People of the Green Isle

[revansurik]

I like your concept of the Chomi as a guerrilla faction. I think it fits them to have units that move quickly through terrain and ambush their enemies. Probably they could have some skirmisher, backstabbing, and camouflaged specials.

I've nearly completed the 3 factions already; I did give some Chomi units ambush and skirmisher abilities, and I've even invented an ambush ability that makes the unit invisible in both forest and water (after all, the Chomi, unlike the Washraha, are very familiar with the aquatic environment

ince the Washraha have to fight the Deshra and got their name from being able to cut them down, it seems like they should have a line of units with heavy weaponry. The Chinese of antiquity had several anti-cavalry weapons, such as the pudao or "horse cutter", which were meant to be able to cut the front legs out from under a charging horse. Such a weapon would be useful against a giant, since it has superb chopping power and decent reach, and the brute strength behind it fits the Washrahan elite warrior culture. Also, for some reason, axes have been ingrained in my image of Washrahan warriors since the beginning for some reason. I'm not sure if it's the connection with Vikings or if it's just trying to defy the "black people from the desert always use spears and scimitars" cliché. I'd go with axes for one of the lines since an axeman with a shield could be a well-balanced fighter, having decent attack and defense with a ranged option. Perhaps the knee-cutter could be a level 3 unit that branches off from one of the other lines? Washrahan warriors might view archery as either cowardly or pedestrian, so if they have archers then they would probably be their "weakest" units (the peasants and slaves who can't handle a real weapon) but maybe make up for it with dishonorable tactics. In their general appearance, my mental image of Washrahan visual style is inspired by Assyrian art -- the beards, the cool hats, the armor, etc.

I imagined the knee cutter as wielding a long spear; after all, going near a giant is never something one would enjoy I'll see if I can split my current Warrior(spearman)-Champion-Jackal Warrior line in order to fit an actual knee cutter - I thought of the Jackal Warrior (The Jackal being some sort of holy animal in Washrahan culture) as the giant-killer...
I made the lvl 1 Washraha warrior a Spearman-type unit, but I see no problem in that; Wesnoth's most basic infantry unit is a spearman too. But I will give them another path of advancement: an axe-thrower with a fire attack - since I made the Deshra vulnerable to fire.
I'm also purposefuly not giving a lot of diversity to the Washraha, since they're not technologically very advanced and have great focus on warfare only. Besides, since I'm giving them strong melee attacks, I'm depriving them of ranged attacks, otherwise they'll be too OP.
As for the archers, I thought the same as you: that bows are viewed as cowardly. Still, in my conception, that is the weapon favoured by Washrahan women, who are not physically strong enough to wield a spear and a sword, but who still want to fight like Washrahan ought to do That's why I made the archer line a female-only line (pretty much like the Hannuk Huntress line from my other campaign).

I had wondered how to go about making the Deshra into a faction, as even the most basic one would probably be level 2. I'm also imagining that the Deshra have some kind of shamanistic connection with the elements and have tamed beasts at their disposal, like hyenas and snakes, as well as a shaman line with earth- and wind-based attacks. I don't think the Washraha should have any magic since they value brute strength too much and isolate themselves from others, but maybe the Chomi would develop it later on after learning it from the Deshra. The idea here is kind of a reversal of the annoying "ethnic magician" trope.

I did make lvl 1 Deshra, they're the youngest and least strong ones - though they're probably amongst the strongest lvl 1 units in all of Wesnoth, and have plenty of hp. These Deshra advance into 3 lines: that of a Warrior - one of those trained by the Washraha -, a Leader (with, obviously, leadership ability), and a Clubber (the lvl 3 in this line, which I gave the suggestive name of 'Flattener', has ranged attack). Since they're giants, I gave some of them an Area of Effect weapon special, but, in order not to make them too OP, I made them vulnerable in most terrain types, and also weak against fire & cold attacks.
I didn't give the Deshra (which, in plural, I'm calling 'Deshrai') any magic, since I thought of them as being somewhat dim-witted (like giants tend to be). I didn't give the Washraha magic either, for the same reason as you. But I did give the Chomi a special Priest line that has impact magic and serves as healer. I didn't quite get what 'ethnic magician' is, but I think I made the Chomi priests just a normal healer mage...

I've actually tried to avoid making any of them "just like Africa/[other real-world culture]" because that feels cheap. So far I've incorporated (intentionally or otherwise) elements of African, Indian, Native American, and Viking culture and probably others that I can't think of right now. Just as Wesnoth isn't "that European analog", Arajunna should not be "that African analog". I hope that makes sense.

Well, yes, I didn't simply copy some existing culture; I just loosely based some aspects of Chomi/Washrahan culture on a few existing cultures, just as Wesnoth is loosely based on North-Western European medieval culture For example, I called the lvl 2 Boatsman, which is a pair of canoes, as Ibeji, which in Yoruba means 'twins'. However, I'm not creative enough to imply invent a reasonable ammount of names for these 2 cultures (I'm planning on giving them the same names, since their language are akin(?) to each ther), so I thought of using a list of Berber or Yoruba or Bantu names for them - just as I used Mongol names for the Hannuks

EDIT: I just made the Washraja (knee-cutter) unit; it's a lvl 3, advanced from a Washrahan Seeker, which by its turn advances from lvl 1 Warrior (spearman-type). The Washraja has a fire melee/ranged attack and a ranged blade attack; the fire attacks are so that they'll have great effect on the fire-vulnerable Deshra (after all, the Washraja are the actual giant-killers ). It also has more armour, specially against impact damage (the most common damage type amongst the Deshra). Furthermore, since it wields a torch, I gave it a Illuminate ability, which comes in hand for the lawful Washraha.
EDIT2: I'm placing as an attachment a picture with Deshra, Washraha and Chomi units, just so that you see how they look. The Deshra may not look gigantic enough, but if I made their sprites bigger, they'd look horrible onscreen

[johndh]

I can already tell, just at a glance, what faction each of the units belong to, so good job on the style differentiation. The Deshra were always kinda flexible as far as what they were (they could have even been made to be taller-than-average humans whose height got exaggerated in stories), so making them cyclopes is fine with me, and their size is very flexible. I'm also open to the idea of half-giants, but maybe those should be rare and special.

