End of Empires - N3S III

Perfectionist has been regrettably busy, so hopefully he's on #nes this evening as I much desire to speak with him.

Sorry, I've been sick. Still am, actually. So as for orders, our armies should just cooperate with the Karapeshai in whatever they need.

The last time Dahaiaou warriors descended upon our lands, ruination befell us. The great nation of Aya'se was inundated, Seis burned, and the sky and water turned red in their displeasure. In Helsia, we called the destruction of old Farou and mighty Trovin the Treda, the shattering of two jewels of the ancient world by the broad hammer of brutality.

We tasted ruin, and our lands fell into kinstrife and disorder. Our golden age came to a close, our greatest treasures were carted away by steppe-men who did not yet comprehend the beauty of the manuscripts that they had plundered.

And from this dark age, we emerged united, and more powerful than ever before. Alongside the Holy Moti Empire, we brought down the Ardavai Exatai, and established Farubaida. The federation of five steeled themselves, swearing to never again allow such depredations to be visited upon us. Our nations have since weathered all that the world can hurl upon them. We have cast down the Emperor of the Opulensi and we fought the Kothari to a standstill. From one-time enemies, we have formed friendships and alliances far stronger than anything that your Exatai could dream of, bound together by violence and power-lust as it is.

So hail, Prince of Bowerbirds. If you seek to perpetrate your war of false terms, we shall meet you. You will show us the strength of your hatred, and we shall beat it with the strength of our faith. Know this! To cross the Sesh is to embrace the end of empires.

So Speaks the Harafaio

Apparently no orders from the Karapeshai, and only a couple of orders from its allies (though props to the Airani and Telha for managing this). With all of that in mind, I am considering cancelling this update and just moving into the ET.

I think dropping the update on account of Thlayli's tardiness (and the less than enthusiastic support of some of his clients) would be somewhat unfair on those who did put in the effort. Perhaps in contextual terms such tardiness could reflect the Karapeshai have poor co-ordination and are slow in rallying a host considering their large and decentralised state? It would be such an anticlimax as well considering the build up .

That said, whatever you decide to do I'm fine with, and I'm sure people can roll with it. The war can easily enough be incorporated in summary within the long-update if need be regardless.

I am feeling somewhat ungenerous, and it was my impression that no one much wanted the update besides Thlayli. That said, I am obviously willing to consider whatever you guys want. If there's overwhelming support to continue with it anyway, then I can write the update.

As I said I'm fine with whatever you decide, I appreciate as everyone else does after all the enormous effort engaged in the running this enterprise, and that you take the players into account in doing so. It would just be disappointing for the tardiness of some to wipe the slate clean on all the efforts of the others, you of course being privy to some of that in your capacity as administrator of the Empire. Im fairly confident as well that Thlayli does have a plan in the works even if he hasn't sent it in on time for whatever reason.

I know Iggy at least spent a fair bit of effort working on his orders, and I'm sure others did as well. While Thlayli was the primary supporter of this update, it might be kind of unfair to the other players to cancel it at this point. Though its ultimately up to NK, I would say let the players who did the most work so far decide on whether the update should proceed.

If you really just want to roll into the ET, NK, you're still going to have to resolve the current war, just appended to a different format. It's not just going to go away.

I myself have been spectacularly busy, and Perfectionist's illness was difficult for me since coordinating with him was crucial to my strategy's success.

With that said, I don't really understand why we can't have the update next weekend. I can get my orders in this weekend, but doing it Friday night was just impossible for me.

And furthermore, I have never really understood this impulse to rush into an ET which requires a ton of planning and development, much more than any normal update.

I don't want to have to give up playing in this NES, and if I can only contribute to one with my current time constraints, it would be this one. But I don't write orders well when I'm physically and mentally exhausted on Friday night, and a combination of working a full time job and night classes on top of that (and biking everywhere, because I don't own a damned car) makes it literally impossible for me to write orders of any quality during the week.

I'm sorry if that slows down your updating process, NK, I truly am, and if that makes me unsuited to play the Satar at this time, I will endeavor to find a credible successor or successors. Though of course that isn't my desire.

