orangeNES4: Now, With Concentrate

Recruitment has been greatly streamlined in this NES from my last effort, but I still use the same two ways of getting armies. The first, and “classical”, way is to buy them. There will be a few different unit types in this NES, each with different skills and costs, and occasionally you may be able to hire mercenaries. Units recruited in this manner continue to drain your economy with maintenance costs. “Normal” units are 2 gold/turn, while mercenaries cost 4 gold/turn.

This gets expensive really quickly. Thus, there is another way to get units cheaply, and without the annoyance of maintenance: you can draft them directly from your population. There are, of course, disadvantages to this as well. Only light infantry, skirmishers, light cavalry and some special units can be drafted, and if you draft too often your economy will still crash. Overdrafts will also annoy your people, unless there is a very obvious and pressing reason for them. Note, though, that drafted units are of the same quality of purchased ones.


Types of recruitable units:

Type Cost General Use:
Light Infantry 12 fill gaps, quick response, ambush, arrowcatchers
Skirmishers 12 weak but equal ranged and h-t-h, ambushes, demoralize
Heavy Infantry 25 hold the line, best against heavy cav
Ranged Infantry 20 weaken enemy, ambush, anticavalry (for some)
Skirmish Cavalry 25 annoyance, demoralize, hit-and-run
Light Cavalry 30 hit-and-run, pursue fleeing troops, heavy cav substitute
Ranged Cavalry 40 skirmish cav, but better overall at cost of h-t-h ability
Heavy Cavalry 60 destructive charge, with huge demoralizing effect
Special/Elite 50 multiple uses based on specific type

No nation will be able to recruit every type of unit, and the general quality of each nation’s units can vary slightly.

In an effort to keep things simpler on my part, I’ve changed the way individual units are treated. Every unit must be part of an army, the formation of which costs money. The goal is to be able to keep track of three or four armies per nation, instead of having to worry about three or four dozen units per nation. It should also add a little bit more strategy, since once a unit is included in an army, you CAN’T move it. Yes, that’s not exactly fair or realistic, and no, I don’t care.

That being said, there will be plenty of decisions to make regarding armies. Do you want a fast cavalry army, or a slower, more flexible combination? What about a numerous infantry force? More, smaller armies are strategically better, but larger forces are better tactically. Every new army you create requires at least three units plus 100 coin, making them a minimum cost of 136 coin… so consider carefully.

Armies, not units, will have stats based partially on the nation, and partially on the units within them. These stats are, in no particular order: Power, Speed, Leadership, Luck, Aggressiveness, Morale, and Experience. These all have different effects.

Power: Powerful armies can take more damage, dish more out, and are generally better. The number of units is the most important thing, although armor, weaponry, and unit composition are meaningful as well. Think CivIV’s Strength, and you have the right idea.

Speed: Faster armies move further, quicker. Unit composition is pretty much the sole factor, with light cavalry being the fastest and heavy infantry the slowest. A single slow unit in an army hurts everyone, so be careful. On the other hand, a single fast unit increases it too…

Leadership: This is, for the most part, an inherent stat of your nation. It can be slowly changed, partially from experience but possibly from projects. Better led armies are generally better, in all categories. For extremely well-led armies, more options open up – night attacks, ambushes, and the like.

Luck: Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. Luck cannot be changed, and is computed semi-randomly at the army’s formation – by semi-randomly, I mean that very high and very low values are quite rare.

Aggressiveness: This is the only stat that’s not quite intuitive. Aggressive armies kill more things, on both sides. Expect battles between two aggressive armies to cause lots and lots of casualties.

Morale: Contrary to popular opinion, a low morale isn’t necessarily all bad. Sure, you might lose, but when people run away they don’t end up dead. Lower morale keeps losses down at the expense of effectiveness. Nationality, experience, and leadership are the most important values, although unit types can be a factor.

Experience: The longer you live, the better you are. Experience acts as a total-force multiplier in battle, meaning that besides simple power it’s the most important stat. It’s also the toughest to improve.

A couple things to note: not every stat is essential to keep high, and random events can affect pretty much all of these. You may also be able to organize projects that raise these for all your armies.

Specialize! While it may be nice to have an army or two that can do a little of everything, you’ll want armies that are extremely good at one or two things, too. Try a quick, aggressive army for raiding and pillaging, or a high-morale, powerful defensive group. Also consider how unit types mix together; ranged cavalry and ranged infantry are not a good combination, for example.

Ranged units are good morale boosters – it’s always better to kill the enemy from far away – while heavy units both build morale and slightly increase experience.

