it mightn't be enough signifigantly affect the overall strategy of an intellegent general, it might be enough to cause an inept idiot to throw away a perfectly winnable engagement in favor of a suicide mission...

[Soviet Steam]

Courtly intrigue?

Why not some revolutionary actions to rise the proletariat from the shackles of reactionary oppression and capitalistic exploitation by the worker's empowered men of the Intelligence Commissariat? Why not replace the King with Comrade-Leader Medvedev?

I created Soviet Steam as a sort of communist Victorian NS established in "Russia"-like shortly after the Paris Commune, just to inform. I'm not sure if it would make sense for a communist operative to have, somehow, infiltrated himself among the nobility.

[Jimanistan]

Courtly intrigue?

Why not some revolutionary actions to rise the proletariat from the shackles of reactionary oppression and capitalistic exploitation by the worker's empowered men of the Intelligence Commissariat? Why not replace the King with Comrade-Leader Medvedev?

I created Soviet Steam as a sort of communist Victorian NS established in "Russia"-like shortly after the Paris Commune, just to inform. I'm not sure if it would make sense for a communist operative to have, somehow, infiltrated himself among the nobility.

Actually, I don't know about the other potential players in this RP, but Jimanistan isn't slated for a Socialist Revolution until the late 1930's

[United States of PA]

I dunno if you'd like yet another player, but I would be interested, as well, and I like the idea thus far. And as far as war goes, I like it, ostensibly, but basically only when the fighting itself isn't the primary focus of what's being written. If you'd like me to hop in, I think I may need some help with why I'm involved -- I had ideas, but as my reading of the thread progressed, they became obsolete.

The more the merrier, in my opinion... At least until you get into the double digits, maybe...

Anyway, I agree, warfare isn't so bad if it's not the entirity of what's being written. As for how you can be involved, maybe you'd be another colonial power, and, feeling the balance of power threatened by a Jimanistan-Telvira alliance start funding Euginian freedom fighters? Maybe?

I'm just pitching ideas..

Count me the hell in than.

[Jimanistan]

Far out... It weirds me out how many people are on this late... Usopa, are you an insomniac, or are you just in a different time zone?

Anyway, how do you think you could involve yourself in the quasi-plot-thing we've drawn out so far?

[United States of PA]

What time zone you in?, and yes i am a Insomniac, i just cant sleep somedays

Relatives call me a Night Owl or Nocturnal

As for the Plot, i'll read up fullly on it sometime and let ya know

[Free Outer Eugenia]

Courtly intrigue?

Why not some revolutionary actions to rise the proletariat from the shackles of reactionary oppression and capitalistic exploitation by the worker's empowered men of the Intelligence Commissariat? Why not replace the King with Comrade-Leader Medvedev?

I created Soviet Steam as a sort of communist Victorian NS established in "Russia"-like shortly after the Paris Commune, just to inform. I'm not sure if it would make sense for a communist operative to have, somehow, infiltrated himself among the nobility.

You're about a century and a half early, comrade. We aren't doing Victorian, we're doing Regency!

[Jimanistan]

Bump, in the hopes of keeping the thread above water...

[Santheres]

But wouldn't an idiosyncratic poison indigenous to Santheres remove a great deal of suspicion from Telvira?
What I'd like to know is this- is there a form of killing that is associated with Telviran assassins? Which methods would just scream "a Telviran did it!"

Poison could work, but there are other ways- anything from a black powder bomb to well-placed crossbow bolt in the chest. The death of the target is a secondary objective at best. There needs to be a conspicuous attempt and everything needs to be done to make sure that the Telviran government gets blame. The perpetrator must either escape or very quickly end his/her life.

Now would also be a good time for everyone involved to give a brief outline of the political system and general situation in their countries during this time period.

If you buy poisons from Santheres, Santheres is not responsible for how and why you use it. :D And we can fake up documents saying someone from Telvira purchased it -- not like those can be easily verified in this time period. The key thing is, despite other ways, I really should have some sort of direct hand in this, otherwise there's not too much point in me playing; I'd be a side plot, as opposed to being thrown into the middle.

