OOC: Sorry, the ISP was down for a little bit there.
Update 1: 1900 BCE
Around the world, civilizations are developing into flourishing cultures and expanding. Some contact others and begin to trade. Others conquer their nearby neighbors in bloodshed and violence.
The Germans are a new influence on Northern Europe, migrating northwards from Saxony to settle the city of Berlin. They are fierce warriors, however, expansion will not be easy, on all sides lay powerful barbarians. To the West are the Angles, to the South the Quadii, to the East, the Goths. They are all very similar to the Germans, and the people of Berlin wonder wether they have a good future here.
The Picts leader is mysteriously silent. His people are ready to build an empire anyway, and fatten the royal coffers in order to fund future war efforts and expand to further their territory. They encounter two other main civilizations. They are the Orcadians and the Catuvellauni.
The Orcadians are a peaceful sort, and have actually fled the Orkney Isles which gave them their name to the mainland in the face of fierce storms that threatened to wipe them out. Their civilization is perhaps the most advanced in the British Isles and they have sophisticated stone dwellings with true sewer systems and well designated spaces for each household activity. Their ships travel to and fro across the North Sea and they also lay claim to the Faroe Islands and part of an isle they call Eire. The Catuvellauni, on the other hand, are an aggressive expansionist tribe who has risen to dominance over all of their neighbors and challenge for dominance of the British Isles themselves.
In the very Southwest, a tribe known as the Dumnonii have become quite advanced, and also speak a very strange dialect of Celtic. It is rumored that they have extensive trade with foreigners.
The Tartessians have expanded quite considerably, and their glorious city is still the largest in the world. Indeed, they are the most urban people in the world, almost 30% of their people living in cities or towns, as opposed to the countryside. They have started a wonder of the world: the Sanctum of the Bull in Tartessos itself, which will do many great things for the nation, though it will take a while to complete. They are having little luck with the experimentations with ores other than copper and tin, though they have determined that zinc can be added to copper to produce a golden colored metal called brass. The others seem to hold mysteries they cannot unlock as of yet, like a metal called iron, that comes in a red ore and when smelted to purity, is very soft. The only other result they obtained from it was when they accidentally dropped it in the smelters fire, and it became harder than bronze, but too brittle to use in weaponry. They are still studying these results (especially since they have a mandate from the government to do so.)
Regardless of this, new contacts have been made as Tartessos expands across Iberia and into Africa, with the Lusitanians to the north and the Carthaginians to the east. Both seem to be seafaring nations, though the Carthaginians only came in a single small galley up the African coast. The Lusitanians are quite peaceful and love to trade, and an unofficial trade route has sprung up with prodigious amounts of tin passing through the city of Tartessos and beyond through the Straits of Gibraltar to sell in better markets for this essential ingredient to bronze. While Tartessos has supplies of this metal itself, the Lusitanians seem to have it in undreamt of quantities, and their source is unknown, though some have managed to pry out from drunken sailors that it is far to the north. Nothing else is known about this close kept secret. It might prove profitable for Tartessos to set up an official trade route from Lusitania through Tartessos, and then another into Carthage with this metal so it can be recorded and taxed. Meanwhile, the barbarian Celtiberians prevent peaceful expansion farther north.
Carthage evolves as a trading nation, hub of Mediterranean trade, and their seafaring qualities confirm this. Their elite ships, developed in fighting many battles, are quinquiremes, which are perhaps the largest and most powerful ships on the Med, but they are agonizingly slow compared to regular galleys. Carthages voyage of discovery is a success, they have some of the best charts of the Mauritanian coast, however, it is full of Berbers, a camel nomad tribe who seems to be all along their southern frontier. Even farther, past the Pillars of Hercules is a city that seems to reach Herculean proportions in the sailors tales. It goes by two names: Tartessos, and far more commonly, Atlantis. Also they have made contact with the Libyans, who also have a problem with Berbers. They also have a vague notion of the existence of Lusitania, but they do not have direct contact, only sailors in the port of Carthage itself selling tin by the tons to traders in the markets there. This tin normally is mixed with copper to make bronze for Carthage or shipped even further by Carthaginian traders to another legendary land, Egypt, or sent overland through Lybia. If they established official trade with perhaps Tartessos (the base of these Lusitanian traders), or on the other side with Lybia or maybe even faraway Egypt overseas, they could tax this tin trade and make a good profit off of it.
