Culture map added above.
BirdNES 2: Forge of Empires -- The Manipur Coast
- Thread starter Birdjaguar
- Start date
Germanicus, are you going to send orders?
germanicus12
First Citizen of Rome
Many apologies, but I cannot send orders unless my internet signal is real strong, otherwise the computer will inform me that the signal was insufficent for action. (i.e sending PM)
But now that I am at a flying J with a strong connection I will send it, whether you accept it or not I dont care. I was late and I deserve the punishment.
Orders in.
But now that I am at a flying J with a strong connection I will send it, whether you accept it or not I dont care. I was late and I deserve the punishment.
Orders in.
Thanks. All orders are accepted, always. If late, the degree to which they are carried becomes the issue. Sending them late is far better than not sending at all. Of course, notifying me early that you need to be NPCed counts and helps. 
Please send them Farrow.
Please send them Farrow.
The Manipur Coast
Update Eight: Peace? What the hell is that?
There was no expectation of peace along the Striga-Kapo border. There was just a lull until one side was ready to start again. Striga was first and in the summer of 442, twenty-thousand men headed south under the command of General Ordulf.
Three years later he sat atop a low rise over looking Kapona, the heart and soul of Kapo. The cities walls gleamed in the morning sun, but less brightly than the weapons and armor of the two armies assembled on the plains. Both sides knew that this was the end of the war. From the start He had waged a war of total destruction of Kapo. In every village captured the adults were slain or sent as slaves to the mines; the children were rounded up and returned to Striga to be raised as citizens of his nation. Kapo would cease to exist even in the memory of man. The war had been costly because the defeated, he rarely called them by name, had fought knowing that to lose meant annihilation, complete and total annihilation. His 20,000 men was now over 25,000, but many were newly recruited replacements for the terrible losses he had taken every marching pace of the way to today’s battle. He couldn’t imagine what the opposition had endured or how they had managed to field such an army today. At least 30,000 men were arrayed against him.
Kapo’s lines were deep, probably 10-12 men in two battle lines, and all appeared to be well armed and armored. Horsemen assembled on the flanks with a weighting on his left. Several thousands of infantry were in formation at the rear in the center. Their blood was up and they pounded sword on shield to raise a great din that echoed off the city’s walls and carried across the field to his own lines. Their trumpets sounded as late arrivals filled gaps in the line and they prepared avenge the evils he had committed upon their nation.
The backbone of his army was the 10,000 or so veteran spearmen that were deployed in three rows, each consisting of 13 orderly blocks of 250 men. Left and right he had 4,000 less reliable recruits armed with a polyglot of swords and spears. They were eight deep with swords at the front. He worried about them and their ability to withstand what would be a fervid charge by doomed army they faced. Each flank was held by 2,000 horsemen. His archers, numbering about 3,000 were evenly split behind his recruits. Their job would be to dampen the attack on the weakest part of his line. His plan was simple. He would bear the attack all along the line and then push his veterans forward and outward, left and right. If he could split the enemy, he could then use his horsemen to complete the roll up. He would kill them all. Then he would take the city even if it meant dismantling the walls one stone at a time. And when the survivors came to him and begged for mercy he would separate them from their children, turn his army loose on the adults with the stipulation that they could do as they pleased, as long as in the end, every citizen of the city was dead. The children would be sent north. Who were children and who were adults? He would let his men decide.
A thousand miles to the northeast of Kapona two other nations faced one another across a wide gulf of mistrust and hate. Ataricn Vantorica and his son Valtoricn stood upon the ramparts of his capital and watched the wide waters of the Seracon flow north to the sea. They had been planning for this day for three years in hopes it would never come. In the previous two years the Harum army had swept north and captured all of what had been eastern Gedmeria. The loss had been brutal and bloody. The men who survived the battles were enslaved and sent south to a known fate at the hands of cruel masters. The women become property of the new overlords of this land and through forced labor and sex, they were the ones to rebuild and repopulate what had been destroyed or killed. The Harum juggernaut would soon turn its eye to this fair city and the outcome seemed all but certain. The nation had been raised and the newly recruited worked into a fervor of religious fanaticism, ready to die for the avenging of Holy Atgor. And die they would, Vantorica had no doubt of that. But he also did not doubt that the Harum would feel pain at what their victory would cost. The city was ready and so was he. He recalled that Pyrrus was in command of the Harum and his string of victories was long and impressive and he much desired to add one more. In the summer of 443 Pyrrus and his army crossed the Seracon.
