DominionNES2

Wait, I had to give orders this week? Bank everything.

Considering I'm missing orders for:
Northen wolf / Ulm
electric926 / Falaxan
Gem Hound / Firland
vruchten / Heldenthal
merciary / Erynini
lord_joakim / Myrde
which is to say half the participants, I think it would be better to delay the update.

If I can get orders from at least half of those missing orders by wednesday, I'll wait and write the update then. So please post and tell me if you think you can get orders by wednesday. If I get three yes by the end of the day, then I'll wait, otherwise I'll npc the missing nations this turn. In the meantime, I'll start with the West. I'll give more timee for next update and give forewarnings wrt the deadline.

coming in 8 hours.

I'll definitely have my orders in tomorrow night if you can wait?

Definitely.

ok I'll be waiting for you then.

I should be able to.

The Farmer gripped his bloody scythe in anger. They are to be healed, and yet they were blocked!

He could remember the day clearly. They were following the Hunters when they were blocked, blocked by the men of the Angel! Oh, she must be rather afraid of the Plague, wasn't see? He had cut down four of the protesting archers before a strong arm pulled him back to the mass.

Then, the army marched to kill them; can't they let him die in peace, if he was not allowed to recieve healing? And he was forced to watch as his wife and children are cut down one by one by the merciless men. And Although he fought to save them, his scythe cutting swathes into their ranks, he was still forced to flee.

He looked now down the valley in anger, as the Mallatain men burned the corpses of the Hunters.

Salvation... lost.

A strong hand appeared on his shoulder, and he turned to see a giant man.

It was Logar.

"You have always been true to Emeresan" murmured the large man, several arrow wounds were evident on his back and skin, "so he has commanded me to channel his healing."

And then he felt the warmth, like the warmth months ago, when Emeresan gave them the strength to walk to Jassar.

And he felt in himself what he gave up to recieve this gift...

"You will gather the survivers" came the voice, hissing in his ear, "You will lead them to safety. You will be their Lord... Logar"

He turned, but Lord Logar was gone.

Or was he? He looked on his hands... and they look like claws.

He looked down the valley again, and saw the men down there, burning the bodies of his family instead of proper burial, and anger, anger not fever, clouded his vision.

He will be Lord Logar, and he will lead his people to safety.

He picked up his scythe, and started looking.

Internal Turmoil

We are the black Guard

We are the Black Guard. We are the elite. We are the strongest. We are followers. We were humans. Once.
Now we are Black Guard. We are one. We are many. We are follows of The Anvil. We obey his orders.
We are not mortals. We are not undead. We are neither living nor are we dead. Our souls are not in hell nor in heaven. They are not beaneath the ground nor up high in the air. They are part of us. They are us. We are the items. We passed the stage of death. We become the death. We shall destroy the Death.
We are the Black Guard.
We are the first to charge, we are the last to leave.



We do not feel. We do not lust. We do not sleep. We do not eat. We fight. We follow. We destroy. We show no Mercy.
We are the Black Guard. We are unstoppable. A chopped off hand or leg can be reattached. A chopped off head can be reattached. We kill. We do not die. We sacrificed usselves. We are items. We are in between of life and death. We are stronger than in life, we are greater than death. We will burn our enemies. We will gut our foes. We feel nothing. We will be the first to charge into the hell. We shall destroy the Death. We are the death.



We are the Black Guard. No one is safe. Nothing is sacred. No order is too hard. We have no Mercy. We shall tear down the gates of hell We shall free all those taken by death. We shall grant them way to heaven. We are the Black Guard.
We are the Black Guard.
Noone is safe.
Nothing is sacred.
We show no Mercy.
We are not alive nor dead.
We are the death of our enemies.
We shall destroy the Death.
In the name of the Anvil, we will conquer the hell. We shall slay the Death.


Link to video.

No one is safe.
Nothing is safe.
We show no Mercy.
We are not alive nor dead.
We are the death. We shall destroy The Death.
We will tear down the gates of hell
In the name of the Anvil.
In the name of our brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers.



We are the Black Guard.
Death. Expect us.

A rustling tree branch in the wood
A squirrel jumps out with a hood
You have been caught inside
Patalnila, quick hide!
Or never be found you would

Awkward...

UPDATE THREE
Peaceful and less peaceful expansions​

Map:


In Nagapur, a merchant arrives with a huge, speaking ape held in chains. He offers to sell the ape for 2 gold, claiming the beast is both wise and strong.
In Fornalis, as Madhavali preaches the way of perfection, cures a child bitten by a serpent and performs several small miracles, king Lofar finally decides that he will accept the faith in the Pavitra Bacce and join Bhumi.

