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| Thread: ICTC 5: The Ruins | |
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Raelag84
Famous Hero
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posted March 10, 2010 12:18 AM |
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Edited by Raelag84 at 23:57, 30 Jul 2010.
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ICTC 5: The Ruins
This faction is not nearly done, but it's time to put the pencils down.
I await your judgment
Ruins
Also Known As: The Naga (not quite accurate as there are non Naga in this society), aquapolis, The Mu empire
Colors: Dark blue, white, green.
Worship: The vast majority of Naga worship Shalassa the dragon of water, but 40% of the citizens of the naga state (not all citizens of the naga state are naga) worship other gods and spirits or are agnostic/atheist. In addition the interpretation of Shallsia’s teachings and methods of worship vary greatly amongst the Naga.
Core Philosophy: weakness is strength and strength is weakness, victory is defeat and defeat is victory, life is death and death is life, for like water opposites flow together and become one and the same.
Motto: Bend to another’s will and they shall bend to yours.
Nation: The rainforest kingdom of Mu.
Capital: The Ruins of Bhogavati
Key symbols: The drakos (an image of a white snake with black eyes with it’s head on the tail of a black snake with white eyes who has its head on the tail of the white snake. Combined the two serpents make a circle). A flowing river.
Faction Alignment: Good.
Bad Relations: Necropolis, Dungeon, Inferno, Ziggurat (should they find themselves in the Heroes of might and magic V universe.)
Good relations: Necropolis(not a typo), Dungeon(not a typo), Sylvan, Academy
Racial ability-Fertility lords.
Major magic schools-Light and destructive.
Key stat groups-Primary: Knowledge, Secondary: Defense
Ruins in brief.
Tucked in the corners of the wildest rainforest, one can find the cities of one of the world’s first civilizations. Though these cities appear as jungle chocked ruins they are part of the Mu Empire, a civilization that is very much alive was built not with conquest, but with accommodation, diplomacy and even charity. The Naga of the Mu Empire, being masters of water and fertility, are able to provide many different races with the water and nutrients needed to grow and feed themselves and in return these races work for and fight for the Mu Empire. The end result is a multi-racial society modeled after the movement and characteristics of water.
Naga philosophy
Naga heroes.
The primary stats of a Naga hero are Knowledge and defense, which in and of its self would mean that the Naga race would depend heavily on the use of white magic, as that does not use much spell power, and that they would be mainly a defense faction. However the racial abilities of a Naga hero allow them to potentially take more turns than other kinds of heroes and to give their troops an extra special ability to enhance their offense.
The primary Knowledge stat of the Naga hero would suggest the they are more of a magic hero than a might hero, but again their special racial abilities give them the flexibility to give their knowledge to enhance troop might or for that matter for their own troops to give them a spellpower boost.
The primary special ability of Naga heroes is called “fertility master” and it allows you to hire more than the normally allowed weekly growth of troops, but only at exponentially increasing cost. Suppose for example a troop cost 100 units of currency and has a growth of weekly growth of 18. Now suppose you then wanted to hire a 19th troop, assuming the hero doing the hiring has “basic fertility master” you could do so but the cost would increase by 20%. So the 19th troop would cost 120 currency units. If you were to hire a 20th troop the cost would increase by another 20% adding up to 144. Hiring the 21st troop would increase the cost to 173 currency units (rounded up) and so forth. Put in mathematical form the cost of hiring a unit after weekly growth is exhausted is:
Original unit cost+(original cost*growth rate)^amount of troops hired=new unit cost.
There is one more thing to keep in mind with the Naga generals. They use rice not gold as their main currency. More on that later.
Naga racial skills.
Fertility master(FM)
Basic FM
Knowledge of rice production allows hero to hire more than normal weekly allowed number of troops but the cost of doing so increase exponentionaly by 20% a wages rise due to increased demand for labor.
Advanced FM
Increased knowledge of rice production allows hero to hire more than normal weekly allowed number of troops but the cost of doing so increase exponentionaly by 13% a wages rise due to increased demand for labor.
Expert FM
Knowledge of rice production allows hero to hire more than normal weekly allowed number of troops but the cost of doing so increase exponentionaly by 7% a wages rise due to increased demand for labor.
Ultimate FM
Vast knowledge of rice production push labor cost down so base troop cost only 75% of normal cost.
Other racial skills
Chakra connection
If might is your preference than your hero can sacrifice their turn to one of their units. If magic is your preference than one of your units can sacrifice their turn so the hero may take another turn. If the hero also has Meditation ability then the hero will sacrifice ten manna to build up the unit’s chakra.
Meditation
Whenever a unit executes the “wait” command they will build up chakra which can then be used for a special offensive ability. The Unit must wait three times in a row to build up the “chakra” to use the ability, unless the hero sacrificed a turn in which case the unit must only “wait two turns” If a unit sacrifices their turn, using the charka connection ability, after building up their chakra they will not only sacrifice their turn but all of their built chakra will go to the hero to build up their spell power for one casting.
Re-upgrade.
The Hero gets the ability to transform land units into water units and vise versa while anywhere on the map.
Uber- Feat.
Hero can teleport their own army and their enemy’s army to some place in the ocean allowing the hero to use aquatic units which enjoy a large advantage wile in the water.
Naga units.
Introduction- Base creatures, and upgraded creatures in the Naga units tend to be have strong defensive capabilities but weak offensive capabilities and in battle Naga tend to win when the enemy charges into their line and loose when they are forced to charge the enemy line. On the other hand the Naga insist that offense and defense are one and the same, perhaps then a clever player can make the normally defensive Naga units into offensive ones. Alt upgrades are another story however, as they tend to be fast high powered strikers, and have absurdly high stats, unfortunately they can usually only fight in navel battles. In general Naga units have low stats compared to other troop types (even compared to necropolis) but make up for it with extremely useful special abilities and high numbers.
Note also that all Naga troops have a meditation ability, an extra special ability they can get from their hero. Note to use this special ability a unit must build up chakra (aka wait three turns).
Glossary-
-Unit can fight on land or water, but experiences increased movement points and melee attack power when fighting in water.
Aquatic-This unit can only fight in navel battles. Any “Aquatic unit” can move easily in the water and has a 50% increase in all their stats while in the water. Additional Aquatic units when in the water can position themselves under other units effectively occupying the same square as other units. Aquatic units can jump out of the water to attack enemies on the side of a boat and can even jump, on boats. However an aquatic unit will be only to move one square forward on a given turn and have 50% than their original stats.
Cold blooded-This unit experiences a 25% increase in initiative and 2 moral points when in fighting in rainforest, desert, or volcanic territory, is unaffected by grassland, temperate leaf forest, and experience a 25% decrease in initiative and -2 moral points when fighting in pine forest, Necromancer territory or tundra.
Land based-This creature cannot fight in water and must be on a boat during navel battles.
1) Slime-
These creatures look like blobs of living water, and are actually sentient, if stupid, beings. No one knows the origin of the creatures, only that they are friendly and that the naga took them into their ranks because they are water like.
Flex (activated ability)-This unit can occupy the same square of the battle field and as an enemy and can bend and twist around troops and small obstacles to reach a square. For example if an enemy archer has a wall of friendly troops surrounding them then this unit can flex around those friendly troops and attack the archer, and can even change its shape so it can stay on the same square. This ability also allows the unit to occupy up to 4 squares on the battle field.
Amphibious
Cold blooded-Though this unit is not alive and without blood it is still affected via temperature as a cold-blooded animal would.
Melee penalty-This unit cannot fight close range but has a Melee penalty anyways.
Meditation ability-spread attack-This unit can use a spread attack that attack up to three units at once.
Water being
If you hit a rock with a sledge hammer it will fall apart eventually, but hit a pond of water with a sledge hammer and the water will splash only to come back together again. In this way water is harder than rock.
Flex-This unit can occupy the same square of the battle field and as an enemy and can bend and twist around troops and small obstacles to reach a square. For example if an enemy archer has a wall of friendly troops surrounding them then this unit can flex around those friendly troops and attack the archer, and can even change its shape so it can stay on the same square.
Split-If this unit is attacked 80% of the damage goes into making another stack of water dwarfs. 4 new stacks of water dwarfs can be made in this manner and at anytime the stacks can merge with each other.
Melee penalty-This unit cannot fight close range but has a Melee penalty anyways.
Meditation ability-spread attack-This unit can use a spread attack that attack up to three units at once.
Amphibious
Cold blooded-Though this unit is not alive and without blood it is still affected via temperature as a cold-blooded animal would.
Advice for using-Water beings and Slimes can’t do much damage even in large numbers, their real purpose is to get in the enemy’s way and otherwise drive them out of their minds. So if you are going on the offensive be sure to have these guys go first and make sure they get hurt for the more stacks you have the more you can get in the enemy’s way.
Advice for defeating- Since these creatures are so week there is no hurry to take them down. Don’t waste your energy on them and go after stronger enemies first.
Alter-upgrade-Water beast.
These transparent sea star like creatures reproduce by ripping off their own arms. When the water beast looses an arm the original arm grows back and the arm grows a body.
Aquatic
Cold blooded
Healing-these creatures resurrect themselves at a rate of 3 per turn.
Asexual reproduction-When these creatures are injured their body parts fly to the square beside them and if they are not destroyed on the next the body parts will turn into a new stack of water beast (smaller than the first) The body parts need only one hit of any strength to be destroyed.
Meditation ability-Spread attack.
Advice for using-Normally you don’t want to send aquatic units on a boat, but these units are just so good at disrupting the enemy that it’s worth doing so.
Advice for defeating- Ignore them as long as possible or better yet don’t fight the naga at sea.
2) Martial warrior.
Martial warriors are amazons who once had their own civilizations that was absorbed into the Mu Empire. These humans do not mourn the loss of their former states for they have been willingly assimilated into the Mu Empire and fight fanatically to protect it. Martial warriors are small, frail, and weak but make up for their many weaknesses with a fighting style, based on the movement and flow of water, which turns their enemies’ strength against them.
Water style fighting-When a stack of this unit is attacked the unit has the attack strength of the enemy when retaliating
Land based.
Meditation ability-Chakra block-When this unit attacks in use’s it’s own chakra to block some of the enemy’s so on their next turn they will have only 75% of their damage stat.
Upgrade-Martial artist.
Though no less frail than their un-upgraded counter parts Martial artist are so well trained that than can adapt their defensive fighting techniques for offensive, and even turn an enemy’s numbers against them.
Counter-retaliation-When this unit attack it first does a attack that does not damage but gets the enemy to retaliate, and when they do is unit not escapes the attack but does a counter attack in which this unit has the enemy’s attack power.
Water style fighting-When a stack of this unit is attacked each person in it has the attack stat of the enemy attacking in addition to their own attack and damage stat.
Land based.
Meditation ability- Chakra block-When this unit attacks in use’s it’s own chakra to block some of the enemy’s so on their next turn they will have only 75% of their damage stat
Advice for using-The units are good for using against enemies that have strong attack by low defense. The martial artist are also useful for causing an enemy to loose their retaliation ability laying the ground work for a powerful attack form an enemy.
Advice for defeating-Striking these units down with long range attacks will due, but if that is not possible then use weakness as strength. These units have almost no strength of their own they use the enemy’s strength, so if the enemy does not have much strength then never does this unit. Note also that these units have a very small defense stat so even a weak enemy can do a lot damage.
Alternative upgrade-Martial mermaid.
Don’t ever say a mer-person is half fish, because they are actually half dolphin, half human and all mammal. Mer-people tribes have also been assimilated into Mu culture and like their human counter parts these mermaids have a developed a fighting style based on the flow of water. Unlike the human amazons the mermaids have developed their fighting style almost exclusively for offensive purposes, by learning how to block an enemy’s “chakra” aka spirit energy. Given enough time these Mermaid warriors can also focus their energy to do more damage.
Precision strike-When this enemy attack it ignores half of enemy defense.
Meditation abilty-Touch of death-When this unit attacks she can conduct a very precise strike that not only negates enemy defense, but also stuns an enemy.
Aquatic
Advice for using-Mermaids are as much about stopping the enemy as they are about killing them. Time their attacks to both do damage and prevent an attack by a powerful enemy.
Advice for defeating-If your fighting this creature it most likely means your starting the battle on a boat. Stay on the boat and strike the mermaids down with long range attack. Don’t fight them close range except as a last resort.
3) River Naga.
River Naga look like a river version of regular Naga because they appear to be half human and half fined snake. In reality the long snake like tail lacks reptilian or even fish scales and has skin like a frog’s or a salamander’s. They might be considered mammals except their offspring have gills, instead of lungs, fins instead arms and are otherwise more fish than mammal, in the same way a tadpole is more fish than frog. For this reason naturalist don’t know whether water Naga are amphibians or Naga, but what is known is that water Naga are sluggish especially when on land and always in desperate in need of friends.
Water Naga like to be part of a group so much that they willingly allowed themselves to become pets to the Naga so they are protected and not alone.
Companion- These cowardly, friendly, creatures feel unsafe unless they are beside allies, so this unit has minus one moral when there are no adjacent allies but has plus one moral point when there are allies near.
This unit has a long range attack using a bow and arrow.
This unit has a melee penalty.
Amphibious
Cold-blooded.