You will almost certainly want to hire mercenaries at some point, despite their high maintenance. Most nations have areas of weakness in their unit selection, and mercs are the only obvious way to remedy that.

Navies will be treated differently from armies. Urthe is still firmly in the galley era, and so navies are both quite temporary and quite expensive. “Standing” navies do not exist, and neither does the capacity for far-off naval sieges.

Thus, there are only two ways to get any kind of naval power, and a limited number of ways to use it. To recruit, you either need to have a naval tradition (only a handful of nations apply under this) or hire mercenaries. Either way, expect to spend a bare minimum of a hundred coin for a naval force. Once recruited, mercenary navies only stay on board for two turns, but have no upkeep. Homebuilt navies can in theory last forever, but they bear an upkeep cost of 12 coin/turn.

Navies are also of limited use. Perhaps their most important use is to cripple trade income from coastal nations – much of which ends up in your coffers, making a judicious purchase of a navy occasionally profitable. Navies cannot influence land combat, and sea combat is highly destructive to both sides. It’s possible to lose all of your victorious force, much less a losing one.

Oversea troop transportation is through the merchant marine, not war galleys, and is limited and expensive. The transportation cost of a unit is twice its recruitment cost, and only armies of five or less can be transported. Even then, if there are any rumors of enemy galleys in the area, your merchants will not take the risk of losing their livelihood, no matter what you offer them. Ships can also sink through purely random weather, taking your troops down as well. On the other hand, ships can travel much quicker than land units.

In short, naval actions are almost cripplingly expensive, usually risky, and limited in use. They also hold great potential rewards under the right circumstances.

So, you’ve got some gold. You’ve bought a bunch of units. You’re sick of conquering. What else can you do with your hard earned cash?

Well, there are a lot of things. You can try to spend it to gain Favor – don’t expect this to work well, though, and the more you try the less it’ll work. You can invest it in new trade routes – but make sure you put enough money in, or you’ll get nothing for your investment. Heck, there’s a good chance you’ll get nothing anyway. You can try to assassinate, sabotage, smuggle, embezzle, or otherwise annoy your opponents – the limits are only in your mind, although again all these things are inherently risky, and expensive.

And then, of course, there are a few other mysteries you could spend money to investigate. I’m sure many of you can guess at a couple of the more obvious paths, but there are other more subtle ones. Remember, I reward creativity, and trying for the obvious will probably be less profitable than going for the subtle.

Experiment in general. I’ll probably let you spend gold on anything… but I might not tell you if you’re spending enough. Spending too little will usually get you nothing, while spending too muchc will usually lose you nothing.

The northernmost nation of the northernmost region, Vica is known best for its fishing, steel industry, and naval prowess. Vician ships routinely travel to Carbain and Scythan, and can occasionally be seen as far as Aranama and Qed Barda (via river). They have prospered quite well, serving as middlemen for the Tincian gold trade. Their capitol of Scanda has relatively few people, but is also rich by most nations’ standards. Actually, that description serves well for the nation, since it is one of the smaller ones on Urthe.

The only real difficulty for Vician life is the existence of Bar. They are rich, but even so an ever large amount of effort and money is being siphoned off to keep the invader nation away from the homeland. The periodic crusades from Nidia and Tinca are becoming ever more sporadic, and the Vicians are simply too few to hold for long.

Vician battles are bloody things, bereft of any planning other than the simple “charge”. Years of combat leave the survivors awesome personal warriors, but the reforms of Nidia have yet to catch on. Vician warriors arm themselves, and Vician war leaders lead only as long as the army follows.

They have no clear-cut government, instead having a unique (some would say, uniquely flawed) system combining city-states, hereditary rule, and election. Members of just two families are allowed to rule any given city, and each city has a constantly changing ruler. The family members are ordered by something called “khama”, a complicated and fluid mix of seniority, number of children, number of wives, popular opinion (via semiannual vote), familial reputation (an aggregate of the vote), sex (men have the advantage), eye color (berzers are advantaged), physical acumen (via personal challenge in nonlethal contest), and favor of the gods (determined by the church).

The Nidians are a nation of opposites. They live in a cold clime, but are known for their cultural affinity to nudity; their existence depends on a river, but they have no naval tradition; they are ruled by a man, but led by a woman; they are excellent tacticians, but poor strategists and warriors; they are quite centralized, but have no real capitol.

