The World of Avlis

I filled out an app for Avlis a couple days ago and have been eagerly awaiting getting started in the world ever since (read: compulsively checking email). This down time has given me a great opportunity to think about character development, and I've decided it would be really interesting to play a character from Jechran (the society run by women, up north of Drotid and east of the dwarves). There is very little info about Jechran available, so I had a few questions.

I realize that since there are a number of individual tribes who are not all part of a cohesive whole, that every tribe is likely different (which gives me a lot of leeway when it comes to just making things up). Here are some questions I don't feel comfortable making up answers to:

1) How are tribes generally ruled? (Who is in charge - the mightiest warrior, the wisest elder, etc)

2) Are the male sides of family lines considered important? Would a child know who her father is - would she have any relationship with him?

3) How are males treated, what is their role in society? Obviously they are second-class citizens, but are they mistreated, are they practically imprisoned, do they ply a trade? Do they all live together, or do they live with women and take care of the responsibilities of raising a child?

4) Are Jechrans prone to worshipping any particular deity?

5) What are Jechran relations with neighboring territories like? They live just east of the Galdos dwarves, who are the less open-minded mountain-dwelling folk - do the two groups ever fight, or for that matter even have contact with one another?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

NOTE : Everything in this post is subject to override from Orleron or another DM. You are not required to play your character like this, as these are only my own notes.

Excellent. As far as i know I am the only one playing a character from Jechren at the moment. (I would love to be proved wrong about that ). I posted a similar question to you, and have yet to recieve an answer.

So in the meantime I made up a few details. I keyed my answers from a statement in another post from Orleron that this was an Amazon type society.

1) How are tribes generally ruled? (Who is in charge - the mightiest warrior, the wisest elder, etc)

Since this is a Matriarchial society, the role of leader is going to go to the woman who most embodies the consensus. She may not be the best warrior, or the wisest women. She will be the one best suited to cajoling, negotiating or beating a consensus from the rest.

She is not a supreme ruler, her powers are strictly curtailed by a supporting council which elects her to that position. The council is composed of senior wariors, clerics and mages. Think 'council of wise women' and you have it.

Though generally this will be a warrior, there is no reason why another class could not hold the position.

2) Are the male sides of family lines considered important? Would a child know who her father is - would she have any relationship with him?

I play the males as honored concubines. Mating with the males is a reward given to the women who earn that right. This is how they have avoided the population pressures that plague Mikona.

The men have no rights to the children they sire, and would have no clue in general which ones are thiers and which are others. Often familial resemblences will make the paternal parentage of the children obvious anyways, but its not considered important. The men treat the all the children as thiers.

They are also completely unaware of the fact that most male children are killed at birth. No one has ever seen fit to tell them this, so they honestly think that more girls are born then men naturally speaking.

At least thats how it is in my village.

3) How are males treated, what is their role in society? Obviously they are second-class citizens, but are they mistreated, are they practically imprisoned, do they ply a trade? Do they all live together, or do they live with women and take care of the responsibilities of raising a child?

Again, the men of jechren are concubines, and they predominately live lives of leisure. They have studied the arts of storytelling, dancing, painting, and other arts. They are often called on to perform as the opening to a feast, or negotiations.

They have no rights at all, and the women consider men cute, but dangerous. The older a man is, the more likely he is to become a liability, and men are taught that they have a disease which makes them violent and dangerous as they age.

As a result most consider it an honor to become involved in the final hunt at age 25, and they submit willingly to the sentence of death that all have facing them

The men live together in a harem, and they are always led by the most senior male, who is the senior concubine. The men often play with the younger children, and are often responsible for the care of babies, but the gilrs are taken from them at an early age ( around seven ) for warrior training.

The men in a village are often traded with other villages as part of negotiations. These are temporary liasons usually for a contracted period. This provides a spy in the other village as well ashelping to extend the gene pool.

4) Are Jechrans prone to worshipping any particular deity?

