Community effort (phase 3)

[Endoperez]

Metropolis theme could work out well. However, the other city mod I know of, Alugra, has amphibious infantry (Fishermen somewhat based on Aquaman). It doesn't really matter that much even if both nations have amphibious infantry, because it's such a basic Water-themed ability.

[Foodstamp]

Here is a picture of the Parthian Empire from between ~250bc to 250ad.



At the very least, there must have been two large cities in the empire, Ctesiphon and Ecbatana.

My knowledge of Parthia is very limited. I thought the empire extended all the way into modern day Ukraine, so that shows you how naive I am on the subject.

I have a few questions to the people more knowledgeable about the Parthian Empire:

Was Zoroastrianism still playing a major role religiously in the region at the time of the Parthian Empire?

If the answer is yes, I seem to remember there being some elemental focus in the religion, especially concerning fire.

Also, what would be the other mythological influences in the region at the time? Is it far fetched to think there would still be belief in Mesopotamian myths?

Work should be pretty slow tonight, so I am going to delve into some study of the Parthians, it will probably serve me two fold anyway. BTW, I just bought a gigantic illustrated book of world mythologies, so maybe we can draw some inspiration from there as well .

P.S. keep in mind it is well within our powers to take liberties concerning the nation, but I would rather not contradict their beliefs, an example being adding woad raiders or Couatls etc.

[Valandil]

I do not think this nation will have amphibious infantry, Endo. I'm intentionally avoiding it, since it doesn't seems like something that any amount of faith or worship of elements is going to give to an ordinary human. That is a pretty significant physiological change. Going to start the Initiate sprite soon.

[Saulot]

It seems to me that Parthia is somewhat well-suited for an amalgamation empire with 4 particular disparate groups. However, I'm not sure that it really fits into the Late Era, and I'm not sure that it fits the degree of difference in the four groups. Perhaps very light inspiration would be the most fruitful route. (Do we really want to rely on light infantry & light cavalry archers?)

Since the general concept here would be a backdrop where trade/commerce or multiple military invasions / successive empires that have placed four seperate ethnic groups into one area; the Middle East could certainly be such a backdrop, as well as Iberia, Sicily, Central Asia, etc. (even the British Isles could be made to fit)

The guild concept is nice in general, but seems ill-suited to this situation. I feel like a better story is that these four groups are actually at odds with each other. They obviously have different magical practices, they should also speak different languages, follow different cultural practices, utilize different military traditions, and have before worshipped different deities. The mechanism of guilds in this case, just simply isn't strong enough.

However, they face great outside pressure due to their wealth from trade, and are united by a strong leader (the pretender) who uses personal charisma, magical force, a priesthood that is on the rise / increasingly popular, and subterfuge (an extensive secret police / spy system) to put the feuds on hold for the time being and able to form one city-state. (Though a confederation of states is an idea of some merit as well.)

Oh, and in reference to Zoroastrianism, while my knowledge of antiquity is a bit rusty, I believe that it certainly flourished to some degree during that time (as it had become popular some centuries earlier and was still around some centuries later), but that as many things Parthian, there is little record of it.

By the way, in regards to air, I haven't been completely idle (I've been doing some conceptualization work).

[Foodstamp]

How do the other modders feel about the idea that Saulot has presented? I really like the concept, and after a little bit of reading, I feel that Parthia would be better represented in a different era, probably middle, maybe even early.

Four ethnically diverse peoples bound together by the will of the pretender. It seems to still mesh well with the Middle Eastern theme for the reasons mentioned above.

We may want to look at a different name for this nation, as Parthia seems to be a mod for another time, another era.

[Agrajag]

I like the idea the Saulot has presented. Mostly because it is an expanded version of an idea I posted here earlier
And here's some new units fighting. (attached)

[Sombre]

Is there any chance the axes could be replaced with semaphore flags?

[Agrajag]

Actually, you are right, I should probably make them rotate their chest a bit.

[Maraxus]

Hey, the name was just a first suggestion.
It was more like "Hey, 1001 Nights sounds like a good flavor, let's see, what name the nation could have" ... And I found this.

I still think, including a Djinn aspect could be interesting, even through I agree, that we really don't need to pick up the "Djinn/Effrit/Dao/Merit" quartnity.
(Note: The Djinn from the lamp has Fire 5, Air 5, Earth 3 Astral 3, I read from the database.)

So, 4 diffrent (and separated) groups united by the pretender god. How would one make this? One option could be, that one has normal mortals and normal leadership, one has undead one has magical beings and one maybe only commanders without leadership - but this does not really sound like it could work for us. There will likely be something like "Earth Infantery in the front, Air-Archers behind and Fire-heavy hitters taking the flanks. Lead by a Water-commander, maybe."

One thing might be to give earth a poison spell either in nature or earth magic), Fire a fire, water a cold spell and air electricity (just as there are, but one more that is maybe 10% better) and give the units 75% resistence against their own element, -50% to the opposed (fire to cold sure, air to poison not so obvious) and -25% to the other two elements.
Does not sound convincing, either.


Edit: about the axe-fighter:
In the attack spirte, I'd position the axes somewhere like 1 and 4 o'clock. Like his is attacking one after another, not both at once.

[Agrajag]

Fire already has a fire spell, the caster makes the target explode (100 accuracy, mr negates, 10+ an damage + nextspell fireball)
As for the rest, making things follow a given formula just tends to make things more boring.
I'll change the axer's sprite, but I'm not sure how much I want to change the angle of the axes. I'll decide when I sit down and rework him.