Why Nak is (should be) In a Fix

[Bebop]

-Borsail

-Lack of Flour

-Lack of Natural Resources in General

-Poor Morale

-Conclusion

1) Borsail

Borsail was the top noble House of Allanak, suddenly it has been completely destroyed, yet we have seen minimal IC repercussions for this action.  While Sath can, and I assume has taken over the slave trade, they do not have as near as many resources, contacts, facilities, funds and experience and so on that Borsail once did.  Likewise, the NPCs are still Borsail NPCs that do construction in the city.  Who is funding and maintaining the Arena?  The city?  The same city funding repairing the damage from the war they brought on themselves?  This is like if the DOW crashed today, and we saw no repercussions.  It's just not fathomable.

2) Flour

Allanak had a cut back in flour and we haven't seen flour since.  Flour has for a long time been the cheapest resource of a semi nutritional meal. Cultures have tried to survive on it alone for centuries in real life.  Suddenly, Allanak's primary and cheapest food source has been snatched from the hands of an already financially devastated and sometimes starving caste of grunts.

3) Lack of Natural Resources

Kanks.  No one sold as many kanks as Allanak.  They specialized in the best kanks in Zalanthas, suddenly this resource of income that appears to be sponsored by the Templarate is depleted and they have come to only rely mostly on beetles.  In addition, the sell of honey, shell and meat from kanks has been slashed entirely.  No kank meat, no flour.  As well, mounts rely on food just like any other living thing.  How DO they feed beetles the massive amounts of food they require to survive?  There is no grass... last time I checked beetles do not eat sand.  Though it WOULD be nice if they did.

Water, is not abundant either, the only logical conclusion I can make is that a massive amount of water is supplied by the mages of the city working almost constantly to water all of the humans and the animals in the city.

Wood and Meat.  How realistic is it that everything be built out of hide and bone in Nak?  Especially considering that there is not much game around Allanak, and almost none of it consists of anything with a hide or BONES, unless you actually count the humans that some how continue to reside here.  So far I see that wood and flour are now to be two resources that the south relies on the north to obtain.  It seems in every instance here that the north should have the upper hand. And not just slightly, they should have it almost entirely.

Herbs.  Almost no medicinal/nutritional herbs grow around the south.  And the environment is such that only special plants similar to cacti could flourish, however, instead of there being different foliage between the north and south, there is once again - none.

About the only resource that Allanak has going for it is obsidian (glass) and chitin which seems hardly enough for an entire already impoverished city to survive especially in the face of such devastation.

4) Morale

Yes, I know when you are raised in a system that is acceptable it is sound and comfortable.  It's the same reason I don't save up and book a flight across the world to London even though I think it's a great society that cares for its citizens and has minimal violence.  I see this as the same reason people from Allanak don't just pick up and wander off to Tuluk.  However, in the face of devastation and refugees already fleeing there, I don't see how morale could be lower for the city to the point it would not evoke civil war or at least duress and lack of loyalty.  Or how could it not at least cause the city to collapse all together as its own citizens should not, under the current conditions that I've mentioned be even barely capable of feeding themselves.  (Much less children, mates or animals).  The only reason I can see that they do not rebel is that they are terrified, as they should be.

5) Conclusion

My conclusion is simply this, in the face of such financial and physical devastations, why does there seem to be almost no repercussions to this in game economically?  In Tuluk we see downtrodden refugees yet Allanak seems to function as well as it always has... somehow.  Even after having to rely on another city state to feed those that have fled from the disaster wreaked upon the city.

What can we do to change this and cause a more realistic reaction?  Or should, at this point, flour now be available once again.  Tuluk has already breed a new mount in the wake of the kank extinction yet the south remains indignantly the same even though it's citizens were already in great poverty.  Why have their been no IG reactions to reflect this other than the visible destruction of one or two squares?  I would like to see acts of conquest and concern from the Pcs and their leaders.

Also in regards to the Alliance with one city having fallen so very far into devastation... instead of allying, would this not be the perfect time to react to the city that has been your mortal enemy for centuries instead of just rolling over, taking their refugees and turning into buddies?  This of course is not for me to decide.  This is for the IG leaders and ultimately the immortals to decide.  However, I've just been considering this and I do not think the current route we are on, is the one most realistic by far from what I can tell.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Regarding #1. Find out IC.

