Terrance888
Discord Reigns
Update 16: Many Hues of Blood
800 Years into the Bronze Age
Once, I was a man. Then, I discovered Civilization IV. More importantly, I discovered CFC Story and Tales. And then the crown jewels of my mortal life: I discovered NESing.
After two years of turmoil, of terror, of badly rhyming verse and ungrammatical prose, I have achieved apotheosis. I have become of the few, the mighty. I have become a NESer.
But even so, mighty forces of Chaos and Evil sought to derail me from my path to Mod hood. Discord allied with Real Life, throwing friends, enemies, frenemies and school work in my path. Totalitarian figures known as Parents signed a Pact to stop fighting each other and focus on me instead. Flaming walls were established, time control, extra curriculars. All to prevent me to achieve my goal.
But I have side stepped and overcome each and every difficulty. And so I established, as a Moderator at Last, the world of TerraNES.
But the forces of Chaos are thus renewed. Junior Year is upon you call the parents, You must get a job! And apply for college! And take a dozen standardized tests until you get perfect scores! And sleep before twelve oclock! And stop reading novels or NES!
They fear my power to create entire worlds while they are shackled to the wrench of Society.
You cant says real life. You have friends, rivals, homework, schoolwork, essays, projects, reading, writing, grammar, science, math, history, AP coursework, debate! You cant abandon them!
They fear my power to create my own reality.
Here I stand before you all, for I have returned from the Abyss of Real Life. I have applied for jobs and colleges. I have taken the tests and await their replies. I have satisfied friends, frustrated rivals, finished schoolwork, completed homework, wrote essays, created projects, comprehending reading, utilized grammar, understood science, calculated math, investigated history and reviewed my AP coursework.
And the reality of TerraNES, once more endowed with I, its imperfect, but irreplaceable Moderator, is once again alive.
Mississippi
And so we arrive at the growing empire of Nanekatae. Soldiers march north to the growing military town of Katan, subjugating the farming tribes there and bringing them into the Empire. To the west, combat grows heavy against the Pawnee tribes, who gave as much as they took, but were slowly forced back. In their refugee-filled villages, chiefs are discussing unity in the face of the seemingly unstoppable empire. (Nanekatae -1 Warrior -1 Spearmen +1 Domestic)
Meanwhile, the Kumberland and Seneca confederations met each other and created a pact of trade and peace among them. They both trained their soldiers hard over the years, bringing in new weapons and techniques. In addition, Kumberland also expanded southward while Seneca slowly settled towards her downstream neighbor. (Kumberland +1 Domestic, Seneca +1 Trade)
Meanwhile, from east of their newly conquered provinces came messengers from a Capone tribe settling beside a massive lake. In their central settlement distant trade routes bring large amounts of metals from the north, giving them a well armed military.
From the south, barges towed by poles were seen in the distant waters, always stopping below the rapids. The barges seem to be full of goods for trade with the local tribes there.
Western Seas
As the Druids of Tarase slowed down their conquest and made a pact with Mediolaun, great events are occurring on what is called variously New Sarkov, New Valyria, Iberia, Tartes, Leonian or even San Lorenzo. The Bokonist Kingdom of Leon marched on a wave of conquest, while Ildaris absorbed straggling Drakan faithful and new converts alike. Meanwhile, the small Kordoban states received a jolt of action as Leon finishes a new road network, giving birth to two states dealing with trade that goes around the coast of the entire, multifariously named, peninsula.
The Druids of Tarase, once of the great Sufrenkish Horde, have begun settling down in earnest. They asked-or more like demanded- peace and compliance from the Kingdom of Mediolaun in exchange for reciprocation. This offer was quickly accepted and the border established with a series of tombstones marking the Death of War. While Tarase organizes their spreading confederacy and begun fighting the Faithful and strange Exnotists and Zirilists to the south, Mediolaun trains their army with the newest druidic tactics the Tarasens brought from the north and used them in great effect against Faithful holdouts. (+Tarase Confederacy, Kingdom of Mediolaun +1 Domestic)
Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Leon sets off on a strong foot in a series of conquests. The Pyrenees were cleared of annoying barbarians and its mines tapped for use in the great forges. Meanwhile, Corsica is wiped clean of the petty warlords with extreme prejudice. Then, the Bokonist King turned his eye on the Druids of Vascony. A large army poured over the passes, fighting the wily and experienced Warriors they found there. It was too much for the Vascons, and after dealing great casualties they retreated to the north, sealed the passes, and surrendered to the centralizing Alfrenkish kingdom. (Leon -1 Warrior -4 Spearmen -3 Archers +Urban +++Domestic-Confidence(size, new religions))
In Vascony itself the cities and towns were captured and even now, Bokonist readers sing the calypsos in the streets. In the countryside, the Vascon druids dispersed in the tall forests and connected with the growing colony at Coruna. The entire northern coast is, but for Leon Vascony, druidic.