Nidia centers around the Nide, the Great River. Most Nidians live within sight of the waterway, and it factors into nearly every facet of their lives. It’s fish feed them, it’s waters… water them (and their sheep), it’s force powers their crude waterwheels, it’s ebbs and flows determine what religious age it is. The fact that nearly half the River exists in Tinca does nothing to stem Nidian claims of exclusive rights, which results in recurring tensions between the otherwise peaceful nations.

The primary Nidian exports are raw wool and a rapidly growing textile industry, which recently discovered that the presence of a water-powered rotating axle makes several parts of clothing production much, much easier. The use of the waterwheel is small-scale, though – a few dozen families and a handful of town cooperatives so far.

The government of Nidia is another uniquely Kardan creation. Kings are chosen semi-randomly from the noble caste, and then forced to divorce any current wife (they are monogamous) to marry the current Goddaughter of the River, a priestess elected by the national leaders of the various cults to Kardan gods. This priestess is the real ruler, and the only decisions the king makes are routine ones. Any previous children of the king are cast into the Nidia, and forced to attempt the swim to the other side – any that survive are retroactively deemed children of the Goddaughter, fellow demigods, all of which are put to work in government and military positions. The center of Nidian government is wherever the ruling couple happen to be.

Militarily, Nidians are in a shift from the old, caste- and nobility-oriented army to a more organized system. Instead of localized levies and personal liegemen, army units are becoming standardized in numbers (and, more slowly, in equipment). Soldiers (for soldiers they are, not warriors) are normally equipped with nearly man-sized shields, shortish swords, and in some cases throwing spears. With new weapons and organization comes new tactics, and the Nidians are mastering some unique formations. Unfortunately, Nidian generals and major officers are still appointed by birth, not skill… and the individual Nidean soldier has a tendency to just want to go home, instead of ahead.

The Tincians are a mountain people, existing in river valleys and plateaus. Some of their lowlander allies (along with the more outgoing part of the Tincian population) calls them goats, for their ability to get nearly anywhere in the highlands, and furthermore, to live – to thrive! – there.

What looks like magic to the lowlanders is really just cleverness and ingenuity. Tincian land is further south, enough to allow a sizeable use of farming instead of the less efficient fishing, herding, or hunting. They have mastered the use of terraces, aqueducts, and road building, and the normal difficulty of mountain communication was solved by the use of a nationalized system of runners and outposts. Few ever enter the deep mountain lands of the Tincians, but those that do are astounded by the fact that the country has easily as many people as the “obviously” more comfortable and fertile Nidia.

The Tincian capitol of Shangla is a beautiful place of terrace gardens, clouds, granite structures and soaring construction. Any hardy soul who can survive the long trek and thin air would undoubtedly agree they are the master builders of the age, and the homes of the common would be veritable palaces anywhere else.

All this is funded by the bottomless gold mines of the deep ranges, which the Tincians are adept at forging into jewelry. Tincian jewelry is prized throughout Urthe, and although Vician traders take more than than is, perhaps, their fare share Tinca has no complaint. The only problem is that the gold trade is being increasingly threatened by Bar, and while Tinca enjoys many advantages they do not possess a military tradition, and they war both rarely and ineffectively.

As for government, the Tincians are as strange as their fellow Kardians. They, alone among the annals of Urthe, have established a working republic – an unequal one, to be sure, but a republic nonetheless. Each citizen deemed old enough (the ripe age of ten) gets one vote per decade of their life. Any man (or woman, although with only half the voting power she’d have to be 120 years old) who has at least six votes is eligible for office, and the Eldest that rules the Elder Council must have at least eight votes. Because of this, additional votes are a popular reward given by the government; the current record for a single man is 221, by Furia the Victor, who essentially won the First Barian War singlehandedly.

Bar is the newest nation of Karda, and a wholly invasive one. Two hundred years ago, the southern nation of Unbar was ascendant, and the emperor there was determined to conquer the furthest reaches of the world. Thus, the Grand Fleet landed at Farda, capitol of Farda, and the Conquest began.

Twenty years later, Farda was no more – but neither was the Unbar Empire, as it began its long collapse into anarchy. The new land of Bar was left to survive or die, and in the tradition of the old Unbar, it survived. The average Bard is noticeable as foreign, mostly due to his black skin - although the blonde hair, lanky build, and dark eyes are also vastly apart from the Kardian norm.

Bards of Bar long ago resigned themselves to never seeing their homeland again, and today they feel no need for any other. They have become well-adjusted to the dark, cold woodlands, and their skills as mounted bowmen have slowly become skills as bowmen afoot, while their skills as pikemen have slowly become skills as short spearmen. Bards are masters at hit-and-run, and a battle that becomes hand-to-hand is a battle ill-fought in their opinion.