Meditation ability-Sacred Sutra-When up against creatures that can be hurt by the word of light spell this unit can place a card upon the enemy that will grantee that at least one enemy will perish whenever it is hit by an allied troop. The effect last until said enemy creature takes their turn. The sacred Sutra can also be used on an ally to increase their defense by 15%
River priestess
Water Naga have long been associated with the rivers which have great spiritual significance for the Naga; hence when water Naga show magical ability they are made into religious servants. These River Naga perform religious ceremonies and in war they defend their temples with arrows empowered by their magic.
Spirit weapon-Long range attack power of a stack of this unit increases with a hero’s spellpower stat in the same way a ballista increase in strength with a hero’s knowledge stat.
Companion- These cowardly, friendly, creatures feel unsafe unless they are beside allies, so this unit has minus one moral when there are no adjacent allies but has plus one moral point when there are allies near.
This unit has a long range attack using a bow and arrow.
This unit has a melee penalty.
Amphibious
Cold-blooded.
Meditation ability-Sacred Sutra-When up against creatures that can be hurt by the word of light spell this unit can place a card upon the enemy that will grantee that at least one enemy will perish whenever it is hit by an allied troop. The effect last until said enemy creature takes their turn. The sacred Sutra can also be used on an ally to increase their defense by 15%
Dolphin trainer.
An arrow doesn’t fly through water very well and so these water Naga have replaced them with a weapon that can; a Dolphin. Sure a Dolphin might seem like a nice friendly creature, but given a good swimming start these dolphins can cut right through a group of enemies in a single leap.
Strike through- A version of strike and return where the dolphin can leap and charge through an enemy stack, doing damage, and swim back to its original place.
Reverse range penalty-The farther an enemy is the more damage the dolphin does.
Meditation ability-moral boost-When this unit attacks it gets a moral boost no matter what.
Aquatic.
Advice for using-Protect these creatures with close range troops and white magic for their strong ranged attacks are invaluable. Be very carful about leaving them alone
Advice for defeating-If the martial warriors are not about to attack then make these units a priority hitting them with dark magic, destructive magic if possible. Remember these units are not strong close range so if you can get in close do so.
4) Lizard Calvary
Image-http://jiroyamada.deviantart.com/art/Komodo-87639306 (without rider)
The Giant lizards of the volcanic islands to the south east would not make the best mounts for a legged creature because they sprawl so low to the ground, but for a Naga it’s not an issue. Being so low to the ground helps the lizard mount evade long ranged attacks and the armor around its front area make it resistant to attack and helps the reptile defend its rider. The only problem is the rider is not so well protected by strikes from behind making one hesitant to charge this Calvary into battle. There is one reason to charge however, because the lizard mount has a nasty venomous bite, and can really sink their teeth into an enemy after a good charge.
Armored front-This unit’s defense is increased 50% when attacked in the front.
Vulnerable back –This unit’s defense is decreased 50% when attacked in the back.
Resistance to ranged -this unit always has at least 25% resistance to ranged attacks.
Suffering joust-When this unit attacks it gives the enemy the suffering spell, for every two squares of charging before hand increase the power of the spell.
This unit takes up 4 squares on the battle field.
Cold blooded
Semi-Amphibious-This unit can fight in water but its stats do not change because of it.
Enrage
Meditation ability- Vulnerability charge-This unit can inflict Vulnerability when it charges.
Upgrade-Fire lizard
Image (http://sibarika.deviantart.com/art/GiftRequest-110991399)
Fire lizards are not a creature of Shallsha but of Arkarth, and they so impressed the fire Naga of the south east islands that they once had a place in their pantheon. With the fire Naga civilization gone however the rainforest Naga have given the fire lizards a new home, and a new duty; to defend the Mu Empire and they do so with flying colors.
Fire resistance-This unit has 25% resistance to fire spells and is immune to the fire damage of attacks that enemy units might have.
Armored front-This unit’s defense is increased 50% when attacked in the front.
Vulnerable back –This unit’s defense is decreased 50% when attacked in the back.
Resistance to ranged -this unit always has at least 25% resistance to ranged attacks.
Suffering joust-When this unit charges for more than two squires then its bite inflicts the Suffering spell on the enemy, its mastery level increases every two squires it walks.
Enrage
This unit takes up 4 squares on the battle field.
Cold blooded
Semi-Amphibious-This unit can fight in water but its stats do not change because of it.
Meditation ability-Oven of armor-When this creature attacks is expels a hot fluid that heats an enemy’s defense causing them to cook alive over a period of three turns. Note also the enemy’s defense is softened from the attack. The equation of the damage done is 1/10th the lizards damage stat multiplied by the enemy’s defense. In addition an enemy’s defense reduced 7 points for three turns.
Advice for using-Do not send this beast into the enemy line unless you are sure you can defend them.
Advice for defeating-Isolate them so you can get them behind.
Alternative upgrade-Mosesaur
Reference-http://www.oceansofkansas.com/about-mo.html
Image-(http://www.oceansofkansas.com/RapidMosa.html) (note this one does not have it's rider)
These water lizards have fins instead of legs and are ridden by mermaids. Though they are closely related to fire lizards they have somehow become adapted to the water. Unlike other reptiles they have anti-freeze in their blood that makes them resistant to the cold and can even use ice in their attack.
Manna ice-this unit can use the hero’s manna to compliment its regular attacks with fire attacks; to do so this unit has a move to steal manna from the hero. Then on the next move this unit can decide how much of that stolen manna to put in the attack, for every 1 manna put into the attack the units ice attack does an additional 1% of the original damage.
Ice resistance- This unit has 25% resistance to ice spells and is immune to the ice damage of attacks that enemy units might have.
Freeze joust-When this unit charges for more than two squires then its bite inflicts the freeze affect (the same one ice spells do when you learn master of ice) but it’s effectiveness increase 10% every square it swims accursed.
This unit takes up 4 squares on the battle field.
Semi Cold blooded-Though this unit gains initiative 2 moral points in warm climate cold areas bring their moral only to minus 1 and has less affect on initiative than other cold-blooded units
Aquatic
Meditation ability-persistent freeze-The freeze effect endures for 5 turns as though it were the slow spell.
Advice for using-If you use the beast in conjunction with mermaids you can both work to make sure an enemy never makes a move even if the effect of their freeze ability is hampered from being on a boat.
Advice for defeating-like any aquatic unit the best thing you can do is try to get them on your boat.
5)Mucalinda
Reference-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mucalinda
These creatures are gigantic cobras with a terrible venomous bite, but what truly makes these snakes unique is their propensity for camaraderie and friendships. In ancient times these creatures were feared and walls were built in part to keep them out of cities. The reputation of the Brahma changed however when one of these serpents came to protect the great monk Veshsa from a hail storm. The Naga took the protection of Vesha as a sign from Shallsia that he was seeking the “the path of truth”, and ever since the Mucalinda have become part of Naga society. Unlike other slippery serpents who couldn’t care any less about others, the Mucalinda will do anything to protect its comrades, even take an arrow.
Projectile resistance-This unit has a 25% resistance to long range weapons.
Projectile protector-This unit can protect adjacent units with its armored hood so that it takes half the attack.
Venom-This unit has a mild poison bite that affects enemy stats for 3 turns and every turn damage that is equivalent to 25% of all this unit’s hit points.
Enrage-This unit’s attack increases whenever an allied stack falls that is not a summoned creature.
Cold blooded.
Amphibious
This unit takes 4 squares on the battle field.
Meditation ability- Bain of the impatient-The effectiveness of the venom is multiplied by the enemy’s initiative stat as the venom can run through the victims vitals more often.
Many Faced Mucalinda.
The Naga have bred these serpants to have three heads each with a hood so they can provide increased projectile defense to their fellow units, and because they are trained from hatchlings to work with those fellow units their desire to defend is ever greater. Increased armor also makes them better “tanks”.
Projectile resistance-This unit has a 50% resistance to long range weapons.
Projectile protector-This unit can protect adjacent units with its armored hood so that it takes all the attack.
Comrade retaliation-If an allied unit is attacked melee style one of the heads will retaliate against the attacker, just as the attacked unit does.
Venom-This unit has a mild poison bite that affects enemy stats for 3 turns and every turn damage that is equivalent to 25% of all this unit’s hit points.
Enrage-This unit’s attack increases whenever an allied stack falls that is not a summoned creature.
Cold blooded.
Amphibious
This unit takes up to 4 squares on the battle field.
Meditation ability- Bain of the impatient-The effectiveness of the venom is multiplied by the enemy’s initiative stat as the venom can run through the victims vitals more often.
Advice for using-These guys are best used for defending more delicate units. But if you have the teleportation spell they can be quickly and easily adapted for offensive purposes.
Advice for fighting-If you can lure friendly units away from this tank you can defeat them and deal with this unit later. If you must charge the Naga line try to do so away from these cobras.
Sea Serpent.
These great ocean pythons are much more like the regular snakes in that they don’t give a sh—about any their of comrades, they just want to kill and eat enemies and boy are they good at that. These sea beast can shoot out of the water onto enemy boats, and can constrict their enemies into submission. Though they are naturally loners they do provide one service to their fellow Naga units; when they constrict an enemy they leave openings so the allies can attack.
Constriction-This unit can constrict enemies when it attacks. When this unit constricts an enemy said enemy looses hp (half the hp that would be lost in a normal attack by this creature) every time the serpent’s turn comes up, but the constricted enemy can do half normal damage by struggling. If the constricted enemy is attacked by the this unit’s allies then the enemy retaliates by struggling, which harms the sea serpent but not the creature that attacked it.
Bloodlust-When an enemy stack dies this creatures attack power increases.
Aquatic
Cold blooded
This unit takes up to 4 squares on the battle field.
Advice for using-These creatures can be used to stop a powerful enemy quickly, if only you can on the enemy boat quickly.
Advice for fighting-These guys are strong but slow. Slow them down with a slow spell is possible.
6)Garuda
Long ago the Mu mages dared to make a pact with a powerful being that was a combination of man and bird, a pact that led to disaster. The Garuda is attuned to the power of light always and pursues justice, but justice is in the eye of the beholder, and so when these powerful if self-righteous followers of Elrath concluded that the Mu empire was unjust they laid waste to half of the Mu empire, eating Naga alive as they did so, before the Naga finally brought them under control. Today the Garuda fight for the Mu empire, but Naga leaders would do well to be sensitive to the Garuda sense of morality, because the Garuda fear nothing, not even death.
Recruiting limit-Only three of this unit can be recruited every week. period
Mind immunity-This creature is not affected by spells or other abilities that affect the mind.
Reptile eater-This unit can gain hp by attacking Naga and other reptilian creatures like lizards and dragons. Half of damage done to these types of creatures goes to healing this unit.
Justice seeker-This creature gets +2 moral when fighting creatures hurt by the word of light skill but loose 2 moral when fighting creatures hurt by curse of the netherworld.
Flyer-This unit flies
Land based
Meditation ability-protected by light-Light magic spells have increased effectiveness on this unit for three turns.
Photos Garuda.
Reference-http://www.pantheon.org/articles/g/garuda.html and http://www.khandro.net/mysterious_garuda.htm
These creatures are true beings of light and for demons and other dark beings the photos Garuda is something out of their worst nightmares, for this creature is fast and powerful and shows no mercy or forgiveness.
Recruiting limit-Only three of this unit can be recruited every week. period
Mind immunity-This creature is not affected by spells or other abilities that affect the mind
Reptile eater-This unit can gain hp by attacking Naga and other reptilian creatures like lizards and dragons. Half of damage done to these types of creatures goes to healing this unit.
Justice seeker-This creature gets +2 moral when fighting creatures hurt by the word of light skill but loose 2 moral when fighting creatures hurt by curse of the netherworld.
Attack of light-When fighting creatures hurt by the word of light this unit 10% more attack power.
Flyer-This unit flies
Enrage ability
Land based
Meditation ability-protected by light-Light magic spells have increased duration and effectiveness on this unit for three turns.
Advice for using-These creatures blur the line between tier 7 and Tier 6 creatures, which is why you can only recruit three of them a week. Power these creatures up and then send them into the enemy line where they can wreck havoc. Use healing spells to keep them in the game longer.
Advice for defeating-Whenever possible use creatures that are not hurt by word of light. Otherwise just try to slow these guys with dark magic and brace yourself because these creatures are strong.
Great Ak.
The amphibious version of the Garuda is a strange combination of a mermaid and some sort of water bird, and is a creature of Shallsia not Elrath. This giant, slow, clumsy, bird creature is almost always laughed at by its enemies until they make the mistake of attacking it. When this normally gentile bird is assaulted then it is roused to anger and fights back furiously.
Stiffened resolve- When this unit is attacked there is a chance that this unit will have a moral boost, the odds of which depends on the general moral state. Retaliation strikes do not count.
Unlimited retaliation.
Enrage ability.
Amphibious
Flyer.
Meditation ability-Ultimate resolve-for two turns this unit will get a moral boost ever it is attacked or it attacks someone else.
Advice for using-This unit is a flying tank made to go into enemy lines. Heal these creatures often and let the enemy give them a speed boost by attacking them. Note that this creature is the only alt upgrade that can go on land.
Advice for killing-Unless you can lower this creature’s moral don’t attack it. Instead slow it down by casting slow on it and refusing to attack it.
