JalNES I: Quick and Easy

I kind of want to protest the fact that Ur's got so much economic strength, when literally over 80 percent of their territory is occupied from their enemy, while my nation's heartland is untouched.

Anyway, story coming up. I should be updating, but I'm not at that computer and feel mentally unstable. Perhaps inspiration for my upcoming story.

To Fall, and to Rise Again

Emperor Iaxeres II was a young man when he ascended to the throne. His name, many speculate, was a great weight on his shoulders. He was born a millennium after his great ancestor, but the name had yet to lose any of its meaning.

He had inherited a great Empire, and a war that had raged for generations. It had been him who had raised a great army, stormed towards the walls of Ur itself.

Only to be stopped, for a lack of boats. His forces had been routed, and the west had fallen.

That had been the beginning of the end, or so it felt. How could Ur maintain control over so much lands with so small an army?

Thoughts like this, he did not enjoy thinking. Perhaps some cosmic power was weighted against him. It certainly felt like that at times.

But Iaxeres II was never a man to give up hope.

He did not despair, but brooded. Constantly haunted by his oversight, constantly running over his actions, and realizing just how close he had been to the elusive victory.

Thus did Iaxeres slowly lose his grip on complete sanity. For nearly a decade after the defeat at Ur, rule was left to a regent, while the Emperor lived in isolation in the dark recesses of his palace, torturing his mind with what could have been, tormenting himself for his mistakes.

It is not known what happened to him the day he returned to the throne. Perhaps he made peace with his mind, accepting his errors and finally putting the past behind him. Some believe divine intervention set him off . Many believed that it was still not sane. Most... a combination of all these things.

The Iaxeres II who left out of the decade of isolation was a changed man. He was, some said, colder. He was now firmly set on righting his errors earlier in life. He swore off earthly pleasures, knowing that the only pleasure he could feel was his redemption, in the flames of defeated Ur.

Iaxeres II returned to lead his armies, and raised an army for what he prayed would be the last time.

Ur would fall. He would have it no other way.

Lord_Iggy said:

I kind of want to protest the fact that Ur's got so much economic strength, when literally over 80 percent of their territory is occupied from their enemy, while my nation's heartland is untouched.

Anyway, story coming up. I should be updating, but I'm not at that computer and feel mentally unstable. Perhaps inspiration for my upcoming story.

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It looks more like 40% to me... in any case, there isn't much disruption from their territory being split in half, since it's connected by sea.

Nice story, BTW.

OOC: If you ask for my opinion, which no one will, the name "Urian Empire" is nothing like Medean Empire

Do I have contact with medea/Ur jalapeno?

alex994 said:

OOC: If you ask for my opinion, which no one will, the name "Urian Empire" is nothing like Medean Empire

Do I have contact with medea/Ur jalapeno?

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No, but you know of them. You could convince Egypt, Atyria, or the Sea Peoples to give you contact with them...

40 hours until deadline. 8/16 orders in.

I will take sparta, but if i cannot get in orders before deadline than npc me until next turn

Kal'thzar took it already.

lurker's comment: I wanted Sparta! Ah well, I'll just wait till post-update, see if anything interesting comes up.

Do I have contact with the British isles?

Dachspmg said:

lurker's comment: I wanted Sparta! Ah well, I'll just wait till post-update, see if anything interesting comes up.

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You could take Byzantium...

@Erez: No. You could try sending an expedition...

I'll send orders later today, my time.

And dam,Who i'm suppose to trade with

20 hours until deadline.

10/15 orders in. Need orders from Azale, Contempt, Iggy, Darkening, and erez.

IGGY, there is a rather large problem with your orders. Please fix them.

“Hey, watch where you put the dirt from your shovel!”
“Ehh, don’t make such a big fuss about it.”
“Okay you two, just keep digging, we’ve got a way to go still.”

