Update – 1400 AD
Vietnam’s new time of troubles continues. More western Chinese provinces are seceding to join Kuril’taria; in the northern provinces, there are talks of joining Japan. Also, another threat to Vietnam’s power comes from religion – a Chinese philosopher, Confucius, has become popular in spreading his doctrine, tenets of which include having more loyalty to the family, maintaining proper behavior on pain of being shamed and shunned by society for crime and other such deplorable actions, as well as supporting a meritocratic society ruled by a monarch with true virtues. Confucius, and his followers who call themselves Confucians, also promote the power of the parent in family relationships, and denounce any crime or negative action taken by a child against parent as one of the worst deeds one can commit. “Confucianism” is a philosophy that is quite similar to Balism in quite a few ways, but it places a lot more emphasis on family and loyalty, and it is becoming popular amongst the Chinese peasantry, having spread already quite a bit around Shanghai – Confucius’ residence – and is making its way up and down the coast of Vietnamese China.
There is no reason to believe that Balism and Confucianism can’t coexist together, being so quite similar, but even among the petty nobility in Vietnam’s Chinese provinces there are starting to be doubts whether Balism isn’t really just a way to expand Malaysia’s power in the region peacefully in lieu of constant warring. This notion is reinforced by the groups of Malaysian Balist priests that came along with the Malaysian army to crush the rebellions, who kept on calling on the people to stop rebelling and maintain “the balance” while the soldiers quite often engaged in immoral, “unbalanced” activities in many villages in the countryside.
The completion and opening of the Tabriz Academy has churned out a whole host of great Tatar spies and scouts. Almost instantly, a flood of the Academy’s first few “graduating classes” came pouring into nearby areas. The Tatars now have some more knowledge of several countries nearby. (
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Afghanistan’s civil war continues, but the self-proclaimed king has almost achieved victory. The armies of the feudal lords stand, really, little chance against the unified, organized troops of the king, and petty quarrels between the lords continue to fracture their position even in this time when they need to join together to maintain their power. In areas under his control, the king is embarking on building up the infrastructure, to help improve Afghanistan’s economy.
In Armenian Anatolia, clashes are occurring even more often. The governor fled Ankara, the capital of the province, as it is in that city that the violence is strongest and branching out from there. Many other Armenian nobles are fleeing before their own families are endangered by increasingly-militant Turks. The northern coastal city of Trebizond is the route most fleeing Armenians choose to take to Armenia-proper, by sea, as they do not want to risk being attacked by bandits on the road. The rest of the Armenians living in Anatolia are still, for the most part, remaining, and there are instances of groups of peasants forming their own militias to fight any Turks that try to scare them off. Though Ankara is thus far the only major city where Turks are fighting Armenians, the Anatolian urban population is certainly no stranger to violence, periodic outbursts occurring, sometimes in the form of open street battles, and other times with the murders of Armenian tax collectors and other such administrators. It is quickly turning out to be that the local militia is the law of the land, as the Armenian nobility ruling the province is fleeing while many Turk nobles give aid to the peasant armies.
Greek settlers arrive in Byzantine Anatolia, starting a steady increase in tensions there. It’s still a far cry from the situation in Armenian Anatolia, but eventually, it could reach that magnitude.
Israelite Anatolia remains the most stable out of the three.
The Hungarian and Croatian dynasties marry together and unite their countries into the Danubian Empire. The combining of their territorial and military size put them on an equal, if not higher, footing with the Byzantine Empire, the leader of the Byzantine Orthodox world. The capital chosen is Belgrade, pretty much between Croatian Dubrovnik and Hungarian Budapest.
The Catholic Crusade reaches the Baltic itself in open violence. The German fleet, augmented by Lithuanian ships, attacked from Denmark to Scandinavian coasts, hitting Oslo just as a Scandinavian fleet with its own army was just about to head out to attack Germany. A huge naval battle ensued in the port of Oslo and nearby shorelines. The troops of both powers left the ships to prevent being sunk in the battle, and in turn fought each other on land just outside Oslo.