Seriously. The length between the announcement of this update and the deadline was well over a month, and in fact has been one of the longest gaps since I've effectively rebooted the NES. The fact of the matter is that there has been an enormous amount of time to collaborate on plans, let alone write orders (regardless of lack of time over the work week [which is, obviously, why I have to update on weekends myself], there have been six weekends in the intervening time). Blatantly disregarding deadlines is one thing -- a lot of people do that, and they've all been penalized in one way or another: ask Gem Hound, or Matt. And I don't want to turn this into a personal spat, I really, really don't (not least because you're a good friend), but you've been consistently late for almost every update over the last year, and usually given some leeway because you are one of the best/biggest contributors to the NES and I do understand what a busy life is like (holy moly, do I ever). But you not only specifically requested this update, you pretty much forced it into being. To then tromp all over my time constraints and force me into a bind (given a late/slow update problem which I have been desperately trying to repair for a year now) again is honestly pretty hurtful.

Sure, it's stupid. But just write orders the weekend before. Or something! As is, it looks very much like you're late, then trying to publicly blackmail me with threats of quitting so I'll move the deadline. Obviously, I don't want you to leave as the Satar, and obviously doing so would hurt the NES a great deal. Yes, I know that. But please, do not make that ultimatum every. damn. time. this happens.

Ugh, so much drama over nothing. No one wanted this mini update besides Thlayli, and he misses his own deadline which he had weeks to prepare for. There is no excuse. I could have sent orders for the ET weeks ago if I hadn't put it on hold to see how this mini update went. It is an embarrassing waste of time for everyone.

It honestly isn't hard to send orders a week before the deadline. Pushing the deadline only hurts NK's schedule, not ours.

Alright... I can testify that spryllino, Jehoshua and myself have had to put a lot of time and planning into this. None of us seemed to be particularly enthusiastic for the war war, but we did it because we've been put into a situation where we had to. The only alternative was to order our nation (particularly the Farubaida) to roll over and accept some gratuitously unacceptable Karapeshai demands- and that was before the assassination of Talephas, which saw the succession of Arteras, who was hellbent on starting a war where none needed to happen.

We've had a huge amount of preparatory time, and Thlayli and I have talked about EoE several times. I know that the pressure is very high to produce excellent orders. But deadlines are deadlines. We've been talking fairly explicitly about this deadline since the end of last week, and we've had a general idea that it was approaching for over a month.

I'm of mixed feelings about this. If Thlayli hasn't sent orders, the Karapeshai will be NPC'd, which would be frustrating for him, and be somewhat anticlimactic, as Jehoshua noted. However, it's not unreasonable that the Karapeshai would have problems marshalling all of its forces, given the circumstances. Outright cancelling the update is even more unfair to the people who did send in their orders, who put a lot of their time into preparing for this war.

Personally, I've gone through a lot of grief and frustration since the Christmas holidays started due to events in this NES, and whatever happens in this update is closure to that. I think that the update should go on, though it could be as brief (a few paragraphs) or protracted as NK wishes.

Though I would have much preferred that Thlayli had simply sent his orders on time and spared us all of this.

This is my responsibility to fix, but I'm pretty sure you're all blowing this out of proportion.

My orders are going to be ONE day late. I realize that makes it difficult for NK to update in one weekend, but an update the next weekend is still considered fast by any reasonable NES standard. I'd appreciate some patience in considering the extenuating circumstances that have made sending my orders difficult at this time, and by keeping your criticisms (excepting those of NK, whose game this is) to a more private forum.

Whether I made a mistake or not, it's very alienating and disheartening to be publicly attacked by most of the people you play with and respect.

I say run with the intermediate update, please, NK. Of course I didn't really want to have to fight this war at all and therefore wasn't extraordinarily keen on it - although equally I would perfectly happily have kept going with the Kothari Exatai with no ET at all. I'm certainly not in favour of fighting wars without a proper war update in which to do it, though, and I really can't write ET orders without knowing what the situation post-war is.

However one looks at it, though, it would be extremely cool to have it resolved in detail and in a solution based on detailed strategies on both sides, in a fashion worthy of the climactic nature of the situation - since a war properly resolved by a good mod is, after all, so irritatingly rare in NESing. I have no doubt that if Thlayli sends his orders and NK writes this update, not only I but anyone who's following will be extremely happy.

I understand how North King feels, especially since there has been plenty of time and if Thlayli has been missing the deadline with its long preparatory phase regularly it would be frustrating indeed. Obviously as well I understand how Iggy and Spry feel as well.

