Territory Revamp / Earth Elemental Project

[Stryker]

Welcome to COTC's earth elemental project. The first of it's kind, actually! As the Coalition of the Condemned take over Elysium's territory, they will be revamping their territory into almost a 'second home' for future endeavors after they successfully takeover The Typhoon. That said, Stryker does not like the mountains present, but some landmarks are quite spiffy and could stay. For the most part, he wishes to change the territory with the help of earth elementals from many willing (and unwilling) characters to create a whole new concept.

He can't do that all by himself though and neither can I! I want your ideas and opinions on how the territory could change to suit COTC's traditions.

First of all, the Coalition of the Condemned (at the end of the plot) will not be utilizing all of Elysium's current territory. Instead, they will be only using the top portion. With this in mind, water/earth benders alike will attempt to split the land in half and move the remaining portion out into the ocean, forming a new island.

Here is a really bad render/size comparison of what will be splitting off. That remaining area, in the future, can be used for new and upcoming groups as a blank slate.



A few landmarks in that area can be kept (if you guys prefer). One in specific I enjoy is Elysium's grotto, a small lake with several openings in the top. This can be the group's freshwater source and a potential area for swimming. The water is shallow, allowing for many opportunities and activities to come from it too. Plus keeping an important aspect of Elysium would be a nice send off and would allow us to cherish what is left of their legacy.

I think keeping the warship, from an aesthetic standpoint, would also be interesting. I understand if it doesn't fit the Coalition's initial 'tribal' vibes though, so it's destruction is also alright, especially since it wouldn't be used as a practical piece of transport. I take this back. I think their mode of transport to the mainland and back should be through caves formed by these benders, similar to the ones used for The Typhoon raid.

Now, here's a few things we need to consider.
A) What areas of Elysium's old territory should we keep? The significant landmarks in this area include: grotto, warship, floating sea town, starpool, flower fields, orchard, and the greenhouse.
B) Overall biome? What biome should the Coalition of the Condemned focus on? I personally think remaining with the tropical, tribal aspect would benefit the group overall, especially since most of their flora is within those areas. Elysium's colder areas could have an effect on their winters in the future though!
C) What about the old island? The old island can be either forgotten about, used as a neutral land, or can also be uprooted out of the ground potentially and moved over towards the newfound island. Afterwards, connect it back to the ocean floor. This would all happen with the above topic of breaking off the top part of Elysium.
D) What about new homes? Since the Condemned Homes were previously makeshift and this territory is more 'permanent', even if it's second hand at the moment, they will need to reside somewhere. What type of homes should they invest in?
E) New landmarks! Besides homes and Elysium's own, COTC will need to get new landmarks. This could include a reformed Contraband Shanty and a new Guru Sanctuary, along with a special place for the Kingpin to reside. Another cool idea mentioned by Astral was actually utilizing caves again, specifically a snake mouth cave.

If I missed any points, feel free to elaborate! Side Note: I am not looking for rank changes or traditions to be removed, but additions to those are welcome too though!

I look forward to hearing everyone's ideas, especially since I have already talked to a few of you about this. <333

[axiom]

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a. keeping landmarks
maybe we could keep the floating sea town, but expand on it with more locations and pictures? but i don't feel too strongly about keeping landmarks.

b. biome
i really like the idea of going for a boreal forest, which is a cold forest biome where it snows 6-8 months out of the year. ninazu (and other earth elementals) could use their earth elemental power to make the condemned's traditionally important flora adapt to the new climate! so we could have them become "invasive" tropical species within the frosty biome.

i'm suggesting this because, tbh, i'm getting kinda tired of tropical biomes? the pitt, the typhoon, and the cotc occupy tropical lands at present. palm glades has a biome similar to a temperate rainforest, rather than being purely tropical, and the tanglewoods is more deciduous (iirc). so i think going with a boreal forest biome would be very unique! especially if we add the invasive tropical flora, so we can customize the biome to have the cotc's old traditions.

