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 CaptainLoken wrote:

Where are the "Sea Elves"?.

They're on the wall. They hold the books up.

The Mantica app has a lot of one- or two- paragraph summaries of the inhabitants/conditions of various realms in Mantica. It's a fun, albeit not-particularly deep, little time-waster if you're into fluff.

 CaptainLoken wrote:
So, now that the 2nd book is out there, can anyone elaborate on the fluff a little bit? Like, where is everyone at? I get that the demons are in the Abyss, and the Orks and Goblins are from the north, but not much else.

Where are the "Sea Elves"? Do they sail around in ships, attacking evil alone the coast? Do they take archers with them, or just Seaguard? That kind of thing.

Any information would be great until my book arrives.

The Sea Elves live on the Brokenwall Islands, and also man the walls around the city of Walldeep, plus yes, they sail around in ships a lot. Where the rest of the Elves are is pretty self explanatory (north, south, east etc), except for the Dragon Kindred who live in the Alandar Mountains, Sylvan Kindred who live in Galahir, the Ice Elves who live in the Bitter Lands, and the Northern Alliance Kindred who live in the Winterlands north of the Mammoth Steppes. The Twilight Glades are what remains of the old forest, and act as the capital and meeting place for all elves, including representatives from the cold hearted ice elves, and the twilight kindred.

Northern Kindred are pretty standard high elves, Southern Kindred are desert elves, Eastern Kindred are Drakon riders, Sylvan Kindred are wood elves, the rest have it in the name

Twilight Kindred are in the entrance to the underworld, east of the eastern reaches and the eastern kindred.

The Dwarven Kingdom stretches from the southern watchline up to Abercarr, and the free dwarves live in the Halpi mountains, with the great cataract acting as an impassable buffer zone between the cold warring states.

Abyssal Dwarves are north of them in Tragar.

Ogres are on the Mammoth Steppes. Both surviving human states and newly founded Elven cities and settlements dot the Successor Kingdoms area and the Ardovikian Plain. Ophidia is where Ophidia is, they have a brief mention as an ancient kingdom but are gonna be in the expansion. Undead are wherever a necromancer needs them to be at a given point in time, though necromancy originally hails from Ophidia.

Basilea is in the City of the Golden Horn, though the island of Keretia has an anti-pope thing going on, claiming that they are the descendants of the last high consuls of primovantor and therefore their successors, and not Basilea.

I'd like to hear more about the desert elves. That sounds like a possibly interesting departure from the usual elf fare.

The two brief sections, from the fluff in the front, and from the fluff in their army list, about them are:

The Ophidian desert has already swallowed
most of the lands of the Southern Kindreds,
leaving but a few scattered cities alone in
the sand, whose hinterlands, preserved
by magic, are eaten away yard by yard as
time marches on. These elves are hardy
and stubborn, and their staunch defence of
their ancestral territory has become legend
among Elvenkind.

Proud and haughty, the Southern Kindred
defy the moving desert with magic and,
when that fails, sheer stubbornness. Most
of their cities are wind-blasted ruins,
but the Elves remain in their tall towers,
standing sentinel over the unending
southern wastes. Much ancient lore is said
to lie in the great libraries of the Southern
Kindred, though their isolated realm has
made the Elves there insular and unwilling
to share their knowledge.

I personally picture them as being a lot of spearmen phalanxes supported by palace guard and powerful mages, with maybe a sand dragon, or cavalry riding camels, etc, all done up in desert colours and sandy bases.

The Eastern Kindred are also a desert people, but instead of spears and magic, they're about nomadic blades and drakon riders, so to me that means lots of gladestalkers, not-sea guard and drakon riders, but with more of a Berber bright colours feel to the scheme

Where the mountains of Elvenholme
meet the plains, the Elves of the Eastern
Kindreds make their homes. In ages past,
living among the rich life of the savannah
gave these nomads an adventurousness
of spirit and joy of being that made them
renowned worldwide. But those days are
done, replaced by dark times.
The savannah has been all but swallowed
by the ever-expanding Ophidian Desert to
the east, and the great beasts and Drakons
that once roamed there are almost gone.
Some of the Eastern Kindred have managed
to retain fearsome Drakons, which they use
as monstrous steeds in time of war. Though
their numbers are few, and dwindling still,
the strange symbiosis of Elf and Drakon is
a sight to be feared in battle.

