Sunday 8 August 2010

Q&A part 1 - Aquila

First of a few posts documenting the background stuff discussed in London. Add any extra questions or corrections into the comments.


Aquila
How do you spell it?
single L (plagiarised from LadyHawke. This sickens me. Utterly.)

How old is Aquilla?
21010 years since founding (see the revised timeline)

When did it fall?
7000 years ago

What does it look like?
Walled City (single wall), Citadel with stone of farewell protruding over the walls. White Stone walls, always cleaned. There are three major towers, not including the tower of shadows, this was, in someway hidden (within the cathedral?) but is now open to normal sight. Towers are Moon, Sky and Sun. Rivers runs past it, with water gates. Originally there were broad travel ways with large marble buildings etc. At present though, the entire city is in a process of renovation, the only thing that has definitely been kept are the remains of the cathedral (as a reminder for our hubris) and a Human church that we have kept as a memorial to our allies.
Currently it is a mix of timber/stone framed buildings but there is extensive sithi use of canvas lodges within the city. Areas around the temples are being renovated according to the aspects of the gods.

How big is it?
2.5 miles by 1.5 miles, approximately elliptical. Significant vertical variation and extensive layers of city underground (as developed by drou and deep).

How many people live there?
2500 Aditu in Aquila (approx 500 Aditu still in Jao). Frequent visits from other elvesas and when they choose. at certain holy period this may double with members of other houses.

What's the deal with Ulunat?
Ulunat and other areas have sworn fealty to Aquila and provide a tribute to the city in the form of foodstuffs. the reconstruction is largely being paid for by the sale of the vaulables and spoils of war found in Aquila. The city is net importer of produce and aggregates.
Ulunat is spread around on the mainland outside. Populated by humans who have not left the area.

How is it viewed by the other houses?
Other houses have changed their tune from seeing it as the precipice of a genocidal war to becoming almost the equal of Jao and being a symbol elven greatness again. it is now recgonised as a great achievement by Aditu, and the right thing to have done. It is now a site of pilgrimage for elves from all houses (except L'retel).

Who are the bronze guard?
They are the Gaetasae who are asigned to the defence of aquila.

5 comments:

  1. Aquila: see also
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquila

    ReplyDelete
  2. Just quickly on the Aquila. I was under the impression there was an inner and outer city, with outer being where sudho-ya are allowed. Is this just, in fact Ultunat, a sprawling shanty type town completly seperate form Aquila itself?

    Also, geographical size of Aquila seems pretty large for those numbers. For instance Anglo-Saxon Norwich was about half that size and had twice as many people. I knwo it is not hugely importnat but I don't we could man the walls even with full mobilistion of all abled bodied, hunter trained sithi (almost our full pop).

    Finally this brings me to a even more minor thing, overall numbers. I think John quoted me 4,000 total after the meeting, rather than the 3,000 up here?

    ReplyDelete
  3. On the size of the city point - it's size is not defined by who we are now (and our relative numbers) but who we were before. Ie it was the capital of a sprawling empire. Even then it would be quite empty when compared to a human settlement as more area would be given over to temples, boulivards, vast squares etc.

    You point about not being able to man the walls is an interesting one though. Should we either:
    a) accept it. That's why we need allies. We'd also need to call upon the other houses if the city were beseiged. We'd need to be aggressive in thwarting enemies before they can reach the wall. Nipping issues in the bud etc (maybe to the extent of assassinating a rising star in a human tribe to stop him ever becoming a mightly general etc).
    b) Claim that the Sithi part of Aquila is now what was the inner city before (the royal part really with the stone, the gardens, the grandest temples etc). The outer city is most gone (torn down for materials as no human king who placed himself on Aquila's throne could ever need/hope to hold the entire old city and therfore only kept the inner city whole). These are now regarded as sacred grounds by the Sithi and only the buildings of ulunat (and even then in a restricted area on one side of the city) are allowed. Otherwise the outer city is overgrown turning into forest.

    I actually like both ideas so maybe we can find a happy middle ground?

    Numbers: It the notes say 3 and I quoted 4, the notes will be right not me. That was the point of the notes after all. We're only talking vague numbers anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yep, city size was deliberately large. About the size of the city of london when walled. I think Llofan's arguments are coherent here.

    ReplyDelete
  5. WHich one of 'a' or 'b' do people vote for?

    ReplyDelete