The dirt off of Ardhi’s shovel seemed to have been strewn around haphazardly, causing some frustrations in his fellow workers. Nevertheless, they (mostly) managed to work around various difficulties such as this. Of course, all three of the workers were competent people, but their coherence was due to the efforts of Sunan, the most responsible of the three. Gagan, although not as careless as Ardhi, was probably more fit for something else, and indeed he was. He made his living as an extremely skilled artisan, and he came to find some more work creating furniture and such things for the Palace. For now, though, he would have to wait and do some manual labour.

“Yeah, whatever. Hey Gagan, how about you? You haven’t been doing nearly as much work as I have. It’s been only a few hours since our last break, and you look tired already!”
“Shut it, Ardhi. My talents lie in the field of artistry, not moving around dirt.”
“Hey, what are you trying to say?!”

And with that, Ardhi, shovel in hand, advanced threateningly towards Gagan. In response, Gagan recoiled and subsequently fell back, inducing laughter from Ardhi and a chuckle from Sunan. After quickly getting up, he screwed up his face with great emotional force in an attempt to bring back some sort of seriousness into the situation. He hoped to catch his neighbour off guard, and then, he would pounce.

Upon seeing Gagan finally having Ardhi in a headlock, Sunan sighed. Although he was a bit annoyed with the other two’s reluctance to work without any disagreements, he continued on with the digging himself. The ground was not going to get up and move itself, after all. The two would come around eventually. He stuck his shovel in the earth and threw the dirt aside. Looking up, he saw someone not too far off, walking towards them.

“Hey, you two. Hey! Stop it! Look!”
“What. What is it?”

With Gagan still pinned to the ground, Ardhi looked up. The Maharaja.

The two stopped and got up, scrambling for their shovels, and all three got to work once again.

“Why is he walking towards us? Did he see us?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t think he saw you two fighting.”

They all stopped talking as the Maharaja came nearer. Once he was close enough, they all stopped digging and stood straight, leaving their shovels to direct their attention to the Maharaja.

“Hello! How goes the work?”
“Work is going well, Your Majesty.”
“Ah, that is magnificent. Surely you three do not mind if I work together with you?”

The three were taken aback by His Majesty’s proposal.

“Are you sure, Your Majesty?”
“Yes, why not?”
“Okay, Your Majesty, if you decide to do so.”

Gagan found a shovel, and he gave it to the Maharaja.

“Thank you.”
“Oh, you’re welcome, Your Majesty.”

So they all got to work and Maharaja Dapunta Hyang began to talk.

“How do you find things at the site? Are your surroundings well?”
“The conditions here are comfortable, Your Majesty,” replied Sunan, speaking for the three of them.

As Sunan and His Majesty started to converse, Gagan and Ardhi formed their own, somewhat hushed conversation.

“Isn’t this is interesting, don’t you think, Ardhi?”
“Heh, you think so?”
“Yeah, I mean, the Maharaja, the Great King, is working here. With us workers.”
“But what do you suppose he’s thinking?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, look. Why is he working here? He’s royalty after all. Doesn’t he have something else to do? People to give orders to? Stuff like that.”
“Hmm, well I think that it’s a good thing what he’s doing.”

They looked over at Sunan and the Maharaja and caught some of their conversation.

“Yes, I plan on going around, working around the site to see how everything is going-”

They turned back to themselves.

“See, he’s actually checking things himself. And how about those new roads? I think he’s a pretty good leader. “
“Ehhh. I don’t trust him.”
“Hah, you don’t trust a whole lot of people.”
“Hahaha. Whatever.”

But after a while, the Maharaja got to talking with Gagan and Ardhi as well. As they were finishing up the work that was needed in the area, talk got to beliefs and religion.

