End of Empires - N3S III

Well, duh. You mean to found a civilised steppe empire, naturally.

Rigorous scientific tests have proved that you can take the man out of the steppe, but you cannot take the steppe out of the man.

Thlayli said:

Rigorous scientific tests have proved that you can take the man out of the steppe, but you cannot take the steppe out of the man.

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OOC: What a joke!

I suppose the good people of Kazan' just aren't human, then.

das said:

I suppose the good people of Kazan' just aren't human, then.

Click to expand...

OOC: I would argue that they never really left the steppes as they were too close to it even if they became "civilized"

It is not exactly important whether the nearby territories are steppes or jungles; all the same, they live in a city, and an European-style city before you bring up Karakorum.

Aww, you guys spoiled the Update At Top Of Page awesomeness

Exert of “A tabled result of commerce in the Union”.

It is the belief of this government that; commerce is the surest means of swift riches for this government, and her people. Further to that belief, the Council of the Union, consisting of, members for Styr, for the Exiles, for the Ti-Sesh, for the Sies, for the Neruss, have expressed a desire that pursuant to the direction of the SR 142 that “all duties, and all commerce and transactions, contained in the Union be examined for the interests of the Council” this report tabled humbly by Senator Be’la to you this Aya’se fearing body and chief instrument of the government of the people. In the course of this report, we, that is the Senators, and the servants of this body have come up with the following.
That the Union in terms of ships is to the best of our knowledge less than adequate, such that trade in the North is hampered by the vessels of other nations to such ends that cargoes which could be traded by this Union are not.
That the integral interests of this Union is hampered by rival nations which engage in unfair competition with our merchants, in such a manner as to be discriminatory and prejudicial to the trade and congress of our merchants.
That nations which are dominated by this Union in trade, do not in due course offer this Union sufficient trade rights, and incentives for the continued expansion of this trade; and that pursuant to this some nations have strongly objected to a continued growth of trade, a most egregious and offensive assault against this Unions interests.
That the colonies of this Union, representing an expense to the people are unfairly outflanked in trade matters such that they are rendered worthless! A further insult against the honour of this Union and her people whom rely on trade, and gain the most from this trade.

Trade recordings:

Kindly Master’s Privy to Thence Trade
Mssr’s Pa’Sies’Ta, from Seis, via Onesh, via City of Gold, return Seadol.

To carry, grain, thence to carry forged iron goods, thence to carry honey, then to carry gewgaws, thence to sell gewgaws, thence to board pilgrims, thence to embark soldiers, thence to general disembark. Repeat.

Required, matters to insure the safety of the finances, in advent of loss of some 500 Ay’Pa’Ru, list of patrols of fleet, of convoys armed such that we are general , one of tax seals already paid, last to required of necessary papers.

Provision, of some six Ae of viticuls, no less than eighteen of barrel, wine, beer and water, no fewer than eight hundred lengths of rope, such that we require a bill of future selling of such as 200 Ay’Pa’Ru priors to be of grain, iron, honey, particulars to be picked up by such agents as appointed duly.

Aya’se Bless and Keep Thee.

Translation:

To the bankers of [city of origin]
From brothers, Pa, Sies and Ta on the route via Seis, via Onesh, via City of Gold, return Seadol

Showing what goods will be traded on the journey and where the merchants will visit. The ship on the last return leg is to be partially commandeered to return home soldiers to help pay of the debt of the vessels owners [and possibly shareholders].

The costs required for underwriting of both the ship and goods, to a maximum value of 500 Ay’Pa’Ru [a significant sum]. They also ask for a list of patrols of the fleet, to provide significant safety in numbers and failing that they ask for a list of merchant convoys [all Union vessels still subject to a call to arms by the government as warships should the state require it. This was owing to the loans which the state provided at competitive rates to increase merchant traffic, even hundreds of years later in many cases they are still fastidiously taken and paid off for every new vessel entering the fleet, even then the Union still has a call on all ships under the scheme]. They are also asking for mercantile seals, for the various states they are passing through to show they have paid the required taxes in advance, they tend to be balanced against the huge profits which most Union ports make for allowing foreign shipping to trade. They also require papers for agents, and of honest merchants.

The merchants also require the necessary viticuls for the first leg of the trip. To achieve this they sell for a set price their future profits for a known quantity of cargo so that they can begin straight away on the initial stages of the trip. They also request the necessary instruments to know whom to pay in their ports of call, these would normally be junior family members of firms.

7. Sirti Speaks.

When Itono and his hand-picked godlike warriors emerged from their hiding-places behind the trees and amidst the tall grass and waved torches and shot fire-arrows at the band of the human rebels, there was panic and dismay among the latter; but by the time those godlikes charged and reached their foes, those foes have already formed battle-lines as instructed beforehand by Kirti, who had suspected Sirti's warning to be truthful from the outset. For this reason, also, the godlikes were surprised when their enemies turned out to be more numerous than they at first thought, because Kirti had divided the warriors in his charge into two groups and the second followed the first at a distance, though a small one, and now the two groups united and quickly cut down the Hirti warriors that tried to stab the first group in the back. The godlikes cut into the battle-lines and stabbed and hacked away, and they injured many and killed several, but were driven back and ordered by Itono to form ranks and prepare to defend. The rebels themselves were nonetheless shaken, and Kirti made them attack - not through orders, which they would likely not have listened to, but by means of throwing caution to the side, raising his sword high, screaming with the fury of a thousand warrior-winds and charging at the half-formed godlike line. The others found themselves suddenly unable to hesitate and emulated their leader.

The godlikes parried blows, as did their enchanted armour, and they also hacked away as best they could, but Kirti managed to land a well-omened blow on his first opponent's head and then threw that warrior's torch at his second opponent. In the confusion the rebels broke through the line and encircled several godlikes, pinning them to the ground and killing them. Despite the torches and the moonlight, it soon became very difficult for Kirti to make out what was happening in the battlefield as humans and godlikes intermixed, mingled amongst each other and conversed with each other by means of their weapons and hands in a way in which they would never deign to converse by means of words in times of peace; and so he ignored them and instead focused on evading or killing whoever came near him. The godlikes roared, entering their bull-fury, but Kirti fought them with the same cold passion with which he fought beasts, tricking and tripping them and not so much looking for weak points as striking at them before understanding. This continued for an immeasurable amount of hours, strikes and corpses, but eventually Kirti found it expeditious to clench his teeth, grasp his recently and badly injured left arm and jump away, fall down in shock and stand up; and it was then that he once more got a good look at the battle and saw that while there still were more humans left, there were fewer of them now, and more importantly more godlikes were standing than there were at first, and they were both ahead and behind the humans; that dishonest Itono had a reserve of his own!

"Fall back!" - shouted Kirti - "Fall back now!"

It is unknown if this shout had in any way affected the humans, but the godlikes began to move towards him and the humans followed them, and soon the skirmish moved in his direction and became even more confused than before. Kirti jumped back into the fray, fighting some more godlikes.

