so we have this country Maoria, noone knows anything about it, it has nothing, it isnt doing anything. Why not let some enterprising generaly borde individual (PICK ME PICK ME) turn it into the elven lands of exile or whatever it was they went to when they left at the end of RotK (Note this would tie in nicely with Rohan). Seriously I like creating ships and stuff, and it would give the place some Flavor(I thought of this thinking about the broken sword of the King btw)
The IDea of Elves Hideing out somewhere with gleaming silver ships just kind of apeals to me ok.
Maoria is still mystery, but it should remain a human population, likely based on the historical Maori for at least part of the culture or ethical background of the continent.
Legends on the other hand...that is a different story.
Maoria was designed to give a person with a bit of creativity a place to form a new country unbound by the needs the known world. It was limited to rules of nature and rules of the planet. The people had to be human. The technology could not be wildly different from the European and Asian standards of the time period (that is not to say the they might not have gone off on different tangents of technology that are practical and possible). They were limited by the moderators limitations on population and industry, as well as practicallity of their military given their seeming lack of interest in the recent Pacific War, the fact they they were not conquored by the Europeans (though not necessarily on their own merit. They may have been helped.) Their forces are assumed to be of a defense minded people rather than a conquoring force. It assumes they are either isolationistic, or just not all that important outside of normal trade with the other Pacifc powers. However a lot of this is up to whomever actually decides to play this nation.
There has been talk of reducing or elimating the continent altogether (by the more realistic world minded) while other would rather it stay as a counter of sorts for the equally fantasy countries like New Switzerland and Rohan. (More so New Switzerland if the merger with Japan follows through).
If we allow Maoria as a largish Pacific power, then the backround has to be "Maorian".
Ok very long lived Humans of Maorian decent with pointy ears that they hide by always wearing funny hats. see I can work with that
Actualy when I joind I thought it was mod island or somthing... you know Behave or the Maorians will get you.
Still if I remember corectly I asked about Maoria, and Italia because they were the 2 largest unclaimed powers.
It has been suggested that a mod take over Maoria. The idea behind the continent was to have a place someone who didn't want a "standard" country could make something reasonable up.
But France is the original "Mod Island". Rohan seems to have become a secondary somehow, though I think I try to play it as a player nation, not a mod run nation.
LOL well Im well into Italia now, although a non standard people would have greatly apeald to my sence of creativity when I was starting. come on a average life span of 120 years wouldnt be to teribly out of line, with legends that they used to live for thousands, High Cheak bones, almond shaped Eyes, these things arnt that out there. A language that only they understood (notes that some rhoan priests might understand it as some version of elvish much the Way amarican english can be recognised as english but heavily evolved) I could have had a blast with that I still could if there was someone to take over my Italia, heck i wouldnt even mind runing 2 countries.
They could even have a built in hatered for the Eye much like Rohan, just not have knowlage of it ever returning (remember they lost their magic)
The English would call American usage of English devolved is I remember my trip to Scotland correctly. Though many American would say that the English can't speak English "correctly" with all the various accents they have for such a small island (in comparison to several American States that is).
but you get the jist of my idea, heck i even came up with a sort of explination for mithril... Stainles steel
and yes I get that all the time im dating a brit living in the US
I'm not opposed to Maoria existing as a PC state or a vaguely defined hermit-like NPC state. I'm not opposed to them being a relatively unique "race" within the human species, provided the differences are largely superficial - pigmentation, eye shape, etc.
I am strongly opposed to anybody playing more than one nation, however. My experience suggests that players have difficulty playing them as truly separate entities; most often, they wind up as allied states. Even if this is not the case, the appearance that this might be the case prejudices other players' interaction with the states.
I know I wouldnt get to play them lol, but it could be fun to flesh out ya know
Understood - but we'll have a better chance of attracting a player for it if he or she has a blank canvas on which to paint their vision of the place.
the most interesting thing about the lord of the rings series is it was writen to give a home to the elves, or more specificly the elvish language which Tolken a linguist had writen.
True, but if one follows the source material, the "straight road" would imply the elven lands to the west are not on Middle Earth, but in space someplace, so that Man cannot go their by ship. This seems to be the literal explaination as when man violated the realm of the gods (and elves) the world was "bent". Thus, at least on some maps the world is flat in the First and part of the Second Age, and then made bent (round) during the Second Age.
As for the language...it would require someone who is a linguist to handle Tolkien's languages properly. I have a hard enough time trying to dig up Old English from time to time to simulate Rohirric and Old Westron. The best I can do normally is make a style of sentance structure that is not quite normal English and get a few different patterns to things, such as using suffixes rather than prefixes on the warships (which I still don't use much) and generally stating titles after a name rather than before a name. (based mostly on the tendancy to call him Theoden King, rather than King Theoden).
Hopefully we may get someone creative (who doesn't already have a country) to make us an interesting Maoria.
actualy I might be able to help you let me look see if the site is still there (I used to have a site that would convert english into old english) it was rether tempermental but it was fun to play with
Maoria will be kept NPC for the while. Even the mods are not in an agreement what to do with it. I advocate deleting it, others say no.
Would be a shame to delete something with so many possibilities.
I, for one, hope it will stay.
Perhaps a popular vote could be taken in this thread to lay the issue to rest?
Give us three options:
Keep
Downsize
Remove
Im for Keep it lol
Keep, but I'm biased since I more or less put it there.
Navalism isn't a democracy. But we can coat it with sugar.
Then just vote amongst the mods and let us know. I don't care either way, but a definitive answer would be nice.
While not a democracy, it is always good to know what the people think.
Not even wort autocracy can rule in direct opposition of the people.
As for maori: Remove, or at least reduce I think. We do not need more fantasy geography, and it would be better to make sure the countries that is already in and started get players (Ukraine, Bavaria and Turkey is the main ones i am thinking of).
Honestly i do not see much point in the place, it is really too far away from anything to make much of a counterbalance to anyone, and making maps and charts over fantasyland is time consuming.
Related, I think that anyone that have fantasy terrain relay got to make some detailed maps over it, as that was one thing that created confusion in the last war.