What should have never happened has happened: two civilizations, which would have been destined to greatness if they had collaborated, have instead decided to raise their weapons against each other and give blows to the other. As blood is dropped over the floor and territories exchange hands, Gaia cries for the death of her children and the ones who will never be born because of the deaths of their prospective parents. However, everywhere else in the world, people advance both in the diplomatic, the economical and even the scientific sense, as some nations gain advancements that allow them to understand other things easily while providing access to other technologies that were before unknown. Applying themselves to the future of their population, these nations seem to be well on the path of success and keeping the names of their nations alive till the end of times.
Africa
The democratic nation of
Brundagana has done a lot of work these last years. Their great works in the three Pyramids of Brunda, Adra and the Future are advancing very fast, to the point that the Future and Adra pyramids are already finished and Brunda is at two thirds of completion. The colony in Adragana expands slowly due to the distance between the coast and the island, which makes it difficult to make trade between the parts of the nation and to take settlers to the island, but it is a big enough number to keep the people from inbreeding and to counter the numbers lost to illness and natural death. (Pyramids wonder worked on, expansion, +3% Tribal Gods)
Meanwhile, in Northern Africa, the soldiers of the nation of
Damietta are expanding all along the nearest territories, concentrating on the east. Their specially trained religious soldiers, the Iker, drove towards there, managing to plant the flag of their nation in many places, with the new settlers following them. Some of them do so riding animals called donkeys, which, although slow, are very resistant and can help people to go through the ardent desert that surrounds them. Working on the monument to the gods keeps on at a slow but constant pace. (Animal Husbandry (+1 EC), Stonehenge worked on, expansion, +3% Saharan Pantheon Gods)
The new
Guanche Monarch, a man of unknown name from whom is said that he lost a bet against his brother and that was why he always wears black, yellow and red war paints, has directed his nation to a war against the barbarians on the south. Using a new tactic, consisting on deploying military units behind the lines of the enemy and attack from behind after an upfront attack, helped the Guanche Army in their quest to conquer the southern regions around a river, which the king deemed to be named Delúser. In the Canarian territories, construction has begun on a temple that will hold worship to Achamán, the God of Sun, for the natives of the islands and those people born in there. (+1 Navy Quality, Temple of Achamán (+2% Religion, +1 Culture every turn) started, expansion)
Asia
The
Babylonian Empire, after a small reprieve, launched a very hard expansion effort in order to reach the seas surrounding the place where the Babylonians live. Their efforts met with success as the three expeditions reached their intended destiny and settled down. While the Southern Expedition easily reached the Indian Sea and placed several colonies in the coast through the use of the Oar-Ships, the Northern Expedition met with several problems as the ships they took to go upriver weren't light enough, which forced them to leave the ships in there and use camels to cross the desert until they reached the Black Sea and the Western Expedition arranged for the placement of several small towns next to all the oasis they met on their long walk towards the west, which finally ended when they found the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Back in Babylon, the priests realised that the Sun moved around the planet always with a fixed standard, which they measured and found to be of 365 days. (Calendar (+2 EC,
Bonus +2 EC), starts Caravanserai Project (+1 CP&+1EC/turn&level),
enters Bronze Age, expansion, +5% Babylonian Paganism)
The peoples of
Dai Nippon Teikoku are amazed at the invention of one of the most intelligent sages of the capital in Edo. He has figured that perhaps one could actually translate the spoken language into abstract symbols, and then use those symbols to carry messages from point to point. Slowly, this trend is starting to expand all along the nation, with the government being pleased with this as it will allow them to store data from everyone with more efficiency, and the sages being pleased as well since this will help them to keep their thoughts in place. The Northern Army has, finally, been able to break the resolve of the Hokkaido barbarians through the implementation of several soldiers to strike from the north using their fleets to surround the troops. After control was assured of all the main islands of the archipelago, the army set out to conquer several more islands, striking north and west with the combination of their army and navy to do so. (Writing (+2 EC,
Bonus +5 Culture),
enters Bronze Age, expansion, Playerism +2%)
A new nation wakes up in the continental East Asia. Named