One of the godlikes had a wondrous iron sword; its handle had three gilded rings on it and ended with a finely-crafted bull's head. Kirti realised that the bearer of this sword was Itono; and when he looked at Itono's face, illuminted, like his sword, by the fire of his torch, his mind was struck by a terrible guess; thankfully, he managed to put it aside before his head was struck by a wonderful sword and dodged the blow. He dodged it barely, though, and fell to the ground; Itono jumped up to him, but did not finish him off, instead striking down the human that tried to chase him off; it has happened thusly because the humans knew who their leader was, whereas the godlikes only knew him by voice. In the confusion, Kirti once more stood up, and parried several of Itono's blows. He attacked - and Itono skillfully held him at bay, then once more lunged forth and cut through Kirti's leather, leaving a scar in his chest, but was then himself injured in his right hand by a fortunate blow. The two exhausted leaders glared at each other whilst heaving and bleeding, and then backed away from one another, unable to fight on; and their armies, likewise exhausted and bloodied, walked away too.

The godlikes reformed by Itono's command just behind the recent battlefield; Kirti, meanwhile, tended to his wounds and watched the enemies move. Then the less injured of the humans, along with Kirti, came to the battlefield and took the corpses and belongings of their dead. The godlikes did not interfere and the humans withdrew quietly. They set up camp an hour to the east, and spent the night waiting for a sneak attack; when mornng came, Kirti understood that Itono was clearly not wholly bereft of honour, and commanded his men to move out as fast as possible without leaving the dead and the heavily wounded behind, lest this favourable impression and hostile fraternity be ruined for naught. Quietly and carefully, the defeated but unbroken human rebels fell back to the Arti-family campsite over the course of three days. Near the campsite, the warriors were counted and it turned out that a third of all the warriors who had followed Kirti was dead, soon to die or best off dead.

---

Thus it was that the Arti-family had ignored Sirti's warnings - and suffered horribly for it, as had its allies and its warriors taken by themselves. Some might say that the warriors suffered more, but before this they have feared and weathered an ambush; now the family feared an invasion that it might not weather, and the lineage-heads were sullen as they heard Kirti's concise account of the battle and the reports of those hunters who were on scout duty about how Itono was already on the move again, along with a large force of Hirti warriors.

Sirti was there too; he stood quietly in the corner of the chief-tent, and nonetheless he now controlled the minds of those on the council. This is not a difficult thing to understand; although it was now known for certain that he came from a different and hostile family, he was the first to expose this, and he had given wise and true warnings and advice to the family-council, and the family had indibutibly suffered from disregarding it. Thus by the end of the day the family-council offered him its apologies, whereas Fiti and immediately after him Darti assured him that no more mistakes such as this will be made and that thy were determined to fight back as best they could using his assistance.

That said, Darti thought thusly: "This Sirti did not lie; perhaps it is out of devotion to our cause, but very possibly for any amount of other reasons; nonetheless for now it is wise and just to listen to him, and wisdom and justice beget victory."

A strange thing, however; Darti, Fiti and everyone else now trusted Sirti, though in different ways; but Kirti now carried more doubt than any others, and this was noticed, and none knew what to make of it; none but Sirti, who, however, was not eager to share this, being busy discussing the defenses with Darti and the other warriors. Kirti, however, was not too sure about his suspicions, as they were possibly the products of some magical trickery; also, he knew that even if it was not so he could not prove otherwise to his brothers; and so he remained silent. But the semblance, however distant, still seemed uncanny.

---

In the meantime, Itono patched up his wounds, gathered his godlike and human warriors, and set out to the Arti human-family campsite. To him, the battle was a setback; but nonetheless he consoled himself with the knowledge that the rebels were worse off from it. In particular, he was perceptive enough to notice that allies had accompanied the Arti-family warriors to the battlefield and sent envoys to try and sway them to join him for mercy and share of the loot; nothing came out of this, however, as Arti hunters intercepted and killed all the Hirti envoys. Likewise, several godlike scouting parties were at best forced to disperse and retreat, whereas at worst the scouts were later found with their bodies dispersed and retreating from the world; and those losses were unacceptable, but when Itono abdicated from using scouts, his force soon had to fight off raiders that struck at day and at night. They were not difficult to fight off, but to advance in those conditions became almost impossible. Itono attributed this to that same cheating enemy leader he had dueled with back then and for the seventy-seventh time regretted not having kille him back then; it was unknown to him that Kirti now only carried out some of the individual raids, whereas Fiti, Darti and Sirti were the ones who made the war-plans, and of them the former two mostly listened to the latter.

Once, during the night, Itono fell asleep and the War-Bull came before him. They conversed, and the War-Bull pointed out that there was a pattern to how the hunter attacks were patterned and that they all came from the north so as to keep Itono from attacking or linking up with the Inu, and also that the hunters reacted to the changes in Itono's plans, but that this time they would be distracted and delayed in reacting. "Why, father?" - asked the confused Itono. "Because they would be distracted; and also because their minds are full of folly: therefore they compensate one folly with another equal folly, and in this way inflict two times the damage to their cause. Now, listen, son: you must go by a southern path and attack the campsite as soon as you arrive; then by my command it shall fall to you, this much I swear." "The southern pass will take more time and if we are attacked there we will be slaughtered, father!" "You would not be noticed for the same reason; and as for time, make your men move as fast as they could with as little rest as possible. Then stand camp before the rebel campsite that incites my fury, and rest there, threatening them. Then all shall be as I will." And thus they conversed for an hour more, the War-Bull informing him in detail about the campsite and the things that must then be done there and Itono begging him to spare him for the sin that he had commited with regards to his older brother Frono, and the War-Bull saying that as long as all happened as it must Itono would be redeemed.

In the morning, Itono surveyed the damage from last night's attacks and arson, and determined to seize upon this divine inspiration. He led his warriors on a forced-march towards the Arti human-family campsite across the southern mountain pass, resting only once, and after a day and a night found himself within its sight. The hunters did not attack, for he had slipped by them, and they had only found him when it was too late; the godlikes were very tired, but nonetheless managed to lead the hunter raiders into a trap and slaughter then there and then.

---

One day Sirti went away without warning, and came back only on the next evening; he arrived with thirty strange foreign warriors, dressed in leather armour and wielding weapons that seemed familiar and yet alien: curved swords and bows made not just of wood but of many different things. To Darti he said: "Those are my followers; they will do what I command them and I have brought them here to make sure that none take the campsite against my will." To the family-council he said: "I have mentioned that I know many different powers which too wish to defeat the godlikes; I had hoped to approach them after a major victory, but now the need has become dire and I have talked some of our distant relatives I have been in contact with into sending us reinforcements." Kirti remained silent, so Darti replied: "It is good that you have brought more skilled warriors here as we can use any men who can fight; but are you certain that they shall be loyal to the cause?" And Sirti replied: "I have no reason to doubt either their loyalty or their hatred towards Itono and those who follow him." This time even Fiti thought privately that something was amiss; but he elected not to share this with the family-council or with Sirti, as in both cases it would have gone against the rules of both wisdom and hospitality.

Due to his disappearence, the scouts and the raiders were forced to act on their own initiative, led by Kirti; when Kirti returned, Sirti politely asked him whether the enemies were found. In public Kirti shook his head, and when they moved to speak in private Kirti informed Sirti that he was aware of who Sirti was; and Sirti's calm demeanor was broken: he smiled a wicked smile and laughed, and Kirti shook his head again.

