Update 6
Green Death and Grey Skies
300 Years into the Bronze Age (2750-2700 B.C.)
Italy:
Linky
Northern Europe
Osisimied enters a time of peace. They built a golden monument to their chief God Tanaris, the wielder of thunder, and unified their religion and their culture. They also invested in the growth of their new cities and brought new citizens into their nation, building a new city based on growing numbers of farmers by the riverside.
Other Armorican cities along rivers begun growing as well. They meet a new people who called themselves Ostavans to the east.
Dumonos also begun conquering their neighbors after unifying their clan. Rudimentary trade has begun between the two states across the Dividing Sea.
The Plague Lands
The Plague struck in two waves. The
plague that had struck Atyria is not very deadly; but had a habit of lingering on; indeed the initial wave of death lasted sixteen years there. The plague that struck the Nomads of Dakinsa is short but brutal, usually ending in less than three years because after three years
there arent that many people left to kill. Whether the differences are caused by the terrain they traveled through or the different cultures, it is unknown, but both can be compared to the plague in China, which had lasted nine years.
In
India, Dakinsa Rajs was taken by storm early,
the plague following right behind the migrating nomads. The Rajdom sends initiates to killed the sick who are beyond recovery with a knife struck cleanly across both jugulars and the windpipe. This eventually became a ritual among their people after the
Plague. This
plague left almost as suddenly as it has arrived, managing to kill two out of five people along the Indus river.
[There is the Green of Life, its beauty is unbound
Then: the Green of the Death, dropping all to the ground
May you feel this pain last, mercy from a blade of bronze
-Prayer of the Initiated]
Dakinsa Raj had nearly four decades to recover, and recover it did. Slowly their population returned.
The Nomads, aided by the Gujaratic Macemen, beat back even less civilized nomadic squatters and rebuilt the two mining towns on the mountains. Bronze working was given a shock during this time as well, for as the survivors inherited much land, they often brought fresh tools to help them cultivate as much as possible in anticipation of the next generation. This plague has hit hard on their confidence, and the Raj needs to rebuild the peoples and the Rajpaylas trust, and soon.
The
Gujarati tribes suffered far less than the Raj. Indeed, they expanded their lands northward when empty and unclaimed lands were ripe for the taking. However, they still respected their deal with the Rajdom and didnt take any land actively held by loyal Raj citizens; the fact that they took so much is in itself an indicator of how much the citizens look to far closer leaders in times of crisis.
[Some say that the Green Death caused the Collapse.
They are liars.
The Collapse has been since ever since the Third Emperor slaughtered fifty thousand Yetans at his wedding. The Collapse has been since Imperial Armies of the Fifth King retreated from Daretoki, showing the Retokimans that yes, they can resist. The Collapse has been since the last Emperor locked himself away from the people to party, joyously within the seven rooms, until the Masque of the Green Death found him, and smote him and all his knights and all his men; dead.
Why do all blame nature, when all it did was nudge the last, crumbling support? I
(vomit stains)-Journal of a Survivor]
For the
Patni Empire, this ancient land simply collapsed under its own weight into three rival kingdoms. The northern
Retokiman Confederacy is a rival of the more loosely organized
Daretoki Confederacy. The heartland of the Patni Empire has leadership taken over by the
Vanasi Kingdom, after the capital was gutted by plague and fire. To the south, the Yetahorsehockye farmers won their freedom and formed the
Yetahorsehockye confederacy. The most immediate impact is that Daretoki now dominated trade on the Ganges river (well, as much as it can with the anatagonism of Retokiman curraghs) and gained much wealth playing the factions off each other.
We now follow the devastated trade routes to
Hormun. The little citystate, by its small size, recovered rather quickly by brining in nomadic cousins. However, it did kill off many of the old leadership, especially Aramyan specialists. Following behind them were Dakinsan migrants and merchants, who recovered at the same time Aramya suffered her own
plague
a series of civil wars leave us with two rival city-states. The Aramyan-dominated Hormun, and the Dakinsan
Xiras.
