INES I: Anno Domini
- Thread starter Imago
- Start date
101 AD 120 AD: Turn 6
Domestic Events
Our poor world has gone mad, but we shall not begin with the madness. We shall begin with the West, this time, as opposed to the East, because, through the insanity, an unlikely nation beats as a new vibrant heart of civilization.
Gaul.
Victorious in war, this nation becomes vibrant in peace. Luernios dies, and is succeeded as monarch by his son, Bituitos. The new king continues his fathers reforms, and, around him, Gaul changes. As the newly conquered north is officially integrated, the Arts flourish in a land that has not seen their like before, encouraged by a slow yet steady population shift to the cities.
For it is cities that emerge here in droves, in what has become known as the Bituiten Period. Tarandunon is founded at the meeting point of two rivers, the Ille and the Vilaine. Noviomagus is founded at the mouth of the Seine. To improve connectivity within his empire, Bituitos orders the construction of a great series of roads, linking the tamer south, with the wild north, and, in doing so, pacifing the latter.
Offered huge salaries, technocrats come in droves, finally realizing that there are great oppertunities to be had in Gaul. King Bituitos also encourages his nobles to sponsor artists and scholars, but this meets less success, as many of the nobles are unwilling to waste their fortunes on anything that does not directly correlate to conquest, and iron. However, those nobles are those of the last generation, and are dying out, and their children are much more southernized. The progress in Gaul continues, unabated, and the land becomes rich.
(+1 Gallic Leadership, +1 Gallic Culture, +Lugodunon as a Gallic Economic Center, +Tarandunon as a Gallic Economic Center)
The city of Noviomagus, beset by the occasional barbarian raid, is freed of this problem by a Gallic army, which conquered a small buffer zone around the city.
(-1 000 Gallic Soldiers)
To the north, a small Gallic trading settlement is established in Cornwall. Going out of their way not to offend the natives, Gaul manages to derive profit from the far-off settlement, with trade goods such as tin being shipped south though Noviomangus.
A minor revolt in the northern territories is put down, and it seems nothing can stop the Gallic engine of progress and change.
(-1 000 Gallic Warriors of Taranis, -1 000 Gallic Soldiers)
South, a different barbarian nation goes though its own renaissance, albeit a far more limited one than that in Gaul. Lusitania finally quells the Punic revolts in its new eastern lands, and integrates the region, despite the appearance of some Greek-speaking pro-rebel agitators. The integration, however, seems ominous, as the small country is now firmly split between the ruling Celtiberian animists, and the disenfranchised yet wealthy Punics, to the east.
(-3 000 Lusitanian Soldiers)
Realizing that the western Mediterranean is firmly under Roman hegemon, and not wanting to offend their allies, Lusitania refocuses its attention west. Declaring an Age of Colonization, the Lusitanian council sends the great Admiral Leuni on an expedition along the West African coast. Lusitania is a poor nation, and thus unable to fund the expedition well, but a substantial colony is set up in Morocco, and a variety of aggressive native tribes there are defeated. Many Lusitanians are unsure why their government chose to expand south, instead of north, as there is much closer unclaimed land in the upper parts of Iberia, but nevertheless, the Moroccan colony promises to bring economic benefits, if it is further nurtured.
(-2 000 Lusitanian Soldiers)
Lusitanian exploration is proceeding at a faster pace than Lusitanian colonization, and the Admiral Leuni has discovered costal tribes as far south as the Canary Islands.
Further inland, beside the great body of water that is the Mediterranean Sea, Rome returns to its Republican values. Perhaps upset by the naysayers who told him that he was turning Rome into an Icosium-like dictatorship, Marcius Cato resigns from the office of Dictator, and returns full governmental power to the Senate, restoring a great deal of confidence in the government.
(+1 Roman Confidence)
However, before retiring to his country estate, Cato gives one last, stirring speech, explaining that Icosium is still Romes greatest enemy, no matter its new form of government. Claming that the Republic of Icosium is too proud for its own good, Cato convinces the Senate to declare war once more.
Even before the new war came, there was already a considerable amount of unrest in Republican Icosium. A group of oligarchs in the newly-formed Icosium Senate managed to pass an unpopular bill, granting them temporary emergency powers, to organize the nation.
(-1 Republican Icosium Confidence)
Despite the dissent, the bills passed by the emergency government were well thought through, and, as the laws rooted out corruption, and introduced government subsidies, they restored public support.
(+1 Republican Icosium Confidence, +1 Republican Icosium Treasury, +1 Republican Icosium Education)
But then war came to the new Icosium, and, betrayed by those it thought to be allies, it was instantly thrust into a new struggle for survival.
(See Military Events)
Further east, of course, is a massive, spiraling conflict that makes the Third Punic War look like childs play. However, in Byzantium, a nation in the midst of civil war, there is surprising unity.
The eunuch Timotheos, old and feeble, passes away, leaving the young Emperor Patrocles to take the reins of the embattled loyalists. Patrocles had some curious ideas about what to do with his nation. Deciding that the future of Byzantium would be the brightest if the civil war was resolved diplomatically, he met with General Achilleas. At the end of that meeting, Achilleas was granted by Patrocles the title of Basileus Basileon, granted the title of General of Generals over a reunited Byzantium, and given complete control over all domestic and international affairs.
In short, Patrocles became a puppet Emperor once more, something he was by now quite used to being. Meanwhile, Basil the Jew-Lover dies in prison, and is mourned by few. Constantine I would have been horrified by his inept line.
While Achilleas endorsement by Patrocles was an important step in his rise to power, the Byzantine Civil War was far from over. Many loyalists, especially those in the northern provinces of Asia Minor, and the Bosporan, simply refused to accept that Achilleas was their new liege, and declared that Maurikos, the younger brother of Patrocles, was the new rightful Emperor, and rallied behind him, moving the provisional capital to Sinope.
However, a great deal of loyalists, thinking along much the same lines as Patrocles, did indeed accept the young Emperors decision, realizing there were much greater dangers abroad. The navy, and most of the army swore loyalty to Achilleas, with only one notable exception.
Upon learning that Patrocles had effectively abdicated, Polemarchos Kallikles, heir to the Byzantine army in Jerusalem after Polemarchos Kleon was eviscerated, declared that he would no longer be loyal to any monarch of Byzantium, for they had all been revealed has hypocritical fools. His army, much as that of Achilleas had years earlier, followed him into rebellion in Byzantine-occupied Israel, and southern bits of Phoenicia. Polemarchos Kallikles army quickly becomes known as the Army of the Defilers, for their part in a long series of hellish events that grip Jerusalem.
(See Military Events, See Spotlight)
Meanwhile, Achilleas doing what he does best, reforms the army. He vastly expands it, filling it with Myrmidons, Greek legionaries, and establishes a very direct system of organization and command. The Agèmepibatèis are renamed simply Marines, though in Greek, the words are rather similar, in any case.
(-1 Achillean Byzantine Army Training, +1 Achillean Byzantine Army Training)
Achilleas inherits both the Merchants War and the war against Israel, from the Loyalists, and vows to see them both to their conclusion.
To the east, Assyria, noticing an opportunity for expansion, marshals its vast armies, and sends them towards Asia Minor, and Phoenicia.
Something will be decided here, and soon.
(See Military Events)
South, in Israel, there is an end.
(See Spotlight)
Aegypt rallies yet another peasant army, largely composed of Lower Egyptian refugees, and prepares for one final thrust.
(+10 000 Aegyptian Skirmishers)
(See Spotlight)
Axum withdraws for the war. Occupied elsewhere, Aegypt agrees to accept Axumite tribute for the next sixty years, in exchange for both peace, and a withdrawal of all troops in the Axumite theater to pre-war borders.
Though it is arguable whether or not King Yarden ben Yehoshua had much leverage in the treaty, the fact that Axum emerged territorially unscathed from the war after such horrible defeats increases civilian confidence in the Axumite throne.
(+1 Axumite Confidence)
The government in Axum consolidates its restored territories, reorganizes the nation into four provinces, and begins moderate expansion southward.
(+1 Axumite Leadership, -1 000 Axumite Soldiers)
King Yehoshua begins a heavy trading relationship with the Aegyptians, and that, combined with events on the Red Sea, restore Port Cush as an economic center.