On the next day Kirti and some of his supporters spoke at the family-council, alleging that Sirti was a spy and, with Fiti's grudging acceptance, forcing him to stand trial, despite Darti's protests; Sirti was outraged, and claimed it was treason because he was in charge of the defenses: by distracting him thusly, Kirti was disrupting the operations and allowing the enemy to slip by across the southern pass. Kirti replied that this was ludicrous and that Sirti expected them to counter the folly of mistrusting him when he helped them by the folly of trusting him when he helped their enemy. For a while it nonetheless seemed that Sirti was going to at least have to step down from his position, as by now many had grown suspicious of his new retainers, despite them not doing any mischief and staying away from the Arti-family men and their wives. However, eventually scouts arrived and declared that Itono's army had somehow disappeared, and the only likely path was across the mountain-pass. Sirti advised that hunters be sent to the mountain pass itself immediately, but Kirti flew into a fury and shouted that this was an ambush and a trap, and that Itono was expecting them to make the same mistake twice. He took charge of the defenses while Sirti was under trial despite the trial having dispersed for the night; on the early morning, one of Kirti's friends led out a party to scout out the nearby end of the mountain pass. He did not come back; the next party soon returned to the palisade and reported that Itono had come across the mountain pass and arrived to besiege the Arti human-family campsite. Sirti was acquited of all charges and ordered to take command of the defenses; as for Kirti, he and a group of hunters left the campsite to gather more provisions.

---

After resting, Itono and the godlikes, along with the Hirti warriors, Itono's men formed a crescent and began shooting incendiary arrows at and over the palisade; the palisade did not take fire because it was enchanted and covered with animal hides, but some of the defenders did. Nonetheless defenders began to fire back, and after a while a large group of the rebels even sallied forth and briefly drove off the godlike skirmishers, though Itono was able to concentrate his forces and rout the hostile humans. For the next several hours the two forces traded arrows and javelins, and negotiated sword-strikes; at first it seemed as though none would win, but then it became apparent that the godlikes had all grown tired and also were not immaterially outnumbered.

Several distinguished Arti warriors suggested that the rebels sally forth in force again; Sirti was reluctant, but eventually agreed with it, and fired the first arrow, which struck one of the older Hirti warriors in the brain. The skirmishers sallied out and Sirti at first followed them, then led them. Itono and his godlikes did not despair, however, and instead formed up and met the charge head-on. At first they held quite well and drove back the first charge; but then most of Sirti's retainers too had joined the battle, and it turned into a chaotic skirmish.

Sirti sought out the enemy leader. They met and their swords clashed; Itono fought like a beast blinded by fury, and Sirti's sword was knocked out of his hand. Sirti then took out another sword: this one was made of bronze, but its blade was as long as Itono's and its hilt had three golden rings and ended with the head of a bull: and that bull was roaring, and Sirti roared and landed blow after blow, soon pinning Itono to the ground. Itono looked on with despair and hatred, and Sirti stood up before him and spoke with an unexpected calmness. And what he said will soon be retold.

8. Kirti Departs.

"Do you not recognise me?" - spoke Sirti.

"Frono!" - gasped Itono.

"It was due to your lies and intrigues that I have been expelled, and I have wandered in many lands for the last few years, and when I heard that you were finally fighting a war I had no choice but to join whoever fought against you! But before today I had a dream and the Cow-Father promised me your repentance."

"I repent!" - shouted Itono, frightened out of his wits, and yet also hopeful.

"Good." - smiled Frono War-Bull and lent Itono his hand. The battle had reduced itself to another cofnused skirmish, warriors from both sides intermixing and hacking away at one another; many godlikes and Hirti had fallen, and even more of the Arti, and Frono's northern "followers" had already withdrawn to the edge of the battlefield and were waiting for orders - "Then let us fight and avenge our brothers!"

The two rushed into the fray and the foreign-bandits that Frono had brought with him to the battlefield quickly followed. The Arti humans were shocked and distraught to see their leader fighting on the enemy side; the godlikes, meanwhile, were enheartened to see their leader alive and well. Itono shouted orders and the godlikes fought through their enemies, soon herding them back towards the palisade.

"Don't let them escape!" - shouted Itono.

Frono merely laughed.

As for Frono's retainers, they cut off the escape path, and those of them who were still on the other side of the palisade quickly killed all the nearby guards. The human rebels were trapped and some just barely escaped and collapsed near the battlefield whilst others begged for mercy and were left on the ground, but most were either slain or fought and were then slain, and Frono in particular struck down many enemies, because his sword was so heavy that few could swing it and fewer still could stand after being struck by it.

The two immediate sons of the Cow Family-Chief then proceeded to lead their joined armies into the campsite and towards the chief-tent. Those who hid in their dwellings were ignored; all others were flung aside or killed. Frono walked into the chief-tent, flanked by his retainers and godlike warriors; there was human-chief Fiti and the human lineage-heads, and also Darti Left-Ear. All were quite distraught.

"I have come here to punish those responsible for the rebellion and to avenge my immediate brother Kono." - reported the man they called Sirti - "While here, I have found out that in truth, one man is truly directly responsible for the rebellion and for the death of my brother."

Then he walked pass Darti Left-Ear and up to human-chief Fiti, then turned around and struck Darti on the head. Darti gasped and fell to the floor, at which point Frono put down his heavy sword and sank his hunting-knife into Darti's heart. Then he simply nodded to Fiti and walked away, telling Itono who was waiting at the entrance to show mercy to those he had not killed and to win them over with a feast: as though Itono had not already been told to do so by the god!

---

No more resistance remained after this and no more humans died in the campsiite on that day. Itono was overjoyed at having reunited with his brother and even more overjoyed at having captured this campsite so soon after being near his death, so he gladly set about distributing the plunder amongst his warriors, whereas his immediate brother's retainers demanded nothing. After that, Itono swore mercy for the Arti human-family and gave the remaining loot to the lineage-heads, whereas Frono took his retainers and most of his brother's warriors and left to make war against the human rebels of the Torta human-family; but Itono was not overtly bothered.

At that, perhaps he should have been, because as was as already mentioned Kirti and several others were outside hunting while the unexpected battle raged. They had taken much meet, hides and antlers, and only returned to the campsite when the sun had begun to set. Along the way back they had met and killed a few Hirti patrollers and so had come to suspect the worst; so they waited for the evening and then, as the occupiers had become assured and distracted, snuck into the by a secret path that went underneath the palisade and to the animal pens. They then went to Kirti's mother and delivered to her their hunt-loot, receiving from her the account of all that had happened in the campsite since they left, as far as she knew. And it must be said that she knew more than what might be expected, as Fiti's wife was in the chief-tent and told her about Sirti and who he turned out to be, and about Darti and what happened to him, and on the account of the latter she was in mourning.

Kirti and his followers then took their weapons and went to the chief-tent. It must be said that a few hours ago a feast had started at Itono's command, and the godlike warriors celebrated victory and wealth whereas the human elders and lineage-heads celebrated mercy and peace; nonetheless, both celebrated just as hard; however, it must also be said that Itono was an orderly man and intended for the celebrations to be carried out in such a way that they would feast through the day and sleep during the night, but afterwards he lost track of it and also his plans were thwarted by the broken nature of the times of day: the evening was neither day nor night, and yet also both, and so those celebrating were perhaps asleep, perhaps feasting, perhaps neither and perhaps both, and all were different, but most were asleep or near sleep, or better off asleep.