Shanjuó and centred around the city of Shanghai, these people are, over all, people from the country, investing most of their time and money in expanding their lands to have more food to eat. Their high-proficiency agriculture, combined with their care of several animals, has allowed the population of the nation to rise a lot, and the military, who has the control of the government, has made plans to draft these huge levels of people into military units designed to overwhelm their enemies through sheer numbers. They have a strong sense of ethics: they protect the weak, serve their land and family and live through self-reliance and strength, drawing their roots to their proverb “The Mother Earth helps those who help themselves”. (+Existence, +5% Survivalism, +1 Warrior, Agriculture (Starting Tech), Animal Husbandry (+1 EC), expansion)
In spite of
Singodia's efforts to build up the funerary monument to their former leader, the Oligarchs' Council members realised that it would take them too many years for them to be able to build it for it to be beneficial to them. Arguing that Nabuc's soul would have already joined the Mother Gaia, they decided to scrap the monument down and use the stones to build new buildings for the main cities of the country. As the army started to size up through heavy recruitment, one of the engineers of the army presented the new recruits with a weapon based on the lance-propellers that were invented not much time ago: these bows could throw lances at longer distances than the propeller could. The recruits managed to get used to the new weapon in time for the offensive against the south-western barbarians to be launched, which was incredibly successful thanks to the bows. (Archery (
Bonus Atlalts → Archers), enters
Bronze Age, expansion, +2% Fertility Cult)
Europe
Away from the war efforts, the
Gaulic Confederation has finally reached the Atlantic Ocean as their settlers, aided by a group of Warriors, started a colony in the mouth of the Loire river which would soon grow up in size due to its attractiveness to both people living in the capital in Paris and those that lived near it before the Gauls appeared. The push towards the east was, however, curtailed when the settlers met a group of aggressive barbarians called Teutons, who forced those settlers to go back to their towns under threat of a painful death. However, one of those settlers, seeing some strange instruments the Teutons had with them, managed to copy it and then present it to his chief, who immediately brought it to the monarch and commissioned many of them for the army. (Lance-Propeller, expansion, +3% Ancestor and Personality Cult)
The people in
Idyll, already ensnared by the attractiveness of the religion of Militarism, are driven into it faster as the army manages to give many successes to the peoples with barely any effort. As the eastern and southern lands expand slowly to give more space to more settlers, a drive to the west has been launched to lay claim of a coast in there. However, although they reached a coast, soon a native disabused them of the notion that it was a sea, because in reality it was nothing but a lake, but then revealed that further to the west there was the sea. The advance was halted in order to arrange the entrance of these people into the Idyll nation, bringing with them several horned animals called reindeer, which can be taken care of and bred in order to have a constant source of meat and skins for clothing. Several people in the south also claim that they have found something that can be used for weapons instead of stone, but so far the newly created weapons are softer than the stone ones, although working on it continues. (Animal Husbandry (+1 EC), Bronze Melting (6/10), expansion, +4% Militarism)
Expanding even further inland from their bases in the Peloponnesus, the
Kingdom of Hellenium stretches its arms in order to better control as much land as possible. While the army advances towards the north and east, the navy takes settlers and warriors towards the east and the west. The north is easily taken care of thanks to the lack of any real opposition, and the east meets up with several barbarians who decide not to act against the recently arrived settlers, but in the west a carnage ensues in which many soldiers and settlers lose their lives in the fight against the Sicilian barbarians, but nonetheless prevail and manage to take control of a small piece of land in the eastern coast of the island. Meanwhile, back at home, the Hellenian countrymen have managed to finally find a new source of food by means of planting and growing seeds that give either fruits or grain, and their engineers are trying to find new, sturdier building materials. (Agriculture (+1 EC), Stone Mining (2/6), -2 Warriors, trade with Kingdom of Rome (+1), expansion, +2% Hellenic Polytheism)
It seems that the
Kingdom of Rome has decided to hold on their current lands instead of keeping with expansion, as others do. Their being landlocked, with the sea everywhere save for the northern border with the Milanese has much to do with this decision. However, this doesn't mean that they will be waiting idly around for the situation to clear itself. Rather, they have started a new industry in the central lands, extracting stone from the mountains to later use it for buildings and the such. While trade agreements are done with the Milanese and the Greek (the latter through their colony in the Heel), the Sicilians rebuff any attempts from the Romans to trade with them, arguing that they want nothing to do with them and that any Roman that tries to travel to the island shall meet death. (Stone Mining (+1 EC), trade with Kingdom of Hellenium (+1) and United Tribes of Milan (+1), +2% Roman Paganism, +1% Animism, +1% Hellenic Polytheism)