(+Port Cush as an Aegyptian Economic Center)
As a sideline event, Axum also exports it Jesusians northward, to Byzantium. The journey though war-torn regions causes many of them to die, but somehow, a couple hundred manage to reach Greece, and become a tiny minority in Boeotia.
Heading East, little occurs until we reach the land of Mohenjo-Daro, in India. The Council of India meets for the first time, with delegates from all the nations of the subcontinent. Much that is decided there helps improve international and regional cooperation, and, at the Council of India, for the first time, Indians begin to think of themselves as a single people. A major issue brought up was the possible relocation of the capital of Mohenjo-Daro to something more central in India, and a renaming of the nation, but the current Indian prince remains staunchly opposed to those ideas. However, the Council of India also helps to integrate the far-flung Mohenjo-Daro territories, and help to slow the spread of corruption.
Despite the internal improvement, the days of expansion for the Lords of the Indus are not over. In Arabia, the Indian territories are grown, and General Harsha finally dies, causing a collective sigh of relief from those who thought he would attempt to seize power. Directly to the west of the Indus, Mohenjo-Daro soldier conquer more of the Iranian lands, cutting of possible future areas of Persian and Sogdianan expansion. In conjunction with the Pandyans, Mohenjo-Daro has also begun to colonize Sri Lanka.
(-7 000 Mohenjo-Daro Soldiers, -1 000 Pandyan Soldiers)
Technological achievement in Mohenjo-Daro is the greatest of all the nations in the world, and their nation begins to show it. A golden age begins, propped up by the opening of a great military training center, but underneath it all, there is a significant problem of corruption. Mohenjo-Daro is simply not as rich as a nation of its size should be, and the halting of Harappan tributes to the capital underscores this point.
But still, there is much basking in the fruits of achievement.
(+Mohenjo-Daro in the Middle Age, +1 Mohenjo-Daro Culture)
A small Mohenjo-Daro expedition to a vaguely heard of far off isle on the coast of Africa ends in failure, as the great Indian Ocean simply swallows up the expedition.
(-3 Mohenjo-Daro Ships, -1 000 Mohenjo-Daro Soldiers)
In China, there is a shift in the balance of power. Chu, while still strong and mighty, does little over the next two decades, while the Zhou wake from a long slumber. Realizing they are without allies, Zhou extends a hand of alliance to the Liang, a hand that is gratefully accepted, as the Liang council is somewhat angry that they did not receive compensation for the losses they suffered when they were guarding Chus western border.
The Zhou also form an elite Emperors guard, the Teo-Wakan Warriors. Preparing for the war that some feel inevitable, the Zhou begin to build fortifications on the Zhou-Chu border, and expand their influence, by launching an invasion of Korea, and importing colonists. In the span of two decades, they conquer most of the north, and their armies still press on to conquer the whole of the penninsula.
(-3 000 Zhou Soldiers)
Two coalitions have now formed in the Middle Kingdom, held together only loosely by the bonds of the Council of China. In the north, there is the Zhou Empire, and their Liang allies, and to the south, there is the Chu Empire, and their supporters, the Nan, and the Taiwanese. One false move, and the region might well be engulfed in war.
Military Events
To some, such as Cato, the Third Punic War was nothing more than a rightful continuation of the Second, and to others, such as the Icosium rulers, the Third Punic War was something else entirely, a war of unchecked Roman aggression.
In any case, from the beginning, the future of Republican Icosium looked bleak. The Roman army outnumbered the Icosium army more than two to one, and a comparison of the Roman and Icosium fleets would produce an even worse ratio.
Worse, it seemed that Scipio had always known the war would continue, had had known this even before the Roman senate gave him the fateful orders. In a rather confused battle quiet near Icosium harbor, the Roman navy soundly defeated the Icosium fleet, which was largely composed of commissioned merchant ships. With the Roman dominance of the Western Mediterranean assured, the blockade was reinstated.
(-8 Republican Icosium Ships, -6 Roman Ships)
Next, the Romans moved in and quickly sized the Icosium capital, using the confusion after the betrayal to their advantage.
(-2 000 Roman Legionaries, -2 000 Icosium Soldiers)
From that point, however, the fighting got rather more difficult, as key leaders of the Republicans had escaped, and railed the people behind them, fighting a sort of guerrilla war the Republicans were rather used to by now, having defeated the dictatorship in much the same way. The front around Icosium City quickly bogs down.
(-4 000 Icosium Soldiers, -3 000 Roman Legionaries)
However, fully prepared for this eventuality, the Romans under Scipio quickly open up a second front, seizing Tangiers. Attacked on two fronts, isolated due to the embargo, and, in truth, utterly unprepared for this eventuality, what remained of the Icosium Republican government collapsed, replaced by a variety of infighting factions. The Romans occupy the entire region, and begin a long struggle to pacify it, but the regions future as a province of the Roman Empire seems assured. After three wars, and many, many decades, the last incarnation of Carthage has been defeated.
(-8 000 Roman Legionaries, - Republican Icosium as an Independent Nation)
In the Byzantine Empire, there is chaos. Constantinopolis had once unquestionably ruled vast tracts of land directly, and even more besides, if one was to count the Byzantine dominated Hellenic League. But all that is over, now. Achilleas must fight for what he has newly gained.
Fifteen thousand Myrmidions were placed in Greece, to defend against what Achilleas generals predicted would be an Athenian invasion. The invasion, however, never materialized, as the Athenians sat with their massive army in their tiny nation, as the presence of so many unneeded soldiers slowly eroded the publics confidence in their government. For Athens, due to the chaos around the city-state, piracy is an ever increasing problem, and the citizens of the nation dont understand why the government wont improve the pathetic Athenian navy.
(-1 Athenian Confidence)
And so was one sorely needed army wasted. Epirus, having declared for Achilleas when Patrocles did, was clearly not a viable target.
To the east, however, in Asia Minor, the greatest battles of the Byzantine wars were fought. It what oddly became known as the Eagle War, almost thirty thousand Assyrian troops marched westward, against what the Assyrians hoped was a disunified and collapsing Byzantium. As they struck in Anatolia and Phoenicia, all the Assyrians found was a small, retreating Achillean Byzantine army. Pitched battles destroyed large portions of the landscape, and so many villages the Assyrian commanders thought they had left unharmed instead burned, that the Assyrians began to suspect that the Achilleans were destroying their own land, to deny the invading Assyrians food and shelter. This strategy, however, largely backfired, as the Assyrians had well-funded logistics. When the fires burned themselves out, the Assyrians were in control of a large yet moderately desolate portion of Byzantine lands, extending from the trade city of Tarsus, largely saved by the Assyrians from the flames, to southern Phonecia, where they skirmished with Polemarchos Kallikles Army of the Defilers.
(-5 000 Achillean Byzantine Soldiers, -7 000 Assyrian Soldiers)
As the Assyrians gathered their hosts for a second push, the Byzantines readied themselves for a reconquest. After doing their part of what was done in Jerusalem,-
(See Spotlight)
-the Defilers turned against the Assyrians, perhaps in some small gesture of loyalty to the Achillean government. Kallikles was dead by now, of course, and many of the Defilers were much the same, but, nevertheless, the ten thousand or so soldiers that remained of the army struck against the nearly undefended Assyrian wall-forts, and penetrated them.
(-2 000 Defiler Soldiers, -500 Assyrian Soldiers)
Once within the interior of Assyria, the Defilers found themselves all but unopposed, save for a small homeland defense force. There were a considerable amount of Assyrians defending the Persian border, and, once they heard that the Defilers had broken though, they rushed to defend their nations heartlands, but it was clear they were not going to get there soon enough.
The Defilers, largely mad by this point, came upon Damascus, burned it to the ground, and defeated a small army of militia that had been brought against them.
(-3 000 Defiler Soldiers, -500 Assyrian Soldiers, +5 000 Assyrian Skirmishers, -5 000 Assyrian Skirmishers, -Damascus as an Assyrian Economic Center)
Plundering and massacring as they went, the Defilers marched to Harran, killed King David II, sacked the capital, and came against a very large and very angry Assyrian army. Isolated in enemy territory, and surrounded by a huge army, the Defilers put up an epic battle, in which they defended a ruined Harran against an Assyrian army trying to retake it. In the end, the Defilers were finally defeated, and the Black Army raised its flag no more, but much of western Assyria was in ruins.
