Farownes02 Revived!!!!

[Abaddon]

Good idea, ill get doing Fiscait.

Will we get NPC stats soon?

 

[Abaddon]

 

[LightFang]

Me next! Nobody edit the map until I'm done!

 

[North King]

That's going to get really unwieldy, really quickly.

 

[Abaddon]

We dont have to compile it into one map..

 

[The Farow]

NPC stats will be up tonight. Sorry, about the delay. Thanks for the map everyone!

 

[justokre]

Hey, I thought I told you I was Keeleh?
Well, I am. So you can feel free to fix those stats

 

[The Farow]

Hey, I thought I told you I was Keeleh?
Well, I am. So you can feel free to fix those stats

You are Keeleh in the stats I believe . I may be wrong...

@Everyone, NPC stats are finished. Some nations got some bonuses due to their position.

Thanks for the city map.

I am going to make some changes to the stats as people enter the Late Classical Age. This includes adding new government stat, changing religions to percentages of the population, and merging population and size into a single stat. I will release a census on population every few updates (have not decided exactly between each update yet). I am also going to make culture more important. Have not decided how I will do it yet either.

 

[Abaddon]

Im a bit lost as regards the nations around me, their names do not match the NPC list.

What nation is to my east (on the lake)
an what nation is to my south (we meet along the river)
An finally, is the dark grey in the top right a nation or barbs?

 

[jalapeno_dude]

I shall now add my cities to the map. It will be posted when complete.

Here it is. The weird name that isn't Latin is the name of the former capital of Kaldurrha'keeista, which was on this site two hundred years ago.

 

[Cannae]

I would suggest reading.

It's still not listed in the stats.

 

[LightFang]

It's still not listed in the stats.

At the time that you lodged your complaint he had not updated the stats yet; now that he has you may feel free to whine.

 

[Luckymoose]

I have come to notice how small my military is. This is unacceptable. I can't even purchase that many troops a turn. I keep forgetting upkeep too. Agh.

 

[The Farow]

It's still not listed in the stats.

You will be put in the next update. You do not exist yet but I can put them up if it makes you happy .

Edit: To make sure I do not forget you please PM your stats to me.

 

[North King]

Book of Ahl

Movement 1: Creation​

The world was.

Oceans unbounded; mountains upright; rivers from peak to sea; lakes like a thousand pearls; snow, rain, sleet and hail; the world was.

Beasts strange and familiar calved and multiplied; the seeds of ten million plants spread over the earth from deepest crevice to windswept moor. Life on the earth grew and flowered, but for all of the world’s bounty, there were no men, and there was no divinity. The world was; life was.

The earth continued this way for eons abounding, as time wore away at the skin of the world, yet flames poured from its bowels, and the world was reborn again and again. It was long into the ages that men came into this world, as filled with wonder and as simple as the animals themselves: innocent. Men were.

There were no kingdoms, there was no strife, and men were content in their ignorance. They were born, lived, and died, unaware of anything greater; none ascended to the heavens.

The first woman who rose from the ground, who first learned to speak, was Irin. She was bold and curious, yet cautious of death. She was lovely to behold, yet fierce as a storm. Irin was.

The first man who knew, the first true man, was Katir. Broad of shoulder, he was strong above all else. Yet he was also quick-witted, and a hunter of animals. He was good and kind to the land, yet cruel to his foes. Katir was.

Irin gathered nuts and fruits by day, and stumbled upon Katir’s favored hunting grounds. His bow was drawn in the blink of an eye, and his arrow found the small figure that moved so freely through his trees. Yet he lowered his bow: this was no animal, for she walked with purpose and thought. He approached her, and saw that she was beautiful; they broke bread and ate on that site. Katir and Irin were.

Months passed, and their days were filled with joy. It was then that Irin conceived Tal, their first son; he was born in the second year of their union. Tal was a playful small child, but he felt lonely, and Katir and Irin were still happy with one another; Idel was conceived. She was a quiet child, but her eyes were mischievous, and Tal and Idel would play for many years. Katir and Irin were happy with their children, and had many more: Ran and Mili; Dar and Val; Sid and Lile.

Their children grew quickly, and the men aged into powerful warriors and hunters; the women were the wonder of the lands, and made the homestead. Yet as the years passed, Katir grew sour, and slept apart from his wife, clenching his dominion ever tighter. He called the land his kingdom, and built a castle; he broke the ancient laws by taking his daughters to wife, and threw his true woman into the hills, exiled forever.

