ENES: World of Magic II

[Erik Mesoy]

"Moon lander" sounds about right. Imagine something about twice the size of a normal helicopter. There's space enough to put about ten people on top of it, but that would be rather unsafe, so it's been flying without them for now. You can exert enough control to launch it and tell it to fly in a given direction, and landing it takes half an hour to avoid crashing. The monitors show its view of the ground, not the artifact itself.

(Strategos, no reply is received from Rome, and it's possible they killed whoever you sent the documents with)

 

[RoddyVR]

cool... so i've gotta come up with relatively peacefull uses for it... not quite a bomber. i'll come up with something, even if its just having it drag a "Czar Grisha is great" sign across the skies of Roddyna. lol.

To Kenyata
From Roddyna

Chief Barimmon,
We wish to propose an education exchange program for the next few years (a turn or two is my suggestion, though i guess i could agree to longer). We teach your scientists to help them increase their knowledge faster, and you do the same for our agricultural practices. This will be to both our nation's benefit, and can be the start of a greater friendship.
Respectfully,
Czar Grisha

 

[Kozmos]

*is trying to figure out is Zuse an intentional spelling mistake as to make the name different*

 

[The Strategos]

Allegory of the Cave​

Indulge me, dear reader, and picture men dwelling in a sort of subterranean cavern. Conceive of these men as having their legs and necks fettered from childhood, so that they remain in the same spot, able to look forward only, and prevented by the fetters from turning their heads. Picture further that in front of these men, who have been chained in the manner I described, is the blank stone wall of the cave. Against this cave wall all manner of shadows have been thrown. Now suppose, because of the chains, that all these men had ever seen were these shadows. Would they not equate these shadows with reality, and think that the shadows are all that is?

Now let us imagine that somehow one of the men was loosed from his chains, so that he could move about, and see things that his fellow prisoners cannot. And realizing that there is more to reality than what he previously had saw in front of him, he moves about, seeking to discover what else his newfound reality holds. But alas for him, the cave he is in entombs him, so that he sees nothing else except his fellow prisoners, and even more shadows on the walls that surround him.

However, as he moves, he discovers that he himself has begun to make new shadows, his body throwing up new shadows on the walls and changing those that had previously been there. And suppose that he tells his fellow prisoners, that he is creating and manipulating the shadows in front of them. Do you suppose that they would believe him? Or perhaps, he, observing that certain movements cause his shadow to move in certain ways, begins predicting the movement of his shadow to the prisoners, seemingly controlling by his will the movements of the shadows in front of them? Do you think that they would come to the conclusion that what they had formerly to be reality were in fact shadows that they could control? I think not! Rather, they, observing how the man’s shadow interacted in a different way from the shadows they were used to, would tell the man that it is their shadows that are real, and his shadow, which he controls, is not real at all, not real like their shadows, but merely an illusion, something less than real.

And do you not suppose, that at the free man’s continued insistence that his shadow was just as much real as theirs (or to put it more precisely, that their shadows are just as unreal as his), that the prisoners would begin to become agitated, and perhaps even violent. And so, if somehow they were given the opportunity, they would kill the free man, in order to escape what they would see as his desecration of the real, and return their ordered world of shadows back to its comfortable state of ignorance.

 

[TerrisH]

*is trying to figure out is Zuse an intentional spelling mistake as to make the name different*

OOC: he is insane, and it's pronunciation and spelling chages from time to time. messengers and citizens have learned and been bread to ignore this and adapt.

 

[Silver Steak]

From: Arkenaar
To: New Rome & allies

We condemn your killing of our apolitical observers, and hereby declare war on you. Prepare to die.

 

[Sheep]

To Arkenaar
From Lahmia

We want an explantion for these vile and vicious rumours that the god-fearing and mundane (ooc: non-magical) nation of Lahmia has been subjugated to due to the capture of several Lahmians for 'espionage' when they were on nothing but a trading trip and the lynching of several other Lahmian innocents due to the rumours released by agents of your government.

