Of Steam ang Magery

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Zor
Posts: 271
Joined: Wed May 28, 2008 10:01 pm

Of Steam ang Magery

Post by Zor »

Some ideas from an old RAR! thread.

The League of Industrial Nations
Newly emerged, the League of Industrial Nations has recently emerged in areas with low background magic. Disregarded by the magic using states as nothing to be of concern, these nations rose to power using the power of science and technology of a steampunk variety, eventually emerging as expansionist powers. The League has Adopted beliefs based around the supremacy of technology over magic (which they see as being inferior and controlled by corrupt incompetents) as well as a few other beliefs. Among these (to varying degrees) are Social Darwinian Beliefs, the weak are to be subjugated to the will of the strong (and you can guess how they see themselves). Their societies are generally quite stratified between a small population of the wealthy, a middle class of middle management, bureaucrats, academics, small businessmen, retired military officers, various specialists and so forth and a vast sea of industrial workers and peasants living in poverty under landlords. Class Stratification is further marked out by the fact that the norm is that these societies have plutocratic elements, franchise is limited to men who make a certain amount of money per year (save for the Steel Tsardom). They are also for the most part blatantly human supremacists (baring a few minority populations and colonial subjects). There are some reformers, including subscribers to philosophies who want to rebuild society on collectivist lines. Still, the status quo stands.

League Soldiers: The standard League soldier is a rifleman, armed with a bolt action rifle and given a helmet, comparable to boar war-great war levels in terms of equipment, although gas masks are fairly common. These are generally supplemented by cavalrymen armed with carbines, machine guns (these are the size of Maxim guns and are fairly rare, more than five for a division is considered very extravagant), flamethrowers and magnumiers, armed with heavy rifles for tougher foes. The elite and officers are sometimes given specially made armor out of specially treated steel and/or silk and often carry swords. In addition, the occasional huge Frankenstein's monster type Construct is used as well. Medicine is handled by a mix of fairly typical medics for the time supplemented by the odd Frankenstein type doctor and Igor and occasionally among the more tolerant states magical healers.
League Armour: Armour is the strong point of the league. Things ranging from armed steam powered cars (called Warsteamers) to the occasional 50 meter long mechanical armoured spider. Warsteamers are fast but poorly armoured at best. More common heavy support include Land Ironclads, treaded steam powered vehicles ranging in size from that of a light tank to that of a house. Save for the smallest ones, they have at least two cannons mounted in sponsons and turrets and are considered incredibly fast if they can go more than 20km/h. These are supplemented by steam walkers; standing up steam powered war machines these are more expensive to build and maintain and are more fragile, but can be operated by a crew of two men, are quicker (being able to move at up to 45km/h) and are armed with a variety of weapons including machine guns, cannons, flame throwers and even the occasional Tesla Cannon. Huge Land vehicles are fairly rare, but can be devastating.
League Heavy Weapons: Cannons comparable to the First World War, some of which rival Big Bertha as well as heavy machine guns and the occasional unguided rocket launcher or Tesla Coil. Some of which are self-propelled (but the vast majority are not) and some can be used against airborne targets. They are NOT above using chlorine gas.
League Ships: The League rules the Waves. Huge Dreadnoughts up to 200 meters long plow the waves, backed up by cruisers, destroyers, frigates and torpedo boats. Some of them have analytical engines to help with targeting. Beneath the surface, submarines patrol the water using advanced batteries. While expensive and fragile, they can move almost unseen and fire torpedoes.
League Airpower: League airpower is where their biggest lag is. There are airships and various experimental helicopters, ornothopters and airplanes, generally armed with machine guns and gravity bombs. They can be effective for scouting and raiding but the League are still novices in the sky.

