Fall From Heaven NES

[TheJopa]

@ Orange - I updated first post, check it out. It isn't perfect, but somewhat more peaceful/natural

@ Merciary - you have Monty Python on your avatar? YAAAY!

 

[orangelex44]

East and West are misnomers IMHO; it's more like Far East and Central. The "East" is basically the Svartalfar and Calabim, with my Lanun hanging out just north of them but not necessarily included (I'm more of the North than anything). Possibly the Hippus as well, although they (like the Asain hordes of old) are focused on invading westward rather than increasing eastern influence. The West, then, is everyone else - a good two thirds of the map, at least.

 

[TheJopa]

Well ask Kol, he figured that East should unite, I never used that term before

 

[merciary]

@ Merciary - you have Monty Python on your avatar? YAAAY!

Yep, I love those guys, I've almost memorized the entire Holy Grail and I've seen Spamalot.

 

[Ekolite]

The East are the nations that, like the breaking dawn, will rise to power. The West are the old leaders the world, the Kuriotates especially, who now descend into darkness.

@ Merciary: So far you have displayed very West-Orientated views, the most recent of such being your interferance in the Svartalfar forest by funding rebels. Of course this may well change in the near future.

I will not comment further in public until a decision is reached regarding the union.

Lord Agron.

 

[arcticnightwolf]

I want to be classified as The North, I don't want to be in one group with these followers of false gods!

To my description:
I was, I am, I will be (I hope) and one day The One will come

... is it enough?

 

[arcticnightwolf]

From: Grigori senate
To: Our people
(Because: TheJopa said to me to post it)

To our people
----------------------------------------

We know, that last turns years wasn't the best. We were under attack of pirates, our treasure was in negative values, there was problems with Shaazak province. But now, our economy and stability are restoring back. We have worked out problems with pirates (treaty with Lanun), our state debt is reducing every turn year, our new trade route with Amurites can bring to our people some goods. Our new roads allows our people and merchants to travel quicker...

General secretary of Grigori government

(hope it raises our stability)

 

[TheJopa]

From: Grigori senate
To: Our people
(Because: TheJopa said to me to post it)

To our people
----------------------------------------

We know, that last turns years wasn't the best. We were under attack of pirates, our treasure was in negative values, there was problems with Shaazak province. But now, our economy and stability are restoring back. We have worked out problems with pirates (treaty with Lanun), our state debt is reducing every turn year, our new trade route with Amurites can bring to our people some goods. Our new roads allows our people and merchants to travel quicker...

General secretary of Grigori government

(hope it raises our stability)

I don't mean to criticize but not even our politicians make speeches this blah. You want to lift their morale in a major speech, not to tell em facts.

 

[orangelex44]

I don't mean to criticize but not even our politicians make speeches this blah. You want to lift their morale in a major speech, not to tell em facts.

Ouch.

Just hire monkeys to entertain the populace. It'll work, I promise....

 

[Tyrs]

Wait, I thought that the politicians were the hired entertaining monkeys...

 

[arcticnightwolf]

I don't mean to criticize but not even our politicians make speeches this blah. You want to lift their morale in a major speech, not to tell em facts.

Ouch.

Just hire monkeys to entertain the populace. It'll work, I promise....

Wait, I thought that the politicians were the hired entertaining monkeys...

Ok, I'm hiring foreign high-politicans as monkeys ... Any offer?

 

[merciary]

The East are the nations that, like the breaking dawn, will rise to power. The West are the old leaders the world, the Kuriotates especially, who now descend into darkness.

@ Merciary: So far you have displayed very West-Orientated views, the most recent of such being your interferance in the Svartalfar forest by funding rebels. Of course this may well change in the near future.

I will not comment further in public until a decision is reached regarding the union.

Lord Agron.

Actually the Luchuirp nation does not see itself as forcing it's views on anyone. We view the world as an open market for us to provide goods and services in return for a reasonable payment. Every action we have under taken has followed this philosophy. This includes our support of the rebels as we are not forcing them to act like us, nor do we plan on doing it to others. So I proclaim this as the Central viewpoint. (I have the feeling with this mindset me and the Hippus will get along just fine.)

 

[Ekolite]

(OOC: Yeah, but us bastards over here don't see things that way. We think you're sticking your nose in where it doesn't belong. Also, that philosophy is pretty much the opposite of calabim beliefs.)

 

[merciary]

(I know, that's why you're the East, they're the West, and I ,and maybe a few other, are the Center)

 

[Algeroth]

Sorry for not sending my diplomacy, but i'm pretty busy right here.

