Civilizations

By Evolved, One_Dead_Angel
Aug 16, 2006

There are 3 factions in Rise of Legends. The Vinci and the Alin, and the Cuotl.

Alin

The Alin are believed to be one of the oldest races on Aio. The city of Azar Harif is thought by scholars to be the first “modern” city in all the world of Aio. Over time they (quoted from the Encyclopedia Aio):

“became known as masters of magic, able to pierce the veil between this plane of existence and the next. They were able to conjure up whole armies from nothing (and care nothing for their demise) At the same time, the Alim have trained their warriors to peak physical perfection and incorporated creatures composed entirely of fire giving their military unprecedented flexibility.”

At the time, the Vinci are believed to have been living without the aid of magic, in a primitive and almost barbarian fashion, while the Cuotl are believed to have been living in the Jungle’s to the East of Alin lands in a way similar to Native humans living in jungles on Earth.

However, even though they were the greatest race on Aio, they were almost destroyed when Sawu, a genie, was corrupted by a Cuotl Artifact (Cuotl referring to the False Gods), and turned against the Alin. Strange, supernatural powers allowed Sawu to summon corrupted versions of Alin Units, made of Dark Glass, which almost destroyed the Alin Nation. In the end, it fell to two great Alin heroes, Dakhla – Lord of the Sand – and Damanhur – Lord of Fire – to destroy the Dark Glass Corruption. They buried the City of Mezekesh, which had been captured by the Dark Glass, beneath miles of desert sand. However, in recent times rumours have spread that the Dark Alin have been spotted above the sand once again.

This race is an “1001 Arabian Nights” inspired nation. Thusly they have units like Afreets, Giant Scorpions and even dragons. Their architecture draws from and resembles the Middle Eastern Islamic influences with Spires and desert people sensibilities. Their units tend to be weaker than the Vinci on a one-on-one basis in general, despite the aforementioned named units which sound like impressive powerful units. Alin units are broken up into Sand, Fire, and Glass classes, each with its own building type that is used to upgrade its own class of units. Alin units are cheap and fast to get on the field. So their tactics are centered on magic and seem to suit well for hit and run operations. This race seems to be good for people who likes the Rush strategy.

Vinci

The Vinci are a newer civilisation, using steam powered machines and other Da Vinci themed ideas to power and defend their civilisation. The Civilisation was created by one man, a genius, called the Great Inventor. Since then none but Giacomo have made any great advances in the Vinci Technology.

The Vinci have recently split into seperate City-States, with the two main powers being Miana, ruled by Giacomo’s brother Petruzzo, and Venucci, ruled by the Doge. There is also another power, the ‘air-pirates’ called the Pirata. They specialise in Air Travel and Firepower, and may have been recently employed by the Doge, but for what is unknown.

Miana is a place of Great Advances, the technological center of the Vinci, whereas Venucci is a place of Military Power and cruelty, where the citizens slave away to create monsters of metal for fighting War.

In recent developments, several miners near Miana have died a horiffic death after discovering a strange, magical looking artifact in a large mountain mine. Giacomo and his brother have headed to investigate, along with a small military escort.

Though a full out war has not broken out, whispers are carrying far and wide that the end may be near for Miana or Venucci. But other powers are interested in the Vinci, some of which are being manipulated from afar…

Like the name suggests, this race is very much inspired by the idea and inventions of Italian renaissance genius Leonardo Da Vinci. This esthetic has grown to the Steampunk genre often depicted in Japanese anime by the likes of Hayao Miyazaki and Katsuhiro Otomo. The Vinci in the game likewise draws from all these sources to create a nation that is technological but in an anachronistic Victorian sort of way. Their units in the game are grand, expensive and powerful mechanical contraptions and flying machines. This race seems good for those who like a more defensive booming strategy.

Cuotl

The Cuotl possess Technology so advanced it is like Magic. The technology was brought by the false gods of the Cuotl, Aliens whose Spaceship crashed onto Aio thousands of years ago.

The gods were not seen for a thousands years, according to some accounts. In any case, they brought an artifact to Aio which corrupted Sawu and almost destroyed the Alin, although unintentionally. When they did emerge from the crashed Spaceship, they used fear in the locals of them to stop any resistance, while they (Xil, Shok and Czin) killed everyone in power and set up themselves as Gods.

Each god has different ‘powers’. Czin is the god of death, and so he has fearsome poisoning and destruction powers. Xil is the god of the Sun, and so has powers to call down beams of light, setting fire to and even melting many enemies! Shok is the god of Storm, and has powers over the sky, such as Hurricane, Lightning and Thunder.

They used the advanced technology their civilisation posseses to create very powerful units, which are themed on each god – Death Snakes for Czin, Storm Disks for Shok, and Sun Idols for Xil and so on.

There is a rebel group called the Fallen who use captured technology to oppose the Gods, but they are no real threat to the Gods, although they may become one…

The race is inspired by the Mayan civilization as the name implies, but in Rise of Legends they take their origins from conspiracy theorist works like “Chariot of the Gods”. The Cuotl, thusly is an advanced alien race that crashed on the planet of Aoi, where the Alim and the Vinci were at war. The Cuotl survivers with their magic like advance technology, subjugated some of the local inhabitants and set themselves as gods. So they start of fairly weak with “native troops”, but later gain access through their mastery of energy to powerful megalithic monstronsities to destroy their opponents. This race would probably be best described in RTS terms as a boomer.