The pre-AFSNES I.

[alex994]

The Origins of Fate​

“It is maddening, no, downright insane, that after years of research we are still no where close to finding the origins of the people of the ancient state of Xishan. There is nothing, absolutely nothing outside of legends and myths that tell us of the origins of those peoples." –Professor Lankri of the Department of Early Asiatic History

The Western Mountains, Xishan, come from the uniquely Xishan perspective on their place in the world. While others called them Shandong, mountains’ east, they called themselves Xishan. They, from the historical records of the time, were an arrogant and proud people who guarded their independence fiercely. As the Shang Dynasty prospered under her feudal lords, as did the small state of Xishan. It wasn’t exactly a monarchy, an anomaly among the states of Northern Plains.

The Shang referred to them as insolent dogs of a people who had refused to submit to the great Shang King. A great military campaign was indeed launched by the Shang King to bring such an insidious state under the guidance of Heaven and it was greatly successful. They drove the armies of Xishan off the battlefield with a large army of at least 13,000 with their powerful infantry.

At the gates of the capital city of Xishan, Tianxian, a miracle happened averting the destruction of Xishan at the hands of the Shang King. Darkness fell upon the advancing Shang Army, as the day was swallowed by night. The sun, once held aloft in splendid glory, a testament to the power of the King and his ancestors, was swallowed by the moon, the Goddess of the Sea held so dearly by Xishan.

The Shang advanced collapsed as did their morale while the opposite occurred for the defending soldiers, their Moon Goddess had come to their aid and they drove the Shang from the earthen walls. The Shang held an emergency Council of War, and with much consulting of the priests, oracle bones as well as their collapsing army agreed to come to the peace table.

The Lords of Xishan, six in number, agreed to submit to Shang and become a vassal with a Duke appointed by the King of Shang to “rule” over them with Shang swearing to faithfully defend her vassal state. The unwritten agreement, hidden by flexible words and double meanings, held that Xishan would be in fact completely autonomous in the Shang Kingdom with the Duke naught but a figurehead.

The true tale of Xishan would begin from there.

************************************​

“So it begins again. The players are on the table, the moves yet to be made.”

“So depressing Ming, have you no faith in the greatness of Our Ancient Cause?”

“Considering what you allowed Thlayli to do as Qing China…”

“I assure you that was a flux. We thought it would be obvious to him that he should garrison his coastal cities! But no! He had to turn all Westerner on us upon the eve of greatness!”

“No, this time we are doing it my way, the TRUE Alexian way. Alas Overlord, your time is over. Never again, shall we allow that Thlayli fiasco to repeat itself.”

“As you wish Your Majesty, Lord of the Pandas, your wish is our Eternal Command.”

“MUWAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!”

 

[LittleBoots]

OK, my name will be Racadonia, starting at OTL Istanbul, the city will be called Ranopolis

I demand to start right next to this travesty, preferably with a sword to his throat and a sign that says Constantinopolis.

Actually, I now desire to be a Greek speaking barbarian migratory tribe. We will be called the Athanoi or Athanids, descendents of Athanasios, known also to the inhabitants of Hellas and proto-Macedonia as the Hippandroi, the Horse-Men, for obvious reasons. We will start in Boeotia and migrate violently northwest for a variety of reasons I don't care to invent. I want to keep migrating and looting and whatnot until I reach, I dunno, Venice, or something. Maybe all the way to Southern France, in the Massilia area. Whatever. We can be much abused to explain the migration, as long as we reach our destination intact, both as a people and as Greekish, culturally. The Athanids are violently xenophobic and superstitious, so maybe they are led by animistic priests to some promised land. Even so, they are contradictions, like all Greeks, and have strains of atheistic philosophy, although not much, because they don't settle down for a while. This philosophy mainly comes from the fact that they love to hear themselves talk, which also gives rise to magnificent epic poems recited by the Kleosphemoi, the Glory-Speakers. They are quite certain they are the best warriors, most brilliant speakers, and possess the greatest minds the world has ever seen. Eventually they should pick writing up from someone, presumably once they settle down.

