Geography and Politics
By the Will of the Creator
The fantasy world of Akeran is constituted by a huge continent, divided into
5 climatic zones known as Realms. An according number of
Races has arisen and adapted its way of life to the surrounding
nature. They each also developped specific habilities to exploit their
environment.
The inhabitants of Akeran and the Mages (player's avatars) worship either
Briac, God of Life, Source of Light, or Khorg, God of Evil,
Aura of Darkness.
The last main character is Artagel, the Merchant Prince, who governs Greystar and
every cities of the Guild of Merchants.
Realms
The 5 realms existing at the surface of the Akeran's Disc are, in
alphabetical order:
- The Arctic: In this region of frozen land and icy rocks live the
Draconians. Arctic is the main source of Leather.
- The Desert: Here dwell the Nomads, who learned to collect the ever
present GreenStone.
- The Forest: This realm is the living ground of the Elves and
produce Wood.
- The Mountains: Dwarves have built their fortress here, and are
mining Iron.
- The Plain: West of the Mountains the Humans are cultivating magical
Herb.
Each realm is divided into about 10 Provinces. In a realm, there
are inner provinces, surrounded by other provinces of the same realm,
and frontier provinces that lay in contact with other realms'
provinces. The amount and diversity of goods produced in a province depends on
its location on the map. These characteristics are called the Province
Profile.
In game terms, you first have to choose the race you want to first play
with. Then you must select a province in the home realm of this race to found
your first city. Selecting a frontier province will allow you to harvest as
many varieties of goods as this province profile shows, providing you build the
necessary buildings, whereas selecting an inner province restricts you to the
harvest of a single variety, but in greater amount.
Politics
Looking at the Map, you surely noticed the central empty provinces.
The ancient city of Greystar, an immense and silent city, lay at the center of
the Akeran's Disc. The political center of the world is ruled by Artagel, the
Merchant Prince, and is home to the Mages (players' avatars) where they
struggle for power and magical knowledge. From there, the Mages issue orders to
their city administrators and generals to develop their respective Empire. No
armed force ever goes neither inside Greystar nor into the forbidden 6
provinces surrounding it, also known as the Greystar's Marches.
A player can keep on playing the game if its avatar owns at least one city
of whichever race circumstances have decided. When the last city of a Mage is
taken by the troops of another one, he's considered to have been killed and
striped of all its possessions (yes, I mean gold !) by its conqueror. The
player can however create another avatar by newplayering again.
Economy
Cities management is deeply linked with commercial contact with the Guild of
Merchants, which is under the governance of Artagel. The Guild owns one city in
every province, called the Market. The Market is immune to all attack
attempt, due to deals between Artagel and the Gods, and only non fighting units
are allowed inside its walls.
When you start a game, your City can only trade with the local Market.
However, training Caravans will later allow you to trade with other players if
you find the Guild's prices not fair enough.
Geographic Scale
Distance between 2 markets of adjacent provinces is 9 leagues on the main
trade routes. Built by the Guild upon the time of its foundation, they are
continuously maintained in good state by guild workers and are the best and
fastest way to travel all around the world.
Inside a province, every city is linked to the local market by a secondary
route, winding its way along 4 leagues of wild landscape.
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