A Glorious Sepulcher; Fresh Start NES

[ZeletDude]

Good update, no news is good news


EDIT - Should have 5 elephant riders, not 23... though I'm fine with 23

 

[Birdjaguar]

Nicely done!

 

[Nintz]

Thank you kindly for the update.

 

[Grandkhan]

Excellent update TLK. Not much news about Termi Dor, but hey, thats ok.

 

[filli_noctus]

To: Shia, Tamayame, Gaerite
From: Konrell
We seek to purchase stone hewn from the rocks of the mountains. Please inform us if you are willing to sell.

 

[TheLizardKing]

From: The Gaerite
To: Konrell

We can sell you stone, sure.

OOC: The deadline is March 11th. Please try to get orders in before then. Also, I decided if you submitted a map, I'm going to give you a flat rate of 10 culture points.

 

[Immaculate]

Is there a population stat- perhaps unseen?

 

[TheLizardKing]

No population stat. Population fluctuates far too much in this time frame that it would be absurd for me to reasonably keep track of it, and there aren't really reliable censuses going around. If you really must know your population, for some reason (you really shouldn't) I can figure it out for you. As civilization starts to stagnate a bit, I fully intend on releasing demographic maps.

That actually reminds me; I have upwards of 20 layers on the map, with things as varied as pressure systems, road construction, resources, rivers, lakes, etc. I can pretty much mix and match as you wish. I can also probably make maps for whatever you'd like. So if you have a specific request, I'm happy to make it, if time permits. Assuming I get some more interest with the NES, I was intending (as I said) to make a demographic map, perhaps some maps of notable animals, soil types. Things like that.

 

[Lord_Herobrine]

OOC: @TLK: Oh, well I had assumed that the Konrell and Misthali were already sharing that fish resource as we both rely on fishing quite heavily and it was the only fish source in the region.'

Oh, and WHOOO! 4/5 peaceful news included Misthali!

 

[filli_noctus]

OOC: That was my assumption as well. If you're taking requests for maps I would find the most common trade routes useful information, as I'm sure every other trading nation would as well.

 

[Lord_Herobrine]

To: The Gaerite
From: The Misthali

The Queen's curiosity has been piqued by the fine material produced from your skilled weavers, and would like to propose trade of the silk between our two states. Once it is completed, your merchants will have their own locations inside Mis Bor for docking if you wish to trade.


OOC: And I second Filli_noctus's request for a trade route map

 

[Immaculate]

Some of our ships managed to make it back to port; the sailors backs and arms wretchedly broken from rowing all night and all day. They arrived at port and fell upon the docks, some immediately falling into slumber from the exhaustion wrought of their exhertion. In the distance we saw Tog dhows surrounding and boarding one of our ships who’s sailors had not rowed so mightily and we knew what had led them to such effort.

Our navy had been defeated.

Queen Sumallee ordered her soldiers to the port and the ships refitted with fresh crews. We would be ready if they struck. But they did not. Some of the Tog withdrew beyond the horizon but others appeared and we could tell by their positions that some had set anchor. We Muka were silent- apprehensive- but we could hear chanting and the sound of a flute upon the winds and we knew that the Tog were performing sacrifice to Lytsu- no doubt of the captured sailors.

With night a mist came and a gentle rain. We lost sight of the enemy navy but the sound of muffled flute reminded us of their continued presence. The night was long and dark and when we woke the same sort of apprehension and sense of foreboding returned. We spoke amongst ourselves and rumors of a Tog raid upon the southern coast soon began to circulate. A small fishing village had been overrun and the inhabitants carried away. Strangely, the Tog had cut down many of the tallest bamboo leaving drag marks leading into the sea. Their strange night-time attack, strategically unimportant left us puzzled more than worried; we had lost innumerable small coastal villages to their raids and one more did not seem significant. But cutting down bamboo was something we had not seen before.

Another day came and went and the Tog did not approach. Our own dhow reported that they lay at the edge of the horizon, ready to intercept our navy should it leave port but otherwise not threatening us. Night fell.

