MjM
Deity
Damn, I broke my leg (see my NES) so was gone all day today. Just do what you would do if you were Egypt.
stCVNNES: In Story and Song
- Thread starter Cuivienen
- Start date
Cuivienen
Deity
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2003
- Messages
- 8,011
stCVNNES: In Story and Song
Update 1: The Early Years
We begin with the nation of Rome. The Romans are known to dream of empire, and their recent developments show it. Stretching their manpower thin, the Romans have built a mighty army, far stronger than those of the surrounding nations. Although the Romans claim that this army is solely for the purposes of defense, the ruthless conquests of the tribes of Campagnia and Tuscany suggests otherwise. And, when three Etruscans brothers claimed the throne of that nation, Rome intervened and conquered the citadel of Genoa, cutting off Etruria from the Tyrrhenian Sea. Currently, the Romans hold all of Italy in thrall save the Po River valley, in Etrurian hands, and Calabria, owned by Sicily. Rome is well on her way to empire.
Sicily, on the other hand, Romes primary rival, has focused instead on its navy. As strong in naval power as Rome is on land, Sicily dominates the central Mediterranean with complete control of the island of Sardinia and the Calabrian peninsula. Unfortunately for them, they have to contend with the naval powers of Carthage and Minoa as well, but currently Sicily is the strongest of the central Mediterranean naval nations. However, they are often plagued by pirates from Malta and the Libyan coast, and, some say, pirates hired by Catalunya to harass their ships in the west, though Catalunya formally denies any involvement.
Meanwhile, to the west, Tartessos has been very busy consolidating its control over the Straits of Gibraltar. Though not particularly mighty in any military sense, the Tartessians do seem to have merchant instincts. Although the Mauretanians initially fiercely resisted their attempts to colonize the southern coast of the Straits, the Tartessians bought them off with furs purchased by their merchants in Orleans, and control of both sides of the Straits has allowed Tartessos to monopolize trade between Atlantic and Mediterranean nations, bolstering their economy. Whether the various other naval powerhouses will allow this to stand forever is unclear, however.
One of those naval powerhouses that may threaten Tartessian dominance is Portugal. Foiled in all of their attempts to settle in Africa due to the hostility of the Mauretanians (and not having the instinct of the Tartessians to buy them off), the Portuguese have also been locked out of the Mediterranean by strict Tartessian regulation of Gibraltar. Portugal has, however, met with greater success in Aquitaine, where most of the region now lies under Portuguese rule. Separating these two parts of Portugal are the fiercely independent Basque who have refused to submit to either Aragon or Portugal. Thus, the Portuguese are often in battle along their borders and have been further slowed in their dreams of conquest and empire.
In central Iberia, the Aragonese, having no coastline, have pursued a very different strategy: they have recruited a mighty army capable of crushing that of any of the other myriad Iberian nations. And, unfortunately for Catalunya, this army has been unleashed on them. While the Catalunyan army was away. Fortunately for the Catalunyans, they have allies, and so while the Aragonese have captured all of Valenciana, the Catalunyans have held the line just south of their own capital. It remains to be seen whether the Catalunyans and their Orleansian allies can defeat the mighty armies of Aragon, but the Aragonese certainly hope not, particularly after their raids against the Castilians and Basques made them highly unpopular in the rest of Iberia as well.
Speaking of Orleans, they, too, have been doing some conquering. Massilia is no more. After allying with the Catalunyans, the two nations plotted to conquer Massilia, and, though Catalunya has had poor fortunes at home, they did succeed in overrunning Massilia by sea while Orleans overran it by land. Through this conquest, and by expanding to the Atlantic coastline, Orleans has also become the only nation to control an entire trade route between the Atlantic and Mediterranean aside from Tartessos though the Orleansian route requires a great deal of overland travel. However, the Orleansians have been bogged down recently in aiding their Catalunyan allies against the Aragonese. In addition, a few Massilians have escaped to Corsica where they established the Kingdom of the Isle, a rogue pirate nation sure to trouble Orleans in the future.
