It's not much yet but here's the general idea:

4E16: A Huge Ebony Deposit is found deep underground, east of the Red Mountain. The Zainab lay claim to the ebony, as it was found in ther territory. The East Empire Company hears of the discovery, and immediately apply to the Elder Council for the deeds to the land. They are reffered to Duke Vedam Dren, who refuses their claim.

4E17: Duke Vedam Dren is assassinated, his killer never caught. His successor, Duke Reydin Zareth, takes his position. The East Empire Company requests the deeds once again, and the new Duke tells them "As long as the Zainab reside on that land, you will never see an ounce of that ebony."

Later that year, the East Empire Company employs a large Mercenary outfit, and their forces gather covertly around Zainab territory.

What you do: You will play as either an East Empire Company officer, one of their mercenaries, a Zainab ashlander, or a member of House Hlallu (the house of duke Reydin Zareth). You will fight or negotiate in your faction's interest, to make money, mine the ebony, keep your land, or keep the peace. Or betray your friends and undermine their goals. This is mostly a political/war RP, but feel free to develop your own subplots.

Rules

1. No ubering/character controlling.
2. No one- or two-liners.
3. Please use proper grammar.
4. Keep OOC to a minimum.
5. My word is law. Disobey and your mutilated corpse will be tossed into the Red Mountain.

Name - Zalphon Broodikus
Race - Dunmer
six - Male
Faction/Rank - Clan Zainab; Ashkhan
Age: 23

Eye Color - Red
Skin Color - Gray
Hair Color - Black
Hair Length - Down to his shoulders

Armor - Bonemold Armor (Nah-julan Helm)
Weapon - Ebony Longsword, Ebony Shield
Misc.: 500 gold, ten healing potions

Biography: Son of the Ashkhan, Zandros Broodikus, he quickly rose through the ranks. When he became Ashkhan he decided it would be best to use the ebony for his own clan. As an Ashkhan he is a brave warrior, yet he is young and somewhat naive. He views the words of the wise woman as the words of his ancestor, as he views the wise woman as ancestors who have come to assist the ashlanders...

You can have an ebony chesplate, gauntlets, weapon and shield. No boots, greaves, pauldrons, or full curiasses. Maybe a helm. The Zainab aren't extremely skilled smiths and it won't be the same or as strong as Imperial-made ebony armor.

Just remember this is also an idea thread. What I have posted up there is probably not the final product. And when I get a char sheet up, you'll probably have to add a few details. And that's only if we get enough people to join.

Meh, I will take Bonemold then. A full set if thats ok. Nah-Julan Helm

Yes they do have access to the Ebony, but the most they would likely have would be weapons, and maybe shields and trinkets. Maybe all they would have would be ebony speartips.
Saying they can have ebony armor because they have access to it, is like saying if you or i had access to gold, we could make a golden ring.

Chitin armor, with a few crude Ebony weapons would work. Unless the someone created a character that had smithing skills, that somehow got the Zainab to trust him.

I believe this could work great, but maybe fleshed out more and made in to sort of like.. how the Dutch tried to exploit India.

A full set of bonemould is fine. Feel free to take an ebony weapon or shield if you want.

I intend to flesh this out much more. I made this thread to discuss who would join and what improvement could be made or details added.

And I'm sure the Zainab would have a few skilled smiths; Ashlanders have had ebony all around them for hundreds of years.

Of course, i knew you would flesh it out quite a bit.
But the Zainab wouldn't really use the ebony much at all, it says it was just discovered.
A year isn't long enough to essentially learn how to smith, especially with no practical smithing tools, and no forge.
They might have tools, speartips, and a few very crude weapons. Even ebony arrowheads wouldn't be likely to be very common, due to the perfect balance required in an arrow.

Edit: Then why do most use Chitin?
I lessen most of my criticisms then.
Yes, maybe the Zainab has a few people who can work with it, but they are nomads, and have no forges. Besides, Ebony is possibly the strongest material in all of Tamriel, and it would be difficult to find tools to work with it.

Most of their Ebony items would be from contact with settlements, providing ebony to be made into a weapon. Glass would be a more common material used.

They had an ebony mine in Morrowind and that was 20 years ago...

Your point?

Yes, I see what you mean. Especially when you take into account that Ashlander tribes are Nomadic, and they would never stay in one place long enough to establish a forge.

