Dominion NES

The Great Inquisitor has been killed in Mictlan two updates ago. He exploded himself and his ship during update 12 rather than letting himself killed and the ship captured.

I DID IT!!
To T_F sorry about Bres.
Good bye, Diamoneye, we hardly knew you.
And lastly, why did your captain threaten my ships? I mean, it's not like their were alot of them.

Darksaber- my captains had orders to protect our coasts; you would not have encountered them if it wasn't for your coming near us. It is you that has explaining to do.

To diamondeye- wannna play as my ally? Join as abyssia please.

Immac, I guess you need that extra help feeding your troop. I guess. Sending some moni for food this update.

My fleet should have been off Neiflheim, no where near your lands.

LDiCesare said:

some wizard priests in Kymriu refused to follow their orders and did not move south as ordered, saying that they had just received visions which were more important than rooting out the evil Marignonese. They say they must look at signs in the stars, for there lies a question whose answer is a number, and none but them can find the answer.

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I bet it said "We are sorry for the inconvenience."

By the way LDi, that unknown thing that looks nothing like an elephant, a hydra, a bird, a human, (etcetcetcetcetcetcetcetcetcetcetcetcetc)... was it an accident or was it sent by something?

Seon said:

By the way LDi, that unknown thing that looks nothing like an elephant, a hydra, a bird, a human, (etcetcetcetcetcetcetcetcetcetcetcetcetc)... was it an accident or was it sent by something?

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You don't know. However, Dain has a theory. Well, he has several actually, but one looks more likely than others:
Apparently, the fire lantern that he uses for research may have the side effect of attracting the attention of horrors coming from... somewhere else. It is uncommon, however, and only happens in case of bad luck. Since it looks like the stars were in a particularly unfavourable configuration these recent years (the planet 'Rng' erred into the most ominous corners of the constellation of the dice, which may explain why so many bad things happened recently), it's unklikely to happen again.

Oh, and the hunte for the grail?

Seon said:

Oh, and the hunte for the grail?

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That may be a random event or something else, you have no way to know. Even random events are tweaked/influenced by stuff that may or may not be visible so it's always hard to say whether something is an accident or not. It's also meta-gaming which means I don't feel urged to answer such questions.

Crap, and I just built several of those lanterns...

CRAP.

How the F did Lanka do that? (I.E. how did they go from having almost no defenses to being able to utterly destroy one of my armies?)

I'm guessing mercanaries.

“Acceptance is not submission; it is acknowledgement of the facts of a situation. Then deciding what you're going to do about it.”
Kathleen Casey Theisen​

Harathon pulled the cowl down closer around his face. He was still very unsure what to think of these muscled bronze-skinned southerners and their strange demonic brethren and he surely did not want to draw attention to himself. And yet, he could not look away. And so Harathon hid at the tree line, crouched in the wet underbrush as the rain fell gently around him, and, in the wide clearing near the stream, the foreigners built their temple.

Humanoid men with toad-like faces, men who spent much of their time wading in the stream, seemed to be leading the group. As huge blocks of basalt and obsidian were floated up the stream on giant river barges, these men, whom Harathon soon realized were priests, individually inspected each of the blocks and ensured that they were properly carved with the grotesque and violent images of the Mantis religion. Harathon had snuck closer to the blocks the previous morning to inspect them and had learned that they were inscribed with images of flying eagles, men flying with eagles, strange jungle cats, men hunting the jungle with strange jungle cats, great masses of people mulling around the base of a pyramid within which a chrysalis was prominently depicted, a undersea tower made of dark rock, a giant squid with massive hooks in its tentacles and 'head' curled protectively around the same undersea tower, giant toads spitting poison upon lizard-headed men in dark robes, flying jaguars feasting on the hearts of slain Marrignon soldiers and four giant humanoids armed with vicious weapons being offered slaves and bowls of blood. Yes, these were strange people with a strange religion and a just-as-strange culture.

Despite his revulsion, Harathon could not help but be intrigued. The foreigners were strange, violent and bloody, but was that so different from the Marrignon themselves? The grand inquisitor had burnt how may men and women at the stake in grand pyres in fits of paranoid delusion? The Marrignon clergy had struck at these southerners, sending fire from the sky and soldiers to their shores. The southeners had responded with their own gifts from heaven and with their own soldiers and now what was left of Marrignon but its grand temple, its castle and its immediate country-side? all its provinces had been conquered, its people forced to work and pay taxes to the southeners. Yes, the foreigners were intriguing and strange, but immensely powerful. And as Harathon watched the fate of the prisoners the Mictlan had taken, toiling under whips of braided human leather wielded by demonic winged half-man/half-jaguars, Harathon couldn't help but fear for himself. He had to make a choice. Would he deny the new-comers' power, their rule, their religion, or would he embrace it and hope that in doing so he could be spared the whip, slavery, death, or perhaps...?

Harathon stepped from the brush, pulled the cowl from his face and strode, as confidently as the could, towards one of the 9' tall half-man, half-jaguar winged demons that were directing the workers. He would accept his new masters and in doing so, hope for a better fate for himself and his family.