Now we arrive, once again, to
Mesopotamia. It took this deadly form of the
plague nearly a decade to arrive here. The last decade of the last era saw the rise of a new pair of dynamic kings, that of Autumn and Rubric. They begun by expanding the city of Sarte to accommodate more workers
which helped them build their ambitious projects. Autumn drew designs for the Great Library which will record not only all literature of the Aramyans, but that they can find. Autumn also planned a new government, a new religious system, and a new society headed by the Council of Viziers, so that all the information in Levea can flow through the fingertips of the Dual Kings. Rubric, meanwhile, managed the more practical aspects of state and oversaw the expansion of their elite Chariotry forces.
[He turned enraged, lifting his head, opening his eyes wide and maddeningly, like some Aramyan king of the past
and began a fit of pointing and screaming absurd prophecies about each man and their family. He built a mountain of fates while being manually removed from the courtyard, the further he got, the louder he became to compensate for the distance. At the summit of his mountain of preposterous prophecies, he said quite profoundly, that all would die by, a great
. a great
a great plague!
By this time, he was out of the gates of the palace, and the people of the streets could hear his final prophecy, it became a rumour through the streets of Danae that the gods were upset. Not a single one of the many prophecies Moser made came true about the king and the viziers, not a damn one, and life continued normally.
-A Philosopher Among the Dead; Tablet Autumn and Moser]
The
plague struck like the executioners axe, smashing Aramya bodily and crushing their people. The heavily crowded cities of the Aramyan Homeland, the source of centuries of colonists, were instantly left empty to crumble. This virulent
plague flourished in Aramya, and although it lasted only that summer it burned through half their population. It is said that the rivers dammed and flooded from the amount of corpses, and that those alive are those damned by the Gods to survive on the flesh of the dead.
[We cannot respect the importance of trade, until it stopped as if it had struck a wall.
Every day, dozens of Barges arrive from Ortun and beyond, full of foodstuffs and resources. Every day, a caravan arrives from the exotic lands of the North and the West; even the far east (beyond Boukae) full of flavorful fruits and spices.
In an instant; gone. Suppliers, plantations, merchants, contracts, buyers, sellers
souls. All gone.
However, despite the fact that there are no grain within a ten-days walk, nor fruit for a months walk. There are plenty of food. I am currently enjoy the brain of a bureaucrat, and it is as tasteless and numb as expected. However, his arm twitches as I slice into it, which amuses me to no end. Stupid tax collectors.
-A Philosopher Among the Dead; Tablet Of Tradesmen and Tax Collectors]
However, Rubric did survive the
plague (Autumn was one of the first dead, arranging a contract with some Hormunite merchants), and he came out a changed man. After appointing another King from the House of Kartar, he set about following his brothers plans to the letter instead of his own. The Library was set well along its way with the addition of nearly a thousand tablets from an unknown Philosopher (one of the first of his kind), who wrote nearly a hundred by himself, as well as copying old tales. The
plague also wiped clean the Bureaucracy and the Priesthood, allowing him to advance ahead the schedule of his brothers plans. Exactly ten years after his brother died, he declared that Aramya is now an Exaltation, a bureaucratic statement of unity among the military, religious, political and economic leadership, drawing both on the bloodlines of Nir Aram as well as the blessings of individual skills. The next day, he died.
One last note is the repopulation of Aramya. Although
Boukae itself is opposed to Aramya, and conquered itself a spot along the river during the chaos, many Semitics decided to migrate into the new state. They brought many new ideas into the Aramyan culture, including the idea of the endless battle between gods, overt and covertly, which affects history on land. Meanwhile, the
Zatruns conquered several formerly-Parush northern towns and are currently resettling Stoclassis. Ortun has dissolved into small city states, of which Hyak declared protection only for Ortun itself, and none of the others.
As we reach Hyak, we start to see the affects of the Slow Plague, which hung around for decades or more. While it took barely a decade total for the Plague to finish in India, and another for it to travel up to Hormun and into Levea, it took a decade itself before the plague started in earnest in the Empire. Were getting ahead of ourselves, so lets look at the first record of the slow plague at Atyria.
Atyrias plague came slowly and left slowly, like Mono, or the Gripe. For sixteen years the population declined, year after year, as the plague pared off the weak only few thousand at a time.
[Rumors. By Gods. I can handle plagues but I cant handle rumors.
Because of these rumors, half our troops deserted for their wheat fields. Half of our strong young men who would have no problem stomaching some vomiting disease. Because of these rumors, the Codex is sealed; after the priests died (the old crones!), we had to rely on the few copies we had until someone went on a quest after the war to find it. Because of these rumors, people turned away from the animist spirits towards the great gods, and legends arose.
