khalifate descriptions

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alexanderthegre
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khalifate descriptions

Post by alexanderthegre »

I filled in some missing descriptions for the khalifate. If anyone thinks their ok, I'll finish the set.
About the race description:
Race description: The khalifate are a race of humans isolated from the rest of the world by thousands of miles of inhospitable desert.
They are quite suspicious of any outsiders they do stumble apon, and are rarely friendly to strangers.
Society
Khalifate society is nomadic, hiding in caves during the hot day and the dark night, only being active at dawn and dusk. When a decision needs to be made for the good of the community, a council is organised of the tribe's most respected members.
They are physically identical to wesnothian humans.
Geography
Over the thousand years or so humans inhabited the Green Isle, many sailors attempted to reach the east. None returned. The khalifate are the remnants of the survivors who were pushed farther and farther south by the swift currents.

Unit descriptions:
Mudafi: The mudafi are the elite guardsmen of the Khalifate. Weilding mighty spears, they charge into enemy ranks and hold the ground as the rest of the army prepares the assault.
Tabib: The tabib are major leaders of Khalifate communities. Their power with the mace and healing magic are almost unmached throughout the world.
Faris: These armored horsemen destroy enemy reinforcements and support with their lance before setting in on the main troops with their mace.

Anyway, if anyone likes these, I'll write more. :)
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The_Other
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Re: khalifate descriptions

Post by The_Other »

I haven't played much with the Khalifate recently, but as I recall their forces are not as light and mobile as one would expect from a primarily nomadic society. Also, regarding the tribal council - 'Khalifate' means 'ruled by the Khalif' - and 'Khalif' in turn means (if I remember correctly) 'Descendant of the Prophet'. So it seems more likely that they would be governed either by a single religious leader, or at least a single secular ruler who claims a religious mandate).

Looking at them (and their original development thread), it seems that they're heavily based on the Moors and Saracens, so perhaps this might be a better reference point?
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alexanderthegre
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Re: khalifate descriptions

Post by alexanderthegre »

The_Other wrote:I haven't played much with the Khalifate recently, but as I recall their forces are not as light and mobile as one would expect from a primarily nomadic society. Also, regarding the tribal council - 'Khalifate' means 'ruled by the Khalif' - and 'Khalif' in turn means (if I remember correctly) 'Descendant of the Prophet'. So it seems more likely that they would be governed either by a single religious leader, or at least a single secular ruler who claims a religious mandate).

Looking at them (and their original development thread), it seems that they're heavily based on the Moors and Saracens, so perhaps this might be a better reference point?
Hmm. I'll rewrite that later, when I have some time. Thanks for the feedback! :D

In the meantime, here are some more unit descriptions:
Falcon: The khalifate's primary food source comes from hunting small prey using trained falcons. Those birds a large asset in warfare, if only for scouting the enemy forces' movements.
Ghazi: The Ghazi break nigh-impenetrable defences with their powerful shields and incredible accuracy with the sword.
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taptap
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Re: khalifate descriptions

Post by taptap »

The root is "to follow" - so the khalif is someone who follows something or someone, historically the khalifs followed the prophet as leaders of the muslims but this is historical semantics not part of the word itself. I guess the best would be just not to overinterpret the name of the faction.

Btw. I think it is lame to make unbelievable hunter factions all over the place. If you make them a civilisation as they should be they obviously have to do both farming (settled) and herding (probably partly nomadic).
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alexanderthegre
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Re: khalifate descriptions

Post by alexanderthegre »

First of all, sorry for not posting here in a while. Anyway,
taptap wrote:The root is "to follow" - so the khalif is someone who follows something or someone, historically the khalifs followed the prophet as leaders of the muslims but this is historical semantics not part of the word itself. I guess the best would be just not to overinterpret the name of the faction.
Yeah, those were exactly my thoughts on the subject.
taptap wrote: Btw. I think it is lame to make unbelievable hunter factions all over the place. If you make them a civilisation as they should be they obviously have to do both farming (settled) and herding (probably partly nomadic).
Hmm. Yeah, since there's nothing on them in mainline, and none that I know of in UMC, we can do pretty much whatever we want here. I was trying to keep it simple, but maybe I was overkill.


Anyway, here's a revision of the race description. I tried to make the society a little less cliche.
Spoiler:
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Re: khalifate descriptions

Post by AI »

FYI, there *is* mainline stuff in development, it's just not done yet. (just like the faction balancing)
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alexanderthegre
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Re: khalifate descriptions

Post by alexanderthegre »

AI wrote:FYI, there *is* mainline stuff in development, it's just not done yet. (just like the faction balancing)
Argh, I probably should've asked somebody about that. :doh:
If you like my descriptions, you please feel free to use them. Else, please let me know and I'll do something else.
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alexanderthegre
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Re: khalifate descriptions

Post by alexanderthegre »

Since I've waited a couple of days, and still got no responce on whether these are wanted, I made a couple of unit descriptions, and a slight edit to the racial description. :whistle:

Muharib: More physically adept jundi are given further training and better weapons. The ability to wield sword and bow with equal skill makes them a fair match against almost any opponent.