For all those reasons none even noticed when Kirti went in and it was only when he and the other hunters started killing the godlikes that Itono stood up, somewhat groggily, and tried to stop Kirti; but Kirti spat on the ground before him and mauled Itono's face with a hunting axe. Itono was confused and fell to the floor dead. No more humans died in the campsite on that day, although a few of the godlikes had done their best to achieve this, but at most managed to escape and hide away; as for the lineage-heads and for Fiti, Kirti did not deign to listen to their cries for mercy and instead sat down and finished Itono's drink.

Somehow it so happened that nothing more was done on that evening, and on the morning Kirti and his followers stood trial before human-chief Fiti. Now, at this point it is useful to mention that the Arti human-family, like all the human-families within the Cow Family, followed four laws: the Frei-laws, the laws of Chief-of-Chiefs Gaci I, the Cow Family-laws, and, although they were unwritten, its own family-laws. Human-chief Fiti thought about the trial throughout the night and came to the decision by the morning, so on the morning he did not deliberate for long but instead acted in a way that might have seemed reckless to an outsider from another family.

"Why are you here?" - he demanded.

"I am here to stand trial." - said Kirti and his followers - as one.

"For what?"

"For the killing of godlikes." - replied Kirti.

By the laws of Chief-of-Chiefs Gaci I this was punishable by exile unless otherwise commanded by the family-laws; and by the Cow Family-laws this was punishable by execution; but neither the Frei-laws nor the Arti family-laws prepared punishments as this, for neither Frei nor Arti nor his successors believed there to be godlikes and humans, but merely families and their guests. And therefore Fiti did not lose himself for a moment.

"For the killing of my guests, you are hereby exiled forever from our family, which is your family no more."

Kirti smiled and bowed, and he and his followers departed from the campsite without as much as a word or anything more than their clothes and weapons. A woman in the crowd that gathered to witness the trial, who had held her breath until now, cried out and fell to the ground.

It is said that Frono War-Bull was informed of this by his spies soon after receiving the Torta human-chief's repentance and demolishing the campsite palisade. He accepted the news calmly, and was not too displeased, since all has gone according to his plan and his oath to destroy Itono, with whom he used to querrel almost as much as with his father, was fulfilled; and now all that remained was punishment for the blasphemous human murderers who dared kill the godlike immediate son of the Cow Family-Chief.

---

Frono War-Bull arrived at the Arti human-family-campsite a day and a night later, followed by his terrifying retainers and the godlike warriors who followed him. This time, none resisted as he entered the city, except for a mad woman who jumped under the hooves of his horse; Frono stopped and had his warriors lead the mother of Kirti and Darti away, then proceed towards the chief-tent, and although it was the middle of the day all had vacated it except for human-chief Fiti. Frono sent his warriors away and spoke with human-chief Fiti, and Fiti told him in detail of what has happened in his absence. Frono nodded and thanked him, then explained to him what was to be done; then he went to the justice-place and swore mercy to all the men of the Arti-human-family; human-chief Fiti followed and exiled Yereti, Kirti, all those who had followed Kirti and some others that were absent; and Frono then said that they were now dangerous bandits and ordered the godlikes to scour the northern uplands in order to find the bandit-camp and destroy this evil threat to the Cow Family and all of its human children and foreign friends.

For the next several days, human-chief Fiti exiled others that were known to have acted or conspired against the godlikes, and collected gifts from their immediate relatives, and then from everyone else as well, so as to make a compensation for the godlikes; in the meantime, godlike warrior Frono went about righting the injustices that had emerged during the rebellion and pleading for the pardon of many of the humans and succeeding in every second case; and when human-chief Fiti bestowed all the painstakingly gathered gifts unto Frono, he took a quarter of it for the Cow Family, distributed another quarter amongst his retainers and distributed the remaining half amongst the humans, especially those whose households have now fallen on hard times. Whilst he did so, human-chief Fiti at first flinched, then sat down on the ground and shed bitter tears.

The humans soon came to hate human-chief Fiti and venerate godlike warrior Frono. At first they merely whispered bad rumours about Fiti, his deeds and his lineage; after a while some of them overcame their fear and previous contempt and began also to speak well of Frono even away from the justice-place and outside of the earshot of the godlikes. Then a few began to call for Fiti to be exiled; and the few nearly became the most, but for Frono persuading them that exiling the human-chief would be unwise in such a tumultous time. The voices for exile were immediately silenced; but others now began to speak of killing Fiti. At first, some of them pelted him with sharp stones when he came upon the justice-place in the morning; and when he tried to go back into the chief-tent, his immediate relatives barred him the way. He then stopped and began to bleed; but Frono and his retainers then appeared and the crowd quickly dispersed out of respect, whilst Fiti's lineage quickly let him and started to care for him, and Frono came by every so often to make sure that the human-chief recovered properly, until it was so. In the meantime, Fiti hid his disappointment as best he could, and contemplated the recent events.

On the day when he recovered, he was greeted by his family on the justice-place as was proper, though not with much enthusiasm. On the evening he walked alone around the chief-tent in contemplation. On the next evening he did so again; and on the third his younger immediate son Jiti followed him and attacked him with a large stick. Fiti fell to the ground and did not move; Jiti dropped his stick and took out his dagger; he leaned towards his immediate father and prepared to stab him, but was suddenly struck dead in one sword-blow; Frono had also followed the two. Frono then carried Fiti back to the chief-tent, where the human-chief was tended to. And after that, no matter how Fiti was hated, Frono was feared and loved too much for anything to be done against Fiti - even when neither Frono nor any of his friends or godlike relatives were nearby.

As for human-chief Fiti himself, on the next day after the assassination attempt he spoke in private with godlike warrior Frono, and asked him: "Why have you not killed me?"

"Why should I kill an ally who did not raise arms against me and mine, and has done all that I have asked of him?" - asked Frono in a surprised tone.

"Then why have you killed my son before he could kill me?" - asked Fiti, ignoring Frono's mockery.

"Because that man tried to kill a faithful and pious chief of my lesser brethren," - and at that Frono burst out laughing.

Fiti waited for the laughter to subside; meanwhile, Frono once again looked at Fiti's face and once again affirmed to himself that which he knew since his arrival: the old man desperately wanted to be killed, but could not do anything to achieve this!

"Fiti, know that I shall never kill you, because you shall never deserve to be killed. You are a good and peaceful man - and you would always help and never hinder a greater evil for the sake of harmony and peace within your own family. You will eagerly betray if that will serve the goal; but you can only betray and not backstab, and you will not betray me and mine again because you know that I would not kill you in any case but your family will suffer even more than before if you fail to keep it from betraying. May this be a lesson to you and all your descendants!

"And another thing. You have not killed my brothers with your own hands, but without your help that would never have happened, and I cannot leave this unpunished. I have scattered those who have killed my brothers to the nine winds; but you and the others who did not kill but helped kill deserve a different punishment. You have not commited any crimes that defy the family-law, and so none of you will be exiled or killed; instead, I shall punish you by allowing to live and not to leave. You will live forever - in dishonour and shame that will never leave you; a more fitting fate for men such as you I cannot yet find."