and, also, cold temperatures means lots of traditions will involve bonfires, taking trophies/skins as hinds, and lead to a need for warfare to gather supplies as needed.

c.
maybe they could weaponize their old island and smash it into the pitt or some other enemy
if they keep their island home, maybe it could be a smaller, separate island? maybe to allow them to have two different biomes in their territory, tropical and boreal. or they could just abandon it.

d. types of homes
i'm always partial to treehouses! but i don't have many strong opinions on this. perhaps have 2-3 different types of homes for different animals to choose from? since not all types of homes are accessible to all types of animals.

e. new landmarks
the snake mouth cave sounds awesome! we could use that with the tunnel system orion proposed for the cave system to travel to the mainland -- perhaps that's the opening / main passage to use it?

[SirDio]

WELL- since i took the equivalent of a hibernation yesterday, i finally don't have a headache and can now give my cents

a. I say we keep the sea town, grotto, and greenhouse. The sea town can be used as housing if need be, or, if something happens to the main camp, it can be used as a backup. The grotto can definitely be a communal gathering ground for social gatherings and events. The greenhouse could be used as extra herbal storage and a backup guru housing if the main one gets too crowded or something happens to main camp.

b. I like the boreal forest idea. Adding onto that, maybe the closer one gets to the southern shore, the more of a deciduous forest it becomes. 

c. Consider this -- we uproot the island and make it a center island for celebrations, meetings, and such? Either having handmade bridges or landbridges leading to the island. We could adapt it from tropical to boreal, or keep it tropical and have some snow/colder weather plots on it? :eyes:

d. For housing, I say we utilize 3 different types: Sea housing, treehousing, and cave housing. This gives a nice choice, in my eyes, as some animals may prefer the darkness and secureness of a cave in comparison to the height in a tree house or the sea housing.

e. I do like the idea of Snake Mouth being the main entry point from the main island to the new Coalition territory. One idea I had in mind while at school was having it connect to the center cotc island (if we keep it) and have it be an entrance to the main territory, full of trade, housing, or even holding places for prisoners.

As for new landmarks, maybe a mount rushmore/ egyptian carving of different kingpins of the past? A way to honor their duties. It would either be underground in a large cavern of against a rockface.

[Stryker]

Going to try and respond to everything point-by-point. Thanks y'all for your contributions!

A) I'm not too strong on keeping the floating sea town/greenhouse. I prefer more natural habitats, rather than modern/human-related, if that makes sense? I do like the idea of keeping the grotto, seeing it's something unique to the  current territory too. If we do keep the greenhouse though, I would like to keep the flora growing there for dye purposes. If not, I can find alternative dyes within colder territories.

B) While I'm personally more of a 'tropical' kind of guy when it comes to territory choices, I do think a boreal forest would fit COTC well. Plus, due to the placement and current climate of Elysium, it would only make sense. That change wouldn't be too bad either, especially in regards to Axiom's ideas of skins (which I REALLY like) and proposed traditions. Plus it's something new/different than the rest.

C) don't give me ideas, axiom
        a. Axiom also bring up a good point about how the islands are two different climates. How would this realistically work between the two climates? (as if this is 'realistic' to move an island in the first place)
        b. Astral, I do like the central island idea too! I was thinking more of a 'whole island' to set them apart from The Typhoon but this could provide an interesting area to go to for meetings/hold events, perhaps?
        c. Maybe have the middle island hold leader/guru areas, along with a meeting place. Maybe some spots to host events/have shops, etc... Then the other two islands on the sides can house general population or be specific to roles (warriors/apprentices/healers one side, mothers/children other? something... will need to think more on it)

D) I'm kinda iffy on treehouses, seeing The Pitt (and Tanglewood, I believe?) have treehouses. I think varying homes would be better. Maybe three set homes to pick from? Hmm... Maybe brick/stone homes to keep in the heat? Caves? Lil huts? Rounded stone shaped mounds? 