In the Machaka city of Ilfundune, Gulnops chases all the two-eyed foreigners. Some inhabitants, worshippers of the Pavitra Bacce, consider the nagas were not responsible for the loss of their eye, and resent Gulnops' naga-hunt. A most pious worshipper even walks up to one of Gulnops's officials and, saying, "I strive because i am flawed", stabs him before being overwelmed by the guards. Gulnops tortures him in order to get the names of his accomplices, without success. He then orders the whole family burned alive with the man watching. As the fanatic explains they will all be reincarnated into a better life, Gulnops fetches an old witch-doctor and jails the man for one more week. At the end of this week, the witch-doctor comes back with amulets and charms, and chants around the prisoner who is exhibited on the market square. Once the sorcerer is done, Gulnops walks to the man, extracts his eye from his forehead and places it in a bottle full of a bubbly liquid that the witch-doctor handles him. As the eye sinks into the liquid, the man's body becomes rigid. Gulnops addresses the crowd: "Now this man's soul is trapped forever inside his eye, which will survive eternally in this bottle. There will be no reincarnation for this fanatic terrorist. All those who fight the rightful justice of Machaka will be condemned according to their sins." After this incident, Gulnops extends his chase from two-eyed persons to worshippers of the Pavtira Bacce. Those who are found are reduced into slavery, imprisoned or killed. The faithful in the towns of Ilfundune and Shalu hide and pray in silence.
Meanwhile, Ungulungo marches his armies east and invades the city of Umfolongo with his hoplites backed by archers and magically summoned spiders.


Machakans and their spiders invade Umfolonfo.

In Mallitain, diseased soldiers are isolated and the northern areas of the realm are quarantined. Many quarantined soldiers die, meaning soldiers should be replaced and trained (2 gold needed to bring back unit to full strength). Roads are built to prepare some transportation between the south and the north of the country. These come in handy to provide food from the south to Jassar, which is cut from some of its traditional food sources in the north. Despite all these measures, the Yellow Plague manages to reach Jassar, maybe through some infected soldiers who went unnoticed, or some corrupted food smuggled from the north? Whatever the reason, although there are very few cases of plague for the moment, and these are isolated as soon as they are found, the plague starts spreading into the city.
Mallitain troops patrol the northwest, while Patalnila soldiers patrol in the same area. There are a few skirmishes, which usually end up in favor of Mallitain, forcing Patalnila soldiers to run away most of the time.
Captain Abamar pays for the damage caused by his flying ship in Massad, and purchases lands north of the city. He and his men bring in some new building techniques and their inclusion spurs the local economy.
In Massad, Cassiopeia finishes the growth of the Tree of Life. Using her powers and drawing strength from the desperate prayers of the diseased, she infuses the tree with her magic. It is said that, as the first flowers blossom and turn into fruits, many of the ill people passed out in a final prayer. Cassiopeia picked that apple, and gave it to a young man, who ran northwards with it towards Jassar, to feed it to the ill.

In Patalnila, Launar marches north along the shores of the lake with some soldiers, exploring the chaos. This lake looks more like a sea actually. It's vast and blocks the whole region to the north. During his march, Launar meets several fisher villages. He fords one major river and eventually reaches another river beyond which lie the lands of a city called Pythia. Launar then travels back home, and on his way back, he exhorts the villagers to embrace the faith of Emeseran, curing those he can of the diseases that seem to spread far and wide in this region, and doing so pushes back the borders of Patalnila.

In the north, the Bog serpent and Sakarlaisk lead an army across the Darkswamp into the southeast, and move up the river toward the hills until they reach Pythia proper. There, the army starts deploying when messengers come with news from Lasanak. A messenger explains that, while the chiefs Orok and Mofag were away at war, the faerie they both court invited several men in her house. Upon hearing this news, both chiefs rage and swear to go back and deal with these audacious men. The messenger hadn't finished his tale however. He explained that during a banquet she held in her house, some long-dead king was invited to the banquet. This became an attraction that drew people toward the faerie house. However, Someone imitated the faerie and managed to summon the long-dead king by himself. He lacked, however, the ability to control the undead, and the king killed his summoner, ate him and all the other participants he could catch. The undead king appeared to be an ethereal, skeletal, horned giant, called a Ditanu. He ordered everyone in Lasanak to obey him, but the locals wouldn't easily accept his rule. A fight erupted in the streets, which were ravaged, and the Ditanu left the city to gather some strength. Some soldiers followed him, trying to confront and defeat him before he could muster strength. The Ditanu is hiding somewhere near the capital. Upon hearing these news, and despite the prophet's urgings, Orok and Mofag left with some of their men at night in order to go back to Lasanak.