And with that, Frono walked away leaving Fiti to his mind-torment.

---

As for Kirti, by this time he had arrived at the bandit camp.

Snatches, of the mood.

Lo, Aya’se exalth’ thee, his sons, to die in arms for the Fatherland, and She Matah most beloved call’th thee daughters most faire to fight in the defence of Motherland… How can one deny such imperils from such virtuous mouths? Ancestors blessed…

Sons and Daughters of Martyrs – Common Prayer Book

For ours is a time of heroes, two of the three, walk amongst us… the days of thou shalth not’s with regards to the state will end, the state shall only doeth… even in these days, of war, of conflict, of a stagnation of the faith’s progress… we are sure that the Union will emerge victorious, for we hath the best generals, the best soldiers, and the help of the divine…

Concise History of the Union – exert from a Bronze plaque SR 100-200

Seshweay, Seshweay, our fate rests with the three
the World is thrice – Pa, Matah and Aya’se
Know those of the three,
Fight for those of the thrice,
Serve those of the triple,
Three, thrice, triple, godhead, three
Three shalth they be…

Son of Three – Popular Hymn

It is in his name that this State is founded, and you would doubt him? It is in his name that we live, and you would guess him? It is because of his will that we strive towards Unity and you would block him? Fear not brother, it is not us, these fellows, these proper Senators that you need fear, it is the mob… for though must be sure that blood is to spilled, let it be His enemies and not those of the blood and Faith!

Speech to the Central Senate of the Union, SR130

You know not of her… we care not, she is, she always has been… an Ancestor. Witness her, for no mortal is near her, you know this Senators; you know she is not in the natural order. You can see it!

Why is then we question her? Do we question the Ancestors? Do we question her love? The Beloved Aya’se? We dare not. We must not. We should not. Faith in Unity, Union, and Fatherland!

The Matah is of the blood, but not of the blood, she is of us, but not of us, and we should be content with that Brother Senators. Two of the three, two of our salvation, two of hope, and two of victory eternal…

Speech to the Central Senate of the Union, SR131

Aya’se, Aya’se, Aya’se, the Father of the Republic, the Sword of the Faith, the Shield of Unity, and the most beloved of our hearts, walks amongst us! Long have we prayed, long have we demanded, in vain to the Ancestors to send him down amongst us again, to lead us to eternal glory!

But there was one other time he has come down to us, which he never let his children know for his shame was absolute. He never told us that he and Te’esh were one and the same… in the chaos of the last days, Aya’se remained hidden in his halls… awating The Day to drive back the invader… on that day he donned the name Te’esh, donned the figure of Te’esh, donned the memories of Te’esh and… lo did he appear, after an eternity of waiting, a hundred by a hudred years of occupation and horror most wry in the scheme…

… to his shame, Aya’se realised his error, his children both Arkage and Seshweay were not ready for Republic, they longed for a tyranny… and Aya’se could, would not give them one… locked in council, year by year, his resolve broke… his surest allies and those firmest of faith talked of the lesser evil… Aya’se-Te’esh did not break…

Love… he decided that he must at all costs keep his children safe. With a heavy heart he was crowned Emperor… not willing to suffer the indignity he sent a lookalike to take the Crown.

Aya’se-Te’esh began a long slow process to educate his… efforts were cut short…his fellows weeping at the state of the Fatherland, called unto Aya’se and pleaded with him to abandon his sons to their own devices…. He refused once, they promised to allow him travel back when the moment was right, he refused twice, they promised to allow him to return back and to give him a wife to live his life with for he was very lonely, he refused thrice, they promised to allow to return back, to give him a wife and to raise her amongst their own number…

Thrice is are the number… thrice is the number critical… thrice is the state founded… thrice and nevermore…

…heavy in heart, and sick with dread at leaving his children… he pleaded with thrice…they refused. Te’esh died the next day. Aya’se cast aside his shell… and waited, for his love would be born a mortal and ascendant to her position… and lo would he have a wife… and the means of leading his children forward.

Book of Choices

This is the day He made me;
We will rejoice and be glad;
For no weapon used against Him shall remain;
We will declare;
We will rejoice;
He is our victory;
and He is here.

This is the day she may take me;
We will rejoice and be glad;
For no weapon used against me shall remain;
We will declare;
We will rejoice;
She is our eternal victory;
And She is here.

This may be the day of Union;
We will rejoice and be glad in it;
Our State is the one who provides
For faith proved is;
Of more worth than gold;
Refine me, through the flames.
To serve his name;

This is the prayer in battle;
And triumph is still on its way;
So firm on his promise I’ll remain.

We will declare;
We will rejoice;
All in his name.

Battle Hymn of the Union

The soldiers would bow towards their commanders, and repeat the hymn until the fighting started, and in the worst battles would continue to sing the hymn until they were overrun.

Just a general look at the religious oddities going around the Union at this moment in time.

"Thanks" for not making me double post either.

Well, I know this is late, but I'm sure you could use these names in later updates:

People:
-Vuhku Apto
-Binimo Cuvti
-Lisarto Zinlu

Places:
Lake Yensu
Sea of Bonto
Mount Vinko
Mount Penfi
The Great Tusks (mountains)
Hupa (Place with all of the jungles)

P.S. I'm eagerly awaiting the update!

9. The Bandit-Leader Declares War.

One might ask: how did Kirti and his followers reach the bandit camp? Indeed, the bandit camp was distant and well-hidden; but on closer observation it was but three days or less to the north if one followed the hidden paths known to Kirti; and those paths were known to Kirti because he had gone to the bandit camp twice in the past, so as to conduct negotiations. Thus even though Kirti had never been inside of the bandit camp before, he encountered no great difficulty in finding his way and leading his followers there; those followers followed him both out of personal devotion and respect, and because they knew that the Cow Family godlikes could always find them and decide to hold another trial in which they would be judged not for the killing of the chief's guests by the Arti human-family law, but for the killing of godlikes by the Cow Family law; but in a small party commanded by such a fortunate hunter as Kirti, they were already this much safer from the prospect of such a trial, and in a bandit camp no laws applied but for the bandit-law, according to which they had as yet done nothing wrong except for not being bandits.

The bandits have often been mentioned by now, but who and what were they, where did they come from and where were they now? Surely it has now become necessary to answer those questions, and it is, as always, most advisable to start with the question of ancestry.

Now, it is known that bandits, in the broadest sense, are all those who are not members of any families within the Great Family - that is to say, foreigners and outcasts. In the reign of Chief-of-Chiefs Eso Kotuu, all the families were equal, small and self-sufficient, and there were no foreigners and no outcasts. There were no foreigners because all the families were parts of the Great Family, and there were no outcasts because there were no laws to break and no crimes to be exiled for, for without need and without evil, who would need crimes, and without crimes, who would need laws? Therefore in the reign of Chief-of-Chiefs Eso Kotuu, there were no bandits, even though over time evil grew.