“Without a sign, his sword the brave man draws, and asks no omen but his country's cause”
Homer​

Uzeotl had grown used to the widespread use of blood in the ritual sacrifices demanded by his faith. He had grown use to the gory insides of animals and man. But try as he might, he had not grown used to what they were used for; after all, the demons were presumably doing something with these bowls of fresh warm human blood, these intricately placed organs mixed with dyes, incenses and feathers. The majority of the time Uzeotl was not privy to the demon's private moments; as a priest he was mostly involved in tempting them away from their underworld homes and directing them in battle as a general would his soldiers.

And yet, here, now, Uzeotl and his fellow priests were directly involved in the magics of the demons themselves. One of the Atlaneans had developed a ritual that drew upon the mana of the Mictlan nation and harnessed it through the demons they had summoned so as to provide a great blessing, from the Mantis herself, upon all the soldiers and forces that the ritual could reach. Uzeotl wondered at the mind that would devise such devious devices and shuddered, happy that he fought alongside him and not against him.

Uzeotl, like most spell-casters, was aware that the land produced 'mana' at specific ancient sites, but what the atlanean priest had developed was a mechanism to direct that mana through the very being of the demonic companions that accompanied the army. Uzeotl had been taught intricate and strangely melodic chants and together with his brother and sister priests, both human and atanean, as well as the more exotic members of the priesthood, had hymned and chanted and recited and cast long into the early morning. At the end, they had empowered a circle of eleven nine-foot tall half-man, half jaguar winged demons and they had hummed and fluoresced with magical energy. Shortly thereafter, the strange atlanean priest had cut the wickedly clawed jaguar paws of each of the 11 fiends and their blood had fallen into 11 bowls.

Today, without sleep but invigorated by the responsibility and honour conferred upon him, Uzeotl was visiting the vast encamped army that had come from all provinces. Accompanied by the winged jaguar fiend that had provided the bloody receptacle for the lands' mana, he would visit a soldier, utter the incantation that summoned the blessing of his goddess and then the fiend would press a bloody paw into the bowl of its own blood and then press it to the face of the soldier. The soldier would then be filled with the mana and invigoration of the Mictlanese land, the fury and passion of the demon fiend who had bestowed its blood and the dedication, love for duty, courage and blessing of the goddess herself.

The first to receive the blessing had been the ice devil Cimijes and though he had not been directly involved in dealing with such a high-ranking demon, he had witnessed the effect upon the favorite of the underworld's horde. The creature had shaken as if a frisson had overtaken it and its eyes and weapons gleamed with a deep ruddy glow like a setting sun over a dark pool. It had stamped it feet and lifted its staff and like a berserk jaguar warrior, had roared with fury and battle-lust.

The jaguar toads did not quite understand what was happening to them but they too were energized and invigorated. Their very skin took on a warm glow and their eyes too shone with ferocity and passion. They began to pace and hop about, eager for battle.

Amongst the men and women of the army, whether the sacred jaguar warrior or a lowly slave, the results were similar, though only the most high-ranking and favored of the warriors, those who wore the jaguar pelt received the fiery blessing upon their weapons that would bring cinder and ash to their enemy.

Finally it was the turn of the priests. Ozeotl spoke the words that would bring the goddess' blessing and the jaguar fiend placed a giant bloody clawed paw upon his face leaving the bloody mark of favor upon him and immediately Ozeotl knew only that he craved combat, would fight and kill the enemies of Mictlan without thought or doubt. Through jaws clenched with anticipation he breathed, "Mantis, I am a your weapon. Point me and i will rend your enemy with mine spells and mine staff."

some stories i wrote to go with the update.

EDIT: nice pictures- i like the picture of magni and i like the picture of bogus with the white-clad virgin under his arm

T_F said:

CRAP.

How the F did Lanka do that? (I.E. how did they go from having almost no defenses to being able to utterly destroy one of my armies?)

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They had 6 navies around their island by previous update. They tasked half of these to divert any incoming navy, and your orders specified you tried to destroy ships so your navy chased them.
The remaining ships (and some newly built ones) ferried troops from the continent. You should remember they had sent most of their army conquering the southern continent, and the troops you met in Lanka when invading were a really small portion of their army, although many mages were there. Most of Lankan troops were in the south and you never saw them or even inquired about them (did someone scout province 39 where they built a fortress on the turn you attacked them?). They just bought mercenary ships, then standing units, both ships and troops, while you bought very liittle troops or defense in Lanka.
Furthermore, the army you used to invade Lanka was split in two, one part invading south, one staying in Lanka. The southern army then split again and was hit by Lanka army. When Lanka had secured the southern continent, they waited one more turn before invading their home island,which gave them ample time to build more troops and bring some from their fort in Ashdod (39).
I think the real issue is you thinking they had almost no defense. They had a big army which took half a continent and you had never met it.

Orders sent.

Cheers everyone. Was fun to play with you guys. I'm not sure I have the time to take over Abyssia right now, though, but I look forward to playing with you another time, Immac.

LDiCesare said:

I think the real issue is you thinking they had almost no defense. They had a big army which took half a continent and you had never met it.

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I guess so. I'll have to be more careful next time.

Time to build MAGES.