North of Orleans and of all other nations lies tiny Eire. A recently-established nation, Eire has had relatively little time to develop. Unlike the other, more fiercely militaristic and economically-centered nations to the south, however, Eire has made itself a cultural center, particularly impressive for an isolated land. While they have met some few disunited realms on Luthany, Eire is largely alone, though they do trade with Brittany and with Tartessian and Portuguese merchants that reach their shores.
Another upstart nation is Germania. Still separated from the rest of the civilized world by barbarian hordes, Germania has, rather than building up a military or their culture, begun educating their populace and establishing lasting farmsteads. This has attracted the eyes of barbarians, many of whom have raided Germania over the years, but by and large Germania has become a safe, secure and fertile realm in an inhospitable place. Rumors of a great tome being written are as yet unconfirmed.
Now the tales of the last 2000 years move eastward to the realm of Thrace. The northernmost of the Greek realms, Thrace has historically had a great rivalry with the nation of Macedon to the west. Over the course of 2000 years, one might think that the two nations could work out their differences, but this was not the case. Instead, Thrace and Macedon have been fighting wars off and on for the entire period. The Thracians have gained only a small amount of ground over the centuries, but pirates they have hired have recently weakened the Macedonians who may finally be ready to collapse. In the north, the Thracians have met the isolated Dacians, with whom they have traded extensively. Though their rivals the Trojans (Iliumites) control the far bank of the Bosporus, the Thracians have also managed to make their town of Byzantium into a mighty trading port.
North of Thrace, and of Dacia, lies Scythia, a land of fierce warriors and conquered serfs. The population of Scythia is very low and spread wide across the plains, but the Scythians are fierce, horse-mounted warriors feared by the Dacians and hated by those they have conquered. Fortunately for Scythia, the population of the lands conquered is even lower than that of Scythia proper. Nonetheless, while Scythia has a mighty and proud army, it is also stretched thin, and the need to conquer to prevent economic collapse is ever-present.
South of Scythia across the Euxine Sea (thats the Black Sea to you modern-folk) lies the realm of Trebizond. A former colony of a Greek city-state, Trebizond today is unique for its location, a strong and centralized nation. Extending along most of the southern shore of the Sea, Trebizond is a nation of merchants, connecting the Greek world directly to Mesopotamia without any Phoenician toll-takers. Relatively friendly and benign, the people of Trebizond (OOC: Anyone know the noun for someone from Trebizond?) are more inclined to business and religion than war, and are currently in the process of constructing a vast Celestial Temple to their primary deity, Zeus. The people of Trebizond are also known for being longwinded, but that isnt so important (though it may impede their success as merchants).
While the people of Trebizond have been enjoying their status as one of the few nations connecting the east and west, the Babylonians have been exploiting it. Heavy taxes imposed on all goods travelling through Mesopotamia have made Babylon rich. Furthermore, their puppet in Sumeria, the descendant of one installed after the Babylonians assisted Sumeria in dealing with pressure from Persia has provided the Babylonians with access to the Persian Gulf and thus goods from the east. While Babylon is now surrounded by Medes, Sumeria, Assyria and the Arabian desert, it is largely self-sufficient and has no pressing need to expand. The construction of a massive hanging garden in the capital city is almost complete and has made the city a center of culture in Mesopotamia.
East of Babylon, the Persians have also built a mighty empire, this one more of spears and arrows than of stones. Less civilized than their similar Medean neighbors to the north, the Persians have ever been a threat to Babylon and their Sumerian puppets but despite constant warnings from Babylon have never actually attacked. Rather, they have built up a large army of horsemen and archers, though whom they hope to unleash that army against is still unclear. The barbarians to the east have retreated somewhat out of fear that they may be the targets.
Elsewhere, the Aryan invasion has come and gone. Punjab alone of the Indus valley states survived as the same political entity; Sind still exists under Aryan rulers and Mohenjo-daro and Harappa were destroyed utterly. In their places lie other Aryan-ruled kingdoms of Dravidians, or the southeast of Punjab, a Dravidian-ruled kingdom of equally Aryans and Dravidians formed by a lesser branch of the Punjabi royal house. Overall Punjab has become a relatively powerful nation, though, as Dravidian, it is little liked by its Aryan neighbors. Its agriculture is famous, however, and, though Hinduism is a decentralized religion, Punjab has become a major cultural powerhouse around the religion.