When Eso Kotuu was killed, the Evil Family had indubitably become a family of criminals; but they were not outcasts, because noone was there to exile them, and though all the families on the Good Council fought against them, they were not bandits, but were worse than bandits. Regardless, over the course of the Good War mountains crumbled and oceans flooded around the earth, and the world was shattered and broken; but the Evil Family too was scattered to the nine winds, and therefore came to be a part of the unbroken world, in its way. Therefore as families split aside and spread out, and as need and evil multiplied in the broken world, the Evil Family too had found its reflections in the outcasts that, having been exiled, still tried to unjustly live off the families by stealing, and in the foreigners who lived near and alongside the families but did not accept the laws and agreements of the Moti Great Family and instead preferred to steal from those who did, being too needy or too evil to survive off what they had themselves; and those became the first bandits.

Nonetheless for a long time the bandits remained few, as families hunted them down and killed them, and those who were strong enough to defend themselves eventually joined the Moti Great Family or became good foreigners, obeying the laws of the Moti Great Family when in the lands of the Moti families and usually becoming foreign traders. Many foreign traders were not good, however, but instead were evil and sought to undermine and subvert the family-laws and to sell their goods for their own prices; but those were mostly in the later days and even then they were not bandits for they walked amongst the good people and pretended to follow the family-laws, whereas the bandits live among themselves and follow only the bandit-laws.

By the reign of Chief-of-Chiefs Frei, evil had become very strong indeed, and so families at first quarreled with each other to the point of destroying several opposing families and enslaving their men and women, and then, after adapting the Frei-laws, were misled in a different way by dividing their population into godlikes and humans, so that the humans may give gifts to the godlikes, and by adapting new family-laws according to which those who rebelled against this injustice were to be exiled, and so were those who conspired to kill godlikes or killed their friends, the foreign traders. As revolts broke out, many were exiled, and some later followed the exiles of their own account; and so large numbers of outcasts banded together in the forests and the mountains, away from the main settlements but often not too far from trading roads; and as those trading roads had become quite widespread and wealthy, the outcasts have soon taken to raiding them and dividing the goods seized by themselves; and they also sometimes raided the storages of the godlikes. In so doing they had gained food, goods and seeds; they ate or stored the food, distributed some goods amongst themselves and sold others to evil traders that were farther away from their camps and also began to cultivate what lands they could find; and after a while the bandit camps became veritable campsites, and bandit groups were almost families, only evil. They elected their own bandit leaders, who were as chiefs, and those leaders set down the bandit-laws, which were in many regards similar to family-laws, only they replaced names and put everything on its head, treating all those who were not bandits like family members treated all the outcasts and foreigners, and treating other bandits as distant brothers, with whom they exchanged brides and gifts, though no bandit leader was leader-of-leaders. With all of this, the bandits were easily and clearly shown to be nothing other than the reflections of the Evil Family. And yet they were also victims of injustice and often rebels who had once risen against it, and they continued to fight against the godlikes, and only the godlikes themselves and their friends could say that this was wholly unjust. And so in this broken world neither the Chief-of-Chiefs nor the humans could allow themselves to entirely shun and oppose the bandits.

That said, ofcourse, the bandits were evil, and Chief-of-Chiefs Gaci, being particularly close to the feast-tent of Eso Kotuu in space and in time, resisted the evil temptation to use the bandits against the godlikes, and instead sent out warriors to hunt them down and destroy the bandit camps that attacked foreign traders and family men alike and plagued the trade routes; by the fourty-seventh year of his reign, most bandit camps have been forcefully destroyed and many bandits killed in battle or immediately afterwards, the rest escaping to the mountains and becoming outcast families that eventually repented and received forgiveness and were adapted into the Elephant Family in exchange for protecting the frontiers and sending their strongest warriors to the Elephant Family warband. The humans, meanwhile, were much farther away from the feast-tent of Eso Kotuu and so were more afflicted by evil and need; and they came to view the bandits as just rebels, of a sort, and so when any of them were exiled they went to join the bandits in the surviving bandit camps, which were usually in remote places and well-fortified, and so much more likely to hold out against any enemy, and also were farther away from Elephant Family lands, enabling the exiles to take revenge on the families which had exiled them without having to fight against the forces of Good and Law (Chief-of-Chiefs Gaci understood this as well and for this reason ordered the godlikes to destroy the remaining bandits in their lands instead of sending out his own warriors again, though they might have carried out the task this much faster and better; he was also asked by the Cow Family-Chief for the right to command armies against bandits, but instead he gave that right to the Lion Family-Chief, knowing that, on the account of ancient grudges and current rivalries, a lion and a bull would never fight in the same army unless it was led by the Chief-of-Chiefs himself, and so every family in the east will stand for itself and suffer justly from the bandits if it had been unjust).

Thus by the fourty-seventh year of the reign of Chief-of-Chiefs Gaci, a thousand and one bandit camps that existed in the reign of Chief-of-Chiefs Frei have become fourty seven; but those fourty seven that remained were on par with some of the godlike campsites, being impregnable fortresses populated or garrisoned by multiple thousands of bandits and dominating vast tracts of land - whilst remaining unseen thanks to evil magic and ingenuity. Still, with every year the godlikes that still fought against them pressed them harder and harder; that made both raiding and trading ever more difficult and often disrupted communications between bandit camps; and the surviving bandit camps have taken to fighting back ever more desperately, undertaking ven more daring raids in hopes of gaining an advantage over godlike convoys and patrols, and also inciting the humans - not to join them and become bandits, but to rebel and become their allies.

In the fourty-seventh year of the reign of Chief-of-Chiefs Gaci, there was much need and evil throughout the land; need manifested itself in poor harvests and evil manifested itself in the greed of the godlikes for more goods, and the humans started to rebel, and the bandits started to help them and stopped raiding them while they were rebelling. Yereti, then the human-chief of Arti human-family, too was preparing to rebel, and he sent secret trading expeditions to purchase from the bandits in the northern camp, who were known for their hatred towards the greed of the Cow Family godlikes with whom they often fought, three things: a truce, weapons and eventual support. These plans were, however, ruined when godlike Kono, youngest immediate son of the Cow Family-Chief, had seized with arms and a threat the Arti human-family campsite; Yereti then found it useful to disappear, whereas Kono appointed elder Fiti the new human-chief. Later, ofcourse, Yereti's son Darti had killed Kono and human-chief Fiti declared that the Arti-family had risen up against injustice, but throughout all the following events which have already been mentioned, the bandits have not come to assist the human rebels, for they had made an agreement not with the Arti human-chief, but Yereti, who was a wise and powerful shaman and so received particular respect and fealty from the bandits, who now came to rely even more on knowledge and luck than before due to their desperate situation. Yereti had disappeared and neither the godlikes nor the human rebels were able to find him; and therefore the bandits did not march to the support of the Arti-family human rebels, neither when they were only beginning to rebel nor when they were holding the godlikes at bay nor when they were put on the brink of defeat which was not long in coming. The bandits continued to trade with the Arti-family and they continued to raid nearby trading caravans and ambush nearby Cow Family patrols; but the large warbands of the bandits which could have defeated Itono were nowhere to be seen, and Kirti had every reason to be displeased with the way the bandits acted during the rebellion, but for knowledge that Yereti probably had a reason for everything he did - and Kirti was hard-pressed to believe that now as well, not quite unjustly.