Anyway, Santheres in this time period is essentially ruled by a handful of extremely rich individuals. Fewer than ten. They cooperate to hold power, which is completely centralized since they, combined, control the majority of the country's assets, including the loyalties of many of those who could otherwise be an effective member in a force working toward freeing the country from the grasp of that handful of cooperative dictators. The peasantry is extremely poor, the nobility is poor and splintered, with families turning on themselves and each other to scrape by. The leadership is effective as stealing from every one else and playing all the sides against each other.

Essentially, it's a tyrannical dictatorship, psychotic in some instances, that happens to have around 5 or 6 "equals" who work together only because if they didn't, they wouldn't have the power base to keep everyone else in check. They've been at it for awhile, and there used to be more of them, but they've been winnowed down to the best of them.

The economy is beginning to stagnate, production being harmed. Right now, they have a good grasp, though it's slowly slipping as groups of nobles are starting to plan out how to seize power without suffering at the hands of the military, which is a disciplined, loyal force to the tyrants and not the people. They're well-paid and get shiny stuff.

We're slowly progressing toward the gender-neutral society of MT but haven't gotten far down the track -- however, at this time, we would still be potentially seen as rather progressive (offensively so) since certain female fashions (corsets, absurdly large dresses...) never really picked up as the norm, and women are expected to do some kinds of manual labor (not much, but some), and wear practical, "men's" clothing while doing it. Almost everyone learns to defend themselves, but how is separated by sex: men use rapiers, guns, whatever; women most frequently have stilettos tipped with some form of (usually) nonlethal poison. There is the opinion that women are the weaker sex, but not so prevalent that education is written off for them. Female authors of note come about in this period moreso than anywhere in the Real World, so presumably also moreso than almost anywhere in NS.

Bah, I kept meaning to type up military stuff here but I kept getting sidetracked. Basically, it should be a small standing army, by European standards, complete with horses (few) and artillery (few); and a larger army that is more akin to militia than a field army, lacking in actual cavalry and artillery, though more frequently mounted for mobility.

[Jimanistan]

bump, in the hopes of keeping the thread from becoming dead...

[Jimanistan]

Thread's been buried for awhile...

Is anyone still interested?

[Telvira]

I'm still in, but I'm not sure I understand what exactly the plot is...

[Santheres]

I'd still be in. Need a summary of where we'd be going and what's been decided, though.

[Jimanistan]

I'll venture a guess that FOE is no longer interested...

Anyway, if Eugenia is no longer involved, I suppose that the conflict would no longer be colonial, but perhaps would involve one of the countries, specifically.

Of course, the crux of the RP would be the assasination of the Ragalo heir to the Jimani throne during an arranged political marriage, and the the resulting tension between Jimanistan and Telvira, which would probably lead to minor skirmishes, if not outright warfare.

Now, how would Santheres be involved if FOE is not, which would more or less toss out the possibility of aiding Eugenian freedom fighters? That is the question...

[Santheres]

Well, it could be that we were behind the assassination, instead, and were able to make it look like Telvira? That's essentially what we were doing, anyway; I just become the direct hand in the assassination instead of the freedom fighters.

And following that, I'll make some attempts to either take or put myself in a position to take territories weakened by the skirmishes/war/future war. I'd probably stick mostly to courtly, diplomatic/intrigue sorts of things, though, depending on schedule and how the RP is going.

[Jimanistan]

Well, that's kind of what I thought, I just didn't want to speak for you...

Anyway, that makes sense to me, I suppose a more united Telvira and Jimanistan could perhaps pose a threat to Santheres... And I'd have to agree so far as the intrigue goes, my original hope for this was that it wouldn't just turn into a number-wanking contest, the only factor differing it from the rest of the war threads being the liberal misuse of Middle English.