Kashmir

Update is sadly going to be delayed a day or two because of family-related stuff that just came up.

OOC

I am incredibly, incredibly sorry about the very long time this update took to show up, which is also the reason it’s quite a bit shorter than usual. It’s just been a rather busy period, with me having to travel multiple times, as well as various tests and such going on, and me trying to finish up high school. I think we should be back to normal from now on, however.

Spaceman98: No they don’t encompass those logistics, and yes, you can hire mercenaries under the unit cap.

Jehoshua: You received nowhere near as much gold as you were promised; since multiple parties didn’t even give it to you. Thus your troop counts were significantly deflated from what you expected them to be.

Lokki242: I lied! I was fortunately able to fit your orders in. Sorry about that.

As you can see, the western hemisphere is now blacked out on the map. That’s because what lies there is a fun surprise! You’ll see, eventually

The stats are done; but I need time to reformat them, and thus they’ll be posted tomorrow.

Western Europe

Rather than bother fighting the pagan rebels, the armies of Arthfael merely withdraw across the straits with virtually everything their clan’s treasury could manage, content to hold onto their own power in their corner of northern Ireland and consolidate their power around their newly completed, eponymous capital on the coast, a city which has firmly established itself as Ireland’s largest. The now-securely independent state of the new Dal Riata, meanwhile, took the opportunity to secure control over the remainder of the lowlands, to become the undisputed master of Pictland.

(Arthfael: +Stability, +Economy Development)

Connacht continued solidifying its hold of its Irish neighbors. The reign of one king named Ciaran, from about 609 to 621, is considered by contemporary and later writers to be one of the most successful in the state’s history, as it subjugated nearly all of its direct neighbors, and by 625 all of Ireland pays homage and tribute to Connacht. It may not be long before a unified Eire is created, under Connacht’s stewardship.

(Irish states: -1 Infantry Company)

Elsewhere in Britain, change was afoot – literally. In what was termed the Evacuation, tens of thousands of Vandals formed a great host and left their rebelling lands behind for greener pastures elsewhere. This migration will be detailed in a later section. But the Evacuation caused an enormous disruption to the local Britons, and the Bernicians were able to secure control of all of the region – and central Britain is in local control once more.

(Bernicia: -Stability, +Navy Development)

(Vandalaw: -Existence)

The uneasy situation in southern Britain has, remarkably, held. Little of note occurred in Brython, aside from a good number of poetry and literature that emerged from the country’s monasteries. In neighboring Cantia, with the ascension of King Brand II to the throne in 612, an Edict of Tolerance was immediately issued. Drowned Queen shrines continued to be built, many in grand and extravagant fashion thanks to the hands of the royal treasury, and the faith continued to spread, but the country’s Christians and Allfatherists now had official royal protection from any raving mobs who would seek to undo all of it. With this, Cantia has started to develop into something of a local trade hub and a rival to nearby Brittany, as merchants of all stripes are welcomed here.

(Brython: +Culture Development)
(Cantia: +Stability, +Economy Development)

Wars of the Guthlid

The Guthlid continued its attempts to centralize the Allfatherist faith, creating a system of Falkirates. Comparable to Christian patriarchates, there would be a Falkir in Eldrachaa, in Boimark, and in Kyring. (Another Falkir was established in Joforwic, but this Falkir was savagely executed by the Bernicians as soon as they captured the city.) Each Falkirate would retain control over its local traditions, and would have equal representation in regular Godsmoots held in Trythern to crystalize matters of faith. This system has so far proved successful, bringing many of the breakaway Allfatherists back into the fold, though some “heterodox” Allfatherists remain.

An orgy of warfare erupted in parts of southwestern and central Europe after 615 as Ishfania and Scythia both attempted invasions of the Guthlid, who both states saw as having gained far too much territory, too quickly. In Scythia’s case, the invasion was the brainchild of advisors of the new xsayat, Serita – who would much rather have focused inwards, on projects in Chersonne such as the Rising Peryton, a malachite colossus built atop the city’s bazaar, and his Great Library, built in a hybrid Indo-Chinese style, and meant to rival the great ones in China and India. Foreigners who have seen the library have commented that Kandahar’s is better. Other foreigners have commented that Kandahar has paid those foreigners. And a great marriage between Serita’s sister and an Uar prince was consecrated, sealing an alliance between the two peoples.