In the morning those of us with keenest eyes reported strange poles bobbing in the water- gently drifting towards us on the rising tide. At first they were little more than dots upon the water but as they approached over the course of the morning they began to look more like slim fingers, then men, then finally great trees. When they were within three to five-hundred feet we realized they were bamboo lashed together end to end to form long poles- the tops of which rose at least thirty to forty feet from the sea. Something was tied to their tops, bundles. I remember being incredulous, then shocked, and finally filled with both anger and shame when one of my neighbors realized what it was and told us. Those bundles cooking in the midday sun atop the poles were men- our sailors and warriors.

The Tog priests had drained the men of their blood to raise their pleas to Lytsu and bring blessings upon their warriors. Once drained, they had lashed them to the ends of the tallest bamboo they could find. Lashing another length of long bamboo to the first made for a sort of long pole, nearly eighty to ninety feet in length, with one of our dead warriors tied to the end. To the other end they attached a thick, oil-treated bag and filled it with stone and sand. Finally, as the weight grew great the bag would drag one end of the long pole downwards and raise the other end of the pole high above the sea.

It was these contraptions that now floated towards us. About one hundred and fifty to three hundred feet beyond our shores their anchors began to catch upon the bottom- they must have left some rope between the bags and the poles. There the long poles bobbed upon the sea- the grim bodies of our exsanguinated brothers and sisters hoisted high for all we Muka to see.

And we could not help but stare. Some of us knew those who had been mounted such and cried and wailed at the agony of not being able to go to them and cut them down. Others simply despaired at the ferocity and savagery of a people who would treat their enemies thusly.

The Tog did not come for many days and we had time to see the birds come and peck at the bodies- but their interest was limited- the Tog must have coated them in oils and thin pitch to preserve them and protect them against scavengers. We were meant to witness these trophies for some time as they dried in the salt and sun hoisted high above the seas.

Later we would learn that the Tog queen had offered surrender terms and that these, this defilement, had been meant to speed her decision and remind her of what awaited her and her family should she refuse them.


To Muka
From Tog

Well…?

 

[Birdjaguar]

OOC: That was my assumption as well. If you're taking requests for maps I would find the most common trade routes useful information, as I'm sure every other trading nation would as well.

Yes. I would love to such a map.

 

[Birdjaguar]

To: Shia, Tamayame, Gaerite
From: Konrell
We seek to purchase stone hewn from the rocks of the mountains. Please inform us if you are willing to sell.

Tamyame is willing to sell hewn stone to your nation.

 

[Lambda Ignaceae]

@TheLizardKing: I am very impressed with the update. I am glad I subscribed. Could you perhaps tell me the top 5 NPC's you would like someone to take the helm of?

Cheers

 

[TheLizardKing]

In regards to the trade map, that's something I started working on/putting a lot of thought into. I'll get one for you guys, no promises as to when, however. Also, I'll be responding to the 7 PMs momentarily.

@Lord_Herobrine

The fish resource doesn't represent fish in general, it just represents highly lucrative fishing spots. The Konrell and other nations throughout the Serpentin are capable of fishing as they please, but that specific fishing hot-spot was primarily under your control. Misthali fishers had basically a monopoly over the region, but your deal allowed for Konrell merchants to edge in on it.

@Lambda

Well, there aren't many nations I wouldn't recommend. I know that's not too helpful, but at this stage in the NES, there is certainly a lot of parity going on between nations. If I was you, I'd take a look at the BT (page 6, I think) and read a bit about the open nations. That might help put you in the right direction. Gun to my head, however, I'd suggest picking either one of the Dorian states in Cradle 2, the Agravi in Cradle 3 or one of the Einion states in Cradle 1. Perhaps even the Gaerites?

To: The Misthali
From: The Gaerite

Our weavers would be most happy to send their goods to Mis Bor. Consider it a deal.

To: The Tog
From: The Muka

You leave us little choice. The Queen shall give her life; and then she will find out who knows the true word of the Lytsu.

EDIT: Holy Hannah, I just realized I never posted the picture for Cradle 3 sprites. If anyone sees any other glaring mistakes like that, please let me know. If you have already pointed out mistakes that I didn't fix, let me know as well. When I work on the NES I'm usually doing along the lines of 10 things at once, and it's easy to forget a minor quick fix here and there.