(-Defilers as an Independent Faction, -3 000 Assyrian Soldiers, +5 000 Assyrian Skirmishers, -3 000 Assyrian Skirmishers)
Shockwaves of the battle reverberated across Assyria, as the nation, horribly weakened, struggled to find its heir, who had gone missing.
(-2 Assyrian Confidence)
And in Asia Minor and Phoenicia, things were scarce better, for any of the numerous sides. The Fifth Army, composed of twenty thousand Myrmidions, was supposed to strike around the Assyrian wall-forts, and into the heartlands, but Achilleas underestimated how long it would take to pacify the loyalist northern Asia Minor. In a battle at Sinope, Maurikos was killed, and the Achilleans took the city, destroying the loyalists as a faction once and for all, but by now, the Assyrians were well aware of the Achillean plan. There was a single Byzantium, once again, but unity had come at a price.
(-3 000 Achillean Byzantine Myrmidions, -Loyalist Byzantium as an Independent Faction)
As the Bosporan, formally firmly loyalist, now fell into chaos with the absence of a real government, the Assyrians and the Byzantines clashed in south-central Asia Minor. In the end, here, it proved to be the superior training of the Achilleans that won the day, as they pinned the Assyrians at Tarsus, and proceeded to do what they had always intended-skirt around the wall-forts, to the Assyrian heartlands.
(-6 000 Assyrian Soldiers, -5 000 Byzantine Myrmidions)
Arriving in northern Assyrian, the Fifth Army found a land largely ravaged by the Defilers, but regrouping under the come-out-from-hiding heir, King David III. While the Assyrian army in southern Asia Minor could do little to help, a different army could. After the Defilers had burned themselves out, Phoenicia has been easily pacified by the Assyrians, and thirteen thousand Assyrian troops in that region turned northward, to combat the similarly sized, yet better trained Fifth Army.
If the Assyrian heartland had been whole, the Byzantine Fifth might well have been repulsed, or at least stalled, but the destruction wreaked by the Defilers played havoc with Assyrian logistics. Antiochia fell to the Byzantines, and the Assyrians quickly found themselves in general retreat, as the Byzantine army marched for Harran, to sack it again, and perhaps destroy Assyria, once and for all. It seemed nothing could stop the Byzantine march, until the Myrmidons reached the river Euphrates, and the Assyrians successfully stalled the Fifth Army, saving their already-ruined capital.
(-7 000 Assyrian Soldiers, -5 000 Byzantine Myrmidons)
The armies of the civilized nations thus locked, neither Byzantium nor Assyria was truly prepared for the opportunistic uprisings that took place within their borders. In Byzantium, the Hittites once more staged a general revolt, and, in Assyria, the Medes and the Babylonians found weapons, once again. A lack of troops to quell the rebellious areas resulted in impressive gains against both the Byzantines and the Assyrians. In Asia Minor, Sinope was now taken by the Hittites, and, with only limited troops, they extended their rebellion across central Asia Minor.
(-2 000 Byzantine Soldiers)
In Assyria, the Babylonians took power once again between the Tigris and the Euphrates, and, in the Median lands, the Medes dominated the northeast. The frailties of a multi-ethnic empire were once again realized.
(-3 000 Assyrian Soldiers, -2 000 Assyrian Skirmishers)
Both bowed, and yet both, unbroken, the restored Byzantine Empire and the massive Assyrian Empire are locked in combat.
The next stage of the Eastern Wars takes place in Crete. Knowing full well that the Minoans and their Barcelonan allies would try to take their homeland back, Achilleas had garrisoned both a legion and a sizable fleet on the island. However, he had been unprepared for the sheer size of the merchants forces. Against the Byzantines, twelve thousand soldiers and forty ships had been marshaled, taxing the economies of Minoa-at-sea and Barcelona nearly to their breaking points.
Finding themselves oddly outnumbered, the Myrmidon legion had to first deal with a Minoan rebellion, and then deal with the invaders, themselves. The excellent training of the Byzantine army and navy almost made up for the odds, and caused many casualties on the part of the Minoans, but in the end, while the Byzantine navy might have prevailed against the Minoan fleet, but the Byzantine army was simply too small to hold the island, after the Mino-Barcelonans effected numerous landings. Acknowledging defeat in this theater, the general of the Byzantine Third Army burned the docks of Zokro, and retreated with the remnants of the Third onto the ships of the Byzantine fleet, which then sailed south, to assist in a different operation
(-11 Barcelonan Ships, -12 Minoan Ships, -14 Byzantine Ships, +5 000 Minoan Skirmishers, -4 000 Barcelonan Soldiers, -5 000 Minoan Soldiers, -5 000 Minoan Skirmishers, -4 000 Byzantine Myrmidons, -Zokro as a Minoan Economic Center)
Once secure in their holding of Crete, the Minoans consolidated, and did not even attempt a liberation of Cyprus, noting how costly the liberation of their homeland had been. One thing they did do, however, was hunt down the oligarchs who had surrendered to the Byzantines all those years ago, and kill them. Merchants mercy.
There is more of the story left to unfold, but that will have to wait.
Domestic Events
Our poor world has gone mad, but we shall not begin with the madness. We shall begin with the West, this time, as opposed to the East, because, through the insanity, an unlikely nation beats as a new vibrant heart of civilization.
Gaul.
Victorious in war, this nation becomes vibrant in peace. Luernios dies, and is succeeded as monarch by his son, Bituitos. The new king continues his fathers reforms, and, around him, Gaul changes. As the newly conquered north is officially integrated, the Arts flourish in a land that has not seen their like before, encouraged by a slow yet steady population shift to the cities.
For it is cities that emerge here in droves, in what has become known as the Bituiten Period. Tarandunon is founded at the meeting point of two rivers, the Ille and the Vilaine. Noviomagus is founded at the mouth of the Seine. To improve connectivity within his empire, Bituitos orders the construction of a great series of roads, linking the tamer south, with the wild north, and, in doing so, pacifing the latter.
Offered huge salaries, technocrats come in droves, finally realizing that there are great oppertunities to be had in Gaul. King Bituitos also encourages his nobles to sponsor artists and scholars, but this meets less success, as many of the nobles are unwilling to waste their fortunes on anything that does not directly correlate to conquest, and iron. However, those nobles are those of the last generation, and are dying out, and their children are much more southernized. The progress in Gaul continues, unabated, and the land becomes rich.
(+1 Gallic Leadership, +1 Gallic Culture, +Lugodunon as a Gallic Economic Center, +Tarandunon as a Gallic Economic Center)
The city of Noviomagus, beset by the occasional barbarian raid, is freed of this problem by a Gallic army, which conquered a small buffer zone around the city.
(-1 000 Gallic Soldiers)
To the north, a small Gallic trading settlement is established in Cornwall. Going out of their way not to offend the natives, Gaul manages to derive profit from the far-off settlement, with trade goods such as tin being shipped south though Noviomangus.
A minor revolt in the northern territories is put down, and it seems nothing can stop the Gallic engine of progress and change.
(-1 000 Gallic Warriors of Taranis, -1 000 Gallic Soldiers)
South, a different barbarian nation goes though its own renaissance, albeit a far more limited one than that in Gaul. Lusitania finally quells the Punic revolts in its new eastern lands, and integrates the region, despite the appearance of some Greek-speaking pro-rebel agitators. The integration, however, seems ominous, as the small country is now firmly split between the ruling Celtiberian animists, and the disenfranchised yet wealthy Punics, to the east.
(-3 000 Lusitanian Soldiers)
Realizing that the western Mediterranean is firmly under Roman hegemon, and not wanting to offend their allies, Lusitania refocuses its attention west. Declaring an Age of Colonization, the Lusitanian council sends the great Admiral Leuni on an expedition along the West African coast. Lusitania is a poor nation, and thus unable to fund the expedition well, but a substantial colony is set up in Morocco, and a variety of aggressive native tribes there are defeated. Many Lusitanians are unsure why their government chose to expand south, instead of north, as there is much closer unclaimed land in the upper parts of Iberia, but nevertheless, the Moroccan colony promises to bring economic benefits, if it is further nurtured.