These Elves were once renowned as the
most carefree of all. In their silk-covered
wagons they roamed the savannahs of the
east, making camp under the stars. The
most talented musicians and poets were
said to be of the Eastern Kindred, quickwitted
and mirthful. Now they are a dour
people, victims of the encroaching desert
and the depredations of the Twilight
Kindred, they are better known for
bladecraft than poetry. The Drakon riders
are their greatest warriors.

Thanks! That's a lot more info than I expected. A bit of a mixed bag, I think I like the depiction of the eastern kindred as they "used to be" more than the whole grim and dour thing, but that's me. Either way, a lot of opportunity for some uniquely themed armies.

Yeah that's the idea with most of the fluff, enough to be interesting and point your imagination in the right direction, but not enough to be constricting or limiting.

Do you have the stuff for the Ice Elves? That kinda captures my interest, usually the elves are too wussy to go building their settlements amidst the frozen tundra. This could be interesting.

The last lands before the Great Ocean, the
Bitter Lands are a windswept, miserable
place far to the Northwest. Savage seas
surround them. They are cloaked in snow
for six months of the year, lashed with
freezing rains the rest. Ice smothers their
northernmost reaches. In this inhospitable
place the outcast Elven King Tyris Valellion
makes his home. For two thousand years he
and his clan have dwelt there, far from the
light of Elvenholme, slowly transforming
into a unique kindred in their own right –
the Ice Elves.
They lived here even when Winter was
at her height, surviving by taking her
magic and turning it against her. The
inhabitants of the Bitter Lands are pale
and wan, their skin cold to the touch.
They are masters of Ice Lore, and can
summon up blizzards or storms of sharpbladed
hail on a whim.
A blade of ice a league across thrusts
down from the far north, barring the
land bridge that joins the Bitter Lands to
the continent. This is Tyris’ Gate. At his
command, it will pull back with a chill
groan fit to shatter the heavens. This
makes the Bitter Lands an unassailable
fortress. Should any enemy of the Elves
make it over the seas or the ice, then
they must deal with the ice-tipped spears
and implacable hostility of the island’s
inhabitants, and their terrible storms.

Inhabitants of the Bitter Lands, masters
of ice magic, the Ice Kindred are the most
enigmatic of all Elves, even more reclusive
and hostile to strangers than the Sylvan
Kindred. Followers of the renegade King
Tyris, they permit access to their lands
infrequently, and travel rarely to the courts
of the Twilight Glades and Walldeep. Of
late, travellers north of the Mammoth
Steppes have reported a court of Elves,
believed by many to be a faction of the Ice
Kindred. The Elves of Ileuthar know that
this is not the case, however, and reports
of a fledgling Kindred gathering strength
beyond the reach of Elevenholme has been
met with much consternation.

Not gonna paste everything mind you, don't want to fall foul of anything.

Map is here for anyone who doesn't have it

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EhAwnAv8P2o/VaDJbH31hxI/AAAAAAAABFk/zl0Q7DEh63c/s1600/Mantica-map.jpg

Are there any major engagements/wars going on at the moment?

Once 2nd is out to everybody they are planning on hitting "play" on the Mantica world. First is a Good vs Evil campaign open to all KoW players and the reported results will change the landscape in some way.

They have also left areas intentionally blank for the newest armies in playtest (Empire of dust)

Desert elves...anyone tempted to interpret "Elf on Great Worm" to mean sand worm and not flightless dragon? Because Freman elves just sounds so cool.

Yeah, I saw the video about the world wide campaign, and I am so excited about that.

I am just trying to get a feel for the world. I played my first game yesterday, after spending a month watching battle reports on Youtube, and I had a blast. I lost, and still had fun!

So, I am very excited about this game, just wanted to delve into the background...and I can't....yet....

Thanks NTRabbit, that is very intriguing, I was just about to start up building my elven force and wasn't sure how to go about with a paint scheme, I think I may have just found out my muse.

Loken, what is this video of which you speak regarding a world wide campaign? Are we talking something similar to the Storm of Chaos campaign GW did some 10+ years ago?

If so, does anyone know where we can get the details at?

 CaptainLoken wrote:
Are there any major engagements/wars going on at the moment?

Basilea is fighting a constant series of engagements against any and all Abyssal forces, trying to push them back into the hole.