Major States of the League
The Unified Empire of Albion: A monarchical island state of some 35 Million that rules over a colonial Empire of 150 million people (10 million of which being settlers). The largest naval power of the League with an army which is divided into a comparatively small but elite and well equipped home army and less well equipped colonial forces. Has Naga minorities.
The Confederated Provinces: A federation of republics created from colonists, the Confederated Provinces has a population of about 50 million. Their military is on the whole capable, but not exemplary in any field. Dwarves exist as a minority, but are treated with suspicion. Their government is in no way tyrannical in of itself and is democratic with universal suffrage, but does little besides deliver the mail, maintain an army and raise tariffs to protect local industry and provide funds for said army. Many towns in the Confederated Provinces are company owned, Pinkertons are far more common than police and script has become so common that there is a thriving underground currency exchange market for it. Has some Dwarf and Elf minorities, which face discrimination. "Reformed" raptors are kept on reserves under guard of Pinkertons.
The Eisenstadtische Reich: A monarchical state recently forged out of squabbling principalities, the Reich has some 50 million subjects and 20 million colonial subjects. The Reich is among the least prone to the Social Darwinian practices of the League and makes a very active attempt to use state authority to fight poverty, although its parliament is little more than a rubber stamp for the Kaiser and their society is highly martial and regimented. Has a Well Trained army and a large force of land Ironclads.
The Empire of Hondu: An island state with a population of 50 million with 5 million colonial subjects, this nation is among the most ambitious and warlike of the league, having recently rapidly industrialized and adopted a form of public education designed to crank out a fervent expansionistic population. Being an island state they have a solid navy and are rather keen on airpower. Their soldiers are known for their fanaticism and valour in battle and have large numbers of Steam Walkers.
The Steel Tsardom: The Result of a civil war, the Steel Tsardom rules over a population of some 65 million men. Located in cold continental plains and forests, the Steel Tsardom is one of the least advanced members of the league in terms of technology. Ruled by the Tsar Joseph-I, this autocratic state with a big cult of personality going on relies on large numbers of conscripts, fierce cavalry, large numbers of constructs and a surprisingly large force of Land Ironclads. Whatever the Tsar wants the Tsar Gets and he has over his reign pushed his nation as hard as possible to re-forge itself into a modern state. The Tsardom a few minorities which are seen as equally subservient to the Tsar's will as his Human subjects.
The Fourth Republic: No nation of the League is more firmly anti-monarchy and anti-mage in its ideology than the Fourth Republic. Once a minor magic using monarchist state, connections with what would be the league by its merchant classes led to the adoption of some technological means. Some wizards convinced the king to suppress this, which (along with a few other of his policies, general incompetence and a few other factors) culminated in a revolution which saw the monarchy ended and the Nobility, Magery and Royal family having appointments with Madam Guillotine. Albion, Venoa, the Confederated Provinces and Eisenstaldt backed this revolution and helped them industrialize and agitated the population. Eventually, this "First Republic" gave way to an Emperor who launched a crusade against magic users that was eventually beaten back. The Fourth Republic is an unstable state of 40 million people and 15 million colonial subjects. Its relations with other League powers are often strained. Fourth Republic artillery is regarded as the best.
The Serine Republic of Venoa: The smallest of the League's major with a Population of only 7.5 million in their homeland and 15 million colonial subjects, the Venoese command comparatively large navy of submarines army and the most advanced aircraft. Their. The Doge of Venoa also commands one of the largest networks of Spies and Assassins.

The Alliance of Great Realms
The old holders of power of this world, these are an alliance of old magic using states. They did not take the nations which would form the League as a serious threat, merely considering them to be amusing tinkerers which posed no threat. Then began a great disillusionment which happened when they found out how effective the forces of the League could be. Eventually they prepared themselves, worked to refine their craft. With few exceptions they view technology as a pale imitation of magic and do not like the after-effects of pollution. For the most part these old races believe in that of hereditary hierarchy, with some born to rule and others born to serve. Outside of the odd magic user of humble background and a handful of other exceptions those who are born peasants stay peasants. They somewhat make up for this in that they don't hold to the social Darwinist Laissez faireism in the League and indeed, prefer to distance themselves from it. The poor may have to toil for their lords, but its only fair that the rulers try to help them where possible to make their lives livable. Only the Dwarves are interested in using technology and even they are limited in how they use it. They can make use of magic to help in manufacturing and have refined production methods and increase agricultural output, but doing so is done on military lines and is held back by the bottleneck of wizards to run such equipment. Non Wizards are still necessary for many of these things, and it is possible to improve the output of magically assisted manufacturing by having larger staffs of non magic users working. There has been some minor stirring from the common quarters asking for some form of representation and merchants have been becoming a more prominent class as of late but these sentiments are held back by the fact of total war.

