Civ
Race name: Living Lathes
Attributes: You have 60 points. For each category you can fill between 5 and 30. The points will determine your chances of success in each category. Were going with D&D rules for easy world transfer.
Strength 11
Constitution 9
Dexterity 9
Intelligence 13
Charisma 5
Wisdom 13
Capabilities:
[Bonuses cannot exceed +5 points at first]
Advantages:
Undue Population- Population grows as though the Living Lathes had half their size and lifespan
Mystic Sharing- Any Living Lathe may gain the magic or skills of another for no effort. This may only be used once per Lathe so no stacking.
Ironclad Society- Lathes don’t complain, follow the law, and don’t let morale get too low in general. stability is removed. any grievances will literally wait until the next contract is made.
Population Vote- if twice the manpower needed to complete a vote is used instead the vote automatically succeeds.
Disadvantage:
Idiotic Specialization- As a Lathe gains skills in one field its other stats decline.
Unoriginal- No art, or not immediately practical inventions will be made. people don’t solve their own problems. -4 to anything not forced into happening by the government or super obvious. the complement trait of Ironclad Society
(in total, you have a 2:1 ratio of advantages to disadvantages (this allows a 4:2 ratio right??))
Size: Medium, takes up two hexes/squares due to being hexapodal.
Lifespan(s): 75
Description: six-legged purple-and red dog-like creatures with horrific maws and two great arms tipped with claws and graspers.
Alignment tendency (for auto civs): Lawful any
Civilization Name: Lathe Swarms
Civilization Alignment: LE
Description: An Athenian democracy where anyone who specializes in a mental or magical skill gets a vote (keep in mind everyone else is an idiot) and food and shelter is distributed equally, though the mages and smart folks use their votes to guarantee their own homes are the best. If we know farming that’s cool.
In depth description
Lathes form a far more explicit social contract then humans do, lacking humor, empathy, and many other emotions, they have the self-awareness to sign a literal social contract, all adult Lathes, including non-mentally capable ones, get to submit ideas for a social contract, those ideas are picked out, and all reasonable ideas are memorized by many, and put in artwork form just to help once every two decades, if someone takes issue with the government they can ask someone who memorized the core principles of the contract if it’s being broken, and if it is they can point to the breach in law, either in a formal counsel if they have a seat (most intellectuals and mages do), or among the people to start a riot. due to the Athenian democracy even violent changes of power aren’t much of a disruption, mostly the government is given more areas it cant control or more responsibilities and has to pay artists to paint the new contract, which is tiring but long term goal carry over even with a brand new contract amended by force. Plus stability stays at a moderate level no matter what except in extreme circumstances. due to extreme population growth whenever food is available the government and the people have spent centuries of stone age life learning to live with population explosions, and tend to send huge numbers of young people into food production immediately, adjusting the ratio of “you go to farm” to “do whatever i dont care” very precisely to either prevent starvation or keep the population exploding for longer.
Magic known of but not yet controlled. Ima make a flag in GIMP tomorrow i think, i dont care if they’re stone age or what.
Religion is minor in a such a logical and soulless society, but people tend to worship either the Nqiliq, a force of unity that is the spiritual rallying call of Lathe supremacists, or Jeff, a guy who lived 150 years and taught about peace, transcendence through perfection, unity and the specific cocktail of weed, shrooms, and pure ethanol used to talk to the universe itself. jeff didn’t have anything against lathe supremacism he just didn’t care much due to how high he always way, and Nqiliqists dont have anything against drugs, so the two groups mostly get along, Nqiliqism broadly appealing to laborers, worriers and mages, and Jeffism to thinkers, generals, and mages. the only religious conflict is weather mages should be Jeffists or Nqiliqists, and since the game hasnt started no mages yet exist, and mages would keep it theoretical and to themselves mostly.