(-2 000 Lusitanian Soldiers)
Lusitanian exploration is proceeding at a faster pace than Lusitanian colonization, and the Admiral Leuni has discovered costal tribes as far south as the Canary Islands.
Further inland, beside the great body of water that is the Mediterranean Sea, Rome returns to its Republican values. Perhaps upset by the naysayers who told him that he was turning Rome into an Icosium-like dictatorship, Marcius Cato resigns from the office of Dictator, and returns full governmental power to the Senate, restoring a great deal of confidence in the government.
(+1 Roman Confidence)
However, before retiring to his country estate, Cato gives one last, stirring speech, explaining that Icosium is still Romes greatest enemy, no matter its new form of government. Claming that the Republic of Icosium is too proud for its own good, Cato convinces the Senate to declare war once more.
Even before the new war came, there was already a considerable amount of unrest in Republican Icosium. A group of oligarchs in the newly-formed Icosium Senate managed to pass an unpopular bill, granting them temporary emergency powers, to organize the nation.
(-1 Republican Icosium Confidence)
Despite the dissent, the bills passed by the emergency government were well thought through, and, as the laws rooted out corruption, and introduced government subsidies, they restored public support.
(+1 Republican Icosium Confidence, +1 Republican Icosium Treasury, +1 Republican Icosium Education)
But then war came to the new Icosium, and, betrayed by those it thought to be allies, it was instantly thrust into a new struggle for survival.
(See Military Events)
Further east, of course, is a massive, spiraling conflict that makes the Third Punic War look like childs play. However, in Byzantium, a nation in the midst of civil war, there is surprising unity.
The eunuch Timotheos, old and feeble, passes away, leaving the young Emperor Patrocles to take the reins of the embattled loyalists. Patrocles had some curious ideas about what to do with his nation. Deciding that the future of Byzantium would be the brightest if the civil war was resolved diplomatically, he met with General Achilleas. At the end of that meeting, Achilleas was granted by Patrocles the title of Basileus Basileon, granted the title of General of Generals over a reunited Byzantium, and given complete control over all domestic and international affairs.
In short, Patrocles became a puppet Emperor once more, something he was by now quite used to being. Meanwhile, Basil the Jew-Lover dies in prison, and is mourned by few. Constantine I would have been horrified by his inept line.
While Achilleas endorsement by Patrocles was an important step in his rise to power, the Byzantine Civil War was far from over. Many loyalists, especially those in the northern provinces of Asia Minor, and the Bosporan, simply refused to accept that Achilleas was their new liege, and declared that Maurikos, the younger brother of Patrocles, was the new rightful Emperor, and rallied behind him, moving the provisional capital to Sinope.
However, a great deal of loyalists, thinking along much the same lines as Patrocles, did indeed accept the young Emperors decision, realizing there were much greater dangers abroad. The navy, and most of the army swore loyalty to Achilleas, with only one notable exception.
Upon learning that Patrocles had effectively abdicated, Polemarchos Kallikles, heir to the Byzantine army in Jerusalem after Polemarchos Kleon was eviscerated, declared that he would no longer be loyal to any monarch of Byzantium, for they had all been revealed has hypocritical fools. His army, much as that of Achilleas had years earlier, followed him into rebellion in Byzantine-occupied Israel, and southern bits of Phoenicia. Polemarchos Kallikles army quickly becomes known as the Army of the Defilers, for their part in a long series of hellish events that grip Jerusalem.
(See Military Events, See Spotlight)
Meanwhile, Achilleas doing what he does best, reforms the army. He vastly expands it, filling it with Myrmidons, Greek legionaries, and establishes a very direct system of organization and command. The Agèmepibatèis are renamed simply Marines, though in Greek, the words are rather similar, in any case.
(-1 Achillean Byzantine Army Training, +1 Achillean Byzantine Army Training)
Achilleas inherits both the Merchants War and the war against Israel, from the Loyalists, and vows to see them both to their conclusion.
To the east, Assyria, noticing an opportunity for expansion, marshals its vast armies, and sends them towards Asia Minor, and Phoenicia.
Something will be decided here, and soon.
(See Military Events)
South, in Israel, there is an end.
(See Spotlight)
Aegypt rallies yet another peasant army, largely composed of Lower Egyptian refugees, and prepares for one final thrust.
(+10 000 Aegyptian Skirmishers)
(See Spotlight)
Axum withdraws for the war. Occupied elsewhere, Aegypt agrees to accept Axumite tribute for the next sixty years, in exchange for both peace, and a withdrawal of all troops in the Axumite theater to pre-war borders.
Though it is arguable whether or not King Yarden ben Yehoshua had much leverage in the treaty, the fact that Axum emerged territorially unscathed from the war after such horrible defeats increases civilian confidence in the Axumite throne.
(+1 Axumite Confidence)
The government in Axum consolidates its restored territories, reorganizes the nation into four provinces, and begins moderate expansion southward.
(+1 Axumite Leadership, -1 000 Axumite Soldiers)
King Yehoshua begins a heavy trading relationship with the Aegyptians, and that, combined with events on the Red Sea, restore Port Cush as an economic center.
(+Port Cush as an Aegyptian Economic Center)
As a sideline event, Axum also exports it Jesusians northward, to Byzantium. The journey though war-torn regions causes many of them to die, but somehow, a couple hundred manage to reach Greece, and become a tiny minority in Boeotia.
Heading East, little occurs until we reach the land of Mohenjo-Daro, in India. The Council of India meets for the first time, with delegates from all the nations of the subcontinent. Much that is decided there helps improve international and regional cooperation, and, at the Council of India, for the first time, Indians begin to think of themselves as a single people. A major issue brought up was the possible relocation of the capital of Mohenjo-Daro to something more central in India, and a renaming of the nation, but the current Indian prince remains staunchly opposed to those ideas. However, the Council of India also helps to integrate the far-flung Mohenjo-Daro territories, and help to slow the spread of corruption.
Despite the internal improvement, the days of expansion for the Lords of the Indus are not over. In Arabia, the Indian territories are grown, and General Harsha finally dies, causing a collective sigh of relief from those who thought he would attempt to seize power. Directly to the west of the Indus, Mohenjo-Daro soldier conquer more of the Iranian lands, cutting of possible future areas of Persian and Sogdianan expansion. In conjunction with the Pandyans, Mohenjo-Daro has also begun to colonize Sri Lanka.
(-7 000 Mohenjo-Daro Soldiers, -1 000 Pandyan Soldiers)
Technological achievement in Mohenjo-Daro is the greatest of all the nations in the world, and their nation begins to show it. A golden age begins, propped up by the opening of a great military training center, but underneath it all, there is a significant problem of corruption. Mohenjo-Daro is simply not as rich as a nation of its size should be, and the halting of Harappan tributes to the capital underscores this point.
But still, there is much basking in the fruits of achievement.
(+Mohenjo-Daro in the Middle Age, +1 Mohenjo-Daro Culture)
A small Mohenjo-Daro expedition to a vaguely heard of far off isle on the coast of Africa ends in failure, as the great Indian Ocean simply swallows up the expedition.
(-3 Mohenjo-Daro Ships, -1 000 Mohenjo-Daro Soldiers)
In China, there is a shift in the balance of power. Chu, while still strong and mighty, does little over the next two decades, while the Zhou wake from a long slumber. Realizing they are without allies, Zhou extends a hand of alliance to the Liang, a hand that is gratefully accepted, as the Liang council is somewhat angry that they did not receive compensation for the losses they suffered when they were guarding Chus western border.
The Zhou also form an elite Emperors guard, the Teo-Wakan Warriors. Preparing for the war that some feel inevitable, the Zhou begin to build fortifications on the Zhou-Chu border, and expand their influence, by launching an invasion of Korea, and importing colonists. In the span of two decades, they conquer most of the north, and their armies still press on to conquer the whole of the penninsula.
(-3 000 Zhou Soldiers)
Two coalitions have now formed in the Middle Kingdom, held together only loosely by the bonds of the Council of China. In the north, there is the Zhou Empire, and their Liang allies, and to the south, there is the Chu Empire, and their supporters, the Nan, and the Taiwanese. One false move, and the region might well be engulfed in war.
Military Events
To some, such as Cato, the Third Punic War was nothing more than a rightful continuation of the Second, and to others, such as the Icosium rulers, the Third Punic War was something else entirely, a war of unchecked Roman aggression.
