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Old 03-01-2013, 10:15 PM   #41
combatmedic
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Default Re: Bronze-Age city-states and the gifts of their gods

I dunno if any of you have read Italo Calvino's novel Le cittą invisibili.

It's pretty trippy.

If you don't mind spoilers for the novel (descriptions of the cities form a major part of the story, as you might expect), check out this website with illustrations:



http://www.cittainvisibili.com/tuttelecitta-en.htm

Not Bronze Age stuff, or focused on gods, but it might provide some inspiration.
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Old 03-01-2013, 10:22 PM   #42
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I dunno if any of you have read Italo Calvino's novel Le cittą invisibili.
Only in translation into English.
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Old 03-01-2013, 10:35 PM   #43
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Originally Posted by Brett View Post
Only in translation into English.


Same here. :)
I am not literate in Italian (I didn't have any trouble with simple things like street signs, restaurant menus, and so on while visiting friends in Milan; but that's light-years away from actually being able to read a novel.)

I think this translation by a fellow named Weaver may be the same one I read years ago, although it appears to be a new printing:


http://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Citi...283155&s=books


Did you enjoy the novel, Brett?
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Old 03-02-2013, 12:57 AM   #44
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Originally Posted by combatmedic View Post
I dunno if any of you have read Italo Calvino's novel Le cittą invisibili.
Nope, but I'm about to read about it after work, thanks. :]
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Old 03-02-2013, 06:39 AM   #45
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Did you enjoy the novel, Brett?
Yes, I did, and I'll re-read it some day. It's a tour-de-force of evocative description, not without its influence on my style in description, but like many tours-de-force, rather contrived and best taken in measured doses.
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Old 03-03-2013, 09:06 AM   #46
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Saym, the God who Dislikes Novelty and Mirth:

South of Faroth on the black River Ateric, Mya-Mee is hot and dry in the summer and hot and wet most of the rest of the time. The weather varies very little, and the native tribe likes it that way. The soil is somewhat sandy and silty, but the land is flat and the river is wide here and irrigation is easy enough for adequate agriculture to support a steady population, but not enough to make beer. Saym, the doddering, white-haired God of this city, likes it just fine that way, because he doesn't want a bunch of besotten 100-year-old hoodlums up in his face all the time.

Mya-Mee is known to its neighbors as the City of the Young Old and the Old Young. Saym gifts all of his people with Longevity [2], Resistance +3 (Disease) [3], and Taboo Traits (HT < 10, Mental Instability) [0], but also inhibits their creativity and desire for new experiences with Dull [-1], Incurious (15-) [-2], Mild Stubbornness [-1], and Proud [-1]. They also have a negative Reputation in most neighboring city-states, but this varies in scope and severity, and they are just barely TL 1 after much kicking and screaming all around and probably not making any major advances soon unless they steal them.

Saym's house is a simple hut in the center of the city, with shelves of tiny ceramic statuettes on the walls. Nobody is allowed to alter it in any way, but the Priesthood cleans and restores it at the slightest need. Saym does not exert any sort of mind control over his people that makes them obey these rules, but the last time the elite guardsmen lapsed and a village idiot was allowed to track mud into his house, a hundred-some-odd years ago, the shrill keening wail he let forth permanently deafened the wayward fool, eight supplicants, and a Priestess. You can still ask two of them about it yourself if you have your letters.

Mya-Mee claims that it doesn't start any wars, but it seems awfully prone to finding excuses to try to finish them. Infamously prickly, they respond to any "border incursion" or other perceived slight with violence, their bold youth eerily fearless on the march as they laugh at the infections and dysentery that fell their enemies, and their bitter elders utterly cold in ordering forth their excess of barely-tolerated idealistic young men to die (did I mention that they practice polygamy around these parts..?)

Saym has not produced a demigod, or [ahem] tried to, in living memory, and would resent the line of questioning.

The people of Mya-Mee are freaked right out by the people of Faroth. They hold them in superstitious dread, and, exceptionally, do not start any trouble with them at all.

