LINESII- Into the Darkness- Part II

[jalapeno_dude]

The people of Syracia thrive on reason! Knowledge!

Sounds like we'll get along well. We need to talk after the update.

 

[LBaeldeth]

Sounds like we'll get along well. We need to talk after the update.

Would the Citadel be willing to import some beef? We're deathly sick of fish.

 

[jalapeno_dude]

Would the Citadel be willing to import some beef? We're deathly sick of fish.

Perhaps. But we'll need some copies of local religious doctrine and specimens of the local flora and fauna to study first.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

I'm finished naming the old updates, in case you're interested.

 

[alex994]

OOC: My friend's account is a_propagandist I believe.

*mutters about the valin-centricity of the update names* *chooses to ignore that the Valins have too much times on their hands to go do crazy stuff* Really, the updates where Guangfei is fighting for her survival it's all about the Valins!!!

*goes off angrily to change a few details in a story* All in good jest iggy, all in good jest

 

[LittleBoots]

You may keep your silly superstitions. The people of Syracia thrive on reason! Knowledge!

Ah, the fallacies. Le sigh.

For the record, I hate you for attempting to steal my diminutive so obviously. You have failed.

Also for the record, I shall be making love(ly stories) as soon as this lunatic week is over, dealing with the beauty of Gerougioika life, history, and warfare practices. If all goes well, I'll have more Eugenidean Discourses and maybe some sacra doctrina in addition.

 

[Silver Steak]

For the record, I hate you for attempting to steal my diminutive so obviously. You have failed.

Indeed. However, I am sure you will manage to reach a compromise. Look at me and silver. With me as SS, we both have nicks with genocide references.

 

[alex994]

A Simple Family Affair​

“A strong family is the strongest social bond there can be. With strong families, the sun is the limit of what a state can do. Without strong families, there can be no strong state. The Family, is the bedrock of the state.” –Han Guangfei Philosopher, Wei Chuan

-Excerpt from Way of Life, Wei Chuan:

Family is the bedrock of the Han Imperial State. Without a family, what is one’s purpose and meaning in life? Other nations may scorn family, such as the heinous dark skinned inhabitants of Gorin, but that is not the Han way. To strip the individual of the family is the most heinous crime, a crime great enough for the Heavens to strike down upon the transgressor. The Greater is satisfied and the Lesser is happy. All is balanced.

-First Citadel Guangfei Expedition:

It seems to the casual observer that the Guangfei people have 2 prominent commodities that the Imperial Government insures at all times to be in a plentiful and affordable pricing. The first would be of course rice, it being the primary staple of the Han diet. The second commodity, very strangely, is incense. The idea of family to them is very important and since incense is seen as sort of food for the ancestors, it is extremely vital…

-Journal of Prince Liu Hai Shi:

I must say that I am deeply worried. I hear from my friends at court that my name is being bought up more and more frequently as a neutral or moderate candidate for my father’s throne. People would be surprised, but I have no wish to become Emperor of Guangfei. Politics is not where my talent lies. I prefer finance, commerce and wealth. The cities of Guangzhou and Qingdao beckon so much more then the morbid and droll city that is the Imperial Capital.

-Unknown Religious Preacher in Wanbei:

The Emperor is the Divine One’s appointee upon this world to guide us to the right path. The faithful must see the Great Evil that Bladeism brings upon the Earth. Of war unceasing, of death unbecoming and of a world covered in darkness. That is what they shall bring! We must fight with both our souls and arms! Resist the Darkness and in time the cities of the Evil Swades and Myocacans shall burn under the Dragon banner! Perfidious Valinia shall follow, Guangfei alone shall bless the Southern Lands!

-Current Citadel Guangfei Expedition:

Guangfei rotates around one family as always, the Royal Family. The House of Liu have not managed to maintain control for over seven hundred years of Guangfei without some sort of political skill. None the less, the political situation in Guangfei is on a knife-edge. Princess Liu Shi and Prince Liu Ming are pulling apart the stability of the Royal Family. What happens in Guanzhong in the next few years will have impact in even far away Khadon. Tens of thousands will march where the Dragon Throne wills.

-Court Memorandum of Minister Li Kuan

The dangers that Prince Liu Ming poses to the Imperial Court must not be underestimated. His sheer presence and influence will and can cause war with the Bladeists states. He also threatens the continued independence of Guangfei. His Pro-Valin ideals and beliefs are a slap across the face to Your Majesty’s esteemed ancestors, Emperors Yue and Ku who fought so valiantly against Valin aggression to defend Han territory. Something must be done!