I'm not too fond of the jackal-headed guy. The whole Anubis motif may be too closely associated with Egypt to transfer across cultures very well. Plus, jackals are kinda sneaky and craven. I would think the Washraha would be more respectful of something fierce and aggressive like a hyena, boar/warthog, or badger.

[revansurik]

I can already tell, just at a glance, what faction each of the units belong to, so good job on the style differentiation. The Deshra were always kinda flexible as far as what they were (they could have even been made to be taller-than-average humans whose height got exaggerated in stories), so making them cyclopes is fine with me, and their size is very flexible. I'm also open to the idea of half-giants, but maybe those should be rare and special.

Well, credits for the sprites are really not mine, you know As for the cyclope thing, I tried to make a recoloured troll, but it got horribly ugly I ended up with something that looked like Harry potter's Dobby on steroids

I'm not too fond of the jackal-headed guy. The whole Anubis motif may be too closely associated with Egypt to transfer across cultures very well. Plus, jackals are kinda sneaky and craven. I would think the Washraha would be more respectful of something fierce and aggressive like a hyena, boar/warthog, or badger.

Still, his use of both a huge spear and a huge sickle sword makes him look quite warlike and aggressive in my view, thus befitting a Washraha. I may alter his mask, though...
BTW, I'm going to feature the Aeserians in my campaign too, though I'll represent them with normal outlaw units

[johndh]

Thinking a little bit more about names and languages and stuff, I'd prefer not to just lift words directly from other languages, but they definitely can share certain sounds and probably conventions with real world languages. For example, Washraha words and names (like Washraha, Deshra, Arajunna, Tarva) have a vaguely South Asian sound to them, so borrowing some sounds from Hindi, Gujarati, and Indonesian could be a good starting point. All of the ones I've used so far are just pulled out of my head, but that's the sort of linguistic "vibe" I was going for. For the Deshra, I can picture them using words that sound like Hebrew for some reason... maybe because of the Biblical giants that inspired them. The Chomi only have a name so far, so their language could sound like anything (and honestly, if you still hate that name I don't mind if you change it; I really just picked it at random). For the Aeserians, I can't help but associating their name with the Aesir of Norse paganism.

[revansurik]

I was using Ogre names for the Deshra... I think that we could mix Semitic, Yoruba and South Asian names; the Chomi could have Semitic-Yoruba names (Yoruba is a must for them, since I've named two of their units with yoruba words), and the Washraha could have Semitic-South Asian, for instance. I've also invented an ancient tribe from Arajunna which I've called the Asherah, which is a Semitic name; them being the ancestors of both Chomi and Washraha could explain the similarity in their names. As for the Aeserians, we could leave them with normal Wesnothian names, since they're the Wesnothians' ancestors...

'd prefer not to just lift words directly from other languages

I see your point, but inventing 'manually' a reasonable number of names (in order for the units not to get many equal names) will be some work, and I really don't feel much inclined to it, to be honest...

[johndh]

I've also invented an ancient tribe from Arajunna which I've called the Asherah, which is a Semitic name; them being the ancestors of both Chomi and Washraha could explain the similarity in their names.

So. Many. Factions.

I see your point, but inventing 'manually' a reasonable number of names (in order for the units not to get many equal names) will be some work, and I really don't feel much inclined to it, to be honest...

Fair enough. You're the one currently making it happen. I'm interested more in the anthropology and storytelling aspects, and less in the individual units anyway.

Also, NaNoWriMo is over, so I might write a little prose for the Southern Continent and/or Green Isle some time soon. No promises.

[revansurik]

So. Many. Factions.

Don't worry, this tribe is has disappeared thousands of years prior to even the colonization of the Green Isle. In fact, I just created them for the plot of my Dragon Trilogy, their existence won't affect the lore we've created.

Also, NaNoWriMo is over, so I might write a little prose for the Southern Continent and/or Green Isle some time soon. No promises.

That would be good.

[johndh]

Here it is: http://forums.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=39699
It's not very long, but it should lend a little flavor to the lore. I might do more later.

[revansurik]

I really liked it!
I'm having some ideas too, though I'll only write something by the end of the week, as I'm in the last days of the semestre, and final exams are requesting some attention

[revansurik]

Long time no see, folks! Seems like the making of Arajunna has grown cold, but, if you're still interested, here go some images from Chomi, Washraha and Deshra fighting on Arajunnan soil:





This is the Arajunnan architecture I've made: castle, keep and village:




I've also created this red rock as a unique feature of Arajunnan landscape; see pictures of the Hoggar Mountains of Algeria for the source of inspiration





PS.: You can play these factions on my campaign, War of the Jewel, or just by hacking the files of these factions and transferring them to the main game folders Also, I can post the unit trees of the three factions, if you wish.

[Elfarion]

Sry for not showing up for a long time!
This just looks great! I'm sorry that I cannot contribute on anything related to graphics, unit creation or campaign programming. When it comes to storytelling, I'd be happy to do my part of the work. Perhaps I could come up with some campaign ideas?

[revansurik]

Could be, but for someone else who wishes to make an Arajunna-based campaign; I'm busy enough with mine (I'll only finish the one I' doing right now and its sequel, and then I'll be done with making campaigns) and with RL stuff :-/