At the same time, Leon built a great road network to help stitch together its massive holdings. Trade increased, especially in the southern regions far from the Elbo river or the coast. With growing connection with the Ildaris Faithful becoming a viable trade route and this road network brining wealth into Kordoban, two states formed, Kadiz holds the rock of Gibraltar and thus the fate of the growing Ildaris-Leon trade route, while Lamari attached itself to Leons road network, managing the trade of most of Kordoban to and from the growing Kingdom. (Leon +Trade)
As for Ildaris, assimilation, collection and conversion were the name of the game. Having beaten most of the tribes earlier in their march, most of them didnt struggle and converted as the borders grew and the population swelled. A message sent through the trade routes reached Coruna, and slowly filtered north. A growing trade route connects southward to the Kingdom of Kadiz, where it supposedly enters the sea once plied by Provence and other Faithful nations. (++Domestic+Trade)
Meanwhile, on Sardinia itself the warlord of Sassari to the north fought the Republicans in the old Sardican capital to a standstill. Sassari was once a penal colony of Valyria in its glory days, and now it houses many troops. Cagliari is a larger and wealthier city, but it is eerily quiet, which gardens growing in the rubble of destroyed buildings and the Senate in constant argument. If they could bring their resources to bear, they might be able to defeat the King of Sassari If. Both nations call out to their neighbors, seeking aid against their foes.
Eastern Seas
There was a big commotion in the center of Doussa, as a traveling Moserean bard took to the stalls and begun plying their skill on their musical instruments. Voices rise and fall, swords flash and clash, and above all two men, a brash youth playing Hereosy and an old man who narrates the tale spoke, their voices echoing in the heart of Doussa as they spread the tale of the seafaring hero.
They said his journey began as a weapons supplier for the Varnan and Katanic armies. He, in his infinite overconfidence, tried to supply both sides by himself and watched as the Katanic forces south of Varna was outflanked by the terrible Hounds of Doria, and he himself sailed in the save the Crown Prince of that great empire from the filed fangs of the beasts. He brought him back to the stone shelled city of Kosa, and was rewarded.
They said that he carried his boat over land along the great roads of Katan, paved with bones and gravel. That he barely escaped the Dorian Warparty after it reached the sea. That he visited the great hall of the Mountain King and seen the face of the Triclops who leads the Dorian Horde, and they said that he visited the demigods of the Dorian tribes making council and conflict in its freshly bloodied halls.
(Katan-4 Spearmen -1Archer-1 Urban-2 Domestic)
They said that he hid among the great grain wagons and ships of the Katanic army, and that he saw siege engines the size of fifty men launch mountains of stone. That the might of Katan formed a great bridge of ships between Apulia and Epirus. They said that he entered the city of the Apulians, and fought the selfish-trolls who dwelled within its walls, and opened the gate to the Katanic army, and cut off the Great Phallus of their guardian gods statue. (Katan +Seige Engines-6 Spearmen -1 Solarian -1 Archer -29 Curraghs +1 Urban +1 Domestic +1 Trade +5 Loot)
They spoke of how he fled the wrath of the High King of War, and of how he found himself a new ship of refugees in dock, and how they left for the great island. They spoke of the great smoking mountain and the bountiful vegetation growing from the ash of the dead. They spoke of his visit to Utica, and the great dust of the nomads who sailed the sand like he does the sea. They spoke of a shining city built into the volcano, and of the great life he lived there, and of the wrath of Ziril when he spurned her and left, and of the great volcanic stone that wreaked his ship as he headed south. (Utica +Sicily Coast +++Domestic+Research)
They spoke of his arrival at the city of Sin, a great whirlwind of avarice and extortion. They spoke of the gigantic vaults of the city of Novaricum, the ever present spies of the Trade Union, and the wailing of the Apulian refugees he found. He escaped the city and stole a ship, leaving the Great Phallus as his payment. They spoke of the windless days where they rowed and rowed, and of great storms and terrors extracted upon him by the strange gods of Egypt in their great riddle game with the Lord Exnot. They spoke of how he gave Exnot the answer to a great riddle, and how the Lord guided him to the Levant where the Lord and His followers aided him.
