This is the background of the Easter Island stuff telling the story
of how
things came to be the way they are found by the players at the start.
I shan't go into the whole Homo Sapiens vs. Neanderthals bit and will
similarly skip over the Neolithic Revolution and take up with a brief
description picking up around the year 1 CE.
Population growth between 200 BCE and 400 CE was spurred by Roman
technological development, mainly in agriculture and hygiene, and by
the
Roman Warm Period.
This and the requirements of the Roman slave economy helped drive
Roman
expansion into Britain.
By 410 CE Rome had withdrawn from the region trying to defend
against her
eventual fall, and the Dark Ages Cold Period reduced crop yields
considerably resulting in a period of migration and invasion
throughout
Europe.
Also at the time the Christian church, aka Wizards Guild, is
involved in
pushing out the older Celtic Pagan Wizards Guild.
This brings us to about 500 CE which is when I've set the Goblin
port in
north England.
The result of the whole Goblin thing on this time-line was to force
many
Briton-Pagans, aka Goblins, north with many eventually moving across
the
North Sea into the coastal Skagerrak region over time.
Over the next century or two these peoples became assimilated into the
culture of the region and as pressure from a growing population
occurring
during the Medieval Warm Period and the Christian Guilds continued
expansion increased many of these Pagans move steadily west.
At this point the time-line is into the tenth century and I start to
get
pretty speculative.
I have these guys establishing several colonies well into the Americas
including a major settlement in Rode Island centered around the old
tower
in Newport.
No I don't think the tower was built by vikingr's but there is
tradition
behind the view and the Narragansetts were described as taller than
the
average European sailor with fair skinned, and wavy hair and beards
and
this tribe did not suffer from European diseases with the arrival of
the
English as some others in the area did.
Other tribes in the area like the Quinnipiac and the Beothuk have
similar
connections and the Mohawk Turtle clan describe North America as
Turtle
Island which has a giant cedar tree growing in the center of it that
connects the under, middle, and upper worlds together.
In the Sagas both Helluland and Markland are mentioned as being
encountered
before reaching what is generally acknowledged to be the location of
L'Anse
Aux Meadows.
In the Saga of Erik the Red an expedition is taken west that winters
in
L'Anse.
When spring arrived one group wanted to sail along the eastern coast
of
Newfoundland while the others were keen to continue west and south in
search of Vinland.
So I'm plopping Vinland squarely on Aquidneck Island near the pretty
little
harbor Coddington spotted some three quarters of a millennia later.
This gets me to the period of King Olaf and some real headway for the
Christian Wizards.
After his north Atlantic crossing without stopping in Iceland Leif
Erikson
came to the attention of Olaf and became a member of the Kings
bodyguard.
He was then tasked with bringing the Christian Guild to Greenland.
This is right around 1000 CE.
It's at this point that some of the more astute Pagans read the
proverbial
writing on the wall and organize a movement south.
The general rule of thumb for longship navigation allows for roughly
75
miles covered per 12 hours of sailing.
This allows about 1000 miles per month of sailing as a basic estimate.
Theoretically I could get them to the coast of central Peru in a years
travel but I stretch it out awhile with some prolonged stops along
the way
inspiring legends of bearded white skinned gods often associated
with the
wind, healing, and teaching among the skraeling tribes encountered
along
the way.
Still, by the early twelfth century I have a small band of Vikingrs
arriving in Peru stomping about the virgin coastal forests for trees
suitable to construct longships.
At this point in the time-line the Samoans' are beginning their push
into
Polynesia.
Before the end of the century Easter Island is discovered and
settled by
the early Polynesians.
Play starts with the fourth generation after the Polynesian
settlement of
Rapa Nui around the start of the fourteenth century.
In Northern Europe at this time the Atlantic pack ice has begun
advancing
and summers are becoming undependable (see the Great Famine of 1315
1317)
causing the far-flung western Viking settlements to become more
isolated
than they already were.
Both groups have a relative period of calm in which to grow but by the
early 1400's Rapa Nui is beginning to have conflicts over dwindling
resources while the Viking colony is starting to get considerable
pressure
from the Inca whom have consolidated Cuzco and Lake Titicaca in the
mountains and are turning their attention to the coast.
Further ahead on the time-line the Conquistadors are scheduled to
arrive in
the mid-1500's.
European explorers start appearing in the mid-1600's with mass-
holes from
Nantucket whalers showing up regularly in the area about a century
later.
If a player manages to have the foresight to focus on getting the
heck off
of Easter Island before the wars for resources kick into high gear
then the
whole thing can get pretty interesting as in the old Chinese curse
may you
live in interesting times, elseif from the pov of 'generational
turns' the
whole place is something of a trap.
And, of course, the presentation of the whole thing as a tutorial or
example is a bit of a trap too actually now that I think about it
but I
have to start with something and putting the desert island in situ
goes a
long way in helping to show some of the things I'm trying to focus on.
As I'm based on Terra I can use a LOT more objective material to
give an
example than poor Mr. Jackson could do with Cidri as an example
environment.
Everybody can see maps of Rapa Nui even Google Earth the place, while
Cidri not so much.
I think Cidri does what it was meant to do well, namely inspiring
imagination.
Hell, I'm an old man now and I still haven't quit it.
Still, I find that using Earth saves me a whole lot of description and
helps to focus the groups collective imaginations more clearly than
Cidri
does.
Now tying races to all of this is a neat lil' problem.
From a Roman pov I'm calling the Vikings (Viking is a verb not a
people) Goblins, at least in part and Pagans to boot.
Pretty much any native seemed to be a skraeling to them.
Yet players are native islanders' so they would be? Orcs' to the?
Half-Goblins'? Goblins?
Also, seeing as I've Quetzalcoatl'ed the Vikings I'm gonna have
some of
their slave practices rub off on the Inca as well.
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