But more than war was afoot in Manipur in those years.
Jucuub easily made the transition from Var Bazcheeka to Var Viltiika in 444 and the new ruler applied his youthful energy to rebuilding the Jucuub economy and exploring what lay beyond his borders. Cartographers accompanied traders north and south and they mapped regions heretofore unknown to them and contacted strange peoples of the north and tribes living far to the south. Old paths were widened and improved into real roads and the rich products of the jungles were brought to the cities and sold to traders who carried them away, but left gold behind.
In Racadonia the decade began with a bloody change of power. The growing and clear incompetence of Empress Nerana provided the avenue to power for the Romanvi family. After the Empress was stabbed to death brutally by the women of her court, some say over 120 times, Catherine Romanvi was crowned Empress Catherine III in 442. Her marriage the next year to Duke Mikhal of Novat created a new royal house: Romanova and cemented her position as monarch. Once established the Empress went to work. Her plan was to rejuvenate the empire and establish it as a leader in the affairs of Manipur. Shipbuilding and exploration were foremost on her list and by 446 Racadonia had its first overseas colony in the north. It was settled by Elizabeth Kanova and by the end of the decade over a thousand people lived there. The presence of the Racadonian military in the settlement discouraged any of the local inhabitants from creating trouble. At home the Empress started a plan to reorganize the nation into districts ruled at the pleasure of the empress by Governesses. Her plan included the building of stone roads throughout the empire that connected the major centers of trade and production. Under Catherine the arts revived and flourished and the nobles who were able to write often wrote memoires and stories; the theater was again popular and a new capital was planned by master architect Alexandra Shulov.
In Aabal! Nimrud the Mighty also pushed his nation to the northlands and expanded his colonies there. Explorers ventured forth into the unknown and ambassadors visited nations throughout the south. And to firmly establish himself as a great king he began the construction of the Tower of Nimrud in the city of Nod. Based on their skill with lighthouse along the coast, his engineers designed a great tower to house archives, offices and workrooms, and be a monument to Nimrud and the gods of Aabal! much of the outside was to be decorated in glazed tiles of blue, green and purple bearing the name of the king mighty enough to build such an edifice. It would surpass 200 feet in height and delve three stories underground. The completion date was pegged for the year 458. Even before it was completed, much of the business of Aabal! migrated from the country side into Nod so that those in power could be near to this wonder of Aabal! ingenuity and behold its glory every day. The northern colonies were officially named Rehoboth and Calah (north to south).
Iska joined the rush to expand its presence in the north and then sent explorers further into the unknown. King Varetov was a cultured monarch who pushed hard for economic reforms and expanded the court to include poets, musicians and philosophers of note. Land reforms were undertaken and formed a foundation of what would later become a written legal code. In 446 Itrov the Seaman returned from his voyage of exploration and brought new maps to his thankful king.
In the north in the kingdom Ceryne King Korigas saw that the lands of the south were great and powerful and the nations there not to be ignored and he bettered his nation to prepare for the rush of contact that would surely come. He did not neglect his army; one never could tell about foreigners. His capital Ymo was 150 miles up the Halmlo River from the coast and certainly not under any threat, but precautions never hurt. He would record the pace of contact with the peoples of the south in his newly established archives.
The Quiet Nations
Mernacia kept its slow and steady expansion to the south going and encouraged its citizens to move south and populate the new lands.
Trys was still recovering from the last war with Harum and took little part in the affairs of western Manipur.
Outcomes:
+1 EP Jucuub treasury for increased trade of rare and precious jungle products
+Jucuub knowledge of the eastern north shore of the Manipur Sea and Ceryne
+stone roads in Racadonia
+1 culture Racadonia
+Racadonian knowledge of the eastern north shore and Ceryne
+Aabal! culture
+Aabal! knowledge of the north and Ceryne.