Little is known about the Bards domestically, as the older Kardans have never wanted to learn and the Bards have little trade with anyone. On the foreign relations front, and a “front” it is, the Bards’ territory has slowly expanded to include all of the Fardian forest and several leagues beyond. They are, perhaps, just a bit larger in population than Tinca, since their rich forests allow for a surprisingly large population density.

At times, it seems as if every man in Narlan is a soldier, and that every one of them is marching to one battle or another. A common saying is that the only thing keeping the Narla from conquering the world is themselves, and their own inner clan battles. Certainly, Narla soldiers are the best trained and most skilled in the world, and their generals are no great slouches either. The average warrior is expected to be able to fight all day, march all night, fight once more then drink themselves to a stupor afterwards whilst dancing upon the blood and entrails of their fallen foes. Most of them settle for short spears or bastard swords, but the truly elite become expert at fighting with claymores. No one on Urthe willingly fights a mad Narla carrying a sword taller than he is, decapitating fully-armed men with no more effort than it takes to cut a tomato. Take that, and make it an entire battalion… Even worse, the commanders of Narlan are just as experienced as their followers. In mountain and forest warfare, they have no superior, and only a lack of cavalry keeps them from being nearly unbeatable in open grassland. If they have another weakness, it is that they much prefer the attack to defence, and while they are proficient in the latter they have not mastered it like a good ambush or assault.

No reward comes without cost, and Narla battle prowess is the result of endless centuries of battle. No nation on Urthe has killed more Narla than Narlan, although Carbain holds the dubious reputation of being second on the list. Narlan has a traditional rivalry with the eastern nation, although it has also warred with both Yttra, Gralan, and even the Adassians. Other Narla sell themselves as mercenaries, and are occasionally seen in combat in such exotic climes as Aranama and, once, Vica.

The emphasis on war means that both industry and agriculture generally lag behind other nations. Narla farmers are sadly accustomed to being raided almost annually, and their ability to maintain the large standing army of the nation is, frankly, astonishing. Industry is nonexistent, except for smithing – Narla are almost as good at smithing than they are at soldiering. Narlan also has rich mines, vastly better than anything else in Martanasia, but the only ones that are fully utilized are iron and bauxite (for steel).

The Narla “government” is a loose collection of constantly shifting clan alliances, with many areas of Narlan controlled by clans that are technically at war with the current claimant to the kingship. However, Narlan has been unusually coherent in its’ government of late, mostly because of the renewed war with Carbain, but also because a younger, more farseeing generation is beginning to see the advantages of cooperation instead of rivalry among the clans.

While Narlan is the undisputed leader in war, Carbain is just as undisputedly the third best nation. Unfortunately for Carbain, Narlan lies to the direct west, and the second best warrior-nation of Scythad lies to the direct east… Yes, Carbain has become what it is not through choice, but necessity. The survival of Carbain has at many times been in doubt, and only a combination of luck and diplomacy allowed their inferior soldiers and tactics to keep their nation independent.

That was some three hundred years ago, though. Today, Carbain is still the third nation in warfare, but they have spent the intervening three centuries expanding at the cost of their more deadly neighbors. The reason for their success is their skill at their unique weapon, the longbow. If a Narla claymoremen charge is terrifying, being the victim of a longbow volley is akin to visiting the second pit of hell. One skilled longbowman can release aimed fire at the rate of a shot every twelve seconds, and volley fire at the rate of once every eight seconds. With ranged support like that, the weaker (relatively) Carbain infantry and cavalry need only hold out so long before the enemy realizes discretion is the better part of valor.

There were other changes, as well. The constant threat allowed one Carbain aristocratic family to not only take the throne, but enhance its power to almost dictatorial status. They immediately took control of all Carbain’s mines, the majority of industry, and nearly half the agriculture. With more resources, the monarchy was able to create bigger armies, equip them more heavily, and begin a long slog of attrition. Today, the ruling family enjoys astounding support from the common man, even more extreme loyalty from the soldiers and aristocratic knights, and something approaching 80% of Carbain’s GDP. Even better, this secure base has allowed them to gain influence in neighboring countries via marriage – most notably in Qed Barda, where the senior diarch is family. The Duxors are easily the most influential family on Urthe today, with power almost to challenge the Church itself.

Of course, neither the Duxor nor greater Carbain would ever think of challenging the Church, or at least, not since the Duxors managed to get the Council of the Grey to sit at Avelo. Currently, there are two Duxor on the Council, and the Church continually interferes in Scythad and Narlan affairs to the benefit of Carbain.