 

[Silver Steak]

To: Lahmia
From: Arkenaar

We are terribly sorry to admit that our people are indeed quite xenophobic and untrusting of foreigners. The lynching was, however, not something incited by our government. Indeed, we tried to intervene before the tragedy occured, but governmental policies do not always correlate harmoniously with the nation's culture and mindset. We apologize for the incident, and can only hope to make amends for the loss of lives.

As for the terrible rumors about the capture of traders, we have no guilty conscience. As you may be aware, there are agents of other countries in nearly every country, and Arkenaar has its enemies. We have already uncovered some of their veiled actions, what led to the declaration of war against New Rome and her allies. We cannot see any plausible reason for the capture of Lahmians other than our enemies trying to frame us for the wrongdoing.

 

[Sheep]

To the World
From Lahmia

Know this. Lahmia is a nation of simple and mundane (non-magical) traders. We shun magic whereever possible and eek a living out of meager agricultural lands. We pose no threat to anyone and will remain neutral in all current wars and those of the future so long as ourselves and our merchants are given the utmost respect and treated as neutrals in all conflicts. We will run no guns and trade no armaments or other materials of war to nations at war.

 

[Erik Mesoy]

From Zhiki
To Everyone Else
We Condemn Your Militarism!

 

[Silver Steak]

Can I ask what happened to my Science level?

 

[RoddyVR]

Roddyna Orders
Spending: (this may change a bit if someone helps me with learning agriculture)
1 eco on Economy
1 eco on Science
2 eco on Agriculture

Military Organization:
With the size of the Roddyna Infatry being 8677 it has been decided to standardize the command structure. All Infantry soldiers are being split into 100 soldier units, called Sotnas. Each of these units is also being assigned 10 Lizard Cavalry (in some cases these may be commanders of the unit, but mostly its scouts and/or "armor" type heavy units).
So there are a total of 87 of these Sotnas (one is shorthanded), which include the whole of the infantry, and 870 of the Cavalry (leaving 427 Lizards unassigned to a Sotna).

Military Stationing and Orders: (see map for locations)
Moscow:
4 Sotnas, 7 TechMagi (including Czar Grisha and other Gov Heads), 2 Telepath Engeneers. Orders: peace
Korinov:
4 Sotnas, 4 TechMagi, 2 Telepath Engeneers. Orders: peace
Vetka:
1 Sotna, 1 TechMagi (Governor), 1 Telepath Engeneer. Orders: peace
LongBay:
1 Sotna, 1 TechMagi (Governor), 1 Telepath Engeneer. Orders: peace
Westport:
1 Sotna, 1 TechMagi (Governor), 1 Telepath Engeneer. Orders: peace

Pink Fort (North):
1 Sotna, 1 Telepath Engeneer. Orders: Prevent Illryian Expansion
Pink Fort (South):
1 Sotna. Orders: Prevent Illryian Expansion
Pink Fort (West):
1 Sotna. Orders: Prevent Illryian Expansion

SpringHill:
10 Sotna, 1 Techmagi (Governor), 1 Telepath Engeneer. Orders: Border Defence and Pushing same border.
Red Fort (South):
10 Sotna, 1 Techmagi (Governor), 1 Telepath Engeneer. Orders: Border Defence and Pushing same border.
Red Fort (North):
10 Sotna, 1 Techmagi (Governor), 1 Telepath Engeneer. Orders: Border Defence and Pushing same border.

Leestev:
Defence: 10 Sotna, 1 Techmagi (Governor), 1 Telepath Engeneer. Orders: Border Defence.
Offence: 7 Sotna, 200 Cavalry, 5 Techmagi, 4 Telepath Engeneers. Orders: Conquest of Domain Lands.
Attack on the Orcs:
20 Sotnas (icnluding one that's 23 Infantry short), 227 Cavalry, 7 Techmagi, 4 Telepath Engeneers.

(if you can put the named cities on the map, that would help with orders in future turns.)