Last edited by Gold & Appel Inc; 03-03-2013 at 11:12 AM.
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Old 08-11-2013, 05:42 PM   #47
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Default Re: Bronze-Age city-states and the gifts of their gods

Vastil
The Grasping God

For weeks or months at a time Vastil broods in his shadowed house like a great spider in its web, ensconced behind bronze window-bars, strong wooden doors, and walls of close-jointed stonework. When he does creep out into the streets of his city of Xildiz, he comes to steal valuable things; gemstones, electrum talents, fine garments, and so on. Vastil appears as a tall, pallid, gangly man with a pot-belly, inhumanly long fingers (longer even than is usual in the city) and hooded eyes that glitter like opals. He dresses in rags; keen-eyed observers might glimpse a flash of jewelry or silk through the rips as Vastil moves away into the shadows. The people of his city/tribe believe that before the city was built, Vastil stole seven maidens and impregnated them each in turn, fathering the gens of the seven quarters of the city.


Xildiz rises atop a cluster of hills, surrounded by little truck farms where peons scrabble out a living from the dusty earth. Within the walls of the city, greedy traders and bold thieves fight an endless shadow war of theft, counter-theft, bribes, bullying, and night-raids. The wealthiest citizens control the government of the city, using brute squads to enforce public order and protect property.

The outlying farms barely feed to city; Xildiz’ true wealth flows from the cellars where fat arachnids spin gray silk onto silver spindles. Thieves have tried to abscond with the eight-legged weavers, but none have ever succeeded. The city’s textile barons boast that the last thief screamed for a month before he died under exquisite tortures.

Plump gray-furred rodents infest much of the city. The creatures became a public nuisance after the spiders that had preyed upon them were caged. Always looking for another way to make money, the people of the city learned to make gloves and other fine, small leather goods from the rodents’ soft, thin skin.


Vastil marks his people with the following traits:
Citizen 0 point template
• One level of High Manual Dexterity 5 points
• Perk: Long Fingers 1 point
• One level of Acute Touch 2 points
• Greed (SC 15) -7 points
• Quirk: Distinctive Feature- extra joints in fingers -1 point


Vastil may curse an offending citizen with twisted hands:
Lose High Manual DX, gain Ham-Fisted, gain Chronic Pain.
He might also inflict Kleptomania.
The surest way to anger the god is to steal from him.

Pious devotees of the god exhibit greater blessings and special skills. Donning specially-made flesh-tone gloves to hide their blessed deformity, they go among outsiders and pilfer treasures for the glory of Vastil and their own gain.



Pious Devotee of Vastil (10 points):

• Trivial Vow: Never wear clothing that has not been stolen from the first owner, or else sewn by followers of Vastil -1
• Vow give frequent valuable offerings to the god, must offer more later if regular tribute is missed -5 points
• An additional level of High Manual Dexterity 5 points
• Disguise at IQ -1 (specialized in concealing hand deformities) 1 points
• Regrowth: fingers only 8 points
• Sewing at DX 1 point
• Leatherworking(specialized in making gloves) at DX 1 point

Last edited by combatmedic; 08-11-2013 at 06:19 PM.
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Old 08-11-2013, 08:08 PM   #48
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Default Re: Bronze-Age city-states and the gifts of their gods

Unless I missed one, the project now has 28 submissions, Agemegos.


• Ix/Talak
• Kodod/’Kodod’s city’
• Rilgal/Keritu
• Imeldo &Bronn/Faroth
• Nagil/Werk
• Jallu/Kwerm-Jallu
• Aster/Charn
• Obwyx/Dossoth
• Chancurr/Maktebah
• Rzhazh/Tsarrl
• Yaldath/Shuul
• Logala/Gala-Bana
• Keen/Keenset
• Iqual/Thabak
• Sulak/Suk
• Akki/Karn
• Shadast/lindol
• Baud/The Godobi tribe
• Bulbulus/Pharzin
• Missu/Launghi
• Mol-Ruk/Lursab
• Yq/Yqbal
• Tiirgit/Marrah
• Suarekh/Gorod
• Bulq/Bulq
• Tillila/The Clattering Valley
• Saym/Mya-Mee
• Vastil/Xildiz

If we get some more entries from other folks, perhaps Agemegos will reveal Rold, Galun, or Walas. Or maybe not? What's the staus on the project?

And when is Asta, with his Bronze Age inclinations, going to get in on this?

:)

Last edited by combatmedic; 08-11-2013 at 08:13 PM.
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Old 08-11-2013, 08:51 PM   #49
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Default Re: Bronze-Age city-states and the gifts of their gods

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If we get some more entries from other folks, perhaps Agemegos will reveal Rold, Galun, or Walas. Or maybe not? What's the staus on the project?
I had thought of it as more of a game than a project, and until just now I had its status down as "not being played". But since it seems to be springing back into activity I might have a couple more goes.
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Old 08-11-2013, 08:59 PM   #50
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Kewl beans.
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