Scythad and its sister nation, Artipad, are the newest nations of Martanasia; only five centuries have passed since the events in their creation, but the consequences of their founding are still being explored.

The Adassians were once peaceful herders and hunters of the great plains animals: giraffe, elephants, buffalo, sabretooth, and the like. It took ten years, and one slightly less-than-sane king, to forge them into the master cavalrymen they are today.

Until his father died to make him king, Mydys Gankion had been known best for killing his son for being “too damned respectful”. Once he became leader of Jarl, a smallish kingdom along what is now Artipad’s northern coast, Mydys immediately ordered an invasion of the much larger kingdom of Karde. He won, using pure blind aggression and his newly imagined heavy cavalry. In swift order, the remaining Adassian states were absorbed or conquered.

Mydys then moved north, with intent to conquer all the way to Narlan, and see if his troops could match their famed soldiers. He got as far as the Tiber River before an infected wound killed him – the wound had been given by his horse, which inadvertently stomped Mydys’ left foot. In proper Adassian tradition, the king’s three sons drew straws – two of them would get half a kingdom, and the third would get the king’s murderous horse. Mydys’ third son, Nyr, drew the short straw and received the newly taken lands that became Scythad.

Since then, very little has changed. Adassian kings no longer divide their lands and horse among their sons, but the Scythad army still resembles Mydys’ in both skill and composition. Scythad heavy lancers are the rulers of the plain, and their light cavalry use javelins to great effect as well.

The current Scythad king sits in Nyrdyn, and rules over a traditional feudalism.

Perhaps this would be a good place to note the unique defect that most Adassian males carry. From birth, they have dozens – in some thankfully rare cases, hundreds – of scars all over their body. Adassians have high miscarriage rates, and it is apparent that these scars are caused by actual open cuts that are somehow given within the mother. There are no long-term effects other than some stiffness of the skin with age, but almost every Adassian looks like he is the veteran of a thousand battles.

While the Adassians of Scythad ceased their conquest after the death of old King Mydys, their southern fellows simply turned their sights to other directions. Unlike the north, there were very few strong nations in the south of Martanasia, making the growth of Artipad guaranteed.

Artipad spent nearly two hundred years growing, and at its peak it owned [almost] all the territory from Yttra to central Aranama. In the process, many peoples were forced out of their traditional homelands or killed off altogether. Two things happened to stop Artipad. First, the growing Unbar Empire declared war, and the formerly peaceful Bard outposts through southern Citeasia and central Martanasia became centers of uprising. Second, the line of Mydys died out in Artipad, and a nasty civil war took overcame the ancestral homeland of the Adassians.

Rapid growth became even quicker shrinkage, and it took the better part of another two hundred years to stop the trend. The last hundred years have seen Artipad keep its borders relatively stable. Talk of expansion never really gets anywhere, since the kingdom is simply too big and full of too many different peoples to be stable very long. The capitol of Mydysdyn is a very long distance away from much of Artipad, and occasional rebellions still arise.

While the northern Adassians have kept to the same army as the old days, Artipad has not. Lancers are not the main arm anymore; lighter horsemen are preferred, since they are more mobile and can put out flares of uprising much quicker. Infantry, ignored in Scythad, are provided by non-Adassian levies from the southlands.

A proud nation, and one that takes claim to being the oldest of Martanasia. Unfortunately, the main tradition of Yttra is one of being conquered, invaded, attacked, or otherwise curb-stomped. Yttra’s location, at the start of the famed Spice Road and in between the Tiber and Nuone Rivers makes it desirable, or at the very least a pathway to more desirable places. Carbain, Narlan, Gralan and Scythad all routinely invade, and even Qed Barda has sent armies in on occasion.

It’s not that Yttra cannot fight; it’s that the other nations around it can fight so much better, and Yttra is almost totally indefensible. Sure, the forests help some, but it’s surrounded by enemies, has no easily guarded rivers or mountains along the majority of the borders, and there is a severe shortage of stone for good walls. It doesn’t take long for invaders to realize this, and so Yttra remains independent as a stomping ground for others.

Perhaps in compensation, perhaps because of its role as a crossing point, Yttra is known for inventiveness and the arts. Yttran cathedrals are things of awesome beauty, their concerts (featuring bagpipes, organs, violins and gongs) are fit to make a man weep, and they are the creators of both the printing press (rarely used as of yet) and gunpowder (which they have been understandably reluctant to show to other nations).