7) Avatar
The Avatars are the Naga monks who have so dedicated themselves to meditation and self examination that they have found Shallsia within themselves and can channel her will through their own bodies. The Avatars have been taught since they were children to have respect for all life and so are hesitant to go to battle. When an Avatar is roused to battle however she can channel part of Shallsia and this part of Shallsia will come in the form of a dragon made of water which will then protect the Avatar attack and serve as her might.
Water immunity-This unit is immune to water spells.
Caster-This unit can cast ring of ice, lightning, and regeneration.
Pendent of the cronflux-This unit can gain mana from the enemies casting spells. The amount of manna gained is equivalent to half of the mana used to cast the enemy’s spell.
Cold blooded
Amphibious
This unit takes up 4 squares on the battle field
Meditation ability-Spells of numbers-This unit’s spell power increases with the number of units for one casting much like the damage stat.
Great Avatar.
The great Avatars were once teachers to Avatars, but through their teachings they ended up learning how to be still stronger Avatars. These Avatars have completely mastered control of their internal energies and such Shallsia can be channeled through with much more ease and can even make themselves into water when the need arises. The result is that enemies can know the true wrath of Shallsia.
Water immunity-This unit is immune to water spells.
Caster-This unit can cast the spells ice ring, lightning, deep freeze, chain lightning and resurrection.
Conflux necklace- Whenever an enemy cast a spell this unit gets half of the manna they used to cast it.
Splash-If this unit is hit with a destructive magic spell then parts of this unit will splash upon enemy units doing the same amount of damage them.
Purification of darkness-If the splash ability takes affect while a dark magic spell is cast upon it then not only with the unit be cured of the dark magic spell but the splashed water will carry it enemies.
Cold blooded
Amphibious
This unit takes 4 squires on the battle field.
Meditation ability-Spells of numbers-This unit’s spell power increases with the number of units for one casting much like the damage stat.
This unit takes 4 squires on the battle field.
Advice for using-These units are by far the most powerful casters in the game, but they don’t have a lot of their own manna. Use their spells sparingly unless the enemy is stupid enough to cast a lot of spells. Also if they are hit with a dark magic spell hurt them with one of your weakest spells to give the enemy the dark magic spell.
Advice for defeating-These creatures are such powerful casters that giving them manna by casting spells is practically suicide, but normal non magic attacks work just fine. Try to hold off on your magic until these creatures are defeated.
Ocean Avatar.
While the other Avatar have found Shallsia through self exploration the Ocean Avatars have found her by becoming “one with the ocean”. The Naga priest had their snake tails shaped like that of sea snakes so they would be forced to live in the ocean. In the ocean these Naga have frond the great secrets of their water god, and have hence gained great magical power. They are also eager to learn more.
Long range-this unit can control parts of the ocean for a powerful long range attack that affects opponents in 4 squares
Living rapids-If Allies are with in the 4 square striking range of this unit’s long range attack then water will flow around them like river rapids along stones thereby increasing the attack power of the long range attack.
No melee penalty
Aquatic
Cold blooded
this unit takes 4 spaces on the battle feild
Meditaiton abilty-Great Wave-This unit can summon a wave that damages all enemies.
Advice for using-It’s not usually a good idea to send aquatic creatures on to a boat to fight close range, but if you gotta then it’s good to have the units to back them up.
Advice for defeating-Protect yourself from long range attacks and spread out.
Tier 8
Essence of Shallsia
Description-Shallsia is the goddess of water and exist wherever water exist, and since all life is made of water she exist inside of all life forms. Shallsia is a merciful, motherly goddess who sees her worshipers as her own children that she loves and cares for. The water goddess is usually gentle and forgiving, but should anyone be foolish enough to invoke her wrath they will become victims of her great strength. Shallsia followers lover her as a mother so should anyone try to harm the water goddess their wrath will also be invoked.
Water fighting style-If this unit is attacked then this unit’s retaliation will have the enemy’s attack and damage stats added to her own.
Counter-retaliation-The attack of this unit does little damage to enemies unless that enemy retaliates in which case this unit would take advantage of an enemy’s strength and “flow” to damage them. The damage done to the opponent is ½ the damage that would have been done to this unit had the retaliation succeeded.
Stiffened resolve-If this unit is attacked then there is a chance the unit will gain a moral boost, the odds depend on the hero’s moral stat
Allied resolve-If this unit is attacked there is a chance that one or more allied units will gain a moral boost depending on the hero’s moral stat.
Immune to mind control
Meditation ability-This unit can mold chakra and give it to other units
Advice for using-It is really hard to get these units but if you can they serve as the ultimate defensive units. Put them between you and the enemy so the can harness the enemy’s aggression.
Advice for defeating-It’s a Tier 8 creature, so there is no easy way to defeat them, but do note that they have low stats compared to other Tier 8 creatures.
Naga philosphy
The Ruins faction aka the Mu Empire is a multi racial society, but it is worth studying the Naga people for they were the ones who originally brought the many races of the Mu empire together.
The Naga are a people who have won more wars by surrendering than by making brave stands, a people that are pious but suspicious of the openly faithful, a people that are proud of their kingdom, but allow non-Naga to occasionally rule it, a people dedicated to Shalassia the water goddess even though they all came from the desert. Even the body of a Naga is a contradiction, for they are human from the waist up and serpent from the waist down, a seemingly impossible combination of mammal and reptile.
Yet while the contradictions of Naga society confuse outsiders, the Naga have built a strong well ordered society off of them. Naga farms are quite possibly the most productive in all of Ashan and the sophistications of Naga technology and magic rivals that of the silver cities, and the Naga Empire has united many peoples even those that live in the sea and even if their temples do not float in the sky they certainly reach for it.
To make sense of Naga culture and Naga accomplishments human scholars first studied the behavior of reptiles in hopes of gaining insights into the mind of the Naga people. Though studying the behavior of reptiles was useful in its own right it lead scholars to false conclusions, because Naga are not reptiles but mammals. Though Naga are only marginally warm-blooded (they produce a fraction of the body heat produced by humans) they have milk producing breast, jaws that can house multiple kinds of teeth, and a domed cranium, which are all distinctly mammalian characteristics. Far from acting like reptiles Naga have families, are expressive in their emotions and are naturally curious, all characteristics of not just mammals but humans. Naga and humans are so closely related that they can mate and produce offspring that can then reproduce themselves. The scaly snake like tail that Naga have says nothing about what they truly are, it is simply a way to move and in the females give birth with less pain than a human.
To the extent that Naga are different from humans it is only because they are less militant (they fight less wars and have less violent crime than their legged counter parts) and do much more reading, writing, inventing, and board game playing and even these differences can be chalked off as cultural differences rather than species differences.
One method of understanding the Naga, that is better than understanding reptiles, is to examine the four great philosophies of the Naga. The four great Naga Philosophies are;
Opposite unity-The idea that success can be achieved by uniting opposites and bringing them into perfect balance.
Flow-The idea that energy called “Chakra” flows through all things, and that by understanding Chakra one can accomplish great task with almost no energy.
Connectedness-the idea that all things in the universe are somehow connected; According the Naga even the tiniest stone in the center of the earth is connected to the farthest star, and that even the great mother Asha is connected to Urgash the devil himself. In accordance to this philosophy many Naga argue that one who understands how they are connected to the rest of the cosmos and the world will be able to bring the universe to their side and gain great power, but one who does not understand these connections will turn the universe against them and self destruct.
Valuing of life-The one philosophical idea amongst the Naga that is normative and does not in and of its self serve a practical purpose. Naga simply like things alive.
The first philosophy, opposite unity is the antitheist of how humans normally think in Ashan, for they normally think of opposites as mutually exclusive and in conflict with one another. Naga on the other hand are more passive than their legged counter parts, and so are able to see how opposites can transform into each other and become one and the same. According to Naga philosophy all things in life can be described as two opposing forces; light and dark, cold and hot, victory and defeat, life and death. When two opposing forces are perfectly balanced then the world is at peace and good times will ensure, but when a force is thrown out of balance then chaos and destruction are imminent until balance is restored. There is even a symbol for opposite unity on the Naga flag; the white and black snake combined into a balanced so perfect that it forms a circle.
Everything that is done by Naga society is built on opposite unity and the desire to find balance, a tendency that is clearly illustrated in their aqueduct system and in their fighting style. The Naga aqueduct system diverts water into storage tanks so as to prevent flooding, and then during the dry season the release the water into their farms; no excess water, no lack of water, balance is achieved and farms are more productive for it. By the same token there have been many daemon and barbarian armies who have been allowed to invade deep into Naga territory only to find themselves over stretched, divided and otherwise vulnerable to counter attack: this is because many Nagan enemies mistaken Naga passivity for a sign of weakness when it is really an effective means of bringing unbalance to an enemy.
The second great philosophy of the Naga is “flow”. When Naga immigrated to the jungles of Mu and saw the many brooks and streams they became impressed with how the water would passively and smoothly flow down the path of least resistance, instead of wasting vast amounts of energy trying to move the rocks they flowed around. So impressed were the Naga by the efficient flow of streams that they concluded that all things have energy called “Chakra” that flowed through them and the rest of world. To this day Naga try to mimic the efficient flow of those early streams by trying to complete all task with the least amount of effort.
The idea of flow is incorporated by the Naga in such high minded endeavors, as road and aqueduct construction, improving relations between minority groups within the Mu empire, and foreign and immigration policy, for all these things require people and goods to move with ease, and communication clear and unhampered. Flow is used in more mundane task as well, such as cooking and house decoration, indoor plumbing and is best illustrated in the plant covered Naga houses. Since Naga live in rainforest it is inevitable that buildings will be covered in plants causing them to look like old ruins, but instead spending energy fighting with the plants the Naga incorporate the plants to make them beneficial. Naga research the plants to find uses for them. In the case where the invading plants can’t be made into something useful the Naga rip them from their roots and replace them with a plants that are useful, after that it is only a matter of protecting the useful plant from other plants until it large enough to not need protecting. Ether way the Naga solves the plant problem not by fighting but by passively accepting their flow.
The third great philosophy of the Naga is universal connectedness and its use is much more subtle than the other great philosophies of the Naga people but is no less important especially when it comes to foreign policy and the expansion of the Mu Empire. The Mu Empire has won control of a lot of people since its birth centuries ago, but it did not do so with military might as most human empires had. Instead the Mu Empire incorporated other people peacefully, by sharing the benefits of their aqueduct system with other peoples and providing them protection along with other benefits.
The idea of people willingly surrendering their sovereignty to a foreign power like the Naga state is almost completely alien to humans as can be derived from their tendency to brake off from one faction to make another, but the Naga were able to get other races to do it simply by seeing connections that many humans did not notice. The Naga figured out a long time ago that other nations import more of your products when they have more wealth that other nations are more inclined to invade your nation if they feel they must steal your food to survive. The result from these acute observations was that the Naga did everything they could to assist the development of other peoples, but this development made all the bordering nations interdependent and as such they ended up becoming one state. On a more mundane level the Naga people study world events closely, because they know that drought in one place can be a flood in another, and that when the prices of one good go up they can go up everywhere. As such Naga people, even some of the regular peasant Naga, will observe other nations to help decipher their own future.
The last great philosophy of the Naga is the idea that life has great inherit value and is more valuable than anything else. For this reason many Naga are vegans and some even hesitate to kill small insects. As one can imagine the great premium that Naga have on life can make war difficult. As a result Naga will exhaust every diplomatic option they can when confronted with conflict, and turn to war only as a last resort. When Naga have to fight a war the day it is declared is remembered in infamy, and victory in combat is not celebrated as it is in human culture, for the very fact that they are at war is considered a diplomatic failure. On the other hand the great value Naga have of life means that they tend to own a lot of pets and keep many house plants. Also the great premium on life combined with the fact that Naga women have less painful births than human women means they have lots, and lots of babies.
The end result of executing these philosophers is a lot contradictions as they unite opposites, that they bend over backwards for foreigners to conquer them and that they have lots of kids and pets. While knowing Naga philosophies helps make sense of the Naga culture understanding the Mu Empire is somewhat more complicated.
The Mu Empire.
The land Mu Empire exist on a large island just south of the most southern part of Ashan. The island is almost large enough to be a continent in and of its self but the Naga only occupy only about a 4th it. Because Naga greatly desire warm weather and water the majority of the population congregates in cities right on or near the equator and around large rivers. Though the amount of land the Mu Empire has is rather small the land that is not the only part of the Mu empire. If one counts the Mu Empire’s underwater areas then the Mu Empire is a little larger than the Unicorn Empire. However not all cartographers include underwater territories when they make maps of the Mu Empire, because the Empire still has very loose control over those areas; it is hard to control sea serpents and mermaids when they can swim in and out of political boundaries with ease. Even so the Naga do build some of their cities in rivers.
Even if the Mu Empire doesn’t have the largest land area it certainly has the largest population of any nation of Ashan (unless you count Necropolis). The Mu Empire can get so much crop out of a small, amount of land and build its buildings so high that that it can support an enormous population even with very little territory.
Major export items of the Mu Empire include but are not limited to crystals, tropical fruits, medicines, spices, silk, books, salt, indigo and sugar. Rice is by far the Empire’s biggest export, for on an average year it produces enough rice to feed half the world and the Empire also produces most of the world’s tea. Major imports of the empire include gems, gold, wheat, stone, paper, jewelry, iron, and despite being a rainforest nation timber.
