OOC: NK, just saw your stats. I actually visited Theodosiya once, you have a lot of wineyards and hills there.

However, it would seem that on the map, the REAL Theodosiya is held by the yellow Greeks.
Communisto, don't you think the 50,000 men growth is too large for this period?
When Is The Update?
IC:
Nation Name: Saba
Capital: Ma'rib
Ruler: Ibraham/Das
Government: Monarchy
Tech. Level: Early Classical Age
Army: 100,000 Soldiers
Navy: 20 Ships
Economy:Rich(+2)
Education: Educated
Culture: Cultured
Confidence: Respectful
Projects:
Nation Background: A strong Yemenese Kingdom, fair competition for the Arabs of Maan
Story:
The sandstorm is rising.
I, Ibraham, maluk [king] of Saba, maluk of Hadramaut and maluk and Qataban, am standing and watching from the sandstone walls of Ma'rib, the sandstorm that is blowing in Saba'an lands. MY lands.
The desert... the great desert... Not all of it is mine; not all of it I need. The Maan Arabs and the Bedouins can have the rest. I have my own lands. Those lands are good.
The sandstorm is rising.
Within those lands, o Rahman, live many people. Brave and cowardly, smart and stupid, strong and weak, rich and poor. Virtuous and viceful. Rahman, those are my lands, but I am yours. My people live here, and pray to you.
They call you "Rahman" - for you are Merciful, for you spare us from Bedouin invasions and from droughts, from fire and from water. You are the ground; you are the skies.
You are the sandstorm.
The sandstorm is rising.
I watch the lives of my people, on the other side of the sandstone walls, some of them live well, others not, their lifes are good or bad, but they have lifes, families and thoughts, words and letters, homes and boats. They are not great; they are not mediocre. They are people.
MY people.
The sandstorm is rising.
I have a palace, a good palace, though I have heard of palaces much bigger and better, but my palace is better then some other palaces. I have my beautiful wives and my capable children. One of those children will rule over Saba after I will die and travel to your Gardens, o Rahman. I think it will be Halid, for he is the oldest of them, born earliest and taught of more then the others. Rahman, have mercy on my realm and my people, and do not take away Halid too early, for Halid is very promising.
The sandstorm is rising.
Saba, as a land, is richer then many and poorer then some, it is prospering from trade : from caravans and from fulks [dhows], gold and goods come to us and from us. The gold is put in the treasury, my treasury, along with the money gathered by taxation, and is paid then to soldiers and to sailors who have pledged themselves to me, my family and my people. And other gold goes to buying wood to build new ships, and other gold goes to pay the builders to build new buildings, and to the sages so that they discover more of your secrets that you placed in the world in the beginning for us to find and discover and see through, and hope to find and understand at least some of your truth, o Rahman.
The sandstorm is rising.
In the city square, I see, o Rahman, my army. It is a rather small army, as there are many larger armies, but then again, surely there is a nation somewhere with a smaller one. My army is trained from amongst the people of the city, to lower the overpopulation and diminish poverty, to give the soldiers purpose in their lives. The people of the villages are good in some things and bad in others, and it is hard to disciplinne them - harder, at least, then to disciplinne the urban people.
The sandstorm is rising.
The ships I have as well, o Rahman. Many ships, mostly fulks, that carry our goods and our gold to other, faraway lands that are not mine but still yours. I also have ships of war, to protect the ships of trade. Right now I have twenty such ships, twenty fulks that can ride through the waves and confront the pirates and the raiders, and in my and your names. But soon, even greater ships I plan to build, and they will bring even more glory, and the people of Saba will be remembered if we ever have to face an enemy from the sea. But merciful on our sailors - and do not allow an enemy to emerge. I ask this of you, Rahman.
The sandstorm is rising.
O, Rahman, this is a good land for all the bad things that there are about and in it. I like this land, I like this people, I like my palace, my army and my navy. I like my city and my sandstone walls, and I like my wives and I like my children, and I like this life, for, Rahman, this life, though probably worse then some others, is certainly better then many others, for I have seen other lifes - both mine and those of my and other peoples. I rarely ever left this land, but I have been to Mecca, and saw that city of pagans who refuse to worship you, and who instead worship a black rock, which is large and peculiar but definitely not divine - or so I think, o Rahman, and possibly it is you and you are it, and thus it is divine. Your nature is beyond mortal comprehension, o Rahman, yet we try to understand at least some parts of you, some parts of your truth, o Rahman.
O Rahman, be merciful. Show mercy to me and my wives and my sons and my daughters and my brothers and my sisters and my soldiers and my sailors and my merchants and my subjects and my friends and - last but not least - my land. I am still young: do not take away this life yet. I have much to do for my people and my land.
MY people. MY land.
The sandstorm is rising. I turn away and walk back towards my palace.
(OOC: There. Wrote a good story. Now that I managed to get "in-character" for Saba, killing this NES is bad for your health.)
Diplo:
From: Saba
To: Maan
Greetings, o maluk of Maan. Your people live in villages and cities; so do ours. Let that never be disturbed by war. I suggest a pact of no agression between our two malukates.
Also, so that we never have to fight over land, I suggest that we agree to divide the Arabian Peninsula into spheres of influence and expansion - indeed, I only want to claim the lands known as Oman, to far east from you, for my people, while the rest you and your people can take for themselves.
And finally, I suggest that we sign a treaty of alliance against the Bedouin tribes. The nomads do not often attack our two lands, but when they do, they bring much devastation. Thus, I suggest that if Maan is attacked by Bedouins, then Saba'an men will march to assist our good neighbhors in the defensive campaign; and should Saba be attacked by the Bedouins, the Maanese men will similarily help their good allies.
Are those proposals acceptable?
Orders:
- Start new Project: the Great Ma'rib Harbor (+10 ships, +10 UU, +2 Economy).
- Create new UU: Saphina Gadola [Greatship, or Large Dhow]: a somewhat larger yet more refined dhow-like ship, very good for early oceanic exploration, trade and transportation.
- Get 10 more Saphinot.
- Grow Education once.
- Set up several outposts on our border with the unclaimed desert (crude outposts, so I don't think it should cost money), and have 5,000 soldiers defend that border. If we come under a MAJOR attack from the Bedouins, have a messanger ride south to Hawra (one of our cities) and warn the 25,000 soldiers we should have there to march north and turn back the Bedouins in a battle (use superior disciplinne to drive a wedge through the looser Bedouin formation, and then hunt down the disorganized enemy).
- 5,000 soldiers are to be on their guard on Maanese border. Also, if we sign an agreement with Maan about the Bedouins, be ready to march those troops north to assist the Maanese against those Bedouins if needed.
- 35,000 soldiers are to expand our territory east, into Oman. Encourage settlement of that region by people from the more densely populated parts of Saba.
- 20,000 soldiers are to defend our homeland against seaborne invasion, rebellions and bandits.
- 5 Saphinot are to begin to circumnavigate the East African coast.
- 5 Saphinot are to travel to Persia, establish increased presence of our trade in Seleucid territory and from there travel east to India.
- 20 ships are to carry 10,000 soldiers and some colonists across the Red Sea into RL Eritrea. Found coastal colonies (settlements, trade posts) there and establish our control. After that is done with, our 20 ships are to protect our trade routes against pirates and our coast against any hostile ships.