“Oh, well I was talking the other day with my wife about this new religion,” remarked Gagan. “It’s called Hinduism.”
“Really? Hmm, tell me more,” requested the Maharaja.
“It’s somewhat similar to our polytheism, but it’s a bit more complex.”
“Oh, this religion is from the regions inhabited by the Tamil peoples to the northwest, across the sea,” noted Sunan. “I‘ve heard of it.”
“Yeah. I hear that there are some tribes who live just to the north of the kingdom who have converted to this new religion.”
“Really now?”
“Yes, I’m quite sure, Your Majesty. It’s really interesting.”

They spent a good amount of time discussing what they knew about Hinduism, and Maharaja Dapunta Hyang was intrigued. Some tribes to our north have converted to Hinduism, he thought. Perhaps if our expansion efforts in the north are successful, I can learn more about this Hinduism. After working with the three for some time, he parted to oversee and visit other parts of the construction site. The whole day, though, this new religious concept stayed in his mind. The Maharaja would seek out information pertaining to this new religion. Perhaps Hinduism would come to play a larger role in the nation of Srivijaya.

I got them in days ahead of schedule? I was hoping to foster an early update or something.

North King said:

I got them in days ahead of schedule? I was hoping to foster an early update or something.

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That would have been good, but I really can't update any part of the world at the moment. I really need orders from Iggy and Darkening, at the very least.

In the early history of Srivijaya, under the reign of the Hyang dynasty, early Srivijayan polytheism was widely practised. Named Jatism for it’s most central deity, it was based upon polytheism from the northern areas of Sumatra, which spread south, to areas that would be the first under Srivijayan rule. The earliest records of Jatism being practised in the Palembang region date back to circa 2300 BCE, coinciding with the slow transitioning of maritime Southeast Asian peoples from hunting and gathering to farming.

The myths and rituals of Jatism are focused upon two main concepts: rice cultivation and the local kinship system. Most religious dances, ceremonies, oratory, and art forms are based upon these two things.

Although Jatist society was patrilineal, lineages which regularly provided wives were, from a religious sense, superior to those who did not. Marriage ceremonies were important and often large, with clans becoming busy with preparations for the occasion. These ceremonies were events that stressed gift giving between clans, and hours of oratory would often take place.

The Jatist realm was comprised of three main places. There was the upper world, inhabited by the Jatist deities; the middle world, home to humans and the great majority of life; and the lower world, which was inhabited by a dragon. The Creator, Mula Jati, is the highest deity of Jatism, and this deity links the upper, middle, and lower worlds together. Mula Jati is the Lord of the Universe and is seen as a being of duality, of dichotomies. Mula Jati is both good and evil, both male and female. This theme of duality is seen throughout the belief system. There are beliefs and traditions rooted in opposites such as life and death, sea and sky, forest and village, warfare and cultivation, masculinity and femininity, humans and animals, day and night, metal and cloth, etc. Such things permeate the religion and are prominent in myths, oratory, rituals, and traditions. It is believed that these things were once one, and as such, any ritual or traditional attempts to bring two opposites together, such as marriage, even for a moment are seen as able to release positive power and energy. An example of this is the gift giving present at marriage ceremonies, the result being increased fertility in the marriage.

The other deities of the upper world are the sons of Mula Jati: Batara Guru, Soripada, and Mangalabulan. Naga Pahoda, the dragon, resides in the lower world. Naga Pahoda is not necessarily as prominent in Jatist religion, as the dragon fought on the losing side of the war in which the world was created. This, in conjunction with the fact that it was not Naga Pahoda, but Mula Jati, who created the middle world.

Jatism in Srivijaya remained as the main, and truly sole, belief system, up until circa 900 BCE, when Hinduism, introduced by northern Sumatran tribes, was adpoted and encouraged by Srivijayan royalty. Jatism was gradually supplanted by Hinduism, until only a small minority of inland tribes remained as true Jatists. Jatism still lives on, though, as seen through the Jatist influences in contemporary Srivijayan Hinduism ...

Orders sent.

Fixing orders.

Nice story adherence!

13/15 orders in...

It's too late to update tonight, and I'd like orders from erez and Azale anyway...