Alliance Soldiers: Mostly composed of peasant levies armed with various forms of cheap magical weapons such as crossbows which fire energy bolts and "staffs" that shoot beams of concentrated sunlight that can often let them match. These can only hold a certain number of shots before they need to recharge. In the case of areas with high background magic, they absorb that to recharge, taking recharging shots gradually. In areas with low background magic, they need a support mage to recharge their weapons. Some Races, such as the elves and Naga have more mages per capita. This is easy to do once or twice, but doing it a hundred or more times takes it out wizards assigned to do this. This is backed up by cavalry, low ranking combat mages and men at arms. Crude gas masks are known, but only those made by the dwarves and rare blessed ones can match those made by the league. Elite soldiers get access to runic armour which is often bulletproof and carry swords. In general they are better at close combat. Medicine is provided by healing mages if you are lucky and not by the friendly barber surgeon. Necromancy is employed by the Necratic Dominion and occasionally by the Naga and the Boyars to pad out their ranks.
Alliance Armour: This includes creatures such as trolls, ogres and suchlike that is given some Armour, typically with a mage on the back casting lighting spells and so forth, these generally are useful against infantry and can do damage in close quarters, especially when armored. Their heaviest weapons are heavy golems, large living collections of clay and armour up to twenty meters tall, as well as animated statues. These are often equipped with the ability to shoot powerful bursts of lightning, intense beams of sunlight, freezing ice beams or pulses of magic capable of inflicting serious damage and holding their own with land ironclads and steam walkers.
Alliance Heavy Support: The Alliance has devised things called "Spell Cannons", large iron artifacts which can launch concentrated energy bolts or beams which can level city walls and be effective against armor (at various sizes ranging from things comparable to an light wheel mounted gun to things that can rival big bertha), but these are LOS weapons that have a maximum range of about 10km. At the same note, powerful wizards, especially when working together with various ruins and such, can cause earthquakes, summon forth thunder/sand/snow/hailstorms, direct lighting strikes and similar. Though they cannot keep that activity up all day.
Naval Power-At sea the Alliance is weak. Their ships are mostly wooden and while they can mount powerful spell cannons and have wizards aboard they are frail compared to the steel hulled craft of the League. Some ships are given magical plating, are made of floating stone or can form shields around themselves to offer them some protection comparable to League Ironclads, but these are in the minority. Sea Monsters can be of some use, Krakens and Leviathans can take down an unprepared cruiser, but even so they are still at a disadvantage compared to the League.
Air Power-In the air the Alliance has the edge. They can field Dragons, Eagles and other avian creatures; these can breathe fire and carry mounted wizards which can shoot energy bolts. While League fighters can go toe to toe with them, they can also build huge flying fortresses. Giant stone buildings up to 120 meters across armed with spell cannons and can serve as carriers for and troop transports.

Nations of the Alliance
The Sylvan Kingdom: With a population of some 40 million elves and 30 million human vassals this is the leading state of the alliance. As they have a large number of magic users, their standards of living are rather high. Their forces are elite and they have large air forces. Has the Reich to the east and the Fourth Republic to the west.
The Serephate: Ruled by a king known as a Sareph, slave bureaucrats owned by the Seraph, the priesthood, judges learned up on religious law and captains assigned the administration of agricultural villages, the Serephate has a population of 80 million. Generally capable all around. Has the Steel Tsardom to the north, the Reich to the Northeast to the North and Venoans to the west.
• The Raptor Empire: Ruled by A Emperor who is worshiped as a god and priests, the ancient Raptor Empire lives in the Jungles and mountains that are on the southern border of the Confederated Provinces with a population of 50 million. Raptors are fierce creatures, basically think a feathered sapient Deinonychus with longer arms. Their armies are fanatical and deadly in close combat and while they do lack any real sort of wet navy, they have powerful floating temples and while they lack in terms of large land creatures their living T-rex statues that shoot beams of burning sunlight from their mouths.
The Dwarvish Federation: A union of Dwarvish Clans with some 25 million dwarves and 5 million vassels (mostly human). These are typically run by guilds with "Kings" appointed from guild leaders every time an old king dies by vote. Dwarvish armies tend to be elite, their soldiers all clad in Runic armor and backed up by fearsome golems. Dwarves can also build some of the League's best ships. Dwarves take an interest in technology, have fairly sophisticated metallurgy and its not unusual to see a rifle or a cannon used by their forces, but they are just as keen on artisan and look upon the idea of an assembly line or thorough standardization with horror.
The Naga Rajs: A federation of small kingdoms ruled over by some 25 million naga and 125 million human vassals. Highly stratified along caste lines, with the Nagas ruling as Priests, Princes and Warriors while humans who have had the idea that Naga are a higher life-form to men live as workers, artisans and conscripted cannon fodder. In direct completion with the UEA to the south and the Empire of Hondu to the east. Nagas are excellent magic users, even better than elves and are notably good at swimming, able to hold their breath for up to an hour. Their human subjects, outside of some very basic stuff are not allow
The Necratic Dominion: Traditionally considered to be the bad guys to the old powers, the Necratic Dominion is a society based around Necromancy. Necromancers rule over everything and the most successful become liches. Its living population is about fourty million. The human peasants of the Necratic dominion do not fight, instead its army is composed with vast number of zombies and skeletons housed in vast barracks necropolises. While these troops are quite low quality outside of above average durability and resistance to gas, there have lots of them. It also has a respectable force of Necromantic heavy support creatures. The Necratic Empire is in competition with the colonial assets of the Reich, the Forth Republic and the Empire of Hondu.
The Boyar's Republic: The other side of the civil war that created the Steel Tsardom and where the old Tsardom's nobility went, having a population of 65 million. Ruled by a council of squabbling conservative Boyars, the Republic is highly stratified between noble and peasants. Like the Steel Tsardom, it relies on human wave tactics, as well as using magically assisted cavalry, large numbers of creatures, female magic users riding houses with legs and large number of airborne cavalry riding giant bats.
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