The Free Dwarf state is pushing north to retake their northern holds from the Orks and Goblins that seized them during the war of winter, but not so far north that they are swayed by the nearby Abyss, as that's how the Abyssal Dwarves were created.

Basilea and the Imperial Dwarves have had a series of skirmishes over ground between them that was once shared, but is now contested, as the Shining Ones are apparently telling the Basileans the Dwarves are an enemy.

The Kingdoms of Men in the Successor Kingdoms and Ardovikia are in a constant state of flux as the small and medium ones wage wars against each other, dying, merging, growing, being absorbed, etc, and the new Elf and Dwarf cities in the area sometimes get dragged in as well.

The southern boundary of the Dwarf Empire is a literal fortress wall made out of bastion mountains, and it faces towards Ophidia

The Varangur are evil vikings, so presumably they raid up and down the coast.

The Ice and Sylvan kindreds aren't expanding, but they likewise kill anyone who enters their realms; what exactly the Northern Alliance Kindred are doing has not yet been written, but they are an ambitious and expanding state.

 Gromgor wrote:
Thanks NTRabbit, that is very intriguing, I was just about to start up building my elven force and wasn't sure how to go about with a paint scheme, I think I may have just found out my muse.

Loken, what is this video of which you speak regarding a world wide campaign? Are we talking something similar to the Storm of Chaos campaign GW did some 10+ years ago?

If so, does anyone know where we can get the details at?

np!

Storm of Chaos was before my time, but this is a campaign where you fight battles with your friends and clubs, submit the results, and then on the balance of the results the story moves forward, and the territory of the various nations expands or shrinks, changing the map as well.

Desert Elves...Freemen elves? That's a really cool idea!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTEiwcCfADw

Around 19:46 into the video. It's Ronnie talking live with Beasts of War. Ronnie talks about a world wide campaign, and it will be good versus evil. If evil wins, then a new Abyss will open. If good wins, then it is a new bastion against the darkness. The idea came from a KS conversation, and should be at the end of the year.

Ronnie specifically said that they will not blow up the world, but it will have an impact on the world of Mantica. So, no "oops, that outcome puts us in a corner, so nothing actually happened".

That is everything that I would've loved to see the old WH world do. Make a world where what the players do has an impact? That's rather epic, I must say.

Yes, this is the first I've heard about this, and it's actually exciting!

I know that the fluff about the Brotherhood, as well as the army list, is still in development, but does anyone have an idea of where they might be located?

I am a huge theme/narrative gamer, so it helps me put things in place when I know where they are.

For example, in Warhammer Fantasy, I had Bretonnians and Wood Elves, who fought against Orcs and Goblins, Undead, and Beastmen. They all fit together.

Same thing with my Ultramarines, who fight against Alaitoc Eldar, Word Bearers, Orks, and Tau. It's the Eastern Fringe.

I just love to put things in their fluffy places. I want to do this with Kings of War, but without any background information, it is tough to put everything in its place...

All I know is that Varangur are on the coast somewhere because they're evil vikings, haven't been able to figure out where, and probably won't until they do the book - the finalised lists are due to be done for the first draft submission to Mantic in 3.5 weeks, according to the RC guy in charge.

The Mantica map is pretty much another analogue to Europe and North Africa around the Mediterranean, so that leaves a pretty simple educated guess unless they decide to do a swerve. The Not-Tomb Kings homeland is right on the Nile Delta, though, so I'm not holding my breath too much.

Well the Bitter Lands belong to the Ice Kindred, so it'd have to be a spot underneath the big MANTICA scroll

Has anything been said about the Forsaken Isles? I think that would be a killer setting for Manticheim!

The brotherhood fluff mentions the foresaken isles.

Has it been decided where the Brotherhood will be located in Mantica?

Yes it has

A recent podcast myself and Greg did on the background of kow: http://ohiohammer.squarespace.com/counter-chargeccx/2015/10/27/cc-6-into-the-world-of-mantica

FANTASTIC!!!! Thanks!

Really great pod cast. I listened to it twice!

 NTRabbit wrote:
Well the Bitter Lands belong to the Ice Kindred, so it'd have to be a spot underneath the big MANTICA scroll

Man, no wonder the lands are bitter. I'd be bitter too with something like that hovering around, all blocking out the sun.