In any case, from the beginning, the future of Republican Icosium looked bleak. The Roman army outnumbered the Icosium army more than two to one, and a comparison of the Roman and Icosium fleets would produce an even worse ratio.
Worse, it seemed that Scipio had always known the war would continue, had had known this even before the Roman senate gave him the fateful orders. In a rather confused battle quiet near Icosium harbor, the Roman navy soundly defeated the Icosium fleet, which was largely composed of commissioned merchant ships. With the Roman dominance of the Western Mediterranean assured, the blockade was reinstated.
(-8 Republican Icosium Ships, -6 Roman Ships)
Next, the Romans moved in and quickly sized the Icosium capital, using the confusion after the betrayal to their advantage.
(-2 000 Roman Legionaries, -2 000 Icosium Soldiers)
From that point, however, the fighting got rather more difficult, as key leaders of the Republicans had escaped, and railed the people behind them, fighting a sort of guerrilla war the Republicans were rather used to by now, having defeated the dictatorship in much the same way. The front around Icosium City quickly bogs down.
(-4 000 Icosium Soldiers, -3 000 Roman Legionaries)
However, fully prepared for this eventuality, the Romans under Scipio quickly open up a second front, seizing Tangiers. Attacked on two fronts, isolated due to the embargo, and, in truth, utterly unprepared for this eventuality, what remained of the Icosium Republican government collapsed, replaced by a variety of infighting factions. The Romans occupy the entire region, and begin a long struggle to pacify it, but the regions future as a province of the Roman Empire seems assured. After three wars, and many, many decades, the last incarnation of Carthage has been defeated.
(-8 000 Roman Legionaries, - Republican Icosium as an Independent Nation)
In the Byzantine Empire, there is chaos. Constantinopolis had once unquestionably ruled vast tracts of land directly, and even more besides, if one was to count the Byzantine dominated Hellenic League. But all that is over, now. Achilleas must fight for what he has newly gained.
Fifteen thousand Myrmidions were placed in Greece, to defend against what Achilleas generals predicted would be an Athenian invasion. The invasion, however, never materialized, as the Athenians sat with their massive army in their tiny nation, as the presence of so many unneeded soldiers slowly eroded the publics confidence in their government. For Athens, due to the chaos around the city-state, piracy is an ever increasing problem, and the citizens of the nation dont understand why the government wont improve the pathetic Athenian navy.
(-1 Athenian Confidence)
And so was one sorely needed army wasted. Epirus, having declared for Achilleas when Patrocles did, was clearly not a viable target.
To the east, however, in Asia Minor, the greatest battles of the Byzantine wars were fought. It what oddly became known as the Eagle War, almost thirty thousand Assyrian troops marched westward, against what the Assyrians hoped was a disunified and collapsing Byzantium. As they struck in Anatolia and Phoenicia, all the Assyrians found was a small, retreating Achillean Byzantine army. Pitched battles destroyed large portions of the landscape, and so many villages the Assyrian commanders thought they had left unharmed instead burned, that the Assyrians began to suspect that the Achilleans were destroying their own land, to deny the invading Assyrians food and shelter. This strategy, however, largely backfired, as the Assyrians had well-funded logistics. When the fires burned themselves out, the Assyrians were in control of a large yet moderately desolate portion of Byzantine lands, extending from the trade city of Tarsus, largely saved by the Assyrians from the flames, to southern Phonecia, where they skirmished with Polemarchos Kallikles Army of the Defilers.
(-5 000 Achillean Byzantine Soldiers, -7 000 Assyrian Soldiers)
As the Assyrians gathered their hosts for a second push, the Byzantines readied themselves for a reconquest. After doing their part of what was done in Jerusalem,-
(See Spotlight)
-the Defilers turned against the Assyrians, perhaps in some small gesture of loyalty to the Achillean government. Kallikles was dead by now, of course, and many of the Defilers were much the same, but, nevertheless, the ten thousand or so soldiers that remained of the army struck against the nearly undefended Assyrian wall-forts, and penetrated them.
(-2 000 Defiler Soldiers, -500 Assyrian Soldiers)
Once within the interior of Assyria, the Defilers found themselves all but unopposed, save for a small homeland defense force. There were a considerable amount of Assyrians defending the Persian border, and, once they heard that the Defilers had broken though, they rushed to defend their nations heartlands, but it was clear they were not going to get there soon enough.
The Defilers, largely mad by this point, came upon Damascus, burned it to the ground, and defeated a small army of militia that had been brought against them.
(-3 000 Defiler Soldiers, -500 Assyrian Soldiers, +5 000 Assyrian Skirmishers, -5 000 Assyrian Skirmishers, -Damascus as an Assyrian Economic Center)
Plundering and massacring as they went, the Defilers marched to Harran, killed King David II, sacked the capital, and came against a very large and very angry Assyrian army. Isolated in enemy territory, and surrounded by a huge army, the Defilers put up an epic battle, in which they defended a ruined Harran against an Assyrian army trying to retake it. In the end, the Defilers were finally defeated, and the Black Army raised its flag no more, but much of western Assyria was in ruins.
(-Defilers as an Independent Faction, -3 000 Assyrian Soldiers, +5 000 Assyrian Skirmishers, -3 000 Assyrian Skirmishers)
Shockwaves of the battle reverberated across Assyria, as the nation, horribly weakened, struggled to find its heir, who had gone missing.
(-2 Assyrian Confidence)
And in Asia Minor and Phoenicia, things were scarce better, for any of the numerous sides. The Fifth Army, composed of twenty thousand Myrmidions, was supposed to strike around the Assyrian wall-forts, and into the heartlands, but Achilleas underestimated how long it would take to pacify the loyalist northern Asia Minor. In a battle at Sinope, Maurikos was killed, and the Achilleans took the city, destroying the loyalists as a faction once and for all, but by now, the Assyrians were well aware of the Achillean plan. There was a single Byzantium, once again, but unity had come at a price.
(-3 000 Achillean Byzantine Myrmidions, -Loyalist Byzantium as an Independent Faction)
As the Bosporan, formally firmly loyalist, now fell into chaos with the absence of a real government, the Assyrians and the Byzantines clashed in south-central Asia Minor. In the end, here, it proved to be the superior training of the Achilleans that won the day, as they pinned the Assyrians at Tarsus, and proceeded to do what they had always intended-skirt around the wall-forts, to the Assyrian heartlands.
(-6 000 Assyrian Soldiers, -5 000 Byzantine Myrmidions)
Arriving in northern Assyrian, the Fifth Army found a land largely ravaged by the Defilers, but regrouping under the come-out-from-hiding heir, King David III. While the Assyrian army in southern Asia Minor could do little to help, a different army could. After the Defilers had burned themselves out, Phoenicia has been easily pacified by the Assyrians, and thirteen thousand Assyrian troops in that region turned northward, to combat the similarly sized, yet better trained Fifth Army.
If the Assyrian heartland had been whole, the Byzantine Fifth might well have been repulsed, or at least stalled, but the destruction wreaked by the Defilers played havoc with Assyrian logistics. Antiochia fell to the Byzantines, and the Assyrians quickly found themselves in general retreat, as the Byzantine army marched for Harran, to sack it again, and perhaps destroy Assyria, once and for all. It seemed nothing could stop the Byzantine march, until the Myrmidons reached the river Euphrates, and the Assyrians successfully stalled the Fifth Army, saving their already-ruined capital.
(-7 000 Assyrian Soldiers, -5 000 Byzantine Myrmidons)
The armies of the civilized nations thus locked, neither Byzantium nor Assyria was truly prepared for the opportunistic uprisings that took place within their borders. In Byzantium, the Hittites once more staged a general revolt, and, in Assyria, the Medes and the Babylonians found weapons, once again. A lack of troops to quell the rebellious areas resulted in impressive gains against both the Byzantines and the Assyrians. In Asia Minor, Sinope was now taken by the Hittites, and, with only limited troops, they extended their rebellion across central Asia Minor.
(-2 000 Byzantine Soldiers)
In Assyria, the Babylonians took power once again between the Tigris and the Euphrates, and, in the Median lands, the Medes dominated the northeast. The frailties of a multi-ethnic empire were once again realized.