(Scythia: +Economy Development, +Culture Development)

While their opponents’ advantage lay in sheer numbers, the Guthlid’s advantage lay in its use of creative weaponry, including never seen and tactics – including liberal use of the Eldgardr. One of the deadliest – particularly against the Scythian cavalry – was a great number Eldgardr-filled shells which would explode with pressure. Some Guthlid thinker developed an ingenious system of signaling utilizing floating “sky lanterns.” And, lastly came clouds of arsenic fog, which Guthling subversives set upon camps at night. With these in their arsenal, the Guthlings were able to effectively decimate many of their enemies on both fronts. The Scythians made some success at first, looting parts of the Guthlid, in coordination with some Aplandic forces seeking to regain their lost lands, but 617 their army had suffered a defeat as well.

The Ishfanians’ first incursions north into Guthling Gaul were soundly defeated by this matter, and Narbonensis, Massalia, and Padania fell to the Guthlings fairly quickly in 617-618. However, the Ishfanians were able to figure out, relatively quickly, the gimmicks the Guthlings were utilizing. So, still harboring an advantage in numbers, they retreated to the Pyrenian Mountains, from where they were able to ward off a number of Guthling attacks, as well as a number of aligned hosts seeking land promised by the Guthling; they even adopted some of the Guthlings’ own tactics in return. Amongst these were the Britannian Vandals, who had travelled through the Guthlid. Instead of entering Iberia, they fell upon hapless Aquitania, who lacked the military or political power to stop them; and so the Vandals captured Burdigala in 620. Still, the loss of these territories has undermined confidence in the Ishfanian government somewhat.

(Ishfania: -8 Infantry Companies, -6 Cavalry Companies, +Loot, -Stability)
(Scythia: -5 Cavalry Companies, +Loot)
(Apland: -2 Infantry Companies, -2 Cavalry Companies)
(Aquitaine: -6 Infantry Companies, -3 Cavalry Companies, -Existence)

(Guthlid: -6 Infantry Companies, -5 Cavalry Companies, +Army Development)
(Vandalia: -3 Infantry Companies)

And in Scythia, trouble was brewing. Far, far to the east, the new khan of the Sikesh as of the 610s, a man named Oghuz who had great ambitions of his own, and little patience to deal with Scythian masters from far away that he resented more and more with each passing day, took the opportunity provided when he heard word of the war to the west. Not only did he completely declare independence, he instead struck at the Scythians within his territory, and inflicted a crushing defeat. He proceeded to rampage through The Scythians had to withdraw from the west to deal with this threat, and while they have driven the Sikesh back to their frontier, aided by some limited Uar campaigning from the south, Oghuz remains a powerful steppe lord. And Oghuz’s example has galvanized some of the other states under Scythian rule; while they still remain loyal, it cannot be said for how long. Scythia is visibly beginning to suffer from some degree of overextension.

(Scythia: -6 Infantry Companies, -6 Cavalry Companies, -Stability)
(Uar: -2 Infantry Companies)

(Sikesh: -5 Cavalry Companies, +Loot)

Nearby, Truskland was trapped in an unenviable position amidst the ongoing Ishfanian-Carthaginian war. To secure his borders, the Trusking king reluctantly accepted Carthaginian suzerainty over him in 614. To the Carthaginians, this marked the affirmation of their dominance in Italia. To the Truskings, it marked another foreign dominator – and to some of his supporters, it was highly disappointing, to say the least. An incursion into Truskland in the late 610s by a host of Jewish Germans nominally aligned with the Guthlings was driven back, though not before inflicting severe casualties on the Trusklings.