I hadnt thought too much on this. if any, the Jecrens worship Dre'Ana as a society. The men are not supposed to worship directly, though I have thought that they may have a secret worship they do not really discuss. Think

5) What are Jechran relations with neighboring territories like? They live just east of the Galdos dwarves, who are the less open-minded mountain-dwelling folk - do the two groups ever fight, or for that matter even have contact with one another?

Heh. The Jecrans fight with everyone. But mostly they fight each other. Other communities consider them handy mercenaries to bandits depending on relations with the closest villages.

Warfare is VERY important and all ladies of Jecran are expected to know how to fight. The exception is those who show exceptional skill at sorcery or wizardry - they are trained seperately, but with an emphasis on combat magics over necromany, and illusion.[/quote]

If yuo haven't received an answer to your app you shuold fill anothe rone out, make sure your junk mail filters aren't filtering me out and send me a PM so i can look for your name and e-mail address to see if it was even submitted and processed.


~S

Izyk's reply is ok for HIS village, mind you, but I have yet to post the overall national information for Jechran.

Izyk's reply is ok for HIS village, mind you, but I have yet to post the overall national information for Jechran.

Just like I said in the note at the top of my post :->

I have always maintained that if there was any part of Zachar in conflict with your vision I would change him, but that in the complete absence of any detailed information I planned to make up stuff that seemed to fit. Avlis was my first, and remains my only, multiplayer NWN experience. Imagine my horror when I discovered that I was actually going to have to roleplay my character to the depth that Avlis encourages. Big change from the single player.

The character started out as yet another "Grew up in a small village in the mountains, entire village slain by the undead, now wanders, with intense hate of the undead" type character. Thankfully no one objected when I changed the history mid stream, and Zachar from Jechran was born.

I heartily applaud you (whoever you are Guest) for taking the time to learn about Avlis before creating your character, because I hadn't done that.

Jechren society, even from the few hints Orleron provided in past notes seemed a fascinating place. I am stunned that I have not met more female warriors from that region in the game.

I am tempted to try a character from Jechren. The idea of a female-dominated society where the men are for breeding and amusement only, is quite a challenge to play.

I have read Orleron's posts about this region, but still have some questions.

1) I assume that these people are Human? I don't think this is mentioned.
2) I was planning to make her CG - following Dre'Ana, of course. Does she have to be a Cleric or Fighter?
3) I intend her to have left the society and travelled elsewhere - probably Elysia. Is it OK for her just to want to see the world, with the intention of returning home eventually - or does she have to be an outcast, forced to leave home, or a runaway?
4) The rules mentioned that mages are taken and trained separately, so presumably she could be a mage. Can she still follow Dre'Ana?

Perhaps if we get enough people interested, we could have a group or Forum (or both) for People of Jechran?

Comments and advice invited please, oh Wise and Benevolent Sensei

1) I assume that these people are Human? I don't think this is mentioned.

The posting on Jechren is quite specific about race, Jechran is human and elven and half elven, the races are almost completely intermixed in the area.

This question leads me to think that you missed the world information post about the Nation of Jechran, so follow this link for enlightenment. THESES are the rules., anything posted by me is no more than meanless blather in comparison.

http://boards.blackdagger.com/viewtopic.php?t=13119

Heh. The Jecrans fight with everyone. But mostly they fight each other. Other communities consider them handy mercenaries to bandits depending on relations with the closest villages.

Warfare is VERY important and all ladies of Jecran are expected to know how to fight. The exception is those who show exceptional skill at sorcery or wizardry - they are trained seperately, but with an emphasis on combat magics over necromany, and illusion.

NNOOOOOO.....

Heh. The rules say nothing of the sort. I said it, and I was wrong. I posted this before Orleron posted his excellent description of the region. So its wrong in most particulars :->

I saw nothing that indicated a woman who left would be an outcast. By definition, any male from the area is an outcast, but nothing I have seen places similar restrictions on women.

There is similarily no reason why you character couldn't be any one of the classes, to be a viable society the Nation would need a sampling of all skills.