+WMC trade route for Aabal!
+Iskan knowledge of Ceryne
+Ceryne knowledge of Jucuub, Racadonia, Asbal! And Iska
And of the wars?
In Gedmeria Ataricn Vantorica and his son Valtoricn parted ways as the Harum army took control of the lands surrounding the city. The story of the siege and city’s fall was related to Valtoricn by those who lurked and watched and remembered. Beyond hope the city held out for 80 days. Great weapons of war cast stones and flaming buckets of fire over the walls and into the city. Battering rams broke walls and soldiers stormed the breaches and when repulsed, the breaches rebuilt over night. For Pyrrus of Harum, time was important. His large army was unwieldy and hard to manage as they sat before the high walls and waited. Food was always problem and the nearby water increasingly foul. At every opportunity he threw his army into battle hoping to break the will of the defenders with a final charge against the failing walls. In 80 days he made 47 assaults and built 31 catapults and rams. As he gazed at the walls day after day, it seemed that there could be nothing left behind them and yet day after day the defenders crowded the parapets and fought like demons. They asked no quarter and gave none. He wondered who would break first. His army was now dominated by recruits who shied away from such bloody assaults and in the shadows his captains could be heard questioning his command. On the morning of the 80th day, as Pyrrus marked the tally on the wall of his command post he heard a great section of wall collapse in a cloud of dust. The work of miners in the night he recounted. He heard the tired shout of his troops as they launched themselves into the breach. He waited for the answering challenge, and when it did not sound, he stepped out to see what was amiss. A stiff breeze quickly cleared the dust and he saw his infantry top the debris and stand gazing into the city. No enemy appeared; no rabid defender of Gedmeria challenged the attack; no sound came from the city at all. He mounted his horse and rode to see for himself. The climb to the top of the broken wall was more than he was used to but he managed to do without losing his dignity as the general in command.
The broken city lay beneath him and the stench of death filled it. What had been a city of beauty and graciousness, a monument to the greatness of man’s ingenuity and skill, was now a pit of despair and destruction. Only those soldiers of Harum who had ventured inside were alive. What had remained of the defending garrison was found gathered in a group in the shelter of the east wall. All were dead, by their own hand or that of a friend. At the center was the body of Vantorica, leading them in death a week or more, by the looks of him. Exhaustion quickly replaced what glory the victory held for the army. There was no pillage, no rape, no pleading for mercy from crying survivors. There were no storehouses full of food or a treasury of gold. As the army of Harum, now numbering but 6,000 under arms, turned south towards home they left a shell of city and a lifeless countryside for many miles in every direction. Such was the bounty of conquest.
When Valtoricn heard the story of the fall of his city and the death of his father and his father’s comrades, he wept. The nation of Gedmeria wept. From the story of the siege and terrible cost to Harum, Valtoricn knew he would not be pursued even if the Harum knew where he had gone and who had gone with him. The past was dead now and he was the future, a new city was rising and he would lead it as the days unfolded. His people had abandoned their homes and their pasts; they had survived a great trek, and were ready to begin again.
And in distant Kapo….
When General Ordulf saw that the onslaught of the already dead was at hand, he mounted his horse and moved to join the veterans, his veterans. He would make sure none of his men faltered or ran. His troops cheered at his expected arrival to their ranks. These would be the victors this day; their skill and experience would carry him to victory. It would be a glorious day. He raised his standard to encourage their shouting. Then the hard work of the day began. In spite of the rain of arrows that wetted their ranks with blood, the crash of the Kapo charge was crushing and all parts of Ordulf’s line recoiled. It took his veteran center an hour of bloody work to regain some momentum and begin to push forward across the ever increasing piles of corpses. On the left and right his recruits never regained the ground lost in the initial crush of fighting. Ordulf watched with concern as they continued to lose ground. If they broke his real army, the soldiers he truly loved and honored, would be surrounded and likely, with him, die. Of his horsemen he had no word except that they were engaged on both flanks. Two hours into the battle he felt the enemy center weakening and he ordered his fresher second line to step back four paces and charge. It was a practiced maneuver, but easier on the training field than when facing determined foes out to kill you. As the trumpet sounds prepared the veterans for the maneuver, Ordulf saw his left flank disintegrating and he sped there to try and rally what remained of his troops. The center would have to succeed without him. His still fresh third line waited in anticipation; they knew what was coming and their role should the enemy center break. Ordulf and his body guard plunged into the fray to make sure the left held and he only vaguely heard the quick staccato that signaled his center to charge.
