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by Andsed » Wed Feb 13, 2019 5:53 pm
Nu-Amerika wrote:Yall are slacking, ill try and have my post done by tonight
by Tasuirin » Wed Feb 13, 2019 8:09 pm
by The Imperial Reach » Thu Feb 14, 2019 2:44 pm
by Former Citizens of the Nimbus System » Thu Feb 14, 2019 8:24 pm
by Robo-Nixon » Fri Feb 15, 2019 2:22 am
by Tasuirin » Fri Feb 15, 2019 6:23 am
by The Hoosier Alliance » Fri Feb 15, 2019 6:50 am
by BettaMin » Mon Feb 18, 2019 12:41 am
OF IRON AND FIRE APPLICATION
NS NAME:
BettaMin
CITY NAME: Tria Akris, or Akris
POPULATION: (max. 1,000,000 at a stretch)
130,000 urban citizens
170,000 urban non-citizens
350,000 non-citizen residents of the city's low altitude enclaves.
10,000 non-citizen residents of Ceroi, Tria Akris’s sea port
Total; 660,000
SYMBOL OF CITY:
Three overlapping mountains drawn as lines on a white field
LOCATION OF CITY:
North - North-east of Propylea, South of Nomos
MAJOR COLOURS OF CITY:
White and Black
GOVERNMENT TYPE:
Tria Akris is an elective monarchy. Citizens, who have earned their position through military service, cast their votes upon the death of the previous monarch to elect one of the chieftains of Tria Akris's many tribes as the next king. As citizens almost exclusively vote along tribal lines, elections are generally resolved through closed debates in which chieftains try to rally other chieftains to their cause. The Sarrissoi, the Hadassoi, and the Khartamoi have emerged as the dominant tribes in this system due to their tribes sizes and inter-tribal marriages, forming broader coalitions lasting across generations. These tribes have further cemented their positions as paramount tribes through their kings, as kings frequently allot the greatest shares of gains during their reign to their tribe and coalition partners. Total dominance of one tribe is prevented through the Akrisian enclave system; enclaves are great sources of wealth for the tribe, but enclave members lose their status as citizens. Akrisian monarchy must thus balance their desire to enrich their tribe with their need to maintain a sizable electorate to nominate another king of the same tribe.
Despite the rigid tribal system of the monarchy, Akrisian governance is remarkably meritocratic bureaucracy, as Akrisian kings have generally recognized that their power rests in efficient management of their many low-altitude enclaves. The civil bureaucracy is dominated by non-citizens of the enclaves who have proven their worth as efficient administrators at lower altitudes. The military, however, is effectively dominated by the aristocracy, with many noble houses viewing war as a means to secure bonds sealed in blood, or to secure wealth when outside of the ruling tribal coalition.
CULTURE OF CITY:
Akrisian culture is, like many of the Sidonian city-states, divergent from the Telenian mainstream. Akrisian monarchs have taken extreme measures to demonstrate their Telenian character, going even so far as to commission gigantic statues of the gods to be carved into the faces of the mountains that have nearly broken the back of the city-state's economy. Some more liberal Akrisians philosophers, however, consider themselves neither Telenian or Sidonian. There is merit to this claim. The Akrisoi are a "Telenized" people; their noble houses do not trace their origins back to Rheas or Pelagia, though many claim such roots. Testament to this fact is the Akrisian dialect of Telenian, which maintains many pre-Telenian names, words, and sounds. The Akrisian dialect is widely considered the 'ugliest' Telenian dialect because of its strange, throaty consonants.
The mountains hold an important place in Akrisian culture. The Akrisoi see the mountains as divine. Many see the mountains as a symbolic meeting of earth and sky, begetting life, equating them with the marriage of Imulas and Gevada. Others see the mountains as distinct from the gods entirely, imbued with benevolent spirits - the Neuma. Akrisian religious and secular life revolves around the mountains. Second to tribal identification, mountain identification serves as one of the primary markers of distinction for Akrisians. Many festivals culminate in processions to the very peaks of the mountains to perform sacrifices; sacrifices performed at the mountain peaks are viewed as the most auspicious and most rewarding as the holy smoke has much shorter a distance to travel to reach the gods. The most important festival of the Akrisoi is the Hakka Deous, which is celebrated with athletic performances, with the most prestigious being a two-day long race between the peaks of Surat and Hudar, identified with the gods Kuna and Ophina.