Other than that, you have some great points. Do, however, remember that Allanak has always survived tough times, for some reason. Also remember that Tuluki citizens are not any better off than Allanaki citizens, outside of the flour situation. It looks that way, but they ain't. All commoners are broke. Some just revel in it, and others try to cover it up. Guess who's who.

[Yam]

Find out IC.

[Myrdryn]

=
1) Borsail

Borsail was the top noble House of Allanak, suddenly it has been completely destroyed, yet we have seen minimal IC repercussions for this action.  While Sath can, and I assume has taken over the slave trade, they do not have as near as many resources, contacts, facilities, funds and experience and so on that Borsail once did.  Likewise, the NPCs are still Borsail NPCs that do construction in the city.  Who is funding and maintaining the Arena?  The city?  The same city funding repairing the damage from the war they brought on themselves?  This is like if the DOW crashed today, and we saw no repercussions.  It's just not fathomable.

The Borsail estate was destroyed and a large number of Borsail blood died (edit: and slaves and servants, etc).  People in Allanak that care (I imagine joe commoner might not care or understand) would still notice that their slaving pavilion is still active, the Borsail Wyvern barracks is still active and that they haven't been completely destroyed.


As far as the rest of the post, yeah, people in Allanak should be freaking out.  I agree.  You forgot "There's a big pool of lava/volcano in the middle of the city."

[Tisiphone]

As far as the rest of the post, yeah, people in Allanak should be freaking out.  I agree.  You forgot "There's a big pool of lava/volcano in the middle of the city."

This didn't strike me as common knowledge.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

It certianly is. The scene is pretty much open to anyone who cares to observe, and there were enough commoners there that th story would have spread and gotten even worse by now.

Also, Sath does not do slaves. Kasix does.

[fourTwenty]

A certain PC did not know this untill another PC pointed it out.
Was a small, short but never the less, good scene for RP.
So while it probably is common knowledge for most. It is -certainly- still something that could be found out in game.

And I usually hate "Find out IC" answers.

[Qzzrbl]

So come on Allanak!

Start freaking out already!

[brytta.leofa]

The scene is pretty much open to anyone who cares to observe

Not so much...most people don't have access to that part of the city.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

...alright, buddy...

[Myrdryn]

The scene is pretty much open to anyone who cares to observe

Not so much...most people don't have access to that part of the city.

Actually it isn't something that would be restricted to the noble quarter.  But I don't really want to say much more about it right now.  But if you know where to look, there is ample evidence.

[Synthesis]

SPOILER ALERT:











































....go look past the Arena on Arena road, dimwits.  Don't you people ever -explore- the damn city?

[Only He Stands There]

Or, uh, check the room ONE ROOM OFF CARAVAN ROAD that has evidence of Bad Things.

Re: the general topic, your answers are basically...

-Magick
-Magick
-Magick
-Openly Permitted Magickers in Giant Quantities

-The meat, bones, and skin of a single mekillot can, according to the docs, feed and outfit a small army.

[Synthesis]

Ooh, forgot about that one.  Good call.

[Malken]

Bah! Even magick wins threads much better than any mundane arguments will ever do *grins*

[brytta.leofa]

Don't you people ever -explore- the damn city?

Oh. Heh. Not in quite a while, apparently. 

[Bebop]

Stay on topic please?  I really didn't want this to be about Borsail/Pools of Lava... so much as about the general economics of Allanak.

[AmandaGreathouse]

I haven't ever actually played a character based out of Allanak. But this seems way too apt. Or at least from what I've seen with various tribals and Tulukis I've had that have visited the city-state. The entire state of it makes no sense to me. I had my second or third character, and a few since then visit, and I pretty much refuse to make a character that starts in Allanak now.

*now for a mini-rant/thought*- how many more of the 'too-many-magicker' threads will there be when the link page from TMC suggests that new players make a character in Allanak? I mean, its the single most likely place outside a few relatively iso tribal areas, to find magickers. *end of thought/rant*

I mean, thats all just kinda my take on it, but even fairly soon after the 'fire from the sky' incident, around when I first visited, everyone was so calm and settled about the state of things. I feel more affected by the state of Allanak up in Tuluk where there're various refugees from there, then down in Allanak where it seems to have been swept very neatly under the rug.