(Truskland: -5 Infantry Companies, -1 Cavalry Company, +Army Development, -Stability)

Eastern Europe

The Balkans in the early years of the seventh century anno domini were, for such a contentious region trapped between multiple great empires, quite remarkably peaceful, continued Viskervolk raids along the coast aside. Svearia and the Viskermark were both at peace, both attempting to solidify control over a pair of unstable realms. Svearia took the Solar path, continuing to welcome a number of Solars who had departed Italia following the Punic conquest; this culminated in persecutions of Christians, who were seen as a destabilizing force. Viskermark, on the other hand, used military colonists as administrators to tie the realm together, and proceeded to build up its navy into a flotilla that could rival any of its neighbors.

(Svearia: +Stability)
(Viskermark: +Stability, +Culture Development)

In Dacia, a great temple was erected in the honor of Apostle and the twenty founding Theologians of the Dacians’ Christianity. In addition, Dacian soldiers were sent in large numbers into the highly unstable regions under the control of the Dacian March. The situation there has, remarkably, stabilized with the introduction of heavy-handed military force at Thermi-Davia’s behest – though not without casualties.

(Dacia: -2 Infantry Companies, +Culture Development)
(Dacian March: -1 Infantry Company, -1 Cavalry Company, +Stability)

In the south, the Bulgar Khanate continued limping along in its meager existence, with the elimination of the last bastions of Tengri faithful in the country. Some Solar Faithful, amongst remnants of other faiths and gods much, much older than the country’s Christianization, remain in the countryside, but the remainder of the country has become entirely Christian. Nonetheless, Christian literature has become a trend in the Bulgar court.

(Bulgars: +Culture Development)

Hellas, meanwhile, continued to prosper at home. By the end of this period – under the leadership of the tyrant Hermokrates of Epirus, starting in 628 – certain visitors record that the Hellene academians had developed a so-called “Medean Oil,” apparently a form of thickened naphtha based vaguely on Guthling inventions. This fearsome weapon could apparently burn on water.

(Hellas: +Army Development, +Navy Development)

North Africa

Carthage experienced a quarter century of bountiful peace. Aside from the expansion of its influence continuing northwards into Truskland, a great, state-funding rebuilding effort was conducted in Italia, to some degree of success, as was a campaign for literacy in both Latin and the Punic tongues, to tie the country further together. Strict anti-piracy edicts were well-enforced; leading to a general resurgence of Carthaginian trade wealth. And, lastly, the Barcan Isles were completely colonized; as were parts of the coast, to fairly little bloodshed. An expedition was sent south to the areas from Jason’s work; but this expedition, after setting sail from the Barcas, was never heard from ever again.

(Carthage: +Economy Development, +Stability)

Kyrenmark, after several long decades spent in stability and prosperity, began to suffer from some degree of Christian unrest in the late 610s and early 620s. The Christians had been entirely displeased with being written out of the state’s governing institutions, and made this displeasure clear – urban rioting was commonplace. The situation seems to have stabilized since then, but how Kyrenmark will handle this remains to be seen.

(Kyrenmark: -Stability)

West Africa

The records mark this as an age of war. Two great empires – Ghana and Daura – clashing for supremacy over their relative borders. The war that broke out in the 610s occurred over the region surrounding the city of Gao, which Ghana had subjugated many decades earlier. Instability within Ghana boiled over into a revolt. Shortly after this, Daura took the opportunity to invade via the river, and easily defeated the Ghanaians. Within a few short years, Ghana had surrendered, agreeing to cede the region surrounding Gao to the rising Daura Empire and pay a small sum of tribute to conclude the deal.

It is clear what the situation in West Africa is now; Ghana is quickly crumbling, while Daura, now led by the ultra-capable military commander Karbagari, son of Bayajida and his first Tuareg wife Magira, who politically defeated his rival Bawo, son of Bayajida and Magajiya, to ascend to the throne, is quite clearly on a possibly meteoric rise.

(Daura: -3 Infantry Companies, +Army Development)

(Ghana: -6 Infantry Companies, -1 Cavalry Company, -Stability)

To the east, the Sao Kingdom began to fall into disarray. It began in roughly 609, when the king of one Sao city in the east – the exact city varies from author to author – attempted to expel the Jews from his city, following a particularly nasty cycle of religiously-motivated civic violence. But this was easier said than done. The Jews had set themselves up nicely as merchants, dominating the wealth from the trans-Nubian trade routes. And one Jewish clan used this wealth to raise an army from mercenaries and various other sympathetic factions, and stage a coup. Pel Ma’ ir, of course, wanted no part to do with this, so they dispatched an army to deal with the situation. Things quickly unraveled. Some cities saw this as an opportunity to counter Pel Ma’ ir’s dominance, and threw their weight behind the Jews. An inconclusive series of wars followed. Within a decade, Pel Ma’ ir’s authority had crumbled altogether, and the Sao civilization had devolved into a number of city-states. Whether they will ever unify again is uncertain.

