No, respect what was on the site but outdated entries like those - or mine - were written in a different context than the Santharian world is today so sticking to outdated ideas even if the concept might not be applicable or doesn't have the ring anymore just causes further headaches. As I said there's plenty of room to make a nod or hommage to the original concept without being worn down by it.

How about making the orcish blood a Santharian "scientific" theory because these weird humans exhibit characteristics of orcs, have a green tint in their skin and because of said elven blood pointish ears?  Imo would be more interesting to elevate them to a unique culture which suffers from getting a hack job by Santharian intellectuals trying to shove them into categories Santharians would find logic but actually fall short of the truth (a bit like 19th century "racescientists" who designated Asians and American Indians yellow and red people respectively because some of them favoured these colors and might have used bodypaint).

For the elves I would make vague pointers to a lower elven kind. The Kaýr are technically only the Lightelves and their woodelf followers in the Emerald forests. They are kind of unlikely to do any searfaring adventures. They also developed out of other elven tribes. Overall the thing me and Smith tried to accomplish was that the tribes and nations developed overtime so I think at the dawn of time there is only a fuzzy concept about Nybelmarian elves scattered about and only latter more defined structures start to appear as groups unite or split up. Don't know how far that development continued after my departure though.

Similarily I'd only suggest that the Santerrans share blood relations with the settlers of R'unor but at that time Santerrans didn't really exist as they only differentiated from the people inhabiting the southeastern coast much later. They might originate from the same spot but after several thousand years those origins would still have caused very different outcome. Maybe the R'unorian being a matriachat is a sign of that since the Santerrans are technically, too (priesthood all female and technically above kings in the pecking order)


Overall I'd include more fuzzy guessing by not so scientitic scientists. The overarching aim should be the fleshing out of R'unor as its own distinct culture. Overall I don't think definite calls on what is what actually would fit the mood.  However wild guesses trying to explain a weird or foreign culture,... we know that humans do that all the time. Maybe even put more of their past into a foggy mystery.

Maybe void influences actually change the distance or makeup of the oceans around R'unor physically changing the travel distance between R'unor and other places on a more random basis than actual continental shift?

Just a couple of thoughts. Maybe other Nybelmarians have a bigger grasp on the current  genealogy of tribes. I just remembered that I once put together a vague family tree for elves and the Kaýr were just a result of that and not the actual beginning.

I think this was an idea to replace the dreadnaught ships described in the navy and make them more different. That and because R'unor has a turtle as coat of arms.

Just taking a peak.

The Gob-oc are kind of meant as the glue between Santharia and Northern Sarvonia with the main reason being Santharian heroes constantly  bering refered to slaying Orcs but not a single major orc tribe who can pose a threat living south of the Tandalas. They'd be kind of the reason that can actually happened in the Northern half of Santharia without anything major happening in northern Sarvonia to cause a great migration.

I otherwise think that overall the number of orc tribes is pretty clean. There is only the Ashz-oc and Losh-oc who are squeezed into a narrow area, the rest occupies large and not so defined areas of Sarvonia.


Maybe look for underground/miner sounding name instead of legion. Similarily division. That term is a bit too common. Maybe have them identify themselves by den, cavern, mountain where a group of them has their central settlement. Doesn't mean they cannot be sophisticated or smart about it, just that these words invoke a very specific feel to it.

Anyway, have fun!

R'unor needed a rewrite for years. I think even the location of the islands got moved around alot until they ended up north of Nybelmar between Akdor and Nybelmar. I'd suggest to extrapolate from the mannerisms but redevelop the actual tribes. The basics of it are based on a version of Santharia just as many years ago and plenty of things have changed.

E.g. the whole orcish thing is mainly based on them being partly greenskinned so instead of a fact one could make this an explanation and all similarities are actually just their ethnic traits developed in an entirely isolated area. Downgrade tribes to clans/families/houses etc.

Overall the concept of them was that of a fantastical seagoing people who ride huge turtles in place of ships, tamed flying bugs instead of Gryphons and they live on strange islands where things are really, really weird. I'd blame it on the islands being in a area of void influence or some such (maybe them theoretically being pushed into this world through the void in a cataclystic event, don't know the current state on void physics though). I think otherwise some basic idea was just that them and the Santerrans make seagoing in the western sea a bit risky and that those two nations consider themselves the big naval players and have a big rivalry.

Overall imo the basic essence of that place was supposed to be is that it is as fantastic and surreal to Santharians as Santharia is to us, even for Nybelmarians R'unor should be very strange.

Is the blade length of 1 palmspan intentional (=10 centimetres or 3 inches)?

Any table knife would have a longer blade, any hunting or worker's knife would have a hugely longer blade making this kind of a pointless weapon to have (when any tool in the kitchen or places would give you more range and lethality). Defending with this weapon seems fingerchopping risky. I wouldn't dare guard with this. A knife for woodcutting or the hunt would be easily in excess of 3 palmspans.

I would consider making it 2 to 4 times longer so it would make more sense as an explicit self defense and status weapon (for anything else an actual knife would be as effective). Just consider the length of a kitchen jbife for meat cutting.

