LINESII- Into the Darkness- Part II

Nice story, although I paid particular attention to the last sentance

You know- had I ever told you information of anything useful Alex, I'd be worried. But I seriously hope you don't plan on doing the unthinkable, because the roof shall fall . We need to......"discuss" some more in AIM- you can rant osme more about how great the Chinese are while I warn you about the mistake you're about to step into ;]. Through, then again, I could be wrong and at the donkey's end of things for once.

Surely hope my interpertion is wrong.

OOC: You people are so predictable. What does one woman sitting in a dingy little office have to do with Imperial Politics? I was just having fun messing with you Which was satisfied with your little response

EDIT: I was considering whether to put the Bladeists or Valins at the last line though thinking which would have a greater dramatic effect

Happy New Years! alex, which new year do you celebrate?

Anyway, 1st post of 2007 by my clock.

omg iggy.... please.... stop... posting!!!

you are torturing me!! everytime you post i think its the update!

It's not coming anytime soon, so don't get excited.

I've still got about 1/3 of my homework remaining to be done.

And 10 more days to do it in.

Lord_Iggy said:

Happy New Years! alex, which new year do you celebrate?

Click to expand...

I celebrate both New Years For the record, I will be posting a story about intrigue at the court soon

Lord_Iggy said:

And 10 more days to do it in.

Click to expand...

Gah! That's about as long as our entire winter break has been.

Remembrance of the Light​

“Devotion to the One, Loyalty to the Emperor, that is our creed and we swear it.” -Duke of Qingdao

“My dear sister, maternity seems to be catching up on you. I have not seen you around the Palace for quite a while, where have you been? And how are my dear brother-in-law and possible nephew and/or niece? I hear that Father is very pleased with the marriage and eagerly waits for the birth of his first grandchildren.”

Those are words that most young women after marriage yearn to hear from their eldest brother and they would normally smile at it. This woman did not and in fact she frowned on the inside at the hidden meaning. Father is very pleased… In her brother’s tone it sounded more like an accusation then a praise of sorts. For years her father had not yet announced to the Family who would inherit him thus the succession was still at odds of sort. That was due to her eldest brother’s ah… controversial views on various issues.

They had two other brothers and one sister. Three brothers alone would have made the competition hard enough, but add in the possibility of the daughters, or her children inheriting made her older brother a very grumpy person, not yet a man, and a child no longer. Normally his temperament was hardly warm to begin with and he possessed a very sallow personality much like the Valins he admired so.

None the less, she was a Princess of the Imperial Dynasty. Courage and bravery flowed through her veins as much as they did in Xi Shi, the admired heroine of Guangfei. She did not fear her brother. She only had disgust and hatred towards him and what he represented in his mind. He believed he was The Bringer of Light and Civilization to Guangfei, the Bringer of Valin Culture to an otherwise decrepit land.

“Yes my dear brother, I have spent extensive time shopping in the city and my husband is currently fighting in the Bladeist campaign. So far he has marked himself with great distinction in battle. And your nephew is doing fine, at least that’s the impression I gain from the healthy kicking and the various doctors and midwives. I am sure our father would be more then happy to greet his new grandson in a few months.”

I am Princess Liu Shi.


He glared at her, all veneer of polite manner fading under his eyes. It was amazing that he and she were of the same blood and parents. That they were brothers and sisters and yet so different, it amazed him every time. His sister was a firm believer in the old Han ways and thought the Valins were mad. How could she not see that the Valins were the way of the future? Their splendid armies would march to the gates of Khadon and their mighty fleets would purge the sea of their enemies.

Their rise to power once more was inevitable, and he would align Guangfei to that power and bask in that glory. He had already arranged for some money and arms to be sent to them without the knowledge of the rest of the Imperial Family. She was his greatest threat to the Imperial Succession. His brother was in love with money and becoming a merchant and the other was obsessed with designing strange gadgets as well as buildings. His youngest sister was a non-entity

That left her, that scheming woman. She even married the youngest son of the Duke of Qingdao just to rub it in his face. That an Oneists would abandon his faith for love. Anger rose in his soul as he snarled once more at the chains that held him from converting. While the chances of she succeeding their father was low, the chances of her son succeeding was quite high. The Han people positively adored her. She had given herself a very feminine, weak and frail image to the court and one easily influenced.

It was all a fake as she desired and even craved power. She would become Emperor with her husband as her consort at her side and rule Guangfei if she could. But no, that was impossible and she knew it. Her children would be the greatest threat to his power but Imperial Tradition forbade him from moving against them in a public or private manner. He would be destroyed before his father would allow him to do anything.

“It seems a bit chilly, perhaps we should retire to the antechamber?”

“Agreed.”

I am Prince Liu Ming.