Raiding, pillaging, looting, all acceptable, however it is considered extremely dishonourable, bordering on damnable blasphemy to speak a falsehood. For all their faults, they are absolutely devoted to what they consider the quest for Truth, whatever form it may take, and covering up or bastardizing that Truth is considered a grave sin. Ambushes are not considered lies, but oaths are honoured no matter what.

Oh and the name is derived from "Without Death", so they consider themselves, in some way, immortal, despite evidence to the contrary.

Is that okay with you? Sorry to keep changing, but I like these guys, so I'll stick with them if you'll have them. I'll draw up the religion in a little while.

 

[shortguy]

If northern Mesopotamia is not too crowded, I'd like to start as the Mitanni. Failing that, I'd like to start some sort of proto-Berber kingdom.

Which would you recommend, das?

 

[ThomAnder]

Background

The epic battle between Chiyou and Huangdi has been recorded by historians and artists alike to be one of evil versus good, the result of which bore fruit the first Zhong Hua state around the yellow river. History is recorded by the victors, and in rare instances are the real reasons behind the war recorded. Different versions of the cause have been postulated over the years: a betrayal by Huangdi against Chiyou, greed of Chiyou propelled him to fight Huangdi, the list goes on. What is known, however, is that the offsprings of Chiyou was banished from the Yellow River. Some fled north, others south. As if it wasn’t enough to seize the Yellow River for himself, Huangdi ordered the pursuit of Chiyou’s descendants, eager to extinguish these “pretenders to the throne”. Many perished in the chase, but eventually, Some of the clans found themselves a haven in the fertile valley of Nanshan (OTL Chengdu?) and began their life anew, free from the pursuit of the yellow river state and her successors.

Soon enough, however, as the state grew and words of a successor state to Chiyou reached Huangdi’s descendants, armies were sent to subjucate and conquer the Kingdom of Nanshan. This time around, Nanshan was able to stand her ground due to the surrounding terrain, and almost all of Zhong hua’s attempts have been met with complete failure. As the years passed, although the war between Nanshan and Zhonghua never technically ended, actual conflicts between the states ceased. Both sides enjoyed the status quo, and during this time Nanshan would come to develop her own culture, similar yet distinct to her northern neighbour. The status quo would end with the ascendance of the Shang Empire to the north. The empire, realizing the cost of conquering Nanshan, offered her a chance to be a vassal in name. This proposal sat well with the populace of Nanshan, who is more interested in expanding peacefully toward the south and east than through force in the north.

OOC: I'm actually not sure how far we're allowed to go with our introduction... i stopped mine at shang dynasty since Alex wrote his at that point? If this is too much, then just the first paragraph would do for my origin. Also orders coming tomororw

 

[alex994]

OOC: I SPIT on Chi You and I hope your nation is purged by the righteous descendents of the Yellow Emperor

That little joke above aside, I do have those same questions as thomander but I took creative liberty...

 

[The Farow]

I do not know if my city would be named Millwanda. That is at least what the Hitties named it.

Millwanda, was a city settled by the Lellegian and Carian peoples. That is all I know about it before the Greeks. Does anyone have any sources on the city before Greeks settled it?

das, I am unsure of the ethnic situation right no in Anatolia and I know very little about the people living there before the Greeks. I will wait for eventual greek conquest so make a little blurb or something about the city.

 

[Insane_Panda]

Story rather soon. Orders tonight.

 

[Niklas]

Orders sent for Ur, too late for anyone to speak up now.

 

[Insane_Panda]

Orders sent, story first thing tomorrow morning. It is rather detailed, and I am not finished.

 

[das]

Just curious Das, are you going to develop religious, ethnic, and/or linguistic maps for any of the updates?

Possibly after the first two-three updates, as by then the distribution will be altered drastically. It will ofcourse change further after that, but that would be covered by the maps I'll do for the NES Proper.

Aghbanian dear sir, not Arranian.

