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Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to a thread about an idea. See, I am a person who plays Civilization, and when you play Civilization and are me, you think about Impis. From such thinking, I came up the idea of Impis being units in Fire Emblem, and from there built up a proper setting to use that. But one nation is usually below Fire Emblem in scale, so I needed another kingdom. In Fates, they did a theme of East versus West, which isn't terrible, but has been done often, and Fire Emblem is already quite east and west. So, I created a kingdom based off of another important group of civilizations, those of the Middle East. From there, this idea was born. The World: Surrounded by endless seas, there lies B'Yasha, in an ancient language, Land. An large island, whose surface is most often sand, inhabited primarily by two nations. In the north, Amaar, or Rain, and in the south, Luoka, or Spear. Though their kingdom is built around massive dunes, Amaar is a prosperous kingdom. This is owed to the twisting rivers which run through their lands, making fresh water and fertile floodplains plentiful. It is a kingdom of scholars and architects, where merchants make their living on the plenty of their homeland. For many centuries it has been unified under the Alid Dynasty, their future king being Prince Huran. By contrast, the warrior culture of Luoka shifts like the sands of the desert. In fact, for longer than Amaar has existed, the tribes and nations of the region have warred against each other, and remained mostly independent. Much of the land is plains, hills and valleys, though receiving water from rain rather than rivers. However, around two decades ago, a king of a small tribe in those hills, Jamaka, led a crusade against his neighbors. This distinguished itself from other skirmishes in that it succeeded, with Jamaka now Luoka's king. However, three years ago, the rain stopped. The plains began to dry, and turned to desert, in which nothing would grow. Some say this is a curse for Jamaka's brutal conquest, others, merely an act of nature. Between these two kingdoms and dotted about B'Yasha are patches of desert, independent tribes and city states. For the past few decades, Amaar and Luoka have used bribery and intimidation to try and find favor in the eyes of their leaders. Where no leaders reign, bandits and nomads have established there own communities, a lack of things to rob slowly turning the former into the latter. The Plot: For three years, Luoka has suffered from terrible drought, and its people wither like the plants in the sand. What aide Amaar offers is minimal compared to their needs, what their allies can provide is barely anything. Growing tired of the plight of his people, Jamaka and his advisers decide that the time has come for war. What Amaar will not give them, they will take. Jamaka sends his son Shaka with the invading forces, that he might gain knowledge of war after growing up in the relatively peaceful aftermath of unification. Amaar mobilizes their army to defend themselves, and quickly as well, for when Luoka invades, Prince Huran is studying in a southern city state, close to the war front. War has come. Who's side do you take? The warriors or the merchants? Shaka or Huran? Take what your people need, or defend what they have? Pronunciation Guide: Luoka (Loo-Ok-Uh) Amaar (Uh-Mar) B'Yasha (Beh-Yah-Shuh) Playable Characters (Amaar): [spoiler=Huran] Class: Merchant Prince Affinity: Wind Prince of Amaar, and only son of the current king, Malik. Growing up in his father's court, he spent much time studying, and from his studying picked up the practice of magic. His primarily field of study, however, was in politics and money handling. His exposure to the outside world has been minimal up to this point, though his studies have left him with a slightly embittered since of reality. He is not one for fiction, and pays far more attention to works of history or teaching than epics and legends. He's not necessarily naive, but until the beginning of the game has had no first hand account of battle, no experience fighting, not even had he hunted in all his life. His calm and logical nature shows through in his ability to maintain control of himself and still function as a leader despite the things he bears witness to. His personal distaste for violence goes back to his studies, as he does not see a million as a statistic. Despite that, he is a reasonably competent strategist and leader, owing largely to his vast knowledge. However, Huran can also be quite indecisive, and at times a bit cowardly, though the latter issue he can usually convince himself to get over. As you might guess, Huran's weapon of choice is light magic. His luck is quite high, but his skill and speed are not particularly good. However, Huran's defense is rather impressive, especially for a mage, meaning he can actually survive hits from enemy units. His unique weapon is a type of tome called Diopside, the black star tome. It was developed by the ancestors of the Alid dynasty and has been taught to and used by their bloodline exclusively. When Huran promotes, he gains access to Anima and Dark magic as well. [spoiler=Mansur] Class: Camel Rider (Sword) Affinity: Wind A body guard of Huran, one of two knights under Shahnaz. His real name is Mohammad, but because his companion's name is also Mohammad, he goes by one of his other names, Mansur. He's a carefree, tranquil but also rather impulsive individual, making decisions on a whim based on nothing but how he feels at the moment. For example, his camel is named Gringrad, a name which popped into his