E) I like the idea of having it for the main entrance (or for all entrances into the middle island)!

Astral, I really enjoy the idea for carvings of the past leaders. We could have something similar to the Air Temple Sanctuary within Avatar: The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra where all former leaders get a stone sculpture held within a deep cave/temple of some sort.

[Stryker]

https://beastsofbeyond.com/index.php?top...9#msg96269
experimenting with codes/ideas here :0

[axiom]

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>> c. Consider this -- we uproot the island and make it a center island for celebrations, meetings, and such? Either having handmade bridges or landbridges leading to the island. We could adapt it from tropical to boreal, or keep it tropical and have some snow/colder weather plots on it? :eyes:

I do like this a lot omg

It can be special island territory for some traditions ?? And have guru stuff on it, too, maybe.

Also, yes, totally love Astral's idea for the carvings of past leaders as well

[Misty]

[align=center][div style="width: 527px; height: auto; line-height: 1.4; text-align: justify; font-family: constantia; font-size: 8pt;"]a.) I have a thought, plot wise, if y'all lose the sea town.
It'd be really rough as a former sun haven member to see it go, but at the same time, I could see a way it could go that would be a little more impactful plot-wise, to both CoTC and the remnants of Elysium as we transition to a backboard.  My girl Tena lives by a creed of dukka ba dukkra -- freedom or death -- and if Elysium's territory is going to the CoTC then she isn't gonna let it go without doing something pretty drastic; that motto would apply to her home too.  She wouldn't want the CoTC to have the house she lived in, made tzai in, etc. etc. It means too much to her.
As a bit of a revolt and cover/distraction for Elysites to regroup and move on, they could set fire to the seatown and burn it down.

I do think the greenhouse would be a useful feature to keep.  The grotto is just plain cool and pretty to me, so I'm a little partial ^^

b.) I like axiom's idea of a boreal biome.  I feel like it's definitely true a lot of the groups are tropical, and with the mountains right there, a colder environment makes more sense.

c.) If we want the CoTC to continue using the old island, we should definitely move it very realistically dx because of it's close proxmity to the Typhoon.

d.) I like treehouses but both the Typhoon and Pitt use treehouses as homes, so I'm not so sure on this.  Given the boreal forest though, and the kind of nordic atmosphere you might get from that, I like the idea of maybe little huts and stuff.

e.) The snake mouth cave sounds super badass tbh and I think an entry point is pretty cool.

[Orion]

It can be special island territory for some traditions ?? And have guru stuff on it, too, maybe.

Y e a h that's what I was thinking! The central island can be grounds for traditions/events/meetings. I know you have a lot of traditions in mind Axiom!

[align=center][div style="width: 527px; height: auto; line-height: 1.4; text-align: justify; font-family: constantia; font-size: 8pt;"]a.) I have a thought, plot wise, if y'all lose the sea town.
It'd be really rough as a former sun haven member to see it go, but at the same time, I could see a way it could go that would be a little more impactful plot-wise, to both CoTC and the remnants of Elysium as we transition to a backboard.  My girl Tena lives by a creed of dukka ba dukkra -- freedom or death -- and if Elysium's territory is going to the CoTC then she isn't gonna let it go without doing something pretty drastic; that motto would apply to her home too.  She wouldn't want the CoTC to have the house she lived in, made tzai in, etc. etc. It means too much to her.
As a bit of a revolt and cover/distraction for Elysites to regroup and move on, they could set fire to the seatown and burn it down.

I'm 100% down for this. It'd be an interesting addition to the history of the land too!

[align=center][div style="width: 527px; height: auto; line-height: 1.4; text-align: justify; font-family: constantia; font-size: 8pt;"]
c.) If we want the CoTC to continue using the old island, we should definitely move it very realistically dx because of it's close proxmity to the Typhoon.

it'll work out shhh...