His sons would not stand for this: Tal, Ran, Dar, and Sid took up their spears and came to his doorstep, demanding entrance. Yet when Katir emerged, it was with a blade.

Tal said to his brothers: He is but one, and we are four. So long as we attack at once, he will be slain. As one, they rushed at him, their spears lancing out to strike at the soft flesh. Yet they scraped and screamed with the piercing shriek of metal on metal, for Katir had forged armor, and with a laugh he laid about with his sword.

Tal’s spear was hacked in two, and as he scrambled backwards, a blow opened him from neck to navel; thus was the firstborn’s blood spilt.

Ran rushed forward and used his spear as one might a staff. Once, twice, thrice it took the blows, but on the fourth it cracked in two, and the same blow plunged the blade into his belly. Thus spilt the secondborn’s blood.

Dar and Sid backed away, thrusting like quick snakes with their spears, but in vain. Katir’s armor held, and his blade took both of their heads at once. Thus did the ground drink the blood of the third and fourthborn.

With a laugh, Katir thrust his blade into the ground, and called it his law. He decreed that any further sons his wives bore would be slain, and their blood would darken the Earth. His dominion would be all the plains under the sun, and his reign would last unto eternity.

Irin found the mountains, where the air was clean and fresh, and the paths were wild and untamed; it was here that she made her new home. She was quite lonely, yet remained nonetheless, for it would be death to reenter Katir’s kingdom. The mountains gleamed in the sun; their slopes were untarnished by the blood of her sons. They were the crown of the world, and they alone remained free.

* * * * * * * * *

Movement 2: Rebirth​

Katir had committed sin atop sin. His wife was exiled; his daughters he took into his own bed, bearing him children. He spat upon the ancient laws, and ruled as a god himself. Yet he feared, too; he feared that one day his reign might be torn down by other men as mighty as he. Katir killed every son that his daughters bore him; only their daughters remained, slaves to his will.

It was in that era that Idel conceived a child, Ahl. Idel had bore many sons before, only to see them torn from her breast and murdered; their blood spilling on the ground like so many raindrops. This child, however, was different: she hid him away, giving them to one of her youngest daughters, Salana.

Salana was a quiet child, merely five, but she was a bright girl as well, and spirited away Ahl to the mountains, far from their father’s ever watchful eyes.

Already the plains were a broken, black landscape, which eyes could not bear to gaze upon; the journey across them vicious and tolling. Yet Salana tread lightly, and her feet leapt the poison easily; in time they passed out of the dominion of Katir.

The peaks were stark, giving no quarter and taking none either. Their might was unrivaled; Salana was tried sorely by their slopes. Yet beauty flowed there, and there was a peace that the blood soaked plain below could never rival. The vales were untouched; pure. It was a place of resting, a place of revival. They were the Holy Land.

For months the children wandered among the crags and the stones, utterly alone. Ahl was raised upon goat’s milk; Salana caught many a wild animal to feed him. A year to the day had passed since their journey’s beginning, when they first heard the sound of a human voice: a mother, long since torn from her children.

Irin was disused to the companionship of other people, but she took in her descendants, and raised them as her own. So they grew up in the mountains, ever free, but always within sight of the dark plain below.

In time, Ahl grew into a mighty figure. He had inherited the sinew of the pines that dominated the slopes; the sheer power of the avalanches; the speed and swiftness of the mountain lion. Forging a mighty sword that glowed in the sun, he prepared to confront his father.

The heir had come into his own.

* * * * * * * * *

Movement 3: Fury​

“These are the evil lands: dark and fiery. These are the realms where demons tread. These are the lands where godly works are trodden to dust, and where the dust itself screams in agony from a thousand burning tortures.

“This is the land where my father holds sway. Cruel and foul, with a blackened blade; his sons have died for his sins. Here only the law of the sword is supreme.

“Now I walk, and though I know I cannot turn back, still a faint echo of fear is within me. My blade, the purest white by day, has turned a dull crimson. I may yet succumb to this evil wind. But I walk on, defiant.

“For he has naught but ash through his veins. If the mountains are to be unsullied, he must be overthrown. And so I must fight.”

* * * * * * * * *

Movement 4: Glory​

So Ahl walked into the vale of death, an eye in the storm of brimstone. His eyes reflected the silvery gleam of his sword, which he held at the ready. The smoke was choking, obscuring everything.

Soon enough his sandals began to burn away with the flames, and his armor grew unbearably hot; he discarded it, but wrapped a cloth around the hilt of his sword that he could continue clenching it. He was nearly blind, but somehow his feet seemed to know the way back to Katir’s castle. At long last, he came to a moat of blazing fire, and he saw the dark outline of the castle looming above him.