Turkia was very boring, but they do have something of an army. Unfortunately, much of it is always embattled with barbarians.
Pandyas has greatly expanded its sphere of influence, and, when the nation of Sinhala disintegrated into civil war, Pandyas conquered the nation and the entire island of Sri Lanka. As yet unaffected by the Aryan migration, Pandyas and its surrounding nations, Cholas and Chalukyas, have each grown large. Unfortunately for Pandyas, this leaves little room for them, crowded on the southern end of India, but perhaps they can exploit the natural rivalry between Cholas and Chalukyas for their benefit.
In China, both Wu and Anyang have grown strong and expanded at the expense of their less-civilized neighbors. Weakness in the Shang court allowed Anyang (formerly known as Yi) to expand without Shang intervention, and the subsequent fallout in Shang led to the collapse of the Shang dynasty to the more rugged Zhou dynasty. The Zhou are warlike, and a threat both to Anyang and to Wu but right now are not so strong as either. China remains isolated from the rest of the world; Wu ships and Pandyan ships just missed each other at the Straits of Malacca.
Finally, Japan has somewhat succeeded in its bid to unite the Japanese islands. Although northern Honshu and all of Hokkaido remain far outside of the control of the Shogunate, the entirety of Kyushu and Shikoku as well southern Honshu lies in their hands. Civilization has flourished in these southern lands, and Japan has opened some trade links with nearby Wu and Anyang and the Korean nations of Baekje, Silla and Gorgoryeo.
Dont post.
Update 1: The Early Years
We begin with the nation of Rome. The Romans are known to dream of empire, and their recent developments show it. Stretching their manpower thin, the Romans have built a mighty army, far stronger than those of the surrounding nations. Although the Romans claim that this army is solely for the purposes of defense, the ruthless conquests of the tribes of Campagnia and Tuscany suggests otherwise. And, when three Etruscans brothers claimed the throne of that nation, Rome intervened and conquered the citadel of Genoa, cutting off Etruria from the Tyrrhenian Sea. Currently, the Romans hold all of Italy in thrall save the Po River valley, in Etrurian hands, and Calabria, owned by Sicily. Rome is well on her way to empire.
Sicily, on the other hand, Romes primary rival, has focused instead on its navy. As strong in naval power as Rome is on land, Sicily dominates the central Mediterranean with complete control of the island of Sardinia and the Calabrian peninsula. Unfortunately for them, they have to contend with the naval powers of Carthage and Minoa as well, but currently Sicily is the strongest of the central Mediterranean naval nations. However, they are often plagued by pirates from Malta and the Libyan coast, and, some say, pirates hired by Catalunya to harass their ships in the west, though Catalunya formally denies any involvement.
Meanwhile, to the west, Tartessos has been very busy consolidating its control over the Straits of Gibraltar. Though not particularly mighty in any military sense, the Tartessians do seem to have merchant instincts. Although the Mauretanians initially fiercely resisted their attempts to colonize the southern coast of the Straits, the Tartessians bought them off with furs purchased by their merchants in Orleans, and control of both sides of the Straits has allowed Tartessos to monopolize trade between Atlantic and Mediterranean nations, bolstering their economy. Whether the various other naval powerhouses will allow this to stand forever is unclear, however.
One of those naval powerhouses that may threaten Tartessian dominance is Portugal. Foiled in all of their attempts to settle in Africa due to the hostility of the Mauretanians (and not having the instinct of the Tartessians to buy them off), the Portuguese have also been locked out of the Mediterranean by strict Tartessian regulation of Gibraltar. Portugal has, however, met with greater success in Aquitaine, where most of the region now lies under Portuguese rule. Separating these two parts of Portugal are the fiercely independent Basque who have refused to submit to either Aragon or Portugal. Thus, the Portuguese are often in battle along their borders and have been further slowed in their dreams of conquest and empire.
