TL;DR version: there is none. You are free to go now. Seriously.

So I'm bored and still some hours more of office ahead of me with no real job right now (I already have done the work for the wednesday so go figure). I have been writing about a possible mod and that includes writing a "Perfect World" draft about it. And I have decided that I want to know more about the Sovereign creation process and.. well, what do I want? What do you want? What does Stardock want?

So I'm posting here an unfinished Wall of Text (TM) of an idea of that "Perfect World" draft (copy&paste so it contains sillyness x 200, add warning of bad English too... maybe Engrish?). I'm not even sure I'd: a) post it, post it in this part of the sorum. But who knows, maybe it spawns some interest. *shrug* Anyways, I have to keep my habit of silly threads so here I go:

Crossroads

Every road has a beginning

At the beginning of the game we must create our Sovereign or select a premade one. For the purpose of explaining new options and mechanics associated with Dying Sun, we are going to talk from the point of view of a full new Sovereign.

Sovereign and faction creation come hand to hand and are created using the same perk points. In this way, for example, the user can focus on developing his Sovereign and have a weak faction or he can focus on his faction and have a weak Sovereign.

We can choose the name of our Sovereign. We can choose the name of the faction at this point too.

Once those are chosen, we advance to a main creation screen where we can see our perk points remaining and a list of options in which to spend those points. We can go back and forth between those options as tweak things as we need.

Blood Inheritance

In this screen we can select the species of our sovereign. The only basic species that we can choose by default is Human.

Once the species are chosen, we can select the race. Each race has an associated appearence that altough it's customizable, has some options not accesible due to race selection.

Life Inheritance

The Sovereign has a past of his own and in this screen we can shape it a bit while giving our Sovereign some soul, bones and meat.

Background

The Sovereign isn't a no one that popped out of thin air. He had a life before starting his journey as Sovereign. Maybe he was a hunter or maybe a merchant. Maybe he was nothing but a thief. To reflect this, the Sovereign can choose a single background.

Choosing a background for the Sovereign, paying it's cost in Perk Points, he gets access to exclusive set of Perks (maybe Skills too) that would to otherwise unavailable. It also gives extra bonuses to the common Perks that every Sovereign can select.

(Incomplete) Examples of Backgrounds:

• Courtier: bonus in Diplomacy Skill, access to the exclusive Blackmail Skill
• Merchant: bonus in Commerce Skill, grants +5% benefit in trades.
• Mercenary: bonus to Resistance stat, -15% to the cost of mercenaries.
• Peasant: farms produce a 10% more, Peasant Defense development for free.
• Hunter: bonus to Sight, bonus to Movement.
• Bard: bonus to morale and/or prestige to the city where the Sovereign stands.

Skills

These skills allow the Sovereign do some tasks with more efficency than someone untrained in them. They are not compulsory but they help. Some skills are only available with the proper background (some backgrounds can unlock some of the same skills).

(Incomplete) Examples of Skills:

• Diplomacy: Provides extra bonus when dealing with the AI. At least with those who will listen to words and not actions!!!
• Commerce: Affects the prices of trades, including those in the Diplomacy Screen.
• Gambling: Allows you to play in the Casino and (maybe) earn some extra money (or lose it!!!)

Perks

Perks are traits that the Sovereign posses due to the species, race or other reasons. Each has a different cost in Perk Points and some might be unavailable due to species/race selection.

(Incomplete) Examples of Perks:

• Lucky: You are lucky and good things happen to your more often than to the avergage John Doe. More probability of good events and less probability of bad events. Influences battle, spell casting and item creation too. Cannot purchase Unlucky (no unlucky enough to be allowed).
• Unlucky: Just the opposite of Lucky to the point of giving you Perk Points for selecting it!!! Cannot purchase Lucky (not lucky enough to be allowed).
• Blood of the King/Emperor: No matter your actual origin, you can trace your lineage to one of the Kings/Emperors of old. Increases the Prestige of every city you control and get and extra Prestige bonus in the one your sovereign currently is.
• Blood of Ice: You are inmune to Ice Damage and resitant to Fire Damage.
• Swan Song: When you die you can cast any spell available to you for free. Just one. Once. For free. If you survive the experience, you are set to level 1. Then this Perk won't work anymore.
• Touch of Death: Any normal and low level unit the Sovereign touches in combat dies automatically. Special monsters, heroes and other Sovereigns receive damage proportional to the difference in levels. It lowers the population growth of any city in which the Sovereign is. Cannot buy Touch of Life.
• Touch of Life: Can use a pesonal Spell of Life on any unit. Undead units receive damage instead. The population growth increases in the city in which the Sovereign is.