 

[LBaeldeth]

Since I've exploited the delayed update to sneak in early orders for Syracia, I may as well start putting up a story or two.

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

"Kae up! Ready! Throw!"

A half-dozen javelins sailed gracefully through the air, striking home in large grass bales.

"Kae up! Ready! Throw!"

A second time, six javelins flew; one missed its target and skittered along the hard-packed dirt of the training field. "Hold! At ease!"

Kajan winced. That's the third one today, he thought, sparing a sympathetic glance to the recruit four men down the throwing line. Poor guy's really going to get it ... His eyes snapped back forward as the Sarjukhe* stalked past, too slowly; the man turned to look at him, glare darkening his already swarthy Syracian skin. "You looking for something, Sarbaz*?"

"Sir! No, sir!" Kajan stared desperately forward at nothing, sweat plastering his dark hair to his forehead. The Sarjukhe frowned a little deeper, but had bigger fish to fry, and moved on without comment. Kajan relaxed, relieved that another man would be facing the trainer's wrath - and then mentally chastised himself for wishing that wrath off on any man.

He tugged at his armor as the Sarjukhe began browbeating the hapless soldier with poor aim. Made of layered, stiffened linen, and reinforced with bronze scales at key points, it offered decent protection - if not as much as a full bronze cuirass might. It was much lighter, however, and far less stifling, though still enough to cause him to sweat profusely. He could feel the linen becoming flexible as his perspiration soaked into it, but knew it would be stiff once more by tomorrow. Still, that was tomorrow, and right now it was flexible and starting to itch. He squirmed. The last man to try and scratch had been set to do three hundred laps - in full bronze armor.

The other recruit was protesting now - something about a cross-breeze - and Kajan cringed in sympathy once more. Never argue with the Sarjukhe! But it was too late, and the training officer's voice went up both an octave and a volume level. He's really going to get it now.

Resting the lower rim of his Spara on the ground, he leaned slightly against it's supportive frame, feet still aching from the forced march they'd done earlier in the morning. In full kit, he groused to himself; bronze greaves and linen braces to go with the cuirass, the traditional conical Syracian helm, bronze shortsword swinging from his belt and his two Kae tripping up his feet every other step. Well, at least we don't have to carry our own cooking gear. Or tents. Thank Insight** for pushcarts. He deliberately did not think about the unfortunate peasants drafted to push the wheeled contraptions along; he only had so much pity to go around, and right now it was all used up on his fellow recruit - who was now setting down his Spara to start laps around the training field.

Kajan straightened again as the Sarjukhe's attention returned to the rest of the men. A servant hurried up, handing each recruit two more Kae, and the officer cleared his throat.

"Kae up! Ready!"

"Throw!"

-----------
*I am shamelessly plagiarizing the Iranian army's rank system for the Syracian forces. They're supposed to look like Iranians anyway, more or less.
**Most Syracian people do not recognize any gods or spirits. Inventiveness has long been prized, however, and the concept of "Insight" has received some slight anthropormorphization because of this, similar to OTL "Thank Goodness" or "Fortune favours the bold."
--------------
UU: Sparakae

The Syracian people have never had any sort of cavalry. They have no domesticated animals large enough for its use, and the concept of riding some unreliable beast into battle is completely foreign to them. This led instead to a development of widely varied infantry tactics. The Sparakae is a light swordsman and skirmisher meant for flanking and harassing tactics. Their armor is made of layered linen reinforced with bronze scale, making it lighter and allowing for greater mobility than full bronze breastplates, at the expense of protection. Their shields, the Spara, are tall, oval in shape, and built with the same goal as the armor in mind; lightness and mobility. They too offer good protection, but again, not as much as the heavier equipment used by front-line troops. They also wear bronze knee-high greaves, and bracers made in the same fashion as the linen cuirasses; like all Syracian troops, their heads are protected with a bronze, conical helm.

Each Sparakae carries two Kae, javelins with heavy, piercing heads. These are used to great effect on the flanks of enemy formations, with no shields between the Kae and enemy flesh. When the time comes to close to melee, the Sparakae fight using bronze shortswords, stabbing and hacking from behind their Spara. Highly trained, they can inflict horrendous damage on unprepared flanks, particularly those already disorganized by flights of Kae; however, their lighter armor means standing in extended toe-to-toe combat with prepared heavy troops is a losing proposition.