(Sao Kingdom: -5 Infantry Companies, -1 Cavalry Company, -Existence)

Middle East

In 602, the bolstered Aksumites launched a campaign to conquer Jerusalem itself, marching up from the Hedjaz. Though at first they progressed, attrition and raids from desert peoples rapidly decimated their numbers and morale. The Arabians quickly assembled an army to defend the city, and at the Battle of Bethlehem in 603, the Aksumites were soundly defeated. With much of their army, the glue holding the increasingly fragile state together, now lost in battle, the great Aksumite empire suffered a partial collapse, amidst several years of civil war. For the Arabians, it was a chance to reclaim their homeland, a chance that was not lost.

(Arabia: -3 Infantry Companies, -1 Cavalry Company)
(Aksum: -8 Infantry Companies, -5 Cavalry Companies, -4 Mercenary Companies)

It was the Egyptians who also profited. Once, millennia ago, in a lost age, the Egyptian pharaohs had reigned supreme in the Levant, and far to the south in Nubia. And they would again. Under the reign of Megasthenes, who ascended to the throne amidst these events in 604, the Egyptians underwent a period of expansion, driving south, down the Nile, to Nubia. His conquests were quick and efficient; by the dawn of 607, Megasthenes had reached as far south as the city of Soba; perhaps he would have gone further, but he was persuaded by an advisor not to do so. To the Christians of Nubia, Megasthenes framed himself a holy liberator – and so the Christians dubbed him Megasthenes Soter. Under his rule, he further consolidated power, extended the nome system to the new territories. With these conquests, Egypt has firmly established itself as the supreme power in Northeast Africa.

(Egypt: -1 Infantry Companies, -1 Cavalry Companies)

(Aksum: -3 Infantry Companies, -1 Cavalry Company)

The Babylonians launched an invasion of Anatkaya around this same, exact time. But in Antakya, the situation grew more complicated. Into the fray entered the Hellenes who had ostensibly come to support the Galatians, who remained nominal Arabian allies though released from their commitments of suzerainty, and ironically chose not to actually partake in the fighting. Antakya thus became a battleground between the armies of multiple different empires; the armies of the Antakyans themselves were soundly wiped out. With the marriage of the daughter of the King of Pergamon to a Babylonian prince, peace was secured between those two states. Separate peace was also made between Galatia and Babylon. So while the Hellenes swiftly sieged and captured the city of Antioch itself in 605 – a city which was integrated into the Confederacy, though it has caused some political troubles due to distance from Athens – the Babylonians marched south into Syria.

There they met the army of the Arabians, whose army had hurriedly rushed north to defend against the Babylonians. The subsequent Battle of Damascus, in 606 has gone down in history as one of the great battles of the age. While the Arabian cavalry was fearsome, the Babylonians had the strength in numbers – and the fact that they’d gotten their hands on the “northern powder.” They had developed a means of using it to counter the Arab cavalry, and that proved decisive enough to turn the tide and cause immense casualties to the Arabs, forcing them to flee, shattered. Following that, the Babylonians advanced relatively quickly down, capturing Jerusalem in 607 and resolidifying control over Judea.