Though the Mu Empire was founded by the Naga they only comprise 30% of the population. The rest of the population consist of Mermaids, intelligent water serpents, water Naga (which are not actually Naga) Bird people, Elves and humans amongst other minority groups. The Empire also has vast religious diversity for the Naga government allows for freedom of religion. As if the fact that the Empire is majority minority were not complicated enough the current emperor of is half Naga half Sylvan Elf and is married to a dark elf.
To accommodate the vast and diverse population the Mu Empire does not use a system or Royalty like the other nations of Asha for having a few families always be the government might deprive some minorities the chance to participate in governing. Instead of Royal families the government consist of a council who got into government by taking several merit test, and then worked through the ranks to obtain their position. Even the Emperor is appointed, not born, into his position by a sub committee within the ruling council. Governing is a much slower process in the Mu Empire than in nations under the feudal system because of this great council, but serves to keep the peace in such a multi-ethnic society.
There is a reason that Naga allow so many minority groups in their country despite all the difficulties in governing them; they can do work that Naga have trouble doing. Warm blooded minorities like humans and elves are especially useful to the Naga because unlike the semi/cold-blooded Naga which have to waste time sunbathing to do farm work, the warm blooded beings can just wake up and work. With the warm blooded animals doing all the manual labor the Naga can concentrate on intellectual/indoor activates like inventing, writing, and managing, that require less energy. For their part a Naga needs about 50% of the food that a human does and so for the food needed to support one human inventor/writer/intellectual, a warm-blooded being can feed about two Naga inventors/writers/intellectual, and for this reason the combination of Naga and warm blooded beings makes for a technologically advanced Mu Empire. Marine minority groups like mermaids are also extremely useful to the Naga, for such beings allow the Naga to access the ocean’s immense resources
One might conclude that the Naga were giving their kingdom away by allowing so many minority groups to be in the nation and by allowing a non-Naga to be king and one might also find it odd that a dark elf would marry a Sylvan elf when they are at odds with each other. However the Naga have no fear of minority groups taking their nation, because they have a simple method of making sure that the minority groups assimilate into Naga culture; they leave minorities alone.
The Naga learned long ago that the more effort one spends into forcing minorities to convert to their culture the more the minorities resist. It is far better, the Naga found, to adopt the idea of flow with regard to minorities and to leave the minorities alone so they do not resist. When minorities do not resist they assimilate into Naga culture in two generations on their own, while at the same time making cultural contributions to the Naga in the form of artistic works and food. The Naga therefore have no fear that a half elf man will sell out the Empire to Irollian even as Emperor, because he would have converted completely to Naga culture and will think the Mu Empire as his home not Irollian. Also the half wood elf king would have no qualms about marrying a dark elf, because as they both assimilate into Naga culture their past conflicts in other lands becomes meaningless.
Religion would seem to be the one thing minorities don’t give up for Dark elves in the empire still worship Malssia, the bird people Elrath, the native humans nature spirits, however this is an illusion for the people of these separate religions have come to interrupt their scriptures the same way the Naga would interpret their own, have co-opted Naga religious ceremonies and even go to Shalsian priest for their services. Though it is odd for a worshiper of Elrath to go to a Shalsian priest for services it is possible, because many of the services can flexibly trade one god for another. Take for example the traditional house blessing ceremony conducted by Shalsian priest. When a priest blesses a house he ask that the house and everyone living in it be fortunate for the year and free of illness, but the priest never specifies who he ask, because it can be whoever the recipients want it to be; Shalassia, Elrath, Malssia, the spirits, the universe, even Urgash.
The Naga for their part act as though their god’s name is interchangeable with the name of other gods; Elrath is just another name for Shallsia, which is just another name for the universe etc. As it turns out even the Naga religion is affected by the philosophy of flow.
For all their ability to assimilate people and races there is one race that the Naga cannot seem to assimilate: The native Lizard people. The Lizard people have been roaming the island since before the Naga arrived, and ever since the races encountered each other they have been in conflict. Indeed the Mu Empire has actually used to own a whole third, instead of a whole 4th of the island but lost some of their land to the lizard people. The Naga are not resentful towards the lizard people despite their past conflicts, and instead invite the lizard people to become part of their empire where they can be “well fed, protected and educated”. The Lizard people have yet to accept invitation.
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War-overlord
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
Presidente of Isla del Tropico
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posted March 10, 2010 11:31 AM |
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Due to the incorporation, now and in the future, of each other's faction in our respective storylines I follow this faction with great interest.
You seem to have put a lot of work into this and there is great depth to your faction. A level of depth which in cannot but applaud. I will try to think of constructive critcism in the near future.
Come to think of it, I can think of some constructive critcism. Try usuing more punctuation and BB-code in your text. At the moment your entry is a great wall of text, which may not be as inviting to read. Also at some points it is unclear where one section ends and another begins. This is where BB-code may be handy. It may seem irrelevant, but it makes your document a whole lot easier to read.
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Vote El Presidente! Or Else!
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xerox
Promising
Undefeatable Hero
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posted March 10, 2010 12:58 PM |
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The Elemental Dragon of Water is called Shalassa. 
I love Naga and all Naga factions are interesting to me so I will follow this faction with hawk eyes. (how poetic) 
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Over himself, over his own
body and
mind, the individual is
sovereign.
- John Stuart Mill
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flackmandan
Known Hero
Veni,Vidi,Vichi
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posted March 10, 2010 05:29 PM |
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very good faction but a few images would help brighten it up^^
Try adding a few
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Raelag84
Famous Hero
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posted March 10, 2010 08:28 PM |
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Quote:
very good faction but a few images would help brighten it up^^
Try adding a few
Some imagies will come but I have dial up so that will take time.
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flackmandan
Known Hero
Veni,Vidi,Vichi
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posted March 10, 2010 09:09 PM |
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oh i see but youve obviously put some work into it shame to see it now have pictures^^
SMALL THINGS PLEASE SMALL MINDS
so thats why ill b hppy
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Raelag84
Famous Hero
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posted July 30, 2010 11:05 PM |
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Edited by Raelag84 at 23:55, 30 Jul 2010.
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Diplomatic relations.
Sylvan-The wood elves and the Naga get along very well for the Mu Empire has many wood elves living in it and both factions understand the value of being in harmony with nature. As two nature loving meditative peoples there just simply is no reason to be in conflict.
Academy-the Wizards don’t tend to see anyone as equals, but the great amount of knowledge the Naga have does win them some respect. The result is that the Naga have as close to a relationship as anyone can have to the snobbish wizard faction.
Haven-The Knights of light don’t bother much with the Mu Empire diplomatically but average peasants trade with the Mu Empire all the time. When the nations do talk diplomacy is usually done through the birdmen that live in Mu as they tend to be worshipers of Elrath like those in the Griffin Empire
Demon-The Naga fight these creatures…period.
Ziggurat-the Naga and the lizard people are absolutely at each other’s throats for the Lizard people see the citizens of Mu as food not as people. For their part the Naga would like to find peace with the Lizard people and assimilate them, but the Lizard people themselves will have none of that.
Stronghold-orcs are tend to be allies with the Ziggurat faction, hence they are enemies with the Mu Empire
Fortress-the dwarves trade extensively with the Naga but as yet there is no military alliance.
Bandits-The Mu Empire does not oftten interact with these people.
Necropolis-The Naga don’t want anything to do with death or the undead, but the feeling is not mutual as the necs admire the Naga’s grasp of esoteric knowledge. Plus the Mu Empire has a lot of bodies around for the necs to use, the more life the more death. As a side note a certain necromancer was the only to ever successfully conquer the Naga.
Dungeon-The Mu empire and Ygg-Chall are rivals not because they hate each other, but because they admire each other. The Dark elves find that the Naga make great slaves due to their education and skills, while the Naga find the Dark Elves to be beautiful and therefore the Naga desire to assimilate them. On the one hand this means they will fight wars of control, but on the other hand if one is in dire straits the other has strong motivation to help them.
Portal-The mysterious are just that; mysterious therefore the naga have yet to form any diplomatic relations with them.
The History of the Mu Empire.
In sharp contrast to the humans who’s history is one of splitting into smaller factions (the free cities fell from the Falcon Empire, the wizards left the falcon empire and then the necromancers split off from the wizards), this history of the Naga is one of different civilizations getting absorbed by other factions or otherwise being eliminated until there one was Naga civilization left: The Mu Empire. The whole history of the Naga is beyond the scope of this document suffice to say that Naga were originally created by Shalassa, the dragon goddess of water and were desert creatures that migrated all across the world along the equator and became seven distinct races which were; The desert Naga, the Rainforest Naga , the Fire Naga, the Red Naga, the Mountain Naga, the black Naga, and the white Naga (an eighth race would come later).
The Rainforest Naga are the founders of the Mu empire, and are apparently the only Naga race still in existence though most Rainforest Naga do have some blood from other races. The Empire founded by the Rainforest Naga is quite possibly the oldest civilization in all of Asha even if it has gone through many changes since its founding.
The Mu Empire in the ancient age.
Little is known of the Mu Empire in the Ancient Age, because there are no readable records from that time. The old Mu Temples have written records on their walls, but they are in ancient hieroglyphs that no one today can read. Nevertheless the many ruined stone buildings that litter the Mu Empire prove that the rainforest Naga had a strong civilization well before the birth of the seventh dragon. Some historians even argue that Mu Empire could have been founded as far as back as three thousand years ago.
The old Mu Empire grew powerful by incorporating warm blooded humans and by taking advantage of the multiple growing seasons, and intense rains of the rainforest to grow crops and sometime before the Eldar wars the Mu empire engaged in two great feats that made them stronger. The first great feat was the construction of the Mu Aqueduct system that allowed them to greatly increase crop production, the second great feat was the building of a massive trading fleet that allowed the Mu empire to build and maintain a strong maritime empire.
To the people of the ancient age it would have seemed that the Mu Empire was so powerful that it was destined to conquer the world, however such would not be the case. The great trading fleet built by the Mu empire was destroyed during the Eldar wars and during the first demon incursions the demons invaded deep into Mu territory causing great destruction as they did so. People lost contact with the Mu empire after the demons invaded so it was assumed that the empire had been totally decimated by the demons and for many centuries would be a forgotten civilization.
The Rediscovery of Mu.
By the beginning of the modern age the only people who believed the rainforest Naga still existed were small tribes of rainforest valley peoples who claimed that the Naga lived high on plateaus and controlled the water supply. However these tribal peoples also disallowed anyone from venturing up the plateaus as they were fearful such visitations would anger the Naga and drive them to create massive floods; for this reason outsiders assumed the rainforest people were just superstitious and that the Rainforest Naga were indeed destroyed.
Today it is well known the rainforest tribes were correct and Naga did indeed live high in the plateaus. Despite the common misconceptions at the time the demons of the ancient age did very little damage to the Mu Empire for after a few quick victories the demons’ impulsive nature caused them to get disorganized and lost; making them easy pickings for Naga guerillas. However the Naga did realize that leaving their empire open to trade and foreigners made them vulnerable to invasion so the empress Kanita I decided to move her empire to hard to access plateaus and pursue a policy of strict isolation.
On the plateaus Kanita also hoped to converse with water dragons, which the rainforest Naga thought were god like spirits that controlled the rains and had a mystical kingdom on the plateaus. The people of Mu learned that the there was no kingdom of water elementals that controlled the rains, but by rebuilding their aqueduct system and being where the rain is the Naga were able control where water went effectively realizing the control of water the Naga thought water elementals had. Furthermore the Mu Naga accidentally convinced the humans at the foot of the plateau they were god like sprits by gaining control of how much water runoff went to the humans; the Naga controlled the fate of nearby humans without even knowing it.
The remoteness of the plateaus allowed for the Mu to be isolated and undiscovered for centuries until in the year 8 YSD (8th year of the seventh dragon) a group of explorers, led by a man name Usa Lumumba made the treacherous journey to the most isolated areas of the rainforest. Usa and his fellow explores found a whole lost world high in the mountains, full of life forms that were thought extinct like, insects the size birds, flying reptiles and lizard men along with various species of plants and animals that had never been seen before. The ultimate discovery was that of the Mu empires, which like many of the animals on the plateaus, was long thought extinct.
When Usa first arrived at the capital of Bhogavati, he described the city as enormous, prosperous, and of the past. At the time Bhogavati was the largest city both in its land area and its population and certainly trade flourished in the city allowing for great prosperity, but Usa was even more the mark with his criticism for the city was indeed of the past. The Mu Empire had become stagnant, the only significant change that had occurred since beginning its policy of isolation was the invention of Archiculture, the process of making plants that grow on buildings useful. The invention of archiculture actually helped give Usa the impression that the city was of the past for by not trimming the plants around their buildings the whole city of Bhogavati ended up looking like ruins, and still does to this day.
For his part Usa was pleased to see the empire unchanged for it meant that the outside world had much to offer the Mu empire and the empire would be more willing to trade with the outside world: Usa proved to be overly optimistic. The Naga empress, Kanita VII was gracious enough to give Usa an audience during which Usa explained that he was a follower of Sar-Elam, who had gained the conscious of Asha the dragon god of order. Sar-Elam had heard from his great revelation that the Mu empire still existed and Usa stated that he took it upon himself to lead an expedition to the Mu in order to share Sar-Elam’s divine message, and trade knowledge and goods with the Rainforest Naga. When Usa had completed his presentation Kanita thanked Usa for informing her his purpose and then she asked him to leave the Mu empire. To explain herself empress simply stated, “The world has nothing that we lack.”