When the plague arrived, it really wasnt that bad
(inscription ends here)]
This
plague oversaw a transformation of Atyrian society as a quarter of their population died. The unifying state became more important even as society fell apart, for they ensured that starving villages would still receive grain from the Granaries built during the last era. Exnotism became the religion of Atyria, with a new commandment; the dead shalt be burned. At the end of the plague, funeral pyres dot all across the Atyrian peninsula as a decades-worth of corpses are burned.
As Atyria revived, it brought aid to other states still in the languishing grasp of the Western
Green Death. It also had a side effect of establishing the
Green Death south of the Caucasian mountains, where it started moving south into Mesopotamia and west into Anatolia
Although
Byzantinos has been struck by
the Plague,
Troy has cut off trade with her prima dona colony in the nick of time, sinking a barge full of plague escapees. For now, the
Illians are safe from the plague moving south, at the cost of confidence within the Confederation.
The
Plague trickled west like a slug, slowly oozing over the borders and valleys of the Anatolian peninsula. The tribal peoples of the interior and the Koyunlu are not unscathed, but were left relatively easy with less than a decade of plague taking around a fifth of their people. Soon, the many regrowing villages
towns
cities
nations
they found an opportunity.
[Why rebuild your wealth? Why resow your land? There are but another village a weeks march from here! Theyre too weak to protect themselves! Theyre larders are full for they are too sick to eat! Their fields are planted and sown and ripened, only that they are too weak to harvest!
Let us fight for them! Let us eat for them! Let us rule for them! Onward, my friend! To War!]
Just to the west lay rivals, enemies, still suffering the plague. All across
Koyunlu armies are risen, warriors trained, and war declared. Villages full of victims are captured and sacked, their land taken for future settlement. The few towns in this era were razed, replaced by growing centers of warfare and trade just upstream of their location. The Kingdom of Katan, however, utilized this Plague completely to their advantage in a different way.
Hearing of a land of gold and towers to the far western coast, they mobilized a great army of conscript spearmen to follow their regulars, and launched them westward behind their migrating families, they fought and destroy anyone who resisted, while letting their migrating people handle the rest. In less than five years, they have reached the Gyrid Frontier, already pierced by other migrants.
The
Katan war machine took over and pierced the border garrisons, allowing their migrating and conquered colonists to swarm over the landscape. Lyr, despite still under the influence of the
plague, sent a small army to stop them. The Katan army avoided the Gyrids until they were weakened by the plague that kept striking their camps, then they swept over their lines while at march, using their Solarian axemen to great affect.
Finally, in the vacuum of that great battle, they captured Aladria and a fleet of ships. However, the path westward is now blocked by a fresh, if still small, army. And even now, rumors of the Lyratele is spreading from the locals to the Koyunlu migrants, said to be a gigantic citadel, full of troops and loot, located on the highest hill in Lyr.
[They come, messangers of the damned, behind the Death. Even as our youths lay in bed as the green demons sit upon their sleep, they come and take our land. They take our women as our men lay vomiting, too weak to fight. They take our treasures, our gods. They would take our lives as well, if it was worth their time to trouble themselves on killing a house-full of sick men.]
Northward, another band of Koyunlun migrants managed to capture the Valley of Gold, the ancient lands of
Phagria. With Ceres as their capital, their army is fed with captured loot and rivals that of any of their neighbors.
From this migration, the ideas of Polytheism is slowly spreading and overtaking the former, now seemingly powerless, animist spirits. This primitive polytheism has almost completely overtaking the older worship by the end of this era.
For
Thloryn, this
plague saw their influence decline. The loss of many merchants, and tradesmen, and the constant presence of the plague severely reduced trade. Even worse, the tribal
Macedonians invaded their colonies to the north of Boeotia and are organizing, if haphazardly, in allegiance to a warlord from Pella, a rough farming and waring valley in the heartland of Macedonia. Finally, Creten Zirilists are currently fighting a war of independence against Thloryn, taking away the lucrative income from their plantations.
However, not all failed during this time. Death concentrated the inheritance, and the rich survivors found themselves richer than ever before. The Temple of Athenai was completed during this time, and Thloryn, despite losing influence across the Aegean, is gaining once more in cultural influence.