The Ditanu runs to hide into the Bog

Nevertheless, the Bog Serpent and Its prophet were not going to leave Pythia when they had finally reached its walls. Sakarlaisk crossed the river and maneuvered to draw the defending troops at the southeast of the city. The Bog Serpent waited for the troops to be engaged and called forth his magics to sink the city walls. The hard ground of Pythia turned into a bog, and Pythian forces tired in their heavy equipment. The fight was long and difficult for both armies. Eventually, the poison of the Darkswamp arrows and the Bog Serpent spells, along with its sheer physical power, managed to break the last defenders' morale. The remnants of the pythian armies fled, leaving their city along with as many refugees could run away. Those who remained submitted to the Bog Serpent. The victory was very expensive however, with all the vipers summoned by the Serpent killed, and most of the soldiers dead to Pythian javelins, slings and glaives.


The battle at Pythia

Heldenthal's claims on the city of Boserein having been rejected, king Alrich ponders whether to invade the country. He raises some troops, but delays action so much that it is too late to act when he's finally ready. Indeed, Taurus moves with Boeuf army from Deerholm and claims that all the lands south of the river belong to his realm. Taurus sends envoys to Boserein, who speak of peace and stability, and who are only met with scorn and chased. Taurus then sends new emissaries. These are inhabitants of Deerholm, some of them merchants who used to trade with Boserein. They describe the battle and how they lost their city, how the minotaurs trampled their defenses and broke their gates with ease. They warn that Taurus will commit a terrible bloodshed should he be resisted, and that the city's defenses are not strong enough to hold. Count Ertwulf then requests an audience with Taurus, at the end of which he agrees to become a vassal of the kingdom of Boeuf, provided he is acknowledged as leader of the city, and provided Boeuf protects Boserein from further Heldenthal intereferences. Some Boserein inhabitants decided to flee to Oberklingenbach to escape the minotaurs' rule, but most seem to accept their new king.
In Boeuf homeland, First-Son oversees the building of the Horned Temple. This vast complex is constructed in the center of Toro, a palace of stone columns surrounded by smaller buildings enclosed inside imposing walls.


The Horned Temple under construction.

In southern part of Boeuf, sheep are seen coming from the lands of chaos. They are captured by more-than-happy peasants. Some of these sheep carry in their maws scrolls of parchments written with black ink. The scrolls all read differently, but almost all are titled as 'Declaration of Decadence'. They are illustrated with small images of octopi, and talk about Emperor Sheep, the renaming of Myrde as Murder, and many things like squids, the philosophy of ferns, how to tame dragons with salt.

In Myrde, famine strikes throughout the whole land as agriculture devolves into the ridiculous. Hailstorms devastate crops, houses are damaged and left untended. Plague outbreaks strike in every town. Many people die, those who eat human corpses soon fall ill to the plague that killed their victims. The sanest inhabitants flee the towns to try to raise crops in untended fields.
To make things worse, a Niefel jarl arrives and claims ownership of the southern provinces. With noone organised to counter him, he and his retainers have little or no difficulty to ascertain his rule. It remains to be seen whether he can keep his sanity for long in this place, however.



Meanwhile in the fishman city of Tlanetzutl, from spring to autumn, those who die suddenly refuse to stay dead. On the sunrise after their demise, they rise again, alive and healed. This is problematic when a jealous husband kills his wife's lover and is killed by him the day after and they slaughter each other for days until they are forcibly separated by the burgmeister, but it generally leads people to taking more risks as death is no longer feared, until the day they realise they are mortal once again. This also has terrible effects as the nearby madmen of Myrde start assaulting the place.
Fatrasie escorts the prophet Maerfarth under the walls. There, she sacrifices him, hoping to earn some magic support from this ritual murder. Unfortunately, Maerfarth naturally comes back to life, which means the sacrifice wouldn't have been effective at all to begin with. Worse, in this place, at this particular time, he comes back to life much faster than usual. As Fatrasie cuts the prophet's squid-head and throws it at Tlanetzutl walls, it bounces back and reattaches itself. As soon as she dismembers the prophet, the limb comes back in place. Fatrasie experiences how extremely infuriating immortality can be to would-be murderers. Tired of her impossible sacrifice, and conscious that she is the only one reasonable enough to find the escaped dragon, Fatrasie orders the nearby mindmen to attack the city walls. She turns every defender she can into sheep, but the spells don't last long enough. The Myrde madmen and fanatics repeat their assaults on the city, whose defender hold them at bay. Many die on both sides, only to rise again the following day. While this seems totally natural to Myrde, many of the fishmen nerves don't withstand so much insanity going on, and quite a few turn mad and have to be sent out of the walls to join the humans of Myrde, where they try to devour Maerfarth with little success as he regenerates too fast. A small part of what remains of Maerfarth's mind now believes he is a porcupine, considering he's been stabbed with so many javelins and pierced by so many arrows that tens of shafts protrude out of his body.

