Chapter 5
Shaka Enlightened
(The big question of this round: did I switch to Caste System too early? As you'll see, it's powered up our GP farm big-time, but I might crack the whip again if that's the consensus.
I did a bit of it early in the round, though!)
Shaka was pleased with his people's expansion so far, but it was not enough. Barbarians still loomed deep in the southern subcontinent, while abundant resources at the borders of the kingdom lay unexploited. Shaka's lands were the most vast in the world, but they were not yet, he felt, the most grand. His people would need to be sated. War was to come, and he would not allow the people of the East to look down their noses at the Zulu. They had recovered from their economic hardships; the time had come to expand again.
But first, Shaka's Impi scout traveled to Byzantium and found Justinian's capital even as the warlord Montezuma marched his armies into Holy Roman lands:
While war waged in the East, in Shaka's western empire, an age of enlightenment had begun. From among the warrior-scholars of Ulundi's library, a mathematician had emerged and achieved prominence teaching young Zulu long division. His name was Carl Friedrich Gauss.
Shaka honored this wise man and sent him to Amsterdam to found the Gauss Academy.
(He'd bulb Compass for us right now, which is sort of a waste, and as you can see, our next GP wasn't too far off.) Even today, the Gauss Academy distributes small educational pamphlets written on strips of paper to help inform young students. These pamphlets, called "Gauss Strips," are the foundation of Zulu learning.
Gauss's study helped Zulu scientists finish their next breakthrough:
(Our tech path this round was Calendar -> CoL -> Metal Casting -> CS -> Machinery. That was what we researched without help. As you'll see, we got a lot of help.)
50 years later, the petulant Chuck himself arrived at Ulundi to make an offer to the Zulu warlord.
He barely escaped with his head.
However, when Montezuma did the same twenty short years later...
...we pledged our support. The sole consequence of the declaration was that the Impi scout, wandering too close to the Holy Roman border, was torn apart by an Axeman early in the war. However, the action improved relations with the mercurial Aztec chief, as did the Zulu warrior-scholars' sale of old Spanish lore:
(Monty's backwards, so per advice, I sold him a tech that he can't use to hurt me. Cash in the kitty, of course, was also helpful.)
While Zululand turned to its finest minds for new insights, in uMgungundlovu, the hearty warrior-fisherman saw from their hilly promontory that great things could be achieved. The city's lighthouse was already a boon, but for the old fortress-city, bigger was always considered better:
(I figured we'd started the Great Lighthouse too late to get it, but sure enough, there it is! Wonders were going slowly, which netted us a few, but I think I was a bit too ambitious in at least one instance, as you'll see.)
That same year, the tribes of Ndondakusuka joined the Zulu Empire to bring delicious spiced venison to discerning diners across the empire.
Meanwhile, in the halls of governance, Justinian was disappointed in Shaka for throwing in with the wildcard Montezuma. Charlemagne and Justinian were old friends and frequent hunting partners, and the Zulu declaration of war--even if it was merely symbolic--disappointed the Byzantine king. Shaka did what he could to make amends:
(That's definitely in Justin's favor, but we've got more fish than we know what to do with at this point. We can always renegotiate later.)
40 years later, in Amsterdam, a student of the Gauss Academy--a mathematician named Zu Chongzhi--had studied the old Dutch ways and saw wisdom in them. While the Zulu were a warrior people, Shaka knew that the Dutch tradition of peace was fueling scholarship in the old Netherlands. The scholar unlocked the secret of Philosophy.
The scholars of Amsterdam studied this new philosophy and saw within it the whisperings of the spirits of the East. A new religion--one born of scientific reasoning rather than the old gods of vengeance--was established.
Shaka allowed this new, uniquely Zulu faith to stand. The land's devotion to Hinduism remained strong, but the Tao found popularity among the land's warrior-scholar class.
(That's why I researched CoL: to get our bulbs in order. )
The manufacturing city of Babanago was established to submit the Near South as Zulu territory and to establish a strong production base at the empire's center.
(Farms and workshops are going here, along with mining those plains hills. It's working the cows full-time now.)
