Airiya (Iranian-type faction)

[Temuchin Khan]

Anyar, Cuyo Quiz and I have been brainstorming about this in the Kedari thread, and decided it was time to give these guys their own thread.

I came across "airiya" in a footnote in the introduction to Radhakrishnan's translation of the Upanishads. According to the footnote, "airiya" has the same meaning as "Iran", so I figured we couldn't find a better name for our Iranian faction.

I like what you've done with the hoplite graphics, except I noticed that the spear looks a bit short in the attack frames.

As for the unit tree, I've come to think there is something to be said for giving the Magi line more succinct names than "Keeper of the Flame" and "Priest of Ahura-Mazda", so what do you think of:

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Acolyte -> Magauuan -> Elder Magauuan

Also, I caught one or two errors in the unit line document. Here is the relevant portion as we originally conceived it:

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Raw Kardakes -> Kardakes -> Kardakes Elect

Dathapatis -> Satapatis -> Hazarapatis
           -> Immortal -> Immortal Elite

But if we did want to combine them, how about this:

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Raw Kardakes -- javelin/spear
          -> Kardakes -> Kardakes Elect -- javelin/spear; average defense
          -> Dathapatis -> Satapatis -- spearman with steadfast
          -> Immortal -> Hazarapatis -- spear and bow; has good defense

Another difference between the Kardakes branch and the Immortal branch can be that the Kardakes' javelin has more damage/less reps while the Immortal's bow has less damage/more reps.

Which version do you prefer, seperate Kardakes and Dathapatis/Immortal lines, or one line including all of them?

And I guess it wouldn't be the Persian Empire without cheap local conscripts, so here's a revision of the formerly-so-called minion line:

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Conscript (lvl 0) -> Subject -> Satrapal Levy

That leaves only the chariots in the "undecided" category. The reasoning for cutting the chariots would be that they were mainly used in the earliest period, when the Iranians were first conquering the indigenous inhabitants of Iran, and were only used on rare occasions during the periods of Persian power.

[turin]

Isn't Magi the plural of Magus?

[Emmanovi]

Isn't Magi the plural of Magus?

Yeah, shouldn't it be Mage/Magus, then Elder Mage/Elder Magus?

Hold on Turin...didn't you say:

No, the plural of Magus is Magi. The plural of Mage is Mages. In fact, as far as I can tell, the word "Mages" appeared first, and "Mage" is a backformation from that.

(On dictionary.com, under "Mage": "[From Middle English mages, magicians, variant of magi. See magus.]")

I was talking about in Wesnoth, not in general. In Wesnoth, mage plural is always magi. You can check the descriptions of the units.

Whether it's technically right or not isn't as important as whether it is used or not.

Or something?

[turin]

In Wesnoth, Magi is both the plural of Magus and Mage. (In real life, it is only the plural of Magus, but anyway...) Since there is already a unit called Mage, and one called Elder Mage, it made much more sense to me for the units to be called Magus and Elder Magus. However, I think whole new names are needed.

[Emmanovi]

Ok. What sort of Magi are they?

Fire: Flamelord, Spark-keeper,

Ice: Frost-Magus, Shard-flinger..

My (pretty rubbish) suggestions...

[Anyar]

Magi are the priests of Zoroastrianism. (The word can be used to generally describe any priest though.) It wasn't connected with sorcery until much later in history.

[Emmanovi]

Priest-Holy or Priest-Magic?

[Temuchin Khan]

I looked up "magi" on wikipedia, found that "magauuan" is another form of the word, found in the Avesta, and edited the original post.

Also, fire has always been very important in Zoroastrian worship. He should get a ranged fire attack. I guess an additional holy attack wouldn't hurt, but fire is a must.

[Emmanovi]

Maybe two paths, a fire one and a holy one.

Holy: Priest, Keeper of Light, Sacred One, Life-Giver, Magauuan Healer.

Fire (Priest): Flame Initiate, Wielder of Sacred Fire, Purger.

Those any good?

Also, two other things:

1. Are you going to have a 4th level unit?

2. The conscript only goes up to level 2. How about a level 3 "Captain" sort of thing?

[Temuchin Khan]

Maybe two paths, a fire one and a holy one.

Holy: Priest, Keeper of Light, Sacred One, Life-Giver, Magauuan Healer.

Fire (Priest): Flame Initiate, Wielder of Sacred Fire, Purger.

Those any good?

Interesting ideas. How about this for our magi:

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Magauuan -> Magauuan of the Holy Flame -> Magauuan of Ahura's Flame
         -> Magauuan Healer -> Magauuan Elder

I like the idea of a branching Magauuan line!

The conscript only goes up to level 2. How about a level 3 "Captain" sort of thing?

I thought leaving the conscript line without a third level would emphasize his status as a cheap recruit from the provinces as opposed to a regular of the Royal Army.

As to whether we'll have a fourth level unit, I never thought about it. If we did, I guess the most logical choice would be either the Magauuan line or the heavy cavalry line.

[Emmanovi]

Have you got something like a basic person, no armour/weapons, just colours of clothing and look? It would help in picking names.

[Cuyo Quiz]

I vote to keep the Kardakes and the Dathapatis lines separated, as not anyone could become a leader or an Immortal, while the Kardakes seemed to be more in the field of auxiliars.

[Emmanovi]

Tree:

[turin]

Better tree. You can put the images in this one.

Are there any images for this faction yet? If there are, put them in the appropriate slot on this image.

[Emmanovi]

Thanks. I had to use paint on another computer, and I had to be quick.