Since time itself began: A Caveman 2 Cosmos Narrative

[ChineseWarlord]

Note: I SUUUUUUCKKK at Civ. Hopefully you guys can give me some tips while I play.

Alright, welcome to Since Time Itself Began! As you can see in the title, it is a Caveman 2 Cosmos narrative. I'll begin the actual game soon, but first story.



First there was nothing. And then, a bang so loud it still rings in my ears to this day. It took me a few moments to gather my bearings. I looked around me. Still, nothing. Then I screamed. I knew where I was. I was in the center of the universe at the very beginning of it.

I did not know how I got there. But I knew exactly who I was. I was a human on Earth before my death and rebirth.

After hundreds of millions of years, I had become little more than a being in hell. I could not die. I could not age. I was all alone in the universe but one day, I went to a planet, a small one, and I found life. Such a glorious feeling it was! Such rapture! I immediately regained my sanity and approached them. They did not kill me. They simply called me the man who fell from the sky and adopted me as one of their own. I vowed to do whatever I could to protect these people.

This is our journey through time.

By the way, anyone know what the image limit is?

 

[Moai_Spammer]

subbed. also, the image limit on a single post is 30 images i believe (including smileys)

welcome to the subform, we don't bite. However, I do spam moai

 

[Manuss]

A C2C AAR? This is going to be long! Nice!
Are you using the "stable" v36 or the SVN?

 

[Noyyau]

Go forth, brave writer, and may you bring your story to an end sometime in the (distant) future!

Indeed, image limit per post is 30 images, including smileys.

 

[ChineseWarlord]

The v36 unfortunately.

 

[ChineseWarlord]

Teaser Post:

The name of the tribe was "Karakorum". Of course I knew that KaraKorum was a city in Mongolia in my world, but here it was the name of the tribe. Over the course of many years, I would learn that this world was similar to earth in many ways.

Alright, I didn't want to have to do this, but what is the quickest and easiest way to get images up here. I've got an image-capture program and a dropbox, but apparently the damn site doesn't take Pngs. It's late where I live, and I just realized what a task of monumental proportions I have thrust upon myself. I want to do it of course, but don't be too disappointed if I quit early on. Good night.

 

[Niccolo Edwards]

I noticed that you were new here so:

Welcome, Young writer, to the land where the strong control all and the weak "cultured" people burn, where the advanced destroy the primitive, where the UN is a tool for world domination, where democracy is just a means of building things quicker while communism is the most effective economy for large empires more often than not, where those who conquer the quickest and than keep control of their spoils are the most respected, where men love to start as cavemen on their trip to the cosmos, the heavens fall twice with incantations of unbelievable power, where the ultimate religious authority is a white, radioactive rock that can burst forth sometimes with the radiance of a thousand suns[1], where the forecast is continued war in a hell-hole of eternal war against Eurasia EastAsia with a 100% chance of mushroom clouds, or have been forced to abandon their own home due to thermonuclear warfare for the stars. All at the dance of those voyaging writers, who place with the lives of trillions for the purposes of their game.

This is Civfanatics. Only The the strong will flourish under its members iron rule and titanium fists. The weak will be perished, the strong ganged on, the cunning survive.
Do you have what it takes, oh maybe wise and definitely greedy writer?

Standard initiation. Brainwashing starts next week at 10 am.

Also subbed - this looks like it should be interesting.

 

[CaterpillarKing]

Welcome to the site! I am your king and I will be showing you to your seats. Please remain seated throughout the duration of the flight as this plane is made out of popsicle sticks and chewing gum and your pilot hasn't been seen since take-off, thank you.

Glad to see more writers coming to our humble subforum.

 

[clanky4]

Alright, I didn't want to have to do this, but what is the quickest and easiest way to get images up here. I've got an image-capture program and a dropbox, but apparently the damn site doesn't take Pngs. It's late where I live, and I just realized what a task of monumental proportions I have thrust upon myself. I want to do it of course, but don't be too disappointed if I quit early on. Good night.

You could just press the print screen button while in game. That'll save a a .jpg image to somewhere around:

C:\Users\USER\Documents\My Games\Beyond the Sword\ScreenShots

As per uploading images I have heard that imgur is good.
http://imgur.com/

Though I personally use photobucket
http://developer.photobucket.com/

But require you to register an account. I can't say much about imgur since I don't really use it but photobucket is fairly good. There are some image view limits but I have yet to personally encounter them.

It is quite a task writing a story. But it is rewarding in its own way. It allows you to play civ in a whole different way. Really thinking about what your doing. How it effects you and your neighbors. Or you know just going about steam rolling everyone else is good too.

 

[ChineseWarlord]

Alright guys, I've finally got the image issue working out, I hope, but it's still probably gonna be an hour or two before the first update. I've also decided that I'm gonna change the story a bit. Specifically, I'm going to play as the Americans.

 

[ChineseWarlord]

Test: If this works, more will follow shortly.