In central Iberia, the Aragonese, having no coastline, have pursued a very different strategy: they have recruited a mighty army capable of crushing that of any of the other myriad Iberian nations. And, unfortunately for Catalunya, this army has been unleashed on them. While the Catalunyan army was away. Fortunately for the Catalunyans, they have allies, and so while the Aragonese have captured all of Valenciana, the Catalunyans have held the line just south of their own capital. It remains to be seen whether the Catalunyans and their Orleansian allies can defeat the mighty armies of Aragon, but the Aragonese certainly hope not, particularly after their raids against the Castilians and Basques made them highly unpopular in the rest of Iberia as well.
Speaking of Orleans, they, too, have been doing some conquering. Massilia is no more. After allying with the Catalunyans, the two nations plotted to conquer Massilia, and, though Catalunya has had poor fortunes at home, they did succeed in overrunning Massilia by sea while Orleans overran it by land. Through this conquest, and by expanding to the Atlantic coastline, Orleans has also become the only nation to control an entire trade route between the Atlantic and Mediterranean aside from Tartessos though the Orleansian route requires a great deal of overland travel. However, the Orleansians have been bogged down recently in aiding their Catalunyan allies against the Aragonese. In addition, a few Massilians have escaped to Corsica where they established the Kingdom of the Isle, a rogue pirate nation sure to trouble Orleans in the future.
North of Orleans and of all other nations lies tiny Eire. A recently-established nation, Eire has had relatively little time to develop. Unlike the other, more fiercely militaristic and economically-centered nations to the south, however, Eire has made itself a cultural center, particularly impressive for an isolated land. While they have met some few disunited realms on Luthany, Eire is largely alone, though they do trade with Brittany and with Tartessian and Portuguese merchants that reach their shores.
Another upstart nation is Germania. Still separated from the rest of the civilized world by barbarian hordes, Germania has, rather than building up a military or their culture, begun educating their populace and establishing lasting farmsteads. This has attracted the eyes of barbarians, many of whom have raided Germania over the years, but by and large Germania has become a safe, secure and fertile realm in an inhospitable place. Rumors of a great tome being written are as yet unconfirmed.
Now the tales of the last 2000 years move eastward to the realm of Thrace. The northernmost of the Greek realms, Thrace has historically had a great rivalry with the nation of Macedon to the west. Over the course of 2000 years, one might think that the two nations could work out their differences, but this was not the case. Instead, Thrace and Macedon have been fighting wars off and on for the entire period. The Thracians have gained only a small amount of ground over the centuries, but pirates they have hired have recently weakened the Macedonians who may finally be ready to collapse. In the north, the Thracians have met the isolated Dacians, with whom they have traded extensively. Though their rivals the Trojans (Iliumites) control the far bank of the Bosporus, the Thracians have also managed to make their town of Byzantium into a mighty trading port.
North of Thrace, and of Dacia, lies Scythia, a land of fierce warriors and conquered serfs. The population of Scythia is very low and spread wide across the plains, but the Scythians are fierce, horse-mounted warriors feared by the Dacians and hated by those they have conquered. Fortunately for Scythia, the population of the lands conquered is even lower than that of Scythia proper. Nonetheless, while Scythia has a mighty and proud army, it is also stretched thin, and the need to conquer to prevent economic collapse is ever-present.
South of Scythia across the Euxine Sea (thats the Black Sea to you modern-folk) lies the realm of Trebizond. A former colony of a Greek city-state, Trebizond today is unique for its location, a strong and centralized nation. Extending along most of the southern shore of the Sea, Trebizond is a nation of merchants, connecting the Greek world directly to Mesopotamia without any Phoenician toll-takers. Relatively friendly and benign, the people of Trebizond (OOC: Anyone know the noun for someone from Trebizond?) are more inclined to business and religion than war, and are currently in the process of constructing a vast Celestial Temple to their primary deity, Zeus. The people of Trebizond are also known for being longwinded, but that isnt so important (though it may impede their success as merchants).
While the people of Trebizond have been enjoying their status as one of the few nations connecting the east and west, the Babylonians have been exploiting it. Heavy taxes imposed on all goods travelling through Mesopotamia have made Babylon rich. Furthermore, their puppet in Sumeria, the descendant of one installed after the Babylonians assisted Sumeria in dealing with pressure from Persia has provided the Babylonians with access to the Persian Gulf and thus goods from the east. While Babylon is now surrounded by Medes, Sumeria, Assyria and the Arabian desert, it is largely self-sufficient and has no pressing need to expand. The construction of a massive hanging garden in the capital city is almost complete and has made the city a center of culture in Mesopotamia.