Detail of Military Orders:
Peace Orders. This order is given to units stationed within Roddyna, away from the border. Basicaly means, keep the peace in the city you're in and surrounding areas. Same old "military presense to ward off people's fears" mantra that Czar Roddy set up many decades ago.
Prevent Illryian Expansion. We dont want or need conflict with either side of Illryia, but we will not let them spread their influence on our continent any more then they've already done. These orders are to keep Illryia from spreading on our continent. Sort of a "set up a perimiter around their camps, and dont let them wander into our lands unneccessarily" deal.

Border Defence. Simple as it sounds, make sure that Furey's does not invade Roddyna.
Pusing the border. This is a tough one. This means, try to take control small chunks of border lands from Furey's Domain, but only if it is prety easy to do (ie no real resistance on the Furey's side). How far to take this order is completely up to the comanders of the Forts given this order. They can decide its not worth doing, they can decide that they can send in forces into Furey's to convince the people there that being part of Roddyna is better then being part of the Domain, they can lay seige to towns/cities that refuse to join Roddyna as long as there isnt a real risk of "losing" a battle, or they can just do raids into the Domain thereby showing the people there that Furey's army has no intention/capability of protecting them.

Conquest of Domain Lands. The city of Leestev in addition to standard border city forces is given an offencive force of 700 infantry and 270 cavalry (200 of them independent of infantry Sotna units). 5 Techmagi lead this offencive, and 4 Telepath Engeneers provide support and instant communication between any groups this force splits into. Their objective is to put as much of the Norhtern part of Furey's Domain under Roddyna control as possible. Unlike the Border Pushing orders of the other forts, these guys are realy invading and are to expect resistance from the Domain army, and they are to seek out fights with the Domain Army, the more of the Domain's Army they destroy the better. Important note in their advance into the Domain, is that they are to try to keep the "new border" with the Domain as short as possible, so no long distance incursions into Domain territory, move as a broad front, advancing the border in as solid a line as possible. The lands they conquer may need some sort of military presense to keep control untill the populace gets used to the idea of being part of Roddyna. Initialy the forces from Leestev can handle this duty, but if the Conquest goes real fast, then it will have to halt itself to make sure not to leave an unrestfull population within our borders without military presense. In any case, even if the Conquest goes REALY well, they are not to approach Sarmica City, they are not to progress further south then the northern of the Red Forts (but if they get that far, that fort's forces can help with the whole "controling the populace" thing).

Attack on the Orcs. This whole group's objective is the ellimination of the Orcs as a threat to Roddyna. What they actualy do depends on the strength and reaction of the Orcs. At first its a simple matter of cornering the Orcs in their own fort (just so none are roaming the Roddyna Countryside), then if the fort seems like a usable structure and the Orcs seem weak enough that its possible to take the fort without completely decimating it, then do that. Otherwise just smash it down. As far as retreating orcs go, any that run into Furey's Domain, let em run... they'll wreak some havoc there, and later (ie next turn) we'll come in to help the locals deal with the orcs after the Domain's army fails to help (they should be busy elsewhere at this point.)
While its unlikely (by my understanding of the Orcs), but if the Orcs try surrender or any other form of inteligent negotiations, I'm actualy fine with letting them live, and even keep their fort/city, but here's the conditions:
1. they become a vasal state, ie we control/can curtail their military strength and they pay us tribute.
2. they can raid Furey's Domain lands all they want, UNTIL we take control of it. Once a town is officialy under Roddyna control, the Orcs dont lay a hand on it.
3. for the time being, they remain isolated. Eventualy if they prove themselves to be reasonable beings, we'll let em encorporate into the rest of Roddyna if they think they want to, but for now, the immage of the evil raiders born of human fears has to stay in place.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

To All nations with level 4 Agriculture or higher
(Olympus, Orioch Nomads, Kingdom of Blood Elves, Seleucian Regions, Kenyata)

From Roddyna

Your advanced knowledge of Agriculture inspires us to improve our own understanding of it. We would like to ask for your help in this persuit of knowledge. We will ofcourse offer compensation for this. We will gladly offer to help you in your Scientific persuits in exchange for your help. If Science does not interest you, then we could try to compensate you with a simple payment. We believe that something like 1 Eco point payment for your helping us research the fourth level of agricultural knowledge is about fair.
If you are interested in either trade, please respond as soon as possible. In the interest of speeding up this process We have sent these same offers to other nations, but ofcourse only need one trading partner, so the sooner you reply the more likely it is that you will be the one we will trade with.