50000 BC.

I've given it a lot of thought, and made my decision. I will act as an advisor to my people. I will not teach them the ways of my previous existence. While it would create a lot of short-term gain, trying to make things go further than they should can only end in tragedy. My people do have an interesting language, a combination of hand gestures and spoken words. They don't have a word for their tribe yet, so I decided to give them one: The Americans, in honor of my former home.

Spoiler :

 

[ChineseWarlord]

49400 BC: After 600 years, I have noticed that people have started using hand gestures less and less. Nowadays, I haven't seen a person use a hand gesture to indicate a tree in over a hundred years. I've also gotten more respect, as an elder of the tribe. It makes sense. After all, no one has been alive longer than me.

Spoiler :

49000 BC: As a tribe, we move around a lot. I always mark the places I've been for future reference. Today, I saw a natural wonder I call Uluru. It's an enormous rock, so large that I could probably spend a day walking around it and still not end up where I started.

Spoiler :

47400 BC: I've been with the Americans for over 2,000 years, so I've seen a lot of death. I suppose I'm alright with the ones that die "old". They have lived a life that gave pleasures abound, and were able to say goodbye to the ones they loved. I have trouble with tragic deaths, especially ones that could've been prevented with my knowledge. Seeing a child die in front of your eyes because they had eaten poison berries that you had seen other tribe-members die from is a truly horrible experience. This year, I decided to break my own rules a bit. I turned to the tribe members, showed them the poison berry bush, and said,

"Don't eat these. They will make you die."

Simple, I know, and I will have to repeat it many times, as these people have not yet learned the importance of telling their children the knowledge granted to them. But they are learning, slowly.

Spoiler :

45600 BC. My patience has been rewarded. People have started telling their children the importance of sharing knowledge! While it is good, my mind still wanders towards the children that could have been saved had I been impatient. I suppose it is good. We don't have agriculture, so producing enough food to keep every child alive is still a pipe dream. It's...Saddening.

Spoiler :

[

44200 BC. A few more hundred years passed uneventfully. You'd think time would move faster for me, but I have found that the days move by at the same rate as they did when I was a young man. While they are long and boring, there is a sort of beauty to them. This year, I was witness to an extraordinary event. One of the children was attempting to fend off an animal with his bare hands. I wanted to help him, but knew that I couldn't without picking up a stick and thus making the natural progression of things out of order. The child, close to losing too much blood to survive, picked up a large stick in desperation and swung it at the animal. The child's blow hit, and the animal ran away. I rushed over to him and tended to his wounds as best as I could, but it was too late for the child.

I closed his eyes and walked back to the camp, vowing to tell the story of how the child's ingenuity almost saved his life. During my walk, I noticed that my cheeks had become wet.

Spoiler :

43000 BC. This year I made a suggestion to the parents of the tribe, that they tell their children all the necessary tools for their survival. They agreed. Pretty soon (in my time at least), the children of the children of the children I watch over today will discover that I cannot die. They will surely ask me many questions. I still have yet to decide what I will tell them.

Spoiler :

40800 BC. As I suspected, within a couple of hundred years, asking me what I was had become a daily occurence. I simply said I was lucky enough to not die. This year, one of the older gentlemen of the tribe gathered the rest of the tribe around him and said that he had figured out who I was. All eyes looked to me, but I retained a noble silence. The gentleman continued.

"You are our guardian spirit, sent to watch over us!"

I blinked in surprise. It seemed I had been made into a religious figure. I suppose the questions from here on out will only increase.

Spoiler :

35200 BC

"Once upon a time there was nothing. Then, the world was formed. No one knows who created the world except the guardian spirit, and he will not tell us anything about it. Why? Because, my young friends, only he has the power to keep the knowledge safe and use it to benefit the tribe."

Spoiler :

And that's it for now! I had to leave some stuff out for brevity and realism's sake. It always bothered me that in Caveman 2 Cosmos, the tribe would have enough resources to go several hundred miles one way and several hundred miles back and still keep it within the memory of the tribe forever. Ah well. Anyway, how was it? Any comments on how I can improve my writing style or my game would be much appreciated.

 

[Moai_Spammer]

pretty good first update, though i think that in some parts there should be a bit more text to flesh out our main character and his tribe, specifically the text above the last two pictures. Also a few (like 2-4) more pictures would be nice (unless you plan to update daily or bi-daily, in which case you can get away with less pictures )

another tip to use a nice-looking font, this one is more of a personal preference but I feel like it makes stories typically look nicer.

 

[Dumanios]

I suppose I'll sub this story.

Looks like it'll be quite the ride.

 

[ChineseWarlord]

Bold text represents the POV of the man who has existed before time began
Italic text represents the POV of the current ruler(s)
Underlined text represents almost everyone else
Regular text is a wild card, usually involving a "history book" style.
Bold, italicized, and underlined text represents OOCness

34400 BC: This year, I decided to take up a hobby.

One can only go over the same mathematical equations in one's head over and over again so many times before one gets a little antsy. Although boredom was nothing new to me, I decided to take advantage of the time I have here, however long it may last. So I decided to dedicate myself to the study of plants. I would write in a hidden notebook my observations about various plants, their effects, and where they grew best. After getting some knowledge, I decided that the tribe was ready to learn what I knew about this subject at least.