While war rages on the south,
Pictland attempts to expand on other lands, but realise that, as long as they don't have any means to traverse the sea, they won't be able to conquer the tiny islands around northern East Anglia. Economical output comes from the central hills, where attempts to extract stone for its use in making buildings have met with success. Also, the Picts have started to build a temple for Brodgar, god of war, in the outskirts of the ancient capital of Inverness, using for it the stones that were scrapped from the attempt to make a religious site for their druids. (Stone Mining (+1 EC), Stonehenge scrapped, Ring of Brodgar started (+1 Army Quality, +2 CP), +2% Celtic Polytheism)
In the north of the Italian Peninsula, the
United Tribes of Milan redoubled their efforts to build a tomb for their Chief of Chiefs, paying many people to work on the tomb as settlers keep expanding the lands owned by the Tribes. Efforts to go towards the west work, as many new, fertile lands are now being ploughed up to introduce the seeds inside and produce grain for the people. In the east, settlers have also managed to find and domesticate several small animals that can be bred in order to give other continuous source of food for the main population. Traders from the southern Kingdom of Rome are already introducing several new products to the markets in Milan, and bringing Milanese products back to their country, and new encounters with other civilization make the future look bright for the Milanese. (Animal Husbandry (+1 EC), expansion, Pyramids wonder worked on, trade with Kingdom of Rome (+1), +3% Animism)
North America
Revelling in their new found freedom from the clutches of tyrants, the
Britannian Republic expands towards all directions, using up all the energies stored from the apathetic times of the Empire. New-found food sources, such as grain or animals, have been brought to the attention of the Britannian Senate, which has ordered that they are introduced into all parts of the Republic in order to not depend as much as they currently do on the sea. A new religion, based on the relationship between the sea and the land, has started to spread out among the Britannians, who, although reluctant due to the collective memory remembering the role the Church of Imperialism played, are starting to join the new religion, attracted by its complete separation from the government and the calm it brings to the people. (Agriculture, Animal Husbandry (+2 EC), expansion, +3% Shara)
A new invention appears among the
Nootka! Their sea-driven spirit is further impulsed thanks to the use of a piece of cloth tied to a mast, speeding ships further and faster than oars alone can do! The Nootka, enthusiastic with the new idea, have armed a new group of ships that combines sails and oars and launch it towards the south, as they are eager to conquer as many lands as possible while the army, with the help of their Canoe fleet, go upriver and along the coast in an effort to follow the successes of the navy. (Sailing (
Bonus +1 Navy Quality),
enters Bronze Age, expansion, +3% Sun and Moon Worship)
The Mexican barbarians can rest easy... for the moment. The
Seri people have decided to let them be as they are and instead focus on conquering more lands on the north, going along the river and the coast in order to have fresh water and be sure that they won't miss any supplies brought to them on the Oar-ships. However, this doesn't mean that the barbarians will be left unsupervised: several Hunter units are being kept in the unofficial border with the Mexicans, and some scouts were sent in order to spy on them. However, their lack of training meant that they weren't able to reach the main armies and instead had to rely on long distance looking. No movements were detected towards the north among the Mexicans, who have instead decided to go towards the south. Oh! And the monument to the spirits has been finished, being visited by several hundreds of people and reinforcing the faith of people in the spirits as they commune with them between the large stones. (Stonehenge wonder finished (+5 CP, increases expansion, +1 Tech EC/Turn), all other Stonehenges scrapped, expansion, +7% Spiritualism)
Oceania
In the hot waters of the Indian Ocean, several ships are sailing in all directions, carrying soldiers with them. Landings in many islands only meet with peaceful natives who surrender and join the
Sarawak, although in one large island on the west the natives (armed only with clubs and darts) manage to keep the terrain gained by the recently arrived soldiers to a minimum. In some of the conquered islands, the soldiers find several docile animals, one of them large enough to carry people on its back, and decide to bring specimens to the island of Saraw, where sages realise that these animals can be used to get food, if they are bred and taken care of on a daily basis. (Animal Husbandry (+1 EC), expansion, +3% Worship of the God-Emperor)
South America