In less than an hour the mopping up began. As expected the already dead at the enemy center broke. Some pursued them; the rest turned left or right to hold open the ‘doors of victory’ and let the last of Ordulf’s veterans pour through and sweep in behind the tired and soon to be dead that could not escape. Cries of despair rose from the walls of the city and its life began to drain away. Some of it flowed in a panic down the roads that led south, more drained on the elegant and beautiful mosaic floors of houses at the hands of friends and loved ones. What life remained hoped against hope that there would be mercy at this end of days. There was none. Those who threw themselves on the kindness of Ordulf were spared long enough to shred their fingers as they dismantled the city of Kapona stone by stone leaving no trace of what once had been great.
Outcomes:
-government stats Gedmeria
-economic stats Gedmeria
-treasury to support war effort, Harum
-Kapo as a nation
I believe that, at this point, Update 8 is complete: all updates, all maps, all stats, all exploration maps, and all the lost boys have been put to bed. If you feel that you are missing something, please let me know.
Update 9 Orders due Saturday June 21st.
This will be another 10 year turn from 451-460
Oruc
Reactionary
Brilliant update. Victory or death! Their can be no other this day 
What happened to my project? It says I can't build it anymore?
What happened to my project? It says I can't build it anymore?
The 'yes/No' trigger for projects is usually turned to 'No' because your treasury dips too low. That means you cannot start any new projects. You may continue any already underway. Once your treasury is relenished, it will turn to 'Yes'.Brilliant update. Victory or death! Their can be no other this day
What happened to my project? It says I can't build it anymore?
Given that you put paved roads in your policies and did not actually spend money and that you have zero engineering, any upgrade to Roman-like roads will take some time.Bird, shouldn't my stats say stone roads?
Other than that, great update
The Trader
Kuulakuuvix was not, in the general considerations of the population of the southern Jucuubuu (resident of Jucuub) coastal community of Veerikatzel, a normal person.
He was a trader. A merchant. He had a wide-bottomed sed (oceangoing, wind-powered canoe), festooned with artifacts from the jungle south. Kuulakuuvix would frequently disappear off to sea for months on end, and come back laden with riches from the south. Gems, gold, pelts and feathers, exotic creatures, and anything his fellow Jucuubuu would buy.
Some say that the southern Jungles are dangerous places. They contain beasts and demi-men that can consume a person, breaking their body or breaking their mind. Jexeeravuu, the old, senile Kaskuubii (priest) would often claim it was the latter.
Certainly, Kuulakuuvix didn't appear normal. He wore his black hair tied into long knots, hanging around his face and down his back like a wild man. In the derty, thick masses were many embedded things- shiny pieces of metal, flashes of colour, jewellery, feathers.
His light brown complexion was rarely unmarred by dirt and mud, and those who saw him swear that his left eye was slightly larger than the right. Both were a vivid shade of green, like a jungle lizard caught in an isolated ray of sunshine.
Kuulakuuvix' clothing looked like it had, many years ago, been normal- the teal robe of a Jucuubuu sailor. Now, it was miscoloured and torn, buried under many layers of gathered paraphernalia. Strings of animal claws wound their way around his torso, skin was frequently visible underneath.
The Trader never wore sandals, or any footwear. His feet were large, and hardened like the paws of a Jexeev (a large, black jungle cat).
The Children of the small settlement of Veerikatzel always ran out to the dock at the first sight of his colourful Sed. For the children, Kuulakuuvix, or ‘Kuuvee’ as the children titled him, there were always gifts. Amulets, colourful songbirds, delicious dried berries and a sweet, dark brown substance created from beans grown in a faraway land. In his heart, he held a special love for his appointed name- it is a rare day indeed when the children would bestow one of their ‘familiar names’ upon an adult.