Regardless, though, the bandits were the only ones to who he could go now, even if he were to think solely of survival. He thought of other things as well, though; and for all his reasons he moved towards the bandit camp, and his thirteen friends followed him - and as to why, this has already been explained. They lived off the land and gradually they came to the right place; Kirti whistled as he did during his previous expeditions in which he tried and failed to recruit bandit help, and after a short wait several armed bandits emerged from the woods, and some of them looked just like the Arti men who have been exiled on the command of the godlikes years ago, only this much older.

"I know of your plight, Kirti of the Arti," - said Durom, the one-eyed head of the bandit patrollers - "Why have you come here?"

"I have come here to ask for help," - said Kirti firmly, just like he did the previous two times.

"You shall be allowed to enter," - said Durom after hesitating for a short while, much to Kirti's surprise, for never before had Durom even suggested this.

"Then I and my friends shall."

"You will all be considered guests of the bandit-leader, and shall be allowed to remain such for seven days." - added Durom.

Kirti simply nodded and thought to himself: "And then we will be asked to join them; I wonder if only those who refuse will be killed or if the bandit-leader is wise enough to kill us all at once?"

Durom led the way into the very earth behind where he came from and Kirti followed him; and Kirti's friends followed Kirti, and the other bandits followed Kirti's friends. There was another man here as well; he was watching from the shadows and Kirti had briefly noticed him as he looked back before entering the hidden path underneath the ground, but said nothing; the man then ran away.

---

Underneath the ground there was indeed a hidden path, and it did not drag on for longer than the previous wait, although it seemed much longer than that due to the confising bandit magics. At last, Durom stopped and reached out to find a wooden door above him. He knocked six times and then, after a pause, once again; and then it opened and the cold night air rushed in, and the stars shined into Kirti's eyes as he looked up. He suddenly felt weak after the arduous journey, but steeled himself and followed Durom to the surface. Thus he found himself in the bandit-camp.

The bandit-camp was a very twisted version of the original campsite, but nonetheless it was not difficult to see the similarities; its palisade was mountains, trees and strong wooden walls; the bandit-leader-longhouse was not unlike some of the larger chief-tents, especially those of the godlikes; the temple was also there, although it was dedicated to the "true gods"; and before the bandit-leader-longhouse there was a large field that the bandits called the warrior-grounds, but which were in essence a particularily mangled reflection of the justice-place. There were also many houses of bandits, similar to dwellings of humans, only larger and richer.

"You are tired," - said Durom - "Rest in my house and the houses of my neighbouring brothers this night; tommorow you should meet with the bandit-leader."

Kirti could not help but accept this.

---

In the morning, Kirti and his friends gathered together again and were led to the bandit-leader-longhouse, which consisted of two parts: the lower and the upper. Kirti's friends stayed below, under guard, but were allowed to eat; Kirti was invited upstairs and hurried up, soon entering the bandit-leader's own room, which was unusually tidy and decorated with various tropheys. In the center there was a rug which seemed to be like nothing ever made by the People; and on it sat a wolf-cloaked old man, the bandit-leader Yereti.

If Kirti was startled, then his face showed nothing.

"Sit, Kirti of the Arti, my immediate son," - said Yereti.

"Have you heard..." - started Kirti, who indeed was dumbfounded, and then stopped, not sure how to proceed.

"I know of all that has transpired," - said Yereti - "I know of your rebellion, for Durom has reported to me about your visits, and others told me about everything that happened in the war so far. I know of our former family's defeat and of Darti's death, and of your revenge and your exile."

"Then I am at a disadvantage, father," - coldly admitted Kirti, gathering his wits - "For I know not where have you been since your flight."

To that Yereti responded by recounting his dealings with the bandits in a way that threw new light on all that has happened, and that light was not quite pleasing to Kirti's eye. For Yereti had indeed gotten far in his negotiations with the bandits; a normal outsider and a slave, which is what the bandits called all the humans of the families, would never have gotten inside the camp without forfeiting their family ties; but Yereti was allowed inside freely, for he was a powerful and wise shaman, and the bandits had great respect for that. But after the first two visits he had learned that the current bandit-leader was not very successful and not very powerful; and at the same time he also conquered immense personal respect and devotion through his shamanical acts and practices, which allowed the bandits to win several battles. At first he considered supporting the bandit-leader in exchange for his own help for the intended Arti uprising, and when some of the malcontent bandits offered him the position of bandit-leader he refused and cowed them into submission with a sudden storm. But the bandit-leader proved recalcitrant, and therefore on the third try the bandits received Yereti's consent in exchange for him being allowed to remain the human-chief of his family for the time being, so as to tie it to the greater cause. Yereti effortlessly got rid of the bandit-leader and became the supreme leader of the Greater-Wolf-Camp, as the bandits called it, organising highly fruitful raids in the north and also easily negotiating with himself an end of hostilities with the Arti family. In due time, he looked around and noticed that the Greater-Wolf-Camp was a far more worthy opponent to the campsite of the Cow Family godlikes, and decided to prepare an uprising; then he would have ruled the Inner Mountains as he desired, having conquered them all with the help of bandits and human rebels alike, and in so doing would have achieved personal greatness and gotten revenge at the unjust Cow Family.

When Kono first invaded, it was naught but a temporary setback, and Yereti easily slipped back to the bandit-camp, where he was finally able to devote his whole time to making sure that his authority was truly absolute and to launching extensive raids in the north as preparation for a general war; the uprising came before he could return and give the order, but it was not wholly unexpected and was likewise to be used, and help would have been provided had a good opportunity to land the decisive blow appeared or had the uprising achieved any lasting success; but then Itono and Frono seized the campsite, and all need of that fell away.

All this Yereti now told to Kirti in full detail, and Kirti listened carefully.

"So the rumours of you being a changeling have been true," - said Kirti at last - "You were a human-chief amongst us and changed into a bandit-leader amongst the bandits!"

"No; I have long ago severed all ties with our former family, and was right to do, it seems. Before Kono came I merely stayed there as a bandit would stay at a campsite whilst planning a raid nearby."

"Or perhaps as a bandit would join a caravan before robbing it?" - inquired Kirti politely.

"Our former family never had anything worth stealing, especially not after the godlikes started asking for gifts," - replied Yereti with a cold disdain - "So no. Now, tell me, immediate son - why have you come here now?"

"I have come here to speak with the bandit-leader, in hopes of persuading him to send warriors to help me and my friends restart the uprising," - honestly replied Kirti, his voice filling up with power and desire for war - "We would not repeat our mistakes, and we have but one of Third-Frono's three sons left to slay! We will retake the campsite and lead the people to renewed rebellion, and we will destroy all the remaining godlikes in the Inner Mountains, and then will restore justice there and beyond. Surely you realise that this is in your interests as well, even if you are nothing more but the bandit-leader! The godlikes have filled your forests and your mountains; they are searching for you and for this camp, and even if they do not find it, I doubt that it will be good for you and yours if godlike patrols go everywhere you might want to strike. Meanwhile, if we but ally and you resign in my favour as the Arti human-chief, we could defeat our enemies together. Or are you no longer interested in the cause of justice, Yereti?"

"Do not speak to me of justice or of my own interests, Kirti of the Arti," - replied Yereti coldly - "But do think to yourself about your family. It is exhausted and bloodied; if you free it, it will once more go to war, and that would be a disaster, for what will then remain of it? Or did you simply not think about it?"