Spoiler :

33800 BC: One of my best friends, Merry, came to me to ask me about where I came from: "I know you don't like to talk about your origins, but I feel that, as your friend, I deserve to know at least a little bit." He had asked me this request many times before, and every time I refused his request. Today however, I decided to answer his question with a question.

"Where do you think I came from Merry?"

He was clearly taken aback by this answer, and said, "I-I don't know, that's why I'm asking you!" However, I would answer no more questions about my origin. Merry did not talk to me for a week.

However, after the week was over, Merry began talking about me. He said that I had granted him knowledge about how the gods spoke through me. Yes, gods. At first his speech was hesitant, as if he was worried I would offend him, but after I smiled to him and motioned for him to continue the first time he preached, he became more confident. My tribe is growing up.

Spoiler :

33200 BC: Little Tom's chores were all done for the day. Storytime was not till later. That was a problem. Tom sat around for a few minutes before finally seeking out the Guardian Spirit

Although most of the adults loved the Guardian Spirit, the kids weren't too sure about him. It wasn't that he hurt or mistreated them in any way. He was often kind to them. The Guardian Spirit was just very mysterious. Little kids' imaginations and lack of rationality can turn mysterious things into nightmares truly terrifying.

Little Tom approached the Guardian Spirit and explained his problems in halted, hesitant speech. The Guardian Spirit listened patiently, and when Tom was done speaking, pointed to a small rock. "See that rock over there?" Tom nodded. "I want you to pick that rock up and do think of anything you want to do with it that won't hurt you or anyone else. Go to your friends and ask them to help you think of things to do with it. Do you understand?"

Tom stared at the Guardian Spirit for a few seconds, before finally going off in search of his friends. That night, the Guardian Spirit talked with adults about the wonderful idea the kids had, but also the importance of them being supervised. It was decided that a trusted adult watch them while they were playing.

Spoiler :

[

26950 BC: A few thousand years passed, during which the tribe further developed the ideas of play and luxuries. In this year, the first stirrings of conflict and jealousy began, as people started hogging things that belonged to the tribe. Of course, the Guardian Spirit came up with a brilliant solution to the problem: People would have some things known as "personal property". If someone wanted what another had, they could try to offer up one of their own possessions in exchange. The people were elated, but a few observant ones noticed that the Guardian Spirit had a sad look in his eyes. They assumed it must have been the wind and went back to trading for the things they wanted.

Spoiler :

25900 BC: 1,000 years later, Americans started believing that the Gods resided not only in a place where mortals couldn't reach, but also in nature itself. To appease them, they created a small statue made out of rock. In addition to this, it was also believed that the gods wanted the Americans to have as many children as possible. You can guess where this led. Although the belief was abandoned after a few generations, there was a notable population increase during this time.

Spoiler :

25150 BC: On this year, a young druid named Song caused the split-up of the American faith.

I believe it started when he first talked to me. All druids needed to talk to me directly to ask for my blessing before they could perform ceremonies. The population was small enough in those days for such a tradition to be possible. As he went through the interview with me, I could tell that he was more interested in becoming a druid for the prestige it allowed than he was in actually helping people. He kept talking about how great I was, an unsubtle attempt at flattery. When he had said the word great for the 46th time in 30 minutes I had had enough.

"Song, I will not give you druidship."

His face instantly lost all pretenses of friendliness. "What? Why?"

"Because it is clear to me that you will not use your position to help others."

With that I turned and walked away.

Later that evening, he claimed that the gods had revealed to him that although I was a gift from the gods, my judgement was not perfect. Therefore, I should not be asked to ordain druids. Although most of the tribe scoffed and called him an idiot, there were a few who agreed with him, most of them "bad eggs" like himself. I left him and his followers alone. I was sure that this sect would die out due to its collection of self-serving people.

But somehow, Song changed. Over the years, he became less self-serving and, realizing what horrible followers he had, reformed his own sect. Song introduced ordination into his order by a council of elders as opposed to ordination by me. While it took a while to get the stain of corruption out of the order, eventually, it became successful. A few years after Song's death, the druids asked me on my opinion of the order. I said that they were similar to the druids, but do to the difference in ordination, could not be called that. "Instead," I said, "Call them shamans."

Spoiler :

24850 BC- 20050 BC: During this time, the Americans made a lot of inroads towards civilized society. Their trades diversified, as well as the techniques they used to live daily life.

Spoiler :

Sorry if this is not enough, I'm just trying to take the events I find interesting and run with them. Let me know if anything needs to be changed.

 

[Moai_Spammer]

quite a good update, I can't wait to see how shamanism and druidism will continue to coexist

 

[TheNoob]

This is definitely a good read. Can't wait for more.

 

[ChineseWarlord]

Er..Sorry guys. This might be a bit too challenging for me as an author. Plus I lost like, 8000 years of history. I might come back to this at a later date though. As for the next story, I'm doing, I'll explain more in the thread I'm gonna put up. Trust me, the writing style will be awesome, don't worry about that.