Usa was discouraged by the rejection of the empress but his journey was not a total loss. Further diplomatic missions from the fire Naga of the south east volcanic islands were able to convince Kanita VII to allow some trading stations at the foot of the Mu Plateaus, though foreigners were not allowed to enter the empire proper. The first such trading stations was established in 13 YSD, and in the year 16 YSD the Sylvan were given permission to build a similar trading station. From their limited trading with the fire Naga and the Sylvan elves, Kanita was able to see that the outside world did have some things the empire lacked, like new metals invented by the dwarves, and food stuffs that did not grow in the tropics, and so the empress talked with her advisors about opening the empire up again; such talks were not to last.
In the year 28 YSD the demons once again rose out of their hiding places and began assaulting the Mu empire. The Mu empire managed to keep the demons at bay for a few years, but since the empire had restricted its self to the plateaus they could not pull back into the rainforest to help the demons become disorganized. The demons were able to go deep into what little Mu territory the Rainforest Naga territory restricted its self. Had Lizard men, rainforest humans, fire Naga, and Sylvan elves not come to the assistance of the Mu empire it most surly would have been conquered by the demons. Even with allies (the lizard men considered the Naga bait, not allies) the Mu was only able to slow the advance of the demons it was ultimately Sar-Elam’s sealing ceremony conducted in 40 YSD that saved the Mu empire.
One might think that after being rescued from demons that Kanita VII might have been more willing than ever to trade with nations that helped defend the Mu empire, and she certainly did thank her allies for the assistance; however the empress’ advisors argued successfully that it was because of trading with the outside world that the demons were able to find and invade the Mu empire. For this reason Kanita decided to again pursue a policy of isolation, but show her appreciation to her allies she gave them permission to live in the “wonderful” Mu empire with their families on the stipulation that they would never be allowed to leave. Few accepted the offer, but one important person did.
The Agony of Reform
For humans, elves and dwarves the period between 50 YSD and 260 YSD was a peaceful time that allowed for their societies to recover from the demon invasions and has been called “The Years of Healing”. For all of Naga-kind the “years of Healing (YOH)” was a time of turbulence, war and massive change. For the Mu empire specifically the YOH was marked by three humiliating defeats, one at the hands of their own living weapons the Garuda, but this was also the period where the Mu empire would end its policy of isolation for good and begin communicating with ocean and river creatures.
The great changes to the Mu empire would begin with a wood elf named Gadwin. Gadwin originally ran delivery company that arranged for goods to be traded between the Mu empire and his original home land of Irollin. While in Mu Gadwin came to admire the local culture so much that he accepted Queen Kanita VII’s offer to live in the Mu empire when it closed its self to the world. Though Gadwin lost his delivery company he had an advanced education in management that allowed him to rise up though the ranks of the Mu government until he became an advisor to Kanita VIII, the empress after Kanita VII.
When other nations sent ambassadors to the Mu empire, asking for the right to trade Gadwin always advised the empress to receive them. Gadwin warned that other nations would not stand for the Mu empire’s isolation for long, that they would eventually demand the Mu empire open its borders and possibly even attack. Naga who gained wealth through trade when the Mu borders were more open and supported Gadwin and all of them together made up a broader reform movement that would lobby for the Mu empire to be more modern. The Mu empress respectfully disagreed with the reform movement and resolved to keep the borders closed; she thought falsely that the Mu empire was too strong for any nation to force her to open the nation’s borders. Kanita VIII would be in for a very rude awakening.
In 70 YOH Pharaoh Akeneton, king of the dessert Naga to the north-west, demanded that the Mu empire open its self to trade. The Mu empire had always thought of the dessert Naga as poor nomads who fought amongst themselves, and years before they would have been right, but the desert Naga had since united and grown powerful by building an aqueduct system and allying with 7 cities of magic (the academy faction). The Mu empire did not know how strong the desert Naga had become so they refused the Pharaoh’s demand. When the Pharaoh’s demand was refused the desert Naga attacked, and with their more advanced magic and weapons were able to deal the Mu empire a quick and crushing defeat. The Pharaoh chose not to keep the land that he had captured, but the Mu empire did open its self to trade and was forced to pay tribute to the desert Naga. The Black Naga to the west took note of the Mu empire’s weakness and demanded trading rights and tribute; they got their wish without a fight.
The message was clear for Kanita; the time had come to modernize the Mu military, but only 5 years after the war with the desert Naga Kanita had made the ill conceived decision of trying to extract tribute from the Lizard people to help with modernization. The Lizard people were a technically un-advanced race who the Naga greatly outnumbered not to mention they did not have the discipline and training that the Naga troops had; and so Kanita falsely assumed that there would be little to no resistance from them.
Instead the slow Naga infantry had trouble landing a hit on the more agile Lizard men and the random attacks of the Lizard men soon wore down the Naga troops and they were forced to retreat. The successful war of the Lizardmen was especially humiliating since the rainforest Naga had always regarded them as inferiors.
The two humiliating defeats drove the empress to pour the Mu empire’s resources into the military, against the advice of Gadwin and the reform movement; the result would be one of the biggest mistakes the Mu Empire would ever make. The Empress and her generals had realized that if they were going to have a stronger military then they would need stronger more agile creatures and so Mu mages/diplomats set sail to far away mountains to find such creatures. The creatures that mages and diplomats searched for were called Garuda.
Garuda were strong creatures that are part human and part bird. They are also predatory creatures who are particularly fond of eating reptiles and Naga, which is why Gadwin was opposed to having them in the Mu Empire’s army. Gadwin’s advice was ignored however for Garuda have many characteristics that make them good weapons, they are strong, they are fast, they can fly, they are warm blooded, and can eat their enemies. Furthermore much of their behavior was determined by a strong sense of justice not found in any other creatures except for perhaps the angels.
The Mu Mages took a great risk to their own lives and traveled high up the northern mountains and managed to find some Garuda who were not hungry. They then told the Garuda that if they joined their army that they would allow the Garuda to make sure that all the wars that the Mu fought would be “justified”. The problem was that the Mu mages who negotiated with the Garuda assumed that any war that the Mu Empire would fight would be morally right anyways a view that would prove naive. The test of the Garuda recruits would come in a war against the mountain Naga in the central mountains.
The rainforest Naga and the mountain Naga were often at war with each other during the ancient age and though there were no readable written records of these conflicts exaggerated stories of fearsome mountain Naga were passed down word of mouth amongst the people of the Mu empire. Since the Mountain Naga lived in hard to access valleys to the north of the Mu Empire much of their culture was unknown to the rainforest Naga and therefore all the more frightening; the only thing the rainforest Naga did know was the mountain Naga priest read from the “the book of death” presumably to start some cult of death. So when an emissary from the mountain Naga requested trading rights, like the desert Naga did earlier before they attacked, the Naga of the Mu empire feared that the mountain Naga were trying to establish some form of domination.
Gadwin recommended that the empress allow trade with the mountain Naga, warning her that they were allied with the Falcon empire and with angels, and besides that the mountain Naga would do no harm with their trade. Once again Kanita refused to take head to Gadwin out of fear they would spread their “death cult” to her empire, and because she was fearful the mountain Naga would retaliate violently as the desert Naga did she ordered her new Garuda troops to strike first. Gadwin was left to be deeply discouraged.
The Garuda were convinced that the mountain Naga were evil death worshipers and hence they enthusiastically obeyed the orders of the Mu empress and brought ruin to the Mountain Naga. The Garuda slaughtered the mountain naga on mass, destroyed many of their cities and salted their fields, and though Falcon knights came to rescue the mountain Naga the Garuda were able to dispatch them, albeit after a long fight. It seemed the Mu empire was going to win the war, but then the Garuda came to a sudden realization; most of the mountain Naga they were ordered to kill were unarmed.
Whatever militant culture the mountain Naga had in the ancient age they had since become peaceful worshipers of Elrath, the dragon god of light, and hence had almost no military and certainly no intention of attacking any other nation. The so called “book of death” the Mountain Naga had was simply a description of the afterlife as they interrupted it from Elrath’s teachings, not a book to spread a “death cult”. When the Garuda learned of this truth they were furious, for they felt that the Mu empire had tricked them into attacking innocent people.
The Mu generals executed the first Garuda defectors, hoping it would discourage further dissent amongst the Garuda, but Garuda have no fear of death, only a desire for justice and so they revolted against the empress and attacked the Mu empire. The same ferocity they showed the mountain Naga, they now showed the rainforest Naga and almost all of the Mu military was destroyed along with many of their cities.
The only way the empress could get the Garuda to stop their attack was by having children go and beg them; Garuda do not kill children. Having pounded the Mu empire into submission the Garuda went to the mountain Naga to beg for their forgiveness and to promise to commit suicide if they were not forgiven. Because the mountain Naga believed that their god Elrath required them to forgive all transgressors, they forgave the Garuda. As penance for their sins against the Mountain Naga the Garuda vowed to protect the mountain Naga from all enemies and converted to the worship of Elrath.
Back in the Mu Empire the members of the reform movement were so angry at Kanita’s misrule that they demanded she resign the throne. For once Kanita complied with the demand of the reform movement and abdicated effectively making her young daughter Manasa empress. Unlike her mother Manasa realized that Gadwin was more qualified than anyone else to determine the foreign policy of the empire, even if he was not a Naga, and so she declared that he would be responsible for all of the empire’s foreign policy.
The works of Gadwin.
Though Manasa helped satisfy the reform movement by leaving Gadwin responsible for foreign policy, she also angered some of her advisors and some of the Naga nobles. The nobles and advisors opposed to the reform movement made up an old guard that feared that Gadwin would give the Mu empire away to foreigners; he was after all a foreigner. At first it seemed that the old guard had a point, for he cut funding to the military and allowed the Empire of the black Naga to build trading post and military bases on Mu empire land. In reality however Gadwin was inventing an important policy tool that is too this day is the Naga’s strongest weapon; Strategic surrender. Strategic surrender is the policy of deliberately surrendering to one opponent in order to pit them against another and Gadwin invented that policy tool by allowing Black Naga influence to grow in region there by alarming the desert Naga.
The desert Naga noted that since the Mu empire was drawing down its military and concentrating on rebuilding after the war with the Garuda that it could not possibly be a threat to their influence in the region. Instead dealing with the black Naga became the top priority and soon after Gadwin made concessions to the black naga the desert naga attacked them. Having pit two of the Mu empire’s greatest enemies against each other Gadwin convinced a few of the old guard that it wasn’t a bad thing that an elf was deciding the Mu empire’s foreign policy. The true test of Gadwin loyalty however was his trade negotiations with his old home; the wood elf land of Irollin.
Many of the old guard worried that Gadwin would let the Irollin negotiators walk all over him; he wouldn’t want to be too hard on his fellow wood elves after all. Quite to the contrary Gadwin drove a hard bargain, demanding that the wood elf traders pay a toll to use Mu empire ports and that Mu traders should not have to pay the same toll to use Irollin ports. Granted Irollin diplomats also drove a hard bargain by threatening to walk if the Mu empire didn’t organize a fleet of to fight pirates and ship destroying see monsters, and granted Gadwin did ultimately concede to that demand. Nevertheless Gadwin proved he was a loyal citizen of the Mu Empire by trying his best to strike a good bargain against his former people, besides fighting pirates would eventually prove to be an effective way of improving the Mu Empire’s reputation internationally.
The balance
While Gadwin took care of international matters Manasa was engaging in local diplomacy with the old guard and the reform movement. The successes of Gadwin emboldened the reform movement to demand more reforms, such as implementation of a merit system in government (like the desert Naga had), paying women to have more babies in order to have a large population like the desert Naga, and a educational system as advanced as the 7 cities. Meanwhile when Gadwin cut military spending many soldiers were left unemployed and bitter; giving the old guard a flood of new members allowing them to dig in their heels. The result was that Empress Manasa had to play the part of an arbiter to prevent a civil war between the reform movement and old guard while at the same time rebuilding the empire.
The empress managed to keep the two sides in check by pursuing policies that both sides could agree with, or in some cases by enacting a policy that one side supported and then enacting a policy the other side supported. Thanks in part to Manasa’s delegate balancing act the country did not fall into civil war under her rule, and she was able to rebuild the nation. However Manasa was unable to totally reconcile the differences between the two opposing factions and both sides had grown so powerful that she was unsure that she could control them if they decided to fight each other. Manasa knew she needed more political power to ensure order in her country and her place on her throne and she would get it from an unexpected source.
The true years of healing
Though it was Manasa who first began the Mu empire’s policy of trading and communicating with water creatures, incorporating ocean/river creatures into the empire would prove to be too massive of a task for her to complete in her life time. The ocean creatures were simply too disorganized and mobile to negotiate with them quickly or easily. Furthermore since sea creatures had all the advantage in the ocean there was no way the Mu Empire could use military power to subjugate the sea creatures. Since it was so hard and long to incorporate sea creatures into the empire the task of doing so would not fall upon any one empress and would instead be the duty of Manasa’s decedents.
Manasa II would be the empress who would bring all the mermaid clans into the empire trading circle. Her daughter Manasa III managed to bring sea serpents and great Aks in to the Empire’s fold. The result was that the Mu empire was able to gain great resources under the sea that other land empires could not obtain, and because all trade between sea and land creatures went through the Mu Empire the empire became extremely wealthy.
