Ayleid: Social Structure Discussion

[ZackG]

Obviously at the bottom we have slaves. At the top some sort of royal heirarchy. Our cities are going to be mostly underground and this is strange for a group of people who find such beauty and reverence for light.

The answer, I propose, to dealing with this is that light was a gift. A blessing, even, straight from the Gods. Those who were of higher social standing could walk among and bask in the ligh because they were selected by the Gods to be worthy of the light, but the farther down you go in the social structure, the less worthy you were. The Ayleids built their cities underground so that they wouldnt offend the Gods.

this doesnt mean that the Ayleids didnt venture out during the day or anything, on the contrary. Ayleids preferred to bait their opponents in war in the early hours of the day so that when battle came the sun was shining. Ayleids fought their battles during the day, hunted during the day all hoping to receive the blessing from the light. Ayleid peasants and simple soldiers believed they were twice as strong and fought more bravely whenever they fought in the sun or were bodyguards for their aristocrat masters when they roamed Nirn. This sense of strength turned to an arrogant pride, where the Alyleids felt undefeatable in the sun and stacked their defenses poorly and outnumbered.

Summary, Ayleids longed to spend their time in the sun and basked in it when they could. They didnt want to overstep their bounds however so they built their cities where the natural light could not reach as to not offend the Gods.

[SamirA]

Well really their cities are underground due to the passage of time not any need to stay away from the light gift. It happens naturally this way. There are entire ancient cities buried underneath modern ones, it's just the way of things.

[ZackG]

Im not sure if the Ayleid Ruins are supposed to be the type of ruins where sediment just naturally grew over them...

[Tarius]

Their cities are not old enough to be buried completely. Mabe partially, but definitly not completely. I think that the light thing is interesting, but where exactly does this put the farmers? They are required to be out during the day to grow food, doesnt this mean that the slaves would be out working the fields?

[SamirA]

Their cities have been abandoned for 4000 years by our time. That is more than enough to completely bury the ruins. Easily and completely. If you want to come up with some reason other than natural time which is more than sufficient then by all means do. I was merely attempting to get you to not waste creative industry on something that doesn't need to be thought out beyond "this stuff is 4000 years old, being buried makes sense".

[alex25]

Their cities are not old enough to be buried completely. Mabe partially, but definitly not completely. I think that the light thing is interesting, but where exactly does this put the farmers? They are required to be out during the day to grow food, doesnt this mean that the slaves would be out working the fields?

It would be quite logical that the farming areas would be outside of the city and the slaves would be brought there every day. Also the farms, barns and such are gone since they were a lot less sturdy and only the important fortified cities remain.

[ZackG]

Yeah, I guess 4000 years is good enough time lol. The only thing is the buried route kind of means we'd only be able to access hallways and individual rooms, not really wide open caverns where you see the buildings indiviually. No?

[SamirA]

Not really, plus we could just mention that these places are magical. That allows for all sorts of things haha.

[ZackG]

Haha well I dont want to use magic as our crutch though..

[alex25]

some of the ruins could become unearthed by earthquakes and such. Others can be magicaly preserved. Heaving all ruins with wide open caverns would be unrealistic so there could only be 6-8 open cavern ruins for the entire project.

[SamirA]

Yeah I agree there shouldn't be that many well preserved sites with the majority being the more dungeony type. The few caverns should be truly spectacular to behold and be reason enough to keep players coming back for more even without all the other ridiculously awesome things we will show.

[Tarius]

Yeah I agree there shouldn't be that many well preserved sites with the majority being the more dungeony type. The few caverns should be truly spectacular to behold and be reason enough to keep players coming back for more even without all the other ridiculously awesome things we will show.

I can already think of how something like that would look; seeing as how one of the games I played for a while took place completely inside a cave system. I suppose I should finish those 2 plants that are needed, then I will finish off that interior/exterior showcase just so can work on something like this.

[SamirA]

Sounds good Tarius!