The German fleet was considerably smaller than the defending Scandinavian, but it had the definitive technologic edge, and in any case the Lithuanian navy helped to turn the battle a bit more in the German favor. It was a scene of total chaos. For every German ship sunk, two Scandinavian vessels went down; the ratios for Lithuanian-Scandinavian losses were pretty equal. Many fishing boats were also destroyed, and debris from the ships litters the harbor. Many of the Oslo area fishermen and traders have fled the area, fearing more war to come. Some are supposedly going to Eire, which they feel is far more secure from German invasion than Scandinavia. The outcome is that the Catholic fleets dominate the harbor and coast of Oslo. Not the whole Scandinavian navy is destroyed, of course, as not all ships were in Oslo, so there is still possibility for ouster of the German fleets from Oslo’s shores.
The land battle also resulted in destruction of many local villages, as the Scandinavian army fought hard to prevent the Germans from securing a beachhead, and from reaching the city of Oslo. Here, too, the Scandinavians are larger in number, mainly because this is their home soil and they were prepping for invasions anyway. Still, there is the weaponry comparison. If the Scandinavians had the same level of arms as the Germans, they could have fought them off their land, but as it stands, the Germans maintain a beachhead near Oslo. There are many corpses scattered around the area. Many people in Oslo fled the city in fear of German reinforcements, and because the city was bombarded by the German siege weapons, destroying part of the great manor in which the top Scandinavian tribal leaders live when council is in session. It just so happened that the Scandinavians upgraded their army in the months following the Battle of Oslo. So it’s quite possible that the German encroachment will soon be repelled.
GERMANY: -2,100 Infantry, -600 Cavalry, -16 Siege; -45 ships
SCANDINAVIA: -3,700 Infantry, -500 Cavalry; -400 ships
A Catholic uprising in Belfast has led the Eirian government to give up on regaining France and Iberia and focus on issues at home on the Eirian Isles themselves. Troops have been sent and the rebellion was indeed very short-lived, not having the support of nearly enough people anyway to expand outside the city into a full insurgency throughout Catholic land. On the other hand, the new Eirian monarch is determined to help Scandinavia and maintain at least an ally, if not direct control, on the Continent. While the fleet is securing the islands to prevent an invasion of the Isles, another is being prepared to send troops into Scandinavia.
Many say that the young king’s father, grandfather, and all ancestors in general, are rolling over in their graves at the apparently-easy decision of his to withdraw from Europe.
This leaves the Catholics to rearrange the order in post-Eirian western Europe to their own will. And indeed, the Mediterranean Kingdom has taken control of Iberia and allowed Moroccan control in Gibraltar; the Venetians established their authority in Savoy and Piedmont; the new French Kingdom, in between Mediterranean Iberia and the Rhine; the Germans taking territory east of the Rhine.
The Yoruba have given the Amazonians a piece of their own land to facilitate easier trade between the two. They didn’t charge Amazonia anything, giving land as a gift. Toltec slavers comment often that the Yoruba are running towards self-destruction by being such pushovers.
The completion of the Toltec great work “Wealth of Nations” has inspired a new form of government to take hold in Tenochtitlan: merchant oligarchy. The treatise promotes the focusing of the government on the will and profit of the merchant class, already very dominant in the Toltec Republic. Most aristocrats who are not very active in the trading world have withdrawn from governing the country and went back to their own provinces and estates.
Africa continues to drift towards a large-scale war, as tensions increase with the Zulu Empire’s annexation of Tanzania. The move came suddenly, and though many in Ophir look with contempt on the Zulus, it is completely legal as the Zulu Emperor was also the King of Tanzania. In Ethiopia, things calm down and secession did not occur among the regions that were revolting. Somalia is another matter. Northern Somalian provinces have sworn loyalty to Ethiopia, as have many of the Somalian military units stationed there. The Somalian central government has done nothing to reassert authority, so that whole part of their country is now part of Ethiopia. The southern Somalian rebellions spread, however, as the people there prefer joining the Zulus without having to fight a disastrous war that would destroy their lives. In this case the Somalians are actually trying to do something, as loyalist forces are being sent there to try and pacify the provinces and prevent secession.
Isolationist resolutions come to the Andes Senate floor but fail, being defeated by the votes of senators that managed to block the planned tariff increases by a 60% vote against the tariff.
Malaysians make contact with the Illini, the Amazonians, and the Andes.
Story Bonuses
GERMANY: +2 Confidence points
OPHIR: +3 Confidence points
SCANDINAVIA: +3 Culture points
Penalties
OOC
OOC
Stats not yet done
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