head which he liked the sound of. Mansur's relaxed, carefree nature leads to him rarely being upset or angry, though sometimes can lead him to be apathetic to other's and his own issues. He and Musa are companions, originally meeting in training and having often been paired together since. Mansur is notably big eater, and is rarely seen without figs, dates or bread in hand. The weapon Mansur specializes in is the sword. Despite swords typically being seen as more 'agile' weapons, Mansur has higher strength, defense and luck than Musa does. Strength and defense he will normally cap, and he'll likely come pretty close to his luck cap as well, if not cap it outright. [spoiler=Musa] Class: Camel Rider (Lance) Affinity: Ice A body guard of Huran, one of two knights under Shahnaz. His real name is Mohammad, but because his companion's name is also Mohammad, he goes by one of his other names, Musa. His general demeanor is rather serious, and a bit quiet. He follows orders once they're given, and believes in doing them right. Doing things right is incredibly important to him, as he'd rather something not be done over done wrong. His perfectionist mentality can lead to him becoming frustrated rather easily, especially at himself. However, he can indeed be quite empathetic when something to sympathize with is brought up. Though he trains very hard, he is liable to stop his training, even for the marginal benefit of others. He and Mansur are companions, originally meeting in training and having often been paired together since. Musa's weapon of choice is the lance. Despite lances typically being a tool of bulkier units, Musa focuses more on skill and speed than Mansur. He can rather comfortable cap both stats, and features slightly higher resistance growth than Mansur does. [spoiler=Shahnaz] Class: Mamluk (Sword, Lance) Affinity: Anima Chief body guard of Huran, an important figure in raising him and commander of Musa and Mansur. His temperament is somewhat between his underlings, and all around quite normal. Shahnaz served under Huran's father and trained during the reign of his father, so he has quite a bit of experience and wisdom to go off of. He can be fatherly, usually to Huran, but also a rather hard commander, as he is with Musa and Mansur. He can also be a bit bigoted, usually against Luokans. However, his even emotions and experience brought him in favor of Malik, and he's served the Alid Dynastry his whole life, always being very loyal. Shahnaz also expects similar loyalty out of others, pushing those around him to do better in their respective fields. Shahnaz is the Jeigan of the Amaarian side. He joins as the promoted form of Camel Riders, Mamluks. Since he is a prepromote, he has based which leave quite a bit to be desired compared to a trained unit of the same level. In addition, his extra weapon type cannot be chosen, he joins with swords and lances available and that's what he gets. However, he has very good growths, better than either of his students, except in Luck, which is a stat he's simply bad at where even Musa has decent Luck. If trained he can still be a very useful unit with all around decent stats, though ultimately inferior to your other Mamluks. [spoiler=Uthma] Class: Shaman Affinity: Dark Uthma is not actually from Amaar. Rather, he's a native of Luoka, by blood a prince of a northern tribe. When the drought hit, his father sent him to a city state bordering Amaar to study, though also so he might have food and water. When Luoka invades, Uthma is more or less conscripted to fight his own people. He's a bold individual, confident in himself and used to having all the answers, but when faced with moral dilemmas tends to shut down and often just give up on the situation. With no time for that though, he ultimately sides with Amaar against their invaders. Early on he joins Huran's group, using the magic he's studied for many years: Dark Magic. Interestingly, Uthma joins as a shaman, making him the only unit on the Amaar side to specialize in using dark magic. Aside from Uthma, shamans are a class only found on the Luoka side of the conflict. When promoted, he becomes a Sangoma, users of healing and dark magic normally only available in Luoka. His magic and skill are his best stats, and combined with his weapon type he can hit like a truck, but won't often double due to mediocre speed. Playable Characters (Luoka): [spoiler=Shaka] Class: Warrior Prince Affinity: Thunder Eldest son of Jamaka, king of the Luoka, though still only a young man. From a very young age, he was trained to be a warrior, and has shown himself very talented at all aspects of warfare. Not only did he excel above his piers in sparing and hunting, but also in strategy and ingenuity. A product of his mind is his proof weapon, a throwing spear of his own design and crafting called the Iklwa. He is a dedicated individual, and fiercely loyal. In this war, he fights for his people, and will not allow anything to appose him. He can seem very cold, usually adopting a stern demeanor around anyone. Despite his strategic capability, Shaka is hot headed, and it his preference to personally scatter his enemies over direct soldiers from a tent and a somewhat short temper. He will ask nothing he would not himself do, and often doesn't ask anyway. He is not without his honor or his concern, but those very things drive him to be ruthless. In battle, Shaka lives up the legends of ferocity which follow Luokan warriors. Defense is not exactly his strong suit, but he has high skill, speed and strength with which to obliterate his enemies. His class, the Warrior Prince, wields spears in battle, and does so very effectively. Like the