C'tis scouts move along the southeastern border, expanding along the sea until they reach the end of the world and meet the border of chaos.
Northeast of C'tis, in the city of Ushrak, many men fall ill. Lizardmen take over their places and those men who try to emigrate are arrested and put into slavery under the lizardmen rule.

Samael, goddess of Ermor, flies to Helven where she demands that all those who behold her fall to their knees in worship. They do fall to their knees, but is it more out of worship than of fear is unclear.

In Alifat, copper mines are built in Naoot. A shadowy creature is sometimes seen flying over the roofs of the villages in the southern, chaotic part of the realm.

In Taernsvwyn, the tax evasion in Vanholm is happening again. After two years in hiding, those responsible are doing it once again. Caravans are sent up the rivers and across the mountains to trade with Falaxan. This provides little revenue however for lack of funding, roads and the large distance to cover across the rugged terrain.
Tin mines are built in Fenberg.
Falaxan opens their borders to Taernsvwyn, but then again, lack of roads or ships makes for very limited trade. Many archers participate in the festival.

The Marverni tribes of the Meldii region in the forest build water and windmills to enhance their grain production and even provide mechanical power to some forges.

Arcoscephale citizens of Byzantia increase the production of their silver mines and their silversmiths build new workshops to sell their wares farr and wide.

Erynini officials request the authorisation to build a temple to the Pyre in the city of Drakalor, request which is accepted by the local authorities. This spurs some discontent inside Erynini proper, where the faithful feel somewhat neglected and wish they had more places of worship of their own.

In Ulm, the Hammerer brings armors of black steel out of the forge of the Anvil. These are distributed to volunteers from the religious caste. As soon as they don the armor, their bodies meld with the metal, and they now form an elite unit of half mechanical soldiers.
While these soldiers meld with their new armors, the vine creatures that ravage the country threaten to expand. The Hammerer therefore calls the many soldiers of the land, and blesses them before leading them to battle. First, peasants and lightly armed soldiers are ordered to bring barrels of alcohol in the middle of the vine bushes. Unfortunately, the bushes are animated and move. They catch the burdened men and smother them with their vines. Some of them manage to light their barrels, but most are caught, grappled by twisting roots and killed. Flame arrows are shot at the barrels and manage to light some, causing a few casualties in the ranks of the plants, but the mindless beings don't seem to care and march towards Ulm soldiers. The peasants and light infantry who still carried barrels run for their lives, causing much confusion in the ranks of Ulm. Ulm archers then light their arrows and catch a few volleys of flaming arrows before the moving plants reach the army. When the plants close, the archers wield a torch while the heavy infantry ready their weapons which are enchanted to flame in battle thanks to the Hammerer's ritual.
The battle is fierce. The light infantry soldiers, trained to fight mostly with bows, are very ineffective in melee with their torches, which hardly ever manage to put fire to the vine things. The heavy infantry however manages to hack at the monsters efficiently, and the Hammerer backs themm with magical shockwaves that smite the monsters. The vine creatures are destroyed, but many ulmite corpses litter the field (-1 LI).


Ulm warriors hack vinemen to pieces.

High Priestess Burner moves the armies around Nijlarmund to expand Firland territory and secure food sources for the city. This expands Firland borders into the fields north of the river and claims the lands formerly under the control of Niljarmund.

Stats updated and sent.
Orders deadline:
APRIL 4th 23:00GMT
I won't be able to do much updating next week-end, and since I lacked many orders, I figure it's a good idea to give more time.
Please try to send orders earlier if possible.

I find it very hard to think of Myrde as an enemy when they are so entertaining. Lord Joakim will be the death of me. :C

nutranurse said:

I find it very hard to think of Myrde as an enemy when they are so entertaining. Lord Joakim will be the death of me. :C

Click to expand...