Batal: The batal are often the khalif of the region, striking awe into their foes with an axe worthy of dwarven craftsmanship, and their skill with a bow is unmatched by all but the most skilled of archers.

Monawish: Some jundi forgo the bow entirely in favor of speed, maneuverability and increased proficiency with the sword. They retain the armor required of Khalifate soldiers, making them able to resist more blows than the skirmishers of other races.

Race description:
The khalifate are a race of humans isolated from the rest of the world by thousands of miles of inhospitable desert.
They are quite suspicious of any outsiders they do stumble apon, and are rarely friendly to strangers.
Society
Khalifate civilization is hierarchical but devided, with the local warlord or religious leader, or khalif, at the top, then moving down through myriad ranks untranslatable to other cultures down to the citizens and serfs. Khalifate do not build cities instead maintaining a massive collection of tents which they set up around the small oasises. They consume the local resources quickly, although not as quickly as the orcs, and periodically need to move on, although there may be small fishing villages periodically around the coastline.
They are physically identical to wesnothian humans.
History
Over the thousand years or so humans inhabited the Green Isle, many sailors attempted to reach the east. None returned. The khalifate are the remnants of the survivors who were pushed farther and farther south by the swift currents.
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AxalaraFlame
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Re: khalifate descriptions

Post by AxalaraFlame »

query: does wesnothians use imperial units? Or how long is the distance does that "thousands of miles" mean?
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taptap
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Re: khalifate descriptions

Post by taptap »

As obviously some people spend time and effort to design the faction there likely exist a concept, some background etc. on them even if only partially published / finished, they even made all these arabic names for them (only the diacriticals got lost). So better get in contact with them before you spend your time on writing descriptions that won't be used.

All that said, I don't think your vision of them is very appealing "unfriendly to strangers" and "myriad of untranslatable ranks". If anything Khalifate seems to be inspired by a culture that prides itself for hospitality and an egalitarian society. You design them as nomads (which doesn't go well with your highly stratified society anyway), when they were conceived as completely or mainly settled (they feature the best L1 healer in game) civilization.
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Flameslash
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Re: khalifate descriptions

Post by Flameslash »

AxalaraFlame wrote:query: does wesnothians use imperial units? Or how long is the distance does that "thousands of miles" mean?
A mile is about half a foot.
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Kanzil
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Re: khalifate descriptions

Post by Kanzil »

Right. :D

Alexandertheogre,just a thought, you state that the Khalifate are separated by thousands of miles of desert.Surely therefore they would be different, due to the fact they are so distant, and are in a completely different climate?Certainly in the sprites they look different-they seem to generally be bearded and have a darker tone of skin.
Last edited by Kanzil on June 15th, 2012, 7:02 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: khalifate descriptions

Post by Flameslash »

Shhh! It's a joke!
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alexanderthegre
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Re: khalifate descriptions

Post by alexanderthegre »

Well, Noy wrote this in the official khalifate thread:
Spoiler:
I like the idea of them being wesnothians pushed southwards by the orcs.
Don't worry, I'll remove the miles thing. :annoyed:

Anyway, (I use that word too much :evil: ) here's another draft of the race description.
Massive wall of text:
taptap wrote:As obviously some people spend time and effort to design the faction there likely exist a concept, some background etc. on them even if only partially published / finished, they even made all these arabic names for them (only the diacriticals got lost). So better get in contact with them before you spend your time on writing descriptions that won't be used.
I'll do that. Thanks.
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Re: khalifate descriptions

Post by Drakefriend »

AxalaraFlame wrote:query: does wesnothians use imperial units? Or how long is the distance does that "thousands of miles" mean?
No. Distances are measured in hexes. (However, keep in mind that Hexes Could Be Miles Across. Or metres).
In fact, the original miles were thousand passus , i.e. ca. one and a half kilometre, though some later "miles" are simply "a unit for long distances", which (even more so than with the other units) depended on the place in question, sometimes up to more than ten kilometres. (The Nautical mile is a minute of arc along the earth circumference).
Thousands of miles would therefore be 1.5 Mm/15000 km/1.5 million metres or more. Considering that the Earth has a circumference of 40 Mm...

I like the current description and have nothing negatie to note in the moment.
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