CIVIC SPECIALIZATIONS:
Akrisian Mountains: The Akrisoi populate the highest reaches of the Akrisian mountains. They are known for their endurance and long distance running abilities. Many past Akrisoi monarchs have contributed to the construction of a road network spanning the mountains, in order to connect the city to its enclaves and subsidiary hamlets.
Enclave System: Tria Akris is nestled in the valleys of the steep Akrisian mountains, far above sea level. In order to overcome the limitations posed by their high-altitude settlement, the Akrisoi kings have been known to deliberately displace large portions of their population to lower altitudes to establish Akrisian enclaves with the aim of securing resources at lower altitudes. These enclaves are heavily subsidized by Tria Akris through routine shipments of food and beer along the Akrisian roads, so that the enclaves remain dependent on the city. These enclaves are governed by administrators elected by their populace. Many members of the Tria Akris bureaucracy are former administrators of these enclaves. As such, many families see the enclaves as places of opportunity, as the conditions for both economic success and social mobility are ripe for those lacking noble ancestry. The port settlement of Ceroi is one such enclave, acting as the Akrisian route to the sea.
MILITARY SPECIALIZATIONS:
Mountain Warriors: The Akrisoi are not known for their prowess in the phalanx. Akrisoi are born and bred mountain warriors, and prefer skirmishes to pitched battles. They are renowned for their skill with the javelin; with victory in the Hakka Deous javelin throwing competition falling only behind wrestling and the great race in prestige. While Tria Akris does field a phalanx, composed primarily of the younger sons of noble houses, the most prestige is held in positions of command of Tria Akris's peltast bands. Akrisian peltasts are lightly armored, fighting often only in stiff cloth with a wicker crescent shield, favoring swiftness above all else. Prestigious bands, however, are known to don helmets, greaves, and breastplates. While preferring to avoid a melee, the peltasts also carry axes and long Sidonian slashing swords. This distaste of close combat does not, however, translate to a lack of skill in that area. Akrisian peltasts are known for their ferocity and skill in personal combat, but are aware of the strength of a well organized, armored Telenian phalanx.
Mountain Forts: Mountain forts in the Akrisian mountains emerged out of cultural and tactical necessity. The tradition of erecting remote, stone towers is ancient, emerging as a way to protect highland villagers from raiders and to serve as places of protection for the targets of blood feuds between clans. With the "Telenization" of the Akrisians, the blood feuds are much rarer, and these mountain forts have come to serve a more pragmatic purpose. Many of these mountain forts have been seized from the clans and re-purposed as supply stations and watch towers for the military of Tria Akris. Many of these forts were constructed much more recently and have always served the purpose of supplying Tria Akris's soldiers. Peltast bands use these forts as centers of operations from which to chase off bandits and scout for invaders and dragons.
COMPOSITION OF ARMY:
8,000 pseudo-Telenian spearmen; consisting primarily of young noble citizenry, performing their required service as urban guards, taxmen, and as the showpiece of Telenization in the Akrisian highlands.
16,000 peltasts; consisting of both the prestigious noble citizenry and non-noble citizens, performing their required service as mountain watchmen.
7,000 elite peltasts; consisting of 'blooded' bands who have served beyond their required service, some veteran mercenaries
2,000 Oros "Mountain Guard" peltasts; professionalized non-noble career soldiers drawn from Tria Akris's spears and peltasts, tasked with serving as the king's personal unit.
5,000 marines; non-noble mixed body of soldiers tasked with the protection of Telenian trade.
NUMBER OF SHIPS:
50 seaworthy merchant vessels
20 seaworthy military vessels
HISTORY OF CITY:
Tria Akris formed centuries ago as a religious site surrounding the temple of a thunder deity, named Haddar. It enjoyed prosperity for many years as a center for worship and a neutral zone for the many warring Akrisian tribes that lived in the mountains. It soon became overtaken by secular functions as a confederation of mountain tribes was established with Tria Akris as its capital. The confederation was formed largely through marriage and diplomacy, but partly through conquests largely headed by kings of the Khartamoi tribe. After decades of consolidation, a second era, headed by Hadassoi kings, refined and formalized the institutions that had led to the success of earlier kings, including the enclave system, meritocratic bureaucracy, and road network. The confederation's internal bonds were strengthened by the emergence of these powerful institutions, and came to function more and more as a single entity rather than a loose confederation of tribes. This pre-Telenian golden age came to the end when Akrisian civilization began to seep out of the mountains. The Akrisians both plagued the early Telenian city states in Eastern Sidonia and served as mercenaries for their wars. Hadassoi kings grew less popular as they forsook Akrisian traditions for Telenian for diplomatic gain or as a consequence of military defeat, with one Telenian exhibition to pacify the mountains succeeding in toppling the reigning king but failing to hold the territory or even escape the mountains alive.
