I regret that I will, unfortunately, only be able to get involved in the RP from late August onwards. The reason for this is that on the 26th of this month I am going to Sweden on a course on Manned Space Flight, in Kiruna in the far North of Sweden (Lappland, yay!), organised by Umea University and Lulea University. I do not know if I will have internet access, and, if I do, I will likely be distracted by happenings in Sweden (who knows? I might get laid. Nah... not going to happen) and probably a lot of wikipedia surfing related to my course.
So, for the first 3-4 weeks Haraldur, Tesla, Durruti and Makhno will be out of action. During this time Haraldur will be, as a spirit, advancing the revolution in Hell by going to different market places in different areas of the vast place that is Hell and trying to convince the inhabitants of his ideas (sorry, Dude Man, the idea which we discussed will have to delayed for a few weeks). The other three will be going to the continent of Amantan, in the far South of Gaian, which is currently ruled by a repressive Empire, the Zhao Chin Empire, in the mould of the ancient Gaian Empire, ruled by a God Emporer, Pu Yin Tao, but mostly by his Grand Vizier Mao Tien, who reside in the Secret City, a complex of tunnels and caverns beneath the capital city of Li Tze, which is lit by a million candles and by light shafts.
The majority of the population are peasant who farm in vast paddy fields growing rice, for the most part, living in villages, all of which have a large police/army presence (army=police), who control completely the lives of the villagers, and any dissent results in execution. All magic users are called to the Emporer's court and are forced to do services for the Emporer (otherwise, another few mages will kill them). Religion here is mostly praying to a statue of the current Emporer in the hope that he will grant rains (of course, this has no effect of whether rains come or not).
In the cities, society is highly stratified. You have the plebians, normal people, who own shops or workshops, or work in factories. Then you have the slaves, below them, who either work for those higher in society, ord o the worst jobs in the factory, or work in the dreaded silver mines, or any other mine for that matter, hence working for high society is the hope of any slave. Every once in a while, a slae might be freed by his/her master, in which case s/he becomes a free(wo)man, on the lower end of Plebian society. All the higher ranks in the stratification are part of the army (which as mentioned also act as police force), and correspond to the ranks in a normal army. Just above the plebians you have normal footsoldiers (spear, sword, armour, feather in helmet, follow orders, you know), and just a little above them you have squad leaders (seargents, corporals etc.). Then there is another big jump into the officer class, the highest of whom is the God Emporer himself, and then the Vizier. The mages mentioned above are effectively slaves.
Demographics: 40% peasant, 20% plebian, 30% slave, 9% foot soldier, 1% officer class.
Foreign relations: There is no foreign contact. Anyone who lands in the Zhao Chin Empire without a permit is executed by the army. This is so that the slaves, plebians and peasants do not know anything different to the world they inhabit: Zhao Chin.
Again, please, noone get involved in Amantan and Zhao Chin.
In the meantime, Dude Man and Ein, please make sure the Aspyes do not get hammered too much. Wink