Manasa’s family was also able keep balance between the reform movement and the old guard and under their rule the empire also made many technological advances in agriculture and manufacturing. After much hardship the empire was finally becoming strong and wealthy even if it had a long way to go before it was as wealthy as other nations like the falcon empire or the 7 cities. For a good two centuries the Mu empire would experience nothing but peace and prosperity, but by the year 325 YSD the balance between the reform movement and the old guard would begin to brake down. Then came the year 330 YSD and that would prove to be a bad year for all of the races of Asha.
The Fire Naga genocide and the great Betrayal.
The Year 325 YSD was a year when the Rainy season came a whole month later than usual and when it did it came suddenly overwhelming the Naga aqueduct and storage system. That year the Naga went hungry and they would go hungry for the next 4 years too for the weather was equally as sporadic and unpredictable and that was not the Mu Empire’s only problem.
325 YSD also saw the rise of a young, brash, radical, named Kaundinya. Kaundinya was a handsome, charismatic, Naga man with intelligence well into the genius level and those that knew him spoke glowingly of him due to his generosity, and idealism. However Kaundinya threatened to bring the entire empire into chaos by giving stirring speeches advocating for the overthrow of empress and all the old guard. He claimed that with the nobility removed that he could create a whole new utopian system based entirely on merit that would end poverty and ignorance and allow the Mu Empire to be at peace with all other nations including the lizard people.
Drawn in by Kaundinya’s charisma and idealism, which proved particularly attractive given drought brought on by sporadic weather, people from all over the empire came to promise to serve him and even die for him and his cause. Even the mermaids, who were to help the empress keep order deserted their post and vowed to help Kaundinya achieve his revolution.
Fearful of Kaundinya’s growing power the Empress, Soma had him arrested and jailed, but that only drove his followers to cause riots as they thought of him as a martyr. Kaundinya’s following was becoming so large and he was becoming so powerful that Soma had to throw her lot entirely with the old guard to maintain balance in the empire.
As much trouble as Kaundinya was he would prove to be small potatoes to the problem that would rise out of the volcanoes on the eastern islands, for in the year 330YSD a blood moon eclipse would temporarily loosen the bindings that held the demons in their prison of Sheog and great demon army would burst forth.
It was the fire Naga who occupied the eastern islands and though they were proud warrior people who were very experienced at fighting demons they would be quickly overwhelmed. Under the leadership of Demon lord Mastema the demons slaughtered the fire Naga even the women and children, they burned and contaminated the farming fields to make sure any fire Naga they missed would starve, and they quickly assembled a naval fleet to surround the islands to make sure no one escaped. It took a long time but the end result of Mastema through operation was the world’s first recorded genocide. The genocide was so well planned and executed that only a few lizards escaped from the island and no one outside the islands knew it was even happening until it was too late. With his brutal operation complete Mastema sent demonic messengers to tell everyone in the region that all the Fire Naga had been killed by his army. In his message Mastema also said that he intended to massacre all non-demons in the world, but he would accept one non-demon nation as an ally, which would be spared his wrath.
The Mu Empire was in no condition to fight demons for they had put almost no resources into their military and besides the threat of Kaundinya’s rebellion was still a problem. The Empress hoped that she could get assistance from the militarily strong Dessert Naga, but the moment the dessert naga had assembled an army to fight the demons the Pharaoh’s younger cousin declared himself Pharaoh and tried to take the throne. The real Pharaoh of the desert naga was forced to return home to restore order in his nation. Then to make matters even worse for the Mu Empire rebel Kaundinya declared that he and his following would fight for the demons and that he would overthrow the empress so the Mu empire could be an ally for the demons. Mastema was pleased and accepted Kaundinya as an ally for he had hoped he could hijack the Mu Empire and use what resources it had to commit genocide against the lizard people.
With the Desert Naga and the Mu Empire dealing with rebellions, and the lizard people choosing not to cooperate with other forces to fight demons it would be up to the Garuda, the mountain Naga, and the black Naga to fight the demons in the region.
The Great Spy and the Naked Army.
In the year 331YSD the Garuda, the bird harbingers of justice, led the charge against Mastima’s forces with Naga armies following them. The Garuda led army managed to push the demon army off a major volcanic island, however during the battle many of the Naga troops fell ill. The demons were secreting a toxin that seemed to hurt the Black Naga the most even though they were the best armored. The demonic poison caused it’s victims to suffer from severe burns, hair loss, and debilitating sickness. The Garuda were the troops that were most resilient to the poison even though they were lightly armored and as Naga troops succumb to the Demon poison the Garuda took it upon themselves to fight the demons.
The Garuda proved to be powerful and determined warriors. In the Battle of Meorray a mere 300 Garuda managed to take down 7,000 demons, however even they would succumb to the demonic poison and enemy numbers eventually. With so many Garuda, and naga succumbing to the Demonic army and their toxin, the demons were able to retake the volcanic island they lost and were able to storm the borders of Mountain Naga nation.
Soon the Demons were able to take some of the strongest defensive post of the mountain Naga, even though they were on high rugged mountains. They were also able to invade some of the valleys where they could contaminate some of the farms and burn many innocents alive. All seemed lost for the Garuda led coalition, but then the Garuda started receiving mysterious gifts from a masked and clocked entity calling himself “Kuso”.
At first the gifts were food stuffs and weapons, but eventually Kuso started giving information too. Kuso and his mysterious group of spies managed to smuggle enemy plans and maneuvers to the Garuda, but most important of all they managed to inform the Garuda of the true nature of Mastima’s army and his poison.
According to Kuso the demon god Urgash created twisted versions of the elemental dragon gods. Mastima was a proud servant of the Demon version of the god of light and while most demons had become fire beings by being in hell Mastima and his army remained true to their god and kept the ability to use light. The light that Mastima and his army emanated was not the life giving light of the sun however, but a toxic light that could not be seen by any life outside of hell. The light would phase through someone’s armor, but some of it would stop at someone’s flesh and slowly but surely do harm.
To protect themselves from Mastima’s light, one could ware heavy armor that would keep all the light out, but since that would make it almost impossible for a soldier to move one could do the next best thing and ware nothing at all. Kuso warned that wearing nothing would allow the Garuda and the black Naga to fight much longer, but warned that Mastimia’s light could still do long term harm to them and cause any future children they had to be deformed.
Armed with the knowledge that mysterious Kuso gave them the Garuda and their Naga allies gathered the troops who already had children and did not plan to have anymore and striped themselves of all their armor. The troops knew it would be dangerous to fight demons without protective armor, and so they trained themselves to be quick and agile to make up for their lack of armor.
With the Garuda leading the charge the forces of good again clashed with the demon forces in the nation of the mountain Naga. After 3 days and nights of non-stop fighting, the demons were finally pushed out of the strong defensive post and out of the eastern mountains all together. Mastima came to realize that his enemies had found the secret of his dark light and instead of trying to take land directly, he decide to give more supplies to Kaundinya and his rebels so he could take control the Mu empire and use it to fight for him. It would prove to be Mastima’s biggest mistake.
The Truth of Kuso and Kaundinya.
When word of the Fire Naga genocide reached the Mu Empire Kaundinya, along with his closet followers, presented himself to the Empress Soma, bowed to her and pledged, “Empress I rebel against you in the name of my people not in the name of demons, I will halt my rebellious actions and serve you so we may be united against the demons.”
To everyone’s surprise the empress sent all her advisor and body guards out of the room and when they left she said, “No you must continue rebelling.” At first everyone thought the empress had gone mad, but then she explained herself. “Even united we are too weak to face the demons, our only hope is for you to rebel so he thinks we would be his last priority.”
Ever the rebel Kaundinya argued with his empress saying, “But such would be a coward’s act and would only buy us time. We must fight!”
“No!” The Empress snapped back. “You must become useful to the demons by rebelling against me and you must go deep into their ranks.” One of Kaundinya’s followers protested and said to the empress,
“How dare you! You know full well that if Kaundinya is associated with the demons at all he will be forever disgraced, and even disowned by his family. Our leader comes to make peace with you and this is how you re…”
“I’ll do it,” Kaundinya interrupted. “Everything I have done so far has been to make a better world for my people, and so I shall do this for the same reason.” Soma then approached the rebel and said, “I promise if you fail then all our people will be destroyed, but I also promise that if you succeed that I will see to it that your revolution succeeds, for I also will sacrifice for the sake of our people.”
With that Kaundinya went forth and allied with Mastima. Much of his following left him as a result while actual demon cultists rushed out of their hiding places to join him. To prove his loyalty to Mastima Kaundinya was forced to sacrifice four young children to the demon Urgash, an act that would fill his heart with guilt for the remainder of his life. However when Kaundinya found out the truth of the dark light he disguised himself as his alter-ego Kuso and gave the Garuda the information. Thanks to his efforts his people and many others would be saved.
Mastima did not know Kaundinya was a double agent and when he lost land to the Garuda and Naga he gave him more supplies to use in his rebellion in order to take the Mu Empire. But Kaundinya’s did little to overthrow the empress instead he used the actual demon cultist to fight lizardmen knowing the lizardmen would kill them and the supplies he received he altered and gave to the Garuda. Therefore by attempting to aid Kaundinya’s fake rebellion Mastima was actually hurting his own cause. As Mastima lost land he began to be suspicious of Kaundinya, but one last important bit of information on the demons would be found before the truth was known to the demons.
It was soon learned that the demons had no leader (this was before rise of a demon sovereign). That as they fought the Ashan races they secretly competed for power, and though Demon lord Mastima had gained prestige and power amongst the demons, he had made many enemies amongst other demon lords, and they hoped to one day take advantage of his downfall. It was clear then the best thing to do was to give the other demon lords this opportunity.
Kuso informed the Mu Empress of the situation and the Empress decided to use strategic surrender. When Mastima suffered another defeat at the hands of the Garuda and the other Naga the Mu empress surrendered to Kaundinya who in turn surrendered the empire to the Succubus Narus. Narus was a demon but she was also a rival of Mastima, and so when she took credit for the conquest of the Mu Empire he was humiliated and filled with jealous rage. The ever vindictive Narus used her new found prestige to take her vengeance upon Mastima and so the two demons lords and their demons fought each other.
In an attempt to bring the two demon lords into order still other demons stopped fighting the lizardmen, and went to put down the two fighting demons lords. However Mastima and Narus were such strong generals so the attempt to bring them to order only brought more deaths amongst the demons. When the fighting was over early in the year 335 YSD the demon army had almost completely self destructed. The only ones left were Mastima and his Archdevil body guards and though it was clear the demons were defeated he took it upon himself to engage in one last act of vengeance.
The assignation of Kaundinya.
Late in the year 335 YSD Kaundinya went back to his home land the Mu Empire to announce the defeat of the demons and to explain his true intentions, but when he arrived back he faced many an angry mob that consisted of his own people. His fellow Naga were not angry that he was a demon cultist for their empress had already explained that he was a double agent, rather it was because they had become aware of the horrible things he had done to infiltrate the demons.
Mastima had a true demon cultist spread rumors of the four children that Kaundinya had killed. Though intellectually the Naga knew that Kaundinya had to do what he did to save them, they could not handle emotionally the horror of what he did especially as they became aware of the horrid details. Kaundinya was forced to leave his nation to escape his people’s anger and on his way out Mastima and his troops were waiting for him. It not exactly known what happened next only that Mastima’s corpse was found later washed up upon a beach. Kaundinya was never seen again the people of the Mu Empire assumed he was dead. His death helped the Naga people realize how foolish they had been in rejecting him, and in his honor the Empress Soma instituted many of the reforms that he had so desired including removing herself from power. As she had promised Soma had sacrificed for her people even if it wasn’t quite as much as the rebel Kaundinya had.
Brief Prosperity.
Amongst the powers of the region the Mu Empire had made its self a hero by dealing the killing blow against the demons, and because it had suffered so little damage in the war it was poised to become the strongest power in the region and perhaps could have even took it over. The Mu Empire was done with imperialist agendas however, for the empire had been taken over Kaundinya’s followers and they all believed that imperialism was evil.
Instead of using military force to expand its borders the Mu Empire kept its military scaled down to show it desired peace, and in the year 340 YSD it created an alliance to promote stability. This alliance was called the Palvata league and it consisted of the Mu Empire, the black Naga, the mountain Naga, almost all the mermaid tribes in the region and all the island nations of humans to the east. The league had its own treasury and its own army that was led by the Garuda and if any threat from outside the region attacked the league’s army would spring into action. As a side note diplomats were sent to invite lizardmen into the league but that failed because the diplomats were eaten.
There was even more dramatic changes domestically for the old nobles had been forced out of power and a council of citizens had replaced them. This council introduced compulsory education, progressive taxes, many social programs and a merit system to decide all positions in government. The council also eliminated all legal barriers to trade and became the first nation to use tax incentives to encourage small business development. The council also spent much money on research and development to gain new spells, new technologies, and new methods of agriculture.
Not all of the council’s reforms were well received especially by the old nobles who were kicked out of power, and the wealthy who did not like their wealth to be taxed for social programs. Despite objections however the overall affect of the reforms was to bring great wealth and prosperity not only to the Mu Empire but to the many nations who traded with them. Even the dwarves, a people who barley ever traded with Mu Empire, were able to benefit from the Mu empire’s rise for food production in the empire increased so much that food prices were decreased all over the world. Besides that the Dwarves got better prices for raw materials as they were used by the Mu Empire to build more infrastructure.