Social Inheritance

The Sovereign was part of a group (even if it was just for a time) and the most propable type of people to join him are those of similar type to him. In this option we can select the options for the civilization that the Sovereign will lead.

Here we can choose the specie/race of our civilization which doesn't need to be the same as the one of the Sovereign. This means you could have an Orc Sovereign leading an elf nation. But that doesn't mean that the rest of elven nations are going to see your Sovereign with good eyes. The main idea is that socialization (Social Inheritance) is more important that blood (Blood Inheritance) when molding the personality of the Sovereign.

Each species/races have some bonus of different kinds. Some might be better warriors while others might be better merchants. They also offer some bonuses to the Sovereign as a result of the education (of whatever type it was) he had with them. A complete list of Perks for the civilization allows to determine how the civilization is.

The appearence of buildings, possible technologies and similar things are affected by this selection. Altough it is possible to change the appearence of the buildings of your civilization, so your elven nation could use human buildings instead of their traditional elven ones.

(Incomplete) Examples of Civilization Perks:

• Fertile: For some reasons or others, your civilization reproduces more quickly than the other civilizations (Dwarves and elves cannot purchase this perk, the Orcs can buy it at half the cost)
• Infertile: For some reasons or others, your civilization reproduces more slowly than the other civilizations. You don't pay Perk Points for this Perk but instead get extra Perk Points. (Dwarves and elves get extra Perk Points if they select it)
• Long lifespan: Your civilization members live longer than other civilizations'. Reduce the population growth of your civilization, get a bonus to Kingdom/Empire Stability (Happiness?), your units have a level cap higher than normal but a slight penalty to experience.
• Short lifespan: Your civilization members live less than other civilizations'. Increase the population growth of your civilization, get a penalty to Kingdom/Empire Stability (Happiness?), your units have a level cap lower than normal but a slight bonus to experience.
• Children of the Forest: you get a bonus to the production of wood and leather. If you have a forst near a city, that city gets a bonus to the food production and to Stability (Happiness?).
• Children of the Void: None of your servants can be imbued with Essence. The good side is that they gain a good bonus against magic of any kind. Start thinking about hiring foreign heroes!!!
• Children of Winter: All your servants get less damage from cold attacks (that includes the damage from traveling in snowed terrain).
• Morons: Let's be honest here, your people isn't the brightest of the neighbourhood and will never be. Suffer a serious penalty in research and some penalty in diplomacy. This Perk gives Perk Points when selected.
• Zealots: Your servants are zealots and hate anything that menace their life style and what they believe in. Get a good bonus to Kingdom/Empire Stability (Happiness?) and production bonus in all the cities when in war against any non neutral enemy. Suffer a serious penalty in diplomacy at all times (even with Kingdoms/Empires of similat attitude! After all, if they were like your people, they would join you instead of living under someone's else rule!).
• Bred for war: farms? Bustling cities? Your people only care aboout war, battles... anything that sitisfies their bloodlust (be it of magical origin or pure depravation cultivated during generations). Forget about researching things like farms or imrpoved houses for your citizens. Instead, produce units faster, your units get a bonus to experience, you suffer a penalty to Kingdom/Empire Stability (Happiness?) when not in war but a really good bonus when in one, you have a bonus in any research that involves warfare and a serious penalty in any non warfare reseach (if not getting some branches directly banned) and unless your enemy has also Bred for war he suffers a penalty to Kingdom/Empire Stability (Happiness?).

For next thread I should add some kind of pics a la Elemental's beta. Something about unfun things, brain damage...