Some of my Cultures/civilizations

[Alex97]

Just wanted some general feedback on the main civilization I've created. I made a topic like this a while back but this is a bit more finalised. The civilization is based mainly on Ancient Greece with other influences mainly in the government. If there is interest I will make topics looking at each city state closer ot other civilizations.

Ellasian League
A very old (hundreds of years) alliance between the city states of Ellasia. The city states maintain their independance but help eachother militarily and trade. They are as follows:

Lysanda - Warrior city state much like Sparta. Ruled by a king, small council and assembly. All men are full time soldiers leaving the women, retired men and some foreiners to run the city and its land. The city is located to the north in the hills and is surrounded by mountians. They have ownership of the the Western Plains which is where most food is grown and the cavalry come from. Their army's strength comes from there superior infantry.

Elektonia - Most powerful city state run by a rebublic based on Ancient Rome and Carthage. It is located in the centre of Ellasia on the Eastern side of the river Midassa. Their strenght lyes with their immense wealth and large army and navy. They have ownership of the Eastern plains.

Tryfan - Oldest city ruled by a king to the South on the coast and near to the river Midassa. A rich trading city with a lot of tradition, they're based on Athens and the minoans. They have a strong navy and good archers and marines.

Nagborsk - Northenmost city in Ellasia ruled by a king. Has strong links with the Brax. They are well known for their axemen.

Derenthia - Easternmost city in Ellasia run by a rebublic. The city has been destroyed and rebuilt three times. They are well known as being very loyal to Elektonia.

Thanks for any feedback in advance

 

[Fluffypoodel]

Sounds pretty interesting! From the sounds of it you have studied the time period surrounding the Peloponeasian (sorry if that is not spelled right) War. If not then you should look into it. I think that with basing a fantasy culture firmly in a real world grounding you can open yourself up to a realistic story without having it classified as historical fiction. That being said there is still a lot that you can take out of history to improve your story. The city states of Greece have a very rich history of alliances and betrayal that can really add to the action and drama of your story. Something that you might want to look into is the sequence of events that occur before and after the Peloponeasian war, specifically the rise of Sparta at the end of the war, the Theban Wars that broke out between Sparta and Thebes and later the Macedonian conquest that put Greece under the thumb of Macedon after the Greek city states had warred themselves silly. Another thing that you night want to consider is what is holding your city states together. Trade is one thing but I think that it is the military aspect that is most important here, For the Greeks it was the threat of being swallowed up by the Persians that held them together in a defensive aspect. offensively we can look into mythology and examine the Trojan War and see how that unity worked out. Looks like you have things well in had though. Good luck.

 

[Alex97]

Thanks for the great feedback.

I have indeed drawn infomation from the peloponnesian war and other Greek history. Ellasia is constantly threatned by invasion from a civilization called the Grajiants who are much like Persia - I'll post about them later. They also have the Brax to worry about in the North who they sometimes trade with, but its a shaky relationship. There's a mythological story to the formation of the league as well but that's for another time unless anyone is interested.

 

[Cinder]

Now you have the basic outlines for each civilisation, you could look at things like

- Who runs each civilisation?

- A brief history of how the civ. was founded and how it became what it is today.

- Individualising each civilisation. Do they have "sigils"? Special symbols? Differing religions? Things like how you mentioned one of them being known for their axemen

I definitely get a Peloponnesian (I studied it for a year and still have no idea how to spell it!) vibe. I like it!

 

[Alex97]

Sorry I didn't get a chance to post back on this; I've been revising for ages and a load of other things got in the way.

Anyway back on topic. I allready have most of the details you mentioned although I'm working a bit more on the history of these civilizations. For example the Lysandians have a red flag with the sun on it and they're well known for having the best armies.

I would like some feedback on another of the main civilizations which are slightly less developed at the moment called the Brax. The Brax are based mainly on the vikings or Norse and live far to the North on a large island with smaller islands around that. They are split into small kingdoms or holds ruled by a king or other figuire but in times of great need they will unite under the most powerful leader.