However I think Thlayli is right to say its not really that big of a deal even if his pleading the victim and implying leaving thing is a bit annoying (he isn't being publically attacked at all.). He can get his orders in today or tomorrow, get the suitable penalty for tardiness with regards to his plans, and the update can be done whenever its suitable and easy for North King, with the delay in the update being not really consequential. Gives North King a bit of a break anyway to do other enjoyable things, and gives people more time to prepare for the big update as well

OOC: Pulling the massive undertaking of these orders together is finally nearing completion.

From: Arteras, High Prince of the Satar
To: The Southern Challengers

We do not use the word emperor as you do, nor do we use the word king. For our emperor is Taleldil, our god, our king of princes, our Grand Satrap. Our empire cannot end, not while our god lives, and he lives while any yet live who will defend him. Let your Aramsayafa spawn of a murderer's seed answer for his sins and meet my battle challenge. For I am not as my great-grandfather was, to hide behind walls.

You will have your payment for your murder, your oppression, your endless rapine of the truth, your corrupt faith which enshrines a dark spirit taking the form of a woman. Your Aitahist treachery is at an END, once and for all. Talephas, such as he was, granted that there might be two rulers of the world. But that, in truth, was more due to his kindness and mercy than reality.

This world can only have one ruler. And there is only one who has the right to rule, and that is he who is Taleldil's Scion. You have delayed the inevitable for centuries. But now, let the Satar be masked in glory as rulers of the world. Let the whole of the earth tremble before us.

You will kneel, and at last we will have peace, under the perfect rule of the World Exatai.

To: Arteras
From: Maerano Aramsayafa

In your northern terms, I am am a prince, a leader of men. I stand for the good name, honour and sanctity of my Faeoria and Farubaida. I am a tradesman, and my craft is war. I am the latest of a lineage that has twice defeated the Satar of the North. I know the love of the lady, and I behold, in the earth, sea and sky, the light of Haiao.

You shall behold in our ranks no killers of Satar Princes as this war begins, though, should you persevere in your vainglorious quest, we may come to collect the lives of many ere the scavenge-birds settle upon the battlefields of the south.

Thus have you been warned. Sow our lands with your blood, and we shall reap the harvest of your ruin.

OOC: Teskai is the Satar name for Tesecci Atteri, the Accan commander currently occupying Triad who, along with his small army, finds his former allies turned to enemies who now surround him and his troops in all directions after Talephas' death.

The Lay of Teskai

The Prince of Athera, men about him gathered, put then to his greatest captains and their men the choice. He gathered them in Triad court, while fell the spring snow.

Dark Rahvas of the plain stood there, and Vekis born amongst Akkanai silver fountains. So too stood Zephractes, Xienai-born and master of bows.

And so Teskai spoke. Betrayed, our Scion slain, we stand, and foes about us, friends far distant. We can return, and seek the Sesh's shore. But mountains cold and grim we then must brave, and every pass beset with steel-clad foe. An end we might make of bravery, but bereft of hope.

We can remain, and steel ourselves within, and hope that greater power of Arteras deliver us hence. Though in our hope we would become a fortress, in Triad-valley barren with fire shall we waste and starve. We can expect a coward's death, or a coward's deliverance.

Or we may go forth. And if at last, we are to be bold, and take the holy city of the sun, and bathe its courts in heathen blood, we would find golden grain and golden tribute to sustain us for an age, until at last the Karapeshai come, and hail those who conquered to the southern sea.

Exatas, then they cried, and rushed to Triad's gates, and marched to doom.

To: Arteras
From: The Church of Iralliam

Should it be that the day has come that for their manifold sins the living God turns his face from the Lords of the Cradle of Men and permits for their just chastisement a reign of darkness for a time. Remember O Arteras, that all mortal things end. The ruin of your Exatai is foretold in the stars, and is inevitable as the rising and setting of the sun. Do not think that your exatai alone can deny the decree of fate. Hear if you can the shades of the dawn-kings of Thearak, they who reigned from the beginning of the world long before the coming of Taleldil, proclaiming themselves in their seat of power Lords of the Earth, saying unto the heavens that their Empire would have no end while the life of men endured. Remember that they for their hubris were cast down and their people consigned to the penance of being ruled by other masters that they would learn humility, and grow in holiness in the ways of the Prophet, the oracle of the Living Lord, who came unto them and all men that they might know wisdom, banish ignorance and travel the way to Iralliam.

I moved recently, causing my increasing lack of time. But, if I really need to, I'll find time to write more complete orders.

Talking about the BT, wars are possible during this period?