 

[Abaddon]

Can people still join this?

 

[Oruc]

you could, but it hasnt had an update in ages.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

I'm currently about half updated. I started work on it on Friday and have worked sporadically. I hope to update before the Canada Winter Games. Failing at that, I have another week off of school after the games.

Nice story LBaeldeth!

 

[LBaeldeth]

The bronze merchant let the coins slip through his fingers with an expression of glee, the money tinkling onto a small but impressive pile of the same on his little table. Veher was his name, and his Emperor had just made him rich.

Well. Richer. Everyone had need of bronze, after all; pots and pans, plates, goblets, mirrors; knives, axe-heads - both broad and pick - fine jars and carafes. Typically he sold to the well-off, the lower classes making use of cheaper and less attractive clay furnishings, though everyone needed his knives and axe-heads. Especially the foremen of the construction gang that had recently passed through.

Yes, they had paid quite the premium for all his pickaxe-heads.

It only made sense, of course. They'd blunted or broken all their own shattering rocks to make way for the great road from Jara, and needed new ones to continue their work on to Ean Samhradh.

His Emperor was going to make him richer still, he thought, as the rumble of the first wheeled push-carts echoed into town. The new, stone-paved and widened road surface meant the servant-powered vehicles could move quicker, unimpeded by ruts or washouts in the dirt tracks that had served as roads before. Merchants and tradesmen were coming from Jara, loaded down with salted fish from the Bay of Khemal*, as well as gems pried from the rocky peaks around the capital. They lacked, he noted with another smile, bronze wares to sell. That, too, only made sense; Iolar Geimhread's mines provided the vast majority of the bronze used by the Empire's armies, the mountains ranging north and west of the city being rich in the metals alloyed to make the useful substance.

Veher let a happy sigh escape him. Soon enough, the road would reach Ean Samhradh, and the regular trickle of merchants from there would become a flood as well, bearing linen woven from endless fields of flax, produce and salted pork from the lowland's bounteous farms ... and more fish, great fish caught in the ocean deeps, nothing like those which fill the Bay of Khemal. Even if their ultimate destination should be Jara and not his city, they would still have to pass through here to get there.

And surely, they would all need bronze.

It only made sense, of course.

The merchant allowed himself another smile and started to count his money again.

--------
*Named for Arehn Khemal, who led the Syracian fleet under Jara the Uniter's campaign of purification and was killed in the last naval engagement of that war, just southeast of Jara itself.

 

[alex994]

OOC: When are the Canada Winter Games?

 

[Lord_Iggy]

February 23 to March 10th, and I'm away from the 22nd to some day in early March. I don't participate in the second week.

Linky

 

[LittleBoots]

NOTE: Not edited... posted in a first draft. Will edit tomorrow. Must sleep.

Excerpt: Essays on Gerougia: The First Impressions of a Traveler, Citadel Archives, Southport

One of the most influential factors in the development of Gerougioikai life is the low population, historically speaking. Until relatively modern times, Gerougia has supported a population of little more than The Citadel proper. The current cities were villages of very few people and as such warfare proved an unbearable burden. As such, the custom arose whereby wars were settled through single combat. The greatest warrior of a village would meet the greatest warrior of the opposing village in a neutral location. The villages would assemble to view the proceedings and to distribute spoils based on the victor. The combat itself was to the death which, interestingly enough, proved to limit the occurence of frivolous warfare as it was more often than not the chieftain himself involved in combat.

This gravity of what the Gerougioikoi call "warfare" gave rise to an intricate system of give and take. Specific things could be demanded by a village, but greed was looked down on. Wars were rarely for any sort of territorial gain, as effective control of another village was next to impossible. Furthermore, the oikos[1] had become co-extensive with the village and as such family units only dealt with other oikoi, or villages for marriage when necessary. As a result, the idea of conquest as a form of expansion is relatively new to Gerougioikai history.

