Talk:Pian en Luries

Suggestion: Leaders, Past and Present

What do you think about further documenting the leaders of Pian en Luries over the time of its existence? This would be an extension of the history that has already been added on the page. Except the history on the page, only mentions leaders up to a certain time, and history up to a certain time.

What this would do is document the history of Pian's government positions. Each position would have a list of who all held the position in chronological order along with any other relevant details that could be added. This could include anything special concerning their gain or loss of the position, along with any special achievements during their tenure, and perhaps length the office was held?

Perhaps on the page of Pian en Luries there could just be a link to the page holding the list of government members past and present. It could read: "Historical Government Members" or something similar. This second page would list all of the government members for each in chronological order. Then perhaps each individual name could link to a subpage of that page, where the individual achievements of each(examples given above) could be listed.

Its not too late to get the information for everything from the beginning of Pian en Luries, if started now then it could be continued throughout the history of the realm.

Anyway, just an idea, I don't have all the information or even close, or the skill with a wiki to implement it all but I think it would be a nice addition for the history of a realm that is one of the 4 founding realms of Dwilight.

(perhaps something similar to the one that Morek has done: http://wiki.battlemaster.org/wiki/Morek/Histories )

Silverfire 00:19, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

New Discussion

Providing Pian en Luries with a medieval flavour: what, how, why. List below, please title each new idea.

Climate

Pian en Luries is located around the south of the map. Assuming that the world of Battlemaster has a similar inclination to Earth, then the south is generally warmer the other areas. In addition, coastal areas, especially those surrounding a sea, are fairly humid. The "Desert of Silhouettes" and the "Palm Sea" also give credence to the idea of a hot climate.

As such, we could consider Pian en Luries to have a warm, humid climate. With two deserts to the north and the south, one could expect the climate to remain as warm, but get progressively drier.

Given the lack of actual forest regions, there can't be an outright jungle. However, Orz and Poryatown do produce wood, and could be considered to have some substantially forested areas.

A hot and humid climate would have an impact on the clothing worn by the characters, however. How would this be accomodated? Any questions, comments and suggestions would be appreciated.

--RubyDragon 02:06, 17 August 2008 (CEST)

• Seems like a good idea to me. Would certainly go a long way to starting give our realm more of a unique feel. A good start.

--Silverfire 02:14, 17 August 2008 (CEST)

• A climate much like Spain's wouldn't be far wrong, then; perhaps slightly hotter even. In any case, Spain was a chivalrous place, so we can probably get some ideas for culture/clothing from its medieval version.

--Hroppa 10:01, 17 August 2008 (CEST)

• As I mentioned in the original IRC discussion, a climate like Egypt´s might be more appropriate IMO (we are, after all, surrounded by desert with some arable land). As for the wood, I wouldn´t try and RP a jungle (if there is one, it should be on the map) and Orz and Poryatown is a bit of a stretch. It might be better it assume that - at least in the case of Poryatown, which is a coastal city - it gets imported. As for clothing, maybe a local specialty could be silk clothing or similar?

--The1exile 12:31, 17 August 2008 (CEST)

• By my understanding, Egypt was arable only due to the yearly flooding of the Nile. Even if there were a river running through Pian en Luries, I think we're far too big and sprawling for it to be the sole source of life for our people. I would look more toward the southern US and Central America for inspiration, for they have much more variety in their biota. :--Anaris 15:49, 17 August 2008 (CEST)

• Have you considered having a sort of rainy season? It's easy to assume the locals would have setup some sort of system to capture and control the floods caused by this to create a sort of year long greenery to the region, much like how the Egyptians damned the Nile to control the floods. From this you could say that instead of snow falling during the winter, it's an excess of rain, which would cause much the same travel problems as snow. As the roads would dry out, the travel would be easier until around autumn, when rains from the east would start picking up again.

Given how the grasslands are laid out it's easy to assume that most of these storms would make landfall and pour until they eventually dissipated completely out in the badlands. This would explain why the areas along the coasts around Askileon and Giask are green, as well as the rest of the Fissoa island excluding the Palm Sea--it's too inland--and this would also explain the Desert of Silhouettes and the badlands.

This engineering feat of man-made water pools and drainage ditches and whatnot would of course add some flavour to the local cities. Aqueducts for instance, probably wouldn't be too uncommon in some variety or another. Maybe advanced sewer systems in some of them. If the Greeks and Romans could do it, why not a later civilization?

--Kag 06:44, 18 August 2008 (CEST)

• I really like that idea. Explains the climate, adds a very clear sense of scenery and gives us ideas for our realm's architecture. The buildings would tend to have heavily slanted roofs, with grooves to channel the water down into drainage ditches/gutters/aqueducts. It could be quite artistic :-) As for clothing, I guess that it would vary heavily by the time of year; colourful silks/fine clothes for most of the year, and heavy poncho-ish coats during the wet season, with pointy hats to keep the water off your head.

The only real problem is that no farming occurs in winter... but I spose we could say that that was because they were all too busy digging the ditches which allowed for better harvests in other times.