"I did think about it," - said Kirti - "And I have determined that it is worth it. Besides, you, Yereti, have no right to complain about what I intend to do with the Arti-family, for you have abandoned it in time of need."

"Abandon it?" - snorted Yereti - "I have been threatened and forced to flee, and then I have been expelled!"

"You yourself have said that..."

"Do you think I would have abandoned my family otherwise? No; I was left with no choice! In any case, by now I have already cu my ties with my kin; you, meanwhile, claim to speak for its interests; what excuse do you have?"

"It is best to fight and die with honour rather than live and die with dishonour; and if an entire family were to be bled white for justice, that still would be more honourable than to resign once defeated."

Yereti closed his eyes and remained silent. Finally, Kirti was unnerved.

"Very well, then! You are not moved by duty or honour, and I refuse to believe that you abstain due to pity for our family. But know that what I said about the godlike threat is true. You might think that your fortress is impregnable and impossible to find, but I know that I and my brothers have been followed on our way here, and it was a godlike spy. Frono has already defeated the Torta, and by now the Arti-family will have bowed to him already as well. Frono might defeat the Inu, or he might not waste his time there; for all I know Inu might already have gone over to him without a fight. After that, only the biggest and most important prize for remain for him, and that is this camp; and he now knows where it is; he could not abstain from going here, and he is as relentless as his ancestor and as cunning as a goat, so he will find a way to use what he has learned against you no matter what you do."

Kirti could have continued this rambling speech for much longer, but at this point the suddenly tense Yereti jumped to his feet and so made him stop talking. Yereti knew: Kirti would never have failed to notice this spy, so he was either lying or he had intentionally led the spy here; so the old shaman stared into Kirti's face and saw the truth, and many other things besides, some from Kirti's mind but others from many other people and places, and the picture became painfully apparent to him.

The elderly bandit leader started whirling and dancing around one spot and chanting in a bizarre tongue, and he turned into many strange and different things before becoming a wolf, and the wolf ran to the window and howled, to the enthusiastic shouts of the bandits outside.

Kirti was confused.

Yereti sighed and sat down, a frail old man again, and looked at Kirti's face.

"The godlikes have already decided to destroy us, and are on the march here. Truly, it is not so rare for a few fools to doom a family to humiliation; but it is rare for one fool to doom both his family and his bandit camp.

"In any case, you have accomplished what you have sought, and now you and your friends will be allowed to join us. The bandits of this camp will fight the Cow Family as best we could - for once again, we have no choice."

Yereti smiled a cruel smile and Kirti shuddered, for it reminded him of the smile that once broke upon the face of his friend Sirti, who later turned out to be Frono War-Bull.

---

Then Yereti stood up, with neither madness nor frailty nor wickedness to his face, and walked with a determined step to the lower part and then to the exit of his house, biding Kirti to follow him. A huge crowd - all the bandits in the camp - had already gathered near the bandit-leader-longhouse, on the warrior-grounds. Before Yereti's longhouse there was a small elevation made by a long-forgotten bandit-leader, who wished to tower above his followers, but failed and was killed and lived on only in his handiwork; as Yereti stood on it, he truly became greater and taller, and the bandits gasped as the old man turned into a powerful and truly god-like bandit-leader and sorcerer. The bandit-leader outstretched his hands and looked with a fury in his blue eyes and scowling white eyebrows; and he spoke calmly, yet in that calmness many also heard the bellowing of a thousand war-winds and the thunder befitting a story about the Good War.

"Freed-men of the Great-Wolf-Camp! I have been born to a family of cow-slaves, and even though I have become their chief I was no less a slave! You have freed me and made me your leader - rest assured that my loyalty to you is unyielding!

"The rest of my former family had since then launched a premature rebellion against the cows, and under my guidance we have not interfered lest we commit ourselves to a doomed cause, as it indeed has turned out to be. We had hoped that the godlikes will then return to their lands and allow us to resume our own plans - but now my son and his friends, who have escaped my slave family's defeat, have arrived here to deliver a grave warning: that the godlikes had already learned of our location and even as we speak are preparing to march upon us. That is a valuable warning; my son and those who had followed him here stand beside me, and they shall join us, for they too have been exiled and besides they have already seen our camp and therefore will have to become our brothers. They will fight alongside us soon, for a war shall now commence.

"Freed-men of the Great-Wolf Camp! Frono is a mighty and lucky warrior, and he is followed by myriads! But I will eat his luck and subvert his might - not because of what he has done to my son, or for what he has done unto my former family, nor even for my exile, caused by his brother, for I do not regret it. Nay. I will commit myself wholly and undertake to destroy him utterly, not for anything else, but for the sake of the Great-Wolf-Camp, thus I solemnly swear now!

"And if I fail in this, then I will die, this much I shall also swear; but remember that neither I nor the true gods of this world would accept any less than the same from any one of you!"

"We will not offer any less!" - shouted back Durom, who was in the crowd; and the others raised their assorted weapons and shouted in approval. And when they calmed down, Yereti, who was silent during the outburst and dominated everyone through his silence, now returned to dominating them through his words.

"The Wolf-Camp declares war on the Cow Family!" - shouted Yereti and cut up his right hand, letting blood fall to the ground and paint in it a strange and ominious picture - "War to the last drop of blood!"

And the bandits were thrown into yet another frenzy, whereas Kirti and his fellows exchanged frightened and awkward gazes, for they were quite unused to the ways of the bandits but also because it was now impossible to deny that this, indeed, was Yereti - for this was how he spoke before them back when he was human-chief, some of them must have thought, distraughtly: "how different are we from bandits? For have we not, too, been driven into a frenzy even when he said innocuous things in which the godlikes failed to see hatred and deception?" But Kirti thought: "Soon, Frono will be here, and that can scarcely be averted; I have wondered who would win if they fight; but perhaps I should have wondered what would be worse - if Frono were to win and kill me or if Yereti were to live and win?" And due to those thoughts he remained quite distressed and gloomy for the next several days.

On the eve after Yereti's speech, the bandits held a grand feast in the honour of their new brothers and on the next morning a large bandit warband set out for the Inu human-family campsite.

Due to the story rules, das' nation has just wrote (Or has begun to do so) an epos of magnificent size, and due to that his nation recieves +2 culture, +5000 income and 2 free ages.

I would settle for +100% military production in Moti-city. EDIT: And, ofcourse, heightened chances of getting a Great Artist there.

I'm quite curious how does North King decide to deal with all of this, actually. I was sort of hoping to use it as a bonus for a certain plan of mine, but the problem is that, while all the story so far is supposed to lead up to that, it still is nowhere near it as things turned out, and I can't reveal anything else for spoiler reasons. So if bonuses are supposed to be connected to actual content of individual stories, then I suppose it would mostly be cultural and partly economic and maybe military (mostly since the Cow Family is tied to military affairs so much). It still would be a headache to figure out.

Well, stories give peacemonger bonuses (+eco, culture) when you don't fight and warmonger bonuses (+soldiers, victories) when you fight. I think they're adaptive. Fx Neruss' ass was saved by a story about a politican.

Well, looks like we're getting near to another page. Let's try to save the top of it for North King.

I thought north king stated not to post new stories, or am I wrong?

You can post stories for bonus during next turn I think.