Against All Odds: The Struggles of the Noyyau

[CaterpillarKing]

1. Enslave the Spanish units
2. Take Shinto as our religion I would say.
3. Establish good relations with our powerful neighbors so that we can have a good diplomatic system with other civilizations of the world.

 

[Spirictum]

House Spirictum

We believe in the strength of the spirits, the incorporeal beings that surround us and everything around us. Progress may only be achieved by consulting with the spirits.

​

House Spirictum is tied to the Shinto Priest Caste of the Realm, one of the few surviving Castes after the adoption of a more loose society bind (Feudal). House Spirictum is present everywhere through Priests, but it keeps a sizeable property on the Capital with its most important members and advisors.

The symbol of House Spirictum is the Sand Reaper (pictured). This ancient spirit, now being questioned if it's an avatar of Izanami herself, has for millenia represented the fear of Death and its strong presence in the Desert nearby.

Current policies defended by House Spirictum:

Today, in this most sacred ground to Noyyau and its faith, I shall send a message to all lands. A message of peace, prosperity and development.

The mission cast by the Sand Reaper is fulfilled. Noyyau has finally tamed the Desert. This old Kami may now rest, assured that all the land has been blessed by the presence of the most righteous people's sovereignty. This asks for a change in House Spirictum, but that is not to be decided here or now.

But as of now we can't accomplish the new mission that is being cast upon us. The most experienced priests will endure a special moment now that we need a counsel from the spirits, and a guide in this time of changes.

But one thing is certain.

Our brothers are suffering repression and reprival in the recently liberated lands. We must not look them as foes that have yet to be tamed, but as brothers who have yet to be embraced. They are a part of us, as we both together are the Noyyau. Let's remember that the Jade Emperor, which has recently been discovered to be an Emperor of the Malinese, has been worshipped here since before Kojiki has been seen in this very place. They have always been a part of us, so shall the Hindu, the Confucians and any faith that is believed by the Noyyau.

We must show tolerance to the new faiths and try to bring all together in the pantheon of the Kami, to be respected and absorbed into the truthness, and the rule of the righteous people of Noyyau.

Kami Yata of House Spirictum has gathered the most important advisors of House Spirictum, prior to his departure for Ringhio to give the above speech, to assemble the spiritual counsel for the Noble's meeting.

The speech together with what's written below, was presented in this Council:

- Any offer the Hindu rebels show us which has been settled between all the rebelling factions should be accepted, unless its amount in gold seems too unbearable to our coffers.
Gamewisely: A message as appeared before, which we may bribe a multitude of cities with one amount, is to be accepted. But bribes done through the city interface, which only soften one city at a time and cost, shouldn't be used yet


- A considerable number of defensive troops should be assembled to defend the troubled cities, if the economy may handle it.
Gamewisely: Stability + Happiness


- Any development towards a more inclusive religious policy is deemed necessary from Kami Yata himself. If we manage to gather all faiths into our pantheon, we may reach prosperity in no time.
Gamewisely: I'm proposing a religious wonder which enables all religious civics (Shwedagon-like), which will immensely reduce instability + spreading the religion of all holy cities we have, which are already 3 I believe, and the Tao is just over there on Mali, and we have some Tao cities so yeah!


- A more detailed depiction of our economy can say what we should do to our way of governing
Gamewisely: include 'advisor' after the word 'economy' in the above statement, and substitute 'way of governing' by 'civics'. That's it


- The subject of the Mali and Moroccan is completely dependent on the last request too.


- House Spirictum supports House Florentanius beverage selling claims on conquered lands. These special mixes seem a great softner of the people's will to rebel.

 

[Noyyau]

Careful enquiries have been made with both Spanish and Latvian envoys, and it has been learned that there has been recent conflict between the two nations, but hostilities have ended, the two parties having signed a peace treaty.
While we could not learn the reasons of the conflict, we know that the Latvians are indifferent to their eastern neighbours, while the Spanish do harbor some resentment towards the Latvians.

This means that the Latvians, even if they wanted, could not help us.
We would hardly have received any actual help anyway, since we just blocked the Latvians' only non-Tundra (or Ice) way to the rest of the continent.

Spoiler :

A more comprehensive investigation was then made, questioning any foreigner we could get out hands on (figuratively, but not always).
It seems that there would be no negative consequences to establishing permanent embassies with the Siamese, the largest civilization we know of, and the Picts, our western neighbours.
(How to read the diplo relations chart: each column shows the attitude of the leader in the top row towards each subsequent leader down that column.)