Egypt, the other end of this line of communication, flourishes under the Ptolemies, with much in the way of gold (it is said to be as common as sand), and they have extended the nation in several directions, to Cyrenica (a trading hub for tin), down the Nile, and to the very shores of the Red Sea. They have made contact with Lybia, a trading nation with a long wall to defend against raids by Berber nomads. Egypt may have its own nomad problem: the Nubians, who dwell to the south of the civilized Kingdom of Egypt. To the East, past the Sinai desert, is the Empire of Petra, whose capital is rather unusual, carved into solid red sandstone. They appear to be having trouble with the Hyksos. In the meantime, in Egypt, a new irrigation system is started under the Ptolemies which ought to greatly increase the economy of the flourishing nation. The Cult of Isis is gaining new followers even outside of Egypt, though it has few formal doctrines.
Kush is eerily silent, and its people expand a little and increase the economy a little bit. They are a bit afraid of the Nubians to the north, but trust their leaders to halt any potential incursion.
Arabia is growing, and the new city of Medina is added to the religious empire. The other Arab tribes have, however, started to coalesce into real cheifdoms, and are quite opposed to the idea of a monotheism. In Mecca itself, the textile industry is flourishing and their carpets are unrivaled. They also encounter another Arab tribe that is not quite as barbaric as their neighbors: the Saba. They are a tribe who are having quite a bit of trouble with their nomadic ethnic brothers, and have built a wall to counter this. They also have encountered the Empire of Petra.
Far East of all this is Shang. Shang has expanded far down the Huang He (one of their despots most famous words were he who controls this river controls China!), and the rice paddies along the river are the most bountiful in the land. They have made contact with many new nations, all of which like the excellent bronze working of the Shang nation, all of which rely on rice. The closest to Shang is Han, a small nation who is mostly concerned with farming their rice, but who possess the secret to an art of weaving a fine material that shimmers and is very soft and smooth to the touch. The Wei to their north are rather unremarkable, and they seem rather barbaric to the Shang, but who still are a good trading partner for small time merchants because of their love of the Shang bronze work. The Zhou, to their north, are even more barbaric, though they assure the Shang that they are indeed the protectors of civilization, for if it were not for them and their formidable northern wall, a nomadic tribe known only as the Xiongnu would sweep down into the Huang He Valley and burn the towns, pillaging the fields of rice as they went. Most Shang scoff at this claim, but their wall does raise some eyebrows. To the south of the Shang are the Chu, a large state with little to remark on it as very different (indeed, most countries in this region seem to be very similar to Shang, probably because of the heavy influence of being first), though they are rumored to border a far southern river, the Yangtze, supposedly even longer than the Huang He. Expansion opportunities remain all around, but perhaps war is in order to expand more...
The Khazars expansion goes uneventfully, however, their new city based on fishing is going well. The Scythians, however, a powerful nomad tribe, seem to encroach all to close, and many question wether they can fight them off.
Random Events:
Increased farming along the Nile river gives Egypt an economy boost.
Bribery causes several hundred Germanic warriors to join the United German Confederacy, though they may not be loyal.
The Tin Routes great economic importance gives a boost to Tartessos, Carthage, and Lybia.
Longest Trade Route: The Tin Route-over 3000 miles through 7 countries.
Longest Wall: The Grand Wall of Zhou- several hundred miles.
OOC: No spotlight, yet. Next update hopefully tomorrow.
Edit: forgot the Khazar's section.