As population size began to increase (through a variety of factors not entirely understood by the Gerougioikoi themselves), combat actually decreased. The Megandros, or Great Man (Chieftain), gave way to the Basileos, something somewhat equivalent to a King. The shift brought about new justifications for his reign, including the idea that it was divinely sanctioned, as well as the idea, supported by the philosophoi, that the Basileos was absolutely necessary for the stability and prosperity of the polis, or city unit, as the villages had grown to be called. The expertise of the Basileos[/u] drifted away from combat, as it was no longer necessary to maintain his rule through physical trials and no longer susceptible to challenges by hardened warriors. For better or for worse, the Basileos became institutionalized. His skills tended towards administration as internal conflict became more common and resolution through arbitration was required for internal harmony. The cities began looking inward, as the concept of taking the lands of other poleis (plural) had yet to enter the collective psyche. Oikoi had drifted together, yet retained a substantial amount of importance with the city unit. Even so, the family unit was, with time, successfully and entirely integrated into the city unit[2].

Yet, Gerougioikai life never remains still. The discursive Gerougioikai philosopher Eugenides, revered as a Messenger of God by the Gerougioikoi, wrote extensively on the topic of change. His basic belief is that all things have an end or goal; all things are in a process of actualization and as such we are all part of one cosmic 'coming-to-be.' He believes that Perfection is the end of change and mankind cannot achieve that finality here. Gerougioikai culture is therefore constantly growing and exploring new ideas. In this, they exhibit a thirst for knowledge and understanding worthy of any of my fellow scholars of the Citadel, but my full beliefs on what our relationship with the Gerougioikoi are described in other essays.[3]

Suffice it to say, the city would not remain isolated forever. As the city achieved unity, the necessity of introversion faded somewhat and kings looked again abroad. Populations had increased, but the ideals of personal glory and honour (held over from days of personal combat and later small matches of the best fighters of the village in a single melee) remained. Warriors remained a small subset of the population, but their numbers had become large enough to maintain control of another polis, beyond simply extracting certain goods. This realization sparked a short period of constant warfare amongst the Gerougioikoi, a period ended by a Strategos[4] from Kallipolis, Telamon of Ruthless Bronze. This brilliant tactician brought all Gerougioikoi under one banner for the first time in their history. Yet, when we speak of Telamon and the Unification, we speak of our own time. This is no ancient history and the idea of Gerougia as one entity, while having existed since antiquity, has only just recently been actualized. This unification coincided with the visit of foreign powers and the revelation of an outside world, and a dangerous world at that. Thus far, the words of the Philosopher, current philosophoi and theophemeis[5], and the threat of foreign powers has aided the process of integration. The long discussed concept of the politeia, or, roughly, republic, has finally been realized.

[1] "household" commonly "family" specifically encompassed the idea of extended family; perhaps similar to the clans of the Tuatha, cf. On the Tuatha, the Folk of Tir Tairngire; also used to signify a people - Gerougioikoi: "Those Who Have Their Family/Dwelling in the Land of the Ancients"; or Perioikoi: "Those Who Live/Dwell/Make Family Nearby/Around"; not to be confused with demos ("people")

[2] This may be an unfair characterization, as, from what the Gerougioikai scholars I have spoken with seem to indicate, the city unit was founded upon the family unit. There was no introduction of a new system, rather the new was merely a growth of the old. I agree in principle, but they seem to miss the vital fact that multiple oikoi were merged into one under the polis. This fact demands qualifiers be placed into the idea that the polis evolved from the oikos. Namely, that the polis treaded entirely new ground; oikoi had never lived with each other in such close proximity and the social order was one part tradition, one part invented. For further information, see chapter 4 of this work or the seminal work on Gerougioikai culture, Hubris and Humility)

[3] "On Gerougia: The Necessity of Friendship"

[4] The Strategos is another relatively new development in Gerougioikai history. From time immemorial, the leader of the people has been the supreme thinker, fighter, and priest. With the growing number of people united under one banner, these jobs have slowly been separated and delineated that each could be performed more effectively. The Strategos is the Captain of the Warriors of the Polis.

[5] Theophemeis - plural for theophemis, meaning "God speaker."

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Nice story LB! Very engaging.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Happy Birthday LINESII! One year and roughly 5 hours since I opened it.

Update is going well, but I don't think I'll finish it before tomorrow, when I leave for the athlete's village. However, I guarantee an update after the first week of the Canada Winter Games, when my events are done.

 

[Luckymoose]

Happy Birthday for LINESII indeed. Wow you pretty much have the longest running currently open NES perhaps or soon to be the longest ever.

I hope you finish the update soon so I can play.

its time for a new thread as well perhaps the next update should be the last before a new thread.

 

[LightFang]

Congratulations, Iggy, on coolio NES making and such.

Don't feel too stressed about updating! Yay~