Spoiler :

Finally, a new and more detailed map has been drawn, again on request of House Spirictum. It is a massive item of several deerskins sewn together.
Potential city spots are indicated with white markers (or cities I intend to keep), red markers indicate alternative or dubious sites.
(It is a large image, you might find it more comfortable to download it. Also, my apologies if it is not a perfect stitch, but perspective warps things around the edges of the screenshots. And no, I could not use Alt+O because that messes up the placement of the resource icons. I tried playing around with different zooms and view angles, this is the best I found.)

Spoiler :

 

[Noyyau]

Addendum: it seems that the Latvians, despite our long conflict, do not harbor hard feelings towards us, and are the only nation willing to (of the few that can, anyway) trade with us: a straight exchange of Wheat for the same quantity of Corn.

Spoiler :

If any Noyyau trader wishes to do business with the Latvians, the King gives his permission to do so.

 

[jackelgull]

I would not be opposed to such dealings, but would the health from the corn benefit us any?

 

[Spirictum]

Have you used Alt+O? It worked for me (maybe it's Ctrl+O, but I think it's Alt+O)

 

[Pliped]

Shinto seems like the best option religion wise

 

[Noyyau]

I would not be opposed to such dealings, but would the health from the corn benefit us any?

We do not need the Latvian Wheat at the moment, only Noyyau has 1 and there are still plenty of giving buildings to build.
It could be a way to build up a few more diplo points with the Latvians, though.

Have you used Alt+O? It worked for me (maybe it's Ctrl+O, but I think it's Alt+O)

Ctrl+O opens the Options menu, Alt+O changes the perspective of the map. Try it with resource indicators on! You'll see how they get moved in completely wrong positions. I think the code was probably never corrected to work properly with a different perspective.

 

[Noyyau]

Addendum 2:

Further exploring the few trading possibilities we have, we have found two partners interested in buying substantial quantities of fine Noyyau beer and whiskey.
We do not even know where these people live, but the reputation of our booze has gone farther than we have!

Spoiler :

The only caveat is that the Latvians and the Malinese are Annoyed towards each other, because of their different religions.
The Bulgarians seems to be on good terms with pretty much anybody.

No one else (who we are connected to) has any amount of money worth trading for.

 

[Manuss]

"What is he doing?"
"He's thinking."

The two men stared at a boy, Michele, who was sitting on the grass under the biggest tree near his house. He was going to be eighteen the day after. That age is like a giant leap for every Noyyau: it's the age you can start to have a serious job, and even serve in the army, or as a functionary in the govern. Unfortunately Michele was born by a family of farmers, and he didn't have the opportunities he dreamed when he was young: sitting next to those people he kept hearing about, like the members of the House Spirictum, and even talking to the king himself, or being an general of the army, fighting the Latvians or the Iranians.
His family worked in a farm near Ringhio, not the right place to talk to kings and Nobles.
One of the two men was his father, Antonio, while the other was his father's best friend, Marco. The silence was interrupted by Antonio:
"What's he thinking about?" he asked.
"What do you think he's thinking about? He's going to be eighteen tomorrow! What were you thinking in those days?"
"What to do with my life... but I wasn't like that!"
"Oh, please. I remember you in that sunny day of August. You were almost crying!"
"Mind you own business!"

They started to insult each other, as they usually did when they're having fun. Michele didn't mind them. He had always that clear thought: Should I stay, or should I leave?
To get some real opportunities in his life, he had to go somewhere else, to the Capital, or to the war front, to make his way through the army ranks. But he didn't know if he would've been capable of leaving his family, his friends and his life.
In the meantime, Marco and Antonio stopped fighting.
"Come on. Go tell him something." said Marco.
"Should I?"
"No. Someone else will. The Queen maybe!"
"Very funny."
Antonio walked slowly towards his son. He then sat next to him and he tried to say something:
"Listen, son... um... uuhh... I want to tell you that... uhm... you can go if you want."
Michele didn't reply.
"Are you worried about us? Don't worry, there are still your brothers and sisters to help us. You shouldn't be worried. If you want to go, you can. Actually you must. I won't deny it, nor will your mother."
"Thank you, dad, I just needed to be really sure."
"Come on, let's get you what you need for the travel."

The day after Michele sayd goodbye for the last time to his family and started walking towards the capital, Noyyau, looking for opportunities and a new life.
After a while, only Antonio and Marco remained there, watching the empty road.
"Do you think we should get inside?" said Marco.
"Just a moment."
"You know, I still have that bottle of wine Renato gave..."
"Yeah, I'm coming."
After a brief moment, Marco broke the silence:
"Have you told him he might meet bandits on the way to Noyyau?"
"Oh shi-"


To be continued...

 

[Noyyau]

Thus begins Manuss' Michele's story...