[FuSoYa]

I had my second or third character, and a few since then visit, and I pretty much refuse to make a character that starts in Allanak now.

Well then that is really your loss.  Allanak is great, and thriving, and just represents Zalanthas to me so fully it's hard to put into words.

Yes it does have it's problems and it is very questionable how things are going about right now but I suppose we just have to suspend disbelief until we hear from up high.  I myself am curious about the flour issue, it would be nice to have another mount added if only for the fun factor, and I thought the Borsail were basically defunct and either in hiding or something else after the event but it appears I was wrong.  The crews definitely have been confusing me.

Brandon

[Gimfalisette]

I pretty much refuse to make a character that starts in Allanak now.

You'll have more fun in ARM if you don't let OOC prejudices limit you. I have a rep on this forum of (previously at least) being a huge Tuluk rah-rah, and yet I have played extensively in Allanak also and love it for its own unique qualities.

As to the thrust of this thread...I just don't really see a problem. There were effects of the gith invasion, and there still are effects of the gith invasion; Allanak is still struggling with recovery. If the question is really, "OMG shouldn't Allanak be totally destroyed?!?!," I'll say no, it shouldn't. For one thing, although the invasion and the kank dieoff and other IC events have had repercussions, PC leaders in the city have worked very, very hard on IC solutions (are still working hard) and have averted many consequences. Example, the PC defense of the city from the gith invasion was actually incredibly successful, and though there were lives (PC, NPC, and VNPC) lost, the overall property damage was small compared to what it could have been from having 10,000 gith coming out of the sewers.

Another point to consider: With 2.ARM still not anywhere in sight, the playerbase needs viable city locations in which to play. Allanak is one of these, and it's needed. Although we know there's going to be no Allanak, and no Tuluk, and no desert elves, and no halflings in 2.ARM, all of these are still in the game because we need them. (And because IC events have not fully unfolded, but I suspect that's partly because we still NEED these options.)

[Southie]

Holy IC misinformation, Batman.

There's not much I can respond to in this thread besides saying I wish the city was this nice happy place with no reflected problems that everyone says it is.

[Sokotra]

There should be more chaos.   

[Yam]

There should be more chaos.   

There should always be more chaos.

[Sokotra]

There should be more chaos.   

There should always be more chaos.

I'll think I'll cause some chaos....

...if I can get away with it before I get insta-slain because there isn't enough chaos (like there should be) to keep everyone too preoccupied to be able to deal with me. 

[Angela Christine]

The survival of Allanak, and surrounding areas, have always been a bit of an enigma to me.  Half a million people is a lot of people, it is more than my RL city has.  Even when they were virtually importing food from both the northlands and Red Storm East, the population seemed to be greater than the environment could support.  It is a terrible place to have a city.  I have a theory, a couple of theories.

1.  The south used to be lusher.  Not much of a stretch here, you can find room descriptions that indicate the land was more fertile even a few hundred years ago.  Not a steamy jungle paradise, but perhaps as fertile as the grasslands east of Tuluk.  When Tektolnes founded the town, it was a good place to put a town and it prospered.  There was probably a big-ass spring, oasis, or other access to the underground aquifer.*  He's pretty good with the earth moving (see: burying Stinal and Luirs Dragonthall using magick) so he could probably enlarge/enhance the aquifer access point.  When the current walls were built the land was able to support many  productive farms and ranches, the hunting was pretty good, and dieing of starvation/dehydration was quite rare, even among the poor.  Gradually 2 things happened: the population increased, and the land died. 