(-3 000 Assyrian Soldiers, -2 000 Assyrian Skirmishers)
Both bowed, and yet both, unbroken, the restored Byzantine Empire and the massive Assyrian Empire are locked in combat.
The next stage of the Eastern Wars takes place in Crete. Knowing full well that the Minoans and their Barcelonan allies would try to take their homeland back, Achilleas had garrisoned both a legion and a sizable fleet on the island. However, he had been unprepared for the sheer size of the merchants forces. Against the Byzantines, twelve thousand soldiers and forty ships had been marshaled, taxing the economies of Minoa-at-sea and Barcelona nearly to their breaking points.
Finding themselves oddly outnumbered, the Myrmidon legion had to first deal with a Minoan rebellion, and then deal with the invaders, themselves. The excellent training of the Byzantine army and navy almost made up for the odds, and caused many casualties on the part of the Minoans, but in the end, while the Byzantine navy might have prevailed against the Minoan fleet, but the Byzantine army was simply too small to hold the island, after the Mino-Barcelonans effected numerous landings. Acknowledging defeat in this theater, the general of the Byzantine Third Army burned the docks of Zokro, and retreated with the remnants of the Third onto the ships of the Byzantine fleet, which then sailed south, to assist in a different operation
(-11 Barcelonan Ships, -12 Minoan Ships, -14 Byzantine Ships, +5 000 Minoan Skirmishers, -4 000 Barcelonan Soldiers, -5 000 Minoan Soldiers, -5 000 Minoan Skirmishers, -4 000 Byzantine Myrmidons, -Zokro as a Minoan Economic Center)
Once secure in their holding of Crete, the Minoans consolidated, and did not even attempt a liberation of Cyprus, noting how costly the liberation of their homeland had been. One thing they did do, however, was hunt down the oligarchs who had surrendered to the Byzantines all those years ago, and kill them. Merchants mercy.
There is more of the story left to unfold, but that will have to wait.
Random Events
King Yarden ben Yehoshua becomes famous for his commitment to peace, even well beyond Axum’s borders.
(+1 Axumite Culture, +1 Axumite Leadership)
Aegypt is blessed with capable administrators.
(+1 Aegyptian Leadership)
In war-torn Loyalist Byzantium, the Arts somehow manage to flourish.
(+1 Loyalist Byzantine Education, +1 Loyalist Byzantine Culture, +1 Loyalist Byzantine Confidence)
Spotlight: Finale
“The death of Jerusalem has broken the world.”
-Unknown
Jerusalem. Yerushalayim, to the Hebrews. Jerusalem, Yerusalayim, ablaze. The city had already been taken, of course; the Byzantines thought they were secure in their hold of it. They were simply burning Yerushalayim, in revenge. Holokauston has a meaning, now. Holokaston Jerusalem. A raging sacrifice to the gods, in vengeance for Polemarchos Kleon’s murder.
For of course, the Byzantines here were not Achilleans. This was before the Loyalists had been broken, but after Patrocles’ surrender. The Byzantines here were Polemarchos Kallikles’. They were the Defilers, and this was how they got their name.
No stone was left unturned that night, when Kallikles in his madness ordered the city’s end. No woman was left unraped, no library or temple was left standing. The Temple of Jerusalem, which had stood for a thousand years fell that night; burned until it could burn no more, and was then reduced to rubble by Kallikles’ catapults.
Of course, that night, all the same, the Hebrews of Jerusalem were not quiet. It was said that as the Great Temple burned, a black-caped man named himself Ha-Satan Gadol as he strode out of the wreckage, unmolested by the fire. He declared that he had been the one to kill Kelon, and he challaged Kallikles to single combat. Kallikles, in his madness, accepted the challenge, and was killed by the Great Satan’s scythe, in a mater of moments.
All across the city then, other ha-satanim emerged, and wreaked terrible vengeance on the Defilers, raising the city behind them, and sending the remaining Byzantines fleeing hell bound at Assyria, from the wrath of The One True God, that they had unleashed.
(-8 000 Defilers, -Jerusalem as an Economic Center)
If Israel had remained whole, then, Jerusalem could have been retaken, and restored to its rightful place as the greatest city in the world. The Great Temple could have been rebuilt, and all could have been made right again.
But Israel did not remain whole. Its government was dead. The High Priests, all of which who had escaped Jerusalem before its fall, with the help of catacombs, did not last long after. They were killed, either by a burst of lightning from YHWH, or the wrath of an insane ha-satan.
But the truth there mattered little. The true leadership of Israel was dead, as the kings had been puppet rulers for decades now. Out of the ashes, man with the best claim to the throne of Israel rose, and took control of the army in Israel. His name was Prince Yehuda.
Yehuda was a madman, or a prophet; it was impossible to tell the truth. He declared himself King of the Chosen. Instead of trying to liberate Jerusalem, (this was before the Holokauston) he instead turned south, and, with his army, along with what refugees from Israel would follow, fled to the Hejjaz, and established the Kingdom of the Chosen at Medina. The entire region fell under his control, and many of the Arabian Jewish tribes swore him allegiance. Then and there, at Medina, King Yehuda declared that the Hebrews had Sinned, and began a great reformation of the religion. He set strict laws against excess, and limited the power of the priesthood, declaring himself, as Melech, to be both the secular and the religious leader of the Kingdom of the Chosen. His armies defeat all in the Hejjaz that stand in his way.
(+Kingdom of the Chosen as an Independent Nation, -1 000 Chosen Soldiers)
And with that, the remnants of Israel crumbled as well. Warlords took over across the former nation. In the far south, near Yemen and the African horn, the former Israeli ambassador to the Axumites, Reuel ben-David established the Union of Aden, an oligarchy with himself at the head. United by ties of trade, the mercantile Union dominated affairs on the Gulf of the same name, and took over much of the Indian Ocean trade.
(-Israel as an Independent Nation, +Union of Aden as an Independent Nation)
In Cyrene, the Hebrews finally win the odd sort of civil war, but, not having a real nation to reintergrate with, decided to strike it off alone. The Hebrew nation of Cyrene was established, though Simeon ben-Yehuda, or ha-Meredal, a cobbler who, when offered it, reluctantly took the throne of the nation, wished for nothing more than to reunite with Greater Israel. But that was not to be.
(+Cyrene as an Independent Nation, -2 000 Cyrene Soldiers)
The warlords of Egypt, though, are perhaps the most disturbing of them all. In Lower Egypt, General Shlomo ben-Azra sets up an Israel-within-Egypt, the Kingdom of Mitzraim. He continues the genocide of the Egyptian people, even as Israeli refugees from Israel proper flock to him. Before long, his nation is majority Hebrew, though only barely. By many Aegyptians, however, that in itself is yet another desecration.
(+Mitzraim as an Independent Nation)
In Upper Egypt, the commander of the prime Israeli army, General Jamin ben-Reu, continues the fight against the Aegyptians unabated, despite the fact he no longer fights for anyone but himself, anymore.
(+Southern Army as an Independent Faction)
The Aegyptians, in response to all this, launch a massive yet untrained flotilla into the Red Sea, even as the Byzantines send a fleet and an army hurtling in the direction of the Sinai Canal. The separated Israelis offer no resistance to these movements, and the Byzantines land an assault force of marines.
(-1 Aegyptian Navy Training)
The Byzantines take the canal not only easily, but almost without resistance.
(-1 000 Byzantine Marines)
They then turn for Mitzraim, hoping to strike a crushing blow, but find themselves too weak for that target, and are forced to retreat back to the canal.
(-1 000 Byzantine Marines, -1 000 Mitzraim Soldiers)
South, the Aegyptians launch an all-out major offensive against General Jamin ben-Reu’s forces, and retake Thebes, in a victory assured from the start.
(-5 000 Aegyptian Skirmishers, -1 000 Aegyptian Soldiers, -5 000 Aegyptian Royal Guard, -Southern Army as an Independent Faction)
The Aegyptians then press on to Mitzraim, only to their horror to find a Hebrew nation in what had once been Egyptian heartland. Nevertheless, they keep pushing northward, meeting up with Byzantine forces on the Red Sea coast, and isolating Mitzaim from the east. Embattled, Shlomo ben-Azra forces the Aegyptians to pay for every advance they take, but in the end, he is overrun, as well. Mitzraim falls, and the Aegyptians find themselves in the curious position of having conquered a land of Israelis.