OOC: The fun part is that the only thing that wasn't intentional this update was that Maerfarth had such a hard time dying for the conquest of these fish-folk.

Open Your Eyes

In the dark basement chamber it was quiet. Amongst the faithful there were a few hushed whimpers but each knew the dangers of being discovered. The adults huddled in disciplined silence, their eyes steely and their jaws set in determination. A few were armed and the weapons they clutched in white-knuckled fists. The younger children whimpered, unsure what to make of their parent's sudden apprehension.

As the booted feet of the Ilfundune garrison disappeared into the night the naga continued. He was speaking primarily to a young women who had never previously met with the group. Her name is Nyonweh and unlike the rest of the group she sports a single eye in the center of her forehead instead of the two that marked the faithful apart from the majority of the Ilfundune population. She represented a new development in the “Pūrṇatā kē li'ē rāstā” (Way of Perfection) amongst the Ilfundune.

Most of the citizens of Ilfundune and Shalu would not be too worried about the affairs of faith and theology except that that, for many, it had become personal. Most knew of the Pantokrator, knew of her sacrifice, and though many had once worshipped the creator, when she stopped answering prayers, the faith had begun to fade. Then the Bhumi missionaries had arrived, establishing the new worship of the ideals, work and sacrifice of the Pantokrator, offering a means of continuing the work of the Pantokrator through perfection of their being, of her creation. For many it had struck a cord, ringing true and the faith had grown quickly. The affair would otherwise have been a quiet one except that when “Ungulungo’s Curse” struck, plucking an eye from many of the northern cities except for the faithful followers of the Pūrṇatā kē li'ē rāstā, a dichotomy was established; and so it had become personal. Seeing things through only one eye had a way of changing one's perspective so to speak. On one side were those with no faith or who worshipped one of a million small cult idols that had arisen in the wake of the Pantokrator’s passing. These were marked with a single eye. On the other were the two-eyed ones, the ones who strove for perfection of their being and who’s faith and selflessness was rewarded with a perfection of their features and immunity to the curse. Amongst the population, there was a shift. They realized that the leadership, the governor and his soldiers were fearful of the growing number of faithful. The fact that they kept their second eye indicated very clearly that they were protected by something, presumably their faith, from the curse that affected them all. Then the purges came. Led by Gunlops, they had rounded up many of the two-eyed faithful and their naga leadership and put them to death. But instead of silencing the faithful, it had only seemed to strengthen them. They would not be terrorized by the governor’s violence, would not bend a knee in fear for their lives- indeed the persecution seemed only to strengthen them as they saw it as an opportunity to strive even harder in the quest for perfection. And they sought not only to defend themselves and their lives but the everlasting souls of all the people. One had stuck at an official, knowing he would die in doing so but willing to sacrifice himself for the people. Despite his capture, torture and magical imprisonment, the act had served as a rallying call for the faithful.

And now, there were those like Nyonweh, and not a few, but many, who saw Gulnops and his violent regime as hateful and deceitful. They realized the curse was not from those who sought perfection; their teachings were beginning to disseminate throughout the population and they knew it was not in keeping with the “Pūrṇatā kē li'ē rāstā” to curse the Machakan people as they had been cursed. Indeed, their narrative, that the curse was one from their wizard-king, Ungulungo, was gaining popularity. For many it was such an obvious truth that the king and governor’s narrative had become a brunt of many jokes. Increasingly local graffiti depicted the governor and their cronies as ignorant or stupid servants of king’s lies. And Nyonweh and her brethren now sought the truth, putting their lives at risk to find and speak with the followers of the “Pūrṇatā kē li'ē rāstā”. The followers were careful, vetting these individuals carefully before admitting them to secret meetings such at this one. They were taught the teachings of the stele. In some cases the ‘truth-seeker’ would even make a pilgrimage to the lost city of Nagapur to find the stele themselves and seek their wisdom personally. Their return would invariably lead to many more conversions as the personal truth and wisdom they gained would spark faith in family and friends. The final act of these converts would be to meet with a priests and swear to strive for perfection.

And so Nyonweh had arrived at this point and the local faithful had congregated to witness her speak the vows that would make her forever one of the strivers. She whispered the words, quietly, in the quiet room, ”Maiṁ prayāsa karēṅgē.” (i shall strive). As she whispered the words, her eyes were opened and blinking, she saw, once again, the world as it should be seen, through two eyes. Now she saw the truth.

I love that image of the frost giant.

Or at least I love its caption.