The adults, naturally, disapproved. Kaskuubii Jexeeravuu would rail on against his ‘corrupting the young’, but truth be told, not many people paid attention to him anymore, especially after he had started confusing the two moons with each other.
Regardless, the goods ‘Kuuvee’ brought to the village were always appreciated. He rarely dealt with the currency used in the northern regions of Jucuub, often preferring to barter. By his claim, Jucuubuu goods were preferred by his contacts in the far south.
Kuulakuuvix’ stays in Veerikatzel were almost always brief, once his goods were sold he would set off once again. The children, and secretly, some of the adults, would long for his return, and his tall tales of adventures in the south.
As his colourful, ramshackle Sed disappears off into the sunset, the old Kaskuubii watched with cloudy interest.
“Not at normal young man.” He muttered, scratching absently at his robes.
Not a normal young man indeed. But Kuulakuuvix was a man of a unique time and a unique place- and perhaps a sign of things to come.
Kuulakuuvix was not, in the general considerations of the population of the southern Jucuubuu (resident of Jucuub) coastal community of Veerikatzel, a normal person.
He was a trader. A merchant. He had a wide-bottomed sed (oceangoing, wind-powered canoe), festooned with artifacts from the jungle south. Kuulakuuvix would frequently disappear off to sea for months on end, and come back laden with riches from the south. Gems, gold, pelts and feathers, exotic creatures, and anything his fellow Jucuubuu would buy.
Some say that the southern Jungles are dangerous places. They contain beasts and demi-men that can consume a person, breaking their body or breaking their mind. Jexeeravuu, the old, senile Kaskuubii (priest) would often claim it was the latter.
Certainly, Kuulakuuvix didn't appear normal. He wore his black hair tied into long knots, hanging around his face and down his back like a wild man. In the derty, thick masses were many embedded things- shiny pieces of metal, flashes of colour, jewellery, feathers.
His light brown complexion was rarely unmarred by dirt and mud, and those who saw him swear that his left eye was slightly larger than the right. Both were a vivid shade of green, like a jungle lizard caught in an isolated ray of sunshine.
Kuulakuuvix' clothing looked like it had, many years ago, been normal- the teal robe of a Jucuubuu sailor. Now, it was miscoloured and torn, buried under many layers of gathered paraphernalia. Strings of animal claws wound their way around his torso, skin was frequently visible underneath.
The Trader never wore sandals, or any footwear. His feet were large, and hardened like the paws of a Jexeev (a large, black jungle cat).
The Children of the small settlement of Veerikatzel always ran out to the dock at the first sight of his colourful Sed. For the children, Kuulakuuvix, or ‘Kuuvee’ as the children titled him, there were always gifts. Amulets, colourful songbirds, delicious dried berries and a sweet, dark brown substance created from beans grown in a faraway land. In his heart, he held a special love for his appointed name- it is a rare day indeed when the children would bestow one of their ‘familiar names’ upon an adult.
The adults, naturally, disapproved. Kaskuubii Jexeeravuu would rail on against his ‘corrupting the young’, but truth be told, not many people paid attention to him anymore, especially after he had started confusing the two moons with each other.
Regardless, the goods ‘Kuuvee’ brought to the village were always appreciated. He rarely dealt with the currency used in the northern regions of Jucuub, often preferring to barter. By his claim, Jucuubuu goods were preferred by his contacts in the far south.
Kuulakuuvix’ stays in Veerikatzel were almost always brief, once his goods were sold he would set off once again. The children, and secretly, some of the adults, would long for his return, and his tall tales of adventures in the south.
As his colourful, ramshackle Sed disappears off into the sunset, the old Kaskuubii watched with cloudy interest.
“Not at normal young man.” He muttered, scratching absently at his robes.