(-Mitzraim as an Independent Nation, -8 Aegyptian War Elephants, 4 000 Aegyptian Royal Guard, 5 000 Aegyptian Soldiers)
Overextended, and in a land that is proving quite rebellious, the Aegyptian host falters before reaching Cyrene, and halts. Mitzaim is proving quite rebellious, and the Aegyptian commanders do not want to overextend.
The Nilotic War is over. Aegypt won.
Of course, there is a bitter aftertaste to this. The Aegyptian flotilla in the Red Sea, somewhat unclear about the true state of things, tries to take the Kingdom of the Chosen with a substantial army, but is soundly defeated by fanatics in the Hejjaz, and is forced to withdraw. As of now, it is rather unclear whether Aegypt and the Kingdom of the Chosen are at war, but it is likely.
(-4 000 Aegyptian Soldiers, -2 000 Chosen Zealots, -1 000 Chosen Soldiers)
As Aegypt consolidates, so too does the Kingdom of the Chosen. King Yehuda marches north to an Israel proper that is in anarchy, and retakes his homeland from a tired people. The ha-satanim, for their part, have disappeared, though assassinations of random minor leaders throughout the Mediterranean have begun to occur.
(-1 000 Chosen Soldiers)
Such is the way of things; such is the way of the world. With the war over, dissent in Aegypt begins to become an issue, as the Egyptians realize that they have a Cushite king, and, no longer threatened for their very survival, feel free to express their anger. The Aegyptian skirmishers return home.
(-1 Aegyptian Culture, -1 Aegyptian Confidence, -7 000 Aegyptian Skirmishers)
The Nilotic War is over, but there are still interesting times ahead.
NPC Diplomacy
To: Aegypt
From: Union of Aden
Are we at war?
To: Aegypt
From: Cyrene
Let us live in peace. We are no longer a threat to you.
To: Byzantium
From: Minoa
Return Cyprus to us and you will have your peace.
King Yarden ben Yehoshua becomes famous for his commitment to peace, even well beyond Axum’s borders.
(+1 Axumite Culture, +1 Axumite Leadership)
Aegypt is blessed with capable administrators.
(+1 Aegyptian Leadership)
In war-torn Loyalist Byzantium, the Arts somehow manage to flourish.
(+1 Loyalist Byzantine Education, +1 Loyalist Byzantine Culture, +1 Loyalist Byzantine Confidence)
Spotlight: Finale
“The death of Jerusalem has broken the world.”
-Unknown
Jerusalem. Yerushalayim, to the Hebrews. Jerusalem, Yerusalayim, ablaze. The city had already been taken, of course; the Byzantines thought they were secure in their hold of it. They were simply burning Yerushalayim, in revenge. Holokauston has a meaning, now. Holokaston Jerusalem. A raging sacrifice to the gods, in vengeance for Polemarchos Kleon’s murder.
For of course, the Byzantines here were not Achilleans. This was before the Loyalists had been broken, but after Patrocles’ surrender. The Byzantines here were Polemarchos Kallikles’. They were the Defilers, and this was how they got their name.
No stone was left unturned that night, when Kallikles in his madness ordered the city’s end. No woman was left unraped, no library or temple was left standing. The Temple of Jerusalem, which had stood for a thousand years fell that night; burned until it could burn no more, and was then reduced to rubble by Kallikles’ catapults.
Of course, that night, all the same, the Hebrews of Jerusalem were not quiet. It was said that as the Great Temple burned, a black-caped man named himself Ha-Satan Gadol as he strode out of the wreckage, unmolested by the fire. He declared that he had been the one to kill Kelon, and he challaged Kallikles to single combat. Kallikles, in his madness, accepted the challenge, and was killed by the Great Satan’s scythe, in a mater of moments.
All across the city then, other ha-satanim emerged, and wreaked terrible vengeance on the Defilers, raising the city behind them, and sending the remaining Byzantines fleeing hell bound at Assyria, from the wrath of The One True God, that they had unleashed.
(-8 000 Defilers, -Jerusalem as an Economic Center)
If Israel had remained whole, then, Jerusalem could have been retaken, and restored to its rightful place as the greatest city in the world. The Great Temple could have been rebuilt, and all could have been made right again.
But Israel did not remain whole. Its government was dead. The High Priests, all of which who had escaped Jerusalem before its fall, with the help of catacombs, did not last long after. They were killed, either by a burst of lightning from YHWH, or the wrath of an insane ha-satan.
But the truth there mattered little. The true leadership of Israel was dead, as the kings had been puppet rulers for decades now. Out of the ashes, man with the best claim to the throne of Israel rose, and took control of the army in Israel. His name was Prince Yehuda.
Yehuda was a madman, or a prophet; it was impossible to tell the truth. He declared himself King of the Chosen. Instead of trying to liberate Jerusalem, (this was before the Holokauston) he instead turned south, and, with his army, along with what refugees from Israel would follow, fled to the Hejjaz, and established the Kingdom of the Chosen at Medina. The entire region fell under his control, and many of the Arabian Jewish tribes swore him allegiance. Then and there, at Medina, King Yehuda declared that the Hebrews had Sinned, and began a great reformation of the religion. He set strict laws against excess, and limited the power of the priesthood, declaring himself, as Melech, to be both the secular and the religious leader of the Kingdom of the Chosen. His armies defeat all in the Hejjaz that stand in his way.
(+Kingdom of the Chosen as an Independent Nation, -1 000 Chosen Soldiers)
And with that, the remnants of Israel crumbled as well. Warlords took over across the former nation. In the far south, near Yemen and the African horn, the former Israeli ambassador to the Axumites, Reuel ben-David established the Union of Aden, an oligarchy with himself at the head. United by ties of trade, the mercantile Union dominated affairs on the Gulf of the same name, and took over much of the Indian Ocean trade.
(-Israel as an Independent Nation, +Union of Aden as an Independent Nation)
In Cyrene, the Hebrews finally win the odd sort of civil war, but, not having a real nation to reintergrate with, decided to strike it off alone. The Hebrew nation of Cyrene was established, though Simeon ben-Yehuda, or ha-Meredal, a cobbler who, when offered it, reluctantly took the throne of the nation, wished for nothing more than to reunite with Greater Israel. But that was not to be.
(+Cyrene as an Independent Nation, -2 000 Cyrene Soldiers)
The warlords of Egypt, though, are perhaps the most disturbing of them all. In Lower Egypt, General Shlomo ben-Azra sets up an Israel-within-Egypt, the Kingdom of Mitzraim. He continues the genocide of the Egyptian people, even as Israeli refugees from Israel proper flock to him. Before long, his nation is majority Hebrew, though only barely. By many Aegyptians, however, that in itself is yet another desecration.
(+Mitzraim as an Independent Nation)
In Upper Egypt, the commander of the prime Israeli army, General Jamin ben-Reu, continues the fight against the Aegyptians unabated, despite the fact he no longer fights for anyone but himself, anymore.
(+Southern Army as an Independent Faction)
The Aegyptians, in response to all this, launch a massive yet untrained flotilla into the Red Sea, even as the Byzantines send a fleet and an army hurtling in the direction of the Sinai Canal. The separated Israelis offer no resistance to these movements, and the Byzantines land an assault force of marines.
(-1 Aegyptian Navy Training)
The Byzantines take the canal not only easily, but almost without resistance.
(-1 000 Byzantine Marines)
They then turn for Mitzraim, hoping to strike a crushing blow, but find themselves too weak for that target, and are forced to retreat back to the canal.
(-1 000 Byzantine Marines, -1 000 Mitzraim Soldiers)
South, the Aegyptians launch an all-out major offensive against General Jamin ben-Reu’s forces, and retake Thebes, in a victory assured from the start.
(-5 000 Aegyptian Skirmishers, -1 000 Aegyptian Soldiers, -5 000 Aegyptian Royal Guard, -Southern Army as an Independent Faction)
The Aegyptians then press on to Mitzraim, only to their horror to find a Hebrew nation in what had once been Egyptian heartland. Nevertheless, they keep pushing northward, meeting up with Byzantine forces on the Red Sea coast, and isolating Mitzaim from the east. Embattled, Shlomo ben-Azra forces the Aegyptians to pay for every advance they take, but in the end, he is overrun, as well. Mitzraim falls, and the Aegyptians find themselves in the curious position of having conquered a land of Israelis.