He called to Katir, cursing his cowardice and evil, challenging him to come out. With a mighty creak, the great doors of the castle opened, and over a bridge of jet stone strode the sinful King, clad from head to toe in armor. His scimitar was dull with the dried blood of thousands, and over this wet from the blood of one more, freshly slain.

Ahl seemed all at once a small boy, untrained in the arts of combat, foolish in his temerity, challenging this ferocious warrior while unarmored, nearly helpless. Katir dipped his sword in the flame filled moat, and the blood caught. The boy shrank from the father, who advanced with cold fury in his heart.

All at once, the clouds parted behind him, and a single ray of sun lit his heart. He saw, with an awful clarity, all his brothers who had been slain, a thousand times over, and his fury broke.

The swords rang together, once, twice, three times. The father was by far the stronger, and the son reeled, barely able to keep a hold on his blade. Yet he set his jaw, and launched forward again. And again the swords clashed, four brutal strokes. Again Ahl was driven backwards, again Katir advanced.

Ahl fell back and back, as his father slashed in wide, furious strokes; if he had remained in the way, they would have cut him in two. Yet he backed out of the way each time, and the flames cut only the air.

Whirling, he danced forward again, and their swords met five more times – these were quick. Katir was caught off guard, and the son pressed his advantage, driving forward, stabbing at the cracks in the armor, driving him back, back towards the moat.

Then, with a slight smile, Katir moved to the side of the stabbing blade, and swung down with all his might. With a terrible finality, Ahl’s hand fell onto the smoking stones.

He clenched his jaw, that no sound should come out and satisfy his father, and ducked out of the way of another blow. It was obvious that he could not fight Katir any longer, not without a hand, but neither could he run. He had walked into his doom.

Ahl stooped low to the ground to avoid the sword again, and saw a smoking black rock lying atop it. He grabbed, it, and rolled out of the way of yet another blow, then threw it full into the face of his father. It smashed against the front of the helmet, and the man reeled back, shouting in fury as he tried to claw the ash out of his eyes. With the bound of a desperate wolf, Ahl took the sword up in his left hand, and struck.

The blade pierced Katir’s throat, and drew crimson.

Running past his father’s body, he rushed into the castle, where his many sisters stood, not knowing the outcome of the battle. When they saw the mighty warrior dragging the head of Katir upon the ground, they gave a great cry of admiration, and embraced him one after another. At last the King had fallen.

He led them away from the hellish lair of his father, which already was swallowed by the raging flames and molten rock of the plain, and into the high peaks.

* * * * * * * * *

Movement 5: Ascendance​

The new kingdom had been established in the Holy Land, and Ahl became the first of the Sky Gods. He took the one who rescued him from the clutches of his father, Salana, to wife. At last, with the blessings of Irin, they and their siblings repopulated the world, and in time, the plain below cooled. Many went to live there, raising their families on the ashes of the old kingdom, but the kin of Ahl remained in the mountains.

Yet time eats at even the strongest of souls, and at long last Ahl was to be laid to rest. It has been said by many that he was embalmed and lain in a secret place, far from the watchful eyes of men, yet the truth is that he left the earth on the vessel of a funeral pyre.

His soul wandered into the heavens, and became there a God, greater than any being which had come before or since. Thus was Ahl, the Savior of Men, born once more.

* * * * * * * * *​

 

[justokre]

@North King: Cool, story. So is that story passed on through the citizens orally or was it a book?
I remember something about the rulers of that land keeping the people uneducated.

@Farow: Is the light area surrounding my holdings on the continent Oslan controlled Keeleh? Is there an estimate on their numbers?


To Imperial Tephen
From Keeleh
Tephen, your might, culture, wealth have always impressed the Kee people. We humbly request your aid against the despicable Oslans. Help us reclaim the extent of our lands, and eliminate their threatening existence. Keeleh will prove to be an ally of utmost importance to you in the future.

 

[North King]

The story was mostly retold orally until someone wrote it down. Of course, it's been altered a little from the original, so that it falls more in line with the rising new religion...

 

[LightFang]

Yeah, that story is oddly familiar...

 

[North King]

Well, the first movement might be, since it appeared before, as a shorter version, but the rest really shouldn't be. Given that it's never been published before.

 

[alex994]

OOC: *starts mumbling about why his upkeep is so high and why the One True Faith isn't listed*