Yehudi and not Jewish, Hay and not Armenian. Silly aborigines, don't they think we can come up with our own names for them?

Is that okay with you? Sorry to keep changing, but I like these guys, so I'll stick with them if you'll have them. I'll draw up the religion in a little while.

That will work just fine.

If northern Mesopotamia is not too crowded, I'd like to start as the Mitanni. Failing that, I'd like to start some sort of proto-Berber kingdom.

Which would you recommend, das?

Northern Mesopotamia is indeed empty, so I'd appreciate the Mitanni. Berbers would be great too.

I'm actually not sure how far we're allowed to go with our introduction... i stopped mine at shang dynasty since Alex wrote his at that point?

It's okay, no problems here.

Israelite9191 still owes me a description. I mean, for all I know he might be building a Samaritan empire. Aside from that, yes, its probably too late for Wubba360, but LightFang is strongly encouraged to speak up about Sardinia lest it fade into the abyss of time.

 

[Neverwonagame3]

Hi,

Is it too late to join? I'm actually Neverwonagame2, but I forgot my password. I couldn't get it off my email account because I couldn't remember it, and it was probably deleted anyway.

I'm not sure if I'll be banned or not, but presuming I'm not, I'd like to join this NES.

Nation Name: Karung
Starting Location: Somewhere in Egypt preferably, but if somebody else wants that spot I'll take anywhere

Background:
Karung is a nation with one distinguishing feature- a national myth that it's King is the rightful ruler of the world, and that other "kings" are usurpers. According to it's myth, the capital was in Mesopotania (Note: Use one of the cities which gets founded there first update, which will be Karung's "Holy City". Clarifying next paragraph) and the King fled there after a coup-de-tat, but the userper was weak and the empire collapsed.

The religion is based upon their holy city (x city, whichever one it happens to be) as a site of pilgrimage, a regular initiator of diplomatic incidents as their forms of prayer look silly to those not of Karung culture, and sufficently so that only the strong-willed can resist bursting out laughing.

Religion: Karrism
Karrism's main purpose is to reinforce the culture's national myth, but it has one other purpose. If the ruler of the nation is incompetent, the High Priest of Yarra, the Karrist king of the gods, can remove the ruler. He is balanced by the fact that the ruler can choose 10 candidates for his sucessor and the High Priest must choose between them.

Other then these two things, Karrism is basically a monethiest pantheon.

 

[das]

You're in. Presumably you want Lower (i.e. northern) Egypt?

 

[Kal'thzar]

Orders sent; rather worried about that big wants to fight the whole world lower egypt thing

 

[Neverwonagame3]

Alright, I'll take that. I'll P.M my orders soon. Ah yes, and the capital name should be Shadow (whatever the name of the Holy City).

EDIT: I'm not such a fool to think I can really fight the world- at first, I'll confine myself to Egypt and campaigns to conquer Palestine. But for story purposes an ideal will be good.

 

[Azale]

Sending orders

 

[das]

Friendly reminder that there are only 75 minutes left till the deadline!

Azale, perhaps you could choose a more Iranian name for your ruler? No Turks in Samarkand yet. No last names neither, I think. That said, it seems that the Iranian version of the name isn't too different.

 

[carmen510]

I'll wait until the rest of America is available.

 

[Azale]

Friendly reminder that there are only 75 minutes left till the deadline!

Azale, perhaps you could choose a more Iranian name for your ruler? No Turks in Samarkand yet. No last names neither, I think. That said, it seems that the Iranian version of the name isn't too different.

So you have a name or do you still need me to rummage through some Iranian alternatives?

 

[Reno]

Looks intresting, some of the starting CZ are too crowded however. I'll probably join after a few updates.

 

[das]

I'll just go with Eskander if you don't mind. No way to fit Aydin in it, though.

The deadline is technically here, but it is not too late to send orders and post stories and whatnot. I will check by here, time to time. However, haste is much advised, because I don't want to hold back on writing about entire regions because of a single player not sending orders.