Most of the population trade by sea or farm but many are also warriors or raiders. They typically favor infantry who fight in a shield wall formation or charge the enemy in a looser formation. They don't usualy field many cavalry but instead use a small ammount of very large war beasts which are like fury snow rhinos - I'm still working on them

Thanks for any feedback in advance

 

[SlimShady]

Sorry I didn't get a chance to post back on this; I've been revising for ages and a load of other things got in the way.

Anyway back on topic. I allready have most of the details you mentioned although I'm working a bit more on the history of these civilizations. For example the Lysandians have a red flag with the sun on it and they're well known for having the best armies.

I would like some feedback on another of the main civilizations which are slightly less developed at the moment called the Brax. The Brax are based mainly on the vikings or Norse and live far to the North on a large island with smaller islands around that. They are split into small kingdoms or holds ruled by a king or other figuire but in times of great need they will unite under the most powerful leader.

Most of the population trade by sea or farm but many are also warriors or raiders. They typically favor infantry who fight in a shield wall formation or charge the enemy in a looser formation. They don't usualy field many cavalry but instead use a small ammount of very large war beasts which are like fury snow rhinos - I'm still working on them

Thanks for any feedback in advance

How large are these war beasts? Imagine the logistics of transporting even one on a single long-ship. I doubt the Brax would even have enough ships to transport such beasts. If they are very large then they take up quite a bit of room and leave less room for soldiers and crew. Imagine transporting five of these war beasts, it would take at least five long-ships.

Even if the war beasts are extremely vicious and warlike then that brings forth another problem. Imagine the beasts trashing their own ships and just sinking. It would be a hazard to transport the beasts and make it illogical for the Brax to transport such beasts. Unless they just use the war beasts on their own home territory, which would make sense.

Perhaps you could go in more detail on how the snow beasts would be transported to the mainland? (If they are transported to the mainland.)

 

[Alex97]

They're slightly bigger thana normal rhino, I over-exaggerated the size on the last post. The Brax usualy only take them on long campains which is rare for them anyway since they're raiders. When they do take them the war beasts aren't taken on the long boats but are taken on boats like Noah's Ark. Obviously taking large ammounts of these beasts would be impractical because they need a large enough area on the boat. They're like Hannibal's elaphants - small numbers to scare the enemy. The Brax are pretty good a keeping them calm since they need to make sure they don't start killing their own troops in battle so they are fine in the boats as long as they're fed regually.

I'm glad you brought that up because it's not an issue I've thaught about much since I only came up witht he idea of these beasts recently.

 

[SlimShady]

They're slightly bigger thana normal rhino, I over-exaggerated the size on the last post. The Brax usualy only take them on long campains which is rare for them anyway since they're raiders. When they do take them the war beasts aren't taken on the long boats but are taken on boats like Noah's Ark. Obviously taking large ammounts of these beasts would be impractical because they need a large enough area on the boat. They're like Hannibal's elaphants - small numbers to scare the enemy. The Brax are pretty good a keeping them calm since they need to make sure they don't start killing their own troops in battle so they are fine in the boats as long as they're fed regually.

I'm glad you brought that up because it's not an issue I've thaught about much since I only came up witht he idea of these beasts recently.

Sounds pretty good then. Thanks for clearing that up.

You also mentioned that the Brax typically have several Kings, however they will usually follow the strongest ruler. How is this accomplished? Do all the Kings duel each other? Does one King usually subjugate the others through war? Marriage pacts through Kings? Or maybe all the above?

Just a bit curious on how one Brax would get all the Brax to follow him.

 

[Alex97]

They're a split nation that fight eachother quite a lot but when something particualy bad happens the other kings will usually follow the strongest king until the problem is resovled. How that king gains power during that time really depends on the situation - it could be by defeating the others, diplomatic relations.... Basically it's not a set thing but occasionaly happens if there is a need for it or a king gets the upper hand.