They spoke of the Knights of Exnot and their great chivalry, and their journey to see the holy sites of Katan City, and of Shamammu, and of Kitalo, and how he aided them against the bandits of the wild Hurrians and how they refused to let him return home from hence. They spoke of his journeys to the far east where a god has a thousand faces, and where strange beings floated above the mountain tops.
They spoke of his final voyage home, evading the great Sea Serpent and the great Whirlwind of Khand, of how he made his way to the long river and the fertile banks where the waters named itself a God. And of how he reconciled with the Crown Prince of Kosa, and his final journey home.
Hereosy, they named. The people nodded. The details are perhaps weird, but they change with every telling. Several youths in their enthusiasm called to join the military and to see the world like their hero. Older men returned to their craft with more intensity, dreaming of the day when their armor saves the next Heros life, and thus reward him for his work. Life goes on in Doussa, at least until the next traveling show arrives from the sea.
And so the crowd dispersed to their labors. As the ringing of hammers and the pumping of bellows started again, some wondered about the strange grumbling from their Iordane servants. Shrugging, they looked back towards the future, prayers to Exnot and Kitab upon their lips. (Doussa+Domestic+Trade)
Nile
In the end, Egypts victory is as inevitable as the floods upon which it was built. The last desperate Kuhorsehockyes were utterly destroyed in their ancient hold, their culture erased from history, their people scattered as menial slaves throughout the Empire. (-2 Chariots, -3 Spearmen, -2 Archers, -5 Curraghs, -1 Monoreme, +2 Loot, +1 Domestic)
Even in the desert, luck seems to blow sand in the eyes of the natives as the Egyptians find one Oasii after another, driving raids deep into the desert and pushing rival tribes away from the fertile valley while nurturing any allies. (-2 Chariots, -1 Spearmen -3 Archers)
As the soldiers of Egypt march and rode, the administrators, scholars, and governors labored to rebuild the war-torn Empire. In Nubia the land was irrigated and the cataracts are carved. In Abydos the warehouses were rebuilt. In northern Kush, roads and mines were carved into the valley walls as irrigation brought water high onto Cliffside terraces far above the river below. (+4 domestic +1 urban +confidence)
The end of sustained war brought a return of trade, as well as the arrival of two new forces. The strange sailors of Dakinsa began to appear ever more often in their ports, ancient, new, or forcibly opened from what was once the trade confederation. With them came knowledge of a certain formula. Excited scholars, working with their own texts and with gangs of bronze-workers who turned out hundreds of shields a year developed and perfected this new form of easily worked Bronze, bringing the civilization into technological parity with many of the other great powers of the world. (+2 trade + bronze age)
For Axum, the ousting of the Trade Council and the coming of peace was not a moment too soon. Stabilizing just in time to prevent a complete mercantile overthrow by the Dakinsan sailors, their heavy tribute prevented them from paying the soldiers who stood by their new king, arousing discontent but understanding- most preferred to not see first hand what it felt like under the Egyptian hammer. Their colonies voiced anger and dismay; they doubt even if Axum falls they would feel the Egyptian Lash, and they rankle at the heavy taxes levied to pay the Egyptian tribute, and future taxes to pay their heavy debts. Their neighbor of Eterika, however, came off strong with the completion of various projects side-tracked by the war and are in a much better position to squeeze the Dakinsan merchants as they wander by. (-1 Confidence +1 Trade +1 Domestic)
Levea
Hyak began expanding in earnest east of Hurria and Shammamu into the highlands of Zargatu, or what they call the natives of that region. In reality, the natives to the north are also known as the Iordanes to the Doussa Exaltation, and are famed for the provision of crucial labor in building the growing city-state in exchange for some trappings of civilization. Southward, they found remnants of old trade routes heading eastward. With the bronze boot of the Qarabu securing these paths, the ancient mercantile centers to the east are located, drawing barbaric and somewhat sedentary people together alike around their markets of exotic and strange goods. (+Domestic -1 spearmen -1 archer)
