End of Empires - N3S III

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Enter Katdhi​



While the the Satarai tribes continue their endless westward migrations, the Katdhi finally settle into something which can be described slightly closer to a civilized life. The catalyst was a combination of events, but the strongest and most obvious was the discovery of gold, and a man to unite them as a tribe around it.


That man was Ulska Katdhi. He was fierce man, built like and ox and arguably as strong. As the people had gathered to this new way of life, there had been created a vacuum of power. Ulska had quickly manouvered into a postion of power. Using physical might as well as a bit of intellegence he cemented his place and drove the nation onwards. While his father before him has been but a herdsman, there was a strong sence of divine right in Ulska and his people.


Men flocked to mine the precious ores and earn their fortunes. Around their mines, sprawling townships sprung up almost overnight. For a miner was hungry, and needed clothes to wear. Nor was be particularly skilled in carpentry or medicine.. all which were needed by "civilized" people. Where there was an oportunity, there was another traveller willing to settle down and fill it. Adding to this, all around the basin areas (where enough water tricked down to sustain life) farms were beginning springing up to feed the masses.


All this change obviously demanded more from it people and society, and what allowed such growth was that the land was being tilled for the first time. No longer was man tied to the land like the animals were. He had time to do things other than merely obtain the next meal. Obviously some elders did not like these changes, claiming that to cut the earth was a desecration but after a few false starts, the farmers got it right, and over a hearty feast everyone had to agree things were looking up.


Ulska Katdhi's folly had become his triumph. To futher the celebration he demanded a great gold covered monolith was to be contructed in the centre of the basin, and that a school would be built in order to teach those of Katdhi great transformation, but without forgetting the elder spirits that had given them this fortune and sustained them for so long before present.
 
OOC: Now I think about it, is the word nation appopriate for this time?

Not really, unless you're talking about an ethnicity. I try to avoid it, but sometimes it slips in accidentally. Plus, repeating "states" and "countries" is a little tiresome after a while.

Can we have UU? Unique units! NOT Uber Units. For example I am thinking about getting 'Marines'.

What, you mean like infantry who can operate on ships? :p If you want to put a lot of effort into making them unique, I can separate them out in the stats. Otherwise they'd be professionals.
 
NK, are my orders and story appropriate, i didn't really find anything written about the Katdhi before i took them?
 
NK, are my orders and story appropriate, i didn't really find anything written about the Katdhi before i took them?

They were just a generic steppe tribe until you took them, so your orders and story work quite well. :)
 
Good show! I awaite the update with glee.. i'm guessing it will be a while off though right?
 
@NK: I need to talk with you about some things before I can write stories and do orders.


To: Empire of the Sesh
From: Bahra


We will crush you.
 
Accords of Ropoa Boa




1. The city of Ropoa Boa is to be surrendered to the Triluin Empire
2. The new borders between Pekorova and the Triluin Empire is to be set as shown above.
3. Unrestricted access to the port of Ropoa Boa and river delta will be given to the Pekorovan nation.
4. Trilui is allowed full access to the Peko River.

These terms are negotiable
 
Accords of Ropoa Boa




1. The city of Ropoa Boa is to be surrendered to the Triluin Empire
2. The new borders between Pekorova and the Triluin Empire is to be set as shown above.
3. Unrestricted access to the port of Ropoa Boa and river delta will be given to the Pekorovan nation.
4. Trilui is allowed full access to the Peko River.

These terms are negotiable

We would much prefer all of the territory to be under our control. We would allow you unrestricted access to Ropoa Boa and the Peko River. These pirates you fight are a problem, and we understand your need to deal with them. However, there was no need to invade a nation unprovoked as you did. Had you asked, we would have allowed you to use our facilities as a base of operations.

In addition, we would like reparations to be paid to replace the troops you slaughtered.
 
"As in every state since the existence of organized human society, there are those at the bottom to be ordered and those at the top to do the ordering. Such is the case in Acca.

