Medieval discussion

So here is the official thread for jump starting or medieval AU. Feel free to discuss anything relivant to this AU from plots to pairings.

So what would you like to see in this setting?
It is already canon there are dragons....so are there other magical creatures? (And magic users in general)
-Would you like this AU more Historical or more magical?
-Different races like Elves, humans and mermaids?
-Want it to be more like a LOTR style AU? Or maybe based of Arthurian style legends...


In short, what would you like to see in this AU?

This is what I'd like to know. Is magic in this or not?

It currently gives the impression that it's just set in the time period and nothing is special about it. And I remember when I joined there was discussion about making a "Fantasy" AU, so it just seemed to me like there wasn't a verse already like this.

Also when it said dragons and mages were involved, I kind of just took it to mean that because people in the time period believed that, it was real to them. Not that they actually existed. Especially because playing a dragon would be difficult

Personally, I don't think we should be adding that many fantasy elements that it overshadows the historical part of the AU. After all, it's called The Medieval Kingdom, so there's an expected historical element to it. Some small elements of magic might be okay though. Like having a mage that can perform some magic, a prayer to God/whatever deity actually have some obvious affect on the spot (such as immediately changing the weather if people prayed for rain), etc. Kind of along the lines of "if it's a common belief of that time period, it can be played straight".

I mean we don't want someone deciding to be a guitar wielding gadget geek hero with the added power of time travel. While fitting for a fantasy setting, it doesn't exactly scream "medieval" XD

I agree with Francis. We've kind of made it more of a type historical AU. Although I don't see why we can't have druids, witches, or mages that performed magic like Francis mentioned that are apart of what people believed at the time or practiced.

Maybe we could make a Lord of the Rings or Skyrim type AU to have a more fantasy based world to create havoc in.

Well lovelies, I know we've had this discussion before (eons ago) and the verdict then was either a complete redo or a separate AU. Since we do have plots for a more historical Medieval AU right now, let's just modify the one we have to reflect that. I agree...there's no reason why magic/charms/druids...aka, beliefs of the time...can't exist. In fact, it's an element that could make the RP really interesting, so I encourage you to look into it ^_^

We can always make more AUs later (and it'll be much easier once we're not working on like, three or four at once while trying to stay ahead of the RPers XD).

And I know there are those of us who are always coming up with epic ideas *coughGilFrancecough* for new worlds or concepts for us to play with, so feel free to start suggestion threads to see what others think. Potential new AU interest threads are always positive ^_^

So a question about the time period. Roughly where in the medieval period is this? Early, mid or late?

It's a bit important to consider since the period was about a thousand years. And their views varied vastly. For example, the early part of the period was pretty laid back on things such as sex and nudity (it was practically a requirement in some situations). But in the late part of the period the church was gaining a lot of control and laws were stricter. We do need a bit of a rough idea of how strict typical laws are and how much characters can get away with if they break social norms.

I only bring this up because some characters already are breaking typical social norms at the time. So how much they need to fear for their life would actually be important to them.

I will put more of my thoughts on this from what I know of the period when I'm not as tired.

Well, to be honest we hadn't decided on it. Why? Because the old 'Medieval' board was supposed to be fictional, but seemingly with a sort of 'Medieval' feel to it (knights, princesses, quests...you know). So no, not much thought has gone into the 'new' setting, because it's taken us awhile to agree that we want it to be historical versus fictional.

We also then need to look at what's going on at the moment and decide what's best. As far as location, it has moved from being in England (since old Arthur left) to being in France, so that has changed what's going on too.

I think there are still bits we need to agree on in general, but we honestly just haven't gotten there plot-wise (or AU reform wise), so bear with us <3

So having my ideas all organised now, this is what I got for setting.

I have thought of the kingdom being set in its own "kingdom" that isn't specifically in any country. My reasons for this are:
- whenever we have a change in the ruling king (like we do now with Francis taking over since old Arthur left) it won't affect the setting. So we don't have to uproot the place from England to France, or whatever country next if say I decide to leave or stop roleplaying as France for some reason.
- there were some concerns about some of the more recent nations (i.e. America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc.) not being able to join because their countries wouldn't exist amoung some old members. If the place is not set in any particular country then they'll always have the option of being born in the kingdom and not having to work around their hertitage being changed because their countries weren't around then.
- some of us may want to have some customs typical of the time period to make it more legit, but different countries did have different customs. For example, in Italy nobles wore rings beacause when you greet them you'd have to kiss the ring if they were of higher rank than you, but in England you would put your hand on top of theirs and kiss your own hand instead - unless it was the king where you're expected to kiss his hand directly regardless if he was wearing a ring or not. Normally we'd have to choose which one was "correct" if this was ever mentioned, but without setting it in any one country, both would still be "legit" as long as you explain in your post the significance of it.

I did think of a sort of history for this kingdom too, in a way to explain the amount of different cultures living in once place, which is a rare thing for this time period. The kingdom would be on the mainland (not pointing to whether it's in Europe, Asia or between them). It was once just a sparse of land unclaimed as no other kingdom found a use for it. It sat between too many boarders that the risk of claiming it wasn't worth the time of starting a war for it for some extra farmland. Because of how many other kingdoms boardered this area, a lot of travelling merchants would have to pass this route, leading to some building a few taverns here for merchants to pay for a rest stop. Eventually word got about of this "rest stop" place that many merchants would intentionally travel in a route that would make them pass this place so that they can rest in a proper tavern. Many saw this as a business opportunity so moved there to put up more taverns or even stores of their own, until this become a large town of sorts. By this time, many lords saw value in this place for the high economy they were building for themselves so a few from different countries went in quick to buy a porition of the land, while others took a more violent approach and warred over who would become king of this land untill eventually only one stood and took over. The kingdom still does well with money because there are still travelling merchants that need to enter to avoid sleeping out in the forests, but the royalty is unstable - you can't have so many different cultures living in one place without some of them them complaining about who the current king is by just judging on his hertitage.

Because of the very long history I wrote up, we can assume the language is "common" (or once we come up with a place for the kingdom, it'll be (Kingdom's Name)-nese/-ish/-ian). Of course everyone will know their own language of course, and since nobles are expected to know multiple languages, many of them will probably be taught the language of the royal family as well (in this case, French) unless the RPer doesn't want their noble-person character to know it because of reasons.

Okay that is looong enough as it is, but I will stop it there XD

I think with old Arthur here, they just decided to put it in England...though to be honest with the whole princesses/quests/magicalish feel to it it didn't seem like it was in England either. But my arrival happened between the time the board kinda died and the decision happened to make it less magic, more historic.

However, if we put it in a fictional place, we'd have to move it out of Forgotten times...at least, from what my muddled brain is gathering from your descriptions. That's not an issue in my opinion, but it is something we have to consider if we're doing that as a setting.

(I'll comment more...when I don't have to go to bed ^^; )

Okay, we've already spoken about it but just posting here for anyone else to see. I was thinking how Smooth Criminal uesd to be in the Forgotten Times before re-arrangment. Somewhere in the "real world" but the namce of the place is made-up so we don't have to be specific on where in the real world we are.