As for the naming I'd reconsider the knife as in medieval times a knife was simply a onesided blade and weapons like the "Lange Messer" (long knife) or the dussak were called knives although they had the proportion of swords.

From the description the weapon remindes me very much of the Germanic seax (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seax) which was in used in the early middle ages/ dark ages and was essentially a knife developed into a weapon for status and protection (and as tool by woodsmen and hunters). Here the blade length would also rather increase as its purpose became more warlike. First rule of war or lethal combat: Wack the enemy over the head before he can reach you (that's incidently one reason why rapiers became stupidly long overtime). The premise is always to protect oneself as good as possible from the opponent. Easiest method is having longer reach because a grappeling fight is a pretty risky business injury-wise while slashing someone with a longsword (or even better halberd) is not.

The length derivation might actually indicate wealth and status as the commoners have the short tool version while the richer folk afford a specialized weapon with longer blade.

Just food for thought.

neat. I suck at landscapes. Maybe you should tone down the blacks in the dune shadows though. This kind of hard dark shadows kind of betrays the flowing and wavy character of dunes and in nature ambient lighting does normally prevent too dark corners and shadows.

Other than that I liked the blue sky more because it is equally more fitting to a desert scenery but that's a question of taste.

The small people on the dune is a clever trick to get everything into perspective, it was a bit unclear in the first versions...

Regards!

I'm only a lurker now but I think I wrote the "Order of the Fallen", "Order of Armeros" and "Order of the White Knights". I think the main idea was to have some system that helps a confederate Santharia without ignoring its patched up appearance of different cultures and races.

In terms of knights it is thus mainly a kind of sanctioned warrior and this happens by joining an accepted order. I think the main problem is the orders are entirely different entities.
A Knight of the Fallen would probably be the closest to a knight within a feudal contract.
A Knight of the White order would be the closest to a Warrior Monk like knights of the crusader orders (templars, Johannies, Maltese, German order).
A Knight of Armeros probably fits most the idea of RPG style knights who are wandering warriors hunting monsters and fighting evil without many ties to anything but their "guild".

And then there probably all the other ones and changes I have not seen.

In essence you become nominally a knight by joining one of the orders but you joining an order can work quite differently. As a knight of Armeros you just need to become the squire of one to have a shot at it/ join the temple, a knight of the Fallen has probably to be a descendant or a designated member of one of the lords of the demenses, as a white knight you have to be accepted by one of the monasteries and master all the lessons and teachings like a monk.

I'd guess that thus there are already inherently different reputations associated with all that. A knight of Armeros would be a welcomed sight by any village but they would be simply in awe if a White Knight comes along simply because the former are more numerous and poorer while the latters appear rarer and because of their clerical training appear more noble (not from this world). Similarily a knight of the Fallen would carry the clout of a powerful and sometimes ruthless political body with it (he'd carry the respect with him for what he does in the border lands but you'd be wellserved to wonder what he wants with you or your village).


In essence I think the basic premise is that it works the other way around you expect. You can be designated a "knight" from very different backgrounds. The term is associated with you belonging to an organization which has the privileges associated with it that their members can carry this title, not because these organizations have much in common with each other (e.g. the Order of the Fallen and probably Seyella have territorial considerations concerning their interests while Armeros and the White Knights are more "international"/"cosmopolitan"). Training, upbringing and way of life would be entirely different and they'd still be all called knights because they are professional warriors allowed this title via the relations of their order with the Santhran.


I'd suggest to work in conjunction of a certain order instead of a general entry. The latter should actually only contain the relation of why who might be called a knight and that it's quite different from the real European middle ages.

Well, the blending is to black so "white" is essentiall transparent though I thought as the heraldic color is "silver" the grayish shading is more interesting than a real blend to white which would soak up any details (like black does).

I might give a small update the coming week. Still get to do some other stuff (apart from work!)

Did some small tweaking to the upload / generation process. When you click the submit button you now receive some response what the script is currently up to and when the job is finished you get a small thumbnail below the submit button which lets you download the picture that way instead of Flash messily trying to open a new window. This way you can see the last 5 coat of arms you made.

Additionally I added thumbnail generation so your browser doesn't have to load the large files all the time.

So,... back to the CMS...

Hello,

thanks for the feedback and bughunting - though I have no idea how to fix those at this point as I use the Flash feature itself which seemingly doesn't get destroyed properly. There is a scrollbar under the symbols (green knob under items) but it is rather subtle.

My main focus at this point is to get the rest of the site running aka set up a CMS system so I can add more content and information easily.
The next would be to add more elements to use which would go from common / historic to exotic so I'm not sure when I can get to the ideas and request when not even half of the common medieval beasts are done in a fitting and consistent quality. Content I plan to add with highest priority: Chevron, Phoenix, Horse, Dolphin, Swan, Fish.
It is a continuous development to get more stuff up overtime. At some point I'll have to rework the load sheme and topic organization because it can get quite a lot, e.g. in herady any animal can appear in several poses or as a bust. My guideline for priorities is: Can I cover most of the wellknown Coat of Arms or what elements do they have? I think with some additional stuff the combination of things will allow many individual concepts and ideas fitting for Santharia.