Kandos Fir should expect some letters in his mailbox on Wednesday, through.

 

[LDiCesare]

Dear neighbours.

We realise that recent times have been exceedingly harsh for the Grigori people. Harsh winters, famine, piracy and troubles in Shazaak have all caused you grief beyond reason.
We, Khazad, understand that you sought help around you in such a dire situation. You thought the Kuriotates could help you stabilize the Shazaak region. And indeed, the situation got better, but one can only wonder whether the Kuriotates helped pacify Shazaak or if they just stopped causing unrest there.
Grateful but blinded with despair, you then turned against us, who had faithfully traded with you, despite your economic troubles and the promises of more fruitful trades in other lands. You were led to believe you were there to bring one man to justice, but you realised that the Kuriotates had sent a huge army and caused a slaughter for which their own generals should themselves be trialled.
This was an eye opener for your leader Cassiel. He realised that trade with the Khazad is essential to your survival, and decided to take appropriate measures.
I, Kandros Fir, First Consul of Khazad, salute the wisdom of your leader, for realising that the Kuriotates were not the only neighbour he had. He was right in stopping this conflict between our people. You need no longer fear that our delicious potatoes and Fir's famous aleTM might disappear from your shops. Furthermore, Cassiel made a deal with the respectable Lanun, taking care of the pirates, and, thanks to the mighty roads you can now witness in your country, he managed to deal with the Amurites.

I therefore say bravo to Cassiel, enlightened leader of the Grigori. By striking intelligent deals with the right people, he managed to get you out of a situation where your so-called allies Kuriotates had led you.

A brilliant future awaits the Grigori, thanks to continued peace and trade between our nations.

(OOC: I don't know how far I should go with Kandros Fir selling his own clan's brand of ale and still look serious. I believe the above can be expected from dwarves who always try to find gold where they can)

 

[Immaculate]

I got a story about affairs in Balseraph lands from an Amurite point of view.

Spoiler :

“The Calling”
a tale told by Govannon to a group of adept apprentices during an evening by the campfire



“Gather round yee young students of magic and here my tale of woe and mystery. It all began with a student, not unlike yourselves, a boy of 11 springs named, well, his real name isn’t important but we’ll call him Pamjai, who didn’t return to classes after summer holiday. Pamjai had been a promising student, quick and bright with an aptitude for summoning. His absence was certainly unexpected; we all expected great things of the boy.

“We waited and waited and every day we expected him to return to class. Autumn’s cold fingers spread her reach across the land. The leaves turned red like hog’s blood and fell to the ground and the first snow was just falling when we decided to set out after the boy and drag him back to class. He was too promising a mage not to.

“There were three of us that went to fetch him. My apprentice at the time, Tamil, whom you probably know better as minister Bahtiyar, Professor Royen who teaches you staff-work and knives and myself, a much younger man in those days. Pamjai was a fisherman’s son in Cirail province and had returned west to help his family.

“As we went, it seems that our arrival was not completely unexpected. Farmers across the countryside were speaking about Pamjai in hushed tones, fearful and hesitant to share, worrisome tales, that he had gone crazy, performed some despicable act, maybe hurt someone, perhaps…perhaps killed someone.“

Some of the children gasp. Most are staring at the old professor with rapt attention, occasionally looking into the dark beyond the campfire with apprehension and fear. No. Not fear. Not yet. There was a spookiness in the air, in the crackling fire and in the cold autumn night not unlike the one old Govannon was describing in slow deliberate tones, the fire reflected in his big grey eyes half-hidden under his trademark eyebrows.

“People knew where he lives with his family but hadn’t heard from them for over a fortnight. The last they had heard, the father had been worrying for his son and had talked to a priest of Junil. The priest had returned to the fishing camp with the father, promising what he could for the boy, but none had heard of them since.

“The day we arrived, the sky was dark and full of clouds racing across the sky driven by gale-force winds off of the bay. Dry lightning crackled within this celestial race with raw, barely unleashed energy. It was a storm unlike any we had seen and though it was afternoon we could hardly see fifty feet from the darkness of the clouds. Pamjai and his family lived in a small valley, not much more then a dry gully between two dry-grass hills. Even though we couldn’t see Pamjai’s home and had never been there before, we knew we had arrived. You see, despite the wind and the clouds and the strange lightning, the sky was full of seabirds, all flying wildly about, swooping and diving and climbing again, the whole time being thrown about by the gale like rags in a, well, in a storm.