Artisans in Chibchan have managed to do what was thought to be impossible: they can make recipients from mud! Of course, the process is slightly more complicated than that, as the mud has to be modelled with the hands and then specially treated so that it doesn't explode during the heating. Once this process was controlled, many thousands of pots were made. They were specially useful during the harvest, as the grain was stored in closed pots to prevent vermin from eating it and could be transported with more easiness from place to place. This has caused a minor population boom, as the bigger quantities of food have driven people to reproduction, thus increasing the number of settlers, that go towards new lands and create colonies in there. (Pottery (+2 EC, Bonus Extra Expansion), expansion, +4% Aztec Gods)
It's the end. The kingdom of Darwinia Ultima in the Galapagos Islands is dead. Ageing with the turtles, a kingdom that was at a time as a proud nation whose great strength lied in their army, now has died while the few people that survived the pitiful rule of the last Turtle King dispersed along the islands and cursed the name of all the kings for forcing them to join in a nation and then leaving them to their own devices. As the remains of the palace drop in ruins and the peoples try to survive the disappearance of any centralized rule through fishing, some wonder whether their nation will ever rise again. (-Existence, Darwinia Ultima disappears)
After several years concentrating in the construction of the Inca Statues, the Inca Empire has finally turned to the well-being of its people as a priority. While the soldiers expanded the size of the holdings of the Empire, the lessons learned during the construction of the Statues have been applied to the extraction of stone for buildings, with the first of them all being the Inca Palace as it is the most important building of the country. Meanwhile, in the inland, several countrymen have managed to understand the regulation of how grain-seeding works, thus introducing the first human-controlled food source to the peoples. (Agriculture, Stone Mining (+4 EC), expansion, +4% Inti)
SPECIAL INTEREST NEWS
The Gangelt War
After several attempts of negotiation between the Gaulic Confederation and Pictland, in which apparently the Gauls seemed to be ready to leave the recently conquered territory to their neighbors of the north and the Picts were looking forward to their rule over all of East Anglia, were in reality nothing but attempts to deceive the enemy from their true objectives.
While the Picts marched south in order to conquer as much of Gaul East Anglia, they were surprised to see that the Gauls had already launched a preemptive attack against them. The Pict Woad Warriors and Riders were able to defeat the Gaul soldiers easily, and reconquered the lost land on the north of Gaul territory, but when they arrived to the first towns near the border, they found that the towns had already been fortified to prevent the Picts from taking them. Settling down for a long siege, they didn't realize that the Gaul army had already taken the south-western region of Pict East Anglia, and in a daring raid, several soldiers managed to take the undefended capital of Edinburgh after being transported by sea to avoid the Pict armies. The King and the Chiefs were barely able to leave the city ahead of the Gaul soldiers, and have now set out towards north and south so that new recruitments may be raised in order to drive the Gauls out of the ancient city.
(Pictland: -1 Warrior, -2 EC (-1 from occupation, -1 from loss of capital city), -2% Celtic Polytheism, +1 Army Quality. Gaulic Confederation: -1 Atlatl, -1 Warband, +1% Ancestor and Personality Cult)
Meeting in the Alps
The Milanese efforts to expand met with a surprise when, while crossing the Alps, they met a group of strange people coming from the other side of the mountains. Although it was obvious that both were there with peaceful intentions, both groups remained wary of each other until one of the Milanese tried to start a conversation with one of the Gauls. The attempt made the Gauls laugh, but they managed to convey on the Milanese through gestures that his mispronouncing had changed what was intended to be the meaning of the sentence. After several more days camping and learning each other's language, the two groups left the pass and went back towards their own kingdoms, eager to share their knowledge with their compatriots. (Gaulic Confederation and United Tribes of Milan may now contact each other)
Map:
FINIS (for now)
@Everyone: very well done! I hope that you liked the update, that you realized that sending orders before anybody else is important and that you don't miss the next deadline which is
NEXT WEDNESDAY 18TH MARCH AT 7 PM GMT+1 (1 PM EST). I'll update the stats tomorrow.
@Vertinari: Sorry for that, but the remaining pieces of northern Scotland you wanted to settle in were islands, and without the Fishing technology and some Oar-ships you can't send people into those islands.
@Stonehenge builders: sorry for that, but Seri (c&cciv3) managed to get the Stonehenge before anybody else. You are still getting half of what you invested, so not too many worries.
Also, I have started work on Future Age Techs. We are looking forward to some very cool ideas: you will be able to settle in the Moon and Mars once you get the correct technology!
Please, post your opinions, they are much welcomed.