 

[Birdjaguar]

From the Chronicles of Tamayame:

The Great Bird of the Sea soared high above the world on broad wings that stretched twice the height of a man. It road the winds and roamed at will following what its keen eyes brought into focus. And while it did not know days or count them and did not know ships or men, it had been following a ship of men for many days. It followed them west from the empty ocean into the Serpentin. Of course the Serpentin looked to our bird like more ocean, but now dotted with small islands and more ships. But this one ship that worked its way among the many, held its interest. To our bird, Tamayame looked like any other land, but larger and at its “waist”, the ship stopped.

Like two eggs just touching, the land where the ship stopped was a narrow connection. It was the goal of the ship and its men. The Great Bird caught an updraft and circled in a lazy path taking all that lay below. A great nest of men stretched all across the tiny strip of land from shore to shore. To the north in a well protected bay, many ships bounced on the gentle waves and many meals of glistening fish were hauled from boats to land. The stone quay was crawling with men going this way and that, into and out of and all around. The houses of men, great and small, spread themselves thickly all across the land and they lay well bounded by great thick walls of stone that separated the nest from land outside. Of course such great walls were nothing to our bird who twitched his wings to change his course to see more of this place of men. Greater walls and bigger building were found in the center of the nest. To the south again lay the sea and more ships and boats of men. The egg shapes, east and west, were checkered green, yellow and brown and barren of useful life, and still the men tarried there and constructed small clusters of houses. All were connected by spidery trails of pale stone. Its interest waning our high flier smelled the sea on a brisk wind and longed to see the silvery ripples of dinner beneath his wings. With hardly an effort he turned south and was gone.

Makela of the Sea Clan and captain of his just completed expedition of exploration, stood high up on the wall of Waipio’s citadel. With his ships moored and his crew safe ashore he was about to enter the House of Clans and report all he had found. He looked up and saw once more the Great Bird of the Sea. It was slowly circling the city. The bird had been following his ship for the last three weeks. Appearing every dawn high up on the winds and disappearing with the sun each night. An omen? He said a quick prayer for the faithfulness of the bird and its long life and then turned to the stairs that led into the building.

 

[Nailix]

So I've tried at least twice on AIM to get a hold of you about this but you haven't been at your computer or noticed my messages, I should have 6 gold banked can you fix this before I make my orders please?

 

[TheLizardKing]

First off, I'm loving the stories and cultural tid-bits so far. Thank you all. It's really making this an enjoyable experience; I'm eager to see this world develop, to say the least.

Aside from that, I have started attempting to work on a spreadsheet for everyone's economies. I have all economics down to a relative science in my head, it's just a matter of making sure everyone gets the proper and relatively fair amount of money. The problem is, I'm useless when it comes to fooling around with excel (well, for my purposes, I'm using Open Office). Can anyone point me in the way of some tutorials I could use, or have any advice for me? I'd make it all public, but I don't want the games mechanics to be out there, in case some of the more dastardly of you all feel inclined to "game the system".

As a note, I have a basic spreadsheet worked out for one hypothetical nation, sans a few other things I wish to work in, like ports, and other projects. But for the sake of the argument, this is what I have relatively (totals and the like blacked out)...



And that works perfectly for one nation. The problem comes when I have 50 nations to do this with. Should I just copy and paste the entire template down, one time for each nation? What happens when other resources or goods become available. If I copy and paste this 50 times, I'd have to either add the new resource to one of them, and copy and past over all the old ones, and redo all of those economies, or insert the new resource for each one of them over time. How should I factor in other projects that don't fit the basic mold? I imagine I would have to insert said resource on a case by case basis, but still, it seems like there must be an easier way.

Basically, I want an easy and quick spreadsheet using that format. I'm an excel nooby, for all intents and purposes.

 

[Immaculate]

If you want to keep values secret, change them to something else but ultimately if you send me the file, i can have a look at it. I'm pretty good at excel.

philgob(at)hotmail(dot)com