Golden Land Game Elements

Part 5: More of the Gameworld

2003-04-10

In this series of Golden Land features we cooperate with publisher Russobit and developer Burut to tackle a single element of the game at a time. The feature is split up in an overview of the feature and a short Q&A to get more detailed information about some of the mentioned aspects.

The gameworld of Golden Land is divided into several regions, magic and fascinating countries. Today we’ll tell you about the last two of these lands.

Marvia
Marvia is a country which is situated at south-east of Golden Land, divided by the impassable range of Ripei Mountains. The nature in this country is quite unfavorable for agriculture development. The climate is hotter than in Golden Land, and it is combined with the desert landscapes. Palm trees, camels and desert demons are the most common representatives of Marvian flora and fauna. Marvia is surrounded by the great East Sea in the east. Cruel pirates and brave Marvian merchants sail around the sea. Marvia borders with Turbern at the south-west.

Marvians are swarthy dark-haired people whose skin is always weathered with the desert wings. From the beginning there lived the nomadic tribes, who breed camels. With the development of Turbern and Golden Land they moved to trade relations more and more, being the middleman for the two countries.
Becoming richer, more of these people started making big trade clans, creating settlements at the places of stops and tuning this in their way of life.
After some time, all Marvians became united under the rule of first Emperor, and since those days Marvia has been a state.

There is a legend, which tells about the beginning times of Marvia. It says that at first there was only one big country, the Star Kingdom Renadul, from which Marvia and Turbern were formed.

About five hundred years ago there was a conflict between Marvia and Golden Land, and the only path through Ripei Mountains was closed. This affected the entire world - Golden Land has lost the perfect Turbernian weapons, Turbern has lost the high-quality products of Golden Land, and Marvia had a big loss in trade business.

That's why, in spite of the great surface of the Marvian cities the Empire suffers. The only serious part of income is not so profitable trade with Turbern. The secret way to Golden Land, which has been found not long ago, does not give the expected profit because of its extreme danger.

Marvia is the land of sly merchants, and the gods worshipped here are many. The family relations, that were of great importance in people's life even at the times of the trade clans, now affect the religious life of people very much. Almost all families have their own gods. Moreover, most Marvians believe in the existence of the Nameless God, the father of all existence. There are nearly no temples and religious traditions in Marvia. The population of Marmaris, the seaside city and the main Empire port from ancient times, worshipped the separate god - Hizr. Many years ago the government of Marmaris met the
wishes of the visiting sailors from Golden Land, who wished to bring offerings to Veles even in foreign lands, and had built the temple dedicated to the god of trade. Time passed, and many people of this city joined the cult of this god, calling him in their own manner - Hizr.

In the mountain districts of Marvia mining and steel-melting are very advanced. Moreover, gmures live in the mountains - who don't like people's presence in their native territory. Gmures are very skilled craftsmen and mechanics, and their magicians sometimes cause a lot trouble to people with their experiments.

Alberia
Alberia is a small land, situated at the north-east of the Golden Land. The everlasting winter and cold rule here, and the aboriginals of this land can live only by hunting.

There are no cities in Alberia. All life is situated in small settlements, and people try to survive in the clash with the rough nature of the land. The trade relations lost their meaning to other lands, because the amount of food that amazons gain is enough only for their living, and they do not make any special goods.

The rough cold nature of this land resulted in that the aboriginals, proud and wayward amazons of the north, value only two human qualities – courage and the skill of wielding weapons. Once great and powerful, Alberia felt into total decay in the last three hundred years that passed since the Drakh-Shoo invasion. The proud and warlike tribes live in small patrimonial clans, steadily waging war with each other. There is no supreme power, and less and less news come from this snowy land.

Q&A
Dmitry Glasnev, the script-writer for Golden Land was kind enough to answer a few questions about todays feature for us.

RPGDot: Why the large diversity in lands? How does it benefit the game?

Dmitry: The large diversity of the world of Golden Land helps the player to see its size fully and to feel the atmosphere in it. Moreover, such details helps to make close connections with lands and people living in them. The big amount of distinctions helped us to create many interesting gaming moments. The player, for sure, will see the distinction between cities of different countries. Architecture style, manners of speech, relations with trespassers (and the main character belongs to them too), social staff - all this differs greatly.

RPGDot: What are the influences in the weather with all these different lands?

Dmitry: The weather differs greatly in the different countries of the world because of different climate features, in relation to the time of the year. The weather effects do not affect gaming process and have mostly a decorative character (though some magicians in Turbern learned to operate this weather, and you will come across this). On the other hand, such thing as a day/night cycle is not the only gaming factor. Some options of magic weapons depend on the time, for example, and some of the parameters depend on it also. The evil character is stronger at night, and the good character feels better during the day.

RPGDot: Pirates in Marvia. Do we encounter them? Do we get to sail?

Dmitry: Traveling around Marvia, the player for sure will face Marvian pirates. This meeting will, really, be not so pleasant, especially for a good character. Evil characters will be treated well by pirates, as by most other robbers. The player can also have material losses because of the pirates in Eastern Sea.
In one of Marvian cities the player will be able to purchase a trade ship, but he risks loosing large sums of money, because his ship will be exposed to pirate invasions from time to time. In this city the character can pay some money and go to the desert island to try and solve the riddle of the Fire Salamander.

RPGDot: How is trading implemented? Are prices different per land? Is there an
alignment of your character that is taken into account while trading?

Dmitry: The Economic system of the Golden Land world is presented by many different merchants, living in almost all cities and traveling between them. Depending on the land where the main character is, the merchants will offer him different amounts of goods, special for this country. The player can affect the prices with the special skill, Trade.

RPGDot: Is a different playing style required when approaching people from the
different lands?

Dmitry: Yes, of course, the actions of different nationalities will differ. For example, you can easily cow the characters in Marvia, because they are quite cowardly by their nature and prefer to make concessions, not to engage in battle. On the other hand, you should watch your language in Turbern, because any careless word or bad joke can end up in bloody clash.