What do you mean, you want more Galleys? What did you do with the last ones? The story of the Hannibalites and their voyages of discovery (and sinking).
When last heard of, the Ancient Tribe of Hannibalites were just about to do some final damage to the Egyptian heartlands. The storyteller had to zip it at that point because an intrepid exploring Galley crew had ventured far East and had spotted the first signs of land someone who had helpfully painted all of their town walls orange. The ancient seafarers guide foretold that this would be the English. Such tales of lands beyond our own could not be told before the audience at the time, as such heresy might have shocked them to the core. However, we are assured that the new audience is considerably more worldly-wise.
The first hopeful exploring galleys around 700AD were lost one battling through the FOG to the south and the other heartbreakingly close to the English shores but still not close enough to have hailed anyone on land.
Back home, the war on the Egyptians went well. City after city fell to our Swordsmen. At first we burned the cities that there might be no repeat of the miracle of Thebes, but as the Egyptian lands shrunk we became more confident and installed our own governors in the captured cities. Only the citizens of Alexandria tried the Cutlery trick to overthrow our drunken celebrating Swordsmen, but by this time there were quite a lot of our forces nearby to recapture the town.
By 890 AD we were no longer at war!! There was nobody to fight any more. Queen Hannibaline decided to take a back seat and allowed a Republican government to take control. At first this did not seem to be the magnanimous social victory that she promised, as town after town suffered from crippling debt and citizens rioted in the streets.
The next years budget quelled most of this by diverting most of the nations funds to luxuries and cash. The citizens were happier (if not the scientists).
Another intrepid Galley captain and crew went in search of the neighbours. Though the Gt Lighthouse speeded their passage, they risked their lives in ocean waters to the south west for year after year. They never saw land. They never returned. How do we know? Their story was returned to Queen Hannibaline strapped to the legs of a well trained sea-bird.
The next Galley to attempt to find other humanity headed to the West, but made little headway before foundering.
A south-east voyage also was cut terribly short. Were there some sea-monsters lurking out there beyond our sight?
Finally, in 1120AD, came the news all of Carthage had been waiting for. A voyage of death-defying bravery headed directly south from the region of Alexandria had sighted land and had survived to shallower waters. The captain and crew had been well coached by our diplomatic teams. They knew there must be no mention of our ex-neighbours the Egyptians or our treatment of them. They had all been taught to say Oh my God! We thought we were alone in this world. Not another human race have we met in all of history. That should keep our reputation intact.
The new neighbours were the Russians. They didnt like us much. Could it have been that nasty incident at dinner when one of the junior officers talked a little too freely about the slave labour in Thebes and Alexandria? The captain had attempted to smooth that one over as best he could. Still, they agreed to sell us a map of their territory.
We were careful not to show them ours.
Around the coast, we met the Americans and Germans. None of them looked like they were a serious threat to us.
Back in the year 130AD wed built this fabulous Great Library, that some had called a white elephant. Perhaps, now, we could entice our new neighbours into placing some books in it? Well. Here was one about Monarchy (Should we tell Hannibaline? She was so tyrannical before. Perhaps shed be calmer as a monarch), another about Monotheism, Theology and then
Education!! It had a leaflet tucked in the back, explaining that the warranty on our library had just run out.
The very next year, 1150, we had to face a major riot amongst our most revered architects. We had been preparing a splendid Workshop for our great inventor Leonardine under the disguise of Sun Tzus Art of War (Dont ask). However, a traveller arrived one day to say that some people called the Zulus had already got a Sun Tzus and that we were infringing copyright. OK. OK. We said, and removed the fake advertising hoardings to reveal it as Leonardines Workshop. Just one week later, another travelling holidaymaker sought an audience with Queen Hannibaline in order to tell her that there is already a new Workshop called Leonardis in Nineveh. Hed been there and it was very nice. To have continued ours would not have looked too good, so the weeping architects were convinced to transform the Workshop into a Cathedral in just one year. Everyone lied and told them it was just as good as a world-famous workshop any day.
More brave Galleys headed off. There had to be other folks in the world, even if none of our new acquaintances had met them yet.
The ones that headed directly east from our homelands - retracing the route of the early 700AD explorers that caught sight of English shores were alone responsible for depleting the stocks of timber around Carthage, so many of them sank without success.
The original team that had met the Russians set off to the East of those lands and discovered a small uninhabited island, but then they themselves were lost somewhere south of the fabled England.
In 1230 a special meeting was called in Carthage to discuss the fact that of our once mighty navy, not one Galley remained. Hannibaline was assured that vastly improved vessels the Caravels would be in production almost immediately and that the Galleys should be consigned to history.
Things were suddenly looking better. First Caravels, and then so shortly afterwards the science of Navigation. Suddenly, the new vessels could travel the oceans without fear.
To the south-west, Greece was discovered in 1300. Then Rome, just along the coast. The first Caravel to travel East found England without mishap. Then Persia.
The diplomatic game we played then was to sell the richest nations contact with all the ones they would have bumped into in the next few years. Not that anyone was that rich really. Rome looked like our nearest rivals, and Persia had the most gold.
We then spread out around the world, running into the puny Aztecs and the polite Chinese, then the Babylonians, Zulus and Iroquois way way down south.
Knowing everyone in the world now, it was surprising how peaceful everyone has been. There are no tales of civilizations wiped out by marauding swordsmen, and we were not telling about our own history. Similarly, we liked to keep our whereabouts a secret, while buying maps off of everyone we met. Then wed trade contact for as much as we could get with everyone who could pay.
Enough exploration. We had to decide what was to be the fate of this crowded world.
One final explorers note. In 1400 a small island, enshrouded in mysterious fogs, was discovered in the far south. Infested with barbarians, and containing the active volcano Mt Faka and those workers who labour there. We had a feeling that this forbidding place was important in our future
but weve been wrong before.
. I got involved in a never-ending series of exhausting wars that made me broke. Then I couldn't afford to rush enough temples and libraries. The wars weren't really that successful either, so I expanded to slow. I even lost my first forbidden palace in a war
. I guess I should have built more good cities
. Here's how the world looked like in the end:
Has cracker set the Demonic defender option on?