She smiled as she caressed at the heads of her children. They were twins, one boy and one girl born as healthy as a child could be. Her boy was 4th in line for the succession via primogeniture, but it was highly possible that her father could be persuaded to change the succession as her brothers were either incapable of the position or did not desired it. She was wallowing on those gentle thoughts as a messenger burst into the room. She was about to scold when a single look shocked her.

“Your Highness, Your Husband, Lord Nan is dead killed in battle.”

A stiff silence hung over her as she heard those words and emotions that was beyond her experience engulfed her. But that was not all the message entailed.

“This was the means that he was killed Your Highness.”

It was a Han crossbow bolt.

OOC: For the record, I want critique!

Nice story alex.

EDIT: Grr, Xpost.

Iggy! You annoy me with posting without updates! Stay tuned for story! Even less exclamation marks!

High Servitor Anesh Seb'Eyl was not feeling particularly good this morning. Yesterday's Festival of the Fires, celebrated in the temple of Maler, had featured great amounts of drinking. And not only had he drunk in excess, but he had also participated in a traditional battle demonstration of true Malereficar spirit. Unfortunately, the Maler warriors utilized some natural means of developing their battle-fury.
The reason yesterday had been a time of celebration was that Seb'Eyl had finally united the tribes of Malereficar. It had taken him years, but now the in-fighting had finally been subdued. As a warrior of a hundred battles, he knew that fighting cost too many lives. It was time, he'd decided, to turn that violent amount of death into expansion instead. Maler deserved greater and greater honour upon her name, and the High Servitor was not fool enough to deny her the jubilance of battle.

EDIT: Ok, hardly worth celebration, but I'll write more.

Oh hey, which river did you want to start on? Both are on the ragged edge of habitability, BTW.

Who cares? We're tough northern peopleses! But put me on either one, won't differ much. Preferably the more hospitable one, then.

It is said that when the Lengels of old were still free, they would occasionally send embassies to Kaliai, the greatest city of the Merhai. This was usually one of the least coveted assignments that a Lengel could take–no glory, and no pleasures, either, for it was rumored that the Merhai bedded their animals, and had no use for pillow-houses, and that, furthermore, all their food was of ramid meat. Of course, the men who went there found that both of those statements were untrue, but they came back saying that they were not far from the truth–the Merhai may not lie with their animals, but their cuisine certainly did not fill a man’s belly the way real food should.

Thus, the embassy was still hated by every Lengel who was sent on it, for they viewed it as a waste of time. These barbarian ramid herders from the north had nothing to offer the great Lengel Empire, even though the Lengels themselves were not so great as they had been in the Iron Face days. And the general aura of the nation did not help–small clusters of ramshackle farms dotted the countryside, and most of the time they served merely as waystations for the herders. Add to that the fact that there was only one real city to the nation–Kaliai, and Kaliai itself had little to offer the embassies, being a vast collection of steeply roofed wooden buildings, with narrow streets. Taking all this into account, the Lengel soldiers could hardly be blamed for this dislike of the nation to the north of them.

General Batu was one of these soldiers, the commander of the fifth embassy northwards. He, too, held a contempt for the northerners, and he did not bother to conceal it when his troop joined with a small Merhai force to enter the nation.

Then they were snowed in on one of the high mountain passes.

It was thousands of feet up, the wind blowing hard and steady. There was very little that the Lengels could do, for they had never experienced this kind of weather before: a blizzard was well enough known in the steppe, but being snowed in by massive drifts was not.

The Merhai quickly took charge of the situation, rationing their food well, and it soon became clear that the Lengels would starve to death without Merhai provisions. The Merhai gave away half of their food without a single thought, and in the meantime brought their massive ramids to the forefront of the band, arranging them in a V pattern. The Lengels looked on, astonished at this spectacle, while the Merhai ordered all of the men and horses to form a column behind the V.

Then they drove their ramids forward, into the snow. (Wooly ramids, of course, have two of their tusks much more elongated than southern ramids; this is a survival adaptation.) They set their long, curved tusks to the ground, and began to plow, scraping all of the snow away, and the V pattern meant that they cleared a vast path for the column. Within hours, they were free of the pass, and the party emerged on the other side of the mountains, safely settled in a village to wait out the storm.

To the end of his days thenceforth, Batu forced his men to treat their Merhai allies with the utmost of respect.

Nice story NK. Nice little look in on your culture.

Iggy, have you seen the two pms I've sent you and etc?

Guangfei info and your orders?

Je suis Sanx!

Sanx
Cities: Cyrix, Karax
Leader: Horus Nictuma / justokre
Religion: Divotheism (85%), Alse (15%)
Government: Tribalism
Economy: 2- 2/0
Population: Small
Army: 5000 Spearmen, 2000 Archers
Navy: 10 Galleys
Education: None
Technology: Iron Age
Confidence: Tolerating
Culture: None
Wonders:
Description: The Sanx are one of the more recently established native new world nations, having recently moved down from the frigid wastelands of the north. They are rapidly developing into an urban civilization.