E.g. Ximax and some other places might have their coat of arms planned out but in theory it now would be very easy to add heraldic shields to any town, barony, duchy etc. and heck Coat of Arms changed constantly overtime to visualize political statements or social status.

Custom Image upload is kind of a problem because I work with Flash inherent vector graphics and converting some random user added image would be very difficult (and I have the concern that at some point some idiot decides it to be funny to upload a swastika and recreate a Nazi themes or pornographic stuff or something). Without that feature I retain better quality and control over the whole thing which limits it a bit, but possibly avoids problems. Maybe it will be some advanced feature down the road.

Copy/duplicate function is probably highest on my current feature list and some highlightmode probably would be helpful as well.
Other things I may include: center the element if it has gone out of the image and reset it in scaling and maybe a rotation mode



@Deklitch : Didn't think of schools. I'll have to add some more detailled legal disclaimer somewhere to make it things clear though my general rule is simply that if I give my stuff away for free it only extends to people who don't make a profit out of it (If they want to make money with it: Be my guests. They just have to pay me! ).



So have fun and stay tuned!

Hello, just snooping around but wanted to say that most of your points concerning the Kayr are points I wanted them to go as well essepcially with the division of their tribe and their goals and agendas. I kinda envisioned their cities to be like overgrown Maya cities nearly completely overgrown by plantlife with the difference being that the growth is tended to in such a way that the cities and their stone palaces remain fully functional.

It is probably important to note that given Nybelmar's distant past the Kayrrhém were already at an early age intermingled with more down to Earth woodelves (who however thrived and adopted their culture) given that their forests were some of the last refugees on the continent at the War of the Chosen. The rifts partly stem fromt this ethnic divide of immortal / near immortal lightelves and more common "less pure" grayelves so to speak. The lightelves would always have been more isolationists but left this behind till the Second Shadow War and the break up of the nation which absorbed all their other resources (thus the Korweynites seemingly taking over as the idealistic power), the grayelves would be more pragmatic and the natural social structure would make the more longliving elves be on top as mentors and advisors while the shorter lived ones were lower in the structure.

Concerning magic I guess they would "instinctively" add magic to all their works though it thus would have often just some subtle effect (harder steel, finer sculptures, nicer clothes, more shiny jewlry)


I would suggest to check out the Korweynite Aseya faith which is based on an "Avarian" world order where the Korweynites think they are meant to fulfill the dream through their actions. Overall they interpret things from a philosophical / intellectual point first, nature and its forces second (can be seen their choice of gods which are all more or less gods of concepts, not natural forces like the Twelve). They got to get such ideas from someone so if some relationship could be established between the two it would be great (though the humans can obviously get it wrong)!


Why should they be wrong? It's their interpretation of their role in the world and they are supposed to be among the longestliving and oldest elven tribes aside of the Astyrhim. It is intentionally hinted that they lived separately from them because they didn't believe in what the Astyrhim believed. The difference and trouble for them compared to the Astyrhim is that they got involved into the everyday affairs of the world and thus are bound to have more conflict about how to do things the right way.

I wouldn't forgo the possibility that they are wrong but I would not think of it as a negative aspect. Virtually everyone has preconceptions and define themselves via certain worldviews. The idea of the twelve is pretty strange to most in Nybelmar. They certainly do not perceive Santharia as the morale center of the world etc.


Just some food for thought, have fun!

Hrmph, the Korweynites would have the head of such an heretic opinion...

Hello, Coren. I think it would be interesting to put Kreán religion alongside the Korweynite Aseyan and Murmillion faith as the third large, historic culture in Nybelmar. Maybe Smith could give some input. It would help to shape a bigger picture.

The both aforementioned nations essentially based their whole being into the fulfillment of religious prophecy and the supremacy of their faith over others (wiping the floor with each other in the process). The Korweynites think they have to do good because otherwise their gods will fail creating a paradise, the Murmillion think reality is humbug anyway.

How and why the Kreán came to their opinion would thus be quite interesting (maybe tied in pieces and basic myths into the backstory of Nybelmar with Memnon and this mystical bloody times before history). It's rather nihilistic if they think they can't do anything about what the gods might do and don't care to. Incidently this is the fundamental difference between ancient polytheism and "modern" religions.

Ok, thanks, now I'm understanding it better. I'm however afraid that this works as intended though it didn't work this time. Can't hurt to make the judges think about the consquences and reasoning of their decisions a little longer.

Hello Art, I tried to read through all the various stuff but the main aspect still confuses me: He is currently in limbo between an appeal and his former conviction or has his appeal succeeded?

The Former seems a rather difficult thing to judge without intimate knowledge of how the law works here because technically the conviction might not be in effect until after the appeal has been deemed unjustified because otherwise a theoretically innocent person might be punished although the appeal hints at the possibility of errors in the conviction. I'm not a legal expert.