Yttra kings are a short-lived breed, and their nobles too often are loyal to other nations instead of their own. The Duxor have a lot of influence here, and rumors abound that the next Yttra king has already been chosen by Carbain’s rulers.

Geographically, most of Gralan is actually located in Citeasia, but politically and historically, Gralan has been more active in Martanasia, so they are included here. Gralan guards and exploits the Spice Road, as it travels from the northern powers through Gralan passes, around the desert, and into Tanabana headed to Deseret. The Road is a great source of income for the Gralan, who serve as middlemen for most Tanabanai traders.

The “Spice Road” is a bit of a misnomer, since many more things than spice travel along it. Along with spice, salt, incense, and gems head north while inventions, steel (both stock and forged), horses and silver go south. Gralan takes its share off the top going both ways, but they also have to be on guard for any nation that would wish to usurp its control of the Road. Tanabana is content, but the Desert Peoples, Narlan, Artipad and Qed Barda have all made serious invasive attempts in the past.

As a mountain people, Grala are expert ambushers and almost as skilled in the axe as the Narla are with the sword. A few hardy desert ponies have proven tough enough to live in the hills, and Grala breeders have made them as surefooted as mountain goats. Their population is much less dense than the main part of Martanasia, especially along the southern range, but nonetheless Gralan has proven a tough nation to crack.

They take after the north by having a king rule them in a feudal system, and they are skilled enough at the practice of aristocracy to keep the Duxors from gaining any kind of control here. Unlike the north, they wish no part in the worship of God, and instead mostly follow the southern Citeasian beliefs of reincarnation and ancestor worship.

One of the resultant nations from the Adassian expansions, Qed Barda is also an abandoned Unbar creation. When Artipad and Unbar had been allies (or at least at peace), Unbar began several trading posts in the upper Hypast River area, with an intent to find an alternate pass from Citeasia to Martanasia, thus avoiding the Adassian-controlled South Range and Grala-controlled Spice Road passes. From the beginning, the posts were seemingly doomed as their source of supply (from the sea) had to cover nearly half the total coast of Urthe, and Unbar was no kind of maritime power. The posts quickly “went native”, and quickly declared their independence from both Artipad and Unbar when those great empires began to war.

Today, there are virtually no pure Bards anymore, and very little remnant of Bard culture. Qed Barda has more in common with Yttra than Unbar, although through three-hundred-year-old, untested treaties they are still allied to their mother nation. Their history as somewhat disunified trading posts led them to an unorthodox diarchy, with two equal rulers above the more normal feudal underlings.

They do have one other holdout from the old country, in that their army still employs a sizeable amount of pikemen in preference to the shorter reach weapons of swords, axes, or spears. Their army is decent by anyone’s standards other than Martanasia, but even here it is good enough to allow them to defend themselves and occasionally try something clever, like invading Yttra.

Ute was also created in the fallout from the Adassian conquests. The Coutes that inhabit and rule it are originally from southwestern Citeasia, who didn’t resist the Jun migration and instead, submitted. When the Adassians conquered the Jun anyway, they found the already subjugated Coutes a good prospect as serfs to work their sparsely-populated but rich southern lands, and forced almost every Coute in their lands to move into Martanasia.

A hundred years later, the Coutes got their chance to rebel, and while many failed those in Ute succeeded. Returning home was impossible, and no Coute in Martanasia yet remembered it anyway, so they instead created their own nation. Ute has managed to remain independent, despite many efforts by Qed Barda, Artipad, and Aranama to conquer them and claim hold of the South Range. Unfortunately for Ute, their hold of the possibly valuable Range is of no use to them, since both Aranama and Artipad have long maintained a complete (and unofficial) embargo to any trade through the Range, preferring instead to skip over Ute with riskier (and thus, more expensive) water transport. Ute has a large presence of pirates.

Ute also possesses some of the better mineral sources in Martanasia, which are a main reason for their survival. They can make more, better weapons – and when all else fails, they can buy their way out of trouble. A surprising number of Narla mercenaries show up here.

The Coutes of Ute stole their government from the Adassians, and thus have a feudal system much like the rest of Martanasia. Like Gralan, though, they prefer their old Citeasian religion despite a hundred years of Adassian attempts at spreading God worship.

Unbar is the only nation of Citeasia not to be directly related to the Adassian expansion. Unbar exists, as it always has, and always will. Currently the empire is on a low ebb, but Unbar has survived long enough that the nation knows these things always change for the better.