(Hellas: -2 Infantry Companies, -Stability)
(Babylon: -4 Infantry Companies, -1 Cavalry Companies, -3 Mercenary Companies, +Army Development)

(Arabia: -4 Infantry Companies, -11 Cavalry Companies, -4 Mercenary Companies)
(Antakya: -6 Infantry Companies, -9 Cavalry Companies, -Existence)

With the Quraysh-led army – the centerpiece of the Quraysh state and the most significant piece holding it together – largely destroyed, and the capital again uprooted, it was not long before the state itself collapsed into a number of warring tribal polities in the Arabian interior – even without Babylonian invasion. The Yibri cities on the south coast of Arabia have remained securely in Yibri hands; an local Arab governor was appointed in Salalah to keep the peace there. The short period of Arab unification – but the legacy it held cannot be denied. And the Omanis quietly hummed along, using the opportunity to grab Sharjah and Mazun for themselves. The newfound wealth from these captures has spurred something of a cultural golden age in the country. Elsewhere in Arabia, the state of Qataban arose to power in the southwest from the ashes of both the Quraysh and the Aksumites.

(Arabia: -Existence)
(Oman: +Economy Development, Culture Development)
(Yibram: +Stability)

Anatolia remained entirely peaceful and uneventful. So did the neighboring Uar Empire, despite repeated suggestions from court advisors. Life went on, as always. Is that not what all humans want? Peace?

Persia and India

Kandahar quickly became famous throughout the world for one thing – the Great Library of Kandahar, as it would come to be called. The king of Kandahar splurged on the construction of this building, a great domed structure staffed by Buddhist scholars and clerics, which would house tens of thousands of books from both the Hellenistic world and India, as well as some from even further afield – including works by Confucius and other Chinese philosophers, as well as Nusantaran and Japanese works. The library has grown so popular that a university that has sprung up surrounding it, and the complex has become the absolute center of the Yona Buddhist world, attracting even pilgrims.

(Kandahar: +Economy Development, +Culture Development)

In 604, Himajana hordes stormed over the frontier into the lands of Patala. The invasion was quick and efficient, the Gnamri repeating bows easily and efficiently mowing down any and all armies the defenders tried to fling back at them. In early 606 the city of Patala itself was sacked and burnt to the ground, its rulers brutally executed; a new city has been built on the site by later military colonists. The former Patala lands were quite swiftly incorporated into the Gnamri empire. From there, the Gurjara statelets to the east were quick to fall. Despite their defensive strength, their awkward position and lack of outside support meant that they had little chance to help themselves before the Gnamri subjugated them all.

The Gnamri in 625 have found themselves in charge of a burgeoning empire stretching from Kashmir to the shore of the Erythraean. But the Gnamri have yet to take the wealth of the Gangetic plain in any meaningful fashion, and in the late 610s and early 620s their power was weakened by a cycle of internal succession-related disputes.

(Lhatsang: -3 Infantry Companies, -8 Cavalry Companies, -Stability, +Loot)

(Patala: -8 Infantry Companies, -3 Cavalry Companies, -Existence)
(Gurjara states: -7 Infantry Companies, -2 Cavalry Companies, -Existence)

In 608, the armies of Karnataka and their Malwan feudatories marched north, into the decaying Sundara Empire. The Sundara armies were still too scattered, distraught, and caught up with internal dynastic disputes to put up much resistance, so the invaders easily solidified their control up to the south bank of Yamuna by the end of 610. The Kannadigas could perhaps have easily gone further; but instead they turned their armies, into Kalinga, joined by another army simultaneously invading the country from the south. With greater numbers and momentum, the Kannada advance could not be easily stopped; but against the might of the Kalingan military tradition, the battle was tough. Still, by 615, all of Kalinga had been subjugated, in quite brutal fashion at that. The Kalingans have not given the Kannadigas the easiest time of consolidating their territories, such that it is visibly hurting the Chalukya state.

(Karnataka: -9 Infantry Companies, -3 Cavalry Companies, -Stability, +Loot)
(Malwa: -3 Infantry Companies, -2 Cavalry Companies, -Stability, +Loot)

(Sundara Empire: -6 Infantry Companies, -5 Cavalry Companies)
(Kalinga: -12 Infantry Companies, -7 Cavalry Companies, -Existence)

At home, Karnataka started constructing, in the late 610s, a grand series of roads across the country, in the vain of their Mauryan predecessors, tying the extremely large country’s major cities together. To the north, the Kannadiga feudatories in Malwa splurged a great deal of money on the construction of numerous temples across their respective countryside. Dvaraka, concerning itself with the amassing horders of the Himajana on its northern border, constructed a line of fortresses. This has had the effect of solidifying the country’s control over its northern frontiers, especially with refugees from Satnad settling in the region.