Spoiler :

Additional text sent only to Seleucian Regions and Kenyata
As your knowledge of Agriculture surpasses what we can even immagine learning in the near future, we would be willing to make either of the above proposals a long term deal that would allow us both to benefit greater from it.

Looking forward to hearing from you,
Czar Grisha of Roddyna.

 

[Luckymoose]

why post orders in thread. It bothers me.

 

[RoddyVR]

because i've posted every single one of my orders in this game. i have not yet encountered a situation in this game where there's a reason to hide my orders... if i ever get into a war against a player nation in this game, i'll start PMing my orders.

 

[jalapeno_dude]

because i've posted every single one of my orders in this game. i have not yet encountered a situation in this game where there's a reason to hide my orders... if i ever get into a war against a player nation in this game, i'll start PMing my orders.

lurker's comment: But what if you're launching a surprise attack? Won't people be suspicious that you're suddenly PMing things?

 

[Azash]

Unless you keep up the facade.

 

[RoddyVR]

man you guys are suspecious. yeesh. this is one of VERY FEW story NESs i have played in, and i figure i may as well take the story side of it as far as i can (without hurting the game side) so i post almost everything on here so that if someone wanted to follow my nation's history through the game, they could get all the info they'd need. i do send PMs that add to the orders every once in a while, but not often, and most of those i could have posted here too if i'd cared to.
i will start PMing orders as soon as there's a conflict of any kind between me and another player, even if i'm not yet attacking, i'll still PM the military side of the orders just to make my "enemy" afraid of a possible attack or something.
basicaly i just see absolutely no reason to hide my "grow economy" orders, since anyone who cares, could see the results after the update, and for now there's nothing anyone could gain by knowing what my nation will do before instead of after the update.
instead of making me try to explain my order posting on the thread, give me some suggestions as to what to do with my artifact. i'm having a tough time coming up with anything non-insane.
but i've got a good chunk of my story for this turn writen, should post later today.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

@Roddy- Give your artifact to the horde of Nekros...

 

[Erik Mesoy]

Well, 1 set of orders received by PM and 1 set posted in the thread, looks like we're slowly meandering towards an update.

@Silver: You advanced to the next age.

From the Great Blood Elves
To the Geeky Land of Roddyna
We're fine with being paid to tell you how to farm better.

 

[RoddyVR]