It is thought that Unbar was the first place “civilization” began, and while that is debatable they are certainly the first people to invent a written language. Since they began keeping record, the land now called Unbar has changed name at least five times, and conquered beyond its borders thrice. The latest Unbar Empire was not even the greatest Unbar Empire, since the Second Empire controlled all of Citeasia and much of Martanasia before collapsing.

The traditional Unbar soldier is the pikemen, who fight in phalanxes, and are supported on the flanks by light mounted bowmen. While Unbar tactics have changed little over the millennia, there has been little reason for change since the formula generally works quite well.

The same goes for their government. Unbar has been an empire for untold generations, and while the empire has failed on occasion, it has also allowed them to succeed greatly on occasion as well, so the Bards are content. In Unbar, the typical ancestor worship of Citeasia is instead focused on the emperor and his ancestors.

Like Ute, Cite is a Coute nation, but these Coutes are the ones that were displaced when the Jun were pushed out from Martanasia. Cite was once ruled by Mercans, until they made the mistake of saying “no” when the desperate Coutes said “yes”; the Mercans are now extinct, either killed off or interbred into the greater Coute population.

While Cite’s position is less unstable than that of its sister nation of Ute, it is far from envious. Bards and Jun both share the Adassian policy of virtually enslaving Coutes, and the Natz just hate everyone, leaving Cite with enemies or one kind or another on all sides.

Like the other southern kingdoms, Cite uses less effective bronze weapons and armor instead of steel or iron. Their swordsmen are generally a match for any Citeasian nation, although they less well supported than Unbar’s pikes and less suicidally aggressive than Deseret scythemen.

Politically, Cite manages to maintain their old tribal system, and runs the nation as a collection of tribes rather than a totally unified entity.

All of Citeasia curses the ancestors that inflicted the Natz of Deseret upon them, and all of Martanasia praises God that He led them toward a new forsaken hellhole to pollute. The Natz are an insular, paranoid, expansionist, and brutally aggressive race, seemingly born to conquer all they see.

They are also all about four feet (1.3m) tall.

Some claim there is a cause and effect of some kind there. The rest just assume it. Other than their height, a Natz is typically of proportionally average build, dark haired, dark complexioned, and dark eyed. They are originally from south of Yttra, and despite their sociopathic tendencies the Adassians were simply better at war, as well as smart enough not to allow the Natz to remain in Artipad. Thus, the Natz were forced out, and fought their way through Gralan into the desert. They disappeared for a while – most had hoped the Desert People, or the desert itself, had killed them off – but eventually reappeared at the meeting of the Red and Nadr Rivers, with a new religion preaching of a promised land and singular God.

This God is nothing like the Shadowkeeper. This God is a God of light, so bright and hot that when he came to Urthe a desert was created, and only the Natz were brave enough to meet him and gain his wisdom. He told them where their new home was to be, then gave them orders to spread the Gospel to those worthy of the telling. Being Natz, they decided no one was worthy, and instead deemed that the best way to spread the truth was to begin a bloody conquest of their new homeland, followed by repeated attempts to kill everyone around them. Sure, that’s not quite logical, but these people were imbalanced before wandering a desert for two decades.

Deseret is the result. The rich floodplains of the Red and Nadr allowed the Natz to rapidly grow, and now they are possibly the strongest nation of Citeasia. Certainly, they are the best warriors. Their scythe weaponry gives them the reach they would otherwise lack, and while they shun all armor in favor of loose robes they are expert at ambushes of any kind, in any terrain. Although they almost always disregard effective tactics other than a rush up the middle, their complete disregard for personal safety and ability to stay undetected even in the midst of open battle allows them to win when others would lose.

Paradoxically, Deseret produces nearly all of the spice and incense that travels along the Spice Road to Martanasia. Somehow, the Tanabanais maintain a peaceful trading relationship with Deseret, perhaps by reminding the Natz that it takes money to maintain their crusade against the world. Because of the trade, Deseret is able to equip their men with iron (and occasionally steel) weapons. That advantage, along with the generally greater reach of scythes, tends to even out the height disadvantage.

One of the Jun kingdoms, Tanabama is to land trade what Vica is to sea trade: dominant. Tanabanai traders are commonly found throughout Citeasia, and are occasionally seen through Martanasia as well. Their caravans are the blood of the Spice Road, using their exclusive rights to enter Deseret, then traveling around the desert and through almost all of Gralan before stopping at Partha and heading back to do it all over again.

