The countries (official political bodies)

[komissar]

Every race has its own state, but border don't matter much in the modern world. For a long time the states were constituted two Unions - the Allianceof the Three and the Wellana Confederation. Almost thousand years ago the world was devoured by the Great War. The armies of the Confederation and the Alliance met in grand battles. The loath of the enemies was so stong, that no matter how much blood they shed, they could not still it, and the fallen kept fighting in the world of ghosts. There are still traces of animosity between the former adversaries, but the most of it has gone with time.

The Alliance of the Three was contracted between arrawns, kelebras and lizards in the first years of the confrontation and was originally no more than a military union. Unlike the Alliance the Wellana Confederation was a natural sequel of ages of partnership between humans, sidhe, tenqui and zwergs. For this reason the Alliancewas close to break up after the end of the war and only capital reorganization could prevent it.
Extract from the Encyclopedia of the World

The Alliance of the Three
The Alliancewas contracted exclusively for military purposes, there was no united political structure either during the GW or long after it. After the war the Alliance became a conventional union of regions, all of which had their own political system. The only function of the Alliance was defense against military aggression. There were three independent governments and one central regulatory body - the Alliance Council. All domestic political questions of the regions were regulated immediately by the regional governments. All questions of foreign policy were managed exclusively by the Alliance Council, whereas representatives of the regional governments officiated as councilors. The seat of the Head of the Council went over to another race every 10 years.
After some time the Alliance in its military function became outdated. Because of the missing military action such an alliance became unnecessary. The Alliance Council decided to reorganize the system of relations between the members. In order not to hang behind in the concurrence with the rapidly developing Confederation the Allianceinitiated a forceful industrialization and consolidated economical systems. From then the Council takes part in regulating all domestic affairs of the regions as well as the interregional matters.
The question of citizenship has nothing to do with the regions then, every inhabitant of any region is automatically a citizen of the Alliance.

The Wellana Confederation
The Wellana Confederation was formed as a result of existing economical and political unions. The military alliance just intensified the intercourse. The regions are politically independent, but there is a central regulatory body - the United Parliament (unofficially - the Loge). Istadal became the capital of the Confederation. The Loge don't intervene into domestic matters of the regions, but officiates as an arbiter in all issues, if it is necessary. The members of the Loge launch the laws and command the army. The borders within the Confederation are transparent and exist mostly to control migrations and cargo transfer.
Every inhabitant is a citizen of the Confederation, no matter what region he comes from.

[boinged]

It's a bit hard to determine, but has there been any clarification on the current political climate when we start the game? I'm a bit worried that it will be Alliance vs. Horde WoW-style.

What I'm hoping for is seven independent countries who form changing and balanced alliances with each other. I'd like to have possibilities like a Kelebra deserter living and working with the Zwergs. Or a colony of Sidhe living amongst the Arrawns. Or even a mixed guild of merchants whose craft comes before racial differences.

[moyaku]

If it s so much Player driven I guess we will just have to "not care about races".

[komissar]

What Moyaku said methinks. But aye in fact it does look like the horde versus alliance style.

Organisations will pitch in here and mix things up for sure. Mix em up a lot in fact.
And yes it IS possible to become a citizen of enemy nation after passing certain quests.

The basic country versus country principle will only be visible in the army clashes on border territories...

[nightblade]

""I'd like to have possibilities like a Kelebra deserter living and working with the Zwergs. Or a colony of Sidhe living amongst the Arrawns. Or even a mixed guild of merchants whose craft comes before racial differences.""

ive missed ya rashan *high fives*

[ravenstorm]

I don't know about this being a Horde vs Alliance thing. For one, I don't think i've seen it mentioned anywhere that the two factions are actually at war. Border skirmishes are supposed to be a part of the game but it's quite possible that the skirmishes occur between the independant regions inside the factions. I think this is more interesting.

And seeing as how WELL is for the most part, rather unique, I don't want to see them just follow WoW's factions layout.

Also, WELL appears to be a game that will be heavily influenced by the players. So having small wars between the regions rather than one big one between the factions gives an option for change. For example, this week, region B and G are fighting it out. But when enough players do a quest of a certain type, the two regions eventually cease the war and become friends... Only for another region (C) to start a war against B (possibly started by players doing a different type of quest).

And where do the factions come in? Well, maybe the player can only do quests (relating to the war) for the regions that belong to their faction. For example, I belong to the Confederation. Region B is part of the Confederation while region G is part of the Alliance. The two regions are at war. I can do quests to defend/attack/seek peace with region B but not region G. Then when peace is formed, I can then choose to do quests in region B to start war with region C (Alliance.)

Also, perhaps quests in a region not part of my faction can only be done by me if that region is currently not being attacked? So let's say I go out on a quest then log off for the night. I come back on to find I can't return the quest and get my rewards because the region I got the quest from has been attacked. So I then need to do the seek peace quests to allow me access to the NPC.

But then this brings up the question of what advantage there is to attacking a region... Dunno. That would require more thinking and writing and I think this post has enough in it for now.

Anyway, most of what I said is just guessing/wishful thinking. I believe I read that there will be army vs enemy army organizational quests, so this atleast means that battle between the factions will occur. I just think my idea would be nicer than the static faction vs faction.

Edit: I just read through this again and realized it sounds quite a bit like the base control in Tabula Rasa... Though I certainly didn't think of it when I wrote the post. But, that feature of TR does seem interesting to me and would probably work well in WELL.

[boinged]

A very simple mechanic used in LOTRO PVP is that some missions are taken and handed back in at a keep and these keeps can be captured by either side. So if you lose control of a keep you can't complete a for it mission - well you can complete the objectives but not speak to the final NPC and get the reward.

I think I read something about the borders of nations changing due to player actions. It would make sense to put some quests or whatever is similar in WELL in these flippable regions.

Komissar: is there any info on the geographical regions - i.e. a map and the type of terrain for each nation? I prefer the desert so I hope that's where the lizards live

[komissar]

boinged said:

Komissar: is there any info on the geographical regions - i.e. a map and the type of terrain for each nation? I prefer the desert so I hope that's where the lizards live

As for your first question that I did not quote, I think they won't implement that, mate... In lotro it's the essence of PvP interest, but in WELL PvP is totally different as you see.

As for geography that's what they say:
There will be instant climate conditions in different areas. The climate however will differ for different areas: Snowy mountains, dry deserts, watery marshes and so on. The weather will change, but it will be not a season climate change.

So I hope this answers your question.
I have not seen a full map yet but there has been some info about a couple of cities which i am going to translate soon (tm)

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