For previous story involving Ivan, see post 545, third part

It had been a long trip, years longer then initialy intended, but as far as Techmagi Ivan knew, his father was still alive. When he entered his house however, the looks on the servants faces were enough to send him running up the stairs to his father's bedroom. The senior Techmagi Ivan was in his bed, clearly in the last days if not hours of his life.
"I'm glad you made it back son, I did not want to go before you got back."
"Dad, are you ok? Can I get you anything?"
"I'm dying, but I'm ok. Have a seat, I want to talk to you. How did it go with Byron?"
"Well, he seemed satisfied with my payment. Said to tell you that he considers the debt more then paid in full."
"What did he ask you for?"
"An Aiming Glass, and that I teach his son to use it. If the brat learns to shoot a bow strait, he may actualy be one of its best users. I could see the arrow turning, unfortunately it still wasnt enought to hit the targets, the way he was mishandeling the bow."
"That WAS a good idea, he's right, debt is more then paid. Thank you son. He didnt ask you to give me anything, did he?"
"No, just to wish you well, and to thank you. Dad, what was this debt about? Lord Byron said it was your secret to reveal or hide."
"Realy? Did he now?" The smile on his father's face made Ivan remember his father as he was before the sickness had stiken him down.
"Well it all started when his father paid for both his and my education when we were kids. We had been friends since before i can remember, and he didnt want to go to school unless I went too. Ofcourse I was very greatfull and considered myself indebted to his family. When I became a TechMagi, I helped Byron become an official Lord of Roddyna to repay my debt. For some reason he seemed to think that I'd gone overboard with the repaying, and thought himself in my debt. When you were 8 years old he built our Workshop, my old one would have never accomodated both of us, its the one Techmagi Igor now uses. Since I'm fairly certain that our workshop is half the reason you were able to become a Techmagi, I again considered myself and you, in debt to him, so i sent you to repay the debt.
In addition to these major 'payments' there were hundreds of smaller favors and gifts we gave eachother to try to 'tip the scales'. Dont get me wrong, the whole "debt" part of this is just a game. We did these things for eachother because we're friends, but we've been competing at "repaying" eachother for our whole lives and I think he's finaly let me win the game, by not sending a gift back with you. Oh NO... ha..ha... that's his gift... he's letting me think I wont the game before i die... sneaky bastard."
As his father spoke, Ivan Jr. visibly relaxed. This "debt" and what its cause could have been had been on his mind for a week now, and finding out that it was nothing more then a game between old friends, felt like a lead weight lifted from his chest.
The next morning Techmagi Ivan Sr was found dead in his bed, smile on his face and a note in his hand. It read "Please thank Lord Byron for his last gift to me."
It took Ivan a month to come to terms with the fact that he had no use for the double workshop he had spent his whole life sharing with his father. Every piece of sincronized machinery in the place just reminded him that his father was no longer around, and he decided to move out of Moscow.
The Techmagi who had been Governor of Vetka had recently asked the Czar to find a replacement for the post, and Ivan gladly took up the oportunity to leave Moscow and have help setting up a new workshop at the same time. It had long been the policy of the TechMagi, that they only used Roddyna's resourses to set up or redesign workshops if the move was a result of their duties to the nation, if a TechMagi just wanted to have a new workshop, he used his own money.
It wasnt untill after Ivan got to Fort Vetka that he realy find out why the old Governor wanted to leave. The draft needed for the war against the Domain had been very unpopular in this peacefull part of the country. It had set up a lot of negative feelings towards the Fort, the Army and in some cases the TechMagi. Now that the draft was done, Ivan would have to try to repair the relationships with the regeon's towns.
......
"Its not like they are doing anything worthwhile here. All we're doing here is repetetive training and wargames. We could actualy help our nation directly. The town will never build that mill on their own, they just dont have the free manpower, and that's the one thing we have in spades. I'll make sure they agree that we dont spend anything but the soldiers' time there, all building materials must come from the town. Heck, it'll even be good training for the men, teamwork atleast, and some strength training probably too. We lose nothing, but Springfield might stop being so dam difficult to deal with."
"I understand why you want to help Springfield, but once word of this gets out, we'll have the other towns knocking down our doors asking to help them with their own mills and walls and bridges and who knows what else."
"Is that a bad thing? We just have to figure out a limit on how much man hours we are willing to lend them all, and be clear about that limit. As far as military training, that can actualy be a good thing, you never know when during a war soldiers will have to build a bridge or destroy one, and having worked on one will help... right?"
"I guess you're right, but I dont think the Captain will like this idea one bit. He seems to realy enjoy those wargames."
Once Ivan had resorted to resisting the idea with what the Captain of the Guard would like or not like, Brian knew that he'd won approval for his idea to take a group of Fort Vetka's soldiers to help his hometown build the Mill they'd been trying to start work on for two years. Would make for quite a homecoming... he was already immagining it in his mind.
As Ivan has feared, the requests for help from other towns started flooding in not a week after work on the mill in Springfield had started. Some were clearly dismissable, like the request to help build a mansion for the mayor of one town, others were suprisingly thought out, like the village that had already designed and gotten materials for a dam, and just needed more strong men then then they had to be able to put it all into place.
It took Brain almost three hours to convince Captain Garry that this was actualy some good oportunities to train the men. After all, marching double speed back to the fort, after three days of backbreaking labor was better stamina training then any excersize the Captain could come up with.

[ooc]that last part will likely turn into a project for my nation next turn. not sure yet.[/ooc]