--Hroppa 11:25, 18 August 2008 (CEST)

• I enjoy the egyptianish scenario, but, something doesn't fit. Is there humid climate without lots of vegetation? I think that Egypt might have hot and humid during the flooding season, but it is probably hot and dry the rest of the year... So perhaps people store water underground for the dry time, and use the aqueduct systems and whatnot for adding humidity to their houses (say, every house has even that a small basin inside with a manual water wheel, while large houses have ponds and such), and of course, water for the daily use. The hats for the rains season could be pointy or not (they are usually round, here), but the important thing is to make them with a reasonably large flap, that'll keep the water off people's faces and even protect most of the shoulder... Like straw hats. Somewhat noble-like straw hat Also, something heavily used in architecture to protect from heat are porches. Also, look here for an inspirational image of Nile river :)

--Ta|i 17:40, 18 August 2008 (CEST)

• What, you think round hats are cooler than pointy hats? Sheesh... ;-) Manual water wheels in every house sound a bit much, but perhaps all of the water is channeled down into wells, for storage? Heat and rain related architectural influences sound good to me, but I think we need to move on from just our climate. What other influences are there on Pian culture? Anything we can draw on from the natives? Considering that we have quite a lot of water around us, I think it would make sense for fishing/boats to be a large part of Pian.

--Hroppa 13:54, 19 August 2008 (CEST)

So then, to summarize:

1. Winter occurs as a flood, or rainy season. A mix between the Nile flooding and Monsoon rains. The large amount of flooding and mud would obstruct travel and drown away crops.
2. The rest of the year, rains are infrequent?
   1. Would it be too much to expect people to acquire enough water from the rains to last out the rest of the year? Presumably, other than the inner sea, the lake and the rains, there are few other sources of water.
   2. What about the potability of the water? The "inner sea" seems to be linked to the ocean (which is presumably salty) from both ends. To make things easier, I would assume that it drains into the ocean from both ends.
3. In order to cope with winter, a large number of waterworks have been built: aqueducts, dikes, irrigation ditches, dams and storage wells. There might be a communal storage well for each village, whereas larger cities would have multiple wells located throughout their districts.
   1. With such abundant waterworks, would there not be channels placed to help transport heavy loads quickly? Evidently, these would be disrupted during winter, with the flooding and varying water levels.
4. Clothing: Pointy hats with wide brims to keep off the rain during the rainy season, and to use for shade during the hot season (sombrero?). A large, draping cloth, to ward off the rains (poncho?).
5. Flora: I would assume that there aren't too many trees; short-lived, fast growing plants would be more common.
   1. Suggestions on more specific examples of flora?
6. Architecture: From what I've read on Wikipedia, there's two main forms of roofing -- thatching and slates. I don't know about the building material though. Is stone common? From the regions in the realm, it isn't, although we could have quarries from the mountains to the north. There could be clay or thatching, which I believe is also used for buildings. Wood seems unlikely.
   1. What kind of roofing would be preferred? Thatching could be reeds, wheat, hay or somesuch. Slates could be wood, stones or metal. I'd be inclined to say that most houses use thatching, if only because the materials would be more abundant -- see Flora.
7. Food: What kind of crops would be the staple food for most of the population? Suggestions would be welcome.

--RubyDragon 00:54, 8 September 2008 (CEST)

Regarding water and topology, consider the following:

• Natural Springs
• an underground lake
• Karst

--Tinsley 05:11, 8 September 2008 (CEST)

Hmm, my thoughts in order.

1. Sounds good
2. Rains are light perhaps? And Inner Sea is Fresh Water
3. Waterworks sound reasonable, especially if they stemmed from each city
4. Poncho's yes. Sombreros NO?
5. Short lived plants definitely.
6. No clue
7. Food= Rice perhaps. It depends on flooded waters and such.

Silverfire 02:15, 11 September 2008 (CEST)

Courtly Ducal Conflicts

I like the idea of a medieval French culture focused around court intrigues. We've got the makings of a ducal power struggle (unless Dio and Alanna completely assert their rule after the rebellion, hehe), and this could revolve around the 3 cities. Struggles over region lords' allegiances would be commonplace, there'd be oneupmanship in the form of tournaments, and so on. Of course, right now most lords will join whoever can best fight off the monsters. --Hroppa 00:33, 20 July 2008 (CEST)

Old Discussion

The below occurred prior to Pian en Luries's establishment on Dwilight.

Ideas

First

Though I suppose you can ooc ban your way to maintaining the french flavour, the second part of the idea is unworkable, because power struggles cannot be engineered. First, power struggles can only really be prolonged in underpopulated realms, where you have no choice but to keep your foes until the very end, even though you know they are plotting a rebellion. The second reason is that you simply can't "plan" these things ahead, as I don't think you are gonna pick every lord and pre-decide the ruler... If the ruler or the dukes aren't ambitious, you can't do anything about it. Also, the king appoints the dukes, so in the end, even if it did start right, it's not durable.

• I actually like the idea for a french or arthurian style place with lots of tournaments added in. And have actually deleted to make room for two characters to come here. Marie Euphrasia le Fois and Philippe Daemon le Fois.

Second

This one has much more merit. Pian en Luries starts in a pretty isolated stretch of land, with multiple sizeable cities left rogue around. As for the culture, well, you can't pre-decide that, it's all up to the players. The only way to plan a culture is to make sure you gather enough people who want that said culture and settle up there with them.

Just my thoughs. -Chénier 21:43, 14 January 2008 (CET)

Commentary

Not to rain on the parade or anything, but from a cynical POV there isn't much out there that hasn't been done at least once before; if not in history, then in fiction. No matter what you come up with, it's likely someone's going to say "Hey, that's JUST like X" where X is either a fictional culture, a historical culture, a present culture or a proposed future culture (eg. transhumanism).

Personally, I plan on showing up for the time being (until Bannable's Dwilania idea gathers enough momentum) and RPing a semi-cultured northern hordesman noble with a pet wolverine (yes, it may get me banned, but I would figure more for the blatant link to badgers then people going "hey, no mutants!"). I think it'd be interesting to play such in a refined court like P&L is implied to be. -Baatarsaikhan 04:59, 15 January 2008 (CET)