In Levea proper, the alliance between the Medean, Hyakkid and Boukaen peoples grow ever stronger. The royal families of Medea and Hyakkid are entwined with the marriage of Kargash-sar, Avatar of Takarzi with Azadoh, princes of the Shahara of Medea. Boukae openly accepted a deeper relationship with their Hyakkid overlords even as they receive disturbing reports from the south. This relationship was given a great boon in the form of Dakinsa trade routes growing at a rapid pace, which, combined with Hyakkid subsidies and spending, allowed growth and reconstruction of war-torn Aramya. (+1 Urban +1 Trade)
As for Hormun and the Levantine League, the growth of trade from Dakinsa and Egypt was nothing but good news. Hormun received a burst of growth as they settled new colonies despite the growing religious tensions between the traditional Kitabalists and the Takarzite variants, as well as the growing Hindu population by the docks. The League truly benefited from the fall of Apulia, quickly picking up the slack in trade and warily moving fleets into the central and western seas near a colony, called Woet, placed between Utica and Novaricum,
Of other news is the growth of the enigmatic Exnot and his barrel oale. A massive pilgrimage was organized and guarded by the Knights of the Codex, brining great prosperity along the routes and visiting holy sites at Katan City, Shammamu and Kitalo. This made a great impression on many native followers, and some wonder of the relationship between the passive but humanistic Exnot and the mighty warrior Takarzi.
OOC: I dont know a lot about the peoples of the Iranian peninsula, so bear with me here.
Khand
As Dakinsa looks outward once more, their growing dominance of Khand is never more secured. The Kali Temple brought home a domestic shrine for the faithful, even as their trade ships became ever more aggressive across the world. Massive fleets were sent to far off fables of Zanzibah and Xilan. Wealth flowed into the Capital and her subject cities as Rajs and Rajpaylas grew wealthy off the excesses and barbarians aligned themselves with their paymasters. And yet, as this time period nears its end a strange discord can be felt in the air. (+RC++Domestic++Trade+Culture+Confidence)
The Axumite colony in Somalia they would have to rely on supplies has fallen to the natives. The colonial fleet, nearly out of supplies, returned to their base where their starved colonies joined the already existing population, swelling the town into the hills.
(+1 ep refunded form failed colony)
Several of the nearby Axumite colonies are even raising the question of forming their own, Khand Sea League separate from their indebted, destitute and defeated homeland. Others, looking at the great subsidies of the Dakinsan government and its growing fleet, wish to join the its already existing system instead. Axum has maintained its garrisons in the area, but still they grow ever more restless.
And their great expedition sent to the fabled east failed to return. Over fifty longboats and larger, barge-like trade ships have departed from the rebuilding ex-capital of Atanka, but only three messenger ships returned at their played stages, the others are lost in the void: as some say, fell off the edge of the world.
And their allies are beginning to agitate as well. The sailors of Gujarat, who once introduced the sea to their Dakinsan allies and traded alongside them, are increasingly shut out of a market dominated by their elsewhile friends. A raging debate begun as chief butted heads with chief, some calling to join Dakinsa, others to invade it, and still others to turn their attention to the hopefully bountiful interior they had been slowly colonizing, and to expedite the process with bronze and blood.
So too, does debate rage in the Daretokiman kingdom. The Retokiman merchant lords of the Padavari wanted to stage a coup of the defunt dynasty, so that they can form a large army (hopefully of the vagabonds that are appearing in increasing numbers) and completely conquer the Bengali tribes of the south. The mercenary forces, mostly composed of wandering Aryan and Gujarati youths, battled and failed to destroy the Royal Army, but with the southern nobles already at a tipping point, this incited them to rebel. Even as the south turn into a blood bath around the last remaining loyal district, the Padavari rebuilt their army and sought to tempt the now weakened Royalists for a second attempt to save the collapsing empire.
The quickened flow of Aryan youths into Daretokimas, obstinently to fight for one (or both sides) of the rapidly expanding civil war led to growing border conflicts. Aryan chiefs wished their men to fight for glory in the war to the south, formerly loyal Aryans begun turning their opinions against the Dakinsan government even as other loyal Aryan tribes, denuded of their able-bodied men, are destroyed and absorbed by hostile ones. The Gujarati Macemen, by now almost a relic of a simpler, more barbaric age, fought mace to dagger in these internecine border conflicts. (-2 Gujarati Macemen)