(-Mitzraim as an Independent Nation, -8 Aegyptian War Elephants, 4 000 Aegyptian Royal Guard, 5 000 Aegyptian Soldiers)
Overextended, and in a land that is proving quite rebellious, the Aegyptian host falters before reaching Cyrene, and halts. Mitzaim is proving quite rebellious, and the Aegyptian commanders do not want to overextend.
The Nilotic War is over. Aegypt won.
Of course, there is a bitter aftertaste to this. The Aegyptian flotilla in the Red Sea, somewhat unclear about the true state of things, tries to take the Kingdom of the Chosen with a substantial army, but is soundly defeated by fanatics in the Hejjaz, and is forced to withdraw. As of now, it is rather unclear whether Aegypt and the Kingdom of the Chosen are at war, but it is likely.
(-4 000 Aegyptian Soldiers, -2 000 Chosen Zealots, -1 000 Chosen Soldiers)
As Aegypt consolidates, so too does the Kingdom of the Chosen. King Yehuda marches north to an Israel proper that is in anarchy, and retakes his homeland from a tired people. The ha-satanim, for their part, have disappeared, though assassinations of random minor leaders throughout the Mediterranean have begun to occur.
(-1 000 Chosen Soldiers)
Such is the way of things; such is the way of the world. With the war over, dissent in Aegypt begins to become an issue, as the Egyptians realize that they have a Cushite king, and, no longer threatened for their very survival, feel free to express their anger. The Aegyptian skirmishers return home.
(-1 Aegyptian Culture, -1 Aegyptian Confidence, -7 000 Aegyptian Skirmishers)
The Nilotic War is over, but there are still interesting times ahead.
NPC Diplomacy
To: Aegypt
From: Union of Aden
Are we at war?
To: Aegypt
From: Cyrene
Let us live in peace. We are no longer a threat to you.
To: Byzantium
From: Minoa
Return Cyprus to us and you will have your peace.
OOC
Stats done. Other first page stuff will be done in a while.
Sorry that the quality faded at the end there. I got tired. First turn where PCs got eliminated, and two died in the same turn!
(Athough one was more of a suicide...)
I encourage LittleBoots and Dreadnaught to pick new nations and keep going. You're both good players, and I'll be sad to see you gone.
On a different, more technical note, I gave the Byzantine purple to Andis, now that Achilleas took over Byzantium, and the loyalists were defeated. The Union of Arden took the Israeli blue because I feel they are the most Israeli-like nation remaining. There may well be problems in the stats, so I encourage you people to look them over, and report back to me.
@carmen510-You can't grow your army anymore. That's why you still have that treasury point.
..Whew...
That was a looong update. Longest ever, I think. The mid-east looks really dark without Israel, dosen't it?
Orders are now always due Friday, 20:00 GMT, now, just to make sure everyone realizes that.
You may now post.
Stats done. Other first page stuff will be done in a while.
Sorry that the quality faded at the end there. I got tired. First turn where PCs got eliminated, and two died in the same turn!
(Athough one was more of a suicide...)I encourage LittleBoots and Dreadnaught to pick new nations and keep going. You're both good players, and I'll be sad to see you gone.
On a different, more technical note, I gave the Byzantine purple to Andis, now that Achilleas took over Byzantium, and the loyalists were defeated. The Union of Arden took the Israeli blue because I feel they are the most Israeli-like nation remaining. There may well be problems in the stats, so I encourage you people to look them over, and report back to me.
@carmen510-You can't grow your army anymore. That's why you still have that treasury point.
..Whew...
That was a looong update. Longest ever, I think. The mid-east looks really dark without Israel, dosen't it?
Orders are now always due Friday, 20:00 GMT, now, just to make sure everyone realizes that.
You may now post.
alex994
Hail Divine Emperor!
I demand that the Hall of Dead Nations and Wars of the Past be updated 
I WANT CARTHAGE/ICOSIUM IN THE HALL! 
:worships: Great update, though it is a bit confusing in the east....
I WANT CARTHAGE/ICOSIUM IN THE HALL! :worships: Great update, though it is a bit confusing in the east....
@alex994-Icosium will be in the hall as soon as I get around to updating it. That should be in less than 24 hours, possibly much less.
@The Farow-In Byzantium? Well, let's see here. LittleBoots abidicated, handing over all his power to Andis, but the Loyalists didn't like that he jerked out the rug from under them, and many continued to rebel. Andis eventually defeated most of the Loyalist rebels, but the Hittites are up in rebellion as well, and the Bosporan is in chaos. Meanwhile, in the south, LittleBoots hung onto a little of his power, in the form of a single army, known as the Army of the Defilers, that burned Jerusalem to the ground, got freaked out after Satan appeared to them, and then struck against Assyria to help Andis, managing to sack both Damascus and Harran before being completely destroyed by marshalled Assyrian forces.
Wow. That is rather confusing, isn't it?
That should be in less than 24 hours, possibly much less.@The Farow-In Byzantium? Well, let's see here. LittleBoots abidicated, handing over all his power to Andis, but the Loyalists didn't like that he jerked out the rug from under them, and many continued to rebel. Andis eventually defeated most of the Loyalist rebels, but the Hittites are up in rebellion as well, and the Bosporan is in chaos. Meanwhile, in the south, LittleBoots hung onto a little of his power, in the form of a single army, known as the Army of the Defilers, that burned Jerusalem to the ground, got freaked out after Satan appeared to them, and then struck against Assyria to help Andis, managing to sack both Damascus and Harran before being completely destroyed by marshalled Assyrian forces.
Wow. That is rather confusing, isn't it?
alex994
Hail Divine Emperor!
OOC: How are future historians going to explain Satan and all his minions?
What happens now that I'm in Middle Ages? New troops types?
No. You just have a substantial military bonus against nations still in the Iron Age, have greater connectivity within your empire, and can explore farther and faster. Not that that's really so little. 
Also, @everybody, the nation discriptions are getting very outdated. I said this before, but I will restate that you people can rewrite them.
Also, @everybody, the nation discriptions are getting very outdated. I said this before, but I will restate that you people can rewrite them.
alex994
Hail Divine Emperor!
Well, I'm not so sure about Rome's description. I still think we're the most powerful nation in the world 
From Lusitania
To Rome
Our soldiers fought the meance of Icosium hoping that their lives and their families lives would one day be better. We are incquiring if we can purchase the city of Tangiers to help bring more wealth to our improvished country. Rome is a great ally and we wish to be rewarded further for serving Rome rather then gaining a bunch of rich Punic merchants.
To Rome
Our soldiers fought the meance of Icosium hoping that their lives and their families lives would one day be better. We are incquiring if we can purchase the city of Tangiers to help bring more wealth to our improvished country. Rome is a great ally and we wish to be rewarded further for serving Rome rather then gaining a bunch of rich Punic merchants.
Prince Sheriar Announces the Empire of India
Today Mohenjo Daro is dead and India is born. All this land will be one nation born to greatness and glory. And it shall be made anew. A new nation must show its greatness by great deeds for its people and for its future. Soon Prince Merwan will sit upon the throne of Lord Krishna in my place, but he will rule a different country. While I live Mohenjo Daro, our holy mother, will remain the seat of power, but I proclaim now that a new city will be built at Indraprastha, the ancient town blessed by Lord Indra himself and we shall call it Delhi. From there Prince Merwan and his government will rule. But he will not rule alone. To guide him in wisdom and practical action, the Council of India will meet, as called, to bring the voices of the land to the dais at Delhi and the ear of the Prince. And with wisdom will he act.
To: Harappa
From: The Prince of India
We extend you an invitation to be the first of our neighbors to join this new India as an equal. Vassalage is beneath you; paying tribute without gaining benefit demeans your people and drains their life; being extinguished beneath the might of India shows disrespect for your heritage and ancestry. We would welcome you to our nation.
From: The Prince of India
We extend you an invitation to be the first of our neighbors to join this new India as an equal. Vassalage is beneath you; paying tribute without gaining benefit demeans your people and drains their life; being extinguished beneath the might of India shows disrespect for your heritage and ancestry. We would welcome you to our nation.
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