Although many Akrisians voiced their displeasure at the gradual loss of their ways, many embraced Telenian ways and adopted their customs and even language. The final king of the Hadassoi-dominated period, Mekhage, demanded his entire court adopt the Telenian language and adopted a Telenian name for himself, Meleager. His reforms were widely unpopular and only adopted under threat of punishment. While unpopular as a king, Meleager was quite competent and held onto rule despite repeated attempts to oust him from the throne. When Meleager died, it was not political intrigue that killed him, but instead a case of dysentery. He was succeeded by the first of many Sarissoi kings, Ager, who, unexpectedly, took the Telenian name Agis and did not reverse Meleager's reforms. Agis began a tradition of Sarissoi political balancing; embracing Telenian culture for practical purposes of trade and politics, while satisfying the traditional elite by preserving pre-Telenian institutions and appeasement by granting larger shares of enclaves and battle loot to compliant noble houses.
Now, Tria Akris is a 'Telenized' city-state, speaking its own peculiar dialect of the Telenian. While its people are still seen as barbarous and its warriors seen as greedy mercenaries, it has its own mathematicians and philosophers that are very much part of the mainstream Telenian discourse. Its kings, still often elected from the Sarissoi tribe, make every effort to prove that they are Telenian, through massive displays of piety and constant renovations and construction of shrines and temples. It's citizens see themselves as Telenian, and although they speak differently than their 'cousins', they practice many of the same traditions. However, in all of these practices, many true Telenian's will notice a distinctive Akrisian character to their behavior.
#OIAF app - DO NOT DELETE
by Former Citizens of the Nimbus System » Mon Feb 18, 2019 1:57 am
BettaMin wrote:CITY NAME: Tria Akris, or Akris
POPULATION: (max. 1,000,000 at a stretch)
800,000, of which 550,000 are non-citizen residents of the city's low altitude enclaves.
#OIAF app - DO NOT DELETE
by BettaMin » Mon Feb 18, 2019 2:13 am
Former Citizens of the Nimbus System wrote:BettaMin wrote:CITY NAME: Tria Akris, or Akris
POPULATION: (max. 1,000,000 at a stretch)
800,000, of which 550,000 are non-citizen residents of the city's low altitude enclaves.
#OIAF app - DO NOT DELETE
Hmm... Somebody's taking on non-Telenian cultural elements to justify a high population, methinks... No judgement; makes a lot of sense! In all seriousness, though, 800,000 is very high for a city at this time; Rome (very, very much the exception rather than the rule) at its peak had 1,000,000 and that was fuelled by half a millennium of conquest and only sustained by constant grain imports from North Africa. Might want to revise it down a little. (Not the OP; just know a little about ancient history.)
I should get around to making my next post. Will focus on the Hetairoi's deliberations around the potential dragonic threat; that way I can justify actually sending out missives to my fellow poleis.
by Former Citizens of the Nimbus System » Mon Feb 18, 2019 2:33 am
BettaMin wrote:Former Citizens of the Nimbus System wrote:Hmm... Somebody's taking on non-Telenian cultural elements to justify a high population, methinks... No judgement; makes a lot of sense! In all seriousness, though, 800,000 is very high for a city at this time; Rome (very, very much the exception rather than the rule) at its peak had 1,000,000 and that was fuelled by half a millennium of conquest and only sustained by constant grain imports from North Africa. Might want to revise it down a little. (Not the OP; just know a little about ancient history.)
I should get around to making my next post. Will focus on the Hetairoi's deliberations around the potential dragonic threat; that way I can justify actually sending out missives to my fellow poleis.
Nope, that’s sound advice. I just took a look at the first few city states I clicked from the list and saw about 700,000 with the first few. Just to clarify; the urban population is 150,000, with 550,000 being rural or concentrated in enclaves through out the mountains - in effect, colonies, but over land. If that’s a bit high, though, I’m 100% willing to drop it down! I can take a look tomorrow, and likely lower down the population of the enclaves.
Whole cultural concept is basically hellenized Thracians.
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