For
Epirus, the Plague nearly wiped out the line of Pyrrhus. The last King Pyrrhus VII, infertile, is a Zirilist. Tormenting him is the pledges of his ancestors to, alternating, Ctesiphod, Toras-Noth, Bellevetum, Sarkov, Pella and Thloryn, and others besides. He has no heir, he has no wife, and he has only a few more years left to hold together his kingdom
for whom?
The plague continues south to the Levant around the third decade of this era, during the reign of King Resus Wadjet's-Favorite and his campaign in the Wars of the Levantine League.
Of course, we must not get to war ahead. These wars started many many years earlier.
Egypt and the Levant
Prince Nahan IV, Blessed by Isis, is an arrogant and proud man. Sent by his father on a diplomatic meeting to Byblos, he fumed at his fathers commandment to limit his aggression. So he marched through Raffa without incident; So he marched through Acre without incident; So he marched through Jerusalem without incident
[All Jerusalem fell silent upon the sight of the Prince of the Pharaoh. His skin glistened with oil in the sunlight, forming a glowing sheen across his body. His great golden ornaments sparkle, and yet he does not bow his head to their weight. All of Canaan watch in fear
and admiration.]
When he marched through Tyre, he found that it was actually an Island. Fuming by now, he marched through the land settlement of Ushu to find
the Damascan army formed up at the cross roads. (incidentally, they declared peace with Hyak) They arent moving, they arent marching
theyre just standing there and pitched camp. Right across his line of march
HIS, Prince Nahan! He who is bless by Isis! He who is the heir of the Pharaohs!
Fuming with anger, he shouted profanities at the encamped Sirians, formed up his vanguard of twenty Chariots to be followed by seven hundred spearmen, and charged the tents. It is recorded that his anger lit his arrows on fire (others think he used pitch to burnt he tents) with his divine power, and he fired into the tents and ran them over. His soldiers swarmed the tents next to the road, tearing them down while the main body of the Army marched through, with detachments sent to reinforce the spearmen.
A days march from Tyre, the combat report reached the smug prince; There are no casualties on either side, for the Damascan soldiers left after pitching their tents to the market. However, the Tyrian town of Ushu was burnt to the ground from the flaming tents, and Tyre blamed the Egyptians. Nahans anger boiled over, but he still had a mission to complete. He sent a message back to his father while he continued on to Byblos.
His father, upon hearing the news, became deathly ill. Even then, he knew that his son wont have the patience to assign logistics for a proper invasion. Until he laid upon his death bed, he reorganized the navy, built up the army, and purchased supplies for war, despite his intentions.
The mission itself is a success. Byblos gave fealty and tribute to the Pharaohs of the Nile, and Nahans army encamped outside to prevent Damascan aggression.
Then came war almost as soon as Nahan IV became Pharaoh. After leaving his army in Byblos (The Division of Isis), he marched another army (The Division of Ra) through Canaan, in support of the growing revolt in the western seaports. Its upon this news that Cyrus, fearing more Egyptian commercial competition, arranged a meeting of the League. There, they declared that if an Egyptian army marches north of Jerusalem, there will be war. Nahan IV snorted, marched to Acre, and sent a detachment and his navy to besiege Tyre.
Meanwhile, Nahan himself was busy invading Damascus. Here are the forces for the First War of the Levantine League.
Tyrian Defense Force (4600Men/12Land/36Sea): 60 Curraghs, 4 Spearmen (1.5), 4 Archers (1.5)
Tyrian Seige Force (1250 Men/3Land/34Sea): 68 Curraghs, 1 Spearmen (1.5) 1 Archer (1.5)
Damascan Army(5700Men/15Land): 3 Archers (1.5), 1 Spearmen (3), 5 Spearmen (1.5)
Isis Division(2500 Men/10.5Land): 2 Spearmen (3), 1 Egyptian Chariot (1.5), 2 Archer (1.5)
Ra Division(3400 Men/15Land): 1 Spearmen (3), 3 Spearmen (1.5), 1 Egyptian Chariots (5), 1 Egyptian Chariots (2.5)
Tyres new harbor and drydock can build ships faster than the Egyptians can send them. Their two harbors confounded the Egyptian fleet; they can bottle up the Levantine navy, or their merchants, but not both. Their new tall walls confounded assault, and attempts at diplomacy was meet with fury by the defenders. The Egyptians said that they only want Tyre to not join Damascus; they said that the League guaranteed their independence. Eventually, a major fleet action occurred after Egypt tried to blockade both harbors, leading to the Levantine Navy smashing through the blockade and ending the siege.
