Ascension Isle: Nation Creation

Nation Creation

The basic power of your nation is defined by three categories, Production, Traits and Territory.

Production

In Ascension Isle Production mainly rates a nations ability to produce and maintain military goods. Production is a mix of industry which is located in cities, and resource extraction which is based out in your country’s rural lands.

Production is used both as a measure of how many military units you can buy every month, as well as how many you can support. The more units you are supporting with Upkeep, the less Production you have free for building more new units. Each point of Production is composed of ten points of Upkeep. So for every ten points of Upkeep used, you lose one point of Production. This penalty only kicks in every ten points, so having five or nine points of Upkeep does not reduced Production. The penalty also is only factored in once a unit is actually built and in the field. Units that a nation declares it is building at the start of the month do not have any Upkeep for that month.

Nations on Jibril start with 100 Production points

Nations on Heylel start with 75 Production points

Nations on Rafaela or Mikaela start with 50 Production points

Resistance Fronts start with 25 Production points

Dero Client nations start with 125 Production points, unless specified otherwise in Defining Traits.

Any nation may reassign up to 25 points from Production to Traits and/or Territory.

Traits

Trait points allow you to buy traits for your nation. Defining Traits are free, however there are many additional traits a nation may take to enhance certain areas of their nation, or to provide them with rewards for performing particular in-game actions or completing certain goals.

Nations on Jibril start with 25 Trait points

Nations on Heylel start with 50 Trait points

Nations on Rafaela or Mikaela start with 25 Trait points

Resistance Fronts start with 25 Trait points

Dero Client nations start with 25 Trait points, unless specified otherwise in Defining Traits.

Any nation or resistance front may reassign up to 20 points from Traits to Production and/or Territory.

Territory

Territory determines the size and shape of your nation on the map. It is used to buy cities and hexes.

Cities come in three sizes. The larger a city, the more Production you can potentially put inside it, and the more battles an enemy has to win to take it. A small city costs one Territory point, has one defensive zone, and can hold up to 10 Production. A large city costs two Territory points, has three defensive zones, and can hold up to 25 Production. A metropolis costs three Territory points, has five (or more in some special cases) defensive zones, and can hold an unlimited amount of Production.

Every nation must have at least one city, to be designated as their capital, unless they have a trait that allows otherwise.

Hexes are paid for with Territory points. The first ten Territory points spent on hexes buys one hex for every Territory point spent. After the first ten Territory points are spent in this manner, each additional Territory point buys two hexes.

Nations on Jibril start with 25 Territory points

Nations on Heylel start with 25 Territory points

Nations on Rafaela or Mikaela start with 50 Territory points

Resistance Fronts do not start with Territory points

Dero Client nations start with 25 Territory points, unless specified otherwise in Defining Traits.

Any nation may reassign up to 20 points from Territory to Traits and/or Production.

Once you have purchased your Territory, you must assign your Production to it. It is important that your nation have enough Territory to actual use its Production. After purchasing your cities and hexes, tally the production value of the various hexes. Grassland, Jungle and Forest hexes produce one point of Production. Field and Coastal hexes produce two points of Production. Desert, Swamp and Mountain hexes produce no Production. After you have assigned as much Production as possible to hexes, the remainder must be assigned to your cities. Record how much Production is contained by each city. Finally, the last 25 points of your Production are “floating” production, encompassed by the national will of your people. So long as your nation is not completely defeated, you will always have access to these points.

If you do not have enough Territory to assign all your Production the excess Production is lost (so don’t do that). On the other hand, if you do not have enough Production to assign to all your hexes, your land is considered undeveloped. The excess hexes are marked and are identical to annexed territory. These undeveloped hexes must be placed at the borders of your nation. Over the course of the game you can try and develop undeveloped hexes to expand the Production of your nations.

Demographics

Demographics describe the internal makeup of your nation’s people. The two main Demograpic stats are Religion and Racial mix.

On Jibril the Religion defining trait also determines your state religion and the religion of the overwhelming majority of your nation, unless you specifically take traits to change this. If you do not, at least 80% of your people follow the state religion. The remaining 20% can also follow the state religion, or a mix of any other religions in the game, of your choice.

On Jibril the majority of people are human, with other races an oppressed minority, if present at all. The main oppressed minorities are minotaurs, elfen alfar and mutant halfmen. At least 80% of your people must be human, unless you take a trait that specifies otherwise. Within that human demographic you can specify particular ethnicities of your choice - or within the non-human demographic for that matter.

On Heylel the Religion defining trait only determines the religious orientation of your religious characters. The people can follow the same religion, or any other you choose to name. At least 10% of your nation must follow the Religion of your defining trait, but the other 90% can be any faith you choose.

On Heylel races can be nearly as intermixed as religion. At least 10% of your people must be of one particular racial group, but the rest can be any mix you choose. Some examples of races present on Heylel include humans, ogres (and their troll cousins), lamia, alfar, fey, nekomi and wulfen.

On Rafaela and Mikaela the Religion defining trait determines your state religion, and the most powerful religious group, unless you specifically take traits to change this. If you do not, at least 50% of your people follow the state religion. The remaining 50% can also follow the state religion, or a mix of any other religions in the game, of your choice. Resistance Fronts can choose any religious breakdown they like, with the Religion defining trait only determining the leaning of the Front’s religious characters.

On Rafeala and Mikaela nations were kept alive during the long years of Chosen persecution by banding together as family groups. As a result, although all states have an inevitable mix of racial groups, most are formed around one particular race. Unless you take a trait to indicate otherwise, at least 50% of your people must be of one racial group, and at least 25% must be of a separate group or mix of groups. Rafaela and Mikaela have even more racial variety than Heylel, particularly with the addition of a number of Chosen-created slave races. Resistance Fronts can choose any racial makeup they like.

Ethnicities

As an option, you can subdivide the racial groups of your nation into particular ethnicities. You can base these on real-life ethnic groups, mix and match, or create your own out of whole cloth. It is recommended, though not required to co-ordinate this with other players. The Cataclysm split the world, and then the further actions of the Chosen scattered many groups to the winds, so two nations with the same ethnicity could easily be separated a world apart. Even so, the groups may still have some distant common history, whether they remember it or not.

As a note, the Jibrilites recognize twelve ancestral “tribes” of humans as laid out in the Codex, and named after their accepted Matriarchs and Patriarchs. These tribes match up to the modern Northern European, Southern European, Eurasian, Middle Eastern, East African, West African, Central Asian, East Asian, South Asian, Native North American, Mesoamerican, and Polynesian ethnicities. As a note, the deeply heretical Empyrean Morning Star faith of Heylel adds a thirteenth tribe to those of the Codex, although this tribe is not based on any specific ethnicity.

[To Players: Feel free to come up with the names for the twelve “Tribes of Man” as recognized by the Codex.]