II. Expansion and Exploration
Sometime around the late 3000's or early 2000's BCE the Council of Chiefs in Dilli had received word of another permanent settlement to the east, albeit one that lacked the "grandeur" of Dilli. So, the Council sent out a band of Dilli's finest warriors to see if trade could be set up with the far away village.
The expedition reached the village after a year of travelling, and were astonished at what they found there. The villagers had developed the technology of the wheel, and the expedition's leader, Ravana, wanted it. He and his expedition pillaged the village, stealing as much as they could. Ravana famously stole himself a wife[1], and enough people to return to Dilli and teach about the wheel.
Soon after Ravana returned to Dilli, the Council of Chiefs ordered a monument built in his honor. His exploits made their way into the resident Harappan mythos.
Not long after, Ravana used ideas he had stolen from the village to refine and promote the art of agriculture. While this idea did not gain as much popularity as the wheel, enough small farms were established by the surrounding tribes that the idea would survive long enough to be incorporated into later Indian society.
The discovery of new idea was not the only thing that the villagers were good for, however. They were organized into work bands, called Punjabi workers. These workers were used to construct a road up to the summit of a hill near Dilli. There, reports held, the valuable metal gold was in abundance under ground. Based off an idea submitted by the aging Ravana, the Punjabis would build a road to the area and then dig a mine, another new thing that Ravana had come up with. The Council of Chiefs liked the plan, and construction was soon begun. After it was completed, the workers were sent to do the same thing to a nearby silver deposit.
Some time later, the Council of Chiefs got word that another city-state had popped up to the southeast. Calling itself Samarkand, the city was a grave danger to Dilli as long as it stood independent.
Plans were made for its immediate conquest. Without much delay, the new archers and the now decades old Ravana's Fist were sent east to conquer the new city.
The result was disastrous to say the least. The arrogant army was massacred by a single defending group of archers, obliterated entirely. News of the defeat shocked the Indian populace, convincing them even more that the Samarkand menace had to be put down. The training of another army, a larger one this time, commenced immediately. It would take many decades before they were deemed ready.
Scouts in the south pillaged another village, in which they found the secret of bronze working. The prisoners from this village were added to the Punjabi Workers, which were now an institutionalized form of imprisonment known as slavery.
Finally, the army was deemed ready by the Council. Led by Sipahasalara (Warlord) Nadi Ugra, they great band of warriors set off towards Samarkand on the same path their predecessors had taken so many years before.
The invasion of Samarkand initially appeared to be going just as badly as the first time, with the first warrior group massacred by the archers.
However, through luck and genius, Nadi Ugra led the army to victory and entered Samarkand's central square with his last remaining warrior group after a week of battles. The city was his.
Yet Ugra's ambitions did not end with the capture of Samarkand. Realizing the power that his warriors gave him, and the fact that these men were Dilli's only defense, he took a small contingent back to Dilli and there demanded that he be granted Samarkand as a personal fiefdom, and that all of his surviving soldiers were to be granted pay and land. The Council of Chiefs laughed in his face. Nadi Ugra reacted by having all of the chiefs executed and declaring himself the temporary Sipahasalara of all of Dilli while new Chiefs were selected. The new Council was much more willing to do as he asked, and as a result he won the popular support of all the soldiers of the realm. Most of the populace was behind him too because of his recent exploits in Samarkand.
The next action of the Council was even more popular. Nadi Ugra was granted full power over the Empire, with the responsibility to oversee the Council and its decisions.
Sipahasalara Nadi Ugra quickly consolidated his power over both Dilli and Samarkand. He also gave the Empire an official name- the Indian Empire. Named after the Indus Plains on which both major cities of the Empire stood, it was a name accepted in Samarkand and Dilli alike.
Ugra's reign was marked by the formation of the Hindu religion and its official recognition as the state religion of India. A fusion of Dilli and Samarkand beliefs, the new religion was a result of the general mixing caused by the incorporation of Samarkand. It quickly gained ground in Samarkand, and by the end of Ugra's life it had begun to put tendrils into Dilli.
Ugra died in his sleep, leaving his empire to an appointed heir which was confirmed by the Council after his death.
The Indian Empire at the end of Sipahasalara Nadi Ugra's reign
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[1] This became a part of the famous Hindu epic
The Ravanayana. In it, Ravana steals Sita from her husband in the village, Rama, who then follows the two back to Dilli. He and the surviving villagers make an attempt to regain Sita, but fail miserably after the woman herself falls madly in love with Ravana and betrays her former husband for the superior charms of the Dilli man.
. I have never played RFC-RAND so this is kind of a showcase for me 
.
My main goal in this game is to get nukes, and become an economic superpower. Space Race victory, I'm thinking.
). Anyway, looks like my people (Punjabis) are destined to be the workers of the empire... again. 