To people living in the Mu Empire between 335-352 it would have seemed the good times would never end. In reality trouble would brew in less than 20 years.
(Due to real life issues I will have to abbreviate the remainder of the Naga history. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
352-The economy of the Mu Empire crashes due to a collapse in the price of rice, effectively destroying the Mu Economy. The ruling council concluded that rampant speculation on the price of rice fueled by greed is the reason of the crash.
352-374-After much discussion the great council decided to buy rice with reserves of gold in order increase the price of rice. Meanwhile many people in the Mu Empire believe that the crash was caused by the Mu Empire’s inherit lack of spirituality and so called prophets seek spiritual paths in order to find ways of curbing the greed of people in the Mu Empire. Veshsa will prove to be the most famous.
370- Pharaoh Katon, a psychopath and ruler of the desert Naga, successfully conquers the black Naga. With the black Naga out of the way the Mu Empire is under threat of attack. The Mu empire pays tribute (in the form of rice) to the pharaoh.
375-377-The pharaoh resembles his army and despite the tribute given to him declares war on the Mu Empire. The Mu Empire is outnumbered, out armed, and has no general that is as skilled a tactician as the pharaoh. So the Mu Empire makes slight changes to their roads and road sighs in hopes that it will cause the pharaoh’s army to get lost. The pharaoh’s army does indeed get lost and many of his troops grow ill from Malaria. Ironically some of his troops survive only because Mu Naga cure them of the disease.
377-383-The Pharaoh makes several more attempts to take the Mu Empire. They all end in failure as his ships kept getting lost at sea due to the subtle machinations of intelligent sea beast. The Pharaoh gets humiliated several times over and his troops loose all faith in him. The Mu Empire defeated the Pharaoh without so much a swing of a blade, and Pharaoh Katon soon looses power in a coup. Meanwhile the economic crash comes to an end as the war increase the price of rice.
390-510-Another period of peace and prosperity, but several economic recessions blotch the good times. When recessions start it is because of “bubbles” caused by speculating on products and running scams. Again people turned to spirituality and religion in order to curb the greed, but the moment the economy returns people become neglectful of religion and morals. Veshsa is the only spiritual leader that gained any lasting support for he had the protection of Muclindia, and his belief in a possible goddess residing in all living things appealed to people. However with Veshsa’s death interest in his teaching wane at least in this era.
Before his death Veshsa learned to speak to the water dragon and they told him the following prophecy; In the future we shall perish and when we do your land will become dry. Your only salvation is to seek the new offspring of Shallsa
467-504-Orcs escaping slavery trickle into the Mu continent. None of the orcs go to the Mu Empire and instead make settlements near the lizard people who in the future will be their allies.
510-520-Conflict between the Native dragons and Lizard people, which had been smoldering for some time, start to become violent. The Naga were fearful of Veshsa’s prophecy and new a war between dragons and lizards would affect them negatively one way or another. Therefore the Naga tried to serve as an arbiter to get the Dragons and Lizard people to live in peace, but they quickly exhaust all diplomatic solutions.
520-530-The conflict between the dragons and lizard people continues to escalate and Mu traders sometimes are killed in the crossfire. There is no doubt that at some point war will be necessary and so the Naga express their sympathies to the dragons so that other nations that worship dragons, like the Flacon Empire, the Wood elves, dwarves, and even bandits will send heroes to train the Mu Empire troops. Using the training received from these other nations the Naga create their own fighting style based on the flow of water.
530-536-War with the Lizard people brakes out when the Naga people cut water off from their wetlands. The Mu Empire deliberately lets the lizard people and their allies the orcs invade deep into Mu territory and then release an onrush of water to carry an amphibious invasion force deep into sparsely defended Lizard people territory. Meanwhile an army of wood elf invaders also assaults Lizard people territory, and the combined power of the two invasion forces put the lizard/orc alliance on the defensive. Even so the combination of disease and guerilla tactics turns back the Naga/Elvin invasion force.
The Mu Empire does not give up and takes a stand in an estuary where it hoped to fight of the lizard people, but alas the earth and water dragons attack the Lizard people on their own and are therefore cut down. Commenting later a Gaurda who witnessed the event said it was as though the dragons were getting themselves killed on purpose.
536-554-The death of the dragons leads to a drought on the Mu continent among other places forcing the Lizard people into hibernation. This drought and the death of the local dragon population will prove to have far reaching consequences. The People of the Mu Empire know the drought is coming before it starts and so stashed away food to survive through the lean times. In addition the Mu-Empire commissions a search party to find the mystical artifact called the Tear of Asha. They are certain will help grow food in the lean times.
537-Overpopulation combined with the drought in the Mu Empire causes the desert Naga Empire to collapse completely. The collapse begins with food riots, which morph into all out rebellion. The desert Naga are also assaulted by hungry orc raiders and starving humans from the Kingdom of magic. The combined forces of rebellion, invading forces and drought cause massive depopulation of the Desert Naga Kingdom. By the time it is all over the desert Naga are almost completely whipped out, and the few that remain flee ether to the Mu Empire or to the nation of the mountain Naga. Soon even the orcs leave and as do many humans, the only people who remain the few bandits and desert creatures hardy enough to survive in the rugged, harsh, desert.
540-560-While the water dragons and many earth dragons die in the war with the lizardmen the black and red dragons remain safe in their caves. These dragons will fill the vacuum that resulted from the death of dragons ushering in the “Mallsia revolution”.
540-A bitter cold spell and the drought in the Mu Empire makes the Flacon Empire desperate for food and fire wood, and so they assault their old ally the wood Elves hoping to steal both. Tuiddanna, leader of a separate elf state, and her people are caught in the middle. Tuiddanna out of desperation calls upon the assistance of the faceless and the black dragons that lead them effectively making her people into the dark elves. With their new found Dark Elf powers Tuidanna and her people expel the wood elves and the flacon Empire.
543-548-Desert Naga refugees in the mountain Naga kingdom have become bitter and fearful and rapidly come to worship the dragon god of darkness. Mallssia teaches that life is a bitter struggle for survival and if one does not know how to cut throats then they will have their own throats cut and after narrowly escaping genocide such teaching resonated with the refugees and soon the teachings of darkness would became gospel to them. The Native mountain Naga and Garuda on the other hand worship Elrath the Dragon God of light so hostilities between the refugees and native mountain Naga would steadily increase especially since the refugees consume the nation’s services without respecting the natives.
546-547-The Mu Empire rediscovers the tear of Asha and immediately harness it’s power to grow their food. Unfortunately word that they have the artifact spreads quickly and starving orc assault the empire in order to steal the tear. The Mu empire defeats the invaders in the famed battle Dahli, but soon humans, orcs even dwarves attack the nation all grasping for the tear. On top of that the Mu get an influx of refugees like the mountain Naga do. In the end it is all too much and the Mu surrender the tear of Asha to the humans who themselves are forced to fight to protect it.
547-560-Unlike the desert Naga refugees who retreated to the Mountain Naga lands the desert naga refugees who traveled to the Mu Empire were unyielding idealist, for after narrowly escaping genocide they should do everything they could to prevent such an occurrence from happening again. While the Mu refugees did consume services they also made an effort to contribute to the Empire by sharing their knowledge of drought resilient crops and desert. agriculture. The result is that food production improves in the Mu Empire even as the drought persist.
549-War breaks out in the Mountain Naga Kingdom between the refugees and the native population of mountain Naga and Garuda. Out Numbered and out armed the refugees are pushed to the very edge of the kingdom. Cornered and filled with overwhelming dread that they may be pushed back into the land they had escaped from they pushed back hard. Firm in their belief that the genocide was happening all over again, the refugees fought doggedly all the way to the Mountain Kingdom capital using the shadowy magic and tactics that Mallsia taught them. Having taken the kingdom of the mountains the refugees rename themselves the dark Naga and proceed to purge all the native inhabitants. Even the mighty Garuda are forced to retreat to the Mu empire before the might of the dark Naga. Some of the native mountain Naga make it to the Mu empire, but many die in the cold mountains.
550-555-Impressed by the strength of the Dark Elves and Dark Naga many beings convert to Mallsia’s cult. Many theocratic states try to challenge the Dark Naga nation to prove the power of their religion, but all are brought down by Dark Nagan might. It becomes apparent that the Mu Empire is the only nation that has the military and economic might to challenge the Dark Naga. The Mu council however is aware that without a religion to win people’s faith they cannot challenge the dark Naga. The Dark Naga meanwhile are convinced that that the Mu Empire and their new nation cannot exist together, for they were taught by their goddess that one must be dominate and the other dominated. The Dark Naga discuss insidious plans to dominate.
556-For years the Mu Empire has been lax in its search for moral and spiritual wisdom, but no more. The ruling council decides to search for Shallsia the great goddess of water as the seventh dragon once said that she was the patron goddess of the Naga. Many religious leaders in the Mu Empire search for her, even those that do not worship her. All of them claim to have found her a different way and of them contradict each other, which decrease the legitimacy of the Mu Empire’s efforts.
557- Out of desperation the Emperor of the Mu Empire declares that there should be a day of prayer, fasting, and meditation and that on that day everyone should attempt get in contact with whatever spiritual entity they worship. The people of the Mu Empire cooperate and surprisingly everyone had a vision of the Water goddess and they hear her holy message. The citizens of the Mu empire then begin to gather food for the Dark Naga just as their goddess told them too. Then on the same day it rains ending the drought.
558-The wet environment brought on by the rains brings a terrible blithe that eradicates the Dark Naga wheat crop effectively bringing them to starvation. The Mu Empire comes with a great surplus of food to help the Dark Naga through the hard times. The Mu Ambassador explains that Shallsia forbids them from harming the dark Naga for they are in truth siblings, that are all in fact one people and should live in harmony, that the offspring of the water dragon died so the Naga could become the new offspring of the water goddess and dark Naga should come home to the Mu empire. The Dark Naga took the food offered to them, but then the turned around and attacked the water Naga giving the food thinking the Empire was just trying to make them dependent.
The Dark Naga assembled a fleet to try and invade the Mu Empire. The Dark Naga thought they would be victorious for they had the backing of the godess of darkness, who they were certain was stronger than the godess of water. However before the fleet of Dark Naga even left their own shores a great Tsunami pulled their ships out to sea and then shot them forward far into their own lands. Their costal cities were smashed by the great waves and many of their farmlands washed away. Those that survived were in aw of the great destructive power of the water goddess
559-When the people of the Mu Empire come and help rebuild the towns and cities of the Dark Naga, the Dark Naga learned just how limited the goddess of shadow was. While the goddess of darkness taught her followers how to fight and destroy they soon found that the goddess of water could teach people how to grow and build. In the end there were very few dark Naga left for many of them came to worship the goddess of water. The few followers of shadow that remained ended up moving to the Mu Empire where they finally found a place were people were not trying to commit genocide against them.
560-All of the Naga people are united.
560-660-The Mu Empire enters yet another era of peace and prosperity that will become to be known as the mundane times. During this period the Mu Empire finally becomes as strong as the other major powers like the Flacon Empire and the Silver cities and for the first in centuries will have a major religion. Other than that nothing really happens.
661-684-The Rainforest Naga encounter the Dark Elves for the first time when a party of dark elves arrives to make contact with the dark Naga. They are disappointed to learn that the Dark Naga no longer exist as a nation. However trade relations do begin to form between the Mu Empire and the empire of Ygg Chall. Hostilities do form however as the Dark Elves learn that Naga and other citizens of the Mu Empire can make good slaves. Before all out war occurs the Empress Kai negotiates a settlement where by the Dark elves may form a colony within the Mu Empire. The Dark elves are pleased with this as they believe they can use the colony to take control of the Naga and get more slaves. Although many Dark Elf colonist do settle in Mu the dark elf warlocks must abandon their project due to a war with the dwarves. Like everyone else in Mu they assimilate in the empire over time.
843-851-4th and 5th eclipse. The Naga go head to head with two invading demon forces. Unlike the last demonic incursion the Naga have the muscle to fight the demons, which prove to be unprepared for the unique fighting style of the Naga. Both fights prove that the Mu empire has become a world force.
853-The Mu empire builds a great trading fleet that is a more advanced version of the fleet it built before the birth of the seventh dragon. The fleet becomes a symbol. Despite pervious hostilities the Empire also starts trading with the dark elves again.
860-The Necromancer Arinter comes to Mu in order to use Naga corpses in an army to fight demons, but he is forbidden from using other people’s dead bodies. Arinter decided to simply take what he wanted with the army of undead he had available. The result was that Arinter would eventually become the first and thus far only person to ever completely conquer the rainforest Naga. However Arinter did not rule the area long for when he was given access to grave yards he withdrew his occupying force. The Naga for their part didn’t fight back very hard. Arinter’s attack and occupation was more of an inconvince than an actual problem.
869-Queen Isabel’s war. A huge demon army arrives under the leadership of Demon Lord Bal. The army is too large for the Naga to defeat, but fortunately assistance arrives in the form of Arinter and his army of undead and a contingent of dark elves. In addition the Emperor Kukon becomes the first person to learn the Naga Uber feet which along with his allies secures victory for the Mu.
Naga heroes.