I think I'll add the other ashlander tribes to the list of factions; they could help each other out quite a bit, and the Zainab would probably abandon their isolationist practices to save themselves.

But then it will lead to the roleplayers being spread too thin. and some of the other tribes territories are too far away.

Indeed. I'll wait a bit into the RP before allowing those factions to be played.

I really wound'nt see the need to hire mercenaries over ebony. The outfit of mercenaries will probably be half of the profits they find with the ebony. Plus, the mercs would take off with the ebony as soon as they got their hands on it.

And I don't know why they would have to hire mercenaries. If the Legion are Imperialists (like their name displays), then they own everything in that province.

However, I am not as good with Morrowind as I am Cyrodiil or Skyrim, so I could be mistaken. To me, it looks like a boring plot.

Sorry.

I believe the East Empire Company has an imperial charter to mine Vvardenfell for ebony. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Anyway I intend to make this both like how the Dutch exploited India (like W00tz said) and how the U.S. government drove out several Indian tribes, but ended up at war with the Apaches for several years.

Ashlanders would not likely have any equipment made from ebony. It takes incredibley hot flames to smelt ebony ore into the maleable form it would take to create items from it. Ashlanders themselves are somewhat primitive people. In Morrowind, even their ashkhans had only bonemold, at the best. Chiton seems to be the primary armor of the ashlanders...and most traditional dunmer, because of its light weight and adaquate protection. Ebony is very heavy, more suitable to Western knights and the tops of the House Dunmer rather than nomadic hunters who rely on speed.


The Empire does own all the ebony in Morrowind, in theory. However, a land grant still has to be made to mine it. The East Empire company, oddly, would probably not mine the ebony on their own, relying instead on one of the Houses to do it.


It goes further than that. EEC has exclusive right to it, unless they delegate that right to another power.

Thank you, Verlox. Ashlanders wouldn't be able to smelt ebony on their own. They could, maybe utilize the small foyadas in the region to make it hot enough to break or carve into spearheads or axe blades. And I think the EEC has done their own mining before, at Raven Rock. So while the Company has the exclusive right to mine, they need the land grant from the Duke.

That's Solstheim, though. Which is not apart of Morrowind. Remember the Armistice, and Caldera.

But you also gotta remember that the ashlanders aren't really recognized by the Empire, and are looked down upon by the House dunmer. I would regear the RP to have it say the Duke allowed the EEC in, but the Zainab are fighting back. Something like that.

My ashlander brethern, I would like to request one thing. You RP like I really am the Ashkhan, basically if you're a Zainab Ashlander, I am sort of like the big, bad, boss (don't worry, I won't be bossy too much, I just want to let you all know as Ashkhan I would like when I do command it, that you do obey )

Yeah, since Zalphon is Ashkhan, other Zainab have to obey him. But don't do stupid stuff like "Get me a glass of water!" or "Give me 50 pushups, NOW!"

And while the Empire does not officially recognize the Zainab, the Duke knows very well that the Zainab reside on that land. Being the benevolent Duke that he is, he doesn't want war with the Ashlanders and withholds the land grant. So the EEC will do everything covertly, much like some mercenary companies today have wiped out villages in Africa for their employers to get at oil and diamonds.

don't forget that a Hlaalu duke also has to thread carefully around the zainabs : they're damn close to Telvani holdings. If the two sides bleed themselves dry enough, it's almost a given the telvanis will step in.

Indeed, Manu, thanks for that. The Telvanni will have little interest in ebony, but a war going on outside their tower will definitely get them involved.

He's right. That's why the Empire provided the Ashlanders with a Nerevarine Incarnate. Most thought he did to hush the ashlanders, clearly fearing an uprising. No, he did it because unlike most Imperials, the emporer was given the gift of Potema- knowing the Prophecy to be true. The Empire would clearly walk away less ignorant from the experience.

And if they don't keep the Ashlanders close under their wing they know far too many of the tradesman convoys carrying kwama goods, or wondering nobles could easily be held for ransom. This leads to bad things.

None know the official numbers of the Ashlanders, none know all of their customs, and none know the land better than them. This, combined with the fact they are essentially a hunting and warrior people, makes them very dangerous if they were to be angered, they could wage a very costly war with almost any adversary.

In a conversation in Morrowind, Ashlanders admit that they would glady give their lives if there was a chance the legion could be defeated. They also make it clear that on the field, there is no greater force than the Legions of the Empire, but in the land of the Ashlanders, the legion would be mincemeat.