And at the top of the Zulu government, a reorganization was set into motion, plunging the land into chaos.
The new devotion to science called for a Caste System that could establish clear warrior-scholar and warrior-merchant classes, bringing science and gold to the empire. Shaka also brought the empire into a more Organized establishment of the Spanish Religion, and the church's warrior-monks were allowed to contribute to the creation of infrastructure throughout the empire.
(Caste System might have been a mistake. We may yet go back to Slavery later on, but getting a lot of scientists running had some real benefits, as you'll see.)
At the end of the period of anarchy, Settlers from the west succeeded in pacifying the land west of Amsterdam, establishing Khangela in the rocky hills:
Shaka envisioned using the Stone of this town to assist with another grand project in Ulundi: the creation of a new Pyramid-shaped palace wherein new experiments in governance could be tested. Somehow, Shaka knew that only Pyramid-shaped structures with a square as a base could be used to allow him to gain a broader range of government options. Because, you know, that.
Speaking of things that are kind of weird, Shaka paid Chuck for peace!
Montezuma had ended hostilities long ago, so the war served no purpose. The costs Chuck demanded were offset by the price Montezuma had paid for the secrets of Monotheism centuries earlier, so Shaka considered it a net gain.
Twenty years later, Shaka's brother-in-law Maussollos died, and, yeah, I think you know where this is going.
The town of kwaHlumendlini (which, in the Zulu tongue, meant "you will buy a book on Zulu pronunciation or we will impale you on a spear") was established south of the jungles to bring in valuable gems and to keep tabs on the Barbarians of the south.
Barbarian warrior-warriors and, later, Swordsmen harried the city, but Chariots and Axemen from the north kept the peace, and the city kept the peace seemingly in spite of itself.
Justinian demanded that Shaka dress as a bunch of grapes when he invited the Zulu warlord to his palace for his favorite game show...
Shaka did not appreciate the degradation, but accepted Justinian's trade nonetheless. Currency was a valuable trade chip, but Justinian was also willing to throw in some raw cash, which sweetened the deal considerably.
Hlobane in the Northwest cemented Zululand's northern border and promised to bring exquisite Furs into the empire.
And umGungundlovu, where bigger was better, saw the Temples rising across the empire and decided to show the world how it was done.
The chemist John Dalton arrived several centuries before Chemistry was discovered.
He was allowed to cool his heels in the Gauss Academy for a few years, and his experimentation with the wood of the empire later allowed him to invent Paper.
Isabella, seeing the riches of the West, found herself jealous of Shaka's peaceful Philosophy. As tensions continued to mount with the petulant Charlemagne, she begged to be taught of this new means of practicing the faith.
Shaka agreed--relations with Isabella were more important than horded knowledge. Grateful at the exchange, Isabella made her own contribution to the Zulu body of knowledge:
(I figured we've got enough of a leg up on the Lib race to cut Izzy some slack. I'm not interested in Angkor Wat at all, so if that's how she wants to spend her hammers, fine.)
In Ulundi, Shaka's dreams of polyhedron-based governance were, sadly, not to be.
(Yeah, I took too long getting to the 'mids. Oh, well! The failgold helped. Our as-yet-undiscovered isolated rival ended up building them, so we might not get them at all this game.)
Herodotous (who was still alive after issuing report centuries earlier!) completed his studies and concluded that Zululand had blown his mind. Hey, Zululand! Hey, Zululand!
Isabella offered another trade...
...which Shaka turned down at this juncture. He had already helped Isabella enough; let her seek the secrets of Civil Service on her own.
(Yeah, I wasn't THAT confident in my Lib race lead.)
The secrets of Machinery--unlocked shortly thereafter--inspired yet another of Amsterdam's warrior-philosopher-mathematicians. He had devised a method of spreading the practices of the Gauss Academy throughout the empire, and the methods, though raw, were welcome:
And with Education discovered, Shaka made one more trade with the dangerous Aztecs:
And that's where we wrapped it up. Where do we stand? Right here we stand! State of the World to follow.