Impi classes, Shaka has move movement than a typical foot unit and is less hindered by poor terrain. His unique weapon, the Iklwa, is also quite powerful, being a strong yet accurate 1-2 range weapon. Shaka promotes into the Warlord class, which gives him a rather hefty crit boost, though no extra weapon types. [spoiler=Angan] Class: Inyanga Affinity: Light Jamaka's other son, of whom he is less proud. While Shaka was raised from youth to be a warrior and took remarkably well to it, Angan had a far more non-violent nature. That didn't necessarily mean he was tranquil, as he was and still is childish and prone to outbursts. He's rather timid, speaks little of his bloodline, and is often the doubter to his brothers actions. However, his naivety also helps Shaka maintain some humanity, for which the latter is secretly very grateful. Whether he's having a tantrum or shying away, Angan maintains concern for those around him, friend or foe. As a child, he often would fail military training, so his father instead put him with wise men and sages, who trained him in the ways of healing magic. Angan is interesting in that he's not only a very early healer, but one of the few magic users on the Luokan side. He sports better defense than his older brother, but his stats are average across the board, not particularly exceeding or failing at anything. His Inyanga class is basically the equivalent of priests or clerics, though, like Angan, are generally more balanced instead of trading defense for magic and resistance. [spoiler=Iswayo] Class: Impi Affinity: Thunder An accomplished general who has served under Jamaka since even before he began his conquest. When Shaka's training began, Jamaka selected Iswayo to be his mentor. Like his student, Iswayo is rather stern, though while Shaka is a more 'aggressive' sterm, Iswayo is more 'cold' stern. Though he certainly scowls and scorns, he's more in control of himself than Shaka is, and wisened by his years. It was when he was Shaka's age that he began fighting for Jamaka, and now that Shaka is in a similar scenario, Iswayo imparts what wisdom he can. He knows of but is not particularly well acquainted with Angan, though is all too familiar with Shaka's mannerisms. Despite their sometimes being at odds, Shaka has great respect for Iswayo. Iswayo is the Jeigan of the Luokan side, joining as the promoted form of the Inkwebane class, Impi. Rather unfittingly of the class, his strength lies in his defensive stats, HP, Defense, and Resistance. However, that means he's an actually resilient unit on the Luokan side of things, one who joins rather early, and supports Shaka with a matching affinity. The Impi class is generally an offensively inferior, defensively superior version of Shaka's warlord with a lower crit boost, though Iswayo is unlikely to hit it's high strength, speed or skill caps. As one might garner from that list, this would be a setting quite unlike your typical Fire Emblem, with two very distinct sides. Luoka is based off of South Africa, primarily the Zulus. Amaar is based off of the Muslim world in general, from Morocco to Egypt, Turkey, former Persia, and with a little India as well, though primarily Arabia. Each side has a very different set of units and classes available. Amaar is closest to your standard Fire Emblem game, though with drastic reskins. Most notably, Cavaliers and Paladins are replaced by Camel Riders and Mamluks. Like in FE9, there's one Camel Rider who uses each physical weapon type, and they pick one more upon promotion. Their iron, steel and silver swords are scimitars instead of straight blades. Most users of magic are found on the Amaar side, though their use of Dark Magic is rather limited. This is because in Amaar, dark magic is seen as some sort of evil force, and has numerous negative superstitions and connotations. Luoka, however, sees dark magic as a weapon, and thus there are more characters who use it on that side. Despite the familiar presence of shamans and the occasional unit on a horse, Luoka is most distinct from typical Fire Emblem in the stats its units have. Notably, while the Camel Rider is the most common unit among Amaar, the most common unit for Luoka is the Inkwebane, a unit best put as a spear wielding myrmidons with additional movement. The promotion of Inkwebanes is Impis, who gain a deadly crit boost similar to Swordmasters. Instead of clerics, they get Inyangas. Both shamans and inyangas upgrade into sangomas, units capable of using both healing and dark magic. Units on horses are found in Luoka, whereas the camel is prefered in Amaar. Horses are native to certain plains in the country, but were never particularly popular and have grown even less common due to the drought. In general, Luoka is the 'hard' mode of the game, where the player is given fewer resources and must work with what options they have, while Amaar is the more 'normal' mode, granting more freedom and variety with which to tackle challenges. Now, this idea is not yet fully baked, of course. There's not a complete class list yet, nor are certain aspects of Fire Emblem accounted for. I don't know how Pegasi or Wyverns will factor into this world, and I don't even know if Armors would be in the game at all. The eight characters above are the only ones I have so far, and I haven't settled on skills yet. However, I figured I did have enough information here to at least post the idea, and see what you all think. And yes, the inspiration totally flows, which is why the Zulu character is named Shaka, he has an Iklwa, and his mentor is named Iswayo. Completely unlike Shaka Zulu, inventor of the Iklwa and refiner of tactics created by Dingiswayo.