The difference then, perhaps, between our little Acca and the remainder of the civilized (and non-civilized world) world is where the power rests. A cursory glance would tell you the singular man at the heap of the tower rules them all without question. This first glance would be deceiving. What rules them all, all men, the man at the top being no exception, is Law.

Law being of course a vague and permeable concept. Able to flow into various ideas and societies, changing them for the better. So is the Accan way of perceiving the law. The other part of this Accan way is to set forth a way to rigidify and quantify exactly what this Law is. If you can tell someone, or everyone, what the Law is...then there is no denying when it has been breached. This can be most clearly seen in Accan politics."

- Iccos, Grand Philosopher at the Accan School of Thought



The Autocracces

"While the placement of all power in one man's hands is foolish, the illusion of belief in mob rule is even more misplaced. A supreme autocrat entails supreme efficiency."- Iccos

The amalgamated powers the Autocracces wields are numerous. He commands the Accan armies, appoints (and removes) the Magistratta, and the heads of the Censoratta. He can dismiss members of the Sufferacces, or upper councils, at will (with only a unanimous vote being able to overturn him) and he can also propose new tax increases or decreases at his leisure. The only catch in all of this is that the Autocracces must yield when the combined forces of the Sufferacces and the other source of power come against him.

The Sufferacces

"The second line, perhaps the last resort in political crisis, the Sufferacces is actually a group of men who must decide in times of trouble where they stand...for the benefit of Acca, or for their own good? I, for one, hold little faith as to the choice these men would choose."- Iccos

The Upper Council, the Sufferacces is a group of very important men. Or women I suppose. Particularly capable (or particularly rich) Magistratta, Aedilattas, merchants, noblemen, and military figures "become" a part of the Sufferacces to increase their own prestige largely, as the payday is likely nothing compared to their day job already. The role of the position is to check Autocracces power (sometimes they are like a pebble on the Autobahn in this respect) and serve as a sounding board for His Honorableness. The will of the people and all of that, because surely they represent the will of the people, being the most successful people "the people" have to offer!

The Magistratta​

"To win this position you must either kill fifty men in battle or kiss the Honorable One's feet constantly. Once you are there, you must hire a brigade of men to kiss his feet in your absence. This is the most important task of the Magistratta."- Iccos

The Magistratta are the provincial administrators. Being especially important to the frontier provinces and newly integrated barbarian realms, the Magistratta must be either proven loyal to the Autocracces through years of civil service or in military duty. They lie completely with his power as he has the ability to appoint and remove them at will. Their powers within their own province vary. In Acca Province, for instance, the Aedilatta often holds parity with the Magistratta by virtue of the influence of the city of Acca itself. On the frontier provinces however, the Magistratta's word is law. He may raise peasant levees, declare a "state of disorder" in which the military or Censoratta may intervene, and he can also apportion the budget of the province. So they do hold important powers, whatever Iccos' opinions of them were. ;)

The Censoratta​

"To hear the stories, of men being abducted at night by a Censoratta never be seen again, of political enemies being publicly beaten to death, of the private rituals held wherein they drink the blood of these enemies of the Law and so on. This is the mythos of the Censoratta and this is our reality."- Iccos

Censoratta. A feared word in Acca, but one respected throughout if not because it is forced upon you. They are the backbone of the System and the militant arm of the Law. They collect the taxes, they enforce the moral system, and they are everywhere. At least it must feel this way. The head of the Censoratta is appointed by the Autocracces and can be removed by him or a unanimous Sufferacces vote. He issues some of the particularly nasty "Directives" aimed at tax evaders or moral code breakers. They are declared "Enemies of the Law" and anything can happen at that point.

A Censoratta agent is recruited through the military (inspections are done during every male's mandatory service) and payed fairly well, especially compared to the usual odd job of the Accan peasantry. They don all black with a mask to be worn at all time on the job, the sophistication of the mask being different based on the position they have within the organization. They are not incorruptible, not unbribeable, and not completely ideologically brainwashed. But fear, power, greed, and the mythos of the Censoratta keeps the organization not only alive and well, but more robust than ever before.