Not a normal young man indeed. But Kuulakuuvix was a man of a unique time and a unique place- and perhaps a sign of things to come.
flyingchicken
Deity
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2007
- Messages
- 3,783
Of Men and Cities
by King Varetov of the Dynasty of Bareit
by King Varetov of the Dynasty of Bareit
"Hattus," said I to Hattus, one of the philosophers in my court, wanting to get his attention. "It has come to my attention that you are in need of mental stimulation. So I say: come, let us talk about cities."
"Milord," said Hattus, "this has been discussed many time before. I am no longer interested in the comings and goings of the city, and this city is as good a city as any other, if not better. I already know everything there is to know about the city--I have seen, smelled, heard, tasted, and felt much of what is there to feel in Ivet, save for those found in the lowest levels of society, for mine noble bearing is not to be dirtied by pubs, gambling, and whores."
"Ah, but it is not about the city of now that I wish to talk about," said I. "I extension, the basis of cities."
"So, each family has working parts, the individuals," said Hattus. "Although the individual cannot be credited for civilization, it is still important within the scope of communities. Let us talk about the individual, then. What is an individual?"
"An individual, I believe," said I. "Is a man or woman born of his or her parents. This lineage can be traced down to the primordial families, the first of the savage men and women created by the gods and spirits, had we known of writing and history back then."
"Correct," said Hattus. "The individual is also a unique single person. No individual is the same as another, by virtue of his body, mind, and soul. A man's body--his physical qualities, what is seen by our eyes and felt by our hands and skin--cannot be the same as another, as evidenced by the multitudes of different faces and body shapes that we see everyday from person to person, thus making him unique. The man's mind--what he thinks, what he knows, what he believes--cannot be the same as another, as evidenced by differing opinions and the variations in thought from person to person, much like how I think and what I think is different from how you think and what you think, thus making him unique. A man's soul--what a man feels inside, the uncontrollable emotions that are independent of thought and reason--are also different, for within any given time all men cannot feel the same, an example of which is found in the attitude of a destitute slave and his abusive master--the master is content while the slave is not while the slave toils away at the behest of his master--and thus make him unique."
"An individual," continued Hattus. "As we have established, is a man or woman born of the joining of his or her parents, and every individual is unique."
"What of men of like attitudes and like bodies? Are they lesser individuals by virtue of their similarities with others?" asked I.
"No, for even with these similarities each individual is still different," said Hattus. "Even if these differences are more subtle than others, these are still differences, and differences entail uniqueness. However, it is also good to note that some people are of like disposition, as this will play into our playing out of the fictitious Ivet."
"So we are now noting that individuals are unique, born of pairs of other individuals, and individuals may still have similarities with others despite their uniqueness?" asked I.
"Correct," said Hattus. "We still have several things to note about the individual before we continue, however. The individual, by nature of his uniqueness, is suited to different things. On a larger scale of viewing things, men are more suited to doing heavy lifting and tiresome work, while women are more suited to doing meticulous household work and gentle work like that of raising children. On a smaller scale, we will see that men of greater intellect are more suited to work like civil service, trading, and the sort, while men of greater physical quality are fit for cutting wood or working in the quarries. Of course, the body is malleable, and a weak man can grow into a stronger one, but some gifts--such as that of intellect and reason--cannot be trained or cannot be trained easily. In any case, we now establish that by virtue of individuals' uniqueness, they are suited to different things."
"It is noted," said I. I added, "Along with the other notes we have already done on an individual. Are they truly necessary, philosopher, or do you simply like to take note of bits of knowledge for knowledge's sake?"
"True and false, milord," said Hattus. "It is both noble and beautiful to love knowledge for knowledge's sake, but in this case those notes are important to our discussion of cities."
"I will see then, your head be on it," jested I.
[to be continued]
.Balbo
Chieftain
Seems to be a great game. Althrough it also seems a little complicated, i think i will try this one, as Tradur.
Birdjaguar, can you sent me via PM everything i need to know about Tradur? (Treaties, culture, history if any) Alas, any advice would be apreciated, since i am a noob here.
Birdjaguar, can you sent me via PM everything i need to know about Tradur? (Treaties, culture, history if any) Alas, any advice would be apreciated, since i am a noob here.