So naturally Mages can follow Dre'Ana, bending thier arcane skills to the service of the Lady.

Dre'Ana's followers are usually female, with her being really big in finding a fate for women in this world and all. There is no restriction on class however, the warrior maidens are all faithful to Dre'Ana and they have a bard in an officer position.

Yes, it looks as if I hadn't read the information from Orleron in enough detail. Sorry about that - I beg forgiveness O Wise Mage.

So, it seems my character will be Female, Human, Elf or Half-Elf (most likely Half-Elf). Not decided on Class yet, but might be a Cleric - you can never have too many of those. Alignment probably CG.

Her story might be that she has been sent out (or chosen to go out) into the big, wide world to explore, to find out about new skills which she can teach when she returns and perhaps to increase the Tribal gene-pool in the obvious way. It might be quite a shock for her when she selects a partner and decides to mate with him

Nighthawk4 wrote:It might be quite a shock for her when she selects a partner and decides to mate with him

Never mind her, what about the partner?

"Hey you! Yes you. Come here, you are now my mate."

Sounds like Misty in some peculiar way.

ahem...a male follower of DreAna?

*chokes on his coffee*

cant wait till Misty meets this guy!


ashzz

Misty makes a good point regarding the idea of a male follower of Dre'Ana and I am inclined to agree - up to a point.

However, as I understand it - everyone in Jechran follows Dre'Ana. I think Orleron said that (is that right?). Of course, in Jechran, that probably just means 'Everyone who counts' i.e. all of the women.

So who do the men in Jechran follow? They are supposedly well cared for - for pleasure and breeding, not slaves. I would assume that this would allow them to follow some kind of Deity. For that matter, even slaves are usually quite religeous - look at the number of religeous songs written in the Southern States of the USA, many of which were written by people who were slaves at the time. I suppose, when you have nothing and little hope, all you have left is your faith and hope for a better life in the next life.

It does not seem likely to me that they would follow a completely different Deity. If they did, then who would it be? They might have different prayers and hymns, but I think they would follow the same God (or in this case, Goddess). Most slaves in the USA were deeply religeous and worshipped the same God as their masters.

Comments please - especially from Orleron?

alright, I see you point nighthawk. However, Ill make one of my own. Im very disinclined to believe the male follower could be a cleric. A fighter, bard, andy class seems reasonable, but I cant see DreAna letting a male channel her power.

ashzz

Males in Jechran can worship Dre'Ana. But no male can be a CLERIC of Dre'Ana.

Thanks Orleron for that clarification.

However, I think you may have misread my earlier post Misty.

I said my character would be Female and possibly a Cleric. Even then, I was still undecided on Class.

In fact, she did turn out to be Female and a Fighter, not a Cleric. She is Falcon of Jechran and is now a member of the Warrior Maidens.

My post of today was just discussing the situation of men in Jechran in theory - not with a view to playing a male character from there. I would agree with Orleron - I cannot imagine anyone allowing a male Cleric of Dre'Ana - certainly not in Jechran, where men would not be allowed to take any job - except sex-toy of course

Sorry if I have confused you.

Nighthawk, i didnt mean you but the other fellow, who sindol told me is a male cleric of dreana.

ashzz

It is a horrible curse to have your femininity stripped away by some stupid sorcerer and be left ... urghh ... male.

To get it back sounds like a cool quest.

Sindol wrote:It is a horrible curse to have your femininity stripped away by some stupid sorcerer and be left ... urghh ... male.

To get it back sounds like a cool quest.

Hehe - I think it is usually done with Hormone treatments and an operation

The thought brings tears to my eyes

Nighthawk4 wrote:

Sindol wrote:It is a horrible curse to have your femininity stripped away by some stupid sorcerer and be left ... urghh ... male.

To get it back sounds like a cool quest.

Hehe - I think it is usually done with Hormone treatments and an operation

The thought brings tears to my eyes

You forget we are in a fantasy setting: 'tis all done with mirrors (or real magic).