The Aedilatta​

"The figure of the unwashed massed. A man who can not only pander to one, but lie to thousands. The Aedilatta might be the most despicable of characters to grace the halls of power in Acca."- Iccos

So our philosopher friend is not a big fan of democracy, even in this primitive form. The Aedilatta is an administrator of a city or township. What makes him unique is that he is not appointed by the Autocracces or men in the Sufferacces. The people themselves have a direct say in the selection of their Aedilatta. Or, men do anyway. Men with employment. And without "marks" against their record. So that's a fair twenty percent of the population, roundabouts. The Aedilatta organizes public works, apportions money to various parts of the budget, appoints civil servants, organizes city militias in times of crisis as called by the Autocracces, and can even be appointed himself to the Sufferacces. The only way they may be removed is by unanimous vote of the Sufferacces, but they may have their power temporarily removed by a Magistratta declaration of a "state of disorder".



Next, the School of Thought.
 
Jania has had a long tradition of noblemen, beggining from less then a generation after it's revolt away from a traditional Arkage aristocracy (Janian faction philosophers would argue that this was the essential breach away from being true Arkage).

After the revolt, the slaves were confident in their righteousness- for they had triumphed. Massacring even the children of the higher classes, they originally were quite egalitarian, despite installing their leader (Hanhard I- the -id suffix had not yet spread like flies) as King.

Hanhard I's error was not to install a system of administration- when an Arkage army nearly conquered Jania, he learned his lesson. He created regional Governors, who adopted their sucessors, for the purposes of raising forces for defence. Two months later, he finally conceded to taxes as well.

This triggered a second slave revolt against the government system (at this point, the Arkage had just conquered the Craknids, and so were tempted to reclaim their old city), which Hanhard challenged to a battle to decide. Hanhard would win because he actually had a chain of command, and thanks to a timely slave revolt Arkage would not attack a second time.

Janian noblemen were far less cruel to the peasant class, but noblemen they remained. Refugees from Seshweay and Arkage (especially Arkage) would accept the system as it was, strengthening Jania and securing it against revolt. By the time the Straits of Kargan were colonised, the idea of freedom had, in practice, been squashed. An arbitrary distinction between "slave" and "peasant", and a lack of depising the upper class as much, was all that remained.

So Jania would try to aid Arkage against the Seshweay, though a rash Arkage general would prevent them from being very sucessful.

Three major noble houses had arisen- the Hanhardians (descendants of the first king, and thus the ruling dynasty), the Quenians (sucessfully conquered the Straits of Kargan and were nobles over most of it), and the Trihe (seemed to know everything going on in Jania, though in reality their intelligence network was far superior but not that good, and were feared for a widly exaggerated reputation as assasins).

At the time of the Satarai conquest, the Trihe were looked to to undermine it, and decided to admit the truth rather then face scorn (this led to their downfall into a minor house). A naval invasion was attempted but defeated, and the Quenians too were discredited, if much more temporarily. The Hanhardians temporarily established an absolute monarchy in practice, but failed to use the opportunity to secure it.

At the time of the Seven Satraps, and of Te’esh, Jania had changed. The strong houses were more Republican style nobles, noted for respect and credit within Jania itself. They still could, if working in concert, triggered a coup, but their power was not based in land. The Quenians were now dead.

As Te'esh attacked one Satrap, the Janians made an ambitious Liberation Program which Te'esh would later exploit to advantage. In alliance with Akalm, they tried to conquer the peninsula, but they were overestimated. Four Satraps would fight them, and they would lose. This would make things easier for Te'esh, but was bad for Jania.

At the time Jania was annexed to Sesh, the Hanhardian house fell. There were five major houses, but only one, the Denxians, survived the time. Jania would fall, but the Denxians would become a minor Sesh house.