Tanabana has maintained their peace through almost impossible situations. Neither the Bards nor the Adassians ever actually invaded their nation, although the Tanabanais were forced to cede land. Deseret had never invaded them either, and even the Desert Peoples rarely enter Tanabana, inexplicably preferring to attack caravans within Gralan. Thus, the nation has lost the martial skill that allowed them to take the area from the Coutes and Desert Peoples to begin with.

Tanabana soldiers are generally limited to wooden shields and spears, and most private caravan guards are better equipped and trained than the national army.

Adanada is the second Jun kingdom, but it developed on quite different lines than either Tanabana or Aranama. Adanada was established peacefully, a voluntary signing-over of land by the now defunct Mercans. This was before the refugee Coutes had declared open war against the other race, and the Mercans had wanted a buffer state between them and the rampaging Adassians. The Mercans had been selective in what Jun tribes were chosen, and those that were happily agreed to the transaction.

Of course, the Mercans had quickly turned to the people of Adanada when everything went south, but by that point Adanada had problems of its own. A few Mercans escaped the slaughter in Cite, but they were absorbed into the Jun population almost immediately. They did, however, have an influence out of proportion to their numbers on Adanada’s culture.

The strand of Mercan blood in Adanada gives some Adanadais the slightly exaggerated canine teeth of the other race, along with a darker, less orange sheen to their hair. A halfblood Jun-Mercan’s’ hair is almost scarlet. Jun with obvious Mercan blood in them are called “vamyra”, after their resemblance to certain remarkable forest cats of the same name.

The Jun tribes that became Adanada’s core were all similar, in that they were all ruled by females. Adanadais are matriarchal, and the upper levels of the aristocracy are uniformly run by women. A sizeable minority of the army is female as well, and this part is generally considered the elite.

Adanadai warriors use not only the normal Jun spear and shield combination, but also the Mercan scimitar. They also adapted the Mercan practice of ritual scarring for battle kills, for both men and women, and elite Adanadai fighters are obvious from precise lines of scars on their left cheek – one per confimed battle kill.

Adanada has few resources other than prodigious amounts of amber and lumber, although there are persistent but unconfirmed reports of gold in the foothills.

Aranama is the third and last Jun kingdom, created by Unbar as a puppet state during the Adassian’s withdrawal from Citeasia.

Aranama has a very sparse population, at odds with the fertile land it inhabits. Partially, this is because the Jun in Aranama were decimated, and decimated again, in their conquest of the land – then cut in a full half by their resistance to the incoming Adassians. Once Unbar created the kingdom, it demanded use of Aranamai troops, and occasionally slaves, which didn’t do much good for the population either. Even the intervening two hundred years have done little to allow Aranama to repopulate, since the Jun here have become accustomed to empty space and tend to remain spread out, and thus victim to a higher inherent death rate. Still, the kingdom is large enough that it still has the greatest population among the Jun.

The past two hundred years have been quiet for Aranama. It long ago made peace with Artipad, and war with Ute, but nothing truly aggressive. Aranama’s troops are typical Jun, equipped with spear and shield, and the government is also typical Jun, a kingdom.

Obviously, there is no nation called the “Desert Peoples”. However, their seeming unity has made outsiders stipulate that some kind of nation must exist.

Little is known about the residents of the desert. They keep themselves veiled at all times, and even in combat they fight viciously to keep themselves and their bodies from being captured. Their rarely heard language is undecipherable.

What is known is that the Desert Peoples are excellent personal combatants, with one Desert Person easily the equal of three Bards or Coutes, or even two Natz. They do not, however, utilize armies and instead attack as (probably) tribal bands, usually no more than a bare hundred at a time. Paradoxically, they also seem to coordinate, with a dozen attacks across a hundred leagues all occurring on the same day, or one caravan being hit every day for a week.

The Desert Peoples do not negotiate with anyone, and seem to view all outsiders as open game. The exception, for reasons known only to the Peoples, is Tanabana. Tanabana’s borders have been penetrated only five times in the last hundred years, all within a dozen miles of the Gralan or Deseret borders. It should also be mentioned that the Natz somehow survived the desert, and the few records that exist outside of Deseret claim that the Peoples never attacked them on their pilgrimage through the arid center of Citeasia. Oddly, whenever the People attack a caravan containing Natz, they fight almost as hard to retrieve the shorter race’s bodies as those of the Peoples. They do not have any kind of taboo about killing Natz, though…

My Nation, normal tax
Population Summary (1-5): 3
Total Income: 120
Favor Estimate: 65
Standing Army: 1
Mercenaries 1
Drafted Units: 1
Armies:

The Grand Army of Awesomeness
2 Heavy Infantry
1 Light Cavalry