The primary stats of a Naga hero are Knowledge and defense, which in and of its self would mean that the Naga race would depend heavily on the use of white magic, as that does not use much spell power, and that they would be mainly a defense faction. However the racial abilities of a Naga hero allow them to potentially take more turns than other kinds of heroes and to give their troops an extra special ability to enhance their offence.
The primary Knowledge stat of the Naga hero would suggest the they are more of a magic hero than a might hero, but again their special racial abilities give them the flexibility to give their knowledge to enhance troop might or for that matter for their own troops to give them a spellpower boost.
The primary special ability of Naga heroes is called “fertility master” and it allows you to hire more than the normally allowed weekly growth of troops, but only at exponentially increasing cost. Suppose for example a troop cost 100 units of currency and has a growth of weekly growth of 18. Now suppose you then wanted to hire a 19th troop, assuming the hero doing the hiring has “basic fertility master” you could do so but the cost would increase by 20%. So the 19th troop would cost 120 currency units. If you were to hire a 20th troop the cost would increase by another 20% adding up to 144. Hiring the 21st troop would increase the cost to 173 currency units (rounded up) and so forth. Put in mathematical form the cost of hiring a unit after weekly growth is exhausted is:
Original unit cost+(original cost*growth rate)^amount of troops hired=new unit cost.
There is one more thing to keep in mind with the Naga generals. They use rice not gold as their main currency. More on that later.
Naga racial skills.
Fertility master(FM)
Basic FM
Knowledge of rice production allows hero to hire more than normal weekly allowed number of troops but the cost of doing so increase exponentionaly by 20% a wages rise due to increased demand for labor.
Advanced FM
Increased knowledge of rice production allows hero to hire more than normal weekly allowed number of troops but the cost of doing so increase exponentionaly by 13% a wages rise due to increased demand for labor.
Expert FM
Knowledge of rice production allows hero to hire more than normal weekly allowed number of troops but the cost of doing so increase exponentionaly by 7% a wages rise due to increased demand for labor.
Ultimate FM
Vast knowledge of rice production push labor cost down so base troop cost only 75% of normal cost.
Other racial skills
Chakra connection
If might is your preference than your hero can sacrifice their turn to one of their units. If magic is your preference than one of your units can sacrifice their turn so the hero may take another turn. If the hero also has Meditation ability then the hero will sacrifice ten manna to build up the unit’s chakra.
Meditation
Whenever a unit executes the “wait” command they will build up chakra which can then be used for a special offensive ability. The Unit must wait three times in a row to build up the “chakra” to use the ability, unless the hero sacrificed a turn in which case the unit must only “wait two turns” If a unit sacrifices their turn, using the charka connection ability, after building up their chakra they will not only sacrifice their turn but all of their built chakra will go to the hero to build up their spell power for one casting.
Re-upgrade.
The Hero gets the ability to transform land units into water units and vise versa while anywhere on the map.
Uber- Feat.
Hero can teleport their own army and their enemy’s army to some place in the ocean allowing the hero to use aquatic units which enjoy a large advantage wile in the water.
Skill wheel.
Unique perks
Under leadership can learn an ability called chakra boost after where by a unit gets a chakra boost when they get a moral boost.
When a hero learns destructive magic they can learn an ability called super conductor by learning master of ice and master of storms. With this ability there is a 20% chance that a lightning spell will cause an enemy hero to be stunned if it is used on an enemy unit with the freeze affect on it.
By learning white magic a hero can get the ability to have increased resistance to black magic at the expense of manna.
With war machines skill A hero can learn to make battle ships that automatically have two ballistas.
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Raelag84
Famous Hero
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posted July 30, 2010 11:32 PM |
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Edited by Raelag84 at 23:56, 30 Jul 2010.
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Naga heroes.
Scenario heroes
Rathosa-The main Naga hero of the story and a high ranking officer of the Mu Navy. Though she appears to be a Naga she her father is actually a dark elf Immigrant, and from him she has inherited pale skin, pointed ears her name, and irresistible magic. Shy by nature Rathosa does not strike many as strong military leader when making her first impression, but her troops know she will fight bravely and brilliantly in battle even if it is against the dark elves of which is she is partially related. It’s a good thing too, because in the coming months she will have to fight the navies of the dark elves and they will be led by a warlock she has known since childhood.
Special-Rathosa’s destructive magic spells can damage enemies otherwise resistant or immune to destructive magic spells. The amount of damage done depends on the hero’s level and the amount of resistance the enemy has.
Sesha-The current emperor of the Mu Empire though it was more circumstance not ambition that caused him gain such power. Those who lead enemy armies against him often mistake his humility for weakness and hence charge recklessly into battle and exhaust themselves. They find the hard way that humility is as much a strength as it is a weakness.
Special-For every 7 levels this hero increases enemy moral by 1, however when ever an enemy gets a moral boost their initiative decreases by 20% (note initiative can never be 0). By the same token an enemy can get a 20% initiative boost should they experience a moral bust.
Naga heroes hired.
Kasyappa- A Naga who lives in the Mu Empire but it is not of it. For some reason Kasyappa does not respect the culture of the Mu Empire of which he was born and tries to immerse himself in other cultures hoping to find whatever it is he finds lacking in his own nation. This does not make the Mu Empire adverse to recruiting him however; on the contrary his disappointment with his own culture makes him perfect recruiting troops from other nations.
Special-Kasyappa can recruit enemy troops without a moral penalty and if he personally takes foreign troops to the shrine of assimilation they gain two moral points when under his leadership and in addition starts out with an increase likelihood of recruiting troops on the map.
Chand-A fan of water golems since he was a boy swimming in the river next to his house, Chand now employs them in often in battle. Chand’s unique understanding water Golems allows him to teach them how to take water out of the air and plants for increased longevity.
Special-When a battle ends it is possible for there to be a net increase water golems, beings, or beast the amount depends on the hero’s level and on how many were lost.
Ulupi- Stationed on the frontier of the Mu Empire Ulupi has fought numerous skirmishes against enemy Lizard people to protect small communities. Far from hating the Ulupi and their beast however she has come to admire their culture, ways and even appearance so much so that she has an unhealthy desire for them. Ulupi’s only desire in life is to conquer the Lizard people so she can make them her own and has already enslaved quite a few units of the Ziggurat faction.
Special-Can summon lizard people to the battle field with a summon spell. The tier of units she summons depends on her level and the amount depends on her spell power.
Manasa-Named after the great line of Empress who brought the Mu Empire into the modern age Manasa is actually a water Naga and a master healer and priestess. Other Water Naga come far and wide to learn under her so as to become great like her. For her part Manasa does not take her name fame very seriously and those that learn under her are surprised to find that she is not regal or aloof but friendly even bubbly.
Special-Any Water Naga units (tier three creatures) have the ability to heal and resurrect all surrounding units simply by spending a turn next to them. The amount of healing depends on Manasa’s level.
Beulah – A master of meditation Beulah sees her troops not just as soldiers but as her students and as such she teaches them all she knows about how to focus chakra. Thanks to Beulah’s teaching her troops can master meditation quicker than they ever thought possible. The irony of Beulah’s quick meditation technique is that she actually teaches her students not to rush.
Special-There is a probability that one or more of her units will start a battle fully meditated and therefore able to use their meditation ability right off the bat. The probability of this happening depends on Beulah’s level.
Ananta-A half human warrior who’s pleasant, effeminate personality masks a fascination with the warrior ethos and martial arts. Ananta is also an expert on Chakra and how if flows through the human body and for that matter how it can be increased or decreased. With this knowledge Ananta can affect the Chakra flow of her enemies.
Special-Once per battle Ananta can enhance the attack power of her enemies so as to make them more vulnerable to the attacks of her martial artist.
Map fighting with the Naga
On the map the Naga fight differently from other faction due to the fact that many of the Naga units are coldblooded, use rice currency instead of gold, and have a propensity for navel battle. Very often Naga armies will have to fight more defensively so that they are in the warm wet climates were they can win major battles.
To complicate the process of conquest when the Naga take over an enemy city it will be harder for them to recruit enemy units, because the rice from their own cities cannot be used to recruit them. Instead one must buy gold with rice at a market place in order to get the gold to hire the enemy units making conquest harder. It would be one thing if Rice was like other resources where the price you get for it depends on the amount of trading post you have, then you could just get trading post and get gold. However rice is not like other resources, rather it is the case that the more gold producing cities you conquer the more rice you have to spend to gain any bit of gold. This is because by conquering enemy cities you take control of the gold market, but not the rice market so the worth of gold goes up.
On the other hand it is very hard for anyone to conquer the Naga because an enemy must inevitable travel into the warm wet Naga homeland which gives the Naga an advantage. This advantage is increased if you have several Naga cities because even if an enemy takes one of your cities they will have trouble making use of do to the fact that their cities will not produce gold. Furthermore Naga generals have the ability to recruit troops beyond normal weekly growth numbers, which means if they have enough resources stored away their recruitment may be only marginally affected by the loosing of a city.
When playing as the Naga it may even make sense to let the enemy take some territory so that they make the mistake of getting over stretched. Remember whether it be on the overworld map or on the battle field strength can be weakness and weakness strength.
Naga cities
Introduction-the city of the Naga tend to sit in high Plateau lakes, though some of the newer cities were built in Rivers near the ocean. Either way Naga cites are always built in water, which makes for great moats. However Naga cities are made to be easily accessed for the purpose of trade, which means that they are far from impregnable.
The ironic thing about building Naga cities is that the more one builds them the more they tend to look like Ruins. For example when a troop recruitment center is built it looks like a shiny new building, but when it becomes encased in vines and moss. This is because though the plants look like they are chocking the buildings they in fact serve some useful purpose to the Naga military which is kept top secret. Only the largest buildings, like a city all, are unaffected by plants as trees and vines cannot grow tall enough to reach their height.
Unqiue buildings.
Naga Walls are have arrow towers, but really just wide moats that can have aquatic creatures.
Road altersations-A building that does nothing but make the roads on the map point away from the city.
Water Temple-the tear of Asha doesn't produce any resources, but if someone take a Naga city with the tear of Asha in it, and no one is defending it then the taker of the city will have to fight their two strongest stacks for the tear.
The Mu Artifacts.
There are six artifacts that were invented by some of the Naga races. If a Naga hero can collect all six artifacts then they can get their tier 8 creature amongst other benefits. Note that other factions can collect these artifacts too though they often have benefits specific to Naga and their units.
Shadow serpent ring-A ring made by shadow Naga that once served the dragon goddess of darkness, the one who reads it can use empowered spells like the dark elves. Plus spell power is increased by 3
Moutian book of the dead-A book that makes Garuda permentily in full meditation state. Plus this book increases your defence by 3.
Pyro Sword-A sword that increases the attacks of lizard riders by 50% plus it increases attack by 3. It was built by the fire Naga.
Crown of the uper desert-A crown that allows Avatars to have tier 4 magic spells of all kinds, plus it increases knowledge by 3. Was built by the desert Naga.
Black Naga Armor-This artifact increases the magic defence of all units by 20%
Cold Kimono-A robe that gives the hero the abilty to give units increased intiative when they sacrifice turns and vice versa.
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flackmandan
Known Hero
Veni,Vidi,Vichi
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posted August 05, 2010 01:55 PM |
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soooooooooooo much writing im guessing bu tid say it will tke a long time to judge very good tho i like background..........mainly becuz i cant do it
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Raelag84
Famous Hero
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posted August 08, 2010 01:30 AM |
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Yeah I suppose I could have condesned some parts, even so I was orginally planing to write more, but real life got in the way. Oh well as long as my entry changes gamers views on Naga I am happy.
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flackmandan
Known Hero
Veni,Vidi,Vichi
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posted August 10, 2010 10:05 PM |
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i like naga not my favourite creature but i like em
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Mytical
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
Chaos seeking Harmony
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posted August 11, 2010 09:01 AM |
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Edited by Mytical at 09:15, 11 Aug 2010.
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Ok. Not sure how the others are judging, or if in fact anybody else is judging..so I am going to post my score/impression..but the main Judges that signed up will have the final word if they judge. My scores will only count if nobody else is judging.
Background : 8/10 Lots of information, which I like.
Line up/Creatures : 7/10. Not so sure about the 8th tier. Otherwise a solid line up.
Creativity : 8/10. Very creative..only points off is for using something a lot of other people have attempted.
Overall (not an average) : 8.5/10
A very solid town, and a lot of work went into it..so I increased the overall score.
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Message received.
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Raelag84
Famous Hero
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posted August 12, 2010 04:48 AM |
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Well I am happy with this score even if it's not the winner, but I got to ask; Did this faction make you rethink Naga?
The reason why I made this faction was because I don't think video games like world of warcraft and others do the Naga justice and I wanted to do better than them. As far as I am concerned I don't win by getting a high score per say, but by getting people to stop thinking of them as elves that have been changed into mutated mermaids and fish lizards.
Admittedly I know the faction I made does not even begin to capture the complexity of the Naga depicted in the original Hindu legends and I did have to make a lot of changes to make it fit in the might and magic universe. However if I have opened anyone's mind to what a Naga could really be then I have done well.
Now did I do that for you? Did I challenge your view of what Naga should be like, because if I did was successful here.
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Mytical
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
Chaos seeking Harmony
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posted August 14, 2010 08:25 AM |
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Then you did your job. It was very nicely done at that.
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Message received.
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