Diamondeye's Land Grant

[Cyc]

Tile number 87 - Directly N of the city New Giruvegan. Hills with a Gold mine. 3h8g

Tile number 87 is hereby ceded to Diamondeye for the care and maintenance he so chooses. The Monarch grants you this land and all that are attached to it. All food will be sent to the King for distribution. All other resources profitable or not, remain with you to do as you choose. Good luck.

 

[dutchfire]

Mister that bag with a dollar sign stands for 5 , making this tile 38. In the same way, a big bread stands for 5 and an anvil stands for 5.

(Also note commerce != gold)

 

[Cyc]

Thank you for the correction, my King. I am trying my best with what I have. If I have errored in other threads, please do not hesitate to correct me again.

 

[dutchfire]

There are a couple of pictures that are not working for me, but I don't know what's causing that.

 

[Diamondeye]

Diamondeye walked the barren hill, looking at the workers. He thought about when he had first found this place and noticed a small piece of what he now knew as gold laying on the ground. Someday, the gold mined by the Faithful here would cover glorious monuments. But for now, the smelting of the gold was done in crude ovens and the godl could not be smoothened enough for the precision that pictures of gods demanded. The gold was used to forge jewelry and other accessories. It kept the people of Aretania happy and beautiful.

Diamondeye stopped to overlook the miners go home for the day. He noticed that there was very few of the kings men around to check whether the miners brought any gold with them, and from his vantage point, Diamondeye could spot the glitter of gold in the hair on the top of the head of a man. He quickly stepped down and confronted the man.

"Please, mister, it is adviced that you do not take possession of any of the gold mined here. We pay you in food and coins, there is no need to risk ones' life for a little extra something."
The words were kind but with a not very hidden threat in it.
The man turned around, and the neaby miners stopped to look at the encounter between the monk and the miner. For a couple of seconds, the thief stood and looked at Diamondeye, before recognizing him as the Head of Faith. The man fell to his knees and quickly handed Diamondeye the small pieces of gold hidden in his thick hair.

"Please, Lord, forgive me my greed. I was merely trying to feed my family."
Diamondeye looked at the man with a mix of sceptism and empathy in his eyes.
"As I said, we pay you in food and coins. You should be able to feed them as is."
The man looked at Diamondeye, and was now starting to sweat. A guard had neared with a spear, awaiting the order from Diamondeye to state an example. The man took a deep breath and answered.

"It is because, my wife, Kaede, is pregnant. She cannot work and we have two sons already. I have to feed them all, and my father is dead, so I have to feed my mother as well."
Every trace of sceptism in Diamondeye's eyes had vanished.
"That is terrible. May I ask how your father died?"

Most of the faithful knew that Diamondeye had lost his mother when she gave birth to him, and the miner was keen to answer.

"He died in this very mine. A small section collapsed and his right arm was crushed. He was stuck and died from the lack of blood."

Diamondeye was now looking rather pale. He sighed and spoke:

"I am sorry for your loss, faithful. I will make sure your family will be given an extra ration to feed youa nd compensate for your loss. Furthermore, I would like to invite you and your family to eat with me tonight."

The miners scathered as the problem had been solved. A few of them spoke about the generousity of the monk, a few were jealous. The majority though, were in a hurry to get back to their family after having heard the two men mention their dead parents. How ghastly!

The man looked at Diamondeye. "I would be honored to, milord."

Diamondeye smiled at the man. "Please, call me Diamondeye. What is your name, by the way."

The man smiled at Diamondeye. His name was inherited through a line of fathers as old as Arete itself, and he was proud of it. "My name", he said, "is Takeo."

Diamondeye nodded and the two men walked back to the city, talking.

 

[Diamondeye]

Diamondeye followed Takeo back to his house to gather the rest of the family. He smiled kindly at the people leaving the small hut; The pregnant mother, Kaede, was beautiful with long, silky, black hair, and the sons, both below working age, were playing with each other. While Takeo went inside to assist his mother, Diamondeye walked over to the two boys who were wildly fencing with two branches. They saw him but continued their game. After the boy who looked oldest had won by hitting the other boy on his right hand so he dropped his branch, the small boy fell to his knees and the larger boy neared him, branch held out in firm hand just over the boys' neck.
The young boy did not even blink when he saw the older boy swing the branch backward and start a mighty swing that would hurt for days.

Diamondeye caught the branch in his right hand before it did any harm. Surprisingly, both of the boys got angry at him, not only the one about to strike his little brother but also the little brother himself. "Why did you do that?", they both asked the monk.

"I was merely trying to avoid any harm to you... What are your names by the way?"
The boys ranked their backs and presented themselves. The oldest boy introduced himself as "Lord Takeo Otori the eighth", whilst the younger boy merely stated that he was "Shigeru Otori". Diamondeye smiled at them. "And why, Shigeru, were you mad at me for helping you out just before your brother tried to break your neck?"

The answer took Diamondeye by surprise. "Because it is the fate of a warrior to die in battle. If he faces a superior enemy he must meet his death with grim determination, or he will forever be a honorless man." The boy spelled out the words with such precision that Diamondeye realized he had learnt them word by word from somewhere.

"Excuse my sons," Takeo interrupted, exiting the hut. "They are alot into the idea of becoming great warriors like our grandfathers. They want to be Samurai, they claim. What you just heard was a citation from the Samurai Bushido, which both of them knows as well as their mothers cooking." The man smiled, with a sad glint in his eyes, and continued in a lower voice so the boys could not hear him, "but alas, I fear that their fate is the same as mine and my fathers, living and dying in the mines... The Otori family may never again wield weapons against the enemies of Aretania."
Diamondeye felt sorry for the man and swore that he would do his best to get the two boys what they wanted so badly. The oldest brother was old enough to start his training immidiately, the younger might have to wait a couple of years. He determined with himself that he would make preparations for this as soon as possible. His thinking was brought to a hold by the father of the two boys:
"Allow me to introduce my mother, Shizuka."
Diamondeye bowed at the older woman. Her hair was long and red with a greyish glint, and she was tall and looked like she could easily live twenty years more.
"Alright," Diamondeye said, "let's go and have some food. My house is in the other side of town. Come on, boys."

Kaede, Takeo, Shizuka and the boys followed the monk to his home.

 

[Diamondeye]

...

Diamondeye returned to the city under much attention. Only some days before, the faithful had recieved orders to stop working in the mines. Many had not understood this and it needed an explanation from the Enlightened himself. He walked into the city with his personal guard. They looked like they had walked without pause directly from Arete. Diamondeye gathered the citizens in the city square and begun spoking:

"I know my recent actions may seem... Odd to you. Let em explain it to you in short.
The King is no longer fit to run the country. He does not wish to hold our religion and it's laws sacred anymore. He wants to tolerate heathens as populace of the empire. And he lacks both the knowledge and the experience to rule the country. From now on, the Warlords of Edorai will be our hope for a new and competent rule.

Furthermore, this King lacks empathy with his people. He has forbidden us to use the gold from our mines, and just a couple of days ago, he threatened to kill my brother. I have not heard from him since then."

Diamondeye bowed his head and allowed the tears to tumble down. The crowd started yelling and pushing, and through his tears Diamondeye could see the few guards loyal to the King alone retire into safer areas of the city, and the statue of the king in the city square fall over and shatter. He thought to himself: "Oh, Sindar, how I envy you. If there is any cause worth dying for, this surely must be it."