1a. Humans breed.  We're good at it.  No one wants to live outside the walls, so the population density kept increasing inside the walls.  It is possible that both the Rinth and the Templar's Quarter were later extensions to the walls, since they are both self-contained and fully walled districts that would leave a completely walled rectangle if they were removed.  Living space was precious, so single family huts gradually gave way to crowded tenements.  Eventually space was too valuable, and no one could afford to keep a little kitchen garden, or even an outhouse, of their own.  Meanwhile, the population was approaching the limit of what the natural water source could support.  In the beginning water may have been freely available at public fountains, but as demand rose they had to raise prices to limit waste.  And keep raising prices.  Until today, when poor families may not be able to afford enough water to keep the whole family alive.  Water elementalists probably do contribute to the water supply.  You never see  water overflowing from the Vivaduan temple and running down the street, so chances are good that there is a drain in there somewhere, to catch excess production.  Still, water is in scarce supply.  This would have forced the farmlands to shift to growing the least water-intensive crops they could.  So no more variety of grains, fruits and vegetables, instead they seem to grow a drought tolerant variety of wheat exclusively. 

1b.  The land died.  The insatiable thirst of the growing city may have had something to do with this.  If they are pumping enough water out of the aquifer, that will lower the level of the aquifer, dry the land, and eventually kill the plants above.  The existence of a the sorcerer-king himself probably had something to do with it too.  Unless Tektolnes is a dedicated Preserver, which seems unlikely, he must be defiling the land for power.  We don't see piles of ash lying around, but Tektolnes is the big dog, he probably found a way to draw power from a larger area than just the "room" he is in, draining it in tiny, almost imperceptible ways - maybe that is why he needed the tall tower, to increase his line of sight and distance-draining capabilities.  If he can drain anything he can see, then from his tower he can probably use the land from the saltflats in the east to the canyons in the west, from the Red Desert in the north to the Silt Sea in the south, a frikkin' huge area.  At first this may have seemed like a foolproof plan with no downside, the land could easily recover from the proportionally tiny amounts of power he was draining.  But as the city grew, the number of Templars drawing power from him grew, so the amount of power he was drawing from the land increased.  Still not enough in any one spot to insta-kill the local plants and cause significant ash deposits, but enough to drain the vitality and fertility of the land faster than the land could recover.  Gradually the cumulative damage began to render some areas completely lifeless, then the growing desert claimed them and turned them into the dunes we know and love today.  The loss of fertile grasslands eventually made ranching and nomadic herding untenable, there simply isn't enough naturally occurring plant life to support large herds.  At this point most of the damage is irreversible, too much biodiversity has been lost. 

2.  The land was artificially harshened, because we like it harsh.  We want a barren wasteland populated by monsters.  We want a filthy and corrupt city seething with danger.  We want a city in a barren wasteland.  Even if it doesn't make sense.    

It never rains. At one point there may simply have been no coded rain, because hardly any MUDs bother coding in precipitation . . . but somewhere along the line the lack of coded rain became a belief that it never rains in Zalanthas, or at least that it hasn't rained anywhere in the known world for hundreds of years.  Huge volumes of water must be coming from somewhere (underground?  elemental plane of water?) to keep half a million people alive, and some of that water is evaporating (if nothing else, at least in the form of sweat and pee).  Perhaps the moisture is being magickally sucked out of the air, or perhaps it does rain somewhere downwind, outside of the known world.  Whatever. 

We have giant monsters, but suspiciously little for the giant monsters to eat.  Can scrabs really subsist on a diet consisting of nothing but newbies?     Sure, in the real world bears can live for months in the spring on a diet of grass, roots and the occasional rat, but even grass, roots and rats are pretty rare around Allanak.  There are very few small game animals, either coded NPCs or as part of the environment.  Ok, maybe you don't see them because the survivors survived because they are hard to see.  But even mice would have trouble living off the natural plant life in the area, so I'm not sure what the invisible small animals are eating.  Sure, mekillots eat salt worms which eat . . . salt, and silt horrors eat things we don't see that live in the silt, but the scrabs, giant beetles, and taratulas are a bit of a mystery.

We have farms that grow wheat exclusively, but we have a grocery store that doesn't sell flour, and does sell things like cheese and fruit.  Umm.  I have no idea.  The government owns all the wheat and right now chooses not to sell any of it to commoners, ok, but where is all the other stuff that is not brought in by PCs coming from?

We have a fantasy setting.  It is fantastic.





*I am assuming the existence of an underground aquifer, because without rain or an underground water source there would be not plant life at all in the south.