This took many years to resolve, but slowly the Egyptian navy was pushed away from Tyrian harbors.
(Cyrus: -13 curraghs (0.5) +7 Ships Experiance; Tyre:-3 curraghs (1), -7 curraghs (1.5), rest (1.5) gain experiance; Egypt: -25 curraghs (0.5 +10 Ships experiance); Byblos: -4 Curraghs (0.5), rest gain experiance )
While Tyre held out the siege with the aid of Cyrus, Damascus sees two armies marching for it; the Isis Division from Byblos and the Ra Division from Acre. They marched off and defeated the Isis Division in a series of battles, using their spearmen to over power their numerically smaller lines while their archers neutralize their rivals. Against the Ra division, they lost a major battle due to Nahans aggressive use of his Chariots, forcing the Sirians to retreat, burning the fields behind them.
Nahan held the siege of Damascus, and moved the reorganized Isis Division up to augment his manpower. If he waited, perhaps he could have won. He has a secure supply from Byblos and another one from Canaan while Damascus only have a few years source of food and no wells-only several cisterns.
The hot-headed prince grew impatient. He led an expedition of Chariots eastward to raze Sirian towns under Damascus (they also had walls-not as large as Ctesiphod or Tyre or Damascus, but enough to prevent a Chariot assault
or Hyak raids), he led ladder assaults up the walls and some of the first siege towers. He lead battering rams and fire archers, agents to open gates and commandos to open some secret door or another. To no avail.
He decided that enough was enough after hearing that the siege of Tyre was broken. In the end, he got them to guarantee Tyres independence (as if we didnt already), burned the rest of the Sirian countryside, and went back to Egypt.
He returns home to rebuild his battered army and navy, a task eagerly taken by his son King Resus Wadjets Favorite, who rebuilt the Egyptian Navy to an even greater height (over a hundred auxilaries to augment their core of 35 Curraghs) and sent expeditions. It is during the start of these expeditions that the Plague left Gyrid and struck Cyrus and Thloryn. Avoiding Aegean, his ships explored Italy more fully than Terefiti II did in the last era (one reason might be the uneasy peace caused by the bloodied armies fear of each other.). Upon returning, he found what seemed to be an Cyrian army besieging Byblos.
In actuality, it was the Phoenician city of Ugarit, granted independence in exchange for allegiance to Cyrus. And it is besieging Byblos. During the siege, they started using those who died by the Green Plague as human shields on the ladder charges, as they soak up the arrows pretty well, and if they push the ladder down it provides a nice cushion.
In the Second War of the Levantine League, Cyrus protected their city states independence
Resus angrily told them to back off
Damascus sends Hyak mercenaries they bought for Ugarit to the siege
Resus invades Damascus again in retaliation. In the end, all it did is that it brought the Green Plague through Canaan, where it is just now setting roots. Remosus III died of the Green Plague on Campaign, and brought it into the heart of Egypt
Domestically, trade suffers as the Aegean slacks off and war consumes the Levant. Canaan collapses and Acre managed to defend itself long enough to build low walls and declare itself a city state. The Green Plague has just begun sprouting in Avaris and Dametia. The Pharaohs, in their extra-egyptian wars, established local Nomes to manage the economy while theyre gone. The far southern nomes like Thebes and Abysos gained more and more power while the Pharaohs concerned themselves with the Delta and the Levant.
To the south, the canal on the First Cataract brought trade. Trade brought more wealth to Tos-Getha while Abu-Simel stewed. It became war and the two Nubian nations fought an ever bitter conflict while both asking the Egyptians for aid.
To the South Axum manage to avoid the Plague of the East and grew her share of the trade with Kartoros (a sympathetic Kuhorsehockye nation) and Egypt. They started the custom of boiling everything due to a dream, which led to an experiment. It is during this when they found that the old Coufhe beans they chewed tasted even better if roasted, minced and boiled.