Awesome!

Just a couple of details: technically we do not have Wine as a resource, but the National Brewery gives us generic Alcohol from fermented grains. So we have Beer and Whiskey (and Grappa! ). I suppose Rice Wine could be included as well, we do have Rice after all.

In case it could be useful, here's a view of the road linking Ringhio and Noyyau:

Spoiler :

The whole road is Paved, even the tile under the Light Swordsman, though it's hard to see.

 

[Manuss]

Thanks very much!
So there are workers making that mine there. I guess Michele's travel will be shorter than he expected. And also if someone's wondering Antonio's farm is that one 1S of Ringhio obviously.

 

[Noyyau]

Nationalities of the Workers mining the Iron: Pict, Serbian, Iranian, Barbarian. So they are all enslaved foreigners, supervised by a few Noyyau overseers.
The Workers making a new Jungle Camp 1N of Ringhio are both Barbarians.
Our 1st (and only) Noyyau Worker is currently near Robertia, but he can get back to Noyyau in 1 turn.
Or I could make a new Worker in Noyyau if you prefer, depending on how you want your story to evolve.

 

[Manuss]

August was a hot month to travel. Too hot. Michele took some water from the river near the end of his father's fields, but it wasn't enough. Fortunately for him next to the road there were many taverns and inns where he could eat, drink and sleep.
The day after, he arrived near a hill.
"Mines... what a bad way of living. All day in the mines getting who-knows what stone... definetly not what I'll do in my life... I hope."
A convoy of wagons pulled by mules was on his way to Ringhio, loaded with many types of stones. Michele watched them as they slowly moved towards the river he passed the day before.
"How are they going to pass the river? On boats? I hope they won't load the mules too. Poor animals!"

After some hours he arrived to another hills covered by trees. He heard in the distance picks, axes, and people working. But also screams and whips.
"What's going on here?"
Many people were working on that hill. They cutted the trees to build another mine. But they weren't normal workers. Michele soon realized these were slaves: Barbarians, Picts, Latvians and Iranians, probably prisoners of war. They were guarded by a group of people, with the Noyyau emblem on their uniform. Some of them also had a coat with the emblem of one noble family.
"That's the symbol of the Caterpillar house. And that's the Spirictum one. The nobles owns slaves?! That's a part of them nobody talks about. Or maybe nobody knows."
He walked some more and he saw something he didn't want to see: a slave, probably iranian, being hit a lot of times with a whip. The slave didn't even scream. He was motionless on his knees. On his back there were many scars. It wasn't the first time he was punished.
"This is a part of our empire I would prefer not to see. Nobles that owns people. People treated like objects. People killed by too much work..."
In the evening he reached a fortress of the army. It was garrisoned just by forty soldiers. He asked for hospitality and the commander in charge opened the fortress gates.
The diner wasn't that great, but Michele didn't care. There was another boy there, he was twenty or twentyone. his name was Federico.
"So, where are you from?" started Federico.
"I'm from a farm south of Ringhio, and I'm going to Noyyau looking for a new life."
"I'm going too to Noyyau! And for the same reason!"
"Really?! That's a nice coincidence! We could continue to travel togheter! Where are you from?"
"My father owns a plantation on the road to Fiamma."
"Haven't you noticed there are only a few soldiers in here? Isn't that strange?"
"No, because this is mainly a trade post: here, the main southern road that reaches Fiamma, meets the main northern Road, the one you come from, and that goes to Noyyau and Robertia."
"I didn't know that."
"Haven't you studied some Geography?"
"I come from a family of farmers." I didn't study at all."
"So, you can't even read or write?"
"No, I can do that. A friend of my father teached all my family for free."
"Lucky, my family had to pay for my education."
"I would't call reading and writing an education."
With these last words they went to bed, ready to reach Noyyau the day after.

 

[GreekAnalyzer]

House Greek:
​

We focus on military valor and strength. Our leader, Lord Emmanuel Greek, wishes to command a regiment of troops in peacetime and in wartime.
We wish to completely destroy the Spaniards as well, and ensure they will never rise again

 

[TheNoob]

Wait what is with these houses

 

[Manuss]

Haven't you noticed this is a IAAR.

 

[Spirictum]

A religion which hasn't been founded yet can count as existing? Or does it only exists after it's founded? That's a good rp question.

Or House Greek talks about the future, I presume

 

[GreekAnalyzer]

A religion which hasn't been founded yet can count as existing? Or does it only exists after it's founded? That's a good rp question.

Or House Greek talks about the future, I presume

What religion

 

[TheNoob]

I've honestly become so confused with this story. I just try and follow the updates.