At the time of the fall of Sesh, a resistance on the Sesh river would attempt to hold back the attacks. Jania had no such luck, and the barbarians would sack it. They had been experimenting with copper, but the barbarians would easily defeat them.

By this time, things were egalitarian due to crisis, but people trusted the nobles. Wishful thinking was so high that noblemen were allocated "rightful" lands out of that which were seen as Janian, and new noble titles were created. The skill of the Akalm campaign would save Jania.

Akalm was a partly Craknid state, with it's own slave class. The rhethoric the Janians had used for centuries was nominally anti-slavery, and this served them well. Under pretext of being refugees who merely sought temporary safety until they could take an opportunity to defeat the barbarians, they got into the city. They would then betray this hospitality and take it, justifying it by the slavery in Akalm.

Jania would promise the Akalmese a better life, and thus reestablished nobility. The Qenids were given compensation land and rose again, but the exterminated Hanhardians were replaced by the Manids- who were believed to be descended from Hanhard's brother.

There became two types of noblemen- land noblemen and city noblemen. The city noblemen had more power in theory, the land noblemen in practice.

In land nobility, the Triminids would become a strong family through inheriting a much larger house via trickery (tricking them into adopting the same heir, then dealing with the consequences), the Dijenards would be given lands for their services and expand them by lending money and taking lands when the customer failed to pay, and a line of false Hanhardians would begin taking over old Jania by purchase over time to create a port city.

In the city, merchants and "philosophers" (usually demagouges in practice) would attain some degree of power, but nobility would attain more. As for the major lines, the Craknids managed to maintain great (if slowly dropping) prestige throughout the period, though they never managed to match it by their deeds. The Huxenids would clash with them for the throne, using their superior ability to pick good canidates for the Huxenid line. Finally, the Pexids would gain popular support in the city and a reputation as a patron of the arts, merchant expeditions, and "philosophy".

The system died in stages- first, the end of the Craknid dynasty. Second, the
rise of Hanid's court, defeating Huxenid, Pexid, and Dijenard canidates and becoming by the strongest amongst noblemen. Next, the rise of factional canidacies competing for the thonre. Finally, the destruction of any city significance and the great reduction of all but Dijenid (the name had changed over time) significance by the moving of the capital to Tisesh.

After the conquest of Tisesh, new nobles would arise. Temporarily, the King would have glory through his victory and the Sesh banner would fly. The noblemen in the new conquests were almost all royal appointees, and so had little relevance for a generation.

Soon there were two nobleman types (though there was no reason why somebody could not be both, and many were)- first, the "sleeping giant" class, consistent of traditional landed nobility who had plenty of potential power but never used it. Their main politicking, besides those who joined in faction debates, was trying to quicken or slow the decline of the lobby arguing for a restoration of the Arkage slave system.

Second were factional Politician Families, who canidates tried to get themselves adopted into. The Sesh Party, the Law Party (a late addition), the Craknid Party, and the Tradition Party each had their own families. But some of these, particularly in the Law Party, evolved into jobs which one could get by what resembled but was not a merit system. People would compete to get themselves adopted into families- it was seen as the first step on the way up in the party. Internal disunity was usually between family-based factions.

The idea of nobility was alive and well, but while they still had plenty of potential influence, the power they actually wielded was lower then usual...
 
Message delivered with hands open wide
The offer of plunder and pride
Nothing can stop them now
The entire world must bow
The old ways will be pushed aside
 
All right then, orders being sent.... now!

EDIT: Hey, I'm a newbie, this is my first NES. I'm excellent at missing key things, so how do you increase income? So far, I think it's more cities, but I could be wrong.
 
I'm not actually sure myself.
 
All right then, orders being sent.... now!

EDIT: Hey, I'm a newbie, this is my first NES. I'm excellent at missing key things, so how do you increase income? So far, I think it's more cities, but I could be wrong.

Population, Trade. That kind of stuff.
 
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