(Dvaraka: +Stability)

Gokanna’s prosperity was severely hampered by an outbreak of a most strange and fearsome disease on the island in 623-624, which killed off a quarter of its population and caused a partial emptying of some of its cities. Reportedly, this disease was brought over to Lanka by Nusantaran traders. The same disease has started to crop up in some of the Tamil-speaking areas of southern Karnataka as of late 624.

(Gokanna: -2 Infantry Companies, -Stability)

To the northeast, the states of Kamarupa and Vesali each launched their own incursions into the east of the Sundara Empire, in fact, in the eastern edge of the Empire’s Magadhi heartland, concurrent with the Kannadiga invasion. The Sundara Empire barely resisted, and little blood was shed, until about 617, when the two countries started attacking each other over their new frontier. The conflicts have been inconclusive thus far.

(Kamarupa: -1 Infantry Company)
(Vesali: -2 Infantry Companies)

Southeast Asia

Tarumangara’s decay continued. Internal political and dynastic disputes built up, year after year, and the bureaucracy holding the entire state together began to break down. Temasek was lost to a Langkasukan invasion – the details are not clear, as the volume of written records abruptly drops sometime around this period. What is known is that in around 615, one Langkasukan prince – his name varies widely depending on whether the source is Indian or Chinese – drove his armies south down the peninsula, driving the Tarumangarans out. At Temasek at the southern point, he founded a fortress – it would grow into a city – the city of Singapura. After this event, northern Sumatera was able to break away as the kingdom of Pasai, and Taruman influence in the Erythraean declined to nothing.

(Tarumangara: -Stability, -3 Infantry Companies)

(Langkasuka: +Army Development, +Economy Development, -2 Infantry Companies)

Mainland Southeast Asia was ravaged by outbreaks of what was termed the “Nusantaran disease,” but the relative lack of infrastructure in the region actually helped to slow its spread, and most of the region was largely spared from the horrors that would come to China later on.

And it was Champa’s turn to rise. Under one king – whose regnal years are disputed, but whose name was clearly Indravaraman – Champa quickly gobbled up the Kambojan petty statelets to her west by the early 610s. Immediately, he led his forces on camapaign against the Mon king of Dvaravati, and won a great victory, utterly crushing the Mon forces, and capturing the upper Mekong and a good deal more land. Following this great victory, Indravaraman had himself declared to the eminent position rajadhiraja – king of kings. Later historians call this golden age the “Cham Empire.”

(Champa: -1 Infantry Company, +Army Development, +Culture Development)

(Kambojan states: -3 Infantry Companies, -3 Cavalry Companies, -Existence)
(Dvaravati: -4 Infantry Companies, -4 Cavalry Companies, -Stability)

In Burma, the two Pyu states fought a number of indecisive wars. But they had their own set of troubles, exacerbated by Tai Yai migrations from Southern China. Plague and famine had forced some of the Tai peoples to move south and west. Some came through the lands controlled by Halin, spurring a cycle of rural unrest, though reportedly some Tai have assimilated quite effectively. Still others migrated into the western plateau, where they have adopted to the pastoral ways of the locals in the act of displacing them.

(Beikthano: -2 Infantry Companies)
(Halin: -3 Infantry Companies, -Stability)

Rondan

In the Gurri lands, the chieftains focused on tying the realm together and protecting it from enemies without. A rudimentary line of forts was constructed along the borders, to protect from the marauding clans outside Gurri hegemony. Paths and roads were built to ease transportation. A unified code of laws was placed into effect, solidifying the centrality of the realm. And Buddhist-inspired totems of numerous bodhisattvas were erected, furthering Buddhism as the unifying element of the culture and state.

(Gurri: +Stability, +Culture Development)

East Asia

To the north, in another war, hoping to add to their already great piles of bones, the feared Kamchachans pressed southwards into Baekje in 611. At first, it appeared that the campaign would be successful, and all Korea would fall to the running-dogs of the bone-people – city after city fell to the marauding invaders, and the countryside burned. But, even as Baekje bled, the Hirajima Kingdom came to their aid. In 613, a Wa army joined Baekje, and together, they were able to repulse the Kamchachans by 615, smashing their army and even gaining a grasp of some border territories in the next few years. The Kamchachans remain very strong, though notions of their supposed invincibility has been shattered.

(Kamchachans: -2 Infantry Companies, -15 Cavalry Companies, -Stability)

(Baekje: -12 Infantry Companies, -3 Cavalry Companies, +Army Development)
(Hirajima: -3 Infantry Companies, -2 Cavalry Companies)

From a more cynical perspective, this has established Hirajima, after several decades of relative decadence and stagnation, as a leading node of power in the eastern edge of Asia, able to project its influence throughout the region. The Hirajima Kingdom took a bold step of establishing permanent consulates in various trade cities throughout the East Asian region. A Hirajima renaissance is not out of the question for the mid-seventh century.

(Hirajima: +Army Development, +Culture Development)

Still, the Kamchachans are powerful – but their power is changing as they settle in their new homes, and adopt an organized system of writing. This has been an enormous boon to keeping the extremely diverse realm together, and has spurred the development of a primitive Kamchachan literary culture, mostly melding Chinese and Mongolian influences. And even they are far from immune to the influences of Sinic culture, as a syncretism between the Kamchachan religion and imported Taoism – creatively dubbed “Northern Taoism” by scholars – has started to grow in popularity.

(Kamchachans: +Economy Development, +Culture Development)

In China itself, a golden age – especially in poetry – was brought to a dramatic halt, when after 610, a sudden sequence of outbreaks of a deadly and fearsome plague, reportedly brought in from Nusantara. City after city, it struck, killing tens of thousands, and often causing entire villages to be abandoned. Starving peasants more often than not wound up rioting against each other, warlordism became rampant for a brief few years in the countryside, and all China seemed to be in a horrid state of decay. More importantly, it badly weakened the bureaucratic structures that held up the Empire of All Under Heaven. The disease, however, seemed to fizzle out by the time it reached the north; which was by and large spared, as were areas such as the Rouran. Smaller outbreaks were reported in Korean and Japanese cities, but to large part those regions survived it relatively unscathed.

(Great Sung: -10 Infantry Companies, -Stability)
(Baekje: -1 Infantry Company)
(Hirajima: -1 Infantry Company)

Knew that was going to happen , but attempted due to a need to resign from the game and focus on other things. Best of luck to remaining players!

To: Hellas
From: Babylon

The war is over, Galatia made peace with. Let the ties that bind us, and the lack of those same ties between Athens and Antioch, compel you to hand over the city to its rightful, original owners. All will be treated well. Anything less would be a violation of our agreement.

Thank you and Alexander save you.

To: Dal Riata
From: Me

Can we formalize our divorce with a peace treaty?

please NPC scythia.

Ragequitting

Looks like I lost this one, oh well, it was a good fight and at least Axum got what was coming to it. Now if only various parties had not short-changed me for loans it would have been different, but such is life.

Immaculate said:

please NPC scythia.

Click to expand...

Shadowbound said:

Ragequitting

Click to expand...

I hope that's not how that came off. I'm not quitting kashmir, just Scythia.

Stats are up! Tell me if there are any (inevitable, ofc) errors

Let's make orders due 6 Prairial 223, or Monday, 25 May. I'd rather not have an enormous delay again, at least from my end.

Arrow Gamer said:

To: Hellas
From: Babylon

The war is over, Galatia made peace with. Let the ties that bind us, and the lack of those same ties between Athens and Antioch, compel you to hand over the city to its rightful, original owners. All will be treated well. Anything less would be a violation of our agreement.

Thank you and Alexander save you.

Click to expand...

The Carthaginian Senate supports this statement, in hope of finally achieving peace in the region.

Excellent update SK! Diplo to cone tomorrow when I work out what I want to say.

To: the Empire of Babylon
From: the Confederacy of Hellas

Antioch is ours by ties of securing peace in the region. We will not hand over a province of the Confederacy that we have shed blood for for nothing. Our agreement discussed the territories of Babylon, not other states such as Antakya.