“Where was I? Oh yes, so we knew we had arrived because of the seabirds. As we approached, a strange sight was waiting for us. A dark conical tower as tall as the ancient texts tower of the main library on campus rose into the darkened daylight sky. Perhaps 30 feet around, at its base, it got much wider, but not in any uniform way. It had a vaguely repulsive form, but at the time, we certainly couldn’t identify it; We only knew that it repulsed us, and perhaps, perhaps it scared us a little bit too. You won’ tell anyone ol’ professor Govannon was scared now will you?”

The boys nod silently. Not a single one is not paying rapt attention to the storytelling.

“The seabirds where flying into the tower, pecking away at it and flying away with small pieces of it. We got closer and closer and before we could see what it was, our noses told us the tower was fish, fish and fish bones and shells of crayfish, seaweed and sand, rising high into the sky. In the dark we had to brave the feeding birds all whirling about so chaotically to tell what it was. We approached, occasionally pecked or scratched at by an angry confused bird. A cacophony of flapping wings and racing wind and sudden jolts of intense light from the lightning all made the experience very difficult to see, let alone appreciate what exactly it was we were seeing. As we got closer, it became all too evident. The tower was a statue, a statue of a giant bulbous head, not human, not fishlike, but like both, and something else too, something… something… I don’t know… something alien I guess. The head was perched on tentacles, five of them, like some strange octopus, only intelligent, and… evil. The whole thing was indeed made of fish parts and plants from the sea, decorated with pebbles and seashells. The birds were pecking away at it, an ecstasy of feeding, the sheer size of the oceanic offering attracting thousands if not millions of them.

“We knew it was evil just from looking at its gruesome visage but our beliefs were confirmed when we examined it more closely. Black wax had been dripped into the sands all around the statue between its curling tentacles and all around its circumference. That wax was infused with herbs and secret ingredients I know about but you definitely don’t and Pamjai, as far as we knew, didn’t know either.

“What kind of ingredients?” one boy asked quietly.

“Be quiet Jopa,” another retorts. “He just said it was a secret.”

“For hours we examined the statue and the magical glyphs. We searched the hut and the fishing boats too. We could neither make sense of the statue and its glyphs nor could we find Pamjai, his father or Junil’s servant. As we searched, examined and, yes, sometime prayed, the statue continued to disappear before our eyes as the seabirds continue to carry it off piece by piece.

“Soon enough the statue was gone and the clouds sped away taking the lightning and the wind with them. A calm came to the strange site. In the clarity and calm we searched again. There was no sign of the three. All we could find were a few traces of wax from the glyphs and three badly damaged trails, footprints. These led into the sea.

“And they didn’t come out again”

The boys looked about themselves, fearfully into the dark and the shadows. They had asked for a scary story and they had got one. Soon enough the youthful fearlessness of 11-year old boys returned and they were soon chasing after each other spinning minor cantrips they had learnt only recently shouting “Here comes Pamjai. The Dark Castle. The Dark Castle is gonna get you.”

None of the boys asked Govannon if the story was true.

EDIT: Amurites attest to the delicious taste of Kir's famous ale (TM).

 

[orangelex44]

@ Orange - I updated first post, check it out. It isn't perfect, but somewhat more peaceful/natural

@ Merciary - you have Monty Python on your avatar? YAAAY!

No, it's great. I hadn't really intended for Matt to be the "windbag" from my story, but looking back on it's logical in a wierd way.

One little nitpick: Marksman is still listed as the Lanun's leader.

 

[Ekolite]

(I know, that's why you're the East, they're the West, and I ,and maybe a few other, are the Center)

(OOC: The calabim will decide how they classify their enemies neighbours )

 

[TheJopa]

Ok, I'm hiring foreign high-politicans as monkeys ... Any offer?

I do owe an explanation. Anw sent orders where he said that he wants to deliver a speech that will increase stability.

In this NES, things get done in three ways. Either you spend gold (and time) on them, or you sacrifice something else to get what you want (sacrifice stability to overtax citizens or pillage your own village to get gold or to send a warning against rebellion to peasants) or you write a story about something.

Now most stories that are written for flavor are not rewarded directly but I do remember them and dedication, and take that in account for under-the-hood calculation.

But it has to be clear that I won't reward stability for a speech that really isn't one.

Also, thinking about it, from this turn on take this three principles as your guidelines. Getting X, even if it is from trade with other Civs, can not be done unless Y is sacrificed, or gold spent, and best of all, combination of those backed with a good story.