East of Babylon, the Persians have also built a mighty empire, this one more of spears and arrows than of stones. Less civilized than their similar Medean neighbors to the north, the Persians have ever been a threat to Babylon and their Sumerian puppets but despite constant warnings from Babylon have never actually attacked. Rather, they have built up a large army of horsemen and archers, though whom they hope to unleash that army against is still unclear. The barbarians to the east have retreated somewhat out of fear that they may be the targets.
Elsewhere, the Aryan invasion has come and gone. Punjab alone of the Indus valley states survived as the same political entity; Sind still exists under Aryan rulers and Mohenjo-daro and Harappa were destroyed utterly. In their places lie other Aryan-ruled kingdoms of Dravidians, or the southeast of Punjab, a Dravidian-ruled kingdom of equally Aryans and Dravidians formed by a lesser branch of the Punjabi royal house. Overall Punjab has become a relatively powerful nation, though, as Dravidian, it is little liked by its Aryan neighbors. Its agriculture is famous, however, and, though Hinduism is a decentralized religion, Punjab has become a major cultural powerhouse around the religion.
Turkia was very boring, but they do have something of an army. Unfortunately, much of it is always embattled with barbarians.
Pandyas has greatly expanded its sphere of influence, and, when the nation of Sinhala disintegrated into civil war, Pandyas conquered the nation and the entire island of Sri Lanka. As yet unaffected by the Aryan migration, Pandyas and its surrounding nations, Cholas and Chalukyas, have each grown large. Unfortunately for Pandyas, this leaves little room for them, crowded on the southern end of India, but perhaps they can exploit the natural rivalry between Cholas and Chalukyas for their benefit.
In China, both Wu and Anyang have grown strong and expanded at the expense of their less-civilized neighbors. Weakness in the Shang court allowed Anyang (formerly known as Yi) to expand without Shang intervention, and the subsequent fallout in Shang led to the collapse of the Shang dynasty to the more rugged Zhou dynasty. The Zhou are warlike, and a threat both to Anyang and to Wu but right now are not so strong as either. China remains isolated from the rest of the world; Wu ships and Pandyan ships just missed each other at the Straits of Malacca.
Finally, Japan has somewhat succeeded in its bid to unite the Japanese islands. Although northern Honshu and all of Hokkaido remain far outside of the control of the Shogunate, the entirety of Kyushu and Shikoku as well southern Honshu lies in their hands. Civilization has flourished in these southern lands, and Japan has opened some trade links with nearby Wu and Anyang and the Korean nations of Baekje, Silla and Gorgoryeo.
Dont post.
Stormbringer
The Brick and The Rose
wodnerful job Cui
Oruc
Reactionary
what if Rome gets trade center? how will you show that on the map?
Jason The King
Deity
Superb update. Story will come later.
EDIT: Who are the peopel directly north of me? Assyrians? And are you going to have the NPC stats up anytime soon?
EDIT: Who are the peopel directly north of me? Assyrians? And are you going to have the NPC stats up anytime soon?
Grandmaster
Deity
Beautifully done, Cuiv. Could you just please clarify who each of those North Indian states are, by color? Or at least which one I am, since I'm not entirely clear. EDIT: Grey/brown with the blue-colored capital, I think?
Swiss Bezerker
Emperor
What!!! this is a BT like update!! :grumble:
oh well...
Gelion
Retired Captain
Good job well done Cuiv 
Which blob am I? I'm guessing orange.
Also NPC stats would help.... and a labeled map.
Which blob am I? I'm guessing orange.
Also NPC stats would help.... and a labeled map.
Cuivienen
Deity
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2003
- Messages
- 8,011
stalin006 said:
The next update will be Sunday, maybe finished Monday. Orders are preferred by noon EST Sunday, required by 6 PM EST Sunday. NPC stats will be out tonight or tomorrow; there are a lot of them to do. I'll create a labeled map now.
Stormbringer
The Brick and The Rose
THIS Sunday or NEXT Sunday?