That said, if we are adequalty compensated for withdrawing, then we can talk.

From: Arthfael; the Monarchy
To: Her People

There will be those who are resistant to the changes ongoing within the country, and that is their right. Society changes, and it changes because her people in some fundamental way have changed. We are not the same people as our ancestors, but we honor them anyway because despite fundamental change, our ancestors have traits we considered worth honoring. Honorable to enemies and friends, being just, and being willing to make difficult decisions are all traits we admire in our ancestors. Admire, and honor.

We will honor our fathers and respect those who honor their fathers by embracing the faiths of their fathers. Our people are now a predominately Christian people, but salvation can not be forced upon anybody. We will not force Christianity on those who follow the faith of their fathers.

We will improve the lives of our people: spiritually through new state-funded churches and monasteries, and in their everyday lives through trade. However, trade is a house that must be built on the foundation of peace, and so we will reach out to a neighbor in conflict in the name of peace.



To: Dal Riata
From: Arthfael

We wish to sign a formalized peace treaty with you.

From its inception, the Dauran Empire had looked to the walled and wealthy cities of the Sao with envy, and admiration. While the Gao conflict took priority, now that the Ghanan Empire had been humbled and pushed back, many said that we should follow the Sao Monarchy, and have peace and trade. Then, the Sao collapsed. The religious civil war there caught Daura's king and planers completely by surprise. Why would a people who had it all, who (in the opinion of the village-dwelling Hausa and nomadic Tuareg) bathed in riches and lived in security, sudenly turn against each other? The answer, of course, was that the Daura had always had an idealized view of Sao society, one which the Sao had in turn worked to maintain in how they treated the Empire's merchents, and which parts of their nation they chose to show to foreigners. Nonetheless, it was an objective fact that the cities of the Sao were more advanced culturally and economically than those of the Dauran empire, with the possible exception of Daura itself, and of partially rebuilt New Gao on the empire's western border. Karbagari saw an opportunity to come in to these lands as peacekeepers, and to finally bring the wealth and culture of the Sao back to his own people. His advisors further spoke of rich foreign merchants, who followed an esoteric faith called Judaism and brought strange stories and goods from beyond the Sea of Sand.

OOC: Baiscally, the Hausa and Tuareg would have seen Sao much in the same way people in the third world view the first world today, as a land of incalculable wealth. The conflict there would have tarnished this image, but not significantly. It has also presented an opportunity to come in to restore order


After returning from Gao, Karbagari married Katsina, a woman from a wealthy Hausan mercant family, who governed a small city of the same name.

(OOC Note: I'm taking these names from Hausa legends, but I'm completely reassigning them to characters as needed. Katsina is actually the name of a trading city. Similarly, Hausa legends say tha Karbagari was the son of Bayajida sleeping with a slave girl. Bawo was the legitimate son, but Karbagari's name means "Town-seizer", which I decided was more appropriate for the Warlord-King who brings down (or at least, pushes back) the Ghanan empire. The rumor of our great King's supposed illegitimate birth is of course completely false and anyone who spreads it is to be publically ridiculed, and if they continue with this slander, beheaded).

The marriage of Karbagari and Katsina was both one of love, and of carefully orchestrated politics. Karbagari, after all, was officially completely Tuareg by blood (both Bayajida and Magira were Tuaregs), and this created some distrust amongst Hausa chiefs, given that the army was also majority (~60%) Tuareg. Katsina was a respected Hausa leader, and her noble heritage ensured that, regardless of unkind rumors about Karbagari's brith, their children would be indesputably elligable for kingship. Moreover, Kasina had considerable connections with merchants in Sao, which would prove useful for stabilizing (and profiting from) the situation there.

The Confederacy of Hellas wishes to announce the sale of the city of Antioch and its environs to the Empire of Babylon, for the lump sum of [5EP].

Pleasant news from the East. We hope that Hellas and Babylon remain at peace for years to come.

Scarlet_King said:

To: Dal Riata
From: Arthfael

